Video games and related goods purchased:
Left 4 Dead (PC) – $24.99 each, two copies downloaded from Steam – $49.98
Master of Illusion (DS) – $9.98 from Amazon
Sins of a Solar Empire Collector’s Edition (PC) – $19.98 from Amazon Total cost: $79.94
Not much game buying this month… there isn’t a lot coming out that’s interesting. A couple games this month, Warhammer: Dawn of War 2 (PC) and Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (DS), did interest me, but not enough for me to buy on release date. I’ll wait for a deal. I’ve also been considering upgrading my mouse.
Games completed:
The Simpsons Game (360)
I was trying to beat Starcraft: Brood War (PC) this month, but I’ve been seriously distracted by Team Fortress 2. I got back to it again this week, but I’m only in the middle of the last campaign. I’ll hopefully beat it this weekend, but it’ll have to go under the March tab.
At least I beat one game (The Simpsons Game with Chris’ help in co-op). Honestly, despite its great graphics and superb satiric writing and voice acting, the gameplay was SO tedious, making the game overall terrible.
New thing I learned today: There is a butterfly in Europe that tricks ants into raising them in their ant colony by mimicking the ant queen.
A couple weeks ago, Denny’s had a crazy promotion offering free Grand Slam breakfasts between 6AM and 2PM at (almost) all of its locations. I wasn’t originally going to partake in this, as it’s just a $6 breakfast, but Ted convinced me to tag along with him to closest Denny’s during lunch.
No surprise, the Denny’s in Campbell had a line going out the door. The wait turned out to be a little under half an hour, which was better than expected. I thought the two high school bimbos in front of us was letting 6 guys cut in line, but they were all sitting at the same table, so no heads rolled.
Once we were at the head of the line, we were seated fairly quickly by the nice guy-who-seats-people. Unfortunately, the wait for the waitress wasn’t as quick or pleasant. There seemed to be a backlog of customers waiting for their orders to be taken, including several unhappy customers at the bar. Ted and I waited patiently and without complaint, but we ended up being served by a terse waitress. When Ted requested just water for his beverage, she flat out denied him, stating a drink is required for getting the free breakfast. This didn’t seem right to us, but we let it go, as we just wanted our food in all the craziness.
Our suspicions were confirmed when another waitress popped over to our table, thinking we hadn’t had our orders taken. She asked if we got our beverages and asked, “Just water, right?” I knew that first waitress was screwing us. Maybe she was jipped too many tips that day, but that’s still evil of her. We let it go and kept our drink orders.
For the freebie Grand Slam, you couldn’t choose your 4 options; it had to be bacon, sausage, pancakes, and scrambled (no other way) eggs. It came out in decent time, so I’m guessing they probably had a Grand Slam assembly line in the back. We ate quickly and paid at the register. We each got a coupon book full of deals for the next two months from the nice manager guy.
The following Friday, Kelvin and his buddies decided to have dinner at the same Denny’s, and I tagged along so I could use these coupons I got. When I got there, I found out that our waitress was the same crazy bitch lady from earlier in the week! I thought, it’s okay, free Grand Slam Day is over, maybe she won’t have issues…
The coupon book I got sections off the different deals by meal. There’s a buy 1 get 1 free breakfast, buy 1 get 1 free lunch, and buy 1 get 1 free dinner. It doesn’t mention any restrictions on what you can buy, only hour restrictions. For example, the dinner coupon says it must be used between 7PM and 11PM. It says “dinner”, but people go to Denny’s to eat breakfast for dinner, right? I asked the waitress just to be sure. She told me I could only order things under the dinner menu. I was like, WTF? For real? As she walked away, I whispered to Kelvin “Our waitress is evil.” and “I’m pretty sure she just lied to my face.”
Just in case she was right, I hyped myself (and Kelvin) up for a dinner selection. When it was time to order, our evil waitress woman was replaced with a friendly waiter dude. Wanting to see if my suspicions were, once again, correct, I reiterated my question about the coupon to the waiter. His response with: “Well, the ‘dinner’ part just applies to the hours. You can order anything.” I KNEW IT! Despite this, I stuck with my dinner order, because I didn’t want to be anymore indecisive than I already was. I rambled to Kelvin and his friends all night about how that bitch lied to my face and that I’m pretty sure that she’s out to get me.
When we finished dinner, we had to go to the register to pay, and guess who was behind the register. It was none other than the stupid crazy bitch waitress. Good thing I followed her retarded made-up coupon rules so she wouldn’t hassle m-OH NO WAIT SHE IS STILL GAVE ME CRAP. She looked at our receipt and said “Do you have a lunch coupon? You need to use a lunch coupon for these items.”
Okay, first of all, it’s not lunchtime. It’s 9PM, and the lunch coupon says it must be used between 11AM to 4PM. Second of all, NONE OF THE ITEMS ON OUR BILL WAS A LUNCH ITEM. The first two items on the bill were Kelvin’s and my dinners. The next two items were breakfast platters that Geoff and Paul ordered. And the very last item on the bill, the one this dumbass waitress was saying was a lunch item, was the Slamburger that Vincent got. And you know what? The Slamburger is on their ALL NIGHT MENU! It’s not even on the regular daytime menu!
At this point, both me and Kelvin were practically shouting at her that we ordered dinners that are on the top of the bill. She’s like “Oh, haha!” and rings up our coupon FINALLY. This was like the first time I see this demon witch show any sign of positivity. She gives us our receipt, and with our receipt she also gives us, as an added bonus, ANOTHER coupon book. So we can come back again and get SCREWED by her REPEATEDLY.
Honestly, what the f*ck is wrong with this woman? I was never rude to her; I’m assuming she’s just evil to everybody. And why does she want to screw me out of her employer’s promotions? What does she get out of this? Does she think she’ll get more gratuity? Is she jealous of other people saving money? Is she illiterate and cannot read the coupons so she just makes sh*t up as she goes? I DON’T UNDERSTAND.
This Denny’s in Campbell I always thought was kind of ghetto. But to their credit, everybody else except for crazy bitch waitress has always been very friendly and nice, so I would recommend coming here for a late night meal. However, if you run into “Carmen”, make sure to bust out your torches.
Because of jetlag and going to bed not-too-late because of lack of night time activities, getting up in time for breakfast was pretty easy. The restaurant at Navutu Stars isn’t open all day, but is available for ~3 hour periods for each mealtime. Unlike lunch and dinner, continental breakfast (breads, cereal, fruit, etc.) are included in the tariff, with cooked options costing extra. I often splurged for scrambled eggs, even though the continental was plenty. (Oh my god, I so miss their fresh muffins…) Usually during breakfast, the staff will come talk to you and ask about your plans for the day. I’m guessing it helps them gauge interest in certain activities so they can schedule things during the week accordingly.
The activities board
Kelvin contemplating the fruit plate
The activities board mentioned snorkeling at Enemoli Reef at 10:30AM, which we wanted to do. After breakfast, we had two hours to kill until then, so we explored more of the gorgeous beaches next to the resort (the day before we went West, this day we went East). This time our companion was resort doggie Mia.
Kelvin walking over some rocks
Walking in warm, clear waters
“I got a coconut!”
“Get away from my coconut.”
Around 10:30AM, we gathered with two other couples (one pair Australian, the other an English pair who moved to Australia) by the restaurant deck to pick snorkeling gear. The resort provides snorkeling masks and flippers free of charge. I have no idea how the masks are cleaned, so who knows what kind of germs are in those things. Once we had our gear, we were lead on to the boat and headed out into the ocean. Kelvin was excited since this was our first opportunity to really put our new underwater case to the test.
Me blissfully ignorant before we left
As we headed out to destination, Seruvi pointed out the area we’d be snorkeling in, which was this section of ocean in between several islands. This section of ocean also happened to be very far from the islands, so basically he was dumping us in the middle of the ocean. I started having a panic attack; I never snorkeled before, and I always thought people snorkeled off of beaches. I can barely swim (I don’t even know if the way limbs flail count as swimming… I’m not sure I can even tread water), and I didn’t have life jacket. I think he was unaware of my newbieness to snorkeling, because Seruvi also joked about leaving us there alone and getting morning tea. I was freaking out to Kelvin, quietly, about how I was going to drown and maybe I should get a life jacket, but Kelvin kept reassuring me it’d be fine and that flippers make people super swimmers. It was beyond me how this whole snorkeling in the middle of the ocean scared nobody else, and Kelvin wasn’t at all concerned about my lack of swimming skill. I tried my best to look calm as we reached our destination. The other couples jumped into the water immediately, and Kelvin followed. With Kelvin and Seruvi’s help, I eventually got myself to plunge in the water.
Me trying not to drown
Thanks to wonderfully warm Fiji waters, no shock from temperature upon jumping in. So no distraction from the anxiety I was feeling from being in open waters. I didn’t get to see much from my first jump in, as I focused on figuring out how to breathe with the mask and stay calm. It turns out Kelvin was right about the flippers; they made me a much better swimmer and helped me stay buoyant quite easily. It took a bit to get used to the mask, breathing through a tube and spitting out ocean water the few times it’d get in the tube. I had a couple freakouts where I sucked in salt water and had to tread water to remove my mask and cough it out. Before we all jumped in, Seruvi said he’d drop us off and meet us at the other end of the reef. Instead of enjoying the scenery, I immediately swam for the boat, as this first dive in was a little overwhelming.
It’s not that deep, as you can see.
I reached the boat and dragged my sorry wet butt onto the deck. I sat there, gathering myself. I had gotten the hang of it in the middle of my swim, but I still needed a break. Kelvin was with me the whole time, making sure I was okay. Once I felt better, we dove in again. Kelvin went in first again, to take underwater camera footage for the jump in. When I jumped in, I apparently had a wardrobe malfunction with my bikini top from the impact, leaving a boob exposed. Neither one of us noticed it immediately. In fact, I only noticed it when I found Kelvin groping my chest, and I gave him a good underwater smack because I thought he was being a perverted jerkhole who was purposely exposing me. It turns out he was trying to fix it for me; he has proof as he got all of it on video. I’ll probably never upload it, so sorry, no nipple action here. (Unless he Kelvin censors it and I’m not feeling too self-conscious.) However, the underwater snorkel mask sounds we make during the footage are quite hilarious. It basically goes like this:
Kelvin jumps in, I follow. A couple seconds pass.
Kelvin: Mmph?!?
Few seconds pass.
Judy: Mmmph!!! *smack sound*
Kelvin: Mmpheh-heh-heh-heh!
I was much calmer the second time and was able to look around more. The water wasn’t that deep; I’ve been in deeper swimming pools. Though, still plenty of depth to drown. Once I was calm, swimming around and breathing through the mask was super easy. There wasn’t tons of fish, but there were still plenty of sealife and coral. It was very pretty and really exciting for me.
Blue starfish chillin’
Some coral and fishies
Unfortunately, once I became comfortable with swimming, I began noticing the way the water was rolling. I started getting nauseous, and after several minutes, I needed to go back to the boat again. I had no idea you could get seasick without actually being on any sort of boat, but I certainly was.
Seruvi and me waiting on the boat
I recuperated on the boat until everyone finished their snorkeling. We returned to Navutu Stars and we were welcomed back by Mia. I was pretty excited about surviving my first snorkeling experience.
Resting on one of the many lawnchair bed things all over the resort
After some resting, we changed and had lunch. I had a very delicious Italian salad, while Kelvin had the Spaghetti Aglio. The snorkeling trip was enough excitement for me for one day, so we opted out of the afternoon activity. Instead, we enjoyed much napping, both on the daybed on the porch and in the hammock.
When we first arrived, Kelvin had expressed some disappointment with our bure, as he didn’t like all the shrubbery in front of it. He noticed on this day that the uninhabited bure next to ours had a nicer view, as there were only a couple trees in front of that one. After napping a bit in our hammock, we tried the hammock in front of the uninhabited bure, and the view was indeed much nicer. I thought he was being picky at first, but after experiencing the second hammock, he infected me with his pickiness. But things tend to bug me more, at least to the point where I might actually do something about it. I went to the office and asked if we could switch bures, and they were super nice about letting us switch. They cleaned up and set up the new bure and moved our things for us. One of the cleaning ladies was sweeping the porch and commented on how beautiful the view was. For some reason, I always thought island folks would get bored of the beauty around them, seeing it all the time. I guess that’s not the case.
Shrubbery in front of first bure (Bure 7, I think)
View from our second bure (Bure 6)
We did more relaxing and napping until dinner time. The tide was low in the afternoon, so we got to check out the lagoon all dried up. There were a bunch of clear shrimp or bug things hopping around in the sand.
Boats beached in front of the resort
We opted to try out dinner outside of our bure on the porch. It sounds like a romantic idea, but isn’t really. Maybe we were having dinner too late or something, but it was too dark to really see any of the scenery. In fact, the only thing we (barely) see was our food. No one’s really around to help you with anything, and you just leave your dishes there when you’re done, attracting who knows what creatures to your bure. I would have preferred to eat at the restaurant or at least eat inside the bure. Food was good, as always.
Dinner by lamplight
After dinner was same as the night before: more Lord of the Rings and then sleep. Except I noticed as I showered that I had gotten an insane bathing suit tan. Thankfully no burning, but there was a huge contrast between light and dark spots on my backside. Not so much on the front. Today, three months later, I can still see a tan line on my rear end.
I hope everyone’s having a good V-day, either enjoying together-time with their significant others or enjoying alone-time cursing this ridiculous Hallmark holiday. We have no plans for the evening, but as long as I don’t witness 20 other couples having awesome times on romantic dates with hearts popping out of their ears, I’m cool. Cupcakes would be nice tho :P
I’d put a VGCats valentine here, but it doesn’t seem like he made any this year! It’s okay, there’s others to fill the void:
Blizzard came out with their own Starcraft 2 set. Loved the Zerg and Protoss one, but they couldn’t think of something better for the Terrans?
Speaking of Left 4 Dead, it’s on sale this weekend off Steam for $24.99. I bought a copy for myself and a copy for Kel (um, it’s your Valentine’s Day gift… yeah!). Looks friggin’ fantastic on my computer, and I can actually aim a little better than I can on the 360! Not sure when I’ll really start playing it though, Kelvin’s got me hooked on TF2, even tho I’m so horrible at it.
I woke up (and am awake) earlier than normally I would on a Saturday. I had to go to the post office to get stamps for impending thank you cards (yes, we’re starting these damn things finally) and to pick up a package. I bought Wedding Day Barbie and Ken anonymous male groom dolls off eBay as a thank-you gift for our flower girl. It was a couple dollars more than I’d get finding them in stores, but it’s worth saving the legwork (plus the groom doll was sold out EVERYWHERE during Christmas… but of course AFTER I buy this off eBay, Amazon finally has him in stock, $#%&!).
The Barbie is a year earlier than the groom (she’s from 2007, he’s from 2008). I think the 2008 Barbie looks better, but I didn’t even realize she existed until today when I was browsing Amazon. All the ones I saw in the stores were the 2007 one. But the 2007′s ring actually lights up, so she’s obviously cooler regardless. I wonder why she’s marrying some random guy instead of Ken. I know they broke up, but I thought they made up! That’s okay, this groom guy is better looking than Ken anyway. For some reason, Mattel decided in the last decade Ken should have real hair instead of the molded kind, and now he kind of looks like a douche.
Our flight arrived on time in Nadi (pronounced Nan-di ), Fiji around 5:15AM. Getting from the plane to the airport required walking on an open walkway, and immediately stepping out of the plane, the air was sticky. It was warm, but comfortable; I’m sure it’d be not as comfortable later in the day.
Kelvin in front of our plane
We went straight to customs, which meant leaving the terminal. I didn’t notice all the stores in the terminal until when I left Fiji, but if you ever need to do some last minute airport shopping, don’t leave the terminal! There are only a couple shops outside of the terminal, and no shop outside of the airport would be open at the early hours we arrived. Customs was not particularly organized, but didn’t take too long despite the massive line. We also exchanged some Fijian dollars at the booth next to customs, and the first thing we bought outside of customs was a giant bottle of water. We met up with a rep from a company associated with the Navutu Stars, the resort we’re staying at, and he directed us to the Raffles Hotel across the street from the airport. In front of the hotel is a stop for the shuttle that goes to Port Denarau, which is where a handful of resorts and the dock with all the ships that goes to Fiji’s many islands are located. We loitered by the hotel for over an hour, though I did make a quick run to the airport souvenir shops to by a purse as I hadn’t brought one. I ended up using the purse through the entire trip, so it was a good purchase.
The line to customs. The money exchange booth is on the left.
Kelvin standing across the street from Nadi Airport
The shuttle, which was an air-conditioned charter bus, came around 7:30AM and took us to Denarau Island (which is not really an island, but a small section of the mainland cut off by a river). Looking out the window, Fiji is somewhat third-world looking. The buses the Fijian people use have no windows and are crammed. Buildings are ghetto-looking and shack-like. Despite having a lot of tropical land of nothing (actually, it’s probably farmland), plenty of people walking along the street, going on with their daily business. We caught a glimpse of the military, but they were just doing trash duty on the main road! One interesting observation concerning Fijian people: they ALL have afros. Both men and women always have very round hairdos. And since most of the people we met work in the tourism industry, they also all wear flowers in their hair. Kelvin found some people’s gender’s not very obvious as a result.
Out the window of the shuttle
The shuttle dumps you off in front of this large cabana-like structure, crammed with tourists. This is apparently where you get your ticket for the ships that depart the dock. There was a long counter and many reps helping the crowd of people, most of them looking like college-aged backpackers as opposed to honeymooners. I dunno if there were multiple lines or any distinction between the different reps. I couldn’t find “South Sea Cruises”, which is what the resort told me to look for to get our catamaran tickets. We just went with the flow of people and ended up at the front, where everything was labeled “Awesome Adventures Fiji“. I don’t know if they’re in charge of all the catamarans or something, but we got our tickets.
Cabana packed with folks looking for boat tickets
I made a last minute run to a nearby convenience store to buy some beverages. (I read reviews online that resorts have expensive drinks, so to always buy your own and bring them. This is good advice, actually.) All passengers had to wait outside on the dock, in the hot, sticky sun, until the ship was ready. That was somewhat miserable. They eventually started letting passengers in, and we had tickets to the “captain’s lounge”. Most of the seats on the ship are outside first-come first-serve, but the captains lounge is a nice, air conditioned room that’s all windows, located right behind the captain’s seat. We also get free drinks and snacks. Sweet! No surprise, all 8 people in the captain’s lounge were couples. Most of the folks on the outside were young backpackers.
Sitting in the captain’s lounge. Backpackers can
be seen behind me through the glass
Catamaran stewardess, with the captain driving the ship behind her.
Even though the island we were heading to was only ~50 miles north of the mainland, it would take FOUR HOURS by catamaran to get to our destination. We napped most of the way, taking breaks in nap to drink soda and take pictures. The boat made many stops for the numerous resorts on its route. For each stop, the resort would bring out their own little boat, and you would hop from the catamaran to the little boat. Everyone’s luggage is piled up in the back of the boat, but I guess it’s not too disorganized, since everyone gets their luggage okay. I wouldn’t put anything too valuable in your luggage tho.
The catamaran stopped for this tiny island with a resort on it.
I’m napping. The A/C was on really high, so I was actually
cold towards the last half of the trip.
Before we reached our stop around noon, I woke up from my nap with a slight sore throat. Not sure how I got it, but this was the first sign of any illness during the trip. I didn’t notice much about it later on. (I guess I was having too much fun in Fiji.) We were met up outside of the catamaran by Seruvi, the activities coordinator for Navutu Stars and the boat driver for the week, as their regular boat guy was on vacation. We pretty much saw this guy every day as a result, which is cool cuz Seruvi is very nice and jolly. He took us to the resort via the ocean entrance, and we walked in warm, shallow water to Navutu Stars, where the staff greeted us with songs and leis.
The back of the catamaran we took. Other vacationers
go to their resort on a different boat.
Me sitting in the Navutu Stars boat
Seruvi driving us into Navutu Stars
When you first get there, a staff member (for us, it was Dan) takes you to the cabana, which is where the bar is. You get a nice fruity drink while he discusses the details of the resort with you. Then you and your luggage are taken to your bure, which is a Fijian hut. Navutu Stars is nice in that everybody gets their own bure. Also, the resort is tiny; it has a max capacity of 9 couples, no kids allowed. So everybody knows your name, literally. All the staff members already knew who we are and also called us by our names, but even after staying there for 5 days, I think I only remembered 3 of the staff people’s names.
The view of the entrance, from the cabana
The huts are nice, as all the beachfront huts are next to the ocean. There’s not really a beach outside your door; it’s more like a lagoon. The huts were very specifically built; the bed, sofa, cabinetry, and bathroom are built-in. The bathroom is kind of weird in that it’s just a corner of the hut sectioned off with walls and a saloon door. There’s a hammock next to the ocean, a pair of lawn chair-type things and a day bed outside of your hut, and a large bed inside the bure. With the sofa, that’s at least 5 different ways to take naps, just at your bure. The front of bure has large glass doors that completely open, allowing your hut to be open air. There’s a bowl of water to rinse your feet next to the door. I wish they had explained this bowl thing to me as soon as I got there, as I ended up tracking sand everywhere inside the bure, which annoyed me until housekeeping cleaned it up the next day.
Navutu Stars usually has two scheduled activities every day: one in the morning around 10AM and another in the afternoon around 2PM. We missed the morning one and were too exhausted for the afternoon one. Instead, we had a late lunch. At first, it was really weird eating at the resort. You pick a table, and a staff member greets you by name and hands you a menu. They take your order, like, 20 feet to the kitchen. Oftentimes, the staff member will converse with you, give you recommendations on things to do. You get your food and eat at your leisure. There’s no bad service, because there’s always one or two people attending a handful of couples, so they’re always aware if you need something. Then when you’re done, you just leave. No bill because everything is on a tab that you pay when you leave. The resort restaurant is on an open deck with a lovely view of the ocean. Here there is also the blackboard that lists all the information relevant to guests: activities of the day, times of low and high tides, and massage specials. Food here was pretty decent, and apparently the salt in Fiji is totally awesome because they always use sea salt. Kelvin would put sea salt on everything he ate.
I had the “Pasta with Fresh Tomatoes”, Kelvin had the grilled tuna
After lunch, we decided to explore one of the beaches adjacent to the resort. The tide must have been on the low side, as a lot of beach was exposed and the sand was very white. Absolutely gorgeous. And walking through the water felt great, as the water was perfect temperature. I’d never been to a tropical island before, so it was a strange sensation to walk into the ocean and not get a cold shock like you would in California beaches. For our stroll, we were joined by one of the three resort dogs, Olivia.
Kelvin walking along with beach with Olivia
Olivia gets up close and personal
Olivia and me walking away from the resort
When you come to Navutu Stars, you get a free half-hour massage, so we went straight to the spa bure after our stroll. Like with all couples massages, our massages were at the same time. I had the head spa lady, and Kelvin had one of her underlings. The spa bure faces the ocean, but you can opt to have the doors closed for privacy. I thought the massage was really nice, but apparently Kelvin wasn’t too fond of it.
They’re getting too close to my bits!
Because we were greased up from the massage, we immediately went back to our bure to shower and wash off all the massage oil. Then it was time for my favorite activity in Fiji: napping! We were really tired, so we pretty much passed out until dinner time. For dinners, there isn’t a menu given to you at the table. Instead, an hour before dinner hours, the chef walks around the resort and finds all the couples to show them the dinner options for the evening, as the menu changes every night. He makes note of their selections and prepares the ingredients. At dinnertime, you simply go to the dining area, order drinks, and wait for dinner to come.
Kelvin’s beef and vegetable stir-fry dinner
At night, there’s not much to do, as you’re stuck on an island with no cities nearby. It’s dark, and there’s no TV or internet in your room. We came prepared though. In preparation for our New Zealand journey, Kelvin brought his laptop and the Lord of the Rings trilogy extended versions on DVD. I had only seen the first one, so this was a good evening time killer. During our Fiji stay, I think we only got through the first two movies.
New thing I learned today: In Fiji, everyone greets each other by saying “bula“, which is “hello” in Fijian. “Vinaka” is “thank you” in Fijian. “Bula Vinaka” is a warm “hello”.
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Left 4 Dead 2 - PC
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