Commercial

Accidentally stumbled onto this commercial on Youtube. A Chinese boy declaring his pure and innocent love for his Muslim classmate on Malaysian national TV. He is so young, cute and sweet.

Lonely, lonely night

(This was first written on Sunday night, June 22, 2008)

After the high of having both my sis and hubby around, I am back to being alone. Ah mei left a few hours ago for Tucson, Arizona while Tim is on his way to Dallas, Texas now.

It was really fun to have my sis around. It was as if I were back in Spore. We ate, shopped, played, talked together. I am really grateful for the opportunity to host her for a few days. If she were to come to the US next year instead, I would prob have been back in Spore and would not have had the chance to bring her around in my beetle bug.

We went on a shopping spree yesterday but not before we went for blackberry picking. The Houstonians had loads of fun when we went strawberry picking two years ago and so had been wanting to do a similar activity ever since. Well, I would say blackberry picking is not as fun as strawberry esp since I am not a fan of blackberry. It didn't help that the weather was scorching hot that we couldn't stay under the sun for too long. We spent most of of our time chit chating rather than doing the picking. In the end, we plucked less than one pound of blackberries between the seven of us.

The owner actually thought we picked and ate the blackberries at the same time. Nah...we are just not that interested in blackberries. If only the other fruit in the orchard were in the season for picking, we would definitely have enjoyed ourselves even more.

Since the hot weather was wearing us down, we left after just an hour in the orchard. Up next was shopping at the Premium Outlet mall. No prize for guessing correctly the first store we went to. Almost two hours on, we were still in the Coach store! We bought almost five hundred dollars worth of bags; most of them were gifts though. heh.

This outlet mall is much smaller than the one in San Marcos and yet, we spent seven solid hours there shopping. Imagine even my sis who is not much of a shopaholic as compared to some of my other friends like Zina and Shermaine, thought everything was a good buy, best buy, must buy. Of course, the exchange rates help too. Even I was so "inspired" by her that I bought quite a few things. Tim was also influenced by us that he actually bought some stuff too. Here's some of my great finds:

Guess?

Jeans (US$37.49), blouse (US$35 but technically free coz I just checked the receipt and realized the cashier did not key in this item. Woohoo! Now, this is the best find ever!) , earrings (US$9.74) and tank top (US$6.37)

Random

Express Top (US$), Nike watch (US$65), Coach wristlet (US$59), Gap belt (US$9.50), Bath & Body Work lip balm (US$5)

Aldo

Bag (US$35)

p/s: Tim just got a speeding tix. All his effort of trying to profit by driving instead of flying has gone to waste.

Sister Act

The sister is here! Finally, yeah!

I think I am so used to having no one talk to me, so much so that I find her noisy.

She arrived on SQ at about 930pm yesterday. We went to Galleria to shop today. Then to the Gentlemen's club in the evening and Cafe 101 for supper. Tomorrow we are going blackberries picking and shopping at Chelsea Premium Outlets.

More on her after she's gone. Time to sleep now. Yawn..

Photos time

Our Yellowstone photos are finally up. All 700 of them!

Check out this link You will need to sign up for a snapfish account to view it.

Our cruise photos are ready too. They are on facebook.

Click here for Part 1 and Part 2, Only 120 photos.

Review of the cruise

7 days Carnival Conquest to Western Caribbean

Pros
1. Relaxing
2. Fun
3. Endless flow of quality food
4. Good service
5. Exotic ports of call
6. Gym and sauna room that face the ocean
7. Something for everyone from magic shows to R-rated standup comedy to gameshows to poolside contests.
8. Lots of time to do whatever we please - I finally finished my first book this year in two years.
9. Great ocean view every min of the day.


Cons
1. Can be boring at times especially since we are so used to activities-filled vacation trips.
2. Expensive
3. Sodas are not free but lemonade, iced tea and apple juice are.
4. Small stateroom - it's a little cramp cos there are four of us in one room. But it's amazing how they are able to squeeze four beds in one room.
5. Small bed - so not used to sleeping in a single bed anymore.


Surprises
1. I always thought the dinners on cruises are served buffet-style. I can't praise the ala carte dinner enough.
2. We have a fixed table for dinners. Sitting on the 2nd level of the Monet restaurant, our favorite activity every night was to check out the auntie sitting right below us. We would "bio" what she wore and guessed what she ate everyday. Voyeurs!
3. There's a different towel animal placed on one of our beds every night. There was one night the stateroom staff left a tortoise on Tim's bed. I like to call Tim "gong gong". The moment I saw the tortoise on Tim's bed, I blurted, "龟公!"

Another Princess in Houston soon

Ah mei's trip has been postponed! Heng it's only for a week. She will be here next Thurs instead. So what's the problem? The problem is I'll be away for training for three days from Mon to Wed. So I will not have the time to clear the backlog in time to leave early on Fri to bring her shopping. :(

The original plan was to leave office at around 2pm on Friday. Now I think she will have to settle for lazing around the pool or going to the gym before I come back in the evening. Oh well.....

Superstar hubby

Throughout our climb of the Dunn's River Falls in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, being the few Asians around, our guide kept calling Tim, "Jackie Chan". He would shout, "Jackie Chan, come stand here and take a photo!"

At the end of our climb, the guide asked Tim if he would like to purchase the DVD which featured us climbing the Falls. The conversation went like this:

Guide: Hey Jackie Chan, don't you want to buy the DVD?

Tim: No thanks! I got my own movies!

The guide never replied.

We were glad we came back alive.

Back from Caribbean!

Day-o, Day-ay-ay-o
Daylight come and me wan' go home
Day, me say day, me say day, me say day
Me say day, me say day-ay-ay-o
Daylight come and me wan' go home

Work all night on a drink a' rum
Daylight come and me wan' go home
Stack banana till the mornin' come
Daylight come and me wan' go home

Come, Mister tally man, tally me banana
Daylight come and me wan' go home
Come, Mister tally man, tally me banana
Daylight come and me wan' go home

It's six foot, seven foot, eight foot BUNCH!
Daylight come and me wan' go home
Six foot, seven foot, eight foot BUNCH!
Daylight come and me wan' go home

My Fair Lady

I really don't get her. She blows hot and cold almost in the same beat. She will be hot one moment, and cold the next and almost immediately, she will be hot again.

Why is she treating me this way? She used to be all nice and trustworthy, never threw any tantrums like this before. What has changed? I can't take it anymore!

Finally, I decided enough is enough. I can't let this go on forever. Something needs to be done. I need to understand what's wrong. So I went to a specialist.....

In the end, it all boils down to money. As she aged, she became a money vampire, trying hard to suck me dry. Indeed, she has been very successful. Nobody can do it as well as she did. 4 times in merely a few months. I have to give it to her!
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Kowtow to my beetle! She has done it again! This time round, the A/C compressor is worn out. Changing the compressor will cost at least US$1,000 excluding labor! WTH!

I decided that for now I would rather suffer the infamous Texas heat than to give in to her every whim and fancy. Hope I've made the right decision as the heat can be really unbearable. I hope you wouldn't read in the newspaper one day that a Singaporean lady baked alive in her new beetle while driving from office to home in Houston.


p/s: The body paint work that the collision service center quoted me was exorbitant - US$1,650! I think I will just go ahead to claim insurance even though it implies my premium will increase the next time. But who cares!

I can't help but exclaim, "钱不够用！"