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.