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

The Trivia Things I Love and will Miss

Well well, officially we have exactly 1 week left here in SD (hee, I drafted this then, but have yet to complete it). So I thought since I did not write any reflections for year 2008 which I had wanted to do and yes did not. Which also explains why I never make any resolutions in the new year anymore.

So I thought, hmm, wouldn't it be nice for me to list down the things I would miss in SD, especially the trivia. So here it is

1) My flawless skin - no rashes, no peeling on my face, just smooth silky skin
2) My always in place hair - no fly away, no bad hair day, no flat limb hair - so nice that keeping longer hair can be considered.


Doesn't it looks like a photo right out from an ad? Credit goes to the great skill of the photographer. Honestly, I didn't even think I will be in the picture.

3) Our perfect cuticles (WEP will totally agree and those who knows WEP very well, you know what I am talking about totally, don't wonder anymore, you are spot on esp you who shares his birthday)
4) The nice cool weather
5) The walk along the Bay

6) The always beautiful sunsets


7) The Sunkist oranges, as good as advertised, not the kind we get in Sing.
8) St Ives - USD2 shower gel and body lotion that work wonders!!!!
9) Our super friendly neighbourhood, esp EP's experience of neighbour and instructor cleaning the mist off his car before he drove away
10) The City of Coronado - where one will not ever get killed on the road. Don't understand, read my earlier entry
11) KYXY - The soft rock radio station
12) Free movies in Base (quite current)
13) Our loving friends we have made in this land. We will miss you all so so much.
14) Coronado Sandman - for his great work of art on the random roads of Coronado that always put a smile of my face. Below is one.

Two different days, two different sights, same site

We went for a coastal drive today and came back to the same place we visited in Dec, La Jolla Children's Pool. It is the place famous where wild seals will visit.

On 27 Dec, we saw this


All the seals lazing under the sun, hardly moving unless too annoyed by the flies.


Today, not one on the same spot. And we thought they will always be there, doing the same thing, which is nothing at all. But none. Only one at the edge of some stone, sleeping. Which makes us realize what we saw on 27 Dec was special. Afterall, they are wild, you can't just command them to be there. Here is the lazy one:


Then, we saw one come swimming back and right below us. Doesn't it look so cute? Even saw it sneezes...so cute



After some time, we saw more swimming back and playing in the water. Perfect, was what I thought. I did hope on the 27 Dec that they will do more than just lay there. And I got that today. To me, totally God's gift to us.

I finally saw it, though I still didn't believe it

Finally, I saw it. Cat walking, with a leash. Too bad I wasn't quick enough to take a photo, but it is true. Cat walking...and the cat actually was on the leash and the cat actually follows its owner. Sweet, and actually two of them. Amazing...sigh...no photo.

Saying Goodbye is hard to do

Although we still have 12 days left here in United States, we are already feeling sad to leave. Of course, we are looking forward to see our families and friends at home, whom we have missed very very much. And we have only been here for 3 months, so how come we have grown so attached to this place?

Well, I didn't think that was ever going to happen. I mean 3 months is not a long time to become attached to one place. But the feeling is beginning to build within us and it is building strong.

And yes, we did visit the world famous San Diego zoo here. And yeah, we queued and saw the pandas. But you might want to take note that the Wild Animal Park is a must see as well. The gorillas there are so majestic, especially the silver back. And yup, Seaworld was great, we saw the holiday night show special with the Shamus, and Legoland was great. Just amazing how they can built a mini USA.

Here are some pictures:

Look at the mama Panda and baby panda sleeping on the tree. Love that butt.


So what do you think of the sliver back:



Here is Shamu:


Those of you who have visited Vegas, what do you think of this? They are lego version.


And what do you prefer: Hollywood or Legowood

But, these are not the things that gripped our hearts. Not all at, but of course, it is great that we get to visit them.

What we are going to miss a great deal are the friends we have met, come to grow close with. It has been such a great experience. WEP's trainers from the US Navy are fantastic and our church family here are the most loving. We are going to miss them most and in our deepest of hearts, we really didn't want to leave. It is hard to think that we need to say goodbye so soon and time has flew past so fast. How we wish we could pack them all home. The kids are so precious.


Aren't they cute?

Thick Fog

We experienced our first thick fog coming home from New Year's countdown on 01 Jan 2009. It was so thick, all we could see is the rear lights of the car in front of us. Never have we been so quiet in the car, all three pairs of eyes glued to our surroundings, allowing WEP to focus on keeping to our lane (with all this curls) using the cat eyes on the floor, and friend and I looking out for cars around us.

As we were concerned that we will miss the junction to change freeway to come home, we turn on our GPS for guidance, thinking that there is no way for us to see the signs in time to make our lane change since the fog is so thick. But just where we reach the portion of road where the freeway is branching out to three different freeways, the road was crystal clear, everything was clear to sight, but strangely, it is not as our landscape has changed, we were not going down a valley or uphill, we were still maintaining the same level road.

In our hearts, we were pretty sure God is at hand, because there is just no reason for that. And soon after we got to the freeway we needed to be on, we were again engulfed thickly by the fog.

I do not know what other explanation can be given to that.

2009 has definitely started well for me