Bouilla-what?

(I know, it's been AGES since I last blogged - apologies. This post has been in my drafts folder for the last few months and I've just gotten around to adding the photos and publishing it)


For my birthday, Suey bought me a gift certificate for cooking classes at the brilliant Jamie Oliver's Recipease.



We both are huge fans of Jamie. He may not be a Michelin star chef, but there's something just utterly lovable about him. And I dare you walk into one of his stores and not come out with a tea-towel, or a garlic press, or an apron.

In our class we would learn how to prepare the classic Provencal French dish - Bouillabaisse, or fish stew.

Upon arrival we were given aprons, clearly not made for short 5'1 Asian girls.

We were also given our complimentary glass of wine.



Perhaps not a good idea when chopping vegetables...



After blitzing through the veggies, trying to devein the shrimp and de-beard the mussels and making quite possibly the best rouille ever, we were left with a pretty kick ass Bouillabaisse.






Don't believe me? Just check out the yummy photos for yourself.

Why I need a better alarm clock

I woke up to sun streaming into my room and the sense that something was very very wrong.

Then it dawned on me that my flight leaving London Luton to Budapest in an hour was going to leave without me. And I went through the typical stages of emotion that come with sleeping through your flight:

1. Panic - screaming obscenities, run to the bathroom, quickly put in contacts and frantically look for clothes

2. Anger - those obscenities? yup, still screaming them, this time also angry because said clothes cannot be found. Also your flatmates may at this time be cowering in their bedrooms, afraid to experience your wrath

3. Despair - the realization that your flight might leave without you

4. Resignation - figuring out that really, no matter how fast you ask the taxi to go, you ain't gonna be on that 8 am flight. This is the time when said flatmates emerge from their hiding places and make fun of you.

And so I went online, went onto Wizz Air and bought another ticket. To be fair, I was bracing myself to pay an obscene amount for a new ticket, but thankfully, budget airlines are still budget the day you need to fly out.

When life gives you lemons - make vodka tonics

Or in the case of Amsterdam - when confronted by the unhappy news that after spending a few hundred euros on flights, hotel, car rental, etc - the day we had eagerly been anticipating and talking about for MONTHS was crushed by these few words:

"The engine on our boat doesn't work" (or something to that effect)

So there we were, finally on the boat, happily passing around cold beers and waiting to join the throngs of other orange-clad revelers on the canals of Amsterdam. Except we weren't. We were on a boat with a broken engine, not enough beer, next to no food and rapidly melting ice. And disappointment. Lots and lots of disappointment.

But when life gives you lemons, or in our case, a broken engine - you battle on. You take a nice gulp of the still-cold beer, look around at the faces of your friends who have become more than family, you bask in the warm April sunshine and you remember how lucky you are to have this life.

I will be leaving this London life soon - but those memories, oh the memories - I can't even begin to describe how wonderful the last 2 years have been.


Group shot minus Dutchie




Flatties on the boat!



Touring the Heineken Museum



Dutchie being the worst tour guide ever - but the most lovable!