Back to Kch. Back to work. Back to reality @n@
Economy not good. Prices of goods keep going up. Ang Pows also shrink. Better than none. Should not be greedy.
Economy not good. Prices of goods keep going up. Ang Pows also shrink. Better than none. Should not be greedy.
This year, we spent our CNY in Perth. Didn't feel like going when Jane and I were discussing about it in December last year. However,my feeling changed when we paid for our tickets in January *Look forward to it excitedly* It has been 4 years since I last went to Perth with Jane! This would be FUN.
Did a lot in Perth. Eventhough it was uncomfortably hot there but still, we squeezed in as many activities as we could in our short, 8-day trip.
My CNY trip did not begin well. I went with 2 luggage bags but only 1 made it to Perth ;'( Actually, both arrived in Perth but I lost one whole bag plus some food all thanks to an ant. YES! Never under-estimate a tiny harmless bug!
My mum asked me to bring 2kg of pineapple jam over so we could make my mum's famous pineapple tarts in Perth to give away as CNY presents. Right before we left for Kch airport, I took the jam out from the fridge, wrapped it in layers of newspapers followed by plastic bags and put it together with all the dried food in my new luggage bag. I used a proper bag for food instead of a box coz i figured that this should be the stylish way to travel. AND it is more convenient too, don't you agree? When the custom officer opened my bag for inspection, the moving ant on the white plastic bag caught her attention immediately. Her words pierced my heart - she said she has to DESTROY the content and my bag (ouch!) because of the contamination. WHAT?! Destroy? Contamination? SO SERIOUS?!?! All because of ONE ant?
We pleaded hard with her & showed her our 'sad' looks. Come on, those stuff are meant for CNY.... She relented and let us have a few dried food back. NOTE: only A FEW k but better than none. Should be grateful that I didn't lose all. She said I could have my bag back after disinfection BUT at a fee of AUD30. I said ok. That bag cost me hundreds. Even AUD30 seems reasonable *sigh* Sadly, I still kissed my bag goodbye forever in the end because it would take them 3 to 4 WEEKS to get it sprayed. Yeah, i asked the same question everyone asks - why on earth do they need so long to get it disinfected??? Just give me a can of pesticide, i kill germs for them lah... So heartbroken that i lost my bag. I only used it twice! My mum was more depressed than me because her requested items didn't reach her hands. Very valuable stuff because they cannot be found in AUS....
To this date, I still cannot figure out how the ant got into my bag. Look on the bright side, at least it saved me from having to make pineapple tarts in the hot weather. It would be hard to tell if it was the tarts that were being baked or me ;p
p/s: My eldest sister laughed at me for being vain. She said a box would have been sufficient... DOUBLE OUCH!
My most current wallpaper
-A Peaceful Summer Nite-
This is considered a good picture. It was taken by balancing my camera on a drinking water bottle placed on uneven ground *hard work*
5 comments:
i also dono how the ant got in...i was in shocked when i saw a moving ant in the plastic and i really prayed tat the lady didnt see it...too bad she still saw it..crap...
what lah! an ant only mah~ not one big ass green head fly or something...australia immigration officer really...or should u be glad that u r not 'distilled' together as well...u r really optimistic,whatever bad things happened u got positive thinking *clap clap*
wah! got save food for me oh! so touched ;) ...is it saved in your stomach now? mua ha ha!
An ant only ler.. u should tell them, i grow up with ants one.. i can have it in my stomach.... "now you see, now you dont... so can i take my bag and all my stuff back????"......
the custom officer has sharp eyes. probably she wanted the pineapple jam for herself lah... ;p
lj, there must be a reason why it happened. Guess God thinks I shouldn't eat too much, that's why the sweet jam was taken away from me ;p BTW, the food is still here... but already concurred by green fungus hehe
yeah sw, i should probably just swallow the jam instead of letting it get confisticated ;p
I also think that it is too much to take that long to disinfect your bag. Doesn't make sense at all.
When I went to Australia with my husband, after the dog sniffed our bags, we went through another round of manual check. The custom officer took every piece of our clothes, checked the pockets and every corner. We had no food. Then he apologized that everyone had to go through that due the foot and mouth disease control.
We were not allowed to carry plants or fruits from one state to another. The reason given was there are specific pests that attack a different region and we may bring in a different kind of pest making it difficult to control. I think they are so strict because they rely on agriculture and farming.
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