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Unfazed by the Weather

6 Nov

Sometimes weather plays a role in determining the outcome of a holiday outing is a success or not. It drizzled yesterday morning, but we were unfazed by it. I was clever enough to pack an umbrella, and it came in handy!

Tempting displays caught our eye!

We had another pastry breakfast to start our day. Luckily, the rain was light, and I did not need to open the umbrella. But when I had to, it was cold. Brr. I had to wear my gloves.

Pastries and sandwich for breakfast

We passed St Paul’s Cathedral and headed towards the Millennium Bridge to check out Tate Museum. The timing was perfect as we spent two hours indoors, staying warm and out of the drizzling conditions.

St. Paul’s Cathedral
Uber Boat anyone?

There were many interesting art pieces on display. However, two works caught our eye, not so much for their visual impact but for the lack of it instead. What qualifies these two non-visuals as art, displayed at Tate Modern? The concept? The process? They were blank canvases, for goodness sake! It baffled us to no end.

This is art? Or is this art?
Two embossed circles and dots make this art?

After Tate, we headed to Starbucks for a quick bite and cold coffee to refuel our energy. We passed Amazon Fresh and trodded on toward the Shard for a picture opportunity and discovered the Borough Market in that area. What a pleasant discovery!

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Up and About, Part 2

5 Nov

After leaving The British Museum, we headed over to the Theatre District. The ice cream shop caught my eye! We must have ice cream despite the cold.

There’s a conveyor belt for the cheeses at The Cheese Bar

The honeycomb biscoff choice was excellent. Fueled with a sudden sugar rush, everyone caught a second wind in energy, and we continued. It felt like dinner time because night has fallen. But it was only 5.00pm! What?! There’s still a long way to go before dinner time.

Covent Garden

So we went to Covent Garden first, then to Chinatown for dessert to enjoy a hot Matcha Green Tea with cheese and Mochi. The drink was very yummy! Somehow a hot drink made us feel colder instead of ice cream. We decided then it was time for dinner.

Chinatown

The Fish & Chips portions were huge but delicious, nonetheless. Sated but tired, everyone agreed it was time to make our way back to the hotel. By the time we reached our room. I registered 21,231 steps and clocked in 13.25km for the day! What a record. Oh, by the way, my Move and Stand streak in the Fitness app did not end during the flight. And with more walking ahead, these streaks will go on. Yay!

Theatre District

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Up and About

5 Nov

Our hotel room is small but sufficient. The beds are comfortable, and that first night, tiredness kicked in after a simple souvlaki dinner. We were all knocked out!

Greek beer and souvlaki for dinner

Refreshed after a good night’s sleep, we were ready to explore the next day. It was eight degrees Celsius when we stepped out of the building. In moments like this, the face masks were handy to keep our nose and cheeks warm!

The day started with a pastry and coffee breakfast. The cinnamon pretzel choice was the biggest we have seen. As big as the face, the pretzel alone could feed us all! We sat outside on the walkway of the pastry shop, and that was nice. The fat pigeon was watching us the whole time!

We took the Tube to the Bank of England to exchange some old currency notes, no longer accepted as legal tender, for new ones. It would be wise to do this unless you want to keep them as souvenirs.

But the line was very long, and the Security Officer suggested we do this at the Post Office around the corner if our amount was not in abundance. It was good advice, for we got this done in less than ten minutes instead of waiting an hour and a half.

After settling this, we headed to King’s Cross to see the iconic Platform 9 3/4. And what a crowd there was for the famous Harry Potter scene! We decided to skip the queue and still managed to snap a decent picture from the side.

The platform and queue, and the gift shop

It was a sunny day, so we kept our activities outdoors. The next stop was Coal Drops Yard before meeting an old friend for lunch. So good to see him after all these years!

We parted ways after the pleasant meal, and we continued with our adventure. At our friend’s suggestion, we thought getting on a Hop On Hop Off open-topped double-decker bus was excellent to take in all the sights. But it was already 2.00pm, and there may not be enough time. The sun sets around 4.30pm!

We decided to go indoors instead and headed over to The British Museum. We spent time in the museum until the closing hour, oohing and aahing over relics and artifacts. But if given a choice, I’d rather ooh and aah over paintings than headless and armless stone figurines and stone relics missing noses and head gears, you know?

The British Museum

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The Big Fat Truth

21 Oct

I will not lie when I say I am getting fat. It sounds demoralizing, but it’s the truth. Even though I am more active these days with more golf games, it does not sound like I’m burning calories to stay fit. It’s the opposite.

I suspect the after-game food and drinks are the reason for the sudden spike in my weight because my bathroom scale has been on an alarming upward trend. Perhaps I should be more disciplined with my food intake or reduce my carbohydrate intake. Then again, could it be we are eating out more these days because there are no more lockdowns?

Nevertheless, golf is supposed to be healthy, being out there sweating and working the muscles, burning the calories, and getting all the exercise. However, all these efforts will become naught if there is no discipline, especially with the after-game food and drink intake. And the terrible truth of getting fat will hang over my head. Ugh. I need to be more disciplined!

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New Discoveries

3 Oct

Over the weekend, we visited hubby’s parents for a quick escape. The trip also became a discovery for new food along the way. Typically, we would stop over in Ipoh for lunch, but this time, we opted to stop in Taiping instead.

We went to a new restaurant as the one we had in mind was closed. It was a pleasant discovery – the lunch was very yummy even though they were simple choices!

Fried mullet and seafood porridge. Yummy

As for the drive, it was tedious because there were a lot of cars on the road. It’s strange, considering the weekend was just a normal one, not a long public holiday stretch.

Heavy traffic on the way up North!

And it was the same tedious drive on the return journey the next day, albeit a little longer. It was akin to driving during the festive holiday, clocking in six hours towards North and eight hours on the return. Nonetheless, the visit was good.

Return journey was worse!
Flavorful dinner at Tapah.

We stopped at Tapah for dinner and discovered new dishes at our regular stop. The choices were very satisfying for the palate and easy on the wallet too! Before we knew it, the weekend was over, and here we are, back to another busy work week ahead.

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Newbies in the Garden

5 Sep

Recently, unbeknownst to me, hubby bought fig trees for the garden. I didn’t think much of it when he said he was going out to collect them from the seller. After all, he’s always buying something for the garden.

When he got home, boy, was I surprised! He bought four trees. It’s interesting to have this in our garden, something new that is edible if taken care of properly.

Figs are small trees or indoor plants by classification. And they do well under the hot sun with lots of space to grow and proper drainage. Given that our weather can be rainy most time, we will have to find a suitable spot for them. Otherwise, they will be indoor house plants.

Let’s see how successful this new endeavor is for the newbies in the garden to thrive. I can’t wait for the first harvest as two trees are starting to fruit already!

Latest acquisitions for the garden, and fruiting!

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Losing Track of Time

2 Sep

Two days ago, we celebrated our wedding anniversary. When one is married for so long, like me, the tendency to lose track of time is prevalent. I have stopped counting how many years we have been married.

Typically, we would go to our favorite porky restaurant to enjoy a platter each and a bottle of wine. But this year, we opted for something different – going with Chinese food and no wine. No wine?! Yes, for a change. The spread was sumptuous, and the four of us had a delightful dinner as the restaurant was not packed nor noisy.

The sumptuous dinner menu

When the girls were away the past few years, we never considered dining at a Chinese restaurant, especially to celebrate our wedding anniversary. It would be hard to order for the two of us, being small eaters. But now that both girls are back, we can have more options for dinner celebration venues. Isn’t it wonderful?

Here’s wishing us a happy anniversary, good health, and happiness throughout the year!

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Traveling Again, Part 2

29 Aug

The trip to Singapore has been a good one catching up with friends and family. We had simple and sumptuous meals and memorable gatherings.

We tried Peruvian food

The four of us enjoyed delivered food and homemade cocktails in the comforts of our condo, chatting and laughing away. Precious is such of our friendship since seven years old.

Delicious gin collection

There was hardly any time for shopping, but we didn’t mind. And although it rained daily, it did not bother us. Luckily I brought my umbrella, which came in handy when we went to Orchard Road in search of some local food.

We had fishballs and mee pok and dessert.

Time has gone by too soon. We depart for home late afternoon today. I’m so glad we made the trip for friendship.

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What a Haul!

15 Aug

We did not play golf over the weekend; instead, we went fishing! The last time we did this was probably almost three decades years ago. Gosh, it has been a long time.

The idea to go fishing came about when the family got together over dinner and talked about doing outdoor activities. And since fishing is an activity M1 and my niece never did, why not let them try? A check off the bucket list for them.

The drive took forever. “Are we there yet?” I asked. Hahaha. It was a catch and release fishing pond near the airport, KLIA. The operator guaranteed five strikes per rod for the hour or your money back! Wow, how good is that?

The catch and release fishing pond

So my sibling, niece, and the three of us spent the late Sunday afternoon fishing. And we had such an exuberating time!

Getting ready for some action

Within minutes, strike one occurred, followed by another, and another! We had two rods, and the girls were delightfully having a blast. We adults could not resist the adrenaline rush and joined in the fun in the end. Why not? The day’s fishing haul made the activity look so easy and appealing.

Look at their impressive haul!

I must say my fishing record was never impressive. My biggest catch was a grass carp which was nothing of these massive-sized groupers in comparison.

Our haul and the inside of a grouper’s mouth!

Within the allotted time, the five of us caught 17 groupers! And we had several that escaped because we did not reel in fast enough. It could have been more, but 17 bites were more than what we anticipated.

The unexpected adventure turned out to be an exhilarating experience for everyone. The day was cloudy, the place was peaceful, and everyone had a very satisfying but tiring workout fighting the catch. Will we do it again? We may, but with the other young adults in the family who have not had this checked off their bucket list.

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No More Papayas

1 Aug

It is official. We will not have papayas from the garden anymore. Last week, hubby said we had to cut down the tree as the tree is old, sick, and no longer fruiting.

The task at hand was quite a challenge. Even the tall ladder did not help. In the end, hubby sawed two sections of the trunk so that it would break at two points instead of one. Also, with two breaking points, the tree fell at a shorter distance, thus less damage to the garden space. The tree was pulled with a rope and fell safely towards the open area.

What’s left of the papaya tree

So now, we are papaya-less. At some point, we have to remove the remaining three-foot-tall trunk and find something else to plant in that spot. Otherwise, it is a waste of precious space. By the way, the baby papaya trees are not ready yet to take over. Boo hoo hoo!

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