During the second Saturday of this November, Kelly and I were invited to the Bar Mitzvah of his cousin's son, Zachary. We had attended Zachary's brother's coming of age ceremony last year and it wasn't much different this time round.


Handsome family hor?

Both occasions have opened my eyes a little to Judaism. Mainly, I am amazed at the Jews' tenacity in keeping Hebrew and their customs alive even if they seem to have little relevance and much inconvenience to modern life. Take Shabbat for instance. It is observed from sundown Friday to nighttime Saturday and during this period, believers refrain from a few creature comforts we take for granted. Like working, writing or even taking automobiles. So if you live a distance from the temple, you just have to walk. No buses, no cars, no taxis.


Zachary chanting a passage from the Torah in Hebrew

While turning 13 doesn't seem very exciting for most kids since you still can't legally drink, club or watch movies beyond PG13, the same number means that a Jewish kid has come of age to take on the responsibilities of an adult. In the lead up to Bar Mitzvah, the kid must participate in community service as a form of giving back to society. I think that makes for a more meaningful and significant birthday right?

At the end of the service, Zachary is seated in a chair then hoisted up by 4 strong men out of the room. They do this at Jewish weddings too. I don't know if there is a significance but it all looks very fun to me!


The ceremony took place in the morning and there was a dinner party complete with fake tattoos, disco lights and a DJ spinning. I didn't take any pics at night. In the interim, we visited Kelly's dad. See how prettily their house is decorated for Halloween?


Scarecrows, geddit?


Introducing Buddy! Would you believe that this is a 7 months old Maltese? Though the seller assured Kelly's dad that Buddy is a purebred, we are starting to think that maybe he has a bit of poodle blood in him. That is one big puppy with super long legs!

I remember writing about Kelly's dad's birthday last year. How fast time flies. We are celebrating his birthday again.


This year we had a family BBQ. Kelly's brother's family joined us too. I really love this picture as it shows the succession of kids he has.


Kelly making sure that the stirloin doesn't burn.


While the kids play with ducks.


Land Ahoy!


Memories. Reminds me of the time I lost my 2 front teeth too. She is throwing a bunch of dead leaves at me like confetti.


It's terribly hard to take pics of a toddler. They don't stay still and pose for you like kids do. This is the only non-blurry pic I had of him.


Dinner is ready!


Happy Birthday Dad!

As you know there was Mother's Day. And my friends visited LA. Which always calls for a celebration. ;) The other big event we had was a Bar Mitzvah.

Bar Mitzvah is a big deal for the Jewish. It's when their boys and girls turn 13 and, come of age. It's like us turning 18. Sidetrack a bit: Which is a bigger deal? Turning 18 or 21? Drinking and driving or clubbing and RA movies?


This is the STAR of the day! Handsome hor? I wasn't concentrating on what he was saying.. heh.. His name is Matthew and he is Kelly's cousin's son. So I call him Kelly's nephew. But Kelly calls Matthew his first cousin once removed. Bleah, sound so distant. Ang moh different system.

The ceremony takes place on a Saturday which is the Jewish Sabbath day or day of rest. A rabbi starts the ceremony and offer a blessing to the kid. Matthew gets to lead part of service which involves reading his favourite passages from the Torah book in HEBREW and the audience chanting or singing.

At some point, Matthew's grandma is called on stage to bless him. And his father puts the family tallit over him.


This is the family bowing before the Torah. During the service, this colourful scroll inscribed with the five books of Moses is taken from its ark, as the resting place is called. To symbolise the passing on of Jewish traditions and wisdom, Matthew's parents will pass the scroll to him. Matthew then carries the Torah in a processional around the synagogue.

After the procession, the Torah is spread open and Matthew recites a blessing from it in HEBREW. Imagine all the memory work the boy has to do for the day!!! The reading is followed by more songs and prayers then the birthday boy gets to do his speech.

Not a thank you speech. The speech is a religious one where Matthew summarises the portion he read from the Torah in English, does an interpretive teaching on it then talks about the impact of Judaism on his life.

Matthew's sister is so bored during the long ceremony that she falls asleep. Hats off to the uncle lor. He supported her head with his hand the whole time she was sleeping, so she won't fall, get a shock, wake up, see her family not with her and cry.


Yay! Matthew finishes at last and time for the scary part. He is hoisted up on a chair by 4 strong men and amidst much cheering, Matthew gets lifted out of the synagogue. Looks fun!


This is Kelly wearing a Yarmulke.


After the ceremony, there is the Kiddush. A ceremonial blessing where the guests partake of kosher wine and braided egg bread.

At LA Airport


I met up with my friend Xin (right) and her colleague (left) at the airport. They were in transit at LAX and we decided to make use of that time to met up! I last saw Xin 6 months ago so I was super happy to finally see her! Thanks for lugging my shampoos and wedding gift from Singapore! Xin and my other good friend, Min, gave me a jigsaw and cartoon model of Kelly and me. The model got a bit damaged during the flight. I will post a picture of it when I fixed it. Thank you gals! Muacks!


I took them to this (supposedly) revolving restaurant at the top of a tower in the middle of the airport. WTF. The restaurant never so much as moved an inch. And there was no view. See behind us. All carpark lor. Seriously?!



Xin and her colleague were so well fed during the flight that I ended up ordering lunch for myself. While waiting for my food, we saw an airplane spraying letters in the sky!


Very hungry so no pictures of the food. Wasn't nice anyway. And the waitress keep coming back to ask if we want to order anything more and didn't refill our water. She probably thought that since we didn't order much, the bill would be small and the tip small too. So why bother with good service right? WTH. Anyway, we succumbed and ordered 2 desserts cos they looked good on the menu. But it was so so only. Next time won't bring visitors here.

Still got 3 hours to waste so I decided to play tour guide and bring them to Santa Monica! Thing is I don't know my way around so I had text Kelly a lot, asked people at the airport and basically blur blur figure it out. But we made it! Thanks girls, for bearing with me.


Frozen yoghurt was really big last year. Miraculously it ceased being a fad and became here to stay. Of course there were many imitators but my favourite is a store called Cefiore cos they got green tea flavour with red bean and mochi toppings! The girls chose something else though.


After all that cake, we only had stomach for one frozen yoghurt or fro-yo as the locals call it.



Santa Monica beach and the tiny amusement park at its pier.



This is what we saw when we got back to the aiport: Tori & Dean. Promotion for a new reality TV show based on Tori Spelling (90210) and Dean McDermott, Tori's husband.

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Graduation Party


It is Kelly's cousin's graduation's party and I am ashamed to say that we didn't take any pictures of the VIP. But after hanging out at the party for a few hours, we decided to stretch our legs and walked to a nearby park.


This is Camping 101. Why would anyone camp in a park? Where's the fun? Maybe the tent is just for family members to take afternoon naps in between picnicking.


Lighting wasn't conducive.


See how my hair is flying? It's so windy! Good thing I borrowed a sweater from Kelly's cousin.


Doesn't help that I was wearing shorts. And yes, I am oblivious to signs.


I wonder why someone would built a little shack at the edge of a cliff. How would anyone get there?! And what is it? It looks a toilet but why build one where no one can reach???


Kelly is posing in front of a historical Queen Anne-style cottage in the park.


I look like a 阳光少女! Muahaha!



My serious 老师 pose. This girl walked past, saw me and started laughing.

Damn paiseh!


The signboard says Walker's Cafe, so why the murals of bikers?

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Movie Screening at a Cemetery


My favourite summer thing to do is going for an old movie screening at the cemetery! It's first come first serve and there are limited spaces so people always come early to chope a place in the queue. Even though the gates open at 7.30pm, there is already a long time when we arrive one hour earlier. As you can see, people turn it into a picnic. The group next to us (guy in yellow shirt) brought along a non-standard picnic item - Marijuana. Ha!


Look at the sizes of these! You will never find a mausoleum in land-scarce Singapore.


The waiting time is HORRRENDOUS! It's almost like a wedding dinner. We settled on our spot at 7.45pm and had to wait till 9pm before the movie started. There is a good reason to keep the audience waiting. The organisers needed the sky to turn dark for the projected movie to be seen. But can't they open the gates later then??! Good thing I had Vogue to keep me occupied.


While Kelly browsed the news on his PDA.


Taken through my sunglasses. I love how Californian this picture is.

My mum-in-law busy in the kitchen.


So we snack on nuts and chocolates with wine while our tummies growl,


and camwhore.


Yay! Dinner's ready!




The cat can't wait.