Christmas...

Since I have the time now, might as well blog about my Christmas weekend:

Friday

We had minced-pies, champagne and Secret Santa around noon at the office. This colleague of mine actually dressed up as a Santa Claus to give out pressies! Haha... he did look quite funny because he's usually not fat. Got off work at noon to start the weekend on a high note!

Saturday

Woke up to say good-bye to my flatmates who are going off for their ski trip. (Heeheehee... the whole house to myself for the week. Peace ^-^)

Finally dragging myself out of the bed, I went out for dim sum with the guys and to complete our groceries shopping for the big Christmas dinner. It was like war-zone in Tesco when everyone was fighting for food and stocking up for the weekend. My my... kiasu people!! Shelves were emptying every minute that we had to make our way to Waitrose as well as there were no chicken left in Tesco! Imagine...absolutely NO chicken...

It was a good thing that I was going to a friend's place for dinner that night. Don't think I can manage cooking after that exhausting ordeal! Went to Phil's place, which is by Surrey Water for a pre-Christmas gathering. He was doing the cooking and helped by Albert's girlfriend (heeheehee... Albert was so proud when everyone said her cooking was good... it goes back to the saying that the best way to a man's heart is through his stomach!! Hahaha)

However, the highlight of the night was karaoke. Yes, Phil has a karaoke system at home and with the number of music videos that he has, it brings fond memories of Red Box at home... sigh... I do miss karaoke!! (Even though my singing sucks, I still like singing... muahaha to torture everyone with my horrible and out of tune singing!!:P)

Sunday

Christmas Eve!! Happy Birthday Yuni (hehe.. I know it's over but still...) Big day as I'm supposed to be cooking a Christmas dinner for 12!! Started preparing for the food since 2pm! (Actually, it's the night before as I was making the tiramisu at 2am in the morning after my dinner!!) Although it was hard work... it was still fun to see everyone enjoying the food... :)

The tiramisu that I made for the Christmas dinner. Cute?? :)

After dinner, we started playing some drinking games (as usual... how can we not play drinking games when Kar Teck is around?? :P) But this time... we have a casualty... yes, Chong Hoe was so drunk that he puke in the living room!! Ouch... and we spent the rest of the night cleaning up... A night to remember though as Chong Hoe was really funny when he was drunk... I think I can add his antics to my list of “When you are drunk...”

Monday

Christmas Day but there's no transport at all. No tube and no buses. So, we ended up playing mahjong and card games at Kar Teck's place. All I can say is that Lady Luck wasn't with me. I lost when we were playing mahjong and even during Bridge. Sigh... not a terribly exciting Christmas but it was good fun to play mahjong again though we had to make do with our rectangle instead of square table! :P

Tuesday

Boxing Day = Shopping Day!! We made plans to meet at 8.30am to shop... Hey... that's early in my opinion for a holiday!! But, no... everyone else was even more kiasu than us... by the time we reached, Oxford Circus was already packed with people who were queuing up since 6am!!! What????

Ended up queuing for 40 mins at River Island, 30 mins at Mango and 20 mins at Zara. By the end of the day, I'm exhausted and a had a dent in my wallet!! Too exhausted to even go ice-skating at Somerset House. That will have to wait!

My weekend in Oslo

Went to Oslo for the weekend two weeks ago but was too busy with work to actually blog about it!

All I can say is that I learnt two lessons from the Oslo weekend:

1) Never complain about London's weather because it's absolutely freezing cold in Oslo! It's so cold that I can feel it in my bones even with 4 layers of clothing!! I shudder to think about it because the guy at the custom actually told me that this year, it has been a mild winter. Usually, at this time it's snowing heavily in Oslo!! (Though Billy was extremely disappointed that it wasn't snowing heavily!! He wanted to see snow everywhere...)

2) Never complain about prices in London. I thought it was going to be a cheap weekend because we got cheap flights and hostels BUT I was so wrong. Apparently, Oslo is the most expensive city in the world (excluding rent) according to this UBS report. Sigh, a meal in a decent restaurant costs about £40. And I thought London was expensive enough.

Anyway, enough about my complaints. I still had loads of fun - sometimes it's the company that counts! :)

Here's a recap of the the weekend in photos:

Sunset at Oslo. When we finally made it to the city centre it was time for sunset already! Yes, the sun sets at about 2-3pm in Oslo!

Oslo's one and only one outdoor skating ring with music at Karl Johans gate. Surprisingly, they were playing English pop and Christmas songs.

Activities such as skiing, ice-skating and tobogganing are Norway's national sports. We couldn't resist and so joined in the fun. The ice-skating was definitely the highlight of the trip. Since yours truly is not very good at skating, couldn't take any pictures while skating.

Kar Teck with his wannabe ice-skater ballerina pose. Hehee..

Night view at the main shopping street, Karl Johans Gate. Hehe... not really night actually. It's only about 5pm. Christmas is quite big here in Oslo so they have lots of Christmas decorations around the city centre. Think it's better than what we get on Regent Street :P

The Norwegian Folk Museum - we went there all the way just for the Christmas market but apparently the market ended last weekend! Should have gone for the Nobel Peace Centre instead. That's where the Nobel Peace Prize is given out!

The Viking Museum where there's loads of Viking ships. Vikings to Scandinavian countries are like Eiffel Tower to Paris so it's one of the must-see museum in Oslo! The above ship is the Gokstad Viking Ship, which was supposed to be a burial chamber for the Queen. Eeeee... that means it's a coffin!! Aaarrgggh...

The 4 lost "gu hua zai" in Oslo

Yipee... we finally saw snow on the second day! A picture to commenmorate the occassion! :)

And a group picture together for the snow - or should I say frost... heeheehee... it was still freezing cold though!!

And finally, the elusive Christmas market that we've been searching high and low for!! Looks quite pathetic compared to those I've been to in Austria. But I guess we're all too cold and hungry to care.

Well.. now that I've been to Stockholm, Copenhagen and Oslo I can say that I've had enough of Scandinavian countries. Next stop.... Hong Kong! :)

Saying no and disagreeing

I used to believe that I am capable of saying no when I mean no or when disagree with what the other person is saying. I firmly believe that I will not be bossed or pushed around because I'm strong enough to voice what's on my mind.

Or so I thought.

Lately, I find myself giving in and keeping my mouth shut even though I don't want to and think what the other person is saying is completely rubbish.

I smile sweetly and accept a new assignment even though I'm already on 3 other jobs and I don't think I'll have time to do it.
I say yes when people asked me to do mundane and rubbish jobs even though I think they should ask the new graduates to do it instead of me.
I give in to arguments even though I believe that I'm right and they are wrong.
I shut up even though I am irritated with what the other person did.
I go along with other people's plans even though it disrupt my own plans.
I stop saying no to things that I dislike.
I do favours for people that I don't even like and probably will never appreciate it.
I sometimes let people get away even though I know clearly that they are taking advantage of me or people that I care about.
I stop voicing opinions which I know people will disagree with.

Have I become more mellow throughout the years? Or am I just too tired of arguing? Have I stopped being the strong-willed girl that I thought I was? Am I no longer that outspoken and loud person that I used to be? Does this make me easier to get along with or am I losing my identity?

Have I changed for the better or the worse?

When you're drunk...

What are you like when you're drunk?
Have you ever wondered what you would do when you're drunk? Or do you not remember what you actually did the morning after??

Some people start talking REALLY loudly
Some people start arguing with the next loudest person
Some people start naming every capital city in the world
Some people start speaking in Cantonese, telling everyone that he has a secret (heehee :P)
Some people fall asleep
Some people stone up
Some people get kicked out of restaurants for being too noisy
Some people start hugging everyone
Some people start dancing on the table
Some people start sending flirtatious texts
Some people start puking
Some people start telling you things that they would have kept to themselves when sober
Some people use it as an excuse to misbehave
Some people start swearing
Some people become very flirtatious (wink wink)

Okay, I know... the list can go on and on... so, I will stop here... do drop a line if you have done anything that is crazy!! Then I can add it to my list!! :P

P/s. Everything on the list is absolutely true. None of it is fiction.

I'll miss you!!

Haven't known you for long girl, but I'm glad that our path crossed! I will surely miss you once you're back in Melbourne.

I will miss your bubbly voice.
I will miss gossiping with you.
I will miss clubbing with you.
I will miss getting drunk with you.
I will miss laughing with you. (especially when someone ask how we actually met!!)
I will miss talking to you till late at night.
I will miss sharing my thoughts with you.
I will miss your company.

But most of all, I will miss you for just being you!!

Hope that you'll be back in two years' time! (remember, this is just the beginning and not the end!!)

All the best and good luck dear!! May all your dreams come true!! (keep to our golden rules and you'll be fine :P)

Winter sonata in Copenhagen?? Haha... see girl, you don't need a boi cuz you have me! :P

Farewell dinner, but certainly not the last dinner!!

Haha, our black dress, black boots and crossing knees pose. This is a pic to remind us of all the good times! :)

My first Michelin star

Yes, I know it's no big deal but fine dining has never been part of my life style. I mean, of course I won't say no to it, but to have to fork out that much money, I rather be sitting at the mamak stall having my roti prata (yes, I miss it so much! teh-o-ais satu tauke!! :P)

Well, for those who are not familiar with Michelin stars, allow me to enlighten you. The Michelin guide's restaurant ratings using Michelin stars are probably the most recognized and influential gastronomic ratings in Europe. The guide awards one to three stars to a small number of restaurants of outstanding quality. Stars are awarded sparingly; for instance, in the UK and Ireland 2004 guide, out of 5,500 entries, there are 98 with one star ("a very good restaurant in its category"), 11 with two stars ("excellent cooking, worth a detour"), and only 3 with three stars ("exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey"). Michelin stars are taken very seriously in the restaurant business, where the addition or loss of a star can mean a difference in turnover of millions of euros. Some three-star restaurants are able to charge hundreds of euros for a meal on the strength of their reputation.

Back to my original story. There's a tradition in PwC AIMS whereby every group has their own group Christmas meal on top of our department-wide Christmas dinner. And my group has always been known for its expensive taste when it comes to this annual affair. (Yes, that's because everyone in my group is really senior. Most of them are senior consultants and/or qualified actuaries!! From the gossips, I heard that there was this year when my group actually had truffles and vintage champagne!!!) So, to keep up to our tradition, this year we went to a one Michelin star restaurant when some groups are only going to Nando's or Strada!!

The restaurant that we went to was a French restaurant in Soho called L'Escargot. (French, my current fav :) hee hee hee)

Here you are, the Moore group (the power group) - one look and you'll see that I'm one of the youngest member!! And I think they must be thinking what the hell am I doing, embarassing them by snapping pictures repeatedly :P

The menu was so “cheam” that the waiter actually offered to explain it! For example, what I had:

Starters – Escargot en Coquille “Bordelaise” (in lay man terms: snails in red wine and shallot sauce)

Sorry, forgot to take a picture. It looks a lot better before I ate it!!

Main – Confit Leg of Duck & Roast Magret Breast, Cassoulet with Toulouse Sausage & Parsley (in lay man terms: duck with bacon, white beans and sausages)

The meat was tender and juicy while the skin was crispy! Not a big fan of beans, but the white beans turned out to be not too bad.

Dessert – Baked Yoghurt & Blueberry Cheesecake, Cinnamon Tossed Vanilla Custard (in lay man terms: blueberry cheesecake)

Ah, cheesecake. My favourite! :)

Just look at the number of glasses that I have - that's a sign of fine dining. You have different types of glasses for champagne, starters, main and dessert wine. Plus, you have loads of different cutlery as well!! How am I supposed to know all these???

The food was absolutely fantastic – can't think of a suitable expression to describe it and there was absolutely no reason to fault it! Hmm... which makes me think, if one Michelin star is that good, how would I find those with three Michelin stars!! Perhaps, it's time to upgrade myself! Would anyone care to join me for the“special journey”? (Well, I guess in between all those roti-pratas and char keoy teow, sometimes it's good to indulge in fine dining and experience what the rich and famous are accustomed to! :P)

I passed!!!

Yipee!! Passed both papers that I took for the last sitting, which means that I'm now only 3 steps to my Mini Cooper! :)

3 more to go and I'll be driving this little baby!! :)

10 reasons why life sucks!!

1) I'm falling ill.

2) I'm over-worked.

3) I'm under-paid.

4) My manager is passing on everything to me because he can't cope with his own work but I'm not getting any credit for doing his work.

5) My new grad is useless... he's not around when there's work, leaving me with all the shitty work.

6) I lost my one and only one pair of gloves.

7) My laptop is breaking down any moment.

8) My landlord is increasing the rent.

9) My prince-charming is being illusive.

10) And worse of all, I have no one to complain to!

Aaaaaarrrrgggghhhh.... life SUCKS! :(

The little match stick girl...

It's freezing cold and my heating system is not working again... (Yes, I had the British Gas guy to come over to fix it but apparently he has not done so!!! And now, I'm too busy at work to get him to come again...) I'm catching a cold and falling ill... Brrrrr... it's cold cold cold cold!! I feel like the little match stick girl! (Okay, since this is the 20th century, instead of matches I have a small little heater and it is NOT making any difference!!)

I need warmth, DESPERATELY ...

Sigh, the joy of British weather... sigh... :(

A lacklustre Spanish affair

Having been to Barcelona to eat my heart out on the streets of La Ramblas, I have high expectations of Spanish food (especially the black squid ink paella! yum yum!). After all, both Spain's major contribution to world food, paella and tapas made it to the BBC's Top 50 Things to Eat Before You Die list! So, when Clare said that we're going for Spanish dinner at Soho, I nodded with enthusiasm. (I have been to one in Soho and their paella was wonderful! Unfortunately, I forgot the name of the restaurant and how to get there... sigh...)

Anyway, Drake booked a table at Meza for us through Toptable. The Toptable booking came with a special set menu offer of 5 different tapas and a desert for £14.99. Thought that the deal was pretty reasonable so it was a surprise to me when Meza turned out to be quite a posh place! It's actually a Spanish Lounge and Tapas Bar along Wardour Street– reckon we looked a bit out of place with our jeans when everyone else was all dressed up!! (However, according to Kar Teck, his football t-shirt was fine since it has a collar! DUH!)

The word tapas actually comes from the Spanish verb tapar, which means to cover. It was originally invented in winemaking regions of Andalusia, where a saucer was customarily placed over glasses of wine to stave off the fruit flies. Titbits of food were then placed on the dish. Traditional tapas include olives, seafood, meatballs, sautéed mushrooms, chorizo, vegetables and the tortilla, or Spanish omelette. Heehee... thought I'll give a little background on Spanish food!

Back to the dinner. From the set menu our selection of tapas included:

- Crispy Salt & Pepper Squid
- Warm Octopus & Waxy Potatoes
- Wind Dried Tuna & Scrambled Eggs
- Salt Cod & Spinach Fritters
- Peppered Chicken Livers with Sherry
- Deep Fried Pork Belly wrapped in Bacon
- Chorizo
- Goat's cheese
- Sheep's cheese
- Peppered Spiced Salami
- Spanish Omelette
- Marinated Grilled Vegetables
- Tomato Bread
- Chicken & Ham Croquette

We also ordered the seafood paella with mussels, squid, king prawns & cod and the paella valenciana with pork, chicken & rabbit.

Not sure whether this is the goat's or sheep's cheese...

The dessert that no one likes except for yours truly!

Tomato bread?? Can't remember what this is...

Cheers everyone!! LtR: Bin Bin, Ken, Kaiyuan, Kar Teck, Drake, Clare and me!

Desserts was not too bad I guess!!

Well, given the nice atmosphere of the restaurant, I thought the food would be of certain standards. However, the food was a disappointment. I only found the crispy salt & pepper squid and the Spanish omelette good. Even the seafood paella was bland. And the Sangria, it was nothing like those that I had in Barcelona. This one actually tasted like cough syrup!! (Yes, it was quite a disappointment - don't let the above pictures fool you!! I know we all looked happy!!)

And plus, the service was really bad. I know the place was packed but the service was overly sub-standard - one waitress came to tell us that we had to leave within the next 45 minutes as the table was reserved for someone else. Yet, they took ages to clear our table and took even longer to get our bill. When it finally came, they overcharged us! (Thanks to Kar Teck's sharp accountant's eyes! heeeheee...)

Probably wouldn't recommend this restaurant to anyone even though it has a really nice ambience and is probably a good place to hang out for drinks. Perhaps, this is a sign that I should visit Spain again? Hahaha... Barcelona or Madrid anyone?

A night out with actuaries!!!

Thought I'll put this post up before I forget about it... It's a week late because I have been REALLY REALLY busy at work! Anyway, I went for the SIAS annual dinner last Friday night. SIAS actually stands for Staple Inn Actuarial Society. It's basically a society for younger members of the actuarial professions - mostly students and some just-qualified actuaries. Okay, okay... I know you're probably sniggering away or rolling your eyes... you must be thinking, having to put up with one actuary is boring enough... but to have a whole bunch of actuaries at dinner?? How interesting and fun can that be??

Just look at the following cartoon:

It proves the conception that most people have - actuaries are emotionless and boring creatures!! And they are no fun at all. (I actually read this statistics somewhere, which says that the worst thing to say to someone when you're on speed dating is to tell him or her that you're an actuary!)

BUT, I beg to differ. Come on, I'm not THAT boring, am I?? :P

And a night out with a bunch of actuaries can be fun!

In previous years, we had themes for the dinner. Last year, the theme was something to do with celebrities and my my, there were actuaries turning up in Spiderman, Batman, Spice Girls (which were all guys cross-dressing, by the way!!), Marilyn Monroe and Austin Power costumes!!! See, actuaries can let down their hair - it's not all just about mortality tables, triangles and spreadsheets!!

Anyway, this year, the theme was Fire and Ice and it's a black tie event (yes,I know it's stated that black tie is optional, but everyone was going to turn up with their penguin suits!!)

I must say I was impressed by the organising committee's effort to create the atmosphere. The dinner was held at The Brewery and where we greeted with falling snowflakes on arrival! (Haha... of course, it's fake snowflakes - even though it's freezing now in London, it's not snowing YET!)

The night kicked off with a champagne and wine reception, well, we may be boring people, but we know how to appreciate the finer things in life (Yes, it's true... most qualified actuaries I know travel to other countries just for wine-tasting and they have a wine cellar or at least a decent wine collection at home!!)

To go with the theme, there were ice-sculptors everywhere and each table had a snow-like chandelier. It was indeed a pretty sight.

Nice huh? Thought it looked lovely!! And you can see all the bottles of wine on the table...

Before we were treated to a scrumptious 3-course meal, there was an acrobatic performance. (okay, I have no idea where this fits into the picture but they were good!)

Oooh... Aaaah... Wow!! I'll never be that flexible!!

And dinner was fabulous... the starters was a lightly marinated chicken salad with asparagus and fine beans... yum yum... and for mains, I had the succulent lamb with wine-infused sauce... desert was crème brulee with poached pears. All in all, it was probably one of the better British cooking that I've tasted. No offence, but I think British food sucks! My idea of fine cuisine is NOT fish and chips or kidney pie!

After dinner, the whole place was transformed from the Ice theme to the Fire theme. And there was a live band, which was surprisingly quite good! And having had a bet with someone, I was the first person to hit the dance floor! (Okay, it should be we were the first two people as I went to the dance floor with my French colleague. Well, how could I lose a bet? I'm an aspiring actuary after all and risk taking is in my blood! :P Fine.. fine, not a very good analogy here as there's no risk involve apart from embarrassing myself in front of everyone else... but hey, I got a drink for it!).

In no time, everyone was up on their feet and joining us on the dance floor, dancing to the live band! Who would have thought that actuaries could morph into party animals!

Some guy in a Scottish kilt and his two dates joining my French colleague (Thomas) and I on the dance floor

All I can say is that C'était une nuit à se rappeler!

Well, have I managed to change your mind about actuaries? Let me know if you're convinced and would like to date one!

The name game - what do you call your blog??

Fresh with my enthusiasm to create a blog of my own, the first hurdle was to come up with a title for the blog. Phew... it was difficult!! (okay, I have to admit that I AM quite uncreative when it comes to writing!) Anyway, throwing in the towel at this stage would be unacceptable(How am I supposed to maintain the blog if I give up even before creating one!!!), so I turn to good old Google for some inspiration...



Well, I did come across a few very interesting websites:



The first one... some blogger designed a programme in C plus to actually tokenize the blog names by whitespace and punctuation, and place the resulting words in a hashmap for counting purposes. This gave him a list of words used in blog titles and their frequency. And surprise!surprise! the most popular word is blog, (okay, I may not be on the creative side.. but how original can one be if the title of their blog is 's blog??) which is followed by words such as life, weblog, world, from, journal, news, thoughts, with and daily. That's the top 10 list, which doesn't really give me much inspiration.. as the author of the blog aptly put it and I quote from him - This leads me to conclude that any blog named, “My blog/journal/weblog with daily world news and thoughts from life!” will be a smash hit - DUH!!! (and rolling my eyes!)



The next site that caught my eye... Random title generator for blogs... aha... this might be just what a lazy and unimaginative person like me needs! There's two options, whether you want a funky or formal name... sounds good so far... a funky title is just what I need :P so happily, I clicked on the generator button with great anticipation... but, er... the 1st one that came up was violet office... and the 2nd one green group... 3rd one empty images.... tsk tsk... I don't think I need to elaborate anymore... the rest of the not-funky-at-all names that came up included bushy diary, geeky notebook, crumpled chronicles, dramaking's news etc.. okay, I don't think I want to name my blog with any of these titles!! Perhaps a random generator is not such a good idea after all... I guess the title of my blog should really reflect something about me (though one of the random titles that came up was shopaholic's addictions - okay, that may be true but that's another story.. perhaps I'll share some of my retail therapy trips some other time!!)



Anyway, back to my search... after browsing a dozens of webpages... I gave up! For once, I couldn't find an answer on Google... so, it's back to picking at my brains.... and I FINALLY decided on a quote that I've read in Sophie's World (interesting book by the way... anyone read it?) So, the title of my blog is now officially "... such stuff as dreams are made on... "

Well, we all need dreams in life - they are there to keep us going and to give us hopes that one day our dreams will come true! I always see myself as someone who is practical, but I do have my share of dreams and I do secretly hope that they will come true... I guess it's my motivation to change my life for the better!!



So... to all who's reading this, never stop dreaming! And may all your dreams come true!! :)



(Sophie's World - Thanks to Mr Jostein Gaarder for the inspiration on my blog title)

The first post...

Okay.. I'm usually not very good at writing but having read my lil' sis blog.. I have this inspiration to create my own blog.. so here goes! Feedback and comments from anyone who happens to read this blog would be great!! :)