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-Is an English Language major undergraduate who likes to Take It Easy.

Words and languages, Jane Austen, period dramas/films, Vitagen, Korean dramas, good songs, better books, Green, wanderlusting, Culture, writing, Experimenting

Things I'd Like

- A Nitendo Wii gaming console
- My own set of rollerblades
- More nail polish (bought just one, neon pink in colour)
- Concert DVDs! (Back to Basics: Live & Down Under by Christina Aguilera, The Black Parade Is Dead by My Chemical Romance , Mika: Live In Cartoon Motion, Where The Light Is: John Mayer Live In Los Angeles )
- A cat

Old Stories

Side Trip
Supernatural
Jason Mraz, Neighbours, Harry Potter, Kiwi fruit
Pizza hut and Transformers movie
Tallest man and the Grand Old Dame (Nat'l Stadium)
Heels
Drama fever
New Restaurant!
Check out my awesome but very do-able Grrreen plan...
Green fr-eak

Older Stories

March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
February 2009
March 2009
April 2009
July 2009
August 2009
October 2009

Great Clicks

Twitter
Rapture
Heaven
Mraz
Mayer
Xiaxue
Andrea
Retro Music
Music blog

Thanks

Designer: fedora_girl :)
Image: Pride & Prejudice (2005) screencaps
Brush, Pattern: The Magic Box
Edit: Adobe Photoshop

The first day to Malaysia we set off bright and early. I was doing some reading on surfing spots in Malaysia and it seems the central spot would be around Kuantan. and apparently, I've been to Kuantan before, once, but I can't remember much about it. I had stayed at the Hyatt hotel but i don't recall seeing anyone surfing there...it probably wasn't the surfing season. So I was casually asking my parents what they know about Kuantan and if there was any chance we might stop there for a while, but no such luck, cuz Kuantan is way on the East Coast and KL is on the West. Yup, we headed out to Kuala Lumpur on Saturday morning. Instead of Malacca.

The ride was fun, the first hour or two, I talked shop with my dad, seeing as my bro and mum were asleep. We talked about many things, politics, to name a few. We talked about how we only have one transport company in Singapore, and it is owned by the government (monopolized), who continually increase the bus and train fares......and we compared our transport system to Hong Kong, where I had read somewhere it is superb....that Singapore's transport can never catch up to them in the next ten years if we tried to...well, i have nothing against the transport system in Singapore, but I say it can be better... :) you know, more efficient, more destination access/points. and my dad said we do not have a choice in choosing whether we want our bus rides to be air-conditioned or not (it'll be cheaper) and such. and then we got to saying like, how public transport fares may not mean much to politicians (cuz they earn at least $10,000 a month here in Singapore), that most likely they don't even take public transport...but to others, public transport may seem quite significant to them, in the financial aspect.

and then we talked about road charges in Singapore. Singapore is notorious for how much it takes to buy a car(you pay for the car, on top of a Certificate Of Entitlement,which costs as much as the car itself) let alone, maintain it in Singapore. We pay for a lot of things when we use a car, in little old Singapore. That's one of the reasons my dad owns a weekend car*. when he had been using 'normal' cars for most of his life. *Weekend cars (indicated by their red licence plates) can only be used on the roads from 7pm onwards on weekdays, 3pm on Saturdays and the whole day on Sundays. essentially, they are 'vampire' cars, where u see them out and about mostly at nights. Any other time used beyond those stipulated, drivers will have to use a $20 coupon on that day, and display it.

So anyway, seeing as Singapore is small and prone to traffic jams during the rush hours (in the mornings and after-work), we still have not solved these gridlock problems, despite having a unique system of charging a fee to drivers in certain areas of Singapore at certain hours. My dad proposed an idea to me, of charging drivers by the lanes they use, with the outermost lane being charged the highest, and of course, being the smoothest. That drivers should get what they pay, u know? What do u call it, something pricing....i learnt that term in Economics and it just slipped my mind (i was never good at Economics anyway.)...u know what I mean, u pay higher if u wanna get better goods or services. He then used the analogy of the different class seatings on an airplane. Do you know how much different a first class ticket costs compared to economy class? At least a freaking ten times more. I mean, what the heck do they offer up there right infront in first class? Special entertainment? Special service? I’ve taken economy class all my life and I don’t have nothing to complain about, except that sometimes the food sucks once in a while, but it’s mostly edible and it could do with a little bit more legroom….but other than that, I’m mostly occupied by the inflight entertainment of the endless choice of movies they offer…and I’m eating, drinking or napping. U know? I mean, what more can you do? What more do I need or want? Haha. But anyway, since first class seating is offered, people go for it, and I guess the majority who would go for it…just because they can. So I guess in a sense, the people sitting upfront are worlds apart from us back-seaters….hmmm, well, I guess this aeroplane seating analogy isn’t too good after all. Going back to my point on segregated pricing for separate lanes, the fastest lane has to be priced significant enough to greatly prevent people from using it, and at the same time, it can’t be priced sky-high….

So these are some of the things my dad and I talked about while he was doing all the driving…all with a few Michael Jackson songs in the background (Malaysia’s radio stations love Michael!) and so we got to talking about music and Michael Jackson. My dad thinks black influence on music has spoilt the quality of music. Not that he is racist or something, but he thinks the rapping, mumbling-speak, hip-hop, noisy melodies they have in their songs and which are seeping into pop music to the likes of Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado to name a few, are-like, spoiling the essence of music, which is supposed to be simple, pure and clean, according to him.

I agree, and it got me talking that there will never be anyone quite like Michael Jackson. Or even close. Whether his dance moves, voice, or singing style, he is the man. And he never did have the vices of alcohol and drugs. Too bad he had other issues…and now can’t sing the way he used to. But he is a legend, and will always have a special place in the music industry and in music history.

We then made a pit-stop, I stayed in the car, thinking I could get a proper cat-nap but no, mosquitoes came to bug me every minute. I killed at least two. And then there were those numerous birds twittering and cooing for the longest time nearby, my dad had parked right next to the wilderness, next to a forest actually, and it was actually very nice to hear this unexpected bird orchestra….. : ) now I know why old men in Singapore love to keep birds, and gather together every other day to hang up all their bird cages and enjoy the melodies that those birdies emit.

You know, which reminds me, just a short distance away from my house, there’s like, a football field with numerous long white, standing-poles. I came to know of this place only a few weekends ago and apparently, this field is specially set aside for people to hang their bird cages there! I know! it’s such a cute idea! Lolz. I think I’ll visit that place more often now.

One interesting thing to end off with is that, a little while after my dad pulled out from the pit-stop, he drove in the inner lane, and a whole brood (about ten) of Porsches and a Mercedes or two zoomed past us. Really. They were going at 200km/h plus and when the last of them was off in the distance, my dad tried to catch up, but we were only eating their dust. By the way, the maximum speed on malaysia’s highway is 110km/h? My dad was going at 160km/h and I gotta admit, I did get a little scared but it felt pretty exciting too : ) and hey, my dad’s never been a risky kind of person, so who am I to complain or something? Fun times on the road.

PS: The absolute nearest surf spot to Singapore is Desaru in Malaysia. =) It takes less than an hour or so to get there. I may consider going there for my next hols.