Spooky Tour with API!

*Warning SUPER SUPER long post ahead*

I left home on Saturday evening for an experience that I would never do on any usual basis. I went for a spooky tour with the Asia Paranormal Investigators! Diana, who is part of their team secured me an exclusive seat on the tour bus for that evening.

I have always found the paranormal to be very interesting in some ways and was obviously intruiged at what I may experience on this trip! When Diana called in the afternoon, I was in the middle of a lazy afternoon nap. Groggily picking up the phone I heard her say "eh! I got you a place on the bus for tonight's haunted tour!" Wah!! *Thank u moley!!! muaks!*

I checked in with hubby that he would be alright if I went and he said "Go lah! Enjoy yourself, just ensure u're not having your period, err don't want anything to be attracted to blood" *Eeeeee!! shiver! Heng heng.. not bleeding*

That evening, after preparing my bag with the needed necessities: Water Bottle, Camera, HP, Mozzie Patches, lip balm, a torch light and throwing on a tshirt, jeans, socks and shoes.. I headed out of my place to take the train to meet her at Dover MRT at 1130pm. She drove past and picked me up and we moved on and I met the famous "Abductboy!" aka Charles Goh, Founder of API. He was a really sweet guy and very friendly! Charles is Singapore's ONLY liscenced Spooky Tour Guide in Singapore. There's only one liscense and he has it. I'm sure he earned it well too with his vast knowledge of the supernatural and his experiences.

Soon after, Charles's brother came, Raymond Goh which they lovingly called "Feng Shui". He also was very accomodating and friendly and he's also a Feng Shui master.. thus the name... ahhhh... *Pam nodding like as if I understand* haahah he also reads and deciphers tombstone writings! How interesting!

Apparently, they all call each other by nicknames *which in a sense may be a good thing esp when you're out on a ghost hunt, you wouldn't exactly want to be calling each other by your real names".

So we headed down to the inner carpark of Singapore Poly where we met a whole group of Singapore Poly students who engaged API for that evening's spooky tour. It was really a full house on the bus. Every seat was taken! I felt priviledged to be there as a guest.

Abductboy was really like a tour guide! He stood in front, introduced his great team and also introduced me as one of his guest photo journalist! Hhahaha kua kua kua... me? Photo journalist! I still waved to the rest of the bus in acknowledgement as if it were real... Halloo!! *beam*

We started off the bus ride watching some videos... mainly videos from the ring and watching Sadako in different versions.. hahaha.. then some famous indonesian pontianak video clip and an advertisement of some child that died after the ad was taken because of a "ghostly" girl that was holding on to him during the filming of the advertisement. *shiver* Moley says is a hoax but stuff like that still make my hair stand.. esp when it involves children. Eeeeeeee!!!!

Abductboy throught the tour ride gave us alot of background of where we were headed, a little too much information for me to remember so I guess if you really want to know, you may need to go on one of API's tours just to get the full information direct from the man himself. You can however, try to google for more details if you're really interested from the list of places that I'll be putting down here in this post.

First location: Hillview Mansion...

Apparently this was one of Singapore's popular haunted mansions with alot of myths and stories surrounding this house.. "Feng Shui" also mentioned a little about the feng shui of the mansion and how it had REALLY bad fengshui... *cannot remember details.. something about tigers and dragons on the land... etc.. etc... really can't remember* I googled some pictures and found that Abductboy once uploaded some more pictures taken at Hillview Mansion itself here.

There are other shots from other locations that can be found here.

When we arrived at that Bukit Timah location, the bus stopped at a very steep slope. I looked up in dread and went "oh my god, so it begins..." and I plodded up the slope slightly wheezing when I reached the top (point to note: aiyohh!! still not fit enough!!).

We were all expecting to see a house but it turned out that there was a landslide some time back and they demolished the house. -.-'' *grumble - how to see haunted house without the house leh??* anyway....

I supposed you can check out the images from the link above which Abductboy took when the house was still around. The gate was still there so I took a picture of that... the gate was grand and huge!.. it must have been nice in its hay day.

There was a side drain leading up the hill and stairs right beside it. Some API team members lead the group up this side path and we hopped over the drain to stand on Hillview Mansion land.

The grass was slippery and it was muddy and squishy but we all stood there basking in the view. It truely had a magnificent view. After telling us a little story and some more details about the place, we all slowly and carefully headed back down the grassy plain to hop back over the drain. I felt bugs and mozzies flying around and immediately started pasting mozzie patches all over my shirt.

Everyone made tiny steps and everyone was mumbling "be careful, be careful". My turn came and I was the 2nd last one in the whole group of people. And guess what...

I had to slip and flump right onto my fluffy plump ass RIGHT ONTO the "cursed" land of Hillview Mansion... ARGHHHHHHH!!! I got up quickly, a little out of exasperation a little out of embarassment.. why only I had to fall down leehh!!... *wails* Swatting my butt and grumbling on the way down the slope to the bus... the night was only beginning..

Next we headed down to Choa Chu Kang Cemetary. Oh man!! CCK cemetary IS ONE HUUUGEEE PLACE!!! Its so big that its literally as far as the eyes can see.. all graves. I silently said to myself that I want to be cremated and not buried when I die. It just looked too gloomy and scary to be lying there for all eternity.. (well, actually not ALL eternity... it turns out that you only have that grave slot for only a 15 year tenure! After that.. u have to be exhumed by your spouse/children/relatives and relocated or cremated...might as well just go direct to cremation...)

What was going on a spooky tour without going into a cemetary right?! We neared the main gate and Abductboy let out a whoot! He saw candles on the gate and he announced " you see the candles there! that means theres something going on tonight inside! " I started to get excited but also a little fearful... afterall.. it was a cemetary we're going into...

The bus drove in. We noted that the roads in the cemetary were really narrow and it was difficult for the bus to manouver, especially since we had a full load on board. We drove about for a short while, slowly while Abductboy told us about the different things we might look out for ie 4D/Toto punters where they would come with a medium and alot of food offering & hell money and choose a grave to pray to for special numbers. Once they chose one and placed their offering, they would light a pathway of candles so lead the spirit to the offering...

We looked around to see if we could find a path of candles and see the ritual for ourselves. We couldn't find it. We looked around for little green tents covering graves and night lights where exhumations were supposed to be taking place.. nothing either.

Then we saw something in the distance.

Several rows of flames, candles and fires could be seen and we stopped the bus to take a look. There were about 20 by 10 tombs that were lit with large candles and there was a medium doing some ritual with the fire. We could see him jumping about and flailing some flags and throwing them into the fire. We all wanted to get closer so the bus moved on..

The bus turned towards the direction of the spectacle and turned a couple more times and then we were lost. The place was simply so huge and dark that we couldn't find our way to those twinkling lights. We looked around and saw a convoy of trucks, cars and even 2 empty taxis driving in. Curious, we waited and there was a joke on the bus where they wondered "why the empty taxis" To drive WHO out?

Soon enough, the trucks drove past us and we all realised. "TANG KIs!!!" A few of them all fully dressed in their Tank Ki tall hats and costumes! Great!! They must be going for some ritual!

What is a Tang-Ki anyway? The name is derived from Chinese dialect that means Taoist trance mediums in general. They are more than being able to perform self-mortification without pain, speak with divine wisdom and perform exorcism. During Taoist divine occasions, these mediums allow deities into their bodies soon after they enter a state of trance. Their bodies then become a medium for the entities to possess. The deities on behalf of Tang-Ki's physical bodies communicate and give blessings to people."

Anyway.. we tried to chase them down and follow them to see where they were going so that we could observe what they were up to.. a few turns later. We lost them....

Arghhh!!! Frustrating can! We all then gave up and headed towards another part of the cemetary where there were little tiny gravestones sticking out of the ground. It was all like little 20 by 15cm numbered granite stones sticking out of the ground.

According to Abductboy, these were the gravestones of the un-named. Those that were not claimed for some reason or another. Many of them probably children graves too.

There was a little shelter where we saw a family. It turns out that the family goes there almost every night to light candles and give offerings to these unnamed graves/souls as a good deed. Sometimes, they bring their children too to light each tomb-let on special days like Christmas or Children's Day to let these un-named souls know that they are not forgotten.

We were inside this shelter where there was an earth god altar and some other prayer stuff. There was also this marble plaque on the wall which "Feng Shui" translated which said something about acknowledging the burial area for the unnamed.

Moley came beside me when we came down from the bus and whispered to me "can you see the little children running around?" I replied hastily. "NOO!" and promptly shut my eyes and silently went EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

She looked around and went "yup! so many little children all around"... I stood rooted to the ground with my hair standing and shortly we both went back up the bus... I am SO NOT GOING TO STAND THERE with little ghost children running around me.

The bus left the cemetary and I tried not staring too deep into the darkness in case I ended up seeing "something" I didn't want to see.

The next location was at Marsiling. On any normal basis, if not for this trip, I would have never set foot into the next location. We stopped by the side of the road and was asked to get down.

The API crew passed around insect repellant OFF and I gladly took it and sprayed it generously all over my arm. *later, I was glad I did because the mozzies were HUGE!!* My mozzie patches cannot compare w liquid OFF on my arm.. hahaha

We stepped past a side drain and into the forested area and walked inwards for about 3 minutes and reached a small clearing. The clearing had several altars. All of different kinds.. from Buddha..to Taoist altars, to Ganesha - the Indian Elephant God.

It was so unusual to see so many types in once place.. there was even an actual staff *kinda like the Triton from the Sea God in the little Mermaid* stuck in the ground and decorated with flowers, lime and offerings.

Abductboy then explained each altar and interesting significances. He then lead us deeper into the forested area towards a tree. As we got closer, we noticed that there was a red cloth tied around the tree and this signified "blood". We saw also that the tree had a face *drawn* and this was supposed to be another indian god named "Kali". Details about her can be found here.


Another point that was mentioned that if you were familiar with the story of Adrian Lim.. the Singaporean Murderer aka Devil Worshipper.. he also used to take children's blood as a sacrifice to Kali... *eeeeeeeeeee*

Okay next... we all headed back to the bus and drove past this road called Neo Tew Road where there was this place called the Abandoned Ghost Town. This place was a row of abandoned HDB flats that is now sometimes being used by the army for internal training sessions.

Apparently this place, isn't very "clean" either. We didn't have the chance to go into this "town" but we drove very slowly past to see how deserted the place was and also watched videos that API once took while on investigation.. clips showing a playground that was moving and playing like as if there were real children playing.. rocking horses rocking and THERE WAS NO ONE. *no one that could be seen on video at least* I guess you can google this place up if you're interested to know and see more.

We then continued on our bus ride and headed towards the Woodlands Causeway where we were told of a secret tunnel that the British used a very long time ago when Singapore was still a British colony. Details can be found here.

This was where we approached this forested area by bus to be greeted by several altars of Guan Yin by the roadside plus several others that lined the road way. Everyone manned themselves with a torch light, covered themselves with insect repellant and we all went on our way into the forested area. It was pitch dark and the only lights were our little torches that lit our path.

Like before, the grass was slippery and the ground muddy from the rain the night before. We trekked up little mounds, down soil patches, through trees. I was starting to wonder why I even decided to come along the trip as it was something I would never usually do on any regular basis.

Trekking through some strange forested area with a bunch of strangers in the dark with a torchlight that doesn't work too well, looking for some strange location that MAY be haunted and wearing a pair of jeans that is too loose that some red ants decided to crawl up and bite my fat legs. *ants in my pants! ants in my pants!!* (smack smack smash!!!) Point to note: wear fitted pants next time. If there is ever a next time.

As you probably could tell, I didn't look too glam smashing my own legs in the semi darkness.

We finally reached it and I stood there to take a picture. It only looks bright here because of my camera's flash if not, we were greeted by a faint outline of the place that our torch lights tried to illuminate.

We all were encouraged to check it out and so we all did. Gingerly.


Stepping down the dark stairwell.. we were warned of potential BATS that may fly about at our heads. OH GREAT. just... great..and LIZARDS...HUGE ONES AT THAT. They were so big they are pretty much 3 times bigger than those at my house! I like lizards... talking to them but huge ones would still freak me out. I did take the time to say Hi to around 3 of them though...

And lizard eggs! They're huge!! I've never seen lizard eggs before! Now I have.. hahaha

There were broken glass EVERYWHERE. Seriously NOT a place to trip and fall. We went down a few flights of stairs.. checking out the delapidated tunnel walls and noticing little toads hopping about then we came to some debris at the end of a flight of stairs. Almost everyone hopped over to see the end of the tunnel but I turned back.. I can jump down but NO guarantees that I can jump back up again.. so I went back up to "civilisation" with Moley, Abductboy and Feng Shui.

When everyone was up, we trekked through the forest till we came to 3 huge pipes. I stared down and realised that we actually had to climb over those pipes! I nearly hyperventilated. I knew my shoes were slippery. The pipes were wet and there was no way I could get past without help.

Abductboy hopped over the pipes and stood there offering a hand. I grabbed it tightly and gingerly stepped on each pipe silently praying "don't slip!!! pam! Don't slip!!". It would be TOTALLY UNGLAM to slip, fall, get stuck between those pipes and on my way down have my head and ass klang against the metal and go "kloonggggggg!!!!". Luckily, I made it. Moley was right behind me and saying "squat!! squat! or you'll not be able to jump down!". I did and I made it. Phew!!! Next thing I look back and I see moley doing a ducky on me. She squatted and waddled over the 3 pipes and jumped down like a pro.. wah!!!! hahaha

We all walked along the pipes till we came to a small opening in the bushes and I realised it was a road and we popped our head out to see our BUS! hahahhaha.. SO CHUN.

Imagine a whole row of forestry and then suddenly u see this.

A steady stream of humans popping out of no where and jumping over the drain. ahahahaha. I could see that everyone was relieved to get out of the forest.

There was one student however who started to hyperventilate for some reason and we all took a while while she was calming down and wiped her tears away.

I took the chance to take some photos of JB since we were right at the causeway. The scene was nice.

And this is us! at 4+am in the morning.. at some weird forested area at Marsiling hahhaa... I look happy because I survived the pipe climb! hahahha Moley just looks sleepy.

The next location was called Devil's Bend located at Old Upper Thomson Road.

It used to be a grand prix race track in the 1960s. Devils Bend proved to be a particularly sharp corner where many drivers met their end. It was believed that the race track was closed down in the 1970s due to high fatal accidents there. It is obvious enough to know where the name Devil's Bend come from. Such a high fatal accident rate has made this particular traffic black spot a haunted place.It was said that some souls of the drivers did not realize they were dead yet. Their souls continue to roam around that particular sharp corner as if they were still trying their best to make it, over and over again...

We drove slowly past this area just to have a look at this location whilst on our way to our final location... Tomb House at Ca Fey Shan aka Coffee Hill at Bukit Brown.

Many years ago before the Gov't changed the road name Lornie Road the expressway was then known as Korphee Hill (pronounced as Coffee Hill). Legends has it that Korphee Hill used to be a coffee plantation with a village nearby.

There was once a young little girl born to a woman who died during childbirth, to which less than a month later the baby girl's grandfather passed away too. Everyone in the village regarded the baby girl as a taboo and a curse to the village.

Everyone shunned her, including her close ones who treated her no better than a servant. The young girl led a very hard yet simple life, toiling most of her life working in the coffee plantation.Many years passed and the young girl grew into her teens. One late evening as the girl was walking through the plantation after a hard day's work, she was brutally attacked and sexually assaulted by a group of male villagers. They abhorred her since the very day she was born.

The deep grudge for her as a curse to the village overpowered them and they decided to kill her in a means to silence their victim. The girl put up a hard struggle but to no avail. Beaten and insulted, the girl swore and cursed the entire village and plantation with her last breath that no coffee was to be ever planted on the land she grew on, nor any references or jokes made about coffee is to be mentioned on Korphee Hill.True enough, not long after the girl's demise, the plantation begin to falter and all growing coffee trees and weeds died.

The whole land became almost barren. Children and adults alike who spoke of coffee died horrible deaths within 3 days of the word Coffee mentioned. Soon, words of the girl's curse spread through the village like fire and everyone evacuated the village as not only are their lives in danger of the dead girl's wrath, their livelihood of producing the country's trade, coffee had ceased.

We stopped by the side of the road which lead to a path and switched on our torch lights. The road was paved with tar and was a smooth road for us to walk apart from the many leaves and twigs. Random graves and tombstones of various sizes also lined the side of the road.

Feng Shui stopped at several tombs to explain why it looked that way and how u read it. Interesting general knowledge. Not something that I foresee being useful to me but still interesting.

We headed down to a place which they called Tomb House. It was not really a house per-say but more of a sheltered area where a caretaker stayed to take care of a particular tomb. A tomb of a man named Tan Boon Cheng.

On our way there, it started to rain so we all ran towards this Tomb House and took shelter there.

It was interesting to see how the caretaker lived. He was truely a poor man with very little material possessions. He gathers rain water to wash clothes, to bathe and to drink too.

There was also an assortment of animals there too!

We were greeted by 2 dogs when we first arrived in the drizzle. Upon entering, we saw he had cages of squirrels too! 5 to be exact.. 2 singles and one family of 3. Awww... He had bottles of fish.. and MANY MANY birds. There was also a cat family living there.

It rained hard and we stood in the tomb stranded. Feng Shui gave a tutorial on how to read a tombstone and it was enlightening to know how much you can tell about a person just by what is written on their tombstone.

Abductboy then went on to tell army stories to interested students while the bored ones started playing Cheee Koo Pak *a hand game like scissors paper stone*

We stayed there till almost close to 6am where the rain started to slow down and some API crew ran to get umbrellas from the bus some way back. Slowly, everyone was ferried out in umbrellas to the bus till all returned and the bus headed back to Singapore Poly.

On the way back.. everyone had the chance to meet one final celestial being.

The God of Sleep.

ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...........

hAHHAH.. everyone excluding the bus driver of course, fell asleep up to the point where Abductboy stood up and announced "Thank you everyone for coming on API's spooky tour!".

I could hear people swiping up drool, mumbling in their half drowsy state as we all stumbled out of the bus.

I stumbled to Diana's car.. amazed that she still can drive and she drove an NTU student back.. drove me back.. and went home.

I was exhausted when I reached home. Peeled all my clothes off, threw it in the washing machine. Did a quick scrub of my shoes to wash off all the mud, took a quick shower and crashed into bed.

I didn't wake up till 4pm that day. Phew! Interesting experience. If you're interested in something like this.. check our API's website for tours and maybe you might want to gather a group of friends to give this a try too!

It costs $15 per head for students and $20-$25 per adult depending on the number of people in the group only!!!! Super affordable lah! I'd pay this for something so unique! Abductboy also mentions that they will be having some new tours in November onwards as they're working with National Parks.. so look out for that! Free one somemore!

--end--

Atkins Update!

I haven't been taking picture updates of myself recently so instead, I'll amuse you with a picture of my baby girl, Eirian which I took on Saturday evening when we were out for our estate's Hari Raya/Deepavali Get-together Concert.

For the record, I constantly put in my weight loss updates to keep track of my progress. I'm another 2kg down to 82kg. *see my Eirian giving me the 2 finger action*

Thats a total of 13kg so far... phew! Now... another 27kg to go.. *alot of Jeans getting relegated to the gifting bag and out of my cupboard.. anyone size 18 needs some comfy pairs of jeans?*

Somehow 27kg doesn't seem so daunting as my original aim of 40kg when I was much bigger some 7+ weeks ago..

Now just... to go on till I reach 55kg..We can do it! Right Lao Gong? hehehe *muaks* ...

Bee Movie

Check out this event coming up on the 11th of November 2007! You can go to www.berriwerks.com for further details! Ticket costs $12 and includes a whole host of activities, lucky draw, a goodybag and a screening of BEE MOVIE! Hope to see you there!!!

Registration is needed and can be emailed to pamela@berriwerks.com

Fathers...

This video made me start sobbing almost immediately. In our hearts.. a parent's heart. Our children will always be loved. Always our little girl. Some parents show their love in different ways, the most puzzling at times are Fathers.

When I watched this, I wonder if my father looked at me the same way when I was born and when I was growing up? Was I a disappointment? Did I make him proud at any time?

I was my grandfather's little girl, My Ah Gong. He died in 1988. I still miss him. His name was Charlie. I always smile when I hear that name. I have fond memories of him which I will leave to another time and another blogpost.

My dad on the other hand.. is also one character who's too much of a man & too proud to show his emotions. I did see him cry once during my turbulent teen years. It almost broke my heart then to realise that I made him cry. He tried to hide it as he walked away from me but I saw it.

My own father shows me his love in the wierdest ways. Perhaps its because its the best way he knows how. He doesn't talk to me much. Actually, he doesn't talk to me at all other than the usual commentary and small talk when we meet. IF we meet.

Sometimes, I reach out for help and albeit being the grump he usually is, he hears me out and when he can or maybe when he wants to, he helps in his quiet ways.

He buys little cartoon DVDs and packs them up for his only grand daughters... my girls. He cuts them strawberries and puts them on little platters when I bring them over. He loads them with ice-cream when I'm not looking because he can give up to 3 popcicles at one go. I find it amusing

When I was younger, the only time I hear him speak is all about my studies. Asking how my results where and giving me lectures on how I have to try harder. *I can now empathise with the frustration of a child who's obviously not trying her best!* I couldn't see it then.

He calls the guys who call me on the phone, GAYS... I think he thought he was trying to be funny. *Ha ha (rolls eyes)* I'd ask "who called?" he'd reply "a gay". Alamak... he was in denial.

He has this thick moustache and when I was small, he'd kiss me and I'd cringe and yell because his hairs would poke into my face... EEEEEEEEEeeeeeee DUWAN u to kiss me lah!! *run away*

He'd spend time with me bringing me to music concerts. He'd never tell me in advance but 1 hour before the show starts at 6pm. He'd ask me to go get changed and we'd drive out, only for me to realise we're heading to Kallang Stadium for a concert. He's buy tickets on the spot over the sistic counter. We'd spend the night watching people who are just too old for me then.. ie Kenny G... or Simply Red ... and then he's drive us both home and I'd crash at the back of the car listening to the radio as he drove home.

So many times then, I wanted to throw my arms over him and thank him for the pleasant evening but I always stopped and just said it in my head. Hoping that he could hear it. Obviously not. Kinda like I was embarrassed. I don't know why. He'd hold my hand out of the car and brought me to my room while I stumbled from the driveway into the house. We'd do the same for movies too. It was a very quiet affair where we just spent time together. Quietly in a very noisy environment. We'd just get something to eat. Watch something. In silence together and then go home. I still enjoyed it though.

I guess thats just how we did those dad - daughter bonding thing then. The way he knew how.

We never talked so it was hard for me to tell him that I loved him as my daddy too. He's still almost a stranger now.. with the exception that I know that he's still arnd.

Its hard for him to tell me he loves me because of his ego perhaps or maybe he's just too proud to say it but I can feel it. I know that he does and I'll take that. I love u D. I know I don't say it much. I do.

Nomin Seafood Steamboat

With recommendation from my favourite galpal, Diana who went on TV earlier this month on Ch. 8, on that food show with Bryan Wong. We made plans to head down to Nomin Seafood to check out the "famous" seafood steamboat.

Being on Atkins, a seafood steamboat is just perfect! Without the rice of course! I've taken some pictures off moley's blog to feature here... (moley.. u dun mind right?.. right?)..

Where to find this place:

Nomin Seafood

31/33 Teck Chye Terrace

For Reservations (Highly Recommended) = 6286 3291.

(Occupying a couple of the shophouses along Teck Chye Terrace,Opposite Paya Lebar Methodist Church,beneath the Upper Paya Lebar Flyover, Off Upper Serangoon Road, 5-10 mins from Serangoon MRT exit B/C)

We had the Seafood Herbal Wine Steamboat which costs $30 (enough for 2 people). When we arrived, I was pleasantly surprised that everything was layed out nicely in a platter. I was a little disappointed at the portions though.. I can definitely eat more than that. But still, I'm on a diet and it was still good.

We (when I say we, meaning CJ and Eirian came too) didn't realise that it was going to be so intoxicating.. When they say Herbal wine, they really mean WINE. The soup stock had a base of 6 types of wine! You couldn't tell that they had so many inside but it tasted good!

At first taste, CJ *the connoisseur of good chinese food* went OOOHH! gOOOD SOUP!... I tasted some too.. not bad!.. so we continued eating and dunking the seafood pieces into the soup to boil up. There were Prawns *which Diana says that when they did the review on TV, they were huge THEN... this one we had were SMALL!!.. how can!!! haha*, a Small Crab *fresh!!*, Straw Golden Mushrooms *something I know my SIL loves*,Fresh Scallops, Fish slices, Frog legs *eww.. I dun like. I like froggies! How to eat them!!*, Sea Cucumber, Slices of Squid and 6 Balls balls of something.. mushroom ball maybe? all which lay on a bed of vegetables.

To order additional ingredients, it costs an additional $18 for another platter.. *I might consider this if I'm really hungry* The soup however is free flow and can be refillled upon request.

Before long.. we looked up from our meal and stared across the table at Diana and Michael (her lao gong) and exclaimed "ehh!! ur faces r damn red loor!! FLUSHED!" only to have them say "urs too lah!!".

Straight away, we denied it just thinking that it was because the place wasn't airconditioned and we were just feeling warm. We whipped out our cameras and promptly took our own pictures and voila! Flushed and Blushed.. compliments of the Seafood Wine Soup! *see first picture* Wah lau... but it was so good.. everything was eaten and all the soup all the way down to the base of the crockpot was drunk.

Definitely must give this place a try again.. and must bring my MIL to try too... they have a "special lime juice" there that I'm thinking that my MIL will absolutely LOVE.

There's not only steamboat there.. even normal cooked food aka Zhi Char style can be found there and they also look very good and reasonably priced lor! *just that I can't eat them now...*

And of course, whats an outing with Shervon without Eirian. These two are even wearing the same coloured shirt and always look foward to meeting each other to play. Eirian loves the fact that she's the big sister for once and that she has a friend in Shervon. They both obediently wallopped down their fried rice and immediately started jabbering with each other with their kiddy language... :)
General review for this place: Good. Must go back and try again one day soon.

Blogskins & Facebook again...

I've been reading alot of new blogs recently and I've noticed that many of them have a really pretty blogskin and I come to mine and I see it and go URGH! boring.. Half considering approaching CJ who is the technical brain on our side to help me find a new one crossed my mind. But I know I'd just be waived away with a glance of an evil eye and a swish of his hand whilst giving me the "u're asking me to waste my time doing what??!" sigh.

Anyone want to create a new blogskin for me? This one just makes me want to rant more and the standard ones on blogger is just so not me. Anyone?

Whilst I am sometimes the graphic designer by trade, thats only using photoshop and freehand for me. Somehow... webpages still escape me and worst still... blogskins?

On another note, Facebook is becoming quite boring after a while. I've added here n there, gave some gifts, re-acquainted myself with really old american school friends from decades ago (just some of the benefits of a widely popular social networking online program)... changed my mood, beautified my page and updated its little bits from time to time.

For some reason, the "social networking" just gets boring after people stop talking to you there. I've seen a couple of galfriends even delete their account on the basis that it seems that in Facebook, somehow 6 degrees of separation doesn't apply. It almost becomes 2-3 degrees apart. How scary to note that the world is now one global village with no boundaries with the internet. For me.. I'm fine.. I'm always amazed at how a program like that can attract so many people and link me randomly to someone I actually know. *Most of them though, who don't really recognise me so I have alot of email asking, Pam! Is that you?* I'm pretty sure that I don't look THAT different or maybe everyone was expecting a really FAT me?

I guess all that hype over facebook is pretty much fizzling out for me unless my contacts decide to revive the place up with some ACTUAL communication. Even a note in my inbox is nice.. I look forward to that ALOT more than checking my profile.

It also annoys me that I've had people add me to their list just to FILL up their profile and never made the attempt to introduce themselves or even get to know a little more about me than wat was written on profile. I'm not on facebook to be a groupie where I turn to my left and go "oh! do I know you?". I want to know each and everyone on my facebook personally and not have them there JUST so that we are part of a group group thing..

Just like actual friends. I'm happy with less than a handful of really good friends that care about me. People who like me for who I am and care about me more than 75% of the time when they think about me. People who are genuinely interested in what happens to me and perhaps join me in facebook to interact on a fun level. I don't need tens or even hundreds of friends to feel accepted and loved, just the few special ones.

I hate getting bitten by Vampires.. I never added this function..and I hate throwing hot potatoes.. so if you have me on your profile. STOP IT.
Send me anything but these 2 because they go almost immediately into my IGNORE list. Í don't have the time to sit there and help you convert ur vampiric persona to become more dead. *rolls eyes*

I like actual communication where I meet up with actual people and just talk about anything we can think about. Where we can spend hours just whining, laughing, emphathising or just talking rubbish. Where I actually give and recieve ACTUAL gifts that I can touch, hold and smell or even eat. (Don't try to attempt to send me a carb laden food gift now, I'll hate u hahaha).

I think Facebook is still a nice place.. I was just hoping that it would have been interesting enough to keep me interested for a longer period of time.. I'll give it a little longer before I give it a boot.

GRO SHOES

Pre-order offer ending at the end of this month! Order your pair of GROwing shoes today! ... more details can be found at www.munsterwerks.com. Check it out! *Click on the image above to enlarge and read up!

A review was done over at molemole.sg over here.

I love the little bits of good news...

Albeit Sunday saw some bits of ups and downs. Downs where I TOTALLY SMASHED and lost miserably at our usual Family weekend Mahjong session.. left oni $2 in coins leh from $40!!

Wah lau eh! I didn't even win a single game can. *grumble* I'm not such a bad player ok hahah I just learnt how to play this year only too.. not bad liao lah..

Downs where I ate too much.. I get grumpy now when I eat too much bc it becomes extra to work off during my diet. I'm currently in a state that I'm just happy that I've lost 11kg. Hubby lost 18kg already.. How different I would look with another 7kg more at 18kg down.. well we'll see how it goes on. I'm still envious.. kua kua kua.

Downs where I feel my tummy still feeling amazingly spongey and squishy.. NOT that I ever had a hard firm tummy but its hard to be on this diet and still have a tummy that feels like jello.

Good news came in the form of 2 emails. Firstly, I finally have my first Nuffnang Ad (look up!! look up!!) and its from NIKE! Fwah!!! Hey people.. support support leh.. Click on the banner when it finally appears. It's only on for a week from 27th Oct - 3rd Nov 07. haha I need the money to buy food and new pants. Protein Food is really expensive compared to carbs filled ones.. ie just chicken costs alot more than buying chicken rice. And my pants don't fit well anymore.. -.-''

Another email came in the form of a progress update from the marketing manager of that wellness/slimming centre that has proposed to perform a "before/after" transformation on me. YYYAAAAYYYY!!!! I'm that much closer to them confirming this deal.

I know I've released this info to only a handful of my close friends but I'm just so excited! Help me keep your fingers crossed~!

As you've noticed, I haven't named which one it is and once its confirmed, IF they confirm it. I will surely link them up here on my blog. A couple of days ago, she called to ask if I can commit a 5 day a week treatment for 3 months straight, 2 photoshoots and a TV appearance.

Of course I said Yes! Like I mentioned, this is a once in a lifetime chance and this is the 2nd time this was offered to me. The last time was with Cenosis, I can name this centre now because I already had to reject it then due to work commitments some years back. This time, hubby had given me his blessings to hold the fort at the studio whilst I'm off for my treatments at this other place... *love love*

Another one of my galfriends offered to pass me a couple of her Kitz leaf Humidifiers plus 8 bottles of room esssence for a very minimal token sum. Wahhhh!! Good news leh those room essences are damn ex.. I love those leafy room deodorizers.. they make each room smell SOOO good. And knowing the very "yau gui" (hungry ghost = greedy) me, I'd like to snap up her offer up soon as soon as hubby agrees. Thank you Janet!!! *muaks*

Another week to come soon, I hope business picks up soon.. anyone need creative services for design & print? Event management? Gifting? We do that you know! If you know anyone who might need these services.. call me!!

Also, my GRO shoes need more exclusive distributors, so if you're a stay at home mom, or even a working mom and keen on a sideline. Drop me a note with your email address and I'll send you details. Rest assured that our incentive can be quite attractive in the long run.

Finally 84kg!

Its been days to finally break out of this plateau! 12 days to be more exact. Wow! Sooo long!
Finally did my run again today and weighed in at 84kg.. I hope this is another break and it will continue to drop more till my next plateau and I hope that doesn't come soon! It has been pretty frustrating!

On another note, my pants are finally lose enough not to unbutton when I need to pull them off and thats a GOOD SIGN! Soon, I'll either have to buy suspenders to wear them or I'll have to donate it to someone who wears a size 16-18. Anyone? They're well loved jeans... :)

More updates soon! And Hubby decided to check out my blog finally one day when I was out and he complained that I have alot to complain about! Wah!! Isn't that what this blog is for? To keep me sane lah! ...... kua kua kua...

Hari Raya Weekend coming up! Selamat Hari Raya to any of my readers who is celebrating! Bless u! *hugs*

Point to note: I've noticed an increased in readership on my blog lately, most of you I noticed don't leave me a comment or note in the chatbox to let me know who you are! I would really like to know.. so lurkers.. come out and say hi... :) And welcome to my world.

I have another child.

No. I'm not pregnant.

But I realise that I have another child. No. Its not Lauren Sim. Its not Eirian Sim.

Her name is NOTME Sim. It must be my 3rd child because she is always around when I get worked up. I take it that its probably a girl because my girls play very girly games like masak masak (cooking) and dolls and dress up alot and they play really messy!

This little girl, NOTME is quite a pitiful one. Everytime I come roaring into the room where I see milo spilled into the toy box and say "who did this!" - Both my girls will turn on an innocent face and retort "NOT ME!".

I walk into a play area and see tiny bits of shredded paper like snow and I realise that they shredded some important office documents and I roar: "Who did this! Better own up! NOOOW!"

And as expected, my 3rd little one gets it again. Both Lauren and Eirian shouts "Not Me!"

I will look around with my pulse throbbing at my neck and my face turning red with fury.
Notme! Notme again!

I walk around the room looking under pillows to "search" for this child named Notme and count down from 10.

When I reach Zero, I expect that someone owns up to the offense that I found or BOTH gets it from me. "Gets it" ranges from the simple smack to serious disciplining depending on the offense.

Perhaps one day I'll find my 3rd child, Notme. Esp since my girls have been so confidently giving the blame to her.

Is Notme in your house?

85kg and going..

Just a little HELLO from an 85kg me. *as you can tell, pictures from my hp doesn't come out too clear... perhaps I'll have to consider looking for a proper camera*

30kg to go.. I've been at this weight for about a week again but it'll break soon. 10kg is nothing spectacular, perhaps 20kg down would look better but I'm not giving up.

Don't let the face decieve you that I'm smaller than I really am.. those who know me in real life know that I'm still a really HUGE lady.. but just getting better as the weeks pass by.

Thank you to all who have been encouraging me so far! *love love* You all are precious.

Lizard Love

I totally love good advertising and I love it even more when it contains animals! Coming from an advertising background and of course working in places like the Institute of Advertising, Singapore some years back. I encountered many an amusing ad throughout the course of being in this line. I specially like ads from India and Thailand. They're in their foreign language but somehow the storyline always seems to get through and I still get it! Its hilarious.

This particular one is about some plywood ceiling. Its so dramatic but I thought it was amusing enough for me to go "aWWWWW!!!".

For this ad, I liked it particularly not because some people call it lame but because it has lizards. Lizards are my friends. Hahahhah! I know some people are either rolling their eyes or just going EWWW!!

But its true! I don't handle them of course but my home has a couple of them in different parts of my home. I don't mind them around and sometimes I even talk to them. Especially if they're in the kitchen when I'm there. There are 2 that keep me company when I wash dishes.

For some reason, those few are not afraid of me and even stay still and stare at me with their beady eyes like as if they understand what I'm saying. *yea, its all in my imagination but I like to think they do understand me sometimes*

I talk to them about anything that comes to mind, sometimes asking them how they were and warning them that if my MIL or CJ finds them, they're totally dead. I've had a squeaky response to some of my questions that I find thoroughly amusing!

Unfortunately for at least 5 of these lizards, my MIL found a new lizard trap where they get attracted by a sweet pill and inevitably get stuck on this sticky paper on the way there or whilst trying to escape. She caught at least 5 of them and I would wail in the morning and go "oh no! My friends!" and she will let out an evil laugh...
"bwhahahahahaha" and chuck the lizard traps down the chute.
*pam wails - NOOOOOOOOOOO*

Anyway, I believe my kitchen pals are now in Lizard heaven. Esp. the one with the 1/2 broken tail. One of them was called Lish and the other was Shard. They're both gone, I guess they were dumb enough to get caught.

I saw another lizard and my MIL saw it too.. I guess that one's gonna get caught soon too.. sigh.. Run Lizzies! Ruuunn!! My MIL's gonna catch u!

What do Flies like?

My impression of a Termite Queen... part of my sketch collection

I'm highly amused at the discussions Eirian has with me each morning.. the other day, she asked me "mommy, do Ants have mommies?" in all certainty so *baffled n stunned me* went on to tell her about how each ant colony has a Queen Ant with big wings and that is their mommy ant. She's pampered and all the little worker ants make her feel comfortable and feed her to make her feel happy and she makes more little ant babies.

She was satisfied with that answer and skipped happily to school.

This morning, she asked me... "What do Flies like?" And as usual, the stunned me went... huh?"

"Plants? or Fruits? What do you think? What do u think they like?"

Eirian goes "meat?"

I say "yep! they like meat too! Food!"

Eirian then goes "children meat or mommy meat?"

Pam : ...... *brain feeling a little hot wired and not connecting*

Then I go "whats children meat or mommy meat? Which one is better and whats the difference?" (already highly amused)

Eirian says "I think mommy meat, mommy meat tastes better."

Then she skips off into the childcare centre while I stood there.. stunned & puzzled again. Wondering why she keeps on asking about bugs and what this fascination is all about! I hope she doesn't start liking them anytime soon because I can't take bugs.

But.... Mommy Meat? ......''-.-

Weird Children Dreams and the Crazy Kid. (me)

There are times when you think back on your childhood and go "damn! I was such a dumb ass!" Stupidity in its highest! What was I thinking?!?

I related a story some nights ago to Lauren while we were on a stroll. She was telling me about what happened in her dreams lately and some of them can get quite unusual about Aliens and other weird phenomenas. It becomes an interesting topic and a particular one of my old childhood dreams came to mind.

Why I decided to tell her that dream was because I wanted her to understand that what happens in Dreams doesn't mean that it SHOULD or CAN work in real life. Where in your dream, you could have super powers but in real life, flying past a building is not an option unless you're in an aeroplane.

The only thing I don't quite understand is why I can get so "useless" and "powerless" in my dreams. ie. when I'm supposed to be running fast and putting in extreme effort to pick up the speed, my dream sees me walking in snails pace. My mind says, RUN RUN RUN! I'm panting and wheezing through the effort and my body refuses to move properly and goes in opposite of what I will myself to do.

Wah! Frustrating can! *rolls eyes*

Or when I'm executing a punch or a slap to someone I hate in the dream. My arm feels the strength, my whole body convulses and tenses for impact and when my hands make contact with the offending face. It does a mini.... "piak" and slaps the person with the strength of a feather swishing past his/her cheek. AARGHH!!!!! So retarded.

Anyway, back to the story to Lauren. I had this re-occuring dream when I was younger, ie under 6 years old.

Warning: If you are easily queasy, don't read further bc you might get nausea. *I already feel it now and it was MY dream*

In the past, I used to sleep over at my grand parent's house at Serangoon Gardens during the week or some weekends and their bathroom and toilet are separate rooms. In the old style of semi-d houses, the bathroom drains were not like how it is now where you have it on the floor with plastic drain covers.

Previously, it was a hole in the wall and it terrified me so much to the point that I was paranoid about peeing or shitting on my own! *shivers*

I'd imagine hordes of cockroaches and bugs swarming in the toilet and sometimes, there would REALLY be feelers sticking out of the hole when a roach decided to attempt to enter the toilet. *screams and runs out of the toilet with my panties at my ankles. Who cares if I was bottom naked! Its a COCKROACH!! Ruuunn!!*

I wasted ALOT of tissue rolling them into little balls and stuffing them up these "holes" in the wall drains just so that I could attempt to sit on the bowl in peace without fearing that some bug would come crawling out.

Anyway, in my dreams, I would be a lilliput person, a really tiny miniscule person and I actually lived in the "hole" in this toilet as my home. I had a job and it was such an unusual one.

I was an ASS CLEANER. ''-.- *

Why I has that kind of SHITTY job, I don't understand *pun intended*

I would be armed with a bottle of lysol spray (surprisingly, its also a perfect size in proportion to me as a tiny person that I could hold it in my hands).

I could also jump immense heights. This was useful to me because I had to jump from the floor, right INTO the toilet bowl to do my job. *I still can't believe how retarded this dream was, seriously now, WHAT WAS I THINKING!*

I also had the powers of sticking to the sides of the toilet bowl, just like how Spiderman would stick to the wall. Any part of my body can stick to the porcelain like glue!

What would happen is that, a warning would come to me in the form of footsteps of someone wanting to use the toilet and I would prepare myself with my Lysol spray and leap into the toilet bowl and wait for the bare NAKED ass to come hovering and plonk itself ONTO the bowl.

With me in it. *argh!!!*

As with any other toilet business, the person would begin his/her shit and lumps would splash into the toilet water and splash against me with a whooosh! *just like how a car would splash u when they drive by at high speeds on a rainy floody day*

Sometimes, a gush of wind would fill the space I was in which literally "blow dried" my little self.

This of course being, what people lovingly call, a FART. Or an Angel Whisper.. *I don't know what kind of Angel some people listen to at night to call it this, but I imagine my angel, if I have one, to have a gentle calming voice and not one that sounds like gas emissions. Perhaps you are facing the wrong side of the bed and facing ur partner's ass instead?*

So the next thing that happens, is that I look up to see the bare ass wiggle to signify that it had completed its business and I prepare my Lysol spray and press it with all my tiny might and Whooooosh!! The spray disinfects the giant ass and just like how the Alien space ship rumbled and moved away from the sky in Independance Day, the "disinfected" ass gets up and out of the toilet.

My job is done, I leap out of the toilet and run into the hole in the wall to wait for the next "customer".

Dream over too. I wake up at this point. How coincidentally it must be too that each time that I COMPLETE all the sequences before I wake up. Hmmn.. great. Just. great.

The stupid part comes in here. Being a young child and having heard my mom telling me that Lysol kills germs on EVERYTHING and makes it clean! I really must have believed that because one day *while I was awake* and enjoying my daily stint in the toilet. I found myself staring at the Lysol can and reaching out for it.

Guess what happened next.....

.... I SPRAYED LYSOL ONTO MY ASS.

THINKING that the dream must have been real and Lysol can really disinfect even my shitty ass.

Boy! Was I in for a surprise. The Lysol BURNED my asshole and my ass and I lept up swatting my butt in attempt to ease the "fire".

As I hopped, squealed, flapped my arms and smacked my ass, I attempted to skip out of the toilet and into my mother's arms.

I was sent to the nearby clinic with a flaming red ASS, a laughing mother who pretended to look serious at me when I peeked at her through my tears. *wails*

So the gist of this is, what happens in your dream doesn't mean that you should or could do it in real life. Common Sense would have it that you shouldn't be spraying chemicals up your ass, plain water will do to clean ur butt but to a 5-6 year old with weird dreams like mine. It would very well be real to me at that time.

Lauren couldn't stop laughing at my rendition of this dream and I in my own "trying to be serious and teaching u a lesson" kind of face couldn't but help crack up in laughter too.

What a weird dream and what a crazy kid. I'm glad I passed that stage. I hope.

Oh No! Mistake!

While I was happily gobbling down little teddy bear shaped jellies... I referred to my Carb counter and saw that GELATIN has NO carbs... so I was happy.

Only to realise this evening, when the craving struck me to want to make more jelly that the Agar Agar Jelly that I was scoffing has 9.7gms of carb per 12gm serving and THAT didn't include the sugar that was added to the making of the jellies. *dropping the pack and standing there stunned*

FARRRRRRRRRRKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!

*faint* I'm so disappointed that I won't be able to take Jellies anymore. I thought I finally found a treat that I could take more regularly.. it turns out that its another no no for me.. I'm sad! I loooove Jellies!! *sobs*

No Jeh lee... Jeeehh Leee..... *note to self: must be disciplined.*

*Pam whispering to the jelly packs: "I'll see you in December."

Atkins Update!

Every time I step on the scales, my heart skips a beat as I look down and blink a couple of times to check the scale.

The scale showed a lovely firm 85kg. (whooop!!!)

Thats a total of 10kg can!

I can't believe that I'm now 30kg away from my target! WhoooooooT!!!

*Cheers!* You've got to go on Atkins to believe it.

Atkins Food to drool over..

And who said going on Atkins is difficult? Not when you have food like this! We ate till we almost exploded and the next day I weighed in my base weight and I'm still 87kg! So good okay!

Now grab a pail and drool... and u're welcome to start licking ur screen.. I might just do that.. hahaha.

Moley's Cheesy Prawn Mushroom Tuna Casserole. *its just so good*

My chipolata, cheesy egg roll, lemon fish and cheesy hotdog kebab.

Agar Agar in various cute shapes!

Grilled Lemongrass Chicken Wings!

Not a wide spread but OH SOOOO GOOD! And this is just the first! The next Atkins inspired potluck at my studio is on the 21st! Don't miss it! For those who are interested, I've invited you on facebook or at M4M or on msn. You can leave a comment if you're interested!

Another Atkins inspired Potluck & Clothes Swap Party coming up on the 21st of October 2007.

Try to come and RSVP by comment so that we can do a head count! Limited to 15 people only.

Please feel free to bring your kids. Prefereably without hubbies as it can get quite girly.

Prefereably for those keen on going on Atkins, or want to start. This would be a good starting point. Potluck food must be carb free and enough for 15 adults.

Clothes & accessories must be in acceptable condition for the swap. Time to clear out your cupboard for those pieces that you never wore, seldom wear or just can't fit into and bring them to the party! Adult clothes & accessories only please. No Kids clothes swap.

See you on the 21st! *running home to rummage in my clothes cupboard... *