Chug-a-lug, Industrial grey.

Today I watched the sunrise and soaked in its golden rays,

chug-a-lug-a-chug on rails across the fields and the frost.

Billowing grey atop smokestacks, the morning in industrial town

was set in the calmness of the cold and sombreness of wrecked metal waste.

tea for one.

Phone Boxes.

Covent Garden and Soho.

This was at Covent Garden, where there was this guy singing and performing at the basement courtyard, improvising with real people sitting there and pulling them into the performance. 

This was in front of Covent Garden where there were plenty of shops.

The ubiquitous but still charming phone boxes.

Another ubiquity – Pubs. I wouldn’t mind more though.

Had Mille-feuille for tea…with Camomile Flowers Tea at an Italian Pastry Cafe in Soho.

Covent Garden in the evening.

I made Hongking’s neighborhood in Russell Square look pretty. 

Christmas Day in London

This is the cool ‘wishing well’ where you call a number and say your wish and see it appear in this little enclosure after a few minutes. They couldn’t spell Gerard but well…aside from that minor glitch this was possibly the best gift I could think of, on Christmas Day when he is miles and miles away. Second minor glitch – it was supposed to be ‘and the next…’ 

Some of the wishes were kinda funny though.

This was hongking finding the 4 deg temperature unbearable. 

Nothing was open actually…

One of the many cool pubs around but this one had some elaborate thing adorning the door…

One of those dreamy christmas-sy posh-ish window displays. 

Merry Xmas! – from London, Christmas Eve

This was St. Paul’s Cathedral…we queued up but didn’t manage to get in unfortunately..

I was so enthralled by this authentic looking parisian-braserrie thing until hongking said ‘oh it’s a chain…’ Should have suspected something fishy with the brightly lit sign =( This is how good their chains are..they are look deceptively authentic. Well, it still beats Macs and KFCs and Wendys though.

This looks a bit better but I don’t really know what it is nor did I step into it, just looked pretty quaint!

This was the Millenium bridge. 

Nice but pretty empty Carousel.

The London Eye though you can’t really tell. But it is.

The Big Ben and the Red Bus!

Hongking couldn’t resist getting some street food. Sausage that looked very good. This is possibly the closest thing to a food truck in London and they don’t really exist much around the city. 

National Gallery…looks movie-perfect. 

Gummy galore!

This was Christmas Market in Hyde Park…packed with families and kids and all who love Christmas!

The ‘Fun House’, you know..when you enter and the room feels slanted, or mirrors make you look too wide or too skinny…and you can never get out of a maze or have funny things coming at you.

NOT the London Eye, folks. The Ferris Wheel at the Christmas Market…but good enough. =)

 

Not in Photos but…

I HAD THE BEST BANGERS AND MASH (at least up till now) at a nice English Pub on Christmas Eve!

More British food to explore after Christmas when places open again…

My New Wall!

This was how Gerard got my address wrong when trying to send me my belated birthday card…cos he wanted to ’surprise’ me. Well…the card almost never got to me but…fate has it that it did. 

I got this from the ACI Pollyanna (gift exchange)…Anna got me exactly what I wanted! How sweet…a Josh Groban Christmas CD because I had asked for a christmas cd…

And a wine guide because I had wanted a wine book! Lovely!

My 2nd Christmas present to myself — A New Wall! (The other Xmas present was the El Bulli book)

In honor of the two most important men in my Philly life — my love Gerard and bestest buddy Saurabh…as well as my lovely housemates at 602…I went to print out a lot of photos to put up on my wall. 

 

This is the Gerard section.

This is the Saurabh section.

This is the fantastic bday section…

Erm. Gerard section again. Oops. =)

And the Ming En’s bday section…think I will put up all the 602 birthday photos on my wall.

TA-DAH!

El Bulli Book

Tria with Gerard

Gosh look at those eye-bags…  

Pinot Grigio!

Riesling – Spatlese which was very intensely fruity =)

Nice wine glass!

Wild Mushroom and Raclette Fondue with Herbed Baguette

A Life to Love.

Other than finding love in Gerard… (hey, here you go, a second appearance on my blog) I also find bliss in having great food in life to celebrate my joy and happiness with. Well…and happy to have Ming En and Joe around of course ;) 

Wine with Cheese and Pate 

Rioja 

Chiantino Cheese from Di Bruno Brothers 

Egg Mayo

Mousse Royale from Di Bruno Brothers (goose liver, pork, sauternes)

RW. My Way.

0715h

Churning out 445 report at this hour.

The house is very very quiet…and daybreaks…I’m dreaming of pancakes.

This strange thing…and I don’t know if this is supposed to be normal, but I haven’t felt like I’m in a different place since I came. Whatever I’m doing now, I feel like it’s just ‘been like that’ all this while. Sitting at the dining table typing away, going through references, financial reports…seems strangely comfortable and familiar. The notion of going downstairs to buy milk to make pancakes later…also seems pretty routine.

I just wonder how I’ll feel like, 8 months from now, when I get home. Happy, I’m sure, to see family, friends and my loved one. But I might really miss all of this.

Best.Thanksgiving.Ever.

…and here’s why…

There was, of course, the awesome Thanksgiving spread we threw at Hamilton Court basement.

Well, other than THAT… there was Mr G’s visit to Philly…

He brought Mike’s Pastries for my housemates (and me)

Italian pastries…Cannoli, Boston Cream puff and some peanut butter fudge brownie

Lazed around at the Atlantic City beach…not too bad, wasn’t exactly freezing

And actually, it wasn’t too sunny but it was his BRIGHT idea to wear shades…

Headed to the Irish Pub at Caesar’s for lunch…couldn’t resist the Guinness…and my man behind my Guinness (: (Wish you were here, Jason Teng!)

Notice the Guinness cap?? (:

Aww…gone too soon…

Made Blueberry Pancakes for breakfast on Saturday Morning…YUMMY

This is where the Maple Syrup scandal started!

While he pretends to know nothing and dig into the pancakes…

Dinner at Chloe’s

This was at Parc Brasserie

Happy Birthday continues!

Blissfully happy on the eve of my birthday…thinking all there was, was just a harmless cozy dinner with my housemates and extended ‘family’.

“Oh no you don’t, Buddy!” – says the evil Saurabh…

While Fiona and MingEn are KTV-ing singing Jay Chou songs…(I can see this story is well on its way to becoming an Oscar-winning hollywood script..=p)

My roomie Rongrong who was the Baked Rice – I/C!

And…her lovely assistant (:

Family potrait!

Family portrait 2!

I was obviously oblivious (alliteration!) to this while watching the Phillies game in Joe’s room!

(Okay so basically the bday song and the cake came and I blew the candles)

I got a bottle of Bordeaux!

Phillies jersey! and this is my extended family in ham-court…

And the mischievous batch 11 kids were here too! (Terence looks so glum ): )

And I was wondering how come there were suddenly people playing MJ at our place out of the blue…

This is the kind of ‘lurrrve’ I get from my buddy and…IS THAT COLIN ASSISTING?

Okay we’re done! (and the 2 girls in my house don’t know how to put up an ugly pose..haha okok pretty pretty..)

Overdue – Birthday Dinner!

This was the fabulous dinner that my housemates & extended housemates cooked for me!

I was told to stay in my room, and wasn’t allowed to stay in the kitchen or attempt to help out with anything..but after awhile I got bored and decided to take pictures…eventually I got involved with fixing the curry anyway so..

Peirong preparing the baked rice!

Junhao cutting up some potatoes for the curry

Fiona grilling (and eating) some bacon

MingEn acting cute and looking busy walking around the kitchen

Ben fretting over 2 pots of curry!

where nosey ee sang comes in to steal the show/save the day

Teamwork!

Baked rice…

And insanely spicy, sweet and tangy curry chicken!

And presenting…the cooks!

with invited guests – Trina

and beloved buddy Saurabh!