Steaks & jogging

Steaks & jogging, the two things I am obsessed with this week.

Out of the blue, my siblings and I talked about eating steaks over dinner. I eat beef, but I've never fancied steaks cus I got the impression that they were very tough and bloody. Furthermore, I hate food that requires a lot of chewing! Out of curiosity, I went to google how to cook steaks and I chanced upon these two videos!

WATCH!



Even though Gordon Ramsay is really mean in real life, I love his videos! The pace is fast and catchy. & he makes it seems like every dish is easy to cook! I don't think it's so easy to cook steaks because it has to be cooked just right for it to be juicy.



Jamie Oliver gave more details.

After watching these two videos, I was raring to cook and eat some steaks myself. I even went to Cold Storage to see the steaks on sale (lol, I know, why am I so 无聊?) and each slab of steak only cost like $5?! So tempted to buy! However, my father does not allow the consumption of any beef products in our house because he worships 观音 at home. Sighhh :(

Since I can't bring anything beef home, I went to google for restaurants to get my steak fix. In the end L and I went to <Aston's Steaks & Salads> for dinner after work one day.

I ordered a ribeye steak done medium rare, which includes a salad buffet ($31.90).

 Yummy!! Love the juiciness and it was chewy in a nice way!

Looked ugly here so I put a strong filter and post it up anyway lol.

L with his steak

Below are photos of the salad buffet line. I like their sauteed mushrooms & potato salad!

Drinks and dessert were free flow too. It was a good meal but we could probably go for the cheaper option without the salad buffet.

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Now about jogging, my second obsession since last week. I felt like my lifestyle was unhealthy after I started working. I would eat lunch and just sit at my seat all day long afterwards. I don't know why but I would still feel hungry at 4+ and I would eat a digestive biscuit so that my stomach doesn't growl. All in but no out.

So last last weekend, I went to get a new pair of running shoes at Queensway. I love it!!! Took me one hour + to decide on this pair of shoes.

Afterwards, I set a routine of jogging around my house at least twice a week. My speed is still pretty slow. When I ran for the first time in like 12345 years last Monday, I took 23.30 to run 3 km. I'll hit the 2.4 km mark at 18 mins, then I would slow down because I always feel like shit by then but I'll force myself to hit 3 km at least. I managed to shave 1 min off my running time after four sessions. Hoping to continue to increase my speed, then I'll try to improve the distance.

There's just so much inertia to go running after work. I normally feel very sleepy, I would even fall asleep on the bus back if I got a seat. To make myself feel better, I'll take a short nap before heading for a jog. Two things that motivate me to run are: the opportunity to wear my pretty jogging shoes & how my face looks after the run. 

Because I almost look pale all the time unless I eat something spicy. I still remembered a classmate commented that I looked like a drug abuser cus I looked very pale and had very dark eye circles while I was in secondary school :(

At least after a run, I feel and look good! (or so I think)

How long will this obsession last? I'm hoping at least two months because previously I have tried to set routines but I always give it up in less than 1-2 months. 

Europe Travelogue Day 7: Harry Potter Studio Tour

You can read my previous posts here:
Day -1, Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 , Day 4, Day 5 & 6

For the last day in London, we headed to the Harry Potter Studio on the outskirts of London, at Watford. L booked the tickets online for a fixed time. However, we took the wrong train and ended being late but they said it was okay so we just went in. I thought the studio tour was quite pricey, £31 (SGD 62) for a 2-3 hour tour.

Let the pictures speak for themselves

Us trying out the butter better! It was nice, a bit like the black tea macchiato Koi has.

They had a comprehensive souvenir store but I couldn't bring myself to buy anything cus everything was so pricey! Usual for Harry Potter merchandise I guess. L paid extra for the butter beer cup so he brought that back.

After the tour, we headed back to London to visit their Natural History Museum. We mainly looked at dinosaur stuffs

For our last dinner in London, we picked a restaurant we liked for a second taste & we chose Burger and Lobster!!

L looks so happy with his lobster claws.

Me with mine

I wanna Burger and Lobster again!!

With that, we concluded our London trip and headed to Paris the next day.

Europe Travelogue Day 5 & 6: London, Windsor, Bath & Stonehenge

You can read my previous posts here:
Day -1, Day 1, Day 2, Day 3  & Day 4

For day 5, we went to another market called Camden market. I realized I didn't have a photo of it anywhere... The market was pretty average, but I bought some souvenirs for my friends there.

After that we headed to Tate Modern, which is an art gallery in front of the famous bridge in Harry Potter. Sad to say I don't appreciate art very much, but at least there are some explanations on the wall which helped a bit.

An interesting exhibit (must be, cus that's my only photo of the musuem lol)

The modern looking bridge!

A photo I took while on the bridge. You can see the tower bridge from this photo if you look carefully!

After that we went to watch Jerseyboys... which I didn't really enjoy. I should have known at first glance because almost everyone in the audience was >50 years old. I don't even know the group "The Four Seasons", who was really famous in the 1960s, much less their songs. We should have spent the money on Wicked or Lion King instead! But oh well...

That was the end of Day 5. It was a meh kind of day.

On Day 6, we signed up for the Windsor, Bath & Stonehenge (all of which were at the outskirts of London) tour using Viator. I thoroughly enjoyed myself because we just sat on the coach and waited to arrive at our destination instead of looking for directions everywhere. The tour was quite pricey though, as with all Viator tours, but I would say it's worth it because they managed to cover so many attractions in a day. Downside is we couldn't spend more time in each place because we had a tight schedule to adhere to.

Our first stop was Windsor castle:

Windsor castle is the Queen's weekend home. It's a good alternative to visit given that the Buckingham Palace is out of bounds unless you're a VIP of the royal family. The weather was perfect that day with a blue sky. Picturesque.

 

We were able to enter the State Apartments (where the royal family entertain their guests) and the St George's Chapel. All the rooms in the State Apartments were beautifully adorned by paintings, chandeliers and tapestries. It was all very royal looking.

We were quite lucky to chance upon the changing of the guards ceremony as well. In the Windsor 

castle, we can take photos with the guards. Meanwhile in London, it was not allowed after some tourist tried to assault one of the guards and to protect himself, the guard knocked the tourist unconscious.  

After Windsor, we headed to Bath. This town has the only natural hot spring in the UK.

Some church nearby

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Roman baths. It was built when London was under Romans' rule

Other than the roman bath we visited, we walked around in the quaint little town.

Then it was time to visit the highlight of the trip, Stonehenge! I was so excited!!!

Stonehenge stood somewhere out of nowhere. Our bus stopped nearby and we took another bus up to look at the Stonehenge up close.

Photo taken from my iPhone, enhanced by VSCOcam.

It's pretty cool isn't it. Some ancient people built this massive structure and now nobody knows what is it for. Some people it is to worship the gods, others say it's to tell time. But no one really knows... How did they even build such a massive structure in ancient times??

On the other side, there were sheeps grazing on the grass. The grass looks so green! Can I live there pls?

 The wind was extraordinarily strong at the site, so our hair were perpetually flying everywhere.

With that, we headed back to London...

I'm damn old

For my birthday last week, L and I headed to Pasarbella for lunch.

Pasarbella is located at Turf city and I always thought it was very far away for me cus I stay in the North-East. Apparently not! I met L at Toa Payoh and there was a free shuttle bus to Turf city. I think the bus took like 10 mins max to reach. The concept of Pasarbella is like Marche so you can buy different food from different vendors to try.

We tried out the Paella and something like "Three types of meat" dish, cant remember the name. The paella was awesome!!! The steak in the other dish was nice and succulent as well. Overall, the place gave me a very good impression and I would love to go again.

L got me a Kindle for my birthday present and I am v happy with it! I've revived my book reading habit recently, cus I've got plenty of time to myself on the weekends even if I go out for one of the days. So far I'm able to find the books I wanna read on the web, then load it in my Kindle. The loading process made me feel like I'm using iPod again cus I can choose whatever type of book covers I like!

At night we headed to Kushi Bar. It's a Japanese buffet place and I was really looking forward to it as it has been awhile since I had Japanese food.

Sashimi platter

Oysters!

The spread.

Second round of sashimi, which I loveeeee.

Us at the restaurant! Realized we don't take much photos nowadays. Will try to take more photos of ourselves instead of food lol.

So, this was how I spent my birthday. Like any other weekend...

3 things about today

1. On my wrist today.

Do you feel creeped out by the eye staring at you?! Hahaha. I took this picture at work during a brief moment when I was bored. The rest of the day was horrible. There was a cock up at work today and my manager was pretty busy trying to solve it. While he was busy, I asked him a question to affirm the decision I was about to make. He became very frustrated and ask me to just "reply and ask other people". Is it wrong for a newbie to ask just one question? I had only started handling such work three weeks ago!!!  I realized my manager is pretty impatient so I've got to tread carefully next time. Afterwards, I made another mistake and he got frustrated again. It wasn't entirely my fault, just a small miscommunication and he has to appear so FRUSTRATED? Feels like he is entitled to feel frustrated but I don't think he has the entitlement. Sighhh... When I learn everything and stop making mistakes, maybe it's time to leave.

2. Shoes I bought today at the Charles and Keith warehouse sale.

Nice?

After work, I headed to Taiseng, which is where the Charles and Keith warehouse is located. I met up with Fang and Debra and we managed to get in after queuing for awhile. I've always been picky with shoes but I guess I was more accommodating today as the prices were relatively cheaper! These two pairs set me back $47, which is pretty reasonable. Oli and Huijing joined us later and we headed to the nearby Breadtalk HQ for dinner. 

3. The birthday cake my parents bought

Tomorrow is my birthday! Nothing special, probably cause I am 23 this year. One of my impossible wishes is for me to wind back time. To go back to the time when I was perhaps 14, still a teenager. I still feel like the 14 year old girl I was, but my exterior has already changed so much. I became fatter, dyed my hair, changed my tastes... I really miss the world I had when I was 14. I only had to juggle between studies and CCA and wasted my time hanging out in school or at the mall. Back then, I felt like I had all the time in the world to waste. Nowadays, any free time I have feels so precious, maybe cause work takes up so much of my time. As I become older, the perception of "time" to me has changed from a commodity to a luxury good.

I am looking forward to the time when "time" will become a commodity again. But who knows when that will be?

Sighhh... Talking about all these makes me feel so emotional.