Singapore (September 6th - 8th, 2008)

I was in Singapore last weekend (AGAIN!) and no, this time it was a 3-day instead of a one day trip. We were there for only one reason - to watch Rebecca Chellappah (a.k.a Ranjini) perform, together with Hyun-Jin Lee from Korea, Noriko from Japan, Catarina from Portugal and Mutian from China. Together, they performed several songs.

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Just prior to leaving Seremban, I felt lethargic.. which is not that surprising considering the fact that we were supposed to leave for Singapore at 1pm and finally left at 5pm. The waiting period was what made me lethargic, as I can't stand waiting PLUS, I don't like not being able to get much done at home as I wasn't certain what time we will be leaving.

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The journey to Singapore was a very long and toturous one as I had a combination of a headache, stomach cramp and back ache. It was an uncomfortable journey. I tried to adjust my sitting arrangement, moving from one side to another, but to no avail. I still felt horrible.

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We arrived at Aunty's place at 9.30pm and for the first time, I didn't carry any bags up the apartment. I was too sick to do anything. But I did eat some rice, chicken and dahl, just to fill my

stomach.

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After dinner, to ease my discomfort, I laid down on the mattress. I slept soon after that.

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I woke up at 12.30am, with stomch cramps and backache ... and this time, feeling nauseous. I threw up my dinner. It was a painful ordeal as I felt s though I am trying to vomit my stomach out.

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I tried to sleep after that but was intermittently disturbed by the fact that both my stomach and back were hurting.

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At 4.30am, I threw up another time. This time, it was a little of my dinner and water. Once again, I endured the painful ordeal.

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Once again, I tried to sleep but couldn't.

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At 9am, I decided that enough was enough. I got up and lo and behold, I was feeling much better. So I took a shower to freshen myself.

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The moment I came out of the bathroom, I felt ill again. Breakfast was Nestum and Milo (Tina told me later that I shouldn't drink Milo when I feel nauseated).

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I decided to go see the doc. I certainly didn't want to suffer through another night of pain and nausea.

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The doctor confirmed it was food poisoning and gave me a shot to stop me from feeling dizzy.

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We walked back to the car, which was parked about 150 meters away. Almost reaching the car, I had to sit on the grass because I wasn't feeling good.

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During the car ride back, I was feeling terrible and just as we turned into the road going to Aunty's place, I threw up again - for the third time. I saw Milo and Nestum in the plastic bag, which I had the good sense to bring along.

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I slept from 2.30pm - 4.30pm and felt SO much better after that. Almost 100% well.

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I decided to go for the performance and was glad I made it. The performance was great. Such great talent!

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By then, I was feeling like my old self except for the fact that I felt thirsty all the time. I ate one sugar-free sweet to take away my thirst and it was a BIG mistake. After that, my throat stated hurting.

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By the time we got back, my voice changed. I knew I was in trouble because my throat started hurting and I was begining to cough.

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I slept pretty well that night.

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I decided to do a little shopping the next day. I had a list of places to shop at but I didn't make it to all because I felt so exhausted after 2 hours of shopping. I came back early to rest.

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We left Singapore at 7pm and arrived back at 11.30pm. The journey back was smooth. There were no traffic jams at the immigration and customs area.

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My cough got worse, though. It's been 3 days since we came back from Singapore and my cough has graduated to a higher level. I coughed till my throat, ears and lungs hurt.

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Sigh! When will I get better again?

Singapore in a Day

I've been wanting to bring my car into Singapore since March. As usual, I procastinated, simply because there were a lot of things that needed to be done - taxes, church events, weddings, etc.

Early August, while having breakfast after our Kepayang Hill exercise, Esther asked (err.. she actually pestered me) if we could go to Singapore before September. I mentally looked at my schedule. Every Saturday was filled with things to do... except for the last Saturday of August. I happily said "okay" to this date. A few days later, it suddenly dawned upon me that it's a long weekend for Malaysia because of Independence day. A sudden recollection of a long 4.5 hour jam on the second link a few years ago came into mind. Gulp! Do I want to go through that again?

I talked to Esther about it and she was confident that the traffic would be smooth. When I told Rajen about it, all he said was "All the best" because he also remembered the longest Singapore-Seremban drive he suffered through in his entire life.

Two weeks later, someone mentioned that it's the start of the Singapore school holidays! Double Gulp! I asked Esther again, "Do you REALLY need to go?"

August 30th came. I slept past 2am and woke up at 3.15am. Got ready and waited 1/2 hour for Esther to come. I left my car at my parents' place for Esther to drive. I told her that I don't want to wake up 10 minutes early to fetch her.

From my place, we picked Matthew and Min Chee and headed for the highway. It was 4.54am.

I noticed the "OD Off" next to the pedometer of my car but was too tired to figure out why that light came on. I dozed off to sleep intermittently while Esther and Min Chee talked. Matthew slept too.

We were supposed to stop at the Machap R & R but we missed it! I couldn't ever imagine missing such a big rest area with many sign boards along the highway.

Two reasons why we missed it:-

1 - The signboards, which were supposed to be reflective, lost the reflective-ness. We couldn't really read what was printed on the signboards. Esther mentioned something about 3M losing the business many years ago and the govt used products that are cheaper ... and of course, lower grade.

2 - It was really foggy at that time of the morning

Esther was looking for the fog lights. I didn't even know there were fog lights. Shows how little I know about my car. Min Chee, from the back, was trying to look for the fog light lever. She then noticed the "OD Off" light and asked about it.

To cut a long story short, OD Off means OD on. I told Esther to press the button near the gear stick and the light was gone. RPM went from 4000 to 2500. And the car ran so much smoother. I just hope there is not much damage done to the engine.

We stopped at the Gelang Patah R&R at 7.30am. Filled out our forms and filled up petrol.

There was hardly any traffic at the immigration on the Malaysian side. We proceeded to cross the bridge and arrived at the Singapore Immigration in 5-10 minutes. Not many cars there either. Phew! We stopped for a while to purchase the auto pass card. It was a simple and quick procedure.

With a map in hand, I navigated while Esther drove. We arrived at Orchard road at 9.30am with no problems at all. We parked at the open car park near Borders and looked for breakfast.

After breakfast in Takashimaya, I was on my own. Esther, Min Chee and Matthew followed Patrick.

As usual, I went to all the craft shops I knew - Borders, Takashimaya and Plaza Singapura. I didn't really buy a lot of stuff this time ... which is good cause I'll be going to Singapore again this weekend.

We met for dinner at Crystal Jade in Takashimaya and left Singapore at 8.30pm. Our aim was to arrive at the PD toll by 11.30pm.

Once again I was nervous because there might be a big jam at the Immigration. True enough, 2.5km before arriving there, we came to a stand still. We were there for an hour - which is not too bad, actually.

By the time I arrived home, it was about 1am! I was really tired, partly because I was talking to Esther in the car. I really wanted to doze off but knew that if she didn't talk to anyone, she might feel sleepy. I think, half the time I didn't know what I was talking about.

We calculated ... from the time we left our houses to the time we came back was 20.5 hours. What a looong day for us.

Weekend in Singapore

Last Saturday, after the Gunung Datuk climb, Rajen and I went down to Singapore. Expecting a terrible jam caused by the fact that it's the last weekend of school holidays, we braced ourselves to be stuck for at least an hour at the Immigration crossover. LiteFM kept us informed of the traffic situation and up to 9.45pm, it was reported that traffic is bumper to bumper both at the Causeway and the Second Link.

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We were sensible enough to leave Seremban at 7pm instead of our planned 5pm. The ride was pleasant and even though I was exhausted from lack of sleep and my morning climb, I was wide awake during the first 3 hours of the drive. We only made one stop at the Machap rest area where we filled up our tank. Rajen and I played a "guessing game". How much will it cost to top up the tank (we left Seremban with a full tank). The petrol gauge showed 3/4 tank full and I guessed RM40. Rajen guessed RM70. It came to RM55. (!!!!!!!!!!)

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We went past the Malaysian Imigration smoothly and when we came to the Singapore Imigration, THERE WAS NO LINE AT ALL. The Immigration personnel in the little booth told us that the jam had just cleared. Phew!!!!

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We arrived at Aunty's place at 11.45pm.

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The next morning, I had breakfast with Frances, my Skype friend from the Philipines who came to Singapore to work. After that, we went shopping. Err... "I" went shopping. Within an hour, I managed to contribute more than S$120 into the Singapore economy. Here is the evidence:-

I always find craft fascinating. And even though I possess many funny-shaped scissors, I would still go out and buy more. Also, that interchangeable stationery only cost me S$5 (RM12). :)

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The other purple stuff is some cutting gadgets which I will so need when I do my scrapbooking. I like the way the cutting mat is made - it's actually two pieces that can be joined. And then there is that cutter which can cut a perfect circle or oval shape (I haven't tried it out, though)

Books!!! I love desserts and always look for nice (and cheap) recipe books. Also, when I saw Grisham's latest paperback on the rack WITH 20% discount, I grabbed it. Patterson's 6th Target was also on a 20% discount. I saw Nora Roberts' latest paperback only AFTER I've paid for my stuff.... and decided not to spend too much. Now I'm not sure if I regretted that decision or not.

Frances and I parted ways at 11.30am and I sort of dreaded the journey back to Aunty's place, mainly because it meant walking in the afternoon sun from the MRT Station. To my surprise, it was cloudy and throughout my walk back, the sun stay hidden behind the clouds. However, when I arrived at the block of apartments, I had to go into the nearby 7-eleven to cool off.

I arrived at aunty's place and was greeted with so many people. Uncle Lawrence, Aunty Helen, Christopher, Jude and Sharon were there. After lunch, I was packing my things when I realised that my John Grisham book was missing. So was my pack of scissors. I was calm and had the good sense to go down to the 7-eleven to check if I left one bag there. I remember putting down all my things to snap some pictures outside 7-eleven. THE BAG WAS STILL THERE. "This IS Singapore, not Malaysia", I reminded myself.

Again, we braced ourselves for a terrible jam at the Second Link but was pleasantly surprised by the lack of it. Well, we only waited 5 minutes to get to a booth. Further ahead, we were told to get down from the car to have our thumbprints scanned. Apparently, a criminal escaped from the Singapore prison a few weeks back. This person is said to be dangerous and is a terrorist. The thumbprint scan was needed to identify this person so that he would not be able to escape using disguises and a fake passport.
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The rest of the journey was smooth sailing until we arrived near the Senawang toll. Earlier, it was reported that there was an accident between the Labu and Nilai tolls. We were hoping that the cars would not back up to the Senawang toll as we were planning to exit there. We weren't so fortunate. About 2km before the Senawang toll, we were crawling at 10kmph. That was not too bad - at least we were moving. We managed to get out of that jam in 10 minutes and arrived home at 6.45pm.

Sharon (Aunty's daughter) is now living in the US with her family and does not come back as often as she could. We managed to snap a few group pictures for remembrance.