England

This year, Michelle and i spent the Christmas holidays in London (unfortunately we had no more time off work to head back to T.O.!) and as always, it was a festive fun time with family and friends.

Christmas Eve

• We all went to Tottenham to our Tita's place and they cooked up a feast! All the family from London was there and despite getting lost a couple times on the way there, it was a very very festive celebration (check the Santa hats!) and lots and lots of food!

• We got some gifts too! Harrod's travel case for me and a cool keychain from there also.
  

Christmas Day

• Cooked up a nice lil feast of our own - 5.5 kg turkey (3-4 hours), mashed potatoes, etc.. - spent it in our flat with Timbo, Meemo and Cigdem and a lot of wine and ciders haha!!

• First time for me carving up a turkey! Let's just say it would've been a bit easier with a sharper nice but in the end it turned out really good!

• We bought and played The Game of Life as an activity and even though it says for 8 yrs +, there were way more instructions to read and understand (while having a few drinks) than we could all remember lol! My 'career' path was as an athlete with a mountain retreat home (yea, how could i afford that?). Michelle was a doctor with some other big house...but we all lost to Cigdem who almost doubled the next person in total life earnings!

Our dear friend Reina came to visit us in England for a week and it was really good to have a friend from T.O. come and experience life in England. We managed to get ALOT done while she was here and here's a quick list of what we/she did:

• Went to Windsor Castle..unfortunately St George cathedral was closed for services

• Mon/Tues she did the hop-on/hop-off bus tour for the day and by the time we met up after work, she was absolutely spent! lol! One night we took her to Ancient Raj in Frimley for Indian food and after eating the lamb madras, she's on a mission to find similar food back home!

• Went to this wicked restaurant in Soho called Inamo which has tables that allow you to order food off, play games, etc.. all with a touchpad and a projector above-head displaying all the images..so cool.

• Went to see the musical Wicked with Claire and Alan as well..and it was Wicked! Seriously, i'm not a fan of
  musicals but the evil witch, Elphaba, played by Alex Khadime was simply brilliant! I could even watch it again just for
  her.

• Went to Stonehenges..yes, that's what she calls it lol! Damn it was cold and windy that day but she got to see onw of the seven wonders of the world so that's cool! Afterwards, we picked up Michelle and headed to Westfield mall where we all made some pretty big purchases (2 Jaeger bags and 1 Reiss jacket were bought..among other items)

• Checked out the Ministry of Sound! Yeah baby, the legendary club for house/trance music and Erick Morillo was
  playing that night. Amazing sound and music in all rooms, one of the things that made it that good was the fact that
  even though it was sold out, it wasn't packed and not the slightest bit humid or hot like Guvernment/Warehouse. We are definitely going back again..New Years Eve maybe?

so just a quick recap on the last couple weeks here:

• Went to check out an adult-themed puppet show that is loosely based on the Sesame characters. Called Avenue Q, it dealt with controversial and offensive themes in a humourous, keep-an-open-mind type style and was actually quite hilarious....as long as you understood it was all for show.

• Songs such as 'Internet is for Porn', 'Everyone's a little bit racist' and 'Schaudenfreude' (German word for happiness at the misery of others - "you know, like the Germans"..ouch.

• Went to see it with Claire and Alan so it was definitely good to meet up with some friends in London

• Also, we celebrated CDN/US Thanksgiving with Michelle's co-workers, a group that contained US, CDN and UK people. We cooked a 7kg turkey complete with stuffing, cranberry sauce and everyone pitched in and brought some food, desserts..and lots of drink...that was finished by the end of the night..lol. Good times!

For our 'celebration' to ourselves for coming to england and living/working here for an 8-9 month period, we decided to go check out the #2 restaurant in the world, Fat Duck by world-famous chef, Heston Blumnthal. for a good overview of the place and such, check out the Wiki entry here.

• It is set in a very inconspicuous location, with a regular pub right beside it. Nothing fancy about the exterior of the place, its pretty much like a regular house sandwiched between 2 buildings with only a couple plaques outside to identify it's location. The inside, is very modest as well, looks like a regular country home with exposed beams and a dining area of less than 20 tables or so.

• The food itself was very rich in flavour and of course, taste, and it was an attack on your senses at the same time. We chose the tasting menu, complete with 17 courses!! (including 6-7 appetizers and a few palate cleansers)

• Food example #1: Orange and beetroot jelly squares - the orange square tasted like beetroot and the purple square tasted like orange..cool!!

• Food example #2: "Sound of the Sea" - the course first started off by them bringing a conch shell with headphones attached to them. We put them on and listened to the sea while they came out with a dish that recreated the sea itself! i.e. the sand was made of crystallized tapioca, the surf was some bubbly thing, there were mussels, oysters..even cooler!!

• Food example #3: Salmon wrapped in liquorice gel

• Food example #4: Hot and Cold iced tea - when you drank it, the top was hot but the bottom was cold! And it all looked the same..wow!

• Food example #5: The first palate cleanser was a nitrogen-frozen mousse (done right at the table) sprinkled with green tea and they sprayed a lime fragrance above you while you ate it..lol..jokes!

• They ended off with 'breakfast'! Lol! The last few courses were breakfast-themed, like parsley cereal, nitrogen-freezed egg with bacon, etc.. a very elaborate production and presentation!

• There were too many to list but all in all, it was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience and a chance for us to take advantage of our close proximity (less than 1 hour) to the #2nd Best Restaurant in the World..and one with 3 Michelin stars

This weekend, well Friday, we got a group together to watch the ghost story play, The Woman in Black, at the Fortune Theatre in London. We were already having a drink in the bar and ready to go into the theatre, when someone came out and said 'Due to technical difficulties, we regret we have to cancel tonight's performance'.

What the heck?! Cancelling a London show? Unheard of. And i asked if it's ever happened before and to our luck, nope. So yea, we ended up going for drinks around the corner in Covent Garden and managed to salvage our night with good times around a couple bottles of wine..lol.

Then, on Saturday after our jaunt to Windsor Castle (well St Georges Chapel only - site of Henry VIII burial), I decided to check what was playing at our local theatre, Guildford's Yvonne Arnaud Theatre. And guess what I saw:

"The Woman in Black", last show October 4!!!!! Hahahha! What a coincidence! So yeah, i bought us last minute tickets and we went to watch the show..and then..

The show is based on the original novel by Susan Hill and it is played by only 2 actors. Very minimalistic performance but scary and suspenseful with amazing use of lighting and sound. I must admit I jumped once (only)...seriously. The basic premise of the story is that a young solicitor is sent to the house of a recently deceased strange woman to gather her finances. Upon reaching the desolate, 'haunted' house, he has several paranormal encounters and begins to unravel the mystery of the Woman in Black...and that's all I'll say.

Trust me and see it, theatre like I've never seen..perfect date night