My tusheez

This blog was started once upon a time when a young girl at school didnt know better but thought otherwise. So the way earlier entries can be crass and words inappropriate so please don't judge. As now the person has evolved into someone older and wiser (hopefully) ..:.... But some of the entries were classic and hilarious so I don't have the heart to delete them :@ Well we were all young (read:wild) once, right?

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Livin it big in L.fucken A

I went on an adventure to uncle Sam's land. Not only was it courtesy of my bosses and my dear company Walton Int'l, it was also during the lowest US dollar rate in 20plus yrs. It was heavenly..


Growing up in cold weathered, much rained England, US was an eye opener to the other side of the West.


The old laopok Cathay plane we took landed in HK and then LA. ( Cathay is degrading or something man, the plane was old and the entertainment system was out of date, faulty and it didnt have Tetris! Boo boo... we'll go back to SQ next time.



Anyway,.....LA airport is of course not as pretty as our much glamorised Changi airport.

But LA itself... What can I say...




















Welcome to Ell.-Ayy...


First, The food........


We went to Denny's the moment we touched down, it's everywhere.






























American food is simply horrid.
Chips, nachos, mayo, fried fish, fried chicken, fried potatoes, fried everything..

Burgers and burgers..I was wailing for rice!
Sorry, I don't eat salad. Like sashimi, it's a no-effort food.

No value for money, mang.., I can just pluck leaves from my backyard, put salad dressing and serve it myself.


I had this horrrible craving for char kway teow and chai peng when I was in States. I actually dreamed about it and woke up drooling. I think. But noone knows ok?


























Wendy's, Denny's, Arby's.. same difference...





















My cousin Nat is now residing in LA, a bachelorete pad with a swishing S40 for wheels. She is having a ball. (Rental of a studio and installment for a car is waaaaayyyyy cheaper than Singapore... like only 4-500 each. We are so screwed here).

We managed to meet up in between her busy schedule and it was swell. I miss her so much.

We ate more American food in a typical American diner.






















More grimy oily frieds, but at least they gave me guacamole.

I also met up with Ed, my friend Ed is in a different league. He is graduating soon, stays in campus, has a weekend home in LA and a DB9 to match. Ed parties with Miss Hilton and Edison Chen too, or at least rubbed shoulders with, Ocht well..

And Ed is cute, if only I were 5 yrs younger...



















We had some Cuban food.. ah at last, something different.


Now.. The Shopping...




















Guilty as charged.

That's almost ALL that we did in LA.

First day - Factory outlet in Cabazon (near Palm Springs)


Second day- Factory outlet in Citadel..
















Here we are... 29 USD for a pair of Levi's, 39 USD for a BCBG dress, 29USD for Kenneth Cole heels, 100-300 USD for Coach bags, 1500USD for a Tag Heuer Link watch.

Who wouldn't go mad??????


I went absolutely ballistic, my eyes had these green lazer thingies and before I knew it, I was a monstrous shopping DEMON.


After the second day, we decided that Cabazon one was bigger and better.. so..

Third Day- Cabazon again..!!!!!!!!!!


Geez... Other than our short tours around Hollywood boulevard and our clubbing session, all we did was to sweep clean the factory outlets!!




The Driving--


Ah, driving is so unique here... it's left sided and of course everything is completely the opposite to Singapore.

We took sometime to get used to the change. Not to mention the many events where we hogged the road or took the wrong lane!

Look at the highway below. This is the highway we took from LA to Palm Springs.




















The yellow poles divide the car pool lane and the normal lane.

Car pool lanes are emptier and they are for cars filled with 3 paz and above.
The otehr lanes are always packed and anyone else can drive there.

BUT!! If you drive a hybrid car, feel free to sweep your wheels across the car pool lane anytime, with or without any passengers...


No wonder Warren Buffet and many other Americans chose to drive a Prius.

Should we set up something like this in Singapore? I can buy the Civic Hybrid and drive accross CTE with a breeze at 9 am in the morning. It would be bliss. While the rest queue like the cattle.



The toilets


--- This applies accross States, or at least Cali, Arizona and Texas..


Why do the cubicles doors have freaking gaps big enough to pass a sandwich through??????







See??? Well, a flattened sandwich at the least!!


I was frustrated at first. I know I know, thank goodness at least they provide doors, in China they don't.
But still.. It was so weird when the people outside can pop their eye through the gap and adore your bare bottoms.




So I stuffed tissues there. Grrr... What an invasion of privacy.










Next- The Sightseeing...


You know, tourists have to go to touristy places, else you wont get those touristy pictures that people at home will ooh and aah-ed about.

We went on a city tour, which I think is a rip-off.
We went down Hollywood Boulevard, ya da ya da.. Farmer's Market and then the Venice beach..



First stop..

Hollywood baby!




















Here's Capital Records. I was so tempted to break into this building and beg for an audition or something.. But of course, I possess more dignity than that. anyway I am too old to be Britney Spears now..








Remember the movie Pretty Woman??



















Well, this is the exact street where Mr Gere picked up his pretty Miss Robert.

Red light district of LA. Then, we just had to stop at the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
























Ohh what a classic take.. there were so many names and I really had to pick ONE to take photo with. So it's gotta to be the Queen herself. I am a huge fan..
She is probably the prettiest full-bodied celebrity inside out.



























Chinese theatre. "Thanks Sid!"




















Kodak Theatre.. nothing much here, but feel free to take a distant photo of the HOLLYWOOD SIGN.


















The most famous 9 letters in the whole of LA. I guess.


The petrol station below is not just any petrol station.




























This is were Hugh Grant was caught with his pants down with Divine "the Hooker" Brown.
Yup.. that was a tourist moment.


Well.. what kind of touristy spot were you expecting in LA anyway.. ??????????????



























Laugh Factory is where comedians like Billy Crystal and Chris Tucker were first discovered.

We wanted to come back to see Chris Tucker on stand-up. But that day, we were shopping til it was too late to go. Shame on us. It would've been fun.



















This is Stephen Spielberg's ex-house. Not sure what the big hooha is, coz it's no longer his..
maybe he downgraded coz his latest Indiana Jones just SUCKED big time.























I just had to take the roadsign.
Even Sheryl Crow sang about it.. Santa Monica Boulevard huh?
This is another rich people area, but probably not as rich n famous as those living in the Beverly Hills.


We stopped by Rodeo Drive too... Where the famous-amous-es roam the streets, strut their stuffs, sip chi chi coffee, taste famous chef's concotions and blow their walk-in wallets on designer goods...

Even the air here felt more expensive. Everything here was escalated in price, hence we were totally window shopping.

What a pity we didn't spot Keanu Reeves with his Porsche or Miss Lohan and her Birkin bag..

We were told that they are getting better at disguising themselves.
























Me and Rodeo Drive. One fine day, I so belong here.




















Here's the gang, full with touristy looks.






























My hair flying with the priceless zephyrs at Rodeo Drive.. I wanna feel like an heiress too!!..
I used to have at least a luohan fish to inherit one day, but then the bugger died.

Anyway, after Rodeo Drive, we had to get our heads grounded. We went to the Farmer's Market and I felt human again.


























The out door food centre in here reminded me of hawker centre back in Singapore.
Only they were selling burgers, chips, pastas and the air was cooler.





Nice though.. Philli burger aint bad at all.





The Grove, just next to Farmer's market is an al fresco shopping centre, or nowadays they call it life style centre or something. Call a rose, a rose lah..


























They didn't have factory outlets so we weren't ecstatic. Trust me, after having been to the outlets, you'd feel ripped off shopping at the normal retail stores.


We just took some photoes and window shopped.























Being the Kiasu singaporeans we are. Since we only had one hour to stop by the Farmers market for lunch, and we couldnt decide between sitting down for lunch, kaypoh-ing around or shopping..

In the end.. we went window shopping and da-pao-ed the food to eat in the bus.
Tell you the angmohs not very happy with our behaviours. .. heck.. at least I got to visit the A&F shop here.



























Not only is the shop like a night club/disco . The concept is just amazing. Dark lightings, happening loud music, Sales execs were prancing around, shaking booties, spot lights were on all the featured clothings. And the whole store smelled of their latest perfume. Damn smart!!





My colleague tapped on one the sales girls' shoulder and asked:" Excuse me, where's the bar to get drinks?" and she laughed.








Best thing is, that the sales dudes are so cute.. they all looked like models, eventho obviously not the so successful ones.. Means the more normal looking ones la..





That'll suffice. 6 pecs and all, I was happy. So we took photoes with them.. damn embarrassing I tell you, but heck.. damn cute!








Ok.. up next! We went to the beach after lunch!




























Bien Venue!!! VENICE beach! Not the prettiest beach in LA, but it was a fun-hippie beach, brimming with smiles, sun and normalcy.

It lead to Muscle beach, but there were not much naked muscles around that day. =(






















Just a couple of happy tourists from Singapore.





















And someone was shoooting MTV, probably not a very rare scene in LA, I'd reckon.



We also stopped by the wharf for toilet.




















but the tourists just had to snap more pictures.

I also bought some sweet eats.























Frozen banana, anyone ??

The shop keeper asked me "Would you like it with nuts?"

I just burst laughing and shook my head.


Last but not least... my favourite past time.. other than shopping of course..

The clubbing..























Opppssss..........

This picture is not very happening for a clubbing scene huh?


Ok basically, the hardly-visible club behind me was a pretty upperty club where Miss Hiltons , Lohans, Spears and the other dong dongs rub shoulders and kiss cheeks.





Soooo.. we were not on the guest list and we didn't want to blow 500 bucks on a bottle (500 bucks can buy few Kate Spade stuffs!)
Sadly, we had to walk away and go to a club where the normal laymen go.





So we walked round a block and found... The Moscow Club
Themed rather dark, cultish and Russian-mafia like, many black eyed punks and funky Mo-hawks call this club home.






















The decor was pretty nice thou...candelabra, melted wax, bronze cupids..
But we totally looked out of place... And the music was not comprehensible. My mind was floating away to the club we couldn't enter.. Damn.. heh.. Should have called Ed, sure he can get us in. But it was a weekday... .. K lah.... at least here the beer was 6-7 bucks..



so that was LA, we then took on the road, breathed in the pacific coast highway views, played dai di.. and onwards to San Francisco.


Catch up soon!


Oh one more thing,, ... I am about to apply for a pink IC

I am going to lose my Indonesianship and become a Singaporean!

Should I .. Should I not.. Should I.. Should I not??????????

Being a Singaporean definitely has its perks, passport is so good (Indonesian passport is worse than toilet paper), govt so supportive etc too and easier for me to buy HDB or landed.

But then, I'd lose the chance of being mistaken for a rich Indonesian heiress every again.

Other than that,.. well. I've always preferred pink to blue.

How? How? How? It's like breaking up with a handsome but poor boyfriend and marrying a rich stable man..

2 Comments:

At 12:37 PM, Blogger MyOrangeSweater gently snorted that...

Sweetie, looks like you had yourself a swell time in LA, let's hope you left East LA alone.

BTW, still cold on the West Coast meh? How come you all are in jeans? Should be warm enough to show some legs?

Cheers from the Midwest, even tho' I myself just visit Vegas, much more swell than LA, I am afraid. Hope you had a great time here in the US! :)

 
At 12:51 PM, Blogger Marcelly gently snorted that...

hey hey/ yeah babeyy!! definitely had lots and lots of fun.
it was spring when we were there// yea.. i guess we singaporeans are not that used to a bit of cold.
it was about 20-25 deg C in day time and slightly colder at night, 15-20 deg C.

yes yes yes i am coming back to US. i wanna retire in Austin. Which part of US are you from??

 

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