beloved bel

I've blogged about our Christmas party with friends.  Now I shall blog about what K and I did over Christmas.  We had anticipated for a quiet Christmas but it turned out not so quiet after all.  In a nice way of course. Christmas Eve K and I decided to have a homely meal at home for dinner.  Plus, everywhere else is closed anyway.  What do we eat with the cold weather here?  Something probably not too far off from my already familiar German-Tews tradition of raclette, we decided on hotpot!  We had half day at work and I wasn't quite thinking like a local then because I suggested to K to attend the carol service at St Paul's Cathedral at 4pm.  We met in the city and had a coffee and cake before slowly making our way to the cathedral at 330pm.  We were so shocked to see a long snaking queue outside the cathedral, all the way round to the back!  We were told that we would not be able to get into the cathedral from where we were in the ...

In order to save the date on everyone's calendar, I had created a FB page more than a month ago, inviting our friends over for a Christmas party.  Now that we live so far away, we were a little apprehensive about people wanting to travel so far, hence we wanted to give people ample time to plan their schedules. To cook for 15 people is no mean feat.  We bought lots of food and planned our menu in advance.  Knowing us, I wanted a western meal whereas K wanted Asian food.  So we compromised and had a east-meets-west menu. ~~~~~~~ Starters/ Nibbles Basil and peppers bread (bought one of my fav bread from Waitrose), heated up in the oven and drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar Carrot and cucumber sticks with hummus (mashed up chickpeas - tastes better than it sounds) Crisps (yes, K's fav kind of starters) Salad with ready made dressing Smoked salmon on bread with fresh cream, dill and capers (Lloyd and I-Ding's contribution) Mains Slow boiled Ch...

Hope it's not too late now to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!   How was your Christmas this year? We had two different gatherings yesterday.  Lunch at TW's followed by dinner at JX's.  And we ended the day by watching the old school Christmas movie, Jingle All the Way.  I still remember watching this in the cinema years and years ago and enjoying it very much.  It is still so funny after so many years and it was so nice to relive those hilarious movies moments once again. Sharing some Christmas pics of our recent autumn photoshoot here with you.  Next up, will blog about how we hosted a Christmas party last Saturday for 15 people!

Last month I signed up for my second instalment of what I term lifeskills.   *Drumroll*  I signed up to make a Christmas table centre piece at the same flower school which I went to before.  This to me was more fun than my first experience.  People really do make a difference as I found out.  Judith herself saw me and said "Have you been here before?  Oh aren't you from Singapore?" Wow what a good memory she has! This time round, we had 7 students and all were chatty and friendly.  Plus we had a student Molly who was working for a magazine and she was tasked to write down her experience at this course.  She even had a dedicated photographer taking photos of the class as it progressed. No joke, this is the link and you might just well spot a teeny weeny me in two of the pictures wearing my blue dress http://www.grosvenorlondon.com/the-chronicle/issue%2012%20dec%202014/we%20try-flower%20arranging/ Molly has written it very w...