The young ones from home went out together one night for a karaoke marathon session that lasted close to seven hours. It was the most expensive KTV session I've ever gone to in my life. When the final bill of $520 was presented, our eyes nearly popped out. Blame it on all the extra public holiday and other what not sucharges and the many jugs of beer for the boys. The boys and I split the bill equally among the three of us to be fair to the youngest three ladies who didn't actually get many slots on the song list.
The night started off tame enough. See the first three pics below...
And then somehow, for whatever unknown reason, everyone stood up and started dancing. Merry who is the girl on the extreme right told me later it was because Bro was singing 我爱台妹. Err... =_=" I think I know of better songs to dance to...
Don't they all look so cute below?
shinging and lancing
before cny
I took leave from work and flew back to Singapore to spend Chinese New Year (some call it Lunar New Year or Spring Festival) with my family. I chose to arrive a few days before CNY so that I could help Mum with the preparations and to get my hair and last minute CNY clothes/shoes shopping done.
For the second year running, I was entrusted with the most sacred task of preparing ang pows (red packets with a token sum of money that married couples give out to the juniors as part of their CNY well wishes for them) for Mum. These were to be given out to the young guests - mostly friends of my Bro's - that would be gathering at our place for the annual gambling ritual on day 2.
Unlike last year when I was handed a stack of $2 notes, I was given $10 notes this time for the above-mentioned sacred task. A sign of recovery from the GFC perhaps?
Bro suggested we use red envelopes with different company logos and colours instead of the usual practice of sticking to one particular design to make the whole ang pow receiving exercise more interesting for the recipients.
Halfway through my assignment, there's still another lot of red packets to prepare. Don't they look pretty all lined up?
We also had to get ready the very popular CNY snacks such as bak kwa (barbequed pork with a texture quite similar to beef jerky), pineapple tarts in various shapes and sizes, almond cookies, love letters or kuih kapit (crispy thin egg rolls) just to name a few. This year's snack table even had a selection of alcoholic drinks. I was a little taken aback by the sheer number of beers - uncountable crates of them! - that I had to transfer, a few cans each time, from the store room to the eski box out in the corridor.
This is just a small portion of the snacks that went on display on CNY eve. (I am nibbling on a piece of bak kwa and munching on almond chips as I type this entry now at 1.35am on the 13th day of CNY.)
I had one last task to complete before we sat down for the reunion family meal: put up the CNY deco. This has always been my responsibility year after year. Due to the lack of time to go shopping in Chinatown, we made do with whatever ornaments Mum bought on her most recent trip to the market.
Brightly coloured ornaments are usually put up at strategic locations in the house to liven up the CNY atmosphere and which symbolise good health, prosperity, and other positive wishes for the household.
We had a steamboat (hotpot) reunion lunch at home instead of dinner. Besides me and my immediate family, Bro's girlfriend, Bro's good friend from Indonesia, an uncle from Mum's side of the family and our current tenant who is a senior hairstylist with Kimage joined us at the round table.
Speaking of our tenant, we arranged a line-up of the Pak-and-related family members for a pre-CNY haircut by our very own inhouse stylist right after the lunch at a makeshift salon in the middle of our humble living room. I got to go second and requested for a trim of the dried and damaged hair ends, more layers to introduce volume to my usually flat hair and a much shorter fringe. I was extremely satisfied with the result and have already secured a follow up appointment for a colour session at home before I leave for Sydney!
Left: there were mandarin oranges displayed everywhere in the house.
Right: one of two gigantic pots of curry chicken, a standard CNY dish for our family.
Fried beehoon (rice vermicelli) with a whole baby abalone at the side; we usually eat the beehoon with the curry. Yums!
Boiling chicken based soup with lots of veges and meat/fish balls thrown in; ready for us to cook our scallops, fish, abalone, prawns, sliced beef, liver, quail's eggs, different types of mushrooms etc in!
Left: Bro trying to cook one small slice of champignon mushroom in the boiling stock.
Right: Mr Kimage hairstylist taking the first prawn to the boil.
Left: Bro chatting animatedly with his friend while waiting for the food to be ready.
Right: Bro engulfed by the steam arising from the pot of boiling broth. Check out the plate of sliced abalone positioned right in front of him. How scheming.
The family adjourned to my grandparents' place for reunion round two - dinner that evening while I retired to bed with a massive headache and four panadols.
singapore airlines fiasco
I booked my air travel with Singapore Airlines several months ago in Sydney:
Sydney > Singapore > Shanghai; Beijing > Singapore (transit) > Sydney
Due to changes in plans, I called up the Singapore Airlines ticketing office in Sydney to request for the following changes:
a. change the Beijing > Singapore sector to Shanghai > Singapore
b. Push back the final Singapore > Sydney sector a few days later such that it's a stopover instead of a transit
The customer service officer (CSO1) who answered my call informed that he couldn't help with my above requests and advised me to call back two days later. What followed next was the most natural and logical question from me: "Why?". Said CSO1 did not understand what prompted me to ask what I asked, so I expanded the question for his benefit:
1. "Why can't you assist me?
2. "Can you then direct me to the right person/department who can process my requests?"
3. "Why do you need me to call back two days later? - Can't you check whatever you need to check and let me know now? There is the possibility there could be no more seats left on my preferred flight a few days later."
To which CSO1 replied that this request had to be submitted to a different department for checking, in which I repeated questions 2 and 3, to which CSO1 answered no, the only way was for me to call me two days later because the request had to be sent to a different department, in which I repeated questions 2 and 3... and so on.
CSO1's tone got more and more impatient and I got more and more frustrated. Fine. I realised there really wasn't much I could do but to call back again.
Two days later, a CSO2 attended to my call. When I stated the reasons for calling, she immediately replied without hesitation that I had called the wrong office, that I would need to call the Singapore office and proceeded to provide the number before I even asked.
I was confused so I asked CSO2 why I was getting two sets of such different answers. I shared with her my concerns of not being able to secure a seat on my preferred flight and hence shouldn't have been misled by CSO1 in the first place (that was assuming CSO2's information was the correct version). She was nice enough to apologise for CSO1 but added she wasn't sure why CSO1 said what he said to me and confirmed that as long as I followed her instructions, I would get my requests processed.
Great.
CSO3 from the Singapore office took my call. Again, I stated the reasons for my call. No brownie points for guessing correctly CSO3's reply. "I'm sorry, but you have called the wrong office. Your ticket was purchased in Sydney and so you have to contact Sydney directly for any change requests."
Incredulous.
I lost it. I insisted he did whatever he could to solve my problem as I was sick of being bounced around from one dumb-ass CSO to another. CSO3 was helpful enough to offer to sort things out with his colleagues in the Sydney office and call me back.
True to his word, CSO3 called me within the next hour to advise that yes, he would be able to process my requests for me immediately but that there were extra costs involved - change fees and fare differences.
Fantastic.
Again, I followed with the next most logical question: "So how much do I need to pay?"
CSO3 could not give me an answer on the spot but promised to call me back with the information - the change fee was standard but he had to check with the relevant department on the fare difference. I waited a day. No calls from CSO3. Imagine my shock when I saw an email with my revised e-ticket in my inbox the next day. A total fee of $108 was charged to the credit card I used in the initial booking - this was fine as I did confirm with CSO3 the day before that I would be using the same card for the payment of the extra fees. But how could he have proceeded to put the transaction through without first confirming the amount with me? What if the fare difference had been $801 instead? I may jolly have decided that two extra days in Singapore are not worth the amount and stuck with the original same day transit itinerary.
Astonishing.
So, the question of the day is:
Who is the most idiotic of them CSOs all?
the hat model
These were taken when I was modelling a hat for a friend on the weekend before I left for my CNY break in SG. I was wearing my $10 Paddy's Market 'Ray Ban Aviator' shades and new cutie-pie jumpsuit and showing off my golden brown tan.
byron day 4 - final
Read:
'Byron Day 1' here.
'Byron Day 2' here.
'Byron Day 3' here.
The alarm was set for 4am. Snoozed once, twice, thrice... many more times... and we finally woke at 5.30am. Arrggghhhh!!!!! Too late!!!!! After a crazy 7.462 minutes of fighting to wash up in the toilet, we both sprinted out the motel room towards the Cape Byron walking track.
Our hopes of witnessing the sun peeking over the horizon and shining its first light over Australia were shattered due to our incurable laziness and lack of discipline.
Nonetheless, after about 25 minutes of huffing and puffing uphill along the shortcut just discovered, we saw the full blazing glory resting on the ocean. It was good enough for us.
The risen sun.
Approaching Cape Byron Lighthouse.
The morning rays flooding through the windows of the lighthouse keepers' quarters.
The final stretch to the lighthouse.
Left: At the lighthouse.
Right: We took a break at the most easterly point of the Australian Mainland.
Natalie brought along this little toy for us to take kaleidoscopic pictures. So we hung around the most easterly point for quite a while snapping away the entire time.
Nat with her new toy.
So many lighthouses!
Will the real slim Jackie please stand up?
A frowny Nat: "Can we please set off for breaky now? I'm famished."
We had our last meal (breakfast) at a cafe with a view - Byron Beach Cafe perfectly positioned on Clarkes Beach with an ocean frontage before checking out of the motel. The breaky wrap - parmesan, parsley omelette, avocado, rocket, bacon, tomato relish in flat bread - Nat had was disappointing and overpriced at $17.60. The avocados were too green and hard, and I believe we could have made this wrap easily for less than half the price. On the other hand, I was most satisfied with my fried eggs with chargrilled chorizo sausage and housemade smoked baked beans on Turkish toast plus a side of sauteed mushrooms. The serving was humongous for a $15.55 plate of oily goodness (add $4.15 for the extra side). I couldn't eat the entire day afterwards until dinner time. They serve wonderful coffee too!
Last shot while leaving the motel. Yes it was Australia Day.
While we lazed around on a grass patch enjoying a chai latte waiting for our airport shuttle, we decided to go for one final adventure at the very last minute - tarot and psychic readings! Both Nat and I have never explored such spiritual divinations and agreed that Byron has got to be the place to do it.
A quick phone call confirmed our appointments with Elizabeth Mussalati who is apparently a third generation fully qualified holistic health practitioner. We left the place in giggles and with mixed emotions. I'm not entirely sure it's something I would like to experience again.
There was a little drama at Ballina Airport as we were boarding the plane bound for Sydney. Due to weight issues, the Captain announced a need to offload at least 60kg of weight. The gung-ho us very proudly volunteered to sacrifice our baggage so that we may all have a safe passage home. And there ended our brief stint at Byron Bay that consisted more of doing nothing than anything else which was precisely the kind of holiday we both were after. I felt totally rested.
byron day 3
Read:
'Byron Day 1' here.
'Byron Day 2' here.
Day 3 was an equally lazy day. Our valiant attempt to wake at four in the morning to trek to Cape Byron to catch the first light of day at Australia's easternmost point failed miserably. Instead, we lazed in bed til slightly after noon, then had some refreshing salad and a cuppa for lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon just beaching.
There were very few interesting characters on the beach for us to spy at that day except for this boy who didn't seem to be able to keep still.
Same boy who started doing crunches after a few rolls in the sand.
An interesting observation we made was that wherever we went in Byron, as long as we exhibited an intention to cross the road, all the vehicles will stop to allow you to cross at your own leisurely pace regardless of whether there were any designated pedestrian crossings. We (a Singaporean and a Sydneysider) having come from big busy cities where we were used to getting honked at for crossing half a step too slowly at a junction with a blinking green man were stunned by such pedestrian-friendly treatment.
We also saw a lot of fully restored classic 50's to 70's VW Kombis driven by topless beach dudes chauffeuring their handsome surfboards round the small beach town. So obssessed are the locals with the Kombis that they even try to paint every structure in town to resemble one, such as can be seen below.
One of the countless substations we saw that was painted into a VW van. They all had 'RUSSELL' on the plates.
We had to pass through this park everyday to get from motel to beach and return. Nice place for a BBQ eh?
Left: The beginning of the walking track towards Cape Byron and the most easterly point. With only one more morning left of the trip, we made a solemn promise to each other to get up in the dark the next day.
Right: Graffiti and vandalism can be seen everywhere.
Thanks to Natalie's iPhone that kept us in touch with what was going on in the world outside of Byron, we found out just minutes before the match started that Federer was playing Hewitt at the Australian Open that very evening. A mad dash to the most popular pub at Beach Hotel followed where we managed to secure two very comfy cushioned chairs among the Hewitt fans - Australian pride at play here.
We had an early night right after the disappointing match - we expected more of a fight from Hewitt although we could have betted our last dollar on Federer for a win - in preparation for the long trek to first light in the morning.
byron day 2
Read 'Byron Day 1' here.
Natalie and I slept in on Sunday morning. By the time we dragged our lazy selves out of bed, showered and got changed, the sun was directly overhead and we were starving. We decided on brunch at a funky looking cafe where we saw many gorgeous people hanging out at the day before, hoping to get some eye candy. We spent an hour there and found everything about the place disappointing - nil eye candy, nil service, bad coffee (the chai latte I had was scaldingly hot and way way way too sweet), burnt pancakes - except for the very pretty ceiling fans we couldn't stop looking at.
We were secreting coveting one of these pretty black swirling things - the only saving grace of the cafe that was so lacking in every other aspect that we didn't bother taking any note on what it was called.
It was to be a seriously stressful day of doing absolutely nothing. We took a whole stack of magazines, books and newspapers to the Beer Garden at Beach Hotel overlooking Main Beach and hovered around for a long while on bar stools in the sun waiting for the more comfy chairs with back and arm rests in the shade to become available. The moment we secured one of these corners, we stayed glued to the semi-reclined deck chairs for four hours studying every single article in the mags and dissecting every piece of news in the papers while occasionally sipping our cappuccino and chai latte.
In the evening, we took a long long long long walk on the Cape Byron Walking Track on an impulse. 7km of just walking in near complete silence as we tuned our senses to Mother Nature while weaving through the dense coastal rainforest.
We were glad no suspicious creepy-crawlies got in our way during the trek.
As we approached Cape Byron Lighthouse, the sun did its steady descent behind us, threatening to disappear into the ocean any time. Several times, we stopped and turned to gasp at the glorious colours before trudging on in the opposite direction, determined to get to the most easterly point on the Australian mainland to recce the spot for our grand wake-at-4am-to-catch-the-magnificent-sunrise plan the next day.
Natalie catching her breath before going up yet another flight of steps along the track. It is also possible that she could be waiting for the slowcoach me to catch up with her.
A one-minute stop to catch our breaths became a five-minute long gasp at the colours created by the setting sun.
Everything was shrouded in hues of pink for a brief moment. Beautiful.
The sun is setting just behind the coastal cliff on the left, hence the golden rays surrounding it.
We had enough of bashing through the woods on our way to the eastermost point and took the beach route back to Main Beach instead. Same stunning views, different perspectives.
The light was gone in a fleeting moment of seconds. Beauty is shortlived.
I had wanted to capture the boy skipping his way down those steps, but that proved to be mission impossible without a tripod in such near zero light conditions.
We were two ravenous souls after the walk. Dinner was a repeat of the previous night: a bottle of wine and seafood paella for two in the oversized couches on the verandah at the Balcony Bar and Restaurant - just because we can. We made friends with two young ladies from the UK who sat next to us and had a rather nice girlie session of munching, drinking and yakking.
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