Having the Christmas dinner at a casino

About 6 months ago, a few of my colleagues started to mention the 'C' word. At the time, I was quite shock and thought that it was way too early to organise this meal...

Then, a few weeks ago, my line manager kept sending emails out asking where we wanted to go, needed us to choose all the dishes for the day in advance etc. I was thinking the following: 'Majority rules', 'Whichever restaurants', and 'Couldn't I order my food on the day instead?' Yes, there were whole load of not too constructive answers from me.

Anyhow, I must say the most interesting thing is that I've learnt how to bet on Blackjack and Roulette. In fact, the Casino staff gave us a free lesson on both games because most of us didn't know how to play.

Also, they gave us a free £5 chip each to bet. But... I've won nothing.

Anyway, I wish you to have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. See you next year.

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Guy Fawkes Night

Recently, I've been hearing the sound of fireworks at my home. It was because of the Guy Fawkes Night!

In 1605, Guy Fawkes joined his Catholic gang to kill King James I, who was a Protestant. They were planning to blow up Parliament. However, their plan was discovered before it could be carried out. Fawkes was sentenced to death. In order to celebrate that the King  survived the attempt, a law was passed in 1606 to commemorate the event, which allowed people to light bonfires and fireworks on 5 November.

Nowadays, some people light fireworks a few days before and after 5 November. A primary school nearby my house had a firework event to raise funds for the school. I stood at my garden, took some pictures in the fine rain.

If you hear people say: 'Remember, remember, the fifth of November, Gunpowder Treason and Plot.', it means Bonfires Night is coming.

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Waste or Natual?

Recently, my friend asked me to order something from Neal's Yard. I vaguely heard of it. When I looked at their website, they said that they were Carbon Neutral, no animal testing, to use organic matters where possible etc. It seemed good to me, so I bought some product online for myself to try as well.

A few days later, I looked at the box and thought: 'did I order too many stuff? How come the box is so massive?' But that was not the issue. I opened the box and couldn't believe what I saw - the box full of white plastic fillers! I had to put my hand in to search for the bottles.

Unfortunately, I think they break their promise. I have decided to share my thoughts about this on their Facebook page: '... I thought your company cared about the environment and believed in "Less is More"!?'

18/08/13 Updated - They replied: '...We always want our products to arrive with you safely, and as your order contained a number of 200ml glass bottles and essential oils, we selected a box that would allow space between the products, so as to avoid any damage during transit. The white chips that came in the box are corn starch and they’re fully decomposable so they can be put onto your compost heap afterwards – you don’t have to worry about them being plastic!...'

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Waterfalls in Brecon Beacons

My husband has mentioned before that when the sun comes out, the UK is a really pretty place, and there is no need to fly elsewhere in Europe for the weather. I totally agree with him. Since the weather was nice again here, it was time to travel around the country.

This time, we went to Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales, which is not far from our home. The area of the entire park is about 1,344km². After reading the National Park website, I decided to find some waterfalls near Pontneddfechan village in order to have a pleasant walk but also enjoy the cooling effect of the water spray.

There are several waterfalls in the village. However, the outstanding one is Sgwd yr Eira (meaning: Waterfall of the Snow, pictures below). Not only is the largest one in the area, but also you can walk behind the waterfall to feel the power of the falls without getting too wet. 

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Jurassic Coast

The weather for the last few weekends were unbelievably good. My husband decided to give me a surprised trip, drove me down to Lulworth Cove last weekend, which was around two hours drive down south from Bristol.

This Cove is part of the Jurassic Coast. Thanks to the sea erosion, nowadays the Cove looks like a horseshoe shape. When we arrived, I couldn't believe how clear the water was. It was a hot day. Luckily, there were some gentle wind blowing from the sea. We found a good place to sit down and enjoyed the lovely view.

If you like hiking, Jurassic Coast would be one of the good area to do so as it is 125km long, takes about 4 days. However, we only had an afternoon to walk around. We 'strolled' all the way to the famous Durdle Door. There were a bunch of youngsters climbing up the Door and jumped down to the sea. They were so bloody brave!

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While the weather was good...

Monday, 6th May 2013   Highest Temperature: 19C    Sunny

It always happens that the first Monday of May is a bank holiday in the UK. The MET Office predicted that the weather on this bank holiday would be lovely and hot. When my husband asked me whether we should visit somewhere inland or a seaside, I immediate suggested to go to the seaside without much thought. It was because we haven't had nice summers for the past few years - it was cold and often rained. Some places even got flooded. So, since it was such a pleasant day, we enjoyed a stroll at the British seaside.

We went to Burnham-on-Sea. It is located in the south west of England. The beach was quite long, but the pier was the shortest in the UK!

It seems that children had a lot of fun that day. They could either play in the water or build sand castles. For adults, they made use of the unique opportunity to have a sunbathe and relax.

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Borough Market London – Must

Borough Market has a long history. However, despite living in the UK for almost 10 years, I had never heard of it until I read an article a few years ago on Yahoo Hong Kong! 

This lovely Market is located under a railway bridge at the London Bridge tube station. When arriving, the first thing I saw was a large pan full of delicious-looking paella slowly cooking in front of me. Then, walking further inside, my eyes were attracted by the wide variety of colourful food all around. Many sellers couldn't wait to give tasters of their fine products hoping that you would take out your wallet to buy some. 

Not only does the Market sell lunch boxes and desserts, but also fruit and veg, uncooked fish and meat. The Market itself is not a massive one but it is clean and has a lot of high-quality produce. Even non-foodies would be tempted to wonder around, exploring what's on offer, without realising the time. If you want to walk around the whole Market, make sure you visit on Thursday, Friday or Saturday, and allow an hour at the very least.

Borough Market's website: http://www.boroughmarket.org.uk/ 

 

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Red Nose Day Comic Relief

A few weeks ago when I shopped at my local supermarket, I noticed that they were selling red noses. I realised that it was time for the Red Nose Day Comic Relief. It happened on 15 March this year.

The fundraising show transmits one night in March on BBC channels. They normally show a series of comic sketches and encourage people to donate. Some British people would do something unusual or funny to ask for the donation, for example, some schools allow students to wear something red on the day, some wear the red noses and dance on the street. My colleagues took this opportunity to organise a cake sale.

I do bake, but compare to my colleagues, they are better and create much more interesting cakes. So, I did what I do best - donated and 'helped' to eat them! :P

Some cakes had the red nose or comic relief symbol to remind us the reason of the cake sale. I took some cakes and ate it at my desk. We raised £150, which was great!

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Snowing!

Got up at 07:55 this morning. Opened a blind and found that everywhere was covered with the white stuff. I immediately went onto my work website and found a message: 'Due to severe weather, we are closed today'. It was so good that I didn't need to go to work!

Compare to northern European countries, Britain has less snow fall. Statistically, Bristol is one of the UK cities which doesn't have much snow. It is mainly to do with the location and geography. As I was already awoke, my husband and I went out for a walk and enjoyed the snow.

When arriving at a park, there were many families busy making the snowmen, or having fun with the sleigh rides. As for me, I preferred to have a snow fight, so I threw a lump of snow to my husband instead. The snow fight made me laugh out loud again.

Because I suddenly had an extra day off, I sorted out my staff at home after the walk and packed my luggage ready for my skiing trip to France tomorrow. I nearly didn't have time to make a snowman. But I managed to make a little one at the evening, who is guarding my house now.

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