Sep 9, 2010 | Life
So as many of you probably know already, I was in Tokyo for two weeks in early July to visit my in-laws. Hub and Lil Tot went two weeks ahead of me while I stayed behind to look for our runaway cat; sadly, I didn’t find her so went to join my family for the last little bit of our vacation.
So here are some of the photos we took while there… (this is super-long, just to warn you! And totally ignore the commentary if my dry sense of humor grates on ya.)
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Jul 20, 2010 | Life
I’m beginning to think that myself and planes JUST. DON’T. MIX.
Rough translation of the above video:
Today [Monday, July 19], around 5:15 PM, a Delta Airways plane bound for Portland out of Narita [Tokyo] tried repeatedly to take off, but was unable to due to the brake refusing to release. The pilots gave up the attempted take off, and the plane was manually towed off the runway and back to the hangar. None of the passengers were injured. According to Narita officials, the cause of the problem was due to the plane getting stuck in the unevenness of the runway surface covering. They ended up having to close the runway for about 40 minutes.
Perhaps if you peer closely at the image above, you can see my scowling face from one of the windows on the plane. (Just kidding; I wasn’t near a window.;-)
And this was AFTER a 1-hour delay where we went to take off and the pilots couldn’t get the rear hatch light to light up and indicate the rear hatch was actually closed – so we taxi’d on back to the hangar and waited while the maintenance crew fixed it.
Then, the SECOND time we went out onto the runway, the pilots opened up the engines SIX TIMES, and the plane did NOT budge. That was pretty scary. I thought they were just playing chicken with the Air Canada B747 next to us – kind of revving up the engines, like at a racetrack. (At least that was what it sounded like!) 15 minutes of sitting out there on the runway doing that, 8 planes backing up behind us. and we didn’t budge…so the tower had to stop all incoming traffic and we had to be towed off the runway as you saw above.
Here’s the screenshot of the news article on Japan’s AP saying basically the same thing, except with a little more information. What had actually happened was that due to high temperatures in Tokyo the asphalt of the runway had softened, and the planes wheels had sunk into the depressions. Apparently the 23,000 pounds of thrust per engine on the Boeing 737-600 could do nothing to pull us out of those divots created by the wheels. Um, okay…
The pilot said that between him and the other 3 in the cockpit they had a combined total of more than 120 years of flight experience, and none of them had EVER experienced anything like this!
I swear, I am so sick of bizarre things happening to me on airplanes!!!
(In other news, I am back safe and sound in Portland, after a flight that was supposed to be less than 9 hours had us all stuck inside the plane – but not necessarily flying – for 12 and a half hours. With a four-year-old in tow. UGH!)
xoxoxo
Carly
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Mar 9, 2010 | Fashion, Life
(Sauce tee, Bebe cardigan, Forever21 mirrored ribbon necklace and studded bangle bracelet, Hue footless tights, Rock & Republic destroyed denim shorts, Steve Madden flats, unknown skull-studded bag from Pineapple County)
Last day in Hawaii. I met up with some old friends and had a blast! It’s so wonderful to reconnect and find the odd little ways your lives have paralleled, even after years apart. If you have an old friend who you haven’t heard from lately, definitely drop her/him a line and say hi! New friends are dear, but old friends are dearest!
Edit: I just noticed that weird kid in the background grinning. He seems a lot more thrilled than I look to be photographed, he he.
I liked the design of this Sauce shirt and bought it with a gift card to Saks Fifth Avenue. The shirt is so cheaply constructed, though! Worse than the worst of Forever21.
Edit: I was actually taxiing down the runway to take off on the plane back to Portland as I was typing the above. I didn’t think I would actually get done with this post before they forced me to turn off my electronic device LOL! But I managed to bang out the above…and decided later to add some more info. The shirt’s side seams are overlocked with a simple double-needle; hems are raw. Collar, instead of being made with ribbing, is done with self-fabric, turned, and finished with twin-needle overlock, so it stretches out the more you wear it. The fabric is super-thin and 100% cotton – it feels and looks utterly cheap to the touch. (Unlike my beloved Kain label tee – which is a blend of silk – and truly feels luxurious.) This shirt feels like it will disintegrate in sunlight…or in the washing machine! Ugh. So not worth $70! (The only rationalization I can make for its price is that the oversized screenprint (thus requiring non-standard sizded screens) necessitates a higher screenprinting fee?? But I think this is one example of the consumer paying the jacked-up price of label luxury – i.e., the brand of the shirt is its cache, not the quality.) I think it’s funny how the skeleton’s pelvis is quite higher than the wearer’s. Hub calls it my “midget skeleton” shirt. In my mind it’s also an ironic commentary on the current INness of skinniness in the fashion industry…could this be the current ideal of the female body?? hehehe. It kind of reminds me of those shirts they sell at Spencer’s Gifts or in raunchy catalogs as beach cover-ups with an airbrushed hot chick’s bikini body on them….in sizes XL – XXXL only…except this is the other extreme.;-)
I haven’t been in the habit of wearing black tights under my shorts, but here in Hawaii after the earthquake in Chile it’s been super-, super-windy. Almost hurricane weather. Of course I didn’t anticipate this and didn’t bring any warm clothes or long pants; so I tried layering these tights under my shorts, doing the whole Japanese-tourist-in-Hawaii-outfit. If you’ve ever been to Honolulu, you’ve probably noticed that all the young Japanese girls are layering black leggings or tights under their jean minis or shorts. For warmth? To hide the non-tanned state of their legs? To hide other leg imperfections? To be more modest even in a tropical climate that almost necessitates the showing of skin? I suppose one will never know…it’s a sort of a micro-trend here on the islands amongst the tourists from Asian countries. And me haha!
Hope you guys all had a great weekend!
xoxox
Carly
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Mar 2, 2010 | Fashion, Life
I know, right? Again????
Full disclosure: I am in Hawaii now and desperately trying to catch up on posting all my New York Fashion Week coverage from my laptop that I was silly enough to bring with me.
Hub’s best friend had his wedding February 12. His brother has his wedding March 6. Both decided to have their weddings in Hawaii.
So what does one do? Decide to only go for one of the weddings? (You’d have to go to your brother’s, obviously.) Go for the first one, stay in Hawaii 4 weeks, go for the second one, then go home? Or go to Hawaii for the first wedding, fly back, the go back to Hawaii a few weeks later?
Well, that’s kind of how it worked out for us (except for me going to New York Fashion Week in-between). It turned out the roundtrip plane tickets for all of us were way cheaper than the cost of daily meals, hotel, pets’ boarding fees, missed school for Lil Tot, etc., so we decided to fly back to Portland in-between.
Basically we had a week in-between our flights. I’m a little tired of living out of a suitcase by now!
(H&M DIY’ed destroyed sweater, Old Navy lame-knit tanktop, unknown brand bag from Pineapple County, Forever21 rhinestone bracelets and double-wrap belt, Norma Kamali for Spiegel convertible minidress worn as a skirt, Wet Seal gold chain flats)
Bought the H&M sweater while in New York and because it had a small hole in it I was able to get it at a whole 10% off discount the original $26 price. [wooo. Not.] So I unraveled ladders in it a bit more, ended up with it looking really cool and Raquel Allegra‘d…and then snagged it moments after this photo was taken on my bracelets, thus altering it from an intentionally-destroyed sweater…to a sweater that just looked like I’d pulled it out of the trash. Not good.
I finally figured out what these skull studs are a knockoff of – Thomas Wylde‘s designs! It was bugging the hell out of me. I found this bag for $40 at Pineapple County last…last week when I was in Honolulu, and today when I was browsing in the store the salesgirl asked me if she could start wrapping up my bag for purchase. Problem with stores that sell affordable, cute merchandise: sales staff is usually clueless LOL.
I’ll be leaving…on a jet plane soon. Again. Arrrgh!
Day after the “tsunami” and everything is fine here – just a little windy.
xoxox
Carly
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Feb 13, 2010 | Fashion, Life
It’s funny how much and how little of the geography here we recall. How to get from here to there is still a source of contention as Hub refused the map at the rentacar place, insisting he knew Honolulu. But as we pass street after street, things start coming back.
Both yesterday and today were full of visiting the airport. Yesterday, twice to the airport to pick up the inlaws, then to the Children’s Discovery Center where we further psychologically-scarred Lil Tot with the exploding organs doll (an 8-ft tall stuffed doll that’s probably been there since the 60’s, kind of resembling Raggedy Andy with blue hair, with a large zipper in his chest. When you pull open the zipper, the doll’s stuffed organs projectile vomit at you. Nice for little kids.)
Then to Mariposa for lunch, a delicious pan-island restaurant atop the Neiman Marcus at the Ala Moana Shopping Center. (We always get full on the starters that the waiters bring: hot popovers with strawberry butter [used to be papaya butter which I thought was better], and a cup of light consomme soup.) I had a salad with island greens, goat cheese, wasabi-crusted pecans, broiled salmon, and papaya vinaigrette, one of my favorites. I shared the cheesecake with Hub – a whipped cheescake with blood orange gelee, manadarin slices, raspberry coulis, and a coffee crunch crust: I’m not really a cheesecake person but this was pure heaven. They also have a location in Bellevue, WA if you are ever in that neighborhood.
Today we woke up early to got to the wedding that was our primary reason for coming to Hawaii this time.
Hub’s best friend from high school was getting married – and get this, exactly one week before today the travel agent they booked the entire trip and wedding with went bankrupt – and stole their money – $20,000+ of it! (This is a travel agent based in Japan.) Since all their friends and family had given the couple money for their travel accommodations, the couple then felt obligated to pay for everyone’s plane and stay that all had to be rebooked last week. The travel agent had cancelled the wedding plans and reservations and everything – and Hub’s best friend had to rebook everything himself at the last minute. What an awful start to their life together! 🙁
Anyway, the wedding was held on the North Shore where Hub and I got married (his best friend was in attendance then and liked the ceremony so much he decided to get married at the same place now, 5 years later). It was pouring with rain on the way up so the ground was soaked, but everyone put on a happy face and tried to make the best of it. The bride was beautiful, and the groom got all choked up during his speech at the reception where he mentioned the difficulties they’d had in getting to today and all the inconvenience they had caused everyone. They even presented Lil Tot a toy: a Darth Vader with removable helmet and megalomaniac computerized seat hutch (you’ll have to forgive my lack of words; I’m really, really tired at this point) – which I’m sure Hub will place in the location of honor on his Star Wars shelf at home. (Don’t ask.)
(handmade dress, handmade necklace, Target rayon scarf, ring from Pineapple County, Deena & Ozzy bag, Steve Madden shoes)
I ripped chiffon strips to make this dress – would have added more had I had the time – and was even tacking them down to the bubble hem in the car on the way to the wedding. (I bought the dress below off-the-shelf and added a layer of ripped chiffon to make it look more unique.) Hub calls it my “jellyfish” dress.
The necklace is kind of reminiscent of the $700 Michael Kors Rhodium Bead Necklace from his S/S 2010 collection…just better. (And cheaper.)
Anyway, after a long drive back to the hotel, I got ready to leave, and am now sitting in the airport about to board the redeye flight to New York City in order to cover Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.
I’m super-nervous about the plane breaking apart in midair and being engulfed in flames (or being knocked unconscious by a wayward headrest), so if that happens, I told ya so! 😉
See you on the other side (of the country) ~
xo
Carly
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