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Showing posts from 2015

A Day Trip to Paris

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No matter how many times you have been to Paris, you can never say no to another trip.  You will always find a good reason to go back (for me at least). Honestly, after my last trip to the city, I told myself not to go back there anymore because Paris is Paris, it will always be Paris. But memories do change though. This is what I realised when my sister from another mother told me that she was finally coming to Europe for her birthday. I just couldn't say no. She is one of the most valuable people in my life and I couldn't just be two-hour train journey away and not see her. Besides, it was a good opportunity for me to make new memories,  and another excuse for me and J to get out of London. So without hesitation, I booked two train tickets to Paris. Unfortunately, J couldn't make it in the end because he didn't have his passport. It was at the  embassy and we only realised it the night before we were supposed to leave. I went anyway and of course, J's passport a

Celebrating My 39th in Rome

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Although I have  been to  Rome twice before, I can't s a y that I have actuall y seen  it. The first time I went to Rome was in 2006. It was a day trip from Venice and the only place we went to was the Vatican City. We took some photos and that was it really. More than six hours round trip to and from Rome didn't give us enough time to properly see the city. The second time, I was on a cruise. People who have been on a cruise would know how it's like to get out of the  boat and "explore" a city in one day. From my experience, it was trying to step out of the boat before everybody else so we could beat the   other  tourists and see as many attractions as possible. I remember running in my 3-inch wedges in the middle of St Peter's square and jumping the massive queue to enter the Vatican museum, much to the annoyance of the Spanish people behind us. Luckily, none of this happened in July, when I went back to Rome for the third time for my 39th birthday. It ma

40 Before 40: Go Karting

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My first driving lesson when I was about 20 years old was an utter failure. I deemed myself unsafe to drive for the main reason that I closed my eyes whenever I saw a bigger vehicle coming. Not to mention that I hit a pole on my very first day of driving. I have not attempted to drive since then because I am quite scared. I think I have guts in most things but not in driving (or swimming). Somehow I had go karting in mind when I was making my 40 before 40 list knowing that I don't drive. But because I have tried bump cars before, I assumed that they are quite the same (although obviously not). So I gave it a go anyway. Apologies for the quality of the photos, they were taken using my iphone 4s (yes, I know) and the place was a bit dark. Anyway, I liked the racing outfit although it was a bit too big for me. I looked like I knew what I was doing. :) I must admit I was a bit nervous when I got on the kart. I normally do not pay much attention to briefings, but this ti

40 Before 40: Five Main Courses from Five Countries

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I'm not sure what I was thinking when I gave myself the challenge to learn how to cook 5 main courses from 5 different countries. I didn't know how to cook at that point and the kitchen has never been my favourite place in the house. But when I started experimenting on brunch and breakfast  meals, I kind of realised that perhaps I have the kitchen potential after all. And so I took on the challenge and voila! 1. Pad Thai (Shrimp and Chicken) - Quite tricky to begin with. I wanted to be as authentic as possible so I made my own pad thai sauce the first time (bottom photo). It was good (I think) but it looked really pale. I just used  fish sauce, a little bit of soy sauce and some garlic. I later found out that I needed to use tamarind paste and brown sugar. The second time around, I cheated. I actually used pad thai sauce from Waitrose. But still, I cooked it. :) 2. Risotto - I was actually thinking of cooking the easy spaghetti. But I wanted to cook something