Kennedy Space Center

Here's part 2 of the travelogue: the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. It's taken me some time to put this up because there's just been so much going on here after the holiday plus it's June 10 and the weather's still cold and gloomy. Kinda makes me feel like just crawling under the blanket, drinking hot chocolate and sleeping...

Florida, on the other hand, was the exact opposite. It was hot! Hot and humid like SG, you should have seen my happy face when we got off the plane. I almost did a dance of joy in the arrival hall, in full view of the palm trees and people decked in hawaiian-type beach gear.  The most memorable part about the trip (aside from the weather) has to be the visit to the Kennedy Space Center. We had a hard time deciding whether to go to Disney instead actually, but the being able to drive out to the cape tipped the scales otherwise. The Space Center's located on the cape itself in the midst of a wildlife reserve. In addition to all the cool space stuff, we saw alligators, a family of black hogs and lots of different bird species.

In the center picture, that's Astronaut Bob Springer, who had been on a space shuttle mission twice. On the right, if you imagine hard enough, you'll see the space shuttle Endeavor, which is sitting on the launch pad in preparation for the launch on June 13. Just look for the orange tipped nose. On the bottom right, that's the real payload dock where parts of the payload are assembled before it's mounted in the shuttle. These stuff are all headed to the international space station, where 2 Russians, 1 American, 1 Canadian, 1 Belgium (representing Europe) and 1 Japanese are living together in harmony. If only it were true down here. The most cool bit was that we got to see a shuttle being flown back to base on top of a 747! It just so happened that we were there on the exact day that the shuttle was scheduled to return. Yippee! After the space center was shut, we actually headed down to the beach to view it and the shuttle specially flew really close to shore so that all the people on the beach could get a closer look.  So glad we went!!

Finally, the top and left pics were taken by kind-hearted strangers and I just thought it was funny how both took pictures of us and left out the top of the important structures... hee hee 

 

Niagara Falls

We've been out travelling the last 2 weeks, which explains the dearth of posts. I'll post part 1 of the travel series: Niagara Falls!

We drove about 8 hours there, and I was surprised that we made it :) Of course, WL drove the whole way thanks to my previous experience at the wheel in SF. Viewing the falls was really worth the trip! It's really amazing how much water goes over the falls per second. It's said that 20% of the world's fresh water suply goes over the Niagara falls. We took a boat ride- the famous Maid of the Mist- to the base of the falls and experienced a little of the power and glory of God. It's beyond description, just realising that the falls itself is only a small part of the entire creation of God. It was a good moment for me, one of the moments where you feel that you've been transported out of "now" and have been given a glimpse of eternity :)

There are 2 parts to the falls. In the center picture, the falls on the left are part of Buffalo. NY, while the falls to the right belong to Ontario, Canada. We were in Canada, having driven over the causeway bridge, and it gave us a really good view of both falls. Unfortnately, the place has turned into a tourist trap. We didn' take any pictures of it, but next to the falls, there were casinos, amusement parks and such. Sad, right? I thought that the falls itself was worth the trip.

Pâte à choux

I baked cream puffs!

Found a recipe online and it seemed pretty easy to do so I gave it a try. It tured out better than I thought and it was quite surprising because I usually don't like cream puffs much back home. I'm hoping to make a second batch soon.

Sigh.. the only thing that's missing are durians... if only I could make durian puffs like those at Goodwood Hotel... hmmmmm

Anyone care to send some over?

:P

Lobster meal

We bought lobsters the other day and steamed them in a pot. Yum!

Obviously, W did the cooking. Haha.. I didn't have the courage to place the live lobsters into the simmering water though the lobsters seemed pretty sedated already. It took longer to cook than I had planned so as you can tell, we were kinda hungry and cracked open the lobster before we remembered to take a pic of it. So here's our ready to be eaten lobster taken by a couple of famished people :)

Pottery

This is my first finished work of pottery!

I've been attending pottery classes for a few weeks and wheelthrowing's been tougher than I thought. I accidentally got into an intermediate class (there was no indication of it being an intermediate class when I signed up online) and ended up throwing pieces of pottery next to pp who were making really beautiful and awesome shapes. I guess it's encourages one to improve at a faster rate :)

I'm pretty hooked now, the process of creating a piece of pottery is quite therapeutic. I find it relaxing and it appeals to my creative side. Of course, I've been learning about patience as well. There are immediate repercussions to actions caused by my type A personality. I really hope that I'll be able to throw more than bowls and plates soon. I finally made a cylindrical vessel that day, but I tried too hard to shape it and it ended up in the scrap barrel instead...

Swine Flu

Everybody should have heard abt the swine flu or H1N1 situation by now, esp the pp from back home, where dramatic measures seem to have been taken. Many pp have been asking us how the situation is here. As of today, there are are 34 confirmed cases of swine flu in Massachusetts but none of these people seem to be staying in our area. Other than the news we get from the TV, and N95 masks being sold out, everyone here seems to be going about normally in their daily lifes. At W's hospital, no extraordinary measures seem to be taken ie. temperature monitoring, masks for all with patient contact.

So far, I've had 2 reactions to the situation. The first is that I'm strangely unconcerned about our safety. Ok, maybe it's not so strange that I'm quite at peace. When I first heard of the swine flu outbreak in Mexico and how some pp in the US have been infected, my first reaction was 'SARS again?' but that was quickly followed by a reminder of how God protected W and I through the SARS situation despite us having been in close contact with patients. I know that God who protected us then will keep us safe again and that He knows better than I do about the whole situation and how things are going to turn out. Anyway, we've got way too much food in the freezer and if we've got to stay home for some time, it should feed us for a looong time :)

The second is that I started to think about the end times that the Bible talked about and what that means. In Matthew 24: 5-8, it says
For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.
I'm just wondering what this whole thing is all about. There's been lots of natural disasters in the recent years, calamities that have not occured for 10s or 100s of years: the tsunami, floods, earthquakes, now a flu pandemic? What's happnening? Is this really just a consequence of the human race destroying earth with global warming or is there something else?

I find that in times like this, I'm reminded that my life on earth is finite, that many of the things which I consider important are actually immaterial in the time of death. Work, money and many other problems start to fade away and I start seeing a little of the big picture. I only get to live once and I would really like to learn to walk with God during my life here, I would also like to love and enjoy my family more and I would like to make my life count by helping others with their life. I've been very thankful for the break that I'm enjoying, I've had time to think through all the stuff that I've been doing and to decide what's actually important. We're just thankful to be able to live life a little differently now.

Rockport

We visited Rockport over the last weekend. It was a beautiful trip, the sun was out and everybody was in T shirts and shorts. They told us that it was summer-type weather. I was just happy to see the awesome ocean views.

Rockport's a small town, known for its crafts shops. There were a few stores selling paintings, pottery and other crafts and it's a good place to browse and admire artist's works. It's quite a popular place and has many small diners, ice cream shops and bakeries. We bought ourselves some lobster, fish cakes and stuffed clams and carried them to the rocks, where we had a mini picnic by the atlantic ocean. We were too full after that to get an ice cream plus i think I've had an overload of ice cream for the moment.