Where Home Is

Serving my last 24 hours of On-Call support, I've been obediently staying at home the whole day even though it is a Saturday. Mum said it's an auspicious day to clean the house before Chinese New Year. And so I did, well my room at least.

Upgraded my gym membership from Flexi-fit to Pay Monthly. This is just to motivate myself to work out more since I've been eating a lot since the Dec holidays. Hate Winter! I just can't stop eating! I blame it on SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). Believe me, I really had that for the first couple of weeks since I got back from KL!

The whole week has been a quiet one outside work. At work, a couple of production issues kept me busy for the first part of the week. And then it died down. Friday was pub lunch at the Red Lion for a colleague's leaving due. I'd say they do pretty good Sausage and Mash with red wine and onion sauce! Calories overloaded I know, but just can't resist! And the leaving due continued to drinks at the World's End, Camden after work. This colleague of mine is going back to Italy to help out his family business. I have to say he's a really great colleague to work with, such a nice friendly and grateful guy! I am lost of words to describe him but all I can say is that I'd learn that people will appreciate you more if you appreciate them as they are.

Right, coming back to the main topic...Where Home Is...

On the bus home from the pub, things keep floating around my mind...

I've come six thousand miles from home to live in somewhere so foreign. This September mark the 9th year I've been living in England. Along the way, I meet people, coming to this city full of hope and aspiration. To me, suddenly London's became just like an airport. It's a city with people flocking in for opportunities. But as time goes by, these people leave, back to where they 'belong'. Of course, some stay because they made here home. The question I ask myself - do I belong here...

During lunch, this Italian colleague of mine asked me if I am planning to go 'home' or stay. I know this is a very common question I get every now and then. But coming from him, I wonder, now that he's decided to go 'home', he has the right to ask because he's made a decision. And the fact that everyone else who asked the same question already know what they want and thus has the 'right' to ask? You must be wondering why am I so bothered? Well, that's cause I'm frustrated that I don't know the answer. Some said I think too much and that I'm worried for no reason and that I should just go with the flow. Is that true? I shouldn't be worried? Hmm. I really want to think that I'm thinking too much...full stop

...ok maybe not yet...and then life goes on.

Maze

Lunch at Maze:

We had the 4 course tasting menu each. There were 9 to choose from on the menu, and we literally ordered everything except for the oxtail. 5 savoury and 3 sweets.

Menu as per Maze website :

Savoury

• Onion squash soup, puffed wild rice, ewe’s curd, smoked bacon, braised chicken thighs,chestnut powder
• Marinated beetroot, Slipcote cheese, pine nuts and Cabernet Sauvignon dressing
• Cornish red mullet, tapenade, croutons, aioli, fish soup
• ‘Scotch broth’ roasted halibut, black pudding,Argyle ham, turnip purée
• Citrus spiced oxtail, wild turnips, horseradish and sour apple risotto
• Braised shoulder of aged lamb, faggot, parsnip purée, pear jam, ox-eye daisy, cob-nuts

Sweet

• Devon milk and yoghurt mousse, winter berry sorbet, dried winter fruits and oats,berry syrup
• Winter clémentine mess, powdered brazil nuts, clémentine sorbet, vanilla oil
• Devonshire rice pudding, spiced blackberry jam, clotted cream and blackberry ripple ice cream

The best dish of all would be the lamb - it was heavenly - meat cooked to perfection (as they always say on reality cooking shows :P) - very tender and moist...lol. Beetroot and slipcote cheese is quite an interesting combination of sweet and salty - nice. Soup is nice as well. Both fish were decent, but preferred the halibut and black pudding over the mullet.

All in all it was quite a nice meal. They even gave us some sweet treats after paying - chocolate with some crispy raspberry filling, ginger and vanilla fudge. Plus, the table next to us doesn't have it! Sweet!

That said, I think I still prefer Petrus. But that was a couple of years back, maybe I have higher expectations now? lol...But then again, the Petrus meal was double the price, so can't really compare I guess. And also, as a lil' fan of Jason Atherton, I think I should also put in a little bit of biased comments - Maze is really good! :P

Total damage done: 40 quid (plus wine though)

Ilaichi & Choc Apple Devils

Went to Ilaichi - the new international buffet place at the Galleria for team lunch today. £7.50 for all you can eat is reasonable enough. Food wise, it's not as international as it seems. There are pizzas, pastas, mexican tacos, ratatouille, a lot of indian curries, some sweet sour and stir fried noodles and a decent salad bar. It is no doubt a little more variety than just having a normal Chinese buffet across the road, but still the food is very take awayey style.

Brought the chocolate and apple devils to colleague's house warming party...went with 35, 9 came back...and got some pretty good compliments, or maybe they are just being nice. Anyhow, I think I should level up my baking adventure :))

2010 Baking Kicks Off

Sometime last year in the autumn, I came across the book 'The Worry-Free Bakery' by Kumiko Ibaraki from Japan Centre. I thought I found the most brilliant book in the planet! Why, because it's a baking recipes does not use any oil or butter at all. Absolute genius, a girl's best friend it is!

I was meant to try out some of the recipes, but was caught up with busy schedules at work and holiday plans. Now that I am almost snowed in, I gave the recipes a try - start out with some simple ones - apple muffins - made it my way - they now look like lil' cupcakes to me :). Also tried the chocolate banana muffin, except there ain't banana in it, but apples as well. I really think the recipes are brilliant! So who say we need butter or oil in cakes? :)

突然見... 覺得很累...

Things to Remind myself

Things to remind myself as I battle through my 2010 resolutions...

...Be Patient...

...Remain Positive...

...Be Prepared To Be Flexible...

...Adapt if things don't work...

...Trust my instincts!...

...Keep faith in what I am doing!...

Any kind of support very much needed!

勇敢

原來...人大了, 就需要懂得勇敢面對一切一切...

When it snows...

I thought I've completely missed the snow this winter. I was wrong. It started snowing yesterday. And the snow remained today as the temperature fell to all time low - the coldest night of the year tonight? Hmm. As usual, when it snows, everything comes to a stand still in UK.

Putting on my "UGG Boots", I managed to drag myself to work and all the way to Asda to shop for food later in the evening - I've just came back on Sunday and have been surviving on take aways the first two days. Such a bad day to do grocery shopping. As I had expected, there were not that many buses. I called for a taxi, but it didn't turn up. After about 15 minutes waiting, some other taxis pull up in front of Asda trying to get some customers. Almost all taxi companies hiked up their prices that day. One of the drivers asked me if I want a taxi (obviously I did) but there weren't that many people on the streets - and they still want to hike up the price? hmm look who's in charge here! And so I tried to haggle managed to get a flat price of a fiver instead of something ridiculous if it's by meter - like 7 - 8 quid.

At work, there are people having difficulty getting to work and likewise some others had to leave early and work from home in case they get stuck in the office. Wasn't a productive day indeed. Anyhow, I don't have the excuse to slack since I live so near to the office! It's just the walk that is unpleasant. But I think I should be fine with my snow boots :). Hopefully the weather gets warmer again soon and melt all the iced snow away!...

2010

It's already 2010! Why don't I feel any different, I wonder...hmm.

First day at work as well. After a tiring 12 hours running around Rome - I blame it on the 10 hours flight from KL and most of it was down to not feeling well (women's problem that is :P) I was still half zombified at work but managed to go through the 5oo odd emails in which almost 70% are irrelevant and got some work done! I already felt a tinge of regret before boarding the flight - wondered why I squeezed the 12 hours transit time in my flight. Anyhow, I survived (although I didn't quite enjoy much of Rome due to the exhaustion and the freezing weather)!!!

Recap of 2009:

It had been a year of ups and downs - every year was - but 2009 had its fair share. Life had been revolved around work and travel - bilbao, iceland, kent, bristol, new york, denmark, sweden, cambodia, hong kong, rome and of course, KL - wow, didn't imagine I'd achieved so much! Also met up with a lot of friends who I haven't met for ages - had a great time catching up with each other's lives - and thanks for technology (facebook etc) that brought us back together! I'd also moved teams at work - which kept me challenged for a bit more. The economy hadn't been easy in general and although it didn't affect me dramatically, some things had to be delayed. And come to think of it, it is time to resume execution in this year! I've also realised that in 2009 alone, I blogged more frequently than ever and hopefully I will continue to do so. 2009 ended with my long awaited 3 whole weeks holiday. This long vacation was a really good break. It was tiring. I fitted a lot into this 3 weeks, it was suffocating (well some of it) but a very fulfilling one. I spent quality time with family and friends. It made me think more of what I should be heading for.

In 2009, I learnt the art of endurance and hope it will stay with me and leave all sorrows behind.

I hereby declare 2010 starts at this very moment!

Firstly, I like to wish all my friends and everyone that is dear to me a great and smooth sailing new year ahead. May this year be your year! Thank you for all your love and support and of course for tolerating the demanding Nico - love you lot dearly. To those I think I hate, sorry you annoyed me but I love you as much and may you have a wonderful year as well.

Nico's 2010 blue-sky resolutions:

Direction. direction, direction

Be more motivated and determined!

Work Harder (i.e. don't be lazy cleaning up my room ><)

Be more honest to myself!

Start investing

Time to settle down? (mum and dad's getting worried :P)

Wish me luck!

My new motto of life for 2010: Be Brave! The sky is a big quilt at the end of the day!