A Getaway.. :)

Went out for dinner with my housemates last night.. We went to a posh French restaurant to celebrate Laura's birthday. Yum Yum. :)

Went to Cardiff, the capital of Wales, with MG and Kenneth today. It's a 3-hour train ride from London. I finally had a chance to travel via train out of London. :)

Today was a wet day, with frequent showers but God still provides us with periods of sunshine and another chance to see the rainbow! :) Cardiff is a nice city and I like the Cardiff Bay especially. It has been a relaxing day-out. :)

Cardiff castle

Our reflection

Cardiff bay

Claypot rice! yum yum :)

Today is the first day of CNY. Happy New Year everyone! :)


May Gee's birthday is coming so I arranged for a gathering at my place for New Year celebration cum surprise birthday celebration (hmm.. think it is not so much of a surprise after all.. :P). I am happy that Gwen, Yuwen, MG and Kenneth were all able to come! :)


I was very excited over this gathering coz I have a chance to practise my culinary skill again! I asked my flatmate, Wei Lyn, to teach me how to cook claypot rice in a rice cooker so that I can prepare it for today. Hee hee.. I am very satisfied with my first attempt at claypot rice. I think it tasted GOOD! But I guess it can be a bit less sweet.


I also prepared chicken soup, green bean soup, fried vegetable and Kenneth prepared a dish of omelete. We had a nice time catching up and enjoying each other's company. :) How I wish we can be so relaxed and carefree everyday. :P


ok. let me showcase more photos of Brussels here:
(EU Parliament)

Following day in Bruges:

Waffles, Mussels and Squares

Just came back from a trip to Brussels and Bruges. Great weather, good food and lovely place. :)

Selected Photos:

more pictures to come... :)

By the way, happy CNY everyone! :)

Miracle

I want to share about God's amazing grace on me today. :)

I had an appointment with my dissertation supervisor at 11am this morning. So I have to make my way to school despite not having any classes on mondays. To my surprise, I found that the whole school was closed because of a power failure that affected the whole of the Holborn area (apparently, a power plant was flooded since last night)! There is no way I can contact my supervisor and I was a bit disappointed over making this wasted trip to school...

Normally, I will take a bus home from school but I thought since I have come all the way, I may as well walk home and take it as "exercise time".. so I took another route home and I was merely 10 metre away from school when I saw my supervisor coming towards me! She was caught in a jam and hence was late for our appointment. I told her about the power failure and we thought since by fortune (to me, this is divine intervention! ;P) we managed to meet up, we may as well carry on with our meeting. So we went to a cafe to discuss my dissertation.

Oh I am so happy. Thank you God for letting me "bump" into my supervisor! It's amazing how You can provide for our needs even before we learn to ask for them. :)

Sunday again! :)

Yeah.. the weather today is much warmer. So after church, I went with May Gee to Tate Modern. It is the first day I am out of my house, after 3-days of staying at home - studying and just bumming around... heehee I am actually a very homely person. I don't mind staying at home all day, enjoying the peace and quiet of solitude. :P

Anyway, Tate was interesting. But sad to say, I can't understand modern art. There is this winding slide inside the building. Many people queued up to try. :) Too bad I was in skirt. If not, I would have tried too!

After the visit to Tate, I strolled home along River Thames. It's another nice moment of solitude - praying to God, meditating on His words. God brought me to London during this year of my life - not when I was 17, not when I was 22, but when I am 27. I don't exactly know how this piece fits into my life story. But I know God is painting my life with His loving hands and I want to enjoy every moment of His works.

Snow Again!

The temperature has dropped to sub-zero these few days and it snowed again today!

It was snowing quite heavily, more so than the previous time. I put my hands outside my window to "catch" the snow.. but it melted like water on my palm. :) Anyway, as usual, I took pics. Could you see the snow "falling from the sky"? heehee. :P I like snow!

Cell Group = food + sharing + praying? :P

I went for my first cell group gathering this Mon.

It's quite amazing how I managed to join a cell group so soon after I started attending service at Soho church. As you know, after God led me to Soho church, I have decided to settle in the church and also have signed up for sunday school. I was thinking in my heart that it will be good if I manage to find a cell group too so that I can get connected to brothers and sisters and have fellowship with Christians.

But as a newcomer to the church, I feel shy and don't know who to approach regarding this.

Then amazingly, during my first sunday school class, the lady (Kam) sitting next to me was very friendly and she initiated conversation with me. When she knew that I was new to the church, she immediately told me about her cell group and invited me to join them!

So... I went. It's a working adult cell group, held once every 2 weeks, and the programme is usually about sharing-and -praying for one another. We met at Kam's place and the bonus is - she will prepare dinner for us (we have to contribute some money too)! Her culinary skill is superb! I haven't tried such nice home-cooked food for a century! And we also had birthday cake and coconut nian guo on Mon because it's her husband's birthday. heehee.. I was stuffed.

I feel quite comfortable amongst them and the best thing is, Kam's place is only 2 tube stations away from my home. :) I thank God for providing me with a cell group. Oh.. I just can't praising God for His wonderful provisions. :)

Chinese Dumplings!

Hee.. I went to my classmate's place to make Chinese Dumplings last Fri. It's my first attempt and I am quite proud of my skills! :P

There are about 20 of us at her place (haha.. coincidentally, it's actually the hostel I was staying in previously) and we have had a lot of fun.

Will upload the picture for you to see soon!

Having Fun!

The early part of this week has been filled with entertainments.

Met Boen for dinner on Mon - we have crab, roasted duck, claypot mutton and veg for dinner. Then we went to watch Avenue Q. Avenue Q is quite delightful, albeit some R-rated parts.. hmm.. I think the script is witty/well-written and the delivery is creative (using puppets).. but I would have liked it better if not for the R-rated bits. :)

Anyway, we were very fortunate to be upgraded to Stall seats. When I went to get tickets at Chinatown, I was told that only balcony seats are available and there will be no discount. I was a bit disappointed coz I was worried that we will be sitting too far from the stage. To my surprise, when we reached the theatre, we were told that the balcony was closed for that night and we were offered free upgrade to Stall seats! and they are good seats! Thanks to God!

Then yesterday was the first L&A class outing we had - dinner at Chinese restaurant and karaoke. I was not feeling very well so I left early to go home and rest. But I enjoyed the food - lobster, prawn, sea bass, chicken, duck, tofu, veg and hot-plate beef. Some photos we took at dinner:

Then then, :), today, I went to watch Lion King the musical with May Gee. It's entertaining - creative use of props and customes, lighting and sound effects; full of vibrancy and energy. But.. I find the singing a bit lacking and I don't really like the music. Hee.. think Mary Poppins is still the best!

But again, we managed to get very good seats at much discounted price - thanks to the coupon Kenneth gave us and his student ID . Ha ha.. I feel so lucky.