Wanted to go again this year but …. I can only daydream.
It’s all snow again in Murodo. It has more ❄️ white flurry months than ☀️ 🍂 months.
Only 5 days left to the closing season 🥲
and hopefully more to come. 😜
**************
What a trip it has been! Finally my long overdue had-been-harping-over-20plus-years solo trip. For a person who loves travelling (ok who doesn't), who had been held back for so many years, a solo trip has to be done sooner or later.
It has been a fruitful trip, did what I wanted to do, ate what I wanted to eat, took 3003 pictures with nobody stopping me or me chasing after the family who kept walking ahead, can rest properly in hotels (normally I'm still a mother and a maid during our family hols.
Yah! While Everyone's resting I'm always the one washing undergarments n socks after being the last to shower. It truly sucks to be the only one busy while the rest of them can lay down on bed fiddling their phones. After that i still need to look thru next day's itinerary leh!)
I've never felt so liberated like this before! As one vlogger I met during one of my hikes told me "you truly deserve this coz you've put in alot for the family over the years. I'm single and I can't imagine how you must have neglected yourself over the years." Wah... ah nia heard what she said and it truly resonates how I felt, really want to cry and hug her. 🤣 Altho I had done small bits of pampering here and there with facials these years, there's something mentally that I did neglect myself all these years, I had forgotten what i had loved to do not what I loved to do for the girls.
Weeks before : Friends who knew I was going on solo trip either asked me "you can meh?" (Ah-nia has always been the one planning our holiday itineraries, of course I can. And l've done majority of my sightseeing when flying on solo) OR "nobody to talk to" (I don't need to talk to anyone. All I need is music. likely l'm quite the anti-social person. I messaged a friend while I was there. If she or anyone had talked to me during our hike when I'm breathless, I would have kicked her down the slope before the bear got to her/us.)
Special mention - the funny interesting videocall with N I had when I was there.... Maybe I'll do that in another post
The trip started with meeting my favourite CS onboard. Meeting funny Japanese people along the way. My conversation with a small cafe owner who rolled his eyes when he mentioned the homestay owner where i was putting up and his wife can talk in the morning, then in the afternoon then at night. I got what he meant and said ゴシップ ? His body language was hilarious. The 4 cute old ladies who mistook the place where they stood was the place until i brought them to the correct one and offered to takee photos for them. They shouted a loud sayonara from afar, waving to me excitedly, when they saw me walking away. Quite shocking behaviour of the soft spoken Japanese we all know 🤣. But I guess they were in a group so they kindda let themselves loose. Kindda makes me wonder if we had a bunch of old ladies KC girls, will we be rowdier than them? Still I admire their care for each other when they helped each other out of the car. Lots of chicken and duck talks with Japanese in the parks, all the way until my trip ended with meeting my basic batchboy onboard. Wow!
Back home ystd and had to quickly unpack and wipe luggage, ready for next usage. Tmrw the girls will fly for their siblings trip. Had I intended to follow them, I would be packing again 😂, but then it wouldn't be called siblings trip. I need to recuperate.
EX-SIN : LSS seated me and I asked her who’s the IFM onboard, she gave me the variant name of xxx (She probably got it wrong herself). So I thought maybe I don’t know who but I know xxx. If only ….
When Cpt announced IFM name, I was wondering if it could be him. Because there's not so many xxx in the airline when I was there, unless this IFM is super fast-tracked. And when he walked past me, I was so excited. I've totally lost contact with him after I changed my phone. Obviously must talk to him right? A red-eye flight so I slept, when I woke to go to the toilet I saw the LSS and asked her if she can help me ask him to come down if he is free.
A photo of us for keepsake. Me and my messy hair
I didn't know he was onboard as I didn’t check with the FS and JFSS when I sat down. Cpt announced IFM and it sounded like a Malay name, so I thought ok nobody I know. BUT when he announced "cabin crew door closed" over the PA, his voice! I recognise his voice. When he made his way down to AFT galley to glance check cabin, I saw him but he didn’t notice me.
For this flight, there’s a lull period between the drinks service and meal service. So when the JFSS was clearing the cups, I told her “don’t have to do it now, do it when you’re free. Can you tell your IFM that passenger *my seat number* wants to see him. Provided he is free as well.” 😂
About 15mins later I saw him coming down smiling broadly and looking in my direction (he must have checked the PIS who the heck wanted to see him) holding an SS tray with a drink served in plastic cup and a bag. Muahaha! I didn’t ask for that K. I had to decline the drink tho I know what it is, they cannot pour into a flute or glass. I sit in poor people class so must serve me in poor people cup 🤣🤣. We spent quite some time chatting at D4R. He don’t use his Christian name in the airline now, so what was announced by Cpt is his dialect name, somehow it does sound like a Malay name.
On both flights I’m just so thankful there wasn’t any bad turbulence where we have to be seated down, so was able to chat longer.
I went back to my seat after that, he also needed to do his work and then prepare for service after that. I went back to sleep. I was woken up later by the JFSS for meal. As usual I usually order my drink the same time I order my meal so they don’t need to walk up n down. I started having my meal but … why are passengers near me not getting their food? Her cart is not near me. I turned back to look. Ahh…in her kind consideration (didn’t have to do that) she served me my meal first.
I went with my white hair coloured, and came home with whites growing. Haha! (Nvr mind grow out more and I'm still holidaying | don't mind.)
Came home tanned and messy hair again. How come he doesn’t seem to age and never put on ah-pek weight huh?
This time we drove from Seattle all the way down to Los Angeles. We clocked 14656 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean and 2299 miles driving in US. That's mighty alot! Even friends who self-drive in US don't clock that many miles as us. Granted that this time hubby got a good car at a good price, the ride was really comfortable + girls were fighting alot lesser behind us.
The watermarked pictures - are the selected snapshots from the DSLR, some taken by che-che and some by yours truly.
We still have many more in both our DSLR and phone camera but too lazy to upload from phone n go-pro to put in everything. It was a long or maybe not that long holiday but I came back with 15 000+ photos! It's definitely not possible for me to put everything in here. But I'll put in some pictures (no watermark) which I took and posted in Facebook on some days. I won't be detailing too much into the trip and all the places we went as it'll take ages for me to finish this blog entry.
*********
When we got our tickets we realised its a Sanrio flight. Ha! The girls have outgrown Sanrio but great that we didn't have to deliberately purchase Sanrio flight tickets. Anyway, Sanrio or not, I'm just glad that we have priority boarding. Tho we'll be on our butt longer but the extra time gives us a chance to organise stuffs around us.
Second lag of our flight - spent my time sleeping, stargazing and trying to get pictures of the stars (but with the stupid wings' lights.. it was a failure.), then sleeping. It's great that the girls are big enough to feed themselves, even when they were young they were so easy to handle in the plane, that I can sleep as much as I want. Anyway a trick I learnt during my solo long-haul flight with a young Athena is to pretend to sleep even when you're not sleeping. Such that after trying to get your attention and the child don't get it, they'll automatically sleep..... eh..... I think it works or maybe my kids are just wonderful travellers.
Wah.... like so pro.... actually shaky videos. heehee. But no luck in seeing Mt Rainier and all the other big mountains. I did a check on flight path during my holiday planning so insisted that someone has to be seated on the right side of the aircraft. But alas!
is still in the luggage, we just made do with the extra NTUC plastic bag in my slingbag and che-che brought out her tote bag. 
First of our many rocks rocks sights.
I must admit it’s an awesome feeling to be standing on and walking along the shore in another mother nature’s works.
Stops enroute : (1) Cannon Beach
Here, we did a detour to Cannon Beach to see Haystack Rock - a giant monolith.
We didn't want to waste time driving in all the way and then walking to the lighthouse from the carpark about 800m away. No joke when you're rushing for time and you have a lil' grandma with you.
So the next morning, I went on a walk around the quiet little place on my own first. The people are so friendly here. It's a neighbourhood where you won't expect hoardes of tourists here, all residential area except for 2 small motels
.
