Dry Land

We arrived back to Fort Lauderdale today. I was rather glad to step off the ship, a week of eating and drinking has spoiled me very much. I thought I'd share the picture of the beautiful ship today even though this was taken a few days back. I just think she is a beauty. I did wish the staff were friendlier and the service a little better but I had a good time regardless. Goodbye Ms. Allue, I will miss thee!

Farewell

The last day at sea was spent sunning because we finally had a sunny day with no rain! After pruning ourselves and drying ourselves out, we showered and headed for the Move it! Move it! Farewell parade. I am a kid at heart so watching the Dreamworks characters parade around was fun. We had dinner and lazed around in our room because we are exhausted by our vacation.

Snorkeling in Cozumel, Mexico

Today we arrived in Cozumel, Mexico and headed for our 3 reef snorkeling after breakfast. The snorkeling was great except I got sea sick on the small boat. At the third reef, the water got pretty darn rough and I was exhausted (another story of how unfit I have become) and then it starts to rain. The ride back took the cake and I ended up "feeding the fishes" out the boat. Fun times! Seems like my vacations are always wonderfully puked filled. After we got off, I felt better, we headed back to the ship, showered and went back out to Senor frogs where Jason got a free shot answering a question and I got a yard drink that hit me hard! Then we found a taco stand and had the most delicious tacos, shopped, and bought tequila. I have to say Mexico was my favorite spot and I would have loved to spend more time here.

Formal Pictures

ended up paying for last night's drinking session, jumping around and dancing the cha cha slide and cupid shuffle drunk as hell, I ended up puking my guts out. We took easy today since it was a sea day. We did some ice skating and rock climbing and relaxed by the pool. Today was also the 2nd formal night, so we got some professional pictures done for the fun of it. We eneded up late for dinner and missing our comedy show. Oh well.

Falmouth, Jamaica

Today we stopped in Jamaica. This port of call was new and under major construction. We still managed to get ourselves a great Jamaican patty, and some cheap rum. I think we did a lot more shopping here than expected. We ended up finding this really cool wood carving of a red stripe bottle, with exact dimensions and all. I wish there was some sort of a beach nearby, but we just ended up going back to the ship and getting into the pool.

Labadee, Haiti

I had never been to Haiti, so I was excited about this stop. I had high hopes for the beach this being Royal Caribbeans private island and all. I must say I was a little disappointed. The beach was very rocky with dead corals. I know the weather has not been kind these past few years and major hurricanes have blown through so the beaches have all suffered greatly. The water was very calm, and I would have loved some waves. We had a good spot on the beach, lazed around, drank a Labadoozee, ate lunch, and shopped. Then it started to rain so we headed back to the ship.

The Captain

One of the things I enjoy about cruising is dressing up for formal nights. Since we barely ever have a chance to dress up unless for weddings, this makes the vacation even more fun. The downside is that you have to pack a lot more. We waited around to have our pictures taken with the captain. I fell in love with Captain Johnny and his corny jokes on his captain's log on the TV every morning when we get up. We had a wonderful dinner and caught Chicago, the Broadway musical with front row seats.

All Aboard

We arrived at the port at about 10.30am and were in the ship by 11.30am. It felt almost unreal. The Allure of the Seas is beautiful and extremely large. It is so easy to forget that you are on a darn ship. That is why I fell in love with the Jacuzzi with large windows facing towards sea. And seeing it in person made it even better. We ended up changing into our swimsuits as soon as our room was ready and jumping to relax in one of the hot tubs. This is life!

Road Trip

We started on our road trip to Florida at about 8.30am, half an hour off our projected time which was pretty good given how we are both not morning persons. We do road trips pretty efficiently and stop enough times when needed in order to not feel totally like ass when we arrive at our destination. We made it to Pompano Beach a little over 10hrs even with the bad traffic on the Florida Turnpike with drivers acting confused at the toll booths. Tomorrow we board the largest and newest cruise ship in the world.

Packing

The one thing I hate about going on a trip is packing. I managed to pack a few things here and there today but tomorrow will be my official packing day. Somehow I always manage to do the pack the day/night before leaving and have survived! Very excited now!

Autism Training

Today was day 1 of 2 of the autism training. Just one of those things to keep up with the job. So my day was filled with mainly sitting and listening. At least I learned a new thing here and there. I can't complain.

Cars Cars Cars

Well I guess it's just a car! Jason and I got up this morning and decided to do a Waffle House breakfast or more like brunch. After that we stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few things and saw this beautiful car as we were leaving. I love the look of old cars and this one was a pretty color too!

The Perfect Purse

It seems every time I need a small clutch or purse for a formal event, I end up with one that is too small to fit my essentials. So I finally caved and bought this off amazon. It looks good enough and can fit my cell phone, lip gloss, money and ID. I could probably also fit a pack of tissues, some pain killers if needed. This is going to be used on formal nights on the ship and I am super excited.

Shop Till You Drop

I shopped most of my day away today. I needed to return some clothing that did not fit right, and get more for the cruise. I also wanted a pair of shoes I could use for both formal nights instead of switching around and decided on this black pair from target.

Shrimp Holiday

One of the things I hate about my job is that I never really have a lunch break, so i am always scarfing food down while trying to get the kids to eat, stay in their seats and not play with their food. So my first day of my summer off, I make myself a nice hot lunch of coconut shrimp with some rice and Brussels sprouts. It felt really good to be able to sit down and enjoy a meal at my own time and my own pace.

Tomatoes

One of our tomato plant is fruiting!! Can't wait to have juicy fresh tomatoes ready to be washed and eaten. This is a sign that summer is almost here, and given the weather it feels like it's already here. And I am officially on summer break.

Whose Poop is it Anyway?

We were working around the vegetable garden when Jason spotted this. I have no idea what large animal did this and have never seen anything larger than a possum around here. The funny thing about it is that it did not smell. So admit it, whose poop is this?

Spin

I never realized how much work there was to do during the last week of school. And it is always the week that takes forever to get through. I'm exhausted and vegging out staring at the ceiling. Summer break can't come any sooner!

Parachute

Braves game today and we got to see the Army dudes parachute into center-field. I thought it was really neat. And to top it off the Braves won and we stayed for the Ludacris concert even though we're not fans.

KickBall

Today was the teachers vs 5th graders kickball game. I haven't had so much fun in a long time. It's something about playing a group sport that I enjoy. And in case you had to know, we won!

TV Time

Ever since we ditched the normal way of watching TV, cancelled our cable subscription, and placed a computer connected to the TV, I've been watching way more of it.

Chicken Curry

I had been craving chicken curry since chatting with Jess about making chicken curry, so I succumbed and got what I needed yesterday. Hence here we have chicken curry, my style, with chicken breast, carrots and baby potatoes cooked with Baba's curry powder. Delicious!

Digestives

I decided that today was worth the treat, just because. It's more for nostalgia more than anything else but who cares. Anything covered with chocolate is worth it in my opinion!

Baby Bird

Today was lazy and uneventful until will found this little fellow in our backyard. It was just sitting there, despite Jason walking past it several times, and me coming up with a camera. At first I thought it was dead, but then it moved a little, and I thought it was injured. It finally flew a little but could not fly very high, and from the looks of it, it has fine hair, much like a baby. I am thinking it lost its mother. We kind of shooed it into the woods, where it stayed on a small tree. I thought it would be safer there rather than out in the open where the larger birds fly over and the neighborhood cats walk around. I hope it survived, it was cute and I felt a little helpless not knowing how to help it.

Garage Sale

I was so tired yesterday that I came home from work and fell asleep for about 3hrs and missed taking any pictures. Today was our garage sale day and we had to set up at 7am. We sold more than half of our items within the first hour, and sold pretty much almost everything after. Todat sales made was a little over $200. Not the best, but I didn't have a lot of stuff and really just wanted them out of the house. So still a job well done.

Sick

I ended up calling a substitute for work yesterday when I started running a fever. Today I woke up with a chest cold so I am glad I did. I think it really started the night before when I kept waking up feeling breathless. So I have been medicating with theraflu to get the mucus in my chest to break up, and my inhaler because I was wheezy all morning. At least the fever broke and I can breathe semi normally now. Tomorrow is field day and I need to be able to not feel like crap.

Teacher Appreciation

I forgot to mention that this week is teacher's appreciation week. One of the perks of working in the school I am at is the fabulous PTA that go out of their way to do nice things for the teachers. They had a gift thing today with a feast and this is what I got. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling the best and left early.

Happiness in a Vase

Feeling a little under the weather and exhausted today. It was a pretty shitty day, and my vase of flowers never fail to at least brighten up my kitchen and my day a little. I call it happiness in a vase.

Ribena

Today was my usual grocery shopping day and while walking around, I stumbled on a shelf of some British items, and guess what I see at the bottom shelf! Ribena!! At $6+ a bottle, I could not bear to buy it, plus while I was excited to find Ribena, it is not exactly my favorite drink and the excitement was mainly nostalgia more than anything else. But still, I am glad to be finding things I grew up with more and more easily accessible these days.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

We finally got down to planting our vegetables today. This year we decided to go small and only plant the ones we eat the most so we planted tomatoes, jalapeño peppers, and cantaloupes. I am not giving up on the cantaloupes. The first year we planted them, they came out wonderful, the next two previous years sucked. The year before last, it did not fruit, and last year the fruit was small, and did not taste good. I do think last years crop was due to me being away for a month, and not being able to ensure it got enough water during the fruiting stage. Maybe this year it'll be better. I am not dreaming of making jalapeño poppers!

Clean House

I've slacked off with a picture a day, the last few days were somewhat sucky with me feeling a little under the weather so I neglected taking pictures but I have returned. Today I decided that, feeling bad or not, I needed to give the house a thorough clean and so I did. I vacuumed a good bit to get a lot of dust out, especially in the corners and on things like our lampshades etc. Now I am achy and tired.

Fried Rice Paradise

Tonight's dinner was fried rice and I made it the style Jason liked. Fried with soy sauce and chicken. I personally like to fry mine with some chili but I decided to be nice and spare him the spice this time. I added a big dollop of sambal to mine when I ate it though. Now to wait for the storm to pass through, we're on a tornado watch.

Itch

My face started to itch at work. I did not get bit, I do not know what I am having a reaction too but it got really itchy and of course I scratched which made it more itchy, which in turn made my cheek turn bright red, like I had been slapped. It went away when I left work. Stress maybe? I often break out in hives when I am stressed but I wasn't exactly in a stressful situation when this happened. weird!

Shrimp

Saw these shrimp on sale at the grocery store today and had a sudden craving for 'sambal prawn' (a spicy sauce over prawn/shrimp) and so I decided to go for it.

Wedding

We attended Jason's cousin's, Brantley, wedding. I love weddings, it's always a fun affair and everyone has fun. We drank, ate and danced! I have not danced like that since forever.

Friday

I failed, I did not get a picture taken today. I was so tired, it took all I could to get to work, do my work, and come home.

Rehearsal Dinner

This evening we attended a wedding rehearsal dinner. My first ever. I had to learn about this tradition because it is not something done in Singaporean weddings. Basically, the wedding party rehearse the wedding and the parents of the groom hosts a dinner after hence the term rehearsal dinner. While we were not part of the wedding, we were invited to the dinner. We had a delicious steak dinner at Stoney's.

Working Out

I have decided that it is time to start being healthy. I have gained so much weight since being sick and the side effects of the prednisone. So now that I am well and no longer on any evil drugs, it is time to start working out. I won't even go into the amount of weight I have gained because I don't know and am too afraid to find out. Wish me luck!

Manly Men Grill

I believe I have mentioned that I love when Jason grills. Today was one of those days. He grilled hot dogs, and I opened a bag of chips for the side dish. No cooking, no mess, no cleaning up. A perfect timing because I have been feeling rather crappy today and am ready to call it a night.

Corn

It's funny how I used to not like corn and now it's one of my most favorite food in the world. I especially love a good juicy corn on the cob. I saw these on sale at the grocery store today and could not resist. So we cooked them in the grill together with some pork chops. I love grill out dinners, it means I don't have to cook, and there isn't much cleaning up to do. A win-win for me!

Anniversary

Today Jason and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. It doesn't seem like it has been seven years, yet sometimes it feels like it has been forever and a day. We decided to rest at home today since the week had been a busy one and we spent most of yesterday out and about. We ordered in pizza and watched t.v, just like we always do, the two of us.

Dogwood Festival

Every year on the weekend of our wedding anniversary, we attend the dogwood festival at Piedmont park in Atlanta. It has become a tradition of sorts. I love festivals, but I have to admit this, we go for the freebies. We arm ourselves with a bag, and walk around collecting free samples, bags, and other useless stuff. The little things, my friends, are what keeps life interesting.

The Smell of Spring

I came home from work, got out of the car, and a sweet smell overpowered my senses. I've smelled this before and could never place where the smell was coming from except that ti had to be from a plant. I realized today that it came from these flowers. I am not sure what they are, but they remind me of honeysuckles, the one we used to eat the nectar from when we were kids. This tree sits right on the property line that divides our space from the neighbors. I truly enjoy the sweet scent of spring and am so glad we are getting a spring this year and did not head straight into summer weather.

The Atlanta Braves

Many years ago, as a teenager in school, the softball team I was in wore the Braves hat as part of our uniform, mainly for the A to represent Assumption, the school I attended. Who would have thought, years later, I would marry and move to Atlanta - The home of the Braves! Unfortunately the Braves have not proven their worth this season, but then, it's still so early and anything can happen. Let's Go Braves!

Hot Air Balloon

We had a hot air balloon demonstration at the school I work at today. Unfortunately, it was too windy for it to fly but it was still neat to see and the kids enjoyed it. It makes me wish I could take off and fly wherever the wind takes me without turning back or worrying about the next destination. Don't mind me, I'm feeling somewhat melancholy today.

Planting

Today the kids transferred the beans we had been growing into little pots they made and filled it out with dirt. I was going to do this on Thursday but two factors made me change my mind. 1: I had 2 kids out who would have benefited from the lesson I was going to do, and 2: those damn beans were starting to stink our room. In fact, most of them did not take off and were starting to rot, the ones that did grow, we planted save a few for the absent ones. This is a little snippet of my job and what I do. It is also a visual reminder of the things I do enjoy, even though sometimes I think I had gone insane when I decided to pursue this career choice. I guess I can deal with a love-hate rather than a hate-hate.

Growth

I have been watching the tree transform and grow its new growth as winter slowly gave way to spring. One of the things I love very much is watching the seasons change, something I never had a chance to do growing up in forever hot and muggy Singapore. I like to think it's nature's way of telling us that there are second chances, and that even when we fall and start to wither a little, we can also spring back and grow again, stronger and mightier.

Knitting

I taught myself knitting a couple years back through a book and online videos. It is not difficult and I don't know why I had trouble learning when I was a kid. I only know the basics and have yet to ever finish a project. I always seem to start with good intentions and then lose interest and forget about what I intended to do in the first place. So I have started again. Maybe this time I will actually accomplish my goal? We'll see.

Baseball Season

And so it has begun - baseball season. This means that summer is so close and I can smell it's freedom, heat, and sweat. Today was the second home game of the season and we went, mainly to get tickets for the rest of the season, mostly games with freebies. The Braves lost this time, but there's something about sitting on the hot stadium seat, with the drunk crowd yelling and doing the tomahawk chop. Go Braves!

Haircut

I have been putting off getting a haircut for a couple months now. Either I was too busy, too tired, or too sick to go get one. I told myself I would get one during spring break and before I knew it, it's Friday. So I decided to just get my butt to one of those no frills, walk in places and get a trim. I really didn't want it this short, I always forget that I need to tell them an inch or two lower than what I want because when my hair dries it shrinks an inch or two. Plus I had a really weird hairdresser who when she ran out of things to say, would say "Nice to meet you." I believe she said it to me several times and I felt like telling her to just spare us both and be quiet but I'm ball-less like that. Anyway, the picture you see is the result. It's not too bad from the back, I'm just going to have to get used to it from the front. And at least hair grows back and this will keep me cool through the summer.

Soul Food

I met with some Singaporean friends for lunch at Chinatown today. I had been waiting for awhile for this trip because I recently learned about a stall at the food court in Chinatown that sold Singaporean/Malaysian dishes even though it was a Hong Kong place. It was so nice to sit down to a meal of food that bring back so much memories. I understand more and more what soul food really means. This my friends, is my soul food, the comfort food of my youth, the food I was fed when I was happy, sad, sick etc. It is the food that will bring me back to a place that while I no longer call home, will always be special to me.