Tag Archives: Traffic jam

The Beginning of a Long Break

1 Feb

Today is yet another public holiday (Federal Territory Day for selected states only) and the beginning of the long holiday break because Chinese New Year is just around the corner. I tell you, Malaysia has the most public holidays in a year! Just when things settle to a routine, bam, there’s a public holiday right there to tilt the balance.

The annual exodus of city dwellers leaving the city for their hometowns has begun. And we have decided not to join the crowd in the traffic snarl because I do not relish a ten-hour or thereabouts journey just to rush back to hubby’s hometown up North. To a certain extent, this long holiday stretch will see the exodus in staggered sessions which is good. I am pretty sure most travellers share the same sentiment as me, not wanting to be caught in a long slow drive.

Then again, today and Saturday will be the heaviest in traffic flow because the masses will want to maximize their time with family. For us, now that it’s just the two of us to be with hubby’s parents this year, we will only leave on Sunday morning. How long would our journey be? We will find out on Sunday itself. I will be prepared with lots of snacks, hot tea and plenty of music choices to make it a sheer driving pleasure. Gotta have a positive mindset here.

The Reunion Dinner is on Monday evening.

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Change in Pattern, Part 2

20 Feb

My hopes for a six hours drive home yesterday was not to be as my estimates were way off! The drive home was just super duper long.

It started out smoothly but only for awhile. Traffic then became so heavy and got worst, culminating with a standstill situation on the freaking highway and a crawl at 10km/h, sometimes 30km/h for a good part of the journey for no apparent reason. Ridiculous. And it rained, making the drive more tiring. All in all it took us nine and a half hours to reach home.

This is part and parcel of Chinese New Year – the traffic crawl besides the food and family. Because it’s only a once-a-year experience, we take it in stride. If not, we’d never go back for the occasion. Thank goodness, we had food, drinks, music, devices, cables and power banks to keep us entertained during the long drive home.

Anyway, enough of the driving ordeal, what’s more important was the activities we did during the four days in hubby’s hometown which was a change in pattern from previous years.

Besides the food and rest, we managed to play two rounds of golf instead of just one round. During the first game at Darul Aman Golf Club, I lost my nine iron and discovered the loss almost immediately. I absent-mindedly left it somewhere on the fairway approaching the green at Hole One. Amazingly I wasn’t too upset and rationalized I did not need it, save for a couple of shots, and managed for the rest of the game.

It was the heat that got to me more than the loss honestly. After the game, we reported the loss and thank goodness, the club was found and returned within a short time. Phew… relief. I had contemplated my options if it wasn’t returned. An excuse for a new set perhaps? Hmm…

The next day, we played at a different course, Royal Kedah Club and after two days of back-to-back games, I’m happy to say there was no pain felt on the limbs. In other words, no recurrence of the tennis elbow. A good sign indeed considering I was using just all my irons for both games. No driver, woods or hybrid clubs at all.

The change in pattern also saw us catching the latest Marvel Comics’ superhero movie, Black Panther which was refreshing and very entertaining. And we visited a plant enthusiast whom hubby befriended on Facebook and got to see his eye-popping huge staghorn ferns at his farm. Hubby bought two staghorns from his new friend and promised to visit again on our next trip.

And this year, we start work on the Fifth Day of Chinese New Year instead of the Sixth Day which has been the norm for us for years. Definitely a change in pattern for the Year of the Dog.

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Lovely blue skies and paddy fields on the right

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One of the many meals the family had

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The big staghorn ferns and the two purchased smaller ferns mounted on wood

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Change in Pattern

19 Feb

It used to be for every Chinese New Year when we are back in hubby’s hometown, we’d eat, sleep, eat some more, do nothing and eat again. Coupled with the hot weather, a full tummy definitely makes one sleepy. This whole process will then be repeated for the next few days. 

This year however, it’s slightly different. For the eating I ate less and as for the sleeping, I slept less too. Because of less intake, the need to sleep was less. I am not complaining; it had been a restful break despite the change in pattern.

We say goodbye to the old folks as we head home today. Again, let’s hope the traffic will not be heavy and be smooth all the way. If we are lucky, we should get home within six hours, an hour more than the typical non-festive traveling time. Otherwise it could be a very tiring eight or even nine hours crawl. We shall see…

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Chat

Never Play Offline

26 Oct

It was Friday and we were on our way home. The rain came down heavily and I was tired, having used quite a fair bit of my creative brain cells in the office. Hubby was driving so I whipped out my iPad for my usual dosage of my games during the unusual hour long journey home. Can’t live without them, you know… the games, not the traffic. I must admit I did play some virtual games in the office whilst being stumped for ideas.

Usually all the King.com games can be played offline so routinely, I did my usual three. Then I moved on to Monster Busters. Now this game cannot be played offline. It would prompt you to go on as guest because there’s no connection but I didn’t try. So I exited and left it as is, without further thoughts to it.

That evening, after a hearty dinner, it was time to unwind. I reached for my trusty iPad and launched Monster Busters.

To my horror, when the game launched, I was at Level 1! Oh my gawd. What happened?! I should be at Stage 595 but, no, I was right at the beginning. I freaked out a bit. Closed the app and relaunched. Same thing!

When I told M2, she asked if I was logged in to Facebook which I was not; this happened when I tried playing the game offline earlier in the car. Thank goodness after connecting to FB, I catapulted back up to Stage 595.

Phew and double phew! Moral of the story here, never try to play offline when they tell you so.

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