Praying & First vist to Ikea

Jennifer say:


Yesterday, Mum and I were out for 9 hours - we went out at 12 plus and came back at 9 plus.

Mum said she need to go to Cheng Huang Miao to pray to 'taishui'. I went with mum too. We also met Second Uncle's wife (hmm...how do i say it in English, i usually greet her in chinese). Mum chatted with aunt for almost one hour. There was a taoism praying chanting going on..heard that the priests are all from China. We were eating around the table where there was free mee hoon and green bean soup. As aunt and mum chatted, the priests went around the place spraying holy water.

We left the temple at 4 plus and took a bus to Tampines where we took bus 27 to Ikea, Tampines. Well, call me 'mountain turtle' if u wanted but this was really my first visit to Ikea. The first one in Queenway is too far to go. Mum bought 6 plates that cost a mere $0.90 each. Mum said that it was not fun walking in Ikea, nothing special, just funiture. I actually had the same thought, no car - how to get back the heavy funiture back. Take taxi --- i saw long lines at the taxi wait -- around 10 people with no taxis.

We then went to the newly opened Courts MegaStore. It is quite big but again nothing there appeal to mum..i was looking at the MP3 player when mum asked to me to go as it was not interesting.. I just want to feel the models of the MP3 there and decide what i want to buy elsewhere as the price in Courts can be quite steep. Mum said it is because they employ dozens of employees there. We ended up visiting only the third storey of Courts.

I was famished when we took the bus back. We went hougang to have our dinner. Poor sweetie, DD, KK and du du --- no one fed them until i called back to ask dad to feed them dry food. At 9 plus when i was home, sweetie was extremely manju and kept rolling on the floor.

Told brother that i may not buy Apple nano as i felt it is too slim and no FM ...and one thing, the pink that i saw at Courts look ugly, i am thinking of a lighter pink. blood told me that slim is good lor....hmm...still deciding between creative or apple --local or foreign brand?....ha...are woman always so fickle-minded?

Mid Autumn Festival

Jennifer say:




Day Scene @ Chinatown



Night Scene @ Chinatown - I loved the dragon



Celebration @ My neigbourhood temple

This is taken today at my neighbourhood's temple. . We missed the walkabout where the Tong-ki will take everyone to walk around the neighbourhood for a full round...Everyone will be holding a lantern in their hands. We only joined the crowd when they were near to the temple. After that, a ritual was conducted. You can see the set-up of the ritual in the first photo. The Tong-Ki then sprinkled some water with pine leaves blessed by the heavenly gods above us. After that, we took a joss stick each to pray to the moon goddess. I prayed for all my community cats in my area to be safe.

We did not stay longer to take the 'goodies bag' consisting of sweets and flower for bathing/blessing. We went inside the temple to pray. There was a banquet in the temple itself.

Mum and I watched the opera outside the temple. I do understand the language spoken (Hokkein) except for the singing ( A bit understand only). Mum has always say that i should learn to speak Hokkein instead of just having to understand it without speaking.

I was SMSing sister to ask her when she would be back when i saw our MP walking toward me. He was actually there for the banquet and we happened to sit in the way. We stayed for a short while till 9.30 pm. I needed to warm up mimi's food and the opera was not that fantastic as compared to the Taiwan opera.

We saw mimi near the senior citizen corner. Mimi meowed at us but we did not have food. Mimi then followed us and then disappeared around the dark void deck. We met two police officers whom were there because someone complained that the kids were playing with candles in the void deck.

At 10.25 pm, sister and I went to find san pi pa and mimi. There were lot of people around - lot of kids playing with candles somemore. I am able to feed mimi without any disturbance. San Pi Pa is a bit 'worried' about the noises but he did ate quite a lot. Sister and I stayed with him till he ate more of his leftover rice.

One day trip to Malaysia, JB

Jennifer say:


Mum, her friend and I went for a one day shopping cum praying trip to JB on Tue, 20 June. Mum's friend, A( let's address her "A" since i always called her auntie) is able to speak Malay so she nicely suggested bringing both of us to Malaysia. My last trip to Malaysia was four years ago..Can u imagine how 'mountain tortorise" I am not to go to Malaysia when it is so near Singapore. The main reason is none of us in our family except dad are able to speak Malay. Asking dad to go with us is like trying to moving a rock out of the mountain that is hard and impossible.

Anyway We met A at the bus stop near her house in hougang at around 7 am. Then we took bus 161 to Woodlands bus terminal. Once we reached the terminal, we took bus 912 to a bus stop and transferred to bus 170. After we cleared custom at JB, we took bus 170 to the bus terminal in JB (XX, duno what the terminal called). Then we took bus 227 at a rate of RM4.50 to Kota Tinggi bus terminal. But the bus journey was so long - almost one hour to reach there. JB still uses the Old singapore way of bus conductor selling bus tickets where you will go right up to your bus seat, you will tell the bus conductor where you are going and get a ticket. On my bus journey, I saw many kampong-style houses with many plantation.

We took our lunch at a cafe called Y2K cafe at 1.00 pm. Mum and I had chicken rice..the food was yummy and cheap..it cost only RM4.80 in an aircon cafe with no service charges. After our lunch, we walked across the canel to the "Wang Da Xian" temple. This temple is very famous in HK. We prayed. The temple has the usual gods that you can find in Singapore temple. Well, in my own view, there is nothing special abt this particular temple except that it is quite big..a 3-floor temple, the first floor and the second floor for the temple and the third floor is for the temple's family to stay. The temple is in fact a family-owned temple.

A and Mum also plucked wild-grown Kangkong on our way back. I just ate the kangkong as dinner yesterday, taste good...very tender. I am rather interested and excited when i saw cats...as if i had never seen cats in my whole life..ha..i hope these cats have a good life over there...

After our visit to the temple, We went to the nearby shops. Most of the shops were selling cloths. Mum was thinking of buying some cloths for our curtains but she forgot to bring her measurments of our windows so we did not buy eventually. We then went to Kota Tinggi Plaza. Most shops were owned by Malays. Nothing special there also but i bought a pair of pink shoes for RM28 and a hello kitty watch for RM18. The watch is very cute - white face with kitty's face with a heart and the strap is made of kitty's heads.

At 3 plus, we ate again. A recommendede us to eat Nasi at fast food restaurant called "Marybrown". The chilli is very good, not too hot and a bit sweet too. I love it. After our meal, we took the bus at the terminal. A asked around and we took a bus with yellow top. A then asked the price. We pay RM4.50 but the bus ticket show RM3.70. Then we learnt that we paid extra for the bus fares. When A asked the driver why we paid more, the driver raised his voice at poor A. But we had no choice since we had already paid. In the bus, we met this cute uncle whom said he stayed in AMK, a fellow singaporeans. The uncle said that this bus actually went straight to City square in JB so it was much cheaper than our earlier trip. The uncle then taught A and mum how to go to JB next time. A and Mum had a good chat with this cute uncle. Mum asked for the number of this uncle whom is familiar with JB as he had a house and plantation there and went to JB almost every week.

We alighted at City square. Then A asked if we wanted to go to City square. We agreed. The mall is quite big --many things to see but i bought nothing.I was actually tempted to buy the earlings at 3 for RM10 that is so cheap but i cannot made up my mind what to buy. A and mum bought some books of uses of herbs at popular for RM6 each. They were stilling browsing over the herbal books at 8 pm when i suggested that we should leave now as i still need to feed mimi and friends later.

At singapore checkpoint, the officer said that i should update my photo since i "big girl' liao. Actually who does not change after nearly 10 years. My photo was nearly 8 years ago. My passbook wil expires on 2008, duno if i should update photo, but can just update without changing book meh? I do not really think this is possible.

When i reached home, sister told me that Kaka poo on my bed, Yuck...luckily i managed to remove the smell after some rubbing with some detergent. Sister also did not feed the cats, i had to cook dinner for them at 9.50 pm..Sweetie was very hungry and kept meowing at me..poor thing.

A had asked if mum wants to go JB next week, this time, i am taking care of the cats at home while sister may be going with mum.