Best New Year countdown ever

Hmm, you must be thinking Countdown in LA, New York or downtown San Diego. Nope, not at all. There was no squeezing with people, no loud music, no shouting numbers (you know the 10...9...8...7 sort of thing), no alcohol, no standing in a cold.

Instead we spent with our church family at Black Mountain, chatting, playing board games and enjoying food brought along by members. Apples to Apples is a great ice breaker board game. Totally hilarious and fun and there is no right answer needed. Definitely a game we will introduce when we get back home. Totally fun.

Cranium is just as fun, it is like a mix of charade, pictionary and more.

This is no better way to countdown to the new year with Battle with the Sexes. Fun, fun, fun and in the comfort of a nice warm home and so much fellowship, getting to know one another better and build relationships.

In the last few months of 2008 here in SD, we have learnt that nothing beats friendship, relationship, being around people, getting to understand how people live here, not Hollywood style, not LA style, not New York style, just simply how people live here. Each in their unique American life, but always full of love, full of warmth, and always so welcoming to us.

So fun was the time we had, that despite having brought my camera, forgotten all about photo taking.

Well I guess it will be well imprinted in our minds and WEP made quite an impression for our American friends today as well. For those of you who know him well, it is along the line of the way he laughs...I am sure some of you know exactly what I meant.

Happy New Year to you all!!!

The Reality of Today's Economy

I believe there are no other time than this that we find more TV shows talking about how to make the most of our money in this times than before. And then there are the shows that teach people how to get or make inexpensive gifts, Xmas decorations and the Xmas meal. All very wonderful. But what really hits me today is to learn that even TV serials are now considered to be cut or put on hold by the economy. And artists are rallying for people to tune in if they really support their show or write in to the editor of the studio to avoid being canned. This is indeed reality!

Why Am I not like my MUMMY?

My mum always amazes me. She is one of the friendliest person you can meet. She understands little about privacy, so it can be tough living with her. But it also serves her very well, which I sometimes wonder what happened to me? Why can't I be like her?

I mean everyone in the neighbourhood are practically her friends, and it is not only that she knows them, she knows who their families are, what issues they have and all that stuff. My mum rocks (in the words of young people these days). Once, I was grocery shopping with her and while waiting for the traffic light to cross the road on our way home, she went over to an old lady and took her grocery bags from her, helped carried the bags till we crossed the road and we had to part ways, chatting about stuff and all. So naturally, I think must be a friend. Turned out, it is not the case. It blew my mind. I mean she just took the bags from the lady, then started a conversation with the lady. Who does that, without the lady thinking she was being robbed and all. But my mummy always get away with things like that.

Another time, she spent a night over at my place while WEP was away. I had the company D&D the night before, so was sleeping in and she said she will go take a walk downstairs. She came up an hour later, packed with information. How much our sweeper earn? Befriended some older neighbours, including who they are and all that and found out about a new coffeeshop and grocery shop opening. All within 1 hour and it was her first stay at my place. Impressive, isn't it? Maybe because I am so different from her.

My mum rocks, at least to me.

My Real Xmas Tree, finally...

I have always wanted to have a real Christmas tree for Christmas when I can. More specifically, the Noble Fir.
First criteria: I have to own my own apartment
Which we met a few years ago (the criteria), but Xmas trees are far too expensive. But I was not for fake trees and won't settle with it, but still wanted something fun and unique. So we did this (as some of you would have remembered).


Now, we are in SD, and most Californians love their real trees for Xmas which was more than fine by me. I I am going to have a tree, a real tree but we got a budget, USD50.

We found 5" Noble Fir for approximately USD35. Hooray. But then we realise we still need a tree stand and a dish to hold the water and Sprite (the food for the tree). The normal tree stand was sold out and the only one available was USD30. We are only going to be here for one Xmas so seems a bit much to spend...Sigh...No tree. I always decorate for Xmas!!!

So we still need something unique and NO FAKE TREE. So what are we left with?

THIS!!! Shrunk from the initial 5" to 1". Cute? (This is before deco)


This is after Deco.


Total cost: USD13. It is a Rosemary plant, so as we celebrate Xmas, we will get herbs for our food. How wonderful. I hope it will still look like a Xmas tree by 25Dec. Hee Hee.

Coronado Bay Bridge

Did you remember about the Coronado Bay Bridge? Well, yesterday there was this huge jam, so huge, it went all the way from the bridge to near our place, which is at least half a mile from the beginning of the Bridge. First time ever in all our time near. Sadly, we later understand that the jam was due to the bridge being closed due to a lady trying to commit suicide. Took a couple of hours before the bridge was reopened. Thankfully, the lady did not make it.

Not Very Fun????

NOT VERY FUN, Knott's Berry Farm, sounds similar but totally not the same. So what do you think when you first hear the name "Knott's Berry Farm". Yes, it is in California. A berry farm? Wrong, very very wrong. It is American's first theme park. I was first drawn to it when flipping a local magazine and I saw all these Peanuts Characters patches. I was thrilled. I love Peanuts, but my fav character is not Snoopy. It is Woodstock! So all night long, I couldn't let WEP have enuff of it. I want to go Knott's, I want to go Knotts. Well, there is a child in everyone.

Then what greater news to hear in November, there is military discount. We enter for free. Hooray!!!! But that is by thanksgiving. Okay, first weekend of Nov is out, we have planned to go away. Second weekend, we fell ill from the trip before. So we went on Saturday.

Here is us doing the tourist's thing:


I am no fan of roller coaster and nothing in the world will change my mind about it. The last time I was on a roller coaster was when I was 13years old in Genting, Malaysia. Not much of a ride in most people's opinion I am sure. I didn't enjoy it at all.
So as much as I wanted to go to Knott's, I have no idea what I would be doing there. Maybe visit the Charles M Schulz theatre or something.

But then I read about them having a wooden roller coaster built in year 1929. The writeup talks about how it makes a greater ride than modern roller coaster, as the sound of creaking wood totally enhanced the experience.

So on our way there, I was sure that if I was only to take one ride, that would be it. The Ghostrider would be it. I mean a wooden roller coaster built in 1929, how scaring can it get? I think I can handle it and I am sure all those critics I have read must be the nostalgic factor that makes it a great ride and the fact that it is still function well part. And I love all things old.

So with logic all processed and risk factor accessed by observing the actual structure while queuing in line, I innocently agreed to taking the front seats. Mine mine mine, what a mistake that turns out to be. You see most of the most thrilling parts of the ride are well hidden from the outside and while one (actually all three of us) thought that the scariest would be the going down from very steep angle, we were so so wrong. That happens to be the easy part. It was the turns that really threw us off guide and off our seats as well. And because of my size, there is alot more being thrown around. So as WEP and friend talked about the G force of the ride, to me, it was more G x S (G for G force and S for shift force, being shifting around the seat because my size can't cover the entire seat).

Okay, I am definitely not going for the Sliver Bullet which is the one where one's feet will be hanging and you will be flipped upside down and there are alot of cork screw turns. I mean all rides with feet hanging are always known to be one of the most thrilling rides right? No no no. Then we notice oh, all rides have a rating on it, 1 to 5, 5 being Aggressive Thrill attractions. So we decided okay, let's check out what rating was GhostRider, then we decide if I am going on Silver Bullet (which is a 5). If GhostRider was a 4, then I will give Silver Bullet a try. Turns out GhostRider was a 5, so there is no chicken out for me now. Turns out, GhostRider was the more thrilling of the two and if it hasn't been my innocence and if I have known about the rating before going, I guess I wouldn't have taken any ride. And the day won't have been so so fun.

Us with Silver Bullet in the backdrop (this is us after the ride)

Thrill factor may not be a great, but a lot more scenic, there is one part when we were diving down to the little pond, come so close to it, it felt so good, then in a split second, it was gone.


It really was a blast. The place was really huge with several rides. It is really fun and there is fun for everyone. Check it out if you have a chance.

Here are pics of Ghostrider:

My shot:

Professional shot:



And for more information, checkout the website http://www.knotts.com/

Scissors - what does it got to do with anything?

Where on earth did I pick up this broken pair of scissors? And what would this already broken, and of no use scissors got to do with anything? An eventful afternoon.

WEP rushed home from work on Wednesday, rushing me to get ready to go out. There is this marine cloud that had moved and hoovered to Point Loma what is really beautiful and since it is whale watching season, guess we didn't want to miss it. So loaded with water, camera, clothings to keep us warm, we headed to a 10mile drive to Point Loma. It is actually 3miles away, but roads aren't built that way sometimes.

Up the freeway we went, travelling at the instructed speed, suddenly, a bing sound, which is a common sound when we change lane with lane dividers on the road. But then, there was this other sound afterwards, coming from the right rear side of the car, that just didn't go away. Something is not right....(I am sure most of you must have guessed it). We got out of the freeway, drove downtown to find somewhere we can stop (traffic rules are dead serious, obey it, or you might not just get fine which is alot more than home, but also appear in court).

Yup, the broken scissors jabbed right deep into our right side rear tire, we got it out, which translate to a flat tire of course, got out our spare, only to realise we got cheated, coz it didn't fit the make of the car. It has four holes for the nuts, but our car tires have five. Great!!!! Thankfully, we have AAA. One call to AAA, 5mins later, the tow trunk is here. Off we go to a tire shop to get this tire fixed.

(Okay, this is the first time in our entire life that we have a flat tire situation, so WEP was really thrilled thinking we could finally get a hand on changing a flat tire. Lesson learnt, when you buy a car next time, check not just if the spare tire has got air and all that stuff, but also the rim. Our workshop's mechanic was telling us even he wouldn't have thought the need to check that.)

Well, it is also the first time we got our car towed, so it was rather exciting, watching the tow guy doing his stuff. I am sure he must have thought that we are nuts. He is really really nice, giving us tips and all about changing tire and getting upset with us about the spare tire situation.

Okay, getting a broken tire fixed should not be difficult right. We told the guy what happened, we trust that he would do what is best to be done and off we go. That is what we thought happened, they patched in cut, we paid, I wonder if it will work but trusted the guys to know what they are doing and off we went...to Point Loma. Then on our way there, I heard a funny sound on the freeway again, alerted WEP, exited the freeway, back to downtown with a FLAT TIRE.

One thing for sure, no Point Loma. We called back the tow guy and he came, asked why didn't we get the tire changed, we told him we told the mechanic to fix it and expected them to tell us what is the best thing to do. Turns out, it doesn't work that way. Alot of mechanics these days just do as the customers tell them as they do not want to get accused of hard selling which happens all the time. Well, how would we know that? They are the experts and we are not. So, guess now we have to spend more money on the flat tire. Sigh.... Living on one person's income in a country whose currency is stronger...we really want to avoid unnecessary expenses. What's more the tow guy was already off duty but was kind enough to come and get us, even though he was getting chased on the phone by his second job boss of how late he would be and he trying to get to the tire shop guys on the phone to tell them off about our situation, all while driving us there. Can you imagine the tension in that little cabin, all three of us squeezed in the only seats on the the truck? Very tensed....And if that wasn't enough, a jam on the freeway!!! (And not very fun anyway, coz it wasn't our first tow experience anymore)

We managed to swing out of it, took another route and reached the tire shop 15mins later, all the time phone ringing for the tow guy and you know if you get caught talking on the mobile phone on the road, there will be so much trouble. Tense tense tense. We got there, felt really bad as we could have called AAA again and they get us another guy, but our tow guy said, no no, he wanted to fix this for us. So we thought, we should give him another tip for all the trouble he went through. Guess what, he rejected it saying we have already given him before. How nice, for the stress he has to go through himself, many people who have just taken it. After scolding the guy at the shop, making sure they will give us a discount from the patch work, though he did tell us it is not their fault, it is really a difficult job for them, to advise or not to advise, he left.

We have to explain all over again to the mechanic how we expected things to be and didn't know better. I mean they were still doing our tire and unhappy mechanics doing our car, not a good idea. We got the total money paid earlier as credit (patch job was USD20), the used tire we got which was in pretty good shape, USD40, so we had to pay USD20 more. Okay, deal!


Job done, went to pay and met the boss. Hmmm...let's explain ourselves again, don't want to make enemies in a new country. He nodded, said he understand us being from another place, not knowing better and that his staff should give advice, and asked, are you from the navy? We were like "Huh".... Explained WEP's job and all....okay now more at stake, country, military, let's not get this screwed...fingers crossed and me with a distressed face (a flat tire and 2hours later already)....

Then, praise to God, coz we have been praying too, that it would not be a bombshell price and all, the boss said, it is on the house. We didn't have to pay the extra USD20. Why, because he was from the Navy too, of course the US Navy, from the subs.

So okay, a few bad things happened to us, but a few good things happened to us too, we met two nice persons, learnt a few things and got a huge discount off our tire.

How did the tire shop boss know we are from the Navy, it is all because of this:

So glad we got it - in case you can't read clearly, it says FLY NAVY (Top), NAVAL AVIATION (Bottom)