The Changing World

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This image arrived in my mailbox this morning. Thinking that it is such a strong illustration of how expensive fuel is costing nowadays, I then forwarded to friends and relatives. Later on I got a very reflective response from a close uncle. Below is his response:

Yeh, when are we (or the world) going to slow down from going crazy with more and more and more of everything as if there is no end.

Factories are churning out like we cannot satisfy the demand - how nice if we can have 730 days a year.

Consumers are buying and buying because of sales promotion as if they need so much.

Not enough to spend so demand more and more pay every year so we will be able to buy and buy as if there is no tomorrow.

Trash is getting more and more to collect everyday and has become a nightmare

So where are we heading??? Can't we get back to basics?

Entitlement for each citizen of the world should be limited to:
1. two pairs of clothing a year
2. one pair of shoes a year
3. 3 meals a day
4. get rid of all the planes and cars and go back to bicycles or walk in our daily life. etc etc.

Ask again. Do we really need all the things we buy nowadays. How often do we use those things we buy or fancy. And don't you think all these things we buy eventually end up in the trash cans?

Food for thought indeed. Where are we heading? Can we really go back to basics? How?

Kuala Lumpur Cityscape

This is a breathtaking scene of Kuala Lumpur city, captured by a friend Andy Lim - designer, creative director and photographer. His photographs are professional works of art.

With Andy's kind permission, I have extracted this image from his photo gallery for posting today. The image above has struck a string in my heart. It stirs up emotions and arouses thoughts of home.

Maybe it is just me, maybe it is part of being away from home, but the picture does depict a well developed city where a culture rich nation dwells. Yet in the foreground you still see green. Yes, it is a beautiful country indeed!

Snackies

Muah hahahhaa!!! We get snack supplies again from Hong Kong.

Here are Aji Ichiban's sesame seed snack, Nissin cup noodles, and Disney branded mooncakes!

We've also discovered that our favourite Hampstead Creperie has another outlet based in South Kensington. They offer dine in option, where customers can choose to sit down to enjoy a cuppa whilst savouring their crepes.

The address is as below:
Cafe Creperie de Hampstead
2 Exhibition Road
London
SW7 2HF
Tel: +44 (0)20 7589 8947

The original stall is on 77 Hampstead High Street, where there is only a roadside stall. You'd usually see a long queue on a good day. The wait of course is always worthwhile.

Hampstead Creperie

Flat Hunting Nightmare

If you've been following my blog, you might have noticed that my past few entries have been rather short and there is not much elaboration on what's happening lately. Oh well, life has been busy. What with? The latest, is flat hunting.

In this big big city, there are loads of properties to let. The moment you open up the latest lettings newspaper, or run a search online, you will find loads of lettings. You can find a place in matter of days. However, the biggest headache is to find the right property within your price range which is in good condition, at the desired location. No doubt London lettings are abundant, they all seem to have something missing or carry flaws if you look carefully.

So how have the husband and I been going about our flat hunting you might wonder? We have set a rather simple search criteria:
1) 1-2 bedroom flat, in clean condition
2) Not more than 10mins walk from the tube station
3) Accessible to local grocery shops - Sainsbury, or Tesco, or Asda
4) On the north western area, preferably on the northern line

After viewing 6 flats in Camden Town, 4 flats in Golders Green, 4 flats in Docklands' Isle of Dogs, we were still without a decision until yesterday. *SIGH*... is it us? Or is it really that difficult to find a nice place?

We went on to view 5 more flats yesterday in Docklands, within the Isle of Dogs area. On the 4th viewing, the husband went really really detailed in checking the place. At that moment, I knew that it was the flat we're gonna take. It felt right somehow.

We ended up choosing a 2bedroom flat, located approximately 5mins walk from the nearest DLR station, approximately 10mins walk to the local grocery store Asda, and approximately 30mins to both our work place. The flat appears in rather new condition, in a nice & quiet neighbourhood, and the living room overlooks the docks and in the background we can see Canary Wharf on a clear day.

*Phew!* That was a tough job indeed.

So now it is the document processing period. The property agent is working on preparing the contract, getting the flat ready etc. Hopefully things would be smooth for our move next weekend. *Fingers crossed*

Wedding - Indian Muslim style

We were invited to attend an Asian wedding on Sunday the 4th September. In the U.K., Indians are generally referred to as Asians. Whereas in South East Asia, that would actually bring a different meaning as it refers to the people living in those coutries within South East Asia, regardless of race & religion.

Anyway, this is the 2nd time I have attended a wedding banquet of an Indian Muslim friend. Below we've captured a few shots of the bride, who happens to be my friend from university.

On the invitation card, the banquet time was printed as 12.00 - 13.30. However, in reality, the banquet does not commence until 15.00! At around 14.00ish, guests begin to trickle in, choosing their seats on tables located either in a good position to view the stage where the groom is seated, or near the bride's seating area.

When the bride arrived, she was seated away from the stage. When the groom arrived, he was guided straight to the stage. At this point, the banquet commenced. The groom, his friends and family took pictures on the stage. Whilst on the other side, the bride's friends would huddle around her to capture her beautiful appearance.

Here, the bride looking beautiful and trying to keep her composure for the scrutinising public eye:



At approximately 16.30, all the yummy curries were consumed, all guests were happily fed, and some just disappeared into thin air. I was told that the bride would towards the end of the whole banquet be put together with the groom on the stage. Yes, the stage looked grand indeed. Unfortunately we didn't manage to capture any pictures of the stage.

Yes, you guessed right! Hee hee... we were those who disappeared into thin air right after the food was served and consumed. So we didn't see the highlight of the ceremony. In fact, after a long day's wait since 12 noon that day, 17.00 was time enough to head home and get a good rest.

On the way home, we stopped by Liverpool Street Station to have a nice sundae to cool down. It was a rather hot day.

Yumm!!!

Violets

Here are my violets blooming. These are the London violets though.



It started with 1 pot. The husband bought me the plant as he knew I was going to miss my violets in Hong Kong. The 1 pot grew... I had to split the 1 pot which was growing strong and out of its pot. So it became 2!

Hee hee...

Raspberry Confection

The husband and I went pass Planet Organic today to get some yummy avocado humous. Then we found this queer snack from the shop. It's a soft raspberry flavoured confection made from all natural ingredients.

Why? Err... well, the husband seems to know this little snack coz it's made in Finland.




Initially I thought it was some dodgy tasting snack like the 'Sisu' or liquorice snacks. But, it turned out to be rather interesting. So I suppose you can't always judge something by the looks right?

Haha...