Never got to see the pandas

I'm becoming lazy with the blogging again.

I recently went to Hong Kong for about a week and this was one trip I'd been looking forward to for a good two years. I missed out on the trip last year because work is really evil and refuse to give me holidays (despite the fact that I wanted to take a couple days off, and I didn't have the heart to call in sick which I suppose I should have on reflection). My parents come from Hong Kong and the place always feel like a second home to me. I feel closer to my culture and completely love the experiences I have every time I am there. I think the place is amazing!

It wasn't much of a holiday though to be honest. It rained almost every day and the odd occasion which it didn't, we painted the roof of our flat (paint and rain isn't a good mix!) We had planned to go visit Ocean Park -- I was dying to see the pandas - but unfortunately the rain prevented us from going. It was a huge disappointment for me. I'd lost all my photos I'd taken the last time I saw the pandas. They were so cute and adorable and they were nibbling on their bamboo shoots.

I spent most of my time in Hong Kong eating and seeing family. Not much in terms of sightseeing. Eating was superb. Dim sum every single day. Absolutely loved it. The dim sum is so much different to the dim sum here in London (I tend to go to China Town in Central). Best thing was the sui mai. I don't care what they put in it, they always taste soooo good. Mum tells me off for eating and loving it too much!

Coming back to London made me sad. I fell ill for a couple of days. Bed-ridden and sad. I'm guessing it must be post-holiday blues. I'm actually considering moving to Hong Kong for good but I'll keep my options open. Looking for work here is so hard and I think perhaps Hong Kong might provide me with better opportunities. We shall see.

Which famous people have you seen?

Living in London gives you the opportunity to see famous people when you're out and about...or around. I remember the first time I got roped in was when I was at Uni. It was nighttime and I was passing through Leceister Square when I noticed a huge crowd surrounding Vue, one of the cinemas there. I decided, mostly out of curiosity, to stay and see what I might find. I can't quite remember which premiere it was *goes to find out* ............nope, can't figure out which movie it was. It wasn't one of the big ones though.

So I'm there, at the front. I somehow found a way to wiggle up to the front to find out what's going on. I don't even recall if I waited a long time but it must have been a while as these events do take their time. So here I am, and Ewan McGregor pop's right out and everyone is screaming and people around me were desperate to get a whiff of him, be it a photo or a signature. He indeed came very close to me that I could have very well touched his face. But I didn't. I wasn't a crazy fan of his.

Out of fun, I went to stand around for a long duration at another premiere and dragged my sister to this one. It was War of the Worlds starring Tom Cruise in 2005 - so a good few years back. My memories of it is hazy. It was a lovely day and there were hoards of people everywhere. We got there pretty early to avoid being stuck around the back. I'm one of those that love being at the front of any event otherwise it isn't worth the bother (I make a special point of this when going to gigs or concerts - definitely not worth the money if I'm in the distance and particularly awful if I'm having to watch things from a small screen when I could kick back and relax and watch it on telly at home!). My technique (yes I have a technique!) was to, in time, make my way to the front as people shuffle and move around. I made it! My technique works well I'm chuffed to say.

I'm no good at recognising people. Generally I need others to tell me who they are so I can say ooooooh. That was then so imagine what I am like now. I think I've offended my postman by not recognising him outside of his work uniform. I'll defend myself by blaming his hat. He doesn't wear the cap when he's not working. I still don't recognise him I'm ashamed to say. I'm moving away from the topic. I only recall seeing three well-know people at the War of the Worlds premiere: Tom Cruise (of course! It would be embarassing to say I never saw him!!), Dakota Fanning (oh how she's grown now from when I saw her here at this premiere) and Greg Rusedski (he was one of my surprise highlights of the day as I'm a tennis fan and seeing him was like wooooah).

To keep this blog entry from getting too long, other well-known people I've seen are:

- the Backstreet Boys (twice in concert - my favourite band in the whole wide world!)
- Novak Djokovic (twice at the ATP Finals in November at the O2 - tennis fan! Though it would complete me to see Roger Federer - my all-time favourite)
- Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (he played Djokovic) and Mardy Fish
- Vivienne Westwood (when I was out and about and she passed by in a car attending a funeral I believe)
- Joanna Lumley (near Brick Lane when she was promoting M&S 'swap and shop' and I didn't recognise her until I saw in the paper on the way home)

There are more, for which I can't recall right now. I'll edit it in if I do. There have been a number of people friends have pointed out to me but I fail to know who they are!

London is a big place with so many people, and perhaps even you might bump into someone well-known yourself one day.

Eggs and sneaky sellers

I'm typing in the dark. Let's see how well I know my keys. You can't judge because you can't see!

I dragged my sister around Covent Garden on Saturday to hunt for the eggs they've "hidden" around the area. They're raising money for Action For Children (I believe) and have gotten artists from all over to decorate large(ish) eggs which are sold and bidded away. There are 101 of them, which we all found. A lot of them weren't difficult to find. The Big Egg Hunt did do a very similar thing last year and it was definitely much harder to find them all as they were dotted all over London. That one was a lot of fun. Shame this one is only on for a short period.

The eggs were only around up until last Sunday and then they bundle them all away and take them around different areas of the UK where they stay around for a week in each city before they travel back to London for a final showdown.

I took a few pictures so here's a few for you to see. Pictures are a bit shoddy as it comes from a camera phone.

 

 

I left home half 7 in the morning to get there before the crowds and I'm so glad I did.

During the day, a couple of men rained down on us and scooted us into a shop and tried to sell us a "wonderful" and "magical" cream. I rolled my eyes but my sister was easily drawn in. So I just sat there as this guy tried to sell us this product. Then he moved onto prices and claimed that each product was £100 but today they were going to give one away when you buy one. I rolled my eyes. I was particularly interested in his method of selling.

Seeing big hesitation coming from my sister, he dropped the price of one cream to £50 with other "freebie" products. This clearly wasn't going to work. A massive amount of compliments on our beauty oozed from his lips. Again, I rolled my eyes. He then proceeded to sell us a lovely spa treatment with £20 taken off the price if we booked now. Ha. And guess what? That didn't work either. Apparently I have a beautiful smile and never age. I know where to go when I'm fishing for compliments.

Oddly enough, I was approached a while later near Oxford Circus by another seller. I thought it was a bit rude to ignore him completely so I hung around a few minutes at the most. "Where do you get your haircut from?" he asks me, trying to draw me in. I smirk in my head and tell him I cut my own hair. "So how much do you think a haircut costs in this place?" and he gestures towards the hair salon behind him. I shrug. I didn't care. It wasn't a very good attempt at selling when it costs nothing at all for myself to cut my own hair. And I definitely did not want to colour my hair. Not for £35 a month. Kudos for trying!

Not easy for anyone to sell me anything.

Smiles.

Bucket list - things I want to do before I.....

I was talking to a friend last night about bucket lists. He was curious to know what was on mine. I've kept the list mentally in my head and I have never written it down anywhere. I have a lot of things slipping in and out of that list and in that mind of mine (I do forget what I put on there!). It's very easy to forget things than to remember them!

A few of the things on my list include reading all of Stephen King's novels. I adore Stephen King and if I can, I want to finish everything of his. At the moment I'm reading IT and loving it. Another on my list would be to see the thunderstorms out at sea. I saw an image of that somewhere and thought it was beautiful (yet dangerous!). I also want to walk through a graveyard at night in the middle of the night.

There are so many things on the list but who knows when they will ever be done. Just wishful thinking for now..

Cookies and Dreams

A friend of mine gave me a recipe to make Millie's Cookies as I was talking cookies non-stop. The craving for them didn't fade and as soon as I got home that day, I went ahead and made those cookies. Those cookies were lush. Tasted so good.

The recipe I was given (if you don't believe how lush they were, go ahead and try it....you know you want to......):

Ingredients:
125g butter, softened

100g light brown soft sugar

125g caster sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

225g self-raising flour

½ tsp salt

200g chocolate chips

• Preheat oven to 180°C (Gas Mark 4)
• Cream butter and sugars then add the egg and vanilla extract
• Sift in the flour and salt, then the chocolate chips
• Roll into walnut size balls, for a more homemade look
• Place on ungreased baking paper. If you want to have the real Millies experience then bake for just 7 minutes, till the cookies are just setting - the cookies will be really doughy and delicious. Otherwise cook for 10 minutes until just golden round the edges
• Take out of the oven and leave to harden for a minute before transferring to a wire cooling rack

As simple and as delicious as that!

I've made it twice since but was a little displeased as I added too much butter the second try (I have no scales so I had estimated it). I've bought a lot of chocolate drops now so I'm prepared when I have a cookie urge.

Cookie cookie cookie.........

I had a dream last night. I was baking brownies and I had to make 70-odd something of them. I've no idea why but I was trying out my first batch. And now it has me thinking of cookies.

Shaking the wing of a seagull

I used to dream a lot but not as much anymore. I tend to forget them all or not dream at all. And it's been a very long time since I've had an amazing dream. So I thought I'd get this one down before the events all disappear.

I was in a tiny coffee shop and a young girl was showing me the machinery she uses. There was something that resembled a cake tin with a whirly thing inside of it going round and round (can't recall the name of it as I'm still full of sleep!). It was mixing chocolatey water with some chocolatey powder which looked like it had just been added. The girl rummages around with other metal food machinery, worried that something is not done correctly (probably something like food being on the stove too long). I've no idea what these machines are making. I'm more of an observer.

Anyway, I appear just outside of the shop to talk to "something". This "something" is actually a small animal. I really can't recall what animal it is but I am indeed talking to this animal and, he, back to me. I was telling him how the seagull (yes, the seagull) will not get something he wants from me unless he uses his time wisely and help other people. It would give him good experiences and he will find out if he does it. Say, for example, volunteering. The seagull could go and volunteer and he will get so much out of it.

A bit later on, the seagull flies in. There are people seated in the corner of the coffee shop (towards the left hand side as you walk into the shop if you want specifics). They were seated much like how a waiting room of comfy chairs look - in a row. Anyway, the seagull flies in and I feel very happy to see him. He doesn't settle down but seems to linger there in the air, staying just by the door. I don't say much to him but before he flew off, we shook hands/wings. What I remember most was the way his wing felt so soft as I shook it. So delicate. And so white in colour. A pure innocent white.

I thought it was an amazing dream. A dream where I talk to animals and shake the wing of a talking seagull.

On a side note, it is snowing outside. It's settling for now - a small layer but I doubt it will stay. But it does look pretty.

Wax and eye masks

I just had to rub away a bit of wax perched on the side of my laptop. Had a bit of an incident when I decided to light up a floating candle and stick it in an empty tealight so the wax wouldn't leak anywhere when it melted. It did melt and it did go everywhere. It's all stuck to my desk right now so I've got a scraping job to do.....when I can bother with it.

They do look very pretty though. I just wanted it next to me whilst working - makes me concentrate more and gives me a certain calm. I have a lot of tealights and once I use them up, I'll just sneakily nip into my sister's room and take one by one by one.....until she notices and I'd end up getting my own again!

Guess what I've got plastered on my face? An eye mask! I thought I'd give it a go. I purchased a large pack of face masks to try out as I've always been intrigued. The brand is 'My Scheming' and I bought mine from yesstyle which is where I mainly buy my clothes from. I reckon the prices are reasonable but some would say they're a rip-off. I guess it depends on what you buy as I tend to target sales whenever I do order. Anyway, these little beasties cost me under £10 which I thought was pretty good for what it was. It includes 7 face masks and 3 eye masks tucked into a tiny little plastic box.

 

The one I'm trying is the Crystal Hydrating eye mask. It didn't have any instructions on the back of it - just a list of all the ingredients. My eyes were feeling very tired and I thought it would be the perfect time to see how effective they are. I just whipped out these little jelly fillets and slapped them under my eye. It feels very cool and doesn't smell too bad either. I'm not sure how long I'm meant to have it on but it gives a lovely relief to my eyes. Hydrate it has! But I don't think it will reduce the puffiness I have at the moment. I must say, I'm looking forward to trying out all the other products!