# Merry Christmas!

Ah... It's the time of the year again! It has been kind of a "tradition" thing for me to do a pre-christmas post about the christmas decor around London. As my old posts have some problems of loading the photos, I will just give the source of my pictures here: 2005, 2004

Let's start off with a dream-like picture with people standing right beside some penguins, dancing lights and another person holding an orb... Any idea where they are?

No, it's not some dreamland far far away, but these people are taking pictures in a GIANT glass ball! The snow effect is created by small paper pieces being swirled around by a strong blower. Tempted as I was, I didn't go into the giant glass ball anyway because the queue is long and they charged 5 pounds per person! And people just took picture in the glass ball, and left. No chance of having some fun inside. Commercialized christmas...

Let's go somewhere else and have a look at the decor around London, shall we?

We passed by some Santa Grotto... I wonder whether I have been nice or naughty? Hmm... I can't help recommending this site for us to have some laughs on the photos of little children being scared of Santa, the one who write our behaviour report each year and decided our rewards...

And of course, I made a wish at the wishing well. The wish? Secret... ;-)

One of the place I like to go during christmas season is the Covent Garden, no, not the crowdy part, but the less crowdy part with little shops selling all sorts of christmas items. Here is a view of the Apple Market.

And actually, one of the main reason I like going to Covent Garden is because there are always some music school students playing instruments at one of the corners there. (the corner is the left hand bottom corner in the picture below) I like the string quartet particularly... I like to listen to them and wait hopefully for them to play my favourite song - Pachelbel Canon in D.

(smile sheepishly... Yea I know it's kind of lame but I just can't help LOVING Pachelbel Canon in D! Don't care if the cello part is lousy or if the song haunts Rob Paravonian!)

There will be also lots of fun fair being set up around London, the most prominent places are of course in Leicester Square and Covent Garden. I think (I don't quite remember) I have put up some post about the funfair last year, so I will save the space for this year. Here is one of the pictures - the merry-go-round!

Shopping for christmas presents are never easy, but the effort is worthwhile when you see the person smile!

Ooops, I think Santa left his sleigh unattended. Mountains of presents!!! Hope he didn't get a parking ticket for that.

Ok, let's stop by to have some mulled wine. After all, christmas is not complete without any wine, rite?

And christmas is definitely not complete without a TREE!

But for many children, christmas would not be complete without DISNEY!

Have a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR folks!

(I will be gone for a few days for christmas till new year in friend's house. So I will be temporarily away from the blogsphere... So here's wishing my dear friends here a very happy christmas!)

# Pachelbel Rant

Came across this video on YouTube. I just keep laughing. He's so right about the chord progression. So many songs across the globe, not only English, in fact MOST of the chinese songs follow this progression...

"Punk rock is a joke, it's really just Baroque"

"D... A... B... F#... G... D... G... A..."

# Cold night, hot food

Sometimes life can feels so sweet with such simple things...

It was just another misty, cold London night and we decided to have some hot food in China Town. As usual, almost all the restaurants were packed full with people, even the ever-famous Wong Kei which attracts many customers to its no-frills super rude service.

We nearly gave up until we saw "1997", which surprisingly does not have too many customers inside. At first we were a bit hesitant, but the warmth of the waiter in welcoming us made us decide to give it a try.

It was pleasant to see the surrounding was clean enough, and I was more pleasantly surprised to find the old style marble top table with patterns adorning its wooden edge. Ah, such a sweet old memories of childhood...


Despite the ongoing swearing and gossiping among the workers, they were very friendly towards customers. Service was fast and we were immediately served with hot chinese tea. I particularly like the typical chinese tea cup, which was spot white clean.


I like the kettle even more! It was the typical old-style kettle we used at home, large and bullky and easy to get burned with the hot metal surface. Yup, this IS the kettle where our tea is put. A more common ettique was to provide customers with the smaller and more decorated teapot, but I just love the old-fashioned style of presentation.


The cutleries were standard too. Ancient wooden chopsticks in bamboo container. Red-colour menu with best dishes of the day. And of course, the essential soya sauce and toothpick in traditional chinese restaurant!


I just love the setting of the restaurant - the old-style furniture and cutleries and the simple yet clean environment. It brought back so much childhood memories of the older times when everything was so simple. Life was thrifty and simple. Household equipments were old but durable. People were friendly...

I was already starting to fall in love with this cute little restaurant.

Despite the name of the restaurant being very Hong-Kong-ish, ("1997"), the cooks and many of the staffs were from Malaysia. So they do a lot of Malaysian dish. We all decided to go for the curry mee to cure homesickness... Wow, the portion was huge, and they sure put a lot of ingredients in it! Though it does not taste authentic enough, I am satisfied with the compensation by lots of ingredients in it. However, it's still a bit expensive for a bowl of curry mee.


Hot tea poured from the traditional kettle = 0 pound
Unauthentic curry mee but with lots of "liao" = 7 pounds per bowl
Wonderful dining experience at a cold night in London = PRICELESS

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Update:
Oh ya, I forgot to mentioned one important feature. The bowl which they put our curry mee in, was not the conventional bowl too. They just put it in the metal pot (the shape is similar to those clay pots) which they used to heat up the food with. Here's a picture which shows my bowl, erm, pot, more clearly.

# Phang Jie!

Dearest Phang Jie and Shou Feng,

This is it! This is the time you guys are reunited, to begin a new life together.


It's a pity we can't make it to Taipei to attend your blissful wedding, but we will make it for the "red-egg" ceremony! I send you my best wishes for a happy, long-lasting marriage. May you stay together happilly ever after!

Shou feng, you better take good care of our Phang Jie, cuz ALL of us scattered all over the world will be watching! ^_^

Phang jie, despite you becoming Mrs Xu and soon becoming a mummy, you will still be our beloved, bulliable, kacau-able, super Phang Jie in our hearts!


Love,
Doink

# Pigloo

Not long ago, Panda recommended a cute video about a crocodile Schnappi, and recently Happy also recommended another cute flash of Last Christmas. There's a string of attack of cutie cutie stuff, and I just remembered I have something that I like very much and would like to share with you guys too. Let the cuteness drown you~~!

Introducing.... PIGLOO!!!

It's a french-speaking penguin in North Pole. It has a daddy who has always longed to go to the beach (which they finally did in the 2nd album), and a cute girlfriend who can be flirty a bit sometimes (but still very sweet and cute nonetheless), and a bunch of friends who either play in a band or do street dance...

The Penguin dance has got so popular that now it has become a social group dance for some fans. And it released albums too and sometimes they do top the charts!

1) Le Papa Pingouin

2) Le Ragga des Pingouins

3) Le Nouveau "Ca plane pour moi" (Le Twist)