the wacky wombat weblog

Okay, this is something from like over 2 weeks ago: I was back in Malaysia and my mom was driving me and my sisters to 1 Utama. We were headed there for shopping and dinner. And while on the road we spotted a tow truck towing a very odd-looking car.

Not sure what kind of car (vehicle? can we call it a car?) that was. So since I had my camera with me, why not snap a shot. My mom happily obliged by following behind the tow truck so that I can get a decent shot of the strange car. She even pulled up right alongside it so that I can get this shot:

Those seats look like some kind of race-car seats? Check out the seat belts, and the old-school stick shift heh. But hey, it’s still a pretty cool car — or whatever it is. :p

It’s been an eventful 14 days. Let’s have a rundown on what went on…

1. FYP short film selected in an Australian film festival. Supervisor tells us to try and attend if we can (with the school’s money!)
2. Last minute National Day Sale shopping spree - bought some lovely sheets and towels from Aussino for Mei and her travels
3. Had an interview marathon, made some decisions, and got myself a job (I’m starting next Monday)
4. Bought a 4-piece pots and pan set from IKEA for only $69.90! Plus a 3-piece utensil set for 90cents!! I’ve not bought anything under a dollar for a long time.
5. Cooked my favourite spaghetti aglio olio with the above-mentioned pots and pans.
6. Went back to PJ to visit my family, and provide Mei with guidance in my capacity as Expert Luggage Packer.
7. Developed stomach indigestion as I ate too much pork over the weekend - bak kut teh, fried pork knuckles, mom’s specialty minced pork patties. *burp* It didn’t help when I came back to Singapore and overloaded myself with Ikea dinner with my friends.
8. Completely whitewashed everyone in Scrabble but got my ass kicked in Monopoly. My sisters bullied me into bad property deals. Remind me not to do *real* business with them ever.
9. Discovered that there’s a new mall opened back home in Section 14. It’s the New Jaya, opposite the old Jaya (they could have been a *little* more creative with the name, no?) Nothing there except Coffee Bean and a whole lot of empty space.
10. Signed my employment contract, and submitted my Permanent Residence application yesterday. Level of service at the immigration department here is much more efficient than Malaysia’s.

And I just called home, and found my family having the earliest dinner ever in the history of my household. 6.30pm! These days nobody ever eats till it’s 8 and I’m bugging everyone to start dinner.

They’ll be sending sis Mei off to the airport later. She’s going off to State Uni of New York in Oswego (near Syracuse) to finish up her mass comm degree. Of course later I’ll have to stay up late tonight because she has nothing to do during her 5-hour transit at Changi and phone calls to all Singapore numbers from the airport payphones are free.

Okay, back to my list earlier — the thing I’m most glad about is that I managed to find a job within a month that I got back from Tokyo. At least soon I will be able to pay for my own living expenses here and hopefully have some extra to bring my parents out for a good meal and buy stuff for my sisters. Feel a bit bad that I’ve been living off my dad (and Au Yong - he keeps complaining about my Tokyo electricity usage) for the past few months, so yeah, a job is a good thing. And best of all, I won’t feel restless anymore ‘coz I’ll have lots of things to do and to look forward to! :p

Here’s to hoping all the best for me, and Mei in New York!

Been bumming around a bit with Au Yong for the past 10+ days. So it’s been a fattening break for the both of us. Especially since he came back with the resolution to “eat every 3 hours” so that he can taste everything on his “to eat” list at least once before he goes back to Japan. :p

Spent a quiet Christmas in Singapore. Avoided the crowd in Orchard Road like the plague, and had Christmas Eve dinner at a mexican place called El Patio in Holland Village. Absolutely yummy (fantastic salmon salad), but servings were so huge i couldn’t finish my burito even though I really really wanted to.

To the unfinished-burito: I’m so sorry I haven’t got more space in my stomach for you.

After that we headed back to KL to visit our families. For some reason, KL looks more and more kampung. Maybe it’s because there were too many potholes and trash around. Hmm..

Besides family dinners, countless shopping trips and plain lazing in front of the television (Cantonese drama on satellite TV! w00t!), we also visited his dad’s new fish pond.

It’s a long drive up to I-dunno-where. It’s on a hill somewhere in uber ulu-ness Rawang. But it’s a nice place. Feels very “back-to-nature” with all the hills and, water from the hills! haha.

It was also the first time I ate rambutan that was plucked straight from the tree (and not from a pre-packed bag in the supermarket)! haha. I’m such jakun city girl. Too bad the durians were all gone by the time we visited.

So of course, I was snapping away with his new Casio Z850 camera. Great camera, and HERE are some (hopefully good) photos of the scenery there. (Alternately, click on ‘Photo Gallery’ on the navigation bar above, and check out the album titled ‘fish pond’.)

I was back in PJ last weekend. Just a short trip to escape from the claustraphobic island (and to regain my sanity), and also to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival with my family.

Since I usually have a lot to say about my trips back home, I shall systematically file them under The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

Let’s start with The Good…

1. Mid-Autumn was good, except I didn’t actually taste a mooncake until after it was over, haha. And with the haze, the moon was sorely missing. However, since the government has failed to inform us to stay indoors away from the haze, my family then decided to embark on a new concept of mid-autumn festival celebration – haze-coated BBQ (yummy), and recycled lanterns back from the years when 6 paper lanterns cost only RM3.60 (it’s a good thing my mom kept them, doesn’t feel so bad when they burn up heheh.)

2. I enjoy being back at home. Feels good to live in a space that has a proper garden (Ok ok it’s just a square of grass but it makes a difference when you don’t even have a balcony to put your potted plants in SG. Plus potted plants die in my care, so it’s no good).

3. Food Food Food. It is only in PJ and KL where I’ll eat 5 meals a day: breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner, supper.

4. I just found out by chance that 2 of my friends from completely different social circles of mine, actually know each other! This has happened so many many MANY times, I am now damn convinced that anyone born between 1970 - 1990 and live and studied in PJ are somehow connected to everyone else. And it’s not like PJ is some small kampung, it’s a freaking ‘officially a city’, jam-packed with people who only have one objective on Sundays: to drive to 1Utama and create a traffic deadlock several kilometres long just so they can shop and eat. Anyways, I love surprises like these, to know that my friends are all one big happy family LOL.

5. I got to play with my lanterns. whee! (bonus points for salvaging the one and only green lantern. I like green lanterns.)

6. New hair cut! Chopped off my old curls, and got a cute hair-do. Except it’s not looking quite as cute as when they first finished it since it’s started to curl on its own accord.

And now The Bad…

1. Traffic jam in Seremban on my way back on the bus to KL. What the heck is there in Seremban that could cause a jam? It’s a sleepy lil’ town! >.< But since I slept through most of it, so I'll let it go this time.

2. The LRT broke down!! Right when I needed to take one back to PJ from the icky puduraya bus terminal! It’s bad enough that the ticket machines were spoilt (they perpetually are anyway). But when I went downstairs for the train, OMG, the whole place was full of people! Apparently trains were delayed for so long, the crowd just got bigger and bigger. And for the first time in the history of KL, people were actually made to queue up and be courteous to others and wait for the trains! Rare sight I tell you.

Then I started to freak out a bit when one of the trains before me went bonkers and suddenly stopped in the tracks seconds after it pulled off. But good thing the train that I got on to was alright, except someone stepped on my feet, and idiots behind me kept pushing their way through. Ugh. Remind me again why KL sucks. Next time I’m gonna take a bus that goes direct to PJ from SG, so I don’t have to step into the smelly city at all. Everytime I travel to KL, I’m sure to encounter a transportation crisis: last trip was the KL flash flood that left me stuck in floating garbage for 2 hours in the city, and now the ‘high-tech’ train breaks down.

3. And my adopted stray cat sort of forgotten me. She had this blur look on her face when I came back, and went to hide at the back of the house. >.< But after a few nice rubs, she's happy again. Stupid cat.

Ok, now the Ugly…

Don’t have a picture with me, but the haze in KL is terrible. I couldn’t even see KL Tower when my dad drove me downtown back to the bus terminal on Sunday. >.< And the worst thing is how no one is doing anything about it. The government is very clearly not pushing for any actions to solve the problem for real, which is seriously annoying. Now’s probably the best time to promote holiday getaway packages to places like Genting and Cameron Highlands — untainted by haze.

So yup, summary of my rare trip back home. Wish I have more chance to do that. No matter how tight my schedule to meet people is when I am at home, I still feel very relaxed. Now I can only pray that all my projects go well, and soon I can go back and chill again in December.