Hello 2016

Tomorrow will be a week since we got back from our nearly month-long vacation in Bangladesh and Bali over the Christmas and New Year Holidays. How did it go, you ask? Read this. Another lesson from this trip? Just don't travel during the Holidays. Don't. The fare price is double the regular price, and very crowded too. But the rewards somewhat outweigh all the hassles. We were with family and friends on Christmas day since my nephew had organized a party and invited friends over. So little kids brought their parents too and the house was full of people laughing, talking and eating. So much fun!

We were invited for a NY eve dinner across town and we encountered the famous Dhaka traffic jam. I was trying to hold my pee.

In between Christmas and NY, we traveled by train to seaport city of Khulna for 11 hours to board a 3-night cruise of the world's largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans (national forest, half belongs to India and the other Bangladesh). The cruise ship carried 36 passengers, including this lady whose blog I read. Small world isn't it? Before leaving Bangladesh, I paid a visit to another blogger who now lives in Bangladesh permanently.

Now Bali is the part of the vacation that solely for us. WE always do this when we go to Bangladesh, we set aside a few days in a different location just for the two of us to recharge our batteries. Being with family can be too overwhelming as well you know. However, Bali is too HOT!

I'll tell you more about Bali later on. I'm still not fully over my jet lag.

Reasons Why I Don't Read

Oh my goodness, this blog is truly neglected. And I will show you why, in addition to why I no longer get to read fiction.













With the exception of the first image, all the images were printed from the internet. I was intrigued with the coloring fad but I didn't do anything about it. However, on a trip to Walmart, I found a coloring book that was within my price range. So I bought it and some color pencils. The first few designs I did were horrible. At least these ones I think are not so bad. My eye for artistic beauty seem to be lacking. I am continually second guessing my choices of color scheme.

But this is why I have been doing little else in my free time. Have you joined the coloring trend yet?

It's All Good, Baby. All Good.

Since I haven’t been around these parts lately, I want to share what’s been happening with life around my neck of the woods.

VERY GOOD:

Had a birthday (Thursday), took 2 days off giving me and the husband 4-day weekend. He treated me well for my birthday, exceeded all expectations. We don’t normally do a “big” thing for our birthdays. Dinner is the norm. However, for this birthday he pulled out all the stops. Flowers, cake, a sunset dinner Hornblower cruise around the bay, a beautiful sapphire ring, mani-pedi, massage, lunch at a Filipino restaurant in the Mission Distrit, a short road trip to Occidental, Bodega Bay, Tomales Bay, Olema, Pt. Reyes.

ALSO SO GOOD:

Friends came over the next day to share dinner at home. Got the very best scribbled b/day greeting from my favorite 7-year-old boy who we babysit. He decorated the drawing with kitty heads. He knows I’m a big cat person. His folks on the other hand gave me a wonderful set of jewelry. The mom knew I adore fashion jewelry and had asked me before where I shop for them. I really adored the gift. My other friend got me a wrap-around skirt, which would need a little bit of alteration, but I got the sewing machine for that. The night was wonderful. Filled with adult conversation and discussions from politics to culture to fashion and everything in between. It was as satisfying as the pesto pasta we had for dinner. The party broke at midnight.

On Saturday, we went to dinner with my two brothers, mom, and one sis-in-law at our favorite hole-in-the-wall Chinese place in El Cerrito. We ordered up a storm, got two dishes to go and only added up to $80. I chose the place because that’s my mom’s favorite spot and also wanted the family to know about this place. I think my sis-in-law is already making plans to bring people there. It’s a nice place to eat, if you don’t mind the nonexistent decor. Always I find my table the only non-Chinese when dining there. Talk about authentic dishes. They have for that day snails in black bean sauce that my brother adored. I scored big time there. It impressed him, because in restaurants like this you don’t want to see sweet and sour pork in the menu (although they have it).

On Sunday, we went to a friends’ wedding. We met the groom through church. We’ve been around them awhile, through the ups and downs, and we’re elated when they told us they are finally getting married. I didn’t do a church wedding because I am the type to shy away from spotlight. I don’t want the attention, but I enjoy going to parties like a wedding reception. The ceremony was casual, fun, and the priest was on top of his game and very funny. Honestly though, it was too casual for my liking.

The reception was held in Pleasant Hill and has an open bar. Truth be told I was hungry like a horse but threw caution to the wind and drank while munching on apps. I had three drinks (2 margaritas and a mojito) and didn’t feel buzzed at all. I guess the drinks were weak. The affair was catered but the bride and groom had requested that my husband make his famous cauliflower biryani and chicken kebab to supplement the food. The couple loved my husband’s cooking and so we both “slaved” at the kitchen Saturday evening and Sunday morning. It was all worth it when the caterer asked my husband after the dinner was served how he cooked his biryani and if he has a restaurant. High compliments, wow! My husband can really cook!

We were at the table with good friends of ours, a couple with their two kids, the younger one was one of the flower girls. She devoured every dessert and like any 5-year-olds has learned to manipulate people to get what she wants. She’s so adorable. I came to the table with my plate full of apps when she saw I had desserts. The girl immediately asked me where the dessert table was. She had more servings than I can ever count. Later her mom must have put out the stop sign on her dessert table trek so she asked me if she could go ahead and grab some dessert for me. Wise eh? I said go ahead, get me one and you can go and grab one for you too. She did. I let mine sit at my plate. I never intended to eat it. It was for her all along because I knew she would ask for it later on. And she did!!!!! I love that adorable girl.

Later, the mom texted me a picture of her and the brother all asleep in the car on the drive home. I’m glad she didn’t crash from sugar high that night and gave her folks a quiet Sunday night.

NOT SO GOOD

My reading has been derailed. First by a renewed attraction to Bejewelled Blitz and second by a new addiction to coloring these wonderful designs that are like zentangles. I have 2 books that I was reading simultaneously, but both are now waiting for whatever free time I’m going to have after all these hobbies.

Blah! Blah! Blah!

Two weeks ago was my last post here. There’s not much to tell about the past 2 weeks except that we went to get the bookshelves from Ikea (finally!). Well, the whole set required 2 trips since one component of the set was out of stock on the first trip. Actually, the lady upstairs told us there are 4 in the inventory and would likely be gone by the time we reached downstairs to the warehouse. She called it alright. Anyway, we came back the following weekend and completed our set. The husband and I we’ve been talking about putting a bookshelf (actually a built in was what we wanted initially) in the family room on both sides of the fireplace. We’ve been talking about that for years. On August 1st, we will be in this house for 6 years and we have just bought the bookshelves. Boxes and boxes are sitting in the garage right now waiting for us to find time to do the assembly. Too much to do with a house, isn’t it? The back splash in the kitchen is still a dream until now. Too many things to do with the house and the yard that needs to be done in stages because money is not available.

Anyway, I have completely ignored by backyard. With the drought, I let the plants die, if they die. What can you do? We water them 2x a week sometimes, most times once a week. We have been collecting water in buckets, like rinse water from kitchen or the cold water from the bathroom shower to water the plants long before the water agency told us to save water. Still the plants need more water than we can provide. Such a shame.

My birthday is coming up in two weeks and the husband doesn’t know what to do. He’s waiting for me to tell him what I want to do on my birthday. I don’t do much celebrating on my birthdays and I don’t see the pattern being broken this year, although I might do the usual dinner and something else. Hubs is thinking we should at least go out for an overnight somewhere. Reno, Tahoe, Monterey – these names are being thrown in the mix of potential destination. But I don’t know. I’m not sure I wanna go.

Although today I suddenly thought of Point Reyes as a perfect overnight getaway spot. I always wanted to stay in one of the B&Bs near the park whenever we drive there and maybe we will consider it. But I really don’t know.

A day in the city is not ruled out. I haven’t been to California Academy of Sciences yet, so probably that’s a good place to spend one’s birthday. Closer to home as well. I also was looking for places to eat and with my love for tapas and Spanish cuisine I might consider going to Zarzuela. Lolindo in SF also sounds good. Yelpers are happy with the food there. We shall see.

In other news, I have met a blog pal recently. She is visiting the States with her daughter and with SF as part of her itinerary I met with her. She’s so charming. Her daughter is adorable and quite mature for her age. I adore them. It was like I’ve known them my whole life, that’s how comfortable I was with them and I hope they share the same sentiment.

That’s 2 blog pals I’ve met eye to eye since I began blogging a whole lifetime ago.

Should I?

So I was fooling around FB today scanning photos from my friends and family. Suddenly feeling bored with the same pictures I’ve seen over and over I decided to find people. I used my hometown as a filter to find a long-lost school chum. This wasn’t my first try to find her. I have searched for her before, always using her maiden name because apparently I don’t know what her married name is or if she’s married. I really wanted to catch up with an old friend.

Anyway, my search pulled up a ton of people from my hometown and one name came up that may sound like her brother. I don’t know her siblings per se. We were friends from 7 years old till we were 16. So we were in school together for about 2-3 years, then she moved to a new school and our friendship was conducted via letters. After elementary school, her entire family moved to the US to join her father who was serving in the US navy. The exchange of letters not only continued, but became more furious. She sent me long letters, 3-4 pages (front and back) sharing all her glorious new adventures in a new school and new surroundings. I remember at age 13 (and this was waaay before the age of internet) I was reading her letter about a trip to Disneyland. She said from their home in Vallejo, CA they traveled by car for 11 hours and the road was straight – she even drew 2 lines like this….II and she was bored to death. I was transported to a new place I haven’t been or will never be and I read all her letter voraciously. I lived vicariously through her letters. She was a productive letter writer. I wrote as much as I could, sharing my pathetic adventures in our old plain boring town making it sound as interesting as it could be without veering too much from the truth.

So anyway, back to the FB search…. I clicked on a name that sounded like her brother’s name. And I scoured his timeline to see any mention of her. Yes there was a mention of her, which meant I clicked on the right person. Next, I searched his friends list and unfortunately she wasn’t there. Okay so to make a very long story short, I found that she also has a sister, which I didn’t know because I only knew of her and her brother when I was friends with her. Anywhoo, I clicked on the sister’s page and found a group picture including her and a man’s arm is wrapped around her. Thankfully, the man was tagged in the photo and I followed that tag and I found her. The man is her husband and she’s there. It looks like she’s only about 4 hours’ drive away from where I live.

I am so very tempted to message the husband because it looks like she doesn’t have a page of her own. But I am having second thoughts.

Should I or shouldn’t I reconnect?

Fireworks

Fourth of July is time for fireworks. I don't care for fireworks. I'm just not. I don't get excited by them. I don't plan my holidays around them. I just don't.

I thought I'd share that!

First of July

First of July.

Whew! The first half of the 2015 sure did whiz by, isn’t it? I can’t seem to remember anything from that first half; well not really except that most of what happened was a blur to me.

Last weekend we went to the movies with another couple. We went to see Jurassic World in 3D. Now to be honest I don’t really care about Jurassic World or the previous movies about dinosaur. I may have watched all of them, although for sure I remember seeing the very first one on the big screen. The following installments I may have seen them on cable or Netflix.

Since I was there only to complete a double date I had no expectations of the movie or the enjoyment factor that I would get from such an outing. After all, the reviews I have read about the movie went like this: a lot of running by people not making wise decisions.

However, both the movie itself and the 3D experience surpassed my expectations. Well, I have no expectation to begin with. Still it was such a surprise to me that I enjoyed the 3D experience this time around. I cannot remember the movie anymore but the first time I went to a 3D movie I was dizzy for the most part. I ended up watching the rest of the movie without the glasses, so you know that wasn’t a good experience.

What I am looking for now is the last installment of Mockingjay. I cannot wait.