Christmas 2012

Finally done with exams yesterday and continuing our break till the 21st. Thought I'd be able to have a getaway but assignments are breathing down our necks. Sigh.

Thought I'd blog about christmas first before the hype distinguishes. Spent 3 days in London for xmas, came back to Bristol and went again on the eve of new year's for countdown.

Christmas was celebrated with Ryan, Wendy, Lee Wee, Jenny and Vanessa. The others were all over the place in Paris, Prague etc.

Haven't met this girl who was in France for a long time!

With Jenny at Covent Garden.

Headed to Malaysian Hall for some Malaysian food. This was 6.50pounds = RM 32.50 oh lord.

Harrods for shopping up next!

Harrods' food hall's like the atas version of Takashimaya's + Ben's Independent Grocer! The vast selection of fresh food like chocolates, pastries, meat, seasonings can seriously drive you crazy.

One of my favourite macarons! And they were giving free ones out. :B 

So hard to make a decision!

Exotic array of seafood yummies

Loveeeeeee sandwiches!

My favourite tea place!

No pictures allowed but secretly took one!

On a random street in London

Walked all the way to Kings Road just to have the famous gelato, and afterwards we realised that there was one near Leicester Square zzzzzzzzzzzz.

Salted caramel and raspberry for me! It's supposed to be a rose shape but due to the unskilled worker...

Convent girls reunited!

Headed to Hyde Park for the Winter Wonderland sort of funfair. Christmas markets, stalls, rides were set up to usher in the Christmas celebration. From German sausages to French crepes, the whole park was filled with the aroma of food. Didn't try anything cause it was similar to the ones we had in Manchester and Bristol and we were too full.

My favourite carousel

Such a happy picture!

A whole new level of Genting's!

Still had time before our dinner booking so we headed over to Oxford Street to have the Christmas atmosphere sink in as the whole street was decorated with Christmas lights. Just like Singapore's Orchard Road!

Dinner at Sofra, a Turkish restaurant for our Christmas celebration. Food was pretty good and they had a selection of menus from 10.95 to 28.95 if I remember correctly. Opted for the 18.95 one for a 3 course meal. 

Bread and hummus dip for starters

Appetizer of pastries, aubergine and hummus.

Cod for Ryan's 28.95 menu appetizer.

And his steak.

What most of us opted for: grilled lamb, chicken and beef. 

Jenny's grilled chicken

Vanessa's apricot with walnuts and cream

My Christmas pudding

Ryan's kazandibi

Wendy's eton mess, a favourite among British. Cream with meringue bits and strawbies.

Lee Wee's ottoman kadayif

Following day was Christmas Day! And most of the shops were closed while there was no tube service. So we spent our day in Chinatown and Leicester Square which was a stone's throw away from our hotel at Covent Garden.

Leicester Square

Red Indian!

Chinatown

Had a rude encounter with Golden Pagoda, a restaurant there. Asked the waitress if what we ordered was enough for 5 of us and she replied rudely, "How would I know how much you guys can eat?". Got pissed off by that and so we decided that we'll order those first and then we'll order more later if we think it isn't enough. And she said we can't do that cause there's a minimum order of 50-60 pounds per table. Infuriated, we left the restaurant. And while walking out, one of us told the people lining up outside that the food isn't nice out of spite. The boss heard us and shouted out that it isn't the fact that the food isn't nice but we couldn't afford it! 

!@#$%^&*%$@#$%^&^%$#@#$%^&^%$#@#$%^& At that moment I really felt like throwing cash at his face!!! But forget it, shan't waste my time arguing with some money minded person who hiked up the service charge to 25% on Christmas Day. It was a blessing in disguise cause we went to the next restaurant, Loon Tao and the food was to-die-for.

Singaporean fried noodles

Salted fish fried rice

Crispy aromatic duck with wrap

Claypot tofu

Waiter said that he made a mistake while ordering so instead of throwing, he gave it to us for free! Yummiest sweet and sour prawns!

Roast duck, pork and pork belly. Melts in your mouth!

So happy that we finally had yummy Chinese food ever since my first Chinese food in Mayflower in September. And the waitress was Hongkee but grew up in Malaysia so we received great hospitality from him! He told us that he was paid 600 pounds extra just to work on Christmas day. That's like RM3000 for just a day wtf.

Wanted Chatime but it was closed :(

Trafalgar Square

Hot chocolate on a rainy day

Headed back to Chinatown again for dinner cause we had nowhere else to go...

Had dimsum and talked all night in this cafe!

Ham chin peng

Century egg and pork porridge

Tom yam soup

Beancurd

Finally dimsum after ages!

Boxing day the next day, woke up early and lined up at Harrods for the sale! Waited 1 and a half hours before the doors were open lol.

So happy that I had tea in Laduree after shopping! Had my favourite salted caramel macaron as usual...

Raspberry tart

Went to Stradford for more shopping and finally laid my hands on a bag. :D 

Had this to-die-for Brie and ham panini at Harrods for lunch. Best sandwich in my life...

There was tube strike on Boxing day so we had to take the bus and squeezed with loads of people. Journey that's supposed to be 20 mins took over 1 hour and we thought we were late to catch the bus so while lugging our bags, we ran all the way from Regent Street back to our hotel for our luggage.

And after that, we ran after a bus to go to Victoria Coach station for our coach back to Bristol. Nearly died. What an experience for my first Boxing Day!

The thing that cheered us up after running back to the hotel, thank you Ryan!

Wonderful Christmas experience overseas! I guess my white Christmas will have to wait then :( Back to assignments due on 18th and 21st!