Farm Visit (Part 2)

The other farm which we visited on Sunday was the Jurong Frog Farm. WY told me that he had been to this farm with WS and WP previously. CP, BK and YP had brought him there.

The organiser had warned us that the place would generally be very slippery. I think he should have added that it would be noisy and smelly, too. I was hoping that nobody sitting near us would buy the fresh frog/frog legs from the farm, otherwise they would probably stink out the whole coach-load of passengers!

These were what we saw at the noisy end of the frog farm:







This was at a quieter but no less smelly end of the frog farm:



The place where the frogs were being slaughtered for sale smelled even worse! When I asked the worker pulling out the intestines of the beheaded & skinned frogs (poor things) if he minded his photograph being taken, he nodded to say it was ok with him. But he gestured that his supervisor might not like it, so I quickly snapped this before his supervisor returned:



Looks quite yucky, doesn't it?! WY and I scrambled onto the coach to escape from the stench. Yikes!

Soon after, the coach moved on to Yishun where we were let off for lunch at our own expense. On the way, the microphone-wielding organiser (an old man) spoke enthusiastically in his bad mandarin:

“你们今天有谁带种子来吗？有吗？有谁带种子来的，请举手。我有特别奖给你们。有谁带种子来？”

Ha?! What 种子 was he talking about, I wondered. Were we expected to bring seeds or something from home or from the farms which we had visited earlier? Hmmm...

A scrawny man seated near us happily put up his arm, and to my amazement, he opened his big bag and proudly pulled out ........................ a rice dumpling to show to that organiser! Oh, 原来是 “粽子”!! Hahahhaaa.....

This was the neighbourhood place where we were let off for lunch. It supposedly has this very popular 4D/Toto outlet, so the "种子" organiser kept asking if anyone was going to try their luck there.

Mother wanted to join her friends for lunch. So R, the boys and I went on our own.

After lunch at the hawker centre, WY and I somehow got separated from R and WF. So we strolled around a little before chancing upon this bakery where there was a Malay woman selling Kueh Tutu at a stall outside. Apparently, her Kueh Tutu's are very popular, so we had to queue for about 5 minutes before it was our turn. To kill time while waiting in line, I took this photo with her permission:



With the 2 packs of steaming-hot Kueh Tutu's in hand, WY and I proceeded to the assembly point. On the way, we checked at the various telecomm shops to see if they had the plastic cover for Mother's hp. We finally found it at the shop right in front of the assembly point. I put it on the hp for Mother while waiting for the coach.

The last and final stop we made on this One-Day Tour was the IMM at Jurong. R and I thought it was so silly of the organisers to bring us from Lim Chu Kang (Western part of the island) to Yishun (Northern part) and then back to Jurong East (Western part) again. What a waste of time.

But I suppose the retirees with lots of free time on their hands would, as Mother puts it, not mind taking a leisurely bus ride all round the island, lor. 一张票五块钱，可以载你坐车游车河，一边看、一边吃、一边和志同道合的朋友聊天，多好啊！



At IMM, Mother wanted to look for the water-heater shop where her cousin Ah Chui works at. We remembered that the shop was located somewhere on the 2nd level near the escalators, but it is not there anymore. So, she just went shopping with her friends instead.

WF has been into fixing jigsaw puzzles these past few weeks. He would dismantle and then fix and re-fix the jigsaw pieces of the puzzle-book which YP brought to Mother's place some times ago.

So, whilst we were at IMM, we checked out the Jigsaw Puzzle World. WY, having tasted the sweetness of succesfully fixing the 500-pc scenery puzzle which HA gave him, selected a 1000-pc puzzle. WF chose a 70-pc "Cars" puzzle. R also bought another 500-pc scenery puzzle.

R tried to look around for a new hp but eventually did not settle for anything. We decided that it would be better to wait out the 24 months for Starhub's hp-upgrade voucher 1st. No point paying extra for a new hp now, since there are only 2 more months to go.

By the time we gathered again to board the coach, it was almost 3:15pm. On the way home, the "种子" organiser together with his colleague conducted the Highlight of the Tour - the Lucky Draw! He kept emphasizing that the prizes were sponsored by this "Mr Goh", a PBM in the community club. Like it is a big deal, sigh.

WY's ticket won him the 6th prize which turned out to be a pouch with a mirror. WF got the 3rd prize which was a Chinese Chess set - by the looks of the box of the Chinese Chess set, I suspect this is a recycled item, not brand new. So much so for that the generous sponsorhip of that PBM "Mr Goh"!! Aiyoh!

Overall, the trip was not really so bad and not exactly exhausting. But when we reached home and Mother asked if we would want to join her again for the next One-Day Tour scheduled for July, I went, "Ha?! No, lah. School re-opens next week already.".... phew!