18 November 2008

Did you know that the birds here are really fierce? It has managed to peck its way through the wire mesh under my roof and nested there. And guess what? I don't have a ladder that can reach the area for me to go fix the wire mesh myself. Can't buy a ladder either coz I don't have a truck to bring it home. The wire mesh is approx 18 feet above ground. As a result, had to call my handyman Raul Vasquez to come by and give me an estimate. And even he doesn't have a ladder and will have to go rent one. He quoted me $100 for the job but I counter offered for $80 and he said yes. That's the good news. The bad news is that he can only do that when he's free and again, it's a test of my patience. Every morning, I can hear the bird move in that nest coz it's located next to my bathroom and though it irks me, I had to endure it until Raul fix it. Anyway, he finally came and fix it on Fri, 21 Nov and I had to part with my $80 :-(

And guess what? When Raul came to collect the payment from me, he came in his BMW. My goodness, am I paying him too well or perhaps BMW pricing. Not bad for a handyman's life owning a BMW. Who's talking about bad economic situation?

Anyway, today I managed to cook my beef bulgogi, recipe compliments from Sue Hee of Penang. It was a good first try and Sam and Ed loved it. Also, tried my hands in cooking "bastek". For those of you wondering what that is, it is basically a dish consisting of pork meatballs with potatoes. Sam's favorite dish for now. Here's the picture of the 2 dishes.

17 November 2008

Today I had a lunch appointment with a new friend who hails from Malacca. Her name is Lu Yit and she has a girl, Nicole aged 8 and Joshua, aged 5 (I think). She stays about 10 mins' drive from where I am and she has a beautiful and cozy home at Jasmine Circle. She cooked wanton mee for lunch and I even met a new friend who is from China and I went there right after my tennis at about 11.30am. We had a good time sharing stories that revolves around food (again?) and about durian and how we are going to miss it so much over here.

After lunch, went to fetch Sam from school. It is ironical to find that there is a street here by the name of Chisin St (in Cantonese, it means "crazy"). Got a picture to prove it.

I think the city council must've run out of ideas. But Sam and me had a good laugh. Sorry that this picture is so blur coz I was driving downhill and Sam caught it with her camera.

These days, we hardly leave home without the camera coz, it's these impromptu photo moments that we want caught on camera.

16 November 2008

Hi, I am back and I hope this will be for many more blogs to come your way. Since coming here on July 18, I have been swarmed with so much in terms of adjusting to the new life, new schedules, new friends and new home, I hardly have time except for those rare occasions of being able to try cooking dishes like fried rice, which in Pg, I have attempted several times but failed miserably. Have also tried my hands cooking tomyam beehoon and it worked and tasted wonderful. Have yet to try nyonya "kuih" and "bun chang koay" but thus far, have failed miserably coz sorrylah, no time. This is reminiscent of the time I have in Pg where I used to run around like a headless chicken. I intend to cut back a little on my playing tennis 6x a week coz that's where all my time has gone.



Well, today started pretty well with Ed and me going to FCC church for their 9am service. Today, Pastor Bill talked about forgiveness and how apt it applies to all of us who have been hurt in one way or another along our journey called life. After church, we went to Sato Sushi for lunch and then went home, fetch Sam to her youth service @ FCC which is at 11am. Sam is volunteering as the Check-In Host. Fanciful name huh? Well, what she actually does is just print name tags for all the youths that comes for service. This is only a small part that Sam is contributing but, it is a good start. This will also go towards her 5 hours required "church community hours" by Valley Christian School. But Sam intends to do so for as long as possible until she can find another small part to contribute to church in another area. She's possibly looking into playing the keyboard in the church music ministry just like in GBC, Penang but we'll see how it goes. We're all taking baby steps at a time.




At 2pm, I left for Club Sport Fremont. I have turned "suicidal" these days where tennis is concerned and cannot understand why I would sign up for tournaments when my tennis is barely there. On the brighter side, perhaps I can look at it and say that I am brave. But signed up for the USTA Club Sport Fremont 3.0 women's doubles I did and today, we'll be playing in the semi-finals at 3.30pm. I can't tell you how nervous I was when I reached the club at 2.30pm. My hands was icy cold although the sun was out. We had no practice courts to play on as it's all occupied by tournament players. In the end, at 3pm, I went on the treadmill so that I could get some workout done and warm up. My partner is Cecelia Hernandez and she's a life-saver. We went on court as scheduled around 3.40pm and our opponents was Lucy and Esperanza, both of whom are captains and co-captains of their own tennis team. That means they are experienced players and all of a sudden, I am beginning to doubt myself and wonder if this is going to be more than just suicide!!! We warmed up and then started play around 4pm. The 1st game wasn't easy coz I was dead nervous and my friend Susan Tam was beckoning me from behind to whack the ball but sorrylah, the muscles were tight, the fear was overwhelming and after hitting several shots out, the confidence level waned. But I hung in there and kept talking to myself. Finally, we prevailed in the 1st set and won it 6-3. In the 2nd, I wasn't so tight anymore and began to relax and enjoy the game and went on to secure the game at 6-0. After the game, my hands were trembling and I told Cecelia I had better eat some dinner b4 our finals at 6.30pm. So, to McDonald's we went and I ordered a quarter pounder with orang juice. Gobbled it down and went to the court as scheduled ready to play our final match with Donna and Marybeth. And guess what, eating a heavy meal b4 a match is a REALLY BAD IDEA coz the legs won't move, the eyes went to sleep, the focus went for a holiday and nothing works. For a game and a half, I can tell you how frustrated I was coz all the balls I hit was either out or into the net it went. At one point, I got so mad at myself I literally slapped myself real hard. Not that it helped very much but midway through the 2nd set, I woke up but I also felt that my shoulder blades was sore and tight and I couldn't serve very well but I hung in there. We lost the 1st set 3-6 and bounced back in the 2nd and won 6-3. Cecelia was indeed my life-saver coz when I was down for a set and a half, she covered for me and that made a huge difference as our opponents started to make more unforced errors. B4 we went into the 3rd set, my coach Larry Parker, massage my sore shoulder blades and Cecelia applied some pain reliever on it and it felt much better. Guess what, we came back and won the 3rd set 6-2. I just couldn't believe my eyes that we have won the championship and it feels good. I owe it all to God for lifting me up when it matters most. I also owe this victory to Cecelia for being such a great experienced partner and helped me out when I was down. Thanks too to Larry for his advice and massage that helped a lot. This victory is to TEAMWORK and I hope I will have many more success stories to share with you all in the future.




The sleep tonight will be good and I can't wait. Thank you everyone, I love you Lord. Goodnite.

Update 30 July 2008

Woke up at 6.30am this morning and decided that I'll take the car today and send Ed to work. We left at about 8.05am and reached office at 8.20am. Traffic wasn't too bad coz we were on carpool lanes, yippee!

Then went out to send some mails and pump petrol. Gas price is US$4.53 per gallon today and Lexus needs premium petrol which is 2 grade higher than the normal unleaded. Pumped Shell V-Power. Total for a full tank is US$68.58. The last full tank ran for 299 miles.

Then, came home and change and out I went to Club Sport Pleasanton (CSP) which is like 34 miles away from where I stay and it took me about 45 mins drive. Reason being I wanted to go visit my best friend Belinda who stays at San Ramon and who plays at CSP. Wanted to squeeze in some tennis coz I am bored just staying at home and being on the internet the whole day.

Danny, if you're reading this, you'll be proud of me coz everyone at the tennis center was amazed at how technically sound my strokes were. Wow! that was quite a compliment. Of course, I told them that my coach gets the credit. I played 4 sets with different players and it was short coz each game was 8 pts with no advantage, which means if it's a deuce, they just pick whom to serve to and play it off. They had drop in today thus, my visit. This is what we call a club nite back home in Msia. And to prove this, I am attaching herewith my photo at the court. It's all hardcourt indoors, 10 of them and 4 outdoor courts. I played from 11am till about 1pm. They are all mostly 3.0-3.5 players and they rank me in the 3.5. Not too bad. But I can tell you it was hard adjusting to indoor lighting and the bounce but I think I did pretty ok for a start. They made lots of comments and tho I told them I am from Msia, they are speculating now that I could be from Singapore, from Thailand or even Indonesia. Hmmm.. I didn't bother correcting them.

But the people at the club was really friendly and they are probably just being nice to me coz I keep telling them to be gentle. My friend says I should stop being a sandbagger which means that I tell them I am not good but actually am. Frankly, I've never thot of myself as being good, just average. And then I had problems with my 1st serve and then I started recalling all those pep talks Danny gives me and voila, the next time I served, it was an ace, hahaha. I think it's more of a fluke shot.

After tennis and lunch, left Belinda's house at 3.45pm and went straight to fetch Ed from work. Arrived at Avago at 4.35pm and came home in 20 mins only to find to our horror that the yard was flooded. Sam discovered it when we wanted to push our thrash bins inside the yard. Ok, panic, panic, panic. Whom shall I call? Omigosh, at times like this, I wished Ah Hai, my contractor was here. Anyway, 1st person I called was Allyson, our realtor. She asked me to call the plumbers on the list she gave me. I tried the 1st one and guess what? He's out playing golf. Then I asked from Allyson for the previous owner's number in case he can tell me where to shut the main valve so that water will stop flowing. Guess what? He doesn't know either coz he's never come across a leaking pipe before. Just our luck isn't it? Then I called the Water Dept which is City of San Jose and they are already off at 5pm but they gave me an emergency number and I called and they did despatch someone but guess what? He said he doesn't know where the leak is and suggest we call a plumber. Then, our new neighbor, Mark came along and asked if we're ok and we introduced ourselves (what a weird circumstance for us to have met like this). He was very nice and came over to help, getting wet while trying to find the source of the leak. He tried to shut the main valve but with no proper tools, it was difficult. He then suggest that we call our gardener, Hector coz he said he's 99% sure, the burst could be due to the landscaping work. I called Hector and he came by quickly but he said when he came in at 1pm today, there was no leakage. So, my guess is that it probably started leaking around 2-4pm. Since Hector said he cannot help, I tried the next plumber on Allyson's list and they were quick to respond and said they'll send someone over from Fremont, which is like another 30 mins from where we are and in peak hour traffic!!! Geez, when it rains, it pours doesn't it? So, what choice do I have? Gotta wait for plumber to come. Then, Hector started taking his hoe and dig coz he finally managed to turn off the main valve with a wrench from his truck. Finally, he found the problem, I quickly cancelled the plumber otherwise, it'll cost us $$. Apparently, the leak was due to the molding in one of the pvc pipes wearing off. He showed Ed the size of the pipe and off he went to Orchard Supply Hardware to buy the glue and pipes only to come home with the wrong size. The people at the store gave him the wrong ones in spite of him showing them the size, grrrr.... So, off he went again to change to the correct size. This time it was ok and Hector worked till 9pm and everything's now back to normal again, yay!

Finally can go take my bath. Gotta sign off here, very tired. Been a long day but in spite of all things, can still praise the Lord and count our blessings. I praise God that this leakage happened while Ed was around otherwise, I don't know what to do. I praise God that because of this leakage, I managed to get to know my neighbor, Mark. I praise God that because of this leak, I now know where the main water valve is located so, in future, I won't be so hapless anymore....

After that, headed home to Belinda's house and enjoy lunch there with her. She was very thotful and bought dungeness crab for me coz she knows I love them. Then got a tour of her cozy home which I loved very much and had 1st hand look at the deck that Belinda's husband, Ted was doing and it was really nice. Am sure it will be great when it's completed.

Update 29 July 2008

I know that there's been a report of a 5.4 earthquake in southern California. Don't worry, we are NOT affected. It's mainly in the Los Angeles south to San Diego and some parts of Las Vegas.

The map below shows you where the epicenter of the quake is located. We are about 6 hours from LA. So, don't worry, we are very fine over here.

Life's much better now that we have broadband but still no TV. But that's not as important coz even back in Pg, I hardly watch TV. Today, the weather was as fine as previous days. Temperature is around the high 78's F (25 deg C) with wind blowing so, it's really nice and we're just walking around in our tee shirts. Gorgeous weather. We don't even have to turn on our heater or air-cond coz it's just perfect weather for now. Here's a slideshow (just a short 4 slides for now, more will follow when I have time to download) of what I've been telling you all about. Notice all the choices you have on olives (that really blew me away). Enjoy...

In case you're curious about what California's all about, here's some mind blowing facts about it. Happy Reading...

GENERAL FACTS
Capital: Sacramento
Entered Union: Sept. 9, 1850 (31st state)
Motto: Eureka (I have found it)
State Colors: blue and gold
State Song: I Love You, California
Nickname: Golden State

GOVERNMENT
Governor: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Senators: Barbara Boxer, D , Dianne Feinstein, D
State Symbols Flower: Golden poppy
Tree: California redwood
Bird: California valley quail
Animal: California grizzly bear (1953)
Fish: California golden trout (1947)

GEOGRAPHY
Land area: 155,973 sq mi. (403,970 sq km)
Water area: 7,734 sq mi.
Coastline: 840 mi.
Shoreline: 3,427 mi.
Highest point: Mt. Whitney - 14,494 ft
Lowest point: Death Valley - 282 ft below sea level
Geographic center of state: In Madera Co., 35 mi. NE of Madera
Number of counties: 58
Largest county by population: Los Angeles, 9,519,338 (2000)
Largest county by area: San Bernardino, 20,062 sq mi.
National forests: 18
State parks and beaches: 264

POPULATION
2000 state resident census population: 33,871,648

10 largest cities (2000):

Los Angeles, 3,694,820
San Diego, 1,223,400
San Jose, 894,943
San Francisco, 776,733
Long Beach, 461,522
Fresno, 427,652
Sacramento, 407,018
Oakland, 399,484
Santa Ana, 337,977
Anaheim, 328,014

By Gender:
Male: 16,874,892 (49.8%)
Female: 16,996,756 (50.2%)

By Age:
18 and over: 72.7%
65 and over: 10.6%
Median age: 33.3

By Origin:
White: 20,170,059 (59.5%)
Black: 2,263,882 (6.7%)
American Indian: 333,346 (1.0%)
Asian: 3,697,513 (10.9%)
Other race: 5,682,241 (16.8%)
Two or more races: 1,607,646 (4.7%)
Hispanic/Latino: 10,966,556 (32.4%)

Update 26 to 28 July 2008

This morning, 1st thing we did was visit Starbucks so that we can use the internet facilities but alas, it only has T-Mobile as the wifi provider iso the AT&T wifi provider which we have bought a card for. But luckily, Ed, with his hindsight, bought the T-Mobile card and we could surf the net for 24 hours at US$9.99. The 3 of us shared the internet facilities, which means, when 1 of us are logged on, the other 2 couldn’t and we just went around for the next 2.5 hours and then decided to go shop at Office Depot for Ed’s L-shape table with 3-drawer filing cabinet. Found it at Aborn Square Office Depot and it cost us a total of US$276.87 after tax. Delivery is due on Tue, 29 July.
After that, we went to Target to buy 2 body pillows, a wireless keyboard, 2 wastepaper baskets n 1 car duster (boy! It’s really dusty over here due to the forest fires that’s been burning in California) and it came to US$67.59. Everything’s just so expensive. Gotta start shopping with coupons.

After Target, we went to Cosentino’s again and bought sushi home for lunch s well as tar pau ribs, lemon herb chicken and tri-tip BBQ beef for dinner. Had a nice 2 hour afternoon nap and then evening, we went for a walk around the neighborhood.

Had dinner in front of our PC and all thanks to my sister, Hoon, was able to catch up on CSI NY season 3 watching it on Sam’s PC. It was a nice change coz at least we could do something routine but instead of watching TV, we’re doing it on PC coz TV’s not hooked up yet.

27 July 2008

Morning went to church. Visited South Hills Community Church which is located at Almaden, about 30 mins drive from where we stay. We used to visit this church when we’re living in the Bay Area back in the early 90’s. It was good to be back in the house of the Lord and tears flowed easily coz I really missed being in the house of the Lord. Message today was by Dave Gschwend who talked about discipleship. Really missed GBC. But this time around, I felt different. This church is a bigger church than Blossom Valley Bible Church which we visited whilst here to look for our home back in late April 08. BVBC consisted mostly of seniors while SHCC is more balanced as age ranges from youth to seniors and a better mix but being a big church, I felt totally lost and the people seemed to be less warm. The message was pretty straight forward. 3 rules basically to be a true disciple. God looks for the non-believers to start with. Then he looks for those who’s really spiritually hungry. Message was derived from Luke 15:1-11. And God test our time, our obedience and success. Service was at 10am and ended around 11.40am and we headed to Deer Hollow where our 1st preferred home was selected and found that it’s still up for sale. No takers. Then we headed for lunch at Pasta Pomodoro near our home to have lunch. Ed and me shared Linguine Vongole with white wine sauce while Sam had penne with Portobello mushroom. Lunch came to US$35 after tax and tip for the 3 of us. Gotta remind myself not to convert lest, won’t eat and won’t survive.

Watched 2 more episodes of CSI NY and then off for afternoon nap again. Once recharged, managed to unpack 2 bags of cosmetics and important documents and put them where they belong. It feels good to find all my stationeries coz I really missed my stapler and it’s good to finally have things at hand to use and organized my filing. Now, I feel at ease that I know where all the documents are when I need them instead of just shuffling them into the envelopes.

Dinner was sourdough bread with Di Parma prosciutto bought from Cosentino’s. If any one you love salamis, olives, hams, cheeses, this is the perfect haven for all these food. They are a little pricey but this is likened to a butcher shop. They have everything under the sky.

Watched another episode of CSI NY and off to “work” Ed went as he has several telcons. Customer escalation is still ongoing and issues not solved. My poor husband, working so hard even on a Sun, sigh. Gotta pray to the Lord for strength for him.

Tomorrow, looking forward to having some internet service at home. Life’s been pretty miserable without it. Won’t take internet for granted anymore. Can die without it over here. Good nite…

28 July 2008

Woke up with much anticipation this morning coz today’s the day for internet installation, yay! Asked Ed to take the car to work coz I have to be in the house in case UPS comes with our internet router and I’m not at home to receive it. Knowing our luck, they’ll come when I’m not around. So, lunch is gonna be something bread again, oh no! Well, gotta get used to it, no hokkien mee or laksa or char koay teow. Doesn’t this tell you I am missing home already?

Did I tell you that on Thu, I had to stay indoors the whole day coz the furniture ppl were delivering things and guess what? I ate 11 pieces of butter with strawberry jam the whole day thru. The good news is, I have not grown sick of it yet but the bad news is, too much carb for the system, help!!! Anyway, the 11 pcs was spread out for bfast x3 pieces, lunch x4 pcs and dinner x4 pcs. You were shocked at first too right? Gotcha..

This morning, had Sam’s apple jacks for bfast. This is the same like froot loops back home except this is apple and cinnamon flavored, yucks! But gotta eatlah, otherwise, hungry mah. Lunch was 2 pcs of bread with parma ham while Sam had katsu udon in a bowl cooked with the microwave oven.

The UPS guy finally came at 12.30pm and I set up the router and everything else only to find out that the broadband service won’t get started till 8pm tonite, arghhhhh……………
OK, ok, gotta chill and be patient. So, will write more tomorrow when the net’s finally UP, hallelujah!

Update 25 July 2008

Today, Cort will be delivering Ed’s office chair which they will replace coz the previous was torn. The new one was slightly better but not perfect. But am too tired to go shopping anymore. This is so much hardwork. I hate shopping.

We’ll probably have to go shopping for L shape office table for Ed this weekend. And Ken Harte, our carpet cleaner came by to let me sign the check which I issued without signing it. Talk about senior moments. Well, this is one of them. Age is really catching up.

Also, Mr Eloy, the handyman whom Allyson referred us to came by and I asked him to give us a quote on the hanging of pictures, repairing the warped front door which we need to yank at it everytime we want to open it and I fear that one of these days, am going to yank the door off its hinges. Also, need to install a shower door over Sam’s bath tub coz right now, it’s using shower curtain. Don’t trust Sam with curtains coz water can seep out if one is not too careful in placing the curtain properly in the tub. Also, I realized that the shower heads here are fixed and not retractable like the ones back home which makes cleaning the bathroom an ease rather than have to fill up the pail and clean if the shower head is fixed. So, am changing the shower heads in the master and guest bathroom as Sam’s already retractable. Also, need him to hang up our 46” Sony LCD tv in the den area.

No swimming for now as Sam and me don’t have our swimsuits. Only Ed has his. The pool needs cleaning as there are some leaves in there and don’t see Ed being too enthused about swimming or cleaning it. Btw, it was no joke coz we tested the pool to see if it was warm enough for a swim and we put our toes in it and brrr... it was so cold even tho that day, the day temperature was up to 99 deg F. We shall see… For now, just putting chlorine in there and necessary chemicals to maintain it. Just wished the pool was a tennis court, that would have been IDEAL.

The hills around the house is really parched and brown. Hopefully by winter, it’ll be rainy and green again. So far, driving around hasn’t been a problem and I am kinda used to my surroundings already and have demarcated where I want to go shopping and groceries and pool supplies etc.

Still no broadband at home and no TV, arghhh.. life is boring...