a taste of summer at last

sunday was pretty relaxing one. after Stacey got home from golf practice, we had lunch then headed out for payless shoe source cos she needed some formal shoes for work. i got a pair of black patent mary-janes with kitten heels for $7. later in the afternoon, Stacey and i decided to go into the pool. i finally got to use my new swim suit! :D

but before the fun began, we had to clean up the pool a bit. we used the pool nets and fished out flowers, weeds, bugs etc. it is kinda gross, but at least i'm 100% sure that there isn't pee in there. :P we played a few rounds of poker by the pool, then fooled around with the pool floats. and what better way to chronicle our youth but take photos with silly poses? :)

from the oven to the fridge and back again

last thursday evening, uncle Tom, aunt J, Stacey and myself, set off for Salinas. Stacey had a golf tournament early next day and uncle Tom decided it was better for her to rest the night there instead of waking up at an unearthly for the 3.5h drive. have i ever told you? i love long car rides. yes, long car rides put a disgusting amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, not to mention other pollutants as well, but i just can't help enjoying myself. outside the windows, i see the cars and trees whizzing past. i love the way the sun goes down shining on the hills and mountains, it coats them in a wondrous shade of gold and sends me on a daydream of squirrels and gophers scampering back to their trees and burrows before the day's end. of course, given the size of the hills and mountains, they don't "whizz" by as we go on our way. they seem to take their time to stroll serenely out of your field of vision. it's kinda like how humans stroll in a park while ants scuttle around at their feet.

anyway, a long car ride isn't complete without an iPod and a playlist of your fave car tunes. the moment we got out of the driveway, Stacey and i both reached for our lifesaving device and plugged ourselves in. ahhh, the sounds of soft rock music that are my road trip besties flowed into my ears and throughout my body. about an hour into the drive, Stacey and i started talking about world and american history. it was really interesting since i know so little of history. and i have to confess, it's a breath of fresh air compared to what our conversations usually revolve around. then while driving through an almost desolate, windy stretch of the road through the mountains, i could almost imagine myself as a mustang galloping ecstatically through open country. and for some unfathomable reason, even though everywhere around us was still as golden as when we started off, my aunt began discussing ghost stories and haunted locations in s'pore. i mean, huh?! k lah, decided to humour her. after all, i am dying to get home. we all had a good laugh when we reminisced the last time they were visiting us in s'pore and my dad had taken us to a certain traffic junction in Changi. there is supposedly this spirit of an old, white guy who holds the hand of a little girl and crosses that junction at a certain time in the night. even though we saw nothing supernatural, my brother got the scare of his life from another "sighting". we were driving slowly since we were looking out for ghosts right? then there were 2 pedestrians wearing very fancy dresses and my bro was like "whoa they're hot!" then when the one in white turned around, he went "ahhhh!!! Dad, speed up! WTF!" it turns out those 2 were part of the infamous tranny community in Changi. great bods, but with faces that make you go "holy shit!".

man, i do love to digress. with about 40 mins left to our destination, our surroundings started to look really grey and dreary. my aunt touched the window and realised that it was cold and my uncle clarified that what my aunt and i had taken for the Californian smog was actually coastal fog. Salinas is pretty close to San Francisco, hence the fog, windy and cool climate. the diurnal temperature range was 13-20 deg C, a lovely change from the 38 deg C daily max temperature in Porterville. -_-'''

i still haven't gotten used to the fact that the sun doesn't fully set till 9pm during summer. it was just about fully dark when we got into the motel's parking lot. the initial plan was to stay at Motel 6, but hey, after watching Hollywood movies, we're not really sure we wanna sleep on those sheets just to save a few bucks so uncle Tom checked us in at Day's Inn instead. after we lugged our stuff to the room, we walked across the street for a late dinner at Denny's. Stacey and i shared 2 grilled shrimp skewers and some kinda rice. it was pretty good and i was happy to discover that besides fried shrimp, grilled ones don't have that strange, shrimpy smell either. hooray! :D

back in the room, Stacey and i watched the Parent Trap on tv while letting the food settle. pretty soon, she turned in but i stayed up to chat with Ferdi <3 and Matt. i guess both conversations weighed pretty heavily on my mind, later on, i couldn't get to sleep no matter how hard i tried. it didn't help that the motel was so close to the freeway, i heard sirens, a guy shouting from the parking lot, and a whole lot of trucks. i literally got up every hour right down to the minute. i think i finally drifted off at 5am but before long, Stacey was up and about getting ready to go to the golf course for some practice. you could say i was really tired and tensed, cos i could detect every movement Stacey and her parents made. she went to their room, they went downstairs for breakfast, the came up, they went down yada yada. i could hear and sense it all. i finally gave up and got out of bed to get ready.

breakfast was pathetic. the motel provides "continental breakfast" but it's not what you'd expect. when i went to the counter, all they had were plastic-wrapped cookies and muffins, some apples and bananas, orange juice in a jug, coffee in those hot water flasks and styrofoam cups... so pathetic!!!!! i grabbed a cookie and filled a cup with coffee. as i was capping it with the plastic cover, the damned cup collapsed and the coffee went all over my hand and the counter! really felt shitty then, especially when i could feel my aunt's disapproving gaze behind me.

i gave up on the coffee and got orange juice instead, went back to the room, watched a lil Last Comic Standing while i packed and ate. when it was time to go, i lugged my stuff down, and we went to the golf course. when we found them, and i had just sat down on a bench, there was a loud crash from the parking lot. accident! i decided to stay and watch my uncle's backpack and let the other grownups check it out. my aunt came back and told me that some stupid fella in a truck tried to turn out of the parking lot just as a sewage tanker was going by. the poor tanker driver was injured and taken out in a stretcher. how stupid was that truck driver?! couldn't he see oncoming traffic? it's really not one of those accidents where people lose control of their vehicles you know.

anyway, when the tournament began, we just walked around like normal golf spectators, watching Stacey and the other girls in her age group play those 18 holes. it was pretty cold at first, but as the day progressed, we had to take off our jackets. Stacey was off-form the whole day. it's sad to watch her play so badly when she's usually pretty good. and watching golf really isn't fun unless you're watching pros. in the end, she still managed to get a trophy cos there were only 3 of them in her age group, lol.

on our way back to Porterville we stopped by a place called Harris Ranch for "lunner" (lunch + dinner). because it's a ranch kitchen, all the food there was grown and reared right on the ranch. the deco of the place was farming themed of course. they mounted all sorts of old, rusty, dangerous-looking farm tools on the walls above the dining booths, which made us feel a lil worried. we don't wanna catch tetanus or anything, or worse, lose our heads :P but hey, the food was excellent! Stacey and i shared a Caesar's salad and a Gorgonzola Burger. mmmm... the succulent patty, the fragrant melted cheese, the juicy tomato slice, the fresh veges. sadly, i don't think i'll ever be there again, at least not any time soon.

the rest of the journey home was pretty uneventful so i shan't bore you guys anymore. till the next post!

the driving test...

i tried to sleep early last night to get well rested for the driving test but ended up tossing and turning the whole time anyway. no thanks to Ju On 2... anyways, i woke up at 7.30 this morning, washed up, got dressed and tried to de-zombify myself in the mirror using foundation on my dark eye rings. breakfast was a simple cup of milk tea and a Pop Tart. at 0840h, i drove with aunt J and Stacey to the DMV, parked and headed to the counter to register. my test was supposed to be at 0910h but the people ahead of me took a longer time so we waited for about 15 mins before i went out for the test.

we were hoping to get the male tester cos he's the lenient one, but i got a very mean Hispanic lady instead. i heard from Stacey that she doesn't talk to people, she barks at them, even her colleagues! that sure got my stomach in a knot. i guess i really wasn't familiar with the controls of the car, messed up the positions of the defoggers and emergency brakes (which is what we know as the handbrake in S'pore). after checking that the car was in working condition, the tester made me drive out. she really didn't make any conversation, only giving directions in curt sentences. on my part, i just made sure that i was focused on the road and following her directions. instead of the usual route that my aunt has been making me practice on, she took me a different way instead. no problem, i just have to follow regular traffic rules right? before we were even halfway through the practice route, she made me do 3 left turns to head back to the DMV. we drove in to the road on the side of the DMV to do the straight-line reverse part of the test, and the 3-point turn. i did them almost perfectly, except when my palm accidentally hit the honk while i was turning the steering wheel to turn back into the DMV parking lot after the 3-point turn.

i wasn't paying attention to the time taken for the test since i was doing all i could to concentrate on the test and make sure i didn't screw up. when Stacey saw me pulling into the parking lot, she went out of the DMV to look cos she thought i had failed cos usually, the test takes 20 mins but i was back in 10. my aunt who was still inside, also thought i was doomed. but after locking the car, i told Stacey the good news before we went in so she was relieved. my aunt was all solemn, walking to to me with the expression on her face that said "i knew it. she's finished."

"so you didn't pass?"

"no, i passed!"

"oh! i thought you were finished! i thought you failed cos you came back so soon! so you drove well then?"

"yeah, i guess i drove pretty well."

-_-''' i really don't stink at driving, it's her who's so fierce and nerve-wrecking all the time. even the meanie tester didn't make me wanna hurl, which is my usual feeling of dread every time i have to practice with her around. so after the unusually quick processing of paperwork, Stacey took us to macs and my aunt bought us breakfast. we shared hotcakes, sausage, omelet, a breakfast burrito, hash browns and i got an iced hazelnut coffee. mmm...

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it's really a load off my shoulders now that i've earned my license. now i don't have to face every other day with that trepidation looming above me like a rain cloud. i don't have to worry about putting dents and scratches on a car that's not mine. i don't have to grit my teeth and clench my fists telling myself not to talk back at her. i don't have to hold back the hot tears of anger and indignation when i get told off for no good reason at all. i don't have to listen to her raving mad driving psychobabble anymore. at least not until i'm heading back to LA.

in any case, i'd like to thank everyone reading this for all the support you guys have shown me in helping me get through those really rough times. Grace dear, thanks for staying up till wee hours of the morning to keep me company and for believing so firmly in me. i'd also like to thank my Ferdi darling for all the positive thinking he's been trying so hard to instill in me, for listening to my rants and tolerating my moodiness, for making me laugh when i'm down, for being himself, and for being mine. couldn't have done it without all of you.

4th of july

it was my first time spending the 4th of july in the US. even if it wasn't, my first time was 2 decades ago so i can't possibly remember much of it. back in the present, Stacey and i woke up around 1030h or so and ended up with brunch again. this time, although i didn't make my crepe as pretty as my first one, it tasted lots better cos of the canned peaches, the ice cream on the inside, and the new bottle of hershey's chocolate sauce. yum! :D



after that very satisfying breakfast, Stacey and i watched some high quality soap opera, and Fantastic 4 before her friends arrived. the soap opera may have been of high quality, but it's soap opera is soap opera, it's stupid like all the rest. :P her friends Kelly and Kristen arrived first and we managed to take some photos before her other friend David arrived. these kids are all between 16-18, and i felt like some overgrown kid amongst them. :( but i thought, ah what the heck, i wanna have fun! so i did. we fooled around with the camera some more, got drinks and snacks and headed to the den, where Stacey and David tried to play a very simple duet on the piano. seems like violin training doesn't help with piano much, lol.

then it was dinner time. uncle Tom was working his magic outside on the grill, and we got to enjoy barbequed ribs! there was also rice, steamed corn and potato salad. weirdly, David, who's caucasian, actually asked what was he supposed to sprinkle the bacon bits on! i thought everybody knew that bacon bits are supposed to go on potato salad. guess i was too presumptuous. :P seriously, the food was so good i had to hold myself back from stuffing my face!

it's kind of a pity that Independence Day is in summer. daylight hours are so long that it isn't fully dark till 9pm! we had some time to kill before going outside to play with fireworks, so we played Spoons. it's a card game where u have to grab a spoon if you get 4 of a kind and everyone has to snatch for the rest of the spoons. there'll be one person who obviously won't get the spoon and lose that round. David kept spacing out and was on a losing streak. lucky for him, we decided to continue after our fireworks session.

it was a windy night, cool enough for light jacket for those who aren't too chummy with the cold. uncle Tom had set up a tall step ladder on the road on the edge of the driveway for us to place our fireworks on it. strangely, only Stacey and Kelly, who was from Taiwan had experience playing with fireworks. and since i was the eldest, i let them all go ahead of me. it was really cute and funny to see them climbing the first step and reaching out timidly with the lighter cos they were trying to lean as far away from the wick as possible. cute lah, these people. David even hopped off the ladder as if it was gonna blow in his face! besides fireworks, we also played with sparklers; we even spelled "4th of july in a row" and got aunt J to film it. anyway, there was this family a couple of houses down the street that had been setting off fireworks early in the evening, and they weren't even done when we went back in. they must be loaded... i think we had 8 canister fireworks and a few boxes of sparklers and it already cost 55 bucks. think they really love fireworks -_-''' well, these canister fireworks are legal, but some people somehow managed to get their hands on illegal ones, which are kinda like the miniature version of the ones you see being shot out of the cannons on the NDP. so what the police do is go out in full force on the night of 4th july and prowl the streets looking out for illegal fireworks. i don't blame them for being stringent; after all, because of California's geolocation, the houses are made of wood, on top of that, summers are very dry and hot, making the whole damn state a humongous fire hazard.

by the time we were done with fireworks, it was around 10.20pm. we played a few more rounds of Spoons where surprisingly, David got a lot better, and the rest of us got a lot worse. and since David was still below 18, he had to abide by the driving curfew and get home before 11 so he wasn't the loser. the rest of us continued playing and in the end, Stacey lost in the only way she can. she was the dealer, and she was the one with 4 of a kind, but she missed the spoon! O.O so she had to do the forfeit, which was a silly dance with a stuffed turtle and kiss it. good sport! :D after Spoons, we played BS. Kelly won very quickly into the game. but the 3 of us played for ages! oh gosh, i was all ready to just declare myself the loser and get it over and done with. i really don't have much patience to play games that last forever, like mahjong, and sometimes Munchkin :P by the time we were done, it was 12+ already and they drove home. i admire their guts. it's not easy driving at night, especially over here in rural parts. S'pore is totally overlit in comparison, but i suppose it's what keeps crime away.

i have to apologise for the lack of pics and vids cos Kristen was the one doing most of the filming and we haven't got them from her yet. but when i do, i'll put some up on the blog so stay tuned. :D

fun fun fun!

tuesday night, uncle Tom yelled at Stacey to get some golf practice done, so that was the plan for thursday afternoon. in the morning after brunch, Stacey and i took the trash out cos friday's trash day. on the way in, i noticed something in the pool and went closer to look. it was a dead frog by the steps into the pool! it was in its leaping posture but the body was totally rigid already. our plan was to just fish it out with the pool net and dispose of it in a plastic bag, but my aunt told us to bury it in the backyard so we picked out a spot by the fence close to the pool. Stacey has experience burying her pet fish in her backyard so she let me do the honours. i dug a small but deep hole for it and Stacey tipped the net to let the frog drop in. up close, it looks really slimey and a lil freaky. i don't mind live frogs actually, but i was freaked out by this dead one i had to bury. i was honestly afraid that it might spring back to life! no matter how gross a flattened carcass looks, i know it won't jump in my face ever.

so after it was in its grave, we covered it back and marked it with a flat, white rock. this is the video we took, you can check out facebook for pics of Frank and his grave stone :P



after burying the frog, Stacey and i went to the golf course where she usually practices. it's a mid-range country club called River Island Country club, about half an hour's drive away. although i hate the fact that golf courses use up a lot of precious water that could otherwise have saved crops (very relevant, cos i just read the papers a couple of weeks ago about a farmer in the area having had to let go of perfectly healthy fields of tomatoes cos of water rationing), the course does give a sense of beauty and tranquility. the Tule River runs through the golf course, besides the main channel, it appears in little brooks here and there as well. now i kinda regret not wading into it. :(

Stacey started off practicing her chipping and i had a couple of tries but i totally stink at it, lol. can't even get the bloody ball to go straight, let alone getting it in the hole! i got bored watching her so i decided to take the golf cart for a spin around the course. it was pretty crazy since it was pretty hilly and i didn't know there were brakes on the thing, so i was like zooming downhill and making sharp turns to keep from falling off the bridge into the river :P

after i went back to check on Stacey, i decided to play with my camera for a bit and took continuous shots of her practicing her drives. think my cam's shutter speed isn't fast enough though. argh, really need a decent DSLR. what sort of photography enthusiast goes without one?! btw, if anyone has recommendations, do let me know! when i finally got a satisfactory series of shots, Stacey decided to take me around to see all the holes at the golf course. along the way, we saw quite a number of critters, i think we saw about 4 grey squirrels, 2 bunnies, 1 duck in the river, and many birds. here are some photos and vids.










when Stacey was done bringing me around most of the holes, we left and headed for a Starbucks outlet near her place to grab a caramel frap. but when we got back, it was time for dinner so we had to leave the drink in the fridge. after eating, my aunt made us go out driving and we stopped by Blockbuster on our way back and rented The Eye and Drillbit Taylor, both of which Stacey made us finish that night. and that 'fraidy cat slept in my bed that night. pfft. and after all that, we didn't even finish half of the frap; so moral of the story is: never buy a frap right before dinner.

the first day after Stacey's return

woke up this morning expecting to skip breakfast as usual, but Stacey's tummy growled a whole lot while we were washing up in the bathroom that she offered to make breakfast. it'd be plain lazy and mean to leave her to do the work, so we decided to split the workload: she handles the eggs and ham, i do the fruit and waffles. tada!




those are Stacey's sunny-side-ups, don't ask me why they're shaped liked that. anyway, by the time we were done preparing the meal, it was lunch time. and a good thing too, since it was so huge. we were utterly stuffed!

*warning: bimbotic content ahead*

weird. most of our waking hours were spent in the bathroom. "doing what?!" you're asking. bathrooms here are a lot more sophisticated than the ones in S'pore. besides serving essential human needs, you do practically all your grooming in here, hence increasing its significance in your life. we spent 4 hours in the bathroom where i experimented with the stupid eyelash curler and mascara, which didn't work on me since my lashes are almost non-existent; then Stacey curled her hair before doing mine. i wanted to give it a shot since i've never had curls in my entire life, and cos they go away once i wash my hair. here are a couple of pics of the "fabulous" results.





cute huh! it reminds me of Yoon Eun-Hye's hairstyle after she got back from Milan in Coffee Prince. thanks Stacey! :D after all that hair-doing, we decided to watch a dvd. settled on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. oh man, the original Dumbledore is irreplaceable. why did he have to smoke himself to death, why oh why...

my digestive system needs a break. even though we were still full from the picture-perfect brunch, Stacey and i snacked so much during the movie. hot cheeto puffs and japanese rice crackers just can't be passed up. and not long after the movie, we had my aunt's amazing chicken rice for dinner. i think my stomach's gonna get its revenge on me soon.

after dinner, Stacey and i headed back into the bathroom cos she wanted to do a french manicure for herself. nails really aren't my thing so i just brought Alba in and showed her pics of Click on facebook. oh man... everyday i go to bed happy that i'm one day closer to going home. anyway, Stacey thinks Shaz dear's lil sis is really cute and i second that. but that really isn't the focus for me, looking at all the photos just reinforced how much Click means to me. BFF you guys! i don't wanna go through life without any of you. hugsies... :)

ok, so after the manicure and the pic viewing, Stacey made my aunt and me play mahjong with her even though i was dead beat. we ended up playing just 6 rounds, not even an entire game, before we decided to call it a night. and now after my shower and everything, i'm blogging, relaxed on the bed in the room in front of the tv tuned in to Comedy Central. i dunno who this guy is, but he's really good!

we decided to play a trick on my grandma so we replaced her dentures with those Halloween chatter teeth.

"it isn't cold in here is it?" *chatter chatter chatter*

"are my nipples hard?" *comedian reaches down and rubs his kneecap*

till next time. ;)

looking young!

i know you're not reading this, but...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

wish i was home to celebrate it with you and give you a big birthday hug. sorry i don't feel so good about kissing and all. :P may you always stay youthful and in the pink of health! thanks for being such a great mom. words fail me. i love you Mom, happy birthday.