Chinese New Year Day 2

Before we know it, a year passes by and it's Chinese New Year all over again. Every year, I dread Chinese New Year the most because I'm always left with nothing to do, while my friends are all busy with visiting.

The first day was pretty chill out for me, hanging with the boys in Starbucks.

As per our tradition, the bestfriend had an open house on the 2nd day of Chinese New Year, so I went over to visit her family! Had a chance to meet up with old faces, like Sam and Pris!

Headed over to Tom & Karan's house after, with my brother, sister-in-law and Henry! Although I kinda crashed the visit, they were very welcoming and made me feel at home, so I could not have been more thankful!

They had a really gorgeous home with an actual pool table for their dining table! A little bit more about that later on.

Once everyone had arrived, Karan and her friend began with the yu sheng! As you can tell from my facial expression, I was very excited to lou hei (actually it was the salmon that I was excitedly staring at)!

After tossing the yu sheng, we started buzzing around, helping to prepare the food for dinner! Remember the dining table that I talked about? It is a pool table that is designed with hydraulics that could increase or decrease in height, depending on choice of use for the table!

This was all of us having our dinner on the pool table, which is reduced in height.

After dinner and a few rounds of drinks, we started on a game of pool! Since there was about 6 of us that were playing, out of thirty, we had to subtract the number on a ball that we had all picked in random, and had to pocket the balls according to the remaining number. If you don't understand, well it can be quite complicated :/

After a few rounds of pool, we decided to play a few games of pictionary! We were all evenly split into two teams and by evenly, I mean those who could and couldn't draw! We enjoyed ourselves so much, we almost lost track of the time!

I thoroughly enjoyed myself and can't express how thankful I am for Tom & Karan to welcome us into their humble home. I hope everyone else had a wonderful Chinese New Year as well!

Waterfront Skating

For about more than half a year now, my brother has been organizing weekly skating/cycling session (although we've been slacking off a few weeks now) among our closest friends to encourage healthy living.

It's been too long since our last distance skating session, so we seized the opportunity when we had an extremely long break from work over the Chinese New Year holidays.

There wasn't much response from the invites, so we were really surprised that there were a total of 11 + 1 in attendance!

Previously we've skated through East Coast Park and even Changi Beach (where we skated a distance of 8km). This time, we decided to skate through Promenade Lawn, after discovering it a while back. The view was nothing short of amazing and the weather was perfect, for awhile that is.

My older brother and I were really excited, because my second brother, his wife and daughter had mentioned that they were keen to join us for awhile now and it was finally happening! Mel's (my other sister-in-law) cousin and his family were joining us too! Alongside the usual Madhu and Henry, the rare face Mr Tan also showed up bright and early that morning!

Voila~ This is us in front of the wonderful citiscapes of Singapore!

And with my wonderful brothers, sister-in-laws and most adorable niece ever!

Mel's cousin and daughter were still in the learning stages of blading, and my sister-in-law, Zizi was still trying to get used to my recreational skates, while Henry lost a wheel and my second brother was all about going straight, as fast as he could.

And unfortunately, while we were waiting for everyone to gather at the Marina Barrage bridge, the storm clouds crept up on us, forcing us to head back. While scrambling our way back to the cars, it started pouring and so for the first time in a really long time, I was forced to play in the rain. Every time I get caught in the rain, I get sick almost instantly (like less than half an hour later), but I really didn't have a choice this time.

Since we could not continue skating, we headed to Kallang Leisure Park for lunch at Thai Express!

Thank you Fuh Yong, for the lunch treat! :)

While we lingered around for awhile, both families had to leave which only meant, bowling! We've been bowling so often now, that it's actually starting to get a little tiring :/

After our game, it was still a little too early to call it a day, so we ended up in East Coast Park for a short skate before heading home!

It was truly a wonderful experience, sharing the beauty of the surroundings with loved ones and most of all, enjoying ourselves with our healthy activities. I really can't wait for the next round of bonding, but I'm pretty sure those days are soon to come!

Malacca Roadtrip

Extremely Lengthy & Image Filled Entry

As mentioned in my previous entry, it was an impromptu suggestion that led us to drive up to Malacca on the 1st of February! My brother had a gig in Port Dickson, so we planned to meet in Malacca for a weekend out of Singapore! After I ended work on Friday, Madhu, Henry and I headed for a quick dinner at Seah Im before departing up for Malacca to meet my brother and sister-in-law.

With my anxiety and paranoia, I didn't really feel comfortable driving up (without my brother) and at the same time, Henry has never driven up to Malaysia before. Of course, with his bad sense of directions, it would mean that I would have to navigate our way. Stress mode switched on >.< Nevertheless, for the sake of a much needed holiday, we went!

We didn't stop for any smoke/toilet breaks because we just wanted to get there as fast as we could, safely. And about 2.5 hours (or less) later, we arrived in Malacca!

Just nice, my brother and sister-in-law arrived at about the same time. We lived in a really amazing apartment  on the 15th floor for the weekend, which was right smacked in the centre of the city and at the same time, it was next to the sea as well. And jjang! This was the view from our apartment! 

I know I look extremely tired and happy at the same time, but really, I was trying hard to contain the chills of standing in the balcony! It was FREEZING up there! This may sound a little exaggerating but I had to wear a jacket and scarf just to have a smoke break in the balcony!

But then when we got down to the ground floor, ohmahgad, it was hot as hell!

Although tired, we really wanted to get out of the apartment to explore. Especially since it was only 1AM and we'd usually still be out having fun if we were in Singapore. Then we discovered a carnival that was only a stone's throw away from our apartment!

We washed up and headed down!

Unfortunately, they refused to sell us tickets to the rides cause they said they closed at 1AM. We ended up heading back to our apartment and while everyone passed out, I was up watching tv till 6AM trying to rid the insomnia out of me!

Day 2

The next day, everyone was up bright and early because we had an extremely packed day planned out for us! The guys went for a morning swim, while the girls like nuaed around the apartment. Our agenda for the day was lunch, go-karting, paintball and shopping!

With my brother waiting for the rest of the familia to get ready,

Le sister-in-law and I at a mamak stall for maggie goreng before our go-karting/paintball sesh!

Finally we arrived at our playground! My brother had called earlier to make a booking. The owner was really welcoming and made us feel at home! Without further ado, getting into our carts and buckling up! Although I really liked the pink helmet that I got, I think that a fuller helmet would've been a lot safer, especially since my helmet kept falling off each time I accelerated.

This was the 2nd round of go-karting, where I got a different cart. I was pretty upset that I couldn't continue driving my lucky number 9, but nevertheless, there was no stopping us speed monsters. The 2nd cart that I had was definitely a lot harder to control and the acceleration wasn't as smooth as the first. You know how people say, you'll know if the car is meant for you when you drive it? Well, I'd say the same goes for go-karts and number 2 was just too fierce for me!

I was trying very hard to chase Henry in the 2nd round, but he somehow ended up right behind me and I had to continuously try to block him from overtaking me, just so he couldn't win. But with Madhu hogging the path, I ended up oversteering while trying to siam her and ended up slamming into the tyres T.T

After about half an hour, we moved on to paintball! This was my first time and boy was I really excited! Ended up wearing my brother's jeans cause they were too big for my sister-in-law and let her wear mine instead. 

All geared up and ready to go! Fierce bo?

And this was our playground! The great thing about the place that we went to, was that it was all indoor. It was in a multi-story carpark, so we didn't have to worry about the weather!

Although I may be a little weak hearted and have a fear of needles, when it comes to "extreme" sports, I usually just find courage and tell myself, I'll deal with the fear and pain when it happens. When I first got shot in the thigh, I went @&*$^(@&#%#&%#^$ while everyone continued shooting at me. The only palette that burst, was when I got shot in the arm.

We decided to split the teams into girls vs guys and the objective of the game, was to steal the opposite team's flag. We successfully won the first game.

We lost the 2nd game because I surrendered after getting shot by both Henry and my brother at the same time! They were sending out multi shots on my arm, one person shooting the left, the other shooting the right. That's when I cursed and sweared. Seriously, no joke at all. I started bruising up everywhere! T.T

We won the 3rd game though, because Madhu was playing excellent defence, while Mel and I attacked. Even though she didn't have her arms covered and had both guys shooting at her, she still won without much hits! :D

We had so much fun, we decided to add more palettes and just shot at each other till we went out. Needless to say, it was such an enjoyable day, we really didn't want to leave! All in all, we paid about 80RM each? Seriously cheap! 

After we ended our game and freshened up, we left and headed to Mahkota Parade to shop! Almost died in SASA cause they carried so much more make up brands than they do in Singapore and everything else was almost a lot cheaper! :O 

Satisfied our cravings for A&W before we set off to grocery shop!

The extremely thirsty Henry, who finished all our drinks!

By the time we got home from shopping, we were all sooo exhausted, so we lepak in our apartment for a bit. I was so grumpy and tired from waking up early, that I had to take a nap :]

After I woke up, we all got ready and headed down to the carnival! Since we were in Malaysia, we tossed our fears aside and took the Ali Baba ride! Fyi, my brother's got a fear of heights and so do I! In fact, I'm afraid of everything actually. But I somehow found myself enjoying the ride, waving our hands around.

We didn't bring anything with us so that it'd be easier to go on the rides, so that explains why there isn't any pictures. We also took a ride which had swings attached to them, that went pretty high in circles. Surprisingly, I was enjoying the height, except for the fact that I really wanted to throw up so badly :(

Of course we finally ended our night with bumper cars! We had so much chasing and crashing into each other! I swear, put us all behind a steering wheel and we all go a little too psychotic! I bet we all had crazy eyes going on.

Day 3

The next day, I got dragged out of bed before 9AM for breakfast, cooked by le brother! :)

While everyone was nuaing around the house after breakfast, I sneaked back into bed to continue sleeping! I get extremely irritable and tired when I don't get enough sleep :(

We left the house around noon and headed to St Paul's Church! For those of you who don't know, my grandmother was Portuguese and since both my brother and I are history buffs, we decided to check out what's left of the Portuguese Church.

After sight-seeing, we headed back to our apartment to check out before heading to Jonker Street for lunch! We had the famous chicken rice balls, the nonya chendol and then walked through Jonker Street on a hunt for muchies!

We left for Johor Bahru at around 7pm and arrived at around 9pm for dinner in Danga Bay. We got really excited cause there was a carnival there and couldn't wait to go on the rides all over again!

The gorgeous Carousel that takes your breath away!

We took a train ride around the area, before ending the day with bumper cars AGAIN! But the bumper cars in Danga Bay is seriously terrible! Mel ended up straining her neck after I bumped her and I left with a really huge bruise on my knee. The bumper cars didn't really have much of a "bump". Instead, it felt like we were experiencing multiple accidents :/

And that marked the end of our wonderful weekend in Malaysia. You really don't have to go far, or spend too much money to have a great getaway. All you need is your family and friends, to make every experience count! :)