Photos!

Now that I have found a free ride on someone else's wireless broadband, I can finally post photos!

Since I have something like 500 outstanding photos to upload, I'll start by popular demand of our recent trip to Paris (Cris, we saw your friend on the street so Mike had to take a picture with him)...

Here's to London efficiency...

I feel that I need to explain the lack of updates on this blog.

S: Can I make an appointment for the internet to be connected? My homeline has been registered now.
Woman on phone: Ok.
S: Can I have your earliest appointment? Anytime anydate is ok.
W: The next appointment I have is... 21st June, that's a Thurs...
S: 21ST JUNE?????
W: [Thinking I didn't hear her properly] That's THURS-DAY, 21ST JU-NE...
S: No no, I heard you. That's your earliest appointment??? That's a month away!
W: I'm afraid that's the earliest date we have on our system.
S: Well can you put me on a waiting list for cancelled appointments? I'm happy to take any date before that.
W: I'm afraid we don't have that capability on our system....

Which brings me to now. I am sitting in an internet cafe on High Street Kensington, there's a fat smelly woman next to me, and all the other computers are taken.

On the bright side though, we moved house last weekend and after 3 days of non-stop unpacking the place is looking great. The weather has finally warmed up again and I am officially a local because at the first sign of the sun coming out after 2 weeks I was like "Let's go to that pub on the corner with a terrace and have a bottle of wine over lunch!"

I did manage to squeeze some birthday celebrations in amongst all the moving and unpacking. I had a nice dinner with almost all the people that I know in London last Friday night at Yakitoria in Paddington, which was a lovely restaurant recommended by Ronald located right on some canal. After dinner, I dared Ryan to jump into the canal which the idiot actually did for £150. This was helpfully captured by YP on her camera. I'll post up a link to the video when I get my internet set up. On the day of my birthday, the surprise dinner organised by Mr Zero was to Nobu, which he had thoughtfully booked back in HK! He also organised a chauffeured ride for me there and back - talk about major brownie points!

It's a long weekend this weekend so we are taking our first trip out of London to Paris! After that we will have our first visitor to Hotel M&S. With a life like this who has time to work?

On wining and dining...

Thanks to the LV Guide and toptable.co.uk, we've been having some decent grub here in London.

Yum cha at Royal China and Laureate, small Italian places in Soho, afternoon tea at the Orangery, cakes and tea at Patisserie Valerie (the best mille feuille EVER), gastro pubs to watch football, tapas at local Spanish joints, etc etc. I'm dying for some Japanese food though...

Last Friday afternoon:

M: So where are we going for dinner tonight?
S: I've booked a Japanese restaurant. I’m dying for Jap food.
M: What's the restaurant called?
S: Pearl something. The chef's really famous.
M: It doesn't sound Japanese. What kind of food is it? Modern Jap? Fusion?
S: Sushi.

Later that night at Pearl:

S: [Looking at the decidedly French menu] Err dear... I guess we're not having Japanese food after all.
M: So why'd you think it was a Jap restaurant?
S: The chef's name is Jun Tanaka! It's just reasonable to assume...
M: But sushi?
S: Hmmm... did I say sushi? Geez I must have made it up...

Excellent food at Pearl by the way. I guess I'll just have to find another place for Jap food.

"Jau Sao Gei"

LOL ... saw this article in the SCMP today:

"Cable TV was given a serious warning yesterday after it aired a commercial from Alcolout, a health product claiming to be able to alleviate drunkenness that was found to be effective only in mice. The Broadcasting Authority said last night Cable TV "had not exercised due diligence to ascertain the truthfulness of the claims" in Alcolout's advertisement.

The broadcast watchdog gave Cable TV "a strong advice" to observe the code of practice on television advertising standards on truthful presentation and factual claims. The warning came after a member of the public made a complaint to the watchdog about the product's advertisement, which aired on December 17 on the English Premier League channel.

In the Alcolout commercials, it is said: "It is scientifically proven to absorb alcohol safely and effectively. It helps to absorb alcohol fast in the stomach, reduce the amount of alcohol entering the bloodstream and eases off the unpleasantness of intoxication."

The authority said the claims in the commercial were based on a study in mice. There was no evidence from the study that the product could alleviate short-term and long-term ethanol poisoning as claimed. It said the study was conducted in mammals other than humans, so its efficacy in preventing ethanol poisoning in humans was unknown."

Hahaha ... we did in fact test this product on humans (ourselves) and can confirm that it is ineffective in preventing ethanol poisoning in humans.