Month: November 2006

Ronnie at the Left Bank in Santana Row

Well, tonight, I went off to a pre-turkey dinner night at one of Frank’s friend’s place. Of course, most of the people there were Christian, since they were mainly people from Frank’s church.

Now usually those are snorefests for me since it seems to me that nobody wants to talk to me – me being the only non Christian in the crowd. Or perhaps it’s just that everyone knows each other and it’s easier to be cliquey? Who knows. I went anyways, cause Frank wanted me to and the night turned out to be better than I was expecting. I found a comrade in arms – the younger brother of the hostess was sort of a non practicing Christian and we chatted for a bit.

Also there was the Chargers – Broncos game on, and everyone bonded over football and fantasy football. The Broncos lost (Sorry Scott, but you still want to trade Portis now? :P) but the better news is that Ladanian Tomlinson has scored 18 TDs in the last 6 games, and he pretty much is going to win fantasy football for me this year.

It was also a sorta funny event, since it was BYOM (Bring Your Own Meat). Frank bought some ribeye steak from costco for everyone and grilled it to perfection. There was chocolate fondue involved later on also that was quite yummy. I asked the hostess what the inspiration was to the BYOM party. She sorta laughed, and joked, “I didn’t want to pay dinner for everyone.” Heh.

I woke up in a great mood. I had so much fun at the Thanksgiving party yesterday. Usually I am so awkward as a hostess – I never know what to say or when to offer food/drinks. But I did well! The 5 hours flew by. So many people coming and going, I hope they all had fun. I had so much nervous energy I didn’t really eat. Only after everyone left and the kids went to sleep did I eat 2 turkey sandwiches.

Today was a letdown/recovery day. We went walking a Bukit Batok Park to work off some of the turkey.

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Common name: Yellow Saraca
Scientific name: Saraca thaipingensis

Location: Bukit Batok Nature Reserve

I quit the bike shop today. Tho I’ll work next Saturday. They need people for Black Friday Weekend. I think people were a bit surprised by it, but it was time anyways for me. I had been working there since April of 2003. pretty crazy. I think the break will be good for me. Let’s see if I’ll do something constructive with my new found time.

Forty people came to our house this afternoon, we introduced all our friends to Thanksgiving. Jeremy made a wonderful lunch, we all had a great time.

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Common name: Bougainvillea
Scientific name: Bougainvillea (a million varieties)

Location: Along the flyover of KJE right next to our house.

Look what the UPS man delivered a bit early…

Singapore’s school year is over! Today was Vince’s last day of school for N2 (Nursery 2). There is a 6 week break and then the new year starts in January – new teacher, new classroom. He’ll be K1 (Kindergarten 1). (Edda still has school because her school is an international school, following more the American school schedule.)

They had a nice graduation ceremony/performance/party. Jeremy persuaded me to take the tripod and video tape it, so here it is, I was a bit embarrassed pulling out the tripod, but it does make for nicer movies.

Vince dances splendidly, but check out his classmate next to him in the green headgear!

Here’s the Chinese part!

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Common name: Fruit Salad Plant, Ceriman, Monster fruit, Monsterio Delicio, Monstereo, Swiss Cheese Plant, Mexican Breadfruit, or Windowleaf
Scientific Plant: Monstera deliciosa

Location: Right outside our apartment!

It was Jacuzzi night, and the men from Sophia House (Frank and I) and Sophia House alums (JT), all go out to the community jacuzzi to shoot the shit and drink a beer.

Of course, the main topic is women, since we’re all single guys. Frank dishes about who he’s after in church, and JT looks like he’s got a promising lead up in Sacramento and I’m, well, just hanging out at the moment. But I think it’s becoming fairly obvious to me, that I need to dedicate some serious time into branching out my social circle. I mentioned to Arif that before, meeting people was never a problem. I’d just hang out with people that I liked, and did stuff that I liked to do, and sure enough, I’d meet women that way.

But perhaps things have changed now. Perhaps I need to do things to meet women rather than do things that I want to do. I just hate hate to admit that I’d be doing something more for meeting women than it would be for doing whatever it is I’m doing. You know? Grrr….

JT mentioned that I have to put some of my passions aside for a little bit to focus on this. He got me thinking that he’s right.

I think I have to leave the bike shop.

Dunno why. I’ve been there awhile. But perhaps I need my Saturdays back for this… It’s a tough call. It’s been a part of me for a long time now. I would feel too … normal in a way if I quit.

Other random action items on my list or potentially branching out my social circle.

– volunteer at AACO – some Asian community outreach service, that some people that I know are a part of.
– Dragonboat – again, some people that I know do that.
– Join Team in Training or the Silicon Valley Tri club – I went to a SVTC meeting last week.
– Stop hanging out with married people.

Hah. I threw that last one out there since I know there are a lot of married people reading this blog now. Hello! (feel free to leave a comment)

Oh yeah. I’m climbing really well these days. The classes help a lot. I pretty much flew up a 5.9, which good technique too, until the end, where it got messy and my arms gave out. hrm… Tho I managed to do all the 14 easies bouldering routes in the gym. That was cool too.

Sigh…

Ronald says good morning! (Vince took lots of pictures on the way to school. Hence the low photo angle.)

The baking for Thanksgiving has started. Vince and I made 2 pecan pies today (which are my favorite kind next to banana cream pie). Genius that I am, I managed to burn one from the top and one from the bottom. Don’t even ask. Martha Stewart, I am not. These pies are being served since I have no other pecans. I’ll be buying some vanilla ice cream and maybe people won’t notice the burned pies underneath. Tomorrow I tackle pumpkin.

So, do you think we should buy Dance Dance Revolution for Christmas? Edda and Ruby both think that Vince is just crazy!

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Common name: Flame of the Woods, Jungle Flame, or Jungle Geranium
Scientific name: Ixora (there are hundreds of species, I’m not sure which one this is)

Location: In front of our apartment!