Christmas Eve 2009

I nearly missed Christmas Eve service tonight.

After I had my dinner, I put the alarm on my mobile phone to 8p.m.

At 8.15p.m. I was awakened by a text message from Choo. And when I looked at the time, I had the shock of my life. I checked the alarm time and realised I did not put 8p.m. afterall.

I quickly got out of bed and changed my clothes before getting out of the house.

When I arrived in church, I got the last parking bay available.

As I was about to enter the sanctuary, the bell rang. I was still on time. I did not bother to go to the front to find a seat and sat at the back row.

There were less people this year as compared to previous years.

Don Budd sang and shared his testimony.

After the service, I took some photos with friends. Some asked me to join them for supper but I decided to go home to rest instead.

Favourite Snack

Mum made this today. Yums

Holiday Day 5

Mum has been pestering me for a few months to go to the bank with her to get the fixed deposit under joint account done. So I took the opportunity to take today off as well.

We went to CIMB bank and I had no idea that the bank shifted to the left side coming from KK – Menggatal side in Inanam Town. Previously it was on the right side and as I was about to make a 3 o’clock turn at the Inanam Town roundabout, mum asked where I was going. Then she told me she thought that I know the bank had shifted to the left side.

I went round the roundabout and proceeded to the bank. There was not a single parking bay available near the bank as I went round four times. In the end I parked illegally and hoped that the car would not be summoned by the police or being towed away.

Our number was the 18th on the queue and we waited for about half an hour before being served. Besides opening a new fixed deposit account, we also told the officer to update three other fixed deposit certificates as well. Mum also took out her pension money and banked into our joint account. Everything was done within one and a half hours.

After that we went home for lunch.

Next stop for me would be the Immigration Department. I left home before 2p.m. and I thanked God I found a parking bay outside the vicinity of the mini Putrajaya.

There were a lot of people including some people standing waiting to be served but there was hardly anyone at the Information Counter. The officer took a peek at my old passport and told me I should have another more recent passport. She went away to check in the system.

Meanwhile people were queuing up behind me and the queue was quite long. The officer came back with another more recent passport number which had expired middle of this year. I had completely forgotten about this passport. Mum must have stored it in the safe deposit box at Public Bank in Karamunsing. At least I found out that the Immigration Department is open during the weekends as well from 8a.m. – 1p.m. Next time I can go on a Sunday morning before attending church.

Then it was time to go to the tailor at Segama. There was major traffic congestion from the Coastal Highway leading to the city. Took me half an hour to get there.

When I arrived in Segama, there was a car coming out from the parking bay. I was about to park when I heard a car kept on honking at me. The driver was trying to tell me the parking bay belonged to him since he had double parked at the left side of the road waiting for cars to come out. But he did not switch on his indicator as I passed by his car. Oh well ...

As I was coming out from the road and about to reach the road below the pedestrian bridge, I saw an empty parking bay. And there was no car behind me this time to claim belonging. I quickly parked and went away happily.

My tailor was surprised at the size of my waist. I did not waste my breath telling her that her staff was the one who gave me a wake up call a few years ago by telling me that I had put on so much weight. After hearing that statement, I was adamant to lose weight.

Since I was not able to get to Sophia on the mobile phone after finishing all my errands, I decided to walk over to Suria Sabah to have a look at the Mall.

I was at the Mall for about two and a half hours. When I went back to Segama to get the car, I had forgotten that the place where I parked is used for hawker stalls at night. One of the vendors asked me where had I been. I was apologetic and could not wait to get out from the place. He was kind enough to direct me to come out from the parking bay.

When I arrived home, I felt more tired than after a long hard day at work.

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.