Johor!

Met up with my jc classmates at kranji mrt in the afternoon to go johor for shopping and eating seafood. Took 170 to the woodlands checkpoint where we have to clear the singapore customs and write the declaration/entry form to malaysia. After crossing the causeway, we had to clear the malaysia customs again. Wasted quite some time during the transition and we headed to City Square immediately after that. The shopping centre looks a bit like Raffles City but it is a lot bigger and there is a cinema at the 5th level.

We split into 3 teams, namely the guys team, the gals team and zewen and his super duper good friend (gf) team when we started our shopping spree. Some of OP t-shirts are selling at a low price of RM 15! Terence bought 1 tee but the rest of us did not buy since only XL and S sizes are left. Browsed through many of the retail shops and i saw a nice Diesel t-shirt. The price is rather expensive compared to other clothes but it is still cheap compared to the price in Singapore (RM 56.90). Bought it anyway since i like the design.

Level 4 is something like a bigger Annex @ Heeren. There are many shops selling accessories and fashionable clothes. Edwin bought a pair of orange shoelaces at RM 6. The handphones are more expensive as well. K700i is selling at one of the shops for around RM 900 whereas we can get it for $340 at chinatown here. The memory cards are more expensive as well. Checked out the price of a movie ticket by asking one of the locals. Mega Pavilion (GV) ticket price is RM 10, which is equivalent to around S$4.50. That's really cheap compared to weekend prices of $9.50 here. A MacDonalds value meal costs RM 6.50 in johor while you all should know how much it costs here. The main item that is more expensive in malaysia are the electronics.

Derrick and Clarence joined us later as they got something on in the afternoon. Arrived here at 6 pm and did some last minute shopping before going to eat seafood. Derrick had to buy some clothes and a cap for his friend while doing some shopping for himself as well. He gave us some advice on the places with good and cheap clothes since he had been to johor many times. Spent RM 29.90 on a white shirt as well.

Took taxi in 3 groups to Da Ma Hua Yuan to have our seafood feast. Derrick ordered the dishes for us as he knows the famous delicacies like chicken essence frog legs, crayfish, etc available there. Took some pics while waiting for our food to come.



After 10 mins.....

Our stomaches were all satisfied with dishes like crabs, fish, venison, etc...
Took cabbies back to the malaysian checkpoint and took photos on a bridge linking two buildings.


Walked all the way across the causeway since there were thousands of people at larkin bus terminal waiting for coaches and public buses. There was a massive traffic jam as well since it is a weekend night. Took some pictures on the causeway overlooking the buildings of johor.

Had a really fun time shopping and eating today, hope to have such trips more frequently. :)

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Shop

Went swimming at jalan besar swimming pool with ks and jy this morning. Only swam for 1 hour as i arrived late and jianyu had to go for tuition in the afternoon. The 3 of us had lunch at a nearby hawker centre before going to suntec as jy had to collect his glasses. Went carrefour to check out some bargains before walking to chinatown to browse the cds and look for handphone offers. Suprisingly, sony ericsson K750i is selling at $498 in a few of the handphone shops there which is cheaper than the retail price of $698 at those major dealer shops. It is really a good bargain as the specifications are one of the best to date (other than not being 3G compliant). Would consider buying a 512 mb memory stick pro duo if i have the handphone. That adds around $130 more to the total price i am going to spend on my handphone. Expensive but i think it is worth the price.

Worked for a few hours at night. Got scolded and questioned by one of the households who wasted quite a lot of my time. Really wanted to scold them back but cannot. Hai..... Going johor tomorrow with my jc friends.

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Exercise Week = Muscle Ache

Went swimming with gs on tuesday, played volleyball and kayaked on wednesday, played badminton with my sec sch friends today. My muscles are really quite sore from all the vigorous activities.

The four of us went yio chu kang indoor court to play badminton as we had booked the court from 12 to 2 pm. It has been quite some time since we last played badminton and some of us including me were rather rusty with the skills. The sole of my shoe was ripped off partially in the midst of a game. At around 2 pm, a fit old man requested us to join him to play some rounds of badminton until 3 pm as he had booked the court from 2 to 3 pm. Turns out that he is a pro in badminton. We learnt quite a lot from him as he explained the accurate rules which we did not know in the past. We were rather tired after many games and went for lunch.

Headed back to weiming's place to rest for some time before going to ang mo kio central. Spent quite some time at the numerous handphone shops as fuli and i are interested in getting new handphones. Had dinner after that and spent some time at sportslink as i wanted to get new shoes since they are having a sale. Bought a pair of nike running shoes at the price of $75.90.

Now i have decided to get either Sony Ericsson K750i or W800i. They have 2 megapixels for the camera, stereo mp3 player and fm radio as well. However, W800i is not available yet, so i might get K750i if the price is right.

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Sentosa Outing & Jiali's Bday Celebration

Met my supervisor in the morning at habourfront as i was unable to meet him in the afternoon and had to pass my forms to him by today. Jim and edwin drove all 9 of us into sentosa next and we alighted at siloso beach. Headed to sunset bay where there are volleyball nets and found out that we need to book the court at the rate of $30 per hour if we decide to use. Didn't think the price is worth it and we played without a net for a short while before switching to playing frisbee. Did not play for long as the frisbee was too small for such a big group of people like us.

Had an enjoyable game of monkey by passing or throwing the volleyball around. Walked all the way to Burger King near the ferry terminal for lunch after that. Took some pictures along the way.


Went for kayaking and swimming after lunch. The area that we can kayak is very limited compared to east coast and the rental price for kayaks are steeper as well. Single kayak is $8 per hour and double-seater kayak is at $12 per hour. Rented 2 double-seater kayaks and rotated amongst each other to kayak. Took some pictures as well.

We were mostly lazing around in the shallow waters of the beach after kayaking for 1 hour. Took some pictures as we were about to leave the island.

Headed to Taka crystal jade for jiali's 21st birthday celebration next. The food was good and we had a sumptuous meal.


We were mostly quite tired after our dinner and left for home since we did not have any other programmes in mind.

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Work Woes

Getting more and more sian of my job. But at least it's better than jobless right? No real colleagues to talk to, just me, myself and i. Hearing the same old ranting and complaints from the residents who are picked for the general household survey. They can complain to me but i cannot complain to anyone leh. Ha....

Today i was interviewing a middle-age guy with a really toxic breath. Was trying not to stand too close to him and breathe too much air into my lungs. I should have offered some mints to him. Next was a shophouse which was closed during mondays only and i didn't know how to contact the people living on the 2nd level. After useless attempts by knocking on the closed shop entrance and back door, I was considering shouting to the 2nd storey of the shophouse. No other way to contact the resident so i went ahead with the shouting. Embarrassing as i was not the only one in the vicinity. So paiseh..... Turns out that only the maid is around after their kind neighbour helped me to shout as well. Bummer...

Enumerated a record number of households today. Completed almost all of my new batch of households given to me today. Can slack for most of this week liao :)

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Down

Feeling down today. It's probably because i'm working on Sunday and nobody asked me out. :( Can't watch movies on weekends so what else to do on weekends? Singapore so few things to do. Sian.....

I think i'm getting a bit cranky coz i slept at 5.30 am the night before. Went out with my jc mates on sat to have dinner at holland village. Went habourfront mall for some window shopping and snacks before going to labrador park for a ghost hunting trip part 2. Took a stroll along the dimly lit pavements and nature trails before ending at the beach. There were quite a lot of couples there as usual.

Back to the carpark, i dragged edwin and gs up to the road where it is sealed. As i expected, there is a creepy looking house by the side of the road. I wanted to venture further down the sealed road but nobody else was willing. My sixth sense was telling me that there must be a reason to barricade the road at night. Too bad we only uncovered the house and nothing more. The house was fenced up and nobody was able to get in.

Headed to jimmy's favourite resting spot at jurong hilltop near jurong birdpark next. The scenery was wonderful as it was near the coastline and there were many specks of light from jurong island. Too bad i didn't bring my camera. Another romantic couple destination.

Almost got my new handphone this weekend. My sis arrived at the shop where i told her to buy as i saw the handphone offer in the newspapers which gives freebies such as dvd player, extra battery, pouch and 128 mb multimedia card. Found out that it requires buyers to trade in handphone as i did not read the terms and conditions properly.

I have to wait patiently for good offers i guess.

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PC Show 2005

Met up with Daryl in the morning to go pc show at expo. I was really tired since i slept at around 3 am the night before. Had a tough and tiring day visiting my new batch of households yesterday and i was feeling rather lethargic. The pc show was crowded as expected but we were able to manoeuvre our way through the various booths. Collected a lot of brochures to browse through the offers at home. Coincidentally we saw our mindef ex-colleague, Lian Guo, working as a promoter at the hp booth. We went to grab a bite at the food stalls at the back of the exhibition halls and there prices were really expensive.

The best deal i saw in the show is compac presario laptop at the price of $1299. The other laptops with good brands are mostly higher than $1799. The digital cameras are not selling at low prices but at normal prices like what you see in Best Denki, Courts or Harvey Norman. Mp3 players like creative are also selling at around the same price as outside, other than the unknown brands.

Left after around 1 hour and headed back to West Mall as we intended to catch the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy. Missed the timing and left for home after having lunch.

Went for work in the evening all the way until 10 pm. Another tiring day.........

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Ade's Bday

Updated passport in the afternoon with gs and clarence. Bought an ipod shuffle at sim lim square before heading to ade's birthday celebration at downtown east. Eating, chatting and cutting of cake was next and we took some photos as usual.



We had originally decided to stay overnight but decided to explore ghostly places since it has been quite a while we last visited these places. Intended to go the infamous red house in pasir ris but none of us knew the way there. Headed to punggol house on edwin's car instead. Took some time before finding the most haunted place in singapore (rated by i-weekly). The house is between Punggol MRT /LRT interchange and Soo Teck LRT station.

This is the exact location of the haunted house.

The house is on slightly elevated ground and people in vehicles can only see the house from certain sections of the road. The house is also surrounded by lalang, long grass and mud patches. We were not able to get close to the house since the area was generally waterlogged after this morning's heavy rain.

There were also half completed pavements that lead a short distance inside the big grass area but none of them were long enough to reach the house. We noticed some black patches on the pavements as well. They seem to be like burnt patches, most probably due to religous or superstitious reasons. At another side of the road, we saw some things on the grass which looked like offerings. I wanted to get closer to see what are the offerings but nobody wanted to accompany me to take a closer look. Took some photos on the deserted road instead.

Went to Jalan Kayu for supper before heading back home. A failed ghost hunting attempt this time.

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