Trekked out by Mulu...

National Day public holiday saw us trekking 8km with heavy backpacks across the rainforest in East Msia - mom's great idea that she wanted to see the famous Pinnacles and Mulu caves. Getting to Mulu itself was a mini adventure - we had to fly spore to KL, KL to Miri and then hop onto small propeller plane to Mulu. We checked into the rustic Royal Mulu Resort and lunch was at the Royal Mulu National Park (the resort charges RM35 for a bowl of curry noodles..good grief..talk about price exhortion!!) - where we had the Mulu laksa (yummy!) for RM10 a bowl.

Then we joined a group of 20 over tourist and walked to see the world's largest caves. Although I do not particularly like caves cos they are usually wet, smelly and dark - the beautiful formations created by nature makes it worthwhile to endure the cave other not so nice elements :P After 2 hours of cave exploring, we settled at the nearby viewpoint area to view 5 million bats coming out of the caves for their nightly rendevous and makan time. These amazing creatures fly over 100km each night..how exhausting it must be to be a bat..but then again, I hv no idea why they need to fly so far to get insects..there were tons of insects just outside their cave :p..how batty ..lol.

Next day, 6am saw us up and out on a longboat ride to see more caves (and beautiful Raja Brooke butterfly) and the boat will stop at the start of the 8km trek into Camp 5 (our home for 2 days). Unfortunately, what I thought would be a nice boat ride turned up to be extremely strenous as the water levels were low and that required major boat pushing. puff puff puff

The 8km trek in was quite relaxing and slow as we did not want to tire ourselves too much..that is, until it started pouring about 5km into the trek..then we scrambled..and walked really really fast..and reached camp 5 pretty soaked. We were introduced into our "rooms" - house on stilts, raised floors with thin mattress and no windows..so you literally get the wind going through the room along with insects, bats and fireflies..talk about going back to nature...i missed my hot water shower and bed immensely :D

The Pinnacles is NOT, I repeat NOT for beginners..only 2.4km uphill and after 1 km, mom had enuff and I was quite happy to follow her down (though quite bummed out not to see the Pinnacles. Jin was sent as our defacto eyes;). Mom and I took ages to climb the 1km downhill and on top of that, we made a wrong turn from Camp 5 and ended up back to Camp really really late, tired and hungry. Was really happy to see that Jin made it safely up and back - within good record time too!

Next day, with sore muscles and legs, we started the 8km trek back at 630am. Thankfully I had my iPod to help make the journey seem shorter...would hv been an uneventful trek back if not for poor mom falling off while crossing the log..thankfully the ground below her was soft and only about 4 feet high..ouch ouch! The long boat ride back was much more relaxing that the trip up as the water level rose thanks to the rain and we were also following the flow of the river.

Was very very happy to check into the Marriot at Miri..back to civilisation..Jin and I cant imagine being as brave and gung ho as mom is at her age..really salute her! For us, next holiday better be at the beach and spa..no more jungles :D

Gwen Stefani and fireworks

Last week went by in a blur...was stuck at a mktg summit for 3 days at Hilton and coupled with late nights working with the agency to launch two big mktg campaigns, the week seemed like a month long and i guess it shows..my idiot friend told me yesterday I look so haggard..I think he needs a good kick :D



Anyway, in the midst of madness, there must always be fun so tuesday night - we attended the Gwen Stefani concert..that woman is really something..37 yrs old and has a body of a 16 year old and energy of 20 horses..she put on a good show..much better than that boring Westlife concert we attended previously :p

Celebrated the weekend with Jason Bourne..it was a action packed Bourne Ultimatium which Jin and I enjoyed. Saturday was a super packed day with yoga and golf..I am learning that the only way to finish the course is to hit with my fairway wood aka 4th driver :p. Although pretty exhausted, Jin insisted we go see the last round of fireworks - part of National Day celebrations. It was a packed crowd from our viewpoint at the newly constructed One Raffles Quay..have not seen fireworks since New Year's eve in San Francisco 5 years ago and this brought back good memories :)



Also managed to catch the musical - King and I..great stage set but mediocare singing :P..Sunday was a fun relaxing day hanging out with Lin and RY..we played tennis in the hot hot sun and waved the white flag after an hour of being baked. Brunch was at nearby Choupinette (french bakery)..no camera but the burger and cakes were good.

The right way to end the work week..a party!

Friday morning started off badly with a F2F meeting with the "good" folks from the Agency. It was the 3 of us facing the five of them but numbers is not an issue as long as you have A at the table..she gave such a performance that I have never seen a more sorry sight..she had the 2 big guns from the Agency bowing their head in shame at her truthful statements. Felt really bad for the Agency but I have to say they deserve it seeing how much angst they have put me through for the past 3 months and oh no, I have another 3 more months to go with them..save me! sob sob sob.

Thankfully I had Cheryl's party to look forward to..that dear lady decided to splurge her well earned "award" $$ on a les amis catered event. My initial plan was to drop in early to watch the set-up but of course got delayed approving copy (due to Agency sending me the stuff at 5pm and then had to have an hour conversation with them till wayy past 7...and the nerve of the new agency girl - she was giving me such a trying time on the phone..she goes : "but sometimes more is less and less is more but more does not mean more..do you know what I mean?" - Gosh, I really had to practise my yoga breathing techniques to keep my cool!! I just replied - "Look, it's Friday evening, I am so late for my appt that it's not even funny and I don't really appreciate riddles like this after such a long day" - I hope she got the hint :).

Anyway, I arrived to the sound of laughter and wow, a lovely scene of candles and "survivor" torches. Les Amis did up the place really nicely. The menu consisted of duck pate, salmon and prawn mini bruschettas - all done pretty well. And there was a bar set-up with a good range of hard liquer. I quickly forgot about work and immersed myself with good company and dinner. Here's Cheryl and me before I had to make a quick dash home to accompany Jin for his late dinner..poor guy waited till past 10 to have his mutton murtabak from across the street where we live.

Discovering our neighbourhood

It's been a week since we moved from Bukit Panjang to Bukit Timah..and though HDB living was fun, we really love our new place! Work's now a jiffy 15 minutes away (even with morning traffic) and there's a direct bus to work for Jin. We are also quickly finding out just how cool our neighbourhood is (no wonder the previous tenant could not stop promoting this place)..we decided to make it "explore your neighbourhood morning" today by doing a walkabout. Here's what we discovered :

- there's no line at the famous Adam food centre No.1 nasi lemak stall at 9am

- secret garden found at Botanical Garden's Cluny Road entrance (pix above). I had so much fun snapping pictures of the tortoises..i think it's mating season, hence the "positions" (pix below).

- Cold storage opens till 11pm!

- french bakery, german butchery, italian gourmet pastas and coffee and kiwi brunch cafes

- japanese ala carta buffet at $30++ with hamachi on the menu

I have a feeling that we are really going to enjoy our next two years here :)

Pack pack pack - Moved.

After nearly 4 months staying in temp accommodation, we finally moved this weekend to our new home for the next two years. The few weeks leading up to the move were pretty mundane as we were stuck slowly packing each night after work. Thankfully there's wonderful Pow who helped with the kitchen items. Jin was his usual cool bo chap-self (hrrmph!) as he only decided to pack the night before the move. Seems to think that the night elves magically make the boxes up on their own while he sleeps :p

As the movers were too busy to help us move on a Saturday as planned (sign of the times where everyone's probably moving due to higher rents or being more affluent), we took Friday off to supervise the move. Not wanting to waste a whole day off just on moving, I arranged a quick 9 hole game at keppel. It was our 1st time playing at a real club and the service was impressive. You get to drop off your golf bags at the buggy station and the staff helps you unload and upload the bags onto the buggy. We teed off at the 1st hole instead of the intimidating 10th hole and happy to note that I got off at a pretty impressive start...the rest of the game need not be discussed :D. lost so many balls - the lake monster surely knows how to gobble up balls..good thing balls were cheap as they were bought in good ol Msia. Only managed 8 holes before we got rained out but overall it was a very fun morning with wonderful cool weather.

The second half of the day was exhausting as we moved 60 over boxes..here's a pix of how much stuff we have!! gulp...we def need to simplify our lives..time to visit the salvation army. What made the day even more busy - we were also trying to rent out our other place so meeting agents, buying white goods. whew..was officially exhausted at day's end. I think Jin felt it too and decided that a good meal was well deserved.





We headed to the fabulous Greenwood Fish Market for yummy lobster bisque and escargots...the escargots were very uniquely presented in kueh pai tee style. A definite must try again appetizer!

Settling quite comfortably into our new home...it's quiet and that's a major blessing seeing how sensitive I am to noise which in turns affects my sleep. The pool view outside is extremely relaxing and so far, am pretty happy with the new place. Have been going to bed late trying to unpack a bit each night and this morning, Jin woke up earlier and walked down the road to get us breakfast..how nice it was to wake up and have teh halia for breakfast :). Will take pix of our new home after the stuff in the 60 boxes have been unpacked and we make it swee swee! :p

Keat's 32nd bday and my 1st durian this year...

With work bearing me down and house matters keeping me up late at night, it's no wonder I was due for a much needed break..and where better to get a quick fix but make the quick balik kampung hop back to KL? :)..Using Keat's bday BBQ as the main excuse, we hit the road at 4am, exiting through the eeriely quiet and carless Woodland checkpoint and enjoying the sunrise on the drive home.

1st stop home was breakfast with Jin's parents at one of our usual neighbourhood haunts - Restoran Yong Len. This place serves the best prawn mee..the young lady I remembered from my youth is now much much older but her the quality of her wonderful prawn broth has remained amazingly consistent throughout the years. Then it was off to service Mitsu (good way to save money since prices are half that in Singapore)....furthermore, the trusty uncle at the Shell station who I have known since I was a teenager still remembers me so I knew Mitsu was in good hands :)

Can't believe Malaysian banks are now all closed on every saturday..when do they expect poor ol me to do her banking chores? :p..anyway, wanted to check out prices of golf clubs in KL so we headed to Mid Valley..walked for 2 hours and did not buy a single thing...part of our motto to simplify our life ;)..no more clothes!! (or shoes - Jin says :p)

Discovered a wonderful nail saloon, ProNails at Centrepoint..mani and pedi for RM65 is unbeatable value (by Singapore standards) ! Jin - the metrosexual wanna-be, did the whole package along with me - minus the polish. To see the contented look on his face as he got his foot massage made the $$ totally worth it :)

Realised that no way could I play golf after just having my nails done so had to sit and watch Jin try his best to impress me at the driving range instead.. happy to note that with my 1-2 good pointers (which I read from the magazine while waiting for my nails to dry), Jin managed to hit some pretty good shots :D

Was fun to see everyone again at Keat's bday bbq. Cutie pie Ethan greeted me with a (forced) hug and willing peck :). He really entertained us all with his boyish antics of running around acting out his superhero fantasy. Keat's kakak amazed us with her fantastic marination and Mich did a yummy salad and of course, there was the trademark bacon banana dish by SC. Highlight of the evening was definitely the durian cake..having not eaten durian since my trip to Pulau Ubin last year, you can imagine joy in satisfying all that pent up craving! Here's the handsome bday boy cutting his yummy durian cake and I love this pix of an over-enthusiastic Ethan hugging Nicky..lol.

Sunday - we hit the Bukit Utama course for a quicky game even though it was past 9 and wayyy too hot for any sane girl with any intention of keeping her skin spotless. But the lure of getting to drive the buggy was too strong so with plenty of sunscreen and my cute golf hat (a gift from Lin) - we happily waited in line to tee off. Lost 3 balls, 2 into the water, one into the jungle..but overall, I thought my game improved (jin would say otherwise - but all I can say is that the course was darn hard!!!). We only managed 7 holes and then it was a mad rush out of the course for lunch appt with grandparents. Oh, we met this real arrogant malay uncle on the course who was sarcy to me but embarassed himself fully when he stroked his iron shot right into the jungle..like 45 degrees off course..hellooo...want to be sarcastic, at least have the quality..gave jin and me a good laugh all the way home..:)))

Afternoon was a trip to the hair saloon where jin got a hair cut and me, a hair wash..cant remember what happened during the whole thing as we both fell soundly asleep on the chair, waking only to wash the hair (what a great head massage!)..lol..poor hairdressers must have had a hard time trying to cut jin's hair with his head slumped over ;)

Sunday is when there a huge pasar malam outside the house so while looking for Jin's favourite banana cake, I saw this uncle selling loads of durian. With the craving for real durian not settled, I asked for the bitter kind and he had it..and I got to tell you, if one ever has to waste calories eating durian, it better be the bitter kind or nothing at all :)..very very HaPpY and did not mind my share of driving back 2.5 hours home..what a wonderful weekend...now, if only the rest of this week stays as good...who am I kidding...back to lunches at my table :p

We'll have these kind of dim sums anyday ;)

Really enjoyed the Dim Sum Dollies latest show which was loosely based on the history of Spore and how far she has come. Hossan was at his usual versatile best - he played Gandhi excellently. Bravo bravo ..here's a very HaPpY Jin with his favourite dim sums babes ;)