Whale Watching but NO Whale!!

As previously mentioned, we went Whale Watching at Dana Point, Anaheim on Tuesday (21 December 2010. The weather was still bad... gloomy and it was drizzling abit (at least it wasn't pouring like the day before... where we were all soaked to the bones in Disneyland) and I wasn't sure if the tour out to the Pacific Ocean was still gonna happen. Was gonna call them, but figured that even if they were going to give us a rain-check, we still had to be there to exchange the vouchers. So drove all the way down from our hotel in Cerritos to Dana Point. It took us about an hour. When we arrived, the tour operators mentioned that the sea is calm and if the wind does not pick up, the tour will go on. The only thing was that the tour is at noon instead of 10 am. So we thought we should go and have a nice breakfast. Our GPS software showed that the St.Regis was a couple of miles away from where we were. And that was where we headed out.

Waaaaa... The entrance to the St. Regis is soooooooooooooooo nice. My very spoilt boys who initially said that they were too full to eat again suddenly decided that they want to eat after all.... BUT BUT... St. Regis has NO self-park and the only way is valet-parking. And knowing me... I really really do not fancy paying like $30 for parking! So off we went from the really fancy and luxurious St. Regis. Out pop the GPS software again, and Voila! Marriot is again round the corner... and certainly Marriot is cheaper than St. Regis... we go there.
ALAMAK! Again. Valet Parking only. H was like... "really don't want to go ah? Why so cheapo?" ...I really wanted to grit my teeth and ngeh-ngeh-lai say OKAY but really cannot make myself fork out $30 for valet parking lah. So where you think we ended up??
Denny's!
Free Parking PLUS think the bill was less than $30!
And boys ate so much that they were gonna burst!
By the time we finished, there wasn't really much time left so we headed out to the Dana Point Harbor again.

There were about two other families that joined us.. all in all, think there were only 11 of us.
Here are some photos... You can see that the sky is sooooooo gloomy and grey. A very depressing day.

This is what was offerred...

Boats around...

View as we pulled out from the harbour

Pelicans (? or albatross? I also donno) in a row

Fly free as a bird....

I tell you... the birds (albatross? pelicans?) were HUGE and one kept landing on the boat we were on. My silly S2 actually screamed out sooooo loud the first time this HUGE bird landed rather close to him. I thought what had happened.

Although it is the GRAY WHALE MIGRATION Season, we didn't even get to see one. There were hopes of seeing a baby sperm whale - which was trapped somewhat out there whereby boats had to go out and rescue it the day before... but NADDA on the day we went out. There was one time when H saw something move ... and not long later, our boat was also heading towards it. I was like soooo excited but then... bleah. it turn out to be some debris washed out by the storm. I don't know if it's because of the once-in-a-decade storm that had made the whales go a bit 'confused' in their journey.

Anyway, as they GUARANTEE that you see a whale, they gave us "WHALE CHECKS" which has no expiry date. Apparently, the company has been around for 40 years and they say they will be around in the next 40 years. So I guess I can keep those "WHALE CHECKS' coupons and bring my GRANDCHILDREN!!

The boys? Think half the time, they were sleeping inside the boat!

Before I go...here is a picture of the Xmas Tree at Disneyland taken the night before.....

Buy Rubbish??

Remember that I mentioned that our rental car was packed to the brim with our luggage in my older post? Well, we went with 2 large checked-in luggage and 3 hand-carry trolley bags. Basically, what we did was to put a mid-size luggage bag into a larger size one, and also had an empty soft canvas bag. By the time we left, we had 5 pieces of checked-in bags and 3 hand-carry trolley bags. This is not counting the 3 boys' knapsacks and my handbag.

Here are some of the stuff that we lugged back....

Some of my Scrapbooking Albums

Don't dare to show you all my scrapbooking stash. A bit shy to show.... didn't realise how much I bought until I tried to unload the bags and put the things away. Didn't have any space... had to re-organise everything. Basically, I bought about 7 paper stacks, 4 albums + refill pages, Slice Electronic Cutter, Slice Design Cards, Embossing Tips, Slice 12x12 hands-free Glass Mat, Adhesive Sprays, Adhesive tapes, Embellishments (Jolee's Stickers, etc), Acrylic Stamps, Ink Pads, Heat Gun, Embossing Powder.... Sis No.2 said that I have supplies to last me 10 years. Hahahaha

Leftover Stuff...

Other than the Reese Ice-Cream Topper, we sere supposed to eat the other stuff but didn't managed to.

Wilton Gel Colours, Sparkly Powder and Vanilla Extract

Leaf-Shaped Pie Crust Cutters

These were majorly discounted ..from $13 to $3!!

Cupcake Liners and Toppers

Again...discounted to $3!!! From about $13!

Fat Burners

With all the binging... Must get some of these lah! They are for both H and I

Easy-to-Bake Biscuits and Butterscotch Chips
We love the freshly baked warm cheesy biscuits at The Red Lobster. Let's see if these will be the same!

The Three Boys' Junk Food
Need to ration these...otherwise they will go crazy. Bought extra for S2's Birthday, which is coming up in a month's time.

Pine Nuts
For our salads. It's so expensive here

MY Cup...
I am the Princess!

The boys' Range of Souvenir Cups
Actually... more of S2's

S2's Spongebob Bottle
This is really really HUGE!

Pork Stock Cubes from Taipei

Miscellaneous Snacks fron Taipei

Then there's the 10 books S1 bought, the 2 discounted board games, the two Old Navy Jackets, for the boys, H's Leather Jacket and Banana Republic Stuff, the Gap Sweaters, The Shoes (Puma for S1, El-Cheapo Walmart Shoes for S2, My Ugg), Blue Man Group DVD and CDs (gila boys lah!), S1's Indiana Jones Hat etc etc etc. And the icing on the cake is of course my Xmas Pressie... A Tod's Handbag :-)

Transit in Taipei....

I am currently Still waiting in Taipei for our flight to Singapore...another hour to go. Our flight from LAX arrived at 6 am this morning...9 hours ago. Don't ask me why the transit time is soooooooo long but we took the opportunity to go downtown Taipei to eat. Took a bus down, and with my smattering of Mandarin and Hokkien, managed to eat quite a lot of stuff. hahaha... Had some pork buns, then some yau char kwey with soya bean, beef noodle soup, some condiment-wrapped rice thingy, more beef noodles, porky sausage and of course pearl bubble tea. Didn't eat any siu long pau though. We did get to see Taipei 101 (didn't want to pay NT400 per pax to go up so didn't go to the Observatory) and both the Sun Yat Sen and Chiang Kai Shek Memorials from the outside. Not bad huh? For a few hours huh? We left the city at noon as H didn't want to be rushing again...like when we were in LA.

We took our own sweet time...going for dinner at Red Lobster and then to Michael's (hey..it was across the street from Red Lobster)..and then to the airport. When we got there, we found that there was no Bag Drop counters for Internet check-in and the queues were soooooooo long. I have to say that I sorta started to be a bit nervous...as we still had to fill the tank and return the car. Decided to ask H to go ahead and return the car and I wait in the queue. The check-in guy was nice enough to let me check-in even though he has to sight all the passengers...but he did held on to our boarding pass until H and S1 came back.

Aiyo...and the queue through security was soooooooo long, body scans and all... Donna whether it's because the airport is under Reno or what, but the airport looks quite sad lor. Not many shops... Unlike the Taipei Airport ...lots of shops wor..

Anyway, The bummer thing was I had to pay USD 32 for excess baggage. There was 4 of us and 5 bags... The allowance was 8 bags with each bag not exceeding 23 kg. Two of our bags were very light but they see the weight of individual bags..,and one bag was 32 kg. He said I could
transfer stuff over to the other bags. Aiyo...how to do that in the middle of the airport? Plus H had the keys to the bags. So I just paid the USD 32 la...what to do?? We really had so much rubbish. Donna what we bought also...the car was packed to the brim - the boot plus the back seat as well. The boys had to sit closely together...and needless to say, lots of fighting in the back.
And we probably need 2 cabs in Singapore to get to sister No.2's place, and then another 2 cabs to get back to the airport on Sunday... Hope I don't have to pay excess baggage for my flight from Singapore to Jakarta...on AirAsia!!! Yeah Yeah....my China Airlines flight to LAX is from Singapore, so we had to buy separate budget airline flights from Jakarta to Singapore... Hehe..

Okay lah...later....

Vacation is coming to an End....

Yup! Time does fly! In 3 days, we'll be boarding our flight bound for home. Not that I am complaining....I miss my simple comfort foods of noodle soup and such. Been eating so much Angmoh foods that I am pretty sien already. Everything also served with French fries! Adoi! We went to Bouchon at Beverly Hills the other night...and I thought I won't see a single string of French fries since it is a French Bistro. Wei??? French fries came with the main. Pengsan! Contrary to what people think, French Fries do NOT originate from France!

I donna whether is it because we are traveling with the boys or what...but it is certainly not a leisurely vacation. Feel stressed and mang-Chang a lot of times. Maybe because we feel that we need to show the boys everything, let them experience everything...and we feel a bit disappointed when they don't seem to be interested, or when they complain about things. So difficult! Wanna do some shopping, then the whining comes. Wanna eat out, also complain. Aiyo...

Did we do a lot this trip? Did we do enough??

We spent 5 nights in Orange County... Did 2 full days at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, went Whale Watching at Dana Point (but didn't see any whales :-p), watched the Pirates Adventure at Buena Vista and shopping at Joann's and Michael's.
I supposed we could have done more if the weather was better...but luckily it did clear up.

We then drove to Las Vegas for Xmas. Spent 5 nights at The Mirage. Went to the Grand Canyon, watched The Blue Man Group, the Titanic Exhibition and The Variety Show with the boys, met with S2's classmate and family for lunch (they were also in LV), met again for supper (adults only) and only went back to hotel at 3 am!, gambled abit, went mini-golf, shopping at Premium Outlets (didn't buy much as wrong season plus too many people). H and I left the boys in the room one night and went to watch Zumanity - The sensual side of Cirque du Soleil
(18 and above only)... My verdict? Not very good lor. Just a lot of boobies, and dirty jokes on the audience. It would be okay if you don't know it is Cirque du Soleil.

We left Las Vegas for LA on the 29th. Went to Six Flags Magic Mountain immediately the next day...though it was a bright and sunny day, it was freaking cold. And boy! Was the queues loooooooooong!!! Boys only managed like 5 rides! I did two... The Collosos - a wooden coaster...Aiyo, really so rickety! It was soooooooo cold that my eyes reared uncontrollably as the coaster whooshed down. Also went on the Batman, a ride where your legs are dangling off the coaster. We wanted to do the Riddler's Revenge - a standing Coaster but the queues were really toooooo long, plus we were freezing our butts off. So decided to abandon that idea. Otherwise, it would be my first Standing Coaster Ride! Yeah! Me bad.... I did sone rides that I shouldn't have. Thank goodness NO problems...yet.

New Year's Eve was at Universal Studios. Supposed to spend the whole day here for the countdown.universal City Walk had concerts till midnight, then fireworks. But 10.20 pm... We all left. Cannot tahan ler. Plus boys weren't keen as well. If boys wanted to, I would ngeh-ngeh -lai stay till the end. They also donwan. Plus we had to wake up at 5.30 am the next morning for the Rose Parade. Before midnight, I conked off liow.,

My alarm on my iPhone didn't ring at 5.30 am leh. Luckily I woke up at 5.40 am. Drove to Pasadena for the Rose Parade. We had bought Grandstand Seats.... (shucks! Just missed S1's landing! Cause busy blogging! Aiya...). It us one of this things "been there. Done that. Won't do again" kind. Day was bright and sunny but freaking cold at 35 Dec Farenheit.... But by the time it ended, temperature was almost 60 deg Farenheit. Such a drastic change! Spent some hours at The Grove. Sunday was yum char in Chinatown and what else??? Aiyo..cannot remember.

Monday? Supposed to go to Seaworld San Diego but weather report says showers so decided to postpone till Wed (tomorrow). But weather was pretty good. Drove to Malibu for lunch...showed boys some beachfront houses...so that they can buy one for H and my retirement. Hahaha. Walked along the Santa Monica Pier then to Hollywood Blvd ...this one sure must-do...walk on the stars..

And today? S1 went foe an introductory flying class....at the Santa Monica Airport. He said this was the best in the whole trip...

Okay later. Going for lunch now.

Is it because they are BOYS???

Or is it because they are BIG now???
We were at both Disneyland and Disney California Adventure on Thursday (23 Dec)...thankfully the weather cleared and was bright and sunny by Thursday morning as how California should be! I initially bought the 2 Day, 1 Park per Day ticket.... But because of the rains, our visit to Disneyland was unsatisfactory. Luckily, I could upgrade our tickets to 2 Day Hopper Tickets ($10 extra per ticket) so that we can hop between Disneyland and Disney California Adventure. I was determined to watch ALL shows, parades, fireworks etc on Thursday... to make up for the 'lost' time where everything was cancelled on Monday.

Anyway, boys were okay with the first parade at Disneyland - which was a Christmas Parade (photos to come later).... I was more excited than my kids. They were really just okay with it. When I wanted to catch the second parade at Disney California Adventure, my boys were like "Huh? Another parade? Must we watch it?" ... bleah... But I wanna watch it!!
Did manage to watch part of it....as S1 and I were on a ride (S2 and H stayed behind as they hate thrill rides) and we came out a little after the parade had started.

And for the Disneyland Fireworks... I thought that was quite a main attraction and a MUST watch. BUT no one wanted to watch it!!! the three of them went them for the Buzz Lightyear Astros Blaster Ride leaving poor ole me alone on Main Street. Yup! Experienced the magical fireworks and snowfall ALL ALONE!!! So...why no interest in these??? Boys!!!

Don't even mention about photos with the Disney characters... NADDA.
:-(

Once in a DECADE!

Actually not. Apparently it is Once in about 15 years!
What am I talking about?
This Pacific Coast Storm!!!
It has been raining and raining and raining since we arrived on Sunday!
What a bummer!
We were at Disneyland on Monday and it was certainly NOT fun....for both H and I that is. Boys still thought the day was EXCELLENT! Would definitely be awesome if the day was dry! It was soooooooo wet that all shows were cancelled. The Christmas Parade, Fantasmic and the Fireworks - ALL Cancelled! Boy. Was I disappointed. Funnily though, boys were not. They even joked that if the parade was on, you would see Cinderella in her poncho! Actually, I was in my Disneyland poncho the whole time!
Even though it was raining, the park was still quite crowded....with kids and toddlers and babies. I guess my grandma would say 'Siow Angmoh"!
Okay la...gotta go.

eBay Rookie

I have just signed-up on eBay yesterday... and proceeded to place bids on numerous scrapbooking lots. S2 saw what I was doing and then commented "You must wait only until the last 5 minutes, then place a bid a few cents above, then you will win". His dad asked him how he knew that... From "George Lopez", was the answer!

Obviously, I didn't pay attention to him... placing bids so that I was the highest bidder. There was one particular auction whereby there was only 40 minutes left, and I was the highest bidder then. H kept telling me to stay awake to monitor the bids. I didn't. And this morning, when I checked my eBay account... I lost. And you know what? The fella really only place a bid a couple of minutes before the auction closed. So I could have jumped-in with a higher bid. I lost by USD 1.00 !

Not only that, when I looked at the other lots where I had placed a bid... I had been outbid LEFT, RIGHT and CENTER. i have also been doing the NO-NO. I've been increasing my bid repeatedly yesterday... Basically, I drove the price up. SILLY ROOKIE!

I was kinda frustrated with being outbid, that I just went ahead and bought a 50 pack Jolee's Stickers at USD 19.99 without going through the bidding process. Told the seller to HOLD shipment until the other auction ends... in case I win, and then shipment can be in one lot...to our hotel in Anaheim (taking boys to Disneyland etc etc.. in December).

So now... I am not going to bid until the last couple of minutes. Looks like I am following my S2's strategy of putting a bid at the last minute, after all.

I am watching another auction that is expiring tonight... at midnight. Can I stay up? I will have to stay up! I wanna get the 6000+ pieces of scrapbooking stuff!!!!

WISH ME LUCK!

(Errr... I was going through my existing stash. Looks like I have quite a lot of stuff... so do I need more????)

Partial Loot from USA (Houston, New Orleans & DC)

Yes. Yes. Very back-dated. Been procrastinating...

These are some of the stuff that we bought on our recent trip (July 2010) to the States.

iTunes, Adventure Quest and playfish cards

Food Stuff from New Orleans

Lots of Intimates from Victoria's Secret

proactiv Facial Stuff

Cole Haan Footwear....
(Big Big Discount at the Outlets!)

Didn't take photos of H's Kenneth Cole shoe, my clothes nor S1's clothes.

I bought quite a number of skirts and tops from Banana Republic and Ann Taylor. Was frantically looking for a gift for my MIL at The Galleria Houston on our last day there... Went into Ann Taylor to find something for my MIL.... but came out with 3 pieces for myself. Sale maaa... Hahahahha...
Finally managed to find her something from GAP. But what do you know? It was too tight for her, and guess who ended up with the GAP top? Moi!!! Hahahahahha

Didn't buy any clothes for S2...as he doesn't seem to grow.. *sigh*
But bought quite a lot of GAP stuff forS1...but somehow that fella kept wearing OLD and UGLY stuff. If you look at him, you would surely think that this guy has only two T-Shirts! Don't want to buy him anything liow!!

Are you loyal???

No. Not asking if you are loyal to your spouse. Just asking if you are loyal to any hotel brands, ie. that you MUST stay only at Hilton hotels. Other hotels are out-of-the-question kind. Well, if you are NOT (like us), then you really must go to the following two sites to book your hotels whenever you travel. (Nope. This is not a sponsored post. Don't worry..NOT trying to sell you stuff!)

1) http://www.hotwire.com/

2) http://www.priceline.com/

I tell you, it's really really cheaper than what you would find "normally" online. The only thing is that you do NOT know the name of the hotel when you book it. They do list their usual partner hotels somewhere on the site, and these are the well-known brands...so don't worry as you will not get some AH KOW Hotel or whatever.

Our experience has been pretty good for our recent trip to the US. We used Hotwire for our New Orleans hotel. Their tag is "4* hotels at 2* prices". We selected the dates and there would be a list of hotels ranging from 2* to 4* with varying prices. There would be guest rating of the hotels, list of facilities, general location of the hotel. The only thing is the NAME of the hotel is NOT given. The name of the hotel is ONLY revealed to you after payment. We picked a 4* hotel which was at $69 + tax. And the hotel we got was Intercontinental New Orleans. For this price, if we were to select KNOWN hotels, I really could only get 2 1/2* hotels. Yes. I checked. Plus the location was really great. I have a friend that had previously used this site for her Rome hotel, so it works for Europe as well. Don't think they cover Asian hotels yet though....

As for Priceline, they have HK and Singapore sites to cover the Asian region. So DO check them out. When I mean check them out, not the "usual" hotel booking. You have to use the "NAME YOUR OWN PRICE" option to get the best discounts. Again, you do NOT know the hotel name. You pick the location, dates and then place a bid. If a hotel accepts your bid, you agree and pay, only then the NAME of the hotel will be revealed. I did this for our Washington DC hotels. I started off with bidding for 4* hotels, but my bid of USD 100 was not accepted at all, so had to downgrade to 3.5*. I didn't want to pay more than a 100. Anyway, we managed to get The Crowne Plaza Hamilton which was like only a few blocks from the White House. It was pretty good. I checked online for the cheapest rate....which was USD 199 + tax, if I were to go straight for this hotel. The only catch is that if you wanna extend your stay, you might not be able to do so.... like in our case. So, I re-bid but couldn't get the same area...but got the Marriot Wardman Park at USD 100 + tax. Cheapest online rate on Orbitz was like USD 225 + tax.
Really, USD 100 + tax will only get 2 - 2.5* hotels if the hotel name is KNOWN when booking.

For our Houston hotel, used this option too....bid USD 60 for a 4* hotel in the Galleria area. Managed to get Hilton Post Oak. Very very nice.

So.... next time when you go on a holiday, and you don't mind which hotel you stay, use these two sites. As I said, don't worry...they won't use AH KOW HOTEL for they have their list of partner hotels....

Oh yeah. For cars... go to www.carrentals.com as they will give you a list of cars from ALL major rental car companies and types of car. So you can pick and choose the cheapest etc. I mean you usually would get the smallest car thinking it is the cheapest, right? How wrong we were. Our huge 4WD car in NYC (this was in October 2008) was waaaaaay cheaper than the usual Economy-classed car.

My Shots of Washington, DC

We were in Washington DC for 5 nights from the 24th to the 29th of July, 2010. For the first few days, we walked and walked and walked till we almost died. Yes. The Metro is good. But some stops are still quite a distance to the attractions. And the killer walk is the one along The National Mall. It is a loooooong walk.

The hotel for the first three nights was pretty good - Crowne Plaza Hamilton, a few blocks from the White House. The subsequent two nights were so-so...The Marriot Wardman Park near the zoo. Why two hotels? That will be another post...

As our hotel was so close to the White House. Obviously, that was our first stop. I was busy taking photos like the rest of the tourists...and H said "Never seen the White House is it?"... Well, as I am a scrapbooker, I had to take some shots for my scrapbooking, right?

The White House - Front
(Actually, I cannot remember which is Front and which is Back lah)

The White House - Back

(One can tour the White House...but for foreigners, the procedure is lengthy as in months!)

The Capitol Hill

Capitol Hill Dome

(Tours of the Capitol Hill are free...and you can book a time slot in advance)

Ford Theatre

- Balcony where Lincoln was assasinated

The Washington Monument

Views from The Washington Monument

(Tours up are free, and you can book your tickets online)

Real Dinosaur Skeletons from The Natural History Museum, The Smithsonian Institute
(Not like the fakies over at London's Natural History Museum)

We hired a car for the last two days... one day to do SHOPPING!!! And the other to visit George Washington's Home in Mount Vernon, Virginia

George Washington's Home
(This one must pay....)

Think that's it for Washington, DC... for the time being...

Some photos of New Orleans...

Here are some scenes from New Orleans, aka The Big Easy...

Views at Jackson Square

Left - Statue of Louis Armstrong at the Airport
Right - Famed Cafe du Monde (located near to Jackson Square)

Street Performers on Bourbon Street

Bourbon Street ...

Some buildings around New Orleans

Food Glorious Food... Cajun & Creole Specialites

Laura Plantation - A Creole Plantation
(quite interesting)

We went to Jean Lafite Swamp Tours
(soooooo boring)

_________

Bye-Bye DC

Wow! Time really does fly. With a blink of an eye, 5 nights here in Washington DC has gone by. Yeah, 5 nights in DC seems a lot but not when you consider us flying in late and flying out early....and the spending a day out at the factory outlets. Donno why the day we were due to go out to the factory outlets, I dreamt of Laundryamah. Both she and I were flying to London for shopping and on the plane, I found out that she has bought 2 seats for herself....so that she could have the extra 20 kg baggage allowance!!! She is the most shopaholic friend that I have. I kept telling H that if Laundryamah comes to the states for shopping, she sure will go GILA!!! Espeacially when there is a sale at the outlets. can you imagine Cole Haan shoes at USD 45 per pair???? I bought 3 pairs...I think Laundryamah would buy like 10 pairs!!

Okay lah...continue later. Think my free airport wifi is going to run out soon.

NOLA

No la. I don't mean no la. What I meant is New Orleans Louisiana. We have been here for three nights. Today is our last day here....later, we will be catching a flight to Washington DC.

Didn't realise that there is so much French influences here in New Orleans. Even until today, Louisiana State's law of governance is totally different from the rest of United States, under what they called the Napolenic Law or something like that. We have been eating and drinking since the start of our holiday.....really bad!! We've been having grilled oysters, seafood gumbo, fried seafood, crabxakes, crawfish etoufee, and had ourfirst po-boy this morning. Srill havent had jambalaya though...which we will try to savour before we leave the city. Will post photos of all the yummy foods once I geet home.

Okay..better go now. Not very used to the keyboard on this new toy...Yup. Our ipad which we got a friend to order and delivered to our hotel in New Orleans..

Houston A-Calling...

Arrived in Houston yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon. Was supposed to go and do some shopping at Macy's near our airport hotel. But was soooooooo sleepy. Didn't sleep at all on the 12-hour flight from Moscow. Instead, I watched movies until my eyes popped out. My crying my eyes out made my eyes puffy and small. Aiya...watched this mega sob sob story starring Simon Yam and Sandra Ng. Should have known better when the write-up emphasized that it won a prize in the Berlin Film Festival - winners are always very emotionally intense!
We checked into the airport hotel and zzzzz and by the time I sorta woke up at 7 ish pm, H said too late to go out... What do I do? Plonk back to bed....and then was wide-eyed at 11.30 pm. Sleep. Wake-up. Sleep. Wake-up.

Well, it's only 8 AM now. We have showered, changed and had breakfast. Killing time now till 8.30 AM to catch the airport shuttle...to the airport for our 10.25 AM flight to New Orleans. Probably more twiddling thumbs when we reach the airport. But can't complain. If I didn't get my passport on Monday, we would have to hire a car and make the 6-hour drive to New Orleans as our flights cannot be changed, and a new ticket would be USD 180 per pax! So have to say LUCKY that we can keep to our original schedule.

Back on schedule....

We are back on schedule. I am now at Domodedovo Airport waiting for our flight to Houston. My passport managed to arrive at our Hotel yesterday afternoon (Monday) after traveling from Jakarta to Singapore to somewhere in Germany and then finally to Moscow. It was then a long process of calling Singapore Airlines to switch our flights from Thursday (22 July) back to our original Tuesday (20 July). H's phone bill is going to be astronomical. But have to say Sasha at the SQ Moscow office is rather helpful and speaks fluent English. She handled our case when we were at the office last Friday to sort out my mess. Anyway, here I am.

Four nights in Moscow is indeed enough.... Especially we are not Opera buffs. Not religious nor into Art. The city is tooooooo hot at this time of the year for a comfortable visit as it is not equipped for summers. Ice is really really a scarce commodity here. We were at Cafe Pushkin yesterday, and my 7up came without ice. Asked for some and found that it costs USD 1.30 for the glass of ice. Even our McDonald's soda does not come with ice.

Most of the buildings have no aircons or substandard ones. Even at the theatres. When we went to watch "Nutcracker", I told H to bring my shawl ... in case it was cold. Aduh! It was sooooooo hot! Can you imagine paper fans being sold together with the programs??? When the conductor came up to take a bow, he was absolutely drenched!!

Okay. Continue later. H says to go to the gate now.

Dum-Dum

I am a REAL dum-dum.
I knew I was going to Moscow and then the US. And what do you know??? On my flight to Singapore from KUL, I suddenly thought about my US visa. Is it in my current passport or in my old passport? Just 15 minutes before touching down at Changi, I rummaged through my handbag to get my passport. Lo and behold - my current passport do NOT have my US visa. Almost had a heart attack. The moment I got down from the plane, H was waiting at the gate....and immediately could tell something was wrong. Told him what happened and he was pretty calm. I thought he would surely kill me!

First thing to do was to see if we could change our flight to the following day. But flights were full......especially for redemption tickets. Then H said we should get my friend to go to our house to get my passport from our safe. This friend ... Can trust la. Called her up and she agreed to drive to my house. A day later, she would have been away in the mountains with her family. Also, maid was still in the house... So gave instructions on how to open safe over the phone. Aiyo.... Think 5th try only managed to have the safe opened, got my passport, checked US visa in there, close safe then lock it back. Passport then given to H's colleague who was summoned to our house to collect my passport.

Passport then passed to H's secretary on Friday morning to be couriered. It's like a big operation...friend, maid, colleague, secretary and now DHL ... All because of my stupidity!!! And donno why the package has to go to London first....and am told package will only arrive in Moscow on Tuesday. And you know what? My flight is on Tuesday. So what to do? Have to postpone the flight to the US. And since there will not be a flight on Wednesday to Houston, we can only fly out on Thursday. H says my c@ck-up has forced us to stay 2 extra days in this boring city! ;-(

So many things to change not to mention the list $$$$. We will have to rebook our Houston - New Orleans flights, extra 2 nights hotel in Moscow, the prepaid rooms at Houston and one night of New Orleans room. *sigh* really don't know how come I can be so dum-dum. This is not the first time I travel to the US summore!!!

Anyway, the last we checked, the package just left Jakarta this afternoon. Probably going to Singapore then London and then finally to Moscow. Now we are in Cafe Vogue in Moscow, and H is just wondering out loud if he can entice the 3 middle-aged Russian ladies in the other table to give him a cigarette. Told him to go ahead....,

Okay. Gotta go sort out our Houston - New Orleans flights with this free wifi. Tata

Cannot Sleep....

Don't you hate it?

Being tired and NOT able to have a good night's sleep?
This always happens to me. When I have loads on my mind, and the brain just cannot relax to shutdown properly. Sometimes, it's trouble getting to sleep. At other times, it would be waking up in the middle of the night.
Well, today is the latter. Woke up just before 4 AM. And was tossing and turning. Decided to just get up and brush my teeth at 5 am. Besides, need to be up at 6 AM anyway.

You must be thinking "Why on earth at 6 AM on a Saturday morning??"
Well, didn't I mention that I am officially a Soccer Mom now?
S2 has a game at 8 AM, but we would have to be there by 7.30 AM...so that the boys can warm up together as a team. Initially, S1 was supposed to have atheletics training at 7 AM this morning too, but that since has been changed. He's currently trying out for the Fobissea Squad, and as part of the selection process, took park in the Mini Swim Meet yesterday (Friday, 29 Jan). I didn't go to school to watch. Just thought that another trip to school would kill my back. Okay ...That was abit of an exaggeration but I was at school many times this week, i.e. on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. So I sent H to school instead. Don't think S1 did too well. He participated in 2 events - he was 3rd and 4th in the events, I think...

Anyway, re - the upgrade at Crowne Plaza Changi in my last post. Here are the photos...

The Living Area

H wants me to show the Airport Luggage Trolley in the Room

Bedroom

Bathroom
(Definitely MUCH MUCH bigger than our NYC room!)

Didn't take pic of the walk-in wardrobe area....and there were two flat screens - one in the living and one in the bedroom.