Spooky, spooky! It's our first Halloween!

 

We had a fabulous time bringing little Z out for his first trick-or-treat at Taylor Street, Millbrae yesterday! The houses along this stretch were known to be kids-friendly at Halloween, and they were indeed nicely done up with lights, tombstones, cobwebs, witches and ghosts. Families were just sitting on their steps, distributing sweets to hordes of kids.

The atmosphere got better after 6.30pm, as the skies turned dark and older kids started to arrive. One of the houses erected a giant enclosed black tent on the front lawn (supposedly a haunted house), and loads of kids were heard screaming inside. I peeped in and saw skeletons and gory masks accentuated by green light. No wonder this stretch of road attracts so many kids at Halloween - applaud these folks for their efforts!

(Side track: Halfway through our Halloween walk, Mom called and asked what I was doing. I explained that I was with my friend, bringing her kid out to get candies. Mom asked if I told him the real meaning behind Halloween - that we shouldn't be celebrating ghosts/witches/evil souls. I said he is too young to understand but his mom will explain to him that there's nothing to be afraid of, since it's all fake! Judging by Z's reaction, however, he was indeed a little scared. On second thoughts, it was fun for us to watch little Z in his airplane suit, walking up timidly to get his treat. But I couldn't tell if he found it fun or frightening or confusing. Whoops.)

We retreated to Wendy's place for dinner, where we were joined by a drag queen KTV papasan, a Japanese soldier, a minecraft, and... a basketball player. Panda was so sad that we didn't consider him for the group photo. We rejected his basketball player costume, because that was what he wore yesterday to watch the warriors games! He was appealing to us the entire evening, saying he wore track pants and brought a basketball. But we happily grouped him with Wendy (carrot/pumpkin wannabe) and Lawrence (just home clothes). 

Oh! I forgot to mention that I was quite proud of myself, for throwing together the leopard costume at the last minute! I only decided to dress up around 4 plus, and barely had 45 minutes to get ready. Rummaged through the wardrobe for clothes, made felt ears and tail, put on make-up. All in less than an hour.

The effect was worth the effort. And worth having my hair hot glue-gunned to the felt accidentally, in my hurry to get the ears done. Talk about a craft mess! Jo and Wendy said I looked more like Aki Mat Yoyo from their childhood Malay programme. Oh well, they are cute too!

The day before we had a pumpkin carving session at Jo and Vic's place. They were the 'experts', having a grand total of one carving experience when none of us had any. So they taught us how to dig out the seeds, scrape the insides till it's smooth and 1-inch thin, and design the funny face before poking the knife in. It's fun but it's also hard work. I can't imagine kids doing this all alone! I had to hold the heavy pumpkin with one hand and wiggle the knife with the other. All the time I was thinking I might slash my wrist by accident, and we would have a really bloody Halloween. 

Fortunately, no humans or animals were hurt during the process, and we had decent looking Jack-O-Lanterns at the end of the day. Cutest award goes to Wendy's Mr. Potato/Pumpkin head!

So we accomplished much for our first Halloween event - carved pumpkin lanterns, dressed up in costumes, went for trick-or treat. As usual, I'm really thankful for the fun-loving friends around us.

Happy Halloween to us!

For the love of garlic: Gilroy Garlic Festival 2013

It's a party out there, garlic lovers!

Hot. Crowded. Overpriced. Or was it?

I yelped Gilroy Garlic Festival the night before we were supposed to attend with friends. The annual event was celebrating its 35th year and the organisers expected even bigger crowds than last year's 100,000 visitors.

I told Panda, be warned that things are gonna be expensive, traffic will be real bad, and we will all be hot and sweaty like pigs.

Turns out, only the part on weather was true. Traffic was slow but not stagnant on US-101 and road signs led us easily to the free parking lots. Because of the heat, we didn't wait for the shuttle bus but simply took a 5-min walk to the entrance. We had already purchased our discounted tickets from the official website, so there was no need to stand in line and pay $17 per pax.

Once inside I was taken aback by the scale of the garlic festival; it was akin to a mega BBQ party in the midst of a forest. Food vendors lined the sides, tents set up everywhere, live performances at different areas. We didn't purchase the $1 programme guide so we were a little disoriented. I vaguely knew that there would be a cook-off for amateurs and a showdown for top chefs. But we were just too hungry, so we went straight for light snacks - garlic fries, crab garlic fries and key lime calamari.


Garlic fries and key lime calamari



Garlic fries with crab toppings

I was all ready to try other food like garlic corn, garlic bread, shrimp and ribs etc. Sadly, all six adults felt too full for anything else after the 'light' snacks - what a pity! We ended up walking around the craft stalls and drinking beer to quench our thirst. I bought a tin mug with the beer as a souvenir.




Checking out the arts & craft stalls

The cute Olympic bulb of fire

Garlic ice-cream was also a main feature and Joel and Jo took the lead to try it. I had the unfortunate experience of tasting it at a Vancouver ice-cream factory so it was a big no-no for me.  But the adventurous duo looked extremely pleased with their ice-cream challenge.

Say "garlic ice-cream"!

We hung around, watched some performances and checked out other merchandise before leaving the festival. I bought 3 large garlic bulbs at 50c each just to see how fresh they are compared to the regular ones. On our walk back to the car, we passed by this yellow grassy field. We decided to do the typical Asian tourists pose.

Spread your hands, please!

A selfie with my garlic!

Verdict at the end of the festival? Bring water, wear sunscreen, put on a hat and go with an open mind.

We had so much fun as first timers. Who knows, if the programme is attractive enough, we might come back next year if we are still around the area!

Fourth of July picnic and fireworks!

Photos galore! Of our simple two-person fruits and wine picnic by the lake... in contrast to all the big family activities happening around us. There we were, sitting under the smoking hot sun and basking in the smell of BBQ food that's cooking a few steps away.

We've always wanted to see what Fourth of July is like in US. It's after all the biggest holiday ever in celebration of the country's independence. So we packed some fruits and wine and snacks in a bag, and headed out to the lake near home. Little did we know that the right thing to do was to bring your own pit and call the whole village out to have an awesome BBQ! Everyone was cooking... so much so that there wasn't much need for the food stalls, except maybe for the shaved ice. I was tempted to get some too since we were melting under the sun.

In the evening we had a mini pot luck with new friends from EDB and watched the much anticipated fireworks right in FC. I couldn't capture the pretty blooming fireworks with my iPhone so I tried to take a clip. It's still blur but listen up for the atmosphere (sound effect courtesy of little Emma)!



Of rainbow colours and pretty flashy outfits!

What do you think of these colourful photos?

Our friend Ryan was in town this weekend so Panda and I decided that we might as well drive down to meet him and watch the Pride Parade! Personally I don't support the LGBT cause because I believe that the bible clearly states God's stand on homosexuality. But I have gay friends and I still love them for who they are. I don't encourage the issue but I think it's not my place to judge anyone.

Anyway, I was telling Panda that the parade seemed more like a mass advertising platform for different companies! We saw Chipotle, Yahoo, United Airways etc. But I really love the rainbow colours, the flashy costumes and the lively atmosphere. Even the organisers were decked in bright pretty fluffy outfits!

And... there were loads of nakedness! Some said it was daring, some said it was ugly. I was amused and flabbergasted at the same time given that it was my very first time seeing naked men on the streets.

 

If I were to choose my favourite team, I'd give my vote to the BART folks for that little train that came trailing behind. It even had a giant rainbow cap on it. It was really cute.