une tasse de thé s’il vous plaît.

my piggyself was lucky enough to be invited by shinface to waddle off to paris for a few hours on saturday courtesy of eurostar. Being last minute people we wiki-travel-planned our journey (okay don’t judge me) we had a plan of going to a few places in what we assumed was reasonable approximation to one another (south and a bit more south). so we rented bikes and did all the navigation all by ourselves (… somewhat unsuccessfully).. in our fourth hour we finally managed to find the catacombs (Les Catacombes de Paris) the first site on our trip which just so happened to be closed. so we proceeded to our next stop the Rodin museum.. which we decided to give up on and just cycle around instead.. and there was a lot more to see instead of eyes on map, road signs and roads and pedestrians. being safety concious tourists.. (trying not to run over anyone or be run over) we didn’t take that many pictures.. hands on handle bars, feet.. um balancing.. as one does..  here’s what i did manage to snapple up when we paused to glance at the map only to reestablish we had no idea where we were.

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unfortunately we didnt munchie as much as we really should have.. this is the only bit of food porn i could bring you and this was on the eurostar homeward bound.. which btw.. has very nice food.. better than what youre going to get from a short flight. om noms… this was a apricot tart with thyme. also the carriages were very nice.. in terms of nice lighting yellow rather than harsh blue light.. (not that most people mind or notice) anywho if one does go to paris, i would highly recommend renting a bike, you really get to see the city from what i imagine is more of a locals perspective of the city.. the buildings are beautiful.. well i happen to like looking at buildings a lot.. as im sure you know by now. also i would like to say that french motorists are very forgiving a huge contrast from our narrow london streets and for the few people i nearly did run into .. as well as my poorly spoken franglais. thank you france, eurostar and my dear shinface for a nice little getaway.

just a few things before i dash off..

…chiswick

been cooking a lot lately.. a bit of russian beetroot soup and at the bottom some christmassy ginger and cranberry biccies… looks a bit like ice cream..

wondered around Angel with a friend.. we stumbled upon this lovely little shop.. nigerian fabrics made into waistcoats.. the textures are lovely and they sold strips of fabric too.. will definately be returning at somepoint..

even though im a bit strapped for cash couldn’t not buy this… its a cute little house thing.. with potpourri that no longer smells… a fiver from an antiqueshop.. just another novelty to add to my collections..

dan came to visit me. he brought me this .. a childrens book… ‘yeah.. i got you this because i knew you like korean things..’. the piggy illustrations are so cute…

seen two shows recently .. monkey and wicked.. monkey as amazing as it was was slightly dissappointing.. monke could have been so much more awesome and a much better fighter.. loved the back up fighters… lovely martial arts stuffs.. Wicked was amazing.. i love elphaba and kerry ellis completely stole the show.. amazing.

wip… a nice bargain i found today. the glass is cheap but the glass goes straight down rather than some weird bottle neck.. purrfect.. more to come on this..

just an advert that i thought was very clever.. its perhaps everything an advert is not supposed to be but it does the job and the writing is witty.. its a great series of ads!

this is so random.. in the sainsburies in Angel theres a slice it yourself bread machine.. nice! im going to go back and take it for a spin!

waffle.. el needs a good waffle.. and a waffle.

gosh.. i am knackered.. but the last 24 hours have been rather wonderful.

[check it out.. ive figured out how not to be lazy and add media to my posts , alrighty this kronos quartet's fantastic rendition of an awesome track by sigor ros, the birds work pretty damn well with the whole thing too!]

what i didn’t mention yesterday was that .. after my crisis.. i went to bed.. at 12 my buzzer went off.. it was my two lady friends, friends of friends .. shit.. i got the date wrong. the house was a minefield.. as expected. i had just spent 4 days working nonstop on my project. on the first day … i sort of .. blew them off.. the whole printer incident really got to me.. and they were much too nice about the whole thing.. i explained the whole thing. TBH despite the whining.. i knew from the first encounter a week ago that they’re pretty awesome. conny.. did quite a few courses.. she started with somehting like buisiness or management.. something not so uberly fun sounding, she did some work with animation, and now she works for an advertising firm.. reasonably high up but for a small ish company from what i could make out. Nothing moving image wise but all that sort of printed matter. she took a look at my for the culture project.. and from the first few things i could tell this woman was good. HAHA.. well yes she laid down the fundamentals of all the flaws i found.. as well as the strengths of my project.. not sure what she really thought of it. i mean really esp to a Hk persons POV.. my drawings must have looked totally retarded.. they weren’t my best either. she spent 30mins with me talking about it.. me explaining myself.. .. it was funny .. she did it exactly how amanda did it.. ‘alright im going to look at this .. you shush.. let me see if i can get what you want to say..’ that was the one line that made me think: she is GOOD. well she left me with a few words .. and from that and a little brainstorming.. i now have a new concept.

having sorted all that out..  it was time for me to get ‘educated’. im chinese.. (ish) ffs.. i need to know how to play mahjong! HA!.. i guess its considered a crude and not a very good thing.. but i feel this is a part of being cantonese.. good or bad.. let the lessons begin!.. goodness.. it made me remember just how slow i am at these sort of things.. i mean. ive watched a game of mahjong.. it goes fast.. theres me with my go.. i pick up an piece.. and after a minute of ‘mm umsss’ i decide what to do.. only to be prodded that ive missed something out!’

in the morning i decided that it was really a day to take the girls around a little. this was their last day in europe ^^ Aliza wanted to go find a paul smith (and we also ended up at ted baker’s). GAH.. love the clothes.. mainly because of the fabrics.. and the combinations.. ive been watching a series of really fantastic documentries on BBC iPlayer.. really really wonderful stuff.. about british fashion as well as british heritage like Savile Row (love love LOVE). there was a bit on paul smith .. and wow.. the fabrics are just drool.. the quality of the fabrics too.. the store was arranged in that kind of covent garden style narrow street boutiqueness.. unfortunately anything i liked cost at least 300 quid.. thats the problem with  going into places that are reknown for having yummy clothes for rather hefty amounts. the only things i like are the really expensive items.. so.. does this mean i have good taste? or am i just a sucker? so no … wont be stepping into another designer store any time soon.. no need for unnecessary pain i say. actually there is one last thing i will say.. i LOVE jackets.. smartish jackets.. and you can tell a quality piece of garment, just by the touch and feel of the piece.. gah.. nothing like smart and elegant cuts.. paired with quality fabric.. the way the piece just hangs on the rack or reflects that little shred of light.. you just know quality when you see it.. again.. if i were filthy rich.. id be buying all these beautiful jackets i see.. along with my giant library.

we went to nab some tickets for phantom of the opera.. a show ive always wanted to see.. never seen a single rendition of it.. but i know the story line vaguely. i never realised just how many of those discount ticket booths there were.. really.. we went to about 6 of them to cross check prices.. and there were about 4 others we didn’t go to.. so yes. um wow? the show was pretty darn good really.. if you’re not really interested in shows.. go. go for the set design.. it is a beautiful piece of work.. really understated in their accompaning booklet.. i don’t just mean the set is designed beautifully… i mean they really know how to use it.. and the space on the stage.. wonderful. The orchestra group was fantastic also.. my only regret was not seeing anymore than the top of the two cellos at the back since we were seated on the balcony. (however this gave us the perfect view for the set ). the two leads have fantastic voices.. and my only gripe about the whole show would be that.. i found some of the events a little hard to grasp in the large group scenes with too many people singing separate lines.. um.. also.. the phantom.. what a fantastic charecter.. i have to say… for me christine is a bit flat.. shes got this innocence.. and this being taken for a fool thing.. and wanting to rebel… but the phantom is so bad ass, you really can’t hate him as a charecter as disturbed as he may be.. i think im in love.. ahh.. none of the charecters measure up to the depth of the charecter of the phantom despite the fact that christine probably has more stage time then he does.. fantastic stuff.. i’d gladly go again.. so people hands up!

[if you've just had sigor ros playing in the b/g in the background then heres a nother gem for you. after spending hours watching garbage live performances on youtube i came across an interview.. shirley manson mentioned arcade fire.. and i thought.. if shirley listens to it, its got to be good. this is by arcade fire.. a bit if an indie canadian group.. the video is perfect with it.. really really put me in a state of OMG AWESOME.]

um yes.. after all that fangirling ive lost my chain of thought. .um yes.. ive taken some piccies with my camera.. that im actually vaguely happy with .. the first is the camera doing all the work.. the second is my odd eye doing its thing i guess!

ahh yush.. i was at buckingham place.. there was a guard change even. they have a bit of a marching band parade… its a usual event apparently.. well londoners.. if you think there are a lot of tourtists here.. you haven’t seen anything till youve been to buckingham place at that specific time.. i have never seen so many tourists in my life… more than kings cross.. more than piccadily circus/leicester sq.. like this mob of tourists.. that were so blatantly tourists.. and maybe a 2% of londoners where present.. goodness..

[ive just posted this.. i cannot believe how much i ramble. this was supposed to be a short post.. ]