this is gonna be my longest post yet, cos USA photos
500+ photos - zipped the file and it was 2GB LOL
USA was very fun - we went to Los Angeles and Las Vegas and there was just so much to see and do, especially since LA is so big. can't really decide which city i prefer, and overall whether i prefer USA or Europe... USA feels more homely and warm but Europe is so culturally rich and beautiful.
downside to USA is the food is much more expensive if you eat out as compared to most places in Europe, cos service charge (around 10%?) plus tips (15% on average which is crazy). but the food is good! although by the middle of the trip we were looking for asian food already hahaha, cos how many burgers can you eat right?
also public transport is not good at all, but most people drive anyway cos cars are cheap and LA is so huge.
overall, had a blast, and got to know sherwin's family alot better... a lot of people, even my boss at work, were quite shocked to know i was travelling with my bf's family (let alone extended family) so soon, but... idk to me it's just the same as travelling with anyone else LOL got diff meh
without further ado... peektures
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| made salad one fine weekend, on request of mooma |
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| home-cooked soup!! i wish i had friends who shared my love of bittergourd... nobody ever wants to share 苦瓜炒蛋 with me |
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| lunch at... Breadstick something at one-north LOL nice food! |
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| had Seng Kee with jiams and dt one wednesday (?) |
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| so guddddd |
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| checked out the Geylang Serai bazaar afters |
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| doin a packin... i always love the anticipation before a trip hehe especially when you take out the luggages to air and start preparing what to bring and all |
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went to Made of Monsters' EP launch the next weekend!
mostly to support dinslist.
had dinner at someplace near the mrt which was not v nice.
also, strobary prata though |
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| highlight of the night was probably Xingfoo&Roy |
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i used to like MIM - they had a couple of nice songs, but i thought they were a bit douchey of late.
i kind of know the singer, but every time i try to say hi to him he literally ignores me.
same thing happened at the EP launch too.
so i threw away this blue sticker i got at the launch... LOL
moral of the story, always be nice to your fans |
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| macds bfast!! |
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more kitchen shenanigans...
made egg mayo but i think i put too much garlic powder whoops. |
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| expensive curry chicken at heavenly wang's that i indulge in every now and then |
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| paik's bibim for lunch at work |
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this ginseng chicken soup took 45min to come.
it's quite nice but there was only one guy running the counter and i think they weren't expecting 5 ginseng soup orders hahaha
anyway afterwards i still bought coffee from them and the guy gave me 25% off by way of apology, so
10/10 service, 10/10 would return |
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| was contemplating whether to buy tiger sugar before my dental visit LOL |
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| khan saab!! awesome indian muslim food in the east, would've gotten the super nice teh too if i didn't have werk the next day |
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| weekly dinners :) |
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| tis the season to be jollyyy |
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| coffee sphere lol |
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miscomm led to my colleagues going off for lunch without me one thursday LOL
but i rly appreciate the solo lunches anyway |
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| the next morning... pre-flight bfast hehe |
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flew separately from sherwin and his family cos i booked my flight later and the SIA promotion was over by then.
wasn't willing to pay 2.4k for a flight LOL so i got a 1.4k cathay flight instead |
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| ♥️ |
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| the anticipation!! |
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| taking off |
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cathay pacific food is terrible.
only nice thing was the mövenpick chocolate ice-cream |
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signs of civilisation!!!
is this how christopher columbus felt when he first saw land after so long? |
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finally landed at LAX after an 18-hour journey
queued for 2 hours at customs though |
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then i waited another 2 hours for sherwin.
standing here felt like i was in one of those american-soldier-returns-home videos |
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| yayyy |
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| off to a family friend's house for the night! |
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| so beautiful compared to what we have in SG |
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| in love |
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my dream sia. big kitchen with an island :')
v messy cos of all our barang-barang oops |
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| bbq dinner!! |
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| went to Target at night! |
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| cui but happy cos i love supermarkets |
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| It Ends Tonight mv LOL |
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| everything is bigger in America |
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| fascinated by all the brands i've never seen before |
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Jimmy Fallon ben&jerry's ice-cream LOL wow
Jimmy Kimmel or Jimmy Fallon? leave a comment below! |
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| looks so gudd |
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| more fascination with brands i've never seen |
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family friend and his wife made banana pancakes with us for bfast :')
american coffee is bad though LOL |
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| cutesssss |
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| then it was bye house and hello 4-hour drive to Vegas! |
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| v shiok for us since we were passengers, but i felt bad for the drivers :( |
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| biker gang! |
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| stopped over at Barstow Station |
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| some snack my mum asked me to buy LOL |
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| you know you're approaching Vegas when you start seeing all the cacti |
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| seriously there was a LOT of cacti |
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| the first of many car naps |
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the first of many jackpot machines
sherwin tried his luck while we were waiting to check in to our hotel |
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had my first American meal cos i was hungry while waiting...
the saltiest chicken tenders i've ever eaten
couldn't even eat the sauce although i tried, cos the chicken itself was alr so salty |
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| walked around the area! basically the heart of Vegas :) |
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| fake statue of liberty LOL |
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| then we walked under the blazing sun to In-n-Out! |
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| limited menu wow |
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didn't have much room after my chicken tenders so i only ate some fries
the burger looked okay-ish only but i would later find out it's rly v nice |
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| checked out a lil bit of the Strip after lunch |
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| hugeass M&M store |
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| haven't seen this kind of shirt in a rly long while LOL |
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| Cheetos!! but didn't try cos sherwin said not fantastic |
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| saw a fake Elvis too |
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shopped at both Ross and Marshall and saw this v cute top at Marshall that was too short for me sad
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| sherwin's hauls hahaha |
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went to this Irish pub that was very well-reviewed on google.
conclusion: nice but super expensive - almost 40sgd each after svc charge and tips omg |
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| huge portions... ate half my food |
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| city of lights! |
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| dressed like im at tampines hehe |
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| good morning Vegas! |
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| pretty good breakfast at a cafe downstairs |
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got the small cup which was huge, plus refillable tea/coffee wow
think it was 4 usd?
and they had so many different types of milk and sugars and also provided hot water
america you are cool |
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had to eat abit to uncover the rest of my bfast hahaha (bacon, guac, two eggs, tomato)
that's on top of (or should i say, under) the tater tots and sourdough bread |
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| more desert scenery cos we were off to Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon! |
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| saw a lake on the way too (the blue in front of the car in this pic LOL), i think it was Lake Mead? |
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Hoover Dam quite nice!
10 usd parking though |
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| back on the road |
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| stopped over at route 66 |
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paiseh not many photos of me/sherwin/everyone else cos these are from my phone only hehe
mostly used his sis/his phones to take pics, cos can't beat the iphone camera :( |
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| terribad lunch... lettuce was raw and everything else was hard and dry :( |
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and then... we got pulled over for a speeding ticket LOL
sherwin's uncle was driving at 97 but after the ticket we were like ohh it's 97mph/h not 97km/h HAHAHA
anyway it was a bit scary cos the cop disappeared for a while in his car to write the ticket, and sherwin wanted to go talk him out of it, so he stepped out and immediately the cop yelled at him to get back in the car... lucky never wave gun 😰
read online afterwards that Arizona has very strict speeding laws |
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| what a pretty day though |
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arrived at the Grand Canyon!!
it was really very grand, i wasn't expecting it LOL |
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| it's hard to tell from my pics :( but the views were really breathtaking |
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| many attempted shots to try and capture the scenery |
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| giant abysses all around :o |
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| saw elk on our way up and down!! |
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| they were huge too |
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| got a bit lost on our way down hahaha |
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| then it was back to Vegas :) |
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| lovely sunsets |
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| stopped at some chinese restaurant for supper |
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| thai milk tea that tasted nth like thai milk tea |
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erm... tasted like american-chinese food i guess HAHA
can't say it's bad cos it's like comparing china-chinese and singaporean-chinese food... they're just not the same at all
but orange chicken tasted exactly like how i thought it'd taste |
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| chow mein (or was it lo mein??) |
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| just like in the movies LOL |
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back on da road!
super cool seeing the Vegas lights come into view from afar :)
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| nth better than arriving back at the hotel after a long day to find a TV channel playing friends reruns :') |
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the next day was very fun!!
explored the Strip with sherwin, his brother and brother's wife
it was our first real taste of Vegas although it was our last day there |
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| Eggslut for brunch! |
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super nice sia!
we also had an egg-and-potato dip with bread that was heavenly |
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our aim for that day was to walk around 4km to get to Circus Circus, a huge circus-themed arcade
and meanwhile we would eat and sightsee along the way |
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| heard there were flamingoes at Flamingo Hotel (funfact: my dad told me this was Vegas' first hotel, started by a mafia guy who initially made huge losses and got killed cos of it... what a pity cos it's doing so well now) |
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| found the flamingoes after some searchin! |
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| Trump Tower LOL |
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| finally arrived at Circus Circus! |
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| they had a free circus act every hour too! a clown got sherwin to squeeze a water bottle or something which resulted in him being soaked |
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| you can't tell here but his face was totally wet |
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| so much respect for circus performers |
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| first decent coffee and it was from mcds hahaha |
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| this was v fun!! but a popular machine so we only got to play once |
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| borrowed his saozi's bear for this pic cos he didn't win anything for me :( |
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| 😘 |
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| Marvel store! |
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| errrr not sure what i was taking a pic of |
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| but i will leave it here regardless |
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| Carlo's bake shop! supposedly some famous cake shop |
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went to Gordon Ramsay's blue ribbon fish & chips!
oh no idk where's my photo of the fish & chips :( but anyway it was great!!
quite possibly the best fish & chips i've ever eaten, although sherwin's brother said they've had better ones in London |
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and then sherwin and i headed off to Mandalay Bay for the Shark Reef Aquarium!!
so exciting cos i love looking at animals, but zoos do make me sad
it's a love-hate relationship |
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| you know it's good when the first exhibit is gators |
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| i love reptiles |
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| shy burmese python |
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first time seeing piranhas in real life omg they looked scary
can't imagine seeing the water look as calm as that when below lies a school of one of nature's most vicious predators |
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| when you ask him to take pictures of you HAHA |
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| okay but not like my pictures are much better |
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lion fish looked cool too
those inconspicuous poisonous fins! |
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| me waking up in the morning |
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| got to pet manta rays too!! very weird texture... surprisingly hard and not slimy at all, almost like touching the surface of a plank of wood |
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| loved how empty the aquarium was too :) |
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| finally reached the shark exhibit! |
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| what a cool-looking dude |
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| dem teeth were scary to look at up close |
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| not so scary when they're in a tank like that though |
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| dabao-ed dinner to our room, ate and watched friends while sherwin slept |
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| america gets such cool street names |
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| our first outlet shopping! everything was so cheap i couldn't believe it |
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| fossil watches for usd 49 each, usd 44 each if you buy two! cray cray |
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| their foodcourts are just as meh as ours hahaha |
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| Cheesecake Factory!! apparently they're coming to SG too |
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| confirm won't be as big as this though |
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| second outlet shopping! sorry i didn't bother remembering the names |
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| dabao-ed the cheesecake cos we were rushing off |
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| not terrible, but i probably wouldn't buy it again |
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| Disney store! |
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| Hot Topic... 15-year-old me would have gone ham |
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| kate spade 70% off plus an additional 20% off wuttt |
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| so i got myself a wallet (in blue) since i needed a new one anyway |
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| hey there... need a hand? 😉 |
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| i think sherwin's family likes shopping... |
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| hit the road for our final long drive... this time back to LA! |
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| goodbye cacti |
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| toilet break at a random Burger King |
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| it's crazy how big America is. really makes you think |
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| was very wow-ed by all the health foods i saw at Sprouts since im into that, but i just realised yesterday night that the kale chips i bought from there were 1 month expired when i bought them walao |
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| now i question if all this seafood was fresh... |
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| Chipotle for dinner! |
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| v nice!! and americans always say they laosai after having Chipotle, but i was all good |
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| back at Ross/Sprouts |
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bought this cos it sounded good but it was not nice... tasted like herbs and chocolate
hope it wasn't expired too LOL |
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| stayed at fam friend's house one more night! |
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| back at Sprouts LOL |
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buy 1 get 1 free
heard alot about this brand but..
both also not nice HAHAHA |
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| childhood!! anyone else remember this? i think it was at parkway iirc |
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| hugeass burlington's at the mall we went to |
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| had foodcourt japanese/chinese food for lunch |
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| not bad, big portions too |
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| for sherwin's sweet tooth |
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| big music store; forgot the name |
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| more of sherwin's hauls |
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took this photo at tory burch - thought it was cute but way too expensive, around 100 sgd
and the design not very good cos difficult to take things out LOL
then i later saw a very similar bag at coach for much less so i got it hehe |
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| enjoying the mall massage chairs (2 usd) |
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| we were supposed to go to Farmers' market but somehow drove to the wrong place |
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| the place (think it was called Victoria market?) was quite pretty though! |
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walked around with sherwin, his brother and saozi again
we had Cheesecake Factory for dinner - as usual couldn't finish my food and ate half oops
if you were wondering, sherwin always finishes his food though, so there wasn't much point sharing HAHA |
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it was a very nice, pretty and cold night!!
i wish singapore had more cold nights :( |
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| love LA and its palm trees :) |
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| more car ride sunsets |
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| our first Walmart! |
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| usd 20 for a backyard pool wow |
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| avos!! |
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| arrived at our airbnb, which was a bit hard to find |
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but it was rly huge wow we had to search to find all 7 bedrooms
couldn't find the 6th for a while, and finally found the 7th the next day - it was like next to the house, not connected to any other room |
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the next day... Disneyland!!
went with sherwin, his sister and brother and wife |
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| gloomy skies at first, but fortunately they later cleared up :) |
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| spot us! |
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tower of terror (renamed to smth else alr) was indeed terrifying...
the drops were something else 😰
on the first drop my bag flew out of my arms and onto the floor (thank goodness didn't fly out the car)
gripped it tight the rest of the ride LOL |
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| hair went for a ride too |
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| 💓 |
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| took some Ariel the mermaid ride |
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| watched a Frozen show too... all 5 of us took turns to fall asleep LOL |
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| but it was a very good show!! the visuals were wow |
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| i tried |
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| mac n cheese in a cone! |
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| double groot |
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| at Ghirardelli! |
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| hello groot |
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| cuteness!! |
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IHOP for dinner!! twas a long day
i didn't manage to touch my pancakes |
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| went back to catch a Disney lights show and the 9pm fireworks! |
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| super nice omg |
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Santa Monica pier the following day :)
wish we had more time there though |
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was super hungry so i got fish tacos
they were gud! |
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| super duper good truffle mac n cheese at the place we lunched at!! |
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also got fish n chips and steak sandwiches
food abit too salty, otherwise would've been great |
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| goodbye Santa Monica!! |
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off to Hollywood!
went to Capitol records building, thought we might be able to go in but they said only recording artists could enter :( |
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| Walk of Fame! |
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| tried Pie Hole cos it was so nice when i had it in Seoul, but it was quite meh |
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| RIP |
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| MAMAAA UWUUU |
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| Hollywood was pretty interesting; saw quite a few homeless people and most places had security standing around, even at Starbucks wow |
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wanted to go to the Jimmy Kimmel show part of the stretch, but didn't have enough time :(
till next time! |
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drove up some questionable road slopes and navigated some questionable bends to see...
the Hollywood sign!!
for some reason i thought i might be a little underwhelmed, but i was not :o
it's so worth all the hype... just something about the huge sign there and having seen it in so many iconic scenes growing up i guess! |
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| someone was flying a chopper around it a few times too... prolly tourists checking it out from above |
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| then we had kbbq for dinner yasss |
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| i've never seen him look at me the way he looks at that grill |
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| definitely over-ordered |
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| and then cos we all missed bbt... |
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| it was nubbad! |
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turned into our street and saw a bunch of police cars... we were like wow whats going on, whose house sia
and then we realised it was the house next to ours omg
fortunately no murder or anything, apparently some kids were having a house party and there was alcohol and drugs involved so the police were there to break it up
camped outside for a few minutes before we were allowed to go home |
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| sherwin's uncle (in shorts) asking a cop what happened |
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saw this the next day as we were driving to las americas premium outlets!!
there's a The Story So Far lyric in Nerve (one of the most iconic pop punk songs ever) that goes:
"And I can't pass through Indio without feeling indigo"
so i dieded when i saw this |
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| were standing around when a caddy asked if we wanted a ride to the other end of the outlets |
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was admittedly quite sian of shopping by then - im not much of a shopping person, but most of them were
wanted to go to the San Diego Zoo which was 25min away instead :( |
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| not nice hahaha |
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| was also sian of burgers and fries already HAHA |
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| so i got some (decent) chicken tenders |
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| coach calculated my discounts for me... 193.2 is insane |
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| everyone else went to another mall while me, sherwin, his uncle and cousin wanted to go home, so... lots of leg room! |
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| i miss LA sunsets already |
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| bei mian for dinner HAHA |
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| wow |
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not a gay pride advocate or anything, but... feel like you must be quite full of hate to go out and hold such a sign targeting people who've done nothing to you
wish you more love in your life buddy |
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headed to the LA Natural History Museum and stopped for lunch at a greek (?) place first
tomato soup was so good but spicy!! |
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| walked through the University of Southern California on our way there :) |
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| LOL ungla |
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| my favourite dinosaur!! |
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| the closest i'll ever be to a rattlesnake |
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| so cool!! |
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| there was a very pretty Rose Garden next to the museum... would've stayed longer if it wasn't so hot that day hehe |
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| Animal Fries (In-n-Out secret menu item) are the BOMB |
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| deserves photo from another angle |
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| reminded me of tampines LOL i feel like we have a very similar sign somewhere there |
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| on the road once more to... |
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| (side note: look how brown we got) |
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| San Diego!! ok the sea should be more visible in this photo |
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| attack of the Sherwin: clam chowder edition |
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ordered fish n chips in a rush but later realised there were alot of interesting menu items like fisherman's stew :(
ragrets! |
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| shared a mixed seafood platter too, was quite good! not to mention dat portion size |
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| after we left the pier we tried to find Point Loma, supposedly a scenic place with a lighthouse, but somehow we ended up at a dog beach LOL we were wondering why there were so many dogs... we were the only ones who came without a dog |
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| drove a bit to try to find the lighthouse |
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| went past a naval base and even a naval cemetery 😰 |
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finally found the place, it was super ulu and we had to pay usd 25 or something at a guardpost to enter, so we didn't.
but it probably would have been rly v scenic though, there was like nobody around and we had driven to quite a high point on the beach, i think it was a cliff already |
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| lighthouse is in this pic HAHA |
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| went to an In-n-Out drivethrough! |
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| pic of the box only cos 3 of us girls demolished it once it was opened |
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| Grand Central Market, hidden by a tree! |
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| a vernacular (?) takes you to your office if you work in that building LOL |
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the market was quite nice and had a bit of food but ofc we didn't get to try everything
think it was more of a hipster lunch spot for the CBD folks |
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| sherwin's sister got the eggslut dip upon our recommendation, but it wasn't as nice as the Vegas one sadly |
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day not complete without kawfee
goodstuff, bad svc |
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| saw an advert for the Umbrella Academy! |
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sherwin's cousin wanted to go to this place called Glossier... most fancy shop i've ever seen
they only accepted credit card payment... upz de |
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| walked a bit at Melrose Avenue |
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| hot day |
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| but alls good |
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| my first ever acai... nice!! |
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| ratrat |
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| i forgot the name of this street, was it Melrose Place? |
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| super atas street with all the branded stuff |
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"see where rich people lim their kopi"
LOL |
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the first meal i finished in the US HAHAHA
vietnamese pho! |
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called Pho Ha at Gale Avenue.
not too bad! |
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| some random taiwanese bbt place. not nice :( |
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| back to IHOP! the waitress gave us the leftovers from making our milkshakes... america yall |
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| dollar store! |
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| then it was time for our last dinner before flying home :( |
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| some hotpot place that was okay-ish |
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i like how disabled-friendly the US is though
this is such a good design! |
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| normal table for comparison |
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| last meal in US! In-n-Out LOL |
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| sat outside to enjoy our last cold weather before going home, even though we were freezing HAHA |
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| gonna miss you! |
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| saw a good boi doing a good job at the airport |
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was v sad to leave sherwin (and his fam) and fly home alone :(
plus my flight got delayed by 5hours too and so i was gonna layover in HK for 5 hours in the early morning alone... |
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| terribad food again HAHA |
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| i think this meal was the worst one yet... just look at it |
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| this was the best one LOL |
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err not sure what this is HAHA
the 5hr transit felt like forever and i slept clutching my bag at HK airport :(
was glad to come home and be greeted by my rents at the airport.
but honestly though the whole journey from LA to SG was 24 hours, it definitely didn't feel that long though?
scary how it kinda flew by |
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dad made sushi the next day!
not sure if he knows its my fav hehe |
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mum showed me this cute pair of onitsuka shoes she bought on their trip to Bangkok...
really super cute and i haven't seen such a unique design anywhere??
love how it's asymmetrical too |
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| sunday lunch!! it was definitely a great weekend :) |
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| expectation... |
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| ...vs reality LOL |
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| lunch on monday! cos jap 3 days in a row is totally okay |
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| had mala some other day |
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| and italian (there was 1-for-1) some other day! |
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| tried craftsmen specialty coffee... nice! |
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ended at 7pm on wednesday :(
but it was super comforting to have bkt after a long day |
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jiams and i went to visit dt who was sick :(
played the HK edition of monopoly deal! |
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| thursday lunch with different colleagues at Kins Coffee. nice food and i love the aesthetic!! |
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| burnt cheesecake was super good omg (doesn't taste burnt at all LOL) |
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solo lunch on friday cos everyone else had plans
i love my quiet time though. if there wasn't so much stigma about eating alone i would totally eat alone a lot more |
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| coffee from that place that served 45min-wait time ginseng soup HAHA |
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| was wondering what to do if someone suddenly walked in |
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| finally friYAYY |
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| was meeting my ampd friends for dinner but decided to pangseh to have fish soup LOL |
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| yums |
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| got tea while they ate burgers |
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| my lunch yesterday |
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| but dinner was gr8!! |
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| HCK 😍 |
okay that took forever HAHAHA
hope yall enjoy!
can't believe it's only been a week since i came back from US :(
it feels like forever
have a great week everyone :)
