Continuation from here.

After a few phone calls, multiple online chats with Simple American, we finalised our plans for the weekend in between our 2 weeks training.

5 of us were meeting S.A and family in San Antonio. We drove 3hrs there on Friday night (30th May) right after class. My colleagues weren’t very sure about being shown around by ‘my friend’, S.A., but after a few hours spent with he and his family, they thought he was the nicest American they’d ever met! Such hospitality, driving all the way down from Houston, so that he could be our tour guide.

Here is what we’d done and see.

Forget NeverLost, tailing S.A is much safer.

First stop is Enchanted Rock.

Someone’s artwork.

That’s the rock we’re climbing.

The trail up Enchanted Rock.

The view from the summit. (Those 2 are S.A’s kids)

With temparature above 30C and no trees to provide shade, it was quite torturous. S.A did a good job by having a cooler in his truck, and he had so much cold water, Starbucks coffee to pass around!

Lunch was at Fredericksburg, a charming little small German town.

We get to sample a lot of Texas specialty from a Rustlin Rob’s, from jams to dips to fudges. Try all you want and can!

And while trying to take a rest after lunch before our next destination, we realised we were siting right under a Pecan tree!

We started cracking them and distributing them among ourselves.
They are so expensive in Malaysia, and you get to eat them for free right in Texas!

Our next statepark was Pedernales Falls.

Everywhere in the park, you get warned about Flash Floods.

The area that we visited (you can swim in some pools but this one we visited didn’t allow even the water to be touched).

This reminds me of Pamukkale in Turkey.

We left Pedernales Falls at ~8pm but the sky was still bright! I’m quite amazed that S.A’s kids were so sweet and didn’t mind following a group of adults going from places to places. They blended in so well. Some other kids would probably have complained!

The following morning, we visited Mecardo, a Mexican market, in San Antonio. It’s shopping for us ladies, and the men did some sight seeing around San Antonio.

Credit : Mom2Ashley

After lunch, it was another round of shopping in San Marco’s Premium Outlet! My friend’s Timberland which was bought the week before got thrown away by Houskeeping in the hotel, the hotel gave him USD100 as compansation, this was why we went back, to get another pair of Timberland. We shopped till the shops were closed (6pm). Without the Memorial Day Sale Discount, and S.A following me around, I didn’t get much (very ‘paiseh’ or shy), but still ended up with another handbag (I swear this is going to be my last handbag purchase for a long long time.)

Before we headed back to Houston, we stopped at Austin, the capital of Texas, just to do a quick glance around the State Capital.

Around the State Capital.

Credit : Mom2Ashley

The State Capital, Austin.

My Shanghai colleague commented that Texas sky seems higher, and bluer. I so love the sky in Texas!

What else did we discovered? Texas squirrels are so shameless!

It was then time to bid farewell to S.A and family (although I got to meet them another around for dinner the following week). We were both leaving for different parts of Houston.

For dinner, it was something that S.A talked about. The burget joint that’s only available in Texas!
Whataburger! Whatameal!

♥Zaria♥

On asking her to give me her favour cheese omelette.
“Give mummy some can or not?”
“Teh-not”
“Why cannot?”
“Hot Hot”
“Then mummy blow first.”
“Teh-not. Zah-ya’s one.”

On her wanting to go home after park to have dinner
“Go. Go Home oh-dee (already).”
“Why Meimei wants to go home?”
“Go home. Dinner. Eat yice.”
“Meimei hungry huh?”
“Aah.”

On her being full
“Pao Pao oh-dee (already)”
*move the bowl to Jelly*“Auntie eat.”

On her like and dislike
“Meimei want ice cream?”
“Want! Ice Kim Koh-koh (cold cold). Nice.”
“Meimei want medicine?”
“Don’t want.”
“Why?”
“Sour.”

On her jumping on the floor.
“Mei mei cannot jump on the floor huh.”
“Jump jump bed oni (only)”

♥Zara♥

What about Zara…?? She’s so good at talking back sometimes she is just testing my patience.
She goes like this : “Mummy I’m grouchy, you keep quiet, don’t make any noise.”
and “Mummy, you listening or not, I say keep quiet.”

And when something goes wrong, she bosses around, “Whose fault is it? Huh? You tell me whose fault is it?”

Once, I scolded her for not behaving, she told me off, “Next time I big girl already, I go to another country and leave you behind.”
(Did I travel too much?)
But later, when we were best of friends again, she added, “I said next time I big girl already, I go to another country to work, when I finish work, I come back and see you.”
(Definitely I’d travelled too much)

May is a month full of travelling, but I think after my trip to US, there’ll be no more travels, and I’ll be home bound, at least for work.

I was in Houston for a 2 weeks training with 5 other colleagues from this region, for a company who’s very concern about cost, my manager must have fought real hard for us; and it’s economy class all the way, such class!

Mom2Ashley and I flew off on May 24th (Saturday), a good night sleep at Changi, and then it’s our 24hrs flight to Houston (*shudder* just thinking about the flight). Luckily we got good seats (thanks to my SIA friend), and on the 2nd part of the flight, the plane was quite empty and we could have a row of seat each to ourselves.

We transitted at Moscow. Where instructions were barked out, and every body looked so serious and unfriendly.

4 movies, and a few interupted short sleeps, and many meals later, we reached Houston at the wee hour on Sunday night; collected our car (with GPS, Always Never Lost, of course), went straight to the hotel, washed up and slept (or at least try to).

Monday 26th May was Memorial Day in US. Unlike my other colleagues who went sight seeing around Houston, Mom2Ashley, myself and another Hong Kong colleague drove up to San Marcos, 3hrs away, in the morning, just so we can do some serious shopping in Prime Outlet (rated as 3rd best place to shop in the world by some TV channel) and Tanger Outlet which are side by side each other.

It was worth the trip, especially with the Memorial Day sales on. Gap dresses were going for ~USD10, Osh Kosh had 50% and Coach had 25% discount store wide, etc etc.

Some of the brands in this outlet which are normally not available in other US outlets (at least those in Calirfornia which I’d visited).

Credit : Mom2Ahsley

I got the girls a few dresses, tops and pants, and got myself a handbag (not from Coach though). Check out our combined loot in the trunk!

Credit : Mom2Ahsley

We headed back to Houston contented, happy, and knackered. Dinner was just along the highway, some good old Texan BBQ.

Tuesday was the start of the training. The office is no Google Office, but it’s probably our company nicest office complex. With tall big trees every where, feel as though we’re in a park; so green, so much glass and light.

One of the cafeterias.

Link bridges link up all the office buildings.

Buildings are built among tall trees.

Training was good. You finally realised that the knowledge that you have, is no worse than the so called expert (but we learnt it the hard way by doing a lot of self reading). 😛

No food pix you realised? I’m not impressed with Texas food at all (Sorry Simple American). A lot of Mexican restaurants, Asian food is so so (think Sichuan spicy chicken == Tobasco sauce chicken), Italian food is mediocre. Simple American said steaks are really good, but since I don’t take beef, I can’t vouch for that. I love the pre-pack sushi from the office though!

She started singing Happy Birthday 4 weeks ago, I was too busy to capture her on video then although caught her on sound clip.

Today, I managed to get her singing, and quickly took the camera to capture this. She always only sings 4 verses of this, then stops at the 4th verse to ‘blow a candle’. Sometimes it’s Happy Birthday To You, or Happy Birthday to whoever, but most time it’s Happy Birthday to Zaria, just like in this video.

Check this out.

This comes from a girl who’s turning 18 months next week. I have to say, we’re quite proud of her achievement. *grinning from ear to ear*

Do you think it has got something to do with the mum who sings all kinds of silly songs to her kids and a sister who sings a lot of made up songs?

Miss me? Miss my girls?

I have been so busy it’s crazy!!

Here’s some glimpses of what I’d been doing.

Can you recognise this face? Or the cap?
Yes! I’m the first, I’m the first to meet Simple American!!
We did some soul ‘linguistic’ searching, he finally knew what the real meaning of PIAK is, or how to pronounce ‘Roti Canai’ and ‘Nasi Lemak’.

Visited a place with a fake miniature Statue Of Liberty.

And then this place with this dense skyline.

As for the girls, this is what they are saying..

She and her icy cold stare.

The manja Zaria is always asking me to ‘come’ or ‘carry’.

Juicy details will come later!

Got some sample packs of sunscreen (from UVA/UVB) from Screen Inc (a Made In USA product) the other day. I tried them on Daddy, the girls, Jelly and of course on myself.

Screen Inc sunblock comes in 4 varieties (makes life interesting):
1) tweenyscreen – for kids
2) manscreen – for men
3) chicscreen – for anybody who’s chic
4) teenscreen – for youngsters

It’s meant for the neck up, safe even on the lips.

Screen Inc mantra is “Screen: Make It Your Routine”, that’s why they’d make their cream so light weight and does not feel like a sunscreen at all.

I love the non-greasy and smooth texture of the sunscreen, I don’t get a layer of white residue on my face after applying, and it doesn’t have any chemical smell that comes with most sunblock. It feels very much like wearing an expensive facial sun protection cream.

All the cream is unscented except for tweenyscreen which comes lightly scented, probably to appeal to the little ones. Zara says it smells like fruit, and she makes it her routine to put it on her face in the morning before she goes to school. It helps to protect children’s delicate skin from the harmful rays of sunlight, especially she plays outdoor a lot.

Hmm, I’ll have to hunt this tweenyscreen down next time I go for another work trip overseas.