Taste of London @ Regent's Park

Something like the Food Expo in NZ but bigger and better =P. Well, it's more expensive too. Tasted so many samples it was crazy! Went from sweet to savory to sweet again to savory, gosh am overworking my tastbuds and tummy! We had food vouchers too and had to spend them in the last minute coz we can't claim them back which was kinda stink so I had to buy or eat more stuff (oof~).

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Live chefs shows

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Decorative food art

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Thai desert made out of sugar, coconut milk and rice topped with corn and spring onions. YUM

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Sweets

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Free bag if you buy all the boxes

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In which I bought one :P . They were £10 (o.O)

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Mmmm...Baklava and turkish delight made to perfection

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Lots and lots of pastry's

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More heaven cupcakes (but they were £3 each, crazy)

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Light chocolate cake coated with apricot jam I think

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Chocolate coated cake....gosh, I didn't dare buy one coz I don't think I can finish it

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Crowd on a Sunday, which wasn't too bad since it was outdoors

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D's ultimate Japanese dish

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Weather today :)

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All the freebies stuff we got from the show

I was full of energy and guilt, so much so that I went for a run eventhough my knee isn't fully healed :( . Then again, the weather was too beautiful to ignore. Did skipping and press ups too. But it was an awesome day, my tastebuds had a fulfilling time :D

I love this Ad




Very inspiring :)

Pandan cake Round 2




Heheh,that's after my 2nd attempt...and the BIG difference was that I used the 'bake' feature dial on the oven instead of 'fanbake'.Talk about being a rookie LOL.Would show my 1st attempt but am shy about it hehe.

Llavorsi, Barcelona

Well then, each story seems to get much more crazy as each trip goes.

Let's put it in a different way to sum things up:

Friday, 12/06:
  • Packed and made sure everything is in the bag - checked
  • Passport first to go in - checked
  • Left early for the airport - checked
  • Even read some work on the way - all good, checked
  • At the airport, as soon as I took out my black case, it wasn't mine...panic sunked in
  • Rung D - straight to voicemail, panic attack
  • Rung neighbour for help - no luck, double panic attack
  • Bought Heathrow express train to rush back - £30 return but next train wasn't until 15 mins
  • 1.5 hours before flying off - tears, helpless, and lost :(:(:(
  • Went to check the next flight - £190
  • Went home to check alternative flights - nothing cheaper
So, I decided to pay the extra....

But going through the whole trip - priceless (NOT ONE REGRET) :D

For everything else, there is mastercard Visa (hehe)

T'was an expensive tuition, sigh

I wana thank my neighbour and D for consoling me and cheering me up when I got home. Had a comforting meal and yummy orange cake to cheer me up.

Anyhoo let's continue to the journey of this wonderful, spectacular and short amazing weekend.


Sat, 13/06

After a restless sleep I woke up at about 3.30am to catch the bus to the train station. Things were going alright as I arrived the airport early to grab and pay my ticket. Queue was empty. Flying to Barcelona at day time was amazing. I manage to capture nice views as I landed

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You can tell that it's gona be a great day... :)

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Just before landing

As I arrived, my wonderful friends picked me up from the airport and we headed off to Llavorsi (3 hour and a bit trip). They dubbed the Tom Tom (GPS navigation) 'dumb dumb' coz initially we were going round and round in circles LOL

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Arriving the rafting area

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River where we will be rafting down

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Hotel where we will be staying (nice~)

Weather was HOT and we met up with the other group when we arrive. Wasn't long before we got into wetsuits and headed out for white water rafting!

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Love this pic...so much story to tell

It was 14km long, and took 1.5hours long. We did heaps on the boat like paddle together, turn around, jump off and floated downstream (Freezing cold!), got to the front and got splashed with heaps of water. It was fun!

One of us was holding a camera because the instructor's paddle broke and he had a really deep cut! So we manage to get his hand wrapped up and he wore a latex glove to stop water from going into the bandage. He was very funny as he spoke basic English and joked alot.

We took a bus back and wash up. Dinner didn't start until 9pm as the Spanish people have long lunch breaks (Like from 12pm to 5pm!) so we explored the area abit.

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View on the other side of the river

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What a life...a couple doing some bbq in their backyard

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Another vegetation area behind someone's house

Dinner was magnificent. We were welcome with jugs of water and chilled red wine. The lady didn't actually hold a menu but lists it verbally to us which was quite interesting but the dishes were HUGE

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This is my entree. Seafood rice soup (I think it could be called Seafood chowder). Other entrees were a whole plate full of salad, salad with a mixture of meat, pasta (o.O) and normal soup

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This is my mains. Not as pretty as the others as I didn't want to ask for a huge dish. Other mains were steak, beef casserole, fish and chicken casserole

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And this is my dessert. Creme brule (big!). I didn't finish any of the dishes...

Was so tired that I dropped dead in bed not hearing anything but the sound of the river flowing. Peaceful.


Sun, 14/06

Breakfast was buffet type but it had to be brief as we headed out for Canyoning at 9am. I was initially heading to the beginners canyoning but wondered what advance is like. So I went for it!We drove out for half an hour to start off our activity...

This is the exciting part.

First thing we had to do was to run and jump of a 7m cliff, swim against the fast current across to the other side of the river.....

...

...

...

And I DID it! My first ever jump that I have wanted to do in a long time! I have always wanted to jump of the 10m diving board but this was so scary! Yes, I screamed all the way down till I hit the water. Was so stoked with myself, hehe.

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The cliff...though I wished I took the height going down. There was an alternative, which was to do the flying fox but I wanted to make my trip worth it ;)

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View near the carpark. Apparently rock climbing it quite popular to do here too

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Canyoning through the canyons :P

It was so funny when the instructor spoke as we had a few spanish people in our group as well. When she spoke to them, it had at least 20 words in it and she perhaps took 30 seconds to explain the details to them. But when she turned to us, she only spoke two words: 'Jump and bend knees' LOL hahahahahahahaha! :D

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One of the jumps I did. Was quite freaky when there are cave rocks near you and you had to jump into a small area

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Hehe, swimming after. Was coooollldd

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Group photo

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Final view before the end

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Another one (where the lady told us to go through a cave that will lead to a nicer view)

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Byeeeeeeee

We headed back to the hotel, where the manager was nice enough to allow us to wash up and leave. I pretty much slept the whole way back

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On the way back to the airport

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The mountain we drove over where Llavorsi town was

Accomodation, food and activities package - 103 Euros. I would have regretted BIG time if I actually missed this trip :)

Album to come soon! When I manage to grab pictures off the others of course...
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Why do we shout in Anger

A saint asked his disciples, "Why do we shout in anger? Why do people shout at each other when they are upset?"

Disciples thought for a while, one of them said, "Because we lose our calm, we shout for that."

"But, why to shout when the other person is just next to you?" asked the saint. "Isn't it possible to speak to him or her with a soft voice?

Why do you shout at a person when you're angry?"

Disciples gave some other answers but none satisfied the saint.

Finally, he explained, "When two people are angry at each other, their hearts distance a lot. To cover that distance they must shout to be able to hear each other. The angrier they are, the stronger they will have to shout to hear each other through that great distance."

Then the saint asked, "What happens when two people fall in love?

They don't shout at each other but talk softly, why?

Because their hearts are very close. The distance between them is very small..." The saint continued, "When they love each other even more, what happens? They do not speak, only whisper and they get even closer to each other in their love. Finally they even need not whisper, they only look at each other and that is all. That is how close two people are when they love each other."

MORAL:

When you argue, do not let your hearts get distant, do not say words that distance each other more, else there will come a day when the distance is so great that you will not find the path to return.


This I find something worth taking in :)

On the other random note, whenever I get worried about baking, I will keep reminding myself what my grandma told my mum "A cake will always taste great because it has 2 main ingredients that won't go wrong....sugar and butter."

Change of view

Thought I'd change my blog layout (since I got bored of it too haha)

Somewhat related to my current life's situation innit? ;)

Cake No.2 version Beta 1.0

Black Forest Cake

Before that, proper tuition fee was paid to the first chocolate cake baking, where I mix all of the ingredients and place them in one bake tin, not 2. So yeah, it didn't bake properly T_T

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Filling (so far so good)

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Cream (Oops,I think I put too much in here)

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Ta daa...with proper fresh cherries (middle is spurting out dammit! TT)

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First piece belongs to meeeeeeeeeeeeee

Hmm,
  • Cream = whipped well (just nice), not too sweet nor alcoholic. Wonder how it turned slightly yellowish...
  • Filling = nice, not too much alcohol
  • Chocolate cake base = bit dense and dry, wana make it more spongy and moist
  • Mistake = putting too much filling in between and not pressing the cake down, hence not enough cream on the outside, bleh
Now, lemme see who shall be my guinea pig(s)...