UCSB Day 5

Woah. Today’s so happening that i am worn out already when it’s only like 9pm. As it was raining at 7+am, we did not leave for our intended PT session. I woke up earlier than the intended 8am reverie time because there was like a blender in my stomach. Breakfast composed of waffles made ready using a toaster (which is quite a new experience for me). Butter plus maple syrup and it’s ready to be served.

After which, Peggy and Steve came and we left for the farmer’s market (which happens on the Thursdays and the Sundays). The stalls sell a variety of groceries and as the name implies, the stallholders probably prepared the things themselves. As such, the price of the stuffs at the farmer’s market are cheaper than that of marts (and supposedly fresher too). Here goes a few photos~
Getting some apple pie for the dean’s party

Some strawberries.

Assorted vegetable.

Peggy getting some vegetable for the soup. Check those purple broccoli out! We had some. Tasted the same actually.

We got Peggy and Steve a little token of appreciation (almond seasoned in seasalt + some honey) at the farmer’s market and also a bouquet of flowers + an apple pie for Dean Jane Conoley’s party later. The experience was a rather interesting one despite the rain as there are many interesting items to look at and also, the stallholders are all wiling to let you sample whatever “sampleable” from the apple pie to apples themselves.

After the grocery shopping, we left for Peggy place. As there were 5 of us, we had to split 2-3 and I happened to be the three in Steve’s car. We went up the expressway and it was a short distance away. Moved pass some farmyards and landed properties as we will call them in Singapore. Drove past a neighbour who does up “crazy” (according to Steve)  elaborated designs for festivals – in this case, Christmas. Rather interesting also was that we had to drive through people’s yards to get to their home! And when we eventually reached their home, we were all awed. The place was really wow, fantastic (baby).It has a huge house, a garden with numerous fruit-bearing trees and even a swimming pool… Beat that. Let the picture do the talking!

dinning area where we dump our stuffs, had lunch and made the gingerbread house.

SWIMMING POOL !!!!! Covered up as it’s a little too cold to swim in winter. There’s a heater function though that can warm the water up if need be.

An interesting array of plants found beside the main door. These came from different origins ranging from South Africa to Australia.

Red leaves seen on the Japanese Maple Tree.
Lotsa birds encircling the sky so Steve suspected that there was a dead carcass somewhere.

Blueberry plants! But it’s off season.

Apples (see those green ones?)!

Finger lime (black lime in the shape of a chilli). In which contained pulps that looked and burst like fish roe!

Dont remember this one… Think it’s peach or something

Lemon!

Tangerines.


Garage.



Srijith and Cheryl using the fruit picker to pick avocado.

Lotsa tiny birds perched on the bare tree. Just realised that my resolution was set to a lower one… –.-

That’s Peggy and her pond!

In swim 2 kois, a few goldfishes and mosquito fishes. Apparently there were three kois and one got nabbed by a heron while others lived. The large rocks offer shelter for the fishes to hide from their predators and of which includes the racoon other than birds. It was told to us that tree frogs come down to the pond to lay their eggs too.

Now the indoors: (which are equally amazing…)

Collection of items bought from around the world

Oh guys… this is a toilet…

The living room

The reading area beside the dining area!

Collection of wine

The door on the left leads to the computer room and the area up in front is the family room.

That gigantic television there is linked to the computers in the computer room. So we enjoyed the slideshow from the sofa.

Steve prepared lunch which was a vegetable soap with bread and we helped with the cutting of the vegetable (beet root, sweet potato, carrot, green, red and yellow capsicums). And after that, Peggy brought out two ginger bread houses for us to make! Woah! Never made one before. Srijith and I (Star Alliance) made one while the rest made the other. It was rather messy dealing with the icing and stuff but it was rather fun. The other three did a great job and rather quickly in my opinion. Here’s some photos of our end product…


Ingredients. Checked!

Hard at work.

Masterpiece of the star alliance. Apparently, there is a warped story here which is Hansel and Gretel knocked on the witch’s door and climbed up to the roof to troll her. They readied a brown rock in their hands too. Who knows what they will do up on that roof with that rock. The dog saw and climbed the tree (don’t ask me how).

Oh did i mentioned that there was another one other than the one star alliance did? Well, let’s just see it from here lol. Theirs were good.

Since we were running a little early, we enjoyed Peggy and Steve’s slideshow of their recent Indonesia trip and after that, since we had some more time still, we played snapword which is basically taboo without additional taboo words other than the word itself. And soon, it was time to go. In additional to the apple pie and bouquet of flowers, we decided that one of the gingerbread houses should go to the party too and it was immediately decided which house was to go. You all can think about it.

I got no idea how and why I was that tired but i was kinda zoning out already during after the slideshow (just as i am now). And that was not the most adequet state of mind to enter a party. There were many university members there (Deans, admin staffs, visiting scholars, etc etc). As the people came streaming in, this zoned-out introvert just got more and more sieh.I guessed there must be moments that i appeared rather zoned out or something. Hope no one picked that out.

Alrighty, now we are back home. Phew. Tomorrow reverie will be 0600hrs! Shall go iron my clothes and prep for early bed tuck in!