Dran @ marks and stencils 90/365

 

Siong 89/365

Happy birthday my dear :)

At least this year we didn't have to wait for your shockingly orange hair !

Spring fever 88/365

For the first time in 4 yeras, I am home bound with an eye allergy that's supposedly a result of hay fever. I'm uber loaded up with antihistamines but am feeling a wee bit like a cicak today.

87/365

Some days, just some days, can be a little gloomy.



Camden Town 86/365

Sing up tourists, Sing

There's a great croud of tourists and they're coming down the street

Pleased as punch with brand new, Doc Martens on their feet

Past stalls of leather jackets, old bric a brac

Indian sunglasses or a Chinese bobble hat

Tramps stare in the window Of the local butchers shop

Like a pack of wild dogs

They'd run of with the lot

In primrose hill an angry man

His hair standing on end shouts and Rants in the ear of his imaginary friend

In Camden town I'll meet you By the underground

In Camden town, we'll walk there

As the sun goes down

In Camden town

In Camden town, you can do anything

You want to

A drunken busker hit the pavement Sending hot dogs in the air

Towards a broken down bus full of people going nowhere

A string of Irish pubs as far as you can see

Greek Indian Chinese

or would you like a cup of tea

Theres Tapas, fracas alcohol tobbaccos

bongs, bongo bingo, Portugese

Maracas, Theres reggae in the jeggae

Music everywhere

Theres Every kind of song and dance

Madness in the air

~ Suggs

Eye of a tourist 85/365

Piccadilly circus

Han at dran's 84/365

Counting down to 2012 83/365

King's Cross St Pancras

London's guiding light 82/365

St Pauls

The one with the past 81/365

camden passage

Electronic enclosure 80/365

Macaroons 79/365

Saturday night saw me battling my ultimate baking challenge - David Lebovitz macaroons. The first batch turned out like flat chewy subway cookies but had the right flavour.

Undefeated, I forged on to try again on Sunday morning. This time, the little babies rose nicely...but still no d**n feet!!! Flavour went all wonky so this time I pimped them as flourless chocolate 'Hero' cakes.

One day, I will succeed.

School 78/365

A day of school and a day of moving for a friend who is about to go to San Francisco. I was mighty pleased to find out that I topped the cohord for my DA1 exam in December :)

Japan 77/365

This is a post-dated entry. This blog was quiet on 18 March 2011 honouring the blogger's day of silence for Japan.

Happy St Patricks day 76/365

So this evening, we were decked out in green, made merry, had Irish barmbrack, drank guinness and whisky. If you haven't already celebrated it, i am certain that the party heaves through the weekend. :)

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Dealing with negativity 75/365

'YES' can live on in the land of 'NO'

I have been having a rather difficult period with a certain person in my life of late. Friends around me are probably more than fatigued by my endless rants about the said person. Earlier this week, when I thought that I was about to reach breaking (or boiling, if you please) point, I decided that I ought to take a step back and assess how I can deal with the issue constructively. I thought i've tried it all,

'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em'. That made me really depressed every time I came into contact with this person.

'ignore'. A really challenging feat when confined within four walls with the said person over an extended period of time, whom I may add, will not stop talking. even when I am with headphones. I am generally not good with ignoring people when I am physically present.

'Say it as it is'. It doesn't seem to stop the flow or sludge of negativity from said person. It is all well and good for two days, and then it starts again the following week. Sigh.

On that note, I decided that I might take stock internally, to try and kill off the less than desirable energy that creeps my way. Looking around, it seems that there are countless books and articles written on the web on how we should deal with it. Of all that i've reviewed,I have found certain pointers that will help everyone deal with difficult situations in life (not just with regards to negative people).

Life's little lessons:

1. Do not take things personally - it is irrational to take anything negative people say personally. Self awareness is key here -- Avoid defensiveness and overreactions.

2. Use "i" instead of "u" - when feeling negative, avoid accusations. Using 'i' plays down the offensive tone that often comes with "u". 'I feel....' It is abit of a word play on one's emotion, but it works. wonders. It also makes you reflect on whether this is how you really feel.

3. Dealing with angry people - A yogi tells me it is always important to take full deep breaths (both in and out). I thought it was a whole load of bollocks when this was first explained to me, but when you are within four walls of the said person, and wanting to scream and tear your hair out, deep breathing is THE BEST alternative to that. Ask: "Why are you so angry?" to understand.

Listen to empathize.

Provide Feedback to resolve (with action!).

I am not sure it wholly works yet. I can't get past the feedback part. But when I start getting frazzled, I go back to point 1. Do not take things personally.

The aviary group suggests

(a) using opposite statements. make a negative statement positive. I have not quite figured out how this can be universally applied to negative statements.

(b) asking what can be done. find solutions. I have also not quite decided how this works on people who refuse to provide feedback, whose answer is simply 'i don't know' (in brackets, frankly 'i also don't care').

They also suggest being bold and assertive. I think this applies to people in general, and even more so with negative people. I personally find this difficult as my aversion to conflict directly impacts the ability to be assertive. That said, I have found that making statements which are always backed up by FACTS (not opinion) boosts assertiveness and boldness. Facts cannot be refuted.

When all is said and done, in circumstances of conflict or negativity, you can always look back to point 1 - 3 which are the most basic of all principles that one can always use to manage difficult situations.

I have found that the one downfall for most people (women especially), is the innate reaction to personalize things/situations/statements/conflicts. This post does not state anything new, but highlights and places markers on certain pointers that we should keep in mind (that which is often forgetten) when placed in emotional situations.



Chasing trains 74/365

Stratford Station

Tonight, I thought about the film Sliding Doors as I stepped off the train onto the platform. I wondered how much of life was 'meant to be', and how much of it was what we actually made it to be.

Monday blues 73/365

Bercy Village 13/3/11

Some days, I think certain things are better left unsaid.

Nippon 69-72/365

I have been rather tardy with posts of late but that's due to a harrowing cough and flu that I have been nursing for two weeks (which took a nice old turn for the worse over the weekend). That said, the weekend in Paris was lovely, though a rather grim one what with the news of the catastrophe in Japan.

On Saturday, we took a little walk through the gardens near Pyrenees where flowers have already started their spring revival. We passed a cherry blossom tree struggling to sprout, its branches rousing from deep winter slumber, its leaves receiving its first rays of spring, and little blossoms spawning their way into bloom. I thought a little sadly of their home country which is struggling to cope with its biggest disaster since World War II, and of the frightening force of Mother Nature. As with all the beauty that it bestows on this planet, it takes away in just a split moment with all its wrath and fury.

So while their sisters flourish amidst the March showers of Paris this weekend, this spring is one that Japan's cherry blossoms might never see.

Swan Lake 68/365

photo credit: http://ballet.co.uk

Hier soir, j'ai passe la nuit avec Le Royal Ballet pour son interpretation de Swan Lake. Il a ete magnifique, la danse, le costume, la musique, c'etait une experience que j'ai jamais eu! La Swan Queen elle a ete vraiment charmant, fragile et triste. Marianela Nunez a eu la movement vraiment enjouler et tranquille aussi. Ca fait l'experience tellement inoubliable. :)

Shrove Tuesday aka Pancake Day 67/365

Happy Shrove Tuesday! Today we celebrate the beginning of lent and the sacrifice of guilty pleasures for 40 days. The UK celebrates Pancake Day today as well. At my last workplace, we had an annual tradition where we all trooped down to My Old Dutch for pancakes and crepes at lunch. Shrove Tuesday in 2007 was the day my Swedish ex-colleague (now turned yogi) christened me Johanna.

I digress. What better way to commemorate today with a spot of indulgence -- pancakes and the royal ballet. I am very much looking forward to Swan Lake tonight, fuzzy head and sniffles not withstanding.

Wherever you are, don't forget to have some luscious fluffy pancakes today. :)

Apple Turnovers 65-66/365

Leftover green apples from last week's crumble + puff pastry = yummy buttery apple turnovers.

On another note, following my spate of bad luck with airlines (budget and otherwise), I finally got round to booking my flights to Rome next month. At a reasonable price no less. Winter begone and let the tides turn.

Bleeding Hearts 64/365

Bleeding Heart Yard


 The restaurant takes its name from the yard where it is located which, according to the history books, was named after a 17th century beauty, Lady Elizabeth Hatton, who was found murdered there.

The Legend

Lady Elizabeth Hatton was the toast of 17th Century London society. The widowed daughter-in-law of the famous merchant Sir Christopher Hatton (one-time consort of Queen Elizabeth 1), Lady Elizabeth was young, beautiful and very wealthy. Her suitors were many and varied, and included a leading London Bishop and a prominent European Ambassador. Invitations to her soirees in Hatton Garden were much sought after.



Her Annual Winter Ball, on January 26, 1662, was one of the highlights of the London social season. Halfway through the evening's festivities, the doors to Lady Hatton's grand ballroom were flung open. In strode a swarthy gentleman, slightly hunched of shoulder, with a clawed right hand. He took her by the hand, danced her once around the room and out through the double doors into the garden. A buzz of gossip arose. Would Lady Elizabeth and the European Ambassador (for it was he) kiss and make up, or would she return alone? Neither was to be. The next morning her body was found in the cobblestone courtyard – torn limb from limb, with her heart still pumping blood onto the cobblestones. And from thenceforth the yard was to be known as The Bleeding Heart Yard.


Charles Dickens and the Bleeding Heart

Charles Dickens knew Bleeding Heart well. In ‘Little Dorrit’ he wrote of folks in the yard, saying “The more practical of the Yard’s inmates abided by the tradition of the murder”.
But he went on to document another Bleeding Heart story: “The gentler and more imaginative inhabitants, including the whole of the tender sex, were loyal to the legend of a young lady imprisoned in her own chamber by a cruel father for remaining true to her own true lover – but it was objected to by the murderous party that this was the invention of a spinster and romantic, still lodging in the Yard”.

[Credits: http://www.bleedinghearts.co.uk/]


I had high expectations as the website did tout itself as having the 'finest' french cuisine in london. They had a wide selection of good wines at fairly reasonable prices (you'd be hardpressed to find that here in London!). However, there were lots of confused serving staff and mixed up orders, food was not much to holler about, as it was not unlike what one would expect from a normal french bistro in Paris. The good thing is that it had a price tag to match as well so one can't complain. :)

PS: Intriguing legend though :)

Rango 63/365

The only thought for the day is that Johnny Depp too, disappoints.

62/365

Today marks the first step (again) to straighter teeth.

Sunsets 61/365

A friend told me today 既来之,则安之. Some things in life will end, some others just disappear. But like a sun fading into to the back of the sea, so goes that saying, every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.

Alex 60/365

25 December 2006

When something you care about becomes a memory, that memory becomes a treasure.

This was the usual Friday crew at Bodega y Tapas 4 years ago just before I moved to the UK.  I flipped through a hundred photos in my hard disk before I finally found what I was looking for -- the only photo of us with all smiles around with my then new and first digital camera. Alex gave a full lecture on how i should have taken him along so that he could get me a better deal.

Jordan told me this afternoon that Alex finally surrendered to cancer, something he's battled for over 2 years.  All I can think of today is how much he will be missed by everyone. It's slightly weird, and a little surreal. There is neither reason nor need to say anymore about it, but so it is.

Today I mourn the loss of a good friend.