serene’s posterous

Reading this article from the New York Times made me think about the various random stuff I have bought on our travels.  Eu-Jin frequently complains about my shopping habits.  I usually can't resist getting more tchotchkes hawked by the vendors in the various places we have visited.  It is fortunate that we try to travel light, and therefore everything usually must fit into our carry-on baggage.  I am also quite cheap, so at least I don't waste all that much money. 

I think the one souvenir item that I have used the most over the years is my favorite baby alpaca woolley hat from our first trip to Peru in 2004.  It cost about 3 bucks from a store right by the main square in Cuzco, and it has kept me warm over many vacations and camping trips.  The photo (taken by Eu-Jin) from several years ago shows me wearing that hat at the summit register of Mount Whitney.

We have a "travel shelf" too, filled with figurines (eg. llamas made from salt, wood, stone, and wool) and other random stuff (windchime, glass snail etc.) that were bought or picked up over the years or were given to us from our friends' travels.  And we have a small box filled with various sling bags (I can't seem to resist getting more bags), scarves, coin purses (a particular favorite of Eu-Jin's), woolley hats.  We have also bought food items, such as biscuits (lots of interesting varieties in the grocery stores), teas (anis tea!) and candy, but those have long since been consumed.

2 cafes side-by-side, offering similar breakfast and brunch items.   Now, that we are living so close to both cafes, they are the default brunch spot when we have a hankering for brunch.  I have eaten at Cafe Brioche 3 times but only once at Joanie's Cafe, mainly because the wait for a table is just shorter over at Cafe Brioche.  The food's tasty at both places.  But I think the eggs are better at Joanie's Cafe, and it has really tasty hash browns too.  I do love the oatmeal french toast and the lovely large mugs of coffee at at Cafe Brioche, so I think they are about equal in terms of food.  I have to say a meal at either of these places is huge! Today, after eating brunch at Cafe Brioche at about 10.30am, I didn't have anything to eat again until about 7pm.

It is funny how I stumble into listening to certain songs.  Admittedly I am a bit of a music snob in the sense that I usually don't listen to the stuff on the radio, preferring the more obscure bands or singer-songwriter types.  But then, I saw this cute hip hop by Ivan and Allison on SYTYCD season 2 (dancing begins at about 0:30).

I didn't really watch this season and I can't claim to be an expert, but I think Allison is probably one of the best female dancers ever in the show, with her fluidity and versatility.  Some may quibble with her hip hop, but that's not her dance style!  It is too bad she didn't get further in the show.  And this just means that I have just seeded a new Pandora station with Sexy Love by Ne-Yo.

We rarely head all the way to Cupertino these days, even though we used to go about twice a month a couple of years back.  But we had gone there twice in 2 weeks, and unsurprisingly Eu-Jin and I ate the exact same things both times.  I had Shui Kau noodles, while Eu-Jin had the fish congee at Joy Luck Place bistro (Food's good, but service is unattentive).  And I got green milk tea with pearls from Fantasia for dessert.  Yum!

Image from here.

The only other show other than Glee that I watch consistently this fall is Castle.  Admittedly the show is essentially a murder mystery with a murder solved every week.  But you can't beat the charm of Nathan Fillion as the mystery writer, Richard Castle.

This week's Halloween-themed episode, started out with Nathan Fillion dressed as Mal Reynolds - aka Captain Tightpants - of Firefly (squeal! I am a big fan of Firefly).  Try to spot the catalyzer (from one of my favorite episodes 'Out of Gas' in Firefly) in the opening scene.

Edited to add...

From Nathan Fillion's Twitter Feed:

How did the catalyzer come to my possesion? I got it the same way Mal would. I stole it.7:10 PM Oct 27th from Tweetie

Look closely, when Mal comes out the door- under the gun, under the boat, just to the right. It's a nothin' part, till ya need one.7:03 PM Oct 27th from Tweetie

It was a pretty bad movie and the battle scenes (other than the last climatic battle between the good and the bad robots, which went by in a flash) dragged on for way too long and were monotonous.  And the story just didn't make any sense!  I spent most of the movie doing some ironing and some work on the laptop.  Yes.  It was that boring and senseless.

Tatu slept all stretched out on Eu-Jin's lap this morning.

Been obsessively listening to this song by Animal Kingdom.  I think it was a free single of the week on ITunes a few weeks back.  Even though they are from London, I guess they don't sound typically British.  The rest of their songs based on what I heard on myspace seem pretty good too.

So tell me if it's love, 'cause baby I'm a tin man
Tell me if it's love, I wanna be a real one
Tell me if it's love, 'cause baby I'm a tin man
Since you took my heart, I've got a missing part

Photo taken by Eu-Jin.

After not visiting for almost 2 weeks, Tatu showed up this wet, rainy evening.  He sat on Eu-Jin's lap for a bit, and then later deigned to sit on my lap too.  He licked my fingers a fair bit too, because he probably tasted the roasted butternut squash I was eating before heading to the balcony to hang out with him.

We were lucky enough to see James perform in SF back in October last year.  They didn't perform this unreleased song during their tour in the US, but the song was apparently back on their setlist for their performances in Europe this summer.  Their official website http://www.wearejames.com/ is offering the mp3 for free if you join the mailing list.

Tim says: “The song is about a boxing match. A genre of one unless you count Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘The Boxer’. I am interested in the paradoxical sense of peace that can arrive at the moment when you feel you have lost everything.”

It has a great, catchy tune so here's looking forward to their new record...