Greetings from Alediade!

Ha!Ha! Here is Kaledoscop3 holding a city map and touring the city of Adelaide!

The indianboyfriend was asked guess the name of the building and think he guessed rightly.

It's the broad way to destruction! Ha!Ha! Wondered if Kaldeoscop3 wandered in!!! She returns to Perth today.

Coming back to Singapore, the good thing about a neighbourhood pool is not only the distance and entrance fee. On some days you are the only one swimming there. But not so fun - must have a few people to knock into.

Back to Cruise tales. Here is the sun deck to eat sea wind. We got welcome cocktail but did not know that the Mediterranean buffet was opened all the time before the ship sets sail. Hmm,.. ate nasi lemak at home instead.

This is the picture of our cabin.. not the biggest but it was comfy and viewy.

And mybakuteh is enjoying our daily ice cream treat on the top deck ice cream parlour.   Cost is okay - it is about $7 per order which is also the same price for fresh fruit juice all over the ship. The $200 credit makes all these little snacks free of charge!!!

And this is the ship we sailed in at the Cruise centre before departure. Our cabin is one of the little pigeon holes on the side. Ha! Ha! You need to learn a few terms like portside, aft etc to move around.

Today is Thursday and it is Da Qiang Day - we are going to Raffles Town Club for their western lunch special. They gave us a promotion card - buy one and get one free. Again a free meal as we still have lots of vouchers. Mybakuteh says take train to Toa Payoh. Goodle says change bus  but she prefers to take Sarge Wen's Bus number 320!!!

Enjoy.

Red Sails in the Sunset...

Ha!Ha! Eat sea wind in the glow of the sunset. Actually there is not much breeze and if there is any it is rather warm. So it often means running into the cabin to blow air con.

This is the evening as we approached Phuket. Almost all the ship disembarked as there were about 20 tour buses waiting. And the landing time was from 6 pm to 2 am. People are just paying high prices and rushing to see the Simon Cabaret or Phuket Fantasia. Those who are less adventurous shop at the rows of stalls set up on the ship landing to trap the tourists. As for the indianboyfriend and mybakuteh, Phuket will be another separate trip. For once the ship changed from Bollywood to Ghost town and we enjoyed the quiet. When we awoke, the Ship was already cruising on high seas!!! By the way you need not use your passport to land. The boarding card is acceptable! But if you are left behind, big trouble as your passport is in the ship!

The top deck is large. You can jog round it and pant breathlessly. There are basket ball courts, mino golf but the only area used is the little swimming pool or the buffet area.

Ha!Ha! This is the Gelato Ice cream shop we visited everyday. And the banana spilt. All our desert treats are free as we have been given credit in our boarding card.

Today is Midweek and the pool is closed on Wed morning. Oh Yes, went to church last Sunday and met a member lady who wanted to rope us in for the cell group. Where do you live? She asked. Oh it's near the swimming and you must go swimming everyday... Well is this prophency in action??? Ha!Ha! But cleverly we frustrated her attempt to corner us into the meeting.

Have a great day!

More Cruise pics

Ha!Ha! Having as nice breakfast next to the ship's window.

What we like about the breakfast is that is table service. No mad scrambling for the ladle or serving fork. But the quality of the food was only so so.

This is the mediterranean terrace where the breakfast is buffet. Funny thing is that everyone likes this place. It is also Bollywood meals as vegetarian is served here. This place is the top deck and it serves, breakast, morning tea, afternoon tea, dinner and midnight supper. Maybe all they do is just to retrieve the uneated food and display them again!

And after each meal, eat sea wind... On the background is Langkawi islands. If you think you are going to have the whole casino to yourself when the crowd goes on shore, you are wrong. It is closed!!!!

In Perth there is the report of another morning storm. Yesterday Yamaha came to tune the piano. The technician says our is one of the oldest piano he has served. Don't see much of these around. Coming to think of it, the piano is about 25 years old!!!

TOTO draw yesterday was 1.5 million. The indianboyfriend's heart stopped momentarily when the first and second digit struck... but alas.. false hope.. they were the only ones appearing. Ha!Ha! just half the fun is in the buying and checking....Haven't seen Mr Teoh for quite sometime... think he went to the cruise with the indianboyfriend and got stranded in Phuket! Now have to rely on his elder brother to visit - Mr Teo Tua Tua!!!!

Have a great day.

Got Proof leh!

We know, we know some of you may be skeptical we have been invited to sit at the Captain's table so we fished out this invitation letter for you to see.

Ha!Ha! This is the lounge area on board where most events are held like cocktails with the Captain. See the indianboyfriend's pose - jiang or not with the statue?

This is the Pavillion which is an inclusive restaurant for meals. The good thing is that the meals are served to you. It is pretty comfy with good window views of the moving ship.  Breakfast is also served to the table and is largely tim sum. You can ask for second helpings but we were just eating too much.

Magnum haunts us everywhere. We found this ice cream palour Gelato that sells Swenson ice-cream. We have been here every day for the ice-cream. This time we opt for magnum... All the beautiful part is that it is all free. We has $200 credit in our card that came with the ticket... but cannot use in Casino!!!
Today is Monday and Kaledoscop3 is in the Arts city of Adelaide. We went to Chong Pang this morning and was petrified to see the hawker centre closed. But heng ah heng ah, it was just for one day spring cleaning. We'll be back tomorrow for sure! Enjoy

Ha!Ha! Cha Tu Tow!!!

To market, to market to buy tua tow... and mybakuteh got half a kilo as it was too much for two persons. Wave the magic touch and chef mybakuteh came up with this!

Jamie Oliver style - serve on the wok.  And market was also fruit buying - this time dragon fruit - five for an unbalievable $2.00.

Read about the big storm in Perth. There are big typhoons now sweeping over Manila and Vietnam now, killing several people. Singapore made it to the finals for the under 16 team!!! But the under 15 have to settle for 3 rd place fighting as they lost out to the italians. Looks like Tony Tan is going to be the next president if Nathan decides not to recontest. Even if he does, Tony will be a very strong contender. Now more of the cruise.

Ha!Ha! The indianboyfriend is smiling because he hasn't started playing yet! If you go on a cruise factor in an additional 50% of the cost for these huli ji. Ha!Ha! Beside the main casino, they have these bandits in two other localities. Go prepared as they are in S$ currencies!!!!

On the way up we wer facing east so we could wake up with the sun rise, and on the way back, we saw the sunset!

With a verandah, we could chiat hai hong every day ( chi hai feng)! You get a funny feeling as the ship glides through the waters. Sometimes you can feel it swaying too. There are more pics of the cruise so stick around.

Have a good what is left of the weekend!

A Lobster Tale

More of the Cruise. There are 5 restaurants on board, three of which are inclusive ( ie free). The other two are Samurai and Noble House. So we started with Samarai. The first course is the Samshimi... Hmm wonder how they keep the fish fresh after they set sail. Maybe they got some one fishing behind the ship!

The second was a substitute for beef. It was deep fried chicken.. very yummy..

And the third was the highlight - Lobster Tail... eat it and you have a tale to spin! Mybakuteh said it was better eaten without the sauce to bring out the taste.

And the red bean ice cream desert. We were wondering what took them so long as we had a magic show to catch. Then we saw the decoration which we were told had to be done personally by the chef

And after the wonderful meal. it was walking around the ship to eat sea wind. This one is taken when the ship docked at Langkawi and thousands of the pax went on shore to Kuah town to find out that lunch on board was much better and FREE!

The indianboyfriend is on the top deck where the pool was. He did not have the courage to dive into the pool or jacuzzi or the water pipe. Just eating sea wind...

Local news... The Under 16 soccer team made it to the finals to day as they beat their opponent 4 -3 in penalty shoot out. When they game started they first led with 2 -0 at half time. In the shoot out, Singapore missed but heng ah heng ah, one of other team moved, and Referee ordered a reshoot and Singapore won. There I told you, football is like the casino,,, it is all luck! Ha!Ha! Went to Chong Pang this morning and had the $5 haircut.. Looked like ready to enter NS again!!!Guess what we are having for lunch.

 Have a great Weekend!

Look who is in Town

Good old Uncle Anthony Tan is in Singapore. He has just return from a visit to Beijing and a week of driving around Malaysia ( Genting and Cameron Highlight included). Looks like there are lots of Mountain climbers! This is his annual pilgrimage to Asia. We heard the good news that both Lukas and Toby are doing very well in life. He told us that he just had a stent implanted in his artery and had a good sense of humour over it. "People collect stamps but I collect Stent!" Look at the pic carefully. It Joo Heng No 4 noodles!

What is unbelievable is that he is still wearing the Great Eastern souvenir watch which I gave him over 10 years ago!!! And the watch is still ticking well - Life must be great then! He leaves tomorrow for Sydney.
Now back to the cruise. The second surprise we had in the cruise was to be asked to dine with Captain Gottberg, a Swedish national.

Here is the Captain's table where there is the special flower arrangement and free flow of drinks. Perhaps the indianboyfriend was selected due to his good looks and maybe what Joab described as chocolaty skin! But where are all the people? We were just too early. On the table were three other couples and they are all from Western Australia! The one next to me are retirees like us and this was his first trip outside Aussie land.

What did the indianboyfriend and mybakuteh do on those four days? Well Movies are free so we went to the movie house and saw two shows. One of them was Yogi Bear! Ha!Ha! There were less than ten people in the cinema.

Oh yes have to confess we bought tickets for the Las Vegas N-N adult show which was shown at midnight when all the children are asleep. It was more of a Bangkok type show and a disappointment.

Stick around for more stories of the Tom(my) Cruise!

Bollywood Cruise

Ha!Ha! Just got back from our first Cruise to Phuket and Langkawi. Sure glad we got the Balcony class as you can lie on your bed and see the ship moving across the ocean at night. The above is a pic of us outside our cabin.

Out of the 1800 pax, 1300 were from Indian - so it was a Bollywood cruise. Something like Little India on the high seas!!!The plus point is you can enjoy indian vegetarian food daily! This has been a lucky cruise for us for two reasons. The first is on the last day luncheon with the Taiwanese Wang Shi Xian, the indianboyfriend won the third Bingo game. It was 2 plus 1 plus 2 out of three rows. Unfortunately there was another winner at the same time, So we had to punch in the numbers to see who is the higher. The other chap got a 30 and the indianboyfriend thought sure gone lah.  But lo and behold, he got a 60! The prize? Unbelievable - a two day coach trip plus Resort hotel for two to Genting! (How did they know?) And plus a CD of mandarin songs by Wang Shi Xian.

And that is not all. Inside the pack is also $20 worth of KFC vouchers!

Hmm and the other reason? Ha!Ha! You got to wait till tomorrow and it has nothing to do with the casino on board if that is what you are thinking.

Ha!Ha! We are now on the top deck on the 13th Floor pretending to be piloting the ship. A sign on the observation dock says that the pax consume 35,000 eggs per week!  Poor overworked hens!!!!
Local news... the under 16 and 15 Singapore soccer team made it to the quarter finals this Friday.  Looks like there is some future for Singapore soccer after all. COE has risen to a high of $67,000!.
Enjoy the day!

Joab's Big Day

Ha!Ha! Happy Birthday to Little Joab. And here he is with his combined Birthday Pressie from the Grand Aunts and Uncles.

Held at Henry's home, it was a night packed with children. Here is a happy family birthday picture. The mee siam was extraordinary!

Here is a solo celebration! Stand up for Joab!!! By the way the cake is more than its usual share of alcohol ingredients....

And here is the nonchalant Birthday boy playing alone before the cake cutting. Funny but he came near the Indianboyfriend and use his finger to wipe against his hand and said - it was chocolate coloured!!! And while we were eating the hot mee siam, the kids were having pizza delivered. The Indianboyfriend asked Ethan for a piece and was turned down with a "NO" for three times. Then suddenly, he appeared and brought a large slice for him!!!Looks like he is making some headway with the kids!!!
At the end of the day, kind Beng Khoon and Siew Mui offered us a ride all the way to our home. And in his sparking new Teena somehow!
Today is Cruise to Phuket Day... Ha!Ha! heard that interent service is 50cts a min on cruise ships!!!!So clearly no blogging until Wednesday at least!
Local news... the tiao lou case turned out to be a 30 plus young lady who rented a room on the 6th floor. The funeral was held in the void deck last night and her picture was displayed. Stories are not clear but we were told she quarrelled with her landlady and then went up to the 12th storey to jump. They say she may not be a Singaporean which is conflicting as the funeral has quite a lot of people around.
Singapore did it again. Its under 15 played against Manchester united u15 as Singapore was Bronze medallist in the OG. The indianboyfriend watched the match last night and got fed up with the 2-1 losing score at half time and went to sleep. And this morning papers reported Singapore WON! The score went to 3-1 but on the last 7 minutes of the game, Singapore scored THREE goals! Hmm.. not bad... but could it be the heat and jet lag that pulled MU down???? Have a great weekend.

Lemon Tree Very pretty...

Ha!Ha! The lemons are virtually blooming at Canningvale. Looks like Kaledoscop3 has to put them in a box and offer them free outside her house! But these lemons are 60 cts each in Singapore.

Look who we met while mountain climbing. Karen Miao and hubby and children Ariel and Kariel. But wait there is one more youngest girl at home. Seems this is their annual pilgrimage to the Theme Park. Heard the good news that Laura is happily married and settled in USA! So the very young and retirees go to the same place for different purposes!

The mountain top sells the most authenic Tom Yam mee fen. It just burns through the tummy. Mybakuteh had the pad thai and it was fabulous. We took a bus back and it took 7 hours to get us to Ang Mo Kio. A pretty good ride for $30 ticket for sure! ( Saw the prices at the mountain terminus - about $40 Ringgit or S$16 only!)

Local news. Tragic news and mybakuteh witnesses the fatal suicide jump at our block in Yishun. She saw the police and the cordoned off tent where the dead body lies. Today is Saturday and heard that Lta Ennoying is hard at work! Have a great weekend thereafter for all!

Responsible Gambling!

Mybakuteh got a surprise when she went to buy TOTO this morning. There was a give away! Two little biscuits with the nice advice "Never borrow to gamble! Ha!Ha! Wonder if they will give out fortune cookies next!

Tried another stall at Chong Pang this morning. We wanted to try yesterday but the lady says half an hour. Look! Six fishballs!!!!

Local news. The jam at the causeway is now unbearable. One traveller said he got pass the Singapore side at half an hour at 8.40 am. and by the time he cleared the Malaysian, it was 4.30 pm. Seven hour wait due to the finger imaging is normal. Then the problem was solved yesterday. Only twenty mins to cross Malaysia side. What happen? The biometric computer system broke down!!!! Hope it stays that way. Ha!Ha!

Today is Monday but it will be a great Day if you think positive!