Sunday, May 10, 2009

faux pas ma


yes, that would be me, mother of all faux pas ma's.

everyone in the family knows how paranoid i am about the main gate being NOT shut. it started some years ago when i got up to pee in the middle of the night and happened to look out the window and saw the gate WIDE OPEN. 

at about 2.30 am.

the last one in, probably wei, had forgotten to shut the gate. and it's easy to forget when one just has to press the button on the remote control. you press it open and walk right in and into the house.

images of robbers, not even bothering to wield knives because of the easy entry, appearing right before my bed haunted me for ages.

so now, i check the gate a few times a night. right before i sleep, and when i get up to go to the toilet. 

or when i toss around in bed. i have mastered this art of jack knifing in the midst of tossing, (my bed is right below the window) glance out to check status of gate and plop down back to sleep on the other side.

anyway, wei had friends over last night. i stayed up to, what else, watch my korean drama.

at about 12.30am, i heard the wooden door being locked. which signalled that her friends had left.

on cue, i looked out to check and found the gate WIDE OPEN!!!

i flung out of bed, whipped the door open and yelled in my shrillest voice yet : WEI!! YOU FORGOT TO CLOSE THE GATE!!

she immediately replied: mom, my friend is still here, about to leave.


oh.


i slunk right into my room and collapsed on my bed where xru was and we both rolled around in helpless laughter.

five mins later, wei came up and explained that one of them returned to look for his mobile phone. with the family waiting outside in the car, wei didn't bother to shut the gate.

apparently, the friend was in the midst of searching for his phone when my shrill voice punctuated the air.

he froze.

and said: wah, your mom damn scary.

the next time he comes around, i shall be really nice to him. and will speak with a voice 2 octaves lower. 

^o^

Saturday, May 9, 2009

new york/atlanta



(started this post more than a week ago. then got caught up in an eighty episode korean drama which is causing me to have severe eyebags and no life. taking a breather from sword-wielding action to finish this.)

anyone looking at the photos taken during our trip to new york will surely go:

huh??? no statue of liberty? no empire state building? no times square?

yes, that's right. 

6 days in new york and all we had to show are photos taken at the metropolitan museum of art and niagara falls.

blame the freaky weather.

when we were there three weeks ago, new york city was wet and cold. so cold that i didn't want to take my hand out of my coat pocket to fish for my camera in my bag.

i was prepared for a cold spring, not freaking 2℃ !! and it was the day we took the hop on, hop off bus! we didn't alight at the touristy spots, preferring to stay in the warm bus. just twisted our necks around to catch the sights.  the only hop off we did was to take a ferry to staten island. 

or at least that was what we had in mind.

two steps into the cold and i felt my insides screaming in protest. as if the chill had gone right into my bones, intestines, organs...and all had became frozen. imagine carrying a freezer in you.

we valiantly walked the length of the path to where the ferry was.

looked at each other, teeth chattering, body bent with arms deep inside pockets. 
pathetic sight, really.

we could see the lady in the horizon, no bigger than my pinkie.

ok, so we have seen the statue of liberty, we decided, so we quickly walked away to wait for the next bus, haha...

the thing about NYC is that there's really no need to take pictures. cos we have 'visited' it so often, on tv, in the movies. it's just a lot more exciting being there.

we had a thousand and one things we wanted to do but only did maybe ten! factor in severe jetlag, upset stomach, freaky weather, delayed flight (from buffalo), and serious shopping, there's isn't much time left. 

managed to catch the hugely popular musical billy elliot, walked to times square and broadway, visited a flea market that was so disappointing, bought a hotdog from a street stall, ate mind-blowingly good pizzas, crappy chinese food at chinatown, great bagels with cream cheese, calorie-laden breakfasts, spent a whole day at woodbury commons premium outlets (with a large suitcase that begs telling in another post. if i feel like it one day), another whole day at niagara falls, and great, great shopping along 5th avenue.....


anyway, a look at the few photos we have:




caught unawares on both counts...




i know it's art but it's damn freaky-looking, to be honest!




for the record, i didn't take this picture.

a freezing, blue sua teng lang in niagara falls, in front of the famous horseshoe falls on the canadian side




trying in vain to capture the gloriousness of the falls. truly spectacular and inspiring.



the falls are less magnificent but more photo-friendly on the american side.


after six days in NYC, we flew to atlanta where oz had his conference and i, my date with more shopping.


met up with angela and ming. and sam.




dinner at justin's



soul food takes some getting used to. i found my pasta far too salty and heavy.



we visited the georgia aquarium, a very impressive and interactive place.
err, those fish behind are real, though they look deceptively wall-paperish.



this jellyfish was pretty in pink.



nemo: sigh. another sua teng lang.



lunch at a tex mex place which incidentally, served truly great margaritas.



at the coca cola place, the polar bear was so animatedly cute, we made a pact to imitate its endearing grin.
well, it looks endearing, i look idiotic :-D



the different flavours of pop available for tasting. the above from africa tasted weird. 
though i am no coke fan, nothing beats the real thing, really.



first heard of The Varsity on tv, on travel and discovery channel some months ago. apparently, it's like an institution in atlanta so had to visit and take mandatory photo.



with the kind of volumes it claimed to be churning out daily, you wouldn't expect fries like this, would you?
not only were they gross looking, they tasted bad too. limp, soggy and oily.



well known for its hotdogs. there's two slaw dogs behind the fries and a naked dog behind the onion rings which, btw, were bad too.


i honestly think the $1 something  hotdogs at ikea taste much better.

maybe we just like our food differently.


ok, end of post. time to go back to my korean drama....