JK's Farewell

Just as I've arrived, it's now time to say farewell to my Sydney compatriot JK and her boyfriend, BS. Even though we worked only metres apart, we hardly saw one another due to absurd lunch hours and infrequent breaks. So off I trotted to Clapham on Saturday night. I was kinda aware that there had been some teenage territory shootings near the area but I figure they'd never kill me.
A pit stop at Bao and Mona's place was necessary to see if either one were going to accompany me to drinks. The ever reliable Baoey stayed home with her microwaved sticky date pudding. I ate two of their sushi rolls (mmm Selfridges sashimi) and then forced Bao to pose.

Bao was meant to look unhappy but couldn't help being proud of her sushi babies.

Drinks were at a bar called Rinky Dink on a street which had a touch of Brunswick St to it and reminded me of a smaller version of Bimbo Deluxe. We were so amazed at how cheap the drinks were here - a round of 5 costing only £15!!!! Ok, that's still $37.50, but when you're used to paying £5 - £9 per drink, it's quite a saving.

What is wrong with my face?

More Sydneysiders, except for Mona. Stina the pumpkin eater! I hear murmurings of Stevie and P-sang making their way over soon.

JK and BS.... One final photo before heading off on a car tour around Europe and the the USA. Aaaaah the life...

I wish JK could've stuck around longer :( Another girl to the Friday Drinks club isn't a bad addition. Now it looks like I wont see her again for at least another year or so! Bai JK!

Smee is Sick

As I type this, I have a sick Smee sleeping rather peacefully beside me. Not quite snoring yet but lucky for him, I'm a heavy sleeper. He's unfortunate enough to have come down with an appetite-reducing fever and general lethargy.

While I was out with Lil Miss J at her final work drinks, my phone started ringing. Expecting a Nando's request, it was much to my surprise to hear Smee say 'Smee, I'm really sick. I went home at 1pm today *cough, cough* '. So off I trotted home to don my nurses outfit, where I was greeted with a feverish, sweaty Smee bundled up in the doona. Hmmmmmmmmmm, I have never seen him so weak and pathetic. It would have been a most advantageous time to wreak havoc, but given that I'm not such a person *tee hee* I instead, did my best to make him feel a little better.

After taking a little bit of a history, I discovered that Smee went home at 1pm at the insistence of work colleagues and upon arriving home, he collapsed/fainted into bed and had not eaten all day. After offering him some water (which he refused), offering some soup (refused again), I did the asian thing and cooked some congee, which he also refused. Given that he had a burning fever, a compress was placed on his forehead. I dunno, are you meant to do that for a fever? You see it in the movies all the time. Anyway, it didn't seem to hurt him.

Hmmmm, a person with a fever will usually feel better after some rest, but I still wanted to exhaust my options of symptomatic relief. Fluid offerings didn't work. Congee, the ultimate Asian-Cure-All didn't work. There was minimal relief with the compress. What next? Aaaaah, how could I forget my pharmacology lectures? Paracetamol!! The anti-pyretic!! This would make him feel better! We're so lucky to have a Tescos downstairs.

After returning, I recalled what I used to have done whenever I had a fever as a child. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm "Cao Gio" - coin scraping with a Chinese Oil.... mmmmmmmmmm therapeutic. As a person of western medical teachings, I'm not sure how or why this always managed to make me feel better but I don't care!!! This treatment rocks!!!

Not for the squeamish, this is what happened to Smee's back after I rubbed it with a coin and some Chinese medicated oil:

Cool eh? Red = sick. Not red = not sick. I'm SOOOO a Doctor.

I've always thought that this was common practice amongst all Asians, but it seems as though only the Viets and Indos know what I'm talking about (hi Lil Miss J! hi bao!). Anyone of Malaysian Chinese or Honkie descent think I'm freaking mad. I have not asked a mainlander yet.

Now, because I'm a nerd, I had to do a bit of research into this treatment to quell my desire to understand it's mechanisms. Here's the ever *reliable* Wiki entry. And look!! I even found a semi-medical, not-quite-medical-journal-quality review of the treatment. While neither articles are overly conclusive, I am still quite happy to perform this voodoo on others as well as be the recipient. Even if it's just a placebo, it's a damn effective one!!

By the way, Smee did feel a lot better immediately after coin rubbing. But I did give him the paracetamol anyway.

Yauatcha and China White

First of all, a happy new year to you all!! Oink oink, bring on the year of the piggie!!

In the spirit of Chinese New Year, we kept things asian-ised last night. Dinner was at Yauatcha, a restaurant which serves dim sum all day long. Hmmmmm.... what to say? This place is owned by the same guy who owns the McDonalds-esque Wagamama empire. I'll admit, I've never eaten at Wagamama but I've heard too many bad reviews to want to try. Wagamama has obviously provided him one hefty pocket and it's reported he injected £42 million into this little pet project of Yauatcha.

While I would like to dine here again - the yum cha was tasty and fresh, the iced teas invigorating, the desserts appealing (too full to sample), I still couldn't shake off the whole 'white man's Chinese restaurant' feeling. The food was authentic enough and there were some fellow asian diners but I dunno, it just irked me. Maybe it had something to do with the inflated prices, the gimmicky use of serving yum cha at night, the English-only menu, the predominantly non-asian waiters and the clean, poshly decorated surroundings. C'mon, it is a stark contrast when you're accustomed to being served yum cha by cart-wheeling Honkie students. Alright, enough from me, here's the important stuff:

Mmmmmmmmm while waiting for our table, we were placed near the dessert display. Mmmmmm tantalising...... but I didn't spot any custard egg tarts!

Trusty ol' me contemplating dessert.

Ummm a green tea mousse I think.

Ermmm... lemon sponge cake? I can't remember. I'm sure it was fancier than that.

Smee at the dessert bar.

In keeping with the Chinese theme, it was deemed appropriate that our next venue be the China White nightclub. JK, Lil Miss J, Leesh and a whole bunch of other Melburnites joined us for good old fashioned fun!! Baoey, Mona and Mr. L..... tsk tsk... twas a fun night. Not too much alcohol!!

Smee a bit tanked early in the night.

An obligatory girly shot.

Two Smees.

Lil Miss J and I enjoying our first date.


JK and Leesh.


Leesh had so much fun that she broke a heel from her shoe. Smee offered to break her other heel but she declined. Her limping resulted in her early departure.


Yes Lil Miss J, I want a second date too. Jules happy being the third wheel.


Smee doing his best female impersonation.


What's this? A photo not of us?


My face slowing melting.

Eventually Lil Miss J and JK decided to call it a night. We attempted to take a photo with the oh-so-cute (beer goggle effect?) South African bartender David who happily served us several times, but this is what happened instead:

Some weirdo with Lil Miss J and no bartender. Oh well. Lil Miss J's face is a classic.

.

A fun night regardless with no mishaps or misfortunes!!!

Gabrielle's Restaurant

Friday's dinner was at Gabrielle's, a French restaurant on Heddon St. The food was well.... food. The staff were nice, it wasn't over crowded, the food was palatable and definitely far from the worst meal I've experienced. Just in case anyone is interested, I had the chicken breast stuffed with spinach and mozzarella. Maybe I could eat there again but I think it helped that we had a 50% off deal on our dinner hehe.

Tonight was the night for Baoey to taunt Lil Miss J with her scary face, to listen to everyone's skiing stories and for me to reassure everyone that they weren't being replaced with the crazy bisexual girl. A few photos:

Baoey giving a toast to the end of the week and to her ability to morph into a different person in interviews.



Yum!!! My and Lil Miss J's blurry apple pie.


Leesh's ice cream.

Bao and her creme brulee.

Mona's chocolate pudding.

Mr L's cheese 'dessert'

Nothing else exciting otherwise. We didn't manage to top it off with drinks at a bar. A good night's rest was all we needed.

*sniff*

My eyelash perm, which I had redone the week before I left home has now officially wilted. While I acknowledge that no-one really noticed, except for all my female friends who know exactly what asian eyelashes should look like, I can't help but feel a loss of femininity. Yeah yeah yeah, I know I can manually curl them but I am far too lazy for that.

My TV Addiction and Tescos

Tonight was a Friday and a quiet one by my standards. No drinking, no eating out, no meeting up with anybody. I just went straight home at 5.30pm without a single deviation. It kinda helped that I had a headache and didn't feel like doing anything.

A bit of MSN never hurt anybody and my Friday night chat was with Katie discussing our TV watching list. Not having a TV in my current living arrangement lends to a slight difficulty but that problem is overcome by the beauty that is the internet.

I am somewhat a TV addict. It's always on in the background and it played a huge role in my upbringing. The best baby-sitter by far. I usually can tell what day of the week it is by seeing what is on prime time. I miss having a TV and I'm scared that it will alienate me with all these unfamiliar shows when I get back home :`( Anyway, the whole reason why I'm saying all of this is that I wanted to watch 'Brothers and Sisters', a TV show that Kt has really gotten into. She directed me to an official website where I could watch all the episodes for FREE and I got really excited...... until the page loaded and said that only viewers in the USA could watch full length episodes.

I told Kt this and she got very upset. Oh well, there are other 'avenues' of obtaining such information.

Another thing that happened today was that a Tescos Metro opened for business downstairs of our apartment block. YAAAAAAAAAY!!! Our apartment complex is a little isolated and although a substantial shopping centre isn't too far, it is a bit of a bitch to put on all your freaking clothes just to get some basic food supplies. Now I can go downstairs in my almost-pjs if I ever feel like having a snack! So I lied a little. I did have a Friday night out at Tescos. And I couldn't leave without buying something, so I came back with this:

Kinder Surprise Happy Hippo Biscuits!!! Smee ripped opened the packet before I could photograph it. Too cute to not buy them. I can see myself wasting much money at Tescos.

Hippy didn't mind us devouring one of his own.

I think Kinder Surprise really need to review their biscuit design, especially since it's target market are children.

On a totally different note, I hope to be seeing Mary Poppins the musical this weekend!!

Snow Again!

"You're such a f#$king tourist" says Smee after seeing this photo. Well at least he wasn't standing next to me when I pulled out my phone this morning to capture the melting snow. Instead, Smee had to collect his overcoat this morning from the drycleaners after a red wine episode.

Unfortunately, I didn't get up early enough to see the fresh snow, rather it had transformed into a grey, watery slush. Hmmm, it was reported that this is most snow London has had in years. Do I feel lucky to witness history? No. But it was rather pretty to watch to the snow falling.

The best thing about the snow is that it severely disrupts public transport, although you would think the UK would be better prepared for such situations. *whingeing Pom* Regardless when I arrived half an hour late to work today, all I needed to say was "the snow" and that was the end of the matter. Little did they know that I actually overslept - tee hee!!!

A Nice Way to Start the Day

It's difficult to not be anti-London, especially in the Winter. It's grey and dreary. The weather puts everyone in the already shitted-off population in a worse mood. I'm not saying home is all sunshine but I swear I did not see a blue sky here until about three weeks after arriving. And it was really difficult to adjust to the darkness at 3.30pm, although it's getting better. I have self diagnosed myself a sufferer of Seasonal Affective Disorder.

But, in contrast to Kt's current weather conditions in New York, I'm glad to be in London. Freezing my face off in below zero air temperature is not my preferred way of living. Having temporary blindness due to my glasses fogging up when I go from outdoors to indoors is rather annoying. Kt may prefer the cold but gimme my 38 degree weather any day!!!

Upon leaving the apartment this morning, I was greeted by a clear blue sky and crisp, clean-as-it-can-get air :D The best morning yet (while wearing gloves and a scarf).

My day was ruined when I reached work and had to climb the broken escalator. GRRRRRRRRRRR. When I went home, I had to climb broken escalator at a different station. As Smee says, 'Nothing works in this expensive town'.

Weekly Wrap Up

All is not exciting on the blogging front. No photos here unfortunately.

This week was fairly uneventful. I worked, I went home, I washed clothes, I went to the supermarket and I did all the other mundane things that comes with daily life. There are not enough hours in a day I tell you.

Friday night meant catching up with Lil Miss J, Bao and JK for a drink at a bar in Canary Wharf. Nothing special about this bar, in fact it was more or less a warehouse with minimal furnishings. Dinner was at a pub called something like Hornimans. We had conversations about the usual girly things and then we teetered off home a bit tipsy. I stopped by Nandos to get Smee some dinner (errr it was 10.30pm) and I collapsed in a heap.

Saturday was nothing remarkable. Went for a jog, picked up some dry cleaning, surfed the net and then went clubbing to Funky Buddha which looked much better on the website than it really was. As expected I got quite drunk and unexpectedly picked up a bisexual woman. I would like to be her friend but not in that sense. Oh well.