Category: birthdays

October Rain

The sky was a perfect shade of blue, until it started raining. October is a wet, wet month- Makes me don’t feel like blogging. Okay fine, that’s an excuse. I was just being lazy. And since I’m still lazy to write, I’ll just post some pictures to fill the void. πŸ˜›

Our yoga sessions in class.

See the matching mats with our shirts? So well-coordinated! πŸ™‚

Mooncake festival at school. Never too old for lanterns. *a-hem*

Nezar and Rinugah’s birthday celebration. Rinugah’s busy cutting cake haha.

Neuroscience professors and a thank-you cake from Dr. Nicole. That’s a brain, if you’re wondering. πŸ™‚ 

Group photo with NSS team. 

Group photo 2. 

This was Edna’s surprise birthday cake. She wasn’t surprised by our surprise though. /fail. 
For Mior’s birthday though, we managed to surprise him! But no pictures taken because I was busy with the surprise cake etc. 

Brothers

Even when they annoy the hell out of you sometimes, you can still love them.
Brothers teach us that. 
Happy birthday, θ€εΌŸ! πŸ™‚

HB to Myself

Feels like it was just yesterday when I celebrated my birthday with some of my closest friends at a dueling piano bar. But in truth, ’tis not so… and I’m reminded that I’m a year older. 
This year I don’t have anything in particular that I really want – am happy and thankful for what I’ve already got. πŸ™‚  Below are some pictures taken by Brandon last year at Howl at the Moon (thank you Brandon!). 
great friends, bucket of booze and long straws πŸ™‚ 

mot mot and tom tom :)) 
<3 
chocolate, durian and vanilla flavors…  awesome mix!
(hey if you guys are reading this, we should go somewhere together!) 
cool colleagues i had πŸ™‚ 
wonder how they’re doing over there.  
one of my most memorable birthdays πŸ™‚ 
Ok maybe I do have a bday wish- i wish i didn’t have an exam on monday. but that can’t be helped so no point wishing. k back to Hardy-Weinberg Principle, genomic imprinting and mosaicism etc. toodles! 

Rats and Horses Don’t Get Along

You know what they say about people born in the year of Horse and people born in the year of Rat? That they don’t get along. Well there are 3 “rats” in my house right now- my mom, my uncle (dad’s brother) who stays with us on weekdays, and myself; and 2 “horses” – my dad and my (maternal) grandma. It’s funny now when I’m writing about it, but sometimes things can get really heated up, and it doesn’t always end well, especially between my grandma and mom; and between dad and myself. It’s not that big of a deal most of the time, but it’s really interesting to see how grandma always likes to irritate mom; and how dad likes to do the same to me. It’s like he finds joy in pushing the button in me and will declare victory when he succeeds in pissing me off. Well okay, I do agree it’s kinda fun (and funny) at times. Now that I’m not a child and he doesn’t play the dominant paternalistic role as much anymore, it’s okay for me to “answer back” when he said something that clearly doesn’t make sense. And so, it’s become our little game that we play so very often. It’s the equivalent of “poke” on facebook, or if you wanna use the ping pong analogy, that works too- this is our secret ping pong game. Other people may find it weird or see me as the disrespectful daughter, but that’s just what it seems from the outside. All I can say is, it’s not always what it seems to be.

Anyway- today is his birthday, and it’s the first birthday that I get to celebrate with him in the last 5 years. When I was away I didn’t really think it was a big deal to miss occasions like these, but it sure is great to be back home and being able to be there on birthdays, weddings, and all that stuff. Dad and I don’t always get along, but he’s still a great father to all of us, and he makes sure he gives us the best that he can afford. The reason I am who I am today is in large part due to him; and for better or worse, I wouldn’t want to change a thing. He won’t be reading this, nor do I intend to let him, but I do want to jot it down in words, in my not-so-private virtual space, “Thank you for everything, love you dad.” πŸ™‚

The Birthday in July

i am back-tracking.

for the sole reason of none other than my deteriorating memory, i am jotting down the little things (or big things) that happened prior to this moment, so that i can look back and remember what i’ve done during my time in LA- for soon, i will be gone from here, and what is left will merely be memories of this place and the people i’ve met. but even then, memories are nothing more than traces of thoughts in our mind that can so easily be tampered with, modified, or forgotten. and so, this little virtual space will be a tool to help me remember the good times.

now, on to the back-tracking process. πŸ™‚

 geisha lips. hah! use your imagination. πŸ˜›
ingredients- tuna, shrimp, crab, avocado, Kaiware sprouts & orange tobiko, wrapped in cucumber. no rice though. 

geisha house, the place where we went for lil’ K’s birthday dinner, is a contemporary jap restaurant, serving sushi of course, sake and some other main entrees like lamb chops and such. the atmosphere is mysterious and sensual, just as they described on their website, and the fact that this place is right there on hollywood blvd yet look like just another shop from outside is, to me at least, amusing. kinda like a hole in the wall place that no one would go, unless they heard it from someone or somewhere. so for decor and atmosphere, i’d give it a 4.5 star (out of 5), but the food was alright (3.5). tasty, yes, but still slightly overpriced.
seaweed-cucumber salad. loved the crunchy seaweed part.

fried calamari karage style.
with sea salt and creamy sauce on the side. seemed ordinary but i liked it lots.
 uhm, i think it’s lamb.yah should be.
it’s the grilled mongolian lamb chop, with creamy sesame and cucumber salad on the side.
grilled filet mignon steak. with soy, garlic and sesame dipping sauce.
can’t decide which was my favorite. both are so good.
ooh, this is called octopussy. πŸ˜€
ingredients- diced octopus, spicy cream sauce, scallions, tobiko, topped with avocado, spicy tuna and tempura flakes.
hot chicks- sheena and birthday girl kenna.
doing the half-pout pose lol. πŸ˜€ 
our only group picture there. 
went to Besos for desserts. they were to die for. :))
ice cream and cookie? i think. can’t remember the fancy name for it. 
the coffee i ordered, without knowing there was xo patron in it. omg it was so strong i felt like i was gonna be drunk after a few sips! too bad couldn’t really enjoy it because i had to drive after. 
 chocolate mousse with whipped cream on top. and some choc shaves around it. 
just heavenly. πŸ™‚
that’s about it. dedicating this to lil’ K, albeit it being 3 months late. thanks for being such a great friend all these time! much love, and hopefully we’ll get to spend many more birthdays to come with you! πŸ™‚