If not for the cars, it would be hard pressed to guess that this is a petrol station. This is a new concept called Helios by BP. Located at the border of Hollywood & Beverly Hills, it is built with eco-friendly materials. A standard for petrol stations of the future. Which might explain the futuristic design too.
This picture will look so much better if the sun was not high up in the sky creating shadows. At night, a changing colour light illuminates the station from pink to yellow to green.
You can't tell outright that it is a BP station. There are no loud glaring billboards or signs. Just clean advertisements and subtle logo placing.
The logo resembles a flower. A hint of its 'green' philosophy?
After being stuck with the awful Motorola Krzr for 2 years, I was super excited when my phone contract was finally up! I had my eye on the LG Dare but it costs $179.99. After my bad experience the first time round, I was hesitant to pay so much in case the phone sucked.
However, rave reviews online convinced me that the Dare was worthy. Kelly then told me he had a $100 credit. That and a $50 mail-in rebate brought the price down to $29.99!!!
Whoo-hoo!
The coolest phone I have ever owned. Not only is it touchscreen, it has cute features like the bulletin-style menu where you can drag and drop icons for customisation,
a handwriting interface, no numberpad and a choice of fonts for the phone display!
There is also a 3.2MP camera with face detection, built in camcorder, a QWERTY keyboard and you can cut and copy text when sms-ing. The big screen makes it perfect for web browsing but since that is not part of my phone package, I am under-utilising the phone's potential. I can just go on and on about the goodness... I love my phone!!!
You might have noticed the pink square on my right. If you had clicked on it, thank you so much!!! A young blog needs its readers to sustain the creativity. We are writing for you!!!
Love, Love Me Do is a passion project started by Clarie and me. We were college friends who drifted apart and found each other thanks to Facebook. Planning for our weddings which happened around the same time brought us closer together.
Both of us love the creativity and joy of weddings. So we started Love Love Me Do to pen down the wisdom gained from our own weddings and interesting ideas we come across. The name was inspired by a Beatles hit 'Love Me Do'. Its simple lyrics reflect the shining simplicity of love which we celebrate!
All you have to do is to tell us which article you enjoy and why. So simple right? :) This giveaway ends 31 Dec 08 and results will be announced on 9 Jan 09.
Also in the spirit of the holidays, could you be generous and include Love Love Me Do in your blogroll and share it with your friends? Not just friends planning their weddings. Because your single friends might know couples looking for fun ideas to create a memorable wedding. We appreciate you for doing that. Thank you!!! :)
These few days have passed by in a blur. What with present shopping, cooking for potluck dinners, gorging ourselves sick on holiday feasts and post-Christmas sale shopping. We will go out in the day and come back late at night. Barely alive. I promise to show you all the pretty decorations and ugly gift unwrapping scenes soon.
It's been 2 years since the snowstorm in Colorado. I haven't been in such freezing temperatures since then. Away from the shivering, chattering cold, I miss the snow. Watching it fall, the quietness all round and the winter wonderland.
This New Year's, I will be spending it in Seattle with Eve and Chun Yong. Not keen on the below zero temperatures there right now but if it's a package deal with a Singaporean get-together, exploring a new place, getting out of LA and snow, I can't wait!!!
Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year to all! I'm looking forward to a good snowfight. :)
While surfing Asiaone, I came across Razor Tv's coverage of a Twilight event at the National Library. Watching it, I came away with 4 realisations.
1. Having been immersed in an American environment for so long, I am used to a certain accent. I know my Singaporean accent is still deeply embedded in me but I can't hear it for myself. Watching the video, I suddenly realised 'OH.THAT is how I sound.'
2. The reporter in the video has bad grammer and pronounciation. I cringed each time she opened her mouth.
3. My Methodist upbringing showed when the reporter was interviewing a group of girls, one as young as 12-year old, and saying things like 'You can tell me you want to have sex with him, it's okay', 'He's got no sperm!' and '...bodily fluids'. I inwardly flinched and want to cover all their ears.
4. I like to think that I am NOT obsessed with Twilight. Yes, I have all the books. Seen the movie twice. Watched all the interviews and news on mtv.com. Scoured through the author's website. BUT I AM NOT OBSESSED. The fascination for me is getting insight on how a writer's mind works and how the actors interpret their roles. Which otherwise would have been just another vampire novel. Helps that I have time on my hands. It's like studying literature on a more interesting topic.
I'm obsessing over Twilight books hence the lack of posts. Made time to decorate the house with k though. First time we did anything for the outside.
These were supposed to be icicle lights which hang straight. But when we got them out the box, they were all crooked. Still, it's pretty. Like stars shining in the night.
For our Christmas tree, I recycled the pink feather boa for K's birthday and the pearl strands from our wedding centerpieces. Once those were on, the tree started looking like Elton John to me. How cool is that? We have an Elton John tree! hahahaha...
Pink glasses with diamantes complete the look. Specs are a prop reproduction from Camp Rock.
First Christmas with Hunter. Of course I need this pic!
Today we went to my favourite mall.
Santa's house!
K making friends with the guard.
Write to Santa!
K thinks the mall is cheesy. The building facades are supposed to resemble those from the time of Goldrush-America. There are paved streets with antique-style streetlamps and they have train tracks running through them. So you can tour the mall on a old-school tram.
And there is the fountain that dances to Christmas music this time of the year. Another bit of senseless opulence? A huge crystal chandelier hung in the middle of a street. As you can tell, the mall is a haven for anyone who wants to avoid recession.
Mall hacked brought in a 100ft LIVE pine tree in hopes of towering over the 72ft Christmas tree at Rockfeller Center.
We caught Twilight the movie... my second time... And K likes it! Surprise! I swear I'm not obsessive.
The place we bought our Christmas tree last year has been closed to make way for a public library. So we decided to drive around and check out the first tree lot we see. Pics taken with camera phone, excuse the poor quality.
Contrary to what is portrayed in movies, the Christmas tree lots we have been to are rather tiny. Definitely nothing like rows and rows of pine trees.
Aha. Looks like Kelly has his eye on one tree already.
LA is snowing!!! Hehe, nope. Just a flocked tree. Flocking is the process of applying artificial snow to a tree.
Gasp! Is that.... THE ONE? Pine trees are usually bound up tightly and sent to the lot. Once there, some are untied for customers to view. If you don't like what you see, tell an employee what you are looking for and they will pick one out from storage. After which, they untie the tree and fluff it open for you.
Once you have chosen your pine, it is taken to the workroom where a stand and water pan is hammered into the base of the tree.
After our mad rush in the past few weeks, Kelly wanted a real quiet birthday. A real lazy day where he could just play his favourite computer game. What? No celebration? No gift? I felt bad cos I had Disneyland for my birthday. How do you match up to that??! To somewhat make up for it, I drew inspiration from a Disney character to make the house more celebratory.
Now, who doesn't like Hannah Montana or Miley Cyrus right?
I thoughfully got him a Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus gift bag too! I also spent a lot of time searching for the perfect gift.
Of course I meant it as a joke gift but Kelly likes the pen a bit too much... he keeps playing the song...
Of course no Disney princess party is complete without a pink feather boa!
Retailers are offering huge discounts to get you to dig into your pockets. It's really difficult to resist the SALE SALE SALE signs EVERYwhere. For people with spare change, you are in luck. We are not one of them but I doneed winter clothes which gives me the excuse to shop. ;) I try to focus on winter stuff though it's hard not to stray sometimes...
My track record. 50% winter stuff, not bad right? All of them were discounted at 50% and more, great deals! Best buy is the Marciano purple top for $21.
Okies, no more wandering eye after this. Just have to make do with what I have... unless they are $30 and below which doesn't count.
Poor Kelly was suffering from flu the day his flight home was delayed by 2 hours. Then the next day, we discovered that his luggage had been shredded to bits. How on earth?
We lodged a report of course. But the airline countered with their company policy saying that we didn't report the incident within 4 hours of the flight so they cannot compensate. WHAT?! THEIR BAGGAGE HANDLING MACHINE SCREWED UP lor. Now we have to go through the hassle of looking and paying for a new bag but they won't compensate?!
K reasoned with them and the airline agreed to send the damaged bag to their headquarters in Texas to assess the damage and decide if they were at fault. So no one in LA can make decisions??? *rolls eyes* K and I were laughing at the thought of a committee standing in front of a conveyer belt, looking at all the damaged luggage bags and ticking off a checklist that said 'Our Fault' or 'Customer's Fault'.
K commutes weekly so we definitely needed to go shopping that weekend for a new bag. We found a different model that has been holding up so far. A week later, the airline called to confirm that it was their mistake and offered to compensate us with.... THE EXACT SAME LUGGAGE MODEL!!! *rolls eyes* What's the point when we have bought a new bag right? Can't they give us free round trip tickets instead? But no, they can only compensate one for one...
So anyone would like to buy a brand new Victorinox Tourbach™ 22" Expandable Upright? Online selling for $595 but we are selling for $200. According to customer reviews, durability is 9.5 out of 10! It's a good bag lah, just that Kelly has all his barang barang (stuff) in the new bag already. He's not the type to switch bags. If you know of anyone in US ...
