California Dreaming - Santa Cruz

I have never heard of Santa Cruz before this, and this post is not so much about the place as much as what we actually did there. All in all, we spent about 2 hours there at most. But it was by far the most intense, crazy 2 hours of our lives. We were of course gearing up for a sky diving adventure!

So we packed our bags again, left the BFF's place and drove to Santa Cruz. Did I mention how well all the navigation apps work in the US? My personal preference is the Apple map on my iPhone, although you totally failed me countless times in Singapore you @#$! Anyway I digress..

The trip took about an hour. And as we headed into the aviation centre, we realised the place is meant for some serious flying business. There were helicopters and ancient war planes littered all over. The hubs was so excited looking at all the small planes, and he actually contemplated ditching me for some flying class. I was obviously horrified to do this alone and told him so! If I'm going down, your coming down with me baby! :)

Pic-by-pic of what went through my mind:

We were doing tandem dives with our instructors. The four of us getting into the tiny little plane.  

And the little plane takes off

Alex giving me some final instructions before our jump 

Here we are at 14,000 feet. My legs are out of the plane!! Gulp! Are we really doing this? 

OK.. looks like we are. 

...And we are free falling!!!!! Yes this is me looking REALLY SCARED. Don't laugh. Alex must have been half deaf with all of my screaming. 

Still free falling.. Woah okay I think I can do this

Yippie Yabba Dooo

Still scared but trying to smile for the camera

Alex mentally preparing me for the parachute. Oh please, please let it work.  

.. And it works! Phew. 

Enjoying the view from 8,000 feet. The ocean is right there. 

We were both light weights, so we floated for a bit. 

And my baby landed before me!! I could see him do some 360degree turn thing with his parachute. No fair! 

We are both alive!! 

Seriously intense, glad we did it! 

If you have read this far, check out the video too!

California Dreaming - Silicon Valley and San Jose

We planned on a sky diving trip in Santa Cruz but that wasn't until Thursday. So we had 2 days to kill, no real plans and no place to stay. Luckily the BFF kindly offered us his place for the night, so the hubs got us a rented car for the rest of the vacation and off we went to Silicon Valley. It turned out to be a very geeky trip as we couldn't resist paying homage to the tech giants!

We first visited the BFF to get his keys. Check out his fancy building. 

Then off to Google, Facebook and Apple. Apple was the most visitor friendly, as they have an Apple store that sells merchandises on top of their usual iGadgets.

Google looked like a REALLY great place to work for. All the great things you read about being a Google employee is true. They have a cafe that serves free food, a volleyball court (maybe more), and even free tampons in the toilet.. it's amazing! You can see employees hanging out, really enjoying themselves in the park. Heck, the place reminds me of a campus. Doesn't look like a work place at all. They even have free colorful Google bikes for you to cycle from building to building. Yes, because they are that big. We managed to sneak into the Google store and bought some merchandise stuff. In hindsight I don't know why we went through all that trouble just to pay for some YouTube, Gmail tshirts/keychains... what suckers.

Jelly Bean? Who uses Android :p

Facebook was the most boring visit. The building looks plain and we didn't see Zucky. Although I did see an employee being driven to work in a limo. I wonder if he's anyone famous.



Dinner was at Nola's down at Palo Alto but BFF failed to make an appearance due to work commitment. But what a great find. Loved the chicken + waffles combo. 

Post dinner, we caught a movie in San Jose. And we did it the drive-in movie theater style at West Wind Drive In! I thought that was really cool in a 70's or 80's way. It's a pity we don't have the space for a drive-in here in Singapore. 

And so we drove all the way to San Jose just to see how it's like. And man, it was worth the one hour drive! We arrived at 10pm, and the show was scheduled to start at 10:30pm. It was a weekday so it was really quiet. There was no queue, so we just drove up to the booth to get our tickets and then we were free to roam around to find a spot that we liked. The sound system is your car stereo. They give you the radio frequency to tune into; I thought that was pretty cool cuz I was expecting some crappy sound system from the house. The whole experience was a joy to say the least, even though the movie (Oblivion) was really bad. I would definitely do this again given a chance.





And that pretty much wrapped up the day. It was a long and tiring day, but totally worth it! We slept really soundly at the BFF's fancy place :)

New Hobby

It's been 3 years since I moved into my home, and I think it's time to redecorate! Think it will help ease the post-holiday blues...

California Dreaming - San Francisco

And so we just got back from a 2 week break in the West Coast of USA. In running order, we started off in San Francisco and then headed on to San Jose/Silicon Valley, Santa Cruz, Bakersfield (not really part of the itinerary but we ended up here anyway), Vegas and finally Los Angeles. I think we drove for more than 1000 miles, ate too much almond along the way and got a bit of a tan from the sun from all the driving. So anyway here's just some highlights of the trip. The small prints are more for my own reference since I don't keep a journal anymore and I wanna remember everything, so you can ignore them. 

I'll start with San Francisco. 

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Jupe picked us up from the airport in his super fast car. Thx BFF!

Dropped the bag in an apartment in Union Square, which we rented through AirBnb. I intend to write a review of AirBnB so more on that later. We had a couple of hours of snooze before we joined Jupe & friend at the AT&T stadium supporting the SF Giants! The weather was great, but a tad too chilly for my liking if you ask me. Everyone was enjoying the sun and beer and oooh the crab sandwich was soooooo goood! Apparently the sandwich is the only reason why Jupe was there. Besides one or two baseball fanatics, I don't think the rest were really paying attention to the game. Good game nonetheless.. I think. Now who won again?

Had a lovely dinner with Jupe and Candace. Jet lag hit me hard so I went home to sleep after the dinner while the hubs joined Jupe and more friends for drinks. He has amazing stamina I tell you.

Woke up late and joined Jupe & friend for lunch at Maverick. Walked around downtown for a while admiring graffitis, art galleries and antique shops before Jupe had to head back to Sunnyvale.

Made our way to Pier 33 where we boarded the ship to Alcatraz Island for the evening tour. The hubs and I didn't get to do the tour the last time we were at the Bay Area (separately) as tickets usually run out on the day and must be booked in advance. We did the evening tour just to see how the cells are at night, and also as a cheap thrill to see if we could spot anything scary. Unfortunately, or fortunately nothing was spotted. But it was interesting nonetheless just to check out the cellhouse, dining hall, prison library and listen to stories of the infamous inmates who attempted escape. Apparently no one ever did. 

Dinner was at a crab restaurant at the famous Pier 39 where the hubs devoured half a crab on his own and somehow that made me fall in love with him all over again :)

Next day, we boarded the famous tram and made our way to the pier again. We somehow missed Lombard Street but never mind, we've both seen it before. 

Next up on the itinerary, we cycled across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito. It was a 13km stretch and it took us about an hour or so to complete with stops in between. We were lucky for great weather; it wasn't too cold and the sun was up. You get great views across the bridge all the way to Sausalito, not to mention a good workout too! We came back to the pier via a ferry ride. Totally amazing, we're glad we did this even though our thighs and butts were sore the next day. 

FYI we got our bikes from Blazing Saddles from Pier 41. They provide direction to get to Sausalito and it's pretty straightforward. If you're lost just follow the rest of the other cyclists along the way or ask a friendly stranger. 

Bears spotted at Sausalito!

And some dude got arrested in this sleepy town

Dinner was at a Thai restaurant downtown. Food was so-so but the restaurant was crowded anyway. After the meal, we walked home as the restaurant was just about a mile from home. 

We spent the next day just walking around downtown and checking out the hubs' frequent haunts when he comes here for work. Had In-N-Out for lunch and ended up at the Stinking Rose for dinner. Great food, love the garlic but definitely not a place to bring your first date if you plan on kissing her/him later.

That's it in San Francisco, will move on to San Jose/Silicon Valley soon! 

South Africa - Kruger National Park

South Africa! Where to begin?

The idea of heading to South Africa spawned in January in replacement of our trip to Rome. Rome couldn't work out in March as planned due to the hubs schedule. Hence we randomly chose South Africa. Knowing very little about the country, I spent a few nights reading up - from the safaris, the level of safety and just generally about the country and I was totally overwhelmed by all info. There is so much to absorb and info can also be conflicting at times which makes researching a total headache.  Or maybe it is just me not reading thoroughly enough, hence missing pertinent points. Anyway enough whining about the leg work.

Flight: SQ478
Departs from Singapore: 0230 am
Arrived in Johannesburg: 0710am (same day)
Total Travel Time: 10 hours 40 mins

From Johannesburg, we took another flight to Nelspruit and drove about an hour before reaching the hotel. 

We stayed in Protea Hotel Kruger Gate, which is really convenient as it is located right next to Kruger National Park itself. The hotel was alright, no complain. I particularly like the alfresco dining area, where evening dinners are hosted. 

The safari tours were awesome, to say the least. To all you skeptics out there It is NOT like visiting the zoo at all. You get into an open jeep and the guide drives along the road and then you just wait for the animals to turn up. A lot of whether you actually see anything really depends on your luck. I was quite apprehensive at first, about coming all the way here and not being able to see anything here but alas my fear was allayed on my first safari tour. It was an evening game drive, lasted for 3 hours and we saw al Big 5 - namely the leopard, lion, rhino, elephant and buffalo. Great stuff! I think these are mainly nocturnal animals so a night or evening drive is a must do. We went for a 6 hour morning game drive the very next day and that was lame in comparison.

This is our jeep for the morning safari

Here are the Big 5. We got really up close with the leopard, Simba and Jumbo. Couldn't get clear pictures of the buffalo and rhino. Boo. 

Only caught the butt of the buffalo... dang!

And these are the others....

impalas.. the McDonalds for the lions

Another highlight was a trip to the Mohoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, which is a place dedicated to rescue injured or poisoned wild animals. Some of these animals were left at the rehab centre either because they are too weak to be released back into the wild or simply to be the ambassadors of their own kind. We had a good time there and even got to pat a leopard! Gosh that was an experience!

Just want to leave a few tips for myself (in the future) and interested first time travelers to Kruger National Park:

• Take a drive from Johannesburg to Kruger or at the very least drive from Nelspruit to Kruger. Having a car will allow you more flexibility outside the confinement of the hotel. Ie. go for a nice drive around Kruger or just dine at some nice restaurants. South Africa does not have a concept of cabs. 

• While it is convenient staying close to KNP, you don't really have to do that if you have a car. Next time I'd stay in one of the lodges in Hazyview.

• Don't listen to your smart ass colleagues who say that it's unsafe. Well, just exercise common sense caution like don't flash your 5 carat diamond ring around. 

• Always book your tours in advance. We booked our hot air balloon trip too late and there was no more lot for us. Bummer.

• If you have more than 4 days, split your stay between private game reserve and hotels. Private Game Reserves like Sabi Sands offer off road safari tours. Remember that in South Africa, only private reserves offer off-road safaris. If you stay in a normal hotel, you can only join the organised game drives which are strictly on road. Oh Private Game Reserves also cost more, starting from a grand plus. 

• If you would like to go for off-road safaris, but are not willing to pay I heard there are cheaper alternatives at Mozambique or Tanzania. 

• If you are super free and decided to do a self-drive at the safari, head down to Skukuza and Lower Sabaie. The Big 5 are apparently easier to spot here. We didn't do a self drive, and would not recommend anyone to do it unless you have bionic eyes that can spot animals from a mile. Plus it is usually more fun to do it with a group of people with a guide who has a keen pair of eyes of spotting animals. 

Well that's it. We really enjoyed ourselves and I plan to head to Mozambique some day. The hubs kept quiet when I suggested that. Hmmmpf. Let's see where the rest of the year brings us. 

Peanut Butter and Jam!

Here's a little something Jamie and I came up with over the weekend. It's a cover of Glee's mashup of You Drive Me Crazy (Britney Spears) / Crazy (Aerosmiths). This jamming session was long over due. Hope you enjoy.

Arteastiq @ Mandarin Gallery

After graduating from Junior College, I had no idea what I wanted to do in the university. I contemplated many courses, and ended up applying for three in no particular order. The first was Engineering; boring but appropriate coming from a double maths and double science background. The second was Finance; fun and seems like a good place for a slacker like me. And the most bizarre choice was Architecture; because I thought I was insanely talented in art. Now where did that come from?

Last weekend, we spent a few hours at Artistiq @ Mandarin Gallery and that just proved my point. The hubs was ambitious and wanted to try painting Van Gogh's sunflowers. "How hard could it be?" were his famous last words. So here goes. 

We spent so much time painting over our errors upon errors that we didn't even realize that 3 hours have passed. And the hubs finally admitted that it's not a simple as "just filling in the coloring book". Nevertheless we had fun laughing at our nonexistent drawing skills. It's a great place to just relax with a cup of coffee and painting yourself silly with the loved one. 

BTW if you think the drawing looks some what OK, it's only because it looks nicer with the picture filters. And BTW I am a Finance graduate. 

Arteastiq @ Mandarin Gallery

Boutique TeaHouse

Mandarin Gallery #04-14/15

333 Orchard Road, Singapore 238867

Opens: 11am to 10om Daily