18 December 2008

Well, I am counting the days to 20 Dec when we fly off to Malaysia and I am really excited. Can't contain my happiness that I will very soon see my families and friends again. It won't be long now...

But so much has been happening this week. This whole week has been lots of tennis thrown into my schedule on top of being "Santarina" delivering gifts to all my precious friends here in the Bay Area.

Pictures paint a thousand words so, am just going to post photographs so as to share with all of you. Firstly, I have found my newest BFF in Svetlana or fondly known an Sveta to me. She's Russian, 39 yrs of age and she and her family has been a blessing to us as a family. We came to know them at the bowling alley where Sam bowls her weekly Saturday league at Homestead Lanes @ Cupertino. Sveta's daughter, 14 yr old Anna is a very sweet and demure girl and she's very down to earth and we love her. Marty is Sveta's husband and he is a silver certified coach himself. All these while, he has been coaching Anna and occasionally does coach Sam too. Marty himself is a great bowler and he competes competitively but works full-time at Oracle. The 3 of them are just such wonderful people and we are so blessed to have known them and most importantly, we all clicked right at the start as if we have known each other for a long time. Sveta and me shares a lot of things in common and both of us can relate to each other. I guess that's why we are such bosom gals with one another. Now, during bowling competitions, I am not so alone anymore as there's Sveta to keep me company and I am just so glad that God sent her my way. So, without further ado, here's the pics:

That's Sveta with me at Homestead Lanes on Sat, 13 December 2008. Doesn't she look beautiful? I love her eyes, they are so captivating.

Hmm... picture is kind of dark isn't it? Where's the flash when we need one!! L-R : Chris, Edward, Marty, Victoria (Sveta's sister from Texas who was visiting), Sveta, Anna, Sam and Victoria's 1.5 yrs old son (he's so cute but sorry, didn't get his name).

Next, I want to introduce to you our gardener. His name is Hector Rodriguez. He's a very nice and humble man and he keeps our garden well. If you've looked at the pictures of our house b4, you know he has great hands.

And most important of all, are my tennis buddies at Clubsport Fremont. They are the ones who helped me stay sane but they are also the ones who drives me insane, hahaha. They are a bunch of fun people and they are the ones who kept me on my toes, whacked the daylights out of me, gave me challenging balls that I couldn't retrieve and gave me good advice when I needed it most.

Richard is my hitting partner on every Wednesdays and he teaches me mixed doubles strategy and he's really an experienced player. Hits the ball really flat but it hardly flies out. That's what exasperate me half the time, hahaha.

Ralph, Jim, Ken and Edward are the 4 guys who's always feeding me donuts and man, are the donuts good. These 4 guys will play almost everyday with each other and they can really foul up my game when I play them coz they can give you the darndest kind of ball that I don't know how to handle. In other words, they frustrate me, hahaha! Naw... just kidding. They are a bunch of great guys and I loved being in their company coz they make me laugh.

Then, there's Susan Tam who's a 4.0 singles player and she's very good and consistent and she's my "sifu" on court and she is the ony one who supports my whacking at the ball. She's whopped me 6-0, 6-0 consistently whenever we play singles with one another. She unbeatable for now!!! I'll get there someday.

And Emily, her last name is Sah and when I first met her, I thot that was a very peculiar surname coz it's uncommon. Then, she told me she married a Chinese and apparently, the surname is part Mongolian as his husband's family has some ties there. Both of us a great buddies with each other and I love playing with her coz she hits the ball hard too and she's always so much fun to play with. She just moved here from Chicago and the darling of the court. I love being with her coz she's also my partner whenever we play with the ball machine. And she loves playing singles too, so, that's why I love her, hahaha. Mentally, both of us think very much alike and I guess that's why we get on well with one another.

Then, there's also Shawn. He's Indian and a 3.0 player altho I think he's sandbagging the rating coz he definitely doesn't play like a 3.0 player. Yesterday, he played Colean Tang who is a lady 4.5 player and tho Shawn lost in 3 sets, he can hold his head up high coz he managed to push her to the limit. Shawn is also on our mixed doubles team and I love playing with him coz he's fun and have a great sense of humour and a big heart. Did I tell you he lost $100 playing against Colean as that was his bet but he took it in good stead and even bought everyone in the team food and drinks. A big applause for Shawn for his generosity.

Last but not least, there's Larry, my coach at CSF (ClubSport Fremont). He helps us with doubles strategy and he fine tunes my game and strokes and I love his finesse on court. So, to cap it all, here's the photos:

Cecelia Hernandez with Chris, the 3.0 ClubSport Fremont champions. Yay, we've earned our bragging rights!

That's me and Richard, my therapist and hitting partner on Wednesdays at CSF! I know he loves DOING (this is our secret code and Richard knows what I am talking about) and besides tennis, he loves poems.

From the top: Jim, Ken, Edward (with his donut and trying to tempt me to grab a bite) and Ralph.

Susan Tam has a beautiful BH stroke and she hits the ball really hard. I like hitting with her coz her ball has pace but when it comes to playing singles, she's very competitively fierce and will have no second thots abt bageling the opponent at the other end of the court, hahaha. I have been at the receiving end numerous times so, trust me, I know her well, hahaha.

Chris & Shawn on the left and Shawn & Terry Chuang on the right. Terry is another wonderful hardhitter on court and I love to stroke with her altho we hardly do it anymore these days as her schedule doesn't fit mine. Terry is a net player and she changes direction on the ball so well at the net. I admire her volleys, they are very crisp and precise.

That's Emily Sah and me on the left and Larry, my coach at CSF.

Did I tell you that I was such a "katak di bawah tempurung" the other day when I saw frost on my lawn when I woke up in the morning? What happened was the night before, the temperature dropped to 28degF (-2degC) and the next morning, frost was everywhere. It was so cool. Don't believe me, look at this picture!

The white powdery stuff on top of the lawn is the frost. Cool eh?

27 November 2008

We have lots to be thankful for and am glad we had a 4 day short break with no school and no work as it's Thanksgiving holidays. We were invited to Belinda's house for Thanksgiving. We started our day by going shopping for all the good deals that's on sale coz we had a shopping list for 60 people and I can tell you it's no joke trying to fit a gift for everyone and be creative at the same time.



But, we slept in late and got to the store by 10am by which, the item that we wanted was all sold out. Just my luck! I guess it's because we are inexperience coz a friend actually went shopping at 5am to take advantage of the slashed prices off the goods she wants to buy. So, gotta go and crack our heads some more for new ideas as to what to buy to replace what we missed (grumble, grumble, grumble)!.



And the next few days, it was more shopping till we drop coz all the stores was spread out all over the place. I can tell you all now that I am totally "jelak" from shopping but the good news is finally, on Dec 9th, I am finally all done with Christmas shopping for all the 60 people on our list but now, alamak, gotta worry about how to carry all those gifts back home to Malaysia so as not to attract any unwanted attention from the customs, argh!!!



Here's our pic from Thanksgiving at Belinda's. Her turkey was real yummy and we had a blast playing Wii and Sam beat us all in the Wii bowling game.

5 December 2008

Well, today was my 1st singles tennis tournament held at Mission San Jose in Fremont which is approximately 1/2 an hour's drive from home. Match was supposed to start at 8am. My opponent is Michelle Myzell-Chapman, quite an experienced player coz I could check her play record online.

Anyway, didn't sleep well the night before. Woke up many times. Guess I was excited and was afraid I would oversleep altho the alarm clock hasn't failed me thus far. I was all in my tennis gear and about to leave when Ed told me to take my sweatpants with me just in case coz that day was chilly (4 deg C). I took his advice and chucked it into my car and began my journey.

Reached there at 7.45am and walked onto court to do my check-in. It was really windy that day and as I walked, my teeth were chattering and I was shivering. Now, what was I thinking about - I must've been crazy coz everyone who's there was in their thermal wear and here I am, like a heroine, only dressed in tennis skirt. As the check-in desk wasn't ready, I quickly ran back to my car to wear my sweatpants. I was thankful I listened to Ed's advice.

The 1st set was horrible with the wind blowing through the court and my fingers felt numb due to the cold and wind chill. Both Michelle and me struggled with our ball toss and I struggled mostly with being able to hit the ball coz the wind kept carrying it away from me. Footwork was all fouled up. I lost the match 5-7, 5-7. Not trying to make excuses but Michelle was a better player and she could adjust to the conditions better than I can.

But, it's just my luck. The one condition that I've never trained in and here I am being tested to the fullest in my 1st singles match. I've learnt a lot from that experience tho and hope that in the future, I would be able to handle this condition better.

I can't tell you how happy I was just to get off the court after losing. I was just so glad that I won't have to go back there again the next day coz had I won, I would've to play in the semis and no way am I going back there, hahaha.

So, story of my life - Won 1, lost 1. Oops! sorry lah, no photos to prove I've lost coz remember, I was in too much of a hurry to get off court, hahaha.

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.