Meeeeee....

Just experimented with cooking mee siam.


making the gravy

And the finished product:

Doesn't look very good, but the taste is not too bad. ;)

Hoodwinked
Some screenshots from the movie Hoodwinked. Thanks to Kel( i saw the pics on his blog and decided to download the movie), this is now my favourite animation. This movie is beyond cute!









Granny reminds me of Jay Leno ( see the long chin). Heheh.

More about cars

Missing Picture
This should have been included in the previous post.



Rear camera turns on automatically at Reverse gear on the IS navigational screen

Comparison of Cars
There were some questions about why we chose to buy the Lexus IS350 instead of either one of the other two cars that had also been our alternatives-- Mercedes C230 Sport Sedan and BMW325i Sedan.

The common question is why buy a Japanese car ( Lexus) when you can buy a Merc or a BMW since we are already planning to pay XX dollars. Understandable, considering Merc and BMW cars are more expensive than Lexus cars in Singapore ( hence more prestigious?). However, in the case of the US, this does not hold true

The Merc C230 costs around US$30,000 while BMW325i is approximately US$31,000. Compare this to the IS350 with MSRP of US$35,440. [MSRP= basic retail price of car without additional features like navigation, leather, alloy wheels / modifications]

On paper, we could have gotten a more "prestigious-sounding" car for less money.

Mercedes C230


BMW 325i

So why did we buy the IS350?

We had test-driven the BMW sometime last year when we attended Taste of Lexus, when Lexus was then launching the all-new 2006 IS350. There were BMW cars onsite available for test-driving to allow people to compare the performance of both cars. The BMW was good, but it didn't give as smooth a ride as the IS did. We also thought the interior of the IS was superior to the BMW.

Yifan did some pretty detailed research on all three alternatives prior to us buying the car. Merc and especially BMW cars, have lots of electrical problems. The only plus point about buying a BMW is that the dealership provides free maintenance for 4 years after you buy the car. But this is offered largely because that is the ONLY way they could get buyers considering the not-so-good reputation that BMW has.

How fast the car depreciates was also a major factor in our decision. Mercedes fared the worst here, followed by BMW.

By now, hard facts were pointing us in the direction of the IS.
Then if you examine the specifications of the individual cars, Lexus IS wins hands down.

Mercedes C230:
Engine: 2.5 L V 6
210 horsepower

BMW325i:
Engine: 3 L, 6 cylinder engine
215 horsepower

IS350:
Engine: 3.5 L, V 6
306 horsepower

Of course, there are better and much more expensive lines in both the Mercedes and BMW brands ( and Lexus, for that matter) which are far superior to the IS350. However, at this point of time, we are considering ( and only able to afford) the lower end of any of the brands.
So it was clear that the IS350 is the choice for us since the lower range of Lexus (not the lowest, .. lowest being the IS250) beats both the cheaper line of Merc and BMW cars.

If ever there comes a day when we can afford to splurge hundreds of thousands of dollars on a car, then that's a whole other story =)

P.S. The main draw for me is that the IS350 is at least as good as the old SC400, if not better. More horsepower ( 290 horsepower vs 306 hp) and much smoother.

I like fast and powerful cars cos I think they are safer to drive in. For one, you can do U-turns much better than if you drive a less powerful car since the car can pick up speed much faster ( and you can get out of danger spots faster). This, we gathered from driving the Big Toe. Everytime I make U-turns on the Big Toe is a nightmare, cos the traffic is almost nonstop, and you barely get a chance to do quick turns.

IS

The IS 350 3.5L V6 306 horsepower in Smokey Granite Mica:



Some features of the car:


the light at the bottom of the side mirror goes on when you go near the car with the car key

instrument cluster can be customised to show outside temperature, adjust for personalised rpm and speed settings etc.. the various buttons on the steering wheel control the radio stations, volume, phone calling via bluetooth, display on LCD screen. See the silver manual F-1 paddle shifters behind the steering wheel?


key-less entry. all you need is to have the key in your pocket, and you'll be able to open the car door.


you start the engine just by stepping on the brake, and pressing the button on the left.

the car is equipped with a navigational system that not only gives you detailed step-by-step instructions on how to get from point A to point B ( verbally and on the map), but you can also find out how to get to various points of interests. For instance,there is a menu to allow you to search for all the thai restaurants in the area, as well as show you how to get there from where you are located.

the navigational system understands voice commands, which was pretty amusing to us.

the rearview mirror has an auto-dimmer function, a compass, and buttons that have been pre-programmed by the salesman at Lexus to open the gates at Bella Vida!!




this is me jumping with joy. ( back is the golf resort that our apartment overlooks.)


the car can also be driven on manual transmission. the gears are right behind the steering wheel.






there are a couple of settings on the car that we can customised when we go back to the dealership to pick up the new license plate. one of the existing functions is that the car lights will go off on its own 30 seconds after you lock up.

Pool Party

Today's the 2nd Annual Bella Vida Summer Pool Party.

There was catered bbq-ed meats from Dickey's Barbeque, chips, soft drinks and margarita.. a Bounce House for kids and a DJ!!

Espanol~

We are going back to school !!!

Come September, Yifan and I will be heading to Collin County Community College. We're going for a 2-month Spanish language course in the Plano campus. We signed up for the once-a-week Sunday afternoon classes. Fall schedule is just out, so there were lots of classes that we could choose from -- weekdays, weeknights, and weekends. Yifan didn't want to miss any weeknight tv so we decided on sundays.

If there is one foreign language that you have to pick up in the US, that would have to be Spanish. No doubts about that. The language is spoken pretty much all over the US, and mostly in Texas ( due to its close proximity and the fact that tx used to be a part of mexico). Someone once told me that it's a fairly easy language to learn if you can speak English. I hope so too.

Mexicans are a very friendly bunch of people. I can't wait for the day when I will be fluent enough to hold a proper conversation with them at the laundromat. As for Yifan, the benefits are more work-related. He deals with mexicans everyday in his line of work, so some knowledge in the Spanish language will surely be beneficial.

Food Exploration

On another one of my restaurant exploration trips:

This time to Samui Thai in Allen.




A very classy-looking restaurant, quite unlike all the other thai restaurants I've been to which were family-owned. This one seemed pretty commercialised -- it's a huge place, nicely decorated, and lots of waiters on hand.

Food-wise was okay. I could have matched it quite easily on my own.

The search for the best thai restaurant continues...

Thanks for the memories

We've had the SC400 for slightly over 2 years now. The car's come a long way with us -- from Massachusetts to Connecticut ( with occasional weekend trips to NY) to Oklahoma via Chicago, and finally to Texas.

It's an old car, and too old for my liking then. But I've grown to love it over the years. After all, this IS my first ever car. We got the car cheap, but we also didn't have much spare cash at that time, and it fell into the " Affordable" category. I remember the first time Yifan told me about the car. He had driven past it when he was out meeting customers. The car was parked on a grassy spot with only the contact information of the seller painted on the windscreen. Yifan thought it was a good deal, so we went there a second time around to meet up with the seller -- a builder. Test-drove it a bit, and we bought it on the spot. Though we lived in CT for nearly a year, for the most part of it, the car was left in Taunton where Josh had been checking it for us. I only started becoming attached to the car after the road trip down south.








If you have sharp eyes, you may be able to make out the makes of all the other cars in the parking area in the photos. They are all Lexus cars.

We were there to trade in our SC400 for this:
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The 2006 IS 350.

We bought one in Smoky Granite Mica, which is a charcoal grey kinda colour, with black interior. Sweet!

Making our decision to buy the new car was a long and tedious process. This is our biggest purchase so far in our entire lives. Okay, that and the HDB flat. But then, there wasn't much to consider when we bought the flat cos we saw that as a necessity. A car is very different. There were cheaper alternatives, and we wanted to be sure that this wasn't something we will regret in future.

Spent 4 hours at the dealership today ( more than 2 hours yesterday) and finally signed the sales agreement. Other than pure happiness, we were also relieved at having come to a decision after all the agonising.

Tomorrow we will get the new car, and say goodbye to the SC400. I'm sure I'll miss the old car, but I know I will also be glad that we made the move to trade it in for a new car, because the SC400 is getting older by the day, and with that, problems are bound to crop up every so often. As the chinese saying goes:" chang tong bu ru duan tong".

I do take consolation in the fact that we are still keeping to a Lexus. No sense of betrayal there. =)

Happy Birthday, sw!!!

A Taste of Hong Kong

First it was dimsum for brunch in Richardson ( where we met the Malaysian couple ...again). Then we came home and watched My Kungfu Sweetheart.

Dinner: one of our favourites foods-- BBQ

Sonny Bryan is supposedly the best bbq place in town. We thought Peggy Sue is slightly better though ... more oak wood taste in the meats.



it's a casual dining place where you place your order at the counter when you first go into the restaurant, pay up and leave your name there, find a seat, and then go pick up your food when they call out your name. Kinda like how it is at Starbucks and Coffee Bean.




that's how the meal looks like. I had 2 portions of beef brisket and 1 of pulled pork with bbq beans and squash medley. It doesn't look like a lot, but it's really filling.

*****
Today was supposed to be our workout day, but unfortunately we had a too-heavy lunch at Lion City, and then came home and watched this instead:


It Had To Be You -- (HK movie), 2005

Dinner's stewing right now -- Braised Pork with Tau Kwa. That with stir-fry veg, rice, fruits, and Miss Universe 2006. =)

Movies and Books

Just read:


ex and the single girl by lani diane rich

Just watched:


K-movie My Girl And I, starring Cha Tae Hyun and Song Hye Gyo

*****
We got the best seats at the theatre today.


Two seats on our own at the last row. Theatres in the US are much more spacious than those in Singapore, and we have lots of legroom. Yifan's legs couldn't even get to the seat in front of him.

A very strange phenomenon we observed -- americans like sitting as close to the screen as possible.


And XMen is the best sci-fi movie ever!

Friends With Money

We were 15 minutes late for Friends With Money, the new movie starring Jennifer Aniston. Turns out that we didn't miss much, and in fact, I was glad we missed 15 minutes of the 88-minute movie. It was THAT bad!

People actually left the theatre just half an hour into the movie. We would have done the same if we were not "trapped" by a couple sitting by the aisle. And poor Yifan, he came home early today just so he could accompany me to watch Friends With Money, cos I had been talking about catching it ever since last weekend. ( fyi, i think it's pathetic to go to the movies alone.)

Now, I had already known that the movie was doing rather poorly in the reviews, but still, I wanted to watch it because Yifan told me that Jennifer Aniston and John Cusack were in it. I am not a fan of Jennifer Aniston, but John Cusack's a different matter altogether. So there we were, sitting boredly in the theatre, impatiently waiting for John Cusack to make his appearance, and when more than half an hour passed with no sign, I knew he wasn't in this movie at all.

The credits rolled out, and Yifan exclaimed:" there, there's John Cusack". I looked. Only it wasn't "John" but " Joan Cusack". (!!)

We had a good laugh after that. Wasted $2 on a terribly lousy movie, but at least we enjoyed the aircon there.

The next time we watch a movie, I am going to make sure it's either a good movie, or it has actors I like in 'em.

P.S. Jennifer Aniston looked very bad in the movie. How old is she? She looks really old now. A far cry from her " Friends" days.

Final Fu

There's a new reality show on MTV and we've been catching it ever since it started on Monday. It's called Final Fu and it's about a group of martial arts contestants vying for the title of Final Fu aka the winner.


the master


the contestants

Texas de Brazil

Just read:


After The Rice by Wendy French

*****
Texas de Brazil -- a Brazilian steakhouse that serves Southern Brazilian food. We were offered a vast array of different kinds of meat slow-roasted and perfectly seasoned-- Beef, pork, lamb, brazilian sausages, chicken... all served at your own table. The servers come by the tables with the grilled meats on skewers and carve the slices off for you. It was a great experience!








in addition to the meats, there was also a 40-item salad/side bar open to patrons




You had to flip your individual card depending on whether you wanted another portion of carved meat or not. Red means " you need a break", while green signifies that you are ready for more.

More than half the time, my card was flipped onto the red side, and the minute I had it over on the green side, the server came briskly across to our table, and enquired if I wanted more chicken.