Power Rangers @ Sungei Wang

Hi! I returned from Singapore last night and now I'm enjoying my moment of peace before I leave again tomorrow. I shall talk a bit about my trip later, but first - POWER RANGERS SIGHTED AT SUNGEI WANG!

I was relieved off my tour guide/tour leader duty today. Some sucker decided it's about time she takes over. I mean, you know how Malaysians are. "Woo! Blonds! Whitie! I'm gonna score BIG to be seen with them!"

True, you score big, but the attention can be annoying. The only sort of attention I liked was the one that made the shopkeeper appear nicer to you. The one that actually made them smile as you leave the store without buying anything. HAH!

Anyway, since I finally got me to myself, I decided to go browsing around and have Japanese food. Sungei Wang is in a real festive mood. They had a big christmasy stage in the center court. Today the celebration was Power Rangers. Since Bandai is holding a booth to sell Power Ranger toys, they thought it would be a cool idea to have the Power Rangers themselves appear to sell the toys!

I was quite impressed at the number of people queuing up for the photoshoot. The ticket for one photoshoot is 10 ringgit. The announcer said it in three languages; Chinese, Malay and English. So I caught all three. And if you ask me, those Power Rangers just look like regular cosplayers. Though cosplayers would take more care than them. I thought the pink and yellow rangers were supposed to be women, but why are they flat-chested there?!

It just felt a little wrong for guys to be in that pink and yellow costume...

But in spite of myself I quite enjoyed watching those kids and the rangers on stage. 'Course, all they did was pose for the photos, but it was fun getting all the attention. I'm a proud person you see, so I thrive on attention. Enough about me. Anyway, it must be tiring for those rangers to be posing for three hours straight. They went for breaks every hour I think. So even saviors of the world need rests eh?

Overall it was a rather relaxing and interesting day.

So, my Singapore trip. It was a seven and a half hour trip on train to Singapore. I went half of the way on reverse because my seat was facing the opposite way. Next time I'll know; on the go trip, pick seats numbers 8 and above. On the back trip, pick seats numbers 7 and below. I said on reverse because we sat at a different place after the train took off and had to return to our original seats when the rightful owners came hehehe.

I spent most of the journey reading a book. I finished it about a couple of hours to arrival so I had no other choice but to take out Sasarai for abuse.

I don't like eating while I'm reading because I don't want to smudge the pages, so after I was done with reading, I reluctantly took out my Rocky. We bought a set of five each the night before. Karol and Nad apparently finished theirs last night so I was the only one munching on it that day. At the same time, I also sat at someone else's place. I was supposed to sit in front of the duo, but I sat behind because there was someone in my seat. So I got the place all to myself. I even talked the guy who's seat I'm in to trade places with me! XD

Nadja bought a sketch book at KL Central. By the time we reached Singapore she had sketched almost half of that book! ...she's also darn good at it!

It was well into 10 pm when we reached our hotel. Karoline said she had got our hotel covered but I didn't get scrutinize the hotel voucher so I didn't realize it until the receptionist told us that our reservation was for 7th-9th December!!! And we arrived at the 6th!! I gave Karol a certain kind of look and she went on to say how it was impossible her friend Jessie who booked it online for them to get it wrong since they discussed the dates a lot. Honestly, about that time I've had it with 'Jessie'. She kept feeding them wrong information about this trip and now she screwed up our hotel reservation.

But no, Karol and Nad, being the good people they are, defended Jessie saying she was nice enough to help them and tried three times to book them the hotel and it was late at night and she was tired and bla bla bla. But that's not going to help our current predicament is it? Since Nad was hinting we'd better not be on the streets tonight.

I was keen on dissing Jessie more for being careless but I swallowed it ((If you can't do things properly then don't offer to help damnit!!!)). There will be other times. So since the check in time is 3 pm, there's no way for us to wait that long. Looking at our dire situation, my two companions were too numb with shock to react. So I asked the receptionist what our options are. He said we could stay one extra night. Tonight. Since it was only $75 a night, I took him on the offer. We got a small twin room and everyone was happy.

I wanted to diss Jessie some more, but I already expected what reply I'd get so I stashed it. A good thing Jessie's in Kuching and they won't see each other for a long while.

Anyway.

The three of us put the twin beds together for the night. Not exactly cramped, but the second night was cramper because it was a queen bed and we almost literally piled on top of each other x. Not very nice because my legs kept rubbing against someone's legs whos hair had just re-grown.

...I can still feel the sensation on my legs...*shudder*

But the days are fun. We actually have only one full day to explore Singapore so I took them to the only place I know best; Orchard Road. It has a dazzling array of shopping malls. My only spoils were a shower gel, the Chronicles of Narnia book (for the train ride home) and snacks (also for the train ride home). Oh and a DVD. But Karol got a lot of hats and pants and other things. Not bad for someone who said clothes shopping was boring :P.

There were a lot of Japanese youths roaming around Orchard Road that day, especially at Far East Plaza where we're at. Those people can't speak English and they spoke Japanese to the shopkeepers.Were they expecting the people to understand?? When a bunch of them came to this cramped little shop where Karol had an extended stay trying on hats, I told the shopkeeper what the Jap boys wanted when they looked so clueless. After that the shopkeeper thought I was fluent in Japanese. I had to make it clear to him I understood them but I don't speak much Japanese. I mean, how hard is it to say '30 Singapore dollars' anyway?

Singapore apparently is a popular spot for Japanese students on school trips. Everytime I go to Singapore I always find at least one group of them either in the malls or at the airport. Maybe it's due to the direct flight thing. JAL goes direct from Singapore to Japan's major airports.

Even when JAL goes to KL it will make a detour to Singapore first before going to Japan.

It should go without saying that Karol gets popular wherever she goes. I don't mind the attention, so long as it's the good kind, like the ones I said earlier. But when people get too friendly I have the tendency to just slip away for a while. Sometimes people say weird things to them that just makes me go "uh..." (coz of course they look at me, asking for an 'interpretation'!) like how an old guy on the train said Nadja has strong shoulders.

Oh oh Nadja has a fan! During one of the stops on the way back to KL, a man strolled about the side of the train and stopped beside Nad's window and peered in as she was sketching! It was funny. Some of the train conductors also stopped by to see her sketch. The attention is fine, but it does kind of make you wonder if you did something wrong at first. sighs.

The next day our train leaves at 1300 so we have to check out early and bring our bags along as we head out for breakfast and roaming around.

Throughout the trip to and back, I got asked a few times if I study overseas. I wonder what their reaction would be when I said I actually study at a dump of a university at Puchong? Another thing that happened often is how people asked me who they are in front of them! I find it a little rude. Why don't you just go and ask them directly? I mean, the moment I mention 'They are from Norway', they understood anyway.

sighs.

I'm glad this sucker volunteered to take them out today. Not that I want to be rid of them, I liked to imagine her babbling away with her bad English with them. I was on the phone with her once when Karol and Nad moved in their condo and man, she spoke like a true KLite! Broken English and 'cutesy' act all in one!

Well yeah okay, I already disliked her before I even spoke to her because she was the one who told Karol that Puchong was not safe and that Old Klang was a good place because it's in-between KL and Cyberjaya. Local or not, the latter alone is just stupid.

Yeah the apartment was okay, but she forgot to mention that there is no public transportation available except for the train which is about 10 minutes away on foot and you can't go there alone. And the fact that the location is convenient if you have a car (like a local)!!!

Pissed me off. If we met we would not become friends. She, though, might claim we're friends, but unless she really impresses me (and I am hard to impress) then I doubt we'll ever go further than 'some friends of Karol's'. People only become my friends when I let them. I hardly become friends with people 'by chance'. As you can obviously see, not everyone can get along with me. I take firts impressions very seriously. So whatever first impressions I make, it is a reflection of how I will appear to a particular person for a long time to come. Unless, of course, they impress me in some ways and make me change my opinions of them.

I apologize :P. It's just the way I am.

Man I was so relieved to be going back to an empty house today after I went out. Funny isn't it?

Ta'ra!

p/s Is it just me or does that guy in Ashley Tisdale's video looks a lot like Oli Pettigrew from Technomax?