Shortest Day has left

Woooooohooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!

Oh, and here's an xmas card from us to you :) and our flatmate Adelene has done a superb job in looking for the raw materials along the path of our neighbour's backyards!


Merry Christmas :D

Bring on the breaaaakkkk

Have been rather busy trying to survive winter. Harder to wake up and harder to move around since we are rather stingy with electricity and it's always dark when it comes to play time :P. Anyway, have posted some pictures up for the occasion in london and a nifty restaurant we went to.

If I don't post anything before Christmas, have a Merry one and enjoy the New Year. It's a new beginning to start a fresh for everything and this I find more each day, that each of us has a chance to change something, or to want to do something. It's never too late, unless of course the physical body can no longer cope. But then again, some amazing people can do amazing thing regardless of the physical being.

Enjoy!

Christmas Carols in the tube station




Sastro Restaurant

Why is it called Mince Pie when there is no mince?


The origins of the mince pie begins with themedieval pastry, chewette which was either fried or baked. The "chewette" actually contained liver or chopped meat mixed with boiled eggs and ginger. Dried fruit and sweet ingredients would be added to the chewette's filling for variety.

By the 16th century 'mince' or shred pie was considered a Christmas speciality, but in the 17th century, Oliver Cromwell made the eating of mince pies onChristmas Day illegal. (This law was voted fourth "most ridiculous British law" in a 2007 poll) In the mid-17th century the liver and chopped meat was replaced by suet, and meat products were no longer generally used in the 'mince' by the 19th century in both North America and Great Britian. Though traditional suet pies are still made, they are no longer the dominant form

Who is Oliver Cromwell?
Apparently really famous among the Brits as he was the first to leader best known for his involvement in makingEngland into a republican Commonwealth and for his later role as Lord Protector England, Scotland and Ireland.

That's so dumb. He did something ultimately great and something ultimately stupid...

I learn something new each day ;)

I had something cool to write here but I forgot

Have loaded up Bruges pictures!!

The trip started on a Friday night where it took 2.5 hours on 2 different trains and stayed in a bunk bed hostel for the first time :P. It was next to a loud bar so one of my ex-colleagues thankfully brought ear plugs :)

I didn't know where the showers were as I thought the door linked to it was another room so I showered at my other ex-colleagues room. Was quite a drama on that day as Mark over heard a breaking up happening as people were going into the platforms into the train and some Aussie dude came banging on our doors. Hehe. Beds were cozy enough. Bruges was one hour ahead. So we woke up and had nice breakfast (cereal, juice, buns, spreads and hard boil eggs...yum) and walked abit after while waiting for our other friends to wake up (only to find that they woke up earlier than us)

That day we visited a couple of churches, bought chocolates, had a beer tour, went up the clocktower, bought each other a round of chocolates, visited the xmas markets, had waffles and more chocolates and had a 3 course meal. Quite a bit done huh? ;)

Next day was snowing lightly, so we visited the Church of Juruselam (where the film 'In Bruges' starring Colin Ferrel was shot), went to the Museum (was very interesting), saw Magic Ice on display, and I went home First Class with a 5 pound upgrade :D

What was superbly interesting was the Museum, whereby the Old Town Hall was described in very detailed manner and I was amazed with the Fire Place (I wasn't allowed to take it) that was carved from the bottom right through the ceiling. The top bit of the fire place was carved out of wood, dictating Prince Charles and his parents and great parents. Followed by a marble lining that showed a story of a woman who was molested by two judges, only to end up the judges being stoned to death as their punishment.

Came home feeling like a blob and I had trouble sleeping because I was overdosed with chocolates! But it was definitely warmer coming back...and there he was, waiting for me to arrive patiently without even having dinner first...Luv you too :)

Tickets - 200 (would have been cheaper if I booked earlier)
Accomodation - 30
Cloctower - 5
Old Town Hall . Museum - 2.50
Beer Tour - 5
Churches - Free
Dinner - 12
Food and nibbles - 2+4+4+2+2.50...etc
Souveniers - 4+4+6.50+4+4
Bus back to the train station - 1.60
Magic Ice - 15


BEhold~ the images to all the blabberness that I have typed out on this post :P

Bring on the thermals

Sales, Christmas deco...everything is up and so the events are on...

I am back to this 'wanting to blog' and when I am about to, I get swamped with things to do. This is London for sure. There are so many things I have observe, seen and went through that every single one is new.

But I do remember one story. I was at the tube (starting to dislike the tube during peak time), when a lady came in and stood next to me. She didn't hold anything to plant her foot on the floor and she was reading a business magazine. She looked about mid 20's or younger, perhaps English wasn't her first language.

As the tube was moving, there were a couple of times where she fell behind this guy (specially when she was in deep reading) but most of the time, I admired her being so stable. So then the guy politely asked her to hold the rail and he even made room for her to hold it (she was a few centimeters from it too) , he quotes 'It's fine by me for you to fall on me, but it doesn't look appropriate'. And she said no
.
........
.
.
.
And then she did again. The guys around him started to giggle
.
.
And one more time...
.
.
So wierd...and when she got off, she said 'I give you some space now'. But the guy said not to worry because he was leaving as well.

LOL!!!

Crazy...

Anyway, streets over here are switching on their xmas decorations, and the main streets have performances like Sugarbabes before they turn it on...here are a few piccies


Carnaby Street (I actually like this one)
Regent Street


Even the online shopping websites have nice fancy Xmas deco


Am off to Bruges this weekend :). Was an impulsive decision since I needed to get outer here and so I took an upgrade to business for an extra £5! Bring on the 4 course meal and Champagne...not forgetting the chocolates, xmas market and food too...Mmmmm

And so it has begun

Health is starting to creep up on me. I can tell that my body has slowly stop producing cells as fast as it was. I can feel now that the peak of my life physically has now passed after the age of 25. After my muscles have shrunk, I can feel my skin starting to whither and my vices are taking its toll over my body. It is rather ironic in a way being a human being. This battle against trying to pro-long death is continuous.

But one cannot think that way...wisdom, love and happiness neutralises this effect. I have started to understand that my vices (such as a sweet tooth) is only triggered by certain things like stress and pressure. I did come across an article whereby junk food is craved by junk food. Once you start with chips, you feel like coke, and then you feel like ice cream and then back to wedges...and it keeps going and going! Thankfully I listen closely to my body, and for that I have open myself up to different kinds of organic food like mushrooms, capsicum and onions, natural dressings and these food really completes / cleanses me in a way...hmm, some philosophical thinking.

Anyhoo, it doesn't stop the truth from going to the dentist yesterday. I have gum disease known as periodontitis (so I think after a small research on wikipedia) and its apparently common among us Asians (but D doesn't think so). Now and know why it IS a problem if you are bleeding while you're brushing...gosh, that took a while. Not only that, losing your teeth is painless...OMG, I never knew that too...Anyway, felt like it was like ground hog day, in a way that what my sis got told was almost the exact thing that was told to me by a different dentist.

Funny that. Am wondering whether these doctors not only memorise medicines but scripts on to talking to people. I knew it was coming because I was wondering how come some areas of my mouth were more sensitive to cold food and not others. So yeah, I think I know how I eat now in a way that some areas are more affected than other. Half of the back of my mouth and the bottom front are affected so far. Thankfully, I still have got the other half of the back of my mouth for cold stuff. As long as that is alive, I can still devour to my all time vice: sweeties...mwahaha

In other updates, there was a birthday / farwell and I finally visited my cousin at last :) . She taught me the passion of being a chef and I'm so proud of her. Always proud to show her off to my friends because 99.9% of the time they will go 'woooooow'. Hehe. Must grab more tips on cooking next.

Events in Oct-Nov

I have also updated my piccies on flickr :) Enjoy


Crowd at Diwali




Dad in london

Around our current flat



Kensington Underground - where dad used to take to uni



Swimming pool where dad used to go and park where HL used to play



Swimming pool - my 'attempt' commentating :P



Oldest clock in Imperial



Sir David Lindley's place