Back on the Little Red Dot

After 18 hours on the plane, I'm now back in Singapore. As the plane was taking off, I kept looking out the window, looking for familiar sights & landmarks of the Big Apple. I couldn't see very much & everything looked pretty much the same at night, except for the Empire State Building's lights - blue & white to celebrate Hanukkah.

It's now back to reality - no more waking up at 10am & lazing around doing nothing. No more walking around & going in & out of shops & stores to feast the eyes. No more hanging around my brother for daily dose of crap. No more senseless channel surfing for meaningless trash on TV.

I love New York!

Farewell, New York!

I cannot believe it! 23 days in New York all gone by in a flash. It seemed like forever before I came over & before I even know it, I'm going back home :(

It's been wonderful being in New York & being able to be with my family. We had a good time in Washington DC & really rocked ourselves off in Florida besides spending all our time in NYC. I cannot be more thankful for these few weeks although I wish I could stop time (maybe more money will be good...hee hee!).

I'll definitely come back to New York sometime in the future. To chill out, be part of the Big Apple where the world meets & get lost in the madding crowd - that's the New York I know & will always know.


Luv,
~MiL~
New York City

Yada yada..

I'm so glad that the family went to Florida. My brother's just brilliant to have thought of that because my parents were originally planning to go to Las Vegas, which would have left me somewhat bored without the thrill of the rides. What's more important was that everyone in the family was happy - my parents got to take the mild rides & watch performances that left them raving, my brother & me finally got the chance to be taken to Disneyland by our parents (better late than never!)...and we all got something from shopping at the outlet stores.

'tis true that a girl can never have enough of shoes. Every trip that I make to New York, I have to get at least a pair of shoes. This time, I got 3 pairs - a Stuart Weitzman & 2 pairs from Cole Hann (my best victory in Florida). If I had got them at full price, they would have cost me a total of US$489 (still cheaper than a pair of Manolos :p). I paid less than US$100 for them. They aren't exactly very fanciful shoes but so very functional - for work, basically. By the way, they are full leather :)

L to R: Stuart Weitzman (US$31.02), Cole Haan (US$31.98 & US$34.51)

Anyway, the strike by the transport workers finally came to an end after crippling the transport system in New York for 3 days. Everyone is relieved. It has cost the city lots of money & not to mention, a lot of inconvenience to New Yorkers. Just spoke with a friend who lives in Queens, that he had to walk 20 blocks (about 2km plus) from his place to get a bus into Manhattan & walk another 30 blocks to his office building...all that in the cold! Crazy!

Seriously, I think the strike is a big joke & perhaps, something that is overdue considering that the MTA & the TWU have not really met each other eye to eye over issues for a while. But really, at the end of the day, the TWU is made to look stupid. With a US$1m per day of strike fine in the face & with that little in the kitty, it's such a joke. The president of the union still has to face charges in court & really, I think Michael Bloomberg (mayor of NYC) is right - to slap more fines than throw him into jail or he'll look like some martyr.

At the end of the day, it's still money talks. If it were me, I would sack all the workers & re-hire others who lost their jobs. If they want their jobs back, they just jolly well have to settle with what I'm giving them. Consider this - the workers can demand all they want, knowing that they're on the losing end but if I put on their table $100 a day to cut their crap of a strike, I can bet you that all their demands will go under & they'll just march back to work, making their president of the union look like an idiot. Hey, you can't really depend on loyalty. It's all the about the money, gangsta!

I've yada-yadaed enough. I'm leaving New York in less than a week. Will spend the last few days here well.

Luv,
~MiL~
New York City

Mission: Epcot

Epcot was fantastic! It's a place for thrills & rides of your life. But the Qs for the rides were ridiculously long. The first ride we went on today was 'Soarin'', the supposed number one ride in DisneyWorld. We didn't get the FastPass*1 because it would mean that we could only get on that ride at 4pm. So we stood in the queue for 1 hour to go on a ride that would last us only 5 minutes. Ridiculous? Well, it was a ride well worth it. We sat on this piece of engineering & when all systems go, it took us above the skies of California, from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe to Malibu Beach & orange farms. It felt like we were really flying above these places. It was totally awesome! What added to the fun was that we could actually smell oranges as we flew over the orange farm. I'm glad that we didn't get to smell the polluted air when we flew over the crowded city roads :) My Dad was very pleased with the ride.

My brother & me went to ride on Mission: Space - what an experience! We were in an enclosed capsule that was as similar to a space shuttle & we were supposed to be on a mission to Mars. It's no computer game, dudes! We felt the impact/feeling of take-off, going from 0mph to 6,000mph in 60 sec, G-force & turbulence in zero gravity. The posters & warnings made it sound scary because all who were prone to motion sickeness, had high blood pressure & whatever physical problems were told to not ride in this. Well, I suppose that it was for their own good because seriously, in as fun as it was, if you fell into any of the categories mentioned, it would have been a ride from hell. Certainly a favourite ride!

Next, we went on to watch the Kodak 3D film, 'Honey, I Shrunk the Audience'. It was so real! Can't describe it, except that it had me totally freaked when 1,000 mice were supposed to have been released. AAARGGHH!!

Remember Crush? The turtle from Finding Nemo? There was an interactive show with him. Well, really, the voice came from someone who could see everything that's going on in the audience through a camera. The children in there absolutely loved it & so did the adults. For the kids, it was a favourite character & for the adults, well, Crush was absolutely corny.

We took a walk around the World Showcase & as the name implies, there was a section in the park where they had little buildings & structures from countries all over the world, such as the Eiffel Tower, phone booths you'd find in England, the Temple of Heaven from China, etc. It was quite hard to take pictures because there were too many people walking around. We stayed to watch the Candlelight Procession concert & that lasted nearly an hour. It was basically an orchestra & choir doing Christmas songs & all. It's supposed to be a Disney tradition since Disneyland started this programme for Christmas in 1958.


The final ride for the day was Spaceship Earth, a ride through time. A very simple ride but when it first opened back in the 80s, it was a ride beyond its time.

I'm sorry if it sounded as though I'm telling granny tales but I was just really trying to recall & verbalise what I did at Epcot today.

Will be going back to New York tomorrow evening so Mum wants to do some shopping. I ain't saying 'no' to that :)

Luv,
~MiL~
Orlando, Florida

*Fastpass= It's basically a ticket that gets you through the long Qs at rides. How this works is that you insert your admission ticket to the park into one of the Fastpass distribution machines at the entrance of the rides & it will state a time where you come back for the ride. So when you come in at the designated time, which could be as quick as 5 min to 5 hours later, you just zoom by everyone who's lining up in the Q. Neat!

I'm 5 again!

I'm now in Orlando, Florida. Spent the day at Disney-MGM & Magic Kingdom. It was so much fun & I felt like a kid again. Told Mum that if I really were 5, I would be jumping up & down, insisting that I be bought the Cinderella dress or the fairy accessories. In the end, I got myself a Minnie Mouse hairband. All I need is the polka dot dress, yellow shoes & the white mittens :)

The first ride my brother & me went to was the Star Tours, which is basically some Star Wars thingy. I mean, how could I, a Star Wars fan, miss anything that's Star Wars? It was us strapped onto our seats & it was flight simulation as though we were on the X-wing flying in the galaxy. It was pretty cool & I liked the feeling of travelling light years. Couldn't take any pictures though.

We went on to walk around the park & found ourselves on this ride that took us through great movie moments that included effects from Aliens, Indiana Jones, Wizard of Oz, etc. They were basically wax figures that could move about & there were visual & sound effects to enhance the experience. That was pretty cool too.

I really liked the Muppet Show. It's a 3D animation & the effects were excellent. I mean, the things really popped out & you feel as though it was coming for you. Great for the kids though :)

On to Magic Kingdom, that's where all the Walt Disney characters came to life. We watched the Disney characters parade & it was awesome! They featured most of their characters, from Mickey to the baddies like Cruella D'evil to cutsie characters like the mice from Cinderella. Just as the kids were fascinated, I was too. Afterall, I'm supposed to be 5 again today :)

My friend, Mickey!

Some other characters

I shall update more when I'm less sleepy. Am off to Dreamland!

Luv,
~MiL~
Orlando, Florida

Walk on, New York!

The last few days have been exciting for all New Yorkers. The MTA & the transit workers in New York have not come to any agreement at all in their talks. The workers (under the strength of the Transit Workers Union) are threatening to go on strike, paralysing the public transport network in New York City. Many contingency plans are up, from car pools to extra ferry charters to re-routing of tunnel traffic into Manhattan, the news channels are calculating the distance & time it would take to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge & all. Going on strike is fun eh? Think about how much money would be lost...something to the tune of US$400million per day?

Anyway, I've been walking a lot in New York. I've not been consistent at the gym but I've been walking & walking. I've been walking hmmm....30 blocks, from Union Square on 14th Street back to 44th Street along 3rd Avenue..I don't know why also. By the way, the Kiehls flagship store is on 3rd Avenue. If anyone back in Singapore wants anything from Kiehls, please drop me an email. The stuff probably is cheaper here, I think! So yes, I've been walking.

Attended some New York Singapore Association Christmas party with my folks. It's this gathering of Singaporeans for what else but food. Mum was one of the organisers so she engaged child labour (read: my brother & me) to carry stuff, clean up, etc etc for her. Was busy eating & talking..so sorry, no pictures. But anyway, we borrowed the premises of the Norwegian Seaman Church up on 52nd Street & catered Singaporean/Malaysian food like satay, fried rice, dry mee siam. I mean...how Singaporean can we get right? The people who attended were mostly hmmm...high-flyers working in MNC, GLC or some diplomat posted here. We had a special piano performance by a girl who's studying in Julliard Music School. Gawsh!! I'm impressed!!

Will be in Orlando, Florida for the next few days. Will keep this space updated.

Luv,
~MiL~
New York City

FBI - Full body inspection

Within a week, my skin started getting dry despite the use of moisturisers. Within a week, I got pimples as well. I thought pimples appear on oily skin but with my skin as dry as the Sahara, I get pimples!! What's this supposed to be??!

Anyway, for aesthetic reasons, I'm just doing a tell, no show of myself. So upsetting that my face is so dry & taut. So today, I slapped on 2 layers of moisterisers - a base layer (rich lotion) & a top coat (water-based lotion). So far, it's OK only because I'm not outside yet.

The legs are drying up so badly despite the use of lotions & creams..they look like crocodile skin because it's rough & scaly...help help help!! Did someone recommend Khiel's lotion? I don't know man but with dry skin, it brings on itches & red patches, which means that I cannot shave or wax my legs (good thing I'm in jeans all the time) - I'll look a mess when I get back to Singapore. Eeeeks!

As for the weight...hmmm...I'm still fitting into my clothes. Surprisingly, Mum's not cooking as much as she usually would. My brother said he went on the South Beach Diet & lost 6 pounds in 10 days so I think my Mum's going on it as well.

It's just cold in New York now. Next snowfall coming in 24 hours or less.

Till then..

Luv,
~MiL~
New York City