Wiki Leaks!

So that Julian Assange was just around the corner yesterday.

So were many of those journalists standing around near the court. The lucky ones got their little guys waiting for new movements then themselves sitting at the Starbucks.

I've checked out Guardian's website.

This is one of the leaks on Taiwan.

Taiwan




------



11. (C) The Deputy Secretary asked MM Lee for his assessment of Taiwan. MM Lee said former President Chen Shui-bian had left Taiwan in a weak economic position, which had enabled President Ma Ying-Jeou to come to power with his pledge to strengthen the economy through means including expanding the three links with China. In Beijing, former President Jiang Zemin was wedded to his eight-point approach, but President Hu Jintao was more flexible. Jiang wanted to show he was a great man by solving the Taiwan issue in his lifetime, but Hu is more patient and does not have any fixed timeline. In Chinese domestic politics, Hu had wanted Vice Premier Li Keqiang from the Communist Youth League to emerge as his successor, not Vice President Xi Jinping, but Hu did his calculations and accepted Xi when it became clear that Xi had the necessary backing from the rest of the leadership. Similarly, on Taiwan, Hu will be pragmatic. It does not matter to Hu if it takes 10 years or 20 or 30. The key is building links with Taiwan. As in the case of Hong Kong, if necessary the tap could be turned off, he said.



12. (C) In this context, MM Lee said, Hu could live with Ma's positions on the '92 consensus and on not addressing the reunification issue during his term in office. What mattered to Hu was that Taiwan not seek independence. If that happened, China has 1,000 missiles and is building its capacity to hold the U.S. fleet at a distance. The implicit question for Taiwan's leaders is if that is what they want, MM Lee said.



13. (C) MM Lee stated that the alternative is Mainland investment in Taiwan stocks and property. The Mainland has already assured Hong Kong that it will help out economically. The Mainland has not said this to Taiwan, but the Mainland's Taiwan Affairs Director, Wang Yi, did urge Chinese companies to invest in Taiwan. In four years Taiwan's economy will pick up and Ma will win re-election. The DPP lacks strong potential candidates. Su Zhen-chang is promising, but seems unlikely to be able to win. Meanwhile, even the traditionally DPP-supporting farmers in Taiwan's South need China's market for vegetables and other products. Taiwan's continued participation in the World Health Assembly depends on Beijing. Beijing's calculation seems to be to prevent Taiwan independence in the near term, then bring Taiwan "back to China," even if it takes 40 or 50 years. MM Lee said he is looking forward to visiting Fujian Province, where preparations are underway for a new southern economic area linked with Taiwan.

Snowy London!

I am probably one of these very few people in the UK to be excited about snow and the coldness.

Even though the nasty old asthma has been brought back again this winter.

I cannot help myself to start feeling wonderful and romantic when all is covered in white.

I love the view so very much- am coming out of the kitchen with every excuses.

Also took some pictures while passing by ST James park.

 I love this!

Frozen river/ lake at the St James.

Ginger cake from north England:

Parkin.

Super easy!

You will need:

Wet:

200g golden syrup

1 tbsp treacle

100g salted butter, melted

1 egg

200g brown sugar

Dry:

200g oat

100g plain flour

1 tbsp ground ginger

1 tbsp baking powder

How to make this:

1. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl.

2. Mix all wet ingredients plus the brown sugar in a bowl.

3. Mix both together. Pour into baking paper lined dish.

4. Oven pre-heated at 150 degree. In the middle shelf, bake 45 minutes.

Heaven for you if you are a ginger lover!



At last...

I still cannot believe that I can finally travel freely as the Taiwanese passport holder!

Bless the EU commissioner.

I have shopped all day and cooked all night- for my lovely Canadian client.

The menu is like this:

• Butternut squash and yellow spilit pea soup made with coconut milk
• French Provencial chicken stew
• Macaroni and cheese
• Superfood salad
• Super mixed fruit salad
• French apple tart
• French style brownie
• Homemade whole grain sour dough
• Canadian corn bread

I must be pretty fast. I started at 18:30 and it's 01:30 I am waiting for my bread to finish baking.

Well, also thanks to my regular client- I got to know almost exactly how they prefer their dishes and the quantity they would like- through their regular orderings. This- made my job a lot easier.

Great news! Visa waiver for Taiwanese passport holders approved

Visa waiver for Taiwanese passport holders approved

Today, the Commission proposal on the transfer of Taiwan to the list of third countries whose nationals do not need a visa to travel to the EU has been adopted. Taiwanese passport holders will soon be able to enter the EU Member States without a visa for stays of up to 90 days. Today's adoption by the Council was the final step in the procedure towards the visa exemption, which has been preceded by the approval of the proposal by the European Parliament on 11 November 2010.
Commissioner Malmström said: "Today is a very important day for EU-Taiwan relations and I welcome the Council's decision giving the green light to our proposal. Waiving the visa obligation for Taiwan will facilitate people to people contacts, enhance business opportunities and give the possibility for them to get to know the EU better. Today's decision is the result of intensive and hard work for the authorities and the people of Taiwan in meeting the criteria requested to lift the visa obligation. I congratulate them for the great efforts made and the important results achieved. I am sure that the full reciprocal visa waiver will give a boost to the already good relationship between Taiwan and the EU in various sectors, such as tourism or trade, for the benefit of all parties''.
The EU is an important destination for Taiwanese travelling overseas, both for tourism or business purposes. The decision also fulfils the European business community long standing wish that will contribute to deepening trade and investment relations between both sides. The EU is Taiwan's fourth largest trading partner and its first foreign direct investor. Easier travel conditions will contribute towards strengthening economic relations as well as people-to-people contacts.
For instance, last year, more than 175 000 Schengen visas were issued in Taiwan and thanks to the visa-free regime, the number of visitors to the EU is now expected to increase by at least 30%.
Taiwanese wishing to visit the 25 Member States of the Schengen area or Bulgaria, Romania and Cyprus up to 90 days e.g. on business, as tourists or family visitors will no longer require a visa. The short-stay visa waiver will not apply either to "overseas" passport holders, whose travel document does not contain an identity card number. Taiwanese visiting the Schengen area will also need to make sure that they meet the entry requirements when crossing the external borders of the EU as laid down in the Schengen Borders Code.1
Taiwanese wishing to stay in the Schengen area more than three months, or to live, work, marry or study there for longer than three months will need to obtain a national visa from the Member State concerned as before.
Furthermore, also as a result of the visa waiver process for Taiwanese, based on the principle of reciprocal treatment, as from 11 November 2010 Taiwan granted visa-free travel to the nationals of Romania, Bulgaria and Cyprus, who were subject to the visa obligation beforehand.
The visa waiver for Taiwanese passport holders will become effective 20 days after publication of the Regulation in the Official Journal of the EU. From that day onwards, EU citizens can stay in Taiwan for up to 90 days without requiring a visa.
Background
Today's decision is also a response to the political support expressed by Member States for Taiwan's request to grant visa-free travel and it reinforces the coherence of the EU's policy in the region by aligning Taiwan on other third countries, like Singapore, Japan or South Korea, which already enjoy visa exemption.
Currently, the Schengen area includes 22 EU Member States and three associated States (Norway, Iceland and Switzerland). Once they enter the Schengen area, third-country nationals can move freely from one Member State to another for a maximum period of three months within a half year. The visa waiver will also apply to Romania, Bulgaria and Cyprus which are not yet members of the Schengen area.

1st of December!

Cannot believe that it is December already.

Time is flying by awfully fast.

I still remember getting the Christmas tree last year-just! And here I am, another December...

A time to reflect. Much has happened this year.

Fifi, my love, for one.

Much hasn't happen yet. And while I am waiting for it to come by, my life goes on. With this very sleepy cat , of course.....

Snowy day in London!

It's so pretty! The snowy London. I walked in this wet snowy weather and I was smiling secretly under my little blue hat. White flakes drifting from the sky- how romantic?

I love this weather.

It's freezing here in London.
Night falls much faster than it had been in the summer time.
I went back to work after a long weekend.

Asthma is a crazy thing. I've had it when I was a kid. I thought it had left me... until this very weekend- it left me think about death and how short a life is.

I don't want to come to this illogical conclusion that "everytime when I take an over-dued holiday I would have some kind of serious sickness!"

Though last time when I didn't take my holiday until later, much later, I had chicken pox at my tender age of almost 30...

And that was more than 3 years ago.

No point of moaning. The past is a falsified pretty picture. We all remember something that made us feel better.

Snowy days brings back the memory of Germany and Switzerland. So long ago and yet I felt that it was just like yesterday. Beautiful white flakes that reminded me about my solo travelling.

Nigella Lawson and my own cupboard burgle wheat mix!

I watched NL's tv program last night. She is as pretty as ever- GOD- how do you make such perfect wife/mother material into a human form? I guess Mr. Saatchi have all the answers. He, after all, is the lucky Man to be NL's husband now. I hope he is indeed very nice to her and eat with her for all her fabulous culinary creations!

Anyways, I was inspired by NL. I made a quick burgle wheat mix this evening- Yes I totally agree with her: It's just like some kind of rustic couscous. What a shame I didn't have the vermecelli to make her Greek-ish recipe. But then my brother is in TW and he wasn't a big eater when I left- so be it!

Yes, it's with a bit of spice and yet without you calling out to the glass of tap water!

I love love love NL's programs though. She is a very nice and cool Capricorn lady!

Perfect!

Stir-up weekend follow up! Happy day off!

And that I went to the Dentist this noon.

No problem! Just the usual check up. But you know their tricks- a clean up and they will tell you that your back wisedom tooth needed pulling out. It seems to me that the closer it is to X'mas the more desperate even the dentist becomes.

Nevermind- I manage to smile through her Humiliation on whether I brushed my teeth the past 3 days- Can you image? She even put me through the teeth staining experiment, said that it was usually preserved for people less than 5 years old. Of course I did brushed my teeth everyday! Sorry that I didn't do it as well as she thought I should have- and thank her for being this "mean" goddess of teeth. but hey! As a private dental practitioner- perhaps she should be thinking a little about how to treat your customers- especially when they are paying A LOT comparing to the NHS for all the things that happened inside thier mouths.

Nevermind that- I have managed to stall her off for pulling my tooth off when there isn't anything wrong with it.- for about 1 month. I shall cancel her as my dentist asap when I find a new one in the mean time.

Silly me! This is my day off. Took some pictures for updating. Let's see:

FIFI and the preserving jars. Blueberry jam from the left- killer chilli sauce- Korean kimchi- chilli sauce again.

My almost ready sour dough starter!

Prove that I wasn't the one nibbling on JD's bread!

We see who is the Bread eater!

Finally have 2 days off: Friday and Monday! Yappy!

I have a class coming up this Sunday (since I wasn't working Friday and Monday already!) and it's about Taiwanese and Dim sum culinary art. I am very much looking forward to it.

Menu is like this:

Taiwanese style wintery lamb hot pot

Taiwanese style rice vermicelli

Taiwanese street market style beef and cabbage bun

Prawn and spicy bamboo shoot cheung fun

Pork and chive pot strickers

Mix and match!

What a day off- First thing I knew- I was bitten by my beloved kitten (if 8 months counts 1) and had a bleeding finger to wake up from! Long story but the blood was real. Cannot say that I didn't hate him there and then but so were all those big love stories- you suffer and you carry on giving your love.

I, S J,  a sucker when regards to my cat.

Love is never an easy path to take! Even with your cat!

Stir-up Sunday! Part 3. Korean style Kimchi! X'masy jam!

I thought, while we are stirring away before X'mas. Let's do some oriental stirring then.

Simple Korean Kimchi:

(This is for my friend Felix- he used to go out with a Korean girl- guess he wouldn't be a stranger to the chilli thing!)

Ingredients:

1kg white cabbage

3 tbsp sugar

4 tbsp maldon salt

3 tbsp chilli flakes

2 tbsp fish sauce

2 tbsp sesame oil

2 tbsp rice wine ( I, of course, use Taiwanes rice wine!)

How to make it:

1. Quarter the white cabbage. Trim off the heart bit. Finely shredded the quarters lengthwise.

2. blanched the shredded cabbage in boiling water for 10 seconds.

3. Strain th cabbage. Wrap them in the dry tea towels to squeese them dry.

4. Mix the dried cabbage with all seasonings.

5. Filling the mixture to the sterilised jar. Keep in the fridge. Enjoy when you want!

Jam making is a beautiful business. Not only your kitchen smells divine, you get to satisfy your inner Culinary goddess with all the stirring and nothing else.

How you will achieve this simple business:

1kg frozen or fresh berries (I use a bit of everything: blueberry, raspberry, strawberry, blackberry...fruits)
1 kg jam sugar

Now, let's not laugh- we will just put everything (sugar and berries) in a pot- bring to boil- pour the red mixture to the pot- leave to cool down- there you have it!
Keep it in the fridge.

DEAD easy!

My darling FIFI!

I hope there are actually some people following my blog.

If that's the case- you will know about FIFI- I dearest baby.

Who is always there for me when I am cooking away in the kitchen.

This is for him!

My Best boy in the whole world!

Stir-up Sunday! Part 2. Mincemeat!

So that on Saturday I went out and did some shoppings- a purple postcard, some orange peels, a dark cherry yogurt and of course a bottle of BEAUJOLAIS NOUVEAU.

We are, after all- 2 days after the third Thursday in November. And this blog's name is: A glass of wine and many thoughts. While documenting my many thoughts, I must remember to have a glass of wine. This very one that I am drinking now is perfect for this time of the year!

Mincemeat has always made me feel so English Christmasy! I am participating to becoming one and I thought what else could be more fitting to cook for this time of the year.

BOBO's Fantasy Mincemeat:

Ingredients:

500g dry mixed fruits (I use raisins, cranberries and apricot)
200g orange peels (I bought them from waitrose)
1 large cooking apple, grated
1 orange, zested
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp cardamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground clove
175g sugar
2 tbsp strong liquor (rum, brandy or vsop, depends on what you have at home.)

How to make it:

1. Easy! Just prep everything and mix them all in a large bowl.
2. All you have to do is stirring!

3. Alright. You will have to wash and sterilise your good old jar. But it is EASY! You only have to wash or rinse it before putting it in the preheated oven at 180c for 20 minutes. Leave it to cool down in the oven while you busy away with everything else. It's that DEAD easy! ( I feel like a hairy bikers when I said this...hahaha)

So my good mincemeat baby is ready to sit in the dark place and I will feed it every week with a bit a rum or vsop or whatever I can lay my hands on. Until a week before X'mas that I shall be making mincemeat pie (most likely MINI ones!) I will start to use it.

Simple! No?

While I was AT it, I also had a crazy (not that crazy actually. I was a Fake FRENCH baker before...) idea- to make my very own Sour Dough Starter.

This is how it looks like:

How you will make it: (if you want to make your very own delicious sour dough!) I will just skip the ingredients part because they are just too few...

1. Weight 100g bread flour.
2. Add enough Warm water to it to make a thick paint consistency thing.
3. Cover it with a piece of cling film. Let's wait for it to develop!
4. Feed the Starter baby everyday 100g flour. (if it gets too much, you will have to get rid of half of it by day... we will see... I never could do that- only just change them to a bigger home.)
5. You are ready to use them after 10 days!

I cannot wait to make the good old Sour dough bread with my surname in the oriental writing: YU on it! (haha, this is how I used to style them!)

Anyways, as I was getting hungry, I also made a soup:

Left over lamb shank bone stock with celery, goji berry, green mango, and chilli soup

You will need:

Some left over roasting bones ( I have 6 roasted lamb shank bones)
3 sticks of celery, chopped
1 handful goji berry
1 green mango, peeled and cut up the meaty parts
1 tbsp chilli
250g shitake mushrooms
some cooked meat (sausages, mince, ham, steaks... whatever that's left over... I use 8 merguez sausages.)
Salt and pepper to season

Method:

1. Bring 3 litres of water to boil with the bones in it.
2. Stir in the chopped celery, goji berry, green mango, chilli and shitake mushrooms. Cook for 5 minutes.
3. Stir in the cooked meat options. (you can always keep it vegetarian style- with some tofu additon.) Cook for 3 minutes. Season the soup before enjoying it!

Easy supper!

 Yummy!



RCA Secret adventure!

Well... well...well...

It has been a relaxing and constructive weekend in my household. Now that I even manage to write my 2nd posting for the blog. I am turly pleased with myself.

I went to the RCA Secret 2010 yesterday aftyernoon. Arrived at around 2pm- I left the place with my "surprise" purchase at 5 minutes to 4pm. As the actually buying process took about 1 minute (I am a very quick shopper!). Let's say: I have queued almost 2 hours for a little postcard.

Most of the people probably went for the Master pieces from those famous artists. The fun thing about it is you don't know whose postcard that you are buying. The official description is like this:

RCA Secret is a unique annual exhibition and sale of original postcard-sized art, made by professional artists, designers and illustrators, plus current postgraduate students at the Royal College of Art.

I suppose there must be some specialists on the usual creative styles of those famous artists. They would, I suppose again, to queue from the night before to buy those post cards (4 limited for each person!) at £45 than to re-sell them at the open market.

My motivation was not as such.

Though I would pretty much like to buy a postcard creation from THE Mr. Manolo Blahnik (Yes, he IS on this year! No, I DID check- there isn't any high heel drawings there. I wonder what he made for this occassion?), the reason that I went was purely IDIOTIC! Naivety was the better word for it. I went to support those art students- fine art strudent award fund is where all the money go.

I, myself, was not a very artistic person. I do my small crazily complicated things in the kitchen at times and go to see art exhibitions when I am invited. However, the time that was well spent at the Goldsmiths college only made me aware of the true life style of those fabulously arty people.

If I cannot feed them all. Let's go and buy a postcard from them!

When I came out after 2 hours moving about in the motionless queue. It was freezing! I couldn't even look at my newly acquired postcard for more than 5 seconds before stuffing it back to my bag.

5 minutes after walking down the RCA, there is Natural history Museum with ice rink. Very romantic!
You want to know whose postcard I got?

Well, let me explain how I decided on this very one that I bought.

As it was already 2pm when I started queuing. Most of those more interesting items must have been bought. (They opened the door at 8am...) After one and half hours later in the RCA standing around listening to my music (God bless Ipod!) I finally arrived in the basement and got to look at those 2 big tv sets of what was left for purchasing.

Of course, as I crossed off the numbers on my notes (all postcards are numbered, did I mentioned that there are 2800 of them?)- I realised that it was not possible to get one that I liked in the first place. But then I have queued for 1.5 hours- surely the time mustn't be wasted.

I just went with the colour in the end. Purple is the one that I have in mind. When it was finally my turn to go to the casher- I went for 410. As it was the only one that I could see clearly with my not very good eyes That it is very purple.

The artist's name is Kevin Gaffney. The name of the creation is: Canary.

It is kind of a print or a picture, I am not sure... ( I already say that I am not very arty! I am merely a supporter!)

On his website, there is this story about : a tiger, a canary & a heartless heartbeat.

I must say I quite like this story and how my decision to go to the RCA this afternoon had lead me to it.

Ok..ok...- the canary lookes like a purple chicken or a Chinese dragon with many teeth. I thought.

Stir-up Sunday!

And it has been about 1 month since I last posted anything on this blog. As usual, lots have happened (when doesn't it? It's my real life after all) and I, I am still here.

I walked home on this lovely casual Friday afternoon. Lovely decorative windows with all that temptations calling out to the seasonal shoppers. St. James was dark already when I passed by it.

Beautiful! Wasn't it?

I came back home to my sweet FiFi, was feeling calm and ready to achieve something.

So here I am!

Last night's party was great! I loved being at the Wallace Collection. Beautiful location and they had even better music this year- A jazz band going on! The food was more than expected- from "Rocket". I love the fact that they have this pretty and little blond chef stirring away at a pot of rice with a lovely smile in front of you. The wild mushroom risotto of course was spiked with lots of Truffle oil. Totally delicious!

However; due to my last year's INDISCRETION- I have decided to cut down on my intakes of glasses of champagne. I was home by 22:00 to my lovely straw playing darling.

The party would not be completed- without a party trick! Ours this year was Caricature painters.

This is mine:

Amazing how a short space of time they can paint you in the flesh! I totally love the experience!

Came home in a taxi with a pregger lady who is due in 2 weeks- my good deed of the week!

This morning I was happily woke up with my sweet- to clean the non- functioning dish washer! At 04:10!

So no matter what- my stirring away weekend is going to be like this:

Homemade mince meat!

Porter plum pudding!

Perhaps some fruity jam.

I have been here for so so long- let's do it properly the English way! Now that our beloved cancerian Prince William is marrying the good old Capricorn Princess! I feel that I have something great to celebrate!

I shall be cooking all of those things from tomorrow and will take some pictures while I will be at it!

About work.

I might or might not be the true master of my own faliure soon.

Exciting but everything is not settled yet. I will update on this soon.

X



Get a life!

So that my boss has told me to get a life.

No. That's not quite right. She had only told me to take some time off for myself- but as any good employee would know her/his employer-you learn to READ between the lines.
To cut the long story short- hence the time that I have been away from this- quite a lot had happened at work.
Funny though I had thought about 3 years ago: it couldn't be simpler than being a chef. You just deal with the vegetables and dead animals. What could happen in a peaceful kitchen?

Now that I know better- mine was never going to be an easy ride.

I am not saying that it isn't fun or exciting for me. I am not saying that I haven't enjoyed every moment of it. This job has offered so much to me, only that I have not expected so much to happen in such a short space of time.

Enough about the moaning. And everything is yet rolling into a bigger snow ball. While I am waiting for it to happen. Like my boss said: you need to take some time off and just do nothing and relax.

This is mine: "Doing Nothing".

I have been travelling in my kitchen with all different styles of cuisine everyday. This week- I have a Munich day.

I am extremely fond of Munich. For the memories and everything else. Was thinking to make a LEBERKASE for the occasion but for the timing reason, I had decided against it in the end. Apart from the usual sausage salad, apple + potato salad and grilled mackerel Isar river style from my good old time. I have also made Schweinshaxe. I was very pleased with it. It wasn't hard and it is very similar to our Taiwanese special porky dish. The only difference is the addition of oriental ingredients: soy sauce, ginger, garlic and star anise.

For this special day, I have also made an extremely simple and Germanic dessert: some sort of Apfelstrudel.

Kind of Apfelstrudel

ingredients: 

1/2 pack of filo pastry (from supermarket)

125g butter, melted
3 apples, peeled-cored and cut into small pieces

juice of 1/2 lemon
50g sugar
5g ground cinnamon


for the topping:
60g softened butter
60g sugar
150g flour

Method:

1. Cut the filo pastry to fit a small baking dish. Line the baking dish with layers of filo pastry with melted butter brushed onto each sheet.

2. Sprinkle chopped apple+ sugar+ cinnamon+ lemon juice onto the filo pastry lined baking dish.

3. Mix the softened butter with sugar before mix in the flour- spread this over the apple layer.

4. Bake in the oven 180 degree for 30-40 minutes. sprinkle some more icing sugar on top before serving.

This dessert is so easy. I almost feel embarrassed when guys at work asking me for the recipe. Necessity is the mother of most of my recipe creations. I had half pack of filo left from the Greek day and some old apples to use. Butter and sugar are readily available in my kitchen. Everything fell into places. Simple!

Changing the topic. This is the Poutine that I have tried for my Canadian day preparation.

I don't know if there will be some Canadian people reading this when I post this blog. If there is any- please be kind enough to let me know about any authentic Canadian place in London. I had this Poutine in a Canadian pub near Charing Cross. Although I have enjoyed it very much while being extremely sick and doing research for work. I don't think this is the real thing. 1st of all: Cheese curd! It's not something that I know exist in the UK. I have read that the closest thing to it is Mozzarella. 2nd: turkey or beef gravy. This one tasted like Bisto. Nothing is wrong with Bisto. I just want to try the real thing. Anyways, I have now a pretty good idea what this is like- so I will post pictures when I have done one.

Monday, Blue Monday.

So that I was extremely late on my serving for lunch. I had spent too long on cooking the Hot and sour chicken and squid soup. While many recipes that I came across are fine, I was actually looking to make the perfect chicken stock for the base of my soup. Cleaning the squid is a nightmare. You don't usually think about CLEANING the squid like a mindless cleaner. There are just too many fibres to take off, once you start with it. You cannot stop yourself. Same as for many things in life.

I had a lovely conversation with this very Cancerian girlie today. She had certain doubts about someone in regards to the matters of her heart. As I was EXTREMELY late on my thing, I replied even without thinking: Well, it's like shopping. If you don't even like it in the shop, how on earth will you even manage putting it on once you get home?

She was very impressed. I, on the other hand, was in a hurry to get back to my dining area to post my lunch menu. Thinking about it later on; while my hands are occupied with putting things away. I thought it was very funny. True enough, we always think too much. Many decisions are made after many sleepless nights and this is just not the way to do it. We always know what we want and perhaps they are not always the best choices for us. But for desires-simple things- your heart knows best. You might be at fault no matter what. That's a fine thing to learn.

Breakfast wraps! Friday is here!

Just I am often wondering What on this earth that they put into those cat treats? I am going to get some of that and make a new kitty perfum for all of us long suffering cat owners. Maybe it will finally improve human and cat relationships. Until then, I am going to continue giving the excess amount of love and patiences and cat treats to my one and only darling-FIFI.

Really he is a very sweet cat. Like all my previous relationships; I am trying to convince myself that he will one day come around and just be calm and offers me his love- consistently. It is there and I can feel it sometimes. It's just that when he is hurting (scratching!) me, I think I have a very good reason to have some reservations. We have our moments and we have our frosty days, often straight after he draws some blood of mine. I cannot help feeling that it's a lot like a real love relationship. We are still learning about each other. For my sake (and his) I hope this is going to develop itself to become a better one.

 I enjoy very much walking home after a long day at work. Partly it is because of my lovely i pod music selections and partly it is because of the wonderful parts of London that I must walked through.

Not that I don't enjoy shopping on the New Bond St. So many shops that You could possibly spent the whole day there and still have to come back for another 1/2 day just to finish it off. My favourite part of my journey is straight after that and through St. James park. I have some pictures to prove just how wonderful it is.

I love walking down Horse Guards Rd and crossing the Birdcage walk. So very pleasant!

My street. What a lovely place- I enjoy living in Westminster! Just like how I was( or rather my parents are), living in the central of the city. I am just around the corner of the Random House- where I always watch their milk delivery man dropping off their dairy supply while trying to catching the morning bus to work almost every morning (unless and this is becoming "too often" that I had to take a taxi at Iron Lung!).

I am so very inspired by my area and Barbra's music- we will have some hearty food recipes tomorrow!