We shook hands with Mr Will Smith

We shook hands with Will Smith. Period.
He came into Dresden's house and we shook hands. WHOA!
When I get the picture taken later, I will post it up!!!

Day 20: Yo Will, how ya doin'?

Today we went to CBS to watch a live recording of Late Late Show with Chris Ferguson and I had promised this to be a surprise for Chris, as sort of a birthday present bonus (aside from the expensive hoodie from Abercrombie I got him). The experience was interesting and the warm up guy Chucky B is very funny.

But the disappointing thing was that Ewan McGregor who was supposed to appear did not appear as they had already recorded his segment. That was disappointing cos I was looking forward to that.

Then the biggest bummer came when the surprise present for Chris - an appearance of Morrissey - did not happen as well. Both Chris and I were utterly disappointed and I was even more upset cos we had spent $6 on parking just to watch this dreadful talk show that did not deliver the guest artistes they promised. I would have rather explored Melrose Avenue had I known these artistes weren't coming.

Seeing Morrissey perform would have been a dream come true for Chris, I know that for sure. Sadly we ended up having to watch him on TV later, just now.

When we came back, the set was up and running and they were doing a car scene on the street. We got all excited and then Will Smith finally appeared, along with Rosario Dawson. Check out the clip below. Rosario (who acted in Sin City) can be seen at the end where she walks right past.

Chips to go along with the drive

My weakness is chips and french fries.... potatoes potatoes. I am getting fat. I know.

Boutonnieres as promised...

These are some of the lovely boutonnieres I did 2 Fridays ago.

Will Smith is next door

So we found the B&B place that we were staying in LA and we weren't sure which house was it. But there was a house with crazy signs plastered all over the property saying stuff like "Will Smith go film at your mansions". That certainly got us excited!

Then we found out the house we were staying happens to be the one with the crazy signs. The lady of the house Dresden is very nice and she told us that Will Smith with Rosario Dawson have been filming on this street and they're using 2 houses next to her as part of their filming of a new movie called 'Seven Pounds'.

Oh yes we were excited. We're prepared to camp outside just to see them do their thing. This morning, they are doing the set up so nothing much happening yet. But I hope we get to see them act on the street soon. We'll definitely be taking pictures! Dresden also said we could sit out at the porch and watch them act and they can't do anything about it cos this is America.

Day 19: Hollywood

Today we drove up from San Marcos to Hollywood. We'd spent the early morning at San Marcos Lutheran Church for their tradional service which lacked one thing- confession of sins and they also changed the order to be like those contemporary services where the announcements and welcome of newcomers are placed in right smack after the first hymn.

So as we drove on the freeway (I think it was Highway 5), we faced a near-death encounter. An old car driving in front of us, 1-2 lanes away suddenly lost control and spun around till it was facing us horizontally. Both Chris and I were shocked and our lives literally flashed before our eyes. But we really thank the Lord for his grace and mercy for Chris was able to act fast enough and swerve to the next lane on our left and thank God there was no car behind on that lane or we wouldn't have made it.

Also, thank God that the car that had lost control was still driving very slowly, though still perpendicular to the road and she ended up hitting an island on the side. I remembered distinctively that the car was smoking. After the car passed us, we were so grateful to God and just could not stop thanking Him for His protection. Our hands were still shaking for the next 5 minutes after the ordeal ended and I was near tears.

I could not believe this had happened and it was only at the start of our journey along West Coast. It was traumatizing and I am so glad Chris was able to act on it fast enough or we would not be able to enjoy our holiday but will end up in a hospital or worse, not even survive.

disfigured by origins

i had a field of a time buying and trying out the origins skincare products last Thursday and got myself 2 items from there along with 3 samples. during the weekend, i found rashes on my left arm and wondered if it was the dry weather.

on the night of my birthday, after cleaning up the make up, i applied the Origins sample of night cream which i thought was quite moisturising. the next morning, i found my entire face in disfigurement. tiny red rashes grew all over my face and neck and scared the hell out of me.

now the rashes are still here, sometimes red and itchy but most of the time they are okay unless i touch them. they make me feel so ugly. i am going to return and refund all the origins items i got. i don't think i'd dare use it again.

sigh.... i wish this didn't happen. the rash seems to be spreading too. i hope it gets better and i won't need to see a doctor which will cost a lot of money and i am just hesitant to spend it even though i am covered by insurance.

i am 28. sob sob.

yesterday we celebrated my 28th birthday. i feel old....

my teacher surprised me with a birthday cake and a birthday song at about 4.50pm. it was so sweet of the school to celebrate my birthday. :)

that happened in the middle of my sympathy tribute arrangement. talk about irony!

when i went back to the hotel, chris wasn't back from his 'last minute gift shopping' yet. but when he got back later at almost 6, he presented me with a birthday song and a small cupcake. really cute.

then we went off on our bus journey to South Coast plaza for a nice dinner. we were deciding on which italian restaurant to go to and decided to check out the options there.

when we reached, we were tempted to have dinner at Maggiano's, a beautiful little Italian restaurant just outside South Coast Plaza. The interior was beautiful and very authentically decorated but the place was filled with people and we were afraid we would have a long wait for the food so we decided to go to the other italian restaurant he found at the other side near Crate & Barrel (the most awesome home furnishing shop in USA!). So we went there to eat, that was the wrong choice.

The restaurant is called Nello Cucina. The service was okay and the bread was ok. The sad thing started when the minestrone soup came late. The entrees came right after we had our fourth spoon of soup.

The angel hair pasta dish was a disappointment simply because I would expect these italians or americans would be able to cook better than Singapore restaurants. But what we got was soggy angel hair. al dente was not a word on the menu. sheer disappointment though the taste was okay.

the pizza i ordered was another letdown. the ingredients on the pizza can be described with one word - miserly. you can count the number of sausage slices on the pizza and the cheese they put in tasted weird. the crust was not even as crispy as what i recall pasta mania (gosh! i compared them to pasta mania!! what an insult to this 'authentic italian restaurant) in singapore served.

the wine we shared was good though. we couldn't finish our food and in the end had to pack the remaining 5 slices of pizza to go.

we shopped at crate & barrel after dinner and picked up some nice stuff for our home. we were so tempted to buy a shelf back to Singapore but we know the airline might reject the size of our item.

oh well... we'll see what chris tells me later. he's still eyeing it in the catalog. we ended the night back at our hotel and i read the card chris gave me for my birthday. i always love his cards/letters. his words always move me and make me feel so important in his life. :)

Southern California School of Floral Design: Day 2

Today I learned the ultimate way to do a handheld bouquet - spiral technique. I absolutely love this technique as this was something I saw in American wedding bouquets and loved it. Thank God I manage to 'get it' though at first I did not quite 'get it'.

Then we learned to do topiaries though mine is a very much miniature version. I loved the lavendar carnations. They grow it hybrid here and Singapore doesn't have it.

Southern California School of Floral Design: Day 1

Here it is... my masterpiece.
Of course I did a lot more but this was just a small take home piece for the first day.

Exploring the Orange County

So we arrive at the O.C. (yup... as in like the TV show) for my floral classes starting on Monday (14 Apr) and our hotel was in the middle of ghost town. Who would ever call Anaheim a ghost town?! Me.

This place is boring except for Disneyland. The area around my hotel is just roads and construction and small eateries. No malls. No shops. Zilch. The buses take about 45 min to arrive everytime.

We tried out exploring the O.C. the first night on Sunday after Uncle Joe dropped us off at our hotel and after he and Aunty Amy ensured we stocked up on food. So we ended up at the closest 'mall' at Orange called The Block at Orange. Initial thoughts of taking the bus evaporated when we thought we saw the mall from a distance and it looked like that 1.5miles on Google Maps didn't seem so far.

Little did we know that walking for 20-30min (and way past the building we mistook for the mall) did we finally arrive at our destination.

The Block was quite a lame excuse for a mall. It isn't really a mall 'mall' but reminded me of Clarke Quay on a smaller area scale. Shops are big but variety is measely. But we had a big fattening dinner at this place called Charley's and they had food that reminisced of Steak Escape (our fave) back when it was around in Singapore.

So anyway he had Philly Cheese Steak sandwich while I had the Philly Cheese Chicken Sandwich. Yummy... the fries were a lot better than In & Out Burger. A pity they didn't have chilli sauce like in Singapore though I am quite grateful they don't charge for their ketchup like Australia does.

Aunty Amy says Chris will make a good father cos he's very patient

He went back and forth with Holland between filling up water into her watering can and going to water the plants and grass around the park. I followed this cycle with them for maybe 5-6 times and I retreated while Chris was still going at it with her until she got tired of it, after maybe 8-9 times, not including the times she went with Uncle Joe before Chris.

holland....

Met her on Saturday morning at the park halfway from Uncle Joe's and Leon's place.
She is so inspiring for my photography. These are the first shots I took with this SLR camera. Still trying to get accustomed to adjusting the settings but I'm learning as I go along.

Some pictures...

Some pictures of our adventure so far in Torrance, LA (near LAX).... Settled getting our traveller's cheques. Woke up at 4.50am this morning again, peed then tried to sleep. After a while slept and woke again at 8am. Then forced myself to sleep again and Uncle Joe woke us up at 12pm! Bought some DVDs at only $5 each and got myself a Mac version of a Sime Life Stories game. Hope its fun game cos it's no Sims 2 (that cost $49.99!). Tomorrow we'll meet Holland and hopefully take some nice pictures of flowers.

For the record...

I have people commenting that I should not have taken a 'cheaper airline'. For the record, Thai Airways is no cheap airline. Thai Airways is actually a decent airline. Plus, I don't think anyone in the right mind who isn't earning truckloads of money would think of Singapore Airlines for their tickets were going at $2,500 per person. Got it?

Left on a Jet Plane

So we flew off and spent the next 18-20 hours flying and in transit.
Our flight from Singapore was delayed for 45min but that was to our benefit since Chris had some last minute work to settle.

Our flight to Bangkok was okay and I smuggled a pillow from the airline. Actually I asked permission from the staff and she was very nice and said no but she will close one eye. ;)

We miscalculated the time for our transit and ended up being announced at the airport with the PA system announcing our names, last call! I have no idea why we always get 'announced'. But we made it in the end.

I could not sleep well at all. My back ached and I just felt horrible. The only thing good was the TV screen. My eyes were bloodshot and I just hoped so badly for a bed to lie on.

Back to the flight... The plane was new and the personal screen for our entertainment was good but slow in loading and had problems. But the worse thing was - the service.

I was shocked at the service. 'The land of a thousand smiles' certainly did not live up to its name with this airline service quality. I pressed the button for the attendant and no one came. The light even went off after a while. Then I pressed it again, a staff swiftly walked past and undid the light without even asking us if we needed her help. Ican't remember the number of times I pressed for the button for the attendant but it was certainly 5 times or more until a somewhat senior looking staff from across the other side saw me and I complained of the staffs' service.

After about 10 minutes, every other staff came round to me and apologised saying they were busy and blah blah. Excuses. But forgiven.

But that was not the end. The most amazing highlight of their service came when they were serving breakfast. One guy pushed his cart and asked what we wanted. I had briefly skimmed the menu just before Chris asked him what was offered since he did not get to read the menu in time.

The guy simply retorted, "Didn't you just read the menu?"

That threw us back and confirmed my decision to write a complaint letter to the airline. It's no wonder they are ranked #7 in the Top 10 for airlines. With this sort of standard, it's a miracle they even made it into the Top 10.

At the end of the flight, I came across an American who needed help carrying the luggage off the baggage compartment. He was grumbling in front of the same flight attendant that retorted at us. No help. Then he pulled the baggage down and hurt his hand, cursed. The attendant then came and 'pretended' to offer help to pull the luggage. Then I found out the baggage doesn't even belong to the guy and he was just being nice to take it down, meaning for the staff to bring it to the guy who forgot his baggage. I was just short of telling the American that I could totally understand how he felt.

We are really going to the US!

I am posting directly from the Changi Airport, waiting to board my flight on Thai Airways.

I can't believe we are really flying off to the States and will be spending 65 days there! Very excited. This is our official "honeymoon". The first trip to Thailand was just a "convenience honeymoon" - fuss free type. This is the real deal!

Okay I hope to post more of our adventures when we get there. Hopefully find a PC with internet and free. I doubt we'll be bringing our macbook. Very heavy to carry around and with that big camera.

I hope all at home is settled... leaving the house vacant for this long makes me very very paranoid.

Valentine's Day 2008

this entry is definitely overdue... but this was what I told Chris I wanted for Valentine's Day - A romantic candlelight dinner!
He sent me an invitation in the afternoon. Below are pictures of our dinner cooked by him. :)

lambert....

Lambert. The sheep is crying... Laaaambert.... the sheep is crying....


this is Lambert.... actually the real Lambert is a lion. :) but this sheep is so cute!

My First Full Fledged Meal

28 March - Obviously I am catching up on my blog. It's been months and well, now I've got time. Plus I've gotta get up to speed with the blog so I can update on our official honeymoon happening in less than 1 week's time.

Here is a picture of my first meal 100% prepared and cooked by me. And... it was also 90% successful. The soup was my mom's recipe and it was full marks! But the vegetables were less than perfect because I freaked out with the oil popping in the wok cos the vegetables were too wet. I had to shield myself with the cover and put the vegetables in batch by batch causing some of the vegetables to be a little overcooked.

Oh ya.... it took me about 3 hours to finish everything... food preparation took up most of the time. I hate cleaning the chicken!

Chris is "Martin Stewart"

Chris and his obsession with making the best pancakes.

I benefit from it of course.

But sometimes... it gets a little.... erm...staple. But it's nice and you can add lotsa maple syrup, melts in your mouth!