Home Sweet Home (Holiday Day 4)

Woke up 6a.m. and could not sleep anymore. Therefore tried to do some reading and finished packing. Did not feel like having a shower but I did not feel comfortable so I woke Tracy up at 8a.m.

This pile of xxxx gave me a warm farewell I would not forget for the rest of my life outside Tracy’s house gate.

My cousin Foong Foong came to fetch me after 9a.m. from Tracy’s house to go to KL Sentral. Eventhough my flight was at 3p.m. I had decided not to attend any church service since my flight was supposed to be an international flight and therefore it may depart from the Satellite building which meant that I may need more time to get to the departure lounge. I do not want to risk not being able to catch my flight.

Tracy, once again thanks for your hospitality and the gift.

From the carpark at KL Sentral, Foong Foong and I had to take the stairs to go down to the Ground Floor. I think a lift would be more convenient especially when people with big and heavy luggages have to carry them down using the stairs. The other alternative would be to drop the passenger first at Ground Floor before proceeding to the carpark. But who would have thought of that, especially first timers?

I chose McD for brekky since I hardly eat McD all year round, let alone for brekky.

My dear cousin insisted on treating me. (I spent two years of my life staying with her and her family in Tg. Malim)

She asked me if I wanted any pepper. I had to beg her pardon and told her to repeat her Q. I never knew until now that McD serves pepper. That shows how out-dated I am. As for the jam, I was not as surprised.

We were also given FOC tea bags. I let her took them home.

Then it was time for her to bid me farewell since she had to go to church at 10.30a.m.

We said goodbye at KL CAT. For the first time in my life I checked in four hours prior to departure.

After that I went roaming around KL Sentral. I went into a clothes shop and tried on some work pants and blouses. The pants fitted me perfectly but I did not like the blouses. The salesperson showed me another design. In the end I bought two pants and one blouse.

I took the 11.25a.m. KLIA Express from KL Sentral to KLIA. The air-conditioner was on full blast and I was glad I had my sweater with me.

The KLIA Express arrived at KLIA before noon. I had plenty of time to explore KLIA before lunch and departure.

Besides the eateries at Level 5 Departure Hall, food can be found on Level 2 Food Garden. It is a food court with a variety of cuisines available.

At Level 3 Arrival Hall, I think there are Delifrance and Burger King. As I was walking around, one of the airport staff was wondering what I was doing and therefore we struck up a conversation.

At the Level 5 Departure Hall, I wandered around until I was standing in front of the Flights Departure Board. I was looking for details of my flight for ten minutes and I could not spot my flight details at all. I panic and went to the Information Counter. The lady there kept on insisting that I had to wait for the next set of screen to appear but I told her I had been trying to do that for the last ten minutes. She was not able to spot my flight details as well and mentioned that she would inform the people involved in putting up the details.

As I left the Info Counter, I saw a Chinese man looking at me. I tried not to have eye contact with him and hurried on. Strangers are to be avoided at all cost at the airport unless one wants to become a scapegoat and end up in jail or get life sentence if get caught with prohibited stuff.

But I bumped into the Chinese man again and this time he asked if I speak Mandarin. I told him I am not fluent but I can understand a bit of the language. I asked whether I can help him with anything. He asked if I am a Shanghainese. I told him I am a Malaysian, after which he thanked me for taking my time.

I surveyed an eatery that offers fusion food ie. Malay, Chinese and Western. ‘Asam Laksa’ is on the menu and I checked out the price.

But I ended up here. There were a lot of Malays eating here.

This had got to be one of the best ‘Asam Laksa’ I had. The soup was not watery but filled with fish all over. But it would be too spicy for most people though.

As I was about to finish my lunch, a Danish elderly couple came and sat down two tables away from me and the man was going to eat the ‘Asam Laksa’. I saluted him for being able to stand the spiciness.

Then it was time to go to the Departure Lounge. As I went down the elevator, this was what I saw.

Though the flight would not depart until 3p.m. and the flight had not even arrived when I took this photo at 2.12p.m., the flight crews were already waiting at the departure lounge. I was guessing that the flight would be late because at 2.30p.m. we were still unable to go into the lounge.

We could only go into the lounge at 2.45p.m. and the flight only arrived at 2.57p.m.

An announcement came through the PA system to say that the flight would be delayed for departure until 3.40p.m.

Remember I said I did not bring my batteries charger with me? After three full days of using the camera, only now the batteries really died on me. I really thanked God for the miracle.

Since I checked in four hours prior to my flight departure, I was given the left front row aisle seat at the Economy Class. I could see what was going on at the Business Class. The passengers were served drinks prior to departure and a towel to wipe their hands. But after take-off, the air-stewardess drew the curtain.

I did not wear a watch but we wasted quite a lot of time queuing up to take-off.

Our meal was served an hour after departure. The advantage of sitting in front is getting to be served first. I had satay with fried rice. The other choice was beef noodles which I already had.

After I finished my meal and as I waited for the air-steward to collect the box of meal, I was about to doze off. (The air-conditioner was quite cold and eventhough after taking a meal, I still felt cold)

Suddenly I saw the air-steward standing in front of me with a tray in his hand. And on that tray were stacked neatly numerous 120ml tubs of Baskin Robbins ice-cream. I was given the vanilla flavour and eventhough the temperature was already so cold, who could resist not having this ice-cream at 30,000 feet AMSL? This was the first time I had ice-cream at this height. I thoroughly enjoyed the ice-cream before having my snooze.

We had a smooth landing at KKIA.

When I went through Immigration and showed my I/C, the Immigration Officer asked whether I arrived from the flight from KL. Upon hearing my answer, he allowed me to pass through.

By the time I collected my luggages, the time was 6.50p.m. Once again CTY came to fetch me and when I arrived home, dinner was being served.

Holiday Day 3

I was awakened by one of Tracy’s neighbours who was chopping stuff at 6a.m.

At 8.00a.m. Tracy’s neighbour was still chopping away and I heard she spoke in Indian to someone in her household, so she must be Indian. She must be chopping all the ginger and garlic for her cooking.

At 8.00a.m. as well, Tracy's sub-tenant Lee’s alarm clock went off and he kept on putting in on snooze mood for the next half an hour. He spent 11 minutes in the bathroom/toilet before going to work.

After that I wanted to have my shower, a cold one since there is no hot water system in this bathroom. When I turned on the tap, the water was too cold. I went back to bed and slept until 9.00a.m. before waking Tracy up.

Once again we went to Tian Tian Lai Restaurant to eat, this time for brunch. As I was about to alight from the car, Lily called me. She and Sophia were at 1 Borneo shopping.

We had chicken rice cos the time was neither for brekky nor lunch so chicken rice would be able to fill us up hopefully until dinnertime.

Even on a Saturday there was traffic congestion on the roads.

There was also a slight drizzle. For this time of the year, I had expected more rain but the rain did not come down much.

Tracy dropped me outside Midvalley Megamall.

I went to Jaya Jusco and started browsing at the shoes and handbags department. I did not find any shoes I like. I found three handbags and put them aside so that I could go back to get them later. I did not wanna carry them around with me.

I saw some jeans at Goggles. I lost count how many times I went to the fitting room to try on umpteenth pair of Goggles jeans selling at more than 70% discount. Finally I found one pair that fitted me though I need to bring it to the tailor to shorten it when I am back in KK. I told the salesgirl at Goggles to keep the jeans for me so that I could shop more and pay at the cashier at one go.

After I found some clothes, I went back to Goggles and told the Malay salesgirl to keep them for me together with the pair of jeans.

I browsed around for another one and a half hour before going back to get the handbags. After that I went Goggles to get my things. The Malay salesgirl had gone out for lunch and so I asked the Chinese salesgirl about my clothes. The pair of jeans was there. She said she had no idea where my clothes were.

I was quite furious by then. I mean it was just a simple thing to do and yet the Malay salesgirl had chucked my clothes somewhere else. I tried to find them nearby the jeans but they were nowhere in sight. I took my jeans and walked off.

Went back to the clothes department and tried to find something similar that I had intended to buy. There were still some left. Proceeded to the cashier and all the five or seven cashiers had long queues. I went to the shortest and there were still at least ten people ahead of me. The cashier was taking her sweet time and I caught her chit-chatting with some customers, probably her friends. The thing that drove me mad was when I was able to see the counter, only then I could see the sign ‘Cash Only’. The people behind me were caught in the same predicament. I quicky proceeded to another cashier and this time the salesgirl was really fast. I was served within five minutes of queuing up though there were quite a number of people in front of me.

With my hands full, I went to the Centre Court to take some photos.

And I was met by some characters dressing up.

After that I went to Parkson Grand Departmental Store but did not find anything I fancy and proceeded to The Gardens.

Santa Claus and Santarina were waiting on stage to take photos with the public.

I went to the fruit market and found Korean persimmons selling at 9 for RM10. I thought that was a real bargain. Hopefully they would taste as sweet as the sample I tried.

I found some goodies at Mark & Spencer as well.

At Cold Storage I bought a Christmas fruit cake.

After all the shopping, my hands were full and therefore I hailed a cab outside The Gardens to go back to Bandar Sunway. Once again there were major traffic congestion especially when near Sunway.

I arrived back at 6p.m. and rested for half an hour before walking out to Sunway Pyramid, passing by the Sunway Hotel. There was a function going on and people were lining up to enter one of the function rooms with their ticket in hand.

I managed to catch the last act of these people performing their Christmas song.

At first I suggested to Jeff to try Canton-I since I had never tried the food in this restaurant before.

But then I wanted to eat ‘Xiao Loong Bao’ and a Hong Kong restaurant definitely does not serve that. Jeff told the waiter we were at the wrong place. It happened that their menu has the address of Dragon-I and therefore we left for that restaurant.

I was hoping that this time the lights in the restaurant would not have the same kind of effect on me as nearly a year ago during Christmas night at the same chain restaurant at 1 Utama.

As I sat down, I surveyed the lights and felt ok with them.

We ordered two servings of ‘Xiao Loong Bao’. Thumbs up for them and recommend to eat them while hot though the tongue would have to bear the consequence. I wasted some soup on my plate though.

This Seafood Corn Soup Jeff ordered cost more than the ‘Xiao Loong Bao’ but it tasted absolutely concentrated and delicious.

Jeff had Stir Fried ‘La Mien’. Tasty noodles.

I had Seafood ‘La Mien’ Soup. The prawns were fresh and crunchy.

Since Tracy could not join us for dinner due to having to attend her class, Jeff bought this for her for supper.

Giant Supermarket was about to close with the roller shutter coming down but I slipped in to buy these asparagus.

Thank God for protecting my walking journey home from Sunway Pyramid to Bandar Sunway.

I took a cold shower and packed my things.

After Tracy came back after midnight, we had the sushi and went to dreamland after 1 a.m.