Easter 2007 - Houseboat Day 5

09 April 2007, Monday - Final day...

After last night's adrenalin rush, we were all so tired that we slept till well past 8am in the morning... (during the trip, we usually woke around 6+ - 7+). But for Rachel, she slept like a log because she took 2 travel pills before bed so that she won't wake in the middle of the night in rough seas... In the end, she had no idea how choppy the water was the night before...

This morning's breakfast was leftovers of sorts. We had salads, BBQ meat, chicken wings, bacon, prata.... Rachel came up with bacon and cheese prata, which was snapped up by the crew...

After breakfast, we set sail for Ephraim Island and Sovereign Island. This is Esmond's request as he wanted to see what he termed as "architecture disaster houses" which he saw from some brochures. He couldn't understand why those houses do not maximise their space and had to leave voids here and there. It's just not practical...

The journey to the island take a good hour or so. On the way there, traffic was pretty heavy. There were speed boats, luxury boats going past us - fast! One of them caused such a commotion that the wave following it threw everyone off their feet! Glasses, cups, bowls, plates, pots, bottles were "flying" off their places. Shy "flew" to save a bottle of red wine from falling off the table and knocked himself in the tummy. (Great save Shy!)

Pei, Yan Ngoh (Kareen), Haw and Jit had another round of Monopoly while Shy and Pearl took to their beds.

Pei: "Yay! I finally managed to buy some property!" (Pei didn't managed to buy much in her first round of Monopoly on Day 2

We had a near miss at getting grounded a third time. All of a sudden, we seem to be stationery at one spot. So some of us ran to the back where the motor was to check things out. And we saw the propeller churning out sand!!! We thought "Oh no... Not again! And on our last day too! If we get grounded here, we will surely not make it back to Brisbane today and in time for work the next day!". So Roger made the engine "huff and puff", churning more sand by the minute. We prayed that some miracle forces will give us a slight nudge and dislodge us from the sand bank. Our prayers were answered and we were "free"!!! Thank God! (Thanks to Roger who reminded me of this little excerpt!)

When we got to the island, the architects (Heng Onn, Christina, Pei, Haw, Shy) started explaining to Esmond about the logic behind the designs. Esmond took interest and had learnt a new "archi" term - light well. It's a tower / open space with windows allowing natural light to filter into the house.

Ephraim Island and the "architecture failure" apartments...

After admiring million dollar water front properties (apparently, there's a security gate at the entrance of Sovereign Island and only residence with passwords / remote are allowed entry!), we started our journey back to the pier at Coomera.

We admired the water front properties along the way. We also said that we'll do another houseboat trip in 10 years time - a reunion. We'll rent the most luxurious houseboat and bring our family along. We'll probably need to hire two houseboats by then, if we were all "productive".

Roger and Ian tried their hands at steering the boat from the upper deck while Heng Onn, Christina, Esmond and Rach chatted...

When we reached the pier, we contemplated if we want to have lunch on the houseboat. But because most of us are still full from breakfast, we decided to dock and go ashore. The leasor saw us coming into the pier and checked if we are returning the houseboat. He came in 15 minutes time. By then, we were almost done with our packing.

The man was so skilled that he "parked" the houseboat with minor bumps! We didn't feel it at all!

Once docked, we unloaded our stuff and took group photos with the houseboat to commemorate our memorable trip together.

We loaded our luggage and leftover food into our respective cars and headed back for SunnyBank. We had an early dinner since we skipped lunch - Endless Noodless at Pinelands, after which we left for Esmond and Rachel's home so that she could copy down all photos taken, consolidate it and re-distribute it to all.

At around 7pm, our Easter holiday was officially over. We returned to our respective homes and crashed!

Thank you all, for such a memorable trip.

p/s:

The whole trip cost each person slightly less than AU$400 each (inclusive of rental of houseboat, food, games, petrol, mileage)

A few of us were actually still swaying when we went back to work the next day. Ian, our captain, who flew back to Malaysia on the same night, said that he will never do flying after boating because he didn't know if he was sick from the boat or from the flight!

Easter 2007 - Houseboat Day 4

08 April 2007, Sunday - Highlight of our trip~!

Instinctively, the first thing that all of us did when we woke was check out our surroundings. After last night’s episode, we just wanted to make sure that we are still where we are and that we had not floated into the middle of the ocean.

Fortunately, we were still anchored and secured. Unfortunately, we were too secured… to the point of being grounded. Yes, we had run aground. Of all spots, we landed on this one – 10m to the left of deeper waters!

When we woke up, it was slightly less than 1m deep. After breakfast (mushroom and spinach omelette, bacon, hashbrowns, salads), the water was less than 1m deep...

Since we were grounded, we decided to do some rowing. So Esmond, Roger, Pearl, Kareen and Rachel climbed into the orange dinghy. All the girls tried their hands at rowing and even scored themselves a few blisters. Ian and Heng Onn went on the inflatable dinghy and both boats competed to reach the nearest sandbank. The inexperienced female rowers had the dinghy turning round in circles and doing s-courses. Needless to say, Ian and Heng Onn had paddled to the sandbank and back to the houseboat, while the girls were still struggling to keep their boat heading in a straight fashion. Roger and Esmond were getting pretty impatient, telling the girls what to do while sitting back and looking on helplessly.

At one point, Haw and Shy had walked from the houseboat towards our dinghy and lent a hand by pulling us towards the sand bank. Finally, Pearl and Kareen was able to bring all 5 safe and sound back to the houseboat while Jit and Pei continued with their swimming lessons.

Since we were grounded and it was forecasted that wind speed would be between 20 – 30 knots in the evening, we decided to have the BBQ for lunch rather than having it in the evening.

We brought all BBQ food stuff up onto the upper deck, while Roger and Shy worked on the BBQ burner. With wind gusts of 20 – 30 knots, it was almost an impossible affair to get the gas BBQ burner going. But they finally got it going when Esmond and Shy formed a human wall, sitting upwind of the BBQ to block off the wind. But the burner was too slow and we were starving! So we carted some chicken wings and Taiwanese sausages back down to the kitchen and have them grilled in the oven. Which is just as well, because shortly after, it started pouring! We packed up and ran in a frenzy, back into the lower deck and have “bbq” in the oven.

Christina had also whipped up a nasty Malibu cocktail, which all of us had some. And you know what alcohol can do to people… we went cuckoo / nuts / bonkers / “siao” / off our rockers… you name it, we had it… well, most of us did anyway… we did something that someone may regret it in the future….

And the story goes….

Take a guess...

Whose beautiful eye is this?

Roger was feeling dozy from the late night’s sleep, the morning’s activities and the booze. So he dozed off on the couch. Pei came to “disturb” him and suddenly “ding!”, she came back armed with a lipstick! She tried putting lipsticks on Roger’s pouty lips! But Roger was aware and he woke and tried to struggle free. This was when 4 girls (Pei, Christina, Pearl and Rachel) pounced on him to hold him down. He was trapped! He had no where to go and we had forcefully ‘made him up’. Then, Christina and Pearl went back to their bags and brought back more make ups!

Upon seeing this, Roger again tried to struggle free but was held down again. He subsequently resigned to his fate and sat quietly on the couch, “enjoying” the make up session. So he had some eye shadows put on, blusher and his eye lines drawn. He was so, so pretty, that he paraded in a catwalk and posed for some very raunchy photos!

Phew-weet...(wolf whistle....)

But seeing him in his T-shirt, sweater and shorts with his make up on didn’t really match up. So Rachel went into her room and came back out with a wrap around skirt. The girls went into a frenzy again and nearly tore off Roger’s clothes from his body. We even enhanced his figure and put in some implants for him! (Originally was two oranges, which we decided wasn’t big enough… so we settled with two rolled up t-shirts!). And this is his final look.

Wow... well endowed.....

All these while, the girls were having the time of their lives. The screech of laughter could be heard from afar. They were laughing so hard that they couldn’t stand straight! While the girls were having fun, Esmond just looked on and Haw and Kareen were busy taking pictures, recording the whole event. Heng Onn, Ian, Shy and Jit were out helping other people pushing boats into deeper water.

Esmond shouted for them to come back for a show. When they saw Roger, they couldn’t believe their eyes! And Shy (who was Roger’s ‘hubby’) even……

When the girls were done with Roger, they eyed a new victim. The sleepy Esmond! After some minor persuasion (he had already resigned to the fact that he’ll be one of the ‘models’ when the girls made Roger do it…), he too was made up. To a further extent compared to Roger. Esmond had his eyelashes curled and was given some mascara as well! And he had beautiful, curly lashes! The girls were all so jealous! And because Esmond was bigger in size, the girls had a hard time trying to find a costume for him, but had settled for the wrap around skirt, in a different fashion. Esmond looked like a Mamasan!

Ha ha... you were laughing at me right?
Now's your turn...

Oh my... mamasan!

Next came Ian! He was reluctant but after some persuasion from the girls (and the two new ‘chicks’) he was also made up! He has a different style compared to the other two. He’s onto the “kawaii” / cute image! Rachel whipped out a cute set of costume for Ian. Look how cute he looks!

Kawaii~! (so cute!!!)

Last but not least, Shy. With 7 people going after him, he didn’t have much choice. Pearl designed his costume from a scarf. Isn’t he sexy?

When they were all done, the girls came to the conclusion that when a guy has a pretty sister, he’ll be pretty when he has make up on! All looked a little more similar to their sisters after having cosmetics on.

Originally, the girls wanted to do it to all 7 guys. But Haw and Kareen had disappeared to their room after Roger’s stint, Heng Onn too had gone to bed after Roger, Jit had hurt himself while helping people with their boat.

Unsatisfied, the girls got the 4 new ‘chicks’ to pose for photos….

(see how the "new chicks" are enjoying the photo shoot? The girls didn't have to use force at all!)

After all this, it was back to more serious matters (as the alcohol had worn out….). After the lunch and make up sessions, our situation turned from bad to worse. There were no water surrounding us as all! We were practically on dry ground!

What the?!

The crew was thinking of ways to dislodge the boat from the sand. Roger suggested digging the sands out from both sides of the boat so that it’ll be easier to float when the tide comes in. Esmond thought otherwise.

Then, Pearl (thanks Roger for correcting me) suggested having the anchor moved to a different position so that when the tide comes in, we will be led to deeper waters and away from the shore. We agreed, and the crew put their backs to it.

Once the anchor is out, it was carried 8m to the right of the ship, towards deeper waters and was set down. To ensure that it was firmly embedded into the seabed, Heng Onn reached down into the muddy water. He felt something and thought it was a shoe, but he immediately flung the ‘object’ down upon seeing it. 5 seconds later, he realised that that ‘object’ was a sea cucumber (a fine asian delicacy) and reached into the waters groping for it again. When he got it, he flung it towards the sand bank and it landed with a thud. It was a fat, big, long sea cucumber – about 6 inches in length. But it was not a pretty sight as it started spewing “gooey shit” out of one of its end. This turned us off and we left it where it was… (some Asian aunty would have ‘ta bao’ it home for claypot sea cucumber….)

Oh no! We're stuck! Help!

It's all his fault!!!

He picked the spot!

Suddenly, it began to pour, causing us to run helter skelter back to the houseboat for cover. The rain continued till dinner and past dinner, on and off and the wind was howling. Our wish was that the rain would bring in a higher tide faster because it was forecasted that the highest tide would be at about midnight.

That night, we had baked rice and Chick Kut Teh (bak kut teh with chicken meat) - thanks to Esmond and Christina.

We didn't have our Pictionary - charade competition that night. We were all tired and felt that we had somewhat become "expert" and cleverer in trying to deliver our acts. So we sat down and "talk cock, sing song, play guitar"....

As we were aground, the toilet wasn't able to pump up water to flush so we had to get sea water from outside. Braving the rain, Esmond played hero and braved the rain to get water. Luckily he went outside to get water because the rain was so heavy, our dinghy was filling out with water. His years at a naval base came in handy because he knew we had to bail water out from that dinghy otherwise we'd have another problem - a sunken boat!

Past 10pm, the tide came in and was pushing and tugging at the houseboat. The familiar swaying feeling came back. We were elated and continued to pray for more tide so that our boat could loosen itself from the sand bed and do what ships do - float!

Come 11pm, our houseboat had started floating! So everybody was activated and posted back to their positions on the various decks as Roger ignited the engine and steered us to deeper waters. We anchored and monitored for half an hour to ensure that we were secure and was not drifting. As we were in deeper waters and in a wider, busier canal, the seas were rougher and the houseboat was bobbing up and down more violently than ever.

Luckily, Rachel bought some travel pills during the emergency shopping on Day 2. The girls took them and went to bed.

Aren't they beautiful? (It's as if it's taken in a studio~!)

Easter 2007 – Houseboat Day 3

07 April 2007, Saturday – The sun, sand and the sea….

After a hearty breakfast (Roti Prata and Porridge! – thanks to Christina and Esmond!), we set sail for a spot further north of South Straddie, in search of blue waters, and after about an hour’s drive, we found our spot!

We embarked from our houseboat, into the motorboat and onto shore with sands that crumble underneath our feet. We searched for a spot, big enough for our ball games and clear of stumps sticking up from the sand.

Once we’ve got our motorboat secured on the beach and after rounds of photo taking, we launched into our first game – Poison Ball. 6 vs 6 – Group 1: Haw, Shy, Pearl, Heng Onn, Pei and Rachel, Group 2: Kareen, Christina, Jit, Esmond, Ian, Roger.

As if we didn’t find Poison Ball physically challenging, we started Captain Ball with the same grouping composition. We were all running, jumping, snatching, attacking, defending, sliding, rolling, falling, bumping, scratching, tripping etc etc….. In the end, it was 5:3 (Group 2: Group 1). Once again, we’ve amassed sufficient injuries to stop the game (Pearl had a bruised left eye – gift from Roger (who strongly objects and denies this...), Christina and Rachel had scratches on the knees, miscellaneous bruises on everyone ….) but start another…

This time, in the water. We tried to out beat the other on “mushy-ness” by carrying, hugging, piggy backing, shouldering each other’s partners, turning Roger into a green-eyed monster before trying to launch himself onto Ian who quickly rejected him.

Then we played “Monkey”, while Pei learns how to swim from Jit, Pearl seriously swimming laps, Christina swimming to keep herself warm, Kareen trying out Esmond’s goggles.

When we are all wrinkled from staying in the water too long and Christina having cramps in her legs, we returned to our houseboat for some delicious “tunch” (lunch + tea). We had Shim Ram Yun noodles with leftovers from previous night’s steamboat dinner.

After tunch, we were all so flat out that we crashed on our bunks until dinner! (We were grounded. The water was too shallow and we couldn't budge. So the analyzers (Ian, Roger and Heng Onn) looked at the charts and tide table and decided that we'll move when the tide comes in in the evening. - Thanks to the crew who reminded me of this.... blog writer getting old... can't remember all the details...)

Dinner was seafood marinara fettuccine, seafood pizza and Shy’s famous Chicken Peri Peri pizza.

After dinner, we settled for another round of Pictionary Charade. Group 1 consisted of Heng Onn, Christina, Haw, Kareen, Esmond and Rachel. Group 2 has Ian, Roger, Pei, Jit, Pearl and Shy.

Everything went well for Group 1 (thanks to Esmond’s “power”) who successfully proceeded into a number of sixes on the dice. But the same cannot be said for Group 2 (thanks to Ian’s “power” of throwing 1) who was moving at a snail’s pace. It was as if they were “cursed” and the red dot on the dice followed them throughout the game.
The game went so well, that within an hour, Group 1 had completed the game, well ahead of Group 2. Not contending to defeat, Group 2 challenged Group 1 to another round.

"One!!!!"

This time, into the middle of the session, Ian finally found out that he must be “really really mad / cross” at Group 1 in order to throw a “six”. He did manage to throw “sixes” in his practice sessions… but when it came to the REAL throw, he was still stuck with 1. This had thrown all of us into fits of laughter and Group 2 in solid resignation of their fate.

Again, Group 1 managed to finish the game within the hour. With time on our hands and too early for bed, most of us embarked on a different game.

Pearl, Roger, Christina, Jit and Rachel went with Chinese checkers. While Heng Onn (very much to our shock and surprise because it was well past his bedtime and he was still very alert and wanting to play Risk), Esmond, Shy and Ian PLANNED (literally!) to play Risk.

The four of them spent more than an hour, discussing on how they should go about playing the game (Mission vs Conquest) when the other group was well into their game of Chinese checkers with their pieces all colliding in the middle of the puzzle (i.e. cluster f***).

Suddenly, Heng Onn, with a very serious expression, rushed out from the “little boys room” exclaiming that while he was “doing his business” he saw a boat right beside ours and that we seem to be moving!

Immediately we dispersed to the front and back deck to see if it was true. True enough, there WAS a ship beside us and we had drifted! We had no idea where we have drifted off to and for how long we have drifted.

We had an emergency discussion, upon which Roger drove us to a spot with Heng Onn and Ian as the navigator, Esmond, Rachel, Haw and Kareen as deck watchmen on the upper deck – ensuring that there were no passing ships / boats.

It was very dark and very hard to see our surroundings and make out our exact location. After we’ve anchored, Roger, Ian and Heng Onn tried to make out our exact position based on the beacons on the horizon. We didn’t get to bed till past 2am….

Easter 2007 - Houseboat Day 2

06 April 2007, Friday – All aboard!

We were so excited that most of us are up by 8am in the morning! We were vying for the bathroom and lining up along the corridor, hurrying whoever was inside to hurry up and reminding him / her of the water restrictions….

We had egg sandwiches and ham croissants for breakfast (courtesy of Christina!). After breakfast, Heng Onn, Pearl, Roger and I, set off for the mainland so that we could get to the nearest service station to get some of the stuff which we’ve lost last night.

We got to the pier and called the security to open the gate for us. We were told that we have to wait for about 30 minutes (coz they were very busy and it was Easter) but lucky for us, somebody appeared in 10 and mentioned that they’ll leave the gate unlocked so that we could get back in when we are done with our shopping. We drove 15 minutes to BP and stocked up on dairy products, batteries, travel pills and 2 Nandos chicken.

We got back to the houseboat, stored our purchases and braced ourselves for our voyage through the maze of channels up to South Straddie. Roger (the driver), pulled up the anchor, locked in the gear and steered us through the river towards south of South Straddie. Ian (the captain cum navigator), Heng Onn (the co-navigator) and Esmond (the parrot cum deck watchman) took their respective positions on the boat to ensure a safe journey. The journey took us over an hour and on route, lunch was cooking and a few of us (Kareen, Pei, Shy and me) had a game of monopoly.

When we got to our destination, we anchored and Heng Onn, Roger and Esmond took the motorboat out to the shore to recce the area. Meanwhile, lunch was served and we had fried rice and rice vermicelli in soup (thanks again to Christina!). We also had Nandos chicken on top of Christina’s delicious cooking.

The boys returned from their recce trip and Roger excitedly exclaimed that there is a beach volley ball court and shower facilities on shore! When we were done with our lunch, we set about changing into our “play costume”, slapping on loads of sunscreen, putting on our cap and riding the waves across to the shore in the orange motorboat. When all 12 of us got on shore, we made a beeline for the beach volleyball court after securing our motorboat to ensure our return trip to our houseboat.

We split up into two teams and pitched against each other. The result? Blue black hands, palms, thumbs etc. (too bad we didn’t get a picture of our injuries….). After a few rounds, we decided that we’ve had enough injuries and wanted a rest. Roger suggested that we take 10 minutes trekking to the other side of the island to blue waters since it is facing the ocean. (our current side has black, murky waters that’s not appetising for swimming purposes….). So we pack up our stuff and walked in single file.

We walked and we walked and we walked….. 10 minutes past and we haven’t seen any blue waters around… all we see are green leaves, brown shrubs and hairy balls….

After loads of “Are we there yet?” from the crew, there finally was a light at the end of the tunnel (figuratively and literally speaking…).

The sand was so fine, the water so blue that without hesitation, we dumped our bags in a corner and ran to the waters. We stoped short when our feet got into contact with the cold, clear salt water and hesitated… until…. a water fight broke out. The thirst for revenge set about a chain reaction and we were splashing cold water on each other in the cold blustery wind. (again, we were having so much fun that none of us want to miss out on this opportunity to dunk the other into the water, hence, no photos taken of us in action….)

In the end, we all got wet. Christina and myself even took the chance to exfoliate using the fine sands from the sea! As the sun started to set, Roger herded us out of the water to start our walk back to the boat. We dried ourselves, took some shots of the aftermath, and headed to our motorboat.

When we got back to the houseboat, I started to prepare our steamboat dinner while some of us took to the shower. We had two different flavours for the steamboat – Satay and “Ma La” flavour. We were all so hungry that we dug into our dinner with so much fervour that we literally snatched food from each other.

After dinner, we settled for a game of modified Pictionary. Instead of drawing (coz we didn’t have enough paper supplies), we did charades. We split into two teams and pitted against each other. It was good fun and we had a lot of laughter (especially when Ian kept throwing one on the dice and Esmond and team having sixes, as if Esmond was Hiro Nakamura – from American series, Heroes – who could stop time, tele-port and change things! Ha ha!)

After four hours of charade, Esmond and team (Christina, Heng Onn, Pei, Jit and Rachel) won the game, much to the dissatisfaction of the opponent. It was past midnight when we all retire to our beds for a good night’s rest before facing the next day’s adventure.