Our weekend in The Emerald Isle

It is so easy to fall in love with the countryside. Simply because there are so many things to love.

At the break of dawn, the farmyard comes alive - the cockerel rouses everyone from their slumber, donkeys nuzzle into the grass, scouring for leftover foodscraps, chickens cluck restlessly in their henhouses, waiting to be fed.

Yet, despite the cacophony of animal noises, it feels peaceful. It is a refreshing change of sights and sounds for city folk like us.

And the house we put up at for the past 2 nights - it is a house to love.

Drumbeagh House, County Cavan

They say a man's home is his castle. For Michael and Carolyn Lane (Andy and Meiling's parents), Drumbeagh House (pronounced as 'Drum-baaa') would certainly be their royal residence. It wasn't the tidiest, nor the most spotless of houses, but it was warm and cozy and I fell in love with it. Completely.

From the hand-polished stone walls, the mishmash of holiday memorabilia that bedecked the shelves and dangled from wooden beams, the house extensions that were meticulously planned and constructed from scratch, to the assortment of happy, smiley family photos found at every corner of the house - each bore evidence that this was a much-loved home.

It certainly was a good holiday. We ate well, guzzled too many pints of Guinness and mugs of tea, chatted late into the night.

Unlike our other holidays, we didn't plan an itinerary, nor did we set any objectives for the weekend. We weren't there to see the sights or do touristy things. In fact, our only aim was to plant an apple tree. And that, we achieved. We did things at a leisurely pace, taking time to appreciate the quiet rustic life instead.

This trip was also more for us to spend time with our dear friends, Andy & Meiling.

We'd always said we would visit their house in Ireland before returning to Singapore. We wanted to leave our 'mark' at their place, something distinct to help them better remember us by. That's how we came up with the idea of planting an apple tree in their garden.

I guess that's what made it all the more important for us to make this last trip to Ireland. To plant our 'friendship tree' and thank the Lanes for being great friends, and an integral part of our lives in the UK. We will remember fondly the roadtrip to Cambridge, camping in Kent, exploring St Albans, playing with firecrackers, enjoying the summer sun at Dunstables, the numerous coffee and makan sessions...

It felt surreal, planting those trees. I couldn't help but feel a tinge of sadness as we lowered the sapling into the muddy earth. What was supposed to mark a new beginning felt more like a final goodbye. All those months talking about planting those trees, and we were finally doing it.

I sighed a lot over the course of the holiday. By the end of it, I'd accumulated a sizeable cloud (think Moses) - some were sighs of contentment, others were just... heavy breathing perhaps? I love to kid myself.

But thank God for tea! Each mug delivered the warm comfort I needed. My 'hug in a mug', Andy jested.

I took 200-odd snaps in the course of 2 days. I didn't care. I want the photos to tell a story in years to come.

The trip has left me somewhat pensive. That night, as I lay awake, curled up in my London bed, I couldn't shake off those feelings.

And now, all I want is for them to go away.

(For full set of photos, view 'em here)

Stairway to Michael Lane's 'Faeryland',
lined with wild primroses

SAGGS LUVS CAMPING!

2 thumbs & 2 bigtoes UP for this weekend's rustic sojourn to Ashford, Kent! We set up camp at Broadhembury Holiday Park, a location superbly chosen by Andy, who along with Meiling, joined us for this fan-ta-bulous adventure.

Can you tell I'm kinda gushing?

Although the weather wasn't ideal (it rained all day Sunday), we still had a wonderful time setting up tent, devouring tasty char-grilled morsels of BBQ food, getting cosy in our spacious 4-man tent (a pat on back for Papa, for making the right 'executive decision'), snuggling in our sleeping bag (once again, *pat pat* Papa), stroking wee animals at Rare Breeds Country Farm, taking a ride on a real steam train, and visiting the historical ruins of Bodiam Castle.

I'd say we did swell for one weekend. :)

Okay, pictures!

* More photos & videos later.

Taking Stock of CNY Traditions

CNY decoration @ Leicester Square

Seeing how Chinese New Year is celebrated over a 15-day period, I guess this post isn't that dated?

Pop Quiz:
Q: If you're more than a thousand miles away from home during an important & auspicious festival in the Chinese calendar, whaddya do, whaddya do?
A: You try to replicate the raucous atmosphere & 'fweeeling', of course!

Here's a checklist of customs & traditions which we took 'pains' to observe during our 1st CNY in London:

1) Clean the house before the CNY
On Fri (16th Feb), I took on my haus frau duties with unbelievable gusto. I cleaned, washed, Dettol-ed, vacuumed the whole house. And it wasn't even Monday!

2) Don something new
Danielle wore a new chinese 'samfu-like' garment, all set to show off some nifty gungfu manoeuvres! Kee-yak! In stark comparison, the only new thingamies the Mister & I had on us were... our underthongs.

Can you tell? Heh heh heh.

3) Stock up ye CNY goodies
Meiling made delicious pineapple tarts & kueh bangkit one weekend and graciously gave us her 'best' batch! My mum sent us GLORY pineapple tarts which we're still savouring ever so slowly. They arrived all crumbly but the buttery pastry goodness was left intact. My sis sent Bee Cheng Hiang 'ba hu' which was walloped in one sitting! CNY is all about gluttony too, in'it? :P

3) Steamboat
No CNY is complete without the proverbial steamboat dinner. Lucky for us we brought along our steamboat appliance, perfect for an occasion like this. We had 2 kinds of soup - the clear meat-based one, and spicy Taiwanese mala. Our dishes consisted of home-made dumplings (Meiling), luncheon meat, golden mushrooms, assorted fishballs, prawns, thinly sliced chicken/pork/beef, tung hoon etc etc. It was a most scrumptious spread!

4) Gambling
Dee played the 'banker' & we played '21' into the night (well, the other 3 did. I was completely knackered, & slept together with Danielle). Everyone was a winner... we played for kicks not money.

5) CNY music
What is CNY without the cacophonous sounds of cymbals clashing and drums pounding?! We tuned into FM95.8 on Meiling's laptop, cheered as Singaporeans did the CNY countdown & shimmied to the 'dong dong dong chang' music.

6) Roll in an 'ong lai' for good fortune
Ahh yes, we did the whole 'roll in a pineapple thing' just for laughs. With a nice, ripe pineapple waiting at the door, we cued the lil one in for the 'ong lai' ceremony! She took it very seriously, she did.

7) Mee Sua for breakfast
An age old tradition at my in-laws. Meiling played matriach for a day by cooking us steaming hot bowls of mee sua with dumplings & egg, eaten with red cut chilli. Oh Mummy!

8) Ang pows
Lucky Danielle got ang pows from 奶奶, 公公/Grandma, Ah Yee/Ah Teoh, and her 1st London ang pow from the newly-weds, Mr and Mrs Andy Lane! Keerr-ching!

9) Bring on the bubbly! *hick*
We popped champagne, guzzled Guinness, emptied our wine glasses and... drank copious amounts of tea?!

10) Be with Family
The most important thing about CNY is spending it with family. And on Sunday, we (together with the Lanes) made our way to church to thank our Heavenly Father for His grace and blessings for another year!

A Hot & Steamy Weekend?

On Friday, ma 'ever beauteous and utterly charming' galpals checked out the hotpot scene at Ting Yuan (Liang Seah St) - gorging on delectable morsels of hand-made wanton, luncheon meat, fish and what-nots dipped in spicy mala/chicken broth...*drool-O-meter shifts into overdrive*

Afterwhich, they had the 'gooood sense' to call me to give me their ratings of the place & entice me further with tales of sinful eclairs at Panpac.

Their verdict: Worth going again. YAY!

Kum seah hor, cha bors. I really felt like I was slurping on mala-dipped golden mushrooms vicariously through y'all.

And now, onto other household matters.

This is what we 曾s did over the weekend:

Ok, so our weekend was not so hot and definitely not steamy, but bet that caught your attention, eh? 'fess up now!

Thanks Lanes for a fabulous weekend as always!!! *big hugs and kisses*

Family Friends

It's not often we hear friends say they treat you like family. So it was particularly heartwarming when Meiling emailed saying that to me a couple of days back.

We're indeed blessed to have Andy and Meiling in our lives. Since moving here, they've been more than hospitable to us - we've quaffed copious amounts of wine and beer together, nibbled on waaaay too much cheese and crackers, O.D-ed on chocolate cakes and cream, and drunk unending mugs of warm tea. We've also done roadtrips together, cooked for each other, and more recently, they've even baby-sat Danielle.

We are v grateful that they sincerely like Danielle and try to fit her into their lives.



So here's a big THANK YOU to Andy and Meiling! Thanks for spending time with us, dishing out comforting home-cooked meals, enjoying thrift shop bargains together, but most of all - introducing me to your world of flowers and plants (I'm sold - hook, line and sinker)!

Thanks also for all the thoughtful things you do - buying Danielle a special beaker to use at your place, bringing Mr Shark on the car ride, taking her to the zoo, equipping yourselves with your own wet wipes, giving her a bath, feeding her, changing her diapers, but most of all, showering her with your genuine love and attention. We couldn't ask for better...


* photos are courtesy of Meiling... our's DEAD!!! I can't stop moaning at the loss...

Just the 2 of Us...

On Saturday, Dee arranged for MeiLing and Andy to babysit Danielle for a coupla hours while he brought me out for a night about town. T'was part 2 of his anniversary surprise... :)

It was my 1st time in 4 months out alone with Dee. That is, without Danielle in tow. But I have to say, it felt kinda weird... and almost wrong?!!

The ever-accommodating Lanes came over at about 2pm and whisked Danielle off to the Battersea Park Children's Zoo (fabulous idea on Andy's part!). I was completely floored, if not a little bruised, when Danielle simply waved goodbye to me and bounded into their car. Talk about cutting loose! So quickly!!???

Hmph! *rolley eyes*

Dee's initial idea was to bring me for a musical but I baulked at the prices and declared myself 'unhappy to go' if he was going to spend that kind of money! So we opted for a nice, quiet dinner somewhere.

We ended up at Leicester Square, in case I changed my mind and if we could grab cheap tickets at the box-office stands. But I didn't.

At first, we thought of revisting the National Gallery to catch up on the paintings we'd missed the last time. In the end, we decided to go in search of Cafe Vergnano, an Italian coffee joint reputed for serving the best espresso in London. Not that we've turned into coffee connoisseurs since coming here, but we figured if 4 people we know have given it '5 out of 5 star' reviews, we might as well check it out since we were round the corner.

Despite Reuben's directions, we still managed to get lost! After traversing between Charing Cross and Leicester Sq, we located it, took a quick peak and some snapshots, then decided to come back after dinner.









Since I was given the mind-boggling task of deciding what to eat for dinner, I opted for Italian. Then choosing the restuarant came down to 2 impt criteria - menu without cut-throat prices, and availability of Insalata Caprese - my all-time favourite italian salad! Delizioso!

We decided to try Ristorante Lulivo. Unfortunately, the food wasn't great, but I still enjoyed my caprese. I reckon it's hard to go wrong with bufala mozarella, sliced tomatoes and basil, drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, no?

Dessert was ice-cream @Baskin Robbins. This was certainly a walk down memory lane for us. During our uni days in Australia, we loved to pop into the Baskin Robbins outlet(now closed) on Queen's St Mall to get a sugar-fix of Jamoca Almond Choc. Although the outlet didn't end up having our all-time fav, we settled for Butter Pecan and some custardy-flavoured ice-cream with a forgettable name. Cheers!

Next, Cafe Vergnano. Felt the cafe could do with a bit more 'warmth'? Think it's coz the decor was a bit too pristine for my liking. Nevertheless, was impressed by the skills of the coffee baristas, who obviously took pride in their craft. But then again, I guess anyone would take pride in their job when using the 'mother' of all espresso machines - the Elektra Belle Epoque Q1-C (see left). It's truly an impressive looking machine! I liked the way the espresso did a slow drizzle down the filter into those cute espresso cups. Drats, should've caught in on camera! We both ordered espressos - one with hazelnut syrup, the other with amaretto. JH would've enjoyed it, I think. :)

I certainly enjoyed sharing 'cafe intimacy' with Dee. Chatting over coffee, catching up with our lives. You know, we NEVER do this in Singapore! So I'm glad we can do it here, at least once. I recommend this to all couples. Take time to catch up with each other over coffee or a meal. Never for a moment think you know your partner through and through. I think you'd be pleasantly surprised...

Our last stops before heading home were a 'Murders and Mysteries' bookshop along Charing Cross, followed by a walk through the rather dodgy SOHO. The latter locale is the infamous gay strip of London and although we deliberately looked out for gay pubs to peer into; instead, we found ourselves faced with shop after shop of 'Bargain Books' - a lame front for adult publications, sex toys and porn flicks offered downstairs. Don't get me wrong, they did sell 'normal' books on the ground level, but the basement revealed items that would make Pamela Anderson look like a prissy schoolgirl! V distasteful indeed! After meandering through SOHO for about an hour or so, we finally headed back at 7ish.

Thankfully, Danielle had been on her best behaviour the whole day. Phew! Andy and Meiling said they enjoyed babysitting her. Both Dee and I are so glad she's comfortable with the Lanes. Missed my little one so smothered her with kisses when I saw her, all nice-smelling & squeaky clean from her bath. Meiling is so adept with kids, she should have her own soon! Eh, Meiling? Heehee! :)

A Roadtrip to Cambridge...

We stayed the night @ the Lanes on Friday coz we'd planned a mini roadtrip to Cambridge the following day. Yes, home to the dreaded GCE papers!

But backtracking abit first, I MUST give special mention to Meiling's drool-worthy sambal stingrays! I didn't even know Sainsbury's sold them (the stingrays, not the sambal)! Incredulous! It was a wonderful treat having such local 'comfort food' on a cool, autumn night. Of course, my pet buffalo seized the opportunity to take more than a swig of Guinness, again. The Lanes being Irish and all, he feels compelled to 'do as the Romans do'! Sure sure, excuses...*rolley eyes*

Meiling's the one who first introduced us to the world of dessert with cream. Now every time we have dessert, we have to have a dollop of cream, on the side. By dairy standards, there are several rungs to cream. Right at the bottom, we have single cream, then whipped cream, double cream, super double, clotted... and in another camp, we have creme fraiche, sour cream... the list seems endless. My personal favs are clotted and super thick double cream.

But what about your calorie counting, Saggs?

Stuff 'em, I say! When it comes to dessert, there's always room for sinful indulgence! I'll just... erm, avert the gaze from what's behind me?

We always have hearty meals @ the Lanes. Meiling is a fabulous cook & takes pride in cooking up a storm for each meal. On Saturday morning, she prepared a full Irish breakfast for us - fried bacon, fried eggs, fried sausages and special Irish soda bread. Fried, of course. Fab on the tastebuds, disastrous to the waist-line! But I ate with my eyes closed so that helped somewhat. :P

The drive to Cambridge from Harpenden took slightly over an hour. I really enjoy such quiet drives along the countryside, where all around you see autumn trees clothed in hues of gold and brown...

The scenary in Cambridge is, should I say, sublime? And ergo, very condusive for studying? Heehee. It's a beautiful town filled with pretty buildings, gorgeous colleges, extensive parks and quaint little windy streets for one to explore. As it was a Saturday, we were lucky the markets were open too.













King's College, MM Lee's Alma Mater(?) is simply magnificent. I walked the grounds with goosebumps, in awe that people actually study here. I can so imagine students walking the cobbled grounds on graduation day - looking all proud and dignified in their ceremonial cloaks and mortarboards. What a proud day it must be for them!

As we walked further into the college grounds, we were drawn to sounds of laughter from a bridge ahead. There, we saw people taking leisurely rides on river barges. Very Venician, with 'gondoliers' rowing down the river canal. Didn't know how much it'll have cost to take a ride but it sure looked like fun. Will definitely try to visit Cambridge again, time permitting.

Postscript: We are very fortunate Andy and Meiling like Danielle and try to incorporate her into their lives. They bought this special spill-free beaker for her to use at their place! And when they went househunting recently, the lack of railings on the stairs at a house they quite liked became a consideration coz they were afraid of Danielle's safety for when she visits!

On a starry night in Harpenden...

I had my first brush with illegal substances on Friday.

Andy managed to purchase quite a neat pack for not alot of money. And since it was Halloween weekend, the Lanes thought we might want to try this out - just once - since it's illegal to dabble in such activity in Singapore.

We buckled under pressure. Well, at least I did. Dee was just rearing to go!

But the result was EXHILIRATING! Wheeeeee...I'll definitely do it again! :P



Caught you there, didn't I? Kekeke.

Our Performing Seal...

I swear this was self-taught - something she did impromptu that drew guffaws from all of us (Dee, Meiling, Andy & me)!

We visited the Lanes over Fri & Sat. More on that in another entry.

A Kitchen Revived!

This gorgeous pot of flowers (including white pot from Oxfam) is a gift from the newly-weds - Andrew and Meiling Lane. So far only 2 buds have bloomed. Even then, they sure do brighten my 'trips' to the kitchen! :)

Had the Lanes over for 'Thai-styled' dinner on Fri (6 Oct). I think Andy almost 'choked' at the spiciness of my tom yum goong! (in fact I think he did? His perspiration could fill a reservoir!) They enjoyed the yum woon sen tho'. So relieved that the food turned out ok! Was worried someone would start foaming at the mouth or go into spasms. Hmmm... but it seems every time I have people over, I cook Thai??? Well, at least that's been tried and tested!

Meiling brought a 'hay bi hiam' mince pork dish and introduced us to the most delicious chocolate mousse dessert from Waitrose. Yums!

In the meantime, there are a total of 8 buds on the plant so I've got 6 more blooms to go! Sweet!

* Managed to snag me some tiny snow-skin mooncakes from Reuben! Ori brought them over specifically for moi! Finished them all at one go last night! Am 'belly' happy now...Buuuurrrp.