The UK Christmas Dinner

Since I have lived in the UK, I noticed that the Christmas period is a bit like the Chinese New Year: instead of red pocket money, people exchange gifts. They also eat a vast amount of food which you don't normally do at any other time. Nowadays, I visit my husband's family for Christmas. My sister-in-law used to cook turkey for Christmas. However this time, when she took out the bird from the oven, I thought: what is that?

She had decided to get something different: a 'three bird roast' instead, which consisted of goose on the outside, pheasant in the middle, and chicken innermost. Comparing to the traditional turkey, this was much more interesting and it tasted really good!

Vegetables are always part of the meal. Roast potato is a must, but she had also made some mash potato, roasted parsnips, boiled Brussels sprouts and red cabbage... Even if you are a meat lover, you would be attracted by the colourful veg in front of you.

In my husband's family, we normally pull the Christmas crackers just before the meal. Whoever gets the larger portion of the cracker is the winner. Then we wear the paper hat, read the jokes and study the contents inside, it is usually a small toy.

Oh, I've nearly forgotten to mention that British people open their Christmas gifts on 25th, not on  Boxing Day (26th). I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a Happy New Year, see you next year!

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Different Kind of Fruit Tea

Last month, I talked about English people with their tea. However, I don't follow this tradition. It's because tea has caffeine. I won't be able to go to sleep after. Whenever I stay at a B&B, or when my friends or colleagues buy me a drink, I don't know what to get. If I know the person well, I may ask for the hot chocolate and feel a bit embarrassed. But if the B&B doesn't provide my favourite hot drink, or I don't really know the person, I may end up having water instead. 

I remember there was a time I used to drink mint tea. I discovered it has caffeine, so I didn't bother drinking any kind of tea. Until last year, my friend came to visit me in the UK. She bought many souvenirs for her colleagues, especially fruit tea. I started drinking it because it doesn't have caffeine. I normally buy Twinings. It is because there are many different type of favour available. The most unusual one is Cranberry & Sanguinello Orange. It tastes like a kind of fruity soft drink without gas. Also, it is hot, not cold. Very interesting indeed.

Nowadays, when people offer me a drink, I have an extra choice of beverage.

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British Way of Drinking Tea

When I was a child, I thought that Chinese and Japanese were the only tea drinkers in the world. However, I realise now that actually the Brits drinks a lot of tea. According to the Wikipedia, British tea consumption is 6th in the world. To think about it, it's not hard to find tea bags and sugar in any draws at work.

I discover that British people seem to drink tea at a certain time of the day. I think they normally drink at least 4 cups a day. Let's take my husband as an example: a cuppa with his breakfast, lunch, and afternoon tea. Then he must have a final cup of tea after dinner so that he would feel his day is 'completed'.

Unlike Chinese, when English drinks tea, they would add milk and sugar. My husband said that if you use a tea pot to make tea, you should pour the milk first, then tea follows by sugar. But if you are using tea bags, then you should put the bag and sugar first, pour in the hot water than the milk. But it's still debatable on how to make a proper English cuppa!

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Bradford-on-Avon

When planning a trip to the UK, you may think of the well-known cities like London, Edinburgh, Manchester and Liverpool. However, there are many lovely towns and villages in the UK which are worth to pay a visit, for example, Bradford-on-Avon which is located nearby Bath.

According to the history, people started to live in this village from the ancient Roman period. However, the local buildings have a strong sense of English style architect.

As the name suggested, the River Avon runs through this town. If you have time, you may wish to enjoy the scenery of Avon by following the proposed routes from the local town map.

Note: It takes around 15 minutes to go from Bath to Bradford-on-Avon by train. If you would like to find out more traveling information at the UK, please feel free to contact me.

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GB Football Match in 2012 Olympic Games

Generally, I'm not particularly keen to watch sport competitions. But, like everybody else, because the Olympics is happening in London, I've been glued to the telly and searching online for the latest news. Last Saturday and again yesterday, I went to Cardiff to watch some Olympic football matches. Each match had different feel to it.

The first one was the women's competition group match between Brazil and New Zealand. Maybe because it wasn't Team GB, and there were fewer spectators, the atmosphere was more peaceful.

Next up was Team GB against Cameroon. More fans arrived for this match, and the atmosphere became suddenly more heated.

Although the female GB match was quite good (they won 3-0), the atmosphere in final match I saw was much stronger, the men's competition match between GB and South Korea. The stadium was completely full!

After playing for 120 minutes, it was Team GB 1-1 South Korea. The most exciting but cruel way to find the winner was with penalties. Unfortunately, GB just need more skill and practice (as usual). They failed to go through to the next round. However, I'm glad that I could participate in the Olympics and support Team GB. I'll cherish the experience!

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Olympic Touch @ Bristol

Olympic games is coming to London! The Olympic Touch has arrived at Bristol on 21 May 2012. Needless to say I didn't miss the chance to be part of this historical moment.

Unusually, the weather was very nice that day, sunny and warm. The touch carriers are not necessary celebrities or famous sportsmen. Even "ordinary" people can deliver it. The touch was there when I arrived, so I immediately found a good spot to take a picture. At that moment, I realised that one of my work colleagues called Jo - the one who taught me how to make Chocolate Brownies - was the carrier. I couldn't believe it!

People asked me whether or not I would go to watch any of the Olympic games. I actually didn't plan to watch any. However, I soon realised that Team GB will be participating in football at Cardiff, which is not far from where I live. So, I bought the tickets and will be watching three matches. Can't wait!

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Who doesn't like chocolate?

I was really lucky to see so much lovely chocolate this Easter weekend! It was because Bristol hosted a Chocolate Festival this year. I guess it was the first time it happened.

It was not just about chocolate as there were also  cakes and sweets. It was a shame that I didn't have enough money with me to buy them all. However, some samples were available for anyone to try.

I remember some years ago when traveling in Spain, I had "Chocolate con Churro" for breakfast. Since it was for sale at the festival, I decided to buy some in order to relive that fantastic time in Spain...

Hope that there would be more festival like that in Bristol in future...

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My Slow Cooker

I have abandoned my blog for a while as I was skiing at Italy last week. Sorry for keep you waiting...

What I would like to talk about today is my slow cooker. If you have been reading the Chinese version of my blog, you'll know I used it to make some Guinness Beef Stew. I promised that I would explain how I came to own a slow cooker:

July last year, my local council wanted to encourage us not to waste food, so they started a campaign called 'Love Food Hate Waste'. One of the events was to ask local residents to provide a recipe which used some leftover food.

When I was a child, I loved to make Chinese fried rice (actually, I should say that except for cooking fried rice, I would rather stay away from the kitchen as much as possible). The origin of fried rice is that in the past, people were very poor. They didn't want to throw away any leftover food so they fried everything together. So, I submitted my version of fried rice and it was picked to be included my local council's Cook Book. The slow cooker was one of the prizes.

Other prizes were about how to reduce food waste or help save the environment, for example: a reusable shopping bag, a potato sack, etc. They are quite useful actually!

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Busy January

I've been too busy lately that I've nearly forgotten to update my blog. Today is the seventh day of the Chinese New Year, I would like to say a belated wishes to you: 'Have a good dragon year and good health!'


There is a Chinese saying that 'have a new start in the New Year', I have a new job this year, and have been learning the new tasks and responsibilities.  At the weekend, I am carrying on teaching James Cantonese at our community radio station, Bradley Stoke Radio. Also, because the big sales are on this month, I've been doing some bargain hunting, mainly shoes and beauty products. I spent most of my money on The Body Shop because they were having some discounts!

(PS If you still remember, I went to Bradley Stoke Radio to host an one hour show on my own. Unfortunately, because of the copyright, I can't upload the whole programme on YouTube. However, two weeks ago when teaching James Cantonese as usual, James asked me how my show went. Below is the clip that was recorded on 15 January 2012.)

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