K-drama. Uh-Oh.

No thanks to the flu bug that kept me housebound, I've started on Korean drama series again purely out of sheer boredom. Sounds harmless enough but trust me, it can be sooo addictive!! I have killed a few DVDs players in the past simply from marathon watching. Strangely, they usually go kaput after I've completed a series! Anyway, not looking forward to going cold turkey again when the time comes [took me great pains to wean myself off the last time!] but I shall enjoy it for now! I've got an excuse afterall! ;P

Hello again, Wintry Cleveland!

The trip back home was good but I'm actually quite happy to be back in good ol' Cleveland. Singapore was just crazy busy with people and cars everywhere! Weather was surprisingly cool at first but then it got hot and humid again. And it didn't help that I had caught the flu bug that was spreading rampantly on the sunny island. I had to cancel on friends and spend two days of my two weeks at home. Boo! Still, I had fun catching up with everyone and satisfying all my food cravings!
Am currently still nursing a bad throat but finally getting the rest I needed. (Yes, I've been sleeping a whole lot since I returned 2 days ago!) Hopefully, I'll be well enough soon to indulge in the last lap of winter activities! It's plenty of water and rest for now!
How have all of you been? :)

Wide awake! @@

It's 4.20am now and I am still sooooo awake! Hubs is playing computer games in the other room. Feel like a mouse in this house right now with all that whispering and tiptoeing around. hehe. Must try to get to sleep soon! I am so going to be a zombie in the day! @@

Home sweet home!

We finally made it home this morning after a gruelling 30 hours journey (including a 7 hours layover at JFK airport). Thank goodness for the skyclub lounge which made our long transit in NY more tolerable! We have been stuffed silly with loads of food since we came back. Supposed to go out for dinner this evening - hopefully I'll able to keep my eyes open then! Will write again when my brain is less fuzzy! Going to snooze now....

A cleaner home and I'm set to go!

I have been spring cleaning for the past week. It's amazing the amount of junk I've accumulated over just a span of less than a year here in Cleveland. The leaky air mattress I acquired, those few cable/ telephone wires I have no idea what to do with (Well, I did make a funny hat out of them for X'mas!), lots of paper/ magazines/ newspaper, boxes after boxes....I still have not completely sorted them out but at least I managed to clear some. All will be cleared out by Chinese New Year, that's for sure!
And I'd be on the other side of the globe by this weekend! Yay! My calender is filling up really quickly. Wish I had more time! I'm just going to make the best of it - eat as much as I can, meet as many friends, and spend as much time as I can with my family. I'm not looking forward to the long haul flight but the inflight movie marathon should keep me entertained. Will try to update when I'm back home but if not, I'll be back in two weeks!

The new millenium begins!

I woke up this morning to the sound of a happy bunny doing his speedy Gonzales happy run - the perfect energy to start off the new year! And in all my excitement, I've succeeded in breaking one of the blinds [yet again]. Oops!
We'll be heading back to sunny island for a short hols in a week. Looking forward to being with friends and family again and all that food I miss! Not to forget that much needed haircut! One of my mission for this trip is also to declutter the [plenty of] stuff I have back home. My motto for the year is to live a fuller life with lesser things! Let's see how far this takes me! ;)

Happy 2011, everyone! :D

A hike to celebrate winter solstice...

...on a perfect evening. I like! :)

In all seriousness...

I was at a Christmas party the other day and everyone was supposed to name one thing they were thankful for in the last year and a prayer request for the new year. I was particularly touched by the honesty and sensibility of some of the young ones. No, they did not ask for the latest Xbox game or a pretty doll to play with. Instead, they prayed for good health for their sick grandparents, ability to do well at school and for everyone in the family to be happy. Wow. I was truly humbled.

Mother Nature's Artwork

I finally got to see the lighthouse encased in ice on Lake Erie. Quite an amazing piece of work by Mother Nature, don't you think?

Dancing with Kinect

The console finally arrived yesterday! I had called DELL up the beginning of the week to find out the status of the delivery only to discover that they had cancelled the order because they had no stock! I was pretty upset at first but immediately found a deal for the Xbox console (the last one at walmart!) and the kinect sensor separately which turned out to be cheaper. So yay!
I'll be practising my moves this weekend (in between grocery shopping and a caroling session) and I'm so gonna beat hubby in the game! Woohoo!

Tea bag wisdom

"A woman is like a tea bag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water." -- Eleanor Roosevelt

Considering the amount of tea I drink, does that make me even stronger? Hmmm...;)

In all festivity...

It was Christmas carols overload last week. From the Cleveland orchestra's holiday concert to Neil Zaza's One silent night (Christmas carols rock guitar style at crazy decibels!) and not to forget the non-stop Christmas songs playing on most radio stations. I think I've heard enough for the season. Heh.
Winter is absolutely gorgeous. It has been nice and sunny after the first storm and I've made my first snow angel and trampled on whatever nice snow patch I could find. But the weather has made a turn for the worse again last evening and I'm convinced I will either get blown away or freeze to death if I step out of my apt today. So yeah, home is where I'll be today! :)

All squishy and slushy

We had it bad in Cleveland yesterday - weather wise. Snow was pouring down on us for hours due to the lake effect and traffic was practically on a standstill everywhere just after noon. Hubs only came home past 11 pm after the traffic was decidedly better in our area. I was glad I get to stay home although I couldn't resist running out in the cold to snap a few pics. My friend and I had also paid for a historic warehouse tour in downtown last evening but there was no way we could have made it there. People were trapped in the traffic for hours at end going nowhere. Unfortunately, we were told that we'll not be getting a refund as it was also meant to be a fund raising event. But it is a good $60 and honestly, they might as well go rob someone! I am still hoping to get some money back. *fingers crossed*
Otherwise, weather is looking more promising today. A few flurries but nothing as bad as yesterday. I can finally make a trip to the supermarket today. My fridge is practically empty now!

Hope the weather is better on your side! Keep warm and drive carefully, everyone! :)

A sad day

Just received news from back home that a high school classmate of mine had jumped to her death. She had been suffering from post natal depression but had refused to seek medical help. She leaves behind her little baby daughter. :(

Beware, the mystery shopper!

I took my first assignment very seriously (ahem!) and began my observations the moment I entered the restaurant (hubs as alibi):
How long did the hostess take to attend to me? *checks time*  Did she give us an accurate waiting time? Is the server friendly and attentive to our needs? Must remember to check serving time between the appetizer and entrees. Wait, the server didn't check on us to make sure we are happy with our appetizer *makes a mental note* Takes note of presentation, temperature and taste of food served. Hmm...let me check the cleanliness of the restaurant. Now, where is that manager that I'm supposed to look out for? Oh, I need to make a trip to the toilet too! .....
 Ordinarily, I would have been quite happy to enjoy my meal without the server popping by ever so often with the obligatory "How are you finding everything so far?". However, I was required to take note of the server's attentiveness and couldn't help but notice that he was spending more time checking on our neighboring table than on us. So that was one less point for him! But overall, we were very satisfied with our meals and the highly recommended bread pudding was really yummy! We ended up spending $20 more than what would be reimbursed but it was still a pretty worthwhile meal and a fun experience. I will definitely be keeping an eye for more assignments like this in future! :)

Tis the season to be jolly (or spending!)....

Ah..the first of Dec and what better way to kick off the day than with a blanket of white outside. Perfect day to simply curl up with a book and a nice cuppa hot chocolate! Will need to get myself out there for my first mystery shopper assignment this evening though. A $50 reimbursement for a nice dinner for 2 at a local pub & restaurant and in return I need to fill out a little survey about the restaurant. A pretty nice deal really.  I just hope the weather does not get too treacherous tonight!
In other news, I've been doing a lot of shopping lately. After the initial disappointment of seeing the Xbox 360 250GB console with Kinect sold out everywhere or at ridiculously marked up prices, we finally secured a set for ourselves at Dell online store yesterday. I have also ordered two additional games from amazon at $10 discount each. I'm not one to play games but the idea of being THE controller is way cool and right up my alley. I think we'll really enjoy this one and it will serve as our exercise for winter. Can't wait for the set to arrive!
I'm also done with my X'mas shopping and have stocked up on warm clothing for the both of us. Managed to purchase a Furla bag for my mum at an unbeatable price - I'm extremely pleased with the deal. As for myself, I've got my eyes on this leather satchel bag from ASOS. Am currently having an internal argument with myself on whether I really do need it but we'll see...;P

So how is your Christmas shopping coming along? :)

This Thanksgiving, we give thanks to...

...Good food and great company
...Good weather and smooth driving on the roads
...A wonderful time with friends in Pittsburgh
...& something warm and fuzzy to look forward to when we returned home!

Hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving weekend too! :)

All I want to do is crawl back to bed...

I slept terribly last night, no thanks to a very clogged nose.  It took alot of rustling of magazines and gnawing on the wooden wall panel by a certain fur-ball of a thing under my bed to finally make me pull myself out from under my comforters at 11 am this morning. Turns out that little creature was trying to make a statement. He wanted me to fill up his food bowl - STAT! Seems like I am slave to every living thing in this apt. *Pfttt...!*
There's a list of things I planned to do today but I'm still pretty much in a daze right now. Forced myself to do some grocery shopping earlier and I was practically falling asleep in the supermarket. Oh well, my bed beckons...good night...good afternoon! Will write when I return from slumberland. *Zzzz....*

Happy me! (Or I'm so lazy...I'm going to skip class this evening!)

The past weekend was nice. We ate at "The Mad Greek" restaurant which I've been wanting to go to for the longest time. Nice ambiance and the food (a fusion of Greek and Indian cuisine) was good. Watched Harry Potter and the deathly hallows. Loved the fact that we did not have to fight a crowd for the movie. Managed to get Hubs into Marshalls to try on the winter jackets and bought one - an otherwise impossible task! On Sunday, we were meant to go grocery shopping but the weather was so pleasant that we made an impromptu decision to drive to Rocky River Reservation instead. The leaves had mostly fallen but it was a lovely drive and we took a nice little walk there before finally making our way to the Asian supermarket. I suspect this might just be our last weekend of good weather. I'd probably be needing those gloves this Thanksgiving weekend! "Let it snow..let it snow...let it snow!"

Pink Martini Concert

I had such a splendid time last evening! It was a last minute decision to go for the concert and what a treat it was! Honestly, I've not heard of Pink Martini until quite recently. A friend of mine was raving about them and told me about their one night performance here in Cleveland. I sampled their music online and really liked what I heard. So there I was at the concert yesterday and wow, they were even better live! An extremely talented 12 musicians band with their lead vocalist China Forbes belting out tunes in various languages. They even did a number in Chinese, "Gong Xi Gong Xi" (aka "Congratulations") which unfortunately turned out rather awful. But that aside, beautiful music, lovely evening and you bet, I am certainly a fan now! :)