Bye Los Angeles

SoCal does strange things to me. Like wearing a pair of bright pink shoes that felt as though they were on alien feet, not mine. Could wear other kinds of flats I suppose, but in view of the rain, light walking shoes are better for all the spontaneous crazy things I get up to. Like randomly walk Griffith Park and jog round Runyon Canyon Park.

The only reason why we even bother to hang out in LA is to see the friends, many whom we haven't hugged for years. The last few times transiting through LAX, we didn't arrange to linger in the city. No excuses now, especially during the holidays. Heh. But we didn't have time to head out of LA to say hello to more friends. Another visit then. Getting onto planes now requires a huge leap of faith. Right now, my heart aches for the tragedy so close to home. #QZ8501. Another one. This is a mercilessly painful year for Malaysia's airlines.

The man had never tasted anything from In-N-Out Burger. It's fast food and he isn't enthusiastic about this kind of burgers. Still, at some point, he insistently drove through, grabbed two burgers, ate them and declared "Not nice." Told him so liao. Okay lah, Shake Shack is slightly better, but it's not that great. At least I'm not hot about it. Well, Shake Shack's finally filing for an IPO. The type of burgers he's looking for, it's likely we wouldn't be eating anywhere else but Lil'Woody's back in Seattle. Or flip his own. The buns too. He's particular about the grilled buns a burger joint uses.

Am so not a SoCal person. I've never felt at home in SoCal. There's something to do at the theatres and concert halls every evening, so that's fun. I expect that from every big city. Wouldn't have thought LA welcoming except for the warmth of the friends. Each city always feels better because of familiar faces. As a not-new-to-the-city tourist fully-armed with unlimited data on the gadgets, I very much prefer NorCal. Although Napa Valley bored me to tears. The drive, scenery and company were great. The wines were a giant yawn. Clearly, I don't care about wines. Never did. Lake Tahoe and Yosemite are always the attractions. NorCal offers more cool vibes in terms of San Francisco and San Jose. It's way different from SoCal. Further up back to the Northwest is best. :P

After the mega Hello Kitty Con that ended 2 November and saw some crazy turnout,
there's a Hello Kitty exhibition happening at the JANM. Till 26 April 2015.