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Friday, January 25, 2013

KL Explore, The Third

Just as promised, I will be sharing photos from my 3rd KL Explore trip with Miuyinn
Click the link to see the post of previous trips
Trip in 2010

Due to time constraint, we only have half a day to tour around. We decided to go to places that we've left out last year. 

First up, 
The Historical KL Train station.
I've been seeing this building quite frequently through the windows of LRT. Other than the Abdul Samad Building area, this is the part of KL with its own identity. The buildings have its unique architecture, it's like a combination of east and west ideas. Really adore this place. If I have the money, I would have turn this place into a top tourist attraction, this buildings need to be seen! 









There's a mini musuem at the KTM station in the KL Train station. Exhibiting models of trains and also related machinery used in KTM Berhad. 

Walk through the underground tunnel to arrive at the opposite side of the train station 
KTM Berhad Building
again, amazing architecture, feel the historical aura.
Imagine if all companies have their own buildings like this. It's gonna be so cool mannnnn....I probably love KL more than europe countries. 




all the colors, the stains on the walls, the small little cracks, made the place look really attractive. 

Next 
Lake Gardens
we passed by lake gardens last year, this year we decided to walk into it and explore the huge botanical garden. Turns out it's really huge!! Lots of trees, good place for oxygen intake hehe
There's playground, tracks, I thought local people will be exercising there. But to my surprise, most of the people in the park were foreigners, got caucasian, people from china, they weren't just visiting as a tourist, but really using the facilities. I wonder why no local know about this place, it's really beautiful. 

 Pass by Butterfly Park
hehe the huge dino-playground


 Lots of fountains over there

Do check out those dino-plants!! 

 Rainbow






Walk across Jalan Parlimen to
National Monument
I remember it was raining, heavily, when we visited this place last year
didn't take any photos in order to protect our cameras.
The weather was lovely that day, love the view.



Somehow there's a patch or dark clouds against the blue sky... 

Close up on The Fallen Heroes 



Next, took cab to Bukit Bintang
as usual, Christmas Decoration Photography is a must-do every year.












Walk towards KLCC, our final destination of the day.
 The lake symphony
I will watch it at night someday :D



 Happy New Year 2013
That's what this trip means to me, a new year is coming :D
Well I didn't take a lot of photos in this trip, as we didn't go to many places, and I find the decoration in Bukit Bintang a bit boring this year. Pavillion was amazing of course, but others well, not that impressive. Plus it was in daytime, so the street light effects are not obvious.  Anyways, it was a fun day afterall, I love the train station the most!! Yea, here comes the I-Love-Malaysia moment hehe :D


Thursday, January 24, 2013

Grateful.

Well this post is gonna be slightly emo...
I was debating with myself whether I should write this post since I don't really like emo posts in my blog, but after realizing what I've gained throughout these days, it's a must to record my feelings and thoughts so that if there's anything worse in the future, I will remember what happened in the past and tell myself to stay strong.

Where should I start, maybe from the phone call that I received last friday

Mom : Mei, your daddy got an heart attack yesterday, now he's in the hospital.

At that moment I thought my world is gonna end.
Ever since my dad did his Angioplasty surgery last year (January), I've been living in fear, i always felt like my dad, or my mom, or my brother is gonna leave me at any second. All I had in my mind was "so this is it?.....so fast? just one year? one year?"

Then my mom kept on saying "Don't worry, don't worry." The more she says that, the more it kills me.

I've learn enough biology in A-Levels to know what exactly does a heart attack do to my dad's heart. I finally understand what people meant when they say they "blanked out"....
I had so much in my mind that everything turns so cloudy and it felt like I couldn't see or think anymore.
Yea I know, fear was taking control of me.
I knew I was going to cry but I told myself I need to stop imagining things. Kept telling myself that my dad is gonna be fine, but the worst part is when u know it so well that having a heart attack means my dad is not going to be okay...

I couldn't go home as I was still in Sungai Long, and it sucks, cause no matter where I go, I see my dad's smiling face and I would start crying...as if he's already dead...
In the night I kept on praying, thinking that "it's too soon, please don't take him away"

Anyways, finally I got back home on Saturday, saw my mom and she looks tired. She told me how everything happened, and what she saw. She didn't cry but I can sense the fear in her voice, in every word she says... "Your dad was sweating so bad, he couldn't move", "He got wires and tubes strapped around him now." "He's still in CCU, Critical Cornory Unit" My mom must have gone through a lot, I imagined if it was me, I probably be too scared to even walk, let alone drive my dad to the hospital. It kills me to see how she had to put on a strong face when she had witnessed so much, and all the trauma that she went through, it must have been hard. When we're at home, something was wrong with the modem, I was trying to fix it and then my mom said "see, now you realize your daddy is important." I knew she wasn't exactly saying it to me, but more to herself, I knew she was going to cry. Then there were times that she became so mad at herself, "I should have forced your dad to continue his medication", "I should have made sure that he wont carry heavy things.", "I shouldn't have let your dad go through the angioplasty surgery"

I followed my mom to visit my dad, he was staying in CCU, aka Critical Coronary Intensive Care Unit. Well I let out a sigh of relief when I saw his eyes are still open. Yes, my imaginations were going out of hands. hehe. The first thing that I said to my dad was "Lousy la you!!" and he smiled at me. Then I started to register the surrounding, much to my fear, my dad had some wires on him, and behind him was a monitor that shows his ECG and blood pressure. There's all kinds of machine beside, all kinds of wires, and there's like one whole row of power source, probably use to power all the medical equipment in the room. Then next to my dad's bed, the machine that made me feared for the past year -- Defibrillator. Yea my imagination started to go wild again. Especially looking at my dad's ECG. I know enough biology to know how a normal ecg looks like and what is wrong when the waves are not right. His heart was beating to fast, up to 150 per minute, and it's quite obvious that he had arrhythmia, irregular beating...it's fatal to some people, so I keep on telling him to calm down LOL dont get excited. Then the T waves were like fluctuations, instead of one single wave. Then while I was away, my mom called and said that my dad's heart was beating so fast that it's quite dangerous and they even called a doctor to come inspect him immediately. again, my imaginations gone wild, I really thought he's gonna leave.

The doctor gave him some drugs to stable down the heart beat and asked us to go home so that he wont use too much energy. I went home, thinking that I will feel better after I visited my dad, but it turns out I felt worse. Whenever the phone rings, the first thought I had was "oh this is it, the hospital is calling, daddy's gone" Yea sounds like a long sentence but trust me, at that one second, this whole sentence just played in my head, word by word. I feel like I was going to be crazy, cause I couldn't stop thinking about bad things, as if I'm anticipating them to come. Trust me, I was having internal monologues for most of the time. and the conversation usually starts with "what if...." and ends with "don't worry, Jiawen"

When the night came, I didn't feel like sleeping, because I'm afraid of what will happen when I open my eyes the next morning. So I started reading some bible verses and also Daily Bread, hoping to find some cure to stop my fears and to give myself courage to face the worse. God did spoke to me through the scriptures, I felt much better. But still I felt unsecured, despite of my faith in God, i still feel that there's no one out there who can exactly tell me that I shall not fear. I told myself I should sleep, so I did my usual routine before sleep, brush my teeth, wash my face. My cousin (who share the room with me) was already asleep, and usually I will try my best to not wake her up. But while I was in the washroom (door opened), I started to sing a song, unconsciously. When I realize I was singing, it was when I sing the words "That's why I'm by your side, that's why I love you.", while staring into the mirror. I broke into tears, I wish I knew better english to describe how I felt, I knew God was talking to me, and He wants me to know that He's with me.

I swear I didn't know I was singing, in fact I wasn't going to sing because I know it will wake my cousin up. I know it's God, definitely him.  And that night, I slept soundly.

Then the following few days, my dad's condition was getting better. His heart beat fell back to normal pulse rate. He can even walk and also went for physio treatment. Afterall I guess I should Thank God, my dad's heart attack can be considered as a minor one, plus when he got the heart attack, he was working at Universiti Malaya, which is next to the University Hospital. Thank God he was able to get treatment in a short time, or else, I can't imagine what would happen. And I believe this incident serves to be a warning to my dad, so that he will start to be more careful with his daily activities and diet, and stop trying to push limits.

Okay what I'm gonna write next is gonna sound like a bio textbook's case study article hehe long time never write about bio stuff :D Forgive me, I'm still a pharmacy enthusiast :D

So it all started when my dad was carrying a very heavy equipment, too heavy for him obviously, but my dad is a stubborn guy and thinks that he's still very young and so he carried that heavy thing and walked across the road to his car. Probably because he needed a lot of oxygen for his muscles, his heart didn't pump efficiently to the coronory arteries and the cardiac cells were deprived of oxygen (sound like a bio exam answer). So yea, he started to have symptoms, the chest pain, numb arms, the heavy sweating. My mom drove him to the hospital and the ECG shows that he had a blockage in his coronory artery.


The doctors suggested an immediate Angioplasty to clear the blockage. But my mom was worried because last year's angioplasty did a lot of damage to my dad, He became weaker, as in less fit. So the doctor gave him Thrombolytics, drugs that bust blood clots and also Nitroglycerin, a drug that dilates blood vessels around the heart and also Aspirin, a blood thinner, prevents blockage.

He was monitored in the CCU, they even strapped an oxygen tube on the first day so that he don't have to breathe that hard to get enough oxygen to his heart. I believe this is known as Oxygen Therapy.

2nd day, my dad thought he was okay edi (or maybe he was too bored), and started calling people like nobody's business. His heart beat went up to 150 beats per minute. Doctor came and gave him some drugs that slow down his heart. probably anti-arrhythmic drugs.

In the following 3 days, he stayed in the CCU to rest and his pulse rate drops. Physiotherapy was given, he was asked to walk around, while his heart beat was being monitored, just to make sure his heart is able to cope with normal life activities like walking and climbing up stairs.

On Tuesday, he was discharged!! Yay!! A nurse gave us instructions about the drugs that he will be taking. There are 6 drugs in total!!! Aspirin and Plavix (Clopidogrel) to thin the blood. Statin to lower cholesterol. and some other drugs like anti-hypertensives and some heart strengthening ones.

Anyways, just wanna say thank you to people I love, and people who love me and cared for me, especially these few days, where I had so much fear, and needed someone to listen to me. I would like to thank the doctors, nurses, pharmacist and physiologist of the hospital. Seriously I think they are really awesome people!! Thanks for all the care and effort you put in to save my dad :D For my friends who are going to be doctors, nurses, pharmacist, and physiologist, please dont give up on your dreams! People will always need you! You guys must add oil arr!!

And thanks to my mom, for being so strong that we wont lose our hope.

Finally, Thank God, for everything, for listening to my prayers and fulfilling my wishes. Once again You just proved to me that anything is possible with you. Thanks for telling me that I should not fear, but should pray instead.
Thank You God, for bringing out the best in me, like no one else can do. 

I'm grateful. 

Here's the song that I sang when I was in the bathroom that night,
A song that I would like to sing to God
lyrics below




Blue - Best In Me


From the moment I met you I just knew you'd be mine 

You touched my hand 

And I knew that this was gonna be our time 

I don't ever wanna lose this feeling 

I don't wanna spend a moment apart 


Chorus: 

'Cos you bring out the best in me, like no-one else can do 

That's why I'm by your side, and that's why I love you 


Every day that I'm here with you 

I know that it feels right 

And I've just got to be near you every day and every night 

And you know that we belong together 

It just had to be you and me 


'Cos you bring out the best in me, like no-one else can do 

That's why I'm by your side, and that's why I love you


my happy family :D



Some extras
just to let u know how CCU ward looks like :D
scary or not u tell me?? 

defribillator
look at the drawer man....
all the tools and wires and the super conductive gel
for some reason those stuff looks cool
but trust me, I was praying that my dad would never need to use them.


Monday, January 14, 2013

Danga Bay Memories

Some photos from my trip to Danga Bay
Basically it was my first time there, i know, shame on me, never been to Danga Bay after so many trips to JB. At first thought, i expected Danga Bay to be just some beach with people walking around, playing with kites in the evening, then maybe cycling. So when my aunt says that she's gonna bring us there at night, i'm like seriously? is there anything to do? But turns out the place is very much the "it" thing in JB, lots of people gathered there, family, couples, bunch of friends, there's always something to do. well most couples are chillax-ing next to the sea, n maybe have a drink at one of the pubs by the bay. for friends or family, well cycling around the area is fun, and there's a Fun Fair as well with all kinds of rides and games.

For us, well, we're a family afterall, we went cycling. They have this 6 seater bicycle with a steering wheel summore. It's quite fun to ride around, feeling the light breeze and taking in all the beautiful sights of the sea and lights around the bay. We almost bang into a train haha! 



We went to the Fun Fair. Paid 10 bucks for a dark indoor roller coaster named Black Hole Odyssey.
total waste of money haha, not scary, not fast, no ghost, no nothing! We laughed so bad while we're in the dark coz we realized what a stupid decision we've made. We shudn't have expect anything close to USS's rides. Anyways, during the 3rd round, we shout really crazily just to act like that we're scared, yea just to make ourselves feel somewhat enjoyed. hehe
Then we paid another 10 bucks for another ride, i don't know what is it called, but it's sort of like a high speed merry go round, only that we dun sit on horses.


 Here's some photos that we've taken while exploring the area.
Beautiful full moon above us
it's a bamboo garden behind us. 

 The Danga Beach area, lots of open air restaurants serving many types of dishes and there's live music as well. There's quite a number of pubs as well. 

see that ship?
yea, we promised each other that if we become rich in the future, we're gonna celebrate our birthday over there haha :D
cousins, people to dream with...

Tuesday, January 08, 2013

Universal Studios Singapore -- 2nd Trip


 Photo sharing time!!!
As I've mentioned in the previous post, I went to USS again hehe, after 4 months of waiting :D
I can never explain how much I love the place, I don't know whether I'll get sick of the place but...at this moment, I'm like a hard core fan of USS hehe yea sue me for giving money to Singaporeans 
Anyways, well this trip was equally fun as the previous one as I have my other two cousins with me yay!
It was 28th of Dec, and yes a friday, school holiday and new year in 3 days so yea imagine the crowd.
The queue lines were crazily long, it was a test of patience and legs muscle stability. Well i'll talk about what sucked during the trip later hehe
Now, the photos. Well I'll organize them by each park. There's some new rides and attraction that I haven't go for in the last trip, will give some reviews (those in blue font). Do read my previous post if you wanna know more about the rides that I didn't describe in detail. Btw, didn't manage to take as much photos as before, most of our time was spent on queuing. Which gives me the perfect reason to go there for the 3rd time :D


Entrance, though Christmas was over, but they still kept the decorations and also they still have the Christmas special shows, like the snowfall and light-up show. Too bad I was late by 5 minutes to catch the snowfall TT.TT and btw, all the characters that appeared in the park were dressed up with Winter accessories (hats, scarves), which gives the very Christmas season atmosphere.


1. Madagascar
1st ride at The Crate Adventure. :D





 Had Corn Dog and Ice Lemon Tea for lunch at Gloria's Snack Shack.

2. Far Far Away
Just my fave place, yea I always thought that I'm not that fairytale kind of girl, but I guess those princess-with-castle genes are just hardwired in every girl's body haha

The Castle

Queue at Enchanted Airways (Roller Coaster) 



O yes!! My Favorite photo of the day!
Meet and Greet with Princess Fiona and Shrek.
The first time we saw them, we were to slow to get in line and they have a limited number of shots that can be taken during each meet and greet sessions. So the second time we see'em we were like crazy fans following them right behind their backs haha
My cousin says, everybody's photo is gonna have us in it coz we're like just right behind them while others kept on snapping photos. 

Awww so sweet.... 
will never forget the moment when I saw this haha
But cousin says, what if both people inside the costume are of the same gender lol

Watched the Shrek 4-D Adventure as well
But damn unlucky, our seats weren't working/moving/rocking.
Cousin says, "the guy beside us is too heavy" LMAO

3. The Lost World
Not much photo from here, probably I'm not a big fan of the park haha
plus it was raining in the afternoon
Lined up for more than an hour at the Jurassic River Rapids Adventure but they stopped the operation due to bad weather TT.TT

Anyways, we watched the Waterworld show as well. Just as the last time, the guy still did the Gangnam style thing haha. Laughed so bad.

Canopy Flyer
My first time going on this ride. The queue was long probably because there were limited vehicles available. Well I know this wasn't a very amusing ride coz even small little kids can board this. But I must say, it's worth the wait, the view is amazing, you can see the Far far Away Castle, the lake, and also the Jurassic Park. Plus it was in the evening, so the lights are up but still with a little trace of the sunlight. And I can feel the wind gushing through. Really nice ride. 

Anyways we saw this Velociraptor (Characters Meet and Greet) which passed by us and we almost got in their way lol. Gosh that dinosaur just looked real! 


4. Ancient Egypt
Loved this park too, all the supersized Egyptian monuments, statues and of course the awesome Revenge of the Mummy ride!! Yeap that's the wait-until-leg-pain-pain ride. Maybe because of the long queue, the queue lines were extended, and we get to explore more of the artefacts and decorations they have placed in the waiting lanes. I swear the waiting lines are still freaking creepy, I saw this two little girls who went in first without their parents, they stopped halfway coz they were scared (yes I see the fear on their faces) So we led them haha. Anyways I still love this ride so muchie!!! Went for the 2nd time in the evening, where the waiting time was just 5 minutes lol, and took the frontseat as well, frontseat is just so much better, really!

Meet the Army of Anubis :D




5. Sci-Fi City
Just like the previous trip, went for the MUST-GO Transformers The Ride, and the Battlestar Galactica double roller coasters (both Human and Cylon track) Transformers was still so awesome to me, the effects, the motion..fantastic. The Battlestar coasters, lol, shout so bad when I went for the Human track, I forgot how freaking fast the roller coaster is, shout until no voice, no time to catch a breath. and again, the Cylon track was awesome!!







6. New York
I don't know why but, New York has the biggest crowd among all parks. There's no rides but still, people tend to gather there. Probably because of the beautiful Christmas Deco and also pretty buildings and wide space. But sad case, didn't have much time to take photos around the place.



 It's Big Bird!!
awww all the childhood memories...
Abby Cadabby was there too
Can't wait for the Sesame Street new ride!!






Street performance from  Rockafellas

7. Hollywood
Crowded as usual. The Christmas Lights were beautiful.

Monster Rock musical at the Pantages Hollywood Theatre!
Though not exactly like the real theater, the entrance and lobby of the theater was super beautiful and grand!
The musical was amazing!! Live music, dance, wonderful costumes, you just can help but to enjoy the beat. All the music were popular hits like For Your Entertainment, Nobody, It's my life and much more.
The famous Mel's Drive In


The Pantages Hollywood Theater





Happy day!!
Well the best part of the trip was the extended opening hours. The waiting time is significantly lower after 7pm, that's the best time to go for a second ride or go to those that you havent been to. But before 7pm the crowd is just, omg super super big. We reached around 11 and the ticket queue was around 500m i guess. Buy tickets online is the best option to save time, though u still need to queue up, but the queue is much, like really really much less. I didn't really like the big crowd to be honest, to many people, u can barely move through the street, there're people walking in all directions, and yes, they tend to spoil your good pictures, not to say they're ugly, but yea, the pics just didn't look nice because there will always be people blocking. And the waiting times, gosh, spent so much time waiting, didn't really have time to just walk around and take photos. The Revenge of the Mummy ride was around 75 minutes! imagine yourself in that dark waiting lane with low ceiling and creepy egyptian statue for 75 minutes!!! The food well, not good, and expensive, i know it's expected, but still kinda hoped for something better. I tried the Waffles and Churros from Sci-Fi City, and both are like....argh, just not nice. Btw, I have a small tip, it's actually a lesson learned haha well If u can, buy the souvenir bottles and refill it for SGD2 only. Well the bottles have a price range, though not exactly cheap but, quite worth it because you'll be constantly craving for drinks inside, thanks to the hot weather and all the waiting. I realized I spent much more on bottled/paper-cup drinks, it's actually cheaper to get the bottle, plus, you actually take the bottle home as a souvenir.

The Show Schedule
Must get it the moment you enter, just to know what are the showtimes. For that day, they actually have extra shows in the evening. The schedule really helped a lot to plan our day. 


Yes, thanks to cousin who bought the tix online, we got to enter the park immediately. The queue lines at the ticket booths was crazy, seriously. 

 Souvenirs!

Anyways, do read my previous post coz I have a much more detailed review about each park and each ride.
http://rhythmsandbluez.blogspot.com/2012/08/universal-studios-singapore.html

Love Nuffnang

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