Its 840pm here...and the sun is still out. In fact, it'll be out for another 2 more hours!

Just came back from the mountains. STUNNING place. Absolutely Stunning. Went 1st from my cousins home to the columbine ice-fields. Its this gigantic glacier on the side of a mountain... 1000ft of ice, 7000ft above sea level. And I drank the water from the melt-off there.Cool,clear and refreshing. My nephew even had a one sided snowball fight( one sided meaning, he threw, but everyone else just took photos ,ignoring him... ).

The roads itself were an experience. The road side scenery was spectacular. I couldn't stop shuttering away! We saw elk and big horn sheep and I even saw a grizzly bear (from the rear...and thats one big ass!).

I saw a lake that had a sheet of ice on the top, and a crystal clear lake that was soo green that it defied description.Aptly, it was called the emerald lake. Canada, in fact, is famous for its lakes, which have colours ranging from emerald green to sapphire blue. It is also a wonder of rock formations. Lake Louise that we went to next was another picture perfect lake with a tremendous view.

Then went to Banff, where I had a great view of the surrounding country side. We used a gondola to go on top of a mountain, and the view was amazing! I had a 360 degree view of all the mountains! We had restaurant situated on the top too. We also visited some caves and saw(and smelt) some hot sulphur springs. Didn't have time to try it though... .

And to top it all off, we had the full spectrum of weather... a bit of sun, and a lot of snow,sleet,hail,ice and rain.

And the people are soo nice! They are friendly and nice, smiling and greeting even complete strangers! Not to mention the girls are kinda cute too... ;) .

I've only just left the place, yet I miss it already...

In Calgary Canada now... The security at the airport is tight, with you needing to x-ray your shoes even, and all your carry-on luggage must be unlocked before being given. However, you must check to ensure that they re-lock it before they take the bag away. They tend to forget that, and the mexican who took my bag didn't understand english very well. Refused to even let me TOUCH the bag. Had to argue for 5+min with mister " No touch!" before I could get HIM to lock it for me!

It was a short flight over very,very beautiful terrain. Will be leaving for Banff and the glaciers in a few minutes. Will write back about it later.

Funny isn't it... I said I'll try to write everyday, and the very next day, I don't write...

Anyways... went for 3 conducted tours in the last 3 days. The first day, I went for a wine tasting tour through napa valley, learning the art of wine tasting, and tasting the various wines growing in the region. I even bought a bottle of orange muscat. That wine is GOOD! Also had chardonnay's and merlots... . DAMN! those words seem to just roll of the tongue! So classy and sophistacated... probably because it is french... I suspect that even the word they have for shit sounds sophistacated... . :).

Oh...and guys... if you ever have the chance... go to Sinoma... The girls there are VERY... and I mean REALLY, EXTREMELY good looking... . Just remember to use the reflections... hehe. :) . Girls can go there too... that place has a lot of history... :)

Also saw the exit to Skywalker Ranch and the place that George Lucas likes to use for his river scenes in his movies. Then made the 2 hour journey by bus and train back from San Francisco to where I'm staying in Santa Clara.

Sadly, also got my posting results...and I wasn't too happy with it, but I only got my self to blame, so nothing to say. But I'll keep fighting...

2nd day was spent seeing the city and a tour on Alcatraz. The city is amazing...the roads go up and down like nothing you've seen anywhere else. You've even got one road that makes 8 turns in the space of one block (which is a 2 minute walk). The streets are also bloody steep, often at 45 degrees or higher. I also saw Chinatown and its Durinas, Little Italy, and the neighbourhood which boasts gay pride.

Alcatraz, aka the ROCK, made famous by movies such as THE ROCK, is an experience. You realize how you can break the spirits of even the most hardened criminals, without doing any Abu Gharib stuff.

3rd day was spent visiting the serene, almost prehistoric redwood forest called Muir woods, seeing the quaint, picturesque Sausalito town, and going through a wonderful Bay Cruise. I managed to take some photos that I am pretty proud off... but if only my zoom was better!!!

Pics will be coming up soon... but to end this particular blog, and to show you how fickle the weather here can be, I'll leave you with this quote from Mark Twain. He said:

" The coldest winter of my life was a summer in San Francisco"

Woohoo!!! I am in SAN FRANCISCO!!!

San Francisco: 14-18 degrees Celcius. Sunny and Windy.
Humidity: Low

After a marathon flight, some17hrs, excluding transit time, I have arrived! Now at my cousins house planning where I'll go tomorrow. Possibly will be visiting Alcatraz, and some other local places... Can't WAIT!

But the journey! Oof! What a headache! I mean, it was 7+ hrs from Sing to Tokyo. Luckily, the plane wasn't too full, and having been given an aisle seat, I could move around at least The food that was given for breakfast was a choice between herb omelette and chicken rice. I chose the latter, to my regret. Give me a hawker stall anyday! Not even chilli was given! And just before landing, they gave ham and cheese sandwiches to everyone. This was infinitely better.

Tokyo Airport is an experience. First, everything is in Japanese... even the instructions on how to use the phone. And not everything has english translation. Second, the cute stewardesses and attendents. And finally, the digital cameras there are everywhere! I went out looking for some strepsils for my sore throat, and most everyshop I went to was selling digital cameras. The bookstores had it, the CD store had it, even a store selling sweets and disposable lingerie sold digicams (what a combi! what are you supposed to do, take a photo using the camera after wearing the lingerie with a lollipop in your mouth?!)... but there were NO DAMN STREPSILS!

The flight from there to San Francisico was about 10hrs long. We boarded the flight after a 2hr transit. This flight was PACKED! I think the American GIs stationed in Japan were going home. And they filled up the plane. I got a center seat, and I spent a total of 10 mins during the entire 10hr journey standing... the rest of the time was spent fidgeting and TRYING to sleep, filling up forms, reading, watch the inflight movies and eating. Never knew just sitting down could be soo tiring!

Watched "Love Actually" and "Along Came Polly". Both were funny, though I enjoyed the dry British humour of "Love Actually" more.

Flying off to Calgary on Friday. Between now and then, will keep you posted if I can.

Just a bit more than 6 hours before I fly off... the beginning of a one-month whirlwind tour of america and canada, covering 7 cities and meeting realtives.

Went clubbing on friday with Alex, Hoe Soon and Shiyu. Grace and SQ fell sick at the last minute, and WX couldn't join us... so it was just us 4 instead, but it was still pretty fun. Went to Dbl 0 on MS. And even though the DJ was bad, it was still alright. The four of us had 3 jugs of alcohol, and we danced for about 2hrs non-stop. I had forgotten how much I like to dance. Don't get me wrong... I'm a horrible dancer! but there's a certain joy in letting your hair down and doing silly dance moves in the middle of a packed floor. We had a great time just laughing at ourselves (Though HS hated the music.. it was hip-hop and a bit of R&B and a lot of dance and club remixes). HShiyu left first, as he had a performance the next day afternoon.

At the end of the day, my calfs really hurt! Went home, and slept at 330 am, woke up at 630 to go to the temple, then went to the gym to train... legs! then went home to sleep and woke up to watch the FA cup. Man U won... DAMN!

Had pizza that night... wanted to give myself a treat for going to the gym 14 of the last 15 days and also did cardio about 3 times a week... (running or aikido). TRIED to help some of my friends with gymming... Hope I did ok...

Will try to write from US... But as I am leaving, I can't help but worry about my family here... and call me paranoid, but I can't shake this feeling of doom over me either, like something bad is gonna happen... well I certainly PRAY not...Hope everything will be ok while I am gone.

A mixed day today...

Had a headache most of the day... Bad. Got my sunglasses and credit card... Good.
Got my results today... BAD . Got our new car today... Good.

Realised again how lucky I am having such wonderful parents... GREAT.

3days and counting...

Today was boring... again...
Thats what happens when you are unemployed and have nothing to do.
Dropped of the car at Leng Kee in the morning with my mom, then went NUH to collect the receipt for my lip surgery, then went to jurong east to make sunglasses.

Had lunch with mom at delifrance... before spending 3+hrs in the gym, helping my friend,
and then back home.

Ah well... tomorrows another day... and one day closer to US...

6days and counting...

Been a nice few days recently...interesting days.

For one, I FINALLY passed my driving on the third attempt. It was a close thing... 18pts, when 20 means you've failed. But hey... passed is passed... Right!!! :)

Also met up with dev. He's back till august. And he hasn't changed a bit! Still funny, not to mention tall and good-looking. Listening to his antics in the States! We spent the afternoon, walking around in orchard, looking at girls... .

Went pubbing with some of my JC classmates last night. Shiyu, WX, Shiqi, Grace, Hoe soon and I, met at esplanade. And went to Harry's bar. It was fun, just sitting around, talking and drinking a bit. Taking photos of ourselves, with different themes... like the friendship theme...the gay and lez theme... The people there must have been wondering what the hell we were doing! Sadly, it all ended a tad to soon, as the girls needed to leave by 1015... Hoe soon couldn't stay bcos of work the next day, and WX had to go meet his gf. Leaving shiy yu and I... and 2 guys going clubbing together...its to small a group... . So we postponed it to the end of this week.

Watched troy today. And I was bored throughout the movie. Don't get me wrong...I mean... it is exceptionally done. The acting was great... the sets were stunning, and the people were great looking. However, having read a condensed version of the book, and having seen the older movie, I was bored. There were also some problems with this movie. First, in this movie, Hector is the elder son, when it is supposed to be Paris. Hector also has a strong aussie twang when he speaks...which is mercifully rare. And the last dialogue between Paris and Helen is just to cheezy! I mean... if Paris really didn't mind meeting Helen in the next life...why couldn't he just bloody wait? Why did he have to destroy his city? This however, is still the most accurate adaptation yet. And the attempt to humanize achillies was noteworthy, although his love for the slave girl was exagerated, but that can be excused (I mean, how can brad pitt not have a girl)? And Hector wasn't really such a nice guy... nor was he so brave in the actual novels. Wanna know more? Read it... :p

But what was really nice about the movie was that I watched it with my parents. I haven't been spending nearly as much time with them as they want... and I really should be spending more time with them. And its quite fun to have a semi-family outing. Maybe the last one in a while...

8days and counting...