sAUna + anImal KIngDOm~*

went for sauna with mum and tua-yi. early in the morning at 9 o clock. they had gone twice before. so this is their third, together with me. since usually they went in the evening, the security guard was surprise to see us then. he laughed. his white teeth looked so obvious against his dark skin colour. shiny man! (= just kidding. anyway, i'm just trying to say that his smile had left a great impression on me. going into the sauna, i was relieved to find noone inside. so we felt very comfortable and homey, even though we're in the toilet. the air smelled so fresh in the morning. probably because the cleaner cleaned it before our entrance. if not we'll be breathing in ammonia. =D after applying the necessary cream on our body, we entered the sauna room, only in our undergarments. first, it was cold. but after my mum poured pails and pails of water on the wood above the hot coal, heat began filling every corner of the room. from the top to the bottom. and since i was at the top, my eyes were watering the whole time. as a result, i needed the towel to wipe water droplets on my face every now and then. when i couldn't take it, i was allowed to pop my head outside the room for a while. when i return, more water was poured to heat up the room again. i felt like i was in hell. burning. til bones was all that was left of myself. however, at the same time, i enjoyed being there too. you know why? because after the whole sauna process, my face was so pink. and i love it. it made your skin looks healthy. so when another chance comes for sauna next time, i will definitely go for it. i truly love the freshness that i get at the end of it all.

finally, the time, we'd all been waiting for, came. all of us were dressed for the big day out. feeling excited and delighted to be able to go together as a family. we got on a MaxiCab, as planned. although we had to squeeze ourselves, noone complained about it. during the ride there, we laughed at oma. she was very scared that the vehicle would suddenly stop, hurling all the passengers to the front. also, since she was an elderly herself and had less strength to support herself, she had to be extra cautious with herself. seeing her not sitting comfortably, like the rest of us, we suggested buckle her seatbelts around. finally, we managed to assure her that by doing that everything's gonna be fine. and soon, everyone was very happy and we were talking about the nice weather that time.

upon our arrival at the zoo, all except mami, lyn and i sat on a large stone seat while they wait for us to buy the tickets. because today was a saturday (which meant that it was a peak period), the place was packed with tourists and locals. we tried to buy the tram tickets, but the lady at the counter told us that it was not worth it as we had to wait for a long time to be able to sit on it. so she suggested that we walk instead. we agreed and paid her the money at a lower price. at the sight of the every animals, we would buzz excitedly among ourselves and make our way closer towards the animals. i asked mum for the camera and began clicking away with the shoot button. looking at all the new animals available, i then realized that i had not been to the zoo since a long time ago. was it 4 or 5 years ago? it had definitely change because everything of the place seemed to be very foreign to me. maybe it is more organized now than in the past. the animals must be very lucky to be able to be accommodated to this establishment. they had much larger space area for movement, compared to those in Bukittinggi zoo. that was nothing compared to singapore's. written on the brochure, it claimed that Singapore Zoological Garden was the largest in South-East Asia. cool!

oma's legs ached so mum and tua-yi had to return to the entrance sooner that us. they said that it was impossible for people to finish walking around the entire zoo within a day. but guess who managed to do it at the end of the day, even though it poured pretty heavily in the evening? lyn and me!!! that accomplishment had got to make us the survivors and conquerors for today!! we continued our journey despite the rain. luckily, mum slipped an umbrella in my bag in the beginning of the afternoon. phew! we were spared from the terrible weather. (= it was still drizzling when we finished the route. that's when we met with mami and tua-yi at the taxi stand, ready to leave the zoo.

our next trip was to little india. like its name had suggested, there were many indians flooding the streets tonight. well, this was where they live as a community together as a race. of course, as we walked along the streets and the shophouses, we could smell the strong curry powder and brightly-coloured flowers. we also saw saris, henas, vcds, fruits, jewelleries etc. for sale. it was as if we're in chinatown. except that this was a totally new crowd and things filling the place. but the atmosphere there was almost the same. in our hope of finding keruji ( an ingredient for brewing medicine for diabetes), we walked into shops after shops, suggested by many who we asked directions from. but every of the shops gave us a negative feedback. they just shook their heads at our very rare ingredients there. as we walked out the final shop, we were feeling hungry and tired. so we quickly hailed for a cab and got in.

next to balestier best chicken rice stall. the taxi driver did not know the exact location but luckily, mum spotted it in time for it to drop us. the aroma of chicken drifted below our noses. and so, we were pulled towards the table within seconds. an old lady took down our orders and we wated patiently for the food to arrive. however, after 30 minutes of waiting, we soon got tired of waiting. and our stomachs growled and churned. we could only look longingly at other people's plates of chicken rice. so to keep our saliva from dripping, we tried to make fun of the lady. in the end, we got ourselves laughing up our pants. even when the food arrived, we kept on laughing. non-stop. people around us were starting to look at our table. it was so embarrassing. but with tua-yi laughing, how could we not attract attention?? her laughter was loud plus unusual. it was only normal for people to notice her producing her unusual shrill laugh. anyways, back to the food, we were contented. except for the waiting part that is. then another distinct thing that happened just now was that we didn't really stop laughing after the food arrived. we continued laughing again when we alighted a taxi to bring us home. the taxi driver was puzzled when he saw ourselves and asked, 'wei shen mo ni men xiao?' when we heard him saying that, we laughed even more. and guess what? we laughed all the way throughout the entire journey. non-stop. =D he must be thinking that we're from a crazy bunch of family. well, that's kinda true.

as the taxi drove past the club house of our condominium, we saw many people in the badminton hall. i did not know that the preparation of the new year celebration was so fast. and was surprised to see that there were many people around the swimming pool too. booths of food and games had been set up by the residents and many people were queuing up to buy it. marcus said that it had already begun right from the afternoon. and there will be another one of this bazaar thing tomorrow again. there were many kids running around in the badminton hall. people were hired to shape balloons into animals to hype up the occasion and children were gathering around her, requesting for their favourite animals. mum told me to help erica get one too. i was halfway in the queue when a little boy came up and said that i couldn't since i didn't have any of the balloon. so i got off the line. without the animal balloons. hey it reminded me of something that i read at sentosa that day. there was this saying that they used to promote selling such balloons. it said, 'we are not just animal balloons. but we're animals that look like balloons.' well, do you think it's pretty good? i do.

can't wait for tomorrow. the big night of the year! *scream*

countdown to new year: 1 more night only!