sleepyface

berries like snowballs

what i pass on the way to uni!

christmas market

one of the mister's favourite things on earth is a good christmas market and once this opened in south bank, we were on the first bus across the river. it was atmospheric but overpriced, as they are, and i much prefer the continental christmas markets. last winter, we visited the markets in milan, verona, innsbruck, salzburg, berlin and around. by which time i was all market-ed out and morphed into the grinch. in fact, i was resisting this christmas market until i realised we wouldn't be driving. which meant i -could- very well get the front seat on the double decker. so i obliged.

it was funny though! after eating our way through (mulled wine, bratwurst, currywurst, churros con chocolate, popcorn prawns...) we stopped at eat. for more food. and realised how expensive the market food was because eat. became cheap relative to it. lesson learnt!

cold chocolate

our dear friend was in town over the weekend and we did a soho run after church. speaking of which, if you're into intellectual apologetics, it was a stellar service! it was the most attentive i'd ever seen the mister and ohmyword, ravi was in top form. all i could think of during the interview was "thank god i took that jurisprudence class!" if not positivism etc would've whizzed over my head. glad to have found a church to call our home church in london and blessed to be part of a community with shared faith. one of the things i enjoy most is how at the end of the service, the pastor invites anyone who wants prayer to go to the front and, no pressure, members of the congregation who want to pray with them are welcome to do so. it's humbling to go up to a complete stranger (of the same gender!) and say, "hello, may i pray with you?" 

back to soho!

we'd been to BD less than 48h before and i was already hankering after ramen again. the mister put his foot down (that'll teach me to crave for extra pipettes of fat...) and we hazarded y*auatcha which proved fruitless without a booking. swung by B&L but no luck either but as it turned out, there was space at t*onkatsu (!!!) and i got my ramen fix after all :)

to avoid ramen-induced food coma, we carried on at flat white where i resisted the peer pressure to have coffee (yay me!) and settled on a cold chocolate despite the winter chill. best call!

consistency can't be beat

M is fast becoming my go-to place for lunch with friends in town. lazy me likes that it's the 'hood, consistently superlative and laid-back despite its well-deserved rising stardom. went by last week and am slowly making my way through the set lunch. remember how i wanted to try everything in every course? well i'm maybe only 1/3 of the way through now. it's going to be an expensive winter...

photographed is the cosy booth seat and the duck egg tart. dan tart it might not be, but it was yummy yummy all the same. and it wouldn't be complete without the tarte tatin.

new addition

oscar the grouch, according to my mother, is me on a good day. my sister seconds this characterisation, and they can't both be wrong. so guess what they bought recently when they thought of me.

  

and because mother knows best, oscar was just what we needed for our tray garden. the beauty of living in a tiny flat is that it forces one to be supremely creative with the space. hanging gardens of babylon we might not have, but on this thrifted tray we've all manner of plants in various stages of life, dying, dead and dried. now we can add 'green but inanimate' to the list. 

maybe guests won't overstay their welcome ;)

grown up dinners

 

one of the things i enjoy most about living on our own is the complete control i've over our diet. back home, it was so easy to eat whatever's on the table and i'm very grateful to have parents and grandparents who blessed us with wholesome nutrition as long as we wanted. hence you can understand my inexplicably glee at suddenly being able to eat ice cream for dinner (guilty) or home-assembled nachos (doubly guilty). 

we went a little overboard as we're prone to do and doubled up on the cheese and sauces, which resulted in the most delicious soggy mess once it was done in the oven. and then we dug in while watching trashy teevee. it doesn't get worse than "the valley", no siree!

i was a far from photogenic child

and am a far from photogenic almost-adult. 

but according to my mama, i've "personality". 

apparently this personality only started to shine through when the parentals gifted me a little plaything in the form of my darling didi. before that, they had serious concerns and suspected i was autistic. turns out i was just lonely as an only child for four years

phew :)

thankful

it's hard to adopt a tradition that's not "mine" and thanksgiving is one of those traditions. don't get me wrong. it's a great idea and even better excuse to celebrate but the origins are lost on me. maybe i should do a reverse-thanksgiving because unlike the pilgrim pioneers who set sail on the mayflower leaving jolly ol' england and her ills behind, we've up-ed sticks and pitched our tent smack in the middle of the +44. also, until i have my "first" thanksgiving stateside, if ever, it feels pretentious to celebrate an very american tradition. natter natter natter aside, the irony is we are going to a thanksgiving party this weekend and i'm looking forward to the big reunion in holborn, hosted by C who's visiting from cornell (and hence sorta has locus standi to throw the shindig).

and in the spirit of being thankful, for it's been one mega amazing year, i'm truly grateful for 

mr. invincible and his job in london

our first home

our first christmas tree and the prospect of spending the holidays in london with his folks

and loving family, albeit a few oceans away.

i'm also incredibly incredibly thankful to be back in school. can't believe we're already halfway through second year. whoa...

today is also exactly five months since we took the plunge. best decision ever :)

cuteness overload

wish i was at home to smother this adorable bunch with cuddles and kissies.

little victories

it might not seem like much but we've not had a doorbell since moving in in september. when the landlord finally came round with one last evening, it was cause for celebration. and how else does one celebrate a spanking new doorbell than with a pizza delivery? gotta love how inexpensive take out is over here. 2 x 10" pizzas (worth GBP6.50 each!) and kebab with chips for a tenner including delivery? sweet! dire as the kebab might've looked...

now our friends needn't knock like woody woodpecker on the door when they come round.

roof bar

trust a visitor to show us around london! after we saw D to the station, we checked N into her hotel and she suggested drinks at a nearby bar. and boy, what a view! the concierge warned that it might be closing but we (ok, she) charmed her way in with time to spare. the drinks were delish and we scored prime seats by the huge glass windows. can only imagine what a marketplace this would be on a weekday night! we people watched (so many couples making out! we didn't know where to look!) and talked about the whirlwind weekend we'd had together. the meal count was pretty darn astounding. after a heavy breakfast at notting hill, we went to he*done in chiswick for lunch (forgettable) and then yas*hin at high st ken for dinner with the effervescent aunty D. so much for a lazy sunday. we got our 8h sleep and had another tesco finest breakfast in, followed in quick succession by a blow out meal at hakka*san and an early fish&chip dinner because hey, they're in london after all! if there was one thing i could change, it'd have been visiting med*lar for lunch instead of he*done. so much closer to home and way better value for money. plus it's yet to disappoint and every dish has been a winner.

notting hill

we met D's better half bright and early and made our way, albeit half-asleep, to notting hill for breakfast. the perks of bagging a table at 8am is that there was no queue! the downside? being surrounded by children. seems like only bleary-eyed parents and their bushy-tailed offspring are awake that early on a saturday. we'd a leisurely aussie breakfast and moseyed around the neighbourhood after. enjoyed ducking in and out of the shops, window shopping more than anything else. chanced upon the sweetest little garden and almost found ourselves in a ping pong face off of racial stereotype proportions.

my favourite people at one table!

you know those funny quizes where they ask who you'd want to have lunch with and you can only pick one person dead or alive? well i'd totally fail at that because there are so many people i want to do that with. and most times, it's not someone famous but friends i sorely miss. hit the visitor jackpot with not one but three (!!!) friends in town over the weekend and it called for a lobster noodle celebration. we took our time over dinner and then because there was still so much to catch up on, we had everyone over for drinks and dessert. hadn't seen R since our iceland wedding, and K is usually banished to a rural hospital during the week. D was visiting for an undisclosed tax-haven and it was a happy convergence of friends dear to the mister and i. i wish we all lived closer, and we saw them more than every couple of months, but that's part of the beauty of being young, footloose and fancy-free, isn't it.

city finds

the walk to the train station is frought with temptation. there's this charming little cafe with the freshest baked goods, made with locally sourced produce, and the twee diner (next photo) with crazy inexpensive milkshakes (sometimes have two before i feel the pinch. shhh!) nothing to take the sting out of commuting like refined sugar and whipped cream.

 

just when you think you know a town

there's always another cafe, another bar, another restaurant to discover.

haven't seen as much of C as i'd like to and she'd the brainwave of checking out a potential party venue for her big 3-0. while i'd been nearby and might've stumbled on it at the end of last term, i'd never been inside. the hardwood floor and ornate curtains (see photo!) were very nice touches to an already nice place. we nursed our drinks (diet coke for me, OJ for her...yeah, complete wildchildren.) as we spoke to the events manager and it's looking good! yay for girlfriends who throw parties, and for there always being a new place to explore.

brilliant crisp and clear

if only more days in autumn were like this!

happy birthday J!

can't believe it's already been a year since we celebrated J's birthday. his was the first in medsch and one year on, it's still the same bunch of us :) which is nice, seeing how once we hit clinical years everyone's going their own way. J's birthday was over the weekend but we were all out of town! celebrated belatedly at T's favourite place that has fast become our favourite place too. awesomely authentic lebanese that's BYOB. we ate till we couldn't eat anymore (there were, gasps, leftovers! unheard of!) and then drank wayyy more wine than we should've. do think we somehow downed a bottle each, and split a fifth for good measure. the complimentary cardammon tea must've helped! 

and as if that wasn't enough, we strolled to a sweet little pub and had another four rounds there. hmm. this whole being in england has really trained my alcohol tolerance. i can now drink about half a pint of the local ale before calling it a night :)

we sat outside for the riverside view, despite the autumn chill and made friends with the other patrons. that's one thing i like about pub culture - anyone holding a drink is a friend. just don't tell my parents i've taken to talking to strangers...

stating the obvious

 

i've a thing for wooden block lettering. when i was shopping on the mister's plastic (and 50% discount!) earlier in the week, i couldn't resist this little gem for our bathroom. 

that's all.

korean fix

our introduction to korean took place summer 2009 at k-town in LA, possibly the finest korean outside korea. k-town is also where we were introduced to shoju at a korean bar. but that's another story for another day. much as we enjoyed korean food in LA, it's not something we crave too often. but oh boy, when the craving hits - we'd even do a repeat. 

we first dined at koba earlier this year when the mister first moved to london. unforch it was a forgettable experience, so much so that when he booked koba for last week, it didn't occur to us that we'd already been! thankfully we did much better on the second try and left content. didn't take too many photos (my little brother popped by and i was too busy feeding him!) but i thought the photo below sums up our eating habits. i'm a sucker for a good green tea ice cream, while the mister, well, he rather end with a savoury pancake. the waitress was amused.

sunday lunch

after the rousing success of our home-assembled breakfast on saturday, we did a repeat performance for family in town. unabashedly a one-trick pony, but if it aint broke...

right after a huge breakfast, next on the agenda was, well, lunch. so singaporean! we'd exhausted the usual suspects and didn't want to go somewhere in the 'hood so the mister suggested notting hill where we could choose from granger&co, 202 and daylesford. we were already too hungry to queue at granger, and 202 smelt of food exhaust so sort of by elimination we found ourselves at daylesford. and i'm so glad we did! 

didi had the corned beef hash (in photo) and i had the lamb pie special. we ordered juice like it was going out of fashion (ouch on the pocket!) and did a spot of organic shopping afterwards. the mister found some organic lavender fabric conditioner that he absolutely had to have and well, whom am i to stand in the way of him and laundry bliss.

 

oh and there was lots of organic fruit toO!

now to just get ourselves onto the supperclub list...

breakfasts

last weekend, we took it easy at home. instead of fighting the brunch crowd, we did a tesco run that yielded surprisingly fine results. with the exception of the divine truffle honey, lovingly carted from paris (thanks E!), and the home-made kaya, everything else was tesco bought! who'd have thought!

they might not look it but those croissants were the bombdiggity. stuffed them with cheese (buffala mozarella for me and edam for the mister), decadent amount of parma and basil fresh from our plant, tuck them in the oven for a bit and ohmyword!

also, here's a little note on assimilation. the mister and i had a saturday ritual in singers. we'd go by the tiniest coffee shop at a block nearby, sit at our usual corner and order our usual. for some reason, the boss lady thought he was japanese (?!) and her code name for us was "re ben de!" which was strange, seeing how we'd order in a mixture of hokkien / mandarin. as you do, in our wonderfully multicultural home. so, while i miss steamed bread with home made peanut butter, and another lot with kaya and butter, we made do with kaya crumpets. not too shabby! overdid the eggs so they became 3/4 boiled instead of 1/2 boiled. can't win them all...

...although crumpets with french butter and truffle honey was winner winner chicken dinner. and more than made up for the overboiiled eggs.

with supermarkets like this, who needs to ever eat out? :)

sublime tart tatin

had friends in town and managed to swing them to one of chelsea's best kept secrets. well, i like to think it's a well-kept secret but seeing how it's increasingly difficult to get a booking, i might be fighting a losing battle here. without going into too much detail, it's GBP26 for a sublime 3 course set lunch. the recently awarded one michelin star doesn't hurt, either. you know when sometimes you're presented with a lunch menu, and you've to choose an item from each course and only one dish stands out? yeah. not here. i wanted at least three of the six options available. just a sign i need to go back with the mister and twist his arm into halfsies with me.

so while i restrained myself from picking at my friends' plates, when it came to dessert i did sorta bulldoze them into having the tart tatin. D was too hungover (haha, we never really grow up do we?!) for dessert but we did split the tart tatin (meant for 2) 3-ways. it was like pie on crack. perfectly stewed and caramelised it won over even the most hardened of the "sugar is evil" tribe.

improvisation

we happen to have had an avalanche of flowers recently, not like i'm complaining. fresh flowers are such an indulgence and a constant reminder that i'm a grown up. well, in some ways. other times i'm pretty happy to be a quasi-adult, seeing how i'm back in school and completely dependent on the mister. and because we'd more flowers than we'd vases, necessity was the mother of invention and i had it all figured out after a G&T, or two. i also put a peony bloom in my chawanmushi cup. but that's another story for another day.

in addition to flowers, our lovely friends gifted us with 1kg (yes, that's 1000g!) of mark&sparks goodness. which mister cookie monster was all too happy to break into after work.

winter is coming

 or so the mister likes to remind me. 

and fortunately, or not, my self-preservation instinct is a strong one. i mean, how else would you explain the compulsion to gorge on krispy kremes (the bane of my existence) till surfeited collapse. had some friends round for tea yesterday and bought a dozen donuts to serve. before it was even tea time, i'd eaten two for lunch. served four for tea (we split it three-ways) and was going to give them the remaining half dozen. but i conveniently forgot to do so. and oh no what a waste of six donuts if not consumed on the very same day...

either i need to stop buying donuts in bulk, on the pretext of having friends round for tea, or it's time i exercise some self-discipline. reminds me of a funny moment i shared with C last year. i was so embarrassed that i'd blocked it from memory but he claims i met him on campus one day and thrust my bag of donuts at him, saying "i've six donuts and no self-discipline. you've gotta take some!!!" and he did. because he's a good friend like that.

envy

a couple of week ago, i popped back to the halls where i spent first year to see if i'd any mail. while my mail had been unceremoniously destroyed over summer (sigh), the hall did undergo major renovations and i was more than a little envious of the current freshies. ok so it's a bad photo and the angle isn't the same but OHMYWORD it looks so modern now! to think we put up with gaping holes in the wall above the cooker, a sink with no hot water and the ickiest carpet in existence. the sweet girls who live there now let me have a peek in their upgraded rooms (i know, i'm so nosey!) and they now have black out blinds. to think slept with an airline eye shade every night. even in winter...

you're probably tired of this

but our lab just had another litter and i'm thrown back to her last litter 18 months ago - note it's not a puppy mill and litters are well spaced out... i was still pupil-ing then and once the puppies were born, my existence became even more hermetic than usual. friday nights were spent lounging at home with a sleeping puppy or two on my chest. who wants to go to f*ilter when there are sweet, milk-scented bundles of joy to snuggle up with :) bummed that we'd have sold the lot before i can make it home this time. thank goodness for trigger happy family who send a daily photo update. 

aren't they the cutest?! 

puppy posts a'plenty of the old blog, just over here.

fall

we turned the clocks back last week and while it's depressing that it gets dark at 4pm, i take comfort in spicy reds, crisp days and beautiful autumn colours, when it's still bright out.