New Year's Eve

Finally 2011 is coming to an end!

Having slept so much yesterday, I decided to make the most of the last day of 2011. The first thing I did was going to gym in the early morning! I thought I could wake up at 7 a.m. but when I found it was still dark at 7 a.m. I decided to delay going to gym. :p (It was not good to walk in the dark!) When I got to the gym, it was around 8:45 a.m.! I thought there would be few people but surprisingly there were already 5 to 6 people and even more later. Was it because people were trying to shed off the extra pounds they had gained during Christmas? I was not harsh on myself - I tried not to work too hard but got myself sweat a bit. Then I went back home and had a nice shower before breakfast.

I had a lunch appointment with the funny couple at a Chinese restaurant. We ordered 6 dim sum - char siu bao, beef rice rolls, siu mai, mini egg tarts, dumplings with Chinese chives (which the English husband of the couple described as coming from another planet!), and curry (deep fried) squids (which were quite tasty but not spicy). Surprisingly there were not many customers - I wonder if it was because the restaurant didn't have half price dim sum discount offer as it had done before, or because people had all gone shopping?

After lunch, the Chinese wife of the couple and I went window shopping while the English husband went shopping himself. The Chinese wife wanted to buy a breadmaker machine and so we had a look at some. It sounds a good idea to make your own bread and I was tempted to do so! :p But a breadmaker machine is too expensive! I guess I have to buy a new frying pan and chopping board first instead!

We then went to a HK-style bakery for a drink. I wanted to have a glass of red bean drink, which is my favourite, but I think I better get something hot as I didn't feel quite well. But later I found that drinking a cup of HK-style milk tea wasn't good for me either. =_='

I cooked myself a nice dinner after going home. I needed something warm, tasty and not too heavy when I didn't feel quite well - I felt like I was getting sick! Hopefully that's not the case. I'm wondering if my 'auntie' is arriving soon, according to my previous 'schedule' and if it's the reason for my being unwell (upset stomach, bloating, nausea, etc.) - I tend to be weaker before 'auntie's visit. =_='

Happy New Year.. Eve!! :p Hope 2012 is getting better! :)

A bag of chestnuts from Marks & Spencer has 40 chestnuts!

And I got them for 10p only! :p 

I gave half of them to the Chinese wife. 

Lunch: curry squids :) 

Lunch: some of the dim sum

Dinner: 3 dishes for myself! :p

steamed salmon in teriyaki sauce, onion omelette & pak choy

(清蒸蘑菇三文魚, 洋蔥炒蛋, 薑汁白菜)

I only ate 1/2 of the salmon 

I can start using this 2012 calendar from tomorrow! Yeah! 

Socially active but physically inactive

Stayed at home all day.

I found that it isn't good for me to stay in bed for too long. I did that today and had a nap in the late afternoon. When I woke up, I had headache. =_=' My stomach was also not well today. I have stomach ache and I feel like I have indigestion. :(  I still had regular meals but that unwell feeling with stomach just made me feel sick. :(

Though I didn't do much physically, I did keep myself 'socially' active by contacting friends via MSN, email, text and facebook messages - that included my Australian cousin whom I hadn't talked to for a long time!

Breakfast: highly recommend this bread - mini Cheese baguette from Morrisons!

So soft. Not too fatty/cheesy.

(and I got it with other bread for 9p only!)

Lunch: egg fried rice leftover + pak choi + beef & potato pasty

Dinner: I just fried the tofu with pieces of leftover roasted chicken legs + pak choi

The fridge is so full of food now, that it's time for me to clear it up! :p

Should say 'no no' to post-X'mas sale!

Busy for nothing day. :p

The first thing I did when I went to the city centre was to return the calendar I had bought from M&S before Christmas as I found it now cost less than it did when I bought it! The 2nd day of gym. I still found it hard to do gym long. Is it becoz I don't have strong motivation? I did a bit of window shopping at M&S after lunch, to see if I can find anything interesting to buy for mum. Things were not getting much cheaper. Perhaps now for me, anything that cost more than £1 needs to be thought twice! I was lucky though to get a bag of chestnuts from M&S for 10p only! I went to Paperchase, one of my favourite shops, as well. There were some stuff that I wanted to buy but the reduced prices were not attractive enough and when I thought twice, those things were not 'necessary'. I wasn't interested to go anywhere else but went back home. Shopping at sales times seems a challenge to me - to make me think about whether I really need to buy things when they were on sale or to remind me not to 'waste' money on shopping for luxury things!

Breakfast: What's special about this bread? 

It was bought from Morrisons. A good surprise that it did taste good,

with some tomato flavour and herbs in it. :) 

Dinner: fried egg noodles with pak choi, cumberland sausages, aubergines, sweet snaps & mushroom

It tasted good!

Last night's soup with tofu added to it tonight.

I'm wondering if there's anything wrong with the soup, 

as I had some 'response' after dinner these two nights - 

stomach ache & rash/itchy skin :( 

Time to 'wake up', be active and sociable

Back to an 'active' mode! :p

A busy day. Gym, laundry, cleaning, soup making... Keeping myself busy without a rush is good for me. There were a lot of shoppers at the city centre. I tried to avoid that by going out and going home early. The day ended with shopping at Morrisons. :D I guess the food in my fridge now can last me till next weekend!!

VIP reminded me that it's time to think about my future - how am I going to continue staying in this country? What do I want to do in future? A good reminder and questions to think about... Also time for me to become active and socialize with people; can't be anti-social any more..

Lunch: egg fried rice with green peas, potatoes & roasted chicken

Soup of the week: 綠豆生地海帶湯

Dinner: cheese & bacon omelette at Morrisons

Unhealthy but tasty! :p

Still zero productivity

The third day of staying home. Nothing new. =_='

I was struggling about whether to go out or not - gym? shopping? The cloudy weather didn't help. I gave up going out at the end, as I just didn't want to spend money yet and just thinking of how crowded the city centre would be frightened me already!  Maybe somehow staying at home allows me to avoid facing the reality? I can just sleep and eat without having to socialize with anyone..

Zero productivity. Just watched some old TV dramas. =_=' I even didn't bother to spend much time on cooking. I mainly reheated the salmon en croute and chicken legs that had been left over...

No more excuse tomorrow! Time to go to gym..

Lunch: salmon en croute with rice again.. 

My stomach has started showing me that it's got fed up with it.. :p

Dinner: instant noodles with chicken leg & broccoli

I know how unhealthy instant noodles are

but my stomach and tongue told me today that they want something like that.. 

Continued my rest on Boxing Day

Continued relaxing myself at home on Boxing Day.

Some shops were open today but thanks to the long queues in Trafford Centre, Selfridges and NEXT, as I got to know from friends on Facebook, I was de-motivated to go out but continued having my good rest at home, which was good. :p I also had a good shower, tidied up my room and had a nap. I took a break from cooking after doing some 'big' meals two days in a row. :p

My arms & legs are telling me I should go out tomorrow - not shopping but doing gym, having eaten so much without any activities over the past few days! :p

My Christmas gift!

Lunch: leftovers - 1/2 Salmon en croute + mixed vegetables :)

Dinner: fine noodles with vegetables & chicken leg :)

One person's Christmas was also enjoyable :)

Spent the Christmas day at home alone.

Christmas Day in this country is like the first day of Chinese New Year in Hong Kong. But in Hong Kong there're still some shops open while here, almost ALL shops are closed! Though I didn't go out today, I can feel how quiet it was on the street - there were only one or two cars in the back street of our flat and most of the cars in our carpark have gone. There used to be some 'banging' sounds from other flats when people open or close their doors but today I can't hear any! Anyway, how quiet it was outside didn't affect my day as I didn't go out anyway. Flatmate went out in the afternoon - I guess she may go to her friend's house to have Christmas turkey dinner?

I spent the day doing nothing but surfed the internet, watched some TV, had a nap (oh feel good these two days after having a nap!) and did cooking. My lower back pain seemed to come back and disturb my sleep. =_=' But that didn't affect me, especially in terms of cooking - Tonight's main course was baked chicken legs! I had thought of making 沙薑雞 or salty baked chicken based on the recipes on ricebowltales website but I didn't have time to buy all the ingredients - so I'd try it later and this time I used some sauce powder I had bought from Tesco. The chicken legs tasted ok but I think the sauce might be too fatty (with oil from the chicken legs and sauce powder); the sauce tasted a bit like gravy one! Though I didn't have turkey for Christmas, it was not bad to have a chicken leg instead. :)

One person's Christmas was also enjoyable!

Lunch: leftovers - fish pie, roasted potatoes, broccoli

This sauce helped me cook my chicken legs tonight!

It tasted a bit like gravy sauce.. 

It was done! :)

Dinner: chicken leg with vegetables :) 

A really silent night on Christmas Eve

A silent Christmas Eve?

I grasped the last chance to go to the gym before it would be closed on Christmas and Boxing day. As expected, the gym was quieter than before - there were only one or two people when I got there. The city centre was also quite quiet in the early morning of Christmas Eve, though later it was getting a bit crowded with last minute shoppers. I was wondering if I should wait till after Christmas when there was sale but when I thought about how crowded and crazy it'd be on Boxing Day and the following few days, I decided to buy what I wanted - that included presents for VIP and for myself (M&S 2012 calendar!). Unlike before, I didn't buy an gifts for anyone else because of my lack of income. I bought a bit more foodstuff as I wanted to make myself some nice meals during Christmas. It seems I have been buying a lot of foodstuff every day but my fridge is not really full yet - does that mean I do eat a lot of things? :p

I went back home around 1 p.m. so as to avoid the crowds in the city centre. I had a long nap before waking up in the evening to prepare my Christmas Eve's meal! The main course was salmon en croute!! I tried to look for some recipes and like many other dishes, there were different 'versions' of how you make a salmon en croute. I just tried the simplest one and didn't add anything but the salmon only into the puff pastry, as I was not sure if it'd be successful. The pie turned out ok and I think it was not as difficult as I had first thought. :)

When I was about to finish my day with some TV, someone suggested going to a friend's house to drop off a gift that I had prepared for another friend of ours. It turned out we spent our first hour of the Christmas Day there as we chatted for a long time. A bit disappointed that Mcdonalds was not open (not surprising as it was Christmas!), as I got a bit high and wanted to eat something festive. :p

Anyway, it was a nice Christmas Eve.

Lunch: a 'plain' lunch as I wanted to save my 'quota' for the dinner :)

- rice with fish pie, fish mew and vegetables

Dinner: home-made salmon en croute!!

It tasted ok, though it didn't look nice.. 

Unproductive pre-christmas day

Stayed home all day. Unproductive, but rest & relaxed.

I sorted and edited the photos for a friend's wedding so that I could burn a DVD for her as a Christmas gift. Later I watched some TV - 'Women with Dreams' IV by Radio TV Hong Kong.http://rthk.hk/special/women4/ I seemed to sit at my desk for too long I could feel my joints were stiff and aching. =_=' Looks like I have to go to gym to stretch my legs & arms.

It looks like this is what my Christmas holiday is going to be - Am I going to be a TV addict who keeps eating and eating?

Lunch: vegetarian - tofu, broccoli, mushroom.. 

Dinner: 'fine noodles' 細蓉 from VIP

with salmon, tofu, broccoli.. 

The noodles remind me of HK.. :) 

Home-made Winter Solstice meal

Today was winter solstice!

When I was in HK, I had a reunion meal at home with my family on winter solstice. It is said 冬大過年 (winter solstice is more important than Chinese New Year). Since I came to the UK, I seldom have 做冬/冬至 meal since I'm alone anyway. This year I wanted to treat myself and so had 冬至 meal with my VIP. :) The meal didn't have any 'big' ingredients like seafood. I only cooked some dishes and made Chinese soup. But being with your 'family' is what the winter solstice meal is about!

Finally I started doing gym again after being absent from it for almost a month! But it was a tough start - I found it tiring to do even 5 minutes! I could also feel how tight my muscles were. Anyway I'll keep going to gym but I won't do exercises too intensively. I just want to feel 'active'.

2 more days go to before Christmas!

Tonight's soup

Breakfast: my favourite blueberry muffin from Waitrose! :) 

Lunch: salmon with tofu & broccoli

Dinner: omelette with mushroom 

Dinner: chicken with mushroom & chestnuts

Dinner: broccoli with garlic

Dinner: soup (清補涼花膠湯)

My first visit to X'mas market of this year!

Finally I went to the Christmas market!

Unlike previous years, I didn't have as much desire to go to the X'mas market this year. It was usually the food that drew me to the markets! :p I remember I tried some nice hot dogs and steak buns before. As for other things like Christmas decorations and some mini stuff, they seemed to be the same every year! The big crowds in the markets also terrified me! That was why I didn't visit Christmas markets till tonight when they were about to close! I didn't really spend much time in the markets and I didn't visit all the stalls either. I was mainly interested in food - was thinking of trying hot dog again (the long, big sausage with a lot of sauces! :p) but gave it up when I saw how expensive it was! We did try dutch mini pancakes at the end. They were really expensive - £3 for only 10 mini pancakes! Anyway, at least we have tried to do something 'christmas'. :p

I saw the female doctor again today. She told me my blood test results about my auto-immune system were 'normal'. :) She agreed to my request for prescription of more vitamin D tablets to treat my vitamin D deficiency. But I felt a bit terrified when I was told that I had to take them for 6 to 8 months... Anyway, I did feel better after knowing that my health wasn't as bad as I had thought of..

Lunch: simple - the leftovers (chicken with mushroom) with noodles :) 

Hi and Bye Santa Claus!

Yo! Yummy dutch mini pancakes! :) 

Dinner: tricolour pasta in mushroom soup with salmon, tofu & vegetables :) 

Christmas gathering with ex-colleagues

Christmas gathering with ex-colleagues again!

This was the 3rd year we ex-colleagues had Christmas gathering. In the previous two years we booked a table for Christmas dinner - a 3-course meal and we exchanged gifts. This year we seemed to get a bit lazy. We didn't book for Christmas dinner; we didn't exchange any gifts. Instead we just had dinner at a Japanese restaurant. It was still good because after all we just wanted to have a get-together and a nice evening with laughter.

I also met with my ex-employer (university one) and another ex-colleague of mine earlier in the day. I felt relaxed and happy to see them. They were people who wouldn't show a 'fake' smile to you while doing something bad to you.

The day ended with me having a bit of itchy and rash skin again! :(  Not sure if it was the food I had at a Chinese restaurant, or the chicken wings from a Chinese shop at Arndale Centre food court, or the food from the Japanese restaurant. The Chinese food seem to be the most potential suspects, though I can't exclude the Japanese food that may have something that I was allergic to...

*****

This was a gift I gave to my ex-employer.

Actually I did want to eat it myself.. 

Lunch: rice with tofu at a Chinese restaurant

Actually it tasted ok and it had my favourite (tofu)

But still I have phobia for Chinese restaurants here.. 

A gift from one of the ex-colleagues who has been enjoying cooking/baking

I wish I could cook/bake things like she does! 

Maybe I should think about baking again.. 

Finally the laneige sleeping pack!

I have heard about it for a long while and wanted to have it! 

Now I got it via my ex-colleague who had just come back from HK. 

Hope it'll help improve my skin.. :P

My favourite bento!
I like the box more than the food. 

The karage chicken was not as good as before. 

This was my ex-colleague's bento.

I like the salmon! :) 

Dessert: the ginger ice-cream was quite nice! :) 

Lazybone in hibernation :p

In a lazy-bone hibernation state today! :p

It's getting colder these days. I find it hard to 'survive' in such a cold weather, especially when home in daytime, as I try not to turn on the heater till in the evening. I didn't feel like doing anything at all. =_=' I didn't do any cleaning; I didn't go to the gym (I had promised myself I'd get back to exercise!); I didn't go shopping (was thinking of buying some food from Chinatown and doing some Christmas shopping). I only did a bit of tidy up. In the afternoon I had a nap for more than 2 hours! =_=' It's not a bad thing - let my body recover and get enough rest before the coming week. But it wouldn't be so good if I did that every day! I need to think about how to keep myself warm (at a low cost)...

It was so cold today that I saw the ground in our carpark was icy!! That was another excuse for me not going out! :p I never like to go out and walk on an icy road...

Lunch: rainbow trout with mixed vegetables (peppers, carrots & brussel sprouts)

I ate so much last night that I thought I better eat more healthily today.. 

Dinner: pasta in tomato soup with mixed vegetables & egg, a bit of rainbow trout & fridge raiders (piri piri)

This pasta from Sainsbury's is still the best among all those I've tried.