February 2013

While this is my second time I've been to London for the Boxing Day sales, it doesn't make it any less exciting! Somehow we manage to convince everyone to wake up at 6am (even the boys!) so that we can be in the queues along Oxford Street by 7am, Asian style. Yes, the sales do extend all the way into January, but I guess that would defeat the mini rush you get when the doors finally opened at 8am and you make that mad dash down to the sales rack with hundreds of other crazy women. No, it's definitely not something I would do every day, but it's just fun to be a bit overexcited, because if not, Boxing Day would just be like any other sale that you walk into.

Somehow me and my shopping partners in crime, Joanne, Linette and Michelle manage not to lose each other in the mess that was Oxford Street. Because I was on a strict budget, I ran out of money by lunch time, in which I regret spending too much at Topshop. But we were exhausted by then anyway, all the pushing and changing and lining up. The Tube was on strike that day, to make a point I guess, and somehow everyone on our bus home got unceremoniously kicked off by a bus driver who decided that he was done with work in the middle of the road and shouted, "ok this bus service is now terminated, please get off!"

But luckily by then it was just a 15 minute walk back to Josh's apartment. Though the weather was miserable as the London weather always is, we were still in high spirits! Writing this now, I actually do kind of miss the drippy, rainy weather of London that you never really get wet in. We only had 2 days left, which made a us a little sad because we were so comfortable in London, but I know I still have so much unfinished business in the city, so i'll be back soon!

I realised that it seems to always be festive season on my blog! Haha.

We finally reach Christmas Day here in London, where the whole city basically shuts down. But still, it's Christmas Day!



The special occasions calls for a little decadence! We pop open a bottle of Bollinger champagne - it's Justin's gift to me from his traveling in France, and we've been dragging it all over Europe for two whole weeks waiting for the right occasion. We also crank open one of the three bottles of mackerel pâté that we got from Portobello market a few days earlier and eat it with our Carr's table water crackers. Yum yum.



Justin gets started on the cooking! We went grocery shopping the day before and fought through throngs of fellow last minute Christmas shoppers so that we could get the ammo required to feed our 13 guests coming over for dinner!



Lamb with basil, rosemary and thyme; sauteed mushrooms (of which i steal a bite as soon as they are cooked)... Mmmhmm.

Since i'm pretty useless in the kitchen, I help clean up Josh's apartment to maximize space! It's cozy for 2, but squeezing 13 people inside would be quite a feat.

Hello Dings!

Now that the bulk of Chinese New Year celebrations are over, it's time to blog!

We wake up on Sunday morning to do our tradition of kow tow-ing to our mum. We're pretty old already, but it's always a nice way to start off the day.