A Tiring Family Day....

Wow, this is gonna be a very long blog entry. Read on if you are interested as I have already warned you. Dun complain if you feel that it is very long cos I have already warned you hee! Well, let me re-organise my thoughts as I need to recall back what has happened starting from 8am this morning.

The Beginning of the Day
Was awaken up by a phonecall and I suddenly jumped off the bed. Was supposed to pick my parents and Little Arielle up for the Family Day at Downtown East. I thought I had overslept! Hengz ah, it's not the case. Papa just called to remind me to bring along Little Arielle's swimming costume. Just a last minute packing for her cos I din expect to bring her for a swim over there. It's definitely gonna be very crowded. But well, to please them, I just brought it along. Was a bit late though. Told them that I would be there at 9.45am so that I can go up and make sure that everything that needs to be brought along are included. Papa told me yesterday that we would leave the house at 10am as the early bird draw will start at 10.30am. Thus, we are working towards that target. In the end, I only reached at 10am and I thought that everyone would be all ready to move off. To my surprise, I heard mama's voice in the bathroom and she seems to be talking to Little Arielle. Went up to take a look and alamak, she is still bathing for her! She explained that papa just done her haircut for her and she was obedient today to let her gong gong do the cutting. She din do the cutting earlier as Little Arielle only woke up at 9am+. Was a bit pissed with that as they could have done away with the haircut since that is not very crucial. Well, in the end, we really din make it for the early bird draw. Reached there at about 10.35am to 10.40am and they are already annoucing the results. Oh forget it then!

XP's Games Day
Well not sure why he was so excited when he saw the games stall. Basically those are the typical games stalls that you would see in any other Family Day or Bazzar. Nothing really that fantastic but I saw him queueing for every other game. Hmm, not sure if he is trying to finish off the games coupons that we have cos it's really alot. I think there is say, about 50 pieces of them. And you only need 1 coupon per game. So it means that you can play 50 times! Anyway, XP din finish them all cos he is the only one playing the games. Really seldom see him going forward to play these "game stall" games cos it's kinda of kid-ish and the next killing point is the sun is really scorching HOT. So much so that I can feel my feet burning under it! Ouch that hurts! In any case, he was only good when it comes to his golfing game. Never fails to get a prize when he plays that. But he felt pai seh when he keeps playing the same game and winning it. Thus, he went around to try other games, of course not getting any prize cos all so difficult to win leh!

No Signage
Time flies when you least expected it. Soon it was time for lunch. Little Arielle had her meal first as we almost forgot about her hee. She is supposed to have her porridge at 10.30am but mama only remembered that she has not eaten at about 11.30am, cos I happened to ask what is her next feed time. Luckily she din kick up a fuss, perhaps not hungry hee! Was asked to wash her face towel and her cultery (spoon and bowl) after she has eaten. Went around searching for the silly washroom. Came to a junction with 2 spilt roads and there is no indication of where is the toilet. No choice, had to ask one of the store owners. She just mentioned to turn right once I walk out of the glass door. Alamak, that is the silly junction with 2 spilt roads. I forgot to ask her which one I should take. Was lazy to walk back and ask her cos I felt silly walking here n there with so many things in my hands. Thus, decided to base on my instinct and take route 2. Wat biangz, saw nothing but ATM machines and arcade and no sight of any washrooms. That route is long lor! No choice, gotta U-Turn and there, I saw the sickening signage. Dun noe how they put up signage, it should be located at the start of the route and not halfway in between! If it was indicated just before the spilt roads, I would not have walked the extra distance for nothing! Waste of my energy!

Lunch Time
After taking care of Little Arielle's stomach, it's time to take care of our own. Was initially sitting on the ledge of the pond and thought that we would be taking our lunch there. Today is KFC day cos that's the meal that they have provided for the Family Day. Well, in case I forgot to mention, it my papa's company's Family Day. Hmm for those who knows where my papa is working, you know which company it is. Anyway, going back, we din manage to sit at the ledge cos the rain drove us away. Of all the times, it had to rain when we wanna eat. No choice, have to check out another spot. Right in front of us is the small little KFC restaurant. Saw an empty table and was running towards it. When I reached there, I suddenly felt a pair of angry eyes staring hard at me. Wat biangz, what else but there is this sickening man who is trying to tell me through his eyes that he saw the table first! Come on lah, ladies first mah, basic courtesy he also dun noe meh. I got young (Little Arielle) and old (my 80 years old granny) leh whereas he is only with his wife. Sua lor, dun wanna argue with people. Just gave up the seat to him! Not the least gentlemen!

Got a Seat!
Cheh! Bad luck doesn't always follow. Managed to locate another table outside this restuarant called "Different Tastes." There are altogether 4 big round tables and 3 of them are occupied. Hee hee cos one left specially for "good hearted" people like us! This is a much more comfortable seating arrangement as compared to the previous one that I din manage to get! We dared to sit down cos we saw other people sitting down happily too. Soon papa and mama came back with the food. We start to display our items and before we proceeded to eat, we heard the waitress coming over to another table wanting to take their food orders. XP concluded that if customers sit there and they are not eating, they will allow them to sit. But once, they noticed that you start to consume outside food and using their table, they would come out and take your food order. If you are not ordering their food, you would be asked to leave. Well, on the restaurant's perspective, this is absolutely acceptable and as a reasonable customer, I feel that it make senses. Thus, we have decided to order a few dishes should the waitress approach us. Of course, she would not "let us off". She came to us right after that table to take our orders. We are very automatic. Ordered 2 dishes and a few drinks and we are able to continue eating our KFC on that table! While we are waiting for our dishes to arrive, saw a few other families who tried to occupy the empty table next to us. In their hands, they were carrying their KFC meals and they thought that those tables belonged to KFC (cos 1st they saw us sitting there eating KFC, next, KFC is just the neighbour of Different Tastes). Of course, they were immediately approached by the waitress when they start to open up their food. A few of them were pissed off cos they thought that the restaurant had double standards (cos we were eating KFC there hee hee). Of course, they din know that we are good customers who have ordered their food! There was this particular Indian family who was unhappy when they are asked to leave. Wat biangz, they are in the wrong and still demanded to see the manager! Cannot stand such people. I guessed it must be because he saw another guy sitting at the other table, not eating anything but using his laptop and yet he gets to sit there. In addition, including our table, there is another family eating KFC too (but that family got order something lah ~ stingy one, just a glass of hot barley!). Thus, he was under the impression that he was delibrately being chased away. He kept staring at our table and I purposely ate the restaurant's food in front of him (trying to imply that I got order their food hor!) Apparently, he refused to budge and still have the cheek to ask for the manager! Not sure how come in the end I saw him walking away with his family. Probably, he knows that he cannot do anything anyway! He managed to find a seat at the KFC and I can't stand him staring over in our direction. XP says I am too sensitive. Hmm, probably so!

Popcorn, Kacang Puteh and More Games!
Papa wanna collect the free popcorn and kacang puteh. So, the whole group of us followed him in cos the collection venue which is in a tent, is also where is the centre stage is located is air-conditioned. The place is really big and there are some other games stalls hiding inside there! We decided to spilt up the work. Papa will proceed to queue for the kacang puteh. XP and I will proceed to check out the games. Mama, granny and Little Arielle will sit and watch the stage program. We were hoping that Little Arielle would be sleeping cos it's already past her sleeping time. Well, apparently, she is as energetic as ever! Since Little Arielle is not sleepy, I brought her along when XP is queueing for his games. Wow, these games are not easy as it's a test of your accuracy. Worst of all, they need you to have perfect score ~ 3 out of 3 in order to win a prize. Alamak, already so difficult to get 1 out of 3, let alone 3 out of 3. In any case, he is just playing for the fun of it! Hmm took a while for papa to come back with the kacang puteh. Next, it's mama's turn to queue for the popcorn. Papa took over the job of taking care of Little Arielle. Good teamwork hor!

Rainbow Calligraphy ~ The Killer Wait!
While papa was taking care of Little Arielle and mama was in the queue for popcorn, I went roaming around the other part of the tent and stumbled upon these 2 artists doing the rainbow calligraphy. I suddenly remembered that I had coupons for this rainbow calligraphy. I had no idea what is it about until I saw the 2 artists drawing it. Bascially, what they do is to write out your name (usually in Chinese Characters) in a pictorial manner. Hmm, dun understand what I mean, (see pic ~ to be posted). This work requires one to be creative and colourful. Of course, I will not wanna miss this good chance of getting a piece for my family. As there were 2 artists, there were queues for each of them. One is an elderly old man and the other is a mid-40s female artists. The queue started at 1.30pm. It was not very long, probably about 20 over pax in front of me. I initially queued for the elderly old man as his queue is much shorter. After about 30 mins to 45mins, XP came along and I asked him to replace me while I queued for the female artists. Basically, I wanna see whose queue is faster. I din have my watch or hp with me and thus I am not able to tell how long I have been there. But I know that I have been there very long and the queue doesn't seems to move at all. Shortly, I saw one family leaving the queue as they felt that it was too long a wait. I continued to perserve as I really like the drawing. It was much more unique compared to those silly caricature which always end up drawing the ugly side of you. Worst of all, the person in the pic doesn't look like me at all (always the same experience for me!) Okie, back to the queue, I guessed we were there for about 1hr+ when 1 of the person in charge came over to XP's queue and started to us not to continue with the queue anymore. She said that those people queueing in front each has 10 over names for the artists to write. All of them have been waiting for about 3hours. She suggested us to roam around the vicinity and check out the queue later. One man queueing behind XP was not happy with what the person in charge said. He mentioned that if each of them is taking up so much time, they should limit 1 person to 2 names so that they can give others in the queue a chance for their names to be written. One other lady queueing behind that man and XP felt the same way. That lady then said that she would get someone to look into this and come back to us later. Apparently, she din lor! If cannot deliver, then dun promise! This is one important lesson to learn! XP then saw a lady suddenly queueing next to him. Not sure if she really dun noe when is the queue or she geh geh. In any case, XP tapped on her shoulders and luckily she was "zi dong" enough to move to the back. XP was getting impatient when he saw the queue not moving much. I can understand as I am also feeling the ache on my lower tighs. He wanted to give up as he saw 2 other persons queueing in front of him holding on to 10 over names per person. He felt that it is crazy to continue with the wait. That being the case, I told him to give up and I will continue with the queue with the female artists as I preferred her art work. From standing up patiently until I have no more strength and decided to sit down and wait since the queue is tortoise slow. A few others down the line followed what I did hee hee. It was already 3pm and it's still not my turn yet. XP was nice enough to return back with MacDonald's ice-cream and lemon tea. At least something to do while I'm still stuck in the queue. Unknowingly, it was 4pm. The elderly artist started to walk down his queue and ask those who are still in the queue to leave as he knows that he is unable to finish writing all the names because he would be knocking off at 5pm. Some of them know that they dun have a chance to have their names written and they walked off with a disappointed look. As it is almost our turn, we were not asked to leave. We started counting the number of persons in front of us as they have started to limit the number of names to 2 per persons. Alamak, should have done this long ago right! Then won't kena so many unhappy customers liaoz. Luckily I have already pre-empt this and got my mama and XP to stand in the line cos I have 5 names on hand. As I was doing the count for the number of persons in front of me, I felt quite guilty that I have 5 names cos the next person behind me might not get a chance to have hers written. She did ask how many we have got but she din mention how many she has. Finally, it's our turn after 3hours of wait! Wanted the artist to use "fan ti zi" for XP and Little Arielle's names but she refused as it would be too time consuming for her. So I negotiated to only 1 chinese character for Little Arielle cos her last chinese character "yun" is written in "fan ti" and this is how it is reflected in her birth cert too. Therefore, I want it to remain in that manner. Guessed what the "shifu" told me! She said if that is the case then dun write the surname for XP and Little Arielle's names. Wat biangz! How can leh! Waited for so long and you want to "eat up" 2 chinese characters! I insisted her to write the full name and I want Little Arielle's "yun" to be in "fan ti zi". Finally she relented and agreed to write for me. While I was feeling guilty for taking up time to write 5 names, I overheard the lady behind me telling XP that she has 9 names on hand! Wat seh! Immediately, my guilt flew away hee hee cos I know she would leave the last person no chance for her turn as it's already about 4.45pm at that time. On an average, they take about 2-3 mins to have 1 name written. If that "shifu" is gonna write all 9 names for that lady behind me, it would have past her working hours. Therefore, she told the lady behind me that she can only helped to write 2 names for her cos it would be unfair to the last person in the queue. By writting 2, at least the last person gets a chance to have 2 names written too. Well, of course she is not happy cos after such a long wait, of course you would want all the names to be written. Then the lady behind me starts saying that it's not fair cos that last person cut queue. Then the last person heard what she said and defended herself by saying that she did not do so. To stop the argument, the "shifu" agreed to write 4 names for the lady behind me and 2 names for the last person. Thereafter, she was determined not to take in anymore requests. Going back to the elderly shifu's queue, his situation is worst! He din want to write for the last 2-3 persons in the queue as there were already a lot of requests which he is unable to manage. One of the lady started to scold the shifu saying that it was wrong for him to do that only now when they have been queueing there for almost 3 hours like a fool. That lady happened to be queueing behind XP initially. Hengz ah, XP is not in that queue anymore, else he sure wont get a chance. Anyway, back to that lady, what she said makes sense. If the organiser knows that this is gonna be such a popular activity, they should have either engaged more shifu or they should have limit the number of names per person right from the start. It is indeed unfair to only start doing this when you are left with a few more persons in the queue. As I was queueing in the line, I understand perfectly how they feel. It was really not easy standing there for 3 hours. Think the shifu had no choice but to continue for the last few persons. There was this particular man who is quite cunning. Shifu already said that he is not gonna write anymore for him but he pleaded with shifu and said that this would be the last name. When shifu finished that name, he again tried to use the same tactic. Shifu got fed up and told him straight off that he is not gonna write for him anymore. Such a dishonest person! This ends the last episode of the long wait.it was already 5pm her not being able to have any names written.

Peanut and Ice-cream
While I was in the queue for the silly rainbow calligraphy, papa came over a few times with Little Arielle as she refused to sleep even though it has long past her sleeping time. She is really tahanable! So my papa was busy feeding her ice-cream and peanuts so that she would not be cranky. Got a shock when I saw Little Arielle eating peanuts as this is one of the food item that can cause allergy in young kids. Hengz ah, she din developed any reaction. Else, gong gong shall pay for the medical bills again! I still remembered Little Arielle 1st developed rashes on my papa's birthday. Why leh, cos he went to feed her egg yolk when she was only 9 months old. And where did the egg yolk come about? Cos mama made red eggs for him cos of his birthday and he claimed that Little Arielle was very greedy and kept wanting to eat it! Told him that she can only start to take eggs when she is 1 year old and he kept insisting that it is not the eggs that caused the reaction. Next, he started to say that when we were young, we were already fed eggs when we were only 4 months old. Alamak, how can compare last time and now? Last time, police wear short pants lor! Anyway, din wanna argue with him over this issue. I just told him that if the PD confirmed that the allergy is due to eggs, he would be footing the bill. True enough lor, it's the egg that caused the rashes. Was so sad when I saw the patches on her body. This is something that can be avoided. Luckily the itch was not really that bad. Now she is not allergic to eggs already. Made her try it again when she was 14 months cos there is 1 particular jab that has egg contents. Hengz ah, else I dun noe how is she gonna take that jab. Not sure if it is because of the rashes, Little Arielle doesn't seems to like eggs leh. Hopefully her taste bud will change again as she grows up!

Finally Down!
Little Arielle was finally down at 4pm after a long struggle. This gives her gong gong a break as he was seen carrying her since 10am this morning. Can see that he is tired too!

No Luck!
The long awaited moment has arrived! It's lucky draw time! There were altogether 80 prizes and we thought that we might stand a better chance since we have 5 tickets. Aiyah, in the end, we got nothing at all! Cheh always no luck with lucky draw recently! Give us some luck leh!

Home Sweet Home!
Since din win lucky draw, of course we would be heading home immediately. Everyone had a long day especially with all the standing. Mama also spent a lot of time queuing for that silly popcorn. I think that easily took up about 1-2 hours of her time too! We packed dinner back home and after eating, we brought Little Arielle home. She was quite happy today. Even though she is tired, she is still trying to play with XP. Hahaha of course XP already knocked out liaoz hee hee. Seeing that there is no one to play with her, she dozed off quietly at 10.30pm. What a tiring day....