The next day

The adventure is just beginning. What better way to start the holiday with some glam factor.

Like Datuk, Like Cucu

With cool shades and stripey green polo, datuk and cucu glam'd up for some action as we started Day 2 with a trip north to Universal Hollywood Studio.

LA Traffic

Beware of LA's traffic even on the freeways during peak hours. A 30 minute ride could potentially become 90 minutes when the road is jammed up all the way.

Universal Studios Hollywood

Greeted with a red carpet welcome, datuk and cucu is already feeling celebrity-like. Nothing can stop this glam'd duo in storming the studios.

Spiderman

The word is 'Thrilled' with a capital T. As Spiderman signed Afzal's autograph book, mom-photographer strikes a conversation with Spiderman and asked, "Are you Tobey McGuire?" to which he replied, "Tobey is an actor. I'm spiderman." Oh yeah, whatever.

The Kong

With the new release of King Kong's movie, datuk did not hesitate to be pictured with the giant ape while my son is nowhere in sight.

Shrek

An ugly happy couple obligingly signed autograph for the boy in the stripey green polo while cardboard Donkey and what's left of Lord Farquhar looked on.

It's a Small World

This is the one ride that Datuk was searching for until the end of the day, to reminisce the time he was here 18 years ago.

Rusini and her darlings

The evening ends at Rusini's posh home and dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant later. It was a chance to see her new baby Aya and also for Afzal to meet his 'old friend', Erisa whom he refers to as the little girl with the heart. The first time they met, Erisa was wearing a t-shirt that has pink hearts.

Next change.

The journey began...

As Tahir's training stint is nearing its end here in Alabama, we made a decision that we would take a flight and drive holiday to one destination within the USA before we return to Singapore for good, bearing in mind that we may not have a chance to come here again as easily in future. After some contemplation and asking around from online buddies in Rantauan, we shorlisted a few - 1) New York/ Niagara/ Toronto (Canada), 2) Seattle, Washington State and possibly to British Columbia (Canada), 3) San Francisco down to Los Angeles and further down to San Diego and finally to Tijuana (Mexico) and back up to Los Angeles again. 4) Los Angeles to Las Vegas to Grand Canyon and San Francisco.

Being the travel bug that I am, it was hard to be realistic, therefore the shortlisting looked like we want to attempt it all even with an immigration hop to either Canada or Mexico borders. Unfortunately, we did not have an unlimitless budget or even time. Unless of course I'm married to John Travolta, that will be a different story altogether.

So one night, after watching American Idol, Afzal said, "I want to go Hollywood," that's when we finally decided, Hollywood it will be then.

We chose an affordable and fastest flight we could get, and with a stopover at Memphis, Tennessee, we did not hesitate to soak in a little atmosphere of rock, soul, jazz and blues as Memphis is not only the birthtown of these music and its musicians, it was the hometown of music legend, Elvis Presley.


The aerial view as we flew from the mid-west to the western part of USA was a study in geography in itself. Eventhough we did not cross any international borders, however we entered into two time zones from Central time where we began to Mountain time and finally Pacific time. That is how huge the country is, and how bountiful it is.

The massiveness of this land of the Almighty Creator is just awe-inspiring and breathtaking. With a view of the different terrains, vegetation or the lack of it, meandering rivers and other geological architectures, it was a sight to behold. Just flying below, above and into the clouds, we were full of trepidation of the turbulence but at the same time praying and feeling the grace of Allah, what's more if we had caught a sight of the Grand Canyon.

After nearly six hours on the plane, we finally arrived to urbanisation. As the plane approaches the city of Los Angeles, the busy and industrialised map of what's below us was a sharp contrast to the earth where we had flew by. It just goes to show how much mankind has changed the face and shape of our planet Earth, and with that, we landed safely on the runway of LAX airport.

More to come.

Note: I could only upload 4 photos per blog entry, therefore this has to be in chapters, episodes, scenes etc, unless there is a way that I don't know about.

No pictures to tell the story

If I have my pictures, it will tell the story of our trip to Los Angeles but the unseen dew has not disappeared from my viewcam despite "hairdrying" it. This is so trying, and with much disappointment, I'm definitely getting a newer, better and affordable digital camera. You hear me, Sharpviewcam!!!

I have many little stories to tell but in a nutshell, we had a great trip. We arrived on 13 March an hour after my Father landed in LAX airport direct from Singapore. And off we took a shuttle bus to the car rental place and got our PT Cruiser and cruised to the lousy hotel that I had mistakably chosen, in an area that I found out later was a crime-ridden part of LA. No wonder for the many sirens we heard in the wee hours of the morning. After checking in, we headed to find a halal eatery which we had selected via Zabihah, and unfortunately the one we chose, Belacan Grill, was closed on that Monday night. So we tracked Halal Grill, but we could not find the place and all of us were famished by then. Luckily we found our third choice, Bilal Cuisine. It was so nikmat when we had the nasi beriyani, naan and all the curries. It was definitely much easier to find halal eateries compared to 18 years ago when my family first came here for a holiday. But the lessons learnt are either to call the eatery first if you have a cellphone or have a few nearby addresses just in case.

The next day, off we drove to Universal Hollywood and spent an entire day there. The evening, I brought my family to my friend Rusini's and Dayan's house in a posh part of LA. So Afzal get to meet his 'old friend' Erisa and their new bundle, Aya.

Our third day was spent at Disneyland LA because Father wanted to revisit the happiest place on earth, the footprints of which he had left 18 years ago. So we went there, and at the end of the day, he was still searching for that one ride he wanted to take "It's a small world" ride to rekindle old memories but my son only wanted the "nascar ride."

The day after, we travelled one and a half hours to the outskirt of San Diego to Legoland. Afzal had a blast there, though I felt that the rides are too gentle, in fact more suitable for toddlers. Knowing my son well, this is his standard for now. It was also Father's 61st birthday and he received an Oscar from Afzal (newly bought from Universal Hollywood, hehe) for being The Best Grandpa and Afzal's very own self-made card. After Legoland, we had dinner at Jamillah's Garden, a halal Chinese restaurant. It was our usual dinner but Father told Mak that it was a six course birthday dinner for him from us. Well, we are happy as long as you are happy, Father!

We woke up late on Friday because we already had three days of theme parks, so it was free and easy today. We had lunch at Toko Rame, an Indonesian eatery, so we got our nasi campur with bagedil, urap and other ala Melayu food stuff. We could not find the mosque that Tahir had checked from the internet, so the men missed their Friday prayers. That afternoon, we headed to Hollywood's Kodak Theatre and Walk of Fame. Rusini and her two darlings met us there and later only Rusini and me had a girl's night out in old town Pasadena, just the both of us.

Off we went to Seal Beach on Saturday, and had lunched at an online friend - Sharifah's and Leland's cosy and lovely apartment overlooking the Pacific Ocean. I also had the opportunity to meet other Rantauan members there. It was a lovely day as Afzal experienced sand sledding on the beach. We went to South Bay Galleria for some shopping after that but we did not get much stuffs.

On the Sunday that we checked out, we drove to Santa Monica Pier, and that's where we got the Bubba Gump's souvenirs and later to Downtown LA again to get more souvenirs before we were stucked in LA traffic even on a Sunday afternoon. Had our final meals at Bilal Cuisine again before our flights back to our respective homes. Of course, Father back to Singapore and us to Alabama.

So until my Sharpviewcam decides not to merajuk, I have no pictorial memories to share. Oh barnacle!

Me - A Film Writer

You Should Be a Film Writer

You don't just create compelling stories, you see them as clearly as a movie in your mind. You have a knack for details and dialogue. You can really make a character come to life. Chances are, you enjoy creating all types of stories. The joy is in the storytelling. And nothing would please you more than millions of people seeing your story on the big screen!

What Type of Writer Should You Be?

Definitely not impossible but then again, it always happens that my film never really have an ending. I cannot find a good ending to my 'stories'.

Darn my viewcam

My Sharp viewcam is not so sharp after all. It has it's weather swings. Whenever we travel to cold places, the 'dew' sets in and therefore it crashes all our hopes to capture the precious of moments. I would not be able to shoot videos, but I could still take one still at a time before pooh! it goes off again. What happens is, moi, the unofficial camera woman, because as usual, men (aka hubby) is so helpless at this gagget, therefore you would see less of me in photos (sigh), would get everyone posed quickly, switch to the still mode and snap. Sometimes I would like to get a better frame by zooming in or out, but that could hardly happen because the viewcam would die off before I could snap. So I quickly on it again and snap! Sometimes well-framed, sometimes 'asal snap aje' hoping that the picture will turn out fine. Now, I need to let it recuperate, give it warmth and some tender loving care like using a hairdryer so as to get the unseen dew disappear. It hasn't as yet.

You're going to Hollywood, Dude!

Image copyright of
www.carpenoctem.tv/ haunt/ca/img/sign.jpg

We're not on American Idol but we are going to Hollywood! Our flight is tomorrow morning with a stopover at Memphis, Tennessee and finally to Los Angeles. It will be more than six hours of flight and with the stopover, that will add up to more than 7 hours. As good as taking a flight from Singapore to Melbourne, Australia.

Afzal will be able to meet his Datuk as Datuk will fly from Singapore to meet us in LA, and off we go jalan-jalan. It's really sad that nenek does not want to come, because nenek is nannying my good friend's son but we will still have fun. Nenek, Afzal will definitely miss you lots!!!

So until next week, we're taking a break!

This is not a recipe.

And so the saying goes that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. This saying, however, never mentioned whether it is homecooked meals or those you buy ready-made from coffee shops and hawker centres. So before we even get married, I would tell hubby that I am not a cook. It was not an issue with hubby as I've already captured his heart then with my beautiful warm smile and adventurous spirit, at least that's what he told me. Rewind about 7 years back, when my in-laws came over to ask for my hand or maybe it was just a kenal-mengenal session, when suddenly, without informing me in advance so that I was better prepared for the situation, my mom dropped a bombshell on my in-laws that literally 'make my water face drop'. She said, "Walaupun anak saya ni belajar tinggi-tinggi, tapi dia tak pandai masak." Oh my...for the love of mum and heaven under her feet, why on earth did she have to do that? In-laws need not know of your culinary inadequacies especially when my better half has approved my lack of culinary skills. I could sense the delayed reaction and uncertainty of my mother-in-law's "....ahhhh...takpelah, nanti boleh belajar". Though mom and me debated about this after that, and though there were others on her side who believed it was for my own benefit, my esteem in cooking has never been the same ever since...sigh.

When we got our first home and was ready to move in, the presents from my mother-in-law includes a whole set of periuk-belangah from xs, s, m, l and xl that you can stacked them up. She gave me her hardly-used black set of plates, bowls, and cutlery, including the Chinese style soup spoon. It was the biggest hint to me that "Ya betcha start cooking for me son". Oh well... I'm a full time working woman, where got time to cook maybe except weekends, but then again we would always be at mom's or mil's place for the weekend.

Now fast forward to today. Eversince being a stay-at-home-mom in Alabama, I have never cooked so much in my life before. But I will stress that my cooking is not in the same league as mom's or mil's, for the fact that I can never beat them at their area of specialisation. As long as my lauk is edible and that hubby and son appreciate them, it does not matter what others think anymore. It is always good to hear especially my son saying, "Sedapnya mama masak!" That really make my day and make all the penat go away.

Top pix - Beef steak with gravy, bake potato, carrots, broccoli and snap beans.
Bottom pix - Sweet and sour fish with broccoli and red capsicum my style.

To the pasar I go

When travelling and living overseas in Mat Salleh countries, the first things that I would look up for from the internet are mosques, halal butchers and eateries. Having an Asian market or an Indian Market is definitely a huge bonus. Most of these small grocers are not listed on the internet, so when we drive around, we either open our eyes big big or open our mouth and asked around - like stopping a hejab wearing lady and asked where she get her halal meat or an Asian looking person for any Asian groceries.

The above Asian market is only about 5 mins drive from our apartment, and it belongs to a family who were originally from Laos. Here you can get your much needed lemon grass for that masak lemak, ginger, garlangal (lengkuas), daun limau purut, kesum and some asian vegetables like kailan and entah apa lagi. They have all types of sauces - soya sauce, fish sauce, teriyaki, dark sauce etc. However they do not import our favourite kicap cap kipas and maggie chilli sauce so that's too bad for us. The chilli sauce are usually sweet. Sometimes, they bring in durians too. But I'm totally not a durian fan.

One thing about going pasar or marketing here, if I really want to get like one month supplies or something, it will be like going on an excursion. It's easier in Singapore or even Malaysia where you just go to the wet market and you can get meat, fish, seafood, vegetables, your rempah-ratus (spices and herbs) all at one place under one roof. For us here, we would have to go to the International Market, which is just opposite our apartment for our halal meat, then the 5 minute drive to Asian Market for the herbs that are so important especially in Malay cooking or other stuffs like mee hoon, kway teow, ikan bilis etc. Drive another 15-20 minutes to Mudbugs should we want to buy fish, prawns, crabs or crawfish. Then another 20 minutes to the Indian Store for things like curry leaves, cili kering (which by the way is not the same), and whatever mama you want, including renting a Bollywood video. Then lastly a trip to Walmart to get your other essentials like eggs, cooking oil, 'western' vegetables, snacks etc.

So the whole morning is spent on 5 different locations just for marketing. I'm not complaining, in fact, it's an adventure in itself going pasar which I only did once in a blue moon back in Singapore.

So why cannot sleep?

Afzal went to sleep about eight plus after American Idol, and after I had tucked him in bed and read to him The Fly Went Past by Mike McClintock. I went to bed at eleven nish last night after hubby was already very much in slumberland also.

At 1.40 am, I awoke, only to hear distant noises, noises that emanated from the living room. Hubby was still sound asleep in bed, and as I walked out of my bedroom, the living room's light was on.

I walked to the living room and saw my little son sitting down on his blue chair watching tv...at 1.40 in the morning. I was like, "what time did you wake up?" I asked Afzal, "I don't know. But I watched three (cartoons) already." This was not the first time that Afzal had woken up and instead of going to our room to ngendeng on our bed, he goes to the living room to watch tv. But usually this happens at about 5 or 6 am instead. So I was appalled. And though he was watching 'cartoons', it was actually adult swim - cartoon that's intended for mature audiences. Once, I watched an episode where the female character was singing a cabaret about Muslim women, oppression, hejab and Arab men. It was supposedly to be humorous but it strikes a bad aftertaste for me.

I told Afzal that the cartoon is not meant for young children. He asked 'why?' but I couldn't remember what I told him but coerced him to go to sleep instead, and of course, I slept together with him in his bed. He was restless in bed until he finally fall asleep.

I wanted to pull out the switch before I go to bed but I was afraid that if Afzal wakes up in the wee hours and I did not hear him, he would try to figure out the cables and that would be more dangerous. Sometimes eventhough he sleeps later, he would still wake up early. And when the alarm clock rings at 6 am, and me just stirred from bed, Afzal would come walking from the living room after watching tv from God-knows-what-time instead of his bedroom ready to take his shower for school. Aiyoh, this is so mind boggling and to think that he is just a little after 5 years old.

Not much news

The daily dose of local news on Fox10 especially on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights for the last few weeks have all been about American Idol Taylor Hicks and his grandmother, Joni.

Macam takde cerita lain pulak. Looks like the reporter, Adam Ghassemi, had to camp out near the nenek's house now that Taylor is in the top 12.

Tornado Watch

It's been gusty winds for the last two days, and I could hear the howling of the winds despite being indoors. Nothing major I thought, just gusty winds.

Then on American Idol tonight, there was a tornado watch warning at the left bottom screen with a map of the supposed area - in Washington County, Alabama.

So hopefully it stays there.

Me the Virginal Blogger

Nak kata virginal, dah mak budak pun, tapi itulah, when it comes to the rule of thumb in the blogging world, me so virginallah.

I was tagged by another blogger, Apples, but the clueles me merely thank her and thought that was that but it was only much much later that I realised after reading some other people's blogs that tagging has another meaning. So being the late bloomer that I am, here's my contribution to being tagged.

Disclaimer: Below is just a gist of my life, which others may find boring, so just be warned before you read ahead. You may skipped all of it.

4 Jobs
In non-chronological order

1)SAHM: This is my current much enviable profession by some other career women, but then again, not every one can and will be SAHM which by the way stands for Stay-At-Home-Mom which sounded more sophisticated than housewife. I would also rather be known as a homemaker. But seriously, me and household chores just do not agree with each other because being SAHM does not equal domestication.

2) Research Associate: For a short span of four months, I was in academia before I dutifully followed my hubby to the states to be in profession no 1.

3) Master’s Student: I was juggling too many things at one go – full-time/overtime/underpaid career woman, wifehood, motherhood and decided that this is the only one that I will pursue for now back in June 2004.

4) Television Producer and Director: This has been almost my entire whole life career, almost a ten year lifespan until I finally gave way to being a student mom.

4 Movies
After being married-with-a-kid, my movie scene looks like these…
1) Chicken Little
2) Yours, Mine and Ours
3) Madagascar
4) The Invincibles

4 Places I’ve Lived
1) Alabama, USA – nearing one year
2) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – 5 months
3) Singapore – seems like forever
4) In my mom’s womb – 9 months

4 TV Shows I liked but may not watch them all the time
1) American Idol, CSI, The Apprentice
2) And for some no brainer show – The Next American Top Model reruns but for some grey matter stuff – CNN, Fox News
3) House Hunters, Designers' Challenge, Designed to Sell on HGTV
4) Clean House on Style Network …very therapeutic
Can I add the shows that I HAD to watch – everything on Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon (no prizes for guessing why).

4 places I've been on vacation
1) USA: Los Angeles (1987 and soon once again), New York (1997), Orlando, Florida (2005), Atlanta, Georgia and some other southern states in the US.

2) Europe: In 1994, I went for a one month Europe tour after my graduation and that covered cities and countries like Berlin, Hannover, Hamburg (Germany), Salzburg, Vienna (Austria), San Marino, Rome, Pisa, Venice (Italy), Vatican City; Lourdes, Bordeaux, Paris (France), Amsterdam (Holland), Brussels (Belgium), Luxembourg, London, Prague (Czech Republic), Liechtenstein, Zurich, Bern (Switzerland)… that’s about it I think. It was a super jam packed and tiring holiday, made memorable by the fact that I got chicken pox in Germany and infected some of the people in the tour. Oops! But it was an absolutely fantabulous holiday! Also, I went to London in 1988 because my cousin was studying there at that time. Went to Paris in 1997 for work – to do a story on Yves Saint Laurent and a bit of the French Fashion Week.

3) Australia & New Zealand : Perth, Melbourne(three times), Brisbane, Gold Coast and Christchurch (twice).

4) Asia: Many parts of Malaysia, Phuket (Thailand), Bali, Batam and Bintan islands (Indonesia), Seoul (South Korea) and Tokyo (Japan). Manila (Phillipines) as a little girl which I can hardly remember much now.

Oh can I add…Mauritius for my honeymoon.

4 Blogs I visited
1) My blog! Who else would read my blog if not me, right? *Wink*
2) Some blogs from Sentraal Station so that will add up to more than 4
3) My Multiply blog
4) My Multiply friends

4 of your Favourite Food
1) Anything Thai
2) Anything Chinese
3) Anything Roast
4) Anything Pedas- Melayu style

4 Places I’d rather be
1) In Heaven
2) In the country of my dreams
3) In my hubby’s arms (ehem)
4) In my son’s company (so difficult these days to really get him to hug or kiss you unless bribed)

4 Albums I can’t live without
I haven’t had any albums that I buy much. Really. Either I used to get it free or I just listen to the radio. Now, it’s everything related to Afzal
1) Children’s Nasheed Collection in English and Malay
2) The Best of Blue which incidentally belongs to Afzal
3) Some Malay songs that hubby downloaded (because it’s been a while since we hear Malay songs)
4) For English songs...Radiolah

4 Vehicles I’ve owned with hubby except the last one
1) Black Hyundai Matrix
2) Blue Hyundai Accent
3) Silver second hand Rover
4) My pair of legs, roller blades and roller skates

If you managed to read this line, you actually read all of what I have to write or you skipped to this part. Until then...Afzalmom signing off for now.

The circus came to town

Afzal received a coupon from school for a Mobile Circus at the Greater Mobile Fairground, so we decided to head down to the fairground to spend a day there. The price was USD 20 for adult and USD 7 for child but with the coupon, we only need to pay USD 5 each and entrance for Afzal was free.

As we drove into the fairground, the parking was USD5 and as our door opened, our noses were greeted with the animal's stench. There were ponies, elephants and camels beside the circus tentage and I actually saw a male elephant peed! Yes, that was like huge gallons of pee that could potentially create a mini pee pool.

Afzal was not impressed by the animals, or maybe he was just not interested or afraid when we persuaded him to take an animal ride. But our impression of the circus fall short of what we thought a circus would be but then again, we were thinking this is Mobile, Alabama, not some modern cosmopolitan.

It was not a huge crowd that gathered but enough to fill up the tent. There were of course many little children brought in by parents and grandparents. It was a family event. As everyone moved in to find a spot, the seats were some hard wooden planks. The equipments inside looked dated and wasn't something to rave about. The show started with two female and one male jugglers from Colombia. In fact, these performers were family members. There were also other low key performances with fires and other gadgetries.

I am not a big fan of circus but I have also never been to one, but this one is definitely a neighbourhood circus, nothing of the international standard that you would see in Moscow or Beijing circuses. Even the clown was unfunny, and there were only elephants, dogs and monkey acts. If only these animals could speak, I wonder whether they would tell their owner that they would like to throw the towel in.

Afzal asked for nachos with cheese, snow cones, balloons and a toy that they sell near the entrance, but we only succumb to the nachos and snow cones. I think they made more sales with all these extras. After a while, Afzal got really restless with the not-so-adrenaline-pumping show. Also, it's quite funny when the snow cone man is also the one who assist the juggler with her gadgets, and he is also the motor rider in the motorbike globe act. Multi-tasking for sure, so you would have a sense of the category that this circus would fall into. A circus for the Mobile family from a family of circus performers.

That motorbike act was the only one that Afzal like. As for me, I had backache sitting on the hard wooden plank. But for USD 5, that's as good as it gets.

Orange Beach, Gulf Shores

So here we are at Orange Beach, on a winter-day-that-felt-like-summer, as Afzal roamed around on the sandy white beaches, teasing the waves as it lapped onto the shores.



As he combed the beach, he started to pick up little shells that littered the sandy white beach. Without asking, he showed me his handful of unbroken shells.



Soon, he had his shoes wet, and the millions grains of sand had stuck to his shoes and socks.



After he had his fun, and his shoes soaking wet from the wash, we went to a surf shop and bought this orange beach shoes. It was not so much that we wanted it to be orange just because we were on Orange Beach but the blue ones did not have his size and another set were pink and purple.

After wearing this orange beach shoes, Afzal exclaimed, “I felt like a clown” and off he clowned around the streets of Orange Beach. After much clowning and monkeying around, it was time to head back to Mobile, which was an hour and a half drive away, and it would be dark by the time we reached home.

The weekend drive part 2

We made a stop at one of Foley's Giant Flea Market, but as we did not really find much bric-a-brac as compared to the flea market in Schillinger, we decided to drive further and somehow, made a turn towards Orange Beach and Gulf Shores.


Orange beach, the hometown of silver haired American Idol Contestant Taylor Hick's grandmother.
Taylor is from Birmingham but dear granny stays in Orange Beach, and she is a big supporter and fan of her grandchild as she invited 150 guests to a dine-by-the-pool-beach house to watch and vote for Taylor's maiden performance on Idol.

To be continued.

Our weekend drive

It was the weekend and we decided to take a drive towards Foley, the place where we usually go for our shopping spree at Tanger Outlet. But unlike the usual stop at Tanger, we want to see something new and different.


Once we hit Interstate Highway 10, we will be driving towards Downtown Mobile under the tunnel and onto a long bridge that connects Downtown Mobile to the Eastern Shore part of Alabama. This long bridge opens up to the Gulf of Mexico. And as we travelled along this bridge on a sunny day, it was pure vast expanse of the gulf.





The America as we know it from cities like New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas are huge departues from the southern states, well, not in this part of Alabama that I know of. This is rural America, and as we drove past vast grassland, we would also come across farm markets, antique shops and old gas stations. The Burris Farm Markets and the likes are considered not very rural, there are others that are more "kampung" than these.

To be continued.

My Tree Part 2

This picture was taken during the fall season when winter was about to creep in. From where I was standing, I could see that half of the tree had auburny red leaves while the other half, the branches were bare because the leaves had fallen.





This is my tree on one fall day before the mild Mobile winter had shaken all its leaves away. Below is the tree in winter and it's a sign that spring is almost here.

My Tree

My tree which stands tall across the street from my corridor.

On close-up, you can see white flowers budding from it. I've always thought that leaves would sprout first.

Spring is coming

White flowers has 'bud' from my tree. Yes, my big tree that is just across on the other side of our apartment. The tree that I have seen the seasonal changes taking root. When I have the time again, I'll upload pictures of my tree. Coming soon.

Fat Tuesday

It's the last day of mardi gras, and why is it called Fat Tuesday, beats me. I haven't got the time to find out much about this event, but it seems that mardi gras started in Mobile, Alabama at least that's what I heard.



Here's the loot from our catch at the parade from stuff toys to beads, doubloons, moonpies, sweets, candy floss, compass, whistle, a football and even a pack of peanuts.