Frankfurt Christmas Market

No... I did not went to Frankfurt :) In fact, it took me just an hour of train ride from Leicester to Birmingham for the christmas market. For the past seven years, Birmingham City Council has hosted this event in conjuction with its twinned city, Frankfurt. It has lots of stalls nicely decorated, and you can find all things german... wooden toys, glass, german bread, chocolate, beers, wine, german sausages, pancakes, crepes, sweets, etc... Enjoyed myself despite the notorious UK weather which is cold and windy. But it did mixed well with the food. I had hot sausages with bread and the popular Glühwein, which is hot mulled wine, for lunch. I think its my first time to drink an alcohol drink so early in the day. A nice German lady also let me taste some Grünkohl, which is made from Kale, a kind of vegetable. It almost taste like the 'chai boi' soup we had during chinese new year for the hokkeins ;)

After the christmas market, shopaholic me cant resist the temptations of the huge Bullring shopping centre, so whooorf i went and got myself a pair of boots and a wool jacket for the cold winter. Then the gastronomic side of me takes control again and I am back to the christmas market for more food. This time is the deep fried cheese with pepperoni in a skewer.

Cant understand why they can drink cold beer in such cold weather!

a stall selling biscuits, sweets and cakes

the cute wooden toys

the tempting chocolate

this is Grünkohl, made from kale which is a type of cabbage.

grilled sausages

my cup of Glühwein which left me feeling bit high

can you read this? It explains the history of Frankfurt Christmas Market and how to make Glühwein- by boiling red wine with Glühwein spice.

my skewer of deep fried cheese with pepperoni

Goodbye my friend

thank you
... for all the lifts
thank you
... for listening
thank you
... for being my lunch-mate
thank you
... for waiting
thank you
... for sharing
thank you
... for eveything you've done

this is dedicated to Mr Mckee for being such a great friend, rain or shine! I will miss you! See you in Tenerife!

New Photo Editing Experiment

Took some nice photos over the last weekend, and decided to give them some 'artistic' finish (in my opinion la, which you may not agree, hehe). All these editing is done by using the simple magic tools provided in Picasa. I always like black and white pictures, but sometimes it can be quite boring, thus the I have applied some dash of colors on the background.

Here are the results. Tell me if you like it, or even if you dont like it.

This is taken at Victoria Park

the heart shape sign attracted me at first in the one

christmas decoration lights in town

i like the tree in this one, and the structures

Christmas Deco

Yo yo yo, its the time of the year...

Since Christmas is a BIG thing here, they started to put up christmas street deco in November, and the lights-on event in Leicester city centre happened on last last Sunday. The whole city is in christmas mood, christmas songs are played in every shops, sales advertisements all over TVs, people rushing to do their christmas shopping, hunt for evening dress for christmas parties, etc.....

I have two upcoming company's christmas parties to attend, and I dont have any decent dress! help!

Anyway, here are some photos to share.

Same spot - Day and night view

the christmas trees and lights all over the city centre

the moving cartoon characters around town hall fountain for the children

children's playground set up at high street just for christmas

p/s: hmm, wonder how London looks like now!

Viv's Nasi Lemak

made in the UK ;) Went to the chinese supermarket in Leicester last Sunday, and came upon this ready made nasi lemak sambal paste, so I decided to cook nasi lemak, since I missed it so much. I also bought the pandan leaves from the shop, can guess how much it costs? about £1.20 for about 15 leaves, I think. The 'end result' is not too bad, considering that this is my first time cooking nasi lemak. The ikan bilis is super crispy, and its given to me when my sis visit me last month. According to her, she bought the best grade! The sambal didnt taste so good though. Next time got to prepare my mum original recipe, but first got to get myself a mini chopper!!

nasi lemak & the sambal prawns

the expensive pandan leaves