the trip and more

so….

we left home very late last friday, at about 9pm. there was so much of cleaning up to do, that very little attention was paid to packing. my mom cared to remind my younger siblings, and left me as i should. problem is my mind was rather preoccupied with something which i can’t quite recall at the moment, which caused me to underpack a few ‘essential’ items.

anyways, the drive was rather uneventful, except for the part where PLUS decided to reduce traffic to one lane to make more for traffic heading back to KL. it sucks when there’s ALWAYS a jam along the Seremban-Senawang stretch. these planners need to think farther ahead into the future.

we arrived in Batu Pahat about 12.30am. by the time we entered the trunk roads, i was already very weary and may have been a tad too careless and impatient at the time. was overtaking a bunch of motorcycles against incoming traffic when something triggered a motor reaction to make me swerve further out of the line. fortunately, it wasn’t much, but i’d think the drivers that saw me probably swore a bunch.

needless to say, i went straight to bed that morning.

we woke up at 8.30am to the sound of tv from the living room. since the house was very small, the foyer was converted into living quarters for all the cucu-cicit who might stay over, like ourselves. even then, there was only so much space. altho without luxuries like air-conditioning, the night was cold enough as it is, and it made me, who hasn’t much meat to his bones, restless throughout the night. but the air was refreshing at least. btw, one of my grandaunties (Tok Busu) lived here.

after a quick breakfast, we (+Tok Busu and cousin) went off to visit my grandmother’s grave. it was still somewhat early in the morning, but the sun was already scorching our backs. we quickly made our prayers for our dearly departed, and set off to my granduncle’s grave at a different location to do the same. it was already 11+ by the time we finished, so we hurried off to an uncle’s house for some visiting and lunch. this uncle lived in a more newly developed area of Batu Pahat, and the house was a corner linked lot renovated for a bigger living area. it was nice. veggies and such were also planted in a small kebun behind the house, so the greens in our meal were fresh and juicy.

ready we were to continue the journey down south. we had already packed earlier with luggage in car, so we said our goodbyes and headed straight for Johor Bahru. sometime along the road, my mom noticed i was still wearing the same t-shirt and track bottoms i had on the night before. oops. with her maternal authority, she forced me to stop at a mall (one that sported ‘Metrojaya’ on its walls) for some last minute shopping. it was unorthodox to buy raya clothes after raya, but it had to be done. Khairil also got himself a pair of jeans, while I got myself a very nice clubbing shirt and a usual pair of black slacks.

so then we crossed the jammy causeway and into Singapore. got a little lost by getting onto Jln Eunos in the wrong direction but it wasn’t as bad as the trip before last. at least now, i think i have the geography sorted out a bit. emphasis on the ‘bit’ mind you. we reached our destination (another grandauntie’s place, Mak Tok) in time to clean ourselves up and have some dinner. it was great to see our SG relatives, especially our lovely cousins, again. 🙂

the plan was that there wasn’t any plan. it started off with nothing, and then a supposed visit to a granduncle (Tok Cik)’s place, to nothing again. so we, the youngsters, took matters into our own hands. but with consent of course. and i only got to wear my cool shirt for 10 minutes before having to take it off again (and that was on monday morning, when we finally got around to the visit) because it was ‘too nice’. 😛 and i ruined it a bit too: the iron i used to straighten out the wrinkles had sharp steam holes which caught on the thread. it sucks cause it’s brand new, but i doubt/hope many people won’t notice. well, it’s just a shirt anyhow. a very expensive one. bleh. anyway, ayin burnt one of her baju using the same iron, so i guess my loss isn’t so bad. poor kitty.

so that day we went out and toured a bit of Singapore, mainly its manga/anime/book places. with me at the helm and hemlocke as my trusted navigator, we first went to Anime House at Sunshine Plaza to take a look at the manga and teeny anime collectibles like handphone danglies and pins and such. i just remembered that we were supposed to go back there when that particular section of the shop opened, but i guess we forgot.

anyway, we moved on to Bugis Junction for lunch at Siam Kitchen. we were light eaters (and contrary to popular belief, so was i :P) so we only ordered 3 dishes. the food was okay, but the pandan chicken could be better i think, and the green curry much more spicy. 😀

we then made off to Orchard Rd where we spent all of our time in Takashimaya SC, where [Kinokuniya] is located. that’s where i got my copy of the last [bartimaeus] book, and a few volumes of Celestial Zone, a manga by local SG artist Wee Tian Beng. somehow, over all these years, we lost track of this cool series and are still missing a big chunk of volumes in between. luckily, with our cuzzie’s help, we can place orders for them via Kino. hopefully they still have stock *crosses fingers*.

after that, we took our horde to Delifrance where we had our tea. the delifrance in SG is very different than the ones we have here in Malaysia, having being converted into something bistro-like (hence the name Delifrance Bistro). all food items in the menu had french names, which gives the impression of something classy (yet somehow, wasabi mayo doesn’t quite fit into that picture).

kittenz on the other hand went off to meet a friend somewhere else in the building. she sure took her time. 😛 the rest of us had mostly finished our reading material and were flipping books repeatedly for closure. ichaya snoozed. well, she got back eventually, and it was about time we rushed back for our evening prayers and dinner. spent the rest of the precious evening in idle chat about a variety of stuff. they had to return home that very night to prepare for work the next day. sigh. work sucks on a global scale.

the following day was uneventful. the visit to Tok Cik’s place. returning to JB. visited my grandfather’s grave. visited my great grandfather’s grave. jam at Senawang (again) due to a lame accident. reached home at 5pm, and lepak-ed watching Mai-HiME up to 5am this morning. finished my book just two hours ago. after watching the gut-wrenching Mai-HiME episodes leading to the climax/ending, the book ending was somewhat disappointing. well, i guess i can’t be crying/laughing by myself too much.

oh well. my turn to go to work tomorrow. but not before an overclocking adventure! i’ve finally broken into the world of manual overclocking, allowing me to tweak all aspects of it in every detail thanks to this newbie guide. i’m still running at 3.6GHz, but at least my memory clock is almost what it should be (the automatic tuner had it running at PC2600, while manual adjustments allowed me to bring it up to PC3100, just slightly lower than the intended [PC3200]. pretty soon i’ll start pushing the envelope, one megahertz at a time. then to optimize the memory timings, 1 clock at a time. exciting stuff!