beloved bel

Chinese New Year is round the corner and I am spending my first CNY away from home :( Anyway I think I should be fine.. I have a feeling I will be eating loads. So since I am back in the baking mood again, today I made cashew nut cookies (inspired by Cynthia last CNY, and thanks to her who brought over those authentic cookie containers) plus the box of pineapple tarts (thanks to Kwee Lin who brought it over and passed to me yesterday), my dining table is looking... very CNY-ish! I am quite happy with how the cookies turned out.. what do you think? Actually I am quite glad that this year I am not subjected to those "dong dong dong chiang" CNY songs which blast from those neighbourhood shops. My grandma told me she can't stand them either and my aunt kindly volunteered to send me a CD of those songs if need be. Err no need, thank you very much! "dong dong dong dong chiang!! "

I attended my first live album recording last Sunday. And it was amazing. The stage before it started; crowd full of anticipation. Album out in July 2010 :)

I attended my first facial pamper night at Faith's place this evening after work. She had invited a consultant from Temple Spa over to show us their products, and let us try on and do a facial for ourselves. Temple Spa . I've never heard of this brand before until tonight and apparently it's quite a high end brand which you can find in niche stores and spas, boutique and 5-star hotels, luxury cruises and first & business class cabins of international airlines. The products which I tried on smells really like what you get in spas and felt good on my face! You may call this consumerism behaviour or whatever, but this area of buying facial stuff is never my forte. I never spend much money on such stuff and I can have a bottle of toner and moisturisor for the longest time. Just happy to use a facial wash and that's it. Maybe I am plain lazy. And somehow I always feel quite skeptical about beauty products because I never know which is good for me. Like genuinely...

I had a very disappointing day at work today.. it's only January but it's like I am working so hard. (why???) No more lala-land. It's all about work, work and work. I can't really complain I know - I've had my fair share of lala-ing - but today was a well, disappointing day. Not gonna elaborate on what happened but I went for my fortnightly connect group hosted by Joel and Liandi... and of all days, I was really thankful that connect was on tonight. At the end of it, Elize saw me and commented that I looked really happy and asked me if something good has happened today. (huh?!) Wow I didn't even know my countenance has changed that much in 3h! Connect has made the difference for me tonight. p/s Looking forward to this Sunday's Hillsong live album and DVD recording service. Haven't been to one before!

Did a proper team effort with Alicia and Jocelyn for a second attempt of authentic wonton noodles. This time minus the fishballs, prawns and mushrooms. Just wontons, char siew (yes I made them, don't doubt!), veg and clear soup. "Just like how the hawker centres do", says Jos. Indeed. ********** Look what I found from Chinatown - chee cheong fun. Steamed a few for breakfast with some oil, sweet sauce, light soy sauce and sesame seeds. ********** My dried scallop and meatball porridge for a stay in Saturday evening. Watching Gossip Girl. (yes I am actually hooked on this brainless teenage show now.)

Just when most people thought that snow and winter are over... we woke up to another white blanket on Tuesday morning. Above: views from my bedroom window.. as you can tell, I didn't remove all the remaining autumn leaves in my garden hehe If you look really really closely on the window panes in the above pic, you can tell it was still snowing when I took it. And of course, Bel was all smiles :)) We use the umbrella to shelter from the sun back home, something people here won't understand.. just like how you and I don't understand people using the umbrella to shelter from the snow here. I've never ever noticed this house which I walk past on the way to the tube station everyday, until this snowy morning.

Yesterday I attended a surprise baby shower for one of the girls Beatrice, from my connect group, organised by Liandi. She and Monica spent a lot of effort, right from buying of ALL the presents (there were easily 50 of them and each wrapped up so beautifully in brown paper and sweet pink ribbons), to baking of pink cupcakes and preparing the rest of the food, to the decor. It was beautiful. It was meant to be a surprise but we ended up waiting for 3h for our guest of honour. So while waiting, all of us were sipping hot tea and having chips while admiring the snow outside (ok maybe just me.. the rest seem not as interested as me haha). Beatrice was held up by something urgent and because there was heavy snow she almost cancelled it since she's very pregnant. Thank God that didn't happen. ********** I had to rush off before the baby shower ended because Marketa and Sarah were coming over for dinner. I had a sudden idea to rearrange a bit of my furniture, well more of my di...

Two days after the snow came... ice is now everywhere with the sub zero temperatures. I virtually glided to the tube station today.

I was a bit reluctant to blog about the big freeze as what they term it because well, it seems to be freezing everyday, even the docks. Everyday to me is the big freeze or the cold snap, whatever term they use. This winter is like the coldest in 100 years I heard? I feel like it's the Ice Age man. As mentioned, I've snapped some pics of the frozen docks in front of my house. And there was a warning a few weeks back before Christmas of heavy snowfall if you remember.. but the snow didn't really come. So Bel was a bit disappointed. Looks normal? Look closer.. it's a whole chunk of ice. The birds standing/ gliding on the ice. Today again the Met Office issued warnings of a deep freeze all over the UK ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8440601.stm ) and today in office our managers were all planning for contingencies. Lucky me, I am one of the 2 people besides the intern who does not have a token to work from home! sigh.. anyways yes you know my worse scenario by now. ...

Sunday after my yummy dim sum lunch, I went to do some grocery shopping in Chinatown and spotted some wonton skin in the fridge section. I recall Jos having recently bought a packet of thin egg noodles and suddenly had the idea of making wonton noodles. Hmm but we need char siew too.. and out of the corner of my eye I saw the Lee Kum Kee brand of char siew sauce. Bingo :) Called Jos on the way home and asked if she's interested in some wonton noodles tonight. Can you believe it.. I actually went home, washed up, and then ventured out in the dark and (very) cold to journey to her place. All for a plate of wonton noodles (which I don't even know if it's gonna be successful). She was quite pro herself... she had started boiling some prawns, fishballs and some chinese mushrooms meant for the soup and when I reached, we started making the wontons. I can't even remember the last time I helped my grandma make wontons. Ooh that nostalgic feeling! Looks pro right! ...

If you remember, last year we had our Pink Countdown Party at our place to usher in 2009. Has the year past by that quickly?? This year, I was undecided on how to spend it, right down to the actual day itself. See Alicia and JL had their friends over and they were planning to have a steamboat dinner. That sounds good but because their place is really small, they warned us that we need to squeeze and share chairs coz they only have 4 chairs and it's already 5 of them at the moment. Hmm... somehow doesn't sound very appealing to me, makes me feel very extra . Jos' bf Dom is here over Christmas and NYE. They are very nice to hang out with but they couldn't decide what to do. Jos has her own group of S'porean friends here and she was waiting for them to confirm. And I don't know her group of friends. Somehow sounds like I am tagging along if I do join them. And then there is VJ, my rocker chick friend from church. Everytime I think of her, I always s...