huilin

The absence bug bit me again, this time, disappearing into the realms of Anaesthesia and other things for an entire week. I apologise.

Here are photos from my 1 week in Pittsburgh, where I ventured to alone to visit Lawrence in his natural habitat. I was pleasantly surprised by what Pittsburgh had to offer. Although there were few places of interests to actually visit, I was charmed by the tree-lined avenues, and by the local atmosphere and culture in general. Lawrence told me that Pittsburgh has been consistently voted as one of the “best places to live” in some magazine, and I could totally see why.

Pittsburgh is a city of bridges, being situated on the banks of the confluence of 3 rivers. I stayed at his place, in the collegiate part of the city – Oakland, and ventured on foot on my days alone to the neighbourhoods of Shadyside and Squirrel Hill. Lawrence also rented a Mini Cooper to drive me to the places out of reach by foot/a short bus ride, and there we ventured to the Strip district, Downtown, and Waterside.

It would be difficult to enumerate all that I liked about Pittsburgh, but I shall try. I loved the wide expanse of the Carnegie Mellon campus, the grass patches where we played frisbee, the artery-clogging goodness of the Pitts-burger by the Primanti brothers, hotcakes from Pamela’s – arguably serving the best all-day breakfast in town, the delicious mango-pineapple-peach cupcake from Dozen, a hole in the wall cupcake bakery in Squirrel Hill, the beautiful townhouses with tree-lined avenues in Shadyside which Lawrence tells me are actually quite cheap, the delightfully funny play “the Odd Couple” which Lawrence and I caught in the Cultural district one Saturday night, zipping around town in the ridiculously convenient Zipcars, the lovely sweet potato chips at Union Grill, delicious crepes at the Creperie just next to Lawrence’s place, shopping in the boutiques of Shadyside, reading the latest American Vogue (featuring SATC!!) whilst sipping a Chai tea latte and people watching from a local cafe in Squirrel Hill, reading Julie Andrew’s autobiography in the beautiful local library with ceiling to floor windows and this-is-too-good-to-be-public-property-comfortable chairs, the 24h Giant Eagle with free parking, fresh biscottis from the biscotti bakery, Fudgey-Wudgey’s amazingly soft fudge, JoJo’s blend of freshly ground coffee beans which made my entire suitcase worth of clothing smell of aromatic coffee… the list goes on forever.

One evening, we cooked dinner at Lawrence’s for his parents, and I replicated the delicious Summer Berry salad that I had tried earlier in Colorado Springs – salad vegetables with copious amounts of strawberries and blueberries, topped with my own Strawberry vinaigrette (which I attempted to make with pureed berries and other condiments). Lawrence grilled steaks which we marinated ourselves the night before, and we sauteed prawns in butter, garlic and herbs.

All in all, I had a pretty good time in Pittsburgh, thanks to my excellent tour guide and wonderful hospitality. Thanks!

At a supposed “welcome back” dinner with Marky, Zj & Bean. Copious amounts of delicious fresh sashimi at the Minori Japanese buffet (no more horrendous greasy American food!) and desserts at the Laurent Bernard Chocolatier (previously known as the Chocolate Factory) at Robertson Quay after, with terrific company really made my day! No matter that the chocolate souffle and black forest drink that was highly recommended to us were meahhhhh (i.e. not terrific). No food photography either, the Ixus takes really bad shots in dim lighting.

I’d really hate to displace the gorgeous pictures of the pink blossoms from the top of the line too. Sighs.

This was one of my favourite pictures from the trip. I love the contrast of the pink blossoms and the blue sky. The tree itself, sitting innocuously on a residential corner of one of Park City’s manicured streets, took my breath away. Following the freezing sub-zero temperatures that we experienced in Yellowstone in the preceding days, it signified that summer was here!

I’m not putting up the pictures from the trip in chronological order, but in the order in which I happen to be inspired to edit and arrange them. Park City was only a short stopover, since we drove down from Yellowstone to Salt Lake City to catch our flight back to San Francisco, and had a few hours to spare, and Park City was just half an hour away. We went there for some outlet shopping (2 pairs of Nine West shoes at only 30sgd apiece!!!) and also had one of the most memorable dinners of the trip. I was charmed by the wealth everywhere, since it is after all the playground of the rich and famous.

As we drove through Park City, multi-million dollar expansive villas lined the streets in abundance. And these weren’t just normal houses, they were huge, beautiful, private residences, oozing exclusiveness from their every pore (not that houses have pores, but…). Located just next to the ski fields, its easy to imagine how the rich and famous would adjourn here in winter to have some fun in the snow, followed by shopping and dining in the rest of the time. We went to the historic Park City street, a single street lined with snazzy restaurants and boutiques on both sides. After asking the cute guy at the tourist information booth for some recommendations on where we could get a great dinner, we headed to the Bistro 48.

Let me just say this. I’m a Francophile, meaning I LOVE all things french. I love how understatedly elegant and cool the French people/things/culture are. I love how their beautiful language rolls off the tongue so musically. And I loved how French this place was. Not the snobbish kind, but the homely, messily chic kind of way.

I enjoyed my leg of lamb with young asparagus and mashed potatoes tremendously. I loved the young French waitress who said a very heavily accented “You’re welcome” so nicely, everytime we thanked her for her wonderful service. I even loved the freshly baked crusty baguette which snapped crisply when I broke off part of it. It was an amazing experience, eating here. The food was simple and fresh, and so lovingly prepared. The red wine sauce filled my head with such bliss from the moment it touched my tongue. The flesh of the lamb fell of the bone with the slightest prod of my fork. Even my vanilla flavoured Italian fountain soda was satisfyingly fizzy and sweet here (and I usually dislike fizzy and sweet drinks).

I think I should stop gushing. It was a fantastically amazing meal. You get the point.

1. The Old Faithful Inn in the background, with colourful volcanic mineral deposits in the foreground. 2. Beauty Pool, 3. the Grand Prisimatic Spring

Yellowstone National Park was a myriad of colours, landscapes, wildlife, and experiences. From the many volcanic features (after all, most of the national park is situated in a caldera – a collapsed crater) that included spurting geysers, colourful hot springs, and bubbling mudpots, which were the highlight of the trip for me, to their very own Grand Canyon, and forests, we were definitely kept occupied for our 3 days there.

4. In front of the steaming Excelsior Geyser, 5. the Morning Glory Pool, 6. the Old Faithful Geyser, 7. Emerald Pool.

The landscapes were variant and changing, from lush forests, to unearthly steamy basins and calcified rock. I was mesmerised by the visions of smoky forests and sheens of steam hovering over the surface of the hot springs. We were even rewarded by getting to see about 5 geysers erupt during our half-day hike! The most spectacular was the Grand Geyser, which only erupts 2 times a day, and which went on for about 11 minutes or so. We also did not miss the eruption of Old Faithful, which erupts on the average, every hour, and is a must-see landmark in the park.

The Canyon was spectacular, with the colourful stone surrounding it, in shades of yellow, orange and pink. Never having seen the real actual Grand Canyon myself, this was a sight to behold, and many pictures were taken. The Mammoth Hot Springs were another major attraction, but having seen the Cotton Castle in Turkey on a previous trip last year, this was rather a disappointment, as the spring was dormant and the structures were hence deteriorating.

8. The Canyon, 9. Part of the Mammoth Hot Springs

We also had tonnes of fun spotting animals in the forests, plains, and even right next to the road. Amongst the many animals we managed to see were bison, wolves, grizzly bears (cute baby ones!) and many deer. We even saw the carcass of a bison that had been eaten up by presumably a wolf the night before.

10. The carcass of a bison, 11. Wildlife watchers watching a wolf attacking a deer in the distance.

On our last day there, however, we were caught in a snowstorm, more pictures of that to come up soon. Time for me to run out now for dental and dinner!

Dinner with my best friend at the ramen place in Clarke Quay followed by drinks at the Tapas Tree with her boyfriend and his best friend the night before I left for the US got me semi-high and woozy on fun and happiness. The waitresses at the restaurant kept staring, and asked if we were sisters! Funny!

The title was a pun from my aunt’s speech at the wedding, since my uncle and new auntie are air crew (he’s a pilot, and she’s a stewardess), and hence “closer to heaven” as someone said.

Congratualations to my Uncle Jeeks (or more appropriately, Jee Ku/”2nd uncle” in hokkien) and his lovely bride Ai Lin cheh cheh (or more appropriately, Jee Kim)!

It was a lovely, if not incredibly busy wedding, since it was mostly planned and coordinated by my aunts, and it involved not only the typical wedding preparations, but also the chauffeuring around of scores of relatives who descended upon us from Sabah and Sarawak. Indeed, my Ah Ma’s usually tranquil place was transformed into a madhouse. My cousins and I spent much time amusing ourselves by taking random photos. It was great to see all my relatives nonetheless, and I think we all had lots and lots of fun =)

Sorry for having been away from this blog for the longest time. There was the weekend in Penang for my uncle’s wedding, then then Orthopaedics end of posting test, followed by a whirlwind 3 week trip to the USA, on top of my general slothiness that kept me from devoting more time to posting here.

I suppose most of you would have seen the pictures from the “surprise” birthday party that Chiara et al threw for me, but I wanted to post some of them here just for memory’s sake anyway. Thanks guys for such a wonderful evening and birthday celebration! It was hilarious because Enming was given the responsibility of making sure that I arrived after the rest have had time to prepare my surprise, but as it came to be, we arrived early, and I saw the boy’s cars in the carpark anyway, so perhaps I gave them a bigger surprise in the end.

It was still incredibly sweet though, with delicious food prepared by Chiara and her family, and potluck for the the various other things, and some friends spent the whole evening at the barbecue making sure we all had delicious food to eat, and the cake from my cg boys, and the balloon from Bean & Zj, and the “banner” which Li, Joshua and whoever else helped to put up that kept coming down etc.

Perhaps this is a little late (about a whole month after the deed was done), but many thanks is in order!