well, the past few weeks have been spent on eating, we've been going around trying all kinds of restaurants like Fish Market and Bistro, Yakiniku Daidomon, my favourite Japanese eatery (seriously, nothing beats this at all), some not too nice German restaurant and so on, i also can't remember now, must see the pictures to recall.

and i got these recently online too:


The one in red is 'Pong Pong Fen' and the one in green is 'Pong Pong Shui', a direct translation in english would be Volumnizing Powder and Volumnizing liquid spray.
they're supposed to fluff up our hair a lot, which is what i like, my hair is long now and looks even longer now that i chopped off my fringe (again), so i pretty much hope that these will give me very big hair!!

i want to have a small body with big head :P

if the above products fail to bring life to my limp hair, i shall chop them all off and live with the bob again.

next, with the help of my ex piano teacher who migrated to USA, i got these from bath and body works:

Alice In Wonderland Wallflowers! (scent is Honey Lavender)
i love how this looks!


cherry blossom
(as much as i love the sight of sakura, i prefer the subtle scent of cherry blossoms from Bath and Body Works rather than the overpowering scent of Japanese cherry blossom)


blissful blackberry


midnight pomegranate

i have no idea how all the wallflowers above smell like, my choices were based on reviews online. i hope they will make my whole house and my room smell good!

one last product i bought:

Lavender chamomile essential oil

when i came back from USA, i lugged back quite a number of stuff from Bath and Body Works too, and i really want to recommend a very good item (at least for me) to all of you.

this is it:

it's called "Lavender chamomile pillow mist"
just spray a light mist over your pillows and sheets before you sleep and it really works for me, i am deeply impressed!
because i am a super insomniac, maybe i should say i am those that take a reeeeally long time to fall asleep and i am a super light sleeper, i wake up at the slightest sound.
but when i start using this, sleeping was so easy!!
i love this to death!!

another room fragrant i like from bath and body works is 'passion fruit and guava', it smells sweet but yet, very citrus :)

USA Day 8

USA Travaganza Day 8- Los Angeles (Santa Monica, Venice beach)

the next morning, we had breakfast at this beach stall at Main Street, Santa Monica.
it's just 2 blocks from Seashore Motel.


Bing's coffee and my hot chocolate


the weather was perfect!
the sun was strong but the wind was cool, so it's not too warm and not too cold as well.


ooh, i must rave about these fish & chips!
They are reeeeeally good and very fresh.
came in 3 big pieces for us to share and our stomachs were happily filled.
This was so much better than fish & chips served in local restaurants in Singapore.


Lots of people walking dogs here.
In fact, in USA, dogs were allowed almost anywhere.
They were allowed in trains and you can see them shopping with their owners in malls!


Santa Monica beach, sand was soft and powdery!




Palm trees were everywhere in Los Angeles.



we rented bicycles to get around the beaches.

i forgot the rates but its not expensive, something like USD6 per hour and USD24 for whole day? around this rate.


this is the starting of the Venice Beach walkway where all the stalls were located.

see the quaint little cafe behind.


here it is again, we wanted to stop for a beer but there were no available seats and we didn't wanna wait.


Lots of cute little shops like these here.



Venice aka MUSCLE BEACH!




Lots of panhandlers (homeless people) here, they will go around asking people for spare change, some will do weird things like this one in the picture: sitting on top of the dustbin.
Actually these people are a very common sight in America.










Lots of beautiful houses by the beach.






Venice Beach




the wind was really strong and chilly here.










Seagulls everywhere, they're cute.







a pelican was stuck underneath and these folks happened to catch hold of it with their fishing rods, and they fished it up.


They released the pelican and it was off flying again.





isn't this cute?















Lots of artists on Venice Beach walkway.
and they do this for a living.


a closer look at his creations









a vintage grand piano!


Psychic readers are commonly seen here


Laughing Buddha, American style.


It was really relaxing walking along this path, there were lots to see and be amazed by.








This was where i bought the 'Lil Miss Hollywood' tee from.
you can see the tee hanging there!



cute paintings by talented artists


another psychic reader


see someone sleeping there?














Santa Monica Pier



the other side of the pier

it was great cycling in such nice weather with the cool breeze against us.




we cycled and cycled, trying to find Malibu beach but it seemed like such a long distance so in the end we turned back and went on foot to visit the Pier.








cute little girl on a dolphin

Somewhere up ahead lies the Third Street Promenade, the main shopping street in Santa Monica!


view from the pier


this restaurant perched on a higher level seems kinda unique to me










Big Yellow Taxi!




it was 5 plus in the evening, the sun sets at 7 plus here.
and sunset was really really beautiful, we didn't catch the sunset here on this day but we did come back and caught it on another day later on.




Pacific Park at the Pier!







rainbow!


i heart rainbows.
i wanna paint one in my room.


the ferris wheel was closed, a bigger one was under construction.


face moulding




back here for a short rest

on the way out again, to 3rd Street Promenade!


movie theatre at third street promenade





a street performer

we did what we were best at doing-- SHOPPING!

3rd street promenade isn't a very big shopping street but it has Victoria Secrets, A/X, Bebe, American Eagles, Abercrombie, Express and many more, enough to turn me crazy.

Late dinner at a chinese restaurant, "Yang Tze" along third street.
if you like chinese food, you should come here, they serve rather decent dishes :)


we ordered tomyum soup (more sourish than spicy), green curry (rather spicy and fragrant) and rice.

having spicy food during such cold weather is simply 'shiok'.
i really love this feeling.


everywhere i go, i always seem to be craving for tomyum soup
it has been 8 days since we had any decent rice meals, the previous rice dishes we had were really badly cooked, this was the best!!!

we were extremely satisfied and very happy with this meal =)