Dimpled Chicks

Red Velvet Cupcake (RVC)

2012-02-05T19:23:00.000+08:00

Got an order to make some red velvet cupcake for my bestfriend's sister's son birthday (on Saturday). Just like the bubble tea craze and the doughnut craze where people would queue for longer than the time spent eating them, cupcakes are the current fad.

I remember chef CK bringing up the subject of cupcakes. From the way he spoke of cupcakes, it's like as if he condemns cupcakes. But, I love them! They're absolutely brilliant. Instead of having a slice of cake, have them in a cup - and accessorize them. They're just like muffins but the prettier sister.

Well, anyways...

The preparations began on Thursday night.

I cut out stars to go on top of the cupcake so it could dry out over the next few days. I didn't want to use flowers or hearts that are readily available. Firstly, it wouldn't be suitable for a boy's birthday party, and secondly, I didn't want to use store bought decorations - I wanted it to be different.

After work on Friday and catching up on the usual series online, I began to bake. All of them and then some extras as back up just in case something goes wrong. It's always good to have back up. Extras can be for my personal consumption for me and my family.

I had slightly more than enough cups but not enough to fill another entirely new batch. I was confident, having done it before, that everything would be alright. I've memorised the steps. I even know what temperature to set. How long it actually takes cause it's always never what it says in the recipe (lesson learnt from all the times I spent practicing for practical exams). I told myself while on the way back from work to begin with the name of God, but when that time came, to seek for God's help, I forgot.

I wish I can say that the first batch I did came out fine, but, it didn't. It came out looking alright, so I was confident, passing past stage one. Normally before I frost my cupcake, I would take a bite to make sure it taste right. It'd be a waste of effort if I'd frosted something that was too bland or too saltish, then have to take the frosting off.

And my cupcakes were terrible! IT WAS BITTER. The cupcake left a horrible metallic aftertaste on my tongue I couldn't get rid of the taste for hours. I didn't want to believe that I had destroyed all the cupcakes so I took another one and tried them (see extras are always needed), and same thing. Bitter bitter bitter!

I knew right away what had gone wrong.

I was not going to give someone bitter cupcakes. I spent the whole night trying to get rid of the disgusting taste I wouldn't do that to someone else. Besides, she paid for the cupcakes. Even if the new one I finally gave to them wasn't that fantastic, at least it wasn't bitter.

So what exactly went wrong? The coloring!

See, instead of using the normal red color liquid, I used a different type of red coloring. It came in a paste form. I used the exact amount of red color paste that was require from red color liquid, but it was a different shade (noel red instead of cherry red) and it didn't turn red the way I like it to be, so yes, being the smartass, I took the half bottle of cherry red liquid I had in the chiller and poured it all out into the batter just so I could get the red I wanted out.

Oh I got it alright...together with the wonderful bitter taste.

I remember hearing somewhere, from someone, that too much coloring would cause a terrible bitter taste but of course, while doing the RVC, that never came to mind.

I paniked for a moment but I knew it wasn't going to do any good. I knew what I had and did not have, and with all that, I had to come up with a plan.

Plan A

I do a new batch of cupcakes and keep them in the chiller, wake up in the morning, make a quick trip to the baking supplies store to buy more cups and start baking. But with vinegar and buttermilk, both being acidic, I was afraid something bad will happen to the batter. So, I came up with plan B right away.

Plan B

I'd weigh the ingredients first, since weighing takes quite some time, wake up in the morning, whisk them up, go to the supply store, get the cups and start baking.

Plan B sounded better, so I stuck with that.

Everything went on smoothly from that point on. Pheeeeeewwww! I was glad. Although I turned my whole kitchen upside down, it was alright. Plus lucky I had a lot of help on the cleaning up part. 8X

P.S: Cupcake in the pictures aren't the bitter cupcakes. They're the remade ones.

Honey! Where's my swimming pool?

2012-02-02T22:32:00.002+08:00

My mother-in-law is here to visit, again, and she has been begging us (well, mostly me) to visit her friend across the causeway, singing all sorts of praises about how nice this friend of hers (let's call her aunt M) is, and how for that reason, we must go and the cherry on top the cake - we gotta sleepover.

Um, oh kay.

I rejected several times going over to someone's house and SLEEPING OVER because I am fussy like that. How's it like going to someone elses home then have to act all primly princess, constantly having to be on my best behaviour, and worst, on my off day I gotta force myself out of bed at 8am, because sleeping till noon wouldn't look good on me.

But since MIL's departure date is approaching, I gave in. What's the harm of only one day, right?

So when I met aunt M, I couldn't help but be drawn in to her kindness. She was like a warm fuzzy bear. Kind. Gentle. Caring. (LOL I've just compared Care Bears to an actual human being)

Z invited my elder brother and his gf to join us when we arrived Friday night, and though they were hesitant at first (but still hesitant or not they brought extra clothes to jump in to pool too), they too loved being there. And yes, they joined us for a late night swim with fireworks in the sky.

My brother's gf played uncle A's keyboard, while my brother sang to some old rock songs staying way past what is normally approved of. And though it is rude most times to stay at someone's home till late night, aunt M didn't mind at all. In fact, she told me to come over again next time even when my MIL isn't around and bring my brother and his gf too.

But the best of all, she did not allow my MIL to wake Z and I up. Oh. My. God. That is absolutely the best. My off day and though I wish I could have slept more, I got exactly 8 hours, any more I'll be lethargic the whole day.

She lives in a huge house with her a big porch and a huge backyard complete with its own swimming pool!!! It wasn't an Olympic swimming pool size but good enough to have fun. Best of all, they maintained their pool on a weekly basis, the only "filth" came from fallen leaves, and even that, wasn't much. Anyway, leaves cannot be counted as filth.

My standards for Malysian homes are set lower than what comes out of Barney Stinson's mouth but aunt M's home was clean, besides some mosquitos (she lives surrounding empty bungalows with unkept trees and bushes also known as perfect breeding grounds) and the Malaysia's usual - flies.

On our second day there (Z had planned a jamming session with my brother and cousins from both my paternal and maternal side so we went back on Saturday and came back on Sunday), Z and N swam while I, one large 160 centimeters sweet loving warm blooded type AB+ sat around, literally giving myself to those blood suckers.

I don't even want to know how they managed to get in my long pants and suck through my hairy legs. I was hoping for once my damn au natural hairiness would do some good, perhaps being a shield (I'm not asking for much am I?) from mosquitos but no, hair on my arms and legs, they're just meant to be ugly and pretty much, useless.

FIL lit one of those mosquito repellent coil, one I used to use back in the 90s (*ehem* just to make it feel like a long time) but it was useless.

I couldn't take it anymore after making a silly mistake of sitting with my legs crossed instead of keeping it under water.

A BLOODY MOSQUITO SUCKED BLOOD FROM MY SOLE!

It itched like crazy. But if I were to scratch, it tickles. So I had two choices. Tolerate the icth. Or tolerate being tickled but be relieved of the itch.

Living at her place, is bad, for one reason. I'D GAIN SO MUCH WEIGHT! She kept feeding us with food. We have breakfast. We have lunch. We have dinner. And in between all of that, there were home made snacks from deep fried red bean/coconut buns to pineapple tarts. They were all so good!

Aunt M loves the European country style. She decorated her house to fit what she liked and though it would not have been to my preference (me - child of the 90s - duh) if it were my home, the place was like a warm fluffy blanket wrapped all around me on cold winter night (or a cold air-conditioned room since we do not have winter season :|). Sighhhh...I'm in love with that place.

And we had fun, a hell load of fun. If not, how'd explain this...

Is it anyone's?

2011-09-16T02:45:00.006+08:00

Mornings are not my time of the day.

My day begins with the murderous sound of my alarm, after which I reluctantly shower (or fall asleep on the toilet) to begging chef T to take me off biscotti duty, because, I can’t cut to save my own life!

No mornings are ever different besides the occasional (has changed to frequent of late ;P) extra 15 minutes (of sleep) I get if I were to take a certain four-wheeler, most commonly seen wearing a blue coat, with a numerical meter that goes up (AND UP) – as with the heart rate – after every 385km and 330km thereafter (I googled!) or 45 seconds of being stationary. Yep, that one!

All for an extra fifteen minutes.

Fifteen minutes may seem little but it’s long enough to shake the earth and destroy half of it – now why can that be considered massive but for me, Z would tell me, “sleep fifteen minutes earlier…” Ha! Ha! He’s funny sometimes. It’s the waking up part that is a tough and painful process. Sleeping fifteen minutes earlier or fifteen hours earlier wouldn’t make any difference.

And when the fifteen minutes is added up, that’s an additional 45 minutes a week. Gotta cut me some slack. I fell asleep at work two days ago, while standing up. Twice! And if that’s not shocking enough, my eyes were WIDE OPEN both times. Scariest part, I was cutting gauze ribbons, with a pair of scissors that was certainly sharp enough to snip my entire finger off. True story.

When I first started school, it began same time I start work now. School, unlike work, is more than an hour away, give and take…if the train doesn’t PMS along the way, the ride would be precise to a T, else, be prepared to have at least 10/15 minutes taken. I used to wake up at 6 am, easily, and at times with a smile on my face. Eagerness burned inside. Excitement soared. Driven to the core, I was always looking forward for school.

I am not an oddball.

My school, unlike any other, is different. Every day is a brand new day with brand new things to learn and do. Somethings maybe a repeat of what we’ve done before, yet it never once felt like a chore or a bore.

But work…

I may have entered into the industry with my own ideas, that are completely different from what I see at work; and felt cheated as well as disappointed with what I have seen so far. I work in a large kitchen that caters to almost all the large hotels in the country which came as a surprise. I used to think that they’d do everything on their own having the place and people for it. But neh, they have the people for it, it comes in a form of buttons with number and a wire that wires to another line on another part of the island.

Worst part, the hotel would claim it as theirs.

I am not the only one that has been disappointed. I know some of my other classmates who didn’t expect what they were shown either. Some only work with machines. Just machines. Throw in the sack of premix (company will not reveal “trade secret”) into a machine large enough to be a space shuttle, throw in water through a hole and let the machine do its magic. What a joke!

But I suppose, it is what it is. I just never knew that it was as such.

On my part, I would have to say, things aren’t so bad. I’ve got perks some don’t (secret I cannot say them here ;p). Firstly, the only machines I work with are mixers and ovens. The one I use at home is only 5 quartz, but the one (one of the few they've got) at work is 60 quartz. Imagine a kitchen aid mixer but twelve of that. Not a space shuttle size now that one is ginormous.

Then, there is time (weekends are the busiest and while my classmates have to work I do not alhamdullilah a blessing), having awesome kick ass colleague, having the best chef-in-charge (a true sweetheart chef T!), a good partner-in-crime (we made a figurine out of cookie dough just now and we convinced each other that it’d be interesting to know what it’ll look like after being baked. the head committed suicide LOL).

There is not a single bad thing about the environment there. It is with much difficulty for me to blend in, what with the orang Melayu being only four people, whilst the rest are Chinese, not that I have any racial issues (my partner-in-crime is Chinese herself albeit Malaysian and speaks Bahasa well) but they speak in their mother tongue all the time (as I normally would too) I feel like I am three years behind.

But the part I have much to complain about would be the work load. Over at W, there isn’t much variety to learn from. They cover only a handful which is TOO little for me to expand my knowledge. I fear I would end up less exposed.

Plus I don’t know why but chef T doesn’t seem to notice that I hate any task given to me where I have to hold a knife unless it’s to cut the CB cookie dough which from the beginning I’d always found to be a joy to do. WM (partner-in-crime) told me she finds it very strange that I like doing CB cookie when most people hates them.

Hahaha. This is lame and immature, but I wanted to change CB with a better, perhaps less crude, acronym and since it was chocolate I wanted to put C in front of the CB, but that might make it worst. So, please remove the other CB. It is CB cookie LOL even I cannot help but laugh. I still laugh each time I have to write on the box that I’ve just made CB. Anyway this aside…

Before I joined school, I was well-informed that it would be as any other college where it’d be a school/work basis. I had dreamt about, to be honest, some place that I wish I would be given. Daily I prayed for a good place. I don’t know if god did answer my prayers and gave me company W because it would be the best for me. So far, it seems that way.

When the sacred white sheet was handed to me, I swore my heart did a somersault, missed landing and died for a split second, then resuscitated from utter shock when I saw company W’s name. Why? BECAUSE WHO THE HECK IS COMPANY W. As if I hadn’t felt miserable enough, when chef L asked me where I’d been given to go to, she gave a look that I swore was a sad and sorry face. Definitely meant for me, not for company W for being given me.

Oh, yes, I was not given a choice where I wanted to go. Fair enough, else it’d be chaos.

Z came up with ideas.

Like inform the supervisor if things remain stagnant, I would bring up to the school about it. I held back. I wanted to go to the school without informing W or my supervisor. School met me, sat with me, gave me some papers to fill, questioned me and gave me an unsatisfactory ultimatum, I simply shook my head and said I understood they’re not in any position to simply demand or take me off W and send me elsewhere.

Now, it has turned into just another job.

Several of my classmates envy my weekends off, a rarity in the line of work I am in, but given the choice, I wouldn't mind swapping places. I came to learn. Paid big bucks for it. And what do I get? One load of bull.

My biggest fear is being out there and realizing, I don't know nothing.

Sibu Island: We still got the sun, sea and sand

2010-11-21T17:06:00.003+08:00

Our initial plan was to go to Bintan but a few problems arose at last minute:

1. My passport was valid for less than 6 months and Singapore's authority might not allow me to pass their immigration and go to Bintan

2. Since my passport was valid for less than 6 months, and IF (a small IF) the Singapore authority let me through the immigration process, the authority in Bintan might try to bribe for money to let me pass (according to the agency)

3. If I were to take the risk and go ahead with it and not make it past Singapore's immigration counters, I would not get a refund. Which sucks.

4. Our deluxe room was no longer available and the only rooms left were those facing the sea and if I were to take that I would have to pay extras (we were willing to do that though)

At first Z said, "Let's just take the chance." but I wasn't too sure. It was after finding out later that we would not get a refund that we thought it isn't worth risking anymore because hundreds of dollars go to waste towards ABSOLUTELY NOTHING? What's the point in that.

With that, we realized MY plan has failed and Bintan was gonna be a place we'll not see, nor was it gonna be a place where he celebrated his thirty eighth birthday. :(

No soaking in the sun. (Not that I plan on tanning nor was I looking forward to being under the sun especially with the attire I wear) No beaches. No resorts. No short getaway. No being away from the norm. It was gonna be the same 'ol Singapore.

But I should have known that being married to man who is quick to think on his feet and capable of saving my every disaster was able to come up with another plan. And yeah, my whole FOLLOWING THE DIRECTION OF THE WIND was all bull. We actually knew where we were headed to.

In ONLY 15 MINUTES, Z came up with another plan. A PLAN THAT TOOK ME SEVERAL DAYS FAILED AND HIS PLAN THAT TOOK ONLY 15 MINUTES WAS SMOOOOOOOOOOTH SAILING.

Besides a slight miscommunication and misunderstanding in terms of our choice of room, everything was amazing and the place, Z and I have decided to make it OUR place for a short getaway. He's even planning on going again next month when he has two off days.

Both of us LOVE that place. The people there were so professional. They were welcoming and the did our every request with a smile and not a hint of malas-nak-layan attitude.

The place was such a nice place to sit, hang and relax by ourselves of with family. The beach had clear waters...nothing murky but it was the monsoon season and according to the staff there, if we were to go between May - August, the water would be so clear we can see everything from the jetty.

Z made a comparison of this place to Male (Maldives) and he said, this place (compared to where he stays in Male, in an island own by a Singaporean) was much better. How can that be. Maldives is suppose to be picture perfect and one of the most beautiful places around, so I bet he's exaggerating.

I've never been there myself to make a comparison so I wouldn't know for sure and Z's comparison of other countries/states/cities always cannot pakai la. When I asked him about Munich, being his first time there last week, he was all, MEH! Nothing interesting. His comparisons and the way he sees another place CANNOT PAKAI.

What's this place I'm talking about?

We left Singapore at 7 am and made our way to the jetty that was a two hours drive from Singapore and an odd place for the jetty. We even had to drive past palm plantation for half an hour on an UNNAMED road. At the end of the palm tree plantation, we'd suddenly reach a parking lot to park our cars and take the ferry.

Half an hour later (there was some technical glitch and we were told that our names was not in the system and they were not suppose to have any guest that day so we had to take the smaller boat but on the way back we took the bigger boat and it took half the time to get back), we arrived...

At Pulau Sibu...also known as Sibu Island!

Sibu is it's own private island and we were away from Pulau Sibu Besar which is bigger with a few hotels located a stone's throw away. The place we were at was its own small island with only one resort, Sibu Island Resort. The best thing of all, since we were there on a weekday, we had the whole place to ourselves!!!

The only other person was a honeymoon couple and even they stayed unseen most of the time. So we did have the whole place to ourselves. It was awesome. At the beach, we hung out alone, just me and my family. I felt so free because I'm not a huge fan of being among crowds and it's nice that it feels so intimate. Anyways...

We were greeted by singers singing, "Welcome to Sibu Island" and also given juice but my camera was in the bag so I didn't get to snap any pictures and oh oh oh! the moment we left our boat and walked to the lobby you know what we saw? DEERS!!! Deers were roaming around the place freely.

Yes, deers like those in snow white with the brown fur and white dots on it's body complete with their doe eyes! REAL DEERS! Not fakes or stuffed deers.

Obligatory picture. Beside the sign board. I arrived in a pink maxi dress and that checkered pink top over it. But this was taken after we have settled down in our room and I changed out of the dress and put on Z's pjs. Hehehe. Yup, pjs! I didn't pack the right clothes but lucky Z had brought along our emergency travel pack and his lounge clothes were inside.

Their staff showed us to our room and as we walked she showed us around and pointed us to thing they have in the island and below we have the pool.

And this is how their rooms all look like! They're individual huts. They were all so pretty. The above is a 1 room but the suites are bigger with two rooms so it's easy to tell which is which. They even have a honeymoon suite that's located up on the hill and they'll have to climb up the stairs up so high they're almost telling the honeymooners to stay in the room and not go out!

So 1045 is our lucky number! :D

Room was in a well taken care of condition, clean and they've got a balcony to sit around and smoke. And this is where the miscommunication and misunderstanding I was talking about.

Z wanted the superior room but we got the deluxe room instead and we didn't know we had gotten the deluxe room instead of the superior room until we got home. It was comfy and clean we thought what we had was already so good there wasn't anything to complain about.

I was also unsure about the water in Malaysia because of my bad experience at Cameron Highlands where the water had mud and was the same colour as my favourite chai from Boon Lay coming out of its tap. But surprisingly, this place had clean water. It felt like we were not in Malaysia.

Z even joked and said, all Malaysians should go to Sibu Island and learn a little something something from them.

From our balcony. We were higher up so we'd see down to the others 'huts'. There are sea viewing chalets but they are normally the suites that's located near the beach.

Taken in the room right after we entered the room and I changed into Z's pjs. N followed the way I put my legs and decided to pose like me. So adorable la.

After we had put our things down and changed...and Z unpacked and placed his things in a line (an obsession [HE HAS OCD!] and a must for him to do in a hotel room...in this case, resort) we left the room and had our lunch.

Z had seafood fried rice with fried eggs, keropok and chicken satay while I had beef quarter pounder with coleslaw and potato wedges. I only managed to take a picture of my food because Z's food came first and he messed the plate up.

Daddy's little girl.

After lunch, we did dust coloring with N. She was given five different designs to choose from and she kept choosing the peacock. The bunny was cuter and I wanted the bunny but boss says peacock, so peacock it is.

And yup, we also let he choose he own colours for the peacock and she made the peacock colourful. This was one of the things they accommodated for us.

See, since we were the only ones around with a child, there wasn't any other kids that was gonna do dust colouring, but for N, they took the thing out and let her play with it. They're truly amazing.

They had a 2 week old baby goat (kid). Can even see its umbilical cord still attached.

There were hens, rooster and peacocks roaming around freely. But on Friday, the day we left, we saw that their chickens had been put in a large cage. And N, despite knowing them as hen or chicken, insist they were Old McDonalds.

After lunch and hanging out at their mini zoo (with goats, chickens, peacocks and deers), we walked around the resort and went to beach 1. Beach 1 is where the water sports activities are done.

The sea sport activities are flying fish, banana boat, wind surfing, snorkeling, sucba diving and canoeing. No jet skiing though. But everything else pretty much the same 'ol thing all other beach resort offers.

At beach uno. Water was blue...and they had quite a lot of rocks it looks kinda dangerous but beautiful. I thought it was only ok compared to the beach in langkawi.

Z only brought his jeans here and I told him that it isn't a good idea because we'll be heading to the beach and all his jeans wouldn't be practical and we bought those floral red pants before taking the ferry.

Beach 1 was a bit disappointing and we've been told it the monsoon season so the sea isn't as beautiful as it normally is.

Water was still clear nevertheless. Almost like tap water colour and that is colourless.

Bird houses located all around the resort.

We joined some land activities, those that we could do with N and the first one we did was...archery!

Z went first and for a first timer, he did great. 90% of his arrow was inside the target and there was even one that was so close to the center!

Next, it was my turn. Getting bow and arrow ready.

Then, aim!!!! If you can see, one of my arrow is outside the target.

And...OUTSIDE again!

Next up! N!!!!!! Ya, even N did archery.

Getting herself ready...

And aim. All her arrow fell but at least she got to try it. Hers is a real arrow too with a bullet at the front but she was supervised by the staff there.

Peacock...but a new one. He doesn't have the long tail the other peacock has.

N got an infection in one ear. She told me that he ear hurt last week but I told my mom it's probably because I put it too tight. Z checked that day and realized it was an infection. Poor girl! I should listen to her next time. That girl is a baby but she really knows stuff.

N in her bikini I bought from H&M. I love the bikini!! So cute. I bought one pink and one purple but the purple one goes well with her tanned skin and the pink one was given to my niece since she has extremely fair skin and that one would look better on her.

Slide down the slide with papa. Mama remained dry...

Taken from another beach. Actually, not really a beach but just a small area that has sand and all.

Typical...

Crab in the water. It looked grey from where I was standing. I didn't even know that it had blue lines until I saw this picture.

They had some interesting shell in odd colours.

Around the jetty...

Those are the deers! We were waiting to feed the deers. And by we I mean Z. I didn't even dare go close there was no way I was gonna feed them.

N...my fearless N...walked up to the deers and even chased peacocks. N...my fearless N...you aren't afraid of wild animals but you're afraid of being on a bicycle. -.-'

Trampoline, but they said it's for 12 years and below. But it was empty and Z asked the front desk if we could use it and they said, YES!!

So she jumped!

And he jumped...

And she jumped some more... (I look like I'm floating)

And she jumped and...posed!

Little girl was afraid at first but she was alright after a while and she wanted to join me as I jumped on the trampoline. Being huge and heavy one jump flung N UPPPPPPPPP and she fell face first. Opps. Haha. And Z caught it on the camera.

Since I couldn't jump with her, I let her jump on her own. Don't want her breaking her neck.

After jumping, we sat down for ice-cream and tea. It was almost sun down so we ordered dinner as well. Pepperoni pizza for us both. It wasn't filling but it filled my tummy just enough to sustain me for the rest of the day.

Thin pepperoni pizza. I love thin pizza!

My handy bag I turned to a coin pouch and to put the smaller notes and my oil blotter. I left the big handbags and home. After dinner, we were suppose to go for a moonlight walk but I fell asleep and was too tired to get up and go for the walk. I do wonder how it would have been but Z said we're going there again, for sure, insyaAllah, so we'll see when go there next time.

So we just slept till 6 the next day...

Day 2

We had breakfast. We were the only ones around so they didn't lay out all their food buffet style so we order them a la carte and Z and I had nasi lemak! Our stay there includes breakfast FOC as other hotel does so Z had two plates of nasi lemak, I had one and N had coco crunch!

And the first thing we did after breakfast was to go to beach number two and boy, I was surprised. It was beautiful with clearer water that was less murky. Overall, the beaches are all clean.

But we didn't know this beach was gonna be a lot more tempting than beach one. I was in a pair of jeans, and that was the only thing I had left so I reused yesterday's clothes despite it being sweaty and smelly to soak in the beach.

I look like I'm expecting in this picture. Lol. I had a very loose top on, so yeah, I guess that's what makes me look bloated.

Only N was in a fresh romper. Lucky her for having small clothes that extras wouldn't be a problem to fit in the bag. Anyway, I look like I'm far from the shore... Well, not so much.

I was so close to the shore. N's so short, I can't go any deeper. That was the best because the water reached her thighs instead of her chest and that would freak her out. The only reason she's in the water in the first place is because I was in and she wanted to IKUT MAMA.

We spent about 15 minutes at the beach because we were doing another activity today. I kept telling Z I've never done the flying fox before because I came one day late to the sec 3 camp when flying fox was done on the first day and I missed that chance so when the front desk offered flying fox, of coz I wanted it.

I was all excited about it and naturally, Z went first...

That man has never done it before himself and he liked it.

Then when it came to my turn. See how I'm holding onto the safety ropes to dear life. It was three stories up and I got so scared. It was the heights, not the flying fox. I was afraid it was gonna snap la. I was afraid I'd get stuck half way hanging three stories up la. All sorts of worries and paranoia.

I spent some 15 mintues up with the kind man next to me telling me that IT IS OK and not scary, but IT IS NOT THE FLYING FOX!! It is being three stories up that scares me. Floating three stories up no joke.

So Z used his oldest tricks and pretended to be angry. He said he was tired of waiting and wouldn't take a video or a picture of me. And with that, I took a few deep breath and offffffffffffff I go.

The moment I moved off I actually thought in my head I WASTED 15 MINUTES OF MY LIFE AND THE STAFF THERE OVER SOMETHING THAT ISN'T EVEN SCARY. They asked if I wanted to have a go again and I agreed. Second time round confirmed that it is the heights that I'm afraid of and not the flying fox.

But second time round, it took me about three minutes to get over my fear of heights and off I slide down again. I wish I could have gone a hundred times.

Someone ye ye carried the helmet.

And walked like some pro biker chick. Hahahahahahahahaha!

After flying fox we had lunch, this time a buffet spread since there were a lot of guest who just came at 11 am. But we were still alone when we had lunch.

Dessert. Some cake with fruits in the middle served with cold sweet milk/sauce.

After lunch, we packed our bags...left it outside our room for someone to collect it and said good bye to the people there.

In all the rush, we forgot to ask someone to take a family photo for us. But next time when we do go there again we'll be sure to take a picture of three of us and maybe bekbek (the name of the baby goat) would be bigger too.

Since it was for Z's birthday, we had seafood dinner before heading back home. If not for his call up the following day, I wanted to suggest to him having coffee at CB or Starbucks at JP but he was exhausted and he has work to go to the following day.

The drive back took two hours and while he had to stay awake and drive, I slept away. I felt extremely exhausted after the trip. Maybe the heat and the nature (dragonflies and brids) that I was running away from caused made it worst but this birthday, was so much better than all the others that he's had.

I don't know about him though. I hope he had just as much fun as I did and all the excitement he showed throughout the two days was not just an act to make me feel better.

Anyway, Happy Birthday Baby! I love you, so very much.

Dubai, UAE

2010-07-21T15:48:00.005+08:00

MY .NET EXPIRED AND I TRANSFERRED MY POSTS TO WORDPRESS BUT COULDN'T TRANSFER PICTURES THEREFORE PICTURES AREN'T UP (YET)

When Z showed me his roster last month, I thought it was great he was going to Milan and Cairo one after the other but I had shown more interest towards Cairo than I did towards Milan. So Z asked me if I were given the choice between Milan and Cairo, which would I pick. I answered Cairo, quickly, without a thought in mind that he was gonna bring me there! To tell you the truth, I don't even recall him asking me which I liked better. I really am that clueless and naive.

Anyway, slightly more than a week before the departure date, Z broke the news to me and I was excited. But, I never told anyone because it was a standby ticket. Meaning, it isn't a confirmed seat/ticket and I may or may not get it. All I needed was one seat, but the chances of getting it are still very low.

The flight might full and I will definitely be bummed off the flight. Which means, all the efforts packing and going all the way to Changi Airport and patiently waiting would all end up being useless. But I was never the sort to put my hopes up so high that I'd be terribly disappointed when things doesn't happen. I would say I came to the airport prepared emotionally.

But the moment I reached the counter, I received good news of over a hundred empty seats! Can you believe it. It's Dubai. It's like the Middle East of London. The flight is always almost full.

Now comes the funny part. While Z reported for work, I walked around the transit area. I've never been in Terminal 2 because all other flights I've taken were in Terminal 3 and I wanted to look around since Terminal 2 is bigger with more things inside. Z even gave me cash to buy whatever I wanted, and all I bought were **raisin scones.

** Side track abit: I conclude that my scones is how scones are suppose to be, assuming Starbucks made their scones right. Besides the fact that they used eggs in their scones, while I used none (N's allergic to eggs and red spots would appear all over her face when she consumes anything with even a drop of yolk) and my scones has a slightly more lemak buttery taste, at least I know I was on the right track.

Now back to where I left off. (I recommend you read the top paragraph again :P)

Being a newbie at traveling, ALONE!, I didn't know what time I was suppose to go to the gate and me being me, clueless and lacking of experience, walked around for a short unsatisfying 10 minutes before showing up at the gate - that was located at the very end of the terminal - a full hour before it actually opened. Lol! I was afraid the gate might close and I wasn't gonna be allowed on the flight.

The flight to Dubai was uneventful and I managed to catch the Runaways on what looked like a system from the 50s where you can't pause or/and rewind. Throughout the whole 121 minutes, I had to hold my pee in. Else, I would miss parts of the movie and there was no way to rewind it back.

Another funny story. When I boarded the plane I saw seats that were bigger than the normal economy class seats. I've been on a flight where the seats were 35% bigger than the normal economy class seats and the moment I entered this flight [to Dubai] I thought, "Wow. The seats are bigger than normal!"

DON'T LAUGH! But it was actually BUSINESS CLASS.

Which means, THE BUSINESS CLASS SEATS WERE SO SMALL! Those business class seats I saw on this flight looked just as big as an the executive economy class.

We landed Dubai 3 in the morning, and I was warned by Z to brace myself for Dubai's heat, which at 3 in the morning felt like being in an underground carpark in Singapore. Imagine the heat being in an underground carpark. Well, that was how it's like in the open, at 3 in the morning, in Dubai. At least Singapore ain't so bad in the morning.

We left our hotel after a few hours of sleep, and walked for about 5 minutes to a nearby Indian restaurant. N couldn't take the heat and started crying and using her arms to cover her face while facing away from the brutal, brutal, sun. At forty over degrees, I braved through the heat that burned my face.

THE SKIN ON MY FACE FELT LIKE IT WAS BEING ROASTED!

In extreme cold weather, you'd feel the stinging pain on the surface of the skin. Even in extreme heat, you'd feel the same stinging pain on the surface of the skin! But pain accompanied with wet and smelly armpits as well as the annoying beads of sweat trickling down your back, I'd rather be at places with sub zero temperature in t-shirt and shorts.

I could even feel my hair get all wet from perspiring too much. Can you believe it? My head, the skull, whatever that's beneath my 10 inches thick hair has never done that to me and in Dubai, with a hijab on, I could feel beads of sweat forming all over my head.

Anyway, when N began crying even more, almost sounding like she was pleading us to go to a cooler place, we left gold souk (suppose to be like a bazaar but we saw no bazaar) took a cab and headed to Dubai Mall (the largest mall in the world) where we knew was going to be cold enough, just the way she likes it.

The mall was SO huge Z and I spent 9 hours there and we covered less than half the mall and shops close at midnight!

It was that hot even a toddler noticed the difference

Inside the aquarium at Dubai Mall

Two story aquarium

It was like being at Underwater World, in a shopping mall.

In some ways, she does look like me

Our bill came up to that at a cafe in Dubai mall. We ordered two drinks, a bottle of water, three pastries and 6 pralines. Well, it's in dirham which still makes it very expensive. About $60 - $70 for pastries!

N's cuppa Babyccino, complimentary from a staff at the cafe. She gets free goodies ALL THE TIME!

My lime meringue (SUPER YUMMMY!) and macaron (not so nice, Laduree still can't be beaten)

N running around the mall. That's a Miu Miu shop at the back. Nope, I didn't even peep inside. I'd have to sell my guts to be able to afford one tiny coin purse.

Red belly piranha.

We bought tickets to enter the aquarium as well as their Underwater Zoo (that's what they call it), and little did I know their underwater zoo consist of such sea animals. Nothing you can get at Singapore's Underwater World. Maybe at the big longkang opposite the old Jurong Primary School there are piranhas but not underwater world, from what I can remember.

Stone fish.

OMG! Stone fish. Have you ever seen a stone fish before? I've learned about it in school. About how deadly these fishes are. But I've never seen one in real life. And really, they look like rocks. But these "smart" fishes actually sat the the edge of the glass I could easily spot them.

Lion fish.

Do they go, ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAR?

Medium well mushroom cheese burger with fries at the side from Chilies.

The mall was so huge we only discovered this part late at night. By that time the shops were gonna close in about half an hour.

We ended Day 1 at midnight and left when the shops began to close one by one. I was too tired to continue on so we headed back to the hotel and rest for the night.

We started early the following day with brunch at the mall nearby. I had McD which might sound boring to you, but they've got something we all don't have, which is exactly my plan.

TO TRY NEW THINGS!

Look at the size of their large fries. It's almost as big as their cup of drink!

Tried McArabia chicken, which contains two chicken patty between Arabic flatbread. Which tasted nice. It's McDonalds, how can they go wrong right?

We booked a city tour from an ad we saw in the magazine. She brought us to a few places. Like (above), that's Dubai's creek. They've a creek in the middle of the city. How odd.

If I am not wrong, that's where they used to do a lot of trading. By trading I don't mean stock market. Or well, you can say trading like that but with some perishable items.

She brought us to the beach. Who would wanna go to the beach when it's over 40°C? And while we were there, I saw people at the beach. Guys were in jeans and t-shirts. Apparently, it is an offence for guys to walk around in public without a shirt on.

Burj Al Arab. You gotta pay just to enter.

Another posh hotel. Cheapest room goes at $6,00 (and I am assuming US dollars) per night.

Burj Al Arab from far

On their metro to see the area from above

Water park

A terrible picture of Burj Khalifa taken without tripod.

All in all, I would say Dubai is extremely boring. Besides the fact that they've everything the Americans got, the whole place is almost the same as Singapore. It's very modern, which is exactly how Singapore is like.

I spent most of my time there staring at the Arab women, coz they are gorgeous. Actually, their abayas are the beautiful ones. I was so in love with their abaya I tried looking for it. When I did, I checked out the price hoping it would be reasonable enough and affordable for me. It was very cheap. The cheapest they've got cost (in Singapore dollars) was EIGHT HUNDRED!!

The women there got their LV, Prada, Mui Mui, Chanel, and all those branded leather bags sling on their shoulders with their hands are full with paper bags from these same names. The most popular bag I see them carrying is LV. Even their young teenage kids carries an LV.

I won't question how these people can afford all those things, but their lifestyle makes me wonder, besides the fact that they've oil in their backyard, how do these people afford doing it all the time.

I didn't see any Arabs working. Those who worked were Filipinos, Indians and others. Not a single Arab soul. But I saw a lot of Arabs. They were the ones doing the shopping. That's it. Easy life.

Which made me ask Z while we were on our holiday. Our Prophet said, He saw Hell and he saw Heaven. In Heaven he said, most people were poor. Then why did God made the Arabs very rich?

Almost all of the Emirates people there are born with a silver spoon in their mouth. And yet surprisingly, the richest man on earth is a Mexican.

Oh well, I wouldn't say I don't recommend going to Dubai but let's simply put it that, I don't think I would want to go back there again. This one time was definitely enough.

Australia: The Twelve Apostles and Great Ocean Road

2010-05-25T05:59:00.014+08:00

Now, for that long overdue post of Great Ocean Road.

Don't say I didn't remember, coz I sure did. Apple didn't let me finish, and instead of being the flawless cool and non heart breaking laptop they proclaim to be, they broke my heart and even pissed me off that it took me days to cool down. In fact, I'm no where near entirely settled with them.

So let me begin with my (as per normal) introductory speech before I begin with the pictures.

Gosh, I swear it feels so ridiculous typing something that I have typed before.

Last year, when I headed to Melbourne I had only three free days there. My BIL brought me to a few places but Great Ocean Road was the one I'd say I wanted to go to most. I'm a sucker for great views and green ocean, so how was I not to be attracted to Great Ocean Road?

Before my flight to Melbourne this year, I Googled (what would we all do without Google?) for picture of the well-known Great Ocean Road only to find the most stunning (some heavily edited, unless it's really stunning like that) pictures of that particular famous road.

We started our day bright and early but let me tell you something that I've learnt from this trip. Our bright and early was 10+ am and by the time we reached home it was very dark already! And we didn't even make many stops.

So if you wanna drive to great ocean road, start at 7 am! Seriously. Unless you're there during summer where night doesn't fall at freaking 6 pm!

We drove past the most stunning view of the ocean I wanted to stop each time I saw access to the beach. I was imagining the pictures I could take at the beach. Stepping into that beautiful green sea, digging my feet in the sand and standing atop the black rocks scattered on the shore.

But since my BIL was driving, and he was tired, I didn't want to trouble him. It's enough trouble I've caused making him drive me there. Next time I go to Melbourne, maybe I'll ask my husband to bring me to the beach only.

It's about an hour and half drive there. It wasn't as long as the 10 hours drive back and forth (including stopping for a quick lunch) to the twelve apostles.

Anyway, I slept through 3/4 of the way because I felt so nauseous in the car, sleeping was the only way to curb the feeling of throwing up even when my tummy was completely empty.

The road had so many bends and turns my head started spinning. It's amazing how my BIL managed to go through all that bends without complaining. I would have passed out by the 10th bend.

Credits to Google

Got that picture from Google and see all the bends that road has. AND LOOK AT THE GORGEOUS SEA!

By the time we had lunch of the most awful Fish & Chips I have tasted in my life, at a place where we had to pay $1 (each) for tartar sauce, ketchup and thai sweet chilli while everywhere else in the world that I've had Fish & Chips provides those for free, I had to force the food down my throat coz the nauseousness hasn't subsided (and the food was horrible bad).

After our meal, we actually had a discussion whether or not to continue our drive to the twelve apostles. It's unbelievable I almost gave that place a pass! That 10 hours drive was totally worth it. Of coz for a person who got to sleep almost all the way, it was worth it. :X

The moment we saw the first sight of the sea, my BIL stopped the car (to a designated spot where car can stop, I think) for me to take a picture. MashaAllah! Beautiful I tell you. I actually had thoughts of climbing over the fence to feel the sand and ocean. And, I was wearing a maxi skirt!

BIL brought us to the lighthouse (we didn't stop because we didn't want to waste time) and we passed a house. Cute! I would love to stay there. I'd grow many lemon trees in my garden. The yellow would instantly brighten up a place! Unless you have Aspergers Syndrome.

Sheep. My BIL told me that sheep is already a plural form. I don't know. I only know of equipment and furniture. There were a lot of different animals along the way. No piece of land is entirely empty. There are a lot of animals to see when you drive along the roads in Melbourne.

There were horses, sheep and a lot (I really do mean a lot) or cows. The one I saw most were cows. Even the standard black and white cow people draw but not everyone get to see. The ones in Malaysia are always brown, I don't know why. I was so excited to be able to see black and white cows.

Those aren't black and white cows unfortunately. Where we stopped, the cows were plain black.

Nothing in particular. Just a view of a piece of empty land.

Our stop at the cafe that sold the most awful Fish & Chips!

After a long, long drive where I slept ALL THE WAY. We reached The Twelve Apostles. Before going there, I had no idea what the twelve apostles was. DON'T JUDGE ME!

I thought it was some place where people back in the day (or perhaps it being Australia, the aboriginals) had made large statues or I thought, it being specifically twelve there were totem poles or something like Stonehenge where they offered prayers and stuff.

Like I said, DON'T JUDGE ME.

As dumb as that sounded, I swear that was what I thought. Although not exactly totem poles since that's an Indian thing but who knows, Indians and Aboriginals kinda look the same. They've this natural reddish glow on their face.

By the time we reached there, the sun was already very low making it's way to the other side of the world, preparing the arrival of our lovely moon.

A must, touristy picture, first things first. The sun can set in the blink of an eye. I purposely chose to take a picture where you can only see the silhouette of myself.

The ocean, the waves, the sand look so inviting I just wanna jump in. Of coz with the weather being cold, no one can survive being in the water for 30 seconds.

Waves crashed against the, erm, rocks? What exactly is the thing I am standing on? Rocks? Compacted mud? They're the twelve apostles by the way. The, let's call them rocks, rocks erode after many years while some end up being smaller rocks in the middle of the sea.

There are twelve, they said, but some are hidden so you don't see all twelve of them.

Two of the twelve apostles.

Beautiful, beautiful place.

My BIL. I'm so thankful he drove me all the way here!

My BIL said, the Australian resident of 8 years, Melbourne is all about the long drives. 10 hours from the suburbs, where my BIL lives to get to the twelve apostles. Even if I were the one to drive, I'd say every single second and all energy exerted would be worth it.

Australia: Great Ocean Road, Melbourne

2010-05-07T21:34:00.009+08:00

Headed to Great Ocean Road last night and my goodness, God's creation is so beautiful no words would be able to justify just how beautiful nature, the way god had intended it to be, is.

BIL drove a total of 10 hours because I wanted to see great ocean road. How nice is that?

Well, these are the few pictures I took that day. It was unfortunate that during winter, night falls by 6pm. If we had been there during summer, we could have made stops to go to the beach, where I'd be able to take more stunning pictures.

Nevertheless, I truly appreciate my BIL's effort to drive me all the way there. Honestly, if I had to drive all 10 hours by myself, every second of it would be worth it.

Eiffel Tower, Stonehenge, Niagara Falls, Santa Monica Beach or even Hollywood Sign didn't take my breath away like this place did.

Los Angeles: Welcome to the land of fame excess

2010-04-18T20:12:00.007+08:00

Today was Day 7. It was our last day in Los Angeles. I was going to leave the next day and head back to humid and hot Singapore. Ooohhh, how I dreaded that thought.

While we were on the plane in Singapore on our way to L.A., I overheard a Caucasian lady commented how much she loved Singapore and wishes to stay here. Then she added, "That's what I say whenever I go on a vacation!" It got me thinking that she might be right.

Look at what I did on my holiday! I shopped, I walked around, I dined at restaurants (if McDonalds can be considered as a restaurant as well), all we do is relax.

That Caucasian woman must be kidding though to give up the nice weather she gets in her country over a place that's hot yearly. Who would prefer HOT over COLD?

Anyway, today was Free & Easy day. Free & Easy on Z's well prepared itinerary meant WE HAD NO PLANS! Disappointed with my first TINY picture of the Hollywood sign, I read through the brochures Z had taken from the lobby at our lodge.

Most of them offered going to 'Hollywood Sign', 'Hollywood Celebrity Homes', 'Melrose Place', 'Rodeo Drive' and those popular attractions in L.A. Z did a lot of research online and saw many reviews about the Hollywood Celebrity Home tour being a 'con job'.

But I thought, what the heck? A part of the hollywood celebrity home tour was to drive us close to the hollywood sign which is the one thing I really want. The tiny picture I got from 1, 000, 000 feet away didn't satisfy me.

We were suppose to take the tour at 3 pm but after our lunch at McDonalds, we passed by the place that did the tour and the person in charge asked if I wanted to do it now.

Why not? We had no where to go already. So we agreed and took the earlier tour.

So we started our tour from Hollywood...

Theater showing Chicago. If only I had a husband who loves musicals coz I do. Would definitely prefer going to a musical than watching Deep Purple.

Capitol Records

Where Elvis Presley and many other musicians recorded their songs.

Finally, a better picture of the Hollywood sign. Last one I took was so tiny nothing could be seen.

Hollywood Sign

Previously, the Hollywood sign actually said Hollywood Land. In the 40s, some group or company took down the Land and named it Hollywood. Read here for more about Hollywood sign history.

Cool looking car

Ketchup owned by Ashton Kutcher

Then our Hollywood celebrity home tour began.

Mansion above: Previously owned by Britney Spears. Bought over by Brittany Murphy.

Courtney Cox & husband used to own that place above.

The Matrix House. Previously owned by Keanu Reeves.

Greystone Mansion

Greystone Mansion, aka the Doheny Mansion, is a Tudor-style mansion on a landscaped estate with distinctive formal English gardens, located in Beverly Hills, California, United States.

The 55-room, Tudor-style former residence, 46,000 sq ft (4,300 m2), sits on 16 acres (65,000 m2) of land. At the time it was built, it cost over $3 million and was the most expensive home built in California up to that point.

That's not the mansion. The mansion is 10 times bigger than the picture above. That already huge house, well, that's where the housekeeper stays. They live in a place bigger than our homes here.

The house at the back, the white one with the brown roof, that's where Tom Cruise lives with his wife.

B lister actor lives there. Even B list actors can afford houses on Beverly Hills.

George Clooney used to live in that house before he made his big break. That house belonged to his aunt. Now? They never showed us where he lives now.

The balcony of Michael Jackson's rented mansion.

People all stopped and tried to take a peek inside. Of coz it's off limits to people. If only Neverland ranch is located at Beverly Hills as well. I would love to see the place that used to be his home, one that he build before all the molestation incident happened.

You'd be surprised to see where that house he rented is located. Just next to the mansion is the road is the main road and right next to his mansion was a bus stop. A bus stop? At Beverly Hills?

Anyway, there were a lot more houses that we were brought to. Even homes that Simon Cowell bought was there. I can't remember them all so I am not putting it up. I'll post all the raw pictures on Facebook.

Ladybug landed on Z's jeans

Colourful Mexican restaurant

The back of L.A Ink shop

The shop where L.A ink is shot. I honestly thought it was along a stretch of shops. Turns out, there's only three shops. The tattoo shop's located in the middle with Edible Arrangement shop on its right.

Kepercayaan Tom Cruise

We got back to Hollywood because I wanted to try snap some photos of the character along Hollywood discreetly. See, if you wanna take a picture with them, you gotta pay them. Since I am a cheapskate like that, I took a picture discreetly.

There's Spongebob

Michael Jackson before he was white. There was a white one as well. Didn't get to take a picture of him though.

Character from Avatar. They didn't look anything like them at all. The real Na'vi got large bulbous nose and huge eyes.

After snapping some photos, we took a bus and took a walk along Sunset Strip. Honestly, I've no idea what's the significance of that stretch of road, but Z said it's a popular place.

While we were walking, I saw a house with beautiful flowers along the steps that lead to their home.

Sunset Strip

To show how exhausted I was from the long walk

Our plan was to go to Santa Monica or Robertson Boulevard by bus coz we saw a yoghourt store and crepe store along that street while on the tour bus. So, we made our way there. Z insisted that we walk and I tell you IT WAS SUCH A LONG WALK I was so tired.

We stopped by a crepe store and sat outside the store coz it felt more romantic outside. By 6pm, it started to be real chilly outside. How I regretted sitting outside. It was freezing cold.

I wore my Juicy Couture bracelet that I bought from Rodeo Drive. That's the rainbow charm I bought. Z gave me the green light to buy one charm every month. Yayyyyy!

Our crepe with a scoop of ice-cream

His, Chocolate with Banana crepes. Mine, Chocolate with Strawberry crepes.

After we were done with our crepes, we took a walk down the stretch of road. Initially, I wondered why they had rainbow flags up. I thought they simply had it up since California is one of the states that allows gay marriage. Turns out, that was Gay Town!

While we were walking, they had gay clubs out in the open with guys in only underwear dancing to a pub full of guys who were seen hugging each other.

Two popular places in Los Angeles. Robertson Blvd is the one place to go if you want to spot a hollywood celebrity. Apparently, that's where they all go.

We continued on our walk late at night, not knowing what bus to take. Then we got back to the place Z brought me to several days back. Cedars Sinai. I was surprised Z knew of this place. When he brought me there the 1st time, he said, "It's a hospital for the celebrities."

So, that was it. We took the bus back to our lodge and began packing up to leave for Singapore the next morning. It saddens me having to write this because I really wish I could have stayed there longer.

I like United States. I don't think I'll ever get sick of visiting them all the time.

Los Angeles: Yeah, it's a party in the USA

2010-04-14T16:38:00.009+08:00

By Day 6 we were both extremely exhausted. Normally, we'd begin our before 9 am where we'd have breakfast provided at the lodge. It wouldn't be so bad if it had been two of us on this holiday. N did add to the exhaustion but we wouldn't have any other way.

On this day, we headed to Farmer's Market first to have brunch. We tried to look for kosher food but there were none. In the end, we had fish again.

At Farmer's Market

After having our brunch, we headed to The Grove at Farmer's Market. That place was beautiful. They had parks and trolleys to bring you from The Grove to Farmers Market. The place looked so gorgeous I wish we had one like that over here.

Cute gals took one of the flower. Wish I could do the same! Beautiful flowers isn't is? They've got so many along the streets.

N, Dora & Mama

Trolley at The Grove that brings people from The Grove to The Farmers Market. Not that it's really that far. It's a walking distance like from my place to the MRT station. It's takes me less than 5 minutes to get to Jurong Point. To get to the MRT station takes another 3 minutes.

Nice, huh?

They even have a park where people all sat down and relax. Kids ran around blowing bubbles while their parents looked on them. So relaxing.

Me buying some stuff

Had no idea that someone took a picture of me paying the cashier.

ALREADY FAT AND MAKING MYSELF FATTER me with a cup of Haagen-Dazs ice-cream in my hand.

I ordered Brownie Chocolate. A tub would cost $4.99 without tax while the cuppa cost me $3.99 without tax.

We were here when the iPad launched. I want one!

I think people who uses Apple are happier, at least I am.

My heart ached every day when I was using Microsoft. Now that I've switched to a Mac and changed my Nokia to an iPhone, my heart hasn't ached at all. The Apple never give me problems. Besides not being able to download some applications, which I can live without anyway, the Mac is perfect.

At Farmer's Market where we had our meal

Some shops at Farmer's Market

Barber Shop & Starbucks at Farmer's Market

We left Farmer's Market and began our walk down 3rd Street.

Background: There is a sign that says 3rd Street

Sigh. I think I'll go buy jogging shoes now. I've grown so fat my face's so fat and chubby. I feel extremely sad about my figure and the way I look. I've gained so much weight and it's up to me to control it.

I eat fattening things and I eat late at night. It's no one's fault but myself that I let go of myself this way. If I were to control my cravings better, I wouldn't have grown to the size of a walrus.

It annoys me that my husband tells me I look fine. Of coz, put me beside him and I look extremely petite. I walk around seeing everyone with their fine looking figure and their non-existant tummy.

Z said, and he says it all the time that I look beautiful but what's the point when I don't feel that way about myself?

I've a tummy that won't go away. My thighs are as thick as an elephant's trunk. Even my arms are bigger! My face, let's not get there coz it only makes me angry.

I met up with my relatives the other day who hasn't seen me for quite sometime and one person went, "Omg! Look at your cheeks. You've grown fat. Are you pregnant?"

Wow! So I look pregnant when I am not pregnant. Maybe that's also why I am too afraid of getting pregnant again. Coz if I were to have another child I'd be as huge as a blue whale and they're the largest animal around.

Even my MIL asked me if I was pregnant because I have a paunch. We just had supper and that is what happen each time we have a meal. My tummy grows so big I look like the time I was pregnant with N at 4 months!

*happy thoughts happy thoughts*

I hate being back here. I liked it when it was only N, Z and me.

Restaurants along the streets

This one is funny but smart. The name of the place is so catchy people would remember looking at it once.

So which one is it? Do not enter? Wrong way? Or one way?

Nice ride! The colour at least. Can spot it from a distance.

Flower along the streets

Came in Maroon and Brown. White and Purple. Blue and Dark Blue. Yellow and Blue Black. Pink and Dark Pink.

We walked and we walked and we walked until we reached Rodeo Drive.

At Rodeo Drive

Presenting Rodeo Drive

Typical L.A? With the palm tree and all.

Walking along Rodeo Drive. All the boutiques are located here. If only I brought USD 10, 000 instead.

Z took a picture of this

Ice-cream truck

We walked around Rodeo Drive and I looked at everything from outside. They're all too pricy for someone who earn zilch a month to afford. However, I did drop by Juicy Couture.

Since I bought the sandals, I thought Juicy was actually rather decent.

We walked around looking at things before I stopped by their jewelry shelf. They'd gold or silver charm bracelet starter with separate charms sold that are bright and colourful.

I wanted them coz the charm bracelet was different from the Tiffany bracelet Z had bought for me on my 17th birthday. Their charms were all unique and colourful, which is so very me.

No offense Tiffany, you're one of the high end accessory boutique around but your charms are awfully ugly. They're only silver and or encrusted with diamonds.

However, I knew Juicy wasn't oh-so-cheap so it was hard for me to make a decision. Z said, "If you want it, get it. Take is as a gift from me."

It a lil hard to know if Z really mean it coz sometimes he doesn't sound enthusiastic. I did have some cash left after shopping, but it wasn't enough to pay for the bracelet.

So I said to him, "Never mind, I'll pass."

I bought the Juicy Bracelet in the end. He said, "I wanted you to purchase something from Rodeo Drive." Aww. I love it so much! I got one charm bracelet starter, with three separate charms.

A rainbow charm, coz I love rainbows and colourful things!

A cupcake charm, complete with pink icing on top to signify my passion and desire to be a pastry chef one day.

A pink (obviously not real) diamond with a crown printed on it coz I am Z's lil pink princess.

Yes, I pick charms with meaning.

I am eyeing a roller balde Juicy charm online now. Coz I love to blade. I've been doing it for more than 14 years. It's longer than I know most people.

Too bad it's priced at SGD 50. A lil steep for me to afford right now. Never mind, I shall wait. If it's gone before I can get it, I shall look on the bright side. There are other charms to come.

Told her to hug it and take a picture. She did exactly as I told her to. Vain baby!

More pictures of N by herself. I came up with the idea suddenly. Her pictures are always with us, why can't it be by herself?

Stop & Pose

Little one wearing her mink jacket

Posing some more

Papa, hold my hand!

Everyone who saw her couldn't stop smiling and laughing at her. Throughout the whole time we were there, the Caucasians couldn't stop calling her a doll. Everywhere we went people would stop to take a look at her. Then they'll very kindly say, "Oh, she look like doll!"

My only assumption is that Asian kids look different to theirs. Like how we see Caucasian babies being extremely adorable but Asian ones like any other.

N is a doll too.

If anyone knows Z personally, you may have seen a picture of Z seated with his team mates on that very steps. Because that steps has meaning to him, he told me to sit there as well.

N insist on going down the steps

Rodeo Drive with the sun really low

N look like she has no eyelids

The sun on my face makes me look extremely yellow

We left Rodeo Drive and headed to Santa Monica. Z said we had to go to the beach before the sun sets. Thank god we got there while the sun was about to set. It was gorgeous.

Just across the road was Santa Monica Beach

Santa Monica beach with the sun extremely low

Dramatized.

I laugh each time I see this picture. N looks like she's flying and she looks like she doesn't know what was going on. Like she's looking at me and thinking, "What in the world is that old woman doing!?"

N pointing at the bird in the sky. There were at least 20 seagulls flying around.

N kissed me in this picture.

N and I with the pier in the background.

Sunset

More sunset

I like the picture where I am only a shadow.

Santa Monica pier with a carnival

We had Japanese food after that and I had to take a picture of this. I see this take out box in movies all the time. Now I see them for myself.

Santa Monica

Carnival at Santa Monica beach

We ended our night there and headed back to our lodge. Santa Monica is loacted FAR from our lodge. We had no idea what bus to take and where their bus stops are. It isn't easy to take public transport there coz there aren't many around. Each bus stop has the most of three buses stopping there.

Since we were all extremely exhausted, we decided to take a cab back to our lodge. The meter jumped by 20cents faster than the beating of heart. By the time we got to the lodge, it has gone up to $60! It wasn't even that far. It took us 15 minutes to get back.

THAT'S HOW CLOSE IT WAS!

We decided not to think about it anymore and sleep. We still had ONE MORE DAY to go before our holiday would end.

Till tomorrow, XOXO

Los Angleles: A day at Universal Studios L.A.

2010-04-13T11:59:00.012+08:00

It was Day 5, the day we went to Universal Studios. I know Universal Studios is also in Singapore now, but I know one thing for sure that makes Universal Studios in Los Angeles more special than going to Universal Studios in Singapore. The movie set.

Even if Singapore make a replica, it isn't going to be the same because it wouldn't be the same one that actual directors and celebrities used to film their film. Imagine that I saw the actual set that was used to film Scorpion King!

The set was actually build to look one way and they'd simply make additional changes to make the whole place look different from one movie to another. One particular set had many different movie shot there.

So, here's the trip to Universal Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles. I haven't been to Universal Studios Sentosa, so I can't compare how different the two are. If you have, maybe you can tell me.

Universal Studios Hollywood

We thought N had to pay instead of getting it free like other places coz they didn't put on their board that kids under the age of 3 are allowed to enter FOC.

We met up with Marilyn Monroe. Fine, a fake Marilyn Monroe. She did look eerily alike to the actual person. Her face, her smile, the way she spoke (not like I've heard before actually), the way she walked and she went all, "Have a nice day Darrrling." with me.

Asked her to kiss Dora and she did

We headed down to Nickelodeon first to see if they had a Dora doll. N has grown up to the age where she has started to show preference towards some characters. We all thought her favourite character was going to be Barney but it turns out to be Dora!

We entered the shop to look for a Dora doll and we found one (the same Dora doll the boy took from her on the bus) as huge as she was.

After making our payment, we joined the queue to take the tour around the sets. I had no idea what to anticipate but it was a fun ride! Definitely worth waiting for approximately 15 minutes till it was our turn to board the tram.

The tram brought us to places that had building being build for a new movie.

One of those new ones

Fake gas station

Fake shop

Fake corner

Face movie theater

More fake buildings

Bridge that was build some time ago to shoot a movie. Can't recall which right now but maybe Z would remember.

Cars burst into flames

Fake Mexican restaurant

Showing us how flash flood in movies happen. They probably use 50 gallons of water just to show us how it's done. About 10 trams past while I was in line and it was mid-afternoon then. The must have wasted so much water doing this over and over again.

Fake Mexican hotel

Fake Mexican town

More fake lanes. Fake buildings. Fake places. They're all fake. Most of them aren't actual building you can enter where they're fully furnished. It's only a front.

I love it how real they make the places look like. Maybe add a few chairs inside and it can be a diner. Or add bookshelves and it can be a small town library.

If I am not wrong, we were on the set where JLH shoot Ghost Whisperer. It looks nothing like in the show. I didn't recognize it at all, and I watched most of Season 1 Ghost Whisperer.

This small 'lil park here. Well, that's Central Park. Central Park is located in New York and it's suppose to be a HUGE park. People go jogging there! It has to be bigger than what they've got above.

More towns

That's the set they used to shoot one part on Scorpion King. While we were on the tram, they displayed a portion of the movie and yup, I am sure it was shot there. They made a little changes but the three pillars on each side remained.

Fake house

They even have a fake subway station! How cool is that. Doesn't look anything like I've seen before. So I don't know which state this train station is suppose to be. However, the tiles on the stairs reminds me of the tiles used in New York.

While we were in there, the whole place blacked out. Water started rushing down the stairs, making that (above) stand fall. It was all a show. No water splashed on us. They planned it all very well.

I sat on the extreme right so whatever I managed to take was only on the right side. There was a lot going on on the left, but it was hard to snap a picture. The had a huge petrol tank fall towards us and all. I got to see but no pictures.

I do remember Z snapping a picture of that though. So you can see it on his blog if you want to.

Imagine this happening while you're standing there about to enter the train station.

I saw a movie shot on this particular lake several days back! I remembered the place to dock the ship (didn't take a pic) and was all, "Ohmygod! I was there." The lake's really small the movie showed like as if it was huge.

Oh! I did snap a picture of it. Yup, so that was it. Exactly the same except without the Cabot Cove.

More of their fire and water action

Everything about the sets were fake just like Hollywood is!

More houses before our guide said to us...

"We're now going to the set of Desperate Housewives."

OMG! OMG! OMG! My heart stopped for a moment. I am one of their biggest fan! I never thought that I would ever get to see the actual set of Wisteria Lane. Now, I have. I've watched every single episode and I am watching Season 6 (coz Singapore is 1 season too slow) online.

I wanted to jump out of the tram and start touching them. Too bad I couldn't. You can if you pay USD 2, 00. I don't have that kind of money. So, too bad. No touching for me. Well, seeing them was good enough.

WELCOME TO WISTERIA LANE

I was REALLY lucky. If I had gone here last night, I would not have been able to see Wisteria Lane coz they were filming an episode the day before.

First house we saw on Wisteria Lane. There were only several houses I recognize. Not all of them. I can make guesses but the houses are all pretty much the same.

Do you know? Some of the houses you see aren't fully furnished with furniture. Only some of the houses on Wisteria Lane are.

Update: Alex and Andrew Van de Kamp lives here. They're a couple and Andrew's mom bought a house for them.

Can someone please tell me whose house this is? I can't recall. I think it's no one and only there to make the place look like a real town.

Though I watch like every single episode of Desperate Housewives, sometimes watching back-to-back episode online till late in the morn, I couldn't remember all the houses there.

Update: Mrs McCluskey house is the blue one.

Update: Kathryn's house is the brown one.

Don't remember this one either.

This I know belong to Edie Britt. You know the Bitch on Wisteria Lane who has nothing nice to say to anyone.

As we were driving, I saw...

A tree house! Immediately I thought of Lynette Scavo.

[SPOILER AHEAD, in case it hasn't aired in Singapore] There was an episode where the whole town wanted to tear down the tree house because the gay partners decided to put a horribly ugly metal water fountain that goes 'piak piak piak' day and night not allowing Susan to sleep at night. [END SPOILER]

The Scavo's home on Wisteria Lane

This is Susan's house because I remember one episode where she turned to her right to see the house next to her. It was Lynette Scavo's house and this was next to Lynette's house. So, this one's next to Lynette's home. The window with the pink and white flowers I assume is the kitchen sink window. She likes looking out the window to 'spy' on her other neighbours.

The gay couple lives in that purple house!

Gaby Solis's house. They're the rich one on Wisteria Lane and their house is suppose to be the biggest around. However they all looked equally big on the set.

The porch Gaby would laze around with a cuppa wine in her hand, sometimes doing to with her friends, when they've got problems.

Last house on Wisteria Lane I managed to snap before we drove off. The "effect" (dot like stuffs) you see on the picture are not edited (which is possible on the software I use, just click and place where you want it to be and viola, it's done) but due to my dirty lens.

Oh! I forgot to mention.

If you watch Desperate Housewives I am pretty sure you've seen the park on Wisteria Lane where they even hold children's party, right?

See, the actual size of the park is no bigger than than the size of a really, really small toilet in a flat! It was so tiny I was shocked I looked at Z and went, "Omg. They shoot kids having parties there."

Watched Grinch? It didn't actually happen at a place with real cold winter. It was in L.A. where there's no white winter.

On the set of The Grinch

See the house behind this set? Amazing that they've got different set side by side.

I didn't know what this was until we moved forward to see what was in front.

It was Bates Motel!

It was the set of Phsyco. I remember watching this show many years back. I thought it was an OK movie with very bad quality. I thought it was one of those B grade movies until Z checked on Wikipedia and went, "Sayang. You sure it's a B grade movie? It's [insert name of Director] who shot the movie. I don't think it's B grade. It was shot in the 60s."

Then I was all, "It wasn't great, but it was ok." I did watch it till the end!

They even had the Bates mansion up! Unfortunately, I didn't get to snap a picture of it.

Then a guy exited from one of the rooms carrying a body wrapped on a white sheet.

A guy walked scarily towards us with a knife in his hand.

Then, we headed to another set. It was used for the recent movie Tom Cruise acted in where they world started crumbling down.

They even had real airplane broken into parts.

It cost Steven Spielberg more to ship the airplane to the studio to the cost he purchased the plane for.

Plane the ripped apart.

Broken houses

See closer there's a human feet sticking under the window

Director N

Producer Mama

Water World

Yummy Cheesecake Candy Apple

It was so good I regretted not buying another one.

We ended our night with a candy apple for me before we headed to a candy shop located outside Universal Studios.

Over there they sold M&Ms in a lot of different colours!

M&M in all the different colours

We ended our night taking away Bubba Gump shrimps back to our lodge. Their shrimps were super nice I wanted it all too myself. Too bad I had to share it with Z.

So, it was another tiring night for us and we slept as soon as we could. We still got two more days in L.A. the holiday hasn't come to an end yet.

Los Angeles: Today is D-day!

2010-04-11T19:59:00.009+08:00

Z and I started Day 4 later than we had planned. The day before Z was certain I'd be able to wake up before the sun rises because D day that I was loving forward to most on this holiday has arrived. Truth be told, I could wake at 7 am as planned. Come on, it's D-day!

The only reason I woke up at 7.10 am instead of the scheduled 7 am, when in fact my eyes were already wide open and staring at the digital clock in our room coz I wanted to make sure I pretended like I really couldn't wake up to prove Z wrong.

I know, how childish right? Let's see. That's how we husband and wife are. We love to TEASE each other. I woke up, said to him, "See, I couldn't wake up."

Of coz, now I regret trying to prove him wrong. We ended up arriving at the location an hour later than our expected time. I know you must be wondering, I woke up 10 minutes after the expected time. When it comes to me, a minute can be crucial! What more 10 of it.

We had breakfast of cereal and bread with grape jam provided at our lodge because Z said, "If we have breakfast here, we can start our plan right away! No need to stop for a meal first." True. But I was pretty sure I wouldn't need food or think of any while doing it.

Now, what was so special about this day? IT WAS SHOOOOOOPING DAY!

With USD 1, 000 for me to shop, how can I not be EXTREMELY excited. USD 1, 000 was for me to spend this one day of shopping. Other times, Z provided the cash for food and tickets to enter places like Disneyland, Universal Studios and others like Metro tickets.

That thousand was to shop for what I want. Of coz, I used that to buy things for my family and also my N. Sadly there weren't anything nice at Gymboree, Carters, OshKosh and Gap kids. Making me feel even sadder, I didn't see Old Navy! I am a huge fan of ON!

We started our day at Ontario Mills.

According to Z, Ontario is located outside of Los Angeles. It seems like everything is a town of their own. Like Anaheim. Also half-an-hour away was Ontario Mills. Parking wasn't a problem because parking was in the middle of the place itself! Easy to find even for the mildly blind!

It was unfortunate that they didn't have things like Kate Spade and Juicy Couture there. I was looking forward to checking out the things there. They did however have A&F, Victoria's Secret, Hollister and all those A&F sorta shops.

Z wanted to go there (Ontario Mills) because of A&F.

I spent my first $1, 00 at H&M buying a pair of gladiator sandals (that I feel like crying right now because I accidentally took size 40 when I am a size 38 [ya, I got big feet]), two bikini (for the lil ones la, not me), hot pink and light pink tights and a super duper nice dress.

Z and I felt like it's a waste of time that we followed whichever store we wanted to go to when we'd rather go else where. Like, what would I do at Hugo Boss right? So we planned to split ways and see each other in front of Coach in an hours time.

Quickly, I sprited across the mall stopping by places like A&F, VS, Hollister, Gymboree, Carters, Gap kids, OshKosh, Charlotte Russe (Bought two pair of sandals there) before I realized that it felt like an hour has passed.

I sorta RAN to Coach, entered Coach and began searching for Z only to see him nowhere. Asked the lady (since she remembered me) the time and she said, "It's 1.20 pm now."

Shoooooooooot! I overshot by 20 minutes.

Took a step outside Coach and began looking around for Z. That man was later than I was. Humph. I felt safer. Then I saw him walking towards me from the other side with a smile on his face. I knew, it was me who was late.

He made a sad face and said, "I waited for you outside Coach for half-an-hour already." Oppss!

We entered Coach because we planned to buy a wallet for my MIL from there. In the end, I spent more than half-an-hour deciding on what bags to buy for myself. From the initial plan of buying one purse, we ended up purchasing 8 bags. Double opppss!

They were honestly dirt cheap! I have never been a fan of Coach or any of those boutique you see at Ngee Ann City because they're beyond what I can afford myself.

For someone who is still a student like myself, I wouldn't want to be spending my husband's money on such things. I'd rather wait till I earn on my own. Though he always claim that what's his is mine (including his hard earned money), I don't spend his money like it's mine.

Since Coach was selling their bags at 50% off on top of the already discounted price with an additional 20% to the total amount or 30% if you spend more than $350 (we got 30%), it was hard to resist them.

In the end, our total purchase of 5 bags, a purse for MIL and a few stuffs Z bought cost us only USD 5, 00. Tak ke aku borong pat sana?

Despite them being older models, who cares? They're bags and I'm no Paris Hilton. Old models are no biggie to me. Even if they're models from back in 2001!

As soon as we made the purchase, we drove to another mall that was an hour away from Ontario. It would have taken the same time if we'd started from the lodge so the distance was actually alright.

By the time we arrived, Z was hungry but I wasn't. I wanted to shop. I can't believe we wasted an hour eating. We had fish again and because of this trip I'm never having fish ever again.

We headed to this mall specifically for Kate Spade and Juicy Couture. My elder sis passed some cash for me to buy bags from Kate Spade there. I was disappointed with the things they had there. The one in Houston was just as big but with more items.

Juicy on the other hand had the same 'ol things. The handbag Z forced me to get while we were in Houston that I rejected and got a Kate Spade instead and a pair of sandals I saw a customer wear while I did my short stint at SR.

That customer came a few days before wearing a cotton on checked shirt with a pair of skinny jeans. Around her wrist she carried a Coach wristlet and a pair of slippers. A couple of days later, the same person came wearing the exact same outfit except for her sandals.

This time, instead of a pair of slipper, she was wearing a Juicy Couture platform sandal. I thought it looked good. Knowing that I might be going to L.A. where they've got Juicy, I kept in mind about that sandal.

When I walked passed the shoe rack, I was disappointed I didn't see the sandals. There were a few people standing there and when it was empty, I saw the very sandals I wanted among all the other shoes they've very messily put.

Ape lagik, I attacked that shoe rack and started looking for a pair that fits me. Thank god to my rather huge feet, the only size left was of my size and two sizes bigger!

The pair of sandals wasn't cheap at all and my MIL wants to borrow it when she uses something green. It's green and pink, and no offense, she's over 60 so it looks over the top and not age appropriate for her to use it. Plus I am afraid of anything happening to it.

I tried looking for one on eBay and I didn't find the same one. And though it will spoil eventually, I rather that it be me who spoil it. No one wants to be spoiling my things. I'm a selfish brat and yeah, it's only because when I get disappointed nothing can make me feel better.

See, the thing is. I was SO busy spending every second of my time shopping I didn't have time to take any pictures. The only one I got was at Ontario Mills. After that, my mind was more concerned about shopping than taking pictures.

So here's the ONLY one that I got...

With my bags of shopping. Within an hour I managed to buy: 1 H&M shirt dress, 1 H&M gladiator sandals, 2 Charlotte Rusee sandals, 1 Aero sandals, 2 H&M bikini, 2 pair of H&M tights, 5 Coach bags, and 4 Aero shirts.

At the other mall, I got 3 Kate Spades, 1 Juicy Couture bag, 1 Juicy Couture sandals, 2 more Coach bags (also cheap and wasn't avail at the one in Ontario) and that was it.

A bit too much or not? Tapi, I yang berkerja keras pasal nak shopping kan?

We ended our day at 9pm and since we had the car and a lil time, Z drove us to Malibu to drive by the beach. If only we were there earlier because the view would have been breathtaking. It was a drive by the Pacific Ocean where we got to see the wave crash on the jetty.

I've never seen a wave as huge as the one I saw in Malibu. The beach houses we drove by got me feeling so jealous coz I'd do anything to live there. (Away from Singapore the better) Who wouldn't want to live by the beach?

Of coz living by the beach we'd be subjected to be the first ones dead from the Tsunami. Nah, I think I'll pick living in Hollywood.

Picture of the waves I got from inside the car.

We drove to Melrose Place and also Rodeo Drive (saw Beverly Hills though I couldn't quite tell where it was since it all looked the same). After over an hour of driving, we stopped by iHop for late supper.

iHop is the place for one of the best pancakes. They're so soft and fluffy unlike the ones sold at McD where it's FLAT and totally not FLUFFY. It's such a pity it wasn't located near our lodge. I'll be having iHop every day.

Our strawberry cheesecake pancakes

VERY NICE ONE! I was too tired to eat them all though so we packed it back kept it in the fridge in our room then heat it up the next morning.

So that was it. I really have only 3 photos. Tomorrow there'll be more though coz we headed to Universal Studios. I know we have it here in Sentosa already, but I don't think the one thing I got to experience there would be the same as the one in Singapore.

Will tell tomorrow, till then, XOXO

Los Angeles: Disneyland Park, Anaheim

2010-04-10T09:10:00.012+08:00

It was Day 3, and we began our day at the crack of dawn. We were to go to Disneyland L.A y'all! Remember what I said last year about going to Disneyland Paris? I wasn't looking forward to going at all because I was never a fan of Disney.

Did I enjoy it in the end? Saying that I enjoyed it tremendously would be an under statement. I enjoyed it more than just tremendously I wish I could LIVE there. Everything looked too unreal to be real. The places and buildings there looked so dreamy for a day all worries went away.

Although I've gone to Disneyland before, Z had to bring me to the one at Anaheim (Anaheim is located slightly over half-an-hour away from Hollywood, Los Angeles). Today, we rented a car that was a few streets away from our lodge.

We walked quickly to Enterprise car rental, where Z and Mark, the man who attended us, settled some T&C before showing our car. We rented the cheapest one they've got and that was a Chevy. After renting some extras, GPS and toddler car seat, we began our journey to Disneyland.

My eyes felt so heavy in the car I tried hard not to let my eyes take control of my mind. Z was to drive the car and he himself haven't had much sleep, it wouldn't be fair if I slept so I wanted to accompany him. I managed to. We talked, while our lil one slept.

Slightly over half-an-hour later and losing our direction while looking for their parking lots, we made it to Disneyland.

Even if I were to reject our plans to Disneyland today since I've been there before, Z would drag me there. His reason? This was the original one set up by Walt Disney himself, so he said, "It's the was set up by WALT DISNEY HIMSELF!" I suppose that's suppose to mean something.

Disneyland here is BIGGER and more confusing. I swear being in Disneyland Paris where everything was in French felt less confusing to me. The place was so huge I swear over my Disneyland pressed pennies that it was as huge as Singapore!

(K, I better not lie or my Disneyland pressed pennies will be gone!! It's probably as big as Sentosa.)

So let's take a journey to the one, the only, the original Disneyland Park...

N wearing her mink jacket and a pair of thick cotton tights. Underneath that was a pair of mini skirt. But like the name says, her skirt's so MINIature you can't see it.

In front a building that say Disneyland

In case you're too POTEK to see it says, 'Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy.

Firetruck that isn't used to go to sites where there's fire but a firetruck that brings passengers to Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

They've got a Fire Department there though.

Ultra kawaii ice-cream parlor. All shops looks so good! Z told me that people said that's how New Orleans looks like.

Me don't know what that is.

Adventureland

Aladdin and Princess Jasmine

Before we got here, I asked Z, "So who do they use as Aladdin and Jasmine? They're suppose to be Arabs." He replied, "Caucasians with a fake tan." When I saw them, I stared at them to confirm if he was right. I couldn't tell! They can pass off as real Arabs, keling also!

In my hand, my 1st churro of the day. It was SO yummy I had like maybe 10 throughout the 10 hours we were there. That's one every hour! Too good even N had them each time we did. Hers was 1/4 off ours though. She'd hold onto the churro close to her face and nibble it like a squirrel.

There used to be a shop that sold churro outside of Far East Plaza but it has closed for a long time already. I don't know if they've moved elsewhere or permanently closed. Till now I haven't found one. Last I had their churro was with Syah when the girls and I were out together.

You remember that day or not Syah?

Only CRAZY people will take such rides. I know it's a theme park where the rides are the main attraction but I'm not a person who like taking rides. Z must be disappointed to get someone not as daring, but I told him that it's not me to take rides. I'm not a big fan of rides.

Papa and N in front Sleeping Beauty's Castle

Spinning tea cups

That ride, the spinning tea cups, well, I wouldn't mind that. I took the JUMBO ride. Hehe. That's a kids ride where no heart pounding like it's about to be ripped off your chest action are involved.

*sings* It's a small world after all. It's a small world after all. It's a small world after all. It's a small, small world! *end song*

Lil cute squirrel nibbling on her churro. Messing up her face with sugar all over it. Only she can get away with such mess on her face without having people look at her strangely. In fact, it's adorable seeing kids all messed up!

Princess Fantasy Faire. Like Adventureland, this is another section of the park where it's everything PRINCESS! Why does my left eye look half asleep?

Mickey's Toontown is another section

You know, I've come to a conclusion that people look better as they grow older but I just grow up looking worst than I was before.

Which fire department looks better? The one above (at the beginning of the entry) or the one above?

Just about to make a phone call

N calling Iya

One tonne of weight there

Wanted to buy a 50-200mm lens but no one answered when I rang

There really was a door bell for me to press where it'd go, "Buuzzzz!"

Pump some fish gas

Last time we met Donald Duck. This time we met up with Pluto. Last time, N was alseep. This time, N was awake and VERY AFRAID.

Inside Mickey Mouse's house

Cute or what

We were on our way to meet Mickey Mouse!

Meet Mickey Mouse

I left Mickey Mouse's house seeing the line to meet him has snaked around his house. When we were the end of the line, we began INSIDE the house. When we left, the line started from OUTSIDE the house! Phew.

Then I saw this cute pink house next to his. When I found out it was Minnie Mouse I was so angry at Z. I was like, "I WOULD RATHER SEE MINNIE MOUSE. IT'S PINK!" So he went, "Ok baby. Then let's queue up." I rolled my eyes and said, "The line is so LONG. Don't want la."

Then, he made a sad face. Aww... I didn't scold him for real. We are both like that one.

Flower I took while walking around the park. They had some nice looking flowers all over but none were as interesting as the ones above.

We walked around and we saw a lot of people seated outside of the walkway near Sleeping Beauty's Castle. We knew there was going to be a show so we sat down and waited for it to start. I was lucky enough to squeeze beside two couples and be standing behind a short child.

It was Disney's Anniversary (or something) so they've got this "party".

They had dancers and Z said out loud in Malay, "The dances are all on the plumper side." I said to him back, "Because if they're TALL and THIN it'll be the ugliest thing dancing ever. TALL and THIN people just don't look good dancing."

Imagine a piece of pillow and a cardboard dancing, which look better? Take Michael Jackson. His aren't dance moves, he's muscles are just strangely jello like.

Woody from Toy's Story

Behind one of them from Toy's Story as well whose name I do not remember

Dance partners

Why the frown?

N insisted on drinking Z's lemonade. That's what she got. Extreme SOURNESS!

It was quiet and calm...

SUDDENLY!

A trained zoomed past me so fast I couldn't snap a still picture of what was moving

Ferris Wheel

And, that was it. We wanted to wait for the end parade but was simply way TOO tired to wait. We exited while fireworks were being shot up in the air. Some were nice but most plain ones you see on National Day.

We dropped by the shops at Main Street and bought something where I saw cute looking candied apples being sold in the shape of Mickey Mouse! Cute.

That was it for the day. We drove back to the lodge, parked the car there, make our way back to our room and BAAAAAAM we were in a deep sleep within minutes.

We needed our sleep. Tomorrow was to be an important day. I tell you why later on. XOXO, me.

San Diego/Mexico: Jumped in the cab, here I am for the first time

2010-04-09T19:18:00.019+08:00

Day 2 began before the crack of dawn. We were out when the sky was still dark and the streets rather empty. There were homeless people walking around, carrying their big bags over their shoulders seated at the bus stop right in front of our lodge.

Inside the Metro was filled with less than five people (excluding us) who I assumed were on their way to work. No one on the train was dressed in suits or dress suits. They looked rugged in their jeans and t-shirt. Their hands looked rough like they fit doing jobs for the tough people.

Z and I got off the Metro and began our walk along an extremely dark street. I was terrified of being mugged what with almost a thousand US dollars in my pocket and DLSR. If we get mugged, all those will surely be taken. Unless Z can fight them off.

See, I'VE NOT GONE SHOPPING YET! Can you imagine the how scary that is.

God protected us all and alhamdullilah, we got to the bus station safe with all our belongings with us. In fact, god protected us all throughout the holiday because today, we went to a third world country. When someone say third world country you always think THIEF, RAPIST, MURDERER.

We took a Greyhound bus to San Diego. It wasn't the best and cleanest bus but Greyhound is known all over U.S of A. We felt safe in it, at least I was. That safe feeling didn't last long. My heart began pounding like mad I was afraid to close my eyes and sleep.

I almost shat in my pants when Z told me a young 20-something year old man was murdered on board a Greyhound bus. A Chinese China boy went berserk, took a knife out and stabbed that poor young man...IN THE CHEST!

I was afraid to sleep but waking up at 4 am with little sleep the night before didn't take me too long to doze into a deeeeeeep sleep. Even if someone were to stab me, I wouldn't have noticed. Heck, even if a bomb goes off, I would only know of my death after dying.

Two hours of sleep later, we arrived to San Diego. The name itself, like Los Angeles, San Francisco goes to show these places were all once Mexico's. Now, it belongs to United States.

WELCOME TO SAN DIEGO!

We we both starving upon reaching San Diego and the only shop we saw open was Wendy's across the street from the bus station. So, Wendy's it was. We order, what else if not fish burger. That was what we had for the whole week we were there. Fish or Seafood.

The first day we arrived, Z bought pad thai from a Thai restaurant two shops away from our lodge. He came back telling me, it was either seafood, beef, chicken or pork pad thai. Instantly, I loss my appetite.

THEY WOULD HAVE USED THE SAME WOK TO MAKE PORK PAD THAI. How to tak hilang selera. Ew. Threw everything away.

For the rest of the week, I didn't go to any places that sold pork.

Z was like, "Even if they use the same wok to cook pork. What about their other meat? It's not Halal."

Well honey, it's not halal but at least I still consume them back home. It not appetizing seeing someone else eat pork what more eating something that's been cooked on the same wok that pork was once cooked.

I wonder if one day everything cease to exist and only pork is left, would I take it? Gosh, I think I'd rather eat the fats off my bum and be a cannibal. Or eat grass.

After brunch at San Diego, we made our way to Mexicoach bus station that was to take us to Mexico! *shakes maracas* Are maracas a Mexican thing? Lol. *ariba ariba andre andre*

We drove to San Ysidro and within minutes we were in MEXICO baby!

I wanted to bring my jacket along to Mexico then decided to leave it behind. I said to Z, "People say Mexico is hot." Then Z was, "Mexico is right next to California and it's cold in L.A., you sure it's going to be hot there?" So I was like, "Oh ya." Yet, I still left the jacket behind.

So when we reached Mexico, we were both like, omg it's next to California where it's so cold and it's warm in Mexico. It wasn't Singapore hot. Mexico was like being in a shopping mall with the aircon running nicely you don't need jackets, except with sun shining on us.

Before we began shopping, we dropped by Burger King to use the washroom because someone did NUMBER TWO. Their restrooms were meant for customers ONLY so, I order their Hershey's ice-cream cake, same one sold at BK here.

The lady behind the counter spoke Spanish only so we had to point out to her what we wanted. She pointed towards the item and Z nodded, "yes, yes!" he said. A few minutes of waiting, the lady came out with DOUBLE SCOOPS of Vanilla Ice-Cream.

Over there they've Single ice-cream or Double ice-cream. Like the ones at McDonalds where they'll use the machine. Instead of the norm, they double the amount.

I WANTED CAKE! THEY CAME OUT WITH ICE-CREAM. I was a little annoyed, but still enjoyed my creamy ice-cream nonetheless.

Streets of Mexico

We went to one shop after another. Bought a lot of those typical Mexican dresses for the little ones. Of coz not for me. It'll look hideous on myself. No one but only young children can carry off their dresses without looking buang tebiat.

Z did some serious bargaining there. He bargained on the dresses from 30 USD to 7 USD. One was 20 USD to 4 USD. Another was a necklace that wasn't worth paying for 10 USD. So I told him, I will get two for 10 USD.

So, he said to this two Mexicans who were attending to us, "You know, in India where we come from, these things are cheap." Now, it has got me thinking, "Then why are we buying it in Mexico? Buy in India la!" Aren't I right?

Anyway, after the whole we-come-from-India story, the lady boss agreed to sell us two of the necklaces for 10 USD. One will be given to Ili, my best friend from Primary School, the other was given to MIL.

Don't worry my THREE MUSKETEERS, I got something for you guys too.

Some of the things they sell there

Police car in Mexico. Someone said their police officers are like Malaysian police officers. Mintak rasuah (did I spell this right? Wait, it that even the right word? I think it is).

Extremely dirty donkeys they kept asking us to take a picture with. One, they are EXTREMELY dirty. Two, donkeys are nothing special for us. We see them all the time at the zoo. Three, THEY ARE SERIOUSLY EXTREMELY FILTHY.

Why anyone would want to take a picture with those animals would be beyond me. They could at least wash those poor animals and groom them nicely. Some of the donkey have even been painted black and white stripes on them to pretend to be zebras.

TALK ABOUT IDENTITY CRISIS.

Z was like, "Eh! They painted the donkeys." So I was like, "Ya, zebras got longer mouth." Zebras are bigger in size too. At first I thought they were simply very dirty zebras who haven't been showered for months thus making it look 'hairy'.

Zebras are not THAT hairy, like a donkey's hairy self.

Sorry I look so dark, I'm really not that terribly dark. Tan, but not that dark you can't see my face. I edited the pictures coz I wanted that FEEL, that LOOK to my pictures. So I edited them to look like a not-so-extreme lomo picture.

Me along the streets of Mexico

N and Papa by the streets of Mexico

Hi, it's me again!

Picture I snapped while on the bus, on the way back from Mexico to enter United States back again.

Speaking of ON the bus. A girl in school once corrected me saying that I used the wrong word and it should be IN the bus and not ON the bus. I was sure on the bus was right but I never thought of checking it. I checked it out, I was right and so was that girl.

Another random shot while on the moving bus

Last picture I took before we got down on the bus and went through customs

I didn't take many pictures in Mexico because I'd give away the obvious that I am a tourist. Z was like, "Keep it quick. People are watching. You know over here the people you see aren't the thieves. They're the informer. They inform the actual thief who their targets are."

So, in my bag the camera stayed most of the time. The pictures above are those taken at the shopping district where it's filled with tourist, so it felt safer over there.

By the way, throughout the entire time we were there, everyone spoke to Z in Spanish. I warned him everyone was going to speak to him in Spanish. My husband can pass of as being one of them!

Shop owners would approach him and start speaking in Spanish, not that they don't know English because when they found out that Z doesn't know Spanish, they'd speak to us in English.

To confirm it, someone at the Metro approached him and began asking him something in Spanish. Haha! It was hilarious. One Mexican lady said even I can pass of as a Mexican.

Z though, 100% Mexican. My hijab gives off the obvious. The Mexicans are Christians (or I think Catholics coz they've crosses with Jesus on it). One person even asked him, "So you married a Muslim?"

It was entertaining.

We didn't spend much time in Mexico but at least I can say I have been there. We got back to San Diego with a couple of hours to spare before we have to catch to bus back to Los Angeles. Z read online about San Diego Old Town that was only a few trolley (theirs aren't trains, they're trolley like the ones seen in San Francisco except they don't go up hill like SF) stations away.

Old Town San Diego

Nice looking fences

Nice? A picture of a flower I took, with a picture of a large tree in the shadows. I think it looks rather neat.

Boot and Shoe shop

Looks old and cool. Something you can't find in Singapore.

Saloon & Cigars

At Old Town San Diego

See, I am not that dark. I'm more...erm, yellow. Ok lah, yellow is my elder sister. She's 100% like my Chinese grandmother. Skin tone, flat face...flat butt.

Mexican lady selling Tortilla

We say Tortilla as Tor-Till-La. They say Tortilla as Tor-Tee-Yah. The right way? Of coz the way the Mexican lady had said it. It's HER language. Like the Chinese people saying TERBALIK as TOMBALIK. I get so annoyed when they say it that way.

If you wanna use someone else's language at least try to say it right. We don't say tortilla right because we pronounce it literally as how it's spelled. Like do you say Scarlett Johansson as Scarlett YO-hansson coz that's how you pronounce it. We don't coz it's a J-O.

TOM and TER are so different.

Nothing special about this shop except the story that goes with this shot.

I had my DSLR in my hand looking through the view finder to snap a picture of that place. Cars passed by making it look real ugly with a car smacked in the middle of the picture, covering up the entrance of the shop and also my plans of taking the place as a whole.

From the side of the road I was at, a car that was moving STOPPED FOR ME WHEN HE SAW I WAS TAKING A PICTURE. Things that will only happen in places like this. A lot of people would stop for us in the middle of a road so that we could cross.

Then I saw, there was actually a stop sign. Lol. Still, that guy waited till I put my DSLR down. He did stop for me. He stopped a distance of at least one car behind the stop line because if he moved, I can't take a nice picture. As he drove past, I smiled to show my appreciation.

Looked small on the picture, but came out as big as my fist. My fist, it's huge I tell you! (coz I got a big heart. Chet! Tak malu.) Bought Cookie Crumb Yum and yes yes, it was YUM! Mildly soft cookie with vanilla and cookie ice cream with oreo along the sides.

Newspaper company

Above was the last picture I took before we ran to catch the trolley that would take us to the bus station. We weren't sure if we'd make it on time, and we did. We made it half an hour before we boarded the bus back to Los Angeles.

Another 2 hours bus ride back home, we reached Los Angeles at 9pm. Too tired to go anywhere else, we headed back to the lodge.

Things you learn to learn as a frequent traveller. There was a microwave provided in our room at the lodge but microwave would dry up our tortillas, (we bought strawberry, chocolate and cinnamon tortilla) so Z taught me the trick to heat up food.

I tell you, it worked! The tortillas were pipping hot! I chugged down both cinnamon tortilla because my husband's sweet like that. The strawberry and chocolate didn't taste good so he sacrificed the cinnamon for me and ate the not-so-fantastic ones. [N took strawberry, he took Chocolate. Both taste equally awful.]

Actually, it's his fault. I ordered cinnamon for myself, he decided on chocolate instead. The one time my choice of food is better than his.

Well, he would still have done what I said he did if I had ordered chocolate instead. Marrying an old man who feels, every day, like it's a miracle to get a girl (so young, I assume) like me (so better treat her like a princess), sure has its perks.

That was it for Day #2. Till tomorrow, I'll bring you LIVE to Disneyland. The original one that was set up by Walt Disney himself.

Walt...always found it an interesting name.

Los Angeles: I hopped off the plane at LAX

2010-04-08T14:24:00.021+08:00

So after a lot of secrecy, the secret is out. We have had this planned for months it was almost like planning our wedding. Our initial plan was to go in February but I told Z to shift his leave to a later date, so late March it was.

We boarded SQ12 on a Monday morning at about 9 am. We sat at a bassinet seat although N didn't use to bassinet at all. She preferred being carried in our arms as she slept. We had no choice but to do as she pleased.

We were seated beside a Chinese man who despite being an older man in his late 40s or early 50s acted like a child!

The crew has so much to do and he troubled them with all his wimps and fancies showing what a moron he was. The flight was full and that Chinese man insisted on being served last after everyone else have been served.

His reason?

He wanted ATTENTION.

Why?

Because we received attention. At least that's what he thought.

Did we receive extra attention?

Nope. N did, not us. We were given the same food. Our food was served first because it was a Muslim meal. In case he didn't notice, they send out special meals first.

Sorry la, you wanna be special maybe ask for vegetarian food or something. Want to be even special? Shirk yourself and IQ to a child's. Children are always served first before everyone else. N gets her post-weaning food way before ours always.

When the crew started with the meal service, that Chinese man told a stewardess beforehand what his choice of meal was first. However, he was to be served last after everyone else have been served.

Why did he do that?

Coz he wanted, now say it with me, ATTENTION!

Hours into the flight, Z overheard him complaining to the crew in the galley about the extra treatment we received. What extra treatment did we get? I swear to god I don't remember being served satay.

I could smell them from the galley in First/Business (I don't know which, but from what I remember, Z told me 1st class are served satay) Class, but we didn't get any. I don't remember any of the crew coming up to me with fruits for me to pick.

They chatted with Z a lot because Z knew who they were. Plus we were nice passengers, it's only natural that they were nice to us because we didn't want to pick out on their mistakes and lack of attention when in fact, they were equally attentive to all.

In fact, the stewardess who attended to him personally maintained a genuine smile without even showing a trace of irritation towards that fussy attention seeker man.

Once the plane landed, everyone at Economy class had to wait for the passengers from First and Business class to leave.

They are the priority passengers. They paid hundreds and thousands more, it only makes sense that they get to leave before people from Economy class does.

This time, it took them slightly longer to let the Economy class passengers to be able to leave because there was a wheelchair bound passenger on Business class.

When that Chinese man found out about this he said something like, "It's blocking MY way." Z overheard him said that and my goodness, if only he gets wheelchair bound and people start treating him like a piece of rotten meat then he'll feel.

So inconsiderate!

If he wanted attention, pay tickets on Business or First class. There are HUNDREDS of people on Economy class, how can he expect being given a lot of attention? That's why they've very little seats on Business or First class.

If you're only willing to pay for Economy class, then accept whatever that's given to you. Don't come whining that you weren't given attention. Such a brat! Acted like a child.

After tolerating that man for 6 hours, we landed in Japan...

Sunset in Japan

Transit in Japan for an hour. Bought green tea and wasabi kit kat. Have yet to try either. We shared a cuppa coffee.

Our plan was to spend several days in Japan to catch the cherry blossom. The day we landed was perfect because the cherry blossoms were about to, you know, blossom. However, we took 8 days off his leave and shifted it to May where we'll be going to Melbourne for a family reunion.

N doesn't like being tied down by the seat belt. So we had to show her that Barney and Iya also has a seat belt like Mama and Papa. Whatever we do or whatever we've got, she'll follow suit. It worked for a short moment enough to settle her down.

N eating our buns, as usual. When our food arrives, she'll point at our buns and go "Nak! Nak! Nak!". No choice but to sacrifice them buns.

Fascinated during take off. She has grown up so much. She was able to appreciate (that one maybe not so much) and sit quietly while looking outside and seeing us pass by clouds and the land below move.

You're seeing America there. That country is so big we spent half and hour flying over empty plots of land and loads of mountains.

We landed into LAX and Oh My God I was in Los Angeles y'all. It's the land of fame excess.

Stepped out of the airport and waddayaknow, lucky Z and I didn't go to Japan, saving us thousands, because they've got cherry blossoms growing right outside the airport!

Don't believe me?

Take a look...

Ready?

Told ya! I wasn't lying. They've got cherry trees in Los Angeles. It beautiful. I cannot imagine how a whole park full of them would look like. Must be a stunning sight.

We reached the hotel at about 3 pm. Exhausted and terribly drained, I took a nice warm shower, got ready and went out to check out Los Angeles.

Z brought along slippers he took from hotels he stays in and I wore them around the room. After stepping out of our room, I took a few steps and felt like I had no shoes on. Turns out, I'd left the room with the bedroom slippers instead of wearing my pair of flats.

Does it look good, or what? It says, Hilton.

We took the metro to Hollywood (as in the name of the place is Hollywood) and began my first day in Los Angeles walking down the long stretch of Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The truth is, I think this Hollywood Walk of Fame thing is overrated.

Seeing names of celebrities on cement, like what's the big deal? It's not like the actual celebrity's there. Personally, I didn't like it. That stretch of walkway is known worldwide, of coz I feel special to have been there as well, but seriously OVERRATED.

How some of them got the celebrity status? It seems like most of them started off waitressing. Brad Pitt put on a chicken costume to promote a chicken store. Now he's a big shot, multi-millionaire man making lots of money being a professional liar.

The famous Hollywood sign. Super tiny from where I stood. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to buy a new lens (which I intend to when I've money) that's able to zoom further. Whatever you see now, that's the best I could get.

Along Hollywood. Jimmy Kimmel was on air, shooting a live talkshow when we were there.

Kodak Theater. If we'd gone several weeks earlier, I could have joined the massive crowd to catch a glimpse of the celebrities.

Grauman's Chinese Theather has nothing to do with the Chinese except for the design.

Hollywood Boulevard

By 8 pm, Z and I were extremely exhausted we decided to head back to the lodge and sleep early. We were to start our day at 4 am the following morning and a good night rest was what we needed.

I was surprised to see the Cinnamon Melts selling at MacD because I thought they had discontinued the item. I had them when they first came out, several weeks later I found out they were gone.

So, I thought maybe I could buy the cinnamon melts and take a picture to gloat about it back home. I did. Took a picture and when I landed, the first thing we did was head down to MacD to buy something that's not fish.

First thing I saw out side of McDonalds, as big as three N, was 'CINNAMON MELTS IS BACK'. -.-' Plan destroyed.

Nevermind, I can still gloat. While you guys didn't have Cinnamon Melts YET, I had them in Los Angeles. Yums.

I ended my night, almost having to force myself to finish up the cinnamon melts because I was WAY too tired to do anything at all.

Speaking of cinnamon melts, I've got some cinnamon melts waiting for me in a brown paper bag on the floor next to me waiting to make it's way to where lies gastric acid.

This is only day #1. There are 6 more days to go. Hang in there. XOXO

Texas: The SHORT holiday came, the SHORT holiday is over

2009-12-16T04:22:00.018+08:00

My sister got a best friend whom she has know since they were 7. Her best friend studied here a little before moving to the states when her father was posted there.

Whenever she returned, my elder sis would bring me to her place where they would talk about life over there and she'd give my sis all these nice gifts.

She smuggled in bubble gum and lollies with gum in the center. There was a time when she gave my sister a huge Hershey kisses that was the size of one and a half tennis ball and I thought it was so cool.

Everyone have dream places they wish to visit. Some wants to go to Maldives, some wants to go to Paris and some would do anything to see the Pyramids.

These dream places most people have are the common ones that you'd find others hoping to go, too. Of coz, there are the few whose dream places are rather odd and one of a kind.

Z knows that Texas is one of the places I have dreamed of going to for ages. When he was rostered to go to Houston, Z surprised me with tickets for me and N to be on his flight.

However, my excitement was short lived when I found out the flight would take almost 24 hours. How was I going do to it all alone with N?

It is already so trying for me to do it for an hour on ground, 24 hours scared me so much I saw images of myself passing out with N in my arms.

I swear I didn't make that part up.

Thankfully, N slept through more than half of the flight. The dark and quiet environment helped a lot too. That was all before she threw up all the food I had given to her causing her sleep to be interrupted.

The crew on the flight from Singapore to Moscow wasn't the best in the world, but lucky I managed it mostly on my own.

When we landed in Moscow, everyone on transit to Houston had to leave the aircraft and go through security screening once again.

Travelling by myself in a foreign country where I didn't know if they know any English was terrifying. I tailed everyone else and stayed close to all the other strangers who held the transit pass hoping that if anything happen, they would help.

After waiting for almost an hour, Z greeted me at the aircraft door and helped me with my bags and N. He brought me to my seat, stowed my bags before helping out the other passengers.

It was a pleasant feeling to know that I am safe and protected with his presence. Not to mention, well taken care of. The rest of his colleagues who worked with him were exceptionally nice too.

12 hours later, we landed in Houston and I was greeted with a cold breeze. My heart pumped rapidly in excitement that my dream had become a reality.

I WAS IN TEXAS!

On the first night, Z and I took a walk to the mall located opposite the hotel. We were both famished and there weren't any halal food sold anywhere. In the end, we had to settle for shrimp fried rice.

Too tired to walk around and have our meal there, I requested that we take away our food back to the hotel. My whole body ached and my eyes were heavy - I was too tired to even eat.

Ten bites later, I gave up and headed to bed. Even after more than 12 hours of sleep, my body hadn't repaired itself when we started our day bright and early for shopping.

We had breakfast at ihop (international house of pancakes), before our hour long drive to the outlet shops.

After some chocolate crepes with nutella, Z drove to the outlet shop.

If it had not been windy, the shops being in open space would not have been a huge problem.

Some pictures of N I snapped with my sister's point and shoot camera. How unlucky am I that the SLR gave problems right before this trip. :(

My princess is a really big girl now. Can't believe she has grown so much that fast. She's also vain like mommy. The above picture, she's not looking in the shop, she's looking at her reflection!

After almost three hours of walking Z asked me, "You're not going to buy anything baby?" I shrugged. When I saw Juicy Couture, I asked him if we could enter the place.

Like Z said, so that I'll have bragging rights that I have been to Juicy Couture. I have no idea what the hype is all about because I find their range of items tacky and ugly.

While Z looked at the ladies section, I walked around the kids section. They had a few nice pieces selling at dirt cheap prices and I contemplated on getting it for N.

Then, Z approached me and asked me if I wanted to buy the bag. For a short moment, I contemplated about it too.

It's ugly, but the only thing I bought from the outlet place was hairband and earrings for N. Z also sounded like he wants me to buy something so I gave it a thought.

As we walked out, I saw Kate Spade and entered the place. I walked around looking at the bags and since Z wants me to buy something so badly, I bought a bag and coin purse from there.

While I was making my pick, Z asked, "Is Kate Spade a known brand?" Oh the brand conscious husband don't know Kate Spade.

Truthfully, I don't know Kate Spade so much nor do I know any designer label. By nature, I am not materialistic nor have I ever been one.

So I replied to him, "Kate Spade is at Takashimaya. But I think it is not on par to LV and Chanel." Don't even know if I am right. Someone care to tell me?

After getting the bag and wallet, we drove back to the hotel for late lunch. Once again, Z and I had shrimp fried rice.

After our lunch, we walked around and shopped a little more. We went to Victoria's Secret, Abercrombie, Abercrombie and Fitch, Hollister. They had Bath and Body Works and...

Cheesecake factory Z always mention when he tell me his stories about travelling and the good food he has tried. He bought me a lime cheesecake, but exhaustion only allowed me to take two bites before I knocked out for the night.

Christmas tree and ice skating rink in the middle of the mall. So cool.

Candies sold outside their restrooms which I think it really gross. Imagine someone entering the toilet and left without washing their hands. They leave the restroom and decides to buy some candy.

They turn the dial to retrieve some gum ball, jawbreakers or M&Ms. It is so gross and such unhygienic people do exist. Then comes a tiny child who wants to buy some candy, touching the same dial the unhygienic person just did and proceeds to eating up her candy that has been infested with bacteria.

Such a wrong place to be selling candies. Even if they were to put it somewhere else, there are still going to be people with dirty hands touching it. The fact that is it beside a restroom is gross on its own.

Taken after the second night. N's hair and face looks nice in the cold and non humid environment.

The following day, we went to NASA. It is the attraction in Houston, so it is definitely a must go. Although we've asked my sister's BFF where to go in Houston and she said NASA is overrated, we still went ahead despite what she said.

Vehicle used on the moon. According to what's written, they left the vehicle on the moon coz it is not needed. Think aliens are using it?

Control room where they communicate with the astronauts.

A replica of what's inside a rocket.

A part of the moon where they allowed people to touch. Can't believe I've touched a part of the moon! It feels like a piece of smooth rock, almost like a pebble.

By the way, my sister's BFF is right, NASA is so overrated.

In December, it is suppose to be winter or at least I thought it was winter. However, tree were all still red and it looked more like autumn than winter.

Car we rented. It is so coincidental that it is red. On our honeymoon, we got a red Yaris. In London, the car we rented was a red too. Then here in Texas, we got a red Corolla.

Low clouds. The place was so foggy.

At Walgreens. Don't know if it is Walmart's sister or something, but maybe it is. It's so heart breaking to see their Ben & Jerry's sell for USD4, and I was down with a sore throat.

Not that a sore throat have ever stopped me from eating and drinking cold drinks but the cold weather made things worst I chose to stay away from things that could worsen it.

View from the room.

On the last day of the short holiday

The trips we have had together normally last for 2 weeks. By the end of the 2nd week, I normally can't wait to go back home and sleep.

Since this was a three days (or five days if you include the flights), it felt too short, too fast. I was not satisfied and I wanted more.

However, when the time comes for me to leave, I got to leave no matter how badly I want to stay. It was a beautiful short holiday.

The trip back on board the aircraft was delightful when Z and his colleagues helped me so willingly in everything just to make me comfortable.

When Z had to leave behind in Moscow while I continued on my journey back to Singapore, the crew were all just as amazing as the ones that I'd left behind.

Despite all the aches and pain, I don't regret going through this trip, at all. Thank you, for all of this Sayang. This got to be the best surprise I've ever had.

Till then, XOXO

Row, row, row your boat...back to SG's seas.

2009-11-03T20:19:00.025+08:00

Be warned. I have posted almost 70 photos about of the cruise getaway. I tried to cut down on the number of photos but it seems impossible. I have to have them all.

So here goes all the images...and short captions...

If I were to summarize into one sentence how being on a cruise ship is like, I'd say: It is like being in a building that is constantly being hit by an earthquake.

I told Z that and he said, "I wouldn't say it's felt like an earthquake. They're just tremors." Yeah, he got the word right.

Earthquake can destroy homes, tremors don't...I think. If you felt the tremors that hit Singapore several weeks back, that's exactly how it felt like.

While queuing up to get food at the buffet, I could see the plates shaking.

While sitting down with a cuppa water on the table, I could see the water trembling.

While lying down in bed, I could feel the tremors bobbing my head.

All in all, despite feeling slightly lightheaded, I enjoyed my trip. It was nice being able to spend time with Z for three days - exploring every inch of the ship and enjoy our free ice-creams and drinks.

The total cost we had spent for the whole trip was SGD4. If we hadn't sent our clothes to be pressed, it would cost us nothing!

So here are the pictures, starting with out cabin.

Welcome to room 9692!

The front door of our cabin was two-third the size of our normal bedroom doors at home. And since our rooms back home are tiny, the small; fit for two adults room didn't make me feel claustrophobic.

We got two single sized beds, a flat screen TV, our very own toilets (that has to be the tiniest toilet with a sink, cubicle and shower squeezed in) and even a balcony that gives us an ocean view.

Turns out, the person who commented about there being no windows in some cabin is right. The rooms opposite ours had no windows at all. Z said it would have felt like being in a jail cell.

The view we got from our bedroom window before the ship started moving.

Our balcony in the room. We could open the door and it'll lead to a spacious (again fit for two people only) balcony. There are two chairs and a small little table.

Z and I planned to sit outside late one night but I chickened out coz it was dark and eerier. The water was black and the sky was so dark. The only source of light came from the balcony light and there was no one else beside ships passing by from a distance.

I had a bad dream that occurred in our room (nothing that got to do with us but I "witnessed" it) right beside where I was sleeping the night before so that kinda made me freak out a little. Ok, actually, I freaked out a lot. I asked Z to switch sleeping places and I slept happily without a nightmare.

I rarely have nightmares so this one freaked me out.

To Z: Notice how I keep asking you to hold the door and not close it when I gotta grab something. Well, it's the dream.

The whole stretch of rooms on the level our room was at. The ship is THAT huge. You cannot see who the person at the other end is. It's like the distance of three MRT stations combined together.

Throughout the whole trip, pantang when I see a mirror. I had to snap a picture of myself that reflects on the mirror and I did it every time we entered the lift.

That's Day 1. We were going out for dinner at a classy restaurant. The even have a requirement dress code to enter the restaurant. Guys must be wearing covered shoes and collared shirts or t-shirts. No shorts and slippers are allowed.

After dinner, Z and I explored the ship. This is on the 12th floor. Yes, you read that right. It's the 12th floor. The swimming pool for adults is located here and they've got a gym, hair salon, library, mahjong room, gelato ice-cream place, disco and so many more.

Staircase for those without prams to use. But the lifts are very fast.

See, what did I say. Here is another one after the meal.

Our view on the 1st night there.

Here is the lobby...

Reception area...

Gorgeous isn't it? It looks like a hotel lobby.

Galaxy of the Stars where there are bands and show. This is also where the BINGO game was held.

They've also got a library which is poorly stocked but good enough for a ship. They've internet connection there too. It cost 23cents per minute. That's very expensive.

Day 2

Good morning! We woke up bright and early on a Saturday morning. It rained last night but we slept through it without motion sickness. The vast size of the ship didn't make it move madly like how an airplane would have.

Picture below: Taken at 8 AM in the morning. Wouldn't it be nice to wake up every morning and see the ocean? Of coz, it'd be better if it the sea was crystal clear and blue instead of dirty green.

After our Mediterranean breakfast, Z and N went swimming! It was N's first time going for a swim and I was afraid she's scream in fear when we put her in the pool.

When we did, she didn't cry for a bit. It didn't last long though...

When her dad made her sit down, water got into her eyes and she ran to her dad and hugged him. Look at her face. Look at how scared she looks, hugging Z so tightly for comfort.

After a while, Z tried letting go of her.

I love this picture of her. She has her dad's nice naturally neat and beautiful eyebrows, my dad's frown and my large round eyes.

She frowns again...

And she frowns again. My dad frowns perpetually, so do I and so does she.

While taking photos, I asked Z, Is it ok if I put these online? And he replied, But I am so fat! Well honey, I have photos showing heavier fathers. So, you are not alone...

After a while, N warmed up and began splashing the water and having a lot of fun.

Then, she started walking in the pool all by herself. She has been able to walk without aide for quite a while already. She started walking two months ago. She'd walk and fall. Now she's pretty stable but still fall once in a while.

Now that she's found a new talent, she refuses to let us carry her and insist we put her down and allow her to walk. What's cute is that sometimes, after being put down on the ground, she'll stretch her hands out and ask for our fingers so we can walk holding each others hands (and finger).

That is exactly what Z and I have been waiting for.

Father and daughter photo in the pool.

After swimming, we returned back to the room and the both of them took a nap while I went out the balcony and take more photographs, made a cuppa coffee and read a book.

At Galaxy of the Stars and no I'm not barefooted. My shoes are transparent.

Mother and daughter. Do we have any similarities at all besides our eyes?

The "cockpit". I got no idea what it's called. Captain's Bridge? This is where the officers navigate the ship. It's a huge place!

Back in the room to feed her milk. It just crossed my mind that I have been fully breastfeeding her for a year. I told Z that I'd stop and start on formula for her once she turns one. Now that she has turned one, I feel like I can't stop coz I only want the best for her.

Waiting for the sun to set. I was hoping for a nice photo of the sun setting...

Sadly, it was hidden behind clouds. So I got no beautiful orange sun setting at the end of the sea picture.

Kiddy's pool overlooking the sea.

I notice, I look very, very Indian in all photos taken while on the cruise.

Waterspouts. A waterspout is an intense columnar vortex (usually appearing as a funnel-shaped cloud) that occurs over a body of water and is connected to a cumuliform cloud. In the common form, it is a non-supercell tornado over water.

The best picture sunset picture I could snap.

Waterspouts and the sunset in one photo. Not a bad photo.

Although this is blur, I gotta say, it looks like I'm standing in front of a backdrop, eh?

After waiting for a better picture of the sunset, I gave up because well, the sun has stopped setting. Then, there were lightings and Z and I stayed behind for at least 20 minutes for me to snap a picture of the lighting.

Although one of the most deadliest thing ever, I think lightnings are stunning.

And because light travels really fast and I wasn't sure how to set a my camera to a high shutter speed for taking pictures of lighting, I managed to get a lil part of the lighting that is not so bad for an amateur.

Me and my mother-in-law who turned 63 on the day board the ship and the reason why I agreed to go on the cruise.

While on board, we ate and we ate and we ate. Lots of good good. Lots of ice-cream. Lots of cold drinks. Lots of tea. Lots of fried food. Lots of everything! Coz it was all for free!

Lighting photo I shot by accident. Love how it turns purple.

Gelato ice-cream and Swenses ice-cream cafe.

Without setting anything...

When I set the camera...

Without setting the camera...

By the way, this is a photo of a the slide that goes way out of the ship and part of it is transparent that you can see directly out and into the sea.

At the Mediterranean buffet.

I kinda like this photo of N. Her eyes look like it"s sparkling and she look both happy and angry.

A family photo of US before we left the building and headed back to reality (and N look very very funny).

I'd say...

I am thankful for the whole experience. I loved the fact that I could spend time with my husband eating and not having stress in our minds. Even our parent-in-law didn't want to disturb the both of us.

Actually, they were having fun being at places where PEOPLE below the age of 18 couldn't enter. Because we have someone who is 17 years short of being 18, we couldn't enter.

All in all, I was a tad disappointed that there isn't much to do. They had discos, karaoke rooms, bands and shows and a picture house showing movies all for free but they lacked activities for families.

Of coz, if you're a huge fan of gambling, it is a must go. We do not gamble so we don't find the casino an attraction. Though it was nice to be able to see people gamble for my very first time.

I sure am glad it was my MIL's birthday. If not, I would still have rejected the offer. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be.

One problem though. My hands shivered without internet and phone connection for two days. Really.

Australia: My 5-day Melbourne trip

2009-04-26T04:26:00.023+08:00

While my husband is watching Man United lose to another team, I might as well blog about my trip to Melbourne.

It was a short 5 day trip that was unsatisfying. I wish I could have stayed longer but my dear husband couldn't extend his leave any longer.

The new big sister. I was surprised to see how big she has grown. The last time I saw her she was a tiny little baby.

N reading up about houses in Melbourne.

That is NOT me. That is my sister.

Ahh...that's me. Hiding behind my husband. He's protecting me. Me afraid of kangaroo.

N ain't afraid of them. She don't even know their existence.

With a dead kangaroo.

To prove that I am not afraid of everything and make my trip to the wild life park worthwhile, I caressed a koala. Felt like touching a rough carpet.

The best shot my husband took at the reptile area.

One appeared at my old place before. Mom tried to shoo it by hitting it with a kain pelekat and that scary dragon like lizard hissed and spread the weird fan thing its got at the side.

My old house is an attraction to weird animals.

A moth the size of my face entered our place too. Once again my mom tried to get rid of it by throwing a kain pelekat.

I wonder why kain pelekat?

We were suppose to watch penguins but didn't reach on time. It would have been awesome but too bad for me.

Energy drink. Like Red Bull. You didn't get that wrong. It is called MOTHER. Lol. What a name.

NANDOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS... :)

The following day, my BIL brought us to see the display homes. They're stunning and they do not cost much.

If I am not mistaken, the prices for the house have not been included with the price of the land. But even the plot of land doesn't cost an arm and leg.

The cost of a house there would cost us a tiny flat here in Singapore.

If I had that kitchen here, I would be cooking and baking all the time. Even if I've cooked, I'll want to whip up something else just to be in the kitchen.

The kitchen is so lighted and open. It's extremely spacious. A good thing for a klutz like me.

Walk in wardrobe. Waaaahh.

I've a thing with toilets. Each house we entered, I'd check the toilets out. Oh and, I love two sinks in a toilet. Don't ask me why. Those are the things that has no explanation.

Space. Something we do not have here.

Has 4 elder brothers yet so gentle and feminine.

Walk in wardrobe, again.

Two sinks. Me like it.

And, I like square sinks. I do not like circle ones. They're boring looking and outdated. I do like it if there isn't any sink at all.

A long table filled with tiny pebbles and a tiny hole somewhere to drain out the water.

They would be a hassle to clean but they'd look pretty dandy.

But I still like square sinks.

We left the display homes after making quick visits to a few more. We were in a hurry to go to the city.

Another thing I do no like about Melbourne: most stuff closes at 5 PM.

Sis and I was at Cotton On and as I was making up my mind about getting a top, we were told that the shop was already closed.

It was already dark by then. I had forgotten that the sun sets real early there and thought that it was past 7PM.

When we met up with my husband, he said that it was only six. *gasp*

Cotton On closed at 6 PM!

That is insane.

I forgot to bring my camera with me so I don't have any nice picture of the city. :(

We left the city and headed back home. That night, all of us had dinner together. It was the last night I had in Australia and with everyone.

From the left: Me, my husband, my husband's elder brother/my brother-in-law, my husband's sister-in-law which also means she's my sister-in-law.

I love the way SIL talks. She speaks with such gentleness that I wish I could imitate.

My sister and I. She tiptoed just so she could be as tall as I am.

Before I officially end this, I would like to say that I spoke to soon, earlier on. Man United won in the end.

Paris: Parc Disneyland part 2

2009-03-30T22:56:00.006+08:00

Alrighty, this is the final entry of my London/Paris vacation.

I really do not fancy Disney since little so my knowledge of Disney characters is horrible.

Correct me if I am wrong.

While waiting for the parade to start. I managed to get a very good spot in front.

But being a very giving person, I gave up my spot and moved slightly to the back to let smaller kids stand in front of me.

See, I'm nice too...

Mickey & Minnie mouse made their appearance first, obviously.

Followed by an electronically operated Donald Duck.

And...erm, goofy?

Alice in the wonderland.

Or is it Alice in wonderland?

Somehow I think the 2nd one sounds a lot familiar.

Some cat. Someone please tell me his/her name and which show this cat is from. I would assume Alice becoz it was together on Alices' float.

Ah yes...who would not know him. Even I do.

It's Pinocchio!

The boy whose nose grow longer at each lie.

Dancers that I think is not any Disney characters. Am I right?

Toy soldiers from Toy Story. I know this because when Toy Story came out, my younger brother made me watch the show with him.

Toy Story. I can only remember Buzz Lightyear and Woody. I remember seeing the other characters but have absolutely no idea what their names are.

Winnie the Pooh and gang. They are a classic. Everyone have to know them.

He is Piglet. The small one with a big manly voice.

He's Tiger. He bounces a lot and I would say is like the clown among them all.

That is Eyore. Perosnally, he come across as being extremely lazy.

And of coz, the star of the show, Pooh.

Oh, by the way, each time a new 'boat' came out, my husband and I would try to make guesses of who is gonna appear and he guess right most of the time.

I thought this was Pirates of the Carribean.

It turns out to be Peter Pan.

Here is Mary Poppins once again.

My husband guessed that this is from The Little Mermaid and though I've watched The Little Mermaid I cannot remember anyone except Ariel.

Do not know his name but he's Simba (from Lion King) evil uncle.

My husband told me that the mean evil looking octopus is from The Little Mermaid.

That Simon and Pumba. Hakunamatata! It means no worries for the rest of the days.

Now here is Simba.

Then came the Princesses. Every little girl will know their Princesses and I did too.

That is Ariel.

That is Jasmine.

That's Beauty and the Beast.

Cinderella is in blue and Sleeping Beauty is in pink.

I checked last year coz I wanted to know who was the princess in pink. I always thought it was Cinderella.

My very own Princess woke up to watch the whole parade.

Sleeping Beauty castle.

Inside Sleeping Beauty Castle.

There was quite a few lost children. One stayed till Disneyland was closed. We were there coz I needed to feed N.

The whole street was light up. It looked stunning.

So yeap, this is the end of it all. I need to talk to a very awake princess now.

Paris: Parc Disneyland part 1

2009-03-28T02:19:00.006+08:00

WELCOME TO PARIS DISNEYLAND!

It is all kids dream to go to Disneyland. But if you are 18 years and 9 months old, you're not on the fence; you are on one side of the fence where you are totally not interested.

However, you still went there because your spouse insisted that you have to go to Disneyland.

It is a place for kids. They get to see their cartoon characters come to life, be all excited about it and tell all their friends that they've met Mickey.

I know, I know. I'm like the pot calling the kettle black.

By blogging about this, I am telling everyone that I've met Mickey Mouse -which I did by the way- and he still irritates the hell out of me. I don't like his voice and the way he speaks.

I rather listen to the lady from the show The Nanny or listen to Marta Stewart than Mickey Mouse.

I have never watched any Mickey Mouse cartoon because of they way he speaks. If he had sounded differently, I might have considered watching it.

Anyway, what I wanted to say was, I'm not to be blamed for having absolutely no interest to go to Disneyland. I have passed being a child. Even when I was one, I didn't like Disney.

But, Z promised me a good time and said that he was sure I would love that place.

Yeah...that man was so sure.

And that man...

was so...

RIGHT!

But I still find Mickey Mouse voice irritating. That fact will never change.

Entrance to Paris Disneyland. I was still not interested at this point. I thought it was a waste of time. But still, waste or not, I was there and pictures are a must.

Like I said, pictures are a must!

To feign interest is another.

We got cute pink tickets. I'm so sick! I'm gonna be OLD in a couple of years and I can't resist cute things. Especially if it's pink.

Just for your information, USA is in Paris.

That is Mary Poppins (Did I get her name spelled right?) and some man.

You know when you wanna take "artistic" shot but tak menjadi. Here's one.

Just right after stepping into the entrance of Main Street USA I was blown away by the place. It's like you've stepped into a cartoon world. They are all cute.

You cannot deny that this place is cute. Look at the bake and ice-cream shop.

Can someone tell me which show this candle is from? I can roughly remember there's also a pot, right?

Sleeping beauty castle. It looks better in real life.

Even their Ferris wheel's cute.

Parking lot for strollers. Cool innit?

We took the Pirates of the Caribbean and I managed to snap some stuffs inside. We went through little cannot-really-feel drops and I was holding onto the pole and N for dear life. Although Z was holding onto her, I was afraid she'd fall out.

Let me introduce to you Donald Duck. Oh look at N!!! KNOCKOUT!

Let me introduce to you someone. Lol. I don't know who that fella is.

Walked around a little more and we reached to the place below...

It was empty and we were the only ones, and also some ducks, there.

Notice how the two pictures above seems weirdly cut out on the left and on top?

See, Z who's never watch Toy Story thought the "Woodys roundup", "9 different sayings" and "as seen on TV" were done by Disneyland.

It was only after I explained and told him to take the whole thing that he took a picture with the "Woodys roundup", "9 different sayings" and "as seen on TV".

Does't this look a better?

Anyway, as I was saying...we were like the only ones there right? Apparently, we weren't the only ones. Turns out, everyone was watching a show!

Look at the amount of people! They appeared out of nowhere.

See the house at the background? That is THE HAUNTED HOUSE.

You think I'd enter? Fat hope.

I don't like things scary. I don't understand why people love scaring themselves by watching horror movies.

Till now, I can't remember watching any horror movies.

On my first date with Z, he booked two tickets to watch a horror movie.

Throughout the entire show, I had my jacket on my face.

One of the reasons I do not watch horror movies is that I get shocked easily. N seem to have followed me in that.

Another reason I'll admit...

I was just about to say that I'm a total coward. But come to think of it, it's because of the fact that I get shocked very easily that scares me.

I was watching a movie online two days ago and had my earphones on. The volume was so loud I got into a huge shock when the music started playing and had goosebumps all over.

And all this while I thought I was a coward.

Anyway, this is part 1 of me telling everyone about Paris Disneyland. Part 2 will be the parade.

Stay tuned...

Paris: Remplissez le titre

2009-03-20T00:51:00.005+08:00

BEAUTIFUL. Extremely gorgeous.

Despite being dirty (Can't blame me. I live in SPIC & SPAN Singapore. Singapore's probably got my husband's OCD.), Paris is extremely gorgeous.

Every one of their building is so gorgeous no words and description of that place would do justice of its beauty.

Our meal on Eurostar. We were given white bread first before receiving our main course. By the way, the train moved so fast (400kph) we were in Paris in 2 hours and 5 minutes. We're talking about London and Paris here. Not tiny Singapore and Malaysia!

View from the hotel room. We stayed in this lil hotel somewhere at Berne Opera. And no, the 'Opera' is not pronounced as op-ruh.

Outside the hotel we stayed at.

It's Moulin Rouge baby.

I think Moulin Rouge is a bar. They have this huge sign that says 'BAR' outside.

My obession over there. Ordering crepes whenever I see a shop selling them. I am extremely frustrated that my husband got me so hooked to them. He can easily get them coz he travels so often.

Oh, that's Montmarte. I don't give two hoots about Montmarte or the history behind Montmarte. It is only a church to me. But since it's a tourist attraction, no harm just seeing it.

N with her proud father.

Just look at how tiny she is compared to my husband. Lol.

Mummy was jealous and wanted to take a picture with the princess too. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out as nice. Oh well...at least we all know it's her.

N looking at the map of Paris like as if she understood what she was seeing. She really stared and concentrated on that piece of paper. It was so funny.

The toilet looks like this and it's littered almost every where. Didn't use it at all coz I don't trust the condition inside.

London Underground at Paris's Metro.

Eiffel tower...if you haven't figured that out yet.

Paris point zero. Which means, if you stand there, you're standing exactly in the middle of Paris. Does Singapore have one? It's located right in front of Notre Dame, I think.

And that is what I think is Notre Dame. Honestly, I can't remember. I was bothered about all these tourist sites. I was admring the beauty of each individual building. They are all stunning. Not just those that tourist go to.

I don't know the name of this place but I remember the station we dropped off at. It's called La Defense. When we exited the train station, it felt like as if I had travelled forward in time. The entire Paris looked old and the buildings are definitely not modern. It's like I lived in the 1800 and being at La Defense, I in this century. All the buildings were modern.

Arc De Triomphe

The honest, naked truth is, Champs Elysees was the place I really wanted to see more than anything else.

I am not doing the peace sign. It's 'L' and 'V'. I was standing across of Louis Vuitton. It was hard to capture a picture hence the lousy picture.

Wait...I take what I said about wanting to go to Champs Elysees more than anything else. I wanted to go to Sephora more than anything else. Though there is one at Taka, that's Sephora in Paris. It's different.

"Sleep beats make-up hands down!"

Wait till she's older...

I bet she'll be putting on make-up at the age of 1! She stares at me without blinking once whenever I'm putting on mine.

Make-up is like the love of my life. I don't know how to put on make-up but I love make-up so much I buy them and admire them.

I love colours. I am so tempted to get the 88 palatte eyeshadow. They look like candy.

I just realize that I sound like a total bimbo.

This might just prove my statement earlier. I really do love colours. I took the two pictures above because I thought THE COLOURS WERE NICE.

LV's address: 101 Avenue Des Champs Elysees.

By the way, when I was there LV was selling this tacky line of clothing and bags. It in neon yellow and orange. Some of the bags had an ugly looking flower on it. My husband said that the people who might buy them are the Indonesians.

The famous Lourve museum!

The story about Lovre's architecture goes like this...

A Chinese-American man was asked to design a museum and made it blend with the buildings around. So what did he do?

Build the meseum underground!

Isn't that the simplest thing to do to resolve the problem.

The very famous Mona Lisa! I was surpised that we were able to take pictures of it. My husband told me that he wasn't allowed to previously because they didn't want the photo to photo age. I'm glad I got to take a picture of it. It's the Mona Lisa.

I don't quite get why they have some of their parts missing. This poor guy had his hands chopped.

But I feel even sorrier for that guy above.

He got THAT chopped off.

That is supposedly Hercules. Why on earth do they have to sculpt a naked Hercules? I am sure clothes were invented and there was such a thing as modesty.

I prefer cream pasta now. It's really nice. The pasta above was nice. If not for the price, I would have order another plate. It's like SGD 24 per plate.

Mommy & Daddy's lunch. N's lunch.

Guess how much that jacket cost?

Plastic sewn to make into a jacket.

150 euro dollars! That is 300 Singapore dollars.

Fine, it's waterproof and if you hide behind a jacket no one can see the beautiful top you've got inside. But the price? It's not even nice.

I stood where my husband stood when he was there.

I find this picture funny. Maley & Me have been changed to Marley & Moi. Do they dub their voices and change it to French too or what?

And finally...the last meal I had in Paris. My husband brought me to Leons to have muscles in escargot sauce.

We were served salted pretzels first.

The our appetizer came...

Those are muscles in escargot sauce.

I had my Crème brûlée. I've been searching for a Halal Crème brûlée everywhere in Singapore. I found them selling at Delifrance but when I wanna order their Crème brûlée, it's not available and finally I got my Crème brûlée, in France and non-alcoholic.

Yeap. That was my trip to Paris. The things I loved is their buildings and the fact that their food taste really good.

London: Bring me back there again

2009-03-07T01:43:00.008+08:00

Hey'll! Hurray to me. I'm finally updating this overdue entry. I decided to drop everything I have been working on and focus on this for a while.

However, I've only uploaded pictures of the time I had in London.

Those of Paris and Paris Disneyland (they're gonna be in two separate entries coz Disneyland on it's own has almost 500 pics), they'll be up -any day from now- I just don't know when exactly.

So yeap, 10 days...it was long and tiring but definitely fun.

Despite having to tolerate such a stinky toilet and a grumpy man who we have to face nightly -distruping him from his Hindustani movie- to get our keys, everything else was amazing.

I miss the cold weather very much and how will I ever forget, the crepes with nutella.

I didn't really have much crepes in London coz I hardly see shops selling them. But in Paris, it's littered all over. I had so much crepes I began comparing prices. Lol.

Just talking about all these makes me wanna go back there. Even the food were nice. There wasn't a place where I had food that sucked. Really.

This is on the night we landed. Passed by this shop after buying some Subway sandwiches for ourselves. According to my husband, Subway over there (at Bayswater I think) is Halal.

The shop is called 'Kiasu'. If you haven't guessed already, it's suppose to serve Singapore food. I didn't read the menu but I assume it's the local food here.

The following day, we went to Eurocar. Hubby rented the car to drive up to Stonehenge. It's a manual car and my husband wouldn't admit it, but he cannot drive manual anymore!!!

We reached Stonehenge and to my surprise, they are not as large and huge as they look in pictures. They are pretty small for big stones.

If you look closely, you'll see things far away. Those are sheep. There's lots of it. I've never seen sheep before so I was extremely jakon to see them.

After I was done doing my necessary picture taking at Stonehenge, we drove to the ancient city of Bath. It is outside of London and an hour away from Stonehenge.

We drove past the countryside and it's beautiful. Looks calm and away from all the hustle and bustle. It's best for people who'd love to relax. Maybe be a shepherd and rear some lambs.

I wouldn't be able to survive a day living there. It looks so boring.

And so...after a long drive (while I slept part of journey), we reached Bath.

I have always had a thing for shops along the streets. I love them. I don't know why, but I just do. It is nice that not to be confined indoors while shopping.

Even after roaming around Bath, we had time and since we had the car until 8 AM the following day we drove around some more.

I wanted hubby to drive pass the places of interest (Big Ben, Tower of London, ect) but instead, he brought me to Piccadilly Circus.

At Chinatown.

Guess how much we had to pay for parking for an hour? 15 pounds! That is more than $30 worth of parking.

Yet I complain so much that parking fees in Singapore is absurd. This one is insane.

The authentic London cab.

Believe it or not, I have never taken the London cab in Singapore.

Hubby was nice enough to let me take the cab twice.

The following day...

We went to Hyde Park. I fell in love with the place instantly. The place was beautiful.

I have no words to describe how I love that place.

I saw this particular tree from far and somehow I was attracted to it. So, I told hubby to snap a picture of me with it.

The lake at Hyde Park.

#47 of 50 things about me, I fear birds.

That is why I looked terrified here.

Got pigeons.
Got ducks.
Got black ducks.
Got green ducks.
Got swans!!!

The are all birds.

There were probably more than 100 of them.

My husband told me that the palace behind is the late Princess Diana's palace.

Do they have one here? I know they sell it online.

Tall & Small. Pretty awesome. They are for those with extremely small and large feet.

I've a friend who wears a size 3.

Hubby made me do that and I was extremely shy.

S-N-O-W! My wish came true and snow began falling. :)

According to my husband, these buses are rarely seen. They're the old buses where you enter from the back. I've seen these on TV long time ago.

"A typical English pub", my husband said.

This picture of Tower of London did no justice. If only we had more time. I would have entered the palace. I wonder how it looks like.

According to the thing I'm leaning on, Anne Boleyn *was imprison and beheaded in that tower. Made me more geram. I wanna see!!!

*Watch The Other Boleyn Girl if you don't know the story.

See what happens. Marry a king and you end up beheaded.

Apparently, her husband got 7 wives and 2 of his wives (including her) was beheaded. Crazy man!

Nandos! Yum. Since my husband is 380 trained, he's been going to London very often. I told him to get Nandos for me every time he goes there and bring it back. :)

I hope he makes it out of customs together with the chicken.

I'm serious about it. I want that Nandos.

The following day...

We went to Portobello Market.

Here's another place I liked. This was our last day. We were leaving at 4 PM for Paris. It's like a market place selling everything.

Sigh. Everything is so nice about London. How I wish I could live in Whistler, New York and London at the same time. Till then.

WELCOME TO PARIS

The sand, the sun, the beach...

2008-08-27T14:22:00.005+08:00

I am back from my short getaway!!! The plan was to relax and enjoy the 3 days in a self-sufficient hotel. No need to travel outside. No need for shopping. No need to face different people. Simply enjoy the nature we were surrounded with.

The sand, the sun, the beach...

Although I was looking forward to snap pictures of the sceneries and nature, I ended snapping absolutely none. It was too hot and humid. I stayed within the premises of the hotel. Indulging in cakes and shakes at their cafe. Staying there till midnight with my cousins and gossiping away.

On the last day of the trip, I finally decided to open up the folder that was placed on the table of the room. Turns out, the hotel had so many activities planned for tourist. Fireflies watching, kampung tour, city tour and whatnots. All with a cost, but nothing too expensive.

If I had known, I would have done those activities in between hanging out by the beach and sipping to a coconut drink and *clears throat* bitching' like crazy.

Where exactly did I go?

Somewhere in the district of Terengganu and Pahang. We stayed in a resort that was situated on the coast of the South China Sea.

I'd always known that Terengganu is beautiful place which explains why I'd wanted to go there. I was also hoping to sneak in shopping in between my schedule. Unfortunately, self-centered people who wants to be in control of everything spoiled my plans (no, not mom).

If I were to go there next time, I am not bringing her along. If she's not going to give a hoot about us, why should we?

Still, at the end of the day, I enjoyed myself. Or at least it beats staying home for 3 days without my husband, my parents, my younger brother to irritate and nothing to do.