Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween guys! Commensurate with our yearly tradition, we had yet another Pumpkin Carving party at the B&B. Last year, we spent Halloween in Italy, missing this yearly event. Frankly, the Italians are not very good at Halloween. The costumes that we saw in the streets of Florence were really not very impressive at all, and no sign of any pumpkins at all on any stoops! So, this year with our yearly vacation out of the way, we continue on our carving tradition in the Hood of Olathe!

Couple of interesting items to note on the night. First off, Yeesin and Elaine decide? Doesn't their outfit make them look like a pair of sisters??!! And to their credit, no pre-planning or any level of coordination at all to make this feat of dual coordination happen! So either they are incredibly psychic, or it was just an amazing alignment of planets to make this amazing clash of fashion happen! Seeing as how this IS Halloween, I think any, if not BOTH of those 2 possibilities apply!

Next up, isn't this a cute halloween costume? At first, I thought he looked like the Gecko from the Geico commercials. So sorry to the Kinsella's for me calling Ian's costume a Lizard! It is really a cute Frog! After fueling up with a few Halloween Oreo's, Ian spent the rest of the night pushing around our chairs with mad abandon! Woe to the Pumpkin Carver that didn't double check the location of their chair before sitting back down! BTW, we dressed Benji up for the occasion in a Fall sweater too!

Finally, probably the most amazing thing of the night was that Kyle & Stephen were taking instructions on how to pumpkin carve from the rest of us!! Its just ironic that the only 2 Americans in the house were taking hints and tips from us Malaysians??!!

Still, I think we did a pretty good job of cutting up our Pumpkins (tho not as good as Surgeons on TV), as you can kinda tell from this Picture. Adrian tried to take credit for the amazing carving of his wife, while Stephen & Kyle held their own with very goof FIRST TRIES! We (Myself and YS), did pretty good with our "RIP" pumpkin ourselves! How about an Online VOTE to see which Pumpkin looks the best!!!

P.S. Not to be outdone, Benji decided to sneak to the dining table while we weren't looking and finish off ALL of the pumpkin pie later that night after everyone left. Needless to say, we were not very happy with him!

Myth or Fact?

We've got some additional photos to upload this weekend. So we decided to do a quick Myth or Facts piece on what we discovered during our most recent trip....

Myth or Fact? - 1. For US$100, you can get a decent sized room in London.
Myth! As you can tell from this picture, Yeesin can almost touch the edges of the room if she reaches out with both arms. London is notoriously known as one of the most expensive cities to live in! BTW, the door in the far end is the bathroom. The shower wasn't even large enough to lift out elbows sideways! We can't even imagine how much it'll take to get a Holiday Inn like room??!!!

Myth or Fact? - 2. We all know what the London Bridge looks like!

Myth - This picture on the left is "London Bridge", needless to say, we were not very impressed!

The nice looking bridge that most people think about is actually the "Tower Bridge" on the right! Interesting piece of trivia, in 1968 the last London Bridge was sold to an american for $2Mil, and is in Lake Havasu, AZ now. The running joke among the brits is that he thought that he was buying the Tower Bridge instead.... OOPS.. :)

Myth or Fact? - 3. Shopping and Food is really cheap in London!

Fact! At Camden Lock market, the local flea market, is where we got a ton of deals on food and shopping! We scored a good deal on noodles while strolling on the street - 1 POUND! Yeesin scored a good deal on shoes too-5 POUNDS! AND we walked so much in that city, that sometimes we didn't even have time to eat! BTW, we'd buy more shoes, but for the lack of space in our luggage!

Myth or Fact? - 3. McDonalds can never be classy!

Myth! Check out this Mickey D's on Champs-Élysées in Paris! The pic on the left is the ariel view from the Arch de Triomphe (The other Arch), and the one on the right is from ground level. We've read that when they first tried to get a license to start it up, the government stiputed that the Golden Arches need to be White instead, and that they set up chic tables and flower pots on the outside too! You want Le-Fries with That??!!

Were's Back!

Hi All! We are finally back stateside from our London-Paris Vacation! Wow! A one week vacation sure flies by! London was REALLY rainy, but that's what the tube, Museums, and umbrellas are for! Other than the rain, the weather was cool enough for open windows at night, but warm enough not to worry about jackets during the day! Here are some daily highlights.

(Mind the Gap) - Here we are, running around the subway system in London, or the Tube as the locals call it (The subway is an underground walkway to cross streets). The tube is a lot larger than we thought, a huge labyrinth crisscrossing multiple levels underneath London. An interesting reminder that repeats on the loudspeakers at most tube stops is "Mind the Gap", meaning watch the step between the car and the tube floor. And even after the first day, its pretty irritating! Still its pretty amazing that last year only saw 46 injures due to the "gap" for the year, considering hundreds of thousands of people use it daily!

(Stair Master) - This vacation was yet another good workout for us! Climb to the top of: Arc de Triomphe = 236 steps, Notre Dame Cathedral = 422 steps, Eiffel Tower (Levels 1-2) = 800! If it weren't for the large amount of food that we tried would have actually lost weight on this trip! Still, the views from the top were seriously worth it, like this one on top of Notre Dame (See the Gargoyle on the left of the shot) !


(Dodging Cars at Night) - WOW, what an adventure! You want some element of danger along with a tour of Paris? Courtesy of Fat Tire Bike Tours , we got to bike around the streets of Paris, dodging local traffic, ignoring ALL traffic signals, and getting an education in French swear words from some P.O'ed motorists!! Blasting through downtown Paris, seeing the night life flash by at street level was awesome! We stopped briefly at the Lourve at night where we snapped this synchronized shot! With all 10 cameras lined up with timers on, we sprinted back to our spots where we got this shot (Brandon, our guide is in the center)! He made me the "Assman", where for a Heineken, my job was to block traffic from sneaking up to the group, and make sure that we don't lose anyone during the ride... Hmm..The things I'll do for a beer... :)

(Open Bottles? Pas de problème !) - Unlike the most countries, the French are more relaxed about drinking in public places... Clinking glasses in a picnic at the Champ du Mars, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower in the evening, or a wine lunch in Luxembourg gardens, No problem! Other than stares from other tourists, wondering why THEY didn't think about bringing alchohol too, the locals basically didn't even bat an eyelid! Heck at the Eiffel tower, there was a guy that didn't even bother to bring glasses; he just drank his wine wino-style straight from the bottle !



Stay tuned for some videos of the trip...