okie so i can't stop blogging this easily. some things are just too blog-worthy.
went for dinner with the whole family today. been quite long since we've eaten out together all five of us. went to lavender food court and all of us ate turtle soup with yam rice et al. its been a long time since i ever had that stuff(you can see where this is going). not since we stopped eating at our regular turtle joint opposite katong mall because of some reports that turtle soup was high in mercury content(wait. was that shark's fin?!) anyway yeah, haven't eaten chao turtle for such a long time. and then we also had roasted chicken wings(the after midnite cheong at bak chor mee blk 85 type), some costly fishcake and finally some recommended pancake, courtesy of mom and dad.
talked about what i'll be doing in future, talked about fen and chuen's entering university, talked about the singapore economy, talked about chuen and fen's course and future. quite alot of stuff.
its been awhile.
so anyway we had a great dinner and chit-chat. then it was time to go home. then just on the way back, dad reminded me that his old house was just around the corner and how we used to go there for family gatherings. so i just asked if it was still around and one thing led to another and before you know it we turned a right and went into the dark banglah area in search of the site of my dad's old house.
now his old house used to be the gathering place for everyone in my dad's side of the family when my dad's mom was still alive(dad's dad passed on before i was born). i can roughly remember the times, playing with my cousins and everyone making merry over mahjong peanuts and beer(not for the kids though). absolutely old school bell-bottoms yonex shorts and all. back then it was the tallest new hdb flat(6 storey) in the jalan besar area. pretty swank if you'd ask me.
its since been torn down quite a good 10 years ago to make way for new and taller hdb flats liao. however when we reached there we still saw certain things that were familiar to me. like the old shophouse where i used to buy sweets from. i remember they cost 10c for 3 crummy sweets. the old couple who owns it actually still owns it though i doubt they remember me. apart from that the only other surviving construction i could remember was the alley way past the old playground. nothing much about it except that i've seen it enough to remember it. aside from that everything else was now flat soil. construction still underway.
i think about 10 years ago when they decided to tear this place down dad did bring me over one final time to take a look and he kinda videotaped the place just for memories sake. wonder if we still have those tapes.
aside from that we also drove past the new world amusement park. if anyone recollects anything about this place do let me know. i only know that i used to go there pretty often with my cousins and with my parents. details i dunno. for now, only the run down chained up entrance serves as living memory of its existence. mom says there're building something else in there.
from there we thought that it might be a good idea to visit the first house that my parents bought! it was pretty close by, at serangoon, called jalan riang. which was beside jalan ria. haha imagine trying to direct friends to your place - "you said ria or riang?!".
now this place hasn't changed much but that the people living there have renovated the place quite abit. old terrace neighbourhood. landed property. pretty lousy location if you'd asked me. i think i remember dad saying this place wasn't very 'clean'. still for the life of me i never could remember where on earth this place was until today. and not much has changed. its still bloody ulu.
by then i thought my bro and sis were kinda bored so i kinda suggested that since we were all together we might as well visit some place that even fen could remember. so we decided to make a trip down to fairways. our third place of residence prior to us moving to mandarin gardens. those were pretty grim times but even then dad still tried to make things work out. i mean fairways was a good condo mind you. just that its situated in telok blangah, a far cry from the serenity of the east if you'd ask me. then again it was near to dad's workplace and my primary school(where else but blangah rise pri sch).
we got to the gates and the guards thought we were residents(i think alumni residents get in free of checks too) so he let us in. we decided to go in and walk the grounds abit. dad could still remember we lived on the 8th floor. unit number #08-09. so auspicious. no wonder the times got better for us. the place hasn't changed much. everything looks alot smaller now that we're so old. bro's able to recollect more of what's been going on. fen was born while we were living here only to move a year later so she's still not seen anything familiar.
we even took the lift up to the very apartment we lived in! the walk from the lift to the old apartment was really familiar to me. and i did like that place. had a really good friend there though i never did bother to keep in contact with him. can't even remember his name.
*sigh*
finally we found that the whole market and shophouses behind fairways have changed so much we just had to drop by to take a look. gosh boy has it changed. the market is undergoing semi-renovation, but everything else looks so dead that the place looked like a ghost town. somehow people say the fengshui of the place has been turned bad by the reconstruction of the place.
the surprising part was that some of the shopowners actually recognised mom and dad! dad even had a pretty long chat with the old spectacle shop uncle and auntie he used to visit. but everyone says the place has become a ghost town since the renovations and reconstruction. true enough the feng shui of the place seemed to have altered quite alot. really just doesn't feel good around there.
in any case dad bought some durians to celebrate he occasion(he always does when he thinks its a good occasion)!
so the whole trip was a pretty nostalgic trip down memory lane. really good bonding session with the family, and got to relive some old memories. all in all we had a great family today. i'm so blessed with such a wonderful family.
*sigh*
and i'm almost past a quarter of a century old already. into the next phase i go...
so the new blog of mine should appease more people. and hopefully people are satisfied with what i've changed in my blog.
back to work tomorrow.
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Monday, June 27, 2005
Notice
dear all.
due to the sensitivity of certain issues at this moment in time, there will be a stoppage of posts on this site until further notice.
sincere apologies for inconveniences caused to anyone affected.
due to the sensitivity of certain issues at this moment in time, there will be a stoppage of posts on this site until further notice.
sincere apologies for inconveniences caused to anyone affected.
The Graveyard
wah.
working the graveyard shift is way xiong siah. and xianz. and tiring.
xianz.
does anyone know why my blogger home page is entirely in chinese?
bloody hell.
working the graveyard shift is way xiong siah. and xianz. and tiring.
xianz.
does anyone know why my blogger home page is entirely in chinese?
bloody hell.
Friday, June 24, 2005
2nd Picture Up!
remember my usa trip? yeah, well this is actually my vote for picture of the trip. this is on my accent up mt katahdin with joe, my trusty usa roadtrip companion and there you see that lucky dude in the picture. lucky dog. behind him is the state of maine.
1st Picture Up!
Okay i've finally downloaded and learnt to post pix. but i'm still too lazy to post too many pix. so this is my vote for picture of the trip. this is goldcoast taken on the first day when we arrived.
Mambo MaMa
okay, so when did blogger get bought over by some chinese corporation?!?! is china really taking over the world?
yay! i got the comp in my room installed with internet access!! whoo!!! means now chuen's comp mine nad pa's all have access to the www.
anyway last night when to mambo with chun and fen. supposed to show a thing or two to fen about what clubbing is all about. got off to a bad start when i met up with them at cityhall and walked towards mhd sultan. geez.
must be getting old.
in all it was pretty okie. pity the good music only started as we were about to leave. we downed 1 flamer(chun had 2) and shared 2 jugs of vodka ribena. was quite a good session but guess cheonging's not fen's thing lah.
surpirisingly zouk wasn't crowded till like after midnite. anyone knows why?
the other highlight yesterday was my meeting with wenli noor and meijiao to discuss meijiao and myself's hosting of noor and wenli's wedding. i'm actually pretty surprised that the program has not been confirmed and quite alot of things still haven't been settled. still i'm really happy for them that they're getting married.
for the uninitiated, wenli and noor were my primary school mates. same class with wenli since pri 4 and same class with noor in pri 6. and they both sat beside each other in pri 6 somemore. and now they're getting married. so cool rite?
so over dinner at this halal thai restaurant at cityhall call sakura(if any of you intend to have something there, erm, i'd say the food is only so-so) we kinda decided on quite alot of things. alot of details meijiao and myself will have to work out ourselves. quite sketchy most things seem. haiz just hope i dun crack some really cold and inappropriate joke and silence that whole ballroom with only cricket sounds. no one would invite me to emcee at weddings ever again.
was bad enough that i though alcohol was gonna be served. noor, incidentally is muslim. and so is wenli now.
ha.
weddings next saturday! so soon! and meijiao and i are only gonna rehearse like erm, 2-3hrs before the wedding? ho-boy...but hte good thing is that its gonna be pretty simple lah, nothing really exceptionally fancy, just the simple cut cake, speech and champagne toast thats all.
so meijiao and i thought about how we'd just pepper our introductions and appearances with retro banter, like
* how we used to squat along the school carpark roadside to brush our teeth to the tune of the dental nurse's "up-2-3-4, down-2-3-4!".
* religiously watch he-man, transformers, mask, carebears, aksi mat yo-yo, bin fen ba san, ko pi oh.
* how cheap food in the canteen was, 10c drinks, 20c noodles, 30c prata, but 50c yakult, though back then got free toy.
* poll the audience to see how many people were actually members of the bookworm club.
* how we loved magazines and books like young generation, bookworm books, noddy, hardy boys, nancy drew, magic faraway tree.
* how last time textbooks had stupid characters like mr wally mr magoo and mr yakki and the standard names were always peter raju peihua ali mary fatimah. fatimah was always the fat character.
* how last time once recess was over the bell rang once and everyone had to freeze while the prefects go around catching people who were still moving. only after the 2nd bell then everyone could move again. si beh boliao.
* how we would collect and play rubber and bottlecaps. lotsa skill involved.
and list goes on and on and on...
yay! i got the comp in my room installed with internet access!! whoo!!! means now chuen's comp mine nad pa's all have access to the www.
anyway last night when to mambo with chun and fen. supposed to show a thing or two to fen about what clubbing is all about. got off to a bad start when i met up with them at cityhall and walked towards mhd sultan. geez.
must be getting old.
in all it was pretty okie. pity the good music only started as we were about to leave. we downed 1 flamer(chun had 2) and shared 2 jugs of vodka ribena. was quite a good session but guess cheonging's not fen's thing lah.
surpirisingly zouk wasn't crowded till like after midnite. anyone knows why?
the other highlight yesterday was my meeting with wenli noor and meijiao to discuss meijiao and myself's hosting of noor and wenli's wedding. i'm actually pretty surprised that the program has not been confirmed and quite alot of things still haven't been settled. still i'm really happy for them that they're getting married.
for the uninitiated, wenli and noor were my primary school mates. same class with wenli since pri 4 and same class with noor in pri 6. and they both sat beside each other in pri 6 somemore. and now they're getting married. so cool rite?
so over dinner at this halal thai restaurant at cityhall call sakura(if any of you intend to have something there, erm, i'd say the food is only so-so) we kinda decided on quite alot of things. alot of details meijiao and myself will have to work out ourselves. quite sketchy most things seem. haiz just hope i dun crack some really cold and inappropriate joke and silence that whole ballroom with only cricket sounds. no one would invite me to emcee at weddings ever again.
was bad enough that i though alcohol was gonna be served. noor, incidentally is muslim. and so is wenli now.
ha.
weddings next saturday! so soon! and meijiao and i are only gonna rehearse like erm, 2-3hrs before the wedding? ho-boy...but hte good thing is that its gonna be pretty simple lah, nothing really exceptionally fancy, just the simple cut cake, speech and champagne toast thats all.
so meijiao and i thought about how we'd just pepper our introductions and appearances with retro banter, like
* how we used to squat along the school carpark roadside to brush our teeth to the tune of the dental nurse's "up-2-3-4, down-2-3-4!".
* religiously watch he-man, transformers, mask, carebears, aksi mat yo-yo, bin fen ba san, ko pi oh.
* how cheap food in the canteen was, 10c drinks, 20c noodles, 30c prata, but 50c yakult, though back then got free toy.
* poll the audience to see how many people were actually members of the bookworm club.
* how we loved magazines and books like young generation, bookworm books, noddy, hardy boys, nancy drew, magic faraway tree.
* how last time textbooks had stupid characters like mr wally mr magoo and mr yakki and the standard names were always peter raju peihua ali mary fatimah. fatimah was always the fat character.
* how last time once recess was over the bell rang once and everyone had to freeze while the prefects go around catching people who were still moving. only after the 2nd bell then everyone could move again. si beh boliao.
* how we would collect and play rubber and bottlecaps. lotsa skill involved.
and list goes on and on and on...
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
We've Come In From The Coast
time to blog about the goldcoast trip!
its was sooooooooooooooooooooo fun!!!
would love to put up some pix but i still am too lazy to learn.
so anyway we flew off by emirates and the 7hour ride was really long, tedious and tight. but once we touched down at brisbane we quickly got our car, a nice little 1.8 ford laser thats really easy to manage, and headed off to search for the goldcoast and our supposed villa.
okay so we were abit apprehensive about the villa that we're about to stay cuz the brochure says its 5-star with underground carpark indoor heated pool blah blah and jaccuzzi and the size of the room is like a hotel suite and blah(which later did turn out to be true), and therefore weren't expecting much. it took us 1 hour to get to goldcoast and another hour to find the damn villa that is royal woods resort. thats right. lost in the woods resort. took us forever and a lot and i mean alot of wrong turns(largely because of my 'instincts' - joe should know only too well). and when we finally found the place it was actually nicely tucked in a residential inner coast of sufer's paradise about 5 minutes from the coast. which was alright.
and lo and behold the villa was the nicest cutest looking shag pad. wait. nicest looking suite in the whole wide world! its got a huge bedroom, living room cum kitchen and attached bathroom! it had all sorts of amenities you name it you got it! toaster, kettle, pots, pans, refridgerator, microwave, fryer, oven, literally everything plus the kitchen sink. heck, the basement garage even had a washing machine and clothes dryer lor! wah so shiok...
okie okie, then after oohing and aahing about all the stuff that was available to us, namely huge money savings by cooking dinner in our pad every night, we decided to head down to the coast to check it out.
gold coast and namely surfer's paradise and main beach are pretty cool places. abit pricey but a joy to walk along. the weather there macham like genting in the day, and very cold at night. lotsa surfers and surfer wannabes, lotsa tourists too. but the beach is definitely the main draw, really windy(cold), fine sand and huge surfs. and it wasn't very crowded either.
i think we called it a day after that. the place starts to get dark around 4pm, so its really very evening feeling by 4+..i think we went to a nearby supermarker that sold $5 bread and $5/pkt hotdogs - action supermarket - to stock up on groceries(of course not everything was THAT expensive).
day 2: brisbane
drove back to brisbane. it was a sunday. we drove there really early like 8+ so when we got there the place was quite deserted and at first we thought that sundays were indeed a day of rest and nothing opened. but thats not true. we parked our car in a carpark in the heart of town for a full day(only $7 on weekend) and went on a city tour by foot. saw all kinds of heritage stuff(i'm lousy with names), buildings and blah, went ot queens street mall and asked the information booth what was the best way to walk brisbane in a day, walked to botanic gardens, parliament house, goodwill bridge, victoria bridge, little stanley street, cityhall, and lotsa other names of places i can't recall. i think we were on an army exercise like exercise longwalk or something. but i gotta say the girlfren has stamina siah.
at night we cooked dinner. pasta and stuff with brocolli and ham. was not too bad(i have to say this else someone might chop me up).
day 3: seaworld
seaworld was great! such fun! we went there really early before it opened but even still there was a long queue liao. cuz last monday was the queen's birthday so it was a public holiday. got all sorts of sea stuff and birds and blah. dugong, penguins, sharks, polar bears, dolphins, seals and all things sea.
highlight of the park was shark bay where we saw lots and lots of sharks from beneath the surface. but bock lian says it pales in comparison with hong kong's hai yang gong yuan(ocean park?). but then i've never been there before. so there.
the girlfren's first corkscrew roller coaster ride too. exhiliarating. then again any roller coaster with the super uncreative name 'corkscrew' is bound to be underestimated.
day 4: movieworld
this was probably the most disappointing day of all. i've been here before like way back when policemen wore shorts and carried girlie whistles and by golly the lousy place has hardly changed.
boo! hiss!
they've only added a few tacky performances and a matrix exhibit and batman 'the ride' has become batman 'the ride 2' which was more memorable than the first only because it sucked bigger time.
the park was so small and unentertaining that we rode and watched everything(yes. even the road runner roller coaster for kids) by 2.30pm. so we left to go for lunch opposite at kfc.
just wanna say kfc down under DOES NOT have my beloved cheese fries.
after lunch we both decided that we needed to make our AUD$60 entrance fees worth it so we went back for more. nothing really new but covered a few other little things.
bleah.
highlight of the park was the lethal weapon 4 ride which we took twice. which incidentally garners the "roller coaster ride of the trip" award. awesome.
at night we went to the jupiter conrad. the only casino on the goldcoast. smaller than any casino i've seen but still had fun at the slot machines for a while.
day 5: harbourtown / lamington national park
we were supposed to go to dreamworld today, but it rained!! boohoohoohoo! we were quite sad especially at the gates where we were hoping that the rain would stop. and some of the rides were closed due to the rain. hmph.
so instead we went to the largest facory outlet cum shopping mall in the area - harbourtown! didn't buy much. the girlfren bought a mambo bag for $10 and a pair of oohseh-but-not-as-oohseh-as-mine sunglasses. then went to woolworths to buy more groceries.
by afternoon the rain cleared and we decided to make the most of the day by going to lamington national park. its in the hinterland and its got mountains valleys gorges and blah. was a good nature day. we actually walked a cave trail(wasn't that much caves) that was about 5km(told you the girlfren had stamina!) and saw wild turkeys, wild wallabies among other flora and fauna. was quite a nice trip along the countryside. we also visted hinze dam - its a dam - which was quite charming.
at night we met up with bock lian and ryan over dinner who were incidentally on a road trip like we are except they've spent alot more time in their car driving to sydney and all but i guess i prefer to spend more time here on the coast after that 3mth road trip in the usa. but it was fun catching up with them and exchanging stories and blah. then we also walked the 'pasar malam' at surfers paradise where they sold all kinds or quirky arts and crafts, and i learned how to make a bird sound(quack quack).
day 6: dreamworld
yes! the day we were waiting for. really sunny day and a funshine morning.
we got there early and it was thronging with people. we got off to a bad start and we thought it was gonna be that way for the rest of the day. the first ride - tower of terror- we went to queue for was shut down indefinitely for maintenance so we lost about 15mins there alone. then the next ride which was the claw, was delayed by a man with an iron leg. yes. its true.
anyway we waited for about half an hour just to get on that ride. but when we finally got on, it was well worth it! the claw is like a swinging pendulum where you sit at the end of the pendulum in a circular fashion and it swings wildly sideways while you rotate, which is scarier than i can ever describe it. but suffice to say if you can scream and the tears from your eyes actually splash at the person next to you while the person next to you's saliva spills and splashes at the person next to her, then the ride is confirmed scary wan. the next ride was the cyclone which was the crappiest and most painful rollercoaster ride in quite awhile, which was made worse by the tedious 45 minute wait(the girlfren and i actually played an assortment of silly games during the wait like ji ko pah and i spy with my little eye).
from then on it was all smooth sailing...the rest of the rides we took only needed waiting for about 10minutes tops. the wipeout, vortex and then abracadabra, the giant drop - world's tallest drop @ 120m, according to the guinness book of recs and blah - had no queue at all, possibly cause it was so darn scary, but we took the ride twice! from the two different angles from the top! haha. i mean the ride slowly takes you up and then once you are up there it stops for 25sec(which is an awfully long time when you're up there) and then releases and you go screaming aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh *deep breath* aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh all the way down. thats how long the ride was.
the other ride that was amazing was the tower of terror. its got some jet engine propulsion that allows it to accelerate at breakneck speed in a matter of seconds. i think the whole ride was only 7 seconds, but its the speed that was so thrilling cuz while you're flying forwards with your mouth screaming wide open it goes all over the place like an upside down umbrella. thats how fast the rocket was. in the end we took the ride 3 times.
the good thing about dreamworld is that apart from all this puke-inducing, stomach-churning rides, there is another different themed world that takes you to nature's side. you get to see all sorts of australian animals(i swear that the wombat could have been a man dressed in a bear suit) and you get to touch and brudder up with kangeroos for free! koalas cost $20 though. cheap bastards.
so at the end of the day dreamworld is my world of the trip! haha
the highlight of hte day was when we went for our 2nd tower of terror ride it was supposed to be the FINAL RIDE before the park closes.however after that ride there were 2 more people in the queue that were allowed to go so there was space in the vehicle. however the attendant didn't want to let us ride again but then this indian family started pleading and exclaiming "we're from india!" then the attendant softened, so expectedly i turn on the charm and pleaded along and said "we're from singapore!" and that did the trick! we got a third and final ride before the park closed. fantastic. the funny thing was that the attendant actually thought that singapore was further than india! hahaha "wow! thats even further than india!"
*roll eyes*
day 7: goldcoast
we thought of surfing but didn't know where to start and surfer's paradise was the perfect place to! for AUD$50/pax we actually got surfing lessons, boards, wetsuits and the works! and since it was the early 930am class we got lucky and there were only 2 other people in the class!! so shiok! so we had our instructor kelly who taught us how to surf first dryrun on sand then sample in shallow knee deep waves then further to waistdeep. but lemme tell you at kneedeep the waves are already very strong and can hit you like a truck liao. surfing was really fun and addictive thought the water was really really cold. if not for the wetsuit, sure freeze to death wan.
at the end of the afternoon i was able to stand on my board and surf a full wave from wave to shore! whooo! surely must do it again if i come back. so by the end of our lesson i was actually awarded the 'best surfer' award! while the girlfren was awarded 'biggest wipeout' award(means kenna thrown around like a rag doll by the waves the most jialat jialat) wahahahahaha.
then after that we drove down to coolangatta to see point danger and the waves there are lagi power and the surfers and all damn pro wan.
day 8: sunshine coast
today we fly home in the evening. drove for 4 hours up to sunshine coast. all the way to noosa heads. very nice coast. less tourists and nice beaches too. we hiked all the way to hell's gates in noosa national park. very nice and calming.
so that was basically our whole trip in a nutshell. fun right?!?!?!
phew.
xiong.
i am tired liao. will blog more if i have more time.
oh yah and finally to all the lucky readers who have managed to scroll down so far and actually read all the crap i've written, the girlfren's blog has all the pix from the trip! enjoy!
its was sooooooooooooooooooooo fun!!!
would love to put up some pix but i still am too lazy to learn.
so anyway we flew off by emirates and the 7hour ride was really long, tedious and tight. but once we touched down at brisbane we quickly got our car, a nice little 1.8 ford laser thats really easy to manage, and headed off to search for the goldcoast and our supposed villa.
okay so we were abit apprehensive about the villa that we're about to stay cuz the brochure says its 5-star with underground carpark indoor heated pool blah blah and jaccuzzi and the size of the room is like a hotel suite and blah(which later did turn out to be true), and therefore weren't expecting much. it took us 1 hour to get to goldcoast and another hour to find the damn villa that is royal woods resort. thats right. lost in the woods resort. took us forever and a lot and i mean alot of wrong turns(largely because of my 'instincts' - joe should know only too well). and when we finally found the place it was actually nicely tucked in a residential inner coast of sufer's paradise about 5 minutes from the coast. which was alright.
and lo and behold the villa was the nicest cutest looking shag pad. wait. nicest looking suite in the whole wide world! its got a huge bedroom, living room cum kitchen and attached bathroom! it had all sorts of amenities you name it you got it! toaster, kettle, pots, pans, refridgerator, microwave, fryer, oven, literally everything plus the kitchen sink. heck, the basement garage even had a washing machine and clothes dryer lor! wah so shiok...
okie okie, then after oohing and aahing about all the stuff that was available to us, namely huge money savings by cooking dinner in our pad every night, we decided to head down to the coast to check it out.
gold coast and namely surfer's paradise and main beach are pretty cool places. abit pricey but a joy to walk along. the weather there macham like genting in the day, and very cold at night. lotsa surfers and surfer wannabes, lotsa tourists too. but the beach is definitely the main draw, really windy(cold), fine sand and huge surfs. and it wasn't very crowded either.
i think we called it a day after that. the place starts to get dark around 4pm, so its really very evening feeling by 4+..i think we went to a nearby supermarker that sold $5 bread and $5/pkt hotdogs - action supermarket - to stock up on groceries(of course not everything was THAT expensive).
day 2: brisbane
drove back to brisbane. it was a sunday. we drove there really early like 8+ so when we got there the place was quite deserted and at first we thought that sundays were indeed a day of rest and nothing opened. but thats not true. we parked our car in a carpark in the heart of town for a full day(only $7 on weekend) and went on a city tour by foot. saw all kinds of heritage stuff(i'm lousy with names), buildings and blah, went ot queens street mall and asked the information booth what was the best way to walk brisbane in a day, walked to botanic gardens, parliament house, goodwill bridge, victoria bridge, little stanley street, cityhall, and lotsa other names of places i can't recall. i think we were on an army exercise like exercise longwalk or something. but i gotta say the girlfren has stamina siah.
at night we cooked dinner. pasta and stuff with brocolli and ham. was not too bad(i have to say this else someone might chop me up).
day 3: seaworld
seaworld was great! such fun! we went there really early before it opened but even still there was a long queue liao. cuz last monday was the queen's birthday so it was a public holiday. got all sorts of sea stuff and birds and blah. dugong, penguins, sharks, polar bears, dolphins, seals and all things sea.
highlight of the park was shark bay where we saw lots and lots of sharks from beneath the surface. but bock lian says it pales in comparison with hong kong's hai yang gong yuan(ocean park?). but then i've never been there before. so there.
the girlfren's first corkscrew roller coaster ride too. exhiliarating. then again any roller coaster with the super uncreative name 'corkscrew' is bound to be underestimated.
day 4: movieworld
this was probably the most disappointing day of all. i've been here before like way back when policemen wore shorts and carried girlie whistles and by golly the lousy place has hardly changed.
boo! hiss!
they've only added a few tacky performances and a matrix exhibit and batman 'the ride' has become batman 'the ride 2' which was more memorable than the first only because it sucked bigger time.
the park was so small and unentertaining that we rode and watched everything(yes. even the road runner roller coaster for kids) by 2.30pm. so we left to go for lunch opposite at kfc.
just wanna say kfc down under DOES NOT have my beloved cheese fries.
after lunch we both decided that we needed to make our AUD$60 entrance fees worth it so we went back for more. nothing really new but covered a few other little things.
bleah.
highlight of the park was the lethal weapon 4 ride which we took twice. which incidentally garners the "roller coaster ride of the trip" award. awesome.
at night we went to the jupiter conrad. the only casino on the goldcoast. smaller than any casino i've seen but still had fun at the slot machines for a while.
day 5: harbourtown / lamington national park
we were supposed to go to dreamworld today, but it rained!! boohoohoohoo! we were quite sad especially at the gates where we were hoping that the rain would stop. and some of the rides were closed due to the rain. hmph.
so instead we went to the largest facory outlet cum shopping mall in the area - harbourtown! didn't buy much. the girlfren bought a mambo bag for $10 and a pair of oohseh-but-not-as-oohseh-as-mine sunglasses. then went to woolworths to buy more groceries.
by afternoon the rain cleared and we decided to make the most of the day by going to lamington national park. its in the hinterland and its got mountains valleys gorges and blah. was a good nature day. we actually walked a cave trail(wasn't that much caves) that was about 5km(told you the girlfren had stamina!) and saw wild turkeys, wild wallabies among other flora and fauna. was quite a nice trip along the countryside. we also visted hinze dam - its a dam - which was quite charming.
at night we met up with bock lian and ryan over dinner who were incidentally on a road trip like we are except they've spent alot more time in their car driving to sydney and all but i guess i prefer to spend more time here on the coast after that 3mth road trip in the usa. but it was fun catching up with them and exchanging stories and blah. then we also walked the 'pasar malam' at surfers paradise where they sold all kinds or quirky arts and crafts, and i learned how to make a bird sound(quack quack).
day 6: dreamworld
yes! the day we were waiting for. really sunny day and a funshine morning.
we got there early and it was thronging with people. we got off to a bad start and we thought it was gonna be that way for the rest of the day. the first ride - tower of terror- we went to queue for was shut down indefinitely for maintenance so we lost about 15mins there alone. then the next ride which was the claw, was delayed by a man with an iron leg. yes. its true.
anyway we waited for about half an hour just to get on that ride. but when we finally got on, it was well worth it! the claw is like a swinging pendulum where you sit at the end of the pendulum in a circular fashion and it swings wildly sideways while you rotate, which is scarier than i can ever describe it. but suffice to say if you can scream and the tears from your eyes actually splash at the person next to you while the person next to you's saliva spills and splashes at the person next to her, then the ride is confirmed scary wan. the next ride was the cyclone which was the crappiest and most painful rollercoaster ride in quite awhile, which was made worse by the tedious 45 minute wait(the girlfren and i actually played an assortment of silly games during the wait like ji ko pah and i spy with my little eye).
from then on it was all smooth sailing...the rest of the rides we took only needed waiting for about 10minutes tops. the wipeout, vortex and then abracadabra, the giant drop - world's tallest drop @ 120m, according to the guinness book of recs and blah - had no queue at all, possibly cause it was so darn scary, but we took the ride twice! from the two different angles from the top! haha. i mean the ride slowly takes you up and then once you are up there it stops for 25sec(which is an awfully long time when you're up there) and then releases and you go screaming aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh *deep breath* aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh all the way down. thats how long the ride was.
the other ride that was amazing was the tower of terror. its got some jet engine propulsion that allows it to accelerate at breakneck speed in a matter of seconds. i think the whole ride was only 7 seconds, but its the speed that was so thrilling cuz while you're flying forwards with your mouth screaming wide open it goes all over the place like an upside down umbrella. thats how fast the rocket was. in the end we took the ride 3 times.
the good thing about dreamworld is that apart from all this puke-inducing, stomach-churning rides, there is another different themed world that takes you to nature's side. you get to see all sorts of australian animals(i swear that the wombat could have been a man dressed in a bear suit) and you get to touch and brudder up with kangeroos for free! koalas cost $20 though. cheap bastards.
so at the end of the day dreamworld is my world of the trip! haha
the highlight of hte day was when we went for our 2nd tower of terror ride it was supposed to be the FINAL RIDE before the park closes.however after that ride there were 2 more people in the queue that were allowed to go so there was space in the vehicle. however the attendant didn't want to let us ride again but then this indian family started pleading and exclaiming "we're from india!" then the attendant softened, so expectedly i turn on the charm and pleaded along and said "we're from singapore!" and that did the trick! we got a third and final ride before the park closed. fantastic. the funny thing was that the attendant actually thought that singapore was further than india! hahaha "wow! thats even further than india!"
*roll eyes*
day 7: goldcoast
we thought of surfing but didn't know where to start and surfer's paradise was the perfect place to! for AUD$50/pax we actually got surfing lessons, boards, wetsuits and the works! and since it was the early 930am class we got lucky and there were only 2 other people in the class!! so shiok! so we had our instructor kelly who taught us how to surf first dryrun on sand then sample in shallow knee deep waves then further to waistdeep. but lemme tell you at kneedeep the waves are already very strong and can hit you like a truck liao. surfing was really fun and addictive thought the water was really really cold. if not for the wetsuit, sure freeze to death wan.
at the end of the afternoon i was able to stand on my board and surf a full wave from wave to shore! whooo! surely must do it again if i come back. so by the end of our lesson i was actually awarded the 'best surfer' award! while the girlfren was awarded 'biggest wipeout' award(means kenna thrown around like a rag doll by the waves the most jialat jialat) wahahahahaha.
then after that we drove down to coolangatta to see point danger and the waves there are lagi power and the surfers and all damn pro wan.
day 8: sunshine coast
today we fly home in the evening. drove for 4 hours up to sunshine coast. all the way to noosa heads. very nice coast. less tourists and nice beaches too. we hiked all the way to hell's gates in noosa national park. very nice and calming.
so that was basically our whole trip in a nutshell. fun right?!?!?!
phew.
xiong.
i am tired liao. will blog more if i have more time.
oh yah and finally to all the lucky readers who have managed to scroll down so far and actually read all the crap i've written, the girlfren's blog has all the pix from the trip! enjoy!
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Goldcoast Countdown : 1 Day
waaaah!!! tomorrow flying off liaoz!!!
went to buy toothpaste from sun plaza just now...waaaaahhh so excited...
*breathe in*
*breathe out*
*breathe in*
*breathe out*
*cough*
*wheeze*
*breathe in*
*breathe out*
*breathe in*
*breathe out*
hope it'll be an enjoyable trip!!!
went to buy toothpaste from sun plaza just now...waaaaahhh so excited...
*breathe in*
*breathe out*
*breathe in*
*breathe out*
*cough*
*wheeze*
*breathe in*
*breathe out*
*breathe in*
*breathe out*
hope it'll be an enjoyable trip!!!
Monday, June 06, 2005
Mummy's Birthday!
its mummy's birthday tomorrow!
so we've kinda planned a little surprise for her by barging into her room at the stroke of midnight with a candle lit cake. sounds good right? thats why i'm typing this blog waiting till its time. and hopefully pa can occupy mummy so that she doesn't sleep early...hehe. hope it all goes to plan. best part is the cake that chuen chose is in the shape of a chinese teapot. so cute!!! been quite awhile since we last celebrated anyone's birthday with a birthday cake so this should be a nice surprise for mummy.
happy birthday to you,
happy birthday to you,
happy birthday to mummy,
happy birthday to you!
MuackZ!
so we've kinda planned a little surprise for her by barging into her room at the stroke of midnight with a candle lit cake. sounds good right? thats why i'm typing this blog waiting till its time. and hopefully pa can occupy mummy so that she doesn't sleep early...hehe. hope it all goes to plan. best part is the cake that chuen chose is in the shape of a chinese teapot. so cute!!! been quite awhile since we last celebrated anyone's birthday with a birthday cake so this should be a nice surprise for mummy.
happy birthday to you,
happy birthday to you,
happy birthday to mummy,
happy birthday to you!
MuackZ!
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Goldcoast Countdown : 6 Days
whooooo!!!!
goldcoast here i come!!! very excited for the trip. there's so much i wanna do there siah. choot choot!
house is undergoing renovation. new wallpaper looks good. i just try to make like wallpaper and try not to interfere too much with things lest i mess things up. but definitely looks good! and breakfast outside our balcony is a great touch.
have signed on with the blue bank liaoz. i think i'm as desperate to get a job in that role(which the blue bank offered) as the blue bank is to get me. haiz. anyway i'll be leaving my current job soon. the countdown begins...
yay!
watched hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy the other day. that was really crap. anyone interested in details should read xiaxue's blog about her thunderous rant about the show's discrepencies. madagasccar was also disappointing. cute. but disappointing.
not really in a blogging mood now. it sucks to work on a sunday.
there's this really interesting story about how chun wanted to buy her everbeloved nokia 7610 hp and then the hp shop seller just killed the sale by telling us why the nokia 7610 sucked(coz it hangs often and it kenna virus easily). its really interesting but somehow aside from the both of us(and maybe the poor salesman), no one else can appreciate how interesting the situation was. haiz.
goldcoast here i come!!! very excited for the trip. there's so much i wanna do there siah. choot choot!
house is undergoing renovation. new wallpaper looks good. i just try to make like wallpaper and try not to interfere too much with things lest i mess things up. but definitely looks good! and breakfast outside our balcony is a great touch.
have signed on with the blue bank liaoz. i think i'm as desperate to get a job in that role(which the blue bank offered) as the blue bank is to get me. haiz. anyway i'll be leaving my current job soon. the countdown begins...
yay!
watched hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy the other day. that was really crap. anyone interested in details should read xiaxue's blog about her thunderous rant about the show's discrepencies. madagasccar was also disappointing. cute. but disappointing.
not really in a blogging mood now. it sucks to work on a sunday.
there's this really interesting story about how chun wanted to buy her everbeloved nokia 7610 hp and then the hp shop seller just killed the sale by telling us why the nokia 7610 sucked(coz it hangs often and it kenna virus easily). its really interesting but somehow aside from the both of us(and maybe the poor salesman), no one else can appreciate how interesting the situation was. haiz.