The 10 hour F-word

I wore my retainers just for two weeks and I realised that my teeth was crooked. He did a bad job in shaping my retainers. I was already prepared for the facilitator camp, a two week affair, but I was forced to skip it. Skip the long awaited camp just to take a 10 hour bus ride back and hear this from him.

" It is just an illusion. Your teeth arent crooked."

So if it isn't crooked Doctor, why the hell did you even try to reshape it?

Anyway, the 10 hour bus ride is even more interesting than this.

Didi and I went to look out for comfy buses. Well I would pay more for an 8 hour bus trip home without little tiny brown crawlies in the bus and a pain-free ass when I got home. When we came across a ticket booth selling Super VIP to Penang...big~ cushiony~ clean~ new~ all those images just popped up when they are SUPER VIP bus ticket. We bought it. =)

At 10.15am, so excited to board my first Super VIP bus, with McD in our hands, we board a bus. A normal one. How naive of us. *smiling sheepishly* But it was okay. The journey started at 10.30am, with fillet-o-fish in my tummy, music in hands, my soft sweater on the lap and didi was there to keep me company. I dont mind that much. =) At around 1pm the bus stopped at puduraya. Waited for half and hour in the bus, passengers were unboarding and new ones were boarding...Near to an hour in Puduraya, a supposedly bus agent came screaming in Malay saying that the last stop of this bus is at Perak.

WTH?

We got scrammed down from the bus at Puduraya.

We got scrammed into another bus heading to Butterworth and not Penang.

And we got into a bus which seats were hard and there goes my pain-free ass ride?

WTF.

Making a statement to complain this outrageous menace of Malaysian bus transportation, I called my dad. He has to pick us up at Butterworth. Half an hour into the highway, a loud buzzer sound was heard. The bus came to an abrupt halt. When a bus comes to halt in the middle of the highway, it spells nothing but trouble.

Our bus broke down. The day couldn't get worse isn't it? So we waited. Half an hour. It was 3.30pm. There were no air conditioning so we got down from the bus and waited like stranded puppies at the highway. I dreaded being in this senario whenever I see a broken bus by the roadside with sweaty, frustrated passengers strewn by the side of the walk way. It is, dreadful. And at that point, I was too frustrated with the whole thing and started camwhoring. Yup. At the NS highway. Well, there is always a silver lining in the dark dull clouds isn't it? LOL

I received a sms, a friend asking me what am I doing now

" Im at the NS highway. Bus rosak. Very HOT."

If I were him, I would be laughing and rolling with fits of laughter.

It was so pathetic! Gawd...

4pm and they were still fixing the bus. The bus conductor managed to stop a bus heading to Buttterworth and we were overjoyed! We grabbed our luggage and lunged for the bus! Just one more step to the entrance, the man said that there were no more seats available.

WHAT THE.....

At around 4.30pm the bus conductor stopped another bus and we took it. Eyeing at the sleeping passengers with envy, didi and I took the remaining seats at the back. Bumpy as it was, we snoozed throughout the whole journey back. Reached Butterworth at around 9pm, took a ferry across and back to the island.

The blue dot. We were there. Super VIP tickets. Like Phua Chu Kang would say, DONT PRAY PRAY....

The quest to find...

A hotel.
A decent one.
For the weather is freaking hot!
Slept till 2pm then had portugese egg tarts for lunch. A simple packing for the heat-getaway.
pyjamas, checked.
hp charger, checked.
toothbrush, checked.
laptop yes yes music! CHECKED.
The foursome; kame, cici, didi and me!
Drove to King's Hotel to check out room's availability. Fully booked.
Holiday Inn, seaview hotel...sounds good? =) Fully booked.
This time around...it wasnt even school holidays. But there were many singaporean cars parked outside the hotels near town. Singapore school holidays.

We decided to leave the hotel quest for a while and went for a decent round of screaming and ears-splinting Dreambox session. Well, it was freezing in the room. We had buffet dinner. I get to scream and sing whenever and whatever i want. Perfect . =)
Got scrammed off the room 30minutes after our booking time.
PS: I preferred it here. Redbox back in penang...I cant do that. They just automatically turn off the karaoke set when the time is up.

We set out for our hotel quest. Cici was so determined and excited about the hotel stay! Cute cici! Went around town looking for a heard-before-hotel but couldn't find any. There were alot of ancient looking hotels... We didnt want to have a umm... visit from aunties wearing samfus at night or a grandpa offering an invisible cigar at 2 in the morning. LOL

We were close to giving up and kame suggested the ones near our hostel. Near the highway. We passed the Malacca Zoo and had a good laugh when didi suggested we should stay over for the night with the monkeys and the turtles? We drove passed Hotel Seri Malaysia...naa looks not pleasing. Saw a sign board leading to Puteri Resort. It was midnight already. Upon reaching the Puteri, we need to drive through a very winding dark lane...with thick bushes on both sides and we couldn't see where the winding lane was leading us to.

Instinct probbed me to slow down and cici immediately said,
" Our hostel isnt that bad. I would prefer our hot and stuffy hotel with 's' than to go through this road. With that, I swung my hands hard on the steering wheel and make a pointy u-turn and drove back to our hoStel without a second glance at the rear mirror! XD

We retired for the night with ample amount of ghost stories in the car. Cici was terrified of these things so we tried to control our urge to continue those spooky tales. Well, the conditions that night were perfect for bed time ghost stories... LOL I'll tell you mine. =D

Was bathing in my hostel back in semester one.
Out of a sudden i heard a womanly voice calling out to my mandarin name.
I frozed.
No one, not even my chinese educated friends call me by that.
I knew my roommates were just outside and it was broad day light.
Frightened I was, but I brushed it off, thinking that my luck must be running low lately...
And I didn't plan to tell my room mates about it. It'll make them jump.
Last day of semester, I decided to tell them as we were leaving already.
I related my ghostly encounter and I was the one who almost got choked on my rootbear at A&W...

The ghost was didi.

Of Tutus, Floating Market and Massage....

Yup yup! It is Thailand =)
Went there with my family just for the weekend.

For 1. food 2. bargains 3. just pure fun!

First stop is at a restaurant. I can't remember names here as Thai words sound kinda foul? We ordered 5 dishes, and our tour guide muttered a dish sounded like ..."Hampalang"?

*scrunched-up face*

Well I don't know! See it for yourself LOL

This is the Hampalang dish. The dish is a vege pattties dish, consists of greeens, green long beans, green spring onions and green cili padi- all fried together. It is eaten with prickled cucumber...imagine biting on the cili padi =)

The other 5 dishes were awesome. One word to describe, HOT. Though they were horrendously spicy, we, (proud penangites!) could still finish every drop of the red, the orange, the green Thai curries! =D *peace sign*

Next stop was the infamous Floating Market.

If we weren't rushed by our tour guide, we would have patroned every food sampan along the river side! The cooking looked simple, yet they are delectable! And they cost around 200baht each serving. Fantastico~
=)

Little cute fried bird's eggs wrapped in banana leaves!

The big black jelly is called 'leong fun' in hokkien. You see bamboo containers and cute lil clay mugs? They are used to pack drinks and food. So you pay for the food, get the food and the lil souvenirs too! =)

At night, we were free to roam every where at the night market. Daddy took us for supper in an ubiquitous looking shop, selling birds' nests and shark fin soup? These are exquisite dishes for the chinese but it seems like the Thai take them as desserts lol they are alil more expensive desserts!

They sell lobsters at the road side! I was like... " Uh huh???"

Around midnite, Daddy asked for a fulll body massage. I wanted to have one but i was dozing off by the time the girl came into the hotel room. According to Daddy, the girl looked very petite. But, she is strong. She could flex all those hardened muscles with her tiny fingers, loosen up those stubborn knots and and the effects of whole day of walking and travelling is gone! Just two hours of mighty-o-massage ladyyyyy!

In the morning, we had breakfast in hotel. They served fresh rambutans for desserts? I am impressed. The Thais are proud of their natural resources! Seafood, lobsters by the road side! Spice scented body shampoo! Local fruit, rambutans at a hotel breakfast! I salute them. =)

Next stop was the Bazaar. We took the Thai taxi, Tutu. Cute! It is the biggest market in Hatyai. The place was so packed, full with big umbrellas, shading from the scorching sun. But the umbrellas made the place a heat hub. We went there for bargain hunting so, the sweltering heat aint anything! I think.

I thought I am a good bargain hunter, but Daddy is a master in it. Daddy if you ever come across my blog...

THANK YOU FOR THE BAG. I LOVE IT. MMWAH!

The bag was 400baht. The lady was so persistant in the 280baht and with a few shuffling of notes? and jokes? and Daddy's charming persona? He got it for 225baht.

ps: No wonder mommy falls for him!

A lot more bargains and we were off home. Yup! A weekend in Thailand.

_END_

PS: Yours truly has a lot to brag but it'll take a few pages, hundreds of photos, thousands of comments. So she has decided, No. =)

OKAY, the last photo? =D

Those are the culprits in Thai HOt HOt dishessss~

haha! OKAY. END.

Hot Teethy Issues

After an enduring two and a half years of monthly mushroom-soup-for-a-week days or porridge-for-lunch-dinner-and-supper days, I finally left the orthodontist clinic with-OUT my braces. YIPEEEE!!
The YIPEEEE do come with a price. =)

Four teeth extractions.

Monthly enduring visits to the dentist for tightening.

A year of hideous looking photos with visible holes.
*Went through high school prom looking like that, but I was so comfortable with my looks, smiling and grinning with missing teeth =)

Missed a golden chance to fight in an inter-uni karate tounament.
*the gum sheids couldnt fit...=(

And no bitting into fresh juicy FAT apples! And bubble gums!

After a week, I went back to get my retainers.

"Wear your retainers 24 hours. Take it out only during meals. Dont follow, then the braces will have to return."

Went to A&W the other day and took the retainers out, put it on the table, ate my lovely crispy curly fries and sipped on the root beer float...OOOHH...=) and then put it back!

Ever since i got my retainers, I am always wondering whether would it fly out when i sneeze out of a sudden?

I would have make a world history by sneezing my teeth out without the help of a punch to the face. But I wont be sneezing anytime soon!

El Nino is saying "Hello again!"

Now, anyone wanna get a root beer float?? *wink*

Monkey Hair Business

I have cut my hair. This time it is short. In my previous trips my hairstylist wouldn't want to cut it short. He says long hair suits me perfectly~

(It Does! LOL but I want short hair!)
And every time I try to argue, he will eventually toss my hair into those messy-but-stylish look and I’ll just let him have his way…

But this particular day, the boss aint there. I like him working on my hair, he is good in it no doubt. But he isn’t there...

SO, *evil grin* I picked another hairstylist and asked him to make it short. Mommy was there too. She loves my long hair.

Well most moms want their daughters to have long hair.

The moment I jabbered with the hairstylist that I want it short, she was on high alert. I know you guys would go… ‘oh common…it's just hair! Why such a reaction!"

Aha.

Let me tell you a story shall I? =)

Once upon a time, in a far far galaxy… lives me who has just finished her spm.

End of high school.
No more uniform days.

No more pin-up-your-hair days.

No more cut-your-nails days.

Yes to more crazy days!! =D

I do miss high school. *making a mental note to write it some day*

Back to our story. Yes yes…crazy days! The start of a new chapter in my life means a change of looks, first. The subsequent ones will be discussed some other time.

I hit the malls and went shopping. Those people are handing out fliers, leading you to their barber shops with exclusive promos? I jumped at the opportunity to get a haircut! I told them I wanted it short. I have a soft spot for short sporty hairstyle as you can see.

Then I came back home, with my new hairstyle.

The first thing that I noticed when my mom saw my new look is, her jaw dropped.

DROPPED as in practically dropped and not closing anytime soon and will only close after a thousand times of whys and how comes and aiyooooos!

Her daughter has come home with spiky hair. Short, gel spiked up hair with gel.

Those are the days of bandanas, wrist bands, baggy jeans with tight fitting singlets and spiking everyday in front of the mirror.

It was a shocking change to my mom especially, and my friends who has known me for years. But I liked it. I embraced every lil bit of my life carrying that particular cool head on my shoulders ;)

That is why mommy would insist on accompanying me whenever I go to the hairstylist. Well she did get a hair cut every trip but deep down, I know mommy is terrified to see another spiky head in her house! *grinning cheekily*

So mommy was asking, ‘How short u want to have it cut’ and I just throw the sweetest smile at her, telling the guy, ‘Make it nice and short’.

After an hour I got my desired style!

Short, aha... Fresh, yes... and sweeeeet.

Mommy is happy. =p

ps: the first spiked up hair picture is for illustration purposes. The real one is better =D