My month long trip...Starting with LA...

It was a fantastic 1 month of travelling! Brought our Vietnam dealers to LA to visit our Headquarters on an incentive trip and took a side trip to Vegas, NY, London before heading back to LA again for the Educators' Conference....and then drove up to SF for a couple of days before heading back to Vietnam....

Sigh.....all good things must come to an end I guess....So now I'm back in the office, trying to clear up the work that has piled up AND at the same time getting over the jet lag...Tsk tsk...life is tough isn't it!??!? Heehee...

Since I had such a great time, I had to share them with you as well....Took loads of pictures so I guess you guys will be scrolling down a lot.... :P

So I started my trip in LA to visit the Dermalogica Headquarters as well as to attend a couple of classes..... Well, the office is in Carson to be exact and at this road called "Beachey Place"! Aiyoh, the name is sooo not nice.... hahaha....

This was our main mode of transport to everywhere....view from my seat....hehe...

And this was the highway that we used almost all the time to get to everywhere....Interstate 405...

So here's some pictures of the headquarters.... The building...

The lab where they do their research on ingredients...

They had this walkway/corridoor that had this spiral tunnel to get a futuristic effect....quite cool actually....And along the walls, they had these bubbles where you can get a sneak peek inside the various classrooms to see what's going on....This one is of a classroom for body spa techniques...

Here's some pictures of the classrooms from the inside...
Look like dentist chair right?! These are used for treatments that require only a short time and for treating specific areas on the face....like a quick fix type of treatment....

There were a couple of really interesting things that I saw when touring the office....One was this scooter/skater thingy....It seemed that the office was too big so some of the staff actually used this to move around!

Another funny thing was when I went to the creative department...It was the nicest looking and most cozy looking part of the office....except that they had this sitting on one of their shelves.... Why do they need this to be creative?!?!?

But my favourite part of the office was....the canteen! Look at this...it's so huge and looks really nice!

And it's also stocked up with snacks and drinks!! How cool is that!!?!?

We also visited their flagship salon on Montana... It was small but done up really nicely....

The company also brought us to this really lovely place called The Grove for dinner and shopping after that. The Grove was a really really nice place, the ambience was great and the shops were pretty fantastic too...and there were soooo many shops!

We went to this restaurant called Morels for dinner....It was a really nice looking restaurant with great ambience....

But.... the food SUCKED SO BAD!!! It was terrible!!! Amazingly bad! There was a choice of salmon or steak.... the salmon was soooo fishy that you could even smell it before they placed the dish on the table and the steak was soooo beefy I couldn't even eat it! Even with loads of tobasco sauce didn't help! I just ate the fries...me...ann toh...can't eat the steak...can you imagine how bad it was!?!?!? Tsk tsk....it looks real tasty in the picture doesn't it? Sigh...Cheated bad!


And when I saw this hanging on the wall, I was like 'WHAT!?!??!' Sure or not? Award of excellence?!?!?! But then again this was awarded by Wine Spectator....so maybe their wines not bad....Just dont ever ever go for their food!

Had dinner the next day at a chinese restaurant in Chinatown...But also bad! Was so salty and the waiters were so rude....Sigh....didnt' eat much...again....

Only perk was the shopping! Old Navy! Best ah! All the plus size clothes and so cheap! I went bersek! Heehee...but more was yet to come....

Zak & Imelda

Another one bites the dust.... Sigh.... Another set of my friends have found love and made the committment to each other.... Why can't I find one for myself?!?!?! :{

So made a trip back to celebrate Zak & Imelda's special day..... It was at this lovely restaurant called The Turqoise Room (not The Green Room...I've been corrected hehe) at Gillman Heights area, it's a really lovely place but not exactly a place you can get to easily....heehee...

This entry will mainly have loads of pictures....

The bride & groom making their toast...

The boys doing the 'yum seng'...

Group photo with the couple....

Here's me and the groom... I think I look a little crazy... Who took the picture?!?!

Me and the girls...

The boys....

The professional in action....

The amateur.....

Obviously the picture didn't turn out great....sigh...try again ann toh.... :}

It was a really lovely wedding, with the 'function days' theme and 80's - 90's music, totally brought back memories....Sigh... :)

Here's wishing the couple happiness and love in their marriage.... CHEERS!

Down Under....Part 2...Some interesting things...

As usual...during my trip, I noticed some interesting things here and there and had some adventure.....

Firstly, as you can tell from my previous post that I ate A LOT! So many different kinds of food! Well...my auntie had a friend in Sydney who brought us around in her little red ol' station wagon and it was kinda old....we had a flat tyre after dinner and drinks one nite! Yup....tyre kenna 'pung che'! Hee hee....but it was not my fault! I was on the other side of the car so it wasn't me! :P

Had dinner at this Australian BBQ place and they had rather interesting toilet signs.... Here's the mens' sign...

And here's the ladies' sign...

And you can see that the ladies are always a step 'above' the men in all areas! heehee... :)

There was an interesting menu at one of the cafes we went to for desserts....check out the Babycino item...

..... An extra mug is half the price? Means what? Buy 1 and get 50% off the next? Or you have to pay an extra $1 if you want to share the already small Babycino? Don't get it.... And what is an Affagatto? Sounds like 'I-forgot-to' something! :P

And this I thought was really funny.... At the parking lot in this casino.....discrimination against big cars??
I also surprised myself by having alcohol on this trip....I guess it's cos the weather was cold... :P

Here's my first pint of lager...

And my second and third....this beer was pretty nice...

We also went to a few interesting restaurants for dinner where there were live entertainment.... We went to this Spanish restaurant that had a disco on the 1st level, food and spanish dancing on the 2nd and Salsa classes on the 3rd...quite an interesting place actually... Caught the dancers performing on this little tiny wooden stage where they were majorly stamping their feet!

When we were at the Lebanese restaurant, there was a live band and everyone there got up and dance! Young and old alike...everyone was really up on their feet and having a really good time. There was also a belly dancing performance....but the dancer was not great at all...not sexy, moves are really basic and nothing fanciful....

All in all, I had a great time in Sydney..... Lots of shopping, eating and had some nice experiences.... :)

Down Under...Part 1

Waltzing Matilda....waltzing matilda...

Went to Sydney for a week for some training in the Dermalogica Institute over there...was glad to go as I haven't been in Sydney for almost 8 years!

Here's the first attraction in Sydney that I saw... the Harbour Bridge...

Stayed in a serviced apartment...or rather a self-service apartment! And it's soooo mah fan staying there....you can't buzz the other rooms 'cos there's no intercom (had other colleagues staying in another level), and key card only allows you access to go to your room level so if you want to go to the other floors, you gotta go back down to the entrance and buzz them so that they can buzz you up....so bloody mah fan! And they don't clean your apartment! **##$$!! :{

The weather was great! Autumn now....leaves falling, cool wind blowing...it was nice to get away from the heat in Vietnam...

Here's where I go to get trained....the Dermalogica Institute....

And here are some of the classrooms where I learn both practical and theory...

Some of the trainers who taught us.....

While we were there, we joined in the celebrations for one of their staff's birthday...and they do it for everyone on their actual birthdays! So if they have like 10 birthdays a month, they will have 10 celebrations....phew...shiong ah!

They had a road show at one of the shopping malls and we went to see how they conducted things there and if it was successful. Here I am getting my face mapped when the consultants weren't so busy...

Other than going for classes, I also got to go do a little sightseeing....we have to go see the Opera House now don't we?! But then 'cos it was at night....the lighting wasn't great....so I decided to 'point' it out in the pictures to you guys...

And we also caught a musical...Priscilla Queen of the Desert! It was hilarious! Really gawdy and loud, lots of costumes and the guys were amazing in their heels! I loved it!

And of course there was shopping.....other then the major department stores, we went to the few key markets to get some cheap shopping, like the paddy's market, the rocks, paddingtons etc.... Here's a guy making caramelised almonds...yummy...

And they also had these motorcycle tours at the Rocks Market if you are young and reckless! hahaha...

But I think that the thing which I did most in Sydney was....EAT!!! Wah lao eh I tell you...ate so much! All kinds of food! Seafood, steaks, fish & chips, desserts....argh!! Peng san!

Tiramisu....

Lemon Tart...

Waffle ice cream....

Some orangy-peachy dessert...

My colleague posing with the HUGE seafood platter we ordered...

Grilled sirloin and lamb chops...


Fish n Chips....

Spanish food....the paella was quite good...see my plate? almost clean...think that was like my 2nd or 3rd serving...hehe...

Went for Lebonese food one night....look at the spread!! And this was only the starters! :}

Yummy humus and pita bread...

And their yummy grilled meats...


Phew....as you can tell....I had a GREAT trip! But it was also quite tiring.... shop and shop and shop....peng san!

My colleagues couldn't quite catch up with me...peng san almost every night on the way back...

Hehehe.... will be going there again in August for another training session.... Can't wait! :P