Month: August 2017

Hare and Tortoise Japanese Restaurant – London Brunswick Centre

On By Bao Bao QiuIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

By the time I post this I will know my JLPT results. Did I fail or did I pass??? … (see at the very end of this post). ^_^

It was the start of July, finished studying for the JLPT N5 exam, took the exam and there was some sort of relief. After the exam I talked to some of my fellow classmates who came out after me. It was a stressful weekend… Miss Money also took the exam and she took the highest level N1 – BUT hardly even studied for it!! ¬_¬”” So unfair. Let’s hope she at least passed this exam. 

Moving on swiftly to this restaurant… I was surprised that it wasn’t really run by Japanese staff. Miss Money, why did you take me here?
There was a lot of choice on the menu, so it was quite difficult to decide what to have. In the end we had this…
I had a mixed juice and Miss Money had a lemon something or wotnot… ¬_¬”

Miss Money had the chicken katsu curry. The chicken was nice and crispy.

I had the Curry Laksa ramen which was filled with a curry coconut taste. It wasn’t very spicy which is what I had wanted… was quite disappointed that there was no extreme spicy kick in the soup. 😦 Ramen wasn’t the greatest of all… but had to bear with it.

Miss Money ordered the okonomiyaki sticks… these were ok, tasted like okonomiyaki but for me it tasted like processed food. ¬_¬” 

I ordered the mixed tempura… batter was a little bland, but I was ok to eat this. >_<""

I came back to work the day after my exam, and this is how I find my Pikachu cushion… Don’t call him Pudsy! How dare my colleague do this!!

Total came to £38.80.

My geeky rating: 4/5

Good points:
– Ok service
– Not too expensive

Bad points:
– Food was quite bland or not to my taste really

Address: 11-13 Brunswick Square, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 1AF
Tel: 020 7278 9799

Website: http://www.hareandtortoise.co.uk/



I passed the JLPT N5 exam!! 90/180!! Very pleased with this result compared to last year (although I wanted 100 points). :p And Miss Money? She shockingly got 180/180 for the JLPT N1 – 100%!! >_<" Very frustrating, as she only revised for a few days (and she had lived in Japan for 4 years during her high school years)… But I'm hoping this gives her more confidence in her future exams in accounting and other stuff. 

Next, is to revise for JLPT N4 and HSK Level 3… Such a sad geeky life…

がんばってね！

Rum Kitchen – London Brixton

On By Bao Bao QiuIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
It’s been a while since I’ve been to Brixton and also write a restaurant review… Where has the time gone?
In recent times (I mean in the past few months) so many people have left my workplace because they’re fed up of management. My colleagues and ex-colleagues haven’t been happy in the past year or so… It’s been a tiresome battle of people getting to listen in most cases. Grrrrr, times have changed for the worst! 
One of my colleagues from another department but have known for a long time is one of those who was not happy with her then manager, so she left and threw a small party / get together in Brixton. I’m so out-of-date with the eateries in Brixton, I don’t remember the area being so trendy. In the old days I would never enter Brixton without being scared of what could happen… 
My ex-colleague chose Rum Kitchen, she just gave me the address at the time and never gave me the name to look it up. ¬_¬” … I had a browse on the Internet, and decided in my head what I wanted to order… I came a tiny bit late. It was pissing with rain at the time.

When I got there, most of the party peeps had already ordered and was about to eat…
I ordered this Mocha Refashioned, which consists of coffee and a mixture of alcohol… It tasted like Irish Coffee… >_<" Very strong stuff.

Ordered this Roti Pizza as well… Gosh it was actually really messy to eat. Very filling, but I think I should have ordered half instead of a whole one. I can usually eat a whole medium sized pizza, but this was ridiculously filling…

The roti was actually quite messy to get into, crumbs were everywhere. I felt that it could have at least been sliced like an American pizza. It was tought to get through… another colleague had to help me out…

Messy!!

My ex-colleague treated us to cocktails in the end… Had a good time chatting with them and getting some gossip… LOL!!

Total cost at the Rum Kitchen was £21… Forgot if I had to pay service charge…

My geeky rating: 4/5

Good points:
– Polite service

Bad points:
– Slightly expensive
– Messy eating style

Address: 437 Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, London SW9 8LN
Tel: 020 3668 2539

Website: http://www.therumkitchen.com/

Southampton May Bank Holiday Trip

On By Bao Bao QiuIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Ah… tired of work and management… Fighting battles is so tiring!! On with blogging!!

Miss Pinky invited me to come along with her to Southampton. Mr Picky’s family were house-sitting for one of the brothers who recently got married and went on honeymoon… So I tagged along on the last May bank holiday weekend. I did mention to her that I was staying for one night, but Miss Pinky didn’t even tell Mr Picky’s parents. ¬_¬””

Anyway, Miss Pinky took a morning train from Waterloo, I forgot the price of my ticket but it was less than £20… Miss Pinky and I sat on the train moaning about work and reminiscing our past of this familiar train journey (well half-way of it)…

We got to Southhampton around lunchtime… and we took the wrong exit! ¬_¬”” We were at the bus transfer end…

What the heck is the Common People Bus Stop by the way? We are common people who are not able to brand ourselves as whatever class we need to call ourselves. LOL!

We were only a short ride away from the house that we were house-sitting, and Baby B was fast asleep… After a small tour around the house, I kind of stood over Baby B who was trying to turn and go back to sleep again, but she heard my voice and called me Godma… Awwwwww. She recognised my voice!! (That made me extremely happy). ^_^

As soon as she woke up, she was looking for her mummy Miss Pinky, LOL, that means we needed to take her out… Yay!! A trip around Southampton… They have a long high street, very long… It’s likes there’s no end to it! >_<""
Dinner time approached, and Baby B’s grandma made us a big dinner using Lidl’s Chinese dinner pack… Never tried this before…

In short, the evening consisted of chatting, trying to get Baby B to sleep (it was a battle) and a bit of drinking…  :p

Next day…

Before I left (and told the grandparents I needed to go as I needed to do some database work for work T_T) we all went out to find something to do… Trying to find the place where the locals went for crabbing…

Crabbing? Sounds like a dirty word. Hahahaha. >_<"" But in fact it's a term where people go and use fresh meat or some sort of bait to catch crabs. I think most of the people let them go back into the water… They seem too small to eat.

Baby B had a look… Not very interested though. Hahahaha!

That was a very short trip… but it started raining. Baby was kind of whinging… she needed a nappy change… But before we got to stop, rest and eat we saw some live cows in the middle of the road. Wow. Reminded of us of our trip in Cyprus where we saw lots of goats/sheep trying to cross the road. Heheheh.

In the end we ended up in a local pub and I had this lamb shank… yum, yum, yum… Very filling!!

It was time for me to go home, and I think Baby B didn’t want me to go… Awww… Godma Geek is very busy!! I think we would have been all squashed in the car anyway… >_<""

Enjoyed my short time visiting the middle south of England. ^_^

Kyoto Baked Chocolat

On By Bao Bao QiuIn Uncategorized2 Comments
I must’ve been having the worst days of my life on this day.
Just returned back to work from France, and already work was stressing me out, and now getting to Japanese class was incredibly difficult. There was a bike accident and basically Waterloo bridge was packed with buses and vehicles. Traffic jam and no announcements along the road!! Grrrrr.
When I got to class (about 15 minutes late and very peed off), I was hot and sweaty. 😦
But this sweet delicacy cheered me up. One of my classmates went to Kyoto for three weeks and bought snacks (see colleague, this is stuff she could have got me… not Kit Kat that I’ve already had :p).

It was like a soft cake surrounded by green matcha tea, I could hardly taste the chocolate. Was there any chocolate inside? I don’t know… Didn’t go for a second one but at least I got to try something different!

At the end of the lesson I walked over Waterloo Bridge that evening hoping that the buses would be running after that evening’s event… and they were! Phew.

End of horrible day!!

You Are A Unicorn by Vincent Vincent

On By Bao Bao QiuIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
Have you ever found yourself bored and want to doodle on the train, on the bus, in the library? Well, if so, then this is the book for you!
Sidetracking from the norm I’m introducing a doodle book / journal for you all created by the author Vincent Vincent who is a writer, illustrator and graphic designer. 
Take it everywhere with you, go on holiday with it, there’s lots of POSITIVE activities, skip pages and just doodle, write words and talk about you, yourself and basically just everything about you.
Whilst in France waiting for my train, I took the opportunity to do some drawings…  I drew my cartoon self (minus the glasses), as it said “Draw a Self Portrait”… I might add another version of myself in the book with glasses on. ^_^
Then this page says “Fill this page with scribbles”. So I imagined myself as Van Gogh, the Chinese version, and scribbled like a mad woman and making flowers with scribbles. 😄
As well as doodling, there are some pages which asks you to describe yourself, your attributes, what makes you feel good etc., etc. It’s a think positive journal about you.
I have lots of pages to fill in!
If you need a feel good doodle and somewhere to describe your positive energies, then this is the book you need! Just don’t forget the colour pens, pencils and felt tips!
It’s priced at £9.98 on Amazon: 
Follow You Are A Unicorn on Instagram: @youareaunicornbook


^_^

The Laughing Cow – Apericube Sucré / Salé Cheese

On By Bao Bao QiuIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
One of the most intriguing food items I bought in France were these Laughing Cow cubes of cheese made into different flavours. I thought the Japanese were weird with their food flavours, but the French as well!
I came across these and thought of Baby B, as Miss Pinky said I needed to buy cheese for my goddaughter. ¬_¬”” OK. French cheese it is then.
I bought a pack for myself to try out. It says it’s “sugary (and) salty” at the front – sucré / salé. Flavours are chevre and miel (goat and honey), figues and noix (figs and walnuts), emmental and raisin (no need to translate)  and bleu and noix (blue cheese and walnuts).

Realise this picture is upside down. Hahahahah. But you get the gist of what’s inside the packet.

I tried a piece of all flavours. Erm. Not my favourite flavours for a soft cheese. I think I liked the blue cheese and walnuts… and the only one that made sense in terms of flavours was the emmental and raisin. 

Hmmmm intriguing indeed. Probably wouldn’t buy these for myself, but would recommend to add them onto crackers for taste I guess.

Mr Picky’s mother liked them, and I think Baby B liked them too… Strange tastebuds the French have!

Marseille (May2017) – Day 7 & 8: Last Minute Shopping and The Return

On By Bao Bao QiuIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Day 7 – Friday 19th May

Almost time to leave town, so it was time to do some supermarket shopping… Usually on my holidays I shop from place to place, but we did everything in one go!
Mr Travels dropped us at a nearby street near the supermarket… I had an hour to go around and shop… I lost track of time, but we still made it for the bus! I spent over €100 on food and drinks and other stuff. Wow, red wine in plastic bottles is cheap. Very cheap in France. I think I might miss all of this when Brexit happens. How sad to see cheap wine go. The money spent meant we got free cartoon playing cards which just came out. The girls got to play with trading cards! Hah!
It was worth spending all that money, I felt like I hadn’t done much shopping during the whole week. Heheheh. I also bought some more yarn, so that I can make a jumper for myself (I made a crocheted summer vest for Mrs Travels, and I thought I’m going to make a jumper similar to the design!).
It costs €1 for a single journey on the local bus.

Last evening meal consisted of many different small dishes to add into a pancake (like they do in China) and some egg fried rice with sausage.

Day 8 – Saturday 20th May

My last day consisted of repacking luggage and giving away things I didn’t need back at home, in which I gave to the Travels family. Missy I is really quick to get things… Missy S kind of misunderstood my intentions of my food stuffs… Those were for my friends and colleagues. (Must remember to send a food box next month).
Then I made both Missy I and S do a last minute violin practice (yes, they’ve started being musical… well Missy S gets the brownie points for the musical emotional effect – very talented!). Got Missy S to sing one song as she said she didn’t have time to play the short 1 minute piece! I had forgotten Missy S is quite shy when it comes to singing, but she did it anyway! Well done. 🙂
Now they were off to their classes, and the rest of us had last minute shopping to do… it was just so that I felt satisfied with the things I had already gotten, and also to shop more!
It was time to say my emotional goodbyes to the Travels family, gosh, I hate saying goodbye to them. Ended up crying. T_T (I’m crying now as I’m writing this, even though I’m listening to some uplifting Japanese shamisen music). Uh oh, I even made Mrs Travels and Missy A cry! Told the girls not to fight on my way out… (Siblings alway fight. I fought with Mr Stingy when I was young… still do…).
Mr Travels dropped me off at the bus stop I came to on my first day. Then I said another emotional goodbye to him and Missy I… I could she was about to cry too (but she’s a strong girl). Told her not to fight with Missy S so much, but she looked at me to say that’s not going to happen, LOL. 
Got on the bus. It was the usual €4.30.
Once I got there, I went to Terminal 1 and decided on what food to get… OMG. The old lady that stood behind me was so rude when I tried to order food… she didn’t even apologise as I stared at her when she ordered her food. Then when she had gone, the people behind thought to do the same. How dare they, so I stood my ground this time and ordered. Stupid and rude people!! I hope never to see them again. Grrrrr!
I sat in my usual place, where there was only two or three tables away from the main seating area. My food was ok. Felt happy to be full as well.

My flight was held up by an hour or two. So I sat upstairs, nearer to the toilets and watched one of my Korean shows on YouTube. Using the free WiFi was my benefit to having a better afternoon. 
I kept looking at the screen, and suddenly it flashed that our gate was ready… For some reason I always feel a bit of an outcast in the passport control queue. Chinese person in the queue with a Brit passport. Yep, that was me! ¬_¬

The flight was full again. I made sure I queued at the start and made sure no one pushed in front of me… My mood already sank that afternoon. 😦

We landed after a couple of hours on the plane. When we landed in Gatwick, I made sure to checkout at the scanning section, which is a faster queue than the people checking queue. Then zipped out towards the luggage belts and collected my suitcase….
Bolted to the train from North to South Gatwick and made it on time to get a train to London Bridge. I again used my Oyster Card… This time it was for definite that I paid £8.70 for a single journey. Don’t be fooled to pay for the £15 express price.

I arrived at London Bridge after 7 pm (this was two weeks before the van attack – I thought I must’ve been lucky).
It was a good week for a good rest of doing absolutely zilch! ^_^ Yippee!!

End of Days 7 and 8.