![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
2008 Year-End Update and 2
Wow! It's the start of a new year in the blink of an eye. 2008 has been a very memorable year for me. Got married, uprooted to US to a new life and got driving license for the 1st time. It's been ages since I've updated my blog, so I thought I will do a quick round-up of my activities from end Oct to Dec. The past 2 months have been really busy, so updating my blog is a chore.
Oct
- Watched my 1st MLS game (ironically it's the last game of the season....)
- Went to San Francisco's fleet week
- Finally got my driving license (THANK GOD!!!)
- Went to Seattle and visited Mt Rainier with Bebe
Nov
- The 1st 2 weeks of Nov were largely spent at home or going neighbourhoods in the peninsula. Our favourite cities in the peninsula are Mountain View (nice downtown), Palo Alto (nice downtown and shopping) and Cupertino (there's a taiwan porridge at Cupertino Village I absolutely love). Not too impressed with Sunnyvale but may be it's because I haven't explored it in detail.
- Went shopping at Gilroy Outlet mall (got good buys of course)
- Went to Las Vegas during Thanksgiving week. We pretty much covered the whole strip, watched 3 Cirque Du Soleil (Ka, O and Love), visited Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam, went outlet shopping on Black Fri (unbelievable buys! Black Fri shopping has to be an annual event for us now.)
Dec
- Went back to Singapore for a week. Pretty good to meet up with friends and eat SG food I miss. It's even nicer to meet Mum and family. Pity I can't stay too long though....
- Went to Chicago. It's a nice city. Reminds me of New York but with less grandiose. It snowed while we were there and we were literally walking in the snow at times. It's a nice experience since it's the 1st time both of us experienced snow. The cold isn't so nice though and I'm very glad to be home after the short trip. Bebe covered almost all the noteworthy Chicago attractions. I managed to visit the Natural History museums and the Adler Planetarium.
I've visited quite a few museums in my travels and I'm still most impressed with the ones in New York and London (I've not been to Paris but I've no doubt Lourve will rank up there with the best). The Getty in LA, Smithsonian in Washington DC and Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam are pretty good too but no other museums managed to leave a deep impression. I need to start checking out the museums in SF to see how they fare against my favourite.
- Spent the next 2 weeks adjusting to life at home. I've been on the road for 3 weeks and it's good to be home.
- During Christmas weekend, we went to Death Valley National Park with Bebe's cousin. It's a long roadtrip but really enjoyable. The desert and mountains there are awesome. I kinda like it more than Grand Canyon actually due to the more diverse sights available there. We stayed overnight at Malibu before flying back from LA. We met up with some of Wini's cousin's BF's friends during breakfast before we flew off. We have the previlege of visiting one of their house. It's the most outrageous and coolest house I've ever seen in my whole life. Firstly, it's perched on top of a hill and overlook a valley with the ocean in the distant background. Secondly, the design of the house is just so arty farty. It's very refreshing compared to the boring houses in SG. Thirdly, the interior of the house is like an art installation/musuem. I will try to post photos when I've time. Despite the wealth of the owner, he's a very humble man and not at all arrogant or show offish.
He even shared with us 2 life lessons:
- Find your canvas and paint it with what you want
- Find the courage to paint
Before you know it, we are celebrating the end of 2008! We didn't go for any NY eve countdown but went to church on NY day to give thanks for the blessings we had received.
1st weekend of 2009
- We went to the Asian Art museum in SF. There's an exhibition showing rare artifacts from Afghanistan that were never seen until they were unearthed from the vault in Kabul where they had stayed hidden until 2004. There's also a mochitsuki performance in the museum. The japanese make sticky rice cakes (mochi) to celebrate the new year and use dance and drum performances to liven up the occasion. I will post a video on the pounding of the mochi when I've time.
- We went to Japantown. Bebe had actually been there 2 times already but it's my 1st time there. There are a lot of japanese restaurants there but the shops aren't that interesting to me(the Kinokuniya there is fantastic though as the japanese manga selection is so much better compared to the SG one). I guess we will probably go back every now and then to catch a meal in one of the restaurants there.
- We will be visiting the Ano Nuevo state park tomorrow. More updates later.
2009 plans
I don't believe in making resolutions, as I feel they are lame. However, I do want to make plans for our travel and leisure plans in 2009. Here are some I have in mind:
Jan 2009
- Visit San Jose Tech Museum
- Catch the Arabian Nights play at Berkeley Repertory Theatre
- Watch the Mexico vs Sweden game at Oakland Coliseum
- Check out Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week
- Go SF chinatown to check out the CNY celebrations
- Visit 2 attractions (perhaps De Young Museum and Academy of Sciences in SF)
Feb 2009
- Catch the Celine Dion concert in San Jose
- Go skiing in Lake Tahoe?
Mar 2009
- Go for a vacation to celebrate Bebe birthday (either a trans-atlantic cruise or Hawaii)
Apr 2009
- Go for world premiere of the Kite Runner play (based on Khaled Hosseni's best seller) in San Jose
- Go for Lieutenant of Inishmore play in Berkeley Repertory Theatre (it's becoming my fav theatre group here. I plan to go for some more performances there too.)
- Catch Wicked in SF
May 2009
- Go Monterey and Carmel for a weekend?
- Go Yosemite?
Jun 2009
- Go back Singapore (Yippee!!)
Nov 2009
- Go back Singapore (I must spend more than a week this time!)
Looks like a busy year ahead. Let's see how the plans will work out.
Oct
- Watched my 1st MLS game (ironically it's the last game of the season....)
- Went to San Francisco's fleet week
- Finally got my driving license (THANK GOD!!!)
- Went to Seattle and visited Mt Rainier with Bebe
Nov
- The 1st 2 weeks of Nov were largely spent at home or going neighbourhoods in the peninsula. Our favourite cities in the peninsula are Mountain View (nice downtown), Palo Alto (nice downtown and shopping) and Cupertino (there's a taiwan porridge at Cupertino Village I absolutely love). Not too impressed with Sunnyvale but may be it's because I haven't explored it in detail.
- Went shopping at Gilroy Outlet mall (got good buys of course)
- Went to Las Vegas during Thanksgiving week. We pretty much covered the whole strip, watched 3 Cirque Du Soleil (Ka, O and Love), visited Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam, went outlet shopping on Black Fri (unbelievable buys! Black Fri shopping has to be an annual event for us now.)
Dec
- Went back to Singapore for a week. Pretty good to meet up with friends and eat SG food I miss. It's even nicer to meet Mum and family. Pity I can't stay too long though....
- Went to Chicago. It's a nice city. Reminds me of New York but with less grandiose. It snowed while we were there and we were literally walking in the snow at times. It's a nice experience since it's the 1st time both of us experienced snow. The cold isn't so nice though and I'm very glad to be home after the short trip. Bebe covered almost all the noteworthy Chicago attractions. I managed to visit the Natural History museums and the Adler Planetarium.
I've visited quite a few museums in my travels and I'm still most impressed with the ones in New York and London (I've not been to Paris but I've no doubt Lourve will rank up there with the best). The Getty in LA, Smithsonian in Washington DC and Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam are pretty good too but no other museums managed to leave a deep impression. I need to start checking out the museums in SF to see how they fare against my favourite.
- Spent the next 2 weeks adjusting to life at home. I've been on the road for 3 weeks and it's good to be home.
- During Christmas weekend, we went to Death Valley National Park with Bebe's cousin. It's a long roadtrip but really enjoyable. The desert and mountains there are awesome. I kinda like it more than Grand Canyon actually due to the more diverse sights available there. We stayed overnight at Malibu before flying back from LA. We met up with some of Wini's cousin's BF's friends during breakfast before we flew off. We have the previlege of visiting one of their house. It's the most outrageous and coolest house I've ever seen in my whole life. Firstly, it's perched on top of a hill and overlook a valley with the ocean in the distant background. Secondly, the design of the house is just so arty farty. It's very refreshing compared to the boring houses in SG. Thirdly, the interior of the house is like an art installation/musuem. I will try to post photos when I've time. Despite the wealth of the owner, he's a very humble man and not at all arrogant or show offish.
He even shared with us 2 life lessons:
- Find your canvas and paint it with what you want
- Find the courage to paint
Before you know it, we are celebrating the end of 2008! We didn't go for any NY eve countdown but went to church on NY day to give thanks for the blessings we had received.
1st weekend of 2009
- We went to the Asian Art museum in SF. There's an exhibition showing rare artifacts from Afghanistan that were never seen until they were unearthed from the vault in Kabul where they had stayed hidden until 2004. There's also a mochitsuki performance in the museum. The japanese make sticky rice cakes (mochi) to celebrate the new year and use dance and drum performances to liven up the occasion. I will post a video on the pounding of the mochi when I've time.
- We went to Japantown. Bebe had actually been there 2 times already but it's my 1st time there. There are a lot of japanese restaurants there but the shops aren't that interesting to me(the Kinokuniya there is fantastic though as the japanese manga selection is so much better compared to the SG one). I guess we will probably go back every now and then to catch a meal in one of the restaurants there.
- We will be visiting the Ano Nuevo state park tomorrow. More updates later.
2009 plans
I don't believe in making resolutions, as I feel they are lame. However, I do want to make plans for our travel and leisure plans in 2009. Here are some I have in mind:
Jan 2009
- Visit San Jose Tech Museum
- Catch the Arabian Nights play at Berkeley Repertory Theatre
- Watch the Mexico vs Sweden game at Oakland Coliseum
- Check out Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week
- Go SF chinatown to check out the CNY celebrations
- Visit 2 attractions (perhaps De Young Museum and Academy of Sciences in SF)
Feb 2009
- Catch the Celine Dion concert in San Jose
- Go skiing in Lake Tahoe?
Mar 2009
- Go for a vacation to celebrate Bebe birthday (either a trans-atlantic cruise or Hawaii)
Apr 2009
- Go for world premiere of the Kite Runner play (based on Khaled Hosseni's best seller) in San Jose
- Go for Lieutenant of Inishmore play in Berkeley Repertory Theatre (it's becoming my fav theatre group here. I plan to go for some more performances there too.)
- Catch Wicked in SF
May 2009
- Go Monterey and Carmel for a weekend?
- Go Yosemite?
Jun 2009
- Go back Singapore (Yippee!!)
Nov 2009
- Go back Singapore (I must spend more than a week this time!)
Looks like a busy year ahead. Let's see how the plans will work out.
Comments