London, continued...

Bubble tea and mango sago in an asian teahouse

Grace acting cute haha

The fattest, furriest and friendliest cat ever.. :D it approached Grace and I on a London street. We spent about 20 minutes stroking it; I was sooooo happy!

SO CUTE

London, continued....

Me, Vincent, Jaclyn (his sister) and Calvin (sister's bf), outside Shakespeare's Globe

Exhibition showcasing the social divide in Tate Modern Museum. Someone asked if there was an earthquake! lol

Saint Paul's Cathedral at night

Borough Market, London
(Food heaven!)

Pheasants, Mandarin ducks, hares, deer

Brussel sprouts on a wheelbarrow

Soooooo crowded on a Saturday morning

Vincent, Danny and Grace. I'm glad all of them got along so well! Oh yes, Grace was accompanied by 5 lawyers on her trip to Borough Market. ;)

Xmas 2007

Christmas 2007
Leicester, London, Nottingham, UK

In Leicester's city centre with Archana

The best crepes in the world! South Kensington, London. With Grace :D

Enjoying his crepe!

home alone

My home alone experience wasn't good.

I started at 7pm and once I finished cooking, eating and cleaning, it was 830pm.

The food wasn't so bad, but I ended up throwing away 1 portion of it cos I hate eating leftovers. The carrots and chicken were overcooked.. :(

It was the chopping carrots and frying in the tiny pan, with alot of food flying out, then finally the washing up which was sooooo tiring. My shoulder is aching. These mundane things take up sooo much time. I've done nothing constructive today...

I am not a domestic goddess.

At times like this, I appreciate my super boyfriend even more- he who taught me how to cook, clean, iron, self-medicate and does them for me most of the time. I really take him for granted.

And I miss him. :(

Anyway, here's the plan for the winter vacation.

18-19 dec: Leicester to visit Archana

20-23 dec: London to be with Vincent and Grace

23 dec: Back to Notts with Grace

26 dec: Vincent comes back to Notts

Ice skating

Outdoor skating in Nottingham

Finally, something I can do which Vincent could not.. ice-skating!

It was his first time and after 4 falls, he could glide on ice!!! So proud of him.. Hehee

The atmosphere was so Christmassy, ice-skating out in the open, underneath the stars and the kaleidoscope of colours from the German Christmas market not far away. Families, parents literally dragging their toddler between them, young couples, friends forming a chain, annoying hooligans, girls donning headscarfs and long black cloaks, big men falling- all on ice.. :)

Afterthat we went to the German Christmas market, had German doughnuts which were yummy, German wheat beer and walked around, hand-in-hand, enjoying the festivities. The next day we were back for the garlic mushrooms, German sugared muffins and a dome-shaped amaretto whip. More photos to come...

Just for laughs

Just for laughs

This is what we do when we're sick of staring at law books. :D
That's my Halloween costume which I was supposed to wear but did not eventually cos I thought it looked too slutty. Hahaa
We made the collage of photos (centre photo) during my birthday because my noticeboard looked too plain. It was an arduous process, but doing it together made it alot better :) He has an amazing artistic sense...

Anyway, after the essay deadline on Monday, we've been enjoying ourselves alot, going out to town, eating out, shopping, having friends over.. and ice-skating.

Now I'm home alone for 2 days, having sent him off to London at 8.28am this morning. And all our friends have gone home for the Christmas vacation too... Yup, so it will be a test of my home-making skills as I cook and clean for myself. So far, it's been fine, I had a bowl of cereal and 2 chunks of grilled foccacia bread from M&S. Vincent is sooo worried; before he left, he chopped all the ingredients for the soup I'm making tonight and wrote out the recipe for me. He even drew me a map of the city centre.

I'm happy and grateful for him.. It's in the little things that he does which shows me that he cares, alot. Like making 3 trips to the laundry room (for washing and drying), in the dark and chilly night, lugging 2 huge hiking backpacks full of dirty clothes, simply because he didn't want me to be out in the cold. Cooking sweet corn and carrot soup and fish porridge (which he hates), because he knows I love it. And how could I forget, he made a cucumber and avocado mask for me! Hahahaha.. All this, among many other things he does, day by day, for me. I am a blessed girl.

20th birthday

My 20th Birthday

This is a bit late, but I promised my family I'd put up pictures to let them know how I celebrated my birthday this year. :)
Vincent refused to let me into his room the whole Friday and only called me at 7pm to tell me to come down to his room. When he opened the door, this is what I saw. His room, neatly tidied, just for the occasion and the table set for two. 2 tealights floating on water, a circular glow to create the atmosphere. He had been experimenting how to make the candles glow tall and bright for weeks. I was so happy and surprised, I knew he'd be cooking for me but I didn't expect everything to be so perfect. Afterall, we were eating in his room. But yes, he exceeded my expectations! The food was amazing too; gourmet style specially prepared by him. The starter was smoked salmon wrapped around a chive and cream cheese dip, and ciabatta drenched in olive oil. The main course: vanilla flavoured haddock (because he knows i like fish and sweet things), with honey roasted walnuts and mushroom risotto. And a bottle of white wine bought from the Christmas market which was really expensive. Everything went so well, even the flame died once we finished eating. What made me the happiest was the fact that someone would go to such lengths just to make my day. He'd been planning what to cook for my birthday since last summer! ie 5 months ago.. Yes, I was beaming throughout the whole dinner! That's the happiest day for both of us in the whole semester, for him because he loves to see me happy.

After that, I wanted to go back to my room to get something but he persuaded me to stay and barricaded his cupboard, hinting to me that my present was inside and that I could find it at 12am. Then when it was finally midnight, Jenn and Xuanee came in to the room with a cake lit with 20 candles! :) That was really sweet of them. Jenn stayed for a really long time and the 3 of us talked into the night. The next day we went to Frankie and Benny's, this American-Italian restaurant in town. Although not as many people as last year turned up, it was still a nice get-together with close friends. :) And that's how I turned 20.

bday

That's Jenn, me and Xuanee with the birthday cake in Vincent's room,
Claire, me and Jenn,
Chen, Vincent and Aidan in Frankie and Benny's.

I really enjoyed myself and I'm glad all of us got along well during the dinner. There were conversations mainly in English and Chinese (because of Chen) and smatterings of Spanish (from Jenn and Aidan), French (from Aidan) and Malay (from Vincent). And of course, lots of laughter. Thank you God for all of them! :)
My 20th birthday was a very happy one indeed.