Last day in LA

On Sunday, we met up with one of my best of friends, almost family, mr. CB. Since he is Mr. Master-DJ-Producer-Entreprenuer, he actually let us put his picture on here. :-) Here he is on the balcony of our room...



Afterwards F and I headed to Santa Monica to enjoy the rest of the day... what a gorgeous day it was. I've been lucky the last few trips to LA -- always went there right after the rain stopped and the sun came out, which means less smog and clear skies!





After Santa Monica and before the airport, we did one more shopping run and checked out the new Paul Smith store, a huge pink building on Melrose.

And then finally to Kitson, supposedly the 'in' store for celebs. There were these half naked male models as 'live mannequins' -- we wanted to take a picture up front but it was a bit cheesy to do it, so we just took a snap across the street.



Overall the trip to LA was great, productive and fun and exciting at the same time!

Sat Day in Sunny CA

So within a weekend in LA, F and I did sooo much -- went all over the city.

Started the day with brunch with my "older sis" S for brunch at the Ivy - the celeb hangout -- no sightings that day but F did have a $45 lobster pasta... heheh Was worth it tho, Ivy is something to be experienced if you've never been.



After that we headed around Weho on Robertson and Melrose and did some shopping. I can't believe we've never shopped in those boutiques before. But I guess our 'fashion sense' was Banana Republic for him and thrift-store chic (uhhh) for me. :-) This time we headed to Marc Jacobs to check out their bags, and I bought a cool messenger bag - the most I've ever spent on a piece of accessory.



Then headed to beverly center, grabbed a Coffee Bean and continued shopping.



Our hotel room was filled with shopping bags after we were done, I guess that's when a jr. suite comes in handy.. :-)



Saturday night, after a day of exhaustive shopping, we headed to an art conference function in Pasadena - great food and open bar (although didn't drink since we were partied out the night before) - amazing set up and even Pink's hotdog were there - talk about LA-style catering!!



Open Bar...



Great food...



Pink's...

2:30AM in LA

ie....5:30AM in NY. Boy o boy, what a day. It's been super hectic all day prepping for our client's event in Koreatown -- an upscale Korean event for an upscale cosmetic company SKII -- amazing turnout and even more amazing nibbles!
Before the event and prepping -- which I thought would never end... F and I headed to the ultra hip Hugos for brunch -- I ordered their incredible Breakfast Pizza and F ordered their also very goood granola pancake (sooooo LA i guess).




Just came back from Weho with F and YJ, a colleague and friend from my company. YJ has never been to LA / West Coast and was quite taken by the sites/sounds of Weho-- the Abbey and Rage (ie. gamboi tonite). I haven't danced for a while and it was nice/refreshing to sweat sweat sweat.

(The morning after picture)

I didn't reallize how incredible relaxing LA can be that I'm back. I guess after a year and a half of living / working in Manhattan, 70degrees sunshine and claim quiet streets isn't such a bad thing anymore.

I guess F told you guys about the start sightings thus far. it's weird, we ran into so many celebs in the past two days - since they really only come out during the week, like of like celebavampires... I don't expect to run into many tom (sat) or sundayl.

So we'll be heading to the Ivy tom for brunch with my friends S and M (not S&M...) Looking fwd to it. F confirmed our flight on Sunday which will be a red eye and gets in at 7am on Monday. Which means we have all day / night sat and all day sun to hangout. Looking forward to finally enjoying the weekend!!

Sunny California

So today is our second day in LA and the weather has been FAB.

We are staying at the Sunset Tower hotel formerly the Argyle is one of the oldest building in LA area on Sunset Strip. Got a junior suite with a balcony overlooking the city. What I like about this hotel is they RENOVATED it , it looks old from the outside but the inside its full of new hi-tech technology with the retro looking furniture, loved it !!!!









So today we woke up pretty early since V needs to do the conference call at 7A PST, we started the day to grab starbucks across from our hotel and we saw the woman from the 40 year old virgin whom she plays the character as a HORNY bitch at the electronic store. We turned around and it was Michael Vartan behind us...and so we were in a celeb-wich... well c-list / b-list celeb-wich. :-)



Although yesterday when we got to our hotel, Kirsten Dunst was waiting for the valley PRIUS car that she is driving.



You see so many of them really randomly in the daily basis but look for the right places.

We will be going to get some brunch soon at the Hugo's

morimoto...

Just came back from dinner with my boss and client. went to the new "iron chef" restaurant Morimoto at the Meatpacking District - actually sat at the 'bar' area with celeb chef Morimoto making the meal in front of us.



not really a fan of 'iron chef' it wasn't as exciting as some of the others in the party. Anyways, for min $200 per person, not sure if it was worth it.... lotsa cooked fish and not much raw/fresh stuff - which was surprising. The most exotic thing I had was Cod Sperm...here's Mori holding up the 'sperm' --- ewwww...

Unreliable Subway System

I am SURE that NYorkers know what am I talking about !
I know it's great, you can catch the subway right outside your apt. bldgs and also from the biggest department stores in NY, the grocery stores so You don't have to across the street when its cold snowy winter but s*** sometimes the trains really wanna make you puk ! It stop in the middle of the track so many time eventhough its express because there are so many construction that they are trying to fix for so many years.

Some trains are really smelly especially when you have those dirty compartments with a lot of unnecessary 'stuff' hangin on the ground, also on the seats that make you really think, is it safe to sit on the seats ?

NY really needs to makesure that the train is in good conditions, if you go to HK, Japan, Europe when the trains are built for a real people even in SF, DC and Canada, trains are a lot cleaner. Don't force me to talk about the subway tracksin NY, God seriously it will never end !!!

dirty f****** track





old NY subway

Shopping Weekend

We started yesterday and completed it today. So much fun shopping together and we can actually wear both clothes and accessories, that is one of the good thing about being a gay couple with almost about the same size of clothes.

We got a lot of stuff this weekend, oh boy ... from spring and summer t-shirts to another pair of shoes and also V's work shoes. I got my bag and also my laptop cover. We haad to thorw away our old shades and got at least 3 more pairs for spring/summer tihs year.

It was pretty windy and cold today but Soho was packed with shoopers, the good thing about NY, there are so many 'deals' out there, You just have to find a right time and a right way to get them. Reading and Browsing internet for deals are one of them, of course from the mailing lists that the stores wanted us to spend money, another good way is looking for those SALE SALE SALE signs at the RIGHT stores though.

It was such a fun weekend before heading to LA.

Trader Joe's Madness

Ok, so we thought NYorkers have a 'seen it all' attitude, and we snickered when the San Franciscans lined up around the block for H&M back during Thanksgiving Last Year.

But boy today it's NYorker's turn. A Trader Joe's.... yes Trader Joe's -- the organic market we frequent when we're in the mood for their NYork Cheesecake and where my mom always ask me to go and buy her vitamins and dried fruits whenever I go visit her in HK -



Now one opened in NY, and not just anywhere but in Union Square, just steps away from the Whole Foods down the street... at fraction of the price!! No wonder the lines were so LONG this first week it's opened. A taste of CA right in the middle of NY - it was a bit surreal.

We debated whether or not to line up... but hey, we just had to experience it just so we can claim, "Yes we lined up for Trader Joe's."



The first thing I noticed when we got inside was the market staff, it seemed like the prerequisite for working at the store is: "Cheerful and highly caffinated struggling artisty types living in nearby E.Village or LES - borderline hippie strongly preferred."


Joking aside, the staffers are definitely way hip(pie) and cooler than the ones in LA (yes, you self confident Angelenos, even the ones working at the one on La Brea) --

The store was obviously so swamped all day that almost all the shelves were empty by the time we got there - that's probably why they kept unloading tons of boxes from from outside the store.

Spring Yet?

What a nice day today - sunny and crisp blue skies - although the temps are still about 40 only, so it still feels like winter.

Woke up so friggin' early this morning at 6am, for some reason F's been waking up so early these days. I love it early weekend mornings cuddling in bed with our two little doggy-babies. Since F got his laptop, instead of reading books in bed, we've been emailing and browsing the web next to eachother in bed, so 21st century of us...



We headed out for a day of shopping... to celebrate F's new job! :-) Headed out this morning and noticed that they tore down that old synagogue on Rivington, thought it was interested, the inside of building is totally exposed - had to take a pic and share with you all.



So we ran into some incredible deals today, the main one is the HUGE Lacoste sale at Bloomingdales!! It was sales + 40% extra off!! we couldn't believe it. Lacoste almost never goes on sale and you know it's a great find when you are fighting with the Bloomingdales staff THEMSELVES over the shirts of the rack... the cashier said that this is such a big sale, even the employees themselves are all over it - we ended up with six different pieces - that'll last for a while.

Keeping up with the Lacoste theme, F went ahead and bought these coolass glasses (Lacoste) as well, they are so hot!

We also picked up a Nespresso machine @ Sur La Table in Soho - have wanted to get one for the longest time,



After a day of shopping uptown/midtown/soho, we ended up having the rice pudding @ Rice Riches in Nolita, have always pass by the place -- it's always looks interesting but never tried it... boy have we been missing out. We ordered a double "french toast / chocolate chip" pudding with espresso topping. Quoting my fave foodie Rachael Ray... Yum-O!!! I'll definitely sneak back there.

Dessert @ Thor...`

We had dessert @ Thor tonite, first time even though it's so close to home. They've got the best dessert 'flights' that came with chocolate paste that came in a toothpaste-like tube.

Another Weekend in NY

So I didn't have to work this weekend and will never be ! I Have my blackberry on all the time anyway so I can spend some quality times together with V.

Saturday was FAB, 65 degress and sunny bright bkue sky. We wen around the city and had brunch with one of our friend 'E' at Cafe Gitane in NoLita, they had the best couscous there, its very authentic french/morrocon taste. We decided not to take the dog to the park since we took the mlast week. Went window shopping in uptown and checked out the new Container Store in Upper East Side. We didn't go out last night and V cooked for us a great chinese food. I am so satiefied :))

We finally got to hang out again with 'C' after almost three months since the christmas party that one of our friend had and definitely will hang out more with her gang soon.

Can't wait for LA trip in two weeks ! Really wanna try out the P.S United flight coast to coast since I have been selling and promoting it for a while, I've heard a long of good thing about them.

And The Envelope Please ....

Headed to SoHo on Sunday morning, it was such a nice clear day! But before that went to our 'fave' dimsum restaurant Ping's on Mott St. Haven't had dimsum since we got back from Asia so that was great!



Clear crisp day in Soho...



So as you guys know the Oscars were handed last night at the Kodak Theatre. We went to Club Pressure close to U-Square to celebrate with many gays/lesbians community called In thelife. It was really nice, they have these four big screens and very cool changing color room complete with the plasma TV's everywhere.





They served Capote-ni, Transamerica-ni and Brokeback Mountain-ni so basically the mixed drinks that they named for the event. Stoli is one of the sponsor. bar was excellent, food was great, crowd was okay but it was a blast.



I am so glad that PSH won for the best actor and RWS for the best actress and of course Ang Lee for best director for BBM. most definitely Crash for the best picture of the year, thought the movis was really great to watch and understand.

We stayed for about 2 hours since we had to work the next day and continued the show at our apartment.

Lotus Lounge 35 Clinton ...

So we decided today to hang out at Lotus Lounge on 35 Clnton to browse internet (free wi-fi) after dimsum in c-town and hung out in soho, got some cool stuff from kid-robot store in soho and got two free ultraman candles since the guy gave us a wrong price information.

This place is so cool .. a lot of hipsters as usual doing their thing, some of them just hand out and read and some of them browsing the internet just like we are doing now.



Today is so nice, deep blue sky not even a single clouds. Something about NYC that you can most of time find when the sun is shining bright and the wind is so cold at the same time. Loving it !

Saturday Morning Uptown

While Francis was at work (and writing that sweet cheesy blog heheh) I was at a cafe on 110th street / Columbus working. Brought the laptop up there and everything. I know you're probably thinking why I went all the way up there, it had free wi-fi and the croissants were the best in the city... yummy and buttery... hmmm





Afterwards I met up with F on 74th at Lenny's for lunch. F has been telling be about this place and how great their sandwiches were -- and yeah they were. Apparently they're opening another one on 25th between 5th and 6th so I can order lunch from there! :-)

We were stuffed after the sandwich, but when we walked back this cake shop, we just HAD to go in and check it out. Left with two cupcakes - hey we'll hit the gym tomorrow. :-)

Being 30 something ...

I know the title is a lil dramatic ! But that is exactly what I am going to write and share with you folks !

Being 30 something and living a life in one of the greatest city on earth make me really feel that I am 'complete' Having V as my partner for a lil over 3 years and share so much in our life in the past 3 years together was really really great ! I am so glad that I finally found a friend, a crime partner, a person that you can count on each and every day in your life. You feel very safe when you have somebody that you can talk 'shit' and be away too romantic at the same time. When I think back of that I have done a lot of stuff in the past decade, I didn't regret at all what I have said and done, it is part of growing up and really educate me in every way. I had met some good people and seriously, its kinda like a faith of life if you make an effort to keep in touch to the people that you really can count on, its well worth it !!

So we went to Splash Bar last night and took a picture of this 40 something woman who really into the 80's music that they played at the bar. She was dancing nonstop inside the bar and I was luck enough to take a picture of her, I asked if she was a lesbian but she is not ! She was by herself, enjoying the music and drink-dance at the same, she even asked our opinion, is it really bad for me ???



Look what I took a picture on the subway to work. Its a pink nasty dirty scarf that somebody had dropped on the floor.

Trashy TV -

SO I just had to put this on here, what's LA known for? celebs? the sun? coffee bean? the thing I think of when I think of LA is the trashy morning TV show on Fox - with anchors (can we even call them that?!?) dorothy, jillian and steve talking trash, where Star and InTouch are their bibles, and where the conflict between paris hilton and nicole richie gets SO MUCH more air time than the one in the middle east - I guess that's the priorities in LaLaLand - :-)