Trio and Juju

It is nice to meet some old friends that you haven't met for a while. I had a reunion with my high school friends today for brunch and dinner. We do this sometimes, just catching up to find out what everyone is up to and just to have a little bit of fun :)

We went to Trio for brunch in the morning. Trio is a middle eastern restaurant which servers great food! The brunch is a different style than normal brunch. I had a shaksuka, a israeli style food where they poached 2 eggs in a tomato salsa kind of dish, served this in a pan with a little mixed humus and few slices of fresh turkish bread on the side. It was sooo good!!! A sure repeat for our next trip to Trio :)And btw, the corn fritters looks mouthwatering too !!!

We then went to Jujus for some dinner and Karaoke. In juju you have to take off your shoes before walking into the tables area. The waiter gives you a plastic bag to carry your shoes and keep it with you when u are dining. You then walk into these timber floors area with low dining table and a hole underneath it so you can put your feet in and sit on a flat cushion pillow on the timber floor. It is quite cosy actually!

I have been to Juju a few years back when i was in uni, and I dont really recall the food. But this time, the food was soooooo goooddd I was amazed ! The chikuwa cheese, karaage, and also miso chicken cheese was sooooo gooodd!!! We ended up ordering another serving of karaage because everyone want another piece!

A few glasses of wine, chuhi, and sake cocktails later, it was time for Karaoke. The 'community karaoke' starts at 10.30pm. Other customers have been busy browsing through the song list while we were still not too sure whether we were going to sing or not. Some of us loves singing, but not really into it on public places :P Out of everyone who went to the front to sing, one guy was a trophy !!! He sings Britney Spear's "Hit me, baby, one more time" while showing us his fine moves!!! Legs throwing, ass shaking, all are done in the name of having fun !!!



It was indeed a good and fun day. =)

Will post pics soon! :)

Claire de Lune

When I was hospitalised in Indo for a head concussion, i had nothing much to do beside watching movie, read magazines and think about life.

One movie that leaves an impression and gets me thinking is Frankie and Johnny (1991) played by the talented Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer. It tells about life, love, dissapointment, expectation, and all that intertwines in all these.

Basic story line is that Frankie (Pfeiffer) is a waitress working in a small diner where Johnny (Pacino) works as a cook. Johnny fell in love with Pfeiffer but Pfeiffer has too much of bitter past experience with relationship that she is resistant to let herself fall in love again.

The scene that kinda leaves a memory in my mind is the part where Johnny calls up a radio station to request a song called Claire de Lune for Frankie, a very nice soft piano tune. When making a request, this is what he said:

Now, there's a man and a woman. He's a cook. She's a waitress. Now, they meet and they don't connect. Only, she noticed him. He could feel it. And he noticed her. And they both knew it was going to happen. They made love, and for maybe one whole night, they forgot the 10 million things that make people think, I don't love this person, I don't like this person, I don't know this- Instead, it was perfect, and they were perfect. And that's all there was to know about. Only now, she's beginning to forget all that, and pretty soon he's going to forget it too.

I am not too sure why I am enticed by this quote. But maybe, it is the fact that 2 people are taking risk, taking chances to happiness... and sometimes, relationship works, sometimes it doesnt... sometimes its too complicated to even know where it is going... and this movie potrays all that very well....

Reflection

I am a sucker at romantic stuffs

I believe in romance
and I love fairytales

But life has its own course for me
sometimes, things doesnt work as you want it to be
and then u realize that you dont have much control of these things that happen
and you'll learn to give in and to accept the facts

A quote that has helped me a lot the past couple of months is this:
"Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional."

I learnt to pick my self up from the ground
I learnt to be strong and to not let anything or anyone push you to your corner
and I learnt that I am not made to be broken
I was made to sustain and to survive

Life has been very lonely for me the past couple of months
I have kept myself busy
I have tried to fill my time with something productive
but sometimes loneliness just found a way to creep in

At those times, how I can't wait to find my prince charming
I want to find someone who will sweep me off my feet and take my breath away
someone that I didnt expect to fall for, but turns out to be a perfect match for me
someone who think that I am the missing puzzle in his life
someone who will protect me from the harm world outside
someone who can accept me as who I am
and someone that I can give all this abundant love I have inside me...

On this xmas day, I just wish that I may be blessed enough to be that lucky...

Toby Mac - Irene

Found a song titled "Irene" today !!!!

Back to Uni again

Aih aih, After trying to resist and delay this as long as I can, I am finally going back to Uni again for a postgraduate degree. My first class starts tomorrow, Monday, but I've already start feeling the pressure since last week! All these readings that I need to finish before the class is driving me crazy...!!!

I am taking 2 subjects this session, despite everyone's suggestion that I drop one subject so that I can 'have a bit of life' (and believe it or not, in uni orientation last saturday, the Study Skills teacher said this to me after she found out that I'm taking 2 subject 'Oh my, God bless you!') ..... hmmm......

I've just counted the pages that I need to read for 1 subject per week, and it is around 70+ pages!!! That is almist 200 pages a week for 2 subjects..!!! I know I can ready harry potter in 2 weeks, but stilllll, that is a leisure reading! And as a friend of mine who had tried juggling full time work with part time study told me, "when you have assignment due, you will use all your spare time to do that assignment. Then you won't have time to do all the readings anymore!"

Aih aih, all the advice that I have received are just sooo supportive -_-"

Wish me luck, guys !

You all should understand if I ever reject your going out invitation (which I never do), it's not because I don't like you!

Back to my readings..... -_-"

San Fransisco

Ah, where do I begin? San Fransisco is such a beautiful place that it is breathtaking and the only thing that crossed my mind when looking at the city was "I so can live here!"

It is just a clean, neat, beautiful city with nice victorian houses, heritage building, and gorgeous fisherman's wharf (esp. Pier 39).

It helps that I have a friend in SF. Vince took us to his office which is located on the San Fransisco bay, on level 36, overlooking the San Fransisco City, Bay Bridge and the ocean. It was beautiful!

KA - Cirque Du Soleil

If any of you, my friends, are visiting Las Vegas anytime soon, I strongly recommends watching KA by Cirque De Soleil in MGM Grand!

It is by far, the best show I have ever watched!!!

I mentioned this to my friend, Vincent when I met him in SF. You know what he said? "I know that show! I watched it twice when I was there!!"

It is just sooo good! The visual effects, stage designs, costumes and the actors/actresses are amazing!!!! I'm so watching it again if I have the opportunity!

Ale ambra Mexicana!

I went to Mexico last week for a 2 days tour. I was really excited about it because I haven't been there before and it is a different kind of country from US or Australia.

First thing you notice when entering Mexico is how different it is with USA. This really strikes you because these 2 countries are only separated by a really long wall. This border runs for around 3,141km, and has the highest number of both legal and illegal crossings.

Entering Mexico is not too hard. If you have holiday visa to go to USA, make sure that you got the 5 years visa which allow you to enter USA multiple times. Entering Mexico you don't need visa, however re-entering USA is really strict and thus, you need the multiple entry visa.

We queue up in the border to enter Mexico while the officers are checking cars in front of us. While queuing, you can already see the pollution that comes out from Mexico. You'll see that the sky in front of you has dark smokes , and the sky behind you is clear blue.

The difference really striked me after I passed the borders. Mexico was really hot, dry, everything looks yellowy, and there's not much trees around. While San Diego, the nearest city to Mexico, is a really beautiful,modern city, it has a lot of trees, and nice cool breeze.

We stayed in Ensenada for the night. Before going to the hotel, we stopped by to the famous blowhole (like the one in Kiama - South NSW), it was a really nice place with great ocean view. Along the walkway, there were people selling Mexico souvenirs, it really reminds me to Tanah Lot walkway in Bali.

One of the guys in our tour both a leather hat for $30. The tour guide said that he should be able to bargain until $15! Lol!

The next day, we went to Tijuana for brunch in a really fancy hotel. The hotel is has a really unique Mexican look and feel to it.We ate our meal outside on the balcony looking at the beautiful ocean. Inside the hotel, there's this dining room area where Titanic movie was shot. The dining room has been left like it was, so everyone was taking photos in it.

After brunch, we stopped by near the Mexico monument to buy some souvenirs. I took photos with a fake zebra (donkey with black and white strips painted on his body) wearing Mexican hat ! I'm so framing this photo! :)

The way back to US feels really slow because we need to queue up in the US border. You can come in to US by cars or by foot. Because we were in a tour bus, we needed to get off the bus and queue up in the immigration, just like in airports. US is really strict on who can come it to their country. They also x-ray everyone's bags because they are really concern about people taking unprescribed drugs/medicine across.

In Mexico, drugs/medicine are really easy to get. Alot of prescribed ones are sold freely with much cheaper price. Viagra can be found everywhere! I lost count of how many times I saw the writing "Viagra sold here - 1 box for $10!". There is more pharmacy in Mexico than McDonald in US!

Well, luckily I got passed the immigration fine :) I heard that if they suspect you of anything, like what happenned to the tour guide once before, you'll get interrogated for 2-3 hours. And since I was there with a tour bus, the bus and everyone else won't be able to wait for us, they will need to leave , and we must get our own transportation back to LA! How nice of them =P

So, that's Mexico. A really interesting place and I do suggest everyone to go when they have the time :)