MAY VOMIT: Celebrations. Big Laughs@Avenue Q. Beavers@Adirondacks. Attempts to get TANNED. My BIG 3-0.

I can't believe the month of May just flew past me like dat! Working is no grand excuse for not blogging more but when Emmanuel's father complained that I haven't been updating my blog in a month, I guess I have to get started on it! ;p So, here comes the written vomit I have been saving up for.

AVENUE Q's Surprise!
It's been a year since my dear husband popped "the" question to me at the beach and in tradition of surprising me again the following year since, he genuinely surprised me with a lovely dinner at jap restaurant Haru, followed by 2 Orchestra tix to AVENUE Q! Yippee yeah yeah!!!

There are a couple of Broadway musicals we wanna catch and this one featuring "Sesame Street" style muppets on stage making out(very visually & verbally) and singing "Internet is FOR PORN!!!" is probably top on our list-to-watch! Merci, my love, for such a lovely surprise! Gros calin!

MEMORIAL DAY AT THE ADIRONDACKS MOUNTAINS
With the arrival of warm weather(finally!) and a long weekend holiday, the four amigoes packed up for a 3days camping trip at the Adirondacks mountains. Apparently, the Americans refer to my version of camping as "backpacking", i.e. carrying your tents/sleeping bags/equipment and hike in to the camping ground to set up camp for the night and packing up the next day to continue the trail and set up new camp ground, etc.

So, after some confusion about their version of "Car Camping" and Emmanuel & my "Camping", I finally concluded I have never even heard of car camping to start with, so I never knew why my American friends balked at my suggestion of packing instant noodles for meals. In my younger days of self-torture(eg: camping at Mt. Ophir TWICE, not once!), we were responsible for carrying our own equipment mainly so we always brought the lightest food and that usually includes instant noodles & tuna sandwiches. This whole new experience of camping in the USA with the Americans totally brought me to a new camping horizon.

Given that the average age among the four of us is almost 35, we decided not to self-torture ourselves so we only set up camp in 1 spot for the 3days and hiked from there as our base camp. We saw 2 beaver dams(but no beavers), damaged trees gnawed down by the sharp-teethed beavers, yellow-spotted & orange salamanders, lots of yucky frogs/toads(vomit), eerie loons, some humans, loads of mosquitoes/horse flies, heard some bear calls to each other across from the lake(Mr. Berenstein, is that you?), hog prints in the mud and maybe deer tracks too. This is the first time I am camping in bear country and the precautions we have to take with our food is quite tedious but necessary - it took like 3 humans and 40 tries before we could throw the rope over the tree branch to hang our food bag.

As you can see, Dan has made FRESH brownies with his fancy oven cook stove thingee and we even had nutritious insect-decorated pancakes with bacon for breakfast! Oh-yumz! Ms. Girl Scout Kim here took her fire-building very seriously and we got a fire going in no time at all! If I remember well, we had to use fire starters in SG/Malaysia when we go camping...keke... The food was luxurious compared to any of my camping food before and I have a feeling we did go home heavier than when we started. So much for being in the outdoors! The most exercise my husband did was to lift his new binoculars(his birthday toy) to spy on the birds and bears. Haha... ;p Nonetheless, it was a very nice weekend to be in nature despite the downpour on the second day and we're glad we did it even tho' we are no spring chickens! Oh, and I taught them how to play Chor Dai Dee! Dan actually has an Americanized version of it called "Gang of Four" with some rules slightly changed - I prefer the original version for sure! Dai Dee rules! ;p

BEACHED OUT AT OLD LYME
Dear Karen & Michael have kindly invited us to their beach house in Old Lyme and we couldn't refuse cos it is a cardinal sin to walk around as ghastly pale white as we are right now. We seriously need to get tanned! Sun was on our side and I got slightly bronzed that weekend, though not as much as I would really like. :( Before sunset, we headed out to the beach bar to get some "action" and were outnumbered / surrounded by golden tanned and fit bodies of 20 year olds flaunting their 6-pecs and D-cup bodies. Boy, do I feel ancient in this crowd! Can't believe it wasn't that long ago that I could fit into this young and trendy crowd easily but now...hrmmmph....

Summer time at the beach means one thing - BARBEQUE!!! It was such a glorious feast that night as we dined on beautifully BBQ pork loin, beef skewers, corn cob, mashed potatoes and shrimps. Having lost my appetite a week ago, it was wonderful to have found it this night as I chowed down like a hungry bear. We had some fireworks for entertainment and the kids' excited wheals of laughter drifted into the night as Emmanuel and Jim lighted one after another firework. What can I say? Kids these days...

Pitting our arm muscles against one another, we engaged in Petanque, a Frenchie game consisting of throwing metal balls around. Mostly, old French men can be seen playing this game in parks and squares of small towns and in classic movies like "La Gloire de Mon Pere". I turned out to be as good as one of those old men funnily even though I haven't played this game in years!

It was a lovely weekend at the beach and if only the water was warmer, I might have ventured out on the canoe. Well, that will be another time then! Thanks, Karen, for having us there!

MY BIG 3-0.
Oh yes, the time has come. I'm officially 30 and 31(in the Chinese Lunar calendar) and I feel nothing more than 20 summers. Age is relative, isn't it? ;p With a couple of friends, we had dinner at my fave Jap restaurant Village Yokocho and the whole restaurant sang me a touching(and VERY loud) birthday song as the waitress presented me with my favourite green tea ice cream with mochi, complete with three candles and dimmed lights for some drame effects. Oh yumz!!! Thanks, Henri, for that! And GOOD LUCK for your exams in Slovakia!

Village Yokocho
8 Stuyvestant St. (btw 9th St & 3rd Ave)
2nd, floor. Tel: 212 598 3041 (reservations are recommended)
Chow on: Grilled Cow's tongue yakitori, Unagi Don, Gyu Don, Stewed radish with pork, ramen, green tea ice-cream(best one I've ever had!), mochi ice cream dessert and their entire list of sake.

Written vomit is done. Still trying to get my wedding and Europe trip pics up!!! Trying!!!