“Cher! You pregnant ah?”

Me: “Huh?” *puzzled with big eyes*

“Your dress….looks like you are pregnant…”

Later that day, I went to the school cafe to buy dinner. I have been having pasta everyday for 2 weeks now. The uncle saw me and said:”Wah! Twice a day ah? You have craving, right?” *grin, looking at my stomach* I am sure it was purely coincident.

It was the same dress which I wore few months ago. When I was walking back to my office, a student who “happened” to sit there exclaimed:”Cher! You pregnant ah!!!??” She exclaimed so loud that I thought I was going to have “miscarriage” anytime soon. Mm..and she wasn’t even my student. -_-”

I just can’t understand, the dress looks nothing like a maternity dress! Perhaps it is the cutting. But it is a trend now to wear dresses/tops that have cutting above the waist. Yes, I will continue wearing the dress, thank you very much.

Posted under Work | No Comments 

Saturday afternoon, when I was sitting at the shoes department waiting for my cousin to shop, I received a sms from a friend in Malaysia. It said:”xx’s dad has just passed away before lunch.” I was shocked, and for awhile I felt so numb. I quickly grabbed all the shopping bags and chased after my cousin and mom. When I broke the news to them, they were equally shocked.

The next question was – HOW?

Nobody knew how or why. I made a call to xx in London to see he was coping. He was on his way back to KL. He did not say anything about it. I found it hard to believe and I wished they have gotten the wrong person. I browsed my smses and found his messages that he sent to me few months ago before he left to Kerala, India. He always signed off at his messages. There was even one that he signed off as ‘Dad from Kerala’.

I have yet to find out how he passed away. But the image of his cheerful, loving and warm personality will always stay in my heart. I have learned so much from him as he traveled a lot. He was also a devoted Buddhist and he once told me that being a human is suffering. Now he has gone to a better place and I pray that he lives freely and away from all the sufferings.

Rest in peace, dad from Kerala…

Posted under Life documentaries | No Comments 

Went to watch Death Note at GV Tampines last night. It was the FIRST TIME ever that we were greeted with tonnes of blue and yellow pillows in the cinema!! When my friend and I stepped into the cinema, our jaws dropped. We thought we entered a slumber party with colourful pillows lying on the seats. We doubled checked the cinema number again, examined the pillows over and over again (cos we thought a huge group of travelers left their pillows there). Not every seat had a pillow but both of our seats had pillows on them.

Then I saw a tag on the pillow. It said:”A surprise early christmas gift….from Ikea.” And there was a soft toy attached to it. My heart glowed with warmth! We sat down and slowly the crowd entered the cinema. Each of them had the same expressions and questions as we did. Hahaha..

It was so comfortable hugging pillows while watching movie. It was such a heart-warming marketing strategy ever! Now I love Ikea even MORE! After the movie, many of them hugged the pillows back but we didn’t. Should have brought the pillows back though co’s otherwise, other people will hug the same pillow as I did. Mm..not very nice..

The 2 little soft toys attached to the pillows. My friend gave his to me.

The last time I had my pillow with me in the cinema was at the movie marathon in Perth. We wore pyjamas, brought pillows and snacks to the cinema. Because the cinema was in the shopping mall, walking around with our pj and pillows was my ultimate fantasy just way beyond awesome! Some of them even turned up with colourful slumber hats. It was a 6+ hours movie marathon started from 11pm (if I remember correctly) and ended at 6 a.m! By the time it ended, our eyes were already swollen and greeted by bright morning sunlight. We all felt awful and rushed home for our beauty sleep. Nonetheless, it was fun!

Posted under Thoughts & musings | No Comments 

“Wah! You wear heels ah??!!”

“Hey, I can walk with my heels ok? I can even run with them!”

But right after I reached at tree top walk, I knew that my heels just can’t do the job.

My friends suggested to go to tree top walk and I was very excited about it. The last time I went to a tree top walk was in Walpole, WA- the valley of giants tree top walk. It is a walkway that rises up 38m above the forest. Beautiful and awesome scenery indeed! I will dig out those pictures soon and put it up here.

I did not expect it to be so exhausted challenging to walk on the tree top walk. In Walpole, we drove near to the entrance and started our journey on the tree top walk right away. After completed the journey, we simply hopped in the car.

But this one is DIFFERENT! We had to hike through the forest for more than an hour just to reach the entrance! According to my friend, it was about 5 km to the tree top walk. And I am talking about HIKING, not walking. So, that totally convinced me that my heels just can’t do the job! My friend lent me his oversized OP flip-flop and guess what, I hiked and walked like a Donald Duck for more than 10 km and for about 3 hours! Cool right?

The flip-flop that saved the day!

We started from “You are here” to Tree Top Walk (yellow trail), then hiked to Jelutong Tower. From there, we took the red trail back to “You are here” again. It looks near from the map but trust me, DO NOT TRUST THE BLOODY distance in the map. It is truly an optical illusion.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not ranting! I am just too impressed with myself and the flip-flop! I was very comfortable walking with it and it didn’t cause blister to my hypersensitive feet. Plus, MISS CHERRY actually hiked up and down the slope with creepy crawls along the way without ranting and exhaustion! (er… except a little random ranting of “are we there yet?”)

It is best if you can plan 3-4 hours ahead. You wouldn’t want to be ‘locked in’ the forest after 5pm.

I love the smell of the forest and we heard bugs chirping along the way. Although the trail was long but the journey was exhilarating. I have never felt so good from working out due to my poor health and my bended spine. I was advised by my doctor not to do strenuous exercise. That means I can only swim….so boring..

Some ‘lizard’ found on the way. Sorry, I am very bad with names, really.

And why am I not surprised….There are tonnes of monkeys at Penang Botanical Garden who are so good at stealing asking food from passerbys.

The entrance of the 250 m tree top walk. It is an aerial walkway and of course it swings a little. And no, you don’t have to pay and NO, you can’t turn back if you are afraid of height. It is strictly one-way only. If you think you can’t continue the journey, I would suggest that either you crawl till the end or wait for the ranger to piggy-back you. As you can see, I was so not-dressed-up for the trekking. (except the flip-flop)

Only if there is a handsome and strong ranger I would pretend to be so scared that I insist to faint. Then, he can piggy-back me all the way back (Dream a little dream of me by Diana Krall playing in the background)

After the walkway, we came across countless stairs that seemed an eternity. That was when I started to rant.

Trekking with 2 guys who have lingering memories on army days was hilarious. They talked about their army days every 5 minutes and of course, I have also learned so much from them. One of them was this leave which they called ‘CB leaves’. Now, I wouldn’t want to explain what CB is and why it is called ‘CB’. If you have a male at home and has served the army, I am sure he could tell you what it is. Mail me if you want to know what CB stands for. I am just so amazed by the army. They can even come up with all sorts of vulgar funny names for leaves. Obviously, the CB flower is edible. They were taught to eat the flower if they would starve in the jungle. And so, being adventurous as always, I ate it.

Friend plucked the CB flower.

Sorry that it is out of focus. I was too hungry and too eager to eat the flower. Man, it tasted so good that I asked him to give me more…

We were supposed to take another trail back to the car park but my friend suggested to visit the Jelutong tower. I thought it was on the way but NO, we had to walk for another 3 km to the tower. I thought, oh well, we have already come so far, might as well visit the tower. But guess what, the tower was super tall!

Now, tell me, how would you react when you see this tower after walking for more than 6 km?

Nonetheless, I climbed all the way up to the top! Do I deserve a big applause now? Thank you thank you…I know..*grin*

Fabulous scenery. You can also see the reservoir from there.

There is a ranger station where you can find toilet and water cooler there. It is a nice and cosy resting place, especially when you need to pee but too shy to pee in the bush.

Surprisingly, I walked faster on the way back and I didn’t feel tired at all. It was another 90 minutes walk and as soon as I saw this (the picture below), I went crazy! The sense of accomplishment was so great especially trekking with a pair of flip-flop!

There is trail that leads to bukit timah and MacRitchie. Next time I shall try to walk to Bukit Timah from the tree top walk. *grin*

Posted under Travel | No Comments