catching the deadliest catch

Every season of The Deadliest Catch, I find myself stressed out and anxious watching the exploits of these King and Opillio crab fishermen battle the Bering Sea and their own inner demons.

This show manages to bring me on each expedition and immerse me in the experience of deep sea fishing. What I find heartwarming though is the fact that even if they are rival ships, the captains and crew of each one tend to get along with one another. Hence, it makes it hard for me to just root for the success of just one ship :)

And that's true to an extent. There is only one ship that I continuously hope will do better than all the others. Perhaps it's because when I first started following this series, my first episode followed this boat and this captain for most of the epi. That ship would be the Cornelia Marie. I was a big fan of the late Captain Phil Harris and I'm not embarrassed to admit that I shed more than a few tears during the episode of his passing. He was such a character and a genuine one at that. That's why I have a soft spot for his legacies, Josh and Jake Harris and want them to do well for their father's sake. Which is why the start of this year's The Deadliest Catch was so hard to follow cos the boys just didn't do well. It started out all hopeful and then it just completely went downhill. I felt completely exasperated and no amount of encouragement I was trying to push their way (I realize this isn't LIVE and even so that these people cannot hear me :D) made the going or my viewing any easier. But with this latest epi, hopefully all the unresolved stuff has been put to bed and the Cornelia Marie can have a stupendously amazing Opies season. Sans Freddy though he jumped ship to the Wizard - I do not begrudge him his choice, it is after all to make a better living for him and his family. It was just a little sad to watch him watch the Cornelia Marie leave Dutch Harbor without him :)

Of course, I also hope the rest of the ships do well too. I mean, like I said, there's such a camaraderie between the lot of them that I can't not want one or the other to not succeed. I like the somewhat well-oiled Northwestern (though they are fishing sans Edgar this season - I was hoping he would yell at them to get back on board but that didn't happen, Sig seemed more than a bit devastated with him not going), I think the Time Bandit are rascally and funny (oh you Hillstrand brothers are just such a hoot), I find the captain of the Wizard and his mightily superstitious beliefs completely hilarious, when I see the Kodiak's captain he reminds me of a native Indian chieftain, wise and all-knowing - don't ask me why; he just does, I think the captain of the Seabrooke is a very good captain and he runs his ship like an organized business (which it is, anyways) and then there's the rookie captain off of the Ramblin' Rose who I'm interested to see will be able to make it - he had a rather good King crab season.

The part I found most hilarious for me is that I find myself truly attracted to these guys - and usually the old dudes, lol. I find Sig Hansen DAMN HOT for god only knows what reason :D I think Edgar is, to a lesser extent, cute too. In competition for my affections is Andy Hillstrand, hehehe. He's so cheeky and I find him handsome and just good-natured all around. I mean, I first thought I'd go for the younger guys like the Harris brothers or something but although I find them good-looking, I find that I'm drawn to the older men more. Perhaps it's that whole men in a position of power-men doing things with their hands dynamic that has me captivated. Who knows, whatever it is, if Sig Hansen and I ever crossed paths, I would definitely.....well he's married so I would definitely just look but not touch, hehehe.

spoils from Hong Kong

As per usual, when I get too lazy to come up with commentary, I fall back on images to convey the intent of the post. So without further ado, my haul from the company trip to Hong Kong this past May :D

Everything in the collage was gotten from HK except for the black Zara skinnies, the Old Navy long sleeve henley I'm wearing on the inside and my Charles Keith black wedges. I love all the stuff I got but the ones that hold a special place are the H&M poet blouse in soft peach, my peach fish scale pattern bangle (part of a 3 for HKD100 deal at Stanley Market), my H&M cognac leatherette tasseled sash, my LUSH Honey Farm set (which was put together by LUSH in Japan AFTER the tsunami disaster - gotta have respect for the employees to return to work relatively soon after the aftermath!), my Marc Jacobs Daisy Eau So Fresh EDT, my zip-around Tory Burch wallet and my white skinny pants.

I haven't tried the Clinique BB Cream as yet cos I have soooo many different stuff to finish off first so will be getting to that much, much later. It was my last gasp buy at the HK airport. I was adamant about not bringing back any HKD and was grateful to have seen this at the register as I was paying for my Marc Jacobs EDT. I was intrigued as it was priced at exactly my balance in HKD but I left without getting it as I wanted to see other things in and around the airport. None were as good a choice as the cream though so back I went to get it.

The poet blouse was my first HK pick (discounting 2 bottles of VitaminWater I had bought earlier in the day). I had seen it on hm.com prior to going on the trip and though it was not high on my list of wants, it is the single most adored item from my trip. I can't express how much I'm in love with the hue and style of this blouse. I love pairing it with the fish scale bangle as the shade of the enamel matches the blouse perfectly and since the bangle is gold-tone, totally adds an element of sophistication and class.

Anyways, I don't want to wax lyrical too much on the purchases as this was last month's event and so I decided I'd put up some pics of my gets from the trip and leave it at that. Here's me leaving it at that :D

still obsessed with.....

SEX WORKER STORIES!

So I got myself the third book in the adventures of Bell De Jour, Call Girl Extraodinaire. I didn't even know she had a third AND fourth book out and would have remained ignorant if I hadn't been stuck at a bookshop one day last week after having lunch at the cafe within the store when the driver was late picking us up. I figured I had read the first and the second so I should get up to speed in the latest adventures of Belle and her chosen profession (though apparently this third one is more about her entertaining the decision of leaving aforementioned job for what is considered a more normal existence). I didn't get the fourth book as that was more of a how-to prose (not be a call girl but keep men 'entertained' :D)

Then I came across this book by former sex slave Somaly Mam, a Cambodian refugee (?) now living in the States who tells her story of how she was sold into the Cambodian sex trade and forced to work before managing an escape. She has founded the AFESIP, an organization that helps other sex workers to break free from the trade and acquire more traditional skills to support themselves and rehabilitate them into society. I came to know about this book when I was going through last month's issue of Seventeen magazine (yes, I still like to read that) and it was also by chance that I saw the book right before leaving the store.

Anyways, I've thumbed through Belle a lil bit but haven't fully committed to getting into the story as yet and I haven't even opened the seran-wrapped Somaly Mam autobiography. When I got the books I realized that this is my first book purchase of the year. I've been downloading pirated books all this while but for some reason was compelled to actually get these books. Furthermore, of the paper variety!

Seriously though, I'd like to know if a certified psychologist would view this as something worrisome :D

am a bit sad.....

Just found out from my sis that the dentist I used to go to when I was younger passed away from a heart attack yesterday evening. He was attending a conference at a hotel and was in the carpark when he suddenly collapsed.

He lives on the opposite street a few doors down from my house in Homeland. My mum and second sis still patron his dentistry. If I remember correctly, he was the first dentist to ever give me a numbing injection before pulling out one of my teeth. You always remember your firsts :)

My condolences to his family.

so frustrated - am still crap at decorating cakes

So I attempted to make a double layer choclate cake with vanilla frosting today. I ended up with a single layer cake adorned with seriously ugly frosting. I am baffled that I am unable to master slapping on some store-bought frosting onto a cake.

Ok, I know why i was a major fail, I was too eager to frost and didn't wait long enough for the cake layers to cool before I started frosting so when I started slathering on the frosting, it started breaking down from the heat. At least despite the frosting breaking down it was still salvageable (is this a word?) but my double layer cake turned into a single layer cake because I was so impatient to get the cake out of the pan that it broke apart.

So I ended up serving my colleagues the single layer cake with the weird cake crumb speckled frosting (that taste good though, if i do say so myself) and keeping the broken up layer for myself. Now I'm kinda full on frosting and discarded cake :D

out and about

Spent the whole day out and about just as the title suggests. Left home at 10:30 with 2 of my colleagues and we went to town to run some errands. Well, really, I was tagging along to get one of my colleagues an iPad keyfolio (a folio style iPad case with a built-in bluetooth keyboard) for his birthday gift. He recently got himself the iPad 1 and while he went to get his iDevice wrapped up, I wanted to go check out the keyfolio. He didn't know that he is gonna be getting that but I made him test it out and pretended I was seriously contemplating buying it.Unfortunately, the outlet we went to had only the display unit left and there was an issue with the spacebar and some other keys so couldn't get that for him today - the shop will bring in a new one from their other outlet so I'll be back there on Tuesday to pick it up along with my firmware upgraded Wii.

Yea, I went to have my Wii firmware upgraded so that I could start playing some of the newer games. Some of the latest stuff I got have not been able to run so I figured since I was headed to the shop to check out the keyfolio, I might as well go send my Wii to be upgraded. I seriously wanna play my Zumba game :)

I was also helping another colleague out with prezzies for his niece and two sisters. His niece was asking for a green tea fragrance but in this country, the choices are rather limited. Forget about there being a L'Occitane or whatnot for us to walk into. It's more of a whatever is in the display kinda situation. In the end, he settled on a miniature of the Estee Lauder Paradise, if I'm not mistaken.

Then we took a walk to the market so he could get his 2 younger sisters crossbody bags. We searched around quite a bit before finding a shop that had a wide selection. Then we spent some time bargaining for a better deal - which we got :D

New iPad owners are always excitable when it comes to their device. Hence, next stop were some mobile phone shops to search for an iPad stylus, lol. He's so cute. We only had to enter one shop.

Then we headed for lunch - had pizza. While we were at the pizzeria, the weather went south and we were stuck at the place for a coupla hours. Luckily, there was free wifi and 2 iPads so I ended up whiling the time away playing Scrabble HD with my other colleague while the new iPad owner downloaded stuff using Installous - yes, yes, it's jailbroken and I did it. I've been spending the past couple of weeks jailbreaking and successfully customizing my own iPad to my own liking. I'm at that point where I think I'm all that and have been offering my 'hacking' services up to anyone who wants to accept it free of charge :D

Anyways, managed to play 2 full Scrabble games before the weather let up and we walked out to find a taxi home. It was a really good, frivolous day in which I spent not a cent from my own pocket :D Hey, it's not like I didn't offer to pay, sometimes these boys are just too chivalrous!

spent the morning reading Sarah Palin's emails

Hehehe, yes, I did. I woke up, turned on my lappie then went to make myself a cup of my fave Hazelnut brew while it loaded up. After checking my mail and perusing my blog roll, I went on google news and was deluged by the myriad news headings referring to the newly released Sarah Palin emails whilst she was serving as the Governor of Alaska.

Right, I'm a left leaning conservative - yes, we do exist. What that means specifically for me is that I am as liberal as is religiously possible. Don't ask for an elaboration on that. Anywho, I have come to know the former Republican VP candidate, much as the rest of the world has, through the various media portrayals of her. She comes off as a relatively crazy chick - slightly off her rocker I would say and I'll be honest, I don't believe she'd be anything good for America if she ever held a position of real power within the US administration.

But today, reading those emails that were released, especially the ones prior to her getting her VP nod, she came across as a decent politician - one who wanted the best for the state she governed. It makes me wonder - where is that Sarah Palin? How come the world ended up getting to know the insufferable, bumbling, rightist loon instead of the rather down-to-earth person she comes across as through her emails. I actually sorta liked her :)

woohoo, I'm debt freeeeeeee

Yay!!!!!! I am done paying for my Miu Miu, done paying for my iPad, done paying for my online shopping exploits and done paying for my airfares!

I've made payment for everything I've charged on both my credit cards including the stuff that I bought at the start of the month from Forever21 and Amazon.com (a separate posts on both shopping excursions later).

The feeling of being debt-free is a nice one. You don't have to constantly keep thinking about allocating your salary at the end of the month towards payment for the miscellaneous items. I like :D

i have no idea why.....

I'm so enthralled by Weinergate :D I dunno why I've been following this latest political scandal with such feverish interest.

Anthony Weiner will not be the last politician to get caught with his pants down (literally AND figuratively) but in this particular instance I am totally absorbed in following the latest developments in his scandal.

Perhaps it has something to do with the rather odd pairing of Anthony and Huma Abedin. I find it kinda cute that Anthony Weiner, a Jew, and Huma Abedin, a muslim, ended up together, hehe. Unfortunately, not so much a fairytale pairing now that his many, many, many indiscretions has been exposed. And the poor woman is reportedly pregnant with their first child.

Sigh. Can man NOT philander?