Christmas down south

Saturday the 23rd
So we boarded the Aeroline bus from 1 Utama. The waiting lounge is quite classy, with long black sofa benches, a tea-making area, LCD screens, automatic sliding doors. Left at 10am sharp on Saturday morning. And we got one of the newer buses! Yippeee. Happily awed at the amazing leg space - my legs could not stretch and touch the front seat at all, that's how much leg space we had! And they had a huge LCD screen at the front of the bus, so those of us sitting in the middle and back part of the bus didn't have to squint during the movie session. A good ride, although it took about 6 hours due to jams along the PLUS highway and the long immigration queue entering Singapore.

Halfway through the ride, my mum jabbed me out of my sleep to look out the window. Next to the PLUS highway, houses were flooded up to their windows and there were lakes where there wasn't supposed to be. Oil palm trees looked like they were planted in swamps. A motorbike or two with a few lonely figures stood staring at the huge masses of water at what used to be dry land. I think the hardest-hit by these floods would be those in the agricultural sector, and I truly pity the poor farmers and estate owners. It was quite a sobering start to the holiday, noting that while I traipsed happily from a rather dry KL to a drizzly Singapore, there were people in the same country who had lost all their worldly possessions and income sources, and were helpless over this supposedly merry season.

Anyway, me being me, I forgot all of it when waiting in the long queue at immigration. When we finally arrived in Harbourfront, we quickly got off the bus and caught a cab (a Premier Mercedes one at that) to my sister's apartment in Orchard Road. Then, all of us jostled to bathe in the bathroom before rushing down for our hair appointments and running back up to the apartment to make up for the dinner. Finally ready at 7.30pm, we walked next door to the Grand Hyatt hotel (thank goodness it's just next door) and gosh, is it grand! They had 3 weddings on the same night, and the couples' pictures were flashed on LCD screens around the hotel, directing guests to the right function rooms.

Since my cousin's wedding is the main purpose of the trip to Singapore, I'm obliged to write a bit about it. There were roses everywhere, really nice deep red roses arranged in tight clusters along the bridal walkway and on the stage and on every table. Everything else was simple, understated but classy. Each table had its own waiter. And, the food, cannot be faulted, at all. It's one of the best wedding meals I've had. At the end of the dinner, the waiter handed us a paper to ask us to comment and rate his service. How could we complain - since the waiter had efficiently de-boned a fish to my amazement, attended to our every need, and efficiently taken care of one of my little cousins who had thrown up at the table? No wonder the wedding dinner cost a bomb, since it also came with 2 nights' stay at the bridal suite - which I heard is real big and luxurious.

We weren't around for the morning tea ceremony, so a video was shown. The bridegroom had to drink an assortment of sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, etc liquids, sing and dance around a broomstick, wax his legs, and guess answers in order to claim his bride. Then we also got a glimpse of the beautiful new apartment when the bridegroom carried the bride all the way in to the bridal suite from the white bridal car. The camera works were quite good, and everything looked like it went well :)

After dinner, since many relatives were around, we hung out around Orchard Road for a while, before the aunties and little children begged tiredness. We gratefully clambered back to the apartment too.

Sunday (Christmas Eve)
Got woken up at half past six - totally ungodly hour for a holiday. But managed to snatch some minutes of MTV Asia (been really a while since I've watched tv) in between jostling for the bathroom. We went out to meet the rest for prawn noodles in Pek Kio market (yes, this is a must-do pilgrimage everytime I'm in Singapore). Unfortunately, the auntie told us that the bad weather means she doesn't have $8 prawn noodles to sell, so we had to settle for the $5 ones. Prawns not as huge, and no separate little "kuali" for the prawns, so somehow, the experience was not as I'd hoped.

Then, 9 of us squeezed into my uncle's Rexton and headed to Suntec City. Shopped, hung around and finally met somemore relatives (making 12 of us) to sit down for lunch at Tony Roma's. That place has freezing air-conditioning, so all of us had warm water (so boring). The baby back ribs, mmmmmmmm! We had yummy Caesar salad, a full slab of their signature baby back ribs (finger-licking good!), some chicken dish (so-so), and their famous onion loaf (nice). A cousin brought along a Christmas log cake to celebrate my sister's birthday - first time I've ever had a log cake, realized it's merely a very nicely-decorated Swiss roll.

By the time lunch was over, it was about 4pm. When we got out of the restaurant, we met throngs and throngs and THRONGS of people. So we decided to head back to the apartment and jostled our way back to Orchard. My sisters and I bathed and headed out to meet my uncle for dinner (on the way we wanted to eat fishball at the Tangs market but to my utter amazement, Tangs was closed from 5pm on Christmas eve and the entire day on Christmas!). My mum went with my aunties to another aunty's house for a chatting festival cum slumber party.

My uncle brought us back to his sister-in-law's place to celebrate my cousin's birthday. They booked the function room and the BBQ pit at the condo. Unfortunately it was raining, so we settled in the function room. The condo is one of those high-end ones called Shelford-something-or-other in the upscale Bukit Timah area. We took a look into the apartment (a 2-bedroom) - me being professional me sized it up as about less than 1,200 sf. Price - you wouldn't believe it - they bought it for SGD$720,000/- *gag*. For that kind of money, you can get a really large condo with a fantastic view of the majestic KLCC here.

After spending the entire day eating (yeah this trip seems to be more for my tummy - guess that's what happens when the trip mostly involves relatives), my sisters and I finally traipsed back to Orchard. Being too full, we couldn't even try the mocha shake that I wanted from McD's. I showered, packed, settled down to watch "Love Actually" on tv (really good movie that), heard the countdown shouts from downstairs at Orchard, and snuggled into bed.

Monday (Christmas day)
Got up early to bathe, do some last-minute packing and eat chicken pau that my sister bought from 7-11 downstairs (the pau was quite good for a 24-hour store). Then as I was about to step out for my 1-hour trip to the bus stop, my uncle called and said he's coming with my cousin to take us all for breakfast. Yippee! We went to Harbourfront's McD's and had fluffy pancakes for breakfast (yum yum!). Then I boarded the Aeroline from the same building and headed back to PJ alone.

After days spent cooped up with the family, I relished the time alone. I finished the book I was reading "Girl with a Pearl Earring" (great book, I'm going to see if I can find the movie that Scarlett Johannson acted in), watched a bit of "13 going on 30" (great chick flick), and found KF waiting for me when the Aeroline stopped at Menara Axis :) He whizzed me off to have dinner with his relatives (bak kut teh in Setapak) before I finally settled home after a long eventful weekend.

Another long 4-day weekend coming up. With more relatives and more meals and plenty of house-cleaning. KF's due to move in to the house this Saturday! So you see why my days are so filled that blogging's the last thing on my mind? (Haha, yes, I brag a bit).

Wishing everyone a very merry and joyful time of the year and a fantastic happy weekend - it's not every year we get 4 whole days to celebrate the beginning of another year filled with prospects and opportunities and stories to tell.