Pictures in the Making

We're back! (Yes, I know, its yesterday's news)

2009-05-06T02:31:00.006+08:00

It has now been three weeks since we came home to Kuala Lumpur...

Would like to apologize for the lack of updates. This is because life has (and still is!) hectic since March 2009. Below are a short summary of what has been hapenning for the past weeks:

March 09

- Resign and left our last job in London

- Matta, Lou Tau and 25 cents' arrival to London for 2 week trip (London, Paris, Oxford, Stonehenge & Bath)

April 09 (London)

- Ex-colleague & husband's arrival to London for 5 day stay with us

- Went to Liverpool, Venice and Rome for (7 days) honeymoon trip

- House cleaning (actually, more of house scrubbing!)

April 09 - May 09 (KL)

- Commence renovation work in apartment

- Purchase of furnitures and fittings for apartment

- Kick off wedding plans (gowns, photographers, guest list, etc)

- Apply for jobs and attend interviews

As I was typing the above summary, it irks me to think that there seems to be very little done when in fact we were really flat out since March 09.

Some of you might has seen pictures in Facebook so you would probably have a better update on whats going on our lives at the moment. And obviously it doesnt help with the fact that internet is crap here and blogspot isnt the best place to put up pictures.

Pokoknya, life has been very hectic since we arrived. We've only been back three weeks and already we've done enough to make me feel as if we've been back for three months. I guess the fact that both of us are not working at the moment really helped because that gave us the change to go do stuff togethe such as surveying furnitures, arranging for renovation, and the wedding preparation too.

Who would have guess that the sink needs three trips to buy, the aircon fixtures has hidden cost, the sofa cost a bomb, the fridge cant be taller than Des and I have developed a love-hate relationship with my wedding dress!

And nope, neither of us are working yet, and I'm pretty sure I'll go crazy soon enough. You would too if you are getting married and moving into a new place in three months time without jobs!

God help us!

Bristol - Videos

2009-02-05T06:35:00.004+08:00

We went to Bristol last weekend, on the day London experienced the worst snowfall in many years. It was snowing throughout, hence very little chance to take pictures. Nevertheless, we have videos to share with you... Enjoy!

Part 1 - We picked a day to go Bristol where London was snowed in, no bus service and most London tubes shuts down.

Part 2 - Managed to make our way to the train station relatively easy (the tubes on our route works!). This is the start of our journey, and luckily it wasnt stuck anywhere due to the snow.

Part 3 - Arrived at Bristol! It was just beginning to snow! Found our way to the hotel (about 30 minutes walk from the train station) and after wrapping ourselves up (me using Des's oversized jacket to keep my butt warm) we slowly made our way to the city centre.

Part 4 - Bristol City Centre! Gosh, I feel like we're giving out weather forecast! It has begin to snow quite heavily, and at times, instead of soft little drops of snow, it was big chucks of snow! Was very pleased that we both came with the right attire (all wrapped up nice and warm, not not very fashionable!).

Part 5 - Just after dinner, outside the hotel. One last chance of the snow before retiring back to the hotel.

Part 6 - Next day Bristol, making our way back to the train station.

Part 7 - Bristol or Bath???

We got too excited and worried about the prospect of getting home in time that we hopped into a earlier train! Was very malu-fying and we apologied to the family who we mistakenly thought to have taken our seat! :P

So we get off the next stop at Bath and waited for 15 minutes later to take the correct train.

Part 8 - Home!

And lucky for us. the ride back home was smooth with (again) the tubes working on our selected journey. But the walk back home was a bit slippery with the snow melting but not quite.

And dont know why, my head was bobbing up and down like a stupid idiot!

Videos are all unedited and please excuse the strange accent! Will post more pictures for Bristol and Brighton soon! Also, hope that we will get our 2nd day photoshot pictures soon! :)

Gong XI Gong Xi!

2009-02-01T04:11:00.002+08:00

Never thought I'll see anything remotely CNY that will reminds me of new year in London. And guess what I found in the newspaper last week!

A quick update on our CNY activities. We've had reunion dinner at Des's sister in law's place with a couple of their friends. We then head up to Brighton for a day trip. And tomorrow we'll be having our 2nd day photography session (fingers crossed that the weather will be good) and heading up to Chinatown as they are having some CNY-related carnival or something. And then, we'll be heading up Bristol for an overnight trip!

Lots of things happened and was busy thats why havent found time to tell you guys. Hopefully after the trip things will settle and the pictures will be up!

Happy New Year everyone!
Desmond & Agnes

This morning...

2009-01-05T22:31:00.000+08:00

Christmas 2008

2008-12-27T06:22:00.012+08:00

Christmas 2008 was our first Christmas as a married couple. For a few weeks now we've been feeling kinda sad because Christmas is a very much celebrated event over here, something like our CNY back home. A time where most company closed down for a week and the entire transportation shuts down.

In the mist of being depressed, Des managed to lift our spirits up by decoration our house with some lights and a small christmas tree. And with both of us not working during Christmas, it allows us to spend some much needed time together (contary to the belief, we rarely had the time to see each other for long).

A week to Christmas the TV was showing show after show of celebrity chefs showing the viewers how to whip up a Christmas dinner effortlessly. And that gave us the motivation to do something on our own too, given the fact that most of the restaurant is closed anyway. Following the unfortunate event last week, Des cheered me up and gave me a selection of Christmas menu to choose from.

And so with the ingredients ready (I think Christmas dinner cost about a week's worth of groceries), Des put on his Chef's hat and set on preparing a gruelling four hour long Christmas dinner...

First course was the soup. Mind you, a GORDAN RAMSAY recipe no less. It was quite easy, kinda like our chinese soup but takes about 20 minutes instead of the usual 2 hours.

So chopped everything up and melt the butter,

Pour everything in and bring to boil,

And the LIQUIDIFY! They seems to like their soup thick and creamy, hence they tend to blend their soup.

And so, with the soup bubling away, its time to work on the main course.

Ok, so we started working on the main first cause this took blardy 3 hours (recipe says 4 but we kinda get bored of waiting). So chopped vegetable for flavouring and season the pork (have I mentioned how much I love meat!?!). This is about 50% done...

And tadah! Roast Pork Belly done! Excuse the vegetable, as it WAS meant to be burnt! You'll see later that the roast vegetable is being prepared separately. So, nothing is failing yet :)

The second part of the main is of course the Lobster! Lobster for 5 pounds, can you believe it!?!

It was sold cooked and frozen in water, so we just need to defrost it and dump it into boiling water again.

Des has never cooked lobster before, so it was quite interesting, considering I craved seafood so much I literally floated in loveliness whenever I pass the seafood section of the supermarket.

The lobster head too sayang to throw away that we dump it into the soup. Doesnt really make a difference in the taste but its nice to know that we put the lobster in good use instead of throwing it away.

As for the remaining badan, sprinkle some cheese and let grill
Remember the burnt vege? Told you its supposed to be burnt! Cause we're preparing roast vege separately of onions, parsnip, potatoes and carrots. Chopped them together and roast them in the secret ingredient: GOOSE FAT.

For a meat lover, these were very good :)

Lobster - Grilled. Pork - Roasted. Main Course - DONE!

Next in line, Dessert!

Apples with cinammon and wine. Enough said!

The tedious part where Des gotta roll the filling in rice paper (something like spring roll apple pie).

End result - 4 biji apple pie (I've got a portion-ing problem, luckily Des did four cause we were quite full by the end).

And so, after 4 hours of cooking (hey, I helped!), presenting our first Christmas dinner:

Starter: Apple, Parsnip and Chestnut soup

Main - Surf and Turf (Grilled Lobsters and Roast Pork Belly. Roasted vegetables on side)

Dessert - Spring Roll Apple Pie

And so that was our Christmas dinner. I was quite suprised that I didnt drop dead being full and drunk considering we polished 2 bottles of wine during dinner and had non stop whiskey throughout the day.

So that was Christmas day. One Boxing day, we went out to the superbly packed Oxford Street and bought ourselves presents! Des bought not one, not two but THREE pairs of shoes! Hahaha I on the other hand, managed to grab myself an ALDO heels. I've always wanted to own a pair of Also heels but was put off by the bad service in its One Utama's outlet that I just couldnt bring myself to spend that kinda money just to be treated like dirt.

Oh, and did I mentioned that it only cost about 35 pounds??? Meaning, I only need to give up 3 movie tickets to buy one pair of Aldo shoes compared to back home, in which I'll probably have to give up like what, 30 times worth of movie tickets??? Ridiculous!

Having said that, I must set the record straight that we both RARELY spend that much on clothing items. It is Christmas afterall...
And so that is from us from London for Christmas. We've posted our pictures for our 'pre wedding' pixs taken around London a couple of weeks ago (just got them today on Boxing Day!). We hope to have our second day of pictures soon but it wont be any sooner than in January, i supposed. Please do let us know what you think of the pictures! We're trying to cut cost and hopefully the second day's pictures will be just as nice (if not better) so that we can make do without the compulsory 'studio-like' shot back home and just arrange for the pictures to be printed off straight away.

New Year's Day is going to be a quiet affair as Des will be working but we had a great Christmas and I wont be working for a few days next week so hopefully that will gives us time to catch up again.

And the thought of flying home suddenly feels so near, almost as if we we cannot believe our time here is almost done. 2008 has been so eventful and hopefully 2009 will continue to be so.

Thanks again for those of you who voted on our wedding survey and it has been a great help (wedding is now on a Saturday, church ceremony is being discussed but we still havent decided on our wedding march yet!). And hence, I take this opportunity to announce that we've set our wedding date to be next year 1st Aug 2009. We will continue to post pictures up along our journey together and we hope you have enjoyed our pictures so far in our year in London and hope that there will be many more to come.

We wish you all a great Christmas and a fantastic year ahead!

Love, Desmond and Agnes

Wedding Pictures - Day 1

2008-12-27T02:31:00.009+08:00

We've waited for as long as we can and finally here are the pictures of first day of our pre wedding shots!

Life as we know it (not!)

2008-12-20T10:40:00.000+08:00

Agnes writes, "Can we cheat death? Can we really prevent things from happening? Or is it merely a cause of action that resulted in a positive outcome.. I'm still in shock. For though I believe it could have ended in the worst case scenario, I am glad for what i did. I guess at the end of the day, i did what i wanted, though not in the way it was carried out. I regret not reporting to the police, but i know i have my reasons given the circumstances. I hope to do it though, perhaps to offer closure or even assurance. I'm now at McDonalds on an early Saturday morning waiting for Des to finish work. I attended my company's Christmas dinner yesterday and ended up spending the night at a petrol station near my house because i was being followed back home. Too frightened to return home and too shocked to report police, i spend the night talking (& crying) to the petrol attendant who so graciously allowed me to wait for more than two hours before deciding to take the first train to Des's work place, for i am too sacred to return home by myself. I've never been so glad that its the weekend...

Best kebab ever.

2008-11-29T18:01:00.000+08:00

The extra chunks of lamb shish from our local kebab shop of what could possibly be the best kebab that we've ever tasted. This could very well be the one thing that we will miss most when we head home on the 17th April with AirAsia...

Hyde Park - Winter Wonderland & Updates!

2008-11-28T03:40:00.023+08:00

What can I say except that it has been one heck of a week so far!

First and foremost, thanks for those of you who took the time to vote for our wedding plans! I guess it is still in a very preliminary stage, but with your help, we've decided on a specific date and has asked our parents to help look out for a venue. Yes, we have somewhat fixed a date, but lets not jinxed it first until we've booked it!

We foresee loads more survey to come in times to come as things gets more specific (will probably let you decide which wedding dress and what colour theme as well!). So do look out for it soon.

This week though, like I mentioned at the beginning has been somewhat surreal. The pictures you see in this post is in Hype Park, and they set up this thing called 'Winter Wonderland' to celebrate Christmas so to speak. Will explain more on this later.

Well, the week started off with me bidding goodbye to my colleague after my temp contract ended on Monday. Well, it was officially on Friday but they invited me to attend a luncheon that I helped to organized. So that was very nice of them, especially when they bid me goodbye last week with loads of presents!

All is well though, cause I managed to secure another temp job which starts next Monday, giving me one week off between jobs. For a while, we were a bit worried because of all the recession and unemployment in UK and stuff, but I got an interview last week and got called just minutes before I finished work on Friday from them asking me to start the following week!

So that is Monday (a free luncheon event). Monday night brings a horrible news when I got a message from my mum saying Des's car has been stolen right outside our house! I think at this point of time, we were both still kinda shocked as the thought of the car loss has not quite sunk in yet. Probably because since we are not 'utilizing' the car right now that is why the pain is not there yet. I think the moment when we go home and suddenly find ourselves car-less, that is when it will sink in. Right now, my mum has been very gracious trying to arrange for all the paperwork to claim from insurance. All I hope is that the insurance will be able to cover the remaining loan. For I am scared...

So with the bad news looming into Tuesday, we've made plans to go to the Malaysian Embassy to renew my passport. It wasnt expiring yet, but it will be if we plan to travel next year. So, since its my week off work and Des is free during the daytime, we took the opportunity to head to the embassy to renew it. It was quite straightforward, there were hardly anyone there, and the process took less than 10 mins. Then we were told to come back in the afternoon to collect (another stress free affair).

And it was that free time of waiting to collect my passport that we decided to hop over to Hyde Park to visit this Winter Wonderland thing. It was just around the corner, and it was sunny and bright, though a bit cold, so we decided to take a walk around the area.

It was like a small amusement park with a huge ferris O wheel (not the London Eye) and a ice skating rink. There is also 2 large ponds in the park, and stupid me actually thought that they are freezing the pond so that people can skate on it (something like this, winter and summer). So, imagine my dissappointment when it was a separate rink.

Anyway, continueing on, so we spend the afternoon at that park, walking around, sitting at the park, taking pictures, drinking strawberry beer (yes!) and warm wine (so nice...!). In between, I got calls from temp agencies offering me 3 days jobs (which I dont want) and 4 months jobs (which I cant take).

So that was Tuesday. Wednesday Des worked in the morning and I went to pick him up from work to catch a movie. Its been a while since we enjoyed our favourite pastime as it is quite expensive to watch movie here. So armed with a buy-1-free-1 ticket, we managed to catch Quantum of Solace.

And coming back from that movie, is when we searched the internet and booked our tickets home back to Malaysia. Yeap, we'll be flying back to Malaysia by AirAsia on the 17th April 2009!

The cheap tickets actually saved us more than 500 pounds! We bought two one-way tickets, from London to KLCCT on the 17th April, plus 20kg luggage allowance each, Malaysian meal each, and selected our seats, all for 502 pounds! And to think that on average, a one way ticket from MAS would have cost us 500 PER PERSON.

But truth be told, I was somewhat sad when we bought the tickets. I guess going back to KL was a sure thing, but it just goes to show that how time flies! We can still remember the day we arrived and now its almost time to leave!

Its not like we dont want to go home. We do, in fact, we both miss home loads, but despite the fact that there is so much to look forward to (wedding), it always beckons stress as well (car, house set up, wedding expenses and planning, jobs). Not exactly looking forward to face all the stress, and also the prospect of not having a car...

Did I tell you that I was in the mist of persuading Des to use the Wira as the wedding car during our wedding??? Sigh, obviously that will not be happening now... (wishing I can have strawberry beer to down my sorrows...)

Ok, so that was yesterday when we bought our flight tickets home. Waiting for my parents to confirm whether they are coming over, and then we can start to plan for a europe trip. We hope to travel one last time before we head home. Where we plan to go??? Paris, Milan, Rome, Berlin, Barcelona, Venice, Nice... I know I know, its impossible especially for the weakening pound. I'm only dreaming...

Today was Thursday, and I boiled lotus root soup. Haha not too bad eh? I made it a point to boil soup once a week (cause I miss soup). I've done (let me show off can or not??) ABC soup, Corn soup, dried vege soup, white carrot soup (my favourite!), watercress soup, herbal soup to name a few.

Des is working in the afternoon today, so will be going to pick him up from work at 11pm (its now 9pm). And he just texted me to put the wine (curtesy from my ex colleague) into the fridge so that we can drink it when we come back :P

Tomorrow will be a relatively uneventful day. Oh wait, I've got a doctor appointment in the afternoon (nothing to worry, its FOC anyway) and Des is working in the afternoon. So will continue to clean the house (did some washing and vacuuming today) and hopefully get around the cleaning the toilet. Have I mentioned how much I hate 'dry cleaning' toilets???

Nice or not this picture?

So anyway, that was what happened during this week so far. Car loss, passport, tickets, Hyde Park, movie, etc. Considering what usually happened during the times when we both worked, I would say we've done more than 1 month put together. Hehehe

Sat and Sunday would be back to normal, groccery shopping and stuff. And also preparing myself to start work on Monday.

Did I also say how it startes to get dark now by 4pm? So it is really hardwork trying to catch the sun. I think i'm beginning to understand how come the Angmoh is obsessed with the sun. Because there is hardly any!

Sad sad people. Anyway, its past 9pm now and I've got to go get ready to go out to pick up Des. Enjoy the rest of the pictures and hopefully there will be more coming soon!

Apologies, I think I looked 'rounder' now. But Des seems to be losing weight. DAMN!

Making you part of our wedding (WHOA!)

2008-11-22T11:58:00.005+08:00

UPDATE: We're still trying out a few types of surveys. Please bear with us and we promise to improve the quality of the poll/survey!

With 2008 almost drawing to the end, we are aware that we need to kick our lazy ass off the couch and put on our thinking caps if we ever want our wedding to materialize in 2009.

However, (I'm sure like any other couple), we have disagreements over how things should be done. The fact that we're half world away from KL doesnt make it any easier either.

Hence, we've decided to try a new concept. We would like to invite you, our friends and family to comment on issues that we find hard to agree on. Depending on the response we get, we're toying with the idea to make our wedding YOUR wedding by posting up numerous mind boggling issues that needs decision making.

But BEFORE we go so far ahead, we would like to set up a few simple questions just to help us with some ideas. Perhaps, if the response is good, we will continue to develop it into something better (for a better word, ADVENTUROUS, in another word, LAZY).

So, lets starts this off by asking you a few simple questions in which we can build the foundation of our wedding plan. Your response will be very much appreciated, and please leave comments on your thoughts about the polls.

Click Here for Poll Survey Software
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The fundamental of these questions is mostly to ask for opinion based on your experience in attending weddings or organizing weddings. We would like our wedding to be an enjoyable experience for you and would very much like to share our special day with you. Hence, the last thing we want is to have a stressful wedding or to have things gone horribly bad (I'm sure we all have our stories).

So, if you could so kindly give us your 5sen thoughts, we would very much appreciate it!

Thank you! -DNA-

London Eye

2008-11-22T09:40:00.022+08:00

A trip to London Eye some time back. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves :)

Manchester & Blackpool

2008-11-22T06:55:00.018+08:00

These Manchester/Blackpool pictures has been long overdue!

Anyway, sometime in mid-Oct, I was schedule to attend a Congress in Manchester because the company was organizing an event for its members. Des managed to adjust his schedule and he made his way up to Manchester to meet me once I'm done with the event.

We stayed in this place for a night once he arrived. We didnt spend much time in Manchester as we planned to head up to Blackpool the day after.

We did managed to walk around Manchester city area for a while for the night though.

Also, we managed to catch up with Ivy and Cherrie, ex-colleagues from the hill. To imagine that it took us almost half the world trip to meet up after we all left the hill :)

After spending a night at Manchester, we then took a late train to Blackpool where we spend the next two nights. This was our first trip that involves train rides as we previously only travelled in bus as it was way cheaper. This time around, we decide to pamper ourselves a bit (and treat our bums better) and travelled quite a bit via trains.

Blackpool was a tourist area that was famous for its long seaside walkway and also a huge theme park. Think Sunway Lagoon in Port Dickson, only in a bigger scale.

Unfortunately, it was superbly windy and cold during the days that we were there. In fact, it rained a bit at night while we were taking a walk by the sea.

This was the place that we stayed for two nights. This trip was especially 'special' because Des took the liberty to organize everything, from the transport to accommodations to tickets. Usually I would be the one who checks on these things, but I wasnt particularly in the right mind to plan anything, so Des took over. And yes, it was very nice to just relax and follow him around. Haha

It was a small inn run by a family. The room (forgot to take a decent picture of it!) was nice, cozy with TV and ensuite. And that was all I asked for, ensuite and tv :) Oh yea, with breakfast too!

The next day we went to the place we had planned our trip around. Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

It was a HUGE place with numerous roller coasters. And it being autumn and weekdays, the queue was relatively quick and it was great to be able to enjoy the place without wasting time queing.

The one thing is that it was very cloudy and extremely windy. If you wanna imagine it, think Gentingx10 plus the wind and coldness minus the mist.

Because there werent loads of people, we managed to get on the rides and even ride it on the first carriage. Now, while it was fun to ride on the rides on the front, I was getting a bit woozy after my 8th or 9th rides. No joke ok.

This was one of best rides that we went. And truth be told, the only way to tell whether I am scared during rides is when I laugh my heads off. Yes, I laugh when I'm scared.

Presenting the Blackpool version of our Solero Shot. The view above was spectacular, and we ended up riding more than 5 times just to enjoy the view!

Bird's eye view of Blackpool in one of the monorail rides.

A bit woozy after the rides.

The beach was just right next to the park but the sea was too choppy to get near to.

Forgot its name but this one goes forward and backward. One of the rides that you should not under estimate.

The park was entangeld in many roller coaster rides. One thing though, most of the rides doesnt look new, in fact, there was one that is similar to our Twister in Genting, old and small. But it was one of the rides that scares the hell out of me, mostly because of fear from falling out from it! It was small, wonky and looks like its gonna fall apart anytime soon. Needless to say, I laughed my heads off.

It was windy, and I tried my mightly hardest to persuade (more like nag) Des to wear a beanie to cover his head and ears. And he did!
The park has its own mini golf area too!

And just like Genting's concept, it comes with its own in house show too. Very burlesque like, very sexy dances. And way better :P

And for the life of me, I didnt know that we were only supposed to go one way in bumper car rides. And also we are not allowed to bang each other. !?!

Unfortunately, due to the wind, they closed their biggest and longest roller coaster ever.

Not funny ok? Considering the miles we travelled for it.

Oh well, food is the way to soothe us. The evening show was in the later part of the evening, so we hopped over to a restaurant and feed ourselves full (since we hardly had anything during the day to avoid throwing up).

Oh yea, did I mentioned that we contributed about 50 pounds towards the gaming industry?

Des has steak while I had baby back ribs.

Des's starter of Nachos was a killer. Almost a main meal by itself!

I have strips of deep fried mushroom.

And rounding up the trip was a quick trip of shopping in Blackpool before making our way back to London via Manchester. It was a good trip, 4D3N, our longest trip to date!

Update from London

2008-10-31T06:40:00.003+08:00

London weather has been screwed up for the past few days now. Two days ago it was snowing overnight. It wasnt a blanket of snow like the the previous times, but the next day we heard that it was worst in the city.

Today was chilly too, and Des managed to captured a video when he noticed that the 'rain' he thought was not really 'rain' afterall when he saw bits of stuff bouncing off the roof.

We still have two trips of pictures yet to be posted, London Eye and Manchester/Blackpool. Hope to do that over the weekend. Been trying to pester Des to help post too. So, if you like what he wrote the last time around, do tell him!

Until then, this is us signing off from a cold London!

Its autumn now.

2008-10-28T02:15:00.000+08:00

This is how it is at 5pm. Pretty soon its gonna get darker and colder. We just came back from Manchester last week and made Ratatouille for dinner over the weekend. Pictures will be up soon! Love, DNA

Apple Pie

2008-10-13T03:33:00.007+08:00

After a few dismissal attempts at baking, we've decided to give the oven another chance to prove itself worthy.

Having returned from grocery shopping over the weekend with a packet of apples for less than a pound only to realize we still have another half packet in the fridge, Des suggested we do something with the apples before they died on us.

And so, after a few searches through google, here is our first attempt at Apple Pie.

I've managed to find a very simple and fuss free recipe. Just 200g of flour, 100g of butter, 100g of sugar and apples. Of course, there were more canggih versions that includes cinammon, but we dont have any and the weather suddenly turned hot over the weekend, so lazy to buy.

Then campur the flour and butter together with some cold water. Apparently its important to chill the dough in the fridge for about half an hour before rolling it into the crust. We didnt have the rolling pin, so we improvise and roll it flat with a glass container of our favourite Nasi Goreng paste. And then, layer with slices of apples and sugar and masuk oven for about half an hour. Recipe says 45 minutes, but as experience tells it, we need to shorten the time as the oven tends to burn everything we make :(

Tah-dah! First attempt at apple pie. Ok, need to confess, we didnt have enough dough to cover the pie, so I steal some ideas from a supposedly 'American Pie Recipe' and place strips of the dough across the pie. It was supposed to be criss cross, but not enough!

As we use a normal cake pan, so there were some apple juice/sugary water that seep through the pan and dripped down into the pan. So loss some previous liquid for the gooey apple pie effect!

Okay lah, you must excuse the burnt effect. But very proud that the apple pie still stands in one piece instead of collapsing into one gooey mess after we remove the containter. Remember, neither of us have much experience in baking!

As usual, we wallop the whole cake by the end of the day. The water from the picture is i think the apple juice gua. Looks like apple pie banjir here, but it is not as watery as it looks (after of course absorbing the excess water away).

The crust is slightly biscuit-y, not sure it is because I burnt it or it is meant to be like that. The apples still looks and taste like apples, again not too sure whether its not cooked properly enough or its supposed to be like that (remember the rumour about the apple-flavoured-turnip-pie at McD?) Would do good with some cinammon and also ice cream to eat with though.

Oh well, so much for our first attempt then. Next attempt? Ratatouille!

UPDATE: Actually, before the apple pie attempt, we did try a cheese cake a couple of weeks ago. Lets just say the picture looks nicer than it taste :( Not burnt, just not cheesy enough.

The lenghening of hair and hopefully the face lah....

2008-10-11T10:27:00.007+08:00

Ok.... this is my FIRST POST EVER! So if you don't like it....... I can't do anything lor....

Arrived London with this round face and short Ah Beng hair.....

With that tummy also... sigh.....
Hair getting longer, but face still round.. think can hide a few refugees in the folds of my neck :-)

Hair much longer, tummy still there... but what you want? Its so cold here, I NEED the fat to keep me warm leh....

Folds in the neck GONE!! Hair past collar.. YESSSS!!!!
More egg shaped face, and I simply love the length of my hair....
( let me perasan abit can or not? )

The LONGEST my hair has been EVER!

So.... From this... To this...
In about 7 months.. OK what....

(Desmond)

Manchester, here we come!

2008-10-04T00:27:00.000+08:00

We're ready for our next trip! We will be heading up to Manchester and Blackpool for a few days in two weeks time. After an unforseen incident that left us cold and depressed, we've decided to splurge on the trip to help take our mind off the matter. This experience has its share of ups and down so far. One of the ups is that Des has managed to grow his hair the longest in his life so far...

Southfields

2008-09-15T16:58:00.000+08:00

We are in Southfields today. A small residential area. It is noon, and the weather is getting chilly now. And we stopped at a pub to lepak a bit. Des is having his stout, while i had coffee (the cold is getting into me). Sitting by the road looking at the world passing by. Happy belated Mooncake Festival everyone! Love, DNA

Bridal Dress - Part 3

2008-09-14T12:34:00.005+08:00

I think I'm in love.

I really should get some sleep now. Its 5.30am.

P/S: Its only £10!

Bridal Dress - Part 2

2008-09-14T11:57:00.006+08:00

After reading a few articles about people who successfully obtain their wedding dress from the internet here, here and here, I've decided to do some research on my own and BOY, was I in for a suprise!

I am spoilt for choice, and these are my favourites (in no particular order):

Oh, and before you start, please remember a few of these points:
- All dress are available in eBAY, and if you want to know the supplier, let me know which picture and I'll give you the link
- Shipping is worldwide for most supplier (at a small cost)
- All dress are custom-made (measurements are sent to the supplier who will custom make the dress to your size)
- Oh, and you can choose the colour too (white, ivory, cream, red, your choice)

Last but not the least, (breathe in...)

EACH DRESS IS LESS THAN £5.00!!

Dress 1 - I love the lace details in this dress.

Dress 2 - Simple, but the detail is gorgeous!

Dress 3 - Soft and the details shows in the camera

Dress 4 - A bit indian-y, but love the gold details!

Dress 5 - A combination of this and this! (From the first Bridal Dress post)

Dress 6 - Details again, but a bit worried finished product may look a bit koyak-y

Dress 7 - Forget about the red part, can change colour remember?

Dress 8 - Got a bit of the small shoulder detail.

Back view.

Dress 9 - Again, love the hemline. And perfect for evening gown and photo taking!

Dress 10 - A bit skeptical as not too sure how it would look on me, but still love it nevertheless.

Dress 11 - A bit like a ghost bride, but love the layers!

How to choose!?!

I made Des promise me that if we couldnt find any dress by the time we're about to leave London, we will order one of these dresses from eBAY and send it back home.

Can I have your feedback on which is your favourite dress?

And remember,...

EACH DRESS IS LESS THAN £5.00!!

Wimbledon Tennis Championship

2008-09-06T07:25:00.007+08:00

Okay, I'm doing my best to do some catch up on the post here. Another excuse (besides the difficulty in loading pictures in blogspot) is because we also took pictures from our handphones as well. So, need some time to coordinate the files (Dell, LG, Nokia and Olympus dont all use the same adaptor) :)

Anyway, we all now know the winner of the Wimbledon Tennis Championship. And we watch the longest match in history(?) at the comfort of our home while eating dinner. Prior to this, we did feel guilty that we are staying in Wimbledon yet not go to the world famous tennis matches. Little do we know what we need to do in order to get in...

Of course, NOT being an avid fan of tennis, we took our own sweet time to go to the location. By the time we're there, its almost noon and there is a long queue.

And then more...

And more...

Who said its finished? And more...

And more!

And we FINALLY get our queue tickets.

These are queue cards, to prove that you did not jump queue, nor can you get your friend to queue for you. Well, you can, but you cant take turns where 1 person queue for 5 person's entrance.

And apparently, there were going to be many people who will be queueing JUST BECAUSE its Wimbledon Tennis, they gave everyone a sticker to prove that you're there. Apparently, it will take us about four hours to queue before we get into the tickets stands.

Tickets are sold on the day of matches (no advance purchase), hence, explains the long queue ON A DAILY BASIS FOR TWO WEEKS. Tickets cost about £50 to £20, so definately way out of our budget. The secret to getting good tickets? To camp at the field every night to ensure you're early enough to queue to tickets.

No joke. Hence, that was our stint with Wimbledon Tennis as far as we're concern. At least, now we can tell everyone that we're in the QUEUE to the tennis matches :)

Cadbury World

2008-09-06T06:15:00.007+08:00

Yes, I'd figured I'd better upload the Cadbury pictures first before I forgot all about it and never got around doing it. Truth be told, blogspot isnt the best tool to use to upload pictures. Aiks, excuses, excuses...

Anyway, to continue with the story, we made our way to Birmingham train station for our much anticipated Cadbury World trip.

Tickets cost about £2 each for return, and the train ride is about 10 mins. Train runs every half and hour and after grabbing a quick breakfast in the station (McDonald lah, what else?), we hop into the train and promptly arrived at Bournville Station 10 mins later.

Apparently, Bournville is where one of the first Cadbury factory is. To cut a long story short, the bosses were very nice and caring, so they decided to develop the area where the factory is to provided a better working/home environment for its employees. Hence, Bournville used to be full of families of Cadbury workers with church, schools and hospital built around it.

(Another) truth be told, when I mentioned that we were making a trip to Cadbury World to my colleagues, they werent very enthusiatic about. One was because they werent really chocolate fans, and second, it was a tourisy place that they considered expensive. Hey, we're chocolate fans and we're tourist!

The factory is about 20 minutes way from the station, and all you need to do is to follow the signs to point you the way to the factory. It wasnt easy, as we tend to get too excited and follow every Cadbury signs (to its warehouse lah, office lah, staff lodge lah) instead of CadburyWorld signs. What to do, excited mah...

It was a sunny day, good for pictures, bad for the puteri lilin. A friend told us that Bournville is just full of 'chocolate smell', so we were taking deep breathe in but no chocolate smell yet. How disappointing.

Getting nearer, getting there...

And yes! Chocolate smell!

CadburyWorld, here we come!

And finally we're here. Lucky for us, we choose one of the earlier time. There were specific times and bookings is required in advance because apparently the CadburyWorld can only take in so many people at one time.
Tah-Dah! Our tickets cost about £9 each, and initial cost is about £13, but because we came by train, we got a 30% discount or something.

First section of the factory is a maze of exhibition about how chocolate originate in its form and how it was a luxury item, blah blah blah...

This is the entrance of the Time Tunnel and also the sneak preview of the factory. Unfortunately, no pictures allowed though. Scared we curi the recipe??? It wasnt the full blown factory activities though, just one pathetic machine showing how chocolates is wrapped in their plastic wrapping which subsequently are distributed to the visitors. Yes, chocolates are distributed free of charge throughout the trip.

Then we were ushered to a time tunnel where it was a kiddy rides with small Cadbury Choco-man in CadburyWorld. Kinda earrie really... Snap! A quick picture before the ride starts.

There were quite a number of pictures taken, but I guess this picture will give you an idea what its like. Kids stuff lah...

We were given an opportunity to 'play' with chocolates though. Just writing names in chocolates, no big deal, and this one CANNOT EAT cause its scoped up again for use of the rest of the day.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is where we discovered the Cadbury Chocolate Fondue set. Once we knew it exist, we went straight to the shop to get one. Cost about £13 each.

Have I mentioned about the free chocolates? They also let you have a taste of melted chocolate too. You could have it with peanuts lah, popcorn lah, mashmallow lah, up to you lah.

Super thick chocolate that actually makes me feel so guilty...

Each one got one. Makes us wanna buy the fondue set even more. Hmm, come to think of it, it must be a conspiracy!

Rows and rows of chocolates. As per previous post, we bought loads of chocolates. It comes close to £30, and considered not a lot, but we couldnt have gotten more simply because our bags ran out of space.

Sick and tired of chocolate yet?

One thing that was disappointing was that a huge chuck of the trip there were a no photography rule and there werent that many things to take picture of in the first place. Hence, we couldnt take pictures to reflect what the trip is like. But, despite the lack of pictures, we did enjoy ourselves. You should have seen our human chocolate mould! Too bad they didnt make a replica of it! *wink*

And yeap, that was the end of the trip. We spend about 3 hours there, 1 hour being in the chocolate shop. I would recommend this place for family with kids cause there were plenty of activities for the kids, though i'm sure many parents cringed at the fact of what sugars does to kids.

Ok lah, CadburyWorld is no Disneyland. But it was a nice place to go for a short trip to somewhere that we both have a strong passion for :)

Birmingham

2008-08-30T18:45:00.014+08:00

Last weekend during the August Bank Holiday (otherwise known as our Public Holiday), we made a short trip to Birmingham. We've been looking forward to this holiday since coming back from Southampton a couple of months ago. Coincidently, this trip is to be part of our 6-month anniversary celebration. Yes, it has been 6 months already!

One of the reason why we head to Birmingham is because Penny (pictured above) is studying there. She will be done with her studies soon, and we thought before she decides to move somewhere else, its best we catch her there first. We have been catching up mostly on MSN when we arrived in London and its been very good to meet up with her finally.

We went to Victoria Coach Station on a Saturday morning, took the bus and about roughly 3 hours later, arrived in Birmingham. We walk to our hotel (about 20 mins away), Formulae 1 Hotel (shown at the background of the mushrooms). No pix of the hotel rooms though, cause it didnt turn out well. Its a dormitory-style with a hotel layout. Technically, it means its a room for at least 3 person with a small basin and TV. Bathrooms and toilets is located outside the coridor and it is sharing basis. Having said that, the rooms were one of the cheapest for a night stay (about £28 per room per night, regardless of whether its 1, 2 or 3 persons), and the toilets and bathrooms are very clean. Its one of those cubicles that self cleans everytime after someone uses it. So, I was quite impressed. It was Des's second 'encounter' with Formulae 1 hotel concept, first being in Paris, and that is how we came to know of this place.

After unloading our bags and refreshing ourselves, we went back to the city to meet up with Penny. We were told to go to this place called the Bullring (one of the many large shopping complex). And yes, SHOPPING COMPLEXES!! How come London doesnt have any?? Harrods doesnt count because it doesnt have rows and rows of shops in there.

This is St Martin Cathedral. There were many cathedrals in Birmingham, but we skip most of them as we werent keen to look. As you can see, the weather was great! It was bright and sunny during the day, and rain during the night when we were sleeping. Perfect!

And so, we meet up with Penny and it was lunch time by then. She took us to this Malaysian restaurant place (what to do, there is no famous Birmingham-food also!) and we had a wonderful lunch! Fish, mussels, stuff toufu and even pork's leg vinegar!!! *pengsan*

After lunch, we walked around the city. There is this huge market that runs on a daily basis and both Des and I LOVE markets! There were times when we were in Genting that we drove down to Connaught just to go to the pasarmalam! :P

The market was huge! There were the vege market, butcher's market and nicknacks as well! Stuff here are so cheap! A HUGE bowl of tomatoes is only £1 wherelse in London only a small bowl is of the same price.

£1 per umbrella. At this rate, can use one everyday! (Bear with us, dont convert, otherwise, no use...). Then there were this huge sheltered market that sells really cheap stuff from cheap watches to cheap levis to cheap bags.

See! Even Sainsbury (equavalent to our Tesco and Carrefour) doesnt sell towels as cheap as this! And so we explore the market part of Birmingham for the rest of the afternoon and slowly make our way back to our hotel after that.

Once back to the hotel, we promptly fell asleep for our nap and woke up later for a quick dinner at the hotel lobby. That was when we took the picture on the previous post with our beers. Hehehe we took a short walk around the area and sadly, there werent much to see as we were right along the highways so there isnt much to look.

We went to bed early and woke up early too! This is because we have a long day in front of us! We are set to go Cadbury World! :) Pictures of Cadbury World will be updated in a separate post. And remember the first picture that we took with Penny at the beginning? This is how the place looks like in the early morning while the shops has yet to open. It will be pack as the day moves on...

Tadah! We spend about 3 hours there gawking at the chocolates and grabbing loads of it back home! Overall, we both enjoyed the trip as we both love chocolates and its been good to go. Though, I would only recommend this place for strictly Cadbury lovers and families with kids.

Somewhere while walking to Cadbury World, we come across this. Hehehe proud to be Malaysian!

After Cadbury World, we went back to Birmingham. Its about 10 minutes train away. And after a good round of chocolates,we decides to walk the calories away and came to this canal-like place, Quayside I think its called.

This place reminds me of Camden Town, a place similar in London with the river and loads of place to eat around it. I had been wanting to post pictures of Camden earlier on, but things seems to get into the way. I promise it will be up soon.

We decided to hop on one of these canal boat rides that is about an hour long. Turns out to be the most boring rides we've ever been. All it goes was along the canal showing us run down factories and horrible looking buildings. Apparently, there were some history involve, something about how the canal was important to Birmingham as it is used to transfer goods or something back in many many years ago.

Luckily the boat was very comfortable, with seats and tables too! Too bad we were too full from Cadbury, otherwise, it would be very nice to share a meal in the boat as it was a very steady and slow ride.

While walking towards the canal, we pass by this place called the Victoria Square. Its just basically an open space surrounded by famous building like the Town House, some Cathedral again and also some lawyer court thing. But the highlight of the square is this...

Yea, this best explain how much the angmoh loves the sun, sea and sand. Since they cant go to the sea, they brought the sand over. And there werent one, but TWO of these kinda inland outdoor sand place in the city already! This is how much they love the sun... Sheesh...

After the boat ride, we went to a nice place by the canal for dinner. The weather was great, it was still bright, but cool cause its towards the evening. And had a good time enjoying our dinner while watching people walk past by.

See what I mean when I said that we fail as a food blogger? Usually, we'll tuck into the food and forgot all about taking pictures until we finished. Anyway, I had chicken roast while Des tuck into a steak. And then we shared a pitcher of Sangria. Mind you, it was a huge pitcher and it took us forever to finish it.

And that was the end of the 2nd day for us in Birmingham. After the dinner, we're back in the hotel. Its been a long day, and whilst making plans for a beer later in the night, we crawl into the bed for a short nap only to find ourselves waking up next morning...

And up the 3rd day in Birmingham. And this was to be our last day in Birmingham, as we have arrange to take the coach back to London in the afternoon later the day. And so we packed up, left the hotel, and dropped our luggage in a luggage storage place and explore the place a bit more.

We hopped to Chinatown, a small street compared to London. Initially, from the exterior, I thought that this is bigger than London but after careful examination it turns out to be quite a small place. But nevertheless, we found some stuff that was sold here that was not available in London. Suprisingly.

Found this cute looking shops that sells old school sweets. The jars and jars of sweets looks so tempting. We would have bought something if not of the Cadbury's that we bought already. Hehehe

Truth be told, when we told our colleagues and friends that we're heading up to Birmingham for the weekend, we were given some not so nice review. We were told that Birmingham is not a pretty place nor is it famous for its sight seeing. Something about World World II bombing which destroy the city and it has to be rebuilt quickly, hence the ugly buildings.

Our verdict? Its alright actually. Its very much city around the shopping area, and though I admit there were some unpretty sights towards the outside of the city, I wasnt particularly bothered by it. Think Petaling Street next to One Utama. Cadbury being the highlight of our tour, a 3D2N stay seems to be sufficient for a relaxing holiday. In fact, being told that Birmingham has nothing to offer has lowers the expectation and I'm certainly suprised to see that it was not what we were told.

In fact, we bought so much stuff there that we wouldnt normally find time to! We did some shopping, i bought jackets, jeans and shoes, Des bought shoes and socks as well. The clothings are all from Primark, a place that sells dirt cheap bajus, like £2 for 6 pairs of socks or something. We even have to buy an extra China bag (costing 50p!) to put the extra stuff in. Somewhere in the picture were loads of chocolates, two jar of Nasi Goreng paste and of course the Cadbury Chocolate Fondue set that was already featured previously. And our favourite, a bag of Mishapes, where all the Cadbury chocs that are rejected cause doesnt pass QC. Mind you, they are quite expensive, but part of the fun is discovering what you eat cause you can hardly identify them.

And so that was the end of the Birmingham trip. Next trip in the calendar, hopefully Manchester in Oct for a couple of days. So that gives us about roughtly a month to recover and hopefully save some money for the trip. Hehehe...

Cadbury Chocolate Fondue Recipe

2008-08-27T03:51:00.005+08:00

Hello! We're back from Birmingham! Pictures still under processing, so upload this quick make-it-yourself chocolate fondue first.

Items required for fondue: Cadbury Chocolates, Fruits, and an electrical Cadbury chocolate fondue set.

Husband to chop chocolate into small bits and add a teaspoon of butter. Can add cream too, but we dont have.

Dump everything into Cadbury fondue set (cost about 13 pound) and set to heat II to start melting process.

Meanwhile, wifey can help out by cutting fruits into small pieces. Can curi makan to remind self how fruits actually taste like without chocolate coating.

Stir chocolate slowly as it melts.

Continue to stir until butter and chocolate are fully melted.

Take picture of husband and wife team while waiting for chocolate to melt.

Once in the right 'condition', set heat to I (keep warm).

Cucuk fruit using Cadbury plastic skewer that comes together with the fondue set and dip into chocolate.

Wait, cannot eat yet. Another picture before our indulgence. Then, can eat!

And so, this is the recipe for Cadbury Chocolate Fondue.

Ten minutes later...

Warning: Limit to once a month. Otherwise, cannot recognise already :)

Hello from Birmingham!

2008-08-25T02:42:00.000+08:00

Arrived in Birmingham! Its been a long but a very good day. Cadbury Land tomorrow! Wait for pictures! Love, D&A and the beers...

Bridal Dress

2008-08-10T07:59:00.011+08:00

And so begin our hunt for a wedding dress. The objective was not so much to buy one, but rather to just try it out for fun, look around to see the various design, and to see what we both like. Apparently, there is a market here to buy wedding dress. If you look at a typical angmoh wedding, it will be ONE wedding dress for the ceremony, picture taking and the reception afterwards. Hence, it makes sense to buy one. But for us, back home, it is a bit tricky as we will usually require at least 3-4 dresses to last through the wedding album and the dinner reception. Hence, the norm to rent at the studio that will be taking your pictures.

Below are the few of the dresses that I've tried on. All pictures taken from here and here. All the dresses in this post I've tried on.

My Dream Dress - ₤1,600

Few weeks ago, Des and I make our way to our first bridal shop. Bridal shops usually works by appointment only and we managed to squeeze an appointment during one of the weekdays. Appointments usually last for an hour. Perhaps, maybe because it was during a sale and they were in a rush, an hour usually means I could try on about 4-5 dresses.

2nd Choice - ₤2,000 (love the back details, but the front part is a bit plain and its actually two toned dress, the dress is white while the lace is brown)

I was asked what kind of design I've been looking for. And with a deep breathe, I told her exactly what I've been practising, "I dont want plain, I dont want boring, I dont want simple". And I continued, "I'm dont want anything that does NOT show on camera, I want loads of designs, I want loads of details, I want it special". And so we picked up a few to try on, one was horrible, one makes me feel Cinderella-ish, one is boring, one makes me fat, and one makes me feel absolutely special. And that carries a price tag of ₤1,600, after 40 % discount (refer 1st picture). Ok, imagine it without the ribbons (cause when I tried it one it was without the ribbons).

2nd Choice - Close up (Initial checking shows that the corset itself cost about 1.3k)

So, hopefully, from the above pictures, you'll be able to gauge what kind of dress I have in mind. Ok, maybe the model is very tall, but when I tried it on, the back has a small train to it. Everything about the dress I like. Its not simple, its not plain, its not boring. And its not white, and I really like the lower part of the skirt with the tulle sticking out. The sales girl was doing a fantastic job, and i think for a short 2 seconds, I did think of buying it. She even did the 'Close your eyes, imagine your wedding and open your eyes' trick. And it works.And so, we left the shop with my dream dress in my head. And I think I suffered the wedding-dress-withdrawal syndrome for a week after that. Apparently, what they say about wedding dress is true. It does makes your special. It does makes you feel magical. But they didnt say anything about you feeling absolutely horrible when they strip it off you...

It looks lovely, but I its something that I wouldnt want

And so, after a few weeks break, I felt that I am stronger and felt that I am ready for another round of hunting. A new bridal shop just open near where we stayed, so we waltzed in one weekend and made an appointment two weeks later. Admittedly, I wasnt too sure that we'll be able to go due to Des's schedule, but at last, we made it.

Close up - See what I mean when I say details doesnt show?

I think it is very important that the details shows on camera. Afterall, if it doesnt, I could have gotten a much simpler (and cheaper) dress right? Hence, the surefire way of showing is to get elaborative designs. I wouldnt mind this on brown though, I noticed I tend to notice brown a bit more...

Simple Dress - Very garden wedding-ish

The second shop we went were less crowded. In fact, I was the only one by the time its my turn. And I turned up half an hour earlier too, and they were nice to accomodate me. Hence, I get to try on WAY more dress than the first one. I think I get to try about 7-8 dresses. So, with this opportunity, I get to explore more types of dresses (didnt they say to try everything?) Even the simple ones like the one above. And it re-enforce my choice of elaborate designs.

Back view of Simple Dress - The only reason I choose to try it on. But sadly, it also re-enforce my reason why THIS is not for me.

If you compare the four dresses u've seen so far you'll noticed that three of them have corset. And that means its more flattering. The problem with the above simple dress is that there is absolutely NO WAY of HIDING ur bulges. Plus, you cant wear anything to SHOW OFF your curves. Plus, this bareback dress (which ironically is the only reason why I decided to try on) also reminds me that I shouldnt choose a low bareback because my lower back has stretch marks :(

A simple-but-not-so-simple dress

Oh and did I mention no pictures allowed when I try the dresses on? Which explains why there were no proof that I've tried all these on. Frankly speaking, by now I sort of have a somewhat good idea on what I DONT want. Veil wise, I wanted one that ends at the waist length, which I think looks more flaterring. The dress above is plain, but apparently this shops takes in orders as per customer's requirements. Noticed the vertical design on the dress? Imagine the white dress with the vertical design in COLOURS, say, gold or light brown. NOW it looks nice right??? The image instantly reminds me of this.

Adding on a lace like 'jacket' - looks so much more classy

I've noticed that although simple one-piece dress does look classy, but its difficult for me to carry because I'm not tall enough to have it. Also, it is not as fitting as it should be, but i think if I were to consider BUYING a dress, something like this would make a very nice purchase. Plus, it would be easier to store AND i think it will stand the test of time (in terms of fashion) compare to the normal corset and hoop skirt number...

Fish tail Dress - Tried this and another similar one, realized it makes my hip looks HUGE.

By now I also realized understand the term how "how you should wear the dress and not the other way around". Despite the fact that I've wanted (and tried on) some outrageous ones, I need to remember that I need to be able to carry in, otherwise, everyone will be talking about the dress and not me. Aiks...

Another outrageous dress - Not tall enough for this, absolutely eat me up!

And so, after more than an hour, we walked out of the shop with the codes of the chosen dress. But without a second appointment for fitting. So far, admittedly, we have been looking through dresses that has been WAY out of our budget. All the above dress is about 1k-2k range. Although, the trend now is to order wedding dress on eBAY, where they post up pictures of the dress from designers, and someone from China could duplicate the dress for you for a fraction of the cost, hence we're talking from ₤2.50 (yes, two pound fifty pence) to ₤300, depending on the bidding price. Plus, simple designs can also be found in departmental stores for about ₤300 or so.

So the end of our 2nd trip to bridal shops. Perhaps, sometime in weeks to come, we'll find time to go again. Its fun to try on the dress and seeing what works and what doesnt, but it does feel a tad sad to know we wont be able to afford this. And knowing that we've seen here makes me dread home to done on the tacky bridal dress and evening wear that is usually found in our bridal shops back home. At last, I now see the difference between designer and non designer dresses.

On a happier note, we'll be heading to Birmingham end of August for a short trip! So pictures is definate by then! :)

Update - 050808

2008-08-05T21:25:00.000+08:00

Just a quick update, on a Tuesday evening, just finish work, in a pub with beers already. Waiting to meet friends for dinner. This is us embracing the british lifestyle. Hehehe

The Forbidden Kingdom - Jackie Chan

2008-07-12T03:13:00.000+08:00

Yes, the new Jackie Chan movie is a bit cheesy, the plot is predictable, the acting is poor, but the fight scene between him and Jet Li is FANTASTIC! For those of you who don't understand, its the collaboration between the very best of the martial art scene. Almost like the long awaited fight between Alien and Predator. Get it? Beautiful. But i damn pissed off right now cause the picture i took during our dinner is lost. So no picture despite my promise. First time angry at my LG. Strike three and you're out!

Friday night...

2008-07-05T01:11:00.000+08:00

Its almost 8pm now. Eating ice cream now at Leicester Square, better known as Chinatown. Des is working afternoon, will finish work later tonight. I will be rushing home after this to watch Big Brother. The weekend is here!

Meet Bled, the coagulated blood.

2008-07-05T00:52:00.002+08:00

I took this picture with my LG phone and edit the writing on its touch screen too...

Is the Queen coming for dinner?

2008-07-05T00:52:00.000+08:00

A set of sterling silver stuff on sale at Harrods going for £15,000. Click on the picture to see the price before discount, and convert to Ringgit price...

Bridal Dress

2008-07-03T01:09:00.001+08:00

Its been a good day so far. Des has finally jump shift after nearly three weeks of night shifts, and we just came back from our first ever bridal shopping experience. I know what i like, and i would say that i found what i like. But obviously the price is too high. Nevertheless, it does make my heart skip a beat, but i wasn't allowed to take pictures. Lets just say, its not white, not plain, not boring and not traditional :-) going for dinner now, will update more on my mobile next time. Take care!

Fridge Defrosting Day

2008-06-29T18:20:00.000+08:00

If you have wanted to ask us how is married life so far, I'll tell you that we have been domesticated until to the point that we were discussing grocery shopping while lepak-ing in a club surrounded by people drinking and dancing. Even worst, when we came back from the club, instead of crashing to the bed drunk and making passionate love, we proceed to clear the fridge and freezer to defrost it. So yea, the fridge has been acting up a bit, so we finally got around doing it. The next morning though, in a spur me the moment, i decided to cook ALL the remaining meat, hence the attached picture.. I popped the two remaining chicken drumstick into the microwave, grilled two portions of pork ribs into the oven, fried another two portions of pork ribs, and cooked the remaining luncheon meat and sausages. So there, meat enough for at least FIVE meals all cooked at one go for an impromptu but satisfying BREAKFAST. Yea, i know, no more meat next week for these two carnivorous...

Testing testing!

2008-06-18T03:55:00.000+08:00

Updating from my mobile. Hope this works! Have a good day everyone!

Southampton

2008-06-17T17:09:00.021+08:00

Last week Des and I made a short trip to Southampton to visit a friend.

This was our first ever overnight trip since we arrived in March this year. We planned the trip about 2-3 weeks before and was very excited about leaving home for the first time.

We booked our bus tickets via online and it cost us about £12 for two persons for return tickets. It was supposed to be even cheaper (about £2 per person for each return), but i guess they ran out of the cheap ones by the time we booked. We were going back and forth as to whether to book accommodation, but at least we managed to convinced a friend to let us stay over at his place for free :P That saved us up to £50 for a night's accommodation, which promptly went into our food expenses for the trip. Hehehe...

We took a bus from the city and arrived 4 hours later. It was quite an uncomfortable ride actually, not because of the seats, but the rules that says seatbelts is compulsory. I swear, the belts are so tight it felt like I was strapped to the seat as if I was to be propelled out of the bus.

Bar Gate, Southampton - Front View

So TaDah! We were in Southampton around noon and guess what! Apparently, the day we arrived was the hottest day of the year! I really dun know whether its a good thing really, the fact that the weather was absolutely glorious with loads of sun (unlike the Bath trip which was threatening to rain) or it was just plain hot.

Bar Gate, Southampton - Back View

So apparently, if you are not familiar, Southampton was the place where Titanic took off for its maiden trip. And I only found out about this when I arrived +_+

I took lots of pictures of explanation of places/statues so that I wont forget

Guess what we're looking at?

Shopping Malls!!! Who would have guess that a small town like Southampton would have more than THREE Shopping Malls!?!?! London only have, like what, ONE?? (I only know Harrods, and it doesnt even count!) Obviously, it is nothing compared to our MidValley and OneUtama lah, but still, SHOPPING MALL!!

For those of you who are suprised at our excitement, shopping mall is a GREAT place to shop! Cause you know why? When the weather turns bad, you can STILL shop while getting away from the rain/sun! Oh yea, I havent told you how miserable we are when it was raining and there is no shelter along the shops...

So we walked along the walls in which Southampton is famous for...

Shade, glorious shade!

Walls, walls and more walls...

This was apparently where in the olden days people point their weapons out from the walls to shot at their enemies wor...

Obligatory tourist picture - Refer description in picture below.

Some memorial...

We walked the whole day finding our way with a map of Southampton FOC. Yea, we are suckers for free stuff now...

Found and old church.

Doest this picture reminds you of Bukit Tinggi???

Yeap, this was how wonderfully glorious the weather is. Shesh...

Then we found a memorial for those perished in the Titanic...

By the time we arrived at this place, it was past noon and we were both very tired and hungry. So we rested for a bit and hunt for food...

Remember the £50 we saved from accommodation? This is where a huge chunk of it went. We went past some restaurant and settle for this small Italian rest. While we were waiting for our food, Des called up Stephen and told him we were in some Italian rest and he mentioned that he had wanted to try out the place for some time. So I guess we choose the right place then!

I, on the other hand, has picked up a very bad habit. I'm (finally) learning to love beer. Beer here (in UK, in general) have absolutely NO bitterness in it! Seriously, the only thing that keeps me from beer back home is the bitterness. But here, there is ABSOLUTELY NON! Since, I have been happily ordering my beer. But I still havent managed to master the art of finished the entire pint by myself... :P

After the food, we continue walking and found the quay where the Titanic has took off(?)

Yea, we only managed to go until the sign only. Any further we're not allowed to.

We hopped into the Titanic museum, but no pictures allowed inside wor. For £2 per person, it was quite worth it cause since we came all the way and it was kinda eerie and sad too looking at all the memorabilia and stuff.

A picture from a carefully balanced camera on top of a beam...

For something nearer to heart, we found Mint Casino. Membership was free, but it was a very VERY small place. Smaller than Starworld, smaller than International Room, about the size of the common VIP room but with less table, more slots. Get the idea? I think they only have like 3 roulette, and 3 card-game tables and the rest is slots. And we contributed £5 to your yearly bonus, so please say thank you! :P

And we also found Maxims the next day! But unfortunately, it wasnt open, so we couldnt get it. How dissappointing...

Presenting Mr Stephen Lim! Who graciously allow us to bunk at his place for a night! Thank you very very much! You come London we make you aubergine dish ok?? *wink*

A view of the hostel

So we met up by dinner time and we even managed to cook dinner at his place! After the dinner, we went out again to catch a movie. Bad thing about being in UK without a car is that you'll have to figured out how to get home if you ever stay out later than the last bus. And so, we walked back to his place after the movie, in which during the process came to realized that a 20-min bus ride equates to 1.5 hours of walking *pengsan*

The next day, we continue our trip to explore the town and came to a quay.

And apparently, this is Queen Elizabeth-dunno-number-what-told-by-some-bus-driver-dunno-correct-or-not.

A picture taken towards the end of the day while we were waiting for some free bus service that loops around the town (legs cannot take it already).

And our bus back to London was around 4pm, so we're strapped to our seat again for the trip back home.

And so that was the end of our trip to Southampton. It was really very good, good to be able to finally go for a short holiday and taking a break from our work.

To sum it up, actually, a day trip to Southampton is sufficient. But with our 2D1N trip, i think we pretty much cover EVERYTHING in the town area, so that is good enough. Plus it gives you more time to walk around and an opportunity to revisit the places in case it was closed (in which our case, all museum is closed on Monday, so we had to go again on Tuesday). There were apparently markets on the weekends, too bad we missed it. Perhaps, there will be next time...

As usual, the compulsory update. I've officially quit my three-month-stint data entry job in Universal (yes, I was with Universal Music, but I really don't think it is gonna make any impact at all in my resume). I've found another similar job (but hopefully more challenging) and is due to start next week. It pays much better, but money wasnt the thing that makes me move cause I was ready to settle for something much lesser anyway. Yea, for someone who insist that money is very important to be considering a lower paying job, you can really imagine what kind of job I had.

So meanwhile, I'm taking this week off to rest (not like it was stressful prior to this anyway) before starting on Monday. So wish me luck, hope I'll be able to start the new job next week and I'll be happy with my job!

Des on the other hand is still doing good. Someone screwed up his scheduled and he is stuck with midnight shifts for almost two weeks now. Which totally sucks cause I'm at home for whole week and when I wake up, he comes home to sleep the day off. He was supposed to be working day shifts this week! Anyway, perhaps, next week he'll be on day shift and things will be better.

Also, because of the sudden change, his whole schedule is all messed up and we now are stuck in a situation where BOTH of us do not know when we'll be going on leave! Hence, we couldnt plan anything for now and RyanAir was giving away free flight tickets and we couldnt book any cause we have no idea when we'll be available! How frustrating, since the EVERYTHING (bus/train/flights) works very much like AirAsia, the earlier the booking, the cheaper it is (remember our Southampton tickets?).

So yea, this is it for now. I'll try to keep up and post at least once every fortnight, so at least it will keep you all up to date with whats going on, ok? So take care all of you and until next time!

June already!

2008-06-01T17:39:00.005+08:00

The last time i check, has it been two weeks since I update already???

For those of you new to my stories, please excuse my grammar. Laugh at me and enjoy my stories ya! Since we ran out of pictures, I thought I post some old pictures of us...

A trip to the Eye of Malaysia - Feb 2007

Time flies when you're busy. Its been almost three months since we first arrive. Hahaha. And partly because we're both busy working, we havent really been anywhere compared to the initial few weeks. Also, we're both trying to adjust to Des's turbulent schedule.

A tip to those dating hoteliers: Make sure at least ONE of you has a fix schedule. That is the only way to maintain some sanity, otherwise it really brings a whole new meaning of staying together but not living together.

I mention before, on days where Des works midnight, we'll play this game of trying to spot each other on the bus going OPPOSITE direction in the morning; him going home to sleep and me going to work. When I'm off work, i'll rush back to have dinner with him before kissing him goodbye as he goes to work and me going to bed.

When he works afternoon, I'll have to get dinner on my own and then wait for him to come back work at 12am to kiss him goodnight before I go to bed. Morning shifts are a little bit better as we'd still be able to have dinner together without him rushing off work.

His typical schedule would somewhat consist of six days work with two days off. He would usually work a week of midnight and another of day/afternoon and the cycle goes over and over again.

This would also means that our offdays RARELY coincide. Take this weekend for example. He works midnight and while I'm up and about on my weekend, I'll usually stay home and be really quiet because he's sleeping the day off (he comes home at 8am remember?). Then, when I'm off to work on Monday, he will be having his day off mucking about at home while I'm off work.

A trip to PD - July 2007

I'm not complaining. Life is like that. I guess I knew from day one when I first dated him that he will be in this line and his schedule will be like that. There are days when I daydream about having regular weekends off together and going out as a family to shopping malls and stuff. It doesnt really help with the fact that most shops close early or completely anyway.

So, can you imagine life with both of us jumping shifts like crazy? It would very well literally means that we might not see each other for days even though we're living under the same roof. Yea, I know how that is. We worked at the hill before remember?

Also, whenever our friends ask us to go on trips, my typical answer would be, "Wait for Des's schedule". Cause its not like we can just pick one weekend in three months time and decide we'll go somewhere that time.We really dont know what time he'll be working by then. "No annual leave meh?" Yes, Des do have annual leave, but he's still new to this job, and frankly speaking, we havent really figured out how things work out yet :) So there, like I said, not just any weekend that most people can just pick without filling up forms, but he will also may have to take annual leave or I will have to take leave if we're to go weekday. See what I mean?

Our 7th anniversary

Anyway, we're planning to go Southampton for an overnight trip in two weeks time, and considering a day trip to Oxford at the end of June, right before I start my new job. Yeap, I've found something else and I'm looking forward to it! Its still a temp job, but better paying and hopefully way more interesting and challenging compared to what I'm doing now!

Des on the other hand, is still doing alright. Midnight shifts reminds him of the hill as there isnt much to do at night. We both encounter loads of 'mind boggling' experience in our working life here but this really isnt the channel to talk about it. Not for now anyway *wink*

The house is still standing. Though the garden really is a nuisance as the grass grows so fast and Des has to resort to doing some of the work manually. Obviously both of us doesnt has 'green fingers' and I've decided that if we were to have a garden someday, I'll covered it with concrete and make space for cars instead. Hahahah...

If you're wandering how we're coping with food, we both miss KL food very much. Though Des is coping very well by experimenting with food and there are days we have curry chicken, ayam masak merah and soup! To save money, Des cooked extra for dinner and I'll tapau the food for my lunch for next day work. Des gets free meal when he is working and this means that we would literally go to work for one week and not spend a single cent (or pence). Compare this to our lifestyle back home where we'll practically jump for not having cash with us and now to survive a whole week with just 1 pound.

Not us, but Ulu Yam deep fried siu pau - Food is high priority in our relationship.

Oh, lets talk about cultural shock stories. Both Des and I thinks that there must be something that we both dont know about bus insurance, because the people here doesnt seems like the back of the bus, meaning there will be empty seats at the back but the middle and front will be jam pack like sardines. I dunno, perhaps they knew that those sitting at the back is not insured or something. They just dont like to move to the back of the bus and would very much prefer to hog the middle part. Hmmm...

And what's with dry toilets? There were days when I wanted to give the bathroom a good wash and I admit I dont know how! I long for a hose and to be just able to spray at everything to make it clean. You know how disgusting it is to WIPE your toilet clean and not be able to wash it with running water??? I dont know, perhaps, again, there is something that they knew but we didnt...

The same way we frown at them eating their rice with fork, I was frown upon when I eat baked beans with rice! :P yea, so that is the part when WE are the weirdos. Also, lunching together-gether wasnt something of a regular basis as I would have been broke by then and also talking out loud like yelling across the office is frown upon. Yea yea, I amaze myself sometimes. I'm so quiet I didnt recognize myself at all. There are times when I feel as if I'm the only one in the office when in actual fact I was with 40 others. Apparently, I wasnt the only one who feels this way, Des thinks the same during his short stint in the ballet school and current place as well. Oh well, perhaps this is a chance to give my voice box a rest after all these years...

Registration of Marriage - Feb 2008

Otherwise, as always, everything else is still moving alright. So far we are managing in terms of financial needs with both of us working. Money in the bank is growing slowly but surely. And yeap, we're ready to take in visits! So please let us know if you're anywhere near London and we'll be glad to have you over! Extra bed, check, extra pillows, check, extra food, check! Last I heard, the pound is weakening (damn!), so this would be a good time to come! (Why am I promoting London?)

:) Alright, so much for this time around. There will be more pictures the next time around after our trips. Take care all of you yea!

A1 Racing

2008-05-18T07:50:00.003+08:00

Over one of the weekends, (geez, I'm really bad at date!), A1 was having a show down in Regent Street, London.

So we managed to hop over the city to kau poh and see what its all about. Not to mention its free!

Yeap. it was raining at the beginning, hence the umbrella girls.

Seriously, it was absolutely freezing and I salute the girls having to brave the weather. They MUST have been paid good money!

You wont see me in any of the pictures in this post as I am the photographer as the guys took their pick to take pictures with the girls. I was feeling so damn conscious as dahlah I am already covered head to toe, my assests are not as attractive as them (busy stuffing tissues into myself).

See what I mean?

Throughout the day they carried out interviews of people that I dont recognized.

I absolutely love their shoes and I miss my black pumps even more!

What is a A1 trip without a picture of the engines right?

Des and Ron admiring the cars *cough*.

Apparently, they had a competition for the public to see who changes the tires fastest. The quickest of the day gets two tickets to the actual race. Well, you see the video and you judge youself. Enjoy!

Bath and Stonehenge

2008-05-18T05:24:00.012+08:00

Hello, and we're back!

No, not back BACK, but back here uploading pictures. Yes, we know that we've been slacking on updates, but believe or not, it took me one hour just to upload all the pictures in this post before I could start typing away. Ok, I shouldnt blame Blogger, if I've been updating regularly, there wouldnt have been so many to upload in the first place.

Anyway, last weekend we went to Stonehenge and Bath with two of our friends. Just a short day trip for about 45 pounds per person.

As there are too many pictures, I'll be telling our updates along with the pictures we took during the trip. Enjoy!

First Stop - Bath

The thing is the past two weeks we have been busy adjusting to each other's working schedule. Des has started working and he is back into jumping shifts. His typical week would be (for those of you who would have known), a compressed one month's Genting schedule. Meaning, he jumps from midnight to afternoon to morning and gets a day off all in a week. Yes, a very hectic jump and indeed, I feels that it is even more stressful than the monthly schedule.

A famous building in Bath *roll eyes*

Hence, our daily routine revolves around Des's schedule. Not that it was a suprise, as we were already quite used to it when we were up hill. When Des is on midnight, I'll get off work and rush back to join him for dinner, in which he'll get ready for work and will be out by 10pm. And then, next morning, we'll play our little game of spotting each other as we will both (usually) be in a bus (me to work, him from work) in the opposite direction. How pathetic eh?

Bath and Me

Oh, wait, a story about Bath and me. When we decided to join this trip, I have absolutely no idea what Bath is all about. We took this trip because it was recommended by one of Des's friend and it was very affordable. When we arrived, we were ushered into the entrance and were given one of those audio guide (refer picture above) and were told to wander at our own place.

Entrance of Abbey

The moment I took one of those audio thingy, I suddenly wandered out loud, "I think I've been here before". Two steps into the place, I had a de javu moment. I thought its just one of those moments and waited a while for it to dissappears. But three seconds later, I had flashbacks of the place and suddenly I remembered.

Yes, I remembered this!

I.HAVE.Been.Here.

I've been here during my UK trip twelve years ago when I was in Form 3! It really seems like those moments in TV where the person suffering from amnesia suddenly remembers. I remember the pool, I remember posing for pictures, I remember the dark room!

Mr and Mrs Lim

After realizing that I've been here before, I quickly lose interest and wanted to wander out to the town instead :P Anyway, Des enjoyed the place and was busy snapping pictures while I followed closely (I forgot my handphone that day and was being particularly paranoid of being separated from Des) thinking how stupid I could be for not remembering that I've been here before.

Matta: Dont worry, not all is lost. I remembered going to Oxford! :)

View from Roman Bath

The weather was cool, colder that last week as the sun was out and we were practically sweating last week. The weather suddenly drop as the weekend approaches and we were bracing ourselves for a wet holiday. It was very cloudy and very windy and the sky is threatening to drop any second, but luckily, it stayed dry for the day.

Display of one of those entrance

The trip to Bath took about2 hours, so we managed to catch a few winks in between the highway. Oh, and we got caught on the way back in a traffic jam, because there was an accident between two cars and people were driving S-L-O-W-L-Y to watch hence the delay in traffic! And guess what, even the OPPOSITE direction was slowed down too! Hence, the normal perception that only Malaysian are generally "caring" Is.Not.True! The people here does the same too!

See, we're not that weird afterall...

Steps leading to a temple

They excavated the steps to the temple but not the temple? Hmm...

Bath Abbey

After the Roman Bath, we were left on our own to explore the town for a couple of hours. We hopped over to Bath Abbey, a beautiful church full of interesting things to see.

Glass Panels

Isnt the glass paintings(?) absolutely beautiful?

Pipe Organ

There is also a HUGE pipe organ on display. I've never seen such a big one (although, come to think of it, I've probably HAVE seen this from my last trip, only I cannot recall due to my short term memory).

The walls in the church was covered in lovely memorials, thought it was slightly errie.

Outside of the Abbey

After the Abbey, we continue to explore the town a bit. It was lunchtime and we went looking for food when I stumbled upon this!

Rows of apples coated in caramel!

Hungry and craving for sugar, I pestered Des to buy one and it was just absolutely FABULOUS!

It took us a while before we could bite into the apple and we soon found out that it was indeed a green apple. Just look at the caramel and chocolate chips and marshmallows!

Yup, it was that big and we both shared it.

Though Des ended up finishing it as it was seriously too much. Not wanting to waste any food, Des took his time to finished up the apple and responded to the sugary dessert...

Hahah, things we do when we are high on sugar!

Street name?

We still havent figured this out. Seriously, is the street name Menwear or is the street full of men's wear???

An iconic building, we think :/

A couple more pictures of the town and River Avon.

The bridge is called Putleney Bridge.

The other side of the bridge. It is full of shops along the bridge.

There is a river cruise that you can take for about 7 pounds or so. But since we were short of time, we didnt join in.

Apparently, one of the beauty of Bath is that its buildings is mostly made of limestone, hence the chalky yellow boxy appearance in all its building walls. And since it was a National Heritage, no modern building is allowed and the town has to be preserved in its most original form.

Another picture of Pulteney Bridge

There is a university in Bath, so it is mostly populated by tourist and students. And the shopping is not that great. If you ask me, Bath would be a good place to study but not for me :)

Another view of the river

Note the building in the picture?

If you look closely on the top of the picture above, you should see a castle, a manor and a cottage. Hence, (according to the gentleman who manages the cruise), this building used to be the office of some ministry of defence, but has since turned into an apartment. But the attraction was that on the highest floor, there were three different types people staying up there, hence the castle (the super rich and mightly), manor (middle class) and cottage (lower class).

Then we stumble on this shop selling miniatures. I've always been fascinated with miniatures, but not crazy enough to start collecting them. There is something very earie about them, dont you agree?

A close up picture of one of the plates. A spread of yummy cakes and desserts!

Ron, Des, Agnes, KC

After spending close to three hours in Bath, we were soon on our way to Stonehenge. It was another hour or so before we reached the place.

Audio Guide

And we were handed our audio guide again. To be honest, when we reached Stonehenge, I was half expecting another Bath-moment. So I took a deep breathe as I reach for the audio guide, and sigh in relief as no flashback or recollection of whatsoever of me having visited Stonehenge before. Phew!

Another group picture

Frankly speaking, I find the audio guides terribly annoying as it distracts you from properly enjoying the place. Bath was short and sweet, but Stonehenge has lengthy explaination of everything, and we soon got bored of it.

Stonehenge - Tah Dah!

Basically we are just allowed to walk one big circle around the stones as we are no longer allowed to walk near it anymore. Tourist were caught chipping away stones long time ago and since then, they block it from public.

We took a lot more pictures of the stones actually, but soon realized it look almost the same every single shot and begin to take pictures of ourselves instead. Then we got bored and things go hay wire from there...

If you can, click on the above picture and notice how precise Des's finger is just above the "nipple". Fuyoh, guess who take the picture? Hahaha

Then they guys decided to build piramids to mimic the Stonehenge and weirdly, it looked more like a cheerleding club than Stonehenge...

KC and Ron decided that Des should have his turn too. Des was skeptical, but the two guys insisted. I think KC (the guy on the first below) must have regretted it as he grimace his way to lift Des up! Hahaha!

I got my turn too! They insisted I climb on Des's shoulders and I yelled and screamed and laughed my way as they tried to lift me up. Yes there is a picture of me but no way am I posting it up! Hahaha!

Yea, so that is so much from Stonehenge and Bath. We got back London around 7pm and grabbed a quick dinner before heading home. It was a very good trip and we hope to make a few more of these short quick trips in the future!

London (Week 7 & 8) - 07/05/08

2008-05-08T05:15:00.003+08:00

Life is certainly been funny here.

We're still alright. In fact, I've a good news! Des is reporting to work tonight! He got offered for a job this morning and he is now off to work! But the darker side of the story is that after being here for nearly 2 months, this would be the first time I'll be on my own from now own. Prior to this, Des is always around (except when I was at work, of course). So, not like we havent been in this situation before, but I guess after three months of bliss, things needs to come back down to earth. Whoever dates a hotelier knows what I am talking about. *wink*

Over the bank holiday (which is equvalent to our public holiday, which they all bank holiday), we managed to drag ourselves of from the bed to catch the changing of guards. More on that another time.

Oh wait.. before that weekend we went to a A1 roadshow in London as well. Yeap, the boys were busy taking pictures of the umbrella girls (literally, cause it was raining for a while) while I was busy juggling as the photographer and stuffing tissues on myself.

And after that, we went to an open concert as well. Another story on this another time.

Yea, so its a short one for now. Things just started moving in the direction that we wanted. Hopefully, in a week of two, Des would be settled in his job soon and I will start my job hunting on my side again. I've got interview tomorrow, but I dont think it will materialize. But at least I'm happy to be doing something about my job hunting, rather than sitting down and not able to do anything.

I have wanted to post a lot more pictures, and I promise that I will. Wait for it! :)

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

2008-04-27T05:36:00.008+08:00

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

2008-04-14T05:09:00.007+08:00

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

2008-04-07T05:17:00.002+08:00

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

2008-04-07T03:51:00.005+08:00

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

2008-04-06T17:37:00.002+08:00

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! :)

London (3rd Week) - 31/03/08

2008-03-31T22:47:00.008+08:00

Week Three into London and the weather has gotten much better!

Well, it was snowing for a couple of days in the week. Though its only for a very short while. The first snow spell came when we were in the city walking about when suddenly rain turned to bits of hail and then turn to snow!

Apparently, snowing is very rare in London, cause the second it happened, everyone took out their camera/phone to snap pictures of the snow! :P

The weird weather continued for the rest of the week, and for a couple of days we woke up only to see that it is snowing outside! It wasnt your Switzerland snow experience where everything is covered in white, but rather you can see its white specs falling lah. Though the minute the snow came down, it melted. Not cold enough for it to maintain-lah.

Anyway, we were in Leicester Square (pronounced as Les-ter Square) to meet up with Stephen, and suddenly we realized we were surrounded with people holding pillows.

The first thought that went to my head was "Why, pillows got sale ah??" and we went asking around. And what do you know, we were in the middle of the World Pillow Fight Day!

So at a count down, everyone start hitting each other with pillows! And obviously we were standing politely AWAY from the crowd taking pictures. Though some pillows got torn and it created a snowing effect though...

Other than that, we spend the week attending interviews though. No job yet, just interviews. But at least there is a start. I admit, I was disappointed though when my first interview came back negative, with the usual response of "They really like you, but not what their looking for". Oh well, fingers crossed that Des will get what HE is looking for.

Other than that, things has been going pretty steady lah. Arranging for internet connection in our house, hopefully with fingers crossed until cannot recognised that it will be up by next week. Though we have no idea how to set up the broadband though...

I'm ending this week's pose with our FIRST ever attempt at baking. Wait, before you judge my cookies, it is our FIRST try at baking and FIRST time using the oven. So dont you laugh at my burnt-and-weird-looking-and-hard-but-very-chocolaty-cookies! :P

Until next week!

London (2nd Week ) - 21/03/08

2008-03-21T21:05:00.013+08:00

Hello everyone! We're here for almost two weeks now, can you believe it!?!

Everyday we've been going out checking out London. And most of the time, the London map is close to us. How do we decide where to go? Easy, all we need to do is to find the nearest shoppping/markets and off we go! :)

Dont worry, its not like we're spending and buying everything yet. But cause we both love markets and hypermarkets, it only makes sense to hunt down these area. These pictures are near our place, about 20 minutes walk from our neighbourhood. Not exactly near, but there is an open market, like our pasar malam during the day.

One thing that is different in these places compared to back home is how the shops are aligned next to each other. Shopping complexes arent really big outside the city, but its nice to walk around the roads with the shops next to each other. Of course, though it is sometimes freezing, but its better than to walk along Bukit Bintang in the afternoon KL sun right? :P

Nuh, this is what I mean. One Saturday we came to this place (sorry, I forgot where!), and there were people gathering up in a field worshippping God. Very charismatic, very enthusiastic and very lively. People were singing out loud, complete with mics and drums no less!

Sometime last week we went to London Bridge as well. Have you hear about the story where a man bought the WRONG London Bridge?

Well, apparently, there is this rich man who wanted to own London Bridge. You know the song about "London Bridge is falling down..." where we used to sing when we were kids and we go around each other and when the "bridge" falls down to trap a kid?

So yea, the man thought he bought the famous bridge. Turns out it was the WRONG one. Well, technically, he wasnt cheated, he DID bought London Bridge, but the bridge that we were actually singing about is TOWER BRIDGE, the one taken here behind us.

So see, the song is geographically incorrect! It should be sung as "TOWER BRIDGE is falling dow..." instead.

Yea, I know, I still havent managed to put up any pictures of our place. Wait, I wanted to do something, but havent been able to. Just wait for it. meanwhile, here are a couple of pictures of houses near us.

Now that I noticed, apparently these houses are actually slightly different from ours. But looks almost the same. One thing I noticed though, is how the houses are very different every few blocks. Not like our terrace houses where the whole taman looks the same, but rather, every five houses is of different design.

OK, just a sneak peak of our entrance to our house. I'll never be able to get a clear view of the side view of our house because our place is fenced up.

Yesterday, we did something very healthy. We walked for FOUR hours. Why? Cause we wanted to save some money from changing trains and decided to take a slow and leisurely walk towards Oxford Street.

Did I mention that it was very cold and it was raining as well? This is Hyde Park, by the way.

Can you imagine a separate bin for dog poo?

And so this is what we've been up to for the past week. We registered ourselves with a couple of recruitment agencies, but nothing came in yet. We have been applying for other jobs as well, but slow response though. Maybe its the Easter weekend, so hopefully after the holidays are over, things will be better.

And so, family and friends, dont worry about us (yet!) We'll send you SOS if we're in dire need of help here. Meanwhile, we both have gotten our mobile no, and a couple of yous out there got our nos. Just spread it around and we will be glad to hear from you! :)

Until next time, take care!

London (1st Week ) - 15/03/08

2008-03-15T23:45:00.005+08:00

Hi everyone! We've both arrived safe and sound in Wimbledon! Now settling in nicely.

This is proof that both of us is still alright. Hehe We were on our way to South Wimbledon. The weather was horrible for the first three days of arrival as there is a storm coming. So there were like strong winds and we were all nicely bundled up.

This is a picture taken from our bathroom view. Its a nice quite neighbourhood, with shops and tube station all within walking distance.

I wanted to take a few pictures of our house where we were staying, but weather has been nothing but gloomy and wet, so I havent got a nice picture of the house and its interior yet. Wait. Will be coming soon.

We went off on our own on Wednesday (we arrived on Sunday) to Leicester Square, and took a couple of pictures. We werent really the tourisy type and since both of us has been to London many years back, we werent like overly eager to hit every since tourist spot.

But we did come across many statues as we make our way around. Didnt know what this is but it looked nice. :P

A picture of the Big Ben. And we went into the House of Common! Why I was particularly excited over this is because in that day's morning, we were just watching the TV as their PM as announcing the Budget 2008. And then in the afternoon, we were at the same room where he made the announcement!

So, things are going well (for now). Now that we've settled down, the challenge is to get a job. Both of us haf our UK no now, so watch out for our sms to keep in touch yea! We havent gotten around internet access for our place yet, hopefully in due time we will be able to sort things out.

So yea, keep watching this space and I hope to upload more pictures soon! :)

13/03/08

2008-03-13T20:26:00.002+08:00

We survived our trip to London and we're here in Wimbledon!

Its been busy since we came and weather has been horrible since we arrived! :(

512 has been temporarily been suspended due to some sensative issue. Dont worry, it will be up again in due time. Wanted to post some pictures, but somehow Blogger is reluctant. And my time is up in cyber cafe. Will update real soon! Wait for it! :)

Gathering in Colours - March 2008

2008-03-08T03:42:00.002+08:00

Past week I have been busy doing a bit of catching up. Below are some of the few pictures I took.

Frankly speaking, I am slightly apprehensive when it comes to posting up pictures of my friends. Not that I have anything to be ashamed of, but rather what is their take in me posting up pictures here.

But then again, I was going to post them up in Friendster/Facebook anyway. So instead of emailing to them, enjoy it here! :)

I've decided to play a bit with colours so here are some of the results. No photoshop yet though, mostly cropping and colouring only. Slow slow a bit, can or not? :P

Picture in sepia - College friends

Picture in black/white - School friends

Picture in yellow - YL and Me

Picture in blue - Des and Me

Picture in green - Blur, Des and Me

And check out my new specs in the last picture! In fact I've gotten an additional TWO more pairs! Buy one free one, damn cheap. If got chance, will post all four up!

Mirrors - 1st March 2008

2008-03-01T02:18:00.003+08:00

I've always like taking my reflection from a mirror. In fact, I really do think that my mirror image looks a whole lot better than I do.

I like the effect that mirrors has. Somehow or rather, things just looks better and much more interesting.

With the camera by my side most of the time now, I just cannot stop doing the tourisy thing whenever we came across mirrors.

I'm turning this place into a camwhore blog, can't you see?

Don't say I don't warn you...

KL VIew - 29th February 2008

2008-03-01T00:33:00.004+08:00

Des took me to a place that has a restaurant overseeing a fantastic view of KL. And we were very lucky to get a good seat.

Below is a great picture with my Olympus camera. I couldnt get a shot without the tree, but I guess the tree sort of put the picture in dimension(?).

Somehow or rather, there seems to be lights above the twin towers. Des said that it might be the moon. What do you think?

I'm learning to use Photoshop. Playing around with the brightness and contrast. And I've even removed bits of the leaves on the top corner of this picture below!

Slowly but surely, I hope that my photography skills will improve! :)

Registration of Marriage - 26th February 2008

2008-02-23T00:06:00.006+08:00

As promised, I've created this place to document the snapshots in my life.

However, I've refrain from putting up anything since I created this place as I wanted the first post to be of a special time in my life.

And I am very happy to announce that on the 26th February 2008, I turn 27 years old and I am officially married to Desmond Lim Yew Seng.

After much deliberation, we've decided on a pair of stainless steel rings from J.Bovier. We'll settle for the actual (expensive) ones during our ceremony later.

My bouquet of lilies that Des gave me.I specifically asked for a small hand bouquet as I didnt want the normal big ones as I feel that it would be too troublesome to take.

My dress - a deep purple low cut knee length dress. It wasn't new, though I did thought of getting a new one. But given the fact that I'm not dress person, I rumaged my wardrobe and found a green dress actually. I deliberated for sometime and finally decided that I will wear my purple dress two days before the registration.

Although there were more than 10 couples scheduled to register on the same day, we were promptly ushered into the registration room soon after we arrived.

The person who officiated the ceremony was very nice, though her diction was a bit too well rehearsed, not that I'm complaining. She did a double take on Des's picture in his IC though, cause apparently she is supposed to check whether the IC and the person is the same, and apparently Des grown so big (put on weight) that he doesnt look the same anymore :P

After signing three pieces of paper, its the I Do, You Do time.

And then we were told to exchange rings. Being stupid, I automatically reached for my ring until Des corrected me and gave me his ring instead. Gettit???

After she announced us husband and wife, we sealed it with a kiss.

A family picture of both our family.

More pictures coming up!