British Airways Poster Ad 2013

Before I move onto the next French snack (don’t actually know what to eat next!) here’s a British Airways poster ad that seems very inspiring.
BA poster ad “To breeze through Heathrow Terminal 5. To Fly To Serve”
I’m not a real big fan of BA. But I love this poster because it looks so grand with an empty airport terminal. Is Terminal 5 really not that busy? I’ve never entered Terminal 5, it’s the only terminal I have never been in at Heathrow.
The only thing is how can we be little kids on little wheels and whizz and “breeze” through Heathrow Terminal 5? I would find it impossible to fit myself in one of those little cars! Hahah. That’s probably just one flaw in their poster… Or are they trying to point out the self check-ins? Not sure really!
Anyway. An encouraging ad from BA even if there is an empty terminal XD… “To fly, to serve” the world!

Haribo Dragibus Bi Cool and Haribo Mao Croqui

Have been slacking for a bit haven’t I?!
It’s back to snack blogging again! And here’s some Haribo sweets that I’ve been looking at since I’ve bought them…
I bought this one last minute at the airport. I was intrigued by it. Haribo Dragibus Bi Cool are like massive jelly beans. There’s two colours on the outside, and each sweet has a different flavour to it. Not sure if there’s supposed to be two different flavours in each sweet, if there is, I can’t taste it!
Haribo Dragibus Bi Cool

They’re still in the packet!
I think I can eat this whole packet in one day!! They are so addictive are so colourful!
So colourful

Two colours for every sweet
Cost: Can’t remember, I think it was over €2
Next one is Haribo Mao Croqui. Different to the Bi Cool one. There’s five different flavours in this packet of sweets. Cola, orange, strawberry and apple
Haribo Mao Crocqui

Big pieces of sweets!
They taste quite chewy, a little on the sour side and they have a soft centre inside. These remind me of those strawberry bonbons sweets I used to get in the sweet shop before I went into school… Heheh.
So many cola flavoured sweets

Big sweets
Soft centered…
This packet has a lot of the cola flavoured sweets! Why not more of the other flavours?
Pop over to France to get these! Haven’t seen any of these in the UK yet!!
Cost: I can’t find it on the receipt! I think it’s less then €2 though from the supermarket…

Suchard L’Original (le rocher lait) – Kraft foods

Before I munch away on my final packet of crisps and other stuff from France I wanted to try out this chocolate that Mr Travels introduced to me. He likes snacking like me!! Mrs Travels likes snacking too but more with crisps and Chinese snacks.
7 pieces of big chocolates

Suchard l’original
When I saw this I saw the word le rocher and was thinking is this going to be like Ferrero Rocher?
Once I opened it I could smell chocolatey nuts… Maybe it is like Ferrero Rocher…
Chocolate wrapped in red paper
Or maybe not. This is an entire chocolate piece, and it is actually quite heavy for a chocolate piece! There are little bits of nuts inside too.
Massive chocolate!

It’s all chocolate inside… a bit like a truffle (my teeth marks are showing here!)

Some nutty bits
If you love melt in your mouth chocolate, and you like them sweet and a little nutty, this is the chocolate for you! It’s a bit too much for me but will have another piece before I share it out. 😀
Even Evil Monkey wanted to have a bite! (I will introduce Evil Monkey in another post once I’ve made more 3D origami!).
Evil Monkey wants chocolate!
Cost: €3.86 – expensive chocolate! But this is definitely a must find in France for the chocoholics. ^_^

Vico Monster Munch Salt Flavour

Monster Munch!! But it’s not the Monster Munch we know in the UK. It’s Monster Munch from France from a company called Vico.

A very short post as there’s not much to say about these…

These crisps made out of potato are shaped into monsters and I think they are baked in 100% sunflower oil.

They don’t look like monsters. They look like happy ghosts. Heheh.

They don’t taste too much like potato, more like salty prawn crackers, but they have this hint of sweetness to it which makes it a little addictive to my liking.

Don’t recommend eating too much of these! Too much salt.

Cost: €0.70 – that’s very cheap for a big packet of crisps!!

Pom’lisse Wasabi Flavoured Crisps

Wasabi crisps?! Wow!! I love the French and their amazing flavourings for crisps and other food products. Mr Travels spotted these first as I wanted crisps to take back to London for eating and testing. ^_^ I think they’ve been out for a few years, but how comes the English haven’t imported these over, or am I just blind?!
When I opened up my luggage it was unfortunate (or it may have been destiny) that the wasabi flavoured crisps opened up (I had a feeling that would happen).
Pon’lisse Wasabi Flavoured Crisps
The back of the packet
So it’s plain crisps coated with wasabi. And the crisps are definitely green… just can’t see it here… but not as green as that on the picture…
Inside the packet
A hint of green… can you see it?
Definitely tastes of wasabi and has a salty taste to it. If you ever find these I dare you to eat several crisps at once… heheheh, you get that wasabi scent going up your nostrils sensation!
I defo recommend this if you like wasabi!! But I don’t recommend you eat them all at once. Gave the rest to Mr Bear to try out (but that meant I had to trek to his office…!! He loved them!!).
Cost €1.05 (that’s about £1, and I kept the receipt this time!!). Heheh. Where can I find a big bag of wasabi crisps (135g bag to be exact) in England for this price?

Mooncake Festival 2013

Last year I blogged about mooncakes and very briefly about the Mid-Autumn Festival, so this year I’m going to show you what happens in China Town around this time of year.
The Chinese have so many festivals it’s hard for me to keep up with all of them! Today, once again, is the Mid-autumn Festival / Mooncake Festival where Asian countries worship the moon by gathering together, eat mooncakes, pray and celebrate with lanterns.
In China Town there’s always a smallish gathering, tents set up, singing and other things… I got to see the start of it (before and eating dim sum, heheh) on Sunday 15th… (I didn’t even know this was going to happen!!)
So before I ate dim sum, a singer (don’t know his name) was rehearsing… Sang a bit in Mandarin…
Singer rehearsing

The red lanterns are up

Then after dim sum, I got to see a dragon dance. My video is a little awful…

And then there were introductions from Spectrum Radio host Joseph Wu Pui Sing. My mother used to be a follower of Chinese Spectrum Radio (AM) before they turned digital, and now she can’t be bothered to turn on her laptop (yeah she can browse the net) just to listen to the radio! My mum says every time she goes out to China Town during these special occasions she always see Joseph Wu Pui Sing. I always recognise his voice too!! Heheheh…
Chinese Spectrum Radio Hosts

Representatives of the London Chinese Community I think… (I forgot!!)

We left before the party got going, but there were mooncakes being sold and a girl was dressed like one of those ancient Chinese goddesses… ^_^
Mooncakes being sold on a stall at £4 each!! 

Girl dressed up

Not sure what happened afterwards, but I’m sure a lot of people stayed around to listen to the music and watch loads of other performances… 

中秋節快樂!!Happy Mid-Autumn Festival / Happy Mooncake Festival 2013!! ^_^

ALL DAY DIM SUM @ Chuen Cheng Ku 泉章居 Dim Sum Palace- London China Town – NOW CLOSED

Update 26/10/2013
Afraid this place is closed… I have a feeling it’s being renovated! I was very lucky to have gone before it closed… Fingers crossed it reopens!! ….

Update 15-02-14
Still closed!!! Permanently closed? Don’t know. Might find out in a few months to see what happens to this place. 😦

Aaaaaaah! I never realised with all the times I go to China Town that there’s actually a restaurant that serves DIM SUM ALL DAY !! Both my brother and mother said to me I used to go there when I was a baby and as a child… Really?!! I don’t recall such moments. It also used to be my dad’s regular dim sum restaurant when he was out and about… Didn’t even know that too!! Childhood stories start flooding in when you grow older… ¬,¬””

It was Mr Stingy’s (my brother) birthday earlier in the week (last week), and I said we’ll go and find a place to eat dim sum, so we chose this place as I also wanted to find a place that serves dim sum until late anyway (a mission I felt I needed to complete as a reader who left a comment asked about where to find a restaurant that served dim sum after normal serving time)!!

Outside Dim Sum Palace a.k.a Chuen Cheng Ku

Their menu outside

Dim sum is served until 11.30 pm

Dim sum all day!!!

Well this place has been around for so long that I walk pass it, and never think about going in there. Arrogance? No. Idiot? Yes. I think it’s undergone some renovation on the outside, but it’s very minor. And with its hard to read Chinese characters at the front, which looked like a few scribbles to me, Chuen Cheng Ku 泉章居 a.k.a Dim Sum Palace (Canto: chyun jeung gu; Mando: quan2 zhang1 ju1) doesn’t have any real meaning to it. But when you split the characters up… 泉 = Spring (water spring); 章 = Chapter; 居 = Residence (home)… I actually don’t know what it means. Could be the person’s name who owned the restaurant back in 1970-something…

Inside the restaurant

Chandelier… I know…

More of the inside

This was the place to go!! 😀 We were greeted by a nice lady who knew we wanted to eat dim sum. I think everyone who goes there wants to eat dim sum! This is similar to New World where they serve dim sum on a trolley – Cantonese style! My brother and I ate 12 dishes / baskets all together and it cost £37.40 including a 10% service charge. Bummer. Service charge again… Average cost per dish excluding the service charge on this occasion was £2.83. Not bad!! Unfortunately I lost all those pictures whilst reformatting my phone and Kies software decided to delete my back up pictures. ¬,¬ So I went again the next day, but this time with my mum…

Picture menu

The other side

On the second occasion, the lady at the front was missing and the waiter asked us to wait outside. Realised there should be a sign outside to say wait for someone to serve you… Oh well. Lost a few marks there.

So we were seated and the trolleys started rolling. We had these first…
Tofu Skin Roll (not vegetarian) – these are actually my favourite dim sum of ALL TIME!

Beef ball dumplings

Deep fried meat dumpling (ham sui gok) – love these!!

Yam Croquette – not as good as the one in Elephant and Castle as my mum pointed out
The food

The trolleys then stopped rolling… I wanted one more dish!! The prawn rice rolls. But when the trolley finally came, there was none left. 😦 So sad. The waiter said he would come back when they would be ready… But nah, so I had the bbq pork one instead. Don’t eat this one very often, and this was so-so…

BBQ pork cheung fun
This time the total cost came to £21. Actual cost was £19.10, but not sure if the tea was free or not. Tea or no tea, the average cost per dish was £3.82 on this occasion… Hmmm, how comes?! It should be cheap, not expensive… I looked at my pictures later and realised the service charge can be omitted if you disagree with it! Nice! Should’ve noticed that earlier…
The bill!

My mother said to me the food was so-so. It’s not as good as it used to be. The chef has changed. The food was kind of bland and not as good as the one in Elephant and Castle… Hahahah! I actually agree!!

CCK Buffet is upstairs from Wardour Street Entrance

My geeky rating: 4/5

Good points:
– Nice spacious restaurant
– Cantonese serving style
– Cheapish, not overly expensive
– Some friendly staff… mainly the ones serving food as I spoke in Mandarin 🙂
– Non-compulsory service charge
Bad points:
– Trolleys need to come around more regularly
– Keep the food hot… it was a bit warm for me
– Some of the food was a bit bland according to my mum
Address: 17 Wardour Street, London W1D 6PJ; 20 Rupert Street London W1D 6DF (There’s two entrances by the way…)
Telephone: 02074371398 and 02077343281

Opening times: Mon – Sat 11.00 – 23.45; Sun 11.00 – 23.15
Dim sum is served all day until 11.30 pm (and I think 11 pm on a Sunday since they close early)!! ^_^

F*** Fashion TV Poster Advert

On my way home from eating in China Town yesterday (will blog about the restaurant next time, as I lost all my pictures, including this one but  I had a backup of this picture, whilst reformatting my phone, and the actual back up of my pictures were erased by Kies software… not funny…)… I spotted this poster whilst I was on the bus!
Spotted under the bridge before Westminster Bridge… how long has it been there?!

Luckily I looked up otherwise I think I would have missed the opportunity… I actually had to get off the bus and walk back to take this picture.

Talk about defaming fashion and icons!! I am astonished really. David and Victoria Beckham, two fashion icons posed for this? They did, kind of, but those words aren’t from them I believe. It took me a while to research and understand about this… As I researched I realised that f***fashion.tv goes to this website theadjacker.is
Reading their mission just made this all look bizarre but also interesting to see what they were trying to accomplish… The third point made me realise what I was feeling!! Outrage!! However they need to correct their grammar on their vision statement… ¬,¬” Mr Bear would be astonished at the bad grammar if he saw this.
From the adjacker.is webpage

So don’t worry, David and Victoria Beckham are still fashion icons, although I wouldn’t buy any of their brands.

Blimey, talk about making people shocked!! 😛

Anybody spot any of these type of poster ads anywhere??? 

Marseille, France – Day 3: Au Revoir

Monday 9th September
It was again an early start to the day and it was my last day in Marseille. I was in so much pain from the sunburn anyway (started to brown now, yay, it was worth it). Packed my remaining clothes and stuff. My luggage was so light! I bought nothing during the entire weekend. But I did hint to both Mr and Mrs Travels that I needed to buy some snacks to take home (and blog about them… I think they forgot I blogged, so I didn’t mention it to them… nevermind!).
Had a very light breakfast and then it was off to take the girls to school! French schools are obviously different to the English ones. Don’t know how it works in England anymore, but some kids are at the schools really early as their parents go to work and so the gates are closed until the actual opening time in case a child decides to escape. So we waited until Missy I’s (she’s the eldest daughter by the way) school opened. She’s in Year 1… and luckily she doesn’t have to wear school uniform! She’s a cheeky monkey, but a very intelligent cheeky monkey!! Then it was time to drop off Missy S, she’s still in nursery / reception. She talks a lot more than she used to (and bullies me too :P) but she’s not so good in the mornings as her sister is. Both girls take after their mother with fashion, and I have a feeling they are both going to be fashionistas in the future!
After dropping the girls off, Mrs Travels took me along the seafront near the school. The girls are really lucky, they have a place to go to after school and during their lunch break.
Near the sea

Stony beach

Small wave coming towards the shore

We went back to find Mr Travels, and then once again we went back to the seafront and did a little bit of walking… Hahahah!!
Someone walking their dog, Mr Travels took a picture of it

Mr Travels decided to take a picture of me touching the clean sea water ^_^

I took this picture… Marseille City in the distance!
Next it was time to do some supermarket shopping!! Yay!! It was a bit of a drive from the school area, but I didn’t take too long to buy the things I wanted to buy. I couldn’t take pictures inside, but took pictures of the outside… I spent over €40. Still like I’ve got loads of money in my purse… Well that’s my savings / spending money for the rest of the month. ^_^
Entrance to the small shopping centre

Heading into the supermarket

Yummy cakes!!
So, lots of snacks to blog about later!! 😀 Yay!! (Looking forward to eating and drinking them)…
Mr and Mrs Travels dropped me off at the airport early since they had to pick up the girls for their lunch period. Again I had a few tears in my eyes… I hate saying goodbye to old friends / family… T_T 
In Marseille Provence Airport – Terminal 1
I bought a meal in Burger King (my French is bad, and I forgot a lot… I think I need to start talking more French again. Reading is not too bad. Missy I and Miss S think I don’t think I know any French too… Hahahah!!). Anyway, I felt a little bad to the person serving.
My Burger King meal
After I finished eating, a woman came up to me for my receipt… Why does she want my receipt?!! What can it be used for?!!
After a bit, I went to MP2, Marseille Provence Terminal 2, where I sat and waited for check in. I was too early and I had to wait for around 1 pm. It’s a bit different to London airports… At last it was check in time. I queued however there was only one person checking in passengers. How weird. The others went to lunch I guess. I think it was the wrong time to queue as I had three men in front who I think were flying for the first time as they had the wrong type of luggage and one of them had to pay for their luggage fare at another desk. ¬,¬”
Marseille Provence Airport – small Terminal 2

A small cafe in MP2
Luggage passed through. Went pass through security. Then up to the departure lounge. It’s so unfortunate that there’s only one small duty free area, a magazine shop and a cafe. I bought a few more sweets and chocolates, so I spent another €14 something… It was then time to board after 2 pm. The faster you get to passport control before boarding gate the faster you might get a better seat on the plane! That meant I walked as fast as I could, and thankfully I walk fast, because I got a good seat by the window, but unfortunately I had two very talkative women sit next to me… All I could hear was talking, so I stuck my earphones… They talked for 2 hours non-stop!!
Flying somewhere over South France

Fluffy clouds that look like snow

Flying over the English Channel

Flying over dull looking England
Finally we got back to Stansted Airport. Just to let you know it was a rubbish take-off, rubbish landing and that horrible welcoming message again on Ryanair. I walked as quickly as I could to passport control… It’s funny how every time I come back from anywhere, they always ask me where I’m flying back from!! Am I a stowaway, a person with a fake passport or someone pretending to be British? I AM a born and bred British Citizen who happens to be Chinese, I have a birth certificate to prove it!! 😛 The person even checked if my passport was authentic… ¬,¬” Really? Was that necessary?!!
Anyway it was back on the train, and it was a boring trip back to London. I had to bore myself with a couple of people in front talking about relationships (I am cursed with people talking about their bad relationships on public transport)… When I got to Liverpool Street Station, it felt like I was surrounded by cattle. People were pushing and shoving. It’s horrible being there during rush hour on a Monday evening… And it was raining!! 😦 I want to go back to sunny France!!!!!
But I got home safe and sound… Had to go to work the next day… Wished I could’ve stayed longer in Marseille, maybe next time!! ^_^
End of Day 3.

Next trip is in November 2013… yep I’m flying again this year. This time it’s with the family…!!

Marseille, France – Day 2: Sortie en Famille

Sunday 8th September

Day 2 started a little early. I think I woke up around 8. It was a little hard to sleep because of the wind and rain, but I was alive and kicking! Breakfast consisted of a few pieces of brioche and mini dried toast with butter and jam. ^_^
Bonjour Sausset-Les-Pins

A pear tree

Pomegranate Tree

Sunday was a family day out. More of a touristy day out for me although I’ve been to Marseille before with Mr and Mrs Travels and their two girls two years ago. It was a longer visit last time, and I got to see more of the city centre, the train station and other bits and pieces… I will post some pictures from back then at the end of this post…


This time, since on Sunday, shops and places close early, we went to a market. We were originally going to go to one nearby but because of the rain the night before it was cancelled. 😦 The market they wanted to go to is like a boot sale, but the one we went to had a few market stalls selling fruits, veg, clothes etc., etc. I would say it’s like a very tiny version of East Street Market… I didn’t buy anything there… And neither did my second family…

A market in Marseille

Loads of garlic and tomatoes!!

Mr Travels and I were observing the rotating chicken, heheh

So much fruit and veg!!

Massive watermelons!

So many different types of figs

Tiny aubergines

A street in France

So off we went to to a popular site for people who view airplanes at a nearby airport. Not sure which airport we were looking at. Some people were already there looking at planes, and since it was lunchtime, I had a feeling there were some delayed flights… We waited and waited, and we saw a couple of planes land and about 3 take off!! It’s so fun watching them…

Watching planes fly

Then it was off to the beach again. The same one. La Couronne. This time we spent a bit longer at the beach (and unfortunately I got sunburnt, didn’t realise the sun would be so strong that day… still feeling the pain!!).

My feet
Geek dans la France… Geek in France!!

And this time I caught my first jellyfish!! Woohoo!! So proud of myself, heheh. It felt like I was a zoologist examining life objects (wanted to be one when I was quite young, but failed my dream when I did bad in my Biology A-Level, so I did more computing instead – happy I did!) . ^_^

I caught this jellyfish! 😀

Everyone had a good time. And I was very happy as it already felt I had been there for a long time… a real summer holiday feeling!

It was again time to go back for dinner as it was school for the girls the next day… Missy I and Missy S have grown up so quick, and they’ve become really cheeky! Did I tell you they speak French, English and some Mandarin. Missy I is the eldest and better at languages. We got back and we played for an extra hour or less in the swimming pool… I was being the funny auntie in the pool by using two floats as Mrs Travels wanted her girls to wear their arm floats as they hate them, so I did a funny act… I got my confidence back in swimming after not having swam for a very long time!! (Almost drowned in the deep end one time in England, hahahah… never again I thought!)…

Mr Travels was taking pictures of us and even took a picture of the family cat, Princess. She is so beautiful! I want that cat. 😀

Princess The Cat

I took this picture… she is gorgeous!

This is a fig Mr Travels picked from someone’s garden… heheh, I ate it before dinner time and it tasted good!!

Tasty fig

Mrs Travels was cooking that night. And she wanted to cook soup, a pasta soup which her mother-in-law makes from time to time. It was good. Don’t often have this for dinner… Plus we had some leftover pizza from the night before…

Pasta soup

Dinner finished, and I could see the sun about to set, so I said I’m just going upstairs to take a picture of the sunset. My sunset radar works in every country I go to! ^_^

Sunset in Sausset-Les-Pins

The girls had their dessert and went off to sleep. Mrs Travels suggested we go for a walk… and so we walked around Sausset… It was unfortunate my flip flops were making a squeaky sound otherwise we would have walked a bit further…

A small rocky beach in Sausset

Nice lamps

People swimming in the evening sea

Beautiful skyline! – I love this pic!! ❤

So many boats in Sausset

It was a beautiful evening and the day went really fast. Unfortunately I had a hard nights sleep with my sunburn… really painful!! 😦

End of Day 2.

Here’s a few pictures of Marseille – the city part from my last visit two years ago…

In the centre of Marseille in 2011

Love the street art 🙂

Typical French housing… Mr and Mrs Travels back in 2011

St Charles Station in 2011