Lunden!

So, I have been procrastinating against writing this blog, cuz I have soooo much to talk about London, and I know that I'll be stuck at the computer writing for hours for this post. Also, I have been terribly unwell ever since I got back from London, so I wasn't really in any condition to blog about it...


So! Our layover was in Houston, Texas, so we took the chance to explore southern comfort food at this seafood restaurant called Pappadeux. Since we were in the south, I tried their oysters and crawfish etouffee...


The oysters were HUGE. I guess that was to be expected since the people there were twice our size. It was meaty and very fresh. YUUMMMMM.


The etouffee was HUGE too. As expected. And the crawfish was broiled in a yummy seafood cream sauce, and tasted heavenly with the dirty rice (which was cooked in some cajun spice sauce). Ahhh, so good. We had to pack the rest to go cuz we almost missed our flight to London *whooooops* So good.

Jenn and I didn't really sleep very much on the flight there. The lights were too bright, the seats too crampy, blah blah blah... so...

tadaa! Jenn's last bid attempt to shut everyone out to get some sleep. :P (she'll kill me if she finds out I posted this here)


The first shop I saw flooded me with fond memories of Singapore... man I wanna go back to the Marks & Spencer at Wheelock Place again... fond memories..

I bought a shitload of biscuits from there ( and convinced a not-so-awake Jenn to do the same) cuz I was worried that it'll be the only M&S I'll see... which I found out later that almost every train station has a M&S *gwa gwa gwa*. See, the thing is, I've tried looking into shipping M&S biscuits from London, but apparently they only do bulk and the shipping was like 50 pounds or something exorbitant like that. So.

Saw a Cornish pasty shop on the way out of the airport, and got a Guinness and beef one, so good! Tastes really flavorful with the mixture of potatoes, onions, beef and a faint taste of stout. Yum! Bought another one subsequently, which was lamb and mint, but it tastes like crap, so don't ever get that!


Finally after THREE BLOODY HOURS of traveling on the Southern train, and a bus subsequently, we reached Ariane's pad at Waterloo, the Whitehouse apartments. :) The only thing I don't like is the bloody access cards to the doors. On a sidenote, transportation in London is soooo expensive! I think I spent like 60-80 pounds for transportation for the mere three days I was there. -__- I hate the depreciation of the American dollar. Sigh.

Jenn and I trudged to the London Eye, which was within walking distance from Ariane's apt, and we went on it.

The London Eye...

I thought the inscription was beautiful...
On the London Eye... the Big Ben building in the distance

And well another important looking building... I love the architecture in London, loads of intricate carvings, olden statues... I love it!

Getting ready for a night out...
Went for roasted duck etc at the Four Season's hotel in Chinatown...
Chinatown!
This phone booth stinks of pee and puke. I had to hold my breath for this shot, so my smile was more like a grimace.
They're promoting Singapore there too! Woohoo! :)

The roasted duck that Ariane is so addicted to. It comes in a sweet dark sauce which is pretty good. And the skin is crispy, albeit a little fatty. The meat was moist and tender.
I ordered the japanese tofu with enoki mushrooms, reason being that I had this dish in Chicago and it was really good. I still think that the one in Chicago was better, just because it was cheaper and the portion of enoki mushrooms was more generous. The stock was also more flavorful... but in all, this is still good.
We had the aubergine (eggplant) with fish claypot. It's essentially good flavor, but I felt that the fish is too fried. Ha.
A very happy Keira nonetheless. :P

Which after we were joined by Fay for Amika.
Amika is a newly opened club which quickly got very exclusive, and only frequented by ballers and high profile pple. Ariane had to pull some strings to get us on the guest list!
The bartenders were REALLY PROFESSIONAL. I was blown away. They used tools, they put like twenty different ingredients in each drink, and they really take pride in their drinks! An average drink at Amika was around 12 to 15 pounds tho (= 24 -30 USD), so yea they're worth the price I guess. Man, they really put the bartenders in the states to shame.
The shots are sooo pretty, those red things are raspberry drops. Yum! :)
The best Bloody Mary I've ever tasted in my life. Apparently the secret ingredient is garlic vodka. What the hell is that! :P

We met the owner of the club, and got our fill of free champagne for the whole night. Wee! :)

All in a day's work. I'll blog about the other two days in separate blog entries. This is getting too long.

Nordstrom Visa Signature!

Dear God,

Thank you for the Nordstrom Signature card that came in the mail today. And also, thank you for the credit limit on the card. Amen. :D

Too smart for our own good?

I was brushing my teeth ten minutes ago when I had a thought. How did primitive humans in the past survive without toothpaste, without specialized facial foams, vitamin pills, hair grooming products? Were their teeth rotting, their face covered in acne, their hair in a mess?

I wonder how it would be like to live in a world without currency, without commercialized products, without cars, internet and cell phones? We call it progress, but is it really? With the advent of penicillin, the average life expectancy of mankind was greatly increased from a mere age of 30 plus to 70-80 plus. Yet, if we stop to think, mother nature had other ways of getting back at us. Along came cancer, Alzheimer's, stroke, heart attacks, senile dementia and all other age-implicated diseases.

We came up with industralized crop cultivation, cars and the use of chemical fertilizers to increase our crop yield, and we celebrate our brilliance and "development", but are we truly developing, or are we just taking a step closer to our demise? What with pollution, the ozone layer thinning, the ice caps melting, and the people being plagued by war, by their financial status, by their lack of ability to find a partner, by lack of health due to the excessive artificial chemicals in our diets, wouldn't it be better to go back to how we were before? Where trade was barter, where people don't emphasize on appearances to get a partner, where life was simple.

People always say we're evolving for the better, but I just think that life is more complicated these days, with so many factors that can cause our death, cause misery and depression. Maybe we really are too smart for our own good. If we think about it, there are so many things in the current society that are unnecessary: plastic surgery (as if it would be passed on to your offspring), celebrities, trash magazines (who cares about the celebs' personal lives?), country clubs (just to make the poor feel inadequate), and the rich having a couple of houses too many (their "summer" houses), where homeless people are dying on the streets.

And yet we call ourselves a more humanized society than back in the primitive age. Eh hem.

Excited!

Sorry for the lack of posting, been super busy, what with the exam this week and lab meeting in two days. So, confession of the day (have to copy from HB once in a while. Ha!): I went back to Crab Hut (Louisiana crawfish place) four times this past week. :D I am officially sick of that place. And yesterday, I put some sulphur solution on my face, and it was already itching the whole of yday, and with the aid of a pound of shrimp, lo and behold, my face was covered in red patches. Very sexy. Eh hem.

I guess I had an allergy reaction to the solution prescribed by my dermatologist. To be honest, I had no idea why I put the lotion on anyways, cuz I've had clear skin for a while now. Just like how my sister puts it, I was pretty much asking for it.

A substance-free weekend! It just turned out that way. My face was itching the whole of yesterday, I pretty much darted home straight after dinner. Ha. And I didn't drink at the insulin dependence thingie today. I chose water over wine. It's Easter after all. Should stay away from wordly sins. Ha.

Happy Easter! I never could understand why they have an Easter holiday in Singapore, but not in California. Maybe because we advocate gay couples? Man, could do with Monday off...

Three more days to London! I'm excited beyond words! :) Ariane has already planned everything, from the guest lists to the restaurant reservations. Now all I have to do is to finish that darn presentation, pack and get on that plane with Jenn!

I'll definitely post pictures up, and since I'm bringing my laptop, maybe I'll blog a little when I get there. With the jet lag and the 8 hr difference, I doubt I would be of much efficiency, but well one can only hope.

I realize that this blog is essentially pointless, and actually the whole point of it was to exclaim that I have an obsession on Crab Hut. Which is pretty worthless in its own right.

Oh well, going to bed now. :) Hasta luego. :P Will write soon.

Louisiana crawfish galore!

Woah, didn't realize that I haven't blogged for a while. Been really busy, finals are next week! And lab meeting the week after. And I have this pirate party tomorrow to go to. Bought a slip dress which is kinda like piratish, didn't have much time to go get a real costume. Hope it works! Will take pictures!

Went to this Louisiana crawfish place for dinner, called Crab Hut on Convoy St. It's always packed when I pass by, so we decided to try it after a whole lot of procrastination. I have to say, it's my first time trying Louisiana crawfish, and it was surprisingly good! It was a good experience overall, I have to say!

First of all, they have my favorite Blue Point oysters! The only other place that has it is Real Seafood on Main Street in Ann Arbor, but uhhhh that's a leeeetle too far from here at the moment. Seriously these oysters were super good! I have to say, the best oysters I've tasted in San Diego so far! They were super fresh (no funny after-taste), and super smooth. I LOVED IT.

They had a variety of soups to choose from, and I asked the server which is better, the gumbo soup (sausages, shrimp, okra, tomatoes) or crawfish tomato basil soup. He was like "uh I'm not a big fan of crawfish"... and then he went on "the gumbo soup is a little too thick for me..." -__- I have to say, this is like the most unenthusiastic server I've ever had. Usually they'll be all bright and cheery and say "Well, that's a really TOUGH choice, I mean BOTH of them are good, it really depends on what you like" or something like that. Mike asked him why he works there then. Ha ha. He mumbled something but I didn't catch what he said. Oh well. I chose the gumbo in the end and BOY was it good! It's either laden with a lot of MSG or is really truly good, cuz it's filled with soft sausages, tomatoes, shrimp and okra, and the stock was so flavorful, it hit every palate of the tongue! I have to say, definitely be back for more, even though I was never a big fan of sausages. Heh.

We had the shrimp and crawfish mix in a "full house" sauce, which was a combi of the three sauces they had to offer, and it was really good! It's a very garlicky, tomatoey, buttery, peppery sauce which went really well with the shrimp and crawfish, which were perfectly cooked (not overcooked). The shrimp could be cooked for a slightly shorter period of time, but still pretty good.

The corn on the cob was also boiled in a buttery peppery sauce which was really good. The prices are super affordable too!

Will definitely be back for more. Alright I'm tired. Going to bed!

Leap year birthday! :)

Okay I'm going to blog about Renee's birthday. Her birthday falls on the 29th of Feb, so she's officially SIX this year. She says by the time she's ten, she'll be super old. Ha. It's an ugly sweather theme, and I refuse to pay even a buck for anything ugly. So I lamely put some red ribbons from my gray sweater from Urban Outfitters (which after, I thot was pretty ugly), and walked right in.

Unfortunately, for ALL that effort, Renee failed me instantly the moment she set eyes on me. And she promptly handed me a hideous sweater (Renee: I KNEW you weren't gonna come in anything ugly! I got you this!). She threatened that if I don't put it on, I'll have to paste mirror image pictures of Guang on my boobs.
Exhibit A:

So it turns out that they printed out helluva lot of pictures of Guang in a suit with a smirk on his face, and whoever comes in anything cute will have to slap his pictures on their boobs or crotch. Classy. Best thing is, Guang doesn't know what's going on, until he walked in. Ha.

He gamely put one on his crotch too, and yelling across the room "Who's DA man!" Ha.

And the guys started improvising and cutting his silhouette out and putting it on their crotch so Guang's head looks like a dick. As I said, classy!

And another guy put him on his shoulder, and keep pretending to talk to mini Guang the whole night and force-feeding him cheese.

And when everyone was fueled up by wine, Louis put salami in mini Guang's mouth and made Guang eat it up. I swear to God, so many flashlights going off and video recorders. Wonder where all the videos went... Ha.


They made a boob cake for Renee! It's huge! (Can we really expect anything less from Renee though? :P) AND a penis cake too. Yum. Ha.

The girls in da house and me. I think we put in the most effort (or rather they did, but hey, my sweater was butt ugly), maaan, do we look ugly. Ha. Maybe I'll delete the pictures soon. Ha.

Or and randomly, just got my bday pictures from John. I like this picture! Cuz it captures my happiness that day... Wee! :)

Senile dementia at age 25?

Okay. This is it. I think I'm suffering from senile dementia. I don't know what it is these days, but my mind is in a gazillion places at one time that I keep forgetting stuff. I have a theory. Since my mind is on work and class and a few other places constantly, I do a lot of things out of reflex. Things like locking my car, packing up stuff, some lab procedures etc. I don't really think about these things when I do them like I used to. As a result, I successfully forgot to pack my power cord in my computer bag three days ago, and just yesterday, I thought I had my notes in my hand when I was off to the gym (I like to read the notes now as I go on the elliptical, it's sooo productive), but realized that they were NOT when I got to the gym. -__- Or going back to the car a million times wondering if I'd locked it. I don't know what's happening to me! I think cuz I'm pressed for time these days, I started multi-tasking on an insane level. I can't just do one thing at a certain time. I read my papers when I'm blow-drying my hair (cuz I can't hear but I can still read), I listen and learn songs when I'm doing stuff on the computer, I think about my exam questions when I'm driving. And that I read my notes on the elliptical too. I don't know how long I can keep this up people. Please God, fast forward time so that I can be done with my finals and lab meeting and be on that bloody plane to London!

Also, a disclaimer. I admit I might be a little vain at times, but I'm not conceited enough to go frame my face on a warhol painting like that. This was a birthday present from Moots, and I have to admit, I really do like it! I just have to do this disclaimer everytime people see it on the wall...... well a good reminder of my youth (while I still have it). Maybe someday when I'm 60 and sitting in my rocking chair by the fireplace, with no teeth, I'll appreciate it a lot more. :P Just can't believe the price tag though.

Okay have to blog about Renee's party another time. No time! Anyways, the ugly sweater was horrendous, so no matter. :P