beloved bel

This post is for my dear granny at home :) She passed my aunts a bottle of her home made black olives for me when they came to visit two weeks ago (something which I love since young) - Kum sia ah ma! - and tonight after work I had a craving for black olive rice. Fried the rice with some garlic, egg and black olives like how she cooks it back home. Since I also had leftover meat in the fridge, I cooked it with salted soy beans and ginger. oishii!~ (threw in 4 cherry tomatoes as well for that healthy factor!) ___________________ In progress - blog of my Switzerland and Vienna trip with my aunts November's gonna be a very quiet and chill month for me. No holiday plans! (yes yes I think I hear you say "Finally..." haha)

Realised it's Oct 31 tmr so wanna wish everyone a Happy Halloween! have fun :) saw some pumpkins at Borough Market last Saturday new! On a sidenote, I've just added this new "Followers" gadget to my blog. (On the left panel called "Readers" section) Not exactly sure how it works exactly but well, if you read my blog frequently enough, you can click on it and put your name (please do! and you can upload a small photo - from MSN maybe? to make it more fun!) and I will finally get to know. It's kind of one sided now coz I blog and I have no idea who is reading and many of you out there are silent readers I know! =P (c'mon don't be shy...)

ok sabrina says I haven't been updating my blog often.. =P so here goes... (nah, joking) It is freezing here in London now.. omg it's really like summer straight transited to winter. Sun sets pretty much around 4pm everyday and I must say it is quite depressing coz you go home in the dark AND COLD. And.... I can't believe it SNOWED on Tuesday night! Well unfortunately not at my place but it did snow in places further away from the city! So exciting rite! haha ok not that I haven't seen snow before but.. still nice to have I think. Anyway it is the first time it snowed in October in 70plus years. Oh no does this mean we're gonna have a very cold winter this year?

It has been a whirlwind. The days are all blurred together, with work (fighting against angry traders - boo, really can't stand them), and travelling with Minghui and the Hillsong Conference 08. Friends have been visiting me consecutively since end Aug somehow, and with Hillsong Conference clashing with Minghui's time here, I just feel so bad at not spending enough time with her showing her around London but yet I feel I need to attend the conference... simply because I am so down with work. Work's really not great at the moment but am thankful for my supportive boss. Mere thought of it makes me depressed! haiz makes me appreciate traders back in Asia more, really. Loud, unreasonable, demanding... so on so on... URGH Just back from Hillsong London Conference 08 at Excel. Honestly I was super sad when I realised that Hillsong changed Ps Prince's preaching schedule last minute and the tickets I got were not his sessions... he was to preach on that two days I was...

Yes bel travelled again. well, coz Minghui's here to visit and long ago I suggested going Riga (Latvia) in Eastern Europe, but somehow along the way it didn't feel like a very good choice, no idea why I felt that way. And then Minghui's next best choice which we booked only days before she arrived - Berlin. With it's rich history of the East vs West Germany divided by the Berlin Wall, it looks set to be a cool destination. @ Berlin Wall We were discussing about travelling within UK vs travelling outside UK and you might be surprised but prices do work out to be about the same! Travelling within UK is very expensive and comparable to a budget air ticket to some city outside the UK. She went to Manchester on her own and paid abt £60 for a return train ride! Ridiculous if you ask me. And air tickets to Berlin? Also around that price, maybe short of a few more £. Now you know! Autumn is here DAY 1 Our hotel was in a superb location, it is connected to the Os...

A conversation that took place weeks after we arrived in London- Cynthia: "hey Bel, let's go somewhere for your birthday weekend, shall we?" Bel: "sounds great! hmm.. go somewhere nice..." Cynthia: "Nice? ok!" haha ok maybe I was exaggerating.. in fact, I was the one who wanted to go somewhere nice, hence "Nice" (lame? haha but lest you think they are pronounced the same way.. Nice is prenounced "niece" coz it's french.. anyways, it really lives up to it's name in english.) I learnt about this place years ago when I was taking french lessons back in NTU and there was this short chapter on Cote d'Azur area on the french riveria which my french teacher said is very nice, and popular for summer holidays. And this info just parked at the back of my mind. Since Minghui's here, she joined us and Cynthia roped in Joselyn the last minute. We were so excited when we saw the first glimpse of the blue blue two toned wat...