London (Week 5 & 6) - 26/04/08

Walau, its exhausting to keep a photo blog! Plus, Blogger certainly doesn't make it any easier. Or is it me who is not familiar with all these settings???

Anyway, just to let you all know, we're still alright here. In fact, today was the warmest day with temperature up to 32C leh! It was all nice and good, but of course, given the indecisive nature of London's weather, it is not here to stay.

We took the opportunity to go to Hyde Park and there were loads of people there enjoying the weather. It was very good, sitting in the park enjoying the weather under the sun. Something that you will definately NOT catch me doing back in KL.

In fact, by the time we reach the park, the weather has somewhat cooled down, hence the jacket, but for a good part of the day we were just in our t-shirts. And I even saw some girls wearing open toes shoes! WOHO! Out comes my "summer" shoes!

A bit of update on us. Without giving away too much, an unexpected news came late this week. We were getting used to the life here and the sudden change of plans put us back where we were one week ago. Yes, though I went balistic again, I cant help it. But with a knock on the head from Des reminding me to stop making him feel worst, I regain composure.

Nice picture of a couple of swan eh? Yea, i know. We're in this together. The thing I did wrong is to count my chickens before they hatch. I know for a fact that they ALWAYS NEVER happen the way I envision it to be. And hence the pessimistic side of me. But I guess the trill of knowing things will be alright makes me forget and true to its word, the next day everything came crashing down.

Anyway, back to Hyde Park. Its been good and its funny how in the mist of a jam packed and fast paced London, they somehow managed to preserve this huge piece of land in the middle of the city. I guess, no matter how much it generates the revenue if development were to take place, it will never be enough to maintain London's sanity.

Finally, we made it to Malaysian Hall. It has everything. Even lekor! And kembung! I tell you, I have been craving for kembong ever since we arrived! Oh, and look at the prices! Everything is the same! The price is the same as in Malaysia, ONLY IN POUNDS! Seriously, £3.90 for rice with three dishes! That's equavalent to... I dont want to think about it. Still, it is still much cheaper for an Asian dish compare to Chinatown. It is at least, £6 per dish.

Now, for obvious reasons, the portion served here is also Malaysian portion lah, hence the pricing explained... :/

On another note, we bump into this toilet somewhere in.. somewhere lah.

Quite impressive. Similar to the one in Bukit Bintang, only cheaper, much smaller and very much cleaner.

As you can see from Des's expression after "utilizing" the toilet. And it even comes with an automatic door ok!

Oh yea. I FOUND JIMMY CHOO! But its close. but nevertheless, I FOUND JIMMY CHOO!

And Asus EeePC 20GB is going to be out on 1st May for just £320++

Will try to get Des to be part of this blog as well, as I'm sure it will be great if he could contribute as well. So, wait for it! Until then, any good news (or bad) we will update soon. :)

P/S: Happy Birthday Matta!

London (Week 3 & 4) - 13/04/08

My my, so much has been happening for the past two weeks that it just wheeze past by!

Well for one, I found a job two weeks ago and has been working since. Des also found a temporary job that starts this coming Monday. Below are a few of the pictures of the places we've been around for the past two weeks.

Right before that, we were still bumming around and checking out places. Mostly markets. There is this Camden Market that we absolutely love because there is street food available!

Then we hop and explore a bit more of Wimbledon, the place famous for its tennis match. There this Wimbledon Village, a slightly posh area and also its lawn tennis stadium. But it was closed for renovation, so a disappointment really.

After that, we went to this place called the "Elephant & Castle", which the locals calls nothing but "two big roundabouts and an ugly looking shopping mall". And then we took a long walk to Tower Bridge (the other London Bridge) and took some postcard-perfect pictures.

Then along came the weekend, and we drag ourselves out from the bed to Borough Market, another place famous for street food. Here, Des is queuing up for some fresh scallops!

Of course, London being notorious for its sometime-rain-sometime-no-rain like cannot make up its mind like that weather, we soon seek shelter in the British Museum. Des's sis-in-law, Bern was with us and she's great enough to show us places around London.

I tell you, the Museums here are absolutely HUGE! Must spend one FULL day wan. But the problem is, we usually only managed to drag ourselves out of bed during the weekends late afternoons, and by the time we actually get out of the house, it would be noon d!

This weekend, we managed to catch the famous Flora London Marathon. The weather was horrible to have a marathon, and these jokers are running around in RAIN! Dont forget the cold weather! We've recorded some videos, will update soon so watch out for it here!

We managed to catch some of the marathon along the way and stumbled to this iconic traffic light in Canary Wharf. Apparently its called Nackuk, the famous London Traffic Lights on an island.

We then find ourselves in Greenwich, and came across this huge dog! The owner is nice enough to let us take a picture with it, and its name is Jazz. Look at its face and compare it to us. Its absolutely HUGE!

Yes, we've finally made it to Greenwich! Been putting it off due to the horrible weather, and though it was raining while we make our way there, it turn bright when we arrived! So, inilah Meridian Pangkal, the famous Greenwich Line!

Introducing our tourguide for the day, Ron Thum. He was first introduced to me when I was asking about contacts in London and I have been harassing him ever since! We later went back to our place for steamboat! Wait for pictures on it yea!

So, bits on update about me. The job I got, was a data-entry job. Very easy, but at least it keeps me busy. Despite the boredom and the lack of challenge, oddly enough I find myself looking forward to work everytime I get off work. Dont ask me about it WHEN I'm working though, cause I'll give you a completely different answer. I guess, I just cant wait to work to get some money to help pay off our expenses. Holiday is nothing like when its hard earn cash.

Des, on the other hand, is still waiting for his reply for a job he wanted. So after rooting at home for a week while I was off to work, he spend most of the week looking for other jobs and of course, cooking dinner for me! Hehhe. Though it has taken a little while longer than he has hoped, he managed to secured a temporary admin job that is starting tomorrow. And guess what, its an admin job with a BALLET SCHOOL! :)

Other than that, things are still alright. I wouldnt say it has settled down like 100%, cause we still havent gotten a permanent job yet, at least with jobs for the two of us, things should be looking brighter.

At the meantime, I will start to update pictures based on the places that we've been. I'll update more pictures on the Musuem, Camdan Market and Greenwich soon (as soon as I find time between work!). Till then, take care all of you and sms to keep in touch yea!

Chocolate Everything! - 6/04/08

And so, since Des is the obviously the better cook than I am, the obnoxious side of me decided enough is enough and will not be defeated anymore!

I'm going to BAKE! And Des dont bake! Perfect!

Or is it? I'm sure you all remember my FIRST time burnt cookies. Ok, I admit, its premix, so I just need to add water. Stupid oven, I FOLLOWED the instructions to the dot and still it burnt my cookies!

Fine, the second time around, I picked up a CAKE instead. Yea lah, of course still premix lah, I already spend money buying the bowl, whisk and spatula.

And it turn out picture perfect! Eh, TWO layer cake with chocolate between the two layers of cake and all around leh! Not easy to do hor!

Actually, quite easy lah. I just cut off the burnt bits (yes, stupid oven burn the sides again) and poured the chocolate in a round container and leave it in the fridge overnight. Nevermind that its still a bit hard, the point is I made CAKE and its TWO layer somemore! FIRST TIME!

Ok lah, ok lah, I've got to give credit to my "whisker". No money to buy electric mixer, no energy to whisk myself, who do I turn to? My super strong and big hubby lor.

But the decision to BUY materials, READ instruction, PREPARE materials, PUT and TAKE out from oven, CUT nicely is ALL ME!

And after cookies and cake, we now move on to brownies.

Yea lah, still premix. Maybe after the muffins I'll do it from scratch lah. This brownies very canggih wan, come ready with the BOX to put in oven! Fuyoh, save me money to buy the tray.

This one easy also, just put one egg and water. Kacau kacau, kautim. 18 mins later, DING!

THIRD TIME IS A CHARM! My brownies finally turn out pretty, goey and soft! Its not burnt like the cookies, not crusty like the cake, but GOEY and SOFT LIKE A BROWNIE!

HMPH! I can BAKE already!

Heheh, next up, premix chocolate muffins!

London Snowing! (Part II) - 07/04/08

Here's more pictures of us after waking up to a very beautiful sight. Of course, before we went out we fixed ourselves a big breakfast. Proof that indeed we're eating good and well.

When we step out of the door, we were greeted by a snow covered garden table we have outside of our house.

Well, its not like we've both not seen snow before. We werent expecting to see snow outside of our house while we're here. And so, with the safe protection of our fence away from the neighbours, we happily gawked at the snow like kids.

Suprisingly, the snow was still very fluffy and light! We were half expecting it to be hard already since its not really that cold, but Des managed to scoped up a handful.

And he passed it to be for my turn to take the pictures. Yup, just like cotton candy!

Doesnt the picture looks Christmas back home with fake trees and fake cotton over the it? Yup, we got it right back home!

Here are a couple of pictures I took using our camera with the macro function. Olympus 850SW. Quite proud of it. It had never freeze on us so far...

A picture of our handprints.

A video that Des made to show the garden when it was snowing.

Hehehe, we each just grabbed a coat and out we go! Our legs and freezing and so are our hands but it was well worth it!

Two hours later during the afternoon, the snow stopped and it all melted away by the afternoon. As much as we enjoyed it, I hope it doesnt snow again tomorrow as it would be (instead) a very depressing sight to wake up to go work. Yup, I'm working already as some stupid data entry position but that's for another time!

London Snowing! - 07/04/08

Remember this from the previous post?

Its the view from our bedroom the first week we arrived.

Check this out!

Its snowed whole night and this is what we woke up to! Isnt this pretty!

We have been warned of a snowing night with the weather forecast. And the best part is, just two days ago was apparently the warmest day of the year and we're able to walk around with just our T-shirt on!

I was feeling a bit weird this morning when I woke up feeling cold. Cause usually by the morning, the room would have felt a bit warm cause we sleep with the windows shut. Knowing that it probably snowed last night, I decided to wake up and check out the window's view instead. And voila!

I wander if the car owners need to do some serious warming up before they can get their car up and running...

And yes, apparently what they say is true. London's weather is pretty screwed up! :)