Magical morning

Woke up to a magical morning when everywhere is covered in white, Happy Birthday darling!!!

Not too much snow, only about 1 cm, The temperature was freezing and the snow at some place weren't melting by end of the day.

Heavy snow forecast??

This was taken at 4.30 am which the weather forecast said that there will be heavy snow.... Hmmmm??? Just a dusting of snow but it does makes everything seems so magical.

Well, maybe this is the most amount of snow we're going to see for this year....

Annual event

It's our annual event of the year again!! Going to the Next sale at 5am. Bought 4 bags of stuffs, 3 of them belongs to Sam and he's going to refund most of it. So how much in total did we spent?? Nearly £300!!! But I think we going to at least refund half of it.

Christmas turkey






Oh boy, the turkey we had last night was delicious!!! So here's the recipe

Turkey recipe
Turkey (I bought the smallest which is for 4-6 people and weight 4.2 kg)
250g unsalted butter
4 cloves garlic (minced)
Thyme
Pepper
Salt
1 white onion (cut in half)
4 cloves garlic

1. Soften the butter with a wooden spoon and add the minced garlic, thyme, pepper and salt.
2. Preheat the oven to 180 C.
3. Cover the turkey with the mixed butter using your hands. Also using your fingers, loosen the skin of the turkey and stuff the mixed butter between the skin and the turkey breast.
4. Stuff the onion and cloves garlic in between the skin.
5. Place the turkey in the roasting tray and cook for 3 and a half hour (for 4.2 kg turkey).
6. Every half an hour, take the turkey out of the oven and pour the oil in the baking tray over the turkey. (This is to ensure that the turkey will not be too dry and will taste juicy)
7. Halfway through roasting, take out the turkey and turn it around in order to roast the other side. At the same time, take out the onion and garlic stuff in between the skins (ready to be serve later on).
8. Remember step 6 after this and the turkey will come out nicely done.
9. Ready to serve.

Brussels sprouts recipe
1. Wash and boil the brussels sprouts for 10 mins.
2. Take out the brussels sprouts and shallow fry them with butter for a few minutes. (this is to add fragrance to it).
3. Ready to serve.

Sage and Onion Stuffing
1. A packet of PAXO Sage and Onion Stuffing.
2. Mix as per instructions on the packet. (which is to add water and a knob of butter)
3. Form the mixture into balls and bake on a greased baking sheet for 25 mins. (I love it crispy, thus used this option.)

Roast potatoes
Too lazy so had bought frozen roast potatoes, just need to pop them in the oven.

Roast turkey gravy
Well, just buy those packet ones and follow the instructions.
Add some of the oil from the turkey for a fuller taste.

Christmas Eve

The turkey is in the oven and it smells good!!! Had got a friend over for dinner, thus cross my fingers and hope that the turkey will be alright to be eaten (never make this dish before). Will post some picture if I don't forget and start eating as soon as the turkey is out of the oven.

Great christmas holiday and I will only start work on 3 Jan 2006. Is this brillant!!!

Well, merry christmas to everyone and hope you have a wonderful new year ahead.

Cry like no tomorrow

No, Sam didn't bully me!!! He's good to me.. sweet hor.

I cried because of the movie - The Notebook.

I knew that it would be a moving love movie (likely that I would cry) but I still rent it cos I had read the book, love it and cried when I read it. Silly me crying like that, but I can't help it, I got a very emotional heart. I'm human after all (that's how Sam put it in a kind way).

Cried throughout the whole movie, not just towards the end. Guess I knew how it was going to end, so any slightly emotional scene would set me off weeping.

After making my eyes puffy, I still love the movie and might buy the DVD to keep. I had got the novel - The Notebook at home in Singapore and I highly recommend reading the book. It's written by Nicholas Sparks who also wrote Message in the Bottle (the novel is so much better than the movie).


Extracts from thebookaven on the novel :

The Notebook opens in a rest home. An elderly resident is telling us his story. He spends his days visiting a woman that often does not remember him. Each morning, he enters her room with a notebook containing memories of his life and love. He hopes that sharing these past events will jog her memory, but it is not to be. Yet, he tries each day and does not give up.

The second scene of the book takes place in October of 1946. Noah Calhoun has returned from the war and purchased his dream house in New Bern. He came into a windfall, bought the 1772 house, and restored it in an attempt to forget his past. We find out that his past includes a long lost love. This lady was his first and only love and she went away when they were teenagers. He has never forgotten her.

The Notebook then flashes back to Noah Calhoun and Allie Nelson meeting and falling in love in the summer of 1935. Fifteen year-old Allie is visiting North Carolina. She is introduced to seventeen year-old Noah and likes him immediately. They spend the summer together sharing everything including their first sexual experiences. By the end of the season, it is clear that these two are in love and meant for each other.

However, Allie returns home and loses touch with Noah. Her parents have implied that Noah is not right for their daughter because he is of a different class. Noah writes to Allie often, but his letters go unanswered. He moves on with his life as best he can by enlisting in the service and going to war.

Let's fast forward now to 1946. Noah is living in and restoring this big house all alone. Allie is 29 and engaged to a successful lawyer. She reads an article about Noah in the paper and decides that she must see him one last time. She tells her family that she is taking a trip to shop for antiques and heads to New Bern.

Once she meets Noah face to face again, it is clear that the passion they shared so long ago is still there. They spend two wonderful evenings together sharing magical experiences. However, Allie must soon return to her other life and the man she is about to marry. Will Allie return home to a safe, comfortable life? Will she leave Noah a second time? Or will she stay in New Bern, where her heart belongs?

The last quarter of the book involves an elderly couple and their undying love. It is the couple in the rest home to which I was referring earlier. The woman has Alzheimer's disease and often forgets the life she shared with this other man. He doesn't give up hope and tries to give her back her memory each day. The doctors and nurses are stunned and touched. This man's undying faith sometimes fools the disease, and his love gets her memory back once in a while. Those moments they share are priceless and the author describes them well.

Are these two people Noah and Allie or another couple? Did Allie leave? Did she find her way back? I'll never tell.

Comfort food

A new store in Cambridge - Hotel Chocolat. Each pack cost 2 pounds and we were very tempted by the different range of chocolate they have and the packaging. Bought 5 and we immediately opened one pack when we were out of the store (hence the opened pack in the picture). Very nice chocolate..... mmmmm.....

There was alot of people in the store buying, guess it was something new and just in time for Christmas.

Brussels here we come

Fantastic offer from Reveal magazine, 2 person for the price of one to travel by Eurostar plus accomodation. We choose to go Brussels in Belgium in Jan 06 and stay at Marriott for 2 nights, all for the price of £175 (YES only £175 for both of us!!!!).

Looking forward to staying at Marriott, 5 star hotel leh, don't play play....

The dates we booked for this trip also coincide with our ROM anniversary. Ohhhhh, how great is this...

Space cadets

After so much advertising about Space Cadets, I was very keen to catch the first episode of it. Just kaypoh, want to know who so goondu not realise that they are not in space!!

The show becomes abit boring after a while and I don't think I will be watch it again, maybe just the occasional checking on website for updates on the show.

Well, it's just like Big Brother, isn't it??? And I don't watch that either....

Men, men, men...

How many men does it take to change the toilet roll???
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The answer I think is NONE cos they don't change it.
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Sam's answer is....definitely more than 1 which means he alone can't do it.
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(sign)