Asia City Complex and Cititel Express KK

The room is so small.

But the toilet flush is so big.

Am I Ready?

Had dinner after 5p.m. since CTY was coming to fetch me to T2 at 6p.m. But he called before 6p.m. to say that he would come at 6.20p.m. At 6.20p.m. I went outside the house to wait since the weather was cooler outside with some breeze. Thank God I did not get any mossie bites.

CTY arrived at 6.35p.m. and there was major traffic congestion at Lintas Highway. He wanted to make a U-turn at the junction to City Mall but decided against it at the last second.

I was already hungry by the time we arrived at the Lintas Highway/Kolam Road intersection. CTY suggested we dropped by the bakery but I just wanna get to the airport.

Arrived at T2 just after 7p.m. The officer at the check-in counter asked where was Sophia Tsen. Unfortunately I had to tell him she was not coming.

There was a long queue as passengers were lining up to go through security check. Since I was travelling domestic, I did not have to go through Immigration. When I showed the Air Asia officer my I/C and boarding pass, he mentioned that the plane would only touch down at 9.05p.m. (My flight was supposed to be at 8.20p.m.) Shucks. Why can’t the other officer at the check-in counter inform all passengers when they checked in? I would not go in so early if he had told me. I would find food to eat first. But as a consolation, at least I had music and a book to occupy my time.

The plane did not touch down until 9.20p.m. and we boarded the plane ten minutes later. Since I was allocated the middle seat on the second last row, I boarded the plane at the rear door. Both my neighbours were already at their seat when I arrived.

As I was settling down in my seat, suddenly I heard a man saying that his seat had been occupied. My neighbour at the window seat sat on the wrong seat. Her seat was on the last row right aisle. My neighbour at the aisle seat & I got out from our seat to allow the lady to get out from our row.

After that my neighbour at the aisle seat picked up her bag and dumped it on the floor of the window seat. I thought she knew the man who was supposed to sit at the window seat. Apparently she did not and I think she was angry that the flight had been delayed.

Since construction work is still going on at the airport, the pilot announced that we had to wait for our turn to be air-borne. The announcement woke up the angry lady and when she realised that the plane had not even gone up to the air, she uttered the word ‘stupid’ and told the pilot to ‘shut up’.

I think we must have waited for what seemed like half an hour before we were air-borne.

The flight was smooth most of the way until we were about to reach Tawau. I experienced the worst turbulence in my whole life. If we did not have the seat belt on, I was pretty sure our head would have touched the ceiling on top of our seat. It was in this kind of situation, though I did not have any flash back of the past, I started thinking if I was taken from this world into the presence of the Almighty, would I be ready at that moment? I am happy to say I am.

The plane arrived Tawau Airport at 11p.m. I felt as if instead of arriving in Tawau, we had gone to KL cos of the delay and wasted time to be air-borne.

Choo Siow Chin met two strangers at the airport and talked to them in order to pass time waiting for me to arrive.

Since I was hungry, we were going to a coffee shop in her housing estate to have supper. When we reached the coffee shop, the rain was coming down. We thanked God that I had already arrived safely.

There were still some customers at the coffee shop and they were singing karaoke so loud. On some tables were lots of empty bottles of beer. We were not able to order anything because the chef had retired for the night.

We went back to Choo’s house and I cooked instant noodles to have for supper. We chit-chatted until 1.30a.m. and would have continued if I did not feel sleepy.

Givers

The mangos were given by a colleague.



Met Ps. Wong Kui Moi at Khidmat Supermarket when I was there to buy bread on the way home after work. She was killing time after dropping her daughter Cathy at Dr. Mandy Chu's house for vocal lesson. She said it was her first time at the supermarket and after we talked for a while, she prayed for me with our eyes opened.

Dinner at Maple Cafe

Tonight the following people celebrated our (Sharon Lai and mine) early birthdays with us.

1. Monica Leong

2. Elizabeth and Jacelyn Chung

3. Mimi and Janice Quek

4. Kenny, Beatrice and Enoch Lim

5. Angie Lo

6. Alice Hiew

7. Andrew Chan

Six people who said they were coming did not turn up.

Since I just completed my detoxification process, I did not want to eat too oily stuff. I ordered Singapore Style Fried Mee Hoon. The portion was quite big but a bit salty for me. I did not finish the whole plate.

Singapore Style Fried Mee Hoon

When it was time for us to cut the tiramisu cake, the cake had just been taken out from the fridge and therefore it was a bit hard. I could not cut it and told Alice to help me. Half way through the cake cutting, the plastic knife broke.

A Big Slice of Tiramisu Cake for Spinxie

The cake was too rich for me. I ate half of the slice given to me.

We had a good time of fellowship until after 10p.m. Thank you all for your presence and taking the time out to celebrate with Sharon and I. GBU all.

The Reality of Life

A friend found out my age tonight and could not accept it. Hey! I can't help it, can I? I am not someone who lies about my age. I am comfortable with how old I am, so please believe what I said. Maybe I need to show you my IC in order to convince you.

Lesson learnt: Never ASSUME anything. Always ask if you need to know something because when you ASSUME, as my former Aussie pastor said: ASSUME = ASS + U + ME, meaning when you ASSUME, you make an Ass Out of U & Me!

Another friend is about to get marry soon. But he bumped into his first love recently and discovered that she is still available. He has a major decision to make and at least one person will not be happy ever after.

Lesson learnt: Never bump into an ex. When you see him/her from far away, just duck and walk away.

Old Lady

Two days ago I received an email from the sister of my former guardian. Her name is Irene. When she was here last year, I met her and her group of ex-classmates for hi-tea at Café Promenade, Pacific Sutera Hotel.

Irene told me that her eldest sister Alice will be accompanying their mum to visit KK and will be here today and tomorrow. Irene also gave me the contact number of her cousin’s house where her mum, Mrs. Ng and sister would be staying.

This morning when I called Irene’s cousin house, her cousin answered the call. Her cousin took down my mobile phone number and told me the housing estate where she lives (Taman Hon Kong which is quite near our house). Before I could take down her house number, Alice came back for a while and I was able to speak to her. She does not know her plans for tonight but promised to call later in the afternoon.

At 3.30pm she called and told me I could visit them after dinner. In fact I wanted to invite them for dinner outside but she insisted in having dinner at her cousin’s.

At 7.30p.m. I drove to Taman Hon Kong accompanying by mum. I had problem finding the exact house because I could not see most of the house number. I called the house phone number and Alice’s cousin came out to greet mum and me.

She led us into the house and the first person I saw inside the house was Alice and then her mum Mrs. Ng. I gave Mrs. Ng a big hug. I did not realise how much I miss her until I saw her again after more than twenty five years. She told me she always wonders when she would see me again.

Mrs. Ng turned 90 last year. She is thinner than before but her hearing is still very good. I did not have to shout when talking to her. (Irene told me later in her email that her mum is actually wearing hearing aid)

Ten minutes later we left the cousin’s house and I drove them to our house for chit-chat. There was so much to catch up on. As Mrs. Ng and mum relayed to us stories from the past, we were amazed at how good their memory are. There were some events I had totally forgotten but they could remember.

When I was sending them back to Taman Hon Kong, I told them that never in my life would I have thought that Mrs. Ng would be a passenger in the car I am driving. She also told them that I used to treat her very well (‘sayang’ her). Whenever she wanted to go anywhere in Sydney, I would take her. It did not matter whether we had to walk; or take the bus, taxi or train. When she wanted to eat something, I would always remind her to buy when we went shopping.

This is another occasion that I thank God that I am alive. An old lady could still remember the good deeds I had done for her eventhough they happened more than two and a half decades ago. I am overjoyed to be able to see and talk to her again.

Today’s Happenings

Today we received our bonus and I am really thankful for it. Most of the money will go to my ING Lifetime Income Plan.

I am tempted to get a new and more advance digital camera than my current one.

Tonight finally get to meet CTY’s beautiful wife after knowing him since July last year. She is visiting KK for a week with two of their friends who are here for business.

Farewell Dinner for the Herons at Maple, Damai Plaza Phase 4

Wini, Matt and Tim Heron

'Wat Tan Ho'

Special Fried Rice

Tandoori Chicken with Rice

Honey Chicken with Rice

Singapore Fried Meehoon

Dinner at Nishiki Japanese Restaurant

Tonight our (Jeff and I) ING insurance agent, DL treated us dinner. Thank you DL.

It was nice to meet his gf Chloe as well.

Sashimi Moriawase

Sukiyaki Beef with Rice

Beef Wrapped around Onions

Grilled Salmon Fish Head

Teppanyaki N.Z. Steak

Today's Happenings

Yesterday the lady boss gave me two pies but I did not have time to eat them. I reserved them to eat for breakfast but still I did not get to eat them.

On top of that, I did not get to finish what I set out to do today. There were simply too many distractions.

The boss was having a meeting for his association and ordered pizzas online for lunch from Pizza Hut.

I wanted to let them finished their meeting and pizzas before I proceeded to order my lunch. But I received a call from Sharon Lai to join her, Monica Leong and Elizabeth Chung for lunch at California Grill at 1 Borneo. I could not say no because I knew Monica’s birthday would be in two days’ time. I had to show up and put work aside for the meantime.

Since I had some loose ends to finish before I could leave, I told Sharon I will meet them at Giant Likas for Elizabeth to fetch me.

I left work at 1.40p.m. The massive traffic congestion started outside the office. The journey from the office to Giant Likas took half an hour!

Sharon ended up fetching me while Elizabeth fetched Monica.

California Grill is located at Ground Floor, near the Mercure Hotel and RHB Bank Berhad stretch of shoplots. We were the only customers for the first quarter of an hour when we arrived.

Press the blue button for service

Pictures do not say a thousand words in this instance. In fact it was the reverse.

Beverages

Beef Lasagne

Who in the right mind would serve lasagne with the aluminium foil still intact? The lasagne sheet was not cooked thoroughly. It was too salty as well.

Grilled Salmon

The piece of salmon was tasteless. We had to dab on the sauce from the 'Cal Zone' to give the salmon a bit of taste. The veges tasted ok.

Grilled Spring Chicken

The chicken tasted slightly better of the whole lot. Veges served were exactly the same ones for the salmon.

'Cal Zone'

This was supposed to be a folded pizza and it came out burnt at the top. Basically the cook or whoever (cos the person definitely does not deserve to be called one) just put a piece of cheese and a few pieces of chicken ham inside a piece of pastry.

Honestly speaking, this was one of the lousiest Western meal I ever had and I think everyone agreed with me. We will not be going back to this place again!

After lunch or more like afternoon tea, we went to Chinatown in 1 Borneo.



We walked for a few hours before decided to have dinner at Home's on the Lower Ground Floor. The shop was quite smoky and therefore I presumed the ventilation was not functioning well.

I was coughing so I had hot lemon drink.

Monica had Claypot Chicken Rice with Salted Fish. Though the food tasted quite nice, she could not finish it because the cook put in too much soya sauce and therefore was too salty.

Elizabeth had Prawn Mee. The Prawns were not fresh but the soup and noodles tasted ok.

I had 'Asam Laksa'. It tasted quite spicy.