Sher & the red doors...

Looking back at my pictures from Beijing - I sure did take a lot of pictures with big giant red doors at the Forbidden Palace :P

A steamboat affair...

Over this Thanksgiving weekend... we had a steamboat get together. It was Joanna and Wojtek's first ever steamboat experience. After all the steaming, cooking, 'fishing' for your food and eating... it was time for some Wii and PS2 karaoke fun :P

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Turkey Day...
and gobble gobble from the Milizia's!

Happy Birthday Peter!

Happy Birthday Husband!!

Hope you like your presents!!

The Nintendo DS and PSP will definitely come in handy on our flight home!!

XoXoX
Sher

Happy Brithday Vivian!

Many happy returns of the day love!

Hope you had a blast on your birthday Viv!

XoXoX
Sher & Pete

P.s: This is quite a special day... my youngest aunt & uncle from my mom side just gave birth to a baby girl. She is my youngest cousin and we are 27 years apart!

Hong Kong - November 2008

Leaving Guangzhou by train to Hong Kong was the most anticipated moment of my almost three weeks journey through Korea & China. Still a bit under the weather from the goodness knows what kind of bug I caught when I was in Guangzhou, I was really so super looking forward to getting into Hong Kong only this time, by train. The KCR East Railway train was nice and pleasant - thanks to Ivan for advising me to take the ones managed by HK :P

I arrived in Hung Hom station in Kowloon safely and uneventful, hailed a taxi, got myself to Viv and Ivan's place in Tiu Keng Leng, met Ivan and their apartment's lobby to have him greet me with a... "Your [bags] smell like China!". I was happy nonetheless to be in the company of my HK family!!

Ivan has always been a gracious host... he bought me lunch(snack), this yummy bun which I gobbled up quickly and made me his concoction of orange and grape juice = orange-ape?! It's really good!!

With my girls... Viv & Cat painting the town red while celebrating a weekend and more of Cat's birthday!

We also met up with Khai Jing and Doris over afternoon tea... aren't they a cute couple? Doris was really nice to spend a whole afternoon with me shopping around Mongkok area. Will see you two soon in December!

Here's the rest of the pictures from my camera... with a lot of birthday celebration going on and amazing rooftop views of Hong Kong Island and its colorful city skyline.

Created with flickrSLiDR.

Happy Halloweenie...

It's Halloween.... and I am down with the flu... in Guangzhou nonetheless on my final city stop in China. Trick or treat? Down with a bug... that's a definite trick for me!

Chengdu was pleasant, but rainy. And so far, Guangzhou has been nice with the warm weather - warm and humid enough for me that I opted to stay indoors! I have been pretty much in bed all this time, medicated, drinking lots of fluids (the OJ in this country ain't the real thing!) - praying to get through the last two fairs in a healthier state and also for my journey back to Hong Kong and back to New York.

I cannot wait for Sunday... after the final fair when I leave on the Guangzhou KCR East railway line heading to Hung Hom station in Kowloon, Hong Kong.

Around Nanjing...

October 27th
Nanjing, China

From Nanjing Museum...


Dr. Sun Yat Set Mausoleum

Created with flickrSLiDR.

Around Shanghai...

October 24th-26th
Shanghai, China

View of Shanghai Oriental Pearl Tower from the Bund

Created with flickrSLiDR.

Around Beijing...

October 17th-20th
Beijing, China

In front of the Forbidden City

Created with flickrSLiDR.

Around Seoul

Thursday, October 16th
10:35 pm
Lotte Hotel Seoul

A tourist in Seoul... here are the pictures...


Created with flickrSLiDR.

Touch down in Seoul

Wednesday, October 15th
8:15 pm
Lotte Hotel Seoul

I arrived in Seoul okay... my Korean is NOT great at all next to saying hello and ordering what I would like to eat and that's about it.

A recap on my flights.... the worst leg was from Buffalo to Chicago. Talk about starting out bad... some DUMDUM spilled... no DUMP all his coffee on my lap! I was sleeping... and I YELPED and jumped out of my seat from his hot coffee... no change of pants (was so not thinking of having coffee dumped on me). The best part... the guy WAS NOT apologetic OFF the bat... I looked at him as he was wiping away his spilled coffee on his little tray thingy... then a soft sorry came out some 10 seconds later!! I was wearing one of those soft track pants thats totally ruined... with a humongous coffee stain which I attempted to rub out with club soda. No connecting airports... Chicago nor San Fancisco sells any pants of any kind... just tonnes of T-shirts. To hide the stain - I wrapped my red jacket around the "bad area". Talk about starting off great on my flight right?

The rest of the flight was pleasant... it was an 80 minutes ride from the airport to hotel. Some dignitary or minister or someone important from Mongolia is staying here for a meeting.. so very cool. They have no rooms for me with any great internet connection and SMOKING only... so i had them upgrade me since I initally booked and requested for non-smoking :P

I have had MANY people talk to me in Korean... talking about fitting in and all asians look alike. Hehehe....

View from my hotel of downtown Seoul

That's not mist or fog... its POLLUTION!

My hotel is situated close to the Myeongdong shopping district so I took a stroll around there after having an authentic Korean dinner of Soon Doo Boo in this little eatery located between a couple of small lanes filled with restaurants and bars that's just a short walk across from the hotel.

Little alley ways...


My soon doo boo dinner with yummy accompanying side dishes!

Tomorrow is a rest day for me before work officially kicks in... so I am joining a full day tour around Seoul. Updates to be continued...

Updates since the wedding...

I am still in the midst of collecting wedding pictures from everyone - doing the impossible after that which is to organize all of it before I upload them all to my flickr account and then share it here. How pedantic right? The OCD-ness in me just have to get all of them organized. Peter and I are also super looking forward to seeing the rest of our pictures from Punam.

Until then... here's a sneak peek if you have haven't already seen the many pictures already updated to my facebook photos :P

* * * * * * * * * *

I leave for Korea and China tomorrow for work - am very much looking forward to it. It's bittersweet as I am leaving husband for 3 weeks!! Will try to update as much as I can on the road :D

A Marriage! Sherene and Peter by Punam Bean

Photography by Punam Bean

A Sneak of Peeks! from Punam's blog

Photography by Punam Bean

Less than a week away...

Time's a ticking... vendors all checked, wedding details ready, guests confirmed, appointments all set... a few more days...

It's all very exciting .. out of town & country guests are arriving and Peter and I cannot wait to see everyone real soon! If you don't see any other (pre-wedding) postings this week - you will definitely get the after wedding posts and of course pictures if we can help it!

Thank you everyone for your kind thought and warm wishes, if you have not already visited out wedding website - CLICK HERE and don't forget to sign our Guestbook :D

With love,
Sherene & Peter

Anniversary,,,

Peter and I celebrated our 7 years anniversary with a quiet evening at home... finalizing our wedding day details. Seven years later.. and 10 days counting down to our NY wedding... here we are still together being as silly, adventurous, caring, funny, and all those Sherene&Peter things you have known us for throughout these many years...
- here's to us!!

Birthday thanks...

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes, cards, presents and long distance calls :)
I had a great time at home - throw an intimate backyard barbeque with close family and friends with a delicious fruit-tastic tart courtesy of Amelia, we have a party!!

Buffalo Brewfest

When there's plenty of beer to go around.. you get the guys coming out in packs!!

Beer+Guys=Fun time!

Designated driver for the day... Me!

Joanna & Sher with the guys... Wojtek, Matthew, Paul & Tai Boon

Created with flickrSLiDR.

Sharon in Indianapolis

August 9th - it took one minivan, one suv and Sharon's Cobalt to move her to Indianapolis. It was a smooth drive and an easy move. Upon arrival at her new place, we met Claire, Sharon's new housemate and her family. Both Sharon & Claire will be in the same Doctorate of Psychology (PyschD) program at University of Indianapolis. Good luck to both girls in your new program and in school! We miss you a lot Sharon!!

Sharon at her new place..

Claire and Sharon

Sunday in the Big Apple

Last day was spent meeting up with the significant others, Dim Sum brunch, heading to Times Square to catch a glimpse of the Naked Cowboy, shopping around Rockefeller Center and strolling through Central Park.

With my ladies...

The men in our lives...

Dan & Pete

Created with flickrSLiDR.