Like many other Singaporeans who had procrastinated with the installation of the VEP, we started panicking as the 30 Sep deadline approaches. The only saving grace was that we had registered for the VEP many months back and were one of the luckier ones with an appointment date.
There were limited appointment slots when we finally got to action and managed to secure one on the last Sunday of September. The opportunitist in me sprung to life and it became a short 2D2N Austin Height holiday. Hehehe, I am a sucker for holidays.
The plan was to enter via 2nd Link on late Friday night. By late, I was expecting 10ish pm and didn't expect the 2nd Link to be very jam from evening all the way until midnight. The kids were tired from the waiting and Zaky was particularly grouchy. Tired go sleep lah and they finally did but with a lot of whining before that.
We finally dug the kids from the bed and made our way to the 2nd Link at 1am on Friday night when the traffic seemed to ease up. The stretch on the map was still very much red but at least the red line was much shorter. Hohoho.
The kids continued their sleep from the bed to the car.
Of course it was far from comfy but sleep consumed them. Poor kids. At least the immigration officers were nice enough not to wake the kids up for identification verification.
We clear both immigration in an hour's time with the longer jam at the Singapore side. It was another 30 mins' drive before we arrived at the airbnb. Along the way, we found super low value in our Touch n Go card but thankfully enough to pay for the foreign car fees and 2 tolls. With the new VEP and eTouch n Go, there were a lot of uncertainties. We tried topping up the Touch n Go card at both toll stations only to be told that we were not able to. Huh? Then how?
We stayed in the same building as the last Austin Height holiday. I like the building given its proximity to facilities and the last unit was clean and nice. We picked up the access card from the mail box and finally made our way to the unit.
The unit was just as clean and nice as the last one. The kids crashed and so did I. Only Daddy Lim had the energy to find supper bcos his growling tummy scared away the Zzzz monster. Lol.
I was only able to take pictures of the unit the next morning. The unit has a double bed in the living room and another double bed in the bedroom.
They have track lights! I am now into track lights. Haha.
We started our day early with the 1st itinerary at 10.30am - cake baking. We simply heart it. Bfast was tabaoed from the Boss Toast downstairs and the nasi lemak was good!
Daddy Lim opted to skip the cake baking this time. He took the car for a wash while I took the kids. I love the baking session; for a fraction of what it would cost in Singapore, we get to mess up other people's kitchen. Hehe.
The kids were urged to do simple stuff and stay away from the complicated cakes and decorations, which not only take a long time to complete but also a long time to consume. We all chose to bake cookies this time; simple and fast.
The kids hurried to collect the ingredients. All experts liao.
All ready.
My 2nd attempt to look homemaker-ish. Aiya, my camera not as good as Daddy Lim's and cannot capture that aura. Lol.
Baking, baking.
My teddy bear cookies were the easiest bcos there was no need to cool the dough.
The kids enjoyed cookie cutting theirs and I helped while waiting for my cookies to cool so that I can decorate them.
Tadah! So cute!
We started eating as we waited.
These were the sole survivers of my teddy bear cookies. In fact, we only brought back 7, one more sacrificed before I got to pack them.
Zaky's better cookies were not much better off. These were the only ones left. Haha. I love those butter cookies. Hoho.
Only Lil Shauna's racoons survived bcos they were the last to leave the oven. So cute! We are so creative with the decorations.
We had so much cookies that we didn't need lunch. Lol. Baking cookies was definitely a right choice; they were so easy to munch and we finished every one of them in the 1.5 days. No need to waste food.
In the afternoon, we brought the kids to the drift cart.
While the kids worked on their drifting, Daddy Lim worked on his snoozing. Lol.
We headed back for a rest and the kids tried their luck at the claw machine. These claw machines are really in now and several shops littered the street. Finally, Lil Shauna caught something! She had been lamenting her lack of luck and skill and hadn't been able to catch anything from the last few attempts.
We rested until it was dinner time. We saw several Korean restaurant along the way and chose one that took so long to serve. We only had 45 mins before rushing for the next activities - VR games, booking made at 6.30pm.
The VR games were really good. The last time, only Daddy Lim and the kids tried; I was worried that I would get dizzy. They raved about it and we all tried this time for 3 games in a row somemore. The games are not cheap at RM69 per pax but it was good fun for about 30 mins. No, I didn't puke but my arm ached from carrying the "gun". I wasn't too bad and came in 1st 2 out of the 3 games. Hoho.
The last activity of the night was KTV. We sang for 2 hours the last time and it wasn't enough so we booked for 3 this time. I ended up too long. I was so tired of singing by the end. Only Daddy Lim and Lil Shauna kept going.
Towards the end of the session, I was stoning at one corner but I got to sing Chinese songs and Zaky claimed that he picked up Chinese words from the songs! I must sing more Chinese songs the next time. Lol.
What did Zaky do? He literally fell asleep in the middle of the session despite the singing. Lol.
And he slept and slept.
He even drooled big time. Lol. The saving grace was that he was willing to walk back to the hotel when the KTV session ended. Seriously, nobody can carry him that far now without risking breaking his/ her back.
Sleep was so easy especially for the boy. He basically continued with part 2. We didn't wait long too. Tired lah.
The next morning, we left after tabaoed bfast from the same Boss Toast. Then it was a 30-min drive to the designated VEP installation station. The kids and I hid in the aircon Starbucks leaving poor Daddy Lim to wait for his Q no. to be called. Though it was under the shelter, it was still warm. I got buy ice mocha for him hor.
Finally, the VEP had been installed!
It took us about 1.5hour all in all. Then it was time to head back to Singapore.
We must be lucky, there was barely much of a jam at the immigration and we cleared both sides in about 30mins. Hohoho. That marked the end of our very short and sweet Austin Heights holiday. Yay!
Mummy Lim
