Category: Other Topics

This has been a busier than usual LA trip because I’m visiting with a lot of frens that happen to either have moved back here or are visiting or have come back from overseas.
Interesting thing is that all my frens here have daughters. Wonder what that means?

Here’s one of them. This is Kaylee.
I met up with an old friend in Long Beach. Truc was working in Singapore for a few years before deciding to shoot for her Masters’ Degree at CSULB. We spent much of the day catching up. And eating. Beer!

Truc’s the glam one with the shades..
A busy day.

Sometimes when you’re walking down the street, you see something absolutely scary.

Grrrr, must eat meeeeet!
Gotta watch out for those there “miatas”. Probably didn’t get its dose of super unleaded so now it wants the taste of flesh stuffing!

Grrr, didn’t you understand me the first time?

Moral of story: Always carry camera with you lah! That’s how I missed the furniture tree near my house. No camera! This time, have camera! Muhuhahahahahah!

I’ve just realized something.
This is the first Memorial Day I’ve spent in the US in, oh, saaaay, three years! How boring! No wonder I’ve spent it overseas in the past…
Although Memorial Day is meant to be a holiday of rememberance for those soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who have fallen, Memorial Day has become less and less of that and more the official beginning of the summer season. And a good time to buy a car, apparently.
And since I’ve been stuck in SFO over this holiday weekend, I’ve been Mr. Handyman around the house, taking care of all those projects that have piled up.
Fix intercoms: check. And check. Twice because there are two.
Car stereo died on Friday; spent all day Saturday taking my poor car apart to replace it: check.
Caught up on “24”: check check check (three episodes).
Finally got interview for Sacto gig; have to dig up writing samples and fill out long application (again!).
Begin stressing? Check.

Was up early this AM helping out some people out at the airport. Was able to take this snap with my SLVR (which is only a VGA camera, explains the blah quality..)

That’s a nice looking 757 lah!

I met up with a fren who I’ve not seen for a while yesterday night at the Giants Game.
Final Score: Giants over the D-backs, 10-2.
So while we were freezing together in the bleachers, cuz even PacBellPark SBC Park ATT Park gets cold in what passes for “weather” in San Francisco, I spotted a tenner (a ten pound note from the UK) in her wallet.
I asked, “when were you last in the UK?“, thinking it would be from a recent trip.
She said: “about nine months back” and continues while chewing her cotton candy, “it reminds me of travelling and the places I’ve been“. So that’s why she keeps foreign currency in her wallet.
I’ve done that as well, usually finding SG$, HK$ AU$ and Japanese Yen in my wallet months after my return to the states.
I thought I was the only person that did that. Glad to see I’m not THAT weird!!

Why is it when I return back home, it’s not the same?
There is a lot of fun and adventure out on the road. Life is out there! And it IS worth it!
But when I return home, it feels cold and wrong. Especially this trip. What was supposed to be a warm welcome home wasn’t. Bummer.
Shoulda stayed in Oz…
UPDATE 9 April: Am over it now, feeling MUCH better. Amazing what a lot of good vodka and carousing about does for your outlook. And that wish and shooting star thing? A MYTH! But it was neat to see…

It was cold and rainy when I left SF to go to Oz.
It is STILL cold and rainy when I returned yesterday.
According to the people that keep track of these things, it’s been raining for 24 days in March. A record!
So it’s not just me that’s whining about weather here, it really has been wet! And cold too.

It’s cold here! It’s been averaging 8-10 degrees in the daytime! It gets down to 2-4 degrees at night!! And no, I am NOT a weather wimp!
Of course, I wouldn’t be complaining this much if I was, saaaaay, in New York City, Beijing, Tokyo (ahhh) or even in Zurich. These places are SUPPOSED to be cold!
But San Francisco dun usually get this kind of cold snap. It’s been this way since mid January, save for a week of temperate weather when I got suckered into packing away the heavy duty down filled comforter because “it was warm”. Five days ago, the heavy duty down filled comforter came back out.
So what’s the big deal, you think. “Pile on more clothes or turn on the heat”. First off, I need to buy some winter cold type clothes. The ones I have are too big (weight loss, yay). Will do that soon. Second, I’ve got a forced air furnace. Forced air is inefficent, dries you out and blows dust everywhere. Bad for allergies. And have you seen the price of natural gas lately??
People in Japan have the kotatsu to stay warm in winter (also got kerosene heaters that I’ll never ever use). I got a fireplace.

Filled with Hot Wood! See?

Yeeeeeaaaah! Hot Wooooood!

Every neighborhood should have a Japanese grocery store!

Check out the stuff that you can bring home from it! The selection (if you can spot the hidden theme in the photograph) is almost as nice as the combini near the JR Station on the way back to the guesthouse…heh heh heh!

I went 65 years back in time tonight. Saw the Maltese Falcon in its entirety on the big screen. They were also showing Casablanca before that. Didn’t make it there on time for that classic. Bummer.

————————-3 hours after the end of the movies———————

It’s late. 0130. Cowboy Bebop is on Adult Swim.  And every time I see that opening on TV, I remember being in a small hotel room in Myung-Dong (Seoul) getting ready to sleep and seeing Cowboy Bebop. In Hangul.  Because that’s the last time I saw Cowboy Bebop broadcast on TV. Until tonight.