Thursday, May 03, 2007

long weekend (and this is a long entry)

i took an annual leave on monday 30th april, while wesak falls on labour
day.
so it was a long weekend starting from saturday 28th April, thru wednesday
2nd May.

went back to plentong as usual.

bad things first:
friday evening. it was a very long stretch of traffic jam southbound PLUS
highway. on THREE separate segments.
first was on the way to sg besi toll. it took about 1.5 hours to get there
from puduraya.
i have no qualms about it, for i'm not the one driving the bus. besides, i
had the evening sun as my aide reading my book.

second was the usual jam on the seremban-senawang stretch. there was an
accident on the northbound barrier - an SUV climbed on top of it.
i didn't bother to check how long it took us to get through that stretch.
took my sweet time for a nap.

for the third jam - on the radio there was a warning earlier on while i was
enduring the first jam. there's a stall on the plus highway - in tangkak.
the accident was so bad, it blocked the southbound h'way, and plus had to
make a contra flow on the northbound - effectively making a long stretch of
traffic jam to both north and southbound users.
again, i ddin't bother to take note how long (time and distance) it took us
through the jam.
however, i was annoyed with it. here's why:
the news about the accident was heard at 6pm, and we got to tangkak at
around 11pm - that's around 2 hours late.
by that time, there's no more contraflow. the highway is now cleared and
only were little signs of the accident. no problem for cars to speed
through southbound.
and get this: there were police cars, and other officials cars with their
beacons on the side of the highway.
that's the reason why the unnecessary long stretch of traffic jam
southbound - and northbound (although it escapes my imagination as to why
they have to suffer as well!).

i reached larkin 1.30am. pity my dear wife, she waited extra 3 hours at
home for my hugs and kisses.

and so begun the good things:
saturday morning was adam's kindergarten sports day. besides, toastmasters
meeting in mmhe was postponed.
took adam to taman rinting. it was post raining, so the weather was fine up
to the afternoon.
spent a few hours there, and got back home quite tired - from the day
traffic jam the night before, and the boring sports day.
it was more like a sukaneka than a sports day. anyway, i had a good few
hours with adam. although he was not quite fond of the sports day at all.

took a long nap, and did a few work around the house. including my cross
stitch project - finishing up a few threads.

there was a united game versus everton on tv. by the time i switched on the
telly, united were down 0-2. out of nowhere, suddenly i assured myself that
united will pull their socks up and trash everton 4-2. well, actually i
replied with that to zaki's sms. he said united are being trashed.
well, united did turn around - in half an hour. o'shea scored one, and i
sms zaki - okay, three more to go. ronaldo being brought in, and that's a
good sign. another goal belted by united, and they're level. another sms to
zaki - 2 more to go. soon followed by a winner by rooney - and yet another
sms to zaki: 1 more to go (of course, no reply from him). in went chris
eagles, and he scored one for united. and that was during the end of the 90
minutes. and i smsed zaki. by that time, he got bored with my smses and my
prediction.
damn, i should've entered the nokia scoreboard game and win something from
espn. only 2% predicted such result.
anyway, what a bliss... great game, marvellous turnaround.

marsya had been pestering for weeks to bring her to the local club swimming
pool.
sunday morning we went to de'stella water theme park in starhill golf
resort. it's in kempas area, on the way to seelong (towards senai airport,
using the old road).
the rate should've been RM13 for adults and RM7 for kids below 12 (free for
below 4), because it's a sunday.
well, the cashier told me it's only RM10 for adults and RM5 for kids.
happily i paid RM30 for the four of us.
the place was quite impressive.
there was a massive pool with artificial beach, and a big wading pool with
two water slides.
i liked everything about the place. it is well kept, and quite clean. one
thing they can improve is the toilet.
the thing i liked best was the water slide for the massive pool. quite a
long stretch, and you don't have to pay extra for the buoys. yeehaaaa!!!
marsya was a bit reluctant at first, but only for the first ride. after
that she was game for few more.
well, adam spent most of the time on land (he's not fond of water).
when the three of us asked him to join us in the pool, the 5 year old said
"i want to relax...". hahahaa...
i think we had a good few hours there. and definitely we'll be back
insyaAllah. now i know where to recommend people to go in jb.

we had lunch in larkin. nearby the fire station. naza brought us there to
try kacang pol Haji. it seems that it is famous, but i've never known about
it. what i do know is that the most popular kacang pol in jb is at wisma
persekutuan. i'm not that fond of kacang pol, but the ABC there seemed like
famous.
turned out that the ABC is quite mediocre, and kacang pol is like chili con
carne. and so i explored.
anyway, one more place to recommend people to sample food in jb.

monday was a school day for naza and marsya.
and it's april 30th - the last day to submit income tax form (and payment).
yes, i procrastinate when it comes to submitting the tax form.
i drove naza to school, and went to lhdn jb next to angsana.
turned out there were many more procrastinators. well, we have our own
reasons (yeah, right...).
i went in to submit the hardcopy form (borang BE), and suggested by the
officer to do it online (eFiling) instead.
so i took a queue number for my PIN (took me only 10 minutes), and another
queue for the eFiling (took me another 10 minutes).
filled in the necessary fields, and after 5 minutes, it's done!
i even have the softcopy of my forms copied to my USB flash memory.
the officers there were helpful, and the system is quite good. of course,
as it goes to everything else, the initial nudge is quite a hassle -
getting the PIN part. you can't get it online via web, email or sms. you
have to take it yourself in lhdn offices (the same with EPF online system).
anyway, i was a happy man early in the morning.

went home, did a few stitches on my cross stitch, and went out to fetch
naza after zuhr prayers.
we went to jalan dhoby to get traditionally baked buns. it was good,
although quite expensive compared to the normal packed buns as you could
get from supermarkets or local sundry shops.

6pm, went out again to school to fetch marsya. massive jam in permas jaya
and bakar batu, i decided to take the jalan tebrau route. no luck, also jam
there. with traffic lights.
7.30pm reached home. and poor marsya, she dozed off.
i guess i was tired too. lots of driving throughout the day.

tuesday - labour day.
did some work around the house, and went out to pasir gudang to send azah
my shoes to be brought back in kl, while fetching my ceiling lamp from her.
we went to pusat bandar to repair my watch. and sat for a snack - cakes
(plain butter cake with strong colours) and drinks. i'm not fond of those,
but the smell of the cake brought back memories of my childhood hari raya
days.
on the way back, we wanted to go to the newly opened tesco sri alam, but so
were virtually everyone else in pasir gudang. we cancelled the idea, and
instead went off to see showhouses in sri alam (what else, on an
afternoon?).
that evening i went back to kl by bus.

wednesday.
went out to pwtc - kl international book fair.
this, in my next entry.

whew! i warned you this is a long entry.