081806 $ pickup 2the planes kept vrooming pass us, SO CLOSE richtig? its like. so near the airport, so yup, $ pickup is a great place to rent a car!!
i'm a smoker!!! haha, funny thing they use to stuff their cigarrette butts.. :X look like a stand or something. raja smokers! (OBS grp:] )
the road outside $ pickup! interesting traffic light and road signs eh?
a peek @ wat khian was up to (frm his sis, pauline) while me n chen li were happily snapping away. ahaha. why so serious? got wat business-related sms ah. ahaha..

well, more about our luggage upload to the cars? remember wat i said about the "upcoming hiccup" well, we got a normal car, the boot was TOO small to fit in our luggage, by the time we stuffed our huge 32 inches into the seats, there were no space to squeeze people in.... so, the nice lady upgraded it to a car with a larger boot, so we took out the luggage (keep counting, 2nd time), and uploaded it into the new car. damn! too small again, den, we finally got our mini van, which was like half a van of 4/5 seats and half a van of storage spaces. so yes, we uploaded and took out our luggage 3 times in a row. and haha, khian hong drove out 3 cars and packed it along the waiting aile. damn funny lar. and we WERE EXHAUSTED!! my god lar.

aft all this hassle and bussle, it was alr 8pm. and damn!! song yu estimated the drive to his aunt's place 45 minutes, with his uncle's driving speed and their familiarity with the area. we ventured out into the unknown. no recce on board, but poor pauline was trying to direct with the poor lights in the car. i was messaging song yu and asking for directions.

so we drove. got pass the freeways, and entered the sub-urban area. LA is HUGE. well, the thing about roads there is they stretch for miles and miles, for like i dunno, 20, 30 cross junctions(traffic lights)? so we drove along the road we were supposed to be on, looking for a sign which said west -i forgot wats the name- road, and drove, and drove and drove. after driving for like 20 mins on the road, we realised someth was wrong, so i called song yu, n we realised we passed it like v v v v v long ago. and we had to U turn.

everyone was starving alr. esp khian hong, poor th, had to drive.. passion fruit laxerol was the only food we had. hmm. and some craneberry snack we koped frm SIA. so we drove back to a 'prominent' area to meet song yu's aunt. reaching there first, couldn't find them, so we got off the car to go to a nearby supermarket. 10pm, the doors just closed on us. damn. no choice so went to da bao food from a chinese restaurant. bot fried rice, some seafood stuff, two packs, ard 10 bucks. sighs.

FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY, song yu appeared. it was such a relief to see him...!! and well, nv see him v long le. so we were all overwhelmed with joy!! while we were all wrapped up in few layers of clothings, he appeared with his sis, in t-shirt and shorts. -- stupid lar.

so finally headed towards his aunt's place, with him in our car and his sis in his aunt's car. their apartment was a whole block of a few apartments. each apartment had like 3 or 4 stories and a garage. interesting area, v inaccessible unless with a car. by the time we reached, 11pm, and it was pitch-dark and solemnly quiet. had to quietly pull our luggage to their place. v paiseh lar. disturb their family.. den we still eat dinner at their place lor. tsk.

uncle vit, song yu's uncle, gave us directions to head to our hotel, cadillac hotel @ venice beach, which was just in the vicinity of the airport. driving back again. so far lars!!!! OMG lor. we reached our hotel past midnight?!?! OMG, and the area was quite deserted, albeit beside the beach. there were loitering groups around, making the place seemingly more dangerous, but no choice lor.

the room was rather a disappointment. although it was huge. like a.. 2 room flat, no living room tho. and with a walkin wardrobe, which was weird. i dunno. haha. super big for us to dump our barang barangs. we were all trying to get online, but sadly no wireless to use, haf to pay.. sighs.

wat an eventful day. guess 18 august '06 will be one of the longest day in my life. you guys must be wondering, how come the day never ends?!?! well, its elongated due to the 15 hours lag in LA compared to Singapore.. the beginning of the new segment of my life, and the closing of the fading chapters in my life.. good or bad.. i haf no idea.. and i just wanted to sleep after this taxing day.... haha (eeyer, poor attempt to be poetic and cheem. sheesh)

m@d ka says.. sorry folks, gonna take a while before i update again, do check it out once in like.. 2 weeks! school's busy larrs. ><