bryggen

so bergen is all about the bryggen moneyshot - the row of hanseatic houses by the water. there's also a fish market that's cleaned up its act and moved indoors since i visited in 2009. we climbed up to the church behind the funicular ticket house and had a good view of the rooftops, followed by a cheeky cup of coffee at a cosy cafe tucked among the windy windy lanes.

bergen b&b

the mister found us this sweet little b&b for our weekend in bergen and boy did we feel the pinch in norway! other options in our budget were youth hostels and having been there done that five years ago (okok my last time was march 2012 in NYC when i was picking the wedding dress!) it's become a last resort now. guess we're in that sweet spot where we've more spending power (well relative to when we were working part-time as undergrads) and more time than ever. family commitments are miles away in singers (oh the sheer luxury of having weekends entirely to ourselves!) and it's this wonderful period of self-indulgence where it's us against the world, free to skip the country at our whim and fancy. but back to the b&b! so norway is crazy expensive and we paid through our noses to sleep on a sofa bed in a tiny room. granted, the b&b oozed eclectic charm and was impeccably turned out. you could've eaten off the floors if you'd wanted to. it was that clean :) so if anyone is looking for a b&b in bergen, this is a good value one-roomer. also, i did not stop balking at the price of things. i mean, GBP50 for 1 soup and 2 beers?! are you kidding me?! and GBP10 for a kebab?! wertttt... haha as you can tell, we didn't really have much haute gastronomy in bergen. the b&b hostess did give us a feast every morning, and in true budget fashion i packed the extras into sandwiches for lunch. and we'd a junk food (read: inexpensive) dinner. so there. bergen on a budget, or not.

ambleside

funny story here but the last time i was i ambleside, i was three years old! naturally, have absolutely no recollection of it but got a kick out of re-visiting all the same. the belsfield opened right onto the bowness-on-windermere pier (it's a sweet stroll through the grounds to reach the main road by the pier) and oh-so-easy to take the cruise over to ambleside. had a leisurely wander around ambleside stopping every few metres for nibbles (sigh!) and while it was v-e-r-y quiet, seeing all the kit shops on massive sale only served to fan my wanderlust. had to remind myself i've more kit than i need and should really not be encouraging the wilderness bug, seeing how london has slowly edged out being in the mountains on weekends :(

the belsfield lake district

in line with trying to make the most of our london base, it was high time for a visit to the lakes! funny to go off-peak (january in the lakes? really?) but it was a good jaunt nevertheless. we'd a lovely suite overlooking lake windermere as a little post-exam treat and i spent a happy afternoon reading while soaking in the beautiful view. there's a certain picturesque moodiness to the lake in winter and just what i needed after, uh, a weekend of intense revision. any excuse :) the grounds were amazing and the hotel so charming, i can only imagine what she looks like at the height of summer. excellent restaurant on site and hmm, i wasn't expecting such culinary awesome-ness from the lakes, to be absolutely honest with you! we each had a massive sticky date pud swimming in toffee sauce with equally massive scoops of ice cream and double cream. i mean, let's just go all out right? :) would've taken a photo but we'd company and i didn't want to play right into that dreaded asian stereotype!

what a week

oh wow, has it already been a week since exams ended? finished on tuesday and what a whirlwind. was in the lake district wed/thurs and then bergen fri/sun. slept the whole of yesterday, a holiday from the holiday if you will, to make up for the crazy traveling. really need to stop blaming age as to why i can't keep up with the mister who's incidentally waaay older than i am. where he gets his boundless energy from is beyond me. and that metabolic rate! life's not fair :(

back to school and our exam results are out. despite the worst jetlag ever (sprung awake at 2am on both exams days and couldn't get back to sleep. boo!) they went well. thank God! it's a slow start to the term. deadlines looming but nothing that can't be efficiently hammered out over a solid weekend in. then again, my problem is staying put in one place over the weekend. lunnon, whinge as i do, is fantastically fascinating and there's always something to see and somewhere to go. speaking of which, i hear the mister has fast booked us up this weekend and uhh this paper-churning is starting to look more pipe dream than reality.

the snow is such a massive inconvenience. you'd think the city would be better able to cope with it but noooo... our BA flight back from bergen was unceremoniously cancelled (good job, BA! have yet to be on an on-time BA flight ever...) but thankful we managed to get last-minute seats on  an earlier norwegian flight. but still! good thing the mister is organised and email-checking that way. would've been so miffed if we'd only found out about the cancellation at the airport.

will be posting some photos from the lakes and bergen over the next few days if you'd like to see!

inside a snow globe

had paper 1 today and thank God for holding the snow till we were inside the exam hall. had horrible visions of me wading in knee deep snow to the venue but the flurry only fell midway through the exam. kept looking across the hall and out of the window - snow is still novel and fascinating - but thought i might seem suspicious and had to stop. but when i left, couldn't resist taking photo after photo of the fresh snowfall. it's not the first time this winter but it wasn't this thick or pristine the last time :) and now to get cracking on paper 2 before it's off to the lakes midweek. looking forward to holiday part deux after the exams are over and done with.

bergen

the mister is taking us to bergen soon and i was re-reading old blog posts in anticipation. went with my parents in october 2009, while i was on exchange in stockholm. we did a pirated (hurhur) version of norway*in*a*nutshell and i've fond memories of the amazing meals. reading old posts always makes me cringe. did i use to sound like that? it's a bit like hearing your own voice played back to you, the same sense of dissociation and disbelief. while the mister's seen the northern lights in tromso (without me, i might add!) and we've been to oslo, albeit separately, he had been meaning to visit bergen after i returned raving about the fjords. ironically, doubt we'll be seeing much this winter which might mean a trip back when there are longer day light hours. but flights were cheap and any excuse to escape london, really.

and here are some photos from my fb album from 2009! can't wait to soak in the gorgeous hanseatic architecture all over again :)

guinea pig

poor sister wondering what she did to deserve being "patient" to two medics. brother's more keen than i am and was determined to nail blood pressure taking. to find out if he was doing it right, we'd needed a control. have had the benefit to taking blood pressure at the GP before the break but was quick to join the fun. good to know we were reading right, and later tried teaching our sister how to measure pressure too. but she fail. and that's when we realised she's so much better suited to law.

dinner at home

simple but so good! also, love the round marble table that's been in the family for generations. it's been our dining table since long before i was born, and it's always warm and fuzzy when we gather round it. that's my grandma's arm in the photo - can't miss her long limbs and jade bangle. wonder what sort of traditions we'll have for our future family, and what future kids will associate with meal time as a family.

sisterly bonding

parents freaked out (and rightly so!) when they learnt how much a professional make over costs, and i was instructed to teach my sister how to do her own make up. am far from skilled but a dear friend taught me the basics when i was my sister's age and i haven't looked back (or made much progress :() since. had fun pulling together a makeshift make up kit, comprising of years of unused and possibly expired freebies (sorry jud!) and then after dinner we sat down for a session. was mean and lazy and exercised my "eye power" (army term for looking but not doing!). she did a pretty good job herself, until poking out her eye with the mascara wand seconds after this photo was taken. so that was the end of our first lesson.

when the cat's away

the mice will play

jetlag mornings

hate to admit it but the older i get (sigh) the worse i'm hit by jetlag. once upon a time, i adjusted seamlessly across the different time zones but not this time. maybe i should heed my doctor friend's advice to talk a long walk in the sun. but my liver spot phobia is already on the brink of pathological, what more voluntarily subjecting myself to all that UV light.

on my first morning back, was up at 3am, ordered maccas for breakfast (yay for maccas delievery!) and didn't go back to sleep till 1pm. of course, i slept till dinner time. yesterday was a little better, woke at 5am and was eventually lured out of the house by the promise of fish porridge and carrot cake. slept from late morning till tea time too :( and today, well, let's just say i've gotten 2 x 8h blocks of sleep in the last 24h. so it's quite horrific, really, that i'm sleeping for 2/3 of the day given the precious little time i've in the +65. also, i'm now sleeping in singapore time (midnight till 7am) and then again from 1pm to 8pm (new york time) IN THE SAME DAY. uh, where did london sleep schedule disappear to?! this does not bode well for the big exam i've to sit the moment i return to the UK.

(sorry to bore you with mundane details of how much sleep i'm getting. that's about as exciting as my life is right now.)

home sweet home

it's so nice to be home where there are palm trees outside, a still-fragrant pine inside, and the sun doesn't set till 730pm.

reminded how blessed i am to have three homes to divide my time by, and the need to be "present" regardless of where i am. try not to think about london when i'm in singers, and vice versa. if i did, i'd end up missing either place which would be silly, seeing how there's so much to take in and enjoy without wondering about the what ifs.

happy to be back at my parents' house (it sort of ceased to be "my house") after the wedding, back in the bedroom i've slept in since i was nine, and back to the creature comforts of having help with the household chores. not having to cook or clean is a much welcome bonus! not back for long, but somehow still managed to come home with a ton of luggage. hmm. traveling light is really a skill i need to acquire this year.

seeing in 2013

one thing we both missed about good ol' singers and dear ol' D was that new year's eve was a half day. no such luck in the +44 but the mister knocked off on time and we started with beggar's bellini,  mixing the cheapest bubbles with some pretty darn good peach juice.

 

slowly made our way up the champagne supernova before heading to our local italian for hearty dinner. 

had a leisurely dinner and left stuffed to the gills with wood fired pizza and freshly made pasta. much as i wanted to pass out on the sofa and watch teevee, the mister insisted i put off my geriatric tendencies for just one more day. 

exactly a year ago, we were in reykjavik and true to form, i'd wanted to have an early, quiet night in. but the mister used all his persuasion to get us to the church square where locals were setting off fireworks like there was no tomorrow. i cowered in a corner scared of the noise while the mister ran to the centre to absorb it all. really quite telling of our personalities... took me awhile to get accustomed to the sounds but once i did, i had a blast (hurhur).

this new year, the mister had to drag me out of our cosy flat to this wonderful local spot he'd found. he knew there was no chance at all that i'd brave the crowds at trafalgar square, much less even set foot in the direction of the river bank. so again, using his powers of persuasion, he sold the idea of seeing the fireworks in from a high point that promised to be less crowded than the tourist plagued (i get to say that because we live here now!) hotspots. the atmosphere was electric, with people setting off lanterns and small fireworks.

and as we stood in the open with the london eye at 12o'clock and an amazing view of the bursts of fireworks along river further afield from the london eye, i was reminded yet again that the mister has the best ideas. he makes me waaay cooler than i actually am

it was with some reluctance that we saw 2012 out. it was hands down one of the best years for us. not many people know this but kai moved from london to singers when he was eight, and always dreamt of living and working back in london as an adult. in 2012, the doors miraculously opened for him to do just that. we also got married and moved into our first home, major milestones in both cases! so maybe now it's time to takes things slow and enjoy the good place we've transitioned into.

wishing you and yours every happiness in 2013 :) may it be an even better year!