*dimsumdolly* - the different morsels of the life of a foodie

Au Revoir, Paris

So all good things must come to an end - I leave Paris tomorrow for Munich where I'll drown myself in beer during the Oktoberfest and stuff myself with sausages.

The past eight days in Paris have been an endless stream of eating - going from one place to the next in search of the next eating spot on the Skinny Epicurean's eat-list. She, the very organised person, brought along with her a list of food places we should pay homage to. I'm so thankful to her for planning every day's agenda and itinerary! Thanks, dearie!!!

The main things on her agenda were patisseries and boulangeries 'cos this dear girl loves baking. Suited me fine 'cos I love desserts! It's a sinful indulgence but oh well, this IS Paris. Worry about the calories later.

Thankfully the Skinny Epicurean is great at reading maps. I'm hopeless - even with a map I can still get lost. When I travel on my own, I just go by the 'feel' of the place, which sends me in circles quite often but it's fun too 'cos I end up discovering little places I never intended to go to.

Anyways, while I head off to Deutschland, she goes back to Singapore the day after tomorrow and I guess she'll have lots of stuff to regale our other foodie friends back home. Get this - we are in Paris and we haven't even stepped into one museum!!! Ostensibly, food is the main agenda for us! Paris has been kind to us too - the City of Love has blessed us with good weather what with the sunshine and not-so-butt-freezing-cold temperatures.

Many thanks, too, to Umami and family who have been the most generous hosts. Her little daughter is an absolute delight to play with! The girl's a real charmer with her apple pink cheeks and cherubic face.

So I say goodbye to the land of fantastic food, cheeses, wines, pastries, breads and will next say hello to the land of sausages, pork knuckles, beer, beer, beer and beer.

*Burp*

Paris Je T'aime - Part II

Oooh, it's so wonderful to find myself back in Paris again after not having been back for seven years. Last time I was here, I had just finished my 2nd year of undergrad school and was backpacking on my own in Europe at that time. Everyone thought I was crazy to do it alone and I remember my mum saying she was given flak from her friends for allowing me to do it. Not that she really had a lot of say in it! Haha.

Anyway, it's great to be in this lovely city. It has an innate charm about it and it seems impossible to eat badly in this city. I love it how the French, unlike the English, adore their food!

With the Skinny Epicurean, us two girls have been eating our way around Paris and we're absolutely pampered at Umami's place. We're so thankful to her and her family for their generosity in hosting us!

Skinny Epicurean and I went to Taillevent for lunch yesterday, and it was an experience for us as it was the first time eating in a Michelin-star restaurant for the both of us. More details of that to come.

But anyway, now it's time for breakfast and another day of walking and eating around Paris!

And oh, forgot to add that I love the charming French men! There was a very cute waiter at the restaurant yesterday!!! :p

Hampton Court Palace

Some snapshots I took of Hampton Court Palace yesterday. Its most famous resident is King Henry VIII - yes the one who had six wives and who formed the Church of England just 'cos the Pope didn't grant him a divorce!

Paris Je T'aime

It was a great weekend of racing along the Thames River. Paddled 22 miles from Richmond to Greenwich. Great atmosphere amongst all participants, paddle boats of all kinds were on the river, some people dressed up and it was just awesome. Loved it!!!

I felt like a tourist attraction myself especially when we paddled past the Westminster part of the Thames, passing all the icons of London - Big Ben, the London Eye, St Paul's Cathedral, Oxo Towers, Tate Modern, Tower of London, Tower Bridge etc. We paddled past a total of 28 bridges and people on the bridges cheered the passing boats on. Awesome.

Sunday I went to Hampton Court Palace by myself and spent most part of the late morning and half the afternoon there. Lovely palace gardens and the exhibits are fantastic. Very good and informative piece of English Tudor and Georgian history. Definitely worth a visit and it's worth taking food for a picnic in the gardens too! Well, that pertains only to when it's sunny of course!

Anyway, am off to Paris tomorrow! And I haven't even packed!!! My Eurostar train leaves at 7am so you can imagine that tonight will be a bout of maniac packing for me!!! But nevermind, I'll catch up with sleep on the train. Heehee.

Last Minute Entrant

Am participating in the Great River Race tomorrow. Someone from the Thames Dragon team pulled out at the last minute and I'm going to take his place. Got the call only last evening - 48 hours before the race! Anyway, I'm really excited 'cos I really wanted to do this and it's going to be really good fun paddling along the Thames River and seeing all the sights of London! But it's a competition too, so I must paddle hard too and try not to get too distracted by the sights along the river bank!

Washing Machine Blues

The washing machine in my flat broke down last night - finally. I say 'finally' because it has succumbed to the constant abuse by one of my flatmates. My other flatmate and I keep telling her NOT to bang and hit the washing machine every time she starts it up, but she never listens. She keeps hitting and slamming the door until it starts spinning. She doesn't get it that it just needs some time after the 'Start' button is hit to start up.

So the perpetrator used the washing machine the night before last. And I'll bet it was the straw that broke the camel's back. I tried to use it last night and found that it didn't seem to spin after filling with water. Great - I had clothes stuck inside and the door remained locked due to some safety mechanism. I left it for the night hoping against hope that it might sort itself out in the course of the night. But of course, no such thing happened. In the morning, it was the status quo. I desperately wanted to get my clothes out. I tried turning the dial to 'Stop' (thankfully it did) and thank god the door unlocked. My clothes were dripping wet as the water wasn't drained from the machine. I had to wring my clothes as much as I could before hanging them. Still, it left a big pool of water in the living room and I had to wipe up as much as I could before going to work. What a great way to start the day.

I shot an email to the property agent first thing after I got into the office but I still haven't heard from him. He's hopeless. I hope he gets it fixed soon. But he's a really useless property agent!

What I hate about London is that property agents and landlords have the upper hand because it's their market. Rental property is always in demand and 'cos of that, we, tenants, always end up being the ones getting the shorter end of the stick. We're suppose to be the clients, but we're treated like shit.

My tenancy agreement has got 35 clauses protecting the landlord. It has only 5 for the tenant. Is that skewed or is that skewed?

I hate this whole renting thing. I never want to do it again.

Whitstable

On Sunday, my flatmate and I decided to not to stay in Canterbury but chose to go to a seaside town after checking out of Chaucer Lodge. We took a bus there and it took about 30min to get there.

For some reason, the UK is having better weather in September than she had for the whole of summer. We're officially into autumn now. But I'm not complaining! So we were blessed with perfect weather to be visting the seaside. Whitstable beach was at low tide when we got there. So low that you could walk along the sandbank which stretched far into the sea.

Like many other visitors, we, too, had to walk along the sand bank just for the fun of it.

Turning round as I walked, I took a shot of the beach huts that faced the sea. I love these multicoloured huts. They're so cute. They're really tiny and people use them only for the day to put their things when they spend the day at the beach. People don't normally spend the night in it.

And farther along the sandbank, I took another shot. You almost feel like you're walking straight into the horizon.

We walked back to shore and did a long walk along the coast. Along the way, we came across a Sunday open market. There was an old wooden canoe being displayed. It was very nicely polished too! Makes for a good display piece.

There was also a fish market, but it was really tiny! I was expecting something like Sydney's fish market when I saw the sign, and was full on anticipation...

...but this was all there was to it! So pathetic! Seriously, forget about the notion of good seafood in the UK.

Some cooked shellfish for sale in tiny little bowls. It didn't look very appetising at all.

Fresh fish for sale.

Catamarans begging to be taken out to sea.

A row of seaside terrace houses at Whitstable.

Walked past this house whose owner must have great artistic talent and a quirky sense of humour. He/She painted the dull green rubbish bin (bottom left of pic) to what are suppose to be flowers to blend in with the rest of the real flowers. Brilliant idea!

The lanes of Whitstable.

Did you think I would go on with the day without ice cream? Such days are perfect days for ice cream and I bought a double scoop cone from this ice cream shop called Sundae Sundae. They make their own ice cream and I went for the Stem Ginger and Butterscotch & Toffee. I really liked the former. Ginger ice cream is always good!

We later made our way to Herne Bay, another seaside town. Herne Bay was smaller and a lot quieter. We hung around for a short while and then made our way back to Canterbury where we caught our train back to London's Waterloo East station. But of course, not before I bought another Belgian waffle from Cafe St Pierre to munch on the train!

Canterbury Part II

We stayed over in Canterbury on Saturday night. We were really lucky to find a room at the last minute as we were prepared to head back to London if we couldn't find one.

We thought that it wouldn't be too difficult to get a room in Canterbury 'cos we didn't think it was that popular a place! But we were wrong! The youth hostel was full and so were the other B&Bs within our budget. Thankfully, we managed to get a twin room in Chaucer Lodge (62 New Dover Road) and the proprietor told us that Chaucer Lodge was the last B&B on that road! Had we walked farther (and we had walked very far already!), we wouldn't have found anything. So really lucky indeed! And isn't it fitting to stay at Chaucer Lodge when Canterbury's the home of the Canterbury Tales?

The room was small but clean and comfortable. Very cosy. We paid £65 for the room.

The traditional English breakfast which was served the next morning.

The end of the dining room extended into the garden and it was really nice to have sunlight streaming in and a nice view of the well-pruned garden.

This was a gate I walked past in some small lane in Canterbury. I don't know why, but I just thought it was very pretty with the ivy blanketing it and weaving its vines over the iron-wrought gates. There's just something very English about it!

This postbox embedded in the wall that surrounds St Augustine's Abbey is pretty unique – you seldom see such embedded postboxes around.

A cup of hot chocolate was my Saturday afternoon indulgence together with a Belgian waffle which was so buttery and so divine. Of course, it was so divine that I sank my teeth right into it and forgot to take a photo of it.

Cafe St Pierre, along High Street, is the maker of the divine waffle. They serve baguette, paninis, cakes and pastries as well. Look out for their 50p specials for pastries and cakes they want to clear from the shelves. It's a very good bargain! Though of course it doesn't do anything for your waistline. But who cares.

Canterbury

Went to Canterbury over the weekend - yes, to the home of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. It was a nice little city, the old town centre was bustling with tourists on a Saturday afternoon. The city still has a long stretch of its old city wall still intact and it was built when the Romans first came in the first century AD! Pretty cool.

The famous Canterbury Cathedral is a World Heritage site. Apparently costs £12,000 daily to run. It costs £6.50 (adult price) to enter. This Anglican cathedral is huge and has lots of high gothic ceilings and many stain glass windows.

Walked past this small public library on High Street, the main shopping street in the town centre. Though small and old, it is very quaint and charming.

After having a late lunch, my friend and I decided to go for a river punt ride. Us two lazy girls just wanted to take it easy.

Our Scottish punter punted us down the River Stour on a slow, relaxing and sleep-inducing ride.

We passed other boats and went past hanging willows which added a somewhat poetic touch to the scene.

Along the way, we stopped to feed some wild Polish that were grazing in the field. Some nettle stung my hand as I was going to pick it up to feed, thinking those leaves were harmless! But boy, do these nettle sting! Ouch ouch ouch.

One of several lanes in the old town centre.

Transport Strikes

Great - Tube workers are staging a 72-hour strike from 6pm today. I take the Tube every day to and from work.

I told you before, right? I heart London public transport!

Give me Singapore efficiency already!