beloved bel

Local breakfast ~~~~~~~ Afternoon tea Love the chairs

at work It was my manager's farewell speech today and our intern baked some sad looking cupcakes to suit the mood in our team My Polish colleague E lives in Westminister and we are really good friends at work. I found out that where she lives is really close to where my church meeting was to be held in the evening. She kindly invited me up to her place for a cup of tea and I grabbed a sandwich for dinner along the way. I finally met the boyfriend after hearing so much about him. Such a beautiful place they have, and with that super size TV and electric throw on the sofa, I have to admit I was very reluctant to go for my meeting afterwards.

Well they say a picture says a thousand words, and I love this new app I have on my phone.. so here is a peek of my last Sunday! :) B loves this balcony shot at church My last Sunday at church with lovely Liandi, hence had to snap a pic with her :( Bumped into sweet Kine at Starbucks and made her pose for me hehe ~~~~~~~ And then I met Ah Boon and Jingyi who are here to visit! Brought them to an off touristy place which was great, away from the crowds, and into a quaint English neighbourhood, seeing locals do their daily lives. An old school sweet shop. Liquorice sweets anyone? What about Jelly Babies or Candy Shrimps? Some Rhubarb & Custard sweets perhaps? And of course we had to enjoy some french pastries and coffee at my favourite cafe :)

Yep that is me. The new geek, and more specifically, the iphone geek! I've been putting off signing on a contract here.. but after being laughed by friends for "still holding a dinosaur phone?!", I decided I didn't want no dino phone no more. And so I finally ordered one on Tuesday! It arrived in the mail (I called to order over the phone) for me on Thursday and I was so excited! The sweet guys in my team were also very excited for me haha bless their hearts. It was like joining some fraternity group. Amit said "and so Belinda, this is how you waste your life away on the iphone. It's all a scam. Welcome to our world." And then they all proceeded eagerly to tell me the useful apps I could download. Seriously it's such a powerful phone, and some of the apps are just scarily... powerful. Did you know there are a few apps which you can scan the barcodes of whatever products, and it searches on the net telling you the product description and ho...

Ever since I came back from Singapore, I have been in a hibernation mode! You can't blame me coz it's still winter here, days are still short... all I want to do after work everyday is to curl into my bed under my thick duvet and either watch some show, or read a book.. and then slowly going into dreamland... this is bliss at the moment for me. p.s. I need to clarify that I didn't take this shot myself like what one of my friends think! haha This shot was taken by M when we went to Bad Gastein. It was a cold and foggy morning and after breakfast, we were still sleepy and decided to go back to our room and lie in the comfy bed.. and I was too quick for her, I jumped into my bed first and that's how this shot came about.

And hot on the heels of our farewell dinner, it was my turn to host a mini breakfast the next morning. (I did wonder for a moment if the chicken and chorizos have been digested in my stomach hehe) It's fast becoming a busy household I know! But it's always nice to have people come round for meals. And being Singaporean, nothing else is more important than food! So I decided to make the healthy-ish french toast with fruits again for one of my dear friends and M joined us as well. So much for my 'salad diet' after my 2 weeks of overeating in Singapore. boo..

Fast forward to a week after our New Year's lunch, this time it was M and I to play host to the Geesons and Mama Teresa. We hosted a farewell dinner for dear Mama Teresa at our place. What a lovely night it was, and I really like Mama Teresa so much I think I'll miss her. It's not easy for her to say goodbye to her favourite granddaughter Gabby, but she needs to go home as Gabby's grandpa is waiting eagerly for her return (so sweet!), as with her many friends back home in Ecuador. Apparently she bought so many London souvenirs for her friends (too popular), and she didn't buy a single thing for herself. Aww, bless her heart. But I did! I bought her a pinky pink travel pillow for her 15h flight back home. And the most amazing thing- she's gonna do this trip back on her own, with 2 transits. What a brave mama! She is so soft spoken and when she saw the pillow, she just hugged it and said in Spanish she loves her present and will use it on her flight. And ...

M and I spent a nice chilled out New Year's Day at Gabby and Ben's. They invited us to join them for a New Year's Lunch at their place. They live a little outside London so we had to catch the train from London Bridge station. Being in the countryside does feel different! Big houses, lots of greenery... nice for a change! So while the chef was hard at work (notice he is Licensed to Grill haha), Mama Teresa continued knitting a scarf for Ben (in his favourite colour, no less)... ... while we looked at more of their wedding photos taken by the official photographer. We are hungry... hurry up chef! To me, the star of the day was Gabby's 75 year old gran, known affectionately as "Mama Teresa". She is such a dear old lady and reminds me so much of my own grandmother! (They both have same curly curly hair.) She's been here since November for their wedding and will be flying home to Ecuador very soon. She doesn't speak English so unfortunately we co...

I cannot believe it myself that 2010 zoomed past like that, and now we are at the start of a new decade! This year I couldn't bring myself to brave the crowds to watch the fireworks by the Thames, so it was spent indoors with a group of friends watching the live countdown on TV. Although the atmosphere could not be compared with the streets (somehow being pushed, squeezed and jostled in the crowds does make you treasure the moment of the new year more), I was quite contented to be in a warm living room surrounded by - what else - food. Have a Happy and Blessed 2011 and may it be your BEST year yet! Love, Bel 01.01.11