It's 8.30am and I haven't slept since I woke up from a strange dream (involving my pregnant sister, a rave party, drugs, and getting lost) at 1am.
On my way to work and only starting to feel sleepy now. Brilliant.
Hopefully I'll last the day and then can have a good rest tonight.
Met up with Cheryl for dinner yesterday and finally got to meet baby Liam. Oh my, he is such a cutie. Had a nice catch up with her, lots to talk about seeing how the last time I met her she was probably only about 6 months preggers.
It's interesting to see how everyone's lives are changing, and how we have all grown and evolved since oh so many years ago. Who would have imagined back then that we'd be talking about grown up things like buying houses and having babies?
It's 3am and I'm wide awake, thanks to a cup of coffee I had at lunch and another cup I had at 5pm. Given my extremely low tolerance for anything with caffeine content (yes, even panadol extra keeps me up), it wasn't very smart of me to have even sniffed the coffee cups, let alone glug down the contents.
Ah well. Shall listen to +3 snore and rumble in his sleep. Hehe.
One of the things that made me go wow during our B&B stay at the Isle of Skye was the yummy oats that the owner prepared for breakfast.
Porridge, as it is known there, was cooked simply and served with honey or cinnamon sugar.
What we really liked about it was the texture. It was a nice consistency, a litle more "solid" than what we have at home. Excited and impressed, I asked the owner what kind of oats he used, and he shared the brand of porridge oats and some tips on how to prepare it.
Naturally, we went to the local co-op and got ourselves the very same brand that very evening.
Fast forward to this morning and I happily prepared the oats, as per the instructions. Lo and behold! I managed to recreate the same consistency with the oats I bought in Scotland.
The actual uncooked oats didn't differ much in terms of looks from my usual oats, so I tried to cook them in the same manner. Sad to say, while the texture did improve from our usual servings, it still was too soft and couldn't get to the right texture.
I guess the type of oats used really do matter, so once we are done with our stash at home (oats are awesome!) we will start exploring other types. Yippie!
I think after a whirlwind trip around Scotland, +3 and I were beginning to lose a little bit of steam and weren't too keen on packing our days chockful with activities. When we got back to London, we...
- Went to the Lego store and ate Pasta at the mall at a small (but so yummy) shop, Pasta Remoli
- Cycled to the Olympic Park
- Bought our engagement ring at a jewelry shop in Hatton Garden
- Had a picnic at Greenwich
- Met Emmeline for dinner at Bistrotheque
- Went to the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaurs
- Had pizza at Franco Manca at Brixton
- Went to Burough Market
- Got too lazy to travel out to places like Oxford (but that's ok - next time)
We also had dinner at Hawksmoor, L'Entrecote and bought ourselves a nice 24cm Le Creuset cast iron pot. K and S also kindly gifted us a Le Creuset cast iron grill pan as an engagement gift.
Typing this out as we are heading to Heathrow Airport. Have to say we had an epic holiday and really got to know +3 better. Heading home soon!
Can't believe we have to head back to Singapore today. Where did all the time go?
Quick recap of our trip since my last update.
We took the train to Edinburgh on Monday, a four hour journey. Arrived, checked in to our hotel, grabbed lunch. Went to a place called Mum's - food was so good. Walked around the royal mile, to Edinburgh Castle, had some whisky. Also went to look for a Charles Jenck landform that +3 wanted to see.
Next day in Edinburgh, we took a day tour to the lowlands. Went to Holy Island, Alnwick Castle and the Alnwick Gardens. Alnwick Castle is apparently where they filmed the quidditch scenes in Harry Potter.
Took a "Lost Cellar" tour at the Alnwick Castle as well, a 20min ghoulish performance. Have to say it was pretty good. Also visited the Poison Garden at the Alwnick Gardens, and learnt a bit about poisonous plants (did you know rhubarb leaves can kill you? We only eat the stems).
Went to Glasgow the next day, visited the Scottish Parliament House (designed by Enric Mirralles) as well as the Riverside Museum (designed by Zaha Hadid) which had a trasport museum exhibition.
The thing about traveling with architects is that you learn a thing or two about landscapes, public realms, buildings and architects.
Took a 3 day tour to Isle of Skye while K and S went back to London. Isle of Skye and the Scottish Highlands are gorgeous and breathtakingly beautiful. Our tour guide was a history graduate so he had lots to share about the history of Scotland.
Random things I remember:
- Scotland has lots of water. Take all the water in all the lakes in the rest of UK and it would only fill 3/4 of Loch Ness.
- Loch Ness is the second longest and the second deepest, which makes it the biggest lake in Scotland.
- Scotland has an estimated 31,000 lochs (lakes).
- People in Scotland pay a flat fee and can use as much water as they want.
The highlight of the Isle of Skye trip was that +3 proposed. It was a gorgeous day and even the tour guide said that it would be a pity to spend this day indoors (having lunch) when the weather was so beautiful.
Will post about the proposal in another entry heehee.
