Snow in Houston!

It's kinda like a miracle of sort. For those uninitiated, weather in Houston is freaky. It could be a shivering 4deg C one day and a toasty 24degC the next. However, it almost never snowed in Houston. But there it was, on 10th of December. The day before I went for my first winter vacation, the day before I went to see natural snow and have fun in powder for the first time. I had a wonderful preview of snow in Houston.

Being a snow virgin, how can I pass off the chance of viewing a snowfall. It was a chilly 0deg C afternoon, and I went down the office block to see it. It was barely visible in the sunlight. However by night, it had turned into an obvious snowfall.

Here's a couple of pics of my first snowfall to share. It might look pathetic to the real thing I saw in Colorado the next day, but still it's my first. :)









The last time it snowed on in Houston was four years ago on Christmas Eve. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for a white Christmas in Houston this year, but I don't think miracles happen that frequently.

Oops..it's gone!

I have a date with my coursemate, Esther today. I planned to get some dresses for the coming wedding dinner marathon. 3 wedding dinners in one week. Esther recommended me to go to her friend's boutique in PJ uptown. So, I went to pick her up and off we go to PJ uptown..

While I was parking my car at PJ uptown, I accidentally hit the road curb. Esther noticed that my car plate was a bit loose.. She said " Hey, your car's plate seems loose. Will it fell off?" I examined the plate... it was really loose.. but I was thinking...may be can just fix it with some double sided tape when I get home.

So, we happily went for lunch.. We had a great time catching up with each other. After the lunch, we went to her friend's boutique as planned... We tried on lots of dress... Hmm.. I can't recall how much I tried, may be more than 15 pieces.. At last, I ended up buying two pieces of dress which both Esther and her friend think I looked good in.. and I like the dresses as well..

After bidding farewell with Esther's friend, we head to the Curve for another round of shopping..
I totally forgot about the car plate thingy... So, I didn't make an effort to check whether it is still there or not...

We continued shopping... followed by dinner at Itallianees... Hmm.. my favourite Italian food..
We ordered the pasta promotion which consists of 4 types of pasta of our choice and a Caesar salad. Satisfying dinner... pasta and lots of cheese and tomato sauce... Yummy :)

While waiting for our food to be served, we posed for some pics :p

So good, So much , So share! Sure we've gotta share.. the portion is too big for one person

The pasta promotion set

Pasta and Caesar salad..

After filling up our tummy, we tried to look for a santa hat for Esther's nephew..But to our disappointment, there are no santa hat for babies for sale... May be they assume babies don't celebrate Xmas?

So, we decided to go home after the tiring walk.. When I reached my car, I still do not notice the car plate..

After sending Esther home, I headed straight home. When I reached home, I have an instant instinct to check the car plate if it's still there... And it's gone!!!!! When did I lose it?? Where did I lose it? I totally have no idea!!!Sigh... clumsy me...

After this incident, I learnt that never wait until it's too late.. Now that it's gone, I cannot recover the plate anymore.. I can make a difference when I realized that it is loose and going to fall off... But I never take action.. I take for granted and assumed that it will last a little bit longer.. perhaps until I get home.. Sigh.. Now it's too late... and I need to pay for a new car plate.. :(

Dallas Blast!

Welcome, welcome all ye folks. Young and old, welcome y'all! Fair tricks, exhibitions, races, lottery, games and rides are awaitin'!

That's what to be expected from the "Award Winning" (don't ask me what kind of awards these fairs get) Texas State Fair.

This was my weekend getaway for the month of October. Yeah, that's 2 months ago and I finally have the time to do something about it.

One thing I've come to learn about Texas so far is that all is good if you don't expect too much. Do not expect colourful culture, breathtaking views, saliva inducing tasty food ... in fact don't expect anything other than BIG or HUGE.

So first off is the unexpectedly big "BIG TEX". The mascot cum gesturing and loud voiced robotic cowboy for the Texas State Fair. This humongous thing actually talked and gestured while talking. Drawing crowds around him/it while doing that.



Next is the huge grounds the Fair sits on. So huge that kids fell asleep while parents lug them around in little red trolleys. Seemed to be a norm in US.



The grounds are so huge they need a gondola to get from one side to another.



Then, there's this huge Cotton Bowl. It's not a bowl for your cereal! Americans seemed to have a thing with naming their stadiums, bowls. This is where big guys play with a weird pointy oval shaped ball and they call it football... Sigh...what's up with all these contradiction with the English? Can't they just call it rugby and accept that football is the round one chased by a bunch of lesser built dudes?



No fair is complete without money siphoning activities. Such as this lottery game for the adults, rides for the young and fearless, and finally fair games.






A word of advice to girls. Don't get on this if you are wearing something with a plunging neck line. You'll only be attracting the crowd of guys observing this ride. :P


Eye on Malaysia? I think the size of this thing can easily match the one in Taman Titiwangsa.


50usd for a ride on this reverse bungee and no I do not have the money to ride this one.

Not to forget, tricks like these.



There are several things that I really liked in this fair.
The miniature train set complete with realistic scenarios, pumpkin carving demonstration (it's interesting to see the professionals do it) and finally the piglet race!!!!








Ain't this cute?


There are a total of 4 little piggies on the track....however...


Poor Forrest was too heavy and got left behind.... :D

The food, is really nothing to shout about. They're all overpriced and greasy. I had the conventional sausage while the others had the "chicken fried bacon". Confused about the nature of the chicken fried bacon? It's just bacon that is fried in batter.



We spent the whole day at the fair. I would have to say the activities at night are much more attractive. There's the parade (nothing too special about it), a light and sound show (with excessive burning of gas) and a concert to end it all.




The light and sound show! How else to represent Texas other than gas (burning gas that is) and lot's of them.


And the concert to end the night. Do you recognize her? She was quite popular about 3 years ago.


Take a guess....no prizes though.

On the 2nd day in Dallas, we checked out where JFK was assassinated. There's a museum where the assassin took the shot (on the 6th floor of a building), but I'm too cheap to pay the admission.


There you go...the place where JFK was shot. His statue was built here to commemorate him.


A skyline view of Dallas... or at least a small part of Dallas.

We also went to this nice lake. The weather is superb that day. Slightly breezy with clear blue sky! Even the yacht came out to play. :)


I was amazed with the view that day. White sails in the breeze.


And another nice one of the lake to end this blog.

I remembered having some nice breakfast that day, complemented with mimosas. Sadly though, my camera ran out of juice.

Lazy Bones, Recession & Wedding Bells.

It's been quite some time since I last updated this blog. I actually have quite some material to write about... mainly to share some pics on my trips to Dallas and San Antonio. I even went to the tallest building in Downtown Houston for a view of the Houston skyline and to the newest park in Downtown Houston. Alas all these pics are sitting in my PC waiting to be edited and re-sized. I really have to put a post-it note somewhere on my PC to remind myself to edit those pics.

The reason for these lazy bones?

I was so tired after work everyday, staring at the glaring monitor >9 hours a day. With the gloom of economic recession, everyone has to be in top performance yet face the uncertainty of a pay raise, bonus or even a job. This can be really depressing. With each passing day, the bad news get worse. Reading the newspaper is kind of like a listening to a doomsayer. Well, we can't do anything about the recession other than be prepared for the worst and pray for the best.

These two-weeks had been especially hectic for me. I've been rushing through a lot of things at work. Partly due to the fact that I'll be taking a couple of days off work for a short vacation and mostly because I have to wrap things up before the coming holiday season.

Talking about seasons... what's up with everyone? It seemed like this year and the next is the season for marriage. My long time friend, SY is getting married on 27th Dec, ex-classmate, YT on 28th Dec, another ex-classmate, CM a couple of weeks ago, a friend proposed to the girlfriend/soon-to-be-wife a month back and finally hot news which came to me yesterday... my friend/sec. school senior WJ is getting hitched sometime mid next year. Phew... what a long list! Well, since I knew of all this occasions, was invited to some of these but would not be able to attend any due to geographical constrains, here's a big CONGRATULATIONS! to all of you. Wishing you all a happy and blissful life together!

Well, that's about it I guess. Perhaps after my coming vacation and with the Christmas holidays, I'll have plenty of time to prep those pics and tell the story of my travels.

Boys never grow up.

It's 2a.m. on an work week and I can't sleep! With nothing better to do and running out of sheep to count, I logged on and scour the web for new addition to my toys. This is when I came to realize that guys never really grow up. Most guys anyway.

Physically we might grow... be it vertical or lateral growth. Mentally or at least the part which controls our sense of joy and excitement (please do not misinterpret this) however, never really change much.

As a pre-teen boy, I love toys, games (bottle caps, game books, board games) and cartoons. 15 years after I was last categorized as a boy, I still love toys, games and cartoons. Only difference, these things are more expensive. My toys are no longer RC cars, LEGO sets or water guns but cameras and AV equipments. The games are no longer bottle caps, paper cards, millionaire or Dungeon & Dragon game books but PC games or in the form of eenie minnie miney moe for what CD to listen to. Cartoons are definitely no longer Thundercats or Doraemon on TV but some japanese anime or international films (especially those that are banned in Malaysia).

These days, my toys cost me an arm or a leg or sometimes both. My first toy bought with my own money was the ancient Powershot A70. After the initial excitement which all toys provide, in time it starts to attract less and less attention from me.

Half a year after I started work, I rewarded myself with a Yamaha MCR-E700, a wonderful micro-hifi. That provided me with hours of pleasure listening to the likes of Emi Fujita, Diana Krall, Ella Fitzgerald and Katie Melua.

Slightly more than half a year ago, I bought myself yet another toy. This time, my new love to replace the sad, ancient Powershot A70; a Nikon D60. The Nikon D60 is by far the most expensive toy I've ever got myself. Just 3 months after I got the D60 and I got another lens to complement the kit lens. The reason? To enhance my "equipment" making it larger and more capable and powerful.

Another 3 months has passed since and I'm now looking for something new again. A new lens that was just release by the manufacturer? or perhaps a true-blue hifi system?

All this sounds so much like a kid getting bored with his existing toys and wanted something new every now and then. The only problem is, the toys are more expensive and I can't throw a tantrum to have someone for it. Sigh.

Feeling slightly dejected by the fact that I simply cannot afford anymore toys, I wrote this post with the conclusion that boys never really grow up but their toys do!

Penang Makan Trip Part 1

Out of boredom, a few of us planned to go to Penang for the weekend for a Makan Trip.. Penang which is famous for its unlimited array of delicacies had always been my first choice stop for Makan Trip..

On the way, we stopped by Ipoh for dim sum... MK suggest that we go to Ming Court since I have brought some of them to Foh San before this. Since I have never been to Ming Court before, I agreed.. Frankly speaking, I felt that Foh San is still the best for dim sum. They offer more variety, better service, and definitely bigger dim sum..

Loh Mai Kai... the taste is not bad..

Super small prawn dumplings (ha kao) and siu mai..

Upon our arrival at Penang, we were greeted by TY, who is going to be our tour guide for this 2 days trip... Our first stop is Penang Road for the famous cendol..

A bowl of Cendol in a sunny afternoon.. Heavenly..

Next, we went for curry mee which is situated nearby the Cendol stall...The curry mee is different from the normal curry mee found elsewhere.. It comes in a bowl of white soup and curry paste.. You will have to mix the paste with the soup to get the red colour soup base..
The curry mee is aromatic and taste great.. Besides ordering the curry mee, TY also ordered some side dishes as well.. He ordered the Lobak and groundnut sweet soup...I have tasted this type of groundnut sweet soup back in Uni.. Personally, I prefer the groundnut "wu" which is made of roasted groundnut and ground to smooth and fine texture.

Penang style curry mee..

Groundnut sweet soup...Not really my taste..

Penang Lobak..Yummy..

Up next is the famous Char Kuey Teow at Lorong Selamat.. which we waited for more than one hour.. While waiting, we ordered some food to keep ourselves busy.. hehe..

Asam laksa.. Look at the generous shrimp paste and that huge piece of fish..

Penang Otak-otak

Penang otak-otak is steamed instead of grilled... The otak-otak is slightly more moist compared to Muar otak-otak ( I mean the steamed Muar otak-otak and not the grilled type) with some daun limau purut which adds more aroma to this dish..

Fried oyster with egg, "Oh Chian"

I like the fried oyster with egg because it's not too starchy... it will become too sticky if too much starch is added... The oyster is a bit small though..

Hokkien Mee.. We called it Prawn Mee..

Just a normal Prawn Mee.. nothing special.. According to TY, some ppl add the Loh Mee sauce into the Prawn Mee. It's another way of enjoying this dish.. Penang style, may be?

ABC..with Atapchi of course :)

Probably, we have waited too long for the Char Kuey Teow, when the dish arrived, we forgot to take a photo of it.. But the Char Kuey Teow is really nice and worth the wait..

Since everyone is stuffed and too full to continue eating, we decided to go for a walk at the Botanical Garden.. to help burn some calories before another round of food marathon..

It was a sunny day...While the guys were busy posing for their personal portrait, I take the opportunity to enjoy the greens..

Colourful canyon ball flower..

Clear blue sky..

For dinner, we went to Gurney Drive. We ordered a lot of food... rojak, cuttlefish with kangkung, rojak udang, muah chee (my favorite) , asam laksa (another round of asam laksa :P , but the asam laksa here is not nice), char kuey teow (a big difference from the one Lorong Selamat in terms of price and quality, still prefer Lorong Selamat hehe) To be continued...

Lonely Weekend with Japanese Movies

Few weeks ago, I recommended some Brit films and thoroughly enjoyed sharing the movies I liked with you all. This long lonely weekend, I spent quite sometime watching some Japanese movies instead (with English subs of course!).

This reminded me of another set of movies that I'd like to recommend. I'm not sure how old these movies are. Some might have been around for ages already. Nevertheless, I came up with this list of Japanese movies which I found to be really nice.

I know that somehow these days, Korean drama is all the hype. Japanese productions were like out of style or something like that. I, personally have preferred Japanese productions over Korean. So without further ado, here's the selection.

Koizora - This one should be quite recent and famous nonetheless. It's based on a cellphone novel which is all the hype over in Japan. Japanese films and animes tend to be about life in high school. This movie is about all that's got to do with high school life of a teenage girl. Watch this and be prepared to experience an emotional roller-coaster ride. Romance, tragedy, financial turmoil, romance, tragedy and then somemore tragedy finally ending with something warm and heartfelt. I watched this like 3 months ago during my flight to US. Perhaps my condition at that time marred my judgement for this movie. Watch it and give me your verdict.

Taiyou no Uta - As with most Japanese movies, it always revolves around the life of a student. Perhaps that is why young adults like me, who sometimes still reminicense the bliss of student life is attracted to these movies. What really attracts me to this movie is the wonderful theme song. The english translation of the movie title is "A song to the sun". That song and the voice of the singer is truly mesmerizing. The story is not so bad as well.

Tada Kimi wo Aishiteru - This one requires quite a bit of imagination and the lack of critical judgemet on the details to enjoy. Nevertheless, it's an enjoyable film. Started off in a silly and funny tone but ending with a tragedy which was again wrapped up with a warm and heartfelt aftertaste. It was the story of love bound together by photography and a secluded forest.

Waterboys - If you watch any non-horror Japanese films before, you'd definitely heard of this movie before. It's been around for quite sometime. This is the only one which I've watched in the past 3 months which did not involve intense romance and tragedy. It's a crazy, funny film about a bunch of dudes doing synchronized swimming.

After writing this post, I realized one thing. All these Japanese films involve a lame guy. Hmm.... why?

On top of that, too much Japanese movies / anime is not a good thing. IMO, they all tend to go by the same storyline with small changes here and there. Regardless, enjoy these few selections and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Halloween Themed Family Day!

Halloween, it is such a hyped up festivity here in US. Considering that it's a festival similar to 14th July of the Chinese Calendar!

In the Chinese equivalent of the Halloween, we would be sitting at home trying our best not to go out at night/go swimming/hiking/practically anything that exposes one to the ethereal beings. However, it seems that Americans are impervious to this threat and it's one hell of a celebration here.

Being a dull guy with extremely thin wallet, I chose not to partake this festivity in the clubs in US. Say whatever you want, a costume can cost 50usd easily! So no thanks.

Lucky me though, my company threw a pre-Halloween party (in broad daylight though). To be precise, it's more like a Family Day/ Fair. Still it's a nice event which scores a couple of first for me.

- 1st Halloween Themed Party
- 1st time eating a whole grilled turkey leg (a popular party food here)
- 1st time tasting chili & cheese on tortilla chips (it's addictive and terrible for the waistline)
- 1st time I caught thieving pumpkin snatchers! :P



Halloween must haves! Witches! (Witch you should get one of these!)


Creepy skeleton guy ogling at hot cheer leader.


Huge oily turkey leg, sinfully tasty chili & cheese tortilla chips paired with cold beer of course!


Pumpkin snatchers!!!


What's Halloween without a huge bunch of these!


Nice pumpkin patch.