Singapore.

The surprise (yeah, surprise) trip to Singapore last week was a blast!

Friday

John and Joy came and picked us up at the Novena Square. Thanks to Joy (who fell asleep on the bed while making bed for the guys), we stood there pathetically waiting in a lonely street.

You won't know how it feels when we saw John's van coming our way, with the flashes. We were thankful! (Who knows what if Joy forget to wake up (if there's such sentence!) and left us wait there till dawn?) I thank God she didn't. Seriously.

It was sooooooooo good just to meet Joy again (that night) and the rest, the following day. John and Joy brought the hungry us for supper at Chomp Chomp after our arrival.


Chomp Chomp food centre (picture taken another day)

Singapore's hokkien mee looks really d.i.f.f.e.r.e.n.t from those of Malaysia.


Ronnie's hokkien mee.

No black sauce! I tasted Ron's. Tasted more like cantonese fried? Guess the clans here got all mixed up. But it's not bad weyy. Quite nice!

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Saturday

Saturday morning some of them came over to Joy's place for "breakfast". Surprise leaked since Joy text messaged them to come for breakfast at 8am? That's so not her. I mean, 8am?! That's how Eunice found out la. Jiawen smelled the fishiness the night before itself, since we the 'active online people' weren't online. LOL.


People present: The Malaysians, John, Joy, Sera, Jiawen, Eunice, Daniel, Dennis.

We walked out for breakfast somewhere opposite Chomp Chomp (in Seranggoon). Had tau huey (beancurd) and carrot cakes for breakfast.


tau huey (known as tau fu fah over here).



black sauce carrot cake

It's slightly sweet. Guess I prefer the saltier ones (white one, below).


(white) carrot cake

Joy left for school after breakfast. Thank God for John. He ferried the rest of us around in his van.


Eunice and I in front of some creative art's school.

We went to Swee Lee.




It's a place to get musical instruments and their accessories. Man, they're way cheaper than those sold in Malaysia weyy!

I bought this.




A 2o ft circuit breaker with right-angle plug Planet Waves guitar cable. In Malaysia, its sold at RM 120 and I bought it for $37.45 (RM 86.13). It's like RM 30+ cheaper? Great bargain!



Had their famous Hainanese Chicken Rice for lunch before we adjourned for youth service at 3pm. Okay, can you believe it, so far all the meals are paid for by the Singaporeans?

Gosh, so paiseh.

Had mamak for dinner after youth. Ordered Teh O ais limau and sure enough, the singaporeans gave me a blank look and asked me to repeat what I've ordered.

"Teh O ais limau"

"What? Again?"

"Teh O ais limau! Mamak style of ice lemon tea"

"Ohhhhh.."

and there Joy ordered the same drinks (she copied me) after taking a sip of my drinks. It's something different for them huh? Other than their all time favourite -- Milo ais.

And oh! Their maggi goreng looks different!


Eunice's maggi goreng.

I didn't try it. Somehow so far, I still feel that the maggi goreng at kedai depan (in front of MGS, Klang) tastes the best!


After dinner, we adjourned for Bugis junction/village/street by bus.


Ronnie. Edric. Heman


Justin. MK. Eunice.

The bugis street/village somehow resembles the Petaling Street back in Malaysia with MORE stalls.

One of the interesting stalls found there:



How interesting.


new couple. ain't they lovely?

Had supper at Geylang Lorong 9 after that. Geylang is something like our Chow Kit street back in Malaysia. The lorongs are numbered. The odd-numbered streets are usually for food stalls while those even-numbered streets are for naughty stuff. They said so.

I haven't seen any though.

Tasted their famous frog's leg porridge and fried beef kuay teow.





Frog's leg.

(These are toad's legs actually. Frogs aren't edible)


Fried beef kueh teow.

*thumbs up for both*

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Sunday

Morning service at Bethany Christian Centre, Singapore.

We were late, we missed the bus, so we walked to church from Joy's place. I can't believe I suggested that and we did it!

The problem is Malaysians don't walk much, you see, thats why most of us aren't fit (just like me!).








happiest girl for the day.

Took the MRT (chun!) and buses to Suntec City after service for another service with Pastor Joseph Prince in New Creation Church (NCC).


Joy.


Lydia.

She's just 12 years old you know! She's only one year older than Mun Sheung!

*rub eye*

I still can't believe it. And I'm like, 9 years older than her? Do I look 9 years older?

Singapore girls somehow grow and mature faster than Malaysians. Malaysians are just... childish! (heard that, Mun Sheung? Please grow up!)




Eunice.


The service at NCC starts at 5pm. The church members have to queue up to get ticket seatings before they can get into the church for services.



We lined up at a special queue -- its meant for the elderly people, disabled and first timers/visitors. Of course we fall into the last category, as 'ambassadors' from Malaysia. LOL. Thank God for this special lane.

Or not, we have to queue like this:



Ain't kidding. The queue was that long! And this service is the last (5th) service of the day. All of us were blessed by the message. It was great!


Joy with gummy bears.

Adjourned for Sentosa Island via MRT (thumbs up!) and cable car? after service.



Joy (again!) in the MRT.





It was a great time spent in Sentosa Island.


Andrea. MK. Cikgu


Check out Edric and Heman. Heman looks so real!


Justin. Ronnie. Joy. Edric. Heman.







group picture.


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Monday

The rest went to work/school. Jason, Sera and Jiawen brought us out to Orchard Road. Orchard Road is something like our Bukit Bintang/Starhill back here.



guys being guys.





My 12 cm x 4 cm x 4 cm chocolate chip ice-cream with wafer. Only $1. I took 1/2 hour to finish this.


Sera





I like the feeling when everyone crosses the road together.








The guys left for Larkin with Pastor Anthony (Joy's dad) in the evening. I stayed back to spend one more night with Joy.

Went for dinner with Andrea, cikgu Lingling, Sera and Joy at Sushi Tei.



Both Andrea and cikgu spent me dinner here.


Cikgu's and yours truly's tired legs after long walk.

Cikgu thinks that this picture looks like mortuary. That horrifying?



Andrea


Cikgu. She thought she could escape pictures.













This restaurant is just a stone throw away from Joy's place. Both of us walked back after that. Guess the walk was a good time spent. I mean, good enough.

She took a very long nap once she reached home. Quoting her in her blog entry "Willing my body to move was worth every effort" (Phua, 2008). She was THAT tired okay.

But what else can someone like me do especially when you leave someone who has nothing to do in your room? Start taking pictures la.. of her... sleeping. LOL. Hope she doesn't kill me when she sees these.






For the first time she looks more gentle. (OMG, can't believe I just said that. Just once.)



I'm so gonna miss this bed! It's so comfy.

Bid our goodbye at around 6am. Good thing she woke me up to say her last goodbye.

Monday

I just realize it's not easy to look for a place to develop some pictures around Seranggoon Garden. Walked around (under the rain) till I finally found it. Caught cold along the way but definitely worth the effort.

Pastor dropped me at the Ang Mo Kio MRT at almost 2pm.



Took my very own MRT (for the first time) to Kranji and then SBS Transit 170 to JB to meet up with May Jean.

At the MRT station, I suddenly felt so blessed being a Malaysian.

1) We're blessed with own cars (don't need to take public transports)
2) We've got a real house to shelter in
3) We have good food here. Cheaper also.
4) We can understand/converse in any languages that the people in Singapore speaks -- English, Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese, Malay (minus Tamil, but I don't hear anyone speaking that language except for the MRT station operator).

How blessed!

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To you all who brought us around, thanks for everything! You guys have been a great blessing to us all. I know some of you couldn't wake up for school or work the next day after a long day with us. Sorry weyy.

Hope to see you all again soon. And when I say soon, it means really soon please =)

P/s: Thanks girl for your Christmas, New Year, Deepavali, Hari Raya and Valentine's gift. It surprises me because I was scouting around for a belt and I don't think I'd told anyone bout this. It somehow reminds me of Naima Jiawen's blog entry bout the telepathy of getting gifts between she and unexpected? Fuhh~ Freaks me out as if you guys have some sort of psychic power. But seriously, thanks alot! Love it. Thanks!