Rainmaker Chocolatiers 75%

I got this bar at the check out area of TK Maxx.  I didn't look into the details when I picked it up.

The chocolate is nice, except I am never getting them again because of Ugandan's human rights violation, specifically institutionalised homophobia and prosecution.

Scammers From "Microsoft", Beware

I got a call purporting to be from "Microsoft Technical", two days in a roll from different numbers.  They are right dodge, and I really should not have been polite to them.

Ritual Camino Verde in Ecuador 75%

I got this Ritual bar from M&S's clearance.  It is from Ecuador, so I am reassured.  When I opened it, I wasn't sure, as it smelt of paper bag, then as it melts in my mouth, the Ecuadorean flavour came out and I am very happy with the bar.  I was searching for the actual retail price, it would be 10 bucks.  It is nice, but I am not sure it is worth 10 bucks..

Apple and User Problem

Problem with an IT equipment is usually a user problem, but there is usually a short cut, ie master reset by one mean or another.  But there is no such shortcut with Apple.  When I have exhausted all means to recover the activation password and unable to locate the receipt.  What a waste of space!  Both the Apple and the user!

Twelfth Day of Wandering

The food on Swiss was so much better, and the snack selection was also good.  The movie selection was also quite good.  I wasn't particularly like their seats on the long haul flight, but I did manage to get over 5 hours sleep.

I got into Zurich by 7:30am, the town was still asleep, so I decided to just jump on random trams to ride around town.  Natasha wasn't free to meet me but I did get a few pointers from her.  Everything is so expensive in Zurich!  I wasn't impressed with their Christmas markets, apparently Christmas markets are recent German influence.

I got a big bag of Haribo Cola bottles and I am very happy.  On Natasha's advise, I got a couple blocks of cheeses.

It was a foggy day, so I passed up on going to Uetliberg.

My legs were extremely by the time I got back to the airport.  I definitely got my step counts today!

The shorter flight was on a new Bombardier plane, the seats were good, the snack was good!

When I got back to Birmingham, everything went very smoothly.  I managed to jam myself into an earlier train.  Home at last!

Eleventh Day of Wandering

We had breakfast with my cousin and we went home. I was going to see Carol and ended up just resting at home.

I was not hungry, but I went out for lunch anyway to tick off another thing on the to-eat list.  Things are some so expensive and so tiny these days!

My mom had her friends over for hot pot and I invited Kalinda to join, to keep me company.

After dinner, I had a wash, put on my winter clothes and went to the airport.

Tenth Day of Wandering

I had a lazy morning and I volunteered to take my mom to Malaysian food. The restaurant was very authentic!

I rested a bit more and went out to meet Icarus.  We saw a really smart bird at the bird market, Icarus was so tempted to take it home.  

Then we stopped by a food fair, we ate so much sample food and we managed to not buy anything!

We rested a little more before heading to barbecue. I had a headache the whole time, otherwise it was good to catch up.  We are at an embarrassing time, everyone was very polite and danced around the white elephants.. 

Haylie dropped me off with their Uber and we went our ways. 

Ninth Day of Wandering

I walked to see Queenie for lunch and walked back.

I rested all afternoon then went to have dinner with Sisi.  The Taiwanese noodle place is quote good.  We stopped by the bargain shop, and she went a bit mad!

Eighth Day of Wandering

My mom grabbed me for breakfast not long before my lunch with Carol.  On my way to see Carol, I saw the long queue to Five Guys!  By the time I finished lunch with Carol, the queue was around the block!

I did some shopping before going home the slow way.  They moved the pier!

Since I didn't have any dinner plan, I decided to eat along, and tick off as many on the to-eat list as I could.  I had wanton noodles, fried chicken breast, bubble waffle and bubble tea, I was stuffed!

Seventh Day of Wandering

When I have time, I usually skip the metro and opt for buses and ferries, that's exactly what I did today.  I caught up with Mavis and we had a little discussion about LGBTQA in Hong Kong.

After lunch, I got more banking done.  I think I am nearly done with this chores!  On my ways back, stopped briefly at Tsimshatsui for a bubble tea from Ten Ren, while I was waiting for the tea, I saw iron budhha ice-cream, so I topped up my order.  Everything is made with real tea, so tasty.

We went out for dinner, and I was the head of the table this time.  I both ordered food and paid the bill.  We have a little discussion about the Chinese attitude and attitude to history.  I was glad when the discussion was over, it was hard work!

Sixth Day of Wandering

I got up early again, I went to some of my old haunts.  One of them is a breakfast place, the other is proper grafting market trader.  So I had the best rice noodles and the best tofu all by 7am in the morning.

Some rich family friends came visit.  I insisted in going to a decent place for Cantonese food, and my mother suggested I should just go to some mid-price locations.  I refused to settle for less, I settle with substandard Chinese food year round, and every other year, I would like to have something decent!  I was stuffed by the end of it.

I finally did some shopping, I got a pair of new shoe, a few bit of odds and sorts.  I got a replacement remote for the air conditioning unit.  It has been a productive day.

I headed out for dinner with Hedy.  I managed to tick off a few more on the to-eat list.  I might have made a mistake of going to her flat, because her mom also started ranting about the new mother's stubbornness.  I came home stuffed with Taiwanese goodies from their Taiwan trip!

Fifth Day of Wandering

After so many days of extreme exhaustion, I slept a lot.  I slept so much that I was late for a late gathering!  I was so dizzy that I made a mistake on the metro and caused extra delay!

The baby is in good health, but the new mom is really stressed!  I made my delivery, and I hope my extra treats would cheer her up.

When Karen bailed, I bailed too.  I went to see General Che.  I made a quick visit, a quick wish, then headed into town.

I swing pass a waste centre and threw away the old suitcase.  The staff was very enthusiastic to take it away from me.  I bought a few food stuff to tick off the to-eat list.

When I got home, my mom was asking me IT questions, which makes me suicidal!

Forth Day of Wandering

Hedy and I planned to check out the new bridge, and I wanted to take the opportunity to visit Macau, as I haven't visited since 2002, since the major reclamation / infrastructure programs.

Due to the heat, I didn't sleep well, so I went to have breakfast at dawn.  I saw the shop was making fresh fried bread, so I got some. If it wasn't fresh off the fryer, I wouldn't bother with the empty calories!




The trip to Macau went well.  I finally got to try Portuguese suckling pig!  I also tried salt cod (croquettes).

We walked all over Macau, and I was quite happy we comprehensively ticked off Macau.  I was so tired, I suggested to start making our way home.

By the time we were back in the city, it was nearly 8pm, we had some Cantonese dinner.  The restaurant has some Cantonese food with a modern twist, and I opted for the most boring stuff, understandably!  I am both knackered and stuffed!

Third Day of Wandering

I went to see a new exhibition called Tai Kwun.  As soon as I saw the E hall, I recalled this was Victoria Prison and I visited on the open day when they closed down.


Circa 2005.

The whole site has been regenerated.  Some of the buildings are exhibition and some buildings are restaurants, shops and studios.  We ate at the social enterprise.

Then I went to Icarus' to hang out before heading back into the town for dinner.  My friends decided to take me to a western restaurant...

Second Day of Wandering

We got up early to have breakfast with my cousin.  We ordered a lot of food, some of them by mistake.  It almost looked like I was the only person eating!  I was stuffed.

I went to the dentist for a check-up and got the usual telling off.  Then I was off to the bank, got a few things sorted.  My mom presented me with some more undesirable food, and I told her that we prefer eating out because of her cooking, let's hope the message is sufficiently clear this time.

I stayed home briefly and got bored, so I thought of things that I could 'do' without much effort, so I went to a facial and a haircut.

Queenie and I went to this Japanese ramen place, as seen on the news.  The place and the noodles looked nice, I thought it was a bit salty.  I wouldn't be going back in a hurry.  We stopped for a super matcha dessert, everything was very green.

First Day of Wandering

I didn't particularly liked the long haul Air France's food either.  One of the meals came with a massive chunk of Camembert, I tried it and I wasted it.

I landed, grabbed the luggage and took a bus home.  I splashed out and took the airport bus instead of the slow bus.  I wonder why I haven't been taking the fast bus before!

I only had $7 in change, and insisted on getting a snack before I went home and fed some undesirable food, so I got a skewer of fish siu mai.

As expected, I was fed some undesirable food.  Obvious my mom did not get the message to skip the food, I sent her some 20 hours prior, as soon as I knew I was delayed.

Let the wandering begins.

Wandering

We did as much laundry as we could and ate up as much food from the fridge as we could, we hopped on a taxi and went our separate ways.

I got to the airport with plenty of time to spare.  I rested, went pass security and rested some more. I saw the botb booth, and looked it up. It is some strange raffle mixed in football game.  Just as I got to the gate, the furthest gate at the terminal, I heard my name on the tannoy, which is never a good thing.
As it turned out, the Swiss can be late, they send me onto Air France instead

I had to go back to the airline check in desk, drag my luggage from one end of the airport to another end of the airport, check in with Air France and go thorough security again.

This time, a loads of people getting stopped in my queue at the security, including me.  And apparently instant coffee looks like liquid in the x-ray machine.

The Air France pilot was in a real hurry, he started pushing back before everyone was seated. They did give us a snack, but went I saw the tomato bap, I wanted to cry... It only took 1 hour gate to gate, and the taxiing in Paris was really fast!

After some delay, the plane to Hong Kong was finally ready and off I went.

Sausage Rolls Baps

We were watching a documentary on Belfast Bap.  Some people put sausage rolls in their baps...

Inconveniently Located Burnt

Rachel's oven burnt my elbow.  Tragically located burnt, I am not happy...

Free Compensatory Food

We booked our lunch in town and the kitchen was shut because they lost gas supply.  They took my number wrong, so we turned up disappointed ... They offered us a sandwich, which we gladly accepted.  This is not the first time we got free Compensatory food from them.  How do they make money?

Cloves

We have been using this spice mix for our kedgeree, but I complained about the cloves everytime.  I will definitely flick them out next time!

Lidl Chicken Encrote

I have been saying to Sarah about salmon encroute, so when we saw these chicken encroute, we got them to try.

They were evil as expected, the most evil bit was the bacon flavoured pastry! But I cannot believe how small the chicken was! Both of us were happy to have tried it  but we will get a different encroute elsewhere... 

Homemade Tri Formage Pizza

We tried to use up some old cheeses on a pizza. But since I made the sauce too wet by mistake and the mozzarella were also wet, Sarah's patience ran out and we ate the sloppy pizza. I was quite happy with my day old pizza properly dried out in the oven.  The moral of the story is to make a less wet sauce!

Lidl Challenge Completed

We got this coupon from the newspaper, spend £30 and get £5 off.  I took up the challenge and did well.

Leicester Business Festival

I was clicking around Leicester websites to see what is happening and found Leicester Business Festival.  Perfect opportunity for me to get some free CPD (and other freebies!).

Greek Pastitsio

We finally got around making the pastitsio.  It is nice, and extremely rich...

Urban Myths About Contactless

Someone was boasting about their contactless cards protection.  I remember hearing about this urban myth a while ago, but I never pay attention as it was not from a reputable sources, nor was there any crime statistics associate with the articles.  So I found the details of the contactless card security and sent it across.

Loyalty Programmes

I was in the Food Warehouse, which is a branch of Iceland.  Their offerings are quite good, as good as Aldi next door.  When I was at the cashier, I was offered to join the Iceland loyalty programme.  I can't be dealing with another membership!

Green and Black's Dark 85%

I was given this G&B 85% chocolate bar.  I had G&B 70% before and I was not impressed.  I didn't have high hope on this 85% bar.  It turns out very well, much exceeding expectation.

Rehabilitation Swim

I went for a quick swim with my new swimming costume.  It fits well, the neon pink is no bad thing.

I didn't have goggle and hat with me, so I kept to breast stroke.  I called it after 500 meters, it wasn't a bad start.