beloved bel

Last weekend was K's birthday.  We celebrated his birthday for the past 2 years in Singapore and this year was back in London.  He wanted a low key birthday celebration but we can't really not celebrate with friends and honour this amazing guy right? Our friends arranged for a group dinner at Goodman Steakhouse, one of our favourite restaurants, wanting to bid one of our friends goodbye.  WL whom we met here via mutual friends, is ending his one year stint as an oncologist here in London and heading home to continue his good works helping cancer patients.  I told them that K's birthday was 3 days away and Rachel being the sweet friend that she is, told me she would order a cake and bring in to surprise K. The food was delicious as usual, and the bottle of Malbec wine we ordered went with the steak perfectly.  Being light drinkers, the waiter must think it's almost a miracle to share one bottle of wine amongst 6 people.  We shared a couple of sides and K's favour

When I touched down at Changi airport a few weeks ago, I was very hungry and K suggested grabbing a quick bite at the food court.  I immediately went for the queue at the bak chor (minced pork) noodles stall.  This one dish is very local and we simply can't find it here.  London's Chinatown has a few Malaysian restaurants with fried kway teow, chicken rice, laksa, etc but there is no authentic fishball noodles or minced pork noodles. When my friend Corinne shared this link last week, I was intrigued and I didn't know K was too.  He suggested going to the Asian supermarket on Sunday to get the necessary ingredients.  We found Dodo fishballs from Singapore here - what a win!  Unfortunately the mee pok (yellow, flat noodles) is of a darker shade here and tastes slightly different (maybe a different type of wheat?).  We found fishcakes too. http://delishar.com/2015/12/fishball-noodles-mee-pok-tah.html This is a healthier version of the hawker center's version in that

Right after we came back from Singapore, K wanted to do a hiking trip in the Lake District.  He's on a sabbatical at the moment so he's a man of leisure as one would call, an envious position to be in :) He booked himself a little cottage in Ambleside and asked if I could take some time off to go with him.  As I just spent 12 days of my annual leave on Singapore, I had only 3.5 days left to use till the end of June (gasp.. noooo). I told him I could possibly take just 0.5 day off, and arrange it such that we go up together on Saturday.  I'll work from there on Monday morning, and use that afternoon to catch a train back to London.  He will then spend a peaceful rest of the week there, hiking, chilling and have some me-time... this arrangement sounded pretty alright. Looking back it was a good idea because we needed that down time, as many would call it, a holiday to recuperate after a holiday.  We were ready for the peaceful and quiet countryside.  Very exciting.