Checklist: Passport, Cash & Road Tax!!

It is Friday night, we decided to have a road trip down to Singapore for the weekend. I told my friends, lets take the Toyota Wish instead of 2 cars. We could all chit-chat and chill out in one car instead.

Being the good guy, I told them I will pick everyone up. I started my Journey at about 7pm on a Friday evening... TRAFFIC JAM everywhere!!!

I picked up my GF at TTDI, before heading to Tropicana to pick Kelvin up. Then to Kenneth's place in Desa Park City to pick up Natalie and the last stop, Valencia for Julian and Kellee...

After 2 long hours of driving, finally everyone have been picked up, and so we headed down to Singapore...

It was a great ride down. We were speeding in hope to reach Singapore before midnight. In fact, we did make good time on the road.

When we arrived at the checkpoint, we had to insert the "Autopass" card at the Singapore checkpoint. It is something that is used for Tolls and Parking, very similar to what we called the "TouchNGo" card.

The machine notified us that, the road tax have expired. Nothing new, it happened the last time I was down in another car. They just need a person to verify that you had a new road tax since you last visited Singapore...

So we parked the car at the side, all of us chit-chatting... then Jul when out of the car to check the road tax. He came back and said with a blur look and said ...

"I think its expired la".

"Sure or not? Go check it again!"

"Ya wor... it said Dec 2007 wor"...

SHeeTz.... could it really have expired and not renewed? Opppsss... hmmm... maybe the Police officer will miss the 07?

Come on, we are in Singapore... who will miss it? Anyway, we were told that we will not be allowed to enter Singapore. We had a police office escort a few of us into Singapore waiting for a pickup, while the rest of us, had to drive and park the car somewhere in Johor, a "Cowboy" high crime rate town...

It was Kelvin, me and my darling off to a friends place in Johor to park the car. I heard so much horror story in the last 30 minutes, it sends a shiver down my spine...

As we were traveling, we discussed that our ordeal is far from over. We may be stopped by police when we are returning back to KL on Sunday...

As we were talking... I saw some blue flashing lights in front with loads of cars queuing up at a road block. There were at least 5 other cars pulled over... F$#K... double whammy on the same night?

"You gotto be kidding"

Then Kelvin mentioned "Whatever can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time, in the worst possible way" which I knew was Murphy's Law...

I was like, damn the cops, end of the year, doing their usual rounds, catching those fools without road tax.... damn.. I am the FOOL tonight!!

After a little commotion in the car, and couldn't decided whether to re-distribute the wealth or not... we pulled up next to the cops. We opened the passenger window and played it cool....

Loads of Smiles from the 3 of us.... *Smile smile* *Cooooool*

"Jalan" the cops said...

You gotto be kidding, is he BLIND?

We headed off, laughing our heads off, wondering how lucky we are that night. We parked our car, before being picked up by Julian and gang in the Honda Odyssey.

We finally arrived at the accommodation at 4am... what we have planned to arrive at 12am, we did at 4am... What an adventure the last 4 hours have been... :D

Chai Boutique is now Open!

I managed to sneak into the shop early one morning to capture these photos. As you can see from the photos, it extremely well done up and very cosy. I must give full credit to my business partner Adele, for organising all the renovation and everything else. The time and effort used to select the simplest items, from the curtain material of the fitting room, to the cushion covers on the sofa. Even the antique tables and chairs chosen goes well with the place.

Bangkok lane is actually a residential area. A very nice area, just at the border of all the Pulau Tikus commercial hub. As it is an old house, from the 1950s, it retains an British heritage feel. You'll notice the front door comes with colour glass panels and the floor of the hall has some really antique tiles!

Friends who are in Penang, please do drop by my new retail shop. It has a wide selection of ladies clothing, as well as accessories and shoes. We'll be adding evening wear and dinner gowns within the next few weeks.

Adele's Birthday @ Chai Boutique

It was a Saturday afternoon, just after lunch. Most of us, are taking a rest from the previous nights Wedding dinner. Some had massive hang overs, while others were busy catching up with local Penang food.

It was the first time for the most of us to have visited the Chai Boutique as it was not officially opened. Only close friends were invited for the little gathering. A few were back from Australia to attend Kevin & Mei Yee's wedding, while the rest were from KL.

Most of the ladies had a look at the dresses, accessories and shoes while the guys just chilled out at the cosy area exchanging stories. It was a relaxing and cosy afternoon. A little surprise birthday cake was organised for Adele as today was her birthday.

We had a really good time chilling and hanging out at Chai, but it all had to end early as we had to attend the Kevin and Mei Yee's open house. We would also have a long day tomorrow, as we would be doing the traditional "Wife Pick Up" ceremony. I just hope the bridesmaid don't prepare any Wasabi for me!!

Bachelor & Hen's Night - Kevin & Mei Yee's Wedding

This was the game plan
The guys meet at Wee Kang's place, while all the ladies met at Mei Yee's place. Two separate groups to attend two separate unforgettable evenings. At least this is what we told the soon to be newly weds.

The REAL game plan
After picking up the gang, we would tell them, that we would be attending a karoke session. What they didn't know is that, we would actually meet at the same karoke session! And boy, did we have a great plan to humilate them!!

What REALLY happened
The bride to be was seriously tired and she felt asleep at Wee Kang's place. We were waiting for the rest of the people from KL to arrive. We waited and waited and waited... Finally when they arrived, it was too late to do anything. Both the bride and groom thought they had it easy... Boy were they WRONG!

We decided to go ahead with the plan. We gave the groom, a sexy pair of undies and a bra filled with pears, topped up with grapes as the nipples. We provided the bride to be with a cucumber and 2 mandarins, which resembles the mens... ahem... private parts...

Penang 29th

Thursday morning... The contractor promised that everything would be done today. The only major pending items was the toilet. It was still in a major mess the night before.

Thankfully the toilet looked great when we walked in. All renovations completed. Just more cleaning to do!

Furniture were being moved in. Sofa, coffee table, stools, tables and chairs came in today. So did the fridge and other electrical stuff, like the fan and water boiler.

I spent the afternoon moving all the woman's clothing from my business partners home the retail shop. I had to move racks and racks of clothing. It took quite a few trips before it was completed.

Spent the evening just cleaning up the place, and organising the shop. Unpack stuff from the boxes, move things around. Wipe the tables... you know, just like moving to a new home

We worked till quite late evening, but had to return home early as we had to attend a Bachelor and Hen's night. Wait for the next post... really exciting stuff planned for them both!! :p

Penang 28th Nov

Today was such a long day........ Started the day by running a few errands. We applied for Streamyx and got the modem before heading to the shop.

I spent most of the afternoon installing the Clothes rack we would be using on the retail floor. It is one of those, DIY ones. At the start, I thought it was such and easy task and would complete the job hands down. To my surprise, it took me about 30 mins to built each rack. I had 6 in total to built. It was really a tiring job. Note to self, building Clothes rack is not for the faint hearted! Yes my right hand is still aching from all the building!

Spent the whole evening building the racks and cleaning the upper floor of the retails place. All the lights, and air con are installed. The toilet was still in a mess before we left today. They are still doing cementing the floor and all. Tomorrow, the carpet guys would be installing the carpets on the upper floors. I would need to move all the floor stocks and all other items after the carpets are in. Probably need a few car rides to complete the move! Loads of stuff!!!

The fitting room area and all the built-in cabinet have also been installed today. Tomorrow, our main task is to clean the ground floor. It is no easy task as the place is filthy. With almost everything done, the bulk of the work would be cleaning and moving the stuff to the retail place.

Got the plan... let see how it goes...

Penang 27th Nov - 3rd Dec

The drive up to Penang was tiring. The journey took a set back when I stopped my car to pump some air into the tires and the car couldn't start after that. Battery problem I reckon. Luckily I was at the Shell Station at the Tapah stop when it died. Call up the PLUS people, and they soon came to my rescue.

My car was jump started and I was on my way. I made very sure not to stop the car again. Yes that means, no more toilet breaks! I soon arrived in Penang, shortly after 2pm. Work commenced immediately. No rest for the lazy!!

We ran a few errands, purchasing some last minute items for the new retail shop. Tried to open a new Maybank Current account, but they required so much paper work... needed an introducer... Come on, you'll be making money from us wor...

Anyway, we stopped by the retail shop. Everything looks well. The upstairs is almost complete. All the upstairs require is the installation of the air con, lights and carpets. Of course it needs a BIG clean too!! Very dusty.

As for the downstairs, they were completing the painting when we were there. The toilet had some renovation error, and hopefully will be fixed within the next day or so. The lights and air con will be installed today. Will be spending the whole day of today cleaning up the new place. Very very dusty due to the renovations.

Will try to capture some photos of the new retail shop. Let see what the days brings. I am sure my day is jam packed again!