A for Alessi

It finally arrived!

Many minutes of many days has been spent at the Alessi section of Tangs and Parkson, admiring and waiting...


#1. Horrors of horror..look at the condition of the box :-O

I gave it one, two gentle shakes and didn't hear any broken pieces *phew*... So we're left with one other worst thing that can happen, which is one of them could possibly be dented. All the way home my hand would automatically hold onto the box whenever I brake or maneuvered a corner, juusssst in case.


#2. Turns out they're all in nice little boxes swaddled with layers of bubble wrap.


#3. Clockwise L-R: Miniature kettle by Michael Graves, Josephine Banana kitchen timer, Banana Boys bottle stopper, Parmenide cheese grater, Magic Bunny toothpick holder and Hug Tree figurine.

The mini kettle and figurine are just for display purposes, and I don't know how much baking/cooking I'll do (considering it's close to nil most of the time), and I don't use toothpicks...

But they're so nice to want, aren't they?

Now, there's also this set of cool ice-cream spoons, and soy sauce container...

final splurge for the year

No, not plastic surgery (I wish! I wan a hidung tinggi, keke)

I probably shouldn't after my recent financial hemorrhage, but I need this because I'm starting work on Monday and my hair look half decent.

More importantly, I really shouldn't because.... announcement coming soon ^__^

London 2010: Shopping, dinner

Oxford Street is a shopping street in central London and is probably the best place to head to, for moi at least. It has 3 H&M stores! Three, tiga, san! There could be more though.

Oxford Street starts from the Tottenham Court Rd tube station all the way to Mable Arch tube station. I only got as far as Oxford Circus tube station and that's only halfway. Wish I could've shopped more but my bags were getting really heavy and I promised I would be back round 5pm so we could head out to dinner. In fact I was already running late but I know by now things happen when there's H&M, heh.

Anyway, guess where my hosts took me?


#1. Is it who you think it is? Yes, it's Jamie of Jamie Oliver! I have a couple of his cook books so I guess you can call me a fan.

The place is cozy and super crowded. We didn't make a reservation so we hung out at the bar a bit, chit chatting and taking pictures while waiting for a table. London has a lot of these Michelin star celebrity chef restaurants and Jamie's Italian is one of the more affordable ones. According to Dav, one of the must-try is Heston Blumenthal's The Fat Duck, where a full dinner course will set you back by at least £180 and you have to make a reservation months in advance.


#2. We had some lovely scallop and squid ink pasta, carbonara with some fat spaghetti, fried squids AND truffle fries. I've heard of truffles a lot and this is the first time I tried anything with truffles in/on it. With all hubbub surrounding truffles, I expected it to blow me away at first bite but I find myself struggling to figure out what they're supposed to taste like. Inferior taste buds, wattudu.


#3. Picture with my hosts, Dav and Steph :)

It was a good dinner. It's kinda like a farewell dinner for me as I'll be flying off tomorrow. Sobs~~ can't believe my holiday is coming to an end already.

Thanks guys, for taking care of me. Love you much!


#4. My haul for the day. The green bag has all the foodstuff from Marks & Spencer, a pile of clothes from H&M and cheap books from Waterstones.

London 2010: Rained-in day

For some reason, wherever I go, lousy weather follows. When I left London for Paris, London was sunny with a cool breeze. When I got into town on Thursday night, the weather was mild enough for me to walk around in just a sweater and windbreaker. Yesterday somehow, when I decided to go walking about town, it rained. And it rained the whole day.

So I went to the National Gallery. There's a free one-hour guided tour but I got bored after 10 minutes. I got myself an audio guide and saw Renoir's The Umbrellas, Seurat's Bathers at Asnières, Van Gogh's Sunflowers, Botticelli's Venus and Mars, van Eyck's The Arnolfini Portrait, one of Monet's not so famous Water Lily and a couple of Degas. The collection's not huge but there are some really good ones. I now have a new-found appreciation for pointillism, first developed by Seurat. It's a very beautiful technique.

The shop at the gallery has some pretty unique memorabilia items along with books on artists and their art. I really love the umbrellas with art prints but they're expensive at 25 pounds for one. Maybe when I'm richer, haha. What I did get was an owl for The BF's friend, coz his wife collects them. I think it's a Christmas trimming.



I had purchased a dinner and show package for Wicked last night. Dinner was a two course at a very nice hotel about 5 blocks away from the Apollo Victoria. It's supposed to start at 6pm but I conveniently didn't read that part and was sort of preoccupied with spending more money at H&M. As a result, I only got to the restaurant at 7pm and wolfed everything down in 15 minutes. It was a nice dinner but I would've enjoyed it more if I don't swallow without chewing. So many tragedies related to H&M, haha.



I absolutely adore Wicked! It's funny and Defying Gravity is so so good. Wicked is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz and it puts a new twist to what came to be in the story. The set looks amazing! I'm so happy :)

Paris 2010: Montmartre

I stayed at the delightful Plug Inn Hostel in Montmartre. It's clean, comes with breakfast and free wifi, which is more than enough for me.

Montmartre is a large hill in Paris's 18th arrondissement. It is said the name Montmartre originated from Mont des Martyrs (Mount of Martyrs). There was once an abbot called Saint-Denis who went around preaching the Christian faith to the Gallo-Romans. He was decapitated for that, on the hilltop in 250 AD. He didn't died immediately, as one would expect, but went on to collect his head and carried it all the way to the fontaine Saint-Denis, descended the north slope, and fell down dead! A church was then built in the place formerly called Mont de Mars, which name was then changed to Mont des Martyrs.

Frankly, I didn't do a lot of research before coming here. I just wanted to pop by Paris for a bit since I'm in London, and someone said Montmartre is a nice place. There's a famous Basilica of Sacre-Coeur, one of the must-see in Paris. I decided to walk there and it was a nice surprise when I saw this...


#1. Cobbled streets and a quaint flight of stairs all the way up the hill! Feels so Paris, you know what I mean?


#2. Basilica Sacre-Coeur, about 10-15 minutes walk from the hostel.






#3. Panoramic view of Paris from Sacre-Coeur.

At the bottom of the hill is Boulevard de Clichy, full of kebab shops (cheapest thing to eat around here, as I discovered) and bars and sex shops. Well, it's not all that surprising if you remember that Moulin Rouge is just around the corner. Quartier Pigalle is actually a red light district area; imagine peep shows and pimps. In the day time though, the area looks like a charming village in the olden days and doesn't feel unsafe. You can also find tourist-centric products, like magnets, chopping boards and mugs, all printed with the landmarks in Paris if you're interested in those kind of knick knacks.


#4. Candy store.


#5. So mind boggling. I don't even know what some of them are.


#6. Such beautiful blooms at a florist on the walk to the Metro. There's a Chinese takeaway shop nearby, and I'm starting to miss eating rice.

The rest of my day was spent shopping. There's no need for me to tell you what I bought or how much I spent, but one thing I have to tell you is that VAT refund in Paris is not as good compared to other European countries.