Archive for the ‘Other than Knitting’ Category

Two Long Weekends

Wednesday, May 4th, 2011

I hope you all had wonderful long weekends including Easter :D It’s been an eventful two weeks for me – good weather, Royal Wedding, food poisoning and broken internet. Two weeks has just passed without blogging!! Luckily, my husband was off last week so he could look after me while I was ill.

britishness

Just behind Borough Market.

We didn’t go out anywhere as he had to stay at home to study for an exam, it was nice to walk around the local area for new discoveries.

london bridge up

My fist time being on the bridge when the barrier was up.

invisible man

I met an invisible man too.

A new furry friend at Clink Street. He is raising money for his furry friends.

A new furry friend at Clink Street. He is raising money for his furry friends.

We also saw pirates of Carribean.

We also saw pirates of Carribean.

In the end, Kumo just wanted Wesley to stop studiying.

In the end, Kumo just wanted Wesley to stop studiying.

Meanwhile, I am still knitting. I am hoping to be able to show you something next week!

London Marathon 2011

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

We watched London marathon on Sunday. In the morning, the Tower Bridge was already full of people. It was estimated that around 10am the men’s elite will pass the Bridge and there they were. SO FAST!!!!! There were so many people running. Well done everyone!

London Marathon Mens EliteYou may not be able to see it well but the person who is running right at the back (with the green top) actually won the race (2 hours and something.. amazing!).

meThe weather was so nice and there were sooooo many people!

tower bridge at mile 11Passing the Tower Bridge is mile 11 and coming back to Tower Bridge is mile 22 (I think). This meant that we were able to see these runners twice.

big pink nurseAt mile 22, I can see people completely exhausted. Here are some of the fun charity runners. It must have been so hard for Rob (above in Pink Nurse costume) to run all the way!

fried eggThis one is my personal favourite.

gorillaThe gorilla came pretty early on in the race so he must have been a very good runner considering the weather was so hot on that day.

I have been so inspired by those who did the run on Sunday. There were quite a few Japanese runners who were running for Tsunami relief. I cheered for them in Japanese and some of them waved back at me which was very nice.

..so what am I going to do? I will enter London Marathon next year no matter what. I say it now, and I will do it next year.

Welcome to My New Crib

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

A very Happy New Year to you everyone!

It’s been a chaotic, but very exciting first week of 2011 for the world of C&C. Last Saturday we have finally moved into our new home! Thank you so much to AD and KC who helped us move. Without their help, we wouldn’t have made it! I have so far spent two days solid to tidy up the place. It’s still messy but I think we are winning :) Here are the images of before and after the kitchen!

This was how the kitchen was originally. Not at all my taste...

This was how the kitchen was originally. Not at all my taste...

After the refurbishment. It's an IKEA kitchen and I love it!

After the refurbishment. It's an IKEA kitchen and I love it!

Things are all over the place at the moment but Kumo and Wata are both helping me tidy up the place ;)

Things are all over the place at the moment but Kumo and Wata are both helping me tidy up the place ;)

Living in zone 1 of London is a little different because people are less friendly with less sense of community. This means W and I will have to make our effort to meet up with our friends and make new ones. On the other hand, there is a wonderful atmosphere around where we are. There are all sorts of London’s landmarks, restaurants and cafe. I can’t wait to explore more!

Shad Thames' cobble stone street.

Shad Thames' cobble stone street.

Tower Bridge at night.

Tower Bridge at night.

More important issue is whether Kumo and Wata like the place. So far, they seem to have settled in well but still trying to figure out their own corners. I will take more images in the coming weeks. My in-laws? We all miss each other very much, which I think is wonderful ;) Most of all, I think they miss Kumo and Wata. Whenever I am on the phone with them, they keep asking how they are. :D

More to come from C&C from the new hub (LOL!).

How to Persuade…An Egg Issue

Tuesday, November 9th, 2010

My knitting going really well. Right now I have 4 projects going on: one for The Knitter magazine, the other for my new patterns :D

So excited about this one. I had another project to show you but the photo came out bad so I will show you next time.

So excited about this one. I had another project to show you but the photo came out bad so I will show you next time.

What’s not going well is that I have been struggling to persuade my mother-in-law to buy free-range eggs… Every time an egg appears in front of our eyes, we have a “discussion” about it. Tonight, though, I think I made a progress. She said that she will when she next goes to a supermarket. I do hope this will continue even after we move out…

Why are battery eggs still on sale in shops? I don’t know… Meanwhile, I am knitting away planning on my “egg strategy”…

Just in case you were wondering..

Thursday, October 28th, 2010

I have been getting cold after cold in the past couple of month. Right now I have a cold again and literally in bed all day.
Just in case you were wondering where I have gone, I am here but resting in bed with my kitties (they seem to love it when I have fever coz I am so warm! – oh well, at least someone is happy).
Hope everyone is well tho. Be careful of this year’s bugs. They are nasty. See you all when I get better… hopefully next week :(

Birthday – The Aftermath

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

Good morning! Thank you so much for all your wonderful birthday wishes. I was very touched :D I had a great time (although there was a moment of migraine attack). Now, after just under a week of chilling out in general, I am back in the blog land proper.

Today I would like to show you some of the photos taken on my birthday. I made a Genoise birthday cake (fromRiver Cottage Every Day
recipe) topped with lots of strawberries. It really was a success.

So super kindly, my friends got me a proper birthday cake as they thought I shouldn’t make my own BD cake and put candles :D hehe. It was a little bit of a hard work blowing the candles… Wesley helped me a little towards the end (was he supposed to?). Can you see behind me in the photo that Wata is very subtly waiting to see if there are any food that he could eat from the table?

Since I have a mountain full of knitting books, this year I was give lots of baking books. Andrew and Angela gave me Bourke Street Bakery (BTW, this books is really amazing and I can’t wait to bake something from this book). Lisa from U-handbag gave me Popina Book of Baking(absolutely gorgeous cakes!). Thank you sooooooo much! I love them all :D

Wesley gave me lots of running gears. They are all very useful and this has equipped me properly for next week’s run :D Now I can listen to my iPhone while running and drink my special energy water using this doughnut bottle!

A couple of days later I noticed that I had a post from Japan. It was a gift from Samuel from Nonohana shop who has the same birthday. She is a big-time cat lover and sent me loads of amazing Japanese cat post cards, handmade drawstring bags (made by her) and special handmade cat toy. I was so touched by her gesture. Thank you so much :D

Usually Kumo steals Wata’s toy but this time Wata got to the new toy first. Now it’s his and he is really proud and happy. Thank you so much for all your kind heart. Both my cats and I had a wonderful day… :D

Distraction

Friday, April 30th, 2010

When you have too many things to do, and the rate at which you add things to your “to do” list exceeds more than getting rid of them, I often go into denial.

This is exactly what happened today. So I decided to shut my brain down and did things that I thought might make me happy. They are all creative so I would like to share my fun distractions with you :D

I played the piano.

I played the piano.

I am going to master this (note: I won’t be able to play like Schiff tho.. more like 10 times slower) by the end of the summer.

I have cut this fabric over 2 months ago. It's about time that I sew them together.

I am making a pair of trousers.

I have cut this fabric over 2 months ago. It’s about time that I sew them together. The original pattern is not supposed to look like this but I have modified based on my very favourite trousers to make it a low-rise. This is the third time lucky. I WILL get this fit me.

Check this crazy side pocket interior. I love it!

Check this crazy side pocket interior. I love it!

It’s so fun to add some “hidden fun” in your craft. When I put my keys in this pocket, I know they will be surrounded by apples.

I followed EXACTLY how it was instructed. This is the best I have ever made so far.

I followed EXACTLY how it was instructed. This is the best I have ever made so far. Check out how even the yeast bubbles are!

Last not but least, I have made the nicest multi-coloured raisin bread based on an 70s Japanese cook book (I tried to find the link but it is so old that it’s out of print…). I have been wanting a bread machine for a while but I don’t I need it anymore. May be a mixer to save me kneading lots. The kneading process was based on the French method (i.e. banging on the table). I learnt it from this hunky French man who speaks English with lovely French accent… very educational… honest!

We have a long weekend in the UK (yay!). Hope you all have a great one :D

Happy Weekend Pics

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

We had a great weekend and I thought I might share some of the pics!

This week was Wesley’s birthday. Every year we go to this special restaurant in Knightsbridge to have Sunday lunch. On the way we noticed a crowed of people so we checked it out…

RaindeerThere was a little Christmas market and two rain deers (one was tired so he decided to sit on a concrete but I thought he might be a little uncomfortable..).

cupcakesI was tempted for these cupcakes but as I didn’t want to ruin the lunch, I did not have any (honest!).

birthday cakeBack at home, we had a cake together with friends.

blowing candlesWe had such a nice weekend. We both felt really energized and happy.

Hope you are all having a good week!