New Year's Eve Dinner

Our New Year's Eve dinner :-
- Beef with black pepper sauce (using the sauce mix from Singapore)
- Stir fry vegetable



- Creme Brulee
- Margarita


All cooked/ mixed by us!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

Christmas Gifts



We did have some unexpected gifts this year. Thanks for the gifts!!! & Happy New Year to everyone.

Christmas Dinner



Took me about 3 hours to finish cooking this dinner!! It's definitely a dinner for more than 3 person.... we got sooo much left over, can still have it for tomorrow breakfast, lunch and dinner....

See Jaster blog for more pictures of my cooking.

Beautiful roses from Sam who cycle out in the cold to get it... My Christmas present... Thank you very the much...

Christmas grocery shopping

Went to Sainsbury to stock up for Christmas and I ended up spending 92 pounds!! Don't try to tell me how much it is in Singapore Dollars!!

Items I bought includes 3 bottles of wine, chocolates, crisps, fruits, Christmas dinner stuffs (turkey not bought yet), etc....

Too much things and our fridge are small, thus decided to put the drinks near the window so that it will be chilled.



The weather is very cold at the moment with dense fog around since early this week. Had not seen sunlight for quite sometime now and according to weather forecast, the fog will be around till Christmas.

Recipe cooking


We decided to cook the beef noodles using the recipe from the cookbook (Cooking to a degree) that Jaster got from British Council before coming to UK.



Verdict of the beef noodles : We don't like it. Take about an hour to cook it, taste bland, not recommended, thus no recipe posted here.

Disclaimer : The above verdict is only based on our tasting and our cooking.

Update for the week

Been busy this week thus no time to update the blog.

So what's happening this week?? On Monday morning, I was intending to cycle to my client's place cos it was located in Central Cambridge and I had not been cycling that often, so it's about time to make use of it but I was in for a shock! The back wheel of my bike was stolen!!! Some heartless soul had target my bike thinking it that since it had not been used for some time, it might had been abandoned....

Luckily Sam was in, thus he drove me to work instead. The next day, we went to Halfords to ask about buying a new back wheel and was quoted 60 pounds!!! The bike cost me 100 pounds and this back wheel will cost me 60 pounds, too expensive. The guy was very friendly and upon knowing that I was a victim of a stolen back wheel, he told us to go to Milton Recycling Centre to look for bike back wheel that might fit mine, and I can purchase it for about 3 pounds. The recycling centre is near and we had never been there before. Found the back wheel at the centre that seems to be of the same size as mine and purchase it for a pound..... WOW!! This is great!!

Sam fixed my bike for me but we realised that the inner tube of the wheel was punctured thus had a purchase it from Halfords for about 5 pounds. So all in all, we spent 6 pounds to replace the back wheel.

This is not the first time my bike was targetted, my bike lock was cut before. I learnt my lesson now and will move my bike to different bicycle rank to lock every weekend if I had not cycle for that week. Got to play safe.

Yin Eng Jing 伊能静

She was my first favorite singer. I was about 11 or 12 years old when I first listen to her songs and even bought her album (cassette tape). Old boy, those were the days!!

Came across her blog yesterday and she looks amazing, doesn't look like she aged at all!! She still look sooo sweet and innocent.

One of the many price to pay for not going back to Singapore soon....

Not updated with latest Chinese songs!!!

I fall in love with Guang Liang song 'Tong Hua' after listening to the songs from Jaster (thanks). After searching the web, I realised that the song was release in 2005. How outdated am I!! My defense - there's no Chinese radio station here and listening to Yes933 through internet is crap!

I love the song too much and I even cried when watching the MTV on Youtube. What a crybaby!!



BTW, I had set up a wish list to remind myself to get this album when I'm back in Singapore.

Barcelona trip

Was back from our Bacelona trip last Sat. I ate too much seafood, must detox NOW!

Day 1

Too hungry after a afternoon nap, so we decided to go to a restaurant close by. Thought that review from Virtual Tourist was ok, so we give it a try.
My conclusion : small servings, abit pricy, and the paella (middle picture) was too dry and hard.

Day 2
We went to the food market at Las Ramblas.
Look away if you are an animal lover!!!
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It's HARE!! Quite alot of stores sells it and it's sold side by side with chickens. Lose my appetite after seeing it.


Next we head to the beach

The water seems sooooo clear and blue. Walk along the beach and in the evening, we enjoy a BIG plate of seafood!


Sam seems sooooo happy and delighted when the food arrive! The grill squid was delicious and fresh, but the prawn wasn't fresh. The BIG plate of seafood cost us about 36 euro and we didn't finish all. Too much even for us!!

Day 3
A visit to Park Guell


A visit to Barcelona is not complete without taking pictures of famous buildings (from left to right) :-
- La Pedrera
- Casa Batllo
- Sagrada Familia


Evening dinner at La Fonda. One of the best recommended restaurant from Virtual Tourist. Dinner starts at 8pm and ends at 11pm. We arrive about 9pm and have to queue about half at hour before we were in the restaurant.

Tried the sangria and the black rice (rice cooked with squid ink). Even though the black rice taste ok, I can't finish it cos it looks abit gross! The squid (bottom right picture) was too delicious that we went back to the restaurant again on Day 4 for lunch to have 2 more plates!!

Day 4
A walk down Las Ramblas again before taking the bus to airport. There's alot of performers on that street and some are quite amusing.


BTW, Sam love his pistachio ice-cream too much and MUST have one more before we leave Barcelona.

Sloe Gin



Huh?? My reaction when my colleague mention Sloe gin. No idea what Sloe was!

Today she gave me her half a bottle of sloe gin by Gordon's to try. Very nice of her.

So how does it taste like. I like it. Sam doesn't because it taste too much like sour plum!

According to my colleague, the homemade version is so much nicer and her famly had decided to make it this year. Just last weekend she had gone to pick sloe (which is the week after the first frost), hopefully the gin will be ready for this Christmas.

Fireworks



Just got back from Cambridge Midsummer Common after the great display of fireworks. Love the above pictures best.

Recruitment event

Attended the recruitment event at Cambridge today organised by Contact Singapore.



Companies at the event were :-
- MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore)
- DBS Bank
- OCBC Bank
- HSBC Bank
- Standard Chartered Bank
- Coutts
- Temasek Holdings

Surprise that UOB & CitiGroup did not attend.

Anyway, we have a bag full of 'knowledge' back.



I have in mind a job I'm interested in but let see when I will return back to Singapore before apply for the job.

Autumn

It's autumn and might be our last autumn...... Leaf are turning red and will fall off soon.... It's a very picturesque view when travelling to/ from March, cos the tress are in different shades of colour (green, yellow, red). Love autumn, the sky is extremely blue and the air is crisp (if you know what I mean).

Like driving to March now, less scary and have finally built up my courage to overtake tractors or slow moving vehicles which are vehicles travelling less than 30mph (PS : My policy is only overtake vehicle less than 30mph, more than that, not so confident). The road I travelling to & from work is A10, A142 & A141 which consist of a single carriage way, to overtake, you have to go drive onto the other lane and watch out for incoming traffic before you do so. The speed limit on these roads are 60mph, however alot of tractors travel on this road, thus you can go as low as 20mph sometimes. I used to feel very scare and hide behind the tractors, not even bother looking to overtake, cos me TOOOO scare!! Now much better, but still got cars overtake me lar, cos me travelling just at speed limit.

Too much tractors/ slow moving vehicles on these road, you sure to meet at least one each day, I have decided that the day I don't meet any tractors/ slow moving vehicles (travelling less than 30mph) on the way to/ from March, I will go buy LOTTO.

Barcelona

Booked our air ticket (Easyjet) and accommodation (Residencia Australia, recommended by Serene) for trip to Barcelona in November for 4 days 3 night.

Because we bought the cheap flight, we are flying off from Stansted at 7.30am which means that we got to get up at 4+am!! Cheap what, only 75 pounds for two person (return), can't really complain, can I??

Have not research on the place of interest in Barcelona, thus any comment on place we MUST go or avoid are welcome.

Wales

Finally got a chance to visit Wales on Wed and Thurs. Was only able to visit Cardiff and stay in Newport, but I'm happy that I 'ticked a box'.


Before you get onto the M4 Second Severn Bridge, you see this sign. Will police escort your vehicle over??


View of M4 Second Severn Bridge


Bridge not free one hor, must pay!! 4.90 pounds, payment only needed westwards only (from England into Wales)


Offically in Wales!! Can you read their language??

Booked a B&B (Hazel Court) in Newport and it was in a village with spectacular view. Impressive, best B&B we had been so far and it was only 50 pounds for both of us (including full English breakfast)



Cute dog at the B&B


Of course we also visit a pub in Wales and tried their beer.


Cardiff Castle. Not into castle, thus didn't go in (save money).


Cardiff Bay. Nice apartment built facing the sea, wonder how much they cost.