Finally, my real Xmas tree

As some of you might remember, I have always wanted a real Xmas tree, but last year we only managed to get a Rosemary plant instead as we couldn't get the stand for the tree, hence couldn't buy one. Cute?

This year, we finally got our first tree. It is a small tree, (haha, shorter than me) but it is a real tree. And I was wondering how to decorate it without spending much (since US is not exactly our home and don't want to accumulate waste).

So this is what we did.

Some close up

And instead of a star, we have

Yosemite National Park - half dome

My Name is Ram

My love for ads continue. Have been looking for this ad on YouTube for some time now. So glad I have found it.
With such material, I think they are on the right track to getting back some confidence.


Yup, I know they have a long way, but everything comes with one step. Important thing is to stay the course.

Culture Shock

Having been here for almost a month now, I still wonder why I struggled so much to settle down. Afterall, this is not the first time that I am in this country. This should have been the issue last October, not now. But why? Why am I so convinced I don't understand the people of this land and also convinced that they do not understand us. 


I wondered why have all my years of working with Americans, British, Koreans, Japanese, Thai, Indians, Chinese, Australian, New Zealanders, to name the majority nationalities in my line of work, would I be hitting a road block? I mean, it is not as if we have a language barrier here...


The more I think about it, the more upset I am with myself. I wondered whether age has eaten up the openness in me, or having been out of the scene for awhile now, has killed my love for being open and embracing new cultures and new people. If anyone of you wondered what kept me working so hard, for so many long hours, much of the motivation really is in the many cultures I get to cross everyday. That is exciting to me. Sitting at my seat, running through my mind before picking up the phone, "how do I put it across so that they understand, so that a relationship can be forged?" I love every chance of being able to put that to practise. I think the hardest for me was in understanding my scottish staff. But they turned out brilliantly nice to work with, once I come to understand their world of English. 


But being here makes me wonder if I have forgotten to pack that skill in my luggage, amidst all the things I have forgotten to pack, like winter wear or enough tops. I have less than WEP. My goodness. I am really living on bear minimum here. So pardon me if my outfits become a little too familar over the course of time. 


Anyway, back to the main topic, I think I got a eureka today. I think there is such a thing as an international culture, you know a code of behaviors and language, of values and morale that are wired into people involved in international business, and military is also part of this. I think for people who are very involved in the international scene and exposed to vastly different cultures over time have this wired in, conciously or subconciously. Which explains why we have no problem last winter (we are in a military community and also a city with many travelers). 


And it is for me a humbling experience. That I cannot presume to say I understand a culture by just the people I meet at the workplace or any place. I have forgotten that culture really is a complex thing, woven in it are life experiences, traditions, community, economy and nature, all at play to shape the place, meter by meter, mile by mile. 


So let's learn culture, religion, people, race, one person at a time, for there truly is no generic in any of this. I now understand why it drives a friend of mine up the wall by the slightest bit of stereo typing we let ourselves in for. Well, guess his wealth of life has backing for it. 


Share your thoughts, would love to hear your point of view too. 

Motivation...

Hmm, finding the motivation to write....

If you are still convinced, check this out

The following are taken on 29Sept and this is not a special day. It is pretty much any other day - sunset @Coronado Beach

Sunset - moment by moment

Plane landing at sunset 

(moment by moment)

29 Sept - To our fav little island: Coronado

Here is where we lived our last winter and this little island still charms me the same way it did.

I miss it so so much.

Coronado Bay Bridge

San Diego downtown skyline - From Coronado

Little sandal who has lost its way....

Seahawk in the sky

(reminds me of how I used got woken up each morning by the sound of helicopters)

Palm trees and blue skies (Love it)

Rainbow in the sky. Nice!

Cutest accidental photo by WEP!!! Dog on his evening walk.

After all these photos, are you sure you are not convinced that this is the place to stay?

For the laidback, this is the place, slow, nice, warm. but if you are the party sort, then I don't think it is for you.

Guess you know which I am?

Partying days are over. Yes, for those of you who have seen my crazier days, you must be surprised.

And those who happened to manage to get enough drinks down on me, you got a glimpse and count yourselves lucky, doesn't happen often...

And for you who have been trying so hard to get me to that zone, first, you got to get hold of the person who unknowingly got me drinking enough. I don't even think he know he did. Hahaha.

Nope, not WEP.

So, to encourage me to write more, let me know you are reading and letting me know if you are now sold - "Coronado is a beauty?"

29 Sept - Lunch before heading to Coronado

Yup, we are still on the topic of food.

Sashimi from Mitsuwa. Yum yum. We had ramen too, but by then, we are too hungry and the ramen too yummy, we forgot to take photo again. What is new....

SASHIMI!!! And inexpensive too, coz from supermarket.

And I got Amaebi!!!!!

There is salmon, tuna and I think hamachi. (was it hamachi?)

And WEP never likes tuna, but he loves this one. Really good.

Dinner at Ten Ren, Irvine - 28Sept

Mine Mine, we are still on 28Sept. I better do some speeding up.

Hahaha, that is what happens when one slowed down from work.

Haven't quite learn to live for myself. Wonder why I am still not recovered from workaholism.

My speed for work and for leisure is too far apart. My ex-colleagues might know what I mean.

Anyway, I was a skeptic of this place. Everything is made with tea as an ingredient, even in my soup. Hmm hmm. Is it really going to taste good?

Well, it did taste really yummy, and very refreshing. Makes the soup base tastes so light and refreshing.

Here is the yummy photo of my dumpling soup

Here are photos of other yummy food some of us are having....

To top it off, bubble milk tea. It is just great!!! Damn, no photo of that. Must improve on this photo taking. But as you can tell, dinner was good. Good to have friends who love eating and know good eating places. Thank you, WY and yes the search engine that assisted - YELP.

Hahaha, our road trip was full of YELPing for food.

P.S: WEP and I are not good at taking photos. We were have our camera with us, and we will totally forget to use it, only to regret it later.

Special Moment at New Port Beach, Orange County California

Isn't this a wonderful sight? Kids being kids at the beach, waiting to get caught by daddy. Actually, only baby girl gets caught by daddy. Guess to daddy, boys must be boys. Jump, fall, get up jump again. Blood is a part of boys' childhood ;)

Arriving in Orange County (28th Sept)

First off, we want to thank our friend WY for picking us up at the LAX airport. It is amazing that how all our luggage (of 3 persons) can fit her car, including all of us. Remember, we were packing for months of life here... so we are talking about too many bags. BTW, the car wasn't a sedan.

This is the moment that I regret for the lack of pictures. How could anyone else imagine what I am talking about here....

After unloading our bags in Brea, we headed to Inspiration Point, for lunch and then New Port beach (I hope I got this right?) for some more sightseeing.

Here are some pictures of the

beach. Isn't it just beautiful? Who would be motivated to get up for work with this a stone thr

ow away. It is hard living here unless you are a beach bummer. Hahaha

For those of you who always complain the lack of people in our photos, here is a backview of WY and me. Haha.

28th Sept - Narita to LAX

Yeah!!! Upgraded to Business Class

Wow - Orange Juice in a glass. Yum Yum

Happy Happy in our Business Class seats

This is the "I slept really well and just awake look"

A truly satisfied customer!

Blue sky from our business class windows. Haha, no difference of course.

For those of you who don't know, I love clouds and blue skies, so everytime I am on a plane, this is a must. So can you imagine how disappointed I was to find out the first leg we were sitting on centre aisle. This is great!

Can you see, the shadow on the plane in the clouds? Beautiful isn't it?

28th Sept - SIN-Narita

What a extremely hot morning I could remember. We were just raining down sweat, making sure we got everything packed, the house is in the order in which we would like it to be. This was 1 am. Pespiring at 1am was just ridiculous.

So we decided, we needed to get to the airport anyway, and since sleeping was not a great idea, in case we overslept, we decided to head for the airport.

Arrived at 2am, checked in and started wandering around, waiting for WEP's parents and our fellow travel partner to arrive.

It was all rather uneventful. We boarded the plane, WEP waiting anxiously to see what we would be getting. We were flying NorthWest this time and he had heard so much of American airlines, that he was all anxious. He thought he saw the big screen TV online, you know where everyone are forced to watch on one screen whatever they were screening. And for people vertically challenged like me, can forget entertainment altogether.

What a delight on his face, to know that we had individual entertainment system (or whatever it is called). Not bad, not bad for a start....

Food was okay. Seats are not too cramped, all good, all good for a start.

Actually, coming to think of it now, if we were travelling SingAir, we were not have been so delighted since it would be expected that we will be getting our own individual entertainment system. Then, we wouldn't have the chance to be thankful.

Sorry, no photo. Too tired by then to take any. And we were sitting in the centre aisle, so nothing to take as well.

Oh oh, almost forgot, we do have another thanksgiving on this flight. The plane was actually very very packed but just on our row, a four seated, there was an empty seat between us and the other lady. The entire section around us were all packed. Isn't that wonderful? We were so thankful.

Without Whom I will not be here

Today and tomorrow (3rd-4th Nov) are one of the most important dates of my life. And how I wish I could be in Singapore at this very moment.

Today (3rd Nov) is my daddy's 70th birthday.

Tomorrow (4th Nov) is my mummy's 60th birthday.

To my beloved parents, thank you for always caring and loving

us. For sharing with us your life's experience.

Thank you daddy for always being encouraging.

Thank you mummy for showing that it is never too late to start exercising.

Although it is not grandma's birthday too, but I also want to thank grandma for showing that it is never too late to pick up a language - she picked up English in her sixties and with that we all lose our hainanese language, at least I did.

Miss you from here.

I am always proud of this. Look at my daddy's hair. They are his, all his, no dye involved, at 70.

This is taken 2 days before we flew off - 26 Sept 2009

He only started having white hair in his 60s. I wonder why I didn't get those genes. But he would say this, it is all about staying healthy, exercising and eating right...

If he sees me now, he would be totally dismayed...

Happy Birthday, daddy and mummy!!!

Just for insurance

This is just I have watched on News moments ago:

A Winconsin man enlisted himself in order to get insurance coverage so that his wife can continue to get her chemo done to fight the 3rd recurrence of her cancer.

One true act of the meaning of marriage...

Flying North...

Yup, we have been here for 4 days now. Currently in Coronado (San Diego) to get our car, get some maintenance done, get the stuff we left behind in our last trip and lastly for WEP to get some work done :( in his vacation time.

But what I am here to talk about is not our days in SD (altho it has been quite wonderful). In preparation of this trip, we had sacrificed quite a bit of sleep. For sunday itelf (our flight is 28 Sept 5.40am), we did not sleep at all and left for the airport at 2am. So we are dead tired and flying NWA.

So what a delight it was for both of us to discover that we were upgraded to business class on our Tokyo to LA leg of the journey (10 hours of better seats)... We did absolutely nothing for this, we didn't attempt to ask for any upgrade, we were just happy with what we had, our individual TV screen in economy class, having meals thrown onto our flip up table. Just happy to have an empty seat next to us (we were on the center aisle) where the rest of the section we were seating was fully packed. Actually, I was already feeling delighted and very blessed at that point. EP too was extremely delighted with the TV screen for himself.

But what a great gift to receive so much more and we know this could only be the work of One.

If that was not good enough, when we reached Coronado and checked into the Inn, we got a room with a kitchenette, paying the same amount as another friend, we got a bigger room.

Praise the Lord, our God for all that He provides. Yes, it is true that perhaps flying a better airline would have been a delight, but it will not compare to things provided without expectation or want. Such delight is really of a different world, nothing compared to the reward one gets from working for it. No, I am not saying that things just keep dropping off the sky and everything is a breeze and easy...Life is hardly like that for anyone I believe. I am just glad, just glad.

Cooking Experience

Now that my contract work has come to an end and I think I have rested more than enough, I decided I should experiment cooking with some new combination of ingredients. So on Aug 30, I decided I had some apples that had been sitting in the fridge for ages, maybe I could try cooking them with the chicken thigh bones that had been in the fridge for awhile too.

So I with the apples washed and chopped, chicken thigh bones de-frozen, a pot, some water and a dash of salt, I started slow cooking my new soup. It tastes strange at first, then became a little better, but nothing close to a soup taste. So with more preservance, I just let it cook longer at slow heat....After an hour of slow cooking, the taste did not improve but got really sour.

Lesson learnt, apples cannot be cooked with chicken. Hahaha, WEP would have thought that that would be the end of the apple soup idea, but he would be surprised that he is wrong. I am not giving up the apple soup idea, just the apples with chicken idea. Poor thing, I doubt he know that.

Just glad that those were some old apples (not spoiled, I checked) and thigh bones. If not, I will surely get hung by my mum for wasting food. But then again, how would I know it won't work if I didn't try, right?

How do I know my home is clean?

I am not too sure if we are the only household that experience this on a regular basis. 

Every time I clean the house, I always know when it is indeed clean. Because I have visitors when the house is clean. 

Bugs always fly in once I am almost done with cleaning and always at exactly the same time. When I am seconds of being done with cleaning. 

And I am not a great lover of bugs, so my satisfaction of a clean home is always affected by these visitor bugs. 

But I have trying to think of it positively. Trying to tell myself that they are my judge. So who knows, one day I will get upset if they don't appear when I am done cleaning the house. 

Funny thing is I tried this experience of just cleaning one room and as expected, they only visit that one room. Hahaha. 

Southbound

What do you do when you have to face a southbound? When you hope and wish and just thinking... surely this is too soon for the southbound. But then it is just right here, as if it has been on an express journey, rushing to make delivery to you. A delivery you are not looking forward too. What do you do? 

Do you face it and just take the ride, or do you fight it, overcome it, run from it? Yes, run I must, as hard and as much as I can. Run I will, run and run some more. If need be, I shall jump, hop, climb the highest mountains....I shall overcome though I know over time, it will surely overcome me, it will surely still find me, when my energy will be too little to run from it. But for now, just for now, I must learn to run, to overcome!

What am I talking about... ... ...

My Gluteus Maximus

BTW, this is no April Fool's joke. It is the truth...

In memory of our hamster, the gymnast!

Today, my bro's hamster died while having his regular bath. Why he died, no one has any idea. It was a regular routine, when their cages get clean, they too will get a bath each. My bro had two hamsters. One minute he was jumping in the tub, the next min, he was lying motionless. 

He was a crazy hamster from the start. The two hamsters used to share a cage, but Mr Gymnast loved to fight and bullied his cage mate. The fight got so bad once, Mr Timid was bleeding from Mr Gymnast's abuse. So my parents created a cardboard wall to separate the two, but the wall lasted one night and then a hole was created. If you are thinking, it must be Mr Gymnast doing all that work, you are right, but only half right. Because Mr Timid loves company. He loves it so much, he joined in the effort to create the hole, forgetting that the company he was hoping to get is going to hurt him again. Very innocent. It seems like no matter how many times he got hurt, he doesn't seem to remember....Sigh.... Well, when all else failed, they both get their own cage. But Mr Gymnast, being a hyperactive, super crazy hamster that he was, could not stop at staying still. When there became no fight to pick, this became his way of using his energy. 

BTW, he was 30cm off the ground, hanging on to the disposable chopstick which is swinging from side to side. He loved it especially when the chopstick was moving. Really a hilarious thing. Every time we stuck a chopstick in like the one in the picture, he would use all his might to jump and catch hold of it. He would attempt to stay up there as long as he could. 

Don't Run Ahead of Him...

Some time ago, a friend recommended me to read a book "The Hiding Place " by Corrie Ten Boom. Didn't get to read it until very recently and one passage really struck me at the core and I thought I would just share it though I am sure maybe you already know.

Before these words, the author has just returned from visiting a family whose baby has died and while waiting to be tugged into bed by her daddy...

"....But that night as he stepped through the door I burst into tears. "I need you!" I sobbed. "You can't die! You can't!" Besides me on the bed, Nollie sat up. "We went to see Mrs. Hoog," she explained."C0rrie didn't eat her supper or anything." Father sat down on the edge of the narrow bed. "Corrie," he began gently, "when you and I go to Amsterdam-when do I give you your ticket?" I sniffed a few times, considering this. "Why, just before we get on the train." "Exactly. And our wise Father in heaven knows when we're going to need things, too. Don't run ahead of Him, Corrie. When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need - just in time."

The book is packed with so much good stuff that if you do like this tiny bit, go and get the book. It is a treasure.

The ants in my household

I remember I love to watch ants at work as a child, they would risk their lives from my mother's ever relentless effort to exterminate them, and come to collect our cake crumbs and bread crumbs which we might have dropped while eating. We all know ants love sweet stuff, a drop of honey, a drop of sugar, a little piece of cake. These things attract them and it is I guess what everyone knows.

Well, the ants in my household, they are different. They always go to where our water is. I have no idea why. At first I thought it was the warm flask they are attracted to or that boiled water is perhaps sweeter. Because we only find them in our boiled water. Then one day in a hurry, I left my half drank orange juice out and when I came home, no ants in them. I started an experiment putting all sorts of sweet sugary things near the boiled water. But each time, I find no ants in those things, just in the boiled water, swimming. Maybe they like to swim to death. I have no idea, they just seem rather silly to me. And it actually does frustrate me a little no knowing what I could do with them really.

So anyone has a swimming ant problem and know an answer to exterminate them, please do tell me. At this point, I would try anything.....

The ants of my household, they are definitely swimmers with no brains......

I have been thinking...

I have been thinking, I started this blog mainly to keep friends posted of my life while we were in San Diego. But now that I have been back, I often wonder if there is any point continuing to write. So what do you think?

I have also been wondering if I would ever write my thoughts down so boldly as some of my friends do.

I wonder even now, besides being a place to update my life while I was away, if this is a blog that could be more than that.

Hmmm...wondered and wondering.

Any feedback? Anyone?

More Trivia Stuff I will miss in SD

...forgot, but I notice that my eye lashes were longer when I was in SD and my normally almost non existence lower eye lashes actually "flourish" in SD. Going to so miss it.

Spoiled by choice

Just came back from grocery shopping. Thought that it would be a breeze, since it is exactly the same thing we are doing every sunday since leaving to San Diego, doing grocery shopping every weekend, to pick up stuff for cooking for the week to come.
But with a cart in front of us and several trips around the entire supermarket (C.S) in this case, we got only a few things.

WEP mentioned that the pork loin chops look a little small, and I mentioned "have you not seen the chicken thighs I have picked up, they are even smaller than the pork loin. And shopping truly is a skill here. I spent quite a bit of time trying to pick a fresh lemon. I guess with the stores just opening after CNY, perhaps the fresh stuffs have not hit the stores yet. But I come to realize how easy it is to pick up vegetables and fruits there, because there is few mistakes one can make, although I think meat tend to be fresher here. And fresh juices are good and cheap in US too (or at least where we were). We picked up the same brand of juice a couple of days ago, first we can't find the same size we had there, then when we look at the price, where it is local produce there and imported here, so the price is of course higher here, but even the actual juice itself, it is diluted here.

And I went around the entire Singapore looking for St Ives and could not find any. I remember before we left, they were selling them at Guardian, so if any of you know where I can get some, I love to know.

But the thing we love about being home is that we no longer need to pay USD5 for 1kg of Thai Jasmine Rice. Every grain of rice was very very precious to us in our stay in SD. And we will have more choices of green leafys to eat. The only leafy we had there and the only greens we eat there had been spinach.

Oh and I miss my rosemary plant! Glad that it has found a good home in SD and not see itself into the dumps.

Let's Get Cracking

For all you seafood lovers out there, this entry requires no narration. Feels like I am doing free publicity for them