Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Stretching the dollar.
Last Saturday, I was in JB with Hil, Hermie, Gab, Gerri and Vetha. It was my maiden journey out of the country without my folks. At first, I had a sick and insecure feeling in my tummy because my parents were always around to look out for me. Of course, the day progressed with so much of fun and enjoyment that I soon forgot about my reservations and fears. In fact, I was rather liberated. Being in a foreign land without my parents, hmmm...that's a nice thought.
Anyway, I shall attempt to narrate the day's events to you. Being typical Singaporeans, none of us brought our cameras along due to 'kia-si' reasons, so pls try and close your eyes and picture the events (and food!) as I describe them. Enjoy!
To begin with, the checkpoint at JB was a killer. It was hot and stuffy and we had to queue for a good one hour I think. So once we were over to the other side, we wasted no time at all. We headed to Pizza Hut for lunch because Vetha was singing praises about how deliciously cheap the pizzas were. To Hermie's credit, well, he was a convincing salesman for KFC too, but we weren't exactly in the mood for finger-licking good chicken that day. We ordered a combined set which came with Hawaiian and pepperoni stuffed-crust pizzas, 12 spicy wings, 2 pitchers of ice cold Pepsi, a plate of breadstix and soup of the day for everyone. Turns out that each one only paid 20 ringgit eventually, which works out to be less than 10 bucks over here.
After a satisfying lunch, we headed over to City Square to buy movie tickets. While the boys wanted to catch a horror flick, Gerri and I were in our laughing mode. We eventually got our way and watched 'Big Momma's House 2'. It was an ok, ha-ha film I guess, nothing spectacular. But it's fine with me because we only paid $5 for it! Ooh, I'm so loving it.
After our movie, we were on our way to dinner (It was by now, 7.30pm) when we stopped over at a pushcart stall selling sunglasses and specs. Hermie, Vetha, Gab and Gerri ended up buying funky pairs of "Oakley's" while I settled for a nerdy black frame (which I brought back to Singapore to add the lens). Here's the joke of the day: For the 6 items that we collectively bought, the salesman was contented to charge us RM55 for it. Then, Gab opened his mouth and this is what he said, "Uncle, 60 dollars can or not?" We all turned and looked at him and burst out laughing. Instead of bargaining, that goondu went to de-bargain. Of course, he claims that he heard the wrong thing. Well, whatever!
Happy with our buy, we made our way to a seafood restaurant near the outskirts of JB and this is what we ordered - Black pepper crab, chilli crab, butter prawns, sambal la-la, you-tiao with mayo, scrambled eggs with onions, deer meat, sambal kangkong, kailan with oyster sauce and rice. Here's the best part - We paid S$15 each. Woohoo!
And just when you thought our day has ended, well, we headed over to play snooker! After a random straw pull, we divided ourselves into 3 teams. Hil and I are Team 'Just Hot' (our initials!). Hermie and Vetha are Team Black, for obvious reasons. Gab and Gerri are Team 'G-string'. They also happen to be the losers of the game. Oh well, can't blame them, poor Gerri, with a goondu like Gab on the team, it is impossible to win anything. No points for guessing who won the game though! =P
So ya, after a nice, memorable and food-filled day, we finally came back to Singapore at around 12mn. Next stop...KL! Ha...just kidding...
Posted by Jo at 9:27 AM
