cambridge on saturday

on saturday morning, Adrian had a lecture in Cambridge. i had time on my own to scour and look around the town (again!) and have coffee with myself before we met up for lunch at 1:00.

after having coffee in pret-a-manger and reading the news, i bought books from Waterstones and took it to the public library where there was a couch where i could sit down and charge my phone ) and wait for Adrian to ring me.

lovely corners of the town..chocolate-making classes, hmmnnn..*one day*

it was a wet day in the town

magnificent edifices..old meets new

even the market was sparse due to the wet day

jamie, are you there?

lunch is marked

The Cow. cute pub name

some corners that made history

**

after meeting up with Adrian. went back to Jamie's italian and was told there was 1 hour waiting for tables. and there was a queue. practically every lunch place were packed in the whole of the town so we decided to wait and be merry in the bar.

while in the bar, i took pictures of the lights. lovely big modern ones.

mr.bartender was busy

pasta and bread was being made right before our eyes..wowzer!

we were famished by this time.

when we got to the dining area (finally when our pager's buzzed our number) we got wowed by this beautiful ornate high ceiling

the lecturer..or terminator, whichever day it is,haha.

'take a picture of me,babs'.."ok"..'its blurry,another one..no, blurry again, do another one..thats it".

'thats it,too'..you're getting better at this. 'thank you hon, i told u i was good'..'now,dont get too carried away'.LOL..

"ok, lets do another one".

lookatthat!!hammmssssyummm

the starters came..puglia iced olives and music bread with sundried tomato and black olive tapenade (adrian's order)

herby marinated whitebait..

and we had the season's specials:

rocket and radicchio salad (with shaved parmesan,yayy!)...for sides

they called this Posh Chips in the menu..just ordinary chips with insanely good truffle oil and shaved parmesan;-) im craving for a plateful at this moment

Adrian's homemade parpadelle pasta with lamb ragu..

Adrian talked about his lecture...i blanked out because it was all tutor jargons,haha.

And my very nice fish mains. fried fillet of pollock on cracked wheat with fennel..(Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall are into this fish fight, a campaign to introduce more fish into the EU thank just salmon and to avoid fish wastage)..this was fresh and i just was missing my rice this time,haha.

a look at the very beautifully distracting ham

**

Cambridge..i'm sure im coming back to you again..until then.

Mama

**

happy birthday to you,Ma, who after all these years put up with me (i guess,its too late now to put me up for adoption).

it must be hard having a daughter who is not far your age (18 years gap) and who thinks she knows better (some times).

thank you for teaching me all the things you did:

to pray and keep the belief (no matter the difficulties),

to forgive and never hold grudges,

to laugh at myself and never take myself seriously

to weigh battles which are worth fighting for (family and friends)

to never forget

to never be too big to apologize where i have been wrong..

and thank you for the patience to wake up at weird hours in the morning just for my phonecalls.

..(and of course, your valuable recipes..now i've passed it on to the rest of the barkada,haha)

i love you,mams.

Happy happy birthday to you..I will forever be your LITTLE big girl.

imong kinamaguwangan,

Chelskie

hari krishna blessings

last night, when we were walking across leicester square, an Asian man srectched out his hand and said "how do you do?"

Adrian shook his hand and said "i'm fine, thank you".

we dont normally stand about and hang about when it comes to sellers in the streets but there was something about him.

"what are your names?" i waited for adrian to signal and tell me, "come on lets go and leave" but he didnt.

i said, " A" pointed to the husband. and im "R".

he said to me "you both look happy today. you both have a happy air". Adrian and i looked at each other and agreed,yeah, we are happy. but not more than the usual.

i gave him the coins i had in my pocket, i knew it was getting there, and i didn't mind, he was ok, i suppose with his warm handshake and eye contact.

he said, "oh, bless you.". and gave me a book. the teachings of Hari Krishna.

{the book atop a flour infested table..sorry, we were in the middle of making breads when this was taken}

i hesitated and gave it back. i said " you must keep it. you can give it to someone who is interested".

he said "no, im giving it to you. because you are a blessing to me today. and let me tell you, you are going to be very very weathy".

i smiled.

i already am.

my wealth and i headed home,tired but giddy and happy as ever.

**

in other stories.

my ticket arrived yesterday from Melanie S of KG.

{With compliments from Kurt Geiger.}

I am blessed indeed. :-)

***

note: London Fashion Weekend is the tail-end of London Fashion Week, and is open to non-trade people ( as opposed to London Fashion Week which is exclusive to people who work in fashion and retail; i.e.: designers, stylists,etc, which i am not). So i am there as one of KG's guests held ransom to buy new shoes,LOL.

locanda locatelli wednes-date

We planned to go out yesterday (tuesday), but due to the duvet weather, we decided to just pig out at home.

Wednesday came: Locations of choice: chef Giorgio Locanda's Locanda Locatelli at Seymour street for Adrian's pasta craving to be satisfied and to chinatown for my dimsum craving to be satisfied.

dont let the grissini poke your eyes

a very southern italian cuisine

(L:) malayo ang tingin, wala namang tinatanaw...(R:) dessert: lemon sorbet for Adrian and cappucino and amaretto for me

Locatelli love...

famous for Chef Giorgio Locanda's loyalty to true Italian cuisine

**

choosing his dessert

that's my seafood spaghetti with stewed octopus..yes, not squid, but octopus.

Adrian's veal ravioli

the bread basket

**

dinner was a chinese meal at Chinatown

Everybody happy.

**

more photos of the wednes-date:

just outside Seymour street.

passing by Somerset house (where the LFW is ongoing).

{on this note: i might be going to London Fashion Weekend for the friday night catwalk..i was given an invite by my beautiful friends at Kurt Geiger who thinks i'm a good customer.. this is very dependent on the weather }

**

went to Harrods to get Adrian some Jamon..:-)x

the lovely food stall at Harrods.

Cured meat on display..

**

After Harrods we went to Chinatown for my fix (see photos above).

***

I am thankful for a full day.

Crave

currently craving for :

prawn dumplings

hugs from girlfriends

kisses from my nieces

laughter from my brothers and sister

mama's lutong bahay

just crazy pointless conversation with girlfriends for the laugh

..and just like the dumplings, no matter how much you get of it today..

the next day, you'll crave it all again

**

{photo: dumpling maker in chinatown, london}