of jb, geylang & jb

of j.b, geylang & j.b (again)

08102005*0000-0435*Sat morning
We had this planned since the week before but the day that was agreed on was a pathetic Wed. Not suprisingly that idea was dropped and the event was pushed to Fri/Sat.

We had wanted to chill at Singgah Selalu, j.b in the wee hours of morning and have our sahour there as well. It was pretty ambitious. We're supposedly going in 2 cars, one coming from the East before joining the other in the West. The amount of ppl was 5 from the East and another 3 or 4 from the west, totalling the no. of ppl coming to be around 8 or 9. Pretty grand, huh?

Then one has a seminar the morning after. 1 down. Another had to OT and work early next morning. 2 down. And the other 2, just decided not to come. That's 4 down. So the ones left are these 2 teams of brother-sister made up of Yan & Natra + my bro & myself. Greeeaat. Then there's the cars. Both our teams wanna top-up the petrol in j.b so one will be following the other. In the last minute, Yan's mum (my aunt) wanna go to Sheng Siong so all of us were bundled into my car.

Haha. From 8 pax to 4. From 2 cars to 1. And I thought that everything is going downhill from there. We almost went in w/o a single M'sian currency. Thankfully, Yan found RM10 hidden deep in the recess of his wallet. Enough for the tolls. After that, it's time to blast the engine power down the long, long stretch of road. Just one of the reasons why I love going thru' the 2nd link. Very liberating, ain't it?

All went well. The food was great, the place was great. The atmosphere was superb (except for the Hindi songs playing in the background). And we did enjoy ourselves. The amount of food we ordered seemed able to feed the 8 ppl that was supposed to be here. We finished them nonetheless.
Then Yan insisted that we fill the petrol till' his targeted amount and boy, how he shook that car! The pump was beeping and beeping and he still tried to fill till the max . I dunno whether to pity the car or the pump. Should see the look on the guy's face at the cashier....

Time check:0435hrs. Yan and Natra rushed home to give their parents the food that they had ordered for their sahour. We I reached my carpark, I saw the several Muslim flats all lit up. At home, my dad himself had just finished his meal. Ahhh... what bliss.

PS: Yan & natra left their passports behind in my car.....

**********
08 & 09102005*2100-0030*Sat-Sun
3 families had agreed to meet at Geylang that night. I gawked apon knowing that they had chosen a Saturday (of all days) to hit the bazaar of Geylang and wade thru' the throng of ppl. Geez!

Yan and my bro wisely backed out so I had the 'honour' of driving my parents there. I already pleaded with them to take the bus there instead. Driving is the luxury granted to those who live far, far away in the West. We live a mere 20mins away by (feeder) bus so why do need to make an unecessary drive there?

Needless to say, I had hot air steaming out of my ears as I made a grave mistake of turning into the carpark at Malay Village where it's almost impossible to find a way out, much less get a lot. And the crowd... Oh my goodness! The main road was all clear and I was desperate to get out there before the heavy traffic started up. Alas, I can't even budge cos' the throng of ppl crossing the side road was fiercely making their way to the other side. Like, hello?! Just because there's a lot of you doesn't mean I can never drive out of that hell-hole! I was nagging and nagging about how I've told my parents to take a bus but they are just soooo stubborn... yadaa..yadaa...

I made it out by stubbornly inching out (as suggested by my dad) and making the crowd realise that I-am-driving-out-no-matter-what-so-you-ppl-better-halt-it. My mum had said City Plaza carpark over and over and I kept thinking about Lion City Hotel (for some unknown reason) so I turned left at the next junction. Yet another BIG mistake. So I had to drive all the way into Mountbatten which was infested with multiple road-works and had road diversions, dead-ends and one way lanes in all the wrong places (maybe it's just me who's frustrated...)

I was very much appeased after managing to find many empty lots in City Plaza. Turns out, my other uncle was also lost (there're 3 cars, total). We exchanged our misadventures of driving thru' Geylang at that time and found out that one of my uncles almost run down a bunch of teens who tot' they're sooo small that they can all squueze on the tiny kerb in the middle of the road.

.... I'm not talking about what goes on at the bazaar cos' it's the same every other year. Just that I was still so full from my meal of pizza and KFC during buka only hours before that the sight of food all over the place just made me sick. :-x

PS: Forgot to pass the passports to Natra, despite meeting her... sheesh.

**********
09102005*1000-1805*Sunday
Went into j.b again. This time it's a 'makcik-fest'. Bro & I drove my mum and 2 aunts for their grocery shopping. It's so weird to go into j.b and not having any intentions to eat. Haha!

My bro's habit of driving fast caused us to miss the Smart market, much to all the 'makciks' dismay. He's an idiot, ok. They ladies were looking around for signs leading to the market and him driving fast only made all the words on the signs look blurred. So they have to be contented with shopping at Giant. The dismal feeling of not being able to shop at Smart was felt further when a relative who lived there told us there there is a Thai bazaar going on. Too bad we're running out of time. I would soooo love to purchase the dried shrimp chilli flakes that I was sooo addicted to (and had run out of)...

By time we hurried to reach the rest-area at Gelang Patah, it was only 4pm and it was freaking hot! So hot that when I looked in the mirror after reaching home, I saw that skin that was covered by my big-ass sunglasses was obviously fairer that the area that was exposed. And the teeny-weeny 'bazaar' there was in the middle of the parking lot!

I remember telling my bro while we're there, "It's still early, won't it be really boring to reach home so early...?" I guess, back then, I haven't considered the time taken to fill of the petrol, buy some gum, passing thru' the customs, drop both my aunts off AND getting caught in a traffic jam at ECP. To think that we're so worried about getting caught in a jam at the customs... Sheesh! We reached home at 6.05pm, leaving us with not much time to sort the groceries, send food to the neighbours and prepare for buka....

PS: Boy, I'm glad dun have to go to Natra's place to pass the passports cos' Yan spotted our car at Tuas Checkpoint (where he worked) and I just passed him the passports there. Hope we dun look like we're smugging some counterfeit passports....