A Feast Fit for Kings in a week

How I love weeks like this, when everyday is a feast.

I'm one of those people who gets by the day looking forward to the next meal, I get up looking forward to breakfast, then when the morning gets dull, I start looking forward to my lunch and if by any chance it's a planned lunch with a friend or colleague, it becomes a bit like looking forward to Christmas, and the afternoon goes by ever so quickly looking forward to dinner pondering what nice meal I am going to put together. And if people ask me what I'm doing this weekend, I will probably tell them what's on the menu! I must have starved to death in my previous life, so really appreciating it this lifetime. I know cooking is a hobby but can food on its own be a hobby as well?

Anyway, this week takes the cake. It's the food king week.

First of all, it's Chinese New Year, so that's two days of celebrations and it coincides with Alex' birthday, another excuse to throw in a special meal (or two)

Chinese New Year's Day
Special Fried Rice
Oyster Sauce Chicken
Stir Fried mixed veggies with prawns


Chinese New Year's Day 2
Singapore Fried Mee Hoon
I was also supposed to prepare Asam Laksa Fish, but there was plenty of SFMH, and I thought it was over-ambitious.
Alex' Surprise Birthday Party
Regretably, I was going to do a Murder Mystery Night but a couple of friends could not make it and there weren't enough of us to do the game, only postponed for another time.

I had planned a dinner I was comfortable with like Poulet Basquaise and rice - but got stuck at the starter... while wondering what kind of starter to make, I thought Dim Sum would be great, since it's still CNY - hence I am changing my dinner plans and menus:

Dim Sum for Starters, a selection of Steamed Sui Mai (Pork) and Ha Kau (Prawn), and fried Sui Mai with Sweet Chili Sauce and Hoi Sin Sauce (Plum)
Special Fried Rice
Penang Curry Chicken
Sayur Achar (pickled vegetables)
And my friend Julie made a fabulous Orange cake for dessert.
Served dinner with Champagne and a couple of lovely red Bordeaux Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot Bergerac wine.

In order to not arouse too much suspicion for Alex, I pretended to be cooking for a couple of meals ahead - Note to Self - not be a bad idea for the future.

I had a bit of technical difficulties with the Dim Sum as the steam seemed to be escape all around and not actually through the bamboo baskets, but I eventually thouhgt of placing a cloth over the wok to keep the steam within - only worrying about whether the kitchen towel might catch fire!

Dinner turned out perfect and as ever, we all had a good time.

We were supposedly hoping to finish the week with a day out to China Town in London - we made it for another wonderful Dim Sum meal and caught a glimpse of two Lion Dance, but the day got cut short because our little angel was ill. Not sure we'll do it again next year though as it was terribly busy and we don't really have to wait for CNY to have Dim Sum.

Have a very happy New Year of the Rabbit everyone - lots of love, happiness and prosperity.

2nd birthday

Two years old already... where did time go? Well I guess the first nine months went in playing all day long and not sleeping all night long and meeting little girlfriends while eating cakes and drinking tea and laughing and loving wholeheartedly. Then I went back to work, and there was a whole lot less cake n tea parties and not a lot more sleep, but a lot more fun yet with first steps and first words and other kinds of first times. Anyway, we got there soon enough - 2 years old.

Since we have the most beautiful place in the world - I decided to throw a proper party, complete with gift bags for little guests, finger food, beer and wine for grown-ups and juice for the pregnant moms. Of course, I over estimated everything and invited more people than I could possibly cope with - but somehow wonderously managed to!

We had her three little friends from birth, Matilda, Emma and Libby, with their moms and dads as well as friends from nursery, Amelia, Billy, James, Marleigh and Oliver with their moms and dads. Unfortunately, Byelle felt a bit overwhelmed with the crowd though and clingged on to mom or dad throughout the afternoon, until it was just her three bestfriends left, upon which she had a great time dancing and singing and playing!

Gabrielle was quite spoiled with lots of toys and books and jigsaws but I guess her favourite moment was dancing along 'ring a ring of roses' with Emma, Libby and Matilda or jumping on the bed with James and Amelia!

The Brie, The Bullet and The Black Cat

You have to read this blog post with a heavy French accent... To celebrate the New Year, Alex and I were invited by Alex' friend Grit and her husband Sean.... We met Grit and Sean in Heathrow before Christmas and they invited us to the dinner, a Murder Mystery party.... Grit told us this much and thus the story begins.(remember the French accent)

October 1942. You have been invited for dinner at the Official Residence of the Deputy Mayor of Casablanca. Morocco is a colony of France governed by the Vichy French regime. The guest of honour was to have been France's greatest living mime artist. He fails to arrive, he has been murdered.

I was Nicole Le Grandbutte, the hosts' daughter, 18, both snob and rebelious.
Alex was Otto Von Pinkelwurst, a fanatic gestapo officer.

The party included :

HUGHES LE GRANDBUTTE - Deputy Mayor of Casablanca
EDITH LE GRANDBUTTE - his wife, a former dancer
NICOLE LE GRANDBUTTE - their daughter
OTTO VON PINKELWURST - a Gestapo officer, fanatical and possibly mad.
KIRK RANSOM III - an American who runs Kirk's African Cafe in downtown Casablanca
COUNTESS BOGOV - an exiled Russian aristocrat
MONSIEUR OILY-CARTE - booking agent for the Moulin Bleu in Paris
PIERRE PAYANSKI - a 24 year old half-Russian poet
CHERIE BOOT - a French cabaret singer in her mid-20s
INGRID PITH - a Danish art dealer

I shall not tell you more, for I shall recommend that you gather around enough friends and have the murder party yourself.

The dinner was great, everyone was in character when we got there. Alex played a very good mad fanatic gestapo agent and everyone put on their best French accent, possibly better than my own genuine French accent!!! dinner started at 7.30 and the night finished at 1.30 am! It was so much fun, it can't hardly be described.

I was a great night, excellent fun and now we can't wait to have a place big enough to have an oriental murder mystery night of our own.... to be continued....

The Comtess Bogov, Nicole, Cherie and Edith Le Granbutte (Mother)

Hughes Le Granbutte (my Father), Monsieur Oily Carte, Pierre Payanski (My boyfriend), Otto von Pinkelwurst and Kirk Ransom III (The lover of both my mother and ingrid Pith).

(We were so much in character, that I failed to remember their real names....)

The Best Birthday

Another year, another digit, the clock keeps ticking... but hey, I sound like my boss!!! :P It's been an awesome 31 years so far and I lived so many experiences, visited so many countries, felt so many feeligns that I could be 60, so 31 is plenty young and I possibly have another 50-odd years to continue my journey of discoveries - world, culture, feelings, friends and experiences. My next big projects include:

• Buying a home - big enough with a proper dining area to throw dinner parties
• Starting a family - you'll hear plenty more about this when it happens
• visiting Egypt; and
• Japan; and
• Mexico ; and also
• San Fransisco and Arizona

My birthday this year was awesome; it was on Mother's day Sunday, on the Friday, Ron, called me into his office, to ask something silly about work, and after 3 minutes I wanted to go back to my desk, because this was truly wasting my time, so I went back to my desk only to find that the girls had decorated my desk with the traditional birthday card, bottle of champagne and photos on the wall and desk. They're so lovely (including Ron who was actually trying to by them time!)

Later on the Friday, I received lots of emails and text messages from Dani and Alison from SA; Dan (Blah Blah Blog) and Jay (Kill the Goat); even Alex friend' Justin remembered thanks to Facebook. In the evening, I went out with Sarah and Alison but we celebrated Alison's boyfriend Hywel's birthday.

On Saturday, I got to chat with the whole family in Malaysia and my dad opened a bottle of champagne, Anna baked my favorite chocolate cake and we all 'tchin-tchined' over MSN.

In the evening, we had invited all our friends who did not know each other, but as you would expect, everyone got along famously and we had a fantastic evening at the Nyonya restaurant in Notting Hill, where I got even more spoiled; Nadine gave me a fantastic grey scarf and matching necklace that I wore all week this week; Grit gave me a spa balm for hair, Orla gave me more spa treatment creams to pamper myself with and Seow Ling a book voucher that will buy the guide book for our next holiday - Edinburg. I also got a fantastic pair of shoes from Alex and a guide book from Sarah and Alison, 'Time Out London - for Londoners'. It made me proud, since they are the ones who helped me settle in England three years ago.

It wasn't over until Sunday, when I got phone calls from all the family, including my cousins, whose birthday I always forget, and even Rudiger, the EUMEA Marketing Manager from Germany remembered to text me his wishes.

Christmas

It was a beautiful Christmas Eve with good food (as expected) and lovely presents but best of all, with the wonderful company of the family, cousins and baby Antoine.

First present for first Christmas, with Mom and DadWith Mémie, aka Kitem
With Tonton Alex, who more than ever wants one of these all for himself
Mamie Ese with all four grand daughters, shame her three grand sons were absent, especially my brother and his boys, but I've seen them loads on MSN on Christmas day and Santa Claus, via Tata Hélène brought them very cool Light Sabers; I'm delighted.
I can't complain and got to play loads with Antoine on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and today, Yay!!!!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

It's been another busy year end - I transferred to my new role successfully with a couple of teething problems as you would expect but with more victories than setbacks. We closed 2007 with a bang and now, 2008, Here I Come!

A line up of beauties: (L to R) Beth, Sarah, Alison, Tracy, Dani, Sarah, Me (Thanks go to Hannah for my hair)

A very jolly coach ride to Madame Tussaud

From top to bottom: Me enthusiastically pooring champagne

Ann, Julie, Sue and Jane

Emma, Me, Dani and Hannah

The next morning, Alex asked what wax figurine I saw, and I said "There wasn't a lot, I don't remember seeing any", the photos betray me! (darn photos), however, after seeing this picture, I do remember watching Johnny Depp and thinking, I would not have thought he was taller than me and also thinking he's wearing too much make-up. Martin met with his idol, (I can't believe I did not spot Shrek!!!), anyhow, Martin has been the most wonderful friend this year, he will be my boss next year but we will work as a team needing to achieve one common target; most of the best things that happened to me this year was with a little help from him.
Jun is unfortunately leaving our team, having to relocate to the mother ship in Japan, hope he stays in touch, I know I'll miss him next year.

The girls are a little bit worse for wear at the end of the night, but you are all my witness I never had that much of a good time last year and it was awesome.

Have a very Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

Happy Birthday Julien!

I'm copy-catting Kitem with an ancient picture of the best big brother in the World, surrounded with toys, no ferrari yet. Joyeux Anniversaire mon Juju!

New Year

It is the 13th of January and I am recalling New Year's eve. Actually it is because I like to think of that blog as a personal diary of all the nice things or not so nice that make life exciting and special or a lesson.

On New Year's eve, we were flying back from France, and had dinner plans at Dan and Julie's. However, in the morning, Alex received a call from his little sister Cheryl, who just completed her air hostess course and was flying to London that very evening!!! We were so excited, I called Julie to set one more dinner plate for Cheryl and we hurried back home to drop of the suitcases and pick up the car, to fetch Cheryl. It was such a wonderful way to start the New Year. Cheryl is a very sweet girl and she has grown so beautiful. What makes me the happiest is that since she left home she has grown very close to Alex and being very close to my brother I think it is very important for sibblings to love each other.

We made it to Dan and Julie's a t 11 PM. The party was well under way, and we were well on time to celebrate the New Year. It was a very civilised dinner party, at that suits me well, no drinking beside the Champagne and plenty of cheers and laughter.

New Year's day was lovely too, a beautiful weather and so the three of us walked for lunch to our favorite Chinese restaurant for Dim Sum and Chee Cheong Fun and a bit of shopping. A good start to 2007.