Blue sky blue

Now playing : Jamie Scott - Runaway Train

I woke up abnormally early today knowing eventhough it's a Saturday morning. It was already bright and sunny compared to the past couple of days where the morning was cool, rainy and good to sleep in. During a work day, it's cloudy, cold and rainy...a kind of day I would kill to stay in bed but I can't because I have to go to work. Bah!

After countless days of gloomy skies, today was quite a beautiful change in a way. I was just done bathing my dog and as I was scooping her poo, I looked up to skies and was taken aback by the gloriousness of it. I love looking at the sky. It's like a whole different world and imagine if I was like Superman with the ability to just fly all the way up there...endless..endless space. Here's the beautiful blue sky captured this morning.

3D/2N in Langkawi

Now playing : Take That - Rule The World

My trip to Langkawi had been a good one. For those that don’t know, Langkawi is quite a pretty island which is part of Kedah, Malaysia. Flying in the air above it, I had notice many tiny islands nearby which made it look breathtaking. You can find out more about this place in Wikitravel (http://wikitravel.org/en/Langkawi)
I spent 3 days, 2 nights there. In actual it’s more like 1.5 exploring days.
Day 1:
We touched down in Langkawi at noon on 28-Sep (Friday) which gives us about half a day to explore. Kudos to Ding for being the ‘PLANNER’ (as how he likes to put it..ha ha) and planning the itinerary for our trip. Well, we fulfilled almost 80% of the itinerary and I’m sure he should be proud of that. The flight there was a peaceful, non-turbulent journey which is our first time flying Firefly – its motto is something like Malaysia’s first community airline bla bla bla. I’d like to point out that I LOVED the black t-shirt that the stewardess had on. The plane was tiny (could hold probably 50 passengers). Upon reaching Langkawi airport we rented a car for a pretty good price in our opinion. RM120 for 3 days, that’s like RM40 a day. We got a Proton Savvy as Ding had never driven one before and had a little trouble at first working the auto/manual gear. It was drizzling as we headed out towards Awana Porto Malai resort. The map was simple and direct. There were a lot of signs that could point us in the right direction. The 1st few hours we were just learning to get used to the map and the roads. We made some wrong turns sometimes but I would say traveling by car in Langkawi was not too bad. We spent our afternoon at Oriental Village where the Langkawi cable car was. The journey there was briefly disrupted when we took the wrong road and ended up on a narrow 1 lane road just big enough for a Savvy to pass through. It was some ‘kampung’ in Kedawang and there was no turning back. Thank God we managed to get out of the maze. At Oriental Village, it was drizzling and the cable car service was stopped briefly so we didn’t take it. Besides, I was really disappointed because the weather made the distant view look so blurry and white so much so that I think it would be a waste of RM25 to go up there and not get a good clear view. In the Oriental Village, there’s a section housing rabbits and deer and anyone can walk right in and feed them. When we reached there it was only the 2 of us but unfortunately a big group of party poopers followed suit and crowded the whole place, hogging all the rabbits’ attention. Ding and I were attacked by deer. When I had food in my hand they start rubbing against me and aiming for my hand. One damn deer stepped on my foot. Imagine the pain. I went ‘OUCCCHHHH’ but the deer wouldn’t budge. And the guy there had the nerve to say they are harmless. They practically ambushed me. Ewww!
Here's a lowdown on Awana Porto Malai (that's the hotel we stayed in):
I liked the front walkway that leads into the lobby. It was flanked on both sides by Koi fish ponds which was unique. The room was quite nice and the sea view was pretty.

Day 2:
We got up to an early start and first destination was Snake Sanctuary which is very near the Makam Mahsuri. Never ever go to this stupid snake farm. Waste of money and time. Along the way we say the Makam Mahsuri and decided to take a look. I thought it should have been free but they are charging RM5 per person so I thought…WTF? 5 dollars to see a ‘makam’. No thank you. We left immediately. The next destination was Crocodile Farm. Why snakes and crocs you may ask? Well Ding loves to watch these reptiles. We had to pass by Ulu Melaka to get there. This is how most of the roads in Langkawi looked like.Fitting to say, it’s quite ‘ulu’. Everywhere is flanked by shrubs, trees, bushes and all green plants. Houses that we see along the way are always surrounded by overgrown shrubs. Crocodile Farm was definitely worth it. I would recommend this for those that won’t scream everytime they see a crocodile move. Not really for the faint-hearted sometimes. There were quite a lot of crocodiles, big ones, tiny ones, motionless ones. We were in time for the 11.15am show. Voila~! This is the star of the crocodile farm..which one you might ask?
The interesting part of this farm was the bridge above the crocodile pond. It’s a wooden bridge which was kinda scary. I was afraid it would break and I’d fall straight into the mouth of a crocodile. There were quite a lot of them in the stinky pond. We completed the first 2 destinations way ahead of schedule, so we wanted to stop by one of the beaches and the easiest along the way was Pantai Pasir Tengkorak…or maybe loosely translated to Skull Sand Beach.

Our next stop was Kuah town. Upon reaching the outskirts of the town. We started to see more ‘civilization’…meaning we started to see more concrete, shop houses, buildings etc. and less jungle. We knew we were close. We stopped for lunch before heading into the several duty-free shops to scout for chocolates. At this point, it is CADBURY time~~!! Finally we headed off to Langkawi Parade shopping mall and bought chocolates…lotsa chocolates.
As we had planned to visit the Night Market, it was way too early so we headed back to the hotel to get a short rest before coming out again to Kuah in the evening. At 6pm, we went back to Kuah and visited the Eagle Square. (eagle eagle..come to mama!)
Next stop was Langkawi Fair..there wasn’t much to see there so we went to the night market after dinner. It was lame. Lame lame lame night market. I only saw 2 stalls selling food.
Day 3:
Anyhoo, that's about it for our trip. Day 3 was our flight back on..Firefly. The return flight was ... freaky. So much air pocket travelling on a teeny-tiny airplane so much so that it felt like I was sitting on a roller-coaster ride. Even my sunglass I placed safely on my head fell off. I can see that the middle-aged fella sitting on the other row was freaked out to the point of pee-ing in his own pants but he still had the balls to laugh at Ding. It was raining and windy and it did feel like the plane was falling at a couple of intervals.
Well if you want to see more of our Langkawi photos. Here's the link :
http://mellim82.multiply.com/photos/album/9/Langkawi_Trip_2007

Reminiscing the old times

Now playing : Vitamin C - Graduation (Friends Forever)

Recently I read an article in The Star about board games such as Monopoly. It reminded me of the fun times I had playing those games with my 2 cousins and my brother. We used to play Monopoly, a short stint on Cluedo and there was a few times we played Pictionary. I remembered that I have a few other board games like Scrabble, Mastermind.

my Barbie doll shoes and accessories(below)

one of my board games that is not stuffed somewhere deep in the closet(below)Those were days back in primary school. My cousin would come over my house and hang out during school holidays. We’ll play Barbie dolls, Polly Pocket, even build Lego houses. Sometimes we’ll cycle outside our houses along the road and get into arguments with the ‘children’ living opposite us. Sometimes my cousin and I would cycle to the nearby library and look at books. There was once we saw a recipe book and immediately went back to my place and started making sandwiches with ingredients like cheese, banana *gasp*, grapes *gasp again* and what not. It tasted quite nice. We sat there in the living room and ate our masterpieces while watching Hindi movies with my grandma.

Back then when we were young, I’d sleep over at my cousin’s house and vice versa. We lived just 2 houses away so it was easy for me to drag my pillow and bolster and blanket over to her place. Imagine tiny little me, carrying my pillow..scurrying over to her place. In the evenings, we’d play badminton outside our house until it was dinnertime. I used to have early dinners. 5.30pm was my dinner time.
Together with all this play time there was also tuition time, music lessons, ballet lessons that I had to take. I didn’t like ballet lessons but I don’t regret it either. I cannot at this moment imagine myself prancing around in the tight body hugging ballet costume which looks like a swimming costume anyway. I never practiced my ballet steps so I’d always make a mess in class. Sometimes I get punished but I guess I’m the type that doesn’t like to be embarrassed that way, so I had to get my act together and not humiliate myself. I stopped ballet when I reached Standard 4. The music lessons were still going on though. I loved playing my electronic keyboard a.k.a organ. I didn’t like the lessons because I was a lazy bum but come to think about it. I enjoyed playing music very much. The teacher let me take the practical exams and I got to Level 5. It’s been a while since I last practiced. I stopped music lessons I believe sometime in Form 3 or Form 4. My excuse was exams.
Now the days are gone. It’s something of the past and those are memories that I would love to cherish forever. When we entered secondary school, we didn’t really have time to play anymore. We kept out Barbie dolls and polly pockets back into our boxes. Tore down our Lego houses and packed it. Since entering high school, play time was reduced. Besides, we were already growing up, we can’t be playing Barbie dolls no more. At times before we also played 2 player computer games like Bubble trouble. We were addicted to that but I couldn’t recall at what age did we play that. More and more time was spent studying, going to tuition, after school activities, doing homework and worrying about exams. Years later, I graduated from high school and started my college life. When I was young, I played a lot of girl toys as well as boy toys too…FOR KIDS!~! What you thinking??!! I will always reminisce the good old times because I had a nice childhood surrounded by sleepovers, sandwich experiments, board games, badminton, TV, ballet lessons *eck*, music lessons, tuition (that’s like mandatory, I had no choice) and some toys.

MIX fm turns me on

I listen to ...

Normally when I go to work, I’ll pop one of my cd’s in the player and listen to it on the way…yes, occasionally I do sing to myself in the privacy of my own car..duh, who doesn't. Sometimes I’ll listen to Lite n Easy aka Lite FM but since I discovered a certain threesome in the morning, I’ve switched channels. Nowadays, I tune in to Mix FM during my drive to work. That's 91.1fm in Penang. I’m so hooked on the Mix breakfast show with Ika, Serena C and Pietro.
I think these 3 fellas make a good match and gives the right vibe. It’s much more entertaining and humorous now. If one of them is missing on certain days, it just doesn’t feel so right or as funny as usual. It’s wacky, the things they say and the jibes they pour on each other. I especially like those parts when Phua Chu Kang makes his appearance for celebrity news and starts joking about Britney ‘throw the knife’, Britney ‘javelin’…no..Britney Spears and other celebrities. It’s a good move pulling him in here and there. Totally beefed up the entertainment value. In the evening on the way back home from work, it's Ross and I totally like the way he talks.
Besides, Mix FM plays great songs. I still like Lite FM occasionally because of the softer songs and oldies that they play. To me, other than Mix FM and Lite FM, the other channels are just...blah.