Go Sox!

Watched my first baseball game on Tues!! We were watching it from pretty high up but the atmosphere was really great. The fans would cheer for every red sox player that came up to the plate and there were songs that pp would sing along to in between innings. I would really love to go again and sit closer to the field though all tickets are sold out for the rest of the season.

Both W and I were like little kids attending our first baseball game, plus it was so cool that I got to see the sox players live rather than on TV! My fav players are Varitek, the captain/catcher/ guy who looks out for the team and Bay, left-fielder and Mr. cool, both of whom made really great hits that night, Bay with a homer to left as well.

For your info, the sox won it 5-2!

:D

Cape Cod

I haven't been blogging much because the weather's been gloomy the whole of June. It basically rained the whole of June, which was unusual. June's supposed to be the start of warmer months but as they say, "The only thing predictable abt Boston weather is its unpredictability."

Finally, it got a little warmer last weekend so we headed to Cape Cod, where our landlord stays. We had lunch at a beach club and were brought on a mini tour after that. The house you see on the left was where our landlady's grandfather was born (our landlady's in her 70s now). It's currently being inhabited by her cousin, who owns a cranberry business. She was really proud of the house and had multiple paintings of the house hung up in their current home, and she told us many stories about her grandfather and uncle.

Seeing how proud they were of their heritage made me think of mine. I think it's really sad that I never really found out the story of my grandparents. When I asked my paternal grandmother why she decided to come to SG, she looked really embarassed and didn't want to say much. Now that all my grandparents have passed on, it seems like I've lost a huge chunk of my family history. Now that I'm getting older (yes, I admit it), I seem to be much more interested in my culture and heritage. I think that me being away from home really helps too because I've had to describe SG to many pp here. The more I talk about it, the more I realise how unique we are as a nation. Maybe I just miss the satay and chilli crab....

Softball

I played my first softball game today after about 10 years :P
It all started when we found our current church, Highrock Brookline. We decided to visit a church named Highrock Arlington and while we were there, found out that there was a new church plant in Brookline, which was surprisingly similar to our church in SG. They hold the worship services in a school hall and it's a new church with a good heart. The people were the most friendly we'd met in a Boston church so far. In the first week, we were already attending a newcomers' dinner at the pastor's place and we've found really good new friends since :)
Back to softball, so I found out that Highrock fields teams for the Boston Metro Churchs' slow pitch league and I asked if I could be a part of it. They were really nice and let most of the girls who wanted to play onto the team. Now comes the tough part, I'm much older now!! I've got aching body parts in muscle groups which have not been used for 10 years but it's so fun. It's really nice feeling the adrenaline rush, catching a fly ball and making a hit. Of course, I'm not the same player I used to be, like when I hit the ball and forgot to run.... Really thankful for God's blessings still though!

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 :)