Happy Halloween

No, we do not celebrate, neither is it a traditional English celebration but the commercial push is making people in the city so aware of this day. The DDA had a 'Fiendish fishermans pie with peas and a devilish dill sauce' for lunch today. It's much evil I'd say, but yummy all the way through. Mmmm... it's brewing bad things in the stomach now for sure!

PC in coma

The Finn's PC has lapsed into coma over the weekend, and it is still in the ICU unit today. No internet connection for the whole weekend. No emails. No blogging. No online news. No MSN. No fiddling around and playing computer games....

Disconnected from the cyber sphere. Surprisingly the DDA and the Finn survived without much suffering.

Rude London

A friend has recently moved to Oxford and she describes it as a very friendly and peaceful place to live in. In fact she emphasises that people there are very polite as well as friendly. Neighbours say hello to you, and people on the streets greet you even they do not really know you, and you see younger people giving up their seats to the elderly. Now isn't that rare?

Now the DDA starts to reflect on the people in London.

To start with, London is always in a rush. You see people in a hurry everytime you go out. People rushing for the train, the tube, the bus, to office, back home... no matter where they are headed, they are always always in a rush!

Because they are always in a rush, you see people get knocked; pushed pass; squashed on the streets of London, and especially on the Underground! The worst ones knocks you hard and never even care to say sorry.

The DDA has had a horrible experience once on the Underground to work. It was a very busy morning, lots of people on the tube platform, most of them dressed tidy & smartly and all occupying the front of the platform space awaiting the next tube to arrive. At the corner of the DDA's left eye, as she was reading, she could see a well dressed young man. It was fine when he first arrived on the platform after the DDA. But as the seconds ticked past and the tube was nearing, something most horrific occured.

This supposedly well dressed and thus assumed to be a civilised gentleman acted in a most un-gentlemanly manner. He swiftly moved to the front of the platform thus blocking the way forward for the DDA. Not only that, the moment the tube carriage doors opened, he dashed into the carriage without caring about other passengers, and espcially of course the DDA who was there on the platform before him!

Hello!!! Where is the courtesy in the inhabitants of London?

Some people say that you can not judge a book by its cover. Perhaps this applies to this well dressed young man. From the outside, he looked like a gentleman, but inside he is a selfish uncivilised bloke.

There's an old Chinese saying - when you relocate to a new village, you adapt yourself to their local culture. Does this mean that the DDA has also become a very rude & selfish Londoner who does not care if the frail grandma on the tube has not a seat? Does this mean that the DDA will walk past by pushing through, and knocking people over in defense to avoid being pushed and knocked over?

People mock the Hong Kong inhabitants for their rude public acts. London inhabitants are not any better.

Girly Day Out

Today is a girly day out for the DDA & her two HK friends Kinna and Sofei. The day started out yet again grey - what's new? Nevertheless their spirits were not tampered by the typical English weather.

First stop was for food to fill their stomachs at lunch. Since they were around Knightsbridge, they took the C1 bus headed West down Brompton Road and hopped off at the South Kensington Station. Diagonally from the bus stop, they headed off to Kensington Crêperie.

This girly party had a wonderful time. We enjoyed the savoury crêpes with a refreshing salad, then finished with a sweet strawberry and belgian chocolate crêpe that melted the hearts of us all. To balance the palate we rounded the meal with tea! Marvellously satisfying that it lifted our spirits to brave the rain and headed off to our next stop - The Tate Modern.

The DDA wanted to see this unique installation of slides at the modern art gallery. When the girly party arrived, they were soaked. And there were long long queues to the slides. It looked like lots of fun! But unfortunately the free tickets ran out by the time of our arrival. So off to the free exhibitions it was.

Our Tate Modern tour ended with a coffee session to rest our feets, and a girly chat. Girly day out ended at 17:30. Sigh... there it was a very nice girly day out.

English Weather

We're having a very wet autumn this year. Very very wet indeed.

This afternoon, the Finn & the DDA met up with a visiting friend from HK. We decided to lunch at this chain Italian restaurant Carluccio's located in St. Christopher's Place. St. Christopher's Place is a very nice little square dotted with interesting shops, and cafes.

The weather was brilliant when we arrived, sunny clear blue sky with a nice breeze. The restaurant was busy as it was right smack lunch time. So when the waitress asked if where we'd prefer to be seated, we chose the outdoor dining as opposed to the indoor for we'd have to wait a good 30mins before we'd get seated.

Less than 10mins of standing in the outdoor queue, we were sat down. Less than 5mins after placing our order, we were served our drinks. 10mins later there were dark clouds hovering, and the temperature soon dropped. Bad situation... it looked like rain was coming. Another 15mins passed, it started to drizzle but people were generally hopeful the rain would just be a harmless drizzle.

Nevertheless the DDA attempted to approach the waitress to express the intention to move indoors. The head waitress instead of trying to investigate a seating possibility, dashed away to check if the food was going to be ready soon! Not very impressed.

We still kept our cool, and our food soon arrived but we couldn't remain at our table as it was just too wet by then. The big drizzle had actually stopped. The head waitress actually offered to move us to the terrace where there is at least a little cover from the canvas awning, but we were squeezing as it was a table for 2.

Despite all the major inconveniences, we wanted to at least eat our yummy food. The food is good there, and was good until the Finn finished the last bit of his Lasagne Tradizionale, but the DDA was still working on her Pasta Con Funghi and it started to pour down! Everyone seated outside just leaped out of their seats into the restaurant's shop area. Right at that moment it was just pure chaos. Our unfinished food was soaked with rain by then.

At that point in time we had two choices:
1) Walk away without paying as we absolutely were not satisfied with the dining experience.
2) Pay the bill and head elsewhere where the rain wouldn't affect us.

The DDA was pondering on the first option when the Finn interrupted and asked if we should get the bill and head off. So in the end we got the bill. The DDA walked away sulking that she didn't get to finish her tasty pasta.

The odd thing was that when we were paying, the DDA out of curiousity asked the waitress if this situation happened often due to the restaurant's inability to cater suitably flexible outdoor seatings. We got a simple 'yes' for an answer!

What can we say? Sigh... there's only one thing - disappointment at the service of a restaurant that serves good food!

Climate Chaos

We all know about climate chaos. We hear about the green house effect, about the arctic ice meltdown, but are we doing anything about it? Do we care about the environment that we live in? Do we care that it is getting worst?

If you care, do something to STOP Climate Chaos. Every little bit counts, do not think that your small acts will never sum up to nothing. You can start by reading about it, then learn how to help stop this chaotic situation from snowballing into a nightmare of a future.

Go on, you can do it!

Read more about Climate Change:
Climate chaos in brief
BBC - Climate Change
Wikipedia - Climate Change
New Scientist
Your step-by-step guide to Climate Bliss