Sunday, December 14, 2008

An English 'Aidiladha

I had to spend one 'Aidilfitri overseas, so why not make it even and spend one 'Aidiladha overseas as well?


Frosted leaves scattered all over the ground you walk on- Toto, I don't think we're in Malaysia anymore... :P


Yes, it's another meeting, in Aylesbury this time, smack in the middle of the Raya Haji celebration week!


I wasn't alone this time. I'm tagging along to Pauline, my senior colleague, who's luckily very travel-wise and made the experience so much fun for me :)

A word to the wise, when traveling abroad, no matter how unsafe it feels, bring CASH! Or stick to your credit card though keep in mind that you won't be able to use it on all occasions. I had one HELL of a time finding a place to cash in my traveler's cheques in Aylesbury!!!


Of course we wasted no time. Pauline had her friend book us a table at a halal restaurant and so we journeyed into London the very next evening... It took an hour by train from Aylesbury, then another half hour by underground tube to get near the vicinity of the restaurant.


The place is called Original Tagines and it served delicious Moroccan food. I went crazy in there because it could be some time before I tasted any more halal meat on this trip :p


Took a trip around the hotel grounds before the meeting started early the next morning...


...and I almost caused a minor incident by taking a shot of this snow topped car. It seems that one of the guests reported the incident to hotel security because they thought I took the picture in order to steal the car! :P

Apparently such a thing had happened before... scary!


A view of the meeting room. Quite a surprising turnout! I didn't see this many people at the meeting in Adelaide.


There was a get together for dinner that evening. The halal meal they ordered for me didn't make it so I turned vegetarian for the night :( Not that bad though...


Now with business out of the way, we headed for London again...


Once we checked in our bags at the hotel, we practically had to rush to the London Eye site. We had tickets booked for 12 noon and it was already half past 10! It was a race through the underground tubes with one of the lines having serious delays.

From the picture, we obviously made it :) hehehe...


Turun jer dari London Eye, tengah jalan-jalan nak tuju tempat lain lak, tiba-tiba semerbak harum daging bakar menusuk hidung aku yang lapar ni... Tengok-tengok- halLaMAK! Nangesss!!! Bagaimana kan ku samak hidungku ini! Huhu... :P


Gediks sat kat pondok tepon, hehehe... Hey! Tak main lar pondok tepon tiruan kat Malaysia tuh! Ni ori nyer London phonebooth you know?


Rusa masuk London... Sempat lak si Pauline tangkap gambar aku tengah melopong tengok double decker bus (also ori okey?)!

 Then we caught the tube and took photos of each other around Trafalgar Square and Picadilly Circus (not shown) so that we could say, 'been there!'.


Back to the hotel room for some rest before we hit the West End that evening :) Pauline had her cousin book tickets for a play...


My camera and I again caused another minor incident at the theatre. No pictures allowed but I still wanted some mementoes to bring home. We were told off in no uncertain terms that taking photographs is absolutely prohibited inside the theatre!

The play was 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Coat'. Essentially the story of the Prophet Joseph made into a musical...


Took a walk around the area after the play. With Christmas approaching, London was beautifully lit everywhere...

Really early the next morning, we checked out and caught the plane home. Oh, just wanted to share with you this deli at Heathrow called 'Eat'.

They have so many choices of sandwiches and salads with each box clearly labelled plus the complete list of ingredients for each meal. It certainly made it easier for me to avoid those I cannot eat and I had absolutely zero problems finding my breakfast here, unless being stymied by all the choices constitutes a problem :P

Saturday, December 06, 2008

Wedding in the Sky

Fancy a wedding reception among the clouds?


My colleague did and so I got an invitation to KL Tower for his wedding reception. :)


I was quite excited and curious since this was my first time there. I thought I could get some good shots of KL from above, especially at night, but the glass was tinted and slightly dirty. 

With the simple SLR camera I have, it was a waste to even try... :P but being the shutterbug I am, I still snapped away at whatever scenes were available.


Congratulations Adwin and Pooi Kee, may it last happily throughout your lifetime...

Monday, December 01, 2008

Food File: the Ship, Bukit Bintang

Welcome to the Ship at Bukit Bintang!


This was my second visit and like the previous one, it was a dinner party. Upon entering, one's ears will be assaulted by music provided by the currently featured live band. 

I didn't quite dig this group- they played waAAY too many metal rock numbers that were painful to my 'finer' sensibilities... :P

For a set party like this, one will be served the obligatory mushroom soup with bread and butter. Then you need to choose one out of a choice of three set meals...


I suggest you go for the mixed grill (strip of beef, chicken and lamb; chicken sausage, beef bacon, fried egg, fries and vegetables), more variety and taste, but a bit wasteful if you're picky about what you eat...

If you're feeling a bit posh, then by all means go for the salmon steak. It's delicious, really! But all you get is a pice of fish with vegetables and fries...


But if you like something fancier, go for their 'Tiger and Phoenix' set- basically sizzling grilled tiger prawns and chicken cutlet together with corn on the cob, tomatoes and fries. This one's a real production number: first they put a bib on you (to prevent splashes from the sizzle) then they serve the thing with a whole lot of sizzle and smoke. However, I didn't taste anything special about it, it's just prawn and chicken...


Somewhere around 10.00pm, Bibi Keypoh (if you are wondering what I am, I am woman under construction) comes on comparing shoe size to dick size, especially for foreigners... Quite entertaining :)

This is followed by a mime and dance show. Depending on your luck, you usually get a truly fantastic show but we were presented with a somewhat boring one that night.

However, Bibi Keypoh and the dancers took centre stage one more time for a midnight encore and THAT show was, fortunately for us, most fabulous!