...just weird to me...

My friend, Kim, is moving to West Virginia (yes, willingly). She is moving in July and has recently recruited a local realtor. He has since adviced that she got rid of furniture from her house (which consists of two an ottoman and the coffee table, both from the living room, a love seat from her bedroom), adding more art on the wall and making her bathrooms (which are no more in use since both her daughters are away in college) more attractive. Since I heard this, Kim has gone to the mall and spent at least $300!

While I understand that painting and general cleanliness and neatness is expected when you show your house, I certainly do not understand this make-your-house-more-beautiful-
then-when-you-lived-in-it idea... I mean, c'mon now... when I go look at houses, the last thing I'm looking at is how they decorate the house and certainly the last thing would be if their towels and shower curtains match the wall paper. I just can't fathom spending money for that and everyone who knows me knows that I would give any excuse to buy buy buy!

Kim is going to get the carpet cleaned also. While all the furniture is still around. Now her carpet looks nice and cleaned. Certainly no stains or anything the naked eye could catch. I explained that maybe she could volunteer to clean it for the buyer when she's moved out; when absolutely no furniture would be in the way of the cleaners. Her reasoning was that it HAD to be cleaned to get the buyer interested in the house.

Maybe I'm being a little careless about this getting-your-house-ready-for-viewing deal but if any realtor told me that I had to do what Kim has to, I'd fire him lol. If the people don't like how the house is decorated, then when they buy it, then can jolly well decorate it any bloody way they want!

I Am An Aunt

My brother and his wife, Geraldine, had their first addition to the Tay family today. That makes me an official aunt. I don' t know what they're naming their daughter... it was Emily, then Emma and gawd knows if it's confirmed. I've mentioned it to my sister in law that I will be calling her Madison ('coz I like the name) and Bruce will be calling her Pork-Sa (her last name is TAY). Yes, my husband has a sick sense of humor.

It was, for once, nice to be woken up by my dad's voice at 5am asking (without fail, as usual), 'what time is it there?'. Understand that I have been out of the house since I was 17 and no matter what time he calls, that's usually his first question. That or 'who was that?!' when Bruce answers the phone in the middle of deep sleep lol.

But yes, I am happy and proud of report that mother and baby and doing very well and I have been promised some pictures soon.

American Idol Update...

from the New Paper from Singapore (of all places). Not that I ever cared about this guy nor his voice... I never thought he would have made it to the top three anyway. The Michael Jackson type YUK! But people are curious... and I give what people want lol.

THE rumblings are growing louder that American Idol dropout Mario Vazquez (right) has a newer, better record deal in his back pocket - placed there by music mogul Sean P Diddy Combs and his Bad Boy Records.

Meanwhile, the 28-year-old has been carefully plotting his music career.

Although Vazquez is contractually committed to American Idol until May, he has hired lawyer Jess L Rosen - who sprung Clay Aiken from the contract that bound him to 19 Entertainment, the management company owned by American Idol creator Simon Fuller - to get him out of this fix.

Meanwhile, Vazquez can already be heard on an album which he lent his vocals to before joining the show.

Flamenco guitarist Cesar's Worlds Of Change was quickly repackaged and sold online to more prominently feature Vazquez's newfound celebrity.

But fame seems to have gone to his head. It was reported that he told singers Jessica and Ashlee Simpson at a party: 'I know what it's like to be a celebrity and to be harassed. I'm so glad to be in a private area.'

He proceeded to act like a groupie and asked the sisters for a picture - which they declined four times - and was apparently asked to leave by security after that.

Let Her Die Already!!!

First of all, I'm tired of this Schiavo case. Supporters of this so called 'right to life', all I can say is 'YOU ARE ALL (YES ALL) IDIOTS!!!" I can't believe the media is giving this silly thing so much attention! It's unnecessary and it certainly is NOT entertaining.

Yes it's a sad situation, yes it's unfortunate. But c'mon, the girl's been in this vegetative state for 16 years. I can't believe there are such selfish parents out there. What the hell do they get out of this? She is no more their daughter. She died a long time ago. Now all the whole nation can remember of this girl is what she looks like on tv played over and over and over AND OVER(!) again. I don't know what her parents are trying to prove but I'd be glad when it's all over and people in Florida can stop bitching about how the local courts are ignoring the President. Hello?!?! Yup, same bunch of religious fools who voted for the same idiotic President. I rest my case.

Damn I'm FAT!!!

I looked at some of the pictures of myself that were taken in NYC... and all I can say is 'who the hell is that fat girl sitting there?' All my life, I have never been trim; okay, I've been fat all the last 34 years of my life. But you know how you have this image in your head with how you look? Most people have that image so they have sort of an expectation on how they'd look in pictures. Well, the image I had in my head must have been of me when I was ten(!?!); 'coz to say the least when I saw these pictures, I was dumbfounded! Shocked! Embarassed! I mean, you can only blame the camera, the photographer, the lighting, the clothes you're wearing or how you're seated that much. All that doesn't add 40 pounds on your body. Not enough excuses can explain how I look so fat. Okay, other than all that glorious food and the lack of exercise. So this past Monday, I walked meekly back to the 'Y', and went back to the pool to swim my laps. It'll take months before I see anything happen to my body but I know in weeks, I will feel a slight improvement on my body and cetainly my body image.

Then again, sitting in front of the computer updating my blog and playing canasta on yahoo, I could be on the threadmill. But nah, I don't have to be skinny THAT quickly lol.

Millennium Hilton NYC

So I was at the Millennium Hilton (for the first time) the last few days and while it's great that it's located right next to Century 21, a comfortable one mile walk to triad-land/Chinatown and if you're still interested in looking at Ground Zero aka flat piece of land with lots of construction, it really is not much of a 'nice' hotel. For $219 however, I suppose it's a good deal for NYC especially since my main purpose was to seriously have South East Asian food in Chinatown.

All in all, it was a nice enough hotel. Not too small but certainly not spacious for two people. Probably bigger than all the other hotels in mid-town (this hotel is in downtown) but don't bet on getting first class service. Not bad service, just nonchalant. Good for businessmen I suppose. Weekends are pretty quiet without the people working in the surrounding buildings but cabs are always abundant; not that you'd need it with the nearby subway stations.

I can't say I'm looking forward to another stay with them but if it's last minute plans again and the Sofitel jacks up her prices to over $300 again (you can usually get it in the low 200's) I can't say I would mind.

CASH, NO TAX...

NYC as usual was a blast! Genevieve was a great room mate and we had a ball just hanging out and eating! That's basically all we did... eat, shop, sleep. Then the cycle starts all over again the next day. For three full days, we were stuffed with food as close to as what we get back home, lots of great laughs, gossips and reminizing the good old party days back home and bitch bitch bitch about the immigration system of the US, people and more people (what's new?! :D).

So what's up with Chinatown?! Where everytime you pay with a credit card (IF they accept them), they look at you in horror and/or with curiosity wondering where in the world did you fall out from, paying with a credit card?! You see, in Chinatown, whether it's for food, shopping for cheap dvd's or groceries, if you pay them in cold hard cash, you don't have to pay tax. Wait a minute, isn't that illegal!? ...and this is not just applicable to Asians. It's a well known fact, apparently; and now to me and you guys reading this. Isn't paying tax part of being a US resident's responsibility?

Of course, with the number of illegal aliens in the area within Chinatown alone is inconcievable. Tons of Malaysians, I realize. Including people who have been in the country for more than the last 10 years! How do you live like that?! They work, they might own houses, they certainly pay rent and of course, how could they not have kids!? Meanwhile... here I am, doing every damned right thing to go through to get my green card and where am I after three years? Absolutely not much different from the day after I got my first interview. Aggravating.

Well, whether it's bring lots of cash or being looked at disdainfully by the Chinese, NYC is a great place to hang out for a few days. I think I might just go insane if I ever lived there. It's so different from Tokyo where everything seems much similar and yet, much much more organized. Go to Tai Pan Bakery (with the yummiest Dan Tart and Curry Puff) and you'd understand.

Winter in NYC

Well, after a week of beautiful crisp weather in Tokyo, what better then to dive back into the bitter cold weather of New York City! At least the forecast of snow and rain for today (till Sunday) have, for some reason, changed to partly cloudy and disappeared altogether . COOL! My kind of weather. I can live with mid 40s weather; it certainly beats the 30s.

It's a girls' weekend with Genevieve who lives in NYC. It'll be fun. The husband was generous and got us a room to share so we're really looking forward to just hanging out and do some serious gossiping. Not that we haven't been on a daily basis for the last year up till last night at 11pm. The king put an end to it of course, and quite rightly so lol.

We're going to be at the Millenium Hilton. It's walking distance to chinatown and right next to Century 21 so you know who's excited. It's been more than a year since I've been to the City... Gen tells me that C21 now has a seperate store just for shoes. Paradise!!

Right, time to get outta'f here. More when I return.

Spring in Nihon

So we missed the cherry blossom... we do every year... oh well. But the weather was absolutely wonderful walking weather! Not that that didn't make my non-arched feet cry day after day walking around shinjuku/roppongi/azabu juban area (no shibuya for a change lol) in my sneakers but they cry all the time so that's besides the point. I really like the Park Hotel a lot. So it's no Grand Hyatt or Park Hyatt but it's modern, clean, cosy and even with the small rooms, Bruce and I were very comfortable. With it being so new still, the smoking rooms didn't even smell of smoke unlike the non-smoking rooms in past hotels we have been in smell like a used ashtray ARRGH!

We had a very nice time as usual with the Kohno's. We missed Mao-chan this time since it was a weekday evening that we met but both of us couples had a ton of fun at this new izakaya place at Caretta on the 45th floor . Never mind the view... the sake, the shochus, the wine and even the food was very good. Not that expensive either for a fancy izakaya. Ok, I can't remember what it's called. Got the card here somewhere.

Jun-san of the Rainbowl Roll is getting married... so he's moving to Nagoya where his girlfriend's family run a few different restaurants. Looks like we have go to Nagoya some time. Sushi Cho was more fun then usual despite the absense of sake lol. Fukushima-san (ok I can't say this guy's name) was extra talkative and curious and like many times with the Kohno's, there were more than a few times where we had our own lost-in-translation-moments.

Can't wait till June for our next trip there... minus the heat of course.

Japan, Here We Come!!!

It's been more than 6 months since we were last in Tokyo. Hard to fathom but true. It's been almost four months since I was last on a plane. Even harder to imagine but also true. Tomorrow, we head back out to Japan and I am extremely excited. To be amongst the insane Japanese, crazy new things, awesome yummy food and of course, much more beautiful women then me. Can't beat them all :) ...there will always be one man who thinks I'm the fairest of them all hee hee.

Our spring break tradition is always to be in Japan for a week... this time I believe we're staying at a new hotel in Shiedome. Will have pics and comments in the next few days (I hope).