My first Grand Slam!

Yes, my first grand slam was Wimbledon 2010, London. It turned out to be a completely last minute decision and my boss at work was kind enough to approve my last minute leave and so we headed to Southfields by the tube and then a long 2-3km walk to the grounds of Wimbledon. I was watching Wimbledon during my gym sessions, so I try to finish on time everyday at 5pm and follow the matches. I am really pleased that we decided to give it a try and experience Wimbledon. 

It was not easy though, I had to prepare myself mentally and get ready to queue, queue and queue. The Brits love their lines, they just love to queue. On the hand, I was trying to see if there is anyway I could beat the queue but I went there with a Brit so I behaved like what I should. :) I probably spent like at least 4 hours just queuing up on that day! It was day four at Wimbledon and probably not a good day actually because it turned out to be really busy because the Queen decided to pay a visit and cheer for Andy Murray! After 30 odd years she made another appearance in Wimbledon. :) If I had a royal box, I would be sat there every single day. 

I think I will know how to have a better preparation for next year's Wimbledon and try catch Fedex there! :)

The famous Wimbledon queue begins.

Centre Court. This was amazing. I could hardly believe it!

The epic match which wrapped up on that day. Longest tie-break ever: 68-70.

Henman Hill. I see this all the time on telly when I was back in Malaysia or Bermuda. Oh, really awesome atmosphere!

Ticket for No.2 Court after more queues.

Serena Williams singles match. She is really good!

Anyone up for Wimbledon 2011? See you there!

The new Apple iPhone 4G

Hi guys,

Finally after a good few years of waiting, I finally got my hands on the new Apple iPhone 4G!! Don't ask me why I could not get it previously I'd probably take 6 years to explain why but this timing is great this time! After being on a waiting list from Orange for weeks on the 16GB, I was getting frustrated and by mistake and thanks to this really helpful staff in Orange; he said I could get the 32GB model not knowing there was waiting list for this model too. :) Yes, it was quite crazy when Apple first launched the iPhone 4G. Anyway I am very pleased and after much hassle, I got the new 32GB black model. I just wanted the phone, 16 or 32GB it don't matter to me. Absolutely brilliant despite a couple of dropped calls, poor reception at times; yes I still love it very much. I am still waiting for the free bumper from Apple which can only be shipped in September, in the meantime I am using a black fully covered bumper simply because I am quite a clumsy person and I think I should take good care of it since I need it for a good 24months at least on an Orange contract. :) 

I find it extremely useful for someone who cannot read map properly and just pointing me where my current location is and how do I get there next; especially since I am pretty new to London. One of the places I could navigate without a map is Oxford Circus and Bond Street; yes for those who are wondering; I spend a lot of times at the shops and I love shopping! Even Laughton can't figure out where he is or how to get to the next shop when we are down in Oxford Circus; yes by the time he flips out his London A-Z map, I am already halfway to the next shop. It's very handy and I feel like it's my miniature MacBook Pro inside my handbag. :) Absolutely brilliant! 

32GB is probably quite a lot of space for me right now as I do carry my iPod classic with a 120GB with me so, I am not using my iTunes on the phone seems like hard work to keep sync-ing everything and duplicating them. I love the apps and I get 600 minutes talk-time, unlimited texts and 750MB data with a 35 pound monthly contract from Orange. So it is a pretty darn good offer for me!

One could possibly go on and on about the iPhone so I am not going to do that since I am still a relatively new user and not quite familiar with the functions but it does a great job for me. Very handy to take decent pictures if I am too lazy to take the Nikon Slr with me. I am not sure how you guys would rate it but anything from Apple = brilliant! Enjoy guys!

Summer in Greenwich Park

I don't have the slightest clue on where or how to start this post. Just realised after I had a question from a friend who asked about my blog, what was the most recent post; and I just smiled sheepishly and thought, oh yes it had been a while since I posted anything. Summer is halfway and it's been lovely with plenty of friends and family visiting London all the way from Malaysia.

This picture below was taken in Greenwich park and I thought it was really lovely over there, well rather unusual with the gold fields as compared to the usual lush greenery, due to the heat wave that we had in the past couple of weeks. I am quite pleased that the weather has started to cool down a little bit, more inclined to explore various parts of London and will be updating my blog more frequent so stay tuned!!

A view from the hill, looking towards to London's financial centre- Canary Wharf. That's where we live at the moment. 

Hong Kong, China Part 1

An old post which I forgot to click "publish" button. A trip to Hong Kong with mum and some friends during my long career break sometime in April 2009.

A job finally!

It has been a whirlwind week and plenty of good news towards the end of the week, just in time to celebrate the bank holiday weekend in Nottingham with the family and my closest friends here. I am really pleased how things have turned out finally. The picture above was taken in my mum-in law's garden and this little flowers growing by the side of the rocks just caught my eyes and I thought it was absolutely beautiful and this is how I feel right now.

We had our wedding party-BBQ here in Nottingham to do something for some relatives and friends here in England in between our civil wedding last year and the second part of the wedding in Malaysia which will be held in August this year. Everyone had fun and plenty of food, I enjoyed it really except for the freezing bit. Who would have thought you needed scarf, gloves, big jackets and a pair of Ugg boots for a BBQ?? Well, I didn't have any proper winter wear with me, anticipating a lot of sun and some heat. I was wrong so I ended up freezing the whole time! I had a great time catching up and spending time with my good friends and it is always great to be able to see them!!

Looks like I will be hanging around in London for a bit now, especially after accepting a brilliant job offer from a very large company. I am pleased, excited and just overwhelmed at such a great opportunity. I don't have much details yet, hopefully everything will come through next week.

Cheers!

W.

Is it just more than a pretty sight in London?

Amazing blend of colours in the sky, view from our living room.

Beautiful hues in the sky

I have plenty of time, too much of time sometimes that I think too much. Wonderful photos taken from our flat; felt like I am trying to prove some point or to convince myself that I should give London a try. Is London the right choice for us?? Is this really worth it? Of course it is not as simple as some pretty picture, but actually living here. I still have not given up on my ultimate plan of settling back in Malaysia. Everyday I get more and more convinced that home should be Malaysia and no other place is close enough to call home. After the dark depressing winter, spring has come and beautiful weather also brings in more good news; I have been offered a job and am gladly accepting the offer! Will be starting work next month and it has been a long time since waking up at eight in the morning and work, work, work. I feel excited and nervous at the same time, all jumbled up inside me. I'll give London a try, well I don't have much to lose, do I? :)

Cheers people!

W.

Spring weather at the weekend in London

A visit to the Hummingbird Bakery in Soho, London. We stopped by for tea, cup of cappuccino and a red velvet cupcake! It was really good. We loved it so much that we ended up baking them Hummingbird cupcakes and peanut butter cookies at the following weekend. Thanks to Feli for recommending this place to us. :))

After getting our Lion King theatre tickets, we walked down on the Waterloo bridge and took a couple of photos. Beautiful weather!

"Lou sang" in London

Yee-sang. Before and after..

Hi everyone, after waiting for three months, yes three months in London; my flat is finally equipped with a proper broadband. Amazing how slow things get done here in London or England. You will be surprised. No kidding. We were warned by the Apple Store Genius that we should be prepared it could take months just to get a simple broadband set up, especially if you just moved into a new place without a phone line. I remembered our reaction, we just laughed at him and said, we think between two to three weeks at the most and we should be up and running. Yeah I guess he must have had the last laugh. For once I am thinking Malaysia actually BOLEH, and could beat the English hands down anytime.

So, this means I can finally relieve myself from the painful ten inch laptop that I had been surviving on with the prepaid mobile broadband and continue with my MacBook. I am really pleased!

Anyway, I hope everyone had a great Chinese New Year and I had a great time, especially after spending Chinese New Year twice or two years being away from home. The atmosphere is so different, so incomparable and nothing beats the CNY mood at home. The family, the friends, the reunion and yes, the great food!

So my aunty Cat decided to get Laughton a pack of yee-sang so he can have a go at it since he missed out CNY in Malaysia this year. We found it in IKEA and it was really good, we couldn't find any raw salmon so we ended up with smoked salmon for the yee-sang. Good consolation for him, I suppose.

Sunday Roast

Our Sunday roast dinner: Roasted chicken with stuffing, cheddar mashed potatoes, boiled broccoli, carrots roasted parsnips and gravy.

The Sunday roast is a traditional British main meal served on Sunday (can be for either lunch or dinner), consisting of roasted meat (beef, lamb, pork, chicken or seasonal meat such as turkey or duck can be used), roasted potatoes accompanied with stuffing, vegetables, Yorkshire puddings and  gravy. 

This meal was probably my best Sunday roast dinner ever and a very good effort by Laughton for preparing such a tedious meal! Looking forward to next Sunday though! But no, I will be in Malaysia!! 

White Canary Wharf

Looked outside my window this evening and was quite surprised to see a "white Canary Wharf" and yes, looks like the Big Freeze is back in England! More snow and icy condition predicted for tomorrow and Friday and I hope my travel plans wouldn't be affected; I am all excited to go home! 

I am still looking for a job, a task that seemed almost impossible after my numerous attempts therefore I am still a full-time housewife. I started to realise why Mum used to complain about how difficult it is to cook everyday, thinking of what to cook and  trying to have a balanced variety and making sure we were happy and contented. There are some days where I struggle about simple questions like what do I pack for him to work? His lunch box. So, I looked up some recipes and tried a few dishes that I enjoy back at home and try to re-create some as I refuse to pay something ridiculous like 7 or 8 pounds minimum each for a simple dish like I tried cooking below. I must say they turned out quite good, quite pleased with my attempts and most importantly, the Boss (Laughton) was very pleased and kept telling me how good it tasted! 

 Fried egg tofu with minced meat

Stir fried brinjal with minced meat. We love brinjals so I am really pleased that I can do it at home and most importantly the cost factor! My favourite brinjal dish will still be the one from a restaurant in Serdang. Totally awesome!

One of my favourite childhood meals

Fresh sea bream; just simply seasoned with a bit of salt and wok-fried. It was very good, just like Mum used to fry fish for me and drizzle some soya sauce and I could eat it with a bowl of rice (or seconds haha). Never tried sea bream though but it was quite tasty. I ate whole of the fish to myself, would split it into two next time. 

My loyal companion: Macbook to watch my HK series while I enjoyed my lunch with a bowl of rice and watercress with dried scallops, red dates and pork soup. Beats any lunch deals in Waitrose or Boots!

Planning my food trip soon for next week!

Hello again! I was just browsing past some photos and these few ones caught my eyes and made me reminisce about my home town. I can feel myself starting the countdown again, only five days to go now! I do it quietly trying not to remind Laughton how bad he feels about not being able to join me to Malaysia again. We were so looking forward about this trip and celebrating Chinese New Year back at home but our hopes crushed after his silly employer just conveniently denied their promise to him. Totally upset, caused us plenty of inconveniences, time and of course money! This is another example of incidences that got me so angry and upset about how convenient some group of silly irresponsible people go about in doing their job, not bothered at all about other people's welfare. You wouldn't believe it, yes they just ignore his pleas and made it hell for him to re-schedule his holidays and he finally got it booked for August 2010 and woo-hoo I will be heading home again! No compensation or any apologetic gestures made at all to him, guess we've learnt our lesson this time. Something or some people just don't deserve a second chance do they?

A bowl of sui-kow, pork and shrimp dumplings to go with my wan tan noodles.  

Wan tan mee, with extra chilli.

A cup of milk tea to go with my breakfast. I cannot miss this!

Must have green chillies to go with my wan tan mee!

Risotto on a Saturday night

We were pleased when a good friend of ours, Andrew joined us for dinner last night in our flat. We had not had many guests over since we moved here honestly, Laughton is quite busy at work and I am usually trying to sort my stuff out and especially since I am going on a holiday next two weeks, we thought would be good to catch up since Andrew will be going home next month. 

I am hoping once things are better and more settled, we would be able to have more friends over to chill and hang out at our place soon. Anyway, we had a good night in and very pleased that he enjoyed dinner! I truly enjoyed Laughton's risotto from Jamie Oliver's recipe minus the radicchio, because we could not find any when we went out to do our grocery.

Risotto of smoky bacon, rosemary and red wine.

The chef of enjoying his risotto, a glass of rosé and us!