Familiar Grounds

25 Dec

I didn’t realize until our van stopped in front of Sunrise Central, our hotel that it was right next to Grand Silverland, the hotel I stayed at in June! I thought it was several doors away but nope, right next to it. When I checked on Google maps, it looked further apart but I am not complaining.

What this means is that walking over to the Street Food Market is closer than I thought. Yay!

Dinner was really nice with an array of choices. After dinner we walked the night market street a little bit to work off the dinner. By nine, we headed back to the hotel to rest so that tomorrow we will be ready for the long adventurous day ahead.

What an interesting Christmas Day this year. Sure beats being a couch potato year in year out.

   
    
  

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Hello Vietnam

25 Dec

It wasn’t as crowded at KLIA  as I had feared–being a festive time to travel–so we had plenty of time at the airport. Queue lines weren’t too bad. We lunched at the Premium Lounge and thereafter took our time to head to the departing gate.

Take-off was on schedule. The B737-800 was stuffy and hot when we boarded and remained like this until we took off, hit a turbulent patch before it cooled to a comfortable degree. 

The two girls were dressed contrastingly and I thought it was amusing. The one staying in a hot country was dressed as though heading to a cold place while the one studying in a cold country dressed as though going off to a hot place. 

Upon our arrival, it was smooth and fast. Immigration was efficient despite a large crowd and the bags came out before us. Within a short time, we met up with our tour guide, a short petite lass with a pretty good command of English. 

Our bus, a 16-seater(!) was very comfortable made its way through the waiting vehicles and we were on our way to the hotel.

It’s nice to be back in Ho Chi Minh. I look forward to a nice shower after checking in and then hit the streets with the family. The real adventure starts tomorrow.

  

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Merry Christmas

25 Dec

I don’t normally post on a Sunday but since it’s a special festive occasion, I decided to… Merry Christmas people! 

This Christmas we decided to travel instead of staying home like we always do, year in year out and we are definitely looking forward to it. 

Last night’s family Christmas Eve dinner was sumptuous and satisfying because everything on the table (save for the drinks) was homemade – from the turkey right down to the cranberry sauce and everything in between. Everyone contributed and was very good.

Still feeling full from the dinner, we are flying off to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam this afternoon! The girls are excited, hubby’s looking forward to the break and I am eager to take them to the places that I visited six months ago when I was there for golf.

A much deserved break and time together for the family.

   
 

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Spring Cleaning, Part 2

23 Dec

The cleaning bug have gotten the best of me because I am also cleaning out stuff from the office. Two decades of design work sure has a lot of portfolio pieces to show! 

To my utter delight, I unearthed a couple of pieces of drawings on my desk, done by the girls when they were very young. Now for the life of me, I cannot recognize whose style it was. It could be M2 when she was probably four or five years old but there are also some elements of M1’s style. Hmm… memory has totally failed me on this. 

But it does not matter, these are treasures and stick figure drawings are totally so us! And very cute that everyone’s names are listed even for the flowers. Tickles me to no end that my last name is spelled backwards – EEL instead of LEE. Angie Eel… hahahaha. This is definitely M2.

What’s even more delightful was the clever use of space when typographically challenged. The letters go downwards, a horror scenario which the graphic designer in me would never do but trust a child to do it. And I think she did it well.

Such treasures, I will have these framed up!

   
 

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Newbies, Part 2

22 Dec

Just when we thought the Tuna trio were happy, tragedy struck again! This time it’s like a scene from a horror movie.

It looked like Tuna 2 got devoured by Tuna 3 while Tuna 1 hid in the dark potty cave. Yes, devoured. Hubby suspected Tuna 2 was molting, thus weakened and at its most vulnerable, when it was attacked. Even its old shell was not spared.

Sigh. I have no words to further elaborate. These crayfishes are not easy to handle.

Hubby decided to separate the two remaining Tuna’s for fear of another murder. Tuna 3 was regrettably banished to the big aquarium to be with Meow-meow. Uh oh. Bad move.

Two days later Tuna 3 was never to be seen again. The murderer became the murdered. Super sigh…

Suddenly the little aquarium was reduced to just one inhabitant. I decided to ignore Tuna 1 for a few days to let things settle. And lo and behold, it decided to change shell! It must have occurred yesterday when we were out because in the morning, it still looked fine and no indication of its intended molting act.

Thankfully, Tuna 1 survived the process as there were no lurking big or small predators to eat it in its weakened state. So now, after the demise of Luna, Tuna 2 and Tuna 3, we have one surviving crayfish and it looks healthy.

Let’s hope this newbie will last longer.

 

Devoured!

  

What’s left…

  

A new newbie literally

 

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Some Things Do Change

20 Dec

While some things never change, some things do and we have to learn to go with the flow. Otherwise, we will be more dinosaur than ever.

When I went off to college and came home for the holidays, the aircrafts that I flew in were mostly the Boeing 747-400 model and I thought this aircraft was very comfortable. I loved the B747.

When M1 came back last week, she flew on United Airlines. And for the SFO-NRT leg, it was a B747 and because there were no personal entertainment units, she did not appreciate the aircraft like me. The final leg home was with a Boeing 787-8 and she thought, thankfully that was much better. 

I believe the B747 model has been replaced with newer and younger fleets by most airlines of the world except a handful like United Airlines. And you realize things change when your experiences that you cherish differ from your offsprings.

When I was younger, I would save every penny of my allowance and waited until there was an opportunity to go buy a cassette or two of my favourite musician(s). Then with my Sony Walkman (also purchased with endless savings), plugging in to my music was the best thing in life.

These days, like me, my M2 says she cannot function without music. So her iPod and a set of headphones go wherever she goes. And how does she get her music?

Spotify.

In fact, recently she asked if she could subscribe to Spotify Premium and hubby allowed; she ‘paid’ for the monthly subscription with her allowance. Now this makes you really open your eyes and acknowledge that things and time have changed when the need for the same thing has evolved with technology. Going out with the girls, I have also evolved, allowing them to plug in their music in my car instead of subjecting everyone to my CD choices of Jacky Cheung or Michael Buble.

Hmm… Maybe I should consider getting Spotify and perhaps plan a vacation flying off somewhere long haul with any aircraft other than the B747-400.

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A Solid Return

19 Dec

Last Monday was a public holiday so hubby and I went to play golf. And we had the ‘bestest’ weather ever despite a constant downpour in the wee hours of the morning during this wet season. I thought we may have to cancel. Luckily the rain stopped and we teed off at 7.43am, taking the slot of a cancellation, eight minutes earlier than our intended tee off time.

Throughout the 18-holes, the weather was perfect – cool and cloudy. The sun did not even peeked out. Even the pace on the golf course was perfect, no flight in front of us to slow us down nor a flight behind chasing us to hurry on. I guess there were many cancellations when the morning downpour occurred. We had the most enjoyable outing and I must say it was a solid return to the game for me.

After all those months of rest and therapy, it has worked wonders. What made this game different from the few that I dabbled with after my doctor approved for me to play? The confidence in striking the ball well with no more fear of pain recurring upon impact. 

This positive mental approach was key and it showed. I played the game so solid, I raked up 6 pars! Never have I had 6 pars in a game in my home club ever. So this was quite an achievement.

My ball striking was good and every department worked out well – the strength, the distance, the short game and the putting. There were some fumbles due to lack of play but overall, I was very pleased with the outcome. The best part – the pain was none existent which was good. 

But I will not play any games for the remaining days left of the year because M1 is back and I’d rather spend time with her.

Well, it’s nice to keep this good outing to heart so that next year, there will be more pain-free games, something definitely to look forward to for 2017 after M1 goes back to the US. 

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Newbies

16 Dec

Hubby just cannot stand the fact that the little aquarium remain unoccupied after the demise of Luna. Even I felt it too as every evening when I walk up the stairs from the living room, the empty aquarium sitting at my ascending path looked… well, empty.

So prior to M1’s return, he bought some cute fat fishes to fill it up. But the innocent looking fishes were not so innocent. They were rather carnivorous, devouring each other up! As days passed, one by one met their untimely departure. Horrified, he decided to change plans and gave in to getting a crayfish again.

And not only he bought one, this time he bought three! Yup, three crayfishes. I was speechless.

But these newbies are full of character and voracious too. One of them quickly made short work of the dead fishes that we have yet to get rid of! Smaller in size compared to Luna, I decided to name the three, Tuna 1, Tuna 2 and Tuna 3, just to rhyme with Luna’s name.

 

Spot the Tuna’s!

  

Tuna 1 having a feast

  

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Some Things Never Change

15 Dec

Technology today sure is amazing, changing the way we live, how we lead our lives and keeping us connected 24/7. When M1 went off to university in 2015, we were able to track her flight path live online. And we did just that with anxiety but also with comfort knowing exactly where she is. And when she came back on Tuesday night, we did the same and went through the same again.

When I flew off to college dinosaur years ago, there was nothing of these sorts or even the Internet available. So poor Mom and Dad waited anxiously for 24 hours or so until I arrived and heard from me.

With M1 for every step of her journey, we get an update – leaving for the airport now, checking in, boarding soon all via WhatsApp, see a location checked in status update on Facebook yet unaware of more updates on other social medias that young people use (this dinosaur does not use SnapChat, Instagram, Twitter and goodness knows what else) and of course track online with flightaware.com to see the flight path live.

For all these, I am thankful we live in this era now. But I still fret anxiously like Mom and Dad did. Some things never change. Technology may make our lives easier and more connected but it just cannot replace the human emotions. 

So thankful and happy that she arrived home safely and without much delay or problems.

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Anxious Parents

13 Dec

Since last night, there’s anxiety. It was a restless night but for a good reason. M1, our firstborn is homeward bound! Finally. Yesterday evening at 6.30pm, way before she headed to the airport, I had wished her a safe flight and told her we will see her in 30 hours.

Yes 30 hours. But when this is published, we have another 13 hours to go. Like her previous trips, we were tracking her flight path on flightaware.com

This trip home, she is not flying the usual flight path because she’s taking a different airline. There’s an additional San Francisco stop before Narita International but minus a Singapore Changi Airport stop before Kuala Lumpur. That’s why we are not down in Singapore to pick her up like last year.

A long journey for her – slightly more than 20 hours of flying sans delay hopefully, and not inclusive of the layover time at the different airports and change in time when crossing the International Date Line. I lose track counting with so many time zones involved. Shudder… All I know is that she started at 5.30am (Pacific Standard Time) on Monday morning and we see her at past midnight (our local time) Tuesday night.

So did I sleep well or not at all last night? Forty winks probably or maybe just 38 or 35… 

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