Ingmar Bergman

1918 - 2007

Pengerang - situated at the southeast of Johor in Malaysia.  Heard it was one of the popular destinations for cycling expedition.  If you want me to describe Pengerang, I would say it's a simple countryside in kampong style.  It's about 55 minutes bumboat ride away from Singapore.  Used to be 40 minutes boat ride I heard, due to the steel retaining walls in the sea for Tekong reclamation works.

My friends and I passed by quiet houses; some with inviting porches in front of the houses, some had dinning tables outside the house which I like. There were even curious kids looking at us, some even happy to shout us a warm "Hello!" doors to doors.  I failed to capture on my camera monkeys balancing on the cables like some cool stunt that lined the road on a particular section.  The 1^st ride to Sungei Rengit was about 15km that took us about 1.5 hours.  Halfway through the journey, the sky started to drizzle and rain heavier and heavier as we proceed on.  Sigh...wish I brought a raincoat with me.  We were drenched top to bottom.  Upon reaching a restaurant for lunch, I couldn't help to shiver a bit with the fans blowing around; hence we had to request them to be turned off before we all get sick. 

One of our friends told us an example of a guy who used to use a big garbage bag and cut 3 holes in them so he could wear them like a shirt in the rain or keep himself from cold underneath his shirt.  It sounded like a crazy idea, but another guy in the group went to request for one and tried it out.  Just before we set off after our delicious lunch, one after another decided to follow this "example", cos' the rain was still pretty heavy.  Then we took some more extra plastic bags to cover the haversacks behind our back.  The restaurant people were kind enough to let us help ourselves.  Soon many of us were in this black garbage bags fashion.  Seriously I tell you, it worked!  But also make sure you have a string to tie around like a belt around your waist so it won't flutter in the wind.

We ride back to the Jetty for another 1.5 hours and passed by the "monkey section" again. 

My friend and I stopped and got our camera ready this time round.  However the monkeys were rather afraid of us and were hiding behind the trees.  So we gave up in the end after I passed her suggestion to lure them with tidbits from my bag.  (I wouldn't want to be surrounded and attacked by herd of monkeys.  Don't even try cos' it's bad for the monkeys!)  Anyway I still snapped a picture of the coconut trees and only spotted a monkey in it after loading them on computer.

On our way back, the sky started to drizzle again.  Glad that we made it back on the boat in time.

It was a relaxing & enjoyable trip.

Caught a plane in the sky when we were reaching the shore.  I love looking at planes.  I wondered where did it travel from?

Seriously a proper warm up is a "MUST"!  I felt alright until my legs started aching terribly at night.  I could barely walk and had to keep rubbing anti-inflammatory cream to ease the pain.  I took so long to wash my clothes that my sister had to help me to rinse them after.  I was "bed-ridden" after my dinner.  No kidding!

Other things U could consider for a cycling expedition beside a raincoat are hat (other than keeping out the sun, also useful to keep the rain off) plus an extra pair of sandals.  Our shoes and socks were so drenched that we had to wear them uncomfortably back to Singapore.  Our set of dry clothes helped a lot though.  Some vehicles travel pretty fast over there, so practice safety and try to keep left on the 2 lanes road.  If you have to stop to take pictures, it's a safe practice to have the camera strap over your hand so motorists passing you for an example won't be able to snatch the camera.  Always travel light.  My big army-looking bag was a tease for the day.  

21/7/07 Saturday  

T-blog seemed to have some problem appearing days ago, hence couldn’t post this up that day...

You know? The most wonderful gift I received today is dad's morning call to wish me happy birthday.  That was his first time and I felt so happy.

I adore highlighters and couldn't do without them at work especially.  Thought of it cos' my colleague brought up about the highlighters today.  He looked at my ‘self-made' purple using pink highlighter over the blue one in disapproval and was keen to show me his favorite purple highlighter in darker tone.  Hahaha... talking about 2 adults chatting over highlighters.  It reminded me of the scene in "American Psycho" where the guys were comparing one another's name cards.  By the way according to the website, "the first fiber tip pen was invented by Yukio Horie of the Tokyo Stationary Company in 1962 in Japan. A highlighter is a fiber tip pen filled with transparent brightly colored ink that overlay a printed word with a transparent color leaving it legible and emphasized. The Avery Dennison Corporation trademarked the name Hi-Liter®, they invented the name highlighter, but they did not invent the pen."

Went to the supermarket today and stumbled upon a pot of plant with white little flowers.  Looked cute, but I wasn't confident enough to buy it home.  I didn't want another innocent to lose its life.  It was Dad's birthday 4^th July, and since mum didn't want any more cake, I bought home a fruits feast but my dad was too full to eat.  Strange, I only realized Dad doesn't like strawberries tonight.  They were in bright lips red and tasted incredibly good.  No kisses.

It felt like I was put into a category of "Typical Singaporean /Women" today. "Majority Singapore women don't know how to cook."  Recalling "Majority Singaporean I talked to doesn't like about Singapore."  "Majority Singaporean loves shopping..."  "Do you like shopping?"  It felt exactly like the same way, when my Spanish friend commented all Chinese looked alike to him in the film I sent him.  Alright, maybe I am too sensitive but it certainly doesn't feel good.  I was being seen as a whole mass of people rather than an individual.  But as far as I am concerned, I don't see the need to prove anything to anyone at all. 

I went to see "Die Hard 4" and although I had seen the earlier "Die Hard" films in my younger days, I wasn't that keen to catch it.  However I really needed something to occupy my mind without waiting for too long on the movie schedule.  I bought the ticket anyway.  I was quick to judge the film too at first, but I kept telling myself, wait check out the editing, how the music came in and wow the tunnel scene was quite well choreographed...an interesting scene to be written in...blah blah blah..." End of the day it's ok not to like it, but I have seen it.  As I walked down the road, I asked myself, "What makes a good memory?"  The warmth of a hand lingers...

Now the living room is clearly divided into two portions with the metal rack in place.  Mum still doesn't like it.  But with time, she should get used to it eventually I hope.  It's neater than before and the tidying up was really a killer.  Dad simply has too many things and are sufficient to open a store when they are put together...

 Thank U Dad for the hard work!