baa baa black sheep man..!

I was on the beach in a nearby town (Carpinteria) and this vintage WWII plane flew by.. what a treat! Someone must have restored it to it's full glory.

woohoo!!

Yes! I'm one step closer to achieving my dream.. i met someone (Lisa, Grant's wife) who personally knows a Playboy bunny! Woohoo! And yes, i'm pointing her out. Now if only i can actually meet one..

I miss HDB flats. The walls are thick concrete and most importantly.. SOUNDPROOF (well.. sorta)! The walls of the buildings here are made of wood and plaster (i think..) and sound travels easily through them. And the neighbours upstairs are so F*@KING NOISY!! Sometimes, i feel like i can go crazy what with all the talking & walking going on upstairs. I tell myself that it just can't be helped. To drown out the noise, i either turn on the television loud or listen to my music with my headphones (i'm doing both now). I miss HDB flats..

The cache..

After entering the waypoint of the cache, you basically just follow the arrow direction that's shown on the GPS unit. It'll show you how far you are and how long it'll take to get there. The GPS unit took me right to the spot (i had to cycle uphill for 10 gruelling minutes!) where it was hidden under some rocks in a park. After finding it, you log in your find in the log book in the box and can help yourself to a momento from the box. Of course, you have to leave something in return, hence the S$2 note.

My first cache find!

This is a hobby where the participant is the 'search engine'. With a GPS unit, the participant looks for hidden caches placed by other participants using the coordinates (waypoints) which are obtained from www.geocaching.com. Go find out more!

Happiness is a well stocked fridge.

I bought a new toy today.. WOOHOO!!

Panoramic view from West Camino Cielo.

Attempting an overhang route.

This place (Lizard's Mouth) is fantastic. I call it a bouldering wonderland. The rock is cold water sandstone and ideal for bouldering (unlike Joshua Tree!). A person could spend years here working on all the problems. I never had so much fun bouldering. This place reminds me so much of all those pictures you see in climbing magazines. Many thanks to Grant for introducing me to this place and being my climbing buddy & photographer!

pure bliss..

Grant brought me to this bouldering place high up in the hills (West Camino Cielo) today. Very very beautiful place. From there, you can see the Santa Barbara coastline and the distant Channel Islands. The weather was great except for the occasional cold wind. There was even a time when we were bouldering with our jackets on. What a contrast to Singapore..

Cutting grass requires skill.. dun pray pray.

For the last 2 days, this was my job site. We were cutting down some trees and the grass/weeds. There are orange and avocado trees and i tell you, fresh from the trees.. they taste GOOD! This place is also up in the hills and the view is spectacular. To the right are the mountains and to the left is the coastline and beyond that.. the Pacific Ocean.

It's on a steep slope and we're always walking up and down it with grass-cutters. What makes it tiring is that you have to try to NOT trip (and roll down the hill) and to always be on the look out for poison oak. And you'd be pretty f*#ked if you tripped, rolled down the hill AND landed in a patch of poison oak!

I learnt a valuable lesson this afternoon. I was cycling to the nearby supermarket, which is only about a 5 minute ride away, to get some supplies. It was 12.30pm.. the sun was shining and i thought, no need for jacket. I thought wrong. My teeth was chattering all the way to the supermarket! When i got home, i checked Yahoo's weather report and it was 17 degrees celcius. Lesson learnt? ALWAYS bring a jacket out.. no matter how bright the sun is shining.

I saw a remarkable thing today. I saw this guy riding a bicycle. And what was so remarkable about it was that he had prosthetic legs from the lower thighs down and a prosthetic left arm.. AND HE WAS RIDING A BICYCLE! I wanted so much to stop him to shake his hand..

My new friends.

These are the guys who took me climbing at San Ysidro Valley today. The guy on my right is also going to be my mountain biking buddy. We might even be going surfing together as he's got a few spare boards.

I made dinner!

With my mom in S'pore for 3 weeks, it feels as though i'm living here by myself. She normally prepares my lunch and dinner (something i'm grateful for!), but with her gone, i pretty much have to fend for myself. I know i already do that back home (aka eat at coffeeshop), but here, everything's so new and different, so i guess that's why i rely on my mom quite a lot and it has become a habit.

Today was a really tiring day at work. All i did was... dig.. and dig.. and dig.. and when that was over, i'd dig some more. By the way, we were planting plants. I tell you, if i ever come home with a trim and fit body, it's because of all this digging! I just kept telling myself 'desperatehousewivesdesperatewivesdesperatehousewives'..

I made a skunk (first time i ever saw one!) homeless today. At work, we had to remove a jacuzzi from someone's back yard. Can you imagine that? It's so huge, and it's resting on a thick concrete base which we had to remove too. And what we discovered was this skunk that had made it's home under the jacuzzi tub! At first, there was this pungent smell and we found droppings and what looked like a nest. After a few minutes of hacking away at the wooden covering, one of my co-workers spotted it and he started running away! He then took a water hose to try to get it out. That was when i saw the skunk making a beeline for the bushes. My boss later told me that if a skunk ever sprays you, the stink will stick to your clothes and skin for days! Anyway, that poor rotten stinkin animal has no place to sleep tonight no thanks to us..

My first completed project (green tape) at GVAC!

For the uninitiated (you poor sods), a project is a climbing lingo used to describe a climbing problem a climber is attempting to complete. Anyway, i met 2 guys today at the climbing wall and they were really friendly. One of them even offered to bring me to the bouldering sites he frequents that's up in the mountains here. We exchanged contact numbers and email and if all goes well, i should be going this weekend.

yummy..

This is my favourite fast food burger restaurant here. A crying shame it's not available in S'pore. The thing about ALL fast food restaurants (including Mcdonalds) here is that they only make your burger AFTER you place your order and they'll call your number once it's ready.

My comfy bed.

Okay, i know it's just the sofa.. but DAMN! It's the most comfortable bed i've ever slept it! I NEVER have any difficulty sleeping. My mom once commented that she heard me snoring the moment i put my head down.. zzZzzZzzz...

Ocean View street.

We live at the end of this street. Look how blue and clear the sky is! One of my favourite things to do is look for airplanes. Have you ever noticed a plane in the sky with a streak of white cloud trailing behind it? I just love to look out for them. Because Los Angeles Airport is 2 hours away, many flights go over Santa Barbara. The most i've ever seen here is 7. Just imagine it.. 7 planes with 7 white streaks in the clear blue sky.. beautiful.

I was in a chinese/vietnamese grocery shop today and to my surprise, they sold Maggi Mee! And to my horror, it's US$0.50 a packet! That's like S$0.85!! The Americans' version of Maggi noodles is Ramen noodles which is much cheaper than Maggi. I guess they import Maggi all the way from Malaysia, and that's why it's so expensive. This shop also sells a lot of other oriental stuff and my particular favourite is their garlic chilli. It reminds me so much of the 'chicken rice' chilli back home..

Santa Barbara harbour

The thing i hate most about the days when i'm working is the first 20 minutes of it. It is always so freakin cold (in spanish it's 'frio') that for the first 20 minutes while i'm cycling to work, my teeth are chattering.. And i'm even wearing a jacket! My head always feels like it's stuck in a freezer!

The place from where i took the above picture from is very close to my boss's house. I normally arrive early so what i'd do is just sit on a bench and soak in the view. I do the same at the end of the day too. A few days ago, there was a sailing competition for catamarans and i had a great view of everything. I was lucky enough to catch sight of a pod of dolphins swimming right in the middle of the race.

climbing at last!

Finally! I found a bouldering wall worthy of my time! It's an hour's bus ride from where i'm staying but the journey is worth it. The wall is located at www.gvac.com, in a neighbouring town. It reminds me so much of SAFRA because of it's facilities.. pool, climbing wall, gym. Hmm.. maybe i could get a job here.

the movie theatre..

Went to watch Sin City today. Man, Jessica Alba is HOT!! The ticket price is US$5.50 if the show is before 6pm, and after that, it's US$8.oo! Thankfully, i made it for the early show. The seating system is 'free seating', so basically you just go in and choose any seat you like. By the way, did i mention that Jessica Alba is 'OH SO HOT!!!!'?