CNY Day 2 - 19-Feb-07:
We woke up at about 6am and headed down to KL at around 7.15am. My brother had to work that day so he stayed over at my grandparents' house while my sister's fiance, Chris took over his place and went with us so as to discuss their wedding plans to my relatives in KL. From young, we had to go back to KL especially now that my grandmother is very old. My paternal relatives are in KL where my grandmother, eldest uncle, eldest auntie and husband lives in Kuchai Lama's happy Garden. Happy Garden is like a small "village" area along Petaling Jaya in Jalan Kuchai Lama. I have another auntie and family living in Taman Tun Negara which is known to be one of the expensive houses there as the houses there have at least three-storeys. My paternal relatives also have auntie and family living in Melbourne and uncle and family living in America. I have another maternal auntie and family living in Melbourne too. Along the way to Tuas checkpoint, we bought McDonald's for breakfast. Our journey to KL was smooth-saiing with no jam at all. We reached Happy Garden before 12noon with just stopping twice along the way for toilet breaks. Upon arrival, we went to a coffeeshop around the corner just to find the drink stall is not opened so we decided to head down to Parkson Grand Mall further down the road instead. We settled in an Ipoh Coffee House as not many restaurants were opened. We went there last year's CNY too and had our lunch in Secret Recipe so we decided to try another place. The Ipoh Hor Fun was authentic there and it's nice.

After lunch, we headed back to Happy Garden to decide where to go to. We decided to go to Megamall in Mid-Valley, one of the biggest mall in KL. It was already 3.30pm when we reached there. There were about 60% of the shops opened and the departmental stores like MetroJaya and Parkson Grand and F.O.S were opened. We split up then met up again at 5pm. We then head back to the apartment around Happy Garden. It is just 5 mins or less to drive by car. The apartment belongs to my eldest auntie and her hsuband but they don't really stays there except for their youngest daughter who is also my cousin, Edina staying there alone. My parents are taking the smallest room which is the nearest to the toilet, my sister and Chris are sharing another bigger room opp the master bedroom though both rooms are all single beds. I will be sharing a bed with Edina in the master bedroom. Initially I wasn't okay with the idea of sharing a bed with someone especially from a cousin whom I heard from her elder sister since young that she kicks her and occupies most of the bed. Indeed, I did not sleep well...Chris was down with flu. I just happen to recall everytime we come to KL during CNY, one of us surely falls sick. Two years ago, it was my mother, then last year it was me down with flu too then this year it's Chris. That is why I recalled the effective flu medicine I took last year from their house.

While everyone is resting or showering, I was left alone in the living room. So I started to take out my digital camera and take self-pics of myself. I took the living room as my background. We were all getting ready for dinner to celebrate my grandmother's birthday which falls on 3rd day of lunar CNY but we always celebrate on 2nd day to our convenience. So we went to this restaurant quite far away from our house and city but was super packed and crowded. But the most famous dish there was the big prawns with cheese and butter.


The mirror between the master bedroom and bigger guestroom...I really liked taking self-reflection photos of myself. Sorry could not see my face in here cause it was really dark and I had to use flash...



The living room with the TV as my background.



I love this pic cause I love the natural lighting reflected on my face thus I did ot even use flash...





The vain me...hee hee \(^_^)/

After dinner, all of us headed back to our apartment and we discussed about my sister's wedding plans and how the tea ceremony shld be held then my uncle started talking to me in private about my future path and all. Always felt so stressful and wary how I speak to them actually especially him. They're all so biased.

CNY Day 3 - 20-Feb-07:
I woke up at 8.30am to get ready for breakfast in the city of KL. My parents were already getting ready to set off for Lake Park for photo-taking. I was to decide whether to follow the old folks to Lake Park but gotta set off at 8.30am or follow the young people for breakfast. I chose the latter. Chris had a friend cum partner, Ian in KL whom I have met before 2 years ago in KL too with my cousin, Denise. That time, he also drove us for breakfast and even went to his office in KL. Chris and Ian are already Creative Directors at such a young age of their own graphic design company, Ad! Wow. Can check out their company here: www.ad-wow.com
He picked us up from Happy Garden as we need to leave our bags there before we go back to Singapore. He drove us to a small old coffeeshop in Chinatown aka Chee Cheong Gai in KL. We had wanton noodles there as it was the only food stall opened there. We then walked inside Central Market but there was nothing much for us to walk in there so we drove down to Bukit Bintang Lot 10. Ian then brought us to Starhill Galleria. It used to be called Starhill Plaza but they renovated the place and it became a galleria with themes on the different floors. They had all the expensive brands in there like Gucci, LV, Chopard, Blush!, etc. There was even a Faber Castell boutique in there selling colouring materials. It have 7 storeys in all in which each storey had a theme. I can't rem all the names but the few were like Muse on the top floor (seventh) where all the art galleries and art statues were displayed there. Then it had Relish where all the spas and salons are situated wholly in that floor. The basement was the one that fascinated us mainly. It's called Indulge as all the eateries and restaurants are there. They aren't just eateries. They have many different varieties of resturants there. From Korean to Western to Middle East to Thai to Chinese to Shanghainese to pubs for chilling out. The ambience is far too good to even give you a hard decision of deciding where to eat. The prices there are rather pricely of course for a decor and layout like that. The seats and table in there are all so comfy and so beautiful. The security in the whole galleria is rather tight otherwise I would have taken out my camera to take photos of the different restaurants. In Singapore, we can never find such restaurants and we canot even afford to indulge at such expanse. Maybe just for special occassions, paying for this price is still worthwhile. Actually the truth is I did not dare to take photos fearing it may not even be allowed.

Then we went to the toilet in the basement. Ian said we should check out the toilets too. I was like "Whoa, no way this is a toilet. It's way too cool and interesting!" They had two women working in the toilet. I was like trying to turn on the tap, I was like figuring out where is the tap. I even placed my hands under the tap thinking it could be sensor-automated. Then one of the women heard me and got up and turned on the tap by spinning the big wheel. It's so cool. They were busy talking away. Think they are supposed to turn on the tap for customers in the toilet cause I saw a tips can at the mirror and make-up area. It had two chairs there too. I suggested taking photos but I was rather scared the women may chase us out. But I hid near the toilet entrance and took few shots of my sister.


There's this big water wheel where you have to spin it in order for the water to come out. There are four wheels in all attached to each sink. Isn't it cool?



This is the make-up area...





This is the entrance of the toilet. Doesn't the layout of the toilet reminds you of inside the pyramid or a sphinx?

The whole basement and even the toilet is based of such a beautiful architectural design. Really brillant architect I would say. Since I have already taken photos in the toilet, we decided to take photos of the grand entrance of Marriot Hotel. Not sure if that was one of the side entrance. But it could be the entrance of some restaurant linking from the Indulge to Marriot Hotel restaurant.




There's Chris (left) and Ian (right) posing a very "meng huan" (fantasy) look



That's me and my sister...



It changes different lights everytime. We tried to capture every colour.

So next photos will be all on my sister and Chris and capturing all the different lighting...













Are you also fascinated by the photos so much that you will wanna drop by Starhill Galleria in KL?


Then we headed lunch at Sungei Wang's Old Street Coffee House. It is like our Ya Kun Kaya Toast but theirs is a little more mixed with HK style food and local. I was still feeling rather full from the late breakfast but still had to eat something or I'll starve along the way back home later. So we ordered some bread to try while I ordered Nissin Noodles Soup with Sausage and Egg. We were already late from heading back to Happy Garden that my dad got my cousin to call Ian. She had his number cause he needed it in case to ask for directions to the house earlier. Chris hp was already out of battery thus no one could reach us except thru Ian's. We set off for Singapore was already abt 2.30pm. We had slow traffic and jam along the way and predicting that we may have jam in Tuas Checkpoint too, we decided to settle for KFC in Yong Peng. It was already 7pm that time. Then after dinner, our predictions were accurate and while we were reaching the last toll before we reach the petrol kiosks before the Msia customs, we saw a massive car accident that was causing the jam. It was already 8+ going to 9pm and we were driving the last lane so we could see rather clearly but still it was dark. We saw a badly damaged overturned car on the shoulder lane with the clothes and debris flying out of to the other side of the fence and two cars stopped by to help out. An unconscious man was lying flat on his stomach with two young kids sitting down beside him with head covering with cloths and another badly damaged car in front of it with another man unconscious lying flat on his back. good thing there were no leakage of petrol otherwise it could result in a worst tragic major car accident. Hopefully the accident weren't Singaporeans rushing home thus drove at a fast speed along the shoulder lane. We did saw many cars including Singapore cars following others driving along the shoulder lane in order to avoid the jam. We just prayed that the victims will survive that accident. I reached home at 10pm. Fortunately to our surprise, there was no jam at the Tuas Checkpoint. My sister, Chris and Dad weren't working the next day so they are okay with going home anytime. I was grumbling away saying it sucked why I had to be the only one to work the next day.

I finally finished this entry. I had to re-type it all over again all because my Dad deliberately switched off the main switch of my room as we were going out soon. I had a huge quarrel with my dad over this. And the worst thing is, he wasn't apologetic about it. I had deliberately left it on thinking he may not discover I did not off my PC before we went out. I had known he normally asks if or announce loudly he's gonna off the main switch so I would normally have time to shout out wait or something. This time, before he even gave me chance to reply, he switched it off. I was super pissed off and angry with him. I was about to finish the entry in my blog and he expects me to save it. This is not Microsoft Word, how to always save it? Anyway, he still don't find that he is in the wrong till now but we're cool already. After seeing my auntie's new dog at her house. We already buried the hatchet.

Labels: birthday, CNY, Msia

[x] Shireen signing out at
4:30 PM