RRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrroooooobert!

In light of Deepavali (pun intended), Vic and I took leave and declared our very own long weekend and we planned for a short JB day trip after I've collected my new IC.

It was a perfect Monday morning to snooze... and so we did.  In the morning, I was woken up by a phone call by my young nephew who missed me..  I tell you, that was a wonderful day to start the day!  We don't really get to meet often, but he never fails to melt my heart (and of course my mum's).. haha!!!

Went to get my new IC, and realized that

ROBERT #1:  I needed to bring marriage cert in order to collect my IC.  So guess what? We drove all the way home and back to ICA again to rejoin the long queue... -_-"

While queuing for my queue number (can you beat that?), I had to be standing in behind this forlorn looking guy, who was asked to explain how he lost his IC.  "my car was broke (you mean broken??) into... in JB..." His voice quivered and trailed off and he totally looked like he was about to cry lor.. poor chap.  Then I suddenly remembered that we were going to drive in also.. so I determined in my heart to be uber kiasu and only park at safe places (not expecting the following roberts to come).

The gals met me at ICA and made the wait much more bearable as I queued to show my cert, my face, and both thumbs (hey how about the pimple under my fringe?) to the officer... and then we headed for JB.

The controversy with our van:  ok, it is a cargo van, but with a sofa fitted behind.  So the identity is kinda grey.  The confusion is very apparent when we reached the checkpoint and realised that none of the lanes fitted into the description for our kind of van.  There was a lane for cars, motorcycles, passenger vans and lorries.. CARGO VAN LEY????

So we took a step of faith (plus the fact that there were vehicles behind us so we had to choose quickly)... we took the lane for Lorries. That led us to:

ROBERT #2:  1st thing we noticed - The lane for lorries led to a very huge dark tunnel.  Scary.  2nd thing we noticed - Beside, in front of and behind us, we were surrounded by BIG LORRIES.  I'm talking about those kind that make our van look like a Kelisa.  We gingerly pulled up to the counter and, I promise you, I was trying very hard to hold back the laughter, but it was way too funny.  Our window and the counter window tak-match!! It was too high up liao lorrr!!! To add to all that, Vic had to unwind his window and place his arms on the 'windowsill' like he's Juliet talking to Rapunzel up there.  The two officers, understandably, were frustrated with having to shout above the noise of the lorries amplified in the tunnel.  The guy officer came down and gave Vic a dressing down while the rest of us tried very very hard to stop laughing.  Apparently, our van CAN pass through this tunnel, but the 2 小姐 were supposed to drop off and meet us at the other side.  Vic took the brunt of the scolding from that grouchy officer, while the female officer kindly took our 4 passports, processed them and let us through.  Not that they had much of a choice, really. :P  there was already a long queue of trucks behind us with toughies inside......

This is followed by JAM JAM JAM to eternity...

Then we reached JB checkpoint. 

ROBERT #3:  We didn't know.  We really didn't know.. You mean you drive in now you must buy this 'Touch n Go' card and then the barrier will lift for your vehicle to pass through??  *slaps forehead*.  I came out of the passenger side in the midst of all the traffic trying to hunt for a counter to buy the card.  All in melayu.  No apparent counter.. Then the uncle from the car behind us kindly lent us our card to pass through.  After we went through, we wanted to return the $ to him.  When I came out, another orcifer scolded me in the malay slang... 'oi, you two cars share one card isit?  do you see that car now? (in my heart: aboden? its behind us, of course i can see it) DO YOU SEE THAT CAR NOW?  it cannot pass!  you have to buy kard! (of course i know that, but if there is no apparent counter for card sales, how am i supposed to know where to buyyyy???).  Then I looked down and noticed that she was holding a stack of them.  Nice.  Officer cum mobile sales vendor.  I half-wonder if she sells kacang putih also.  Anyways, I bought a card and ran to that nice uncle so that he could pass through and drive into the 滚滚红尘.  Uncle, I'm eternally grateful for your generosity and altruism...

This is followed by JAM JAM JAM for another eternity...

ROBERT #4:  You see, the principle was, since we have passed through Singapore's checkpoint on a lorry lane, of course, by logic, we chose to take the lorries lane in Malaysia right?  WRONG.  Our 5 seconds of happiness whizzing past the snaking car queue was interrupted by the sight of another 2 orcifers in white (and red motorbikes?  why don't they bother to give them matching bike colours?)

Vic got down the van and we all prayed for favour.  Eventually their conversation ended in smiles and Vic walked back to the van.  You know what the orcifer told Vic? 

"You know dat I'm going to book you for a fine of RM300?  Before I book you, do you have anything to say??"

(in my heart: errrr... Jesus loves you and I love you too?)

In the end, we said goodbye to SGD30 dollars folded and passed to that orcifer underneath Vic's license... in exchange for a 5-second shortcut and 开路 service by the very happy orcifers.

And this is followed by JAM JAM JAM for the third eternity...

Then we finally got in.  Headed for Taman Sentosa for herbal chicken and zi char.  Really good stuff!  And then...

ROBERT #5:  One pink slip on our windscreen says it all.  Ok, well, not really, because it was all in Melayu. I could go on forever about the wisdom of booking a foreign car with a ticket written in a native tongue man..

Apparently we were supposed to park using coupon (from where?  don't see the malaysian cars using any of them...)  and hence, the only thing being RM30 that I could recognize from that ticket, we all decided to act blur and ignore the ticket.  I wonder if they would, for the sake of SGD15, chase us for the fines through LTA, which would possibly charge them an admin fee, meaning that they could very well get back only SGD10?? *shrugs*.. But we really didn't know where to pay that fine lah... 1st timers you know?


The rest of the day went pretty smooth.  We had a chop chop shopping spree at Holiday Plaza.  I was kind of glad that we were in the company of very decisive pple this time around.  Because you can never shop like we did, with pple that are chronically indecisive.  We were like the special forces.. landed there, did our thing, bought some good coffee (with strainers saved from the trashbin and washed.. that's a very near ROBERT #6) and dabao KFC, left the place pronto.  Sorry gals, I know deep in our heart of hearts, we would have loved to stay there longer.. next time ok??

We bought stuffs that we were very happy about.  Jace and I for our jobs.. and Kitty bought some snacks.  Then, we took the CARS lane back to Singapore without any hiccup!!!!  So even though we are considered a VAN in singapore and a CAR in malaysia, we have decided from now on to just take the car's lane IF we ever enter Malaysia again... Haiz... Sometimes it really doesn't pay to be too C...

So, ends our little adventure of Roberts on a Monday.

"People always say: Count your blessings.  But I think we also should count our roberts.  Because when you do, you learn to let loose a little and laugh at yourself (when all the frustration of roberting is over of course).  And recognize that neither you, nor other people, nor the circumstances surrounding you, can be engineered to perfection.  So why not be like what the header of many blog templates say:  live, love and laugh?"