Dinner out at Rasa Sayang

I’ve been in for lunch when it was relatively new a few years back and thought the food was good but quite filling especially if you’re eating alone. I was meeting my sisters for dinner and instead of the usual Chinese I decided we should try Malaysian Rasa Sayang as they haven’t been there before.

I arrived before them and decided to grab a table with bf before it filled up. I asked for a table for four and the lady seated us and asked when the other two coming which I thought was strange! She said it’s dinner time now, implying it would get busy. I wondered if she wanted us to wait outside for my sisters to arrive before getting a table. I told her in Chinese that they would be here soon and we’d eat fast! I do find that Chinese restaurant owners rude, I’ve experienced it a few times in China Town. I’m not sure whether they are only rude to other Chinese people or just rude to every nationality.

(Nasi lemak)

We ordered a dish each to share amongst ourselves; which worked out pretty well, we got a variety of noodles and rice dishes. The dishes were beef rendang – curry & boiled rice (£7.10), nasi lemak – chicken, sides & boiled rice (£7.10 ), char kuay teow – flat noodles with seafood (£6.90), Malaysian fried hokkien mee – thick noodles with chicken (£6.90 ). I thought all the dishes were rather good apart from the Malaysian fried hokkien mee as it had far too much dark soy sauce which coloured it completely black, nothing like the picture on the menu. The nasi lemak looked the most appealing as it had so many things on the plate, it came with chicken and the people that weren’t keen on dark meat made sure to order breast. I’m a leg girl myself but the breast meat was tender, it wasn’t dry because I think the chicken was cooked (probably boiled) whole and chopped up on the bone a la Asian style. The beef rendang was very flavoursome and delicious with the fluffy white boiled rice. The char kuay teow was standard, not bad, it could have had more seafood in it. Overall it was a nice change to have Malaysian street style food, we paid about £8.50 each including lemon tea and tap water.

(Clockwise: char kuay teow, nasi lemak, Malaysian fried hokkien mee, boiled rice, beef rendang.)

Day trip to Arundel

I awoke early today but decided to stay in bed, there was no real plan today so Arundel was a last minute decision. I’ve not been since I was in middle school and taken on a school trip to the castle. It’s a lovely small town with a lot of historical buildings, mainly in a Tudor style. If you are into tea rooms you’re in luck! It’s fairly concentrated considering how small the town is.

We wandered around the streets and we encountered lots of winding passages which added to the the vibe of the town. We were mainly interested in looking in the old bookshop and a few vintage/antique shops. I enjoyed the visit though there is not exactly a lot to do there. I think I’d like to go in the summer and have a picnic up on the hill.

Stairway to the fiction books at Kim’s Bookshop

I think there’s more than 6000 books!

I like to wander into the kids section to find the ones I read when I was little.

I love these Ladybird books.

View from the top of the castle.

Antique/Vintage warehouse.

Shiny Lady Liberty.

The Walking Stick Shop! It was huge!

Interesting symmetrical garden/house.

 

 

New boots

I was browsing Schuh for some boots and because they were giving an extra 20% off on Sunday I just had to get something! I couldn’t find many I liked but found a pair from Red or Dead which used to be £90 and now reduced to £50 but with the 20% promo it’s a bargain price of £40! They arrived today, I selected free delivery and it took 3 days. They came in this brown colour and black but I decided on brown as it looked more vintage and easier to wear with dresses. The black look quite 90s said my bf, this put me off! I’ll be wearing them to work tomorrow so maybe I’ll take a outfit post.

Year of the dragon

This year is the year of the dragon, I’m not sure what it means exactly, it seems a lot of Chinese are wanting to give birth this year to have a dragon baby. I do find the Chinese overly superstitious and sometimes it gets a bit too much, for instance when couples book an appointment for a master to name their baby. The number of brush strokes in the Chinese characters is regarded important, if the number is wrong it’s bad luck etc etc. I’m not very superstitious but did do 2 things before CNY, but one of them was an every day routine (washing) and the other one made sense (Vacuuming), as it’s nice to have a clean house for CNY.

Anyway on the day we went to my parents house after work and my Mum made a lovely hotpot. I ate too much and only managed a tiny bit of the salted caramel cake! Hotpot is fun and I never get to have it much so I thoroughly enjoyed myself! It always reminds me of my holidays to HK. Would hotpot be too messy for a wedding? Hehe.

Chinese New Year’s Eve

I spent the afternoon vacuuming around the house as it’s Chinese New Year tomorrow and you’re supposed to do a spring clean around the house to get rid of any bad luck that may have accumulated in the year. Also you shouldn’t clean for the first few days of the New Year, if you do any sweeping you’ll risk sweeping away your good luck! Good excuse for me!

Apart from a bit of vacuuming we spent the weekend watching two movies, we call this our couch date. On Saturday we watched Shaolin Soccer which was a typical Stephen Chow comedy, I think you have to get Chinese humour  to enjoy this one, or if you liked Kung Fu Hustle. The second film we watch was Rise of the Planet of the Apes which also was enjoyable, I really like James Franco though I didn’t recognise him to start with, he’s not as skinny as he used to be!

Weekend cooking: Sat- Bacon & maple syrup pancakes, tuna melt panini, chilli con carne with scotch bonnet (though it was not very fiery). Sun- Bacon & maple syrup pancakes, left over chili con carne, beef stew and roast potatoes.

Slow cooked beef stew.

Ziggy wanting to watch film too.

Bf made this for breakfast on Saturday and Sunday.

Most depressing day of the year

Today is not most depressing day of the year, apparently it’s always the 3rd Monday of January. I must say today for me wasn’t the greatest. I had to wake up to a cold morning, my car was covered in ice, I had crap hair and it was a Monday! I am extremely tired and grumpy on Mondays because I never can get a good night’s sleep on Sundays.

Although it wasn’t a great day I’m grateful that the cruise ship that sunk in Italy wasn’t the one my Mum is on! It’s the first time she’s been on one with her friend, I was quite surprised when she told me she’s booked the cruise. I wonder if they have TV on cruise ships and whether she’s seen the news? I kind of hope not!

Ziggy looking a bit worried, he’s probably not used to my DSLR point in his face as I hardly ever use it anymore! Since getting the iPhone 2.5 years ago I’ve been extremely lazy with photography, I must get back into taking photos.

Hope tomorrow is a better day.

Planning

I’m actually very organised when it comes to planning, take for instance Christmas dinner, I was in charge of cooking this year’s meal for 5. I made a list and prepared everything I could the day before to ease the possible chaos on the day. It went well though I did forget to heat up the cauliflower cheese I made for my mum (it’s her favourite with a roast).

The planning for my wedding was kind of planned in a day. We wrote out the order of the day and decided what we wanted in each time slot. The easiness of planning may be because it’s not as complicated as other weddings, the traditional and big ones, we are only having immediate family (we would have liked to elope but I think my parents would have been upset). But I was pleased we were finding it fairly easy. The only thing I couldn’t commit to was the date, It took me weeks to pluck up the courage and book the date! I am the sort of person who finds it hard to book anything in advance, especially a year in advance.