hey there.. how are you guys doing? how was your weekend? mine was really awesome..

i spent both saturday and sunday eating, shopping, belly laughing, hanging out by the beach and pool in songkhla with 2 friends from high school; Rose and U..

on saturday before lunch, after finishing all my morning routine (detox, read, run, journal & take a shower), i drove to songkhla to pick up Rose at her home and then drove back to hadyai again to go shopping for swimming suit .. before shopping, we stopped by at chaba restaurant to eat somtam (papaya salad) as lunch ..

then we headed to central department store to buy swimming suits. the swimming suits there were way too cute, especially the bikini. i nearly couldn't resist myself buying one!!

Rose picked some of them to try on in the fitting room and most of them were in loud shades of colors.. red, orange, blue, green, pink..

..i walked around taking photos while Rose was busy in the fitting room..

when it was time to pay, Rose wanted to pay by her debit card. but there was a problem. they wouldn't accept her card unless she signed on the back of her card. Rose tried to explain them that nobody signed on the back of the card in the States as it could be used by someone else if she lost it. still, they persisted her to sign the card.. after phone conversation between Rose and the bank staff, they said they could not accept the card without her signature. so, Rose was fuming and got her card back and we walked away. i told her, we could try robinson..

so we left central for robinson. getting inside there, we looked for swimming suit section and before Rose tried any of them, we asked the staff to check if Rose could use her unsigned debit card.. after checking with her supervisor, the sale girl told us that the card was okay to use here.. then, Rose repeated the circle again (selecting swimming suits & trying them on)

after leaving robinson with a swimming suit, we headed back to central again bc my car was there. we got 4 hour free for parking there.. why?? .. right before we had problem with the card, i handed my car park slip to the sale girl and she happily stamped for me and gave us 4 hours! (the number of the hours for parking car depended on the price of the shopping..)

after getting in the car, we headed to Aom Bake House. we had fried noodle (me) and fried green curry rice (rose), cakes, coffee and tea here.. and we chatted some more..

after noodle and rice, we ordered a piece of cake for each of us. rose could finish hers in a blink while it took me longer as mine was sweetly rich and bigger.. if i didn't feel like my tummy was going to explode, i would have finished it all. it was very yummy!! i think i will go back to eat it again, only this time i will go back with empty tummy..

then we drove to songkhla to check in at the hotel. after settling in the room, we got changed to swimming suits and came out to the pool.. we lied on the wooden bench by the pool talking and waiting for the kids playing in the pool to retreat.. but no, it looked like they wouldn't leave the pool easily.. so we decided to walk along the beach.. it was awesome being tourists in our own town.. one must do it once in a while..

when the sun was setting, we walked back to the hotel, checking out the pool again. not so many kids so we hesitantly dip ourselves into the warm pool. not sure why it was so warm.. maybe, it was that the sun just set which left the water in the pool warm but Rose was not so convinced about that.. she thought about some other reasons.. however, she followed me into the water..

when it got really dark, the color of the sky turned into deep dark blue. we were still there floating in the warm water, chatting, looking into the glittering stars.. we were not so hungry yet due our mid afternoon feast..

around 7 pm, we got back to our room to take a shower and left for samila sea sport for dinner.. we mostly ordered seafood, ate slowly and chatted. we finally got back to our room around 10 mins before 10 pm. we planned before having dinner that we were going to walk in songkhla walking street (which we have never been there before and wanted to try..) but it was a bit late so we decided to get back to our room..

next morning, after waking up, we drove to krom luang chumpon statue. Rose wanted to light fire crackers there. later, we walked along the pavement taking photos..

..and then got back to the hotel to have breakfast..

late morning, Rose wanted to see her parents at khao san temple so i drove her there. getting back to the hotel, looking at the pool, i was hesitant to jump into the pool as it was 11 am and the sun was strong, baking and burning. i would be super dark after getting in it just for 10 mins. but the pool being devoid of people was so inviting.. getting back to the room, i finally gave in and put on bikini. i don't understand why thai people are so afraid of getting dark skin. you are beautiful bc of your thought not your outside appearance.. getting back to the pool, i slowly dip myself into the clear and inviting water. i swam for 20 minutes to make all the muscle moved and then got back to the room to take a shower and got ready to check out when Rose was back..

luckily, U (our high school girlfriend) was free from work and could join us for lunch. we picked chomchan in yor island to have lunch and chat.. so after checking out, we drove to yor island.. gosh! after all these years, U hasn't changed a bit.. when talking, she was still loud, funny and damn straight.. i hadn't seen her since 1993 but when talking to her, it was like we had met often after leaving school.. we laughed until our bellies hurt.. seriously..

we sat there talking from 12.30 am until nearly 3 pm.. i drove home feeling full and happy. before leaving, we had a promise to meet again in 2 years when Rose is back to thailand again.. next time, U will try to gather more friends.. i bet we will wreck the place with more high school friends!