To be honest, I’ve never been a big fan of the HBO series until I moved to London and got close to AA. Since then, the series’ creator has made 2 movies. I enjoyed the first movie very much and was very impressed by how there was a twist to the story line. Now the second movie came out earlier this year and I noticed it has a bad review. I didnt have a chance to watch it with the girls in London due to all the business trips I was on. Plus Dav would never go and watch it with me.

Few months after the movie premier I totally forgot about the movie until I saw it in HMV yesterday. So I make a note to remind myself that I must watch it! So finally today I watched it for the very first time.

My verdict, I totally LOVE it!

The reason why I like it is not because of the fashion or the drama. But because I can totally relate to Carrie, for the first time. I totally agree with her on how it is up to you and your partner to decide how to make the marriage works. Whether it is 2 days off each week, live apart with occasional visits or maybe sleep in separate rooms!! I personally feel that society has pressured a lot of us into living a certain way and get frown upon when you’re not following the normal path / trend.

Dav and I have been true to ourselves in having a marriage the way we want it to be. We create our own tradition and make changes as we see fit.

As Carrie said at the end of the movie, “You have to take the tradition, and decorate it your way.”

I was very WRONG!

I’m ashamed to admit I fell asleep 3 times and I fidgeted non-stop throughout the performance (when I was not sleeping). To add on to the challenge of trying to appreciate the show, the second act was sung in German….. Now since after the show, I realised the prom’s programme is available online and I’ve seen people carrying printed paper of the programme. I didnt quite understand why they keep looking at the programme during the show. It was because the programme has the lyrics and the translation in English!

So now I’m well prepared to attend my second and third prom. The last one will be a contemporary one (gonna see Jamie Cullum). Can’t wait.

Prom 21: Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with Sir Simon Rattle as the conductor.

Programme:
Berlioz Romeo and Juliet – Love Scene (18 mins)
interval
Wagner Tristan und Isolde – Act 2 (80 mins)

My companion for this year’s BBC Proms. We have 2 more proms to attend before it ends in September.

According to Wiki, afternoon tea is a light meal typically eaten between 3pm and 5pm. Traditionally, loose tea is brewed in a teapot and served in teacups with milk and sugar. This is accompanied by sandwiches (customarilycucumber, egg and cress, fish paste, ham, and smoked salmon), scones (with clotted cream and jam, see cream tea) and usually cakes and pastries (such as Battenberg, fruit cake or Victoria sponge). The food is often served on a tiered stand; there may be no sandwiches, but bread or scones with butter or margarine and optional jam or other spread.

The spread is quite standard (nothing to shout about) but the tea is amazing. The deco seems a bit ‘cold’ and I was quite annoyed that we were pressured to leave even before we could finish our cakes as the second session was about to start.

Steph’s rating: 6/10. Will definitely try afternoon tea in another hotel.

We didn’t do much, just walked around the high street and visited England’s biggest vineyard, Denbies Wine Estate. We took the wine tour which includes wine tasting. The wine surprisingly taste quite good. Due to England’s weather, they produce mainly white wine and sparkling (both my favs!).

Here’s some pictures I took with my Lumix with the fisheye lense I bought in HK last year.

To wear a sari, one needs to know how to tie it. The whole costume consists of the petticoat, the blouse and the 4 to 6 metres unstitched cloth. The tricky part is when tying the 4-6 metres cloth around your body with pleats. This webpage provides a very good graphical demonstration –> http://www.utsavsarees.com/saree/wearsari.htm.

So you can see how complicated the process is. Therefore when I heard that nowadays the tailor can sew ready made saris. I wanted to make sure that the tailor I go to can sew the ready made saris too since I do not know how to tie it. PLUS there is no need for me to learn. Luckily an Indian colleague of mine know a tailor in Brickfields and off we went to see him on Monday. The saris were ready for pickup 3 days later.

I am very happy with the end results. Here’s a preview of my new saris. What do you think?

P/s: Excuse the quality of the photos. It was taken with my first generation iPhone.

Then when I started working in my first job, it seems to be true. I would work hard to earn my promotion. There’s no need to play politics, no need to be nice to the right people. I let my work speaks for itself.

Now that I’m working in a MNC, things have changed significantly. I failed miserably at playing the politic games. I do not know who are the right person to talk to or what I need to do to make myself ‘popular’. It dawn on me that delivering good work is no longer good enough. It’s all about who you know and who you speak to. Then earlier this year, my manager told me, I’m not visible enough in the organisation to get a promotion. I was dumbfounded.

Is this the right way to motivate an employee in an organisation? By encouraging them to be more visible (i.e social) but not deliver good work?

Its quite sad to see the same thing happening to our office in KL too. I was informed recently by a colleague that he/she didn’t get promoted because he/she was not visible enough in the organisation.

One word came to my mind – WTF!?!?!?!

The wedding was held at ‘The Banjaran Hotsprings Retreat‘. This is an absolutely amazing place! Of course it is also very very ex (think USD 500 a night for a villa and that’s not inclusive of any spa treatment).

We started our road trip in the afternoon and still had enough time to squeeze in a lunch break along the highway and chicken rice in Ipoh town before the wedding ceremony started. It was quite unfortunate it started raining just before the civil ceremony so at last minute the ceremony had to be moved from the waterfall to the cave. After the civil ceremony we had more drinks before proceeding to the outside area for dinner. We were served with 8 course fusion western food which is quite unique and yummy! The portion was just nice for me to finish the food. After the wedding, we proceeded to the pool area where the pool party started. I really like how this ceremony feels more like a party dedicated to friends to celebrate their wedding compared to the traditional 10 course chinese wedding dinner. Also the guest list was all their close friends.

Here’s some pics I took.

Jeff’s Cellar. This is where the civil ceremony was held. It is very cooling inside the cave (in case you cant tell from my pic, it is a cave!).

Spending quality time with old friends.

Having champagne on the balcony, over the sunset after the civil ceremony.

Wedding door gifts, Labu Sayung and Ipoh treats.

You can read more about it here.

The British Museum has one of the largest and most comprehensive collections in the world and originate from all continents. Because of the huge collections of artifacts, after a visit, it is quite normal to feel that the British were a bunch of thieves!

Our tour guide showed us the most important collections in the museum and provided superb narration to the collections. At the end of the tour we even agreed to ‘pose’ like the Parthenon’s East Frieze. Amazingly it was quite easy to get everyone (17 of us!) into position and proceeded to take a picture to capture the moment. Here’s the pictures:

The original sculpture which shows the gods, goddess and mortals offering peplos to goddess Athena.

Here’s our version with the birthday girl as goddess Athena (far right). Click here to read more about this scene. If you’re wondering what me and Ms AA are potraying, we were the warriors on horse! hahahahahaha

Now this is Dav’s and P’s version of the Metope.

We had lots of fun that day. The celebration ended with dinner at The Homage Restaurant in Waldorf Hilton.