Day three in London pt3

This is the final chapter of day three. Continuation from after the satisfying meal of fish and chips..

This was taken just after our lunch, still around the tower.

From the tower, and off to St Paul's Cathedral.

Of dungeons and dragons.

Street directory and map.

The magnificent St Paul's Cathedral.

Then we headed to Trafalgar Square.

We bought our Les Miserables tickets from Leicester Square Gardens, based on Joanne's recommendation. There's a proper booth with discounted prices every now and then.

Of prawns, chicken and fish

Clockwise from the top: my first prawn dish - prawns sambal. Not bad for a first attempt. But would like to try out the malay sambal with loads gravy. Still looking around for the right recipe. Next is fish in bean sauce. Followed an online recipe with modifications here and there. Nice. And the last pic is chicken wine.. with a little too much wine *hic*!!

Local and not-so-local

Sago pudding (on your left) and pineapple bun. Hubby bought both from Maxim's. The pineapple bun is quite common in bakeries here, and this one has a pineapple custard filling. The sago pudding tasted a little like nyonya kaya. Nice.

Then we went to Citygate Outlet at Tung Chung on Sat. I will recommend this place to those who are visiting hk. It is a factory outlet shopping haven with loads of good international brands like nike, adidas, quicksilver, timberland, ralph lauren, esprit, benetton, coach (coming soon) and many many more! Plus Citygate Outlet has Food Republic! Hubby's lunch of wat else but nasi lemak! This one comes with a bowl of soup!!

I took the pineapple fried rice, complete with chicken floss and raisins.. just the way I like my pineapple fried rice ^_^

Faces of Love

Our little pride and joy is getting extremely adorable everyday.

She is beginning to apprecicate the idiot box more. I might seem happy now but I know this is so gonna backfire later! She likes watching the opening to The Simpsons, Friends, certain ads esp the ribena with lemon advert *wee*, oh, and she enjoys Coldplay's Life in Technicolour videoclip and Lily Allen's Alfie (it's the puppets!!). She would gesture at the screen and smile gleefully.

She enjoys looking at herself in the mirror and recognises herself in photos as she would point and smile. She knows how to 'sayang' mommy and daddy and even her toys Dolly and Minnie. She would pat and kiss. So cute!!!

She would wave when we say bye-bye, tata, good night, or when she heard the doorbell. She is not so stingy with her wave to strangers anymore (like our regular fishmonger, or the cashier). Ppl here seems to like babies - they would talk and smile and one even wanted to carry her! Pengsan! And when she actually wave to them or smile, they would get even more excited!!

She is so like her daddy - doesn't like porridge, likes bread and cheese, likes to eat.. like earlier she was asking for her rusk when it was just after her lunch!! Oh, she points when she wants this and that. And will smile happily when she managed to get her way. Otherwise she'll just wail and soon the dam will just bocor!

She enjoys walking but we still need to hold her hands. When she wants to do her walking, she'll just take your hands. See how much our life is controlled by this precious darling?! She knows to clap her hands and will do so when we asked her to, when she watched the tv where there's an audience clapping, or when she achieved in doing certain things (like putting on the cover to her cup).

Of course she has her fair share of kena hantuk here and there. If it's not too nasty she'll just touch her head or wherever the spot is. If it's a bad knock then apa lagi cry lar! Oh and she is a stickler for cleanliness. I think I have a prt in this. When her hands get dirty she'll immediately push them my way to get them cleaned. Or if she sees rubbish on the floor or a spot of gravy on the table, she'll point out to you! A future Monica Geller??

And the best mobile communications provider award goes to....

I am so terribly mad at celcom right now. Since I've been here, I have the luxury of my celcom connectivity for only two weeks - one in april and the other in may. Although payment was made way before the due date. All because the record of my payment was not immediately updated in the account statement. And I was given excuses like 'there was no such payment', 'kindly provide proof eg receipt' (although I can very well retrieve my payment record under 'account history'), among other silly reasons.

Hello!!!!!! Why create an online payment system when it is so unreliable and their Customer Correspondence Management personnel (customer service ppl that answer email, probably phone enquiries as well) do not even know their own online system?? They just need to bring their lazy fingers to the keyboard and after a few clicks I am sure they could access my account in particular 'payment history'. And what is this nonsense about receipt when I am paying online?!!!

It takes forever for their record of account statement to be updated. Therefore they should equip their CCM well with knowledge of their job. Yes, not asking them to go the extra mile (cows will bark then). Just do their job!!!

I think I can guess why these ppl are so inefficient (apart from the usual reasons). It is because no one CCM actually follows up with a complain. Let's say I write to CCM A, only to find a reply from CCM B later, and when I reply again, CCM C will answer to that. You get the picture. And one can only imagine how many CCMs I have written to! So all main tolak-tolak, don't want to accept responsibility and no continuity. So what, let the next person take care of your case. I came to this conclusion cause I noticed they all asked the same questions. They couldn't be bothered looking through the previous correspondence.

Being a loyal customer for more than five years, one can only imagine how I feel. I could have just cut off my line for good when I came here. If they do not want my business, why do I still want to linger around? And in case you are wondering, I'm still celcom-less as I am writing this.

Chinese, Malay and Indian.. food lar!

It has been awhile since my last home cooking photos. I still do cook daily, in case you're wondering. I can't be taking photos of every single dish that i cook. So tiring. Plus Annabel will go like, 'weird mommy'! So these are the few that i think worth mentioning.. for now at least.

Bak kut teh. Hubby loves it.

Sambal terung.. with dried prawns and anchovies, this is definitely better than my first try.

Own creation of veggie curry. Not bad at all!

The story of two dumplings

We bought two dumplings from Kee Wah bakery @IFC mall. We could have purchased from any roadside stalls but those are usually not labelled. And not being able to speak the language is no help either. So we decided to get from those nice looking bakeries with nice english labels on it.

Our twin dumplings all nicely packed. On your left is hubby's (salted pork dumpling thingy) and mine's pork in XO sauce something like that.

A close-up of mine. Notice the big XO on the label.

Foreground: twin dumplings underwent some heat treatment. Background: kiasu me.

The look after the heat treatment.

Two naked dumpling waiting to be eaten. The XO sauce is on your right. Quite obvious right?

A close-up of the salted pork dumpling. It is salty with huge chunks of siew yuk (pork).

And finally, my XO sauce pork dumpling. I could get the taste of dried prawns with a tinge of chilli.

The verdict? Both are nice in their own way. I couldn't decide which i like better. But i do know that I still like my nyonya chang the best!

IFC mall

17th May 2009

I love the IFC mall. A few hours here has made me a fan of Steve Madden (they have awesome shoes!) and Dymocks bookstore (they have loads of good books.. titles that I didn't come across back home.. a sufficient collection of Dr Suess.. heaven!). Also, we bought a couple of savoury dumplings from Kee Wah bakery (photos will be displayed in another post). Maklumlar, bakchang festival is just around the corner and of course we have to try the ones here. But sadly I will be missing the nyonya chang this year, perhaps next year too!!!

Before all that, we went and makan at Tasty Congee and Noodle Wantun Shop (that's how they spell their wanton). There was a line so we took a number and waited outside. Yes, it was like a bank or post-office, with a screen displaying the number (it's a common thing here)! So while waiting, apa lagi take photos lar!

The name.
Nice stained glass wall.

A dangling decorative piece.

Believe it or not, this is the first place that we went that actually has a babychair. I was so thankful for that! Finally some peace.. well, not really.. but at least the arm can relax a little.

My lunch (slurp) of dry noodle with pork liver and kidney. There goes my cholesterol!

Camera shy?..

It is not easy taking photos of Annabel while she's doing her cute lil stunts (anything she does is cute anyway ;p). The moment mommy snapped the first pic, she'll start to move towards mommy. No, it's not because she wants to give mommy a big hug but rather she wants to have and to hold and to play with the camera! Gone were the days where she would sit quietly and pose with her angelic smile.

See what i mean?

Day three in London pt2

This is the long awaited continuation...

We got down at the London Tower from the river cruise. We didn't go all the way to Greenwich. Here are some pics at and around the Tower of London.

Been wanting to try the authentic english fish and chips since i got there. And finally got to entertain my craving. The fish was fresh and flaky, and overall it was a satisfying meal.

Happy Mother's Day

We had sort of an early celebration last friday. Went to ifc mall after dinner. Quite impressed with it. Very spacious and huge. Only managed to cover a small part of the ground floor. No, the celebration wasn't the mall. It was what that comes after that...

The night view from a connecting bridge from the mall.

We then headed to Honeymoon Dessert at the western market for some local desserts!!!
Hubby had the mango and sago dessert. I was scouring the menu for my all-time fav peanut paste but unfortunately tak ada. So i resorted to the sweet balls in walnut paste.

The texture is thick and creamy and it is not too sweet. The sweet balls had some peanuty filling and it goes very well with the paste. Simply yummy.

I got a cake too on mommy's day. Didn't expect it ^_^

Ordered dinner from Ebeneezer's Kebabs and Pizzeria (delivery). I took the chicken tikka beriani.

It is simply delicious. And one can choose the level of spiciness being mild, moderate or spicy (makes me kempunan Beppu Menkan sobs!). Naturally I took the spicy. C'mon how spicy can it be especially in hk?!.. and later wow, it was really pedas. It has been ages since i reached that level of spiciness. I could almost feel my metabolic rate increased, and had to pause for air. Barulah ada oomph!!

Paddington bear is here

My eyes lighted up when hubby pointed out the red and blue corner near the cashiers. It is a paddington bear redemption corner! Something like the one guardian had a few months back. Yippee! HKD50 worth of purchases for one stamp. It should be ok since we do most of our grocery shopping here and the bill is always around HKD150 (madness!). And then there are the diapers and milk powder... and if we shop during weekends can get double stamps for purchases above HKD300! This is so much more achievable than the guardian one.

No, it's not a free trip to UK.

The stamps are so cute with different patterns unlike the one guardian had - all the same boring patterns.

The redemption choices.

More redemption choices.

This is what I am aiming for. I am so into bags!