Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts

Friday, January 26, 2018

O'ahu - Did I tell you I LOVE Hawaii?

After spending a few days in Kona, we flew to O'ahu!


Unlike Kona, Honolulu is very crowded, a lot of people everywhere, but we don't really care....


strolling along Waikiki everyday, or go deep into the neighborhood scouting on zillow for prices of the apartments few blocks away from the beach


take a few steps from our hotel to Royal Hawaiian Center for nightly Hawaiian music...


taking Ukulele lesson...


eating Sushi everyday, I mean good Sushi... and I am not the Sushi Connoisseur here, the non-Asian guy is, I am the opposite, I love SPAM!!!!!


so we had to find myself the best Musubi cafe in Honolulu. Spam Musubi is definitely the marriage of American and Japanese..... I love it!


Life was perfect until Saturday morning....


Ok, I got up from bed and get dressed, grabbed my backpack, which I know I have my wallet and passport in there, and then I throw the car keys and house keys into the bag, put on my shoes and off we go, out of the hotel room to the lobby, it was a mess, some people were crying, probably cannot find their loved one, most people followed the hotel staff and went to the basement, DH insisted to stay outdoor, he thought it would be safer, I remember texting my girls back and forth, and then 20 something minutes later......


Seriously? Someone push the wrong button that morning?
I need more "clicks" to change the password for my email account then to sent a missile threat alert to the whole state of Hawaii!!!!! seriously????

after that, I asked DH what did he grab when we first got the alert, guess what? Not his wallet, not his passport, it was his diet mountain dew!!!! LOL!!! : 0
Well, his explanation was, if we get into the shelter, it could be hours, he needs a sip of soda of course, or he would be thirsty! LOL!


Despite the missile scare, we had the nicest vacation ever. Every minute of it was amazing! I loved it!

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Before I go, just another card I made a while ago for CCCB that requires Mushrooms, I wasn't happy with this one so I made another one to post for that challenge instead, so tell me what you think about  this one!


Bye for now, have a great weekends everyone.
Stay warm, stay safe wherever you are!






Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Trip to Singapore and City Crafter Challenge Blog 378 ~ Pick One!

I spent most of August on the road, 2 trips to San Francisco, and then Utah and Colorado, Iowa and finally Singapore.

This trip to Singapore, we flew the newest direct flight from San Francisco.

   

If you fly often, you would agree with me that Singapore is one of the best airline in the world, just look at the meals they served on the flight to Singapore.



and this is just economy class, I flew a few first class seats with other airlines before and the food not even quite as good.


we picked our food from a menu that has two different entrée, I usually go for Asian and DH of course like his western. In between meals, you can ask for anything you want from the sneak menu, the items includes wrap, muffins, fresh fruits to cookies, chips and nuts.


food is big on my list, we visited a few of my favorite local food center, and Randy has became a food snob like me, I won't blame him, after numerous visits to Singapore, he is now spoilt just like many other Singaporean.


we also visited The National Gallery for Yayoi Kusama's exhibit.....


It is simply AMAZING, if you have a chance anywhere in the world to see her work, you MUST GO DO IT! Pictures just don't do justice for her work.


The infinity room is the highlight of this exhibit, I get this from the internet because we were given only 20 seconds in the room, I decided to absorb as much in this short 20 seconds instead of taking picture, so I don't have any picture in that room.


you can find a lot of Yayoi Kusama's work online.

The very famous Raffles Hotel in Singapore is closed for renovation, so we didn't get to see the inside this time, we did it every trip, just for the taste of old Singapore.


new thing I see in Singapore this trip is the 30 cars display building, looks just like matchbox cars....


just like other trips to Singapore, we took public transport everywhere, sometimes to places we want to go, sometimes just from terminal to terminal, doing sightseeing on the top of a double decker bus...


I dare to say there is no place in the world run public transportation as good as Singapore, we can take bus anywhere, hop off the bus and have covered walk ways that leads to either train stations (MRT is what we called in Singapore, like subways in NYC), shopping mall, food center, government service center, and to your home if you stay in one of those government housing (I would say 90-95% of Singaporean stay in government housing high rise buildings) Yes, we all do in Singapore, stay in government housing, but I mind you, I can sell my house in Vegas and still can't effort one of those units. That is why they said Singapore is one of the most expensive city in the world, but if you are Singaporean, you will get a big sum subsidized by the government, yes, if you work hard you will have your own place in Singapore, the government takes good care of you.

What makes DH really angry about his own country is everything else in Singapore he enjoyed, he sees that there is no way USA can catch up, like the public transportation for example, we got a translink card, for bus and train (subway), I top up 20 SGD dollar (17 US$) every trip, you just tap in and out when you use the system, we spent about 20 each for the whole entire trip, some trips are as low as 22 cents, where can you find in this world, in a fully air conditioned, brand new buses. Even if we take cab once in a while, it is less than 10 Singapore dollars. At the bus stops, you have  electronic board to see how many more minutes your bus is arriving, and now I even have an app on my phone that tells you that, we would wait in our hotel room until we see that the bus will be there in 5 minutes then we started walking out of our room to the bus stop right in front of the hotel, how convenient!


If that is not enough, besides being the world best airport that has a huge sunflowers garden, shopping mall bigger than many other towns elsewhere, a swimming pool with huge water slide, free movies with recliner chairs while you wait for your flight, I need to tell you that it took me less than a minute to pass through custom, even DH is not a Singapore citizen and hold a US passport, it took him less than 5 minutes too, and it is not a small airport, Singapore airport handles 58.7 millions visitors each year!

The more Randy goes to Singapore, the more depressed he is with his own country. Health care is one, his doctor make mistakes again and again with his prescription order, the drug store did the same, and he witness me trying to get into a doctor's clinic here with numerous phone calls and lots of tears and still getting nowhere, I did all my medical in Singapore once a year, he always bug me to get my appointment early and then he witnessed me making 4 phone calls in 30 minutes a few days before we leave and get all my 4 medical appointments all set up, and then he would go to the clinic or hospital with me, and in less than an hour I get everything including taking my prescription at the same location of the doctor's office. This trip here, I had a skin condition that is pretty urgent, I've seen two doctors here and paid close to two hundred US dollars even we have insurance, the last one gave me a tube of cream to collect at CVS pharmacy, it was 95 US$ when I went to collect and I refused to do it, I rather wait till I go back to Singapore, so first thing I do in Singapore is to go see doctor for this,  guess how much is my bill, doctor's visit and medication cream before government subsidized is over 50 Singapore dollar, and after subsidized, I paid 19.40 Singapore dollar, which is like 16 US$, after two application, my skin is all clear. That makes DH really really sick, and said, I WANT TO MOVE TO SINGAPORE!!!!

OK, I would shut up and stop bragging about my country, oh yes, it is the cleanest city in the world, crime rate is close to zero, no guns, hardly any corruption, and policeman are as friendly as your friends! Ok, I'll stop! LOL!

We took a river boat this trip, watch the light, water, laser show by the Marina Sands resort.


we had a family get-together over the weekend, here's a picture of my mom, brother and sister...


we also went to East Coast Park for a walk....


saw someone glam-ping there....



and then eat more.... especially seafood.....




I grew up eating seafood like this, just few hours fresh from the sea and become a seafood snob, DH laughed at me when I complained about fish we get from the tank in the Asian supermarket here aren't fresh, no, they are NOT, they are "kept" fish grow up in a tank, fresh seafood are those fresh from the sea, they taste different! Let alone frozen fish, Yikes!


I put on at less 2 to 3 pounds by the time I get back to SF to see my babies...


and he can't wait to go home with me as well!


an hour after our 15 hours flight, we drove another 9 hours from SF back to Vegas!

It is HOME SWEET HOME!


Ahhhhhh..... I probably not going to travel for a while!

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The theme is PICK ONE!

   

We want you to pick one of the above as your background for your project.
I pick the pink/orange splash for mine.


I used a few of my ink pad on the acrylic stamp block, and then spray some water, place the watercolor paper on top to get the result for the background, let it dry before I stamp the sentiment and glue some sequins on it.


there were some ink left on the acrylic block, so I spray more water and get a lighter color version....


well, it is not exactly the color the challenge asked for but I don't like to waste anything, especially precious inks, LOL!

Come join in the fun at





























Tuesday, August 15, 2017

San Francisco and City Crafter Challenge Blog Week 375 ~ You don't bring me flowers!

We got a lot, a lot done this past week, first we went to San Francisco to visit Clare, Jared and Lila...


Clare is just like me, she is easily adjusted to anywhere, she loves her new home, her apartment, new school, new job. Jared is very homesick, Lila had a hard time adjusting to new room mate, fell sick just a few days after their move to San Francisco, but they are all fine now.


San Francisco to me means Hog Island clam chowder, a meal that I will never miss if I am there.


we did a 7 miles long city hike.... starting ferry building


walk along the water and get to pier 39.....


fort mason......


a lot of steep hills to climb....


but the view is worth it....


more walk along the water and pass by some million dollars houses....


of course Palace of the Fine Arts, one of my favorite spot in San Francisco... continue to walk to Presidio, SF, and a very very steep hill to the place where Clare works.....


found a coyote hunting for food in the woods....


whew... finally there!

We had dinner with the kids, and then back to their new apartment to play with Lila, it was a lovely day spending with people we love.

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This week at....



The theme is.....

You Don't Bring me Flowers
(Check out challenge details here)

Not a fan of Barbara Streisand but the tune sure stuck in my eyes.


my card has no flowers but tree....


Christmas tree to be exact.....


it's time to do some mass production of these stuff.....


in no time I am going to need them, a lot of them!

Come join in the fun at