A New Year, A New Beginning

It's 2019 already! 2018 was a tough year emotionally, some of this would no doubt linger on, losing a 20+ years friendship is not something one can get over in an instance. But life does move on. I met a new group of women in my neighborhood, and hopefully a few new friends. And I am trying to gather my love and intention of what I want to do with my future travels.

One thing I would love to learn more is photography. In the last years, I have moved from my Nikon D90 to the Olympus OD EM10 Mark II, this is to reduce the travel weight of my camera gear. But changing camera equipment requires time and patience, and learning new buttons and settings, all of it taking dedication and mood. To jump start, I signed up for a Photography Basic class at The Image Flow locally in Mill Valley. It's a 6 weeks class, 2 hours every Thursday evening. I hope to move from semi-manual mode to full manual mode, and learning how to edit in Lightroom. My old laptop with Photoshop has lost a key here and there, and it's about time to replace it and start new. After much research, I finally settled on a Dell XPS 15 with a 16 GB Ram.  And signed up for the Lightroom monthly membership. Now, all happy and ready to start.

Andrea's 50th Birthday Celebration

Andrea was looking for plans to celebrate her 50th birthday. We talked about Vegas since I part time lived there. But since I don't have any space to host any company at the Vegas apartment, she and any company would need to rent a place. Of course, this would quickly add up the overall budget. 

After a few rounds of discussion, she decided that she would come to SoCal and stay with me. She has some family in SoCal, so we could have a party for at my house too. Her girlfriend from Houston, Janet, would be joining us too. Let me say this, this trip was ALL ABOUT FOOD!!!

First stop after picking them up from LAX was at the Fishbar Manhattan Beach. Both of them didn't eat anything on the plane; therefore, it was a very late lunch. With all the excitement of catching up and meeting  new friend (for me), no one seems to have taken any pictures, believe or not! I am still pondering about that.

On the route home, we stopped at Pinkberry since Ms. Birthday wanted some frozen yogurt! Like a kid in a candy store, that one, Andrea!

I don't think we were hungry for dinner after the last two stops, at least no photo proof of us eating anything else. We probably just settled in with a bottle of wine and continue the catchup.

The next day, we woke up to lunch at Umami Burger at the Hermosa Beach location. There has been lots of hype about Umami Burger in the gourmet world. And they haven't made it out to New York yet (would have been the closest location for Andrea), we must try it while she's here. I have been at this location before. And this time was no exception. Service and food were both great. We each ordered a different item from the menu so we all can "exam" the yumminess of all. I usually ordered the Truffled Burger.

The evening was planned around a dinner at Bouchon Beverly Hills. We all love this kind of classic French food. What was not to love? The food was good, the service was average for a place like this. The main negative thing I could recall was how loud the place was. Maybe there wasn't enough absorption of noise level with the furnishing (I read somewhere before this should be a consideration when designing a restaurant). Or perhaps there were a few loud parties next to us? It wasn't as memorable as it should be.  I didn't take pictures of everyone's order, mainly just mine. I can only be obnoxious to a certain degree!

I ordered Pâté de Campagne as my starter and Poulet Rôti as main. Both are lovely and not disappointing. They do know how to do their chicken, moist and tasty!

Planet Hollywood Spa by Mandara

On a Travelzoo Local Deal package, I tried out this Mandara location at Planet Hollywood. My services included:

• A 50-minute massage, deep tissue or Balinese, which incorporates stretching, long strokes, skin rolling and other pressure techniques. And they let me chose a beautiful house blend of aroma oil. But too bad, they were out of stock so I couldn't actually buy one to take home.

• A 25-minute Mandara Balinese body polish that smooths skin with the bliss® blood orange + white pepper scrub or detoxifying Elemis Lime & Ginger Salt Glow, topped off with a hydrating body butter

• Frangipani Nourishing hair and scalp treatment, a tranquil treatment that repairs the hair and scalp

In reality, the first two items were served together. The good thing is there was a shower inside the service room. But once I showered, I didn't want to try out the pool. Honestly the pool didn't look too attractive. I do like the Balinese theme.

Mardi Gras Beer Tasting @Heaven on Seven

I am not a beer drinker, never like the taste of beer. But I wasn't about to pass on a Cajun dinner, especially when it was themed around Mardi Gras. I missed the south to be honest. After a decade now in SoCal, I still love Texas and Louisiana. Maybe it is because it was my first living alone experience or the people and friends, but I like that part of my life.

So when our team meeting selected to have dinner at Heaven on Seven; my response was very quick! It was fun, my colleague and my boss (the guy in the picture) took over my beer portion. The restaurant was packed in for this special beer pairing dinner. The food was ok; of course not as good as the real thing, but it would do for a fix. Seven tasting courses really packed it in. I was stuffed by the 5th course!

The seven courses were:

1. Crawfish Tamale with Roasted Vegetable Sauce
2. Texas Roadhouse Chili
3. Bayou Chile Relleno with Sweet Corn Cream
4. Chicken and Chorizo Etouffee
5. Seared Tilapia with Roasted Tomato-Tortilla Sauce
6. Crawfish Voodoo Enchilada
7. Chicory Coffee Flan

A Surprise Visit from Old Friends

Once upon a very long time ago, there were three of us in the same high school. Polly was in the same year as I. I think Muon was earlier. Everything is a bit fuzzy.

Polly and I have kept in touch on and off since we left high school. Last time she visited me out here in CA was over 8 years ago when I first moved to SoCal. She actually reminded me that!

Out of the blue, I got an email from her, telling me if I would be in town, as she and Muon would love to visit since Muon's dental clinic would be closed for a few days for maintenance and that would be the only time she could make it. Surprisingly, I wasn't traveling either. I supposed, once a blue moon, a miracle does happen!

I took a day off to show them around the South Bay area. We basically talked a lot, there was much to catch up. We went out to Manhattan Beach so they could actually step on the sand and see the pier. It was a nice weather Friday afternoon. Beautiful streets, wonderful shops and restaurants, we had sangria and BBQ during Mr. Cecil's happy hour.

It was a quick nice visit from old friends. Who knows when the next time it might be? For now, it was a good thing and a nice piece for the memory bank!

The two pictures below were taken during our prom, wow, 25+ years ago.
(1) Muon here with me

(2) Polly is the one in the bottom right corner. I am the upper left hand corner.

And this is us NOW!

Cosmo Pop-Up Chapel

Only in Las Vegas, a pop-up wedding chapel, offered by the Cosmopolitan hotel, as an alternative to a quickie wedding besides The Little White Wedding Chapel. I did not see any ceremony actually happening, but the idea is ridiculously fun. I should just marry Tom again. For $80, we could get couple plastic rings, two cans of champagne, and a picture...well, only a limited time offer, until the next pop-up idea takes over the space.