Church Cottage

Hi friends,

Hope you enjoyed the lovely weather yesterday. It was bit chilly this morning, wasn’t it?

I had been busy looking for a place to live in South Warwickshire and found a little cottage in a picturesque village.

This is the cottage I am moving into. It is 300 years old.

Living Room.

Although this is supposed to be a living room, I will use this room as a dining room. As you may remember, my favourite dining table is 2m long x 1m wide solid oak and this is the only room I can place such a bulky thing.

Bed Room

This is really a petty room. Although it is small, it has got certain charm and I envisage myself spending more time in this room. This will be my sitting room. I have 2 bed rooms, so the other room will be used as a main bed room.

I should be settling down by my birthday. Wait for my invite for special green tea here. 

See you soon.

Breakfast and Lunch

Happy Spring Cleaning - Clothing Part1

Hi friends,

I am moving out from the lovely cottage in Kineton at the end of April. It has been happy six years and I would like to express my humble gratitude to the best landlord any tenant could wish for.

He has been looking after me and other tenants so well but decided to sell everything to enjoy his retirement. It is sad but I wish him and his wife happy retirement and all the best in the future.

Prior to the moving, I decided to start sorting out the clothes, since it is my spring event anyway.

I have more dresses than any other clothing, because I am always wearing a dress at work.

Well, I have to admit, I have lots of dresses, but they are my work clothing. I wear them all the time.

Then, jeans. Skinny ones,  wide-legged ones, rolled-up ones, 2 cropped ones.

Coats and a winter jacket.

Cardigans and a bolero.

Jackets.

I only own one suit.

As the number is indicating, I hardly wear them, once or twice in a year.  I do not like spending money on things I do not often use, so the above trousers suit came from Sainsbury’s but they are decent enough, aren’t they?

Skirts.

You have seen 50 items of what I have in my wardrobe. Let’s see what else I will keep.  

Spring cleaning continues….

Healthy! - Rice Salad with Poached Egg

Hi friends,

Don’t you sometimes get the moment that you become desperate for a certain food?

I do. On Easter Sunday, I was dying for rockets. Not the one NASA is spending fortune on but the green bitter leaves you can find in posh salad.

Good old Waitrose was closed on Bank Holiday Monday. Damn.

I became so desperate and Googled opening hours of Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Morrison’ s to check which one opens earliest.  How sad is that!

Since Monday, I kept eating rockets and now,  I do not wish to see them for few months.

Rice salad with poached egg.

As well as rockets, there are some salad leaves. I used onions, asparagus, shiitake mushrooms, spring onions and sweet corns for fried rice. It is curry flavoured rice, similar to Biriyani.

It was so good with a poached egg. Yummmm….. 

Giggling Squid

Hi friends,

I had a lovely meal with great friends at contemporary Thai restaurant called Giggling Squid.

I don’t know why but I could not remember the name and kept calling it Laughing Squad.

It is located at the corner of High Street. I cannot remember what it was there before but it was nicely refurbished. Inside of the restaurant is much spacious than it looks from the entrance.

Starters.

Main dishes.

Really nice food and I enjoyed it. Thanks folks, for the fun evening. 

23, High Street, Stratford upon Avon
http://www.gigglingsquid.com/branches/stratford.html

Hathaway Tea Rooms

Hi friends,

Normally, I avoid Stratford-upon-Avon during Eater holiday as it becomes No-Go zone.  Totally packed with tourists, nowhere to park, and long queue everywhere.

However, when I got an invite from my lovely friends, how could I possibly refuse?

We went to Hathaway Tea Rooms in High Street. Because of its location, it can be rather touristy but hey ho, Stratford is touristy after all.

This is their afternoon tea. From the top, there were 4 fancy cakes.

In the middle, there was 1 scone with cream and jam. 

Then, in the bottom, you can see finger sandwiches, can’t you?  You can select 3 different sandwiches out of 8 or 10 – I cannot remember exactly how many but there are good selections. I chose ham & mustard, cream cheese & cucumber, and egg & cress.

Off course, it comes with a pot of English tea. Although it was really busy, members of staff were very friendly and accommodating. We had good time there.

£12.99 at No.19 Hathaway Tea Rooms, High Street, Stratford-upon-Avon.

http://www.hathawaytearooms.com

Happy Easter Presies!

Hi friends,

Happy Easter. May this spring brings you good fun and laugh.

I would like to express my true gratitude for all of you who have been so generous and sweet. Yet again, I have to upload the article with this topic – Presie!!

Rose-shaped candle with scent of Jasmine.

Necklace.

Easter chocolate.

More Easter chocolates.

Flowers. Got 3 bouquets in the same week but since I do not have a vase at home, I used cups and bowls instead.

And rice crackers and crisps from Japan.

God bless MT. It isn’t a simple task to bring so many rice crackers without squashing in a suitcase. He is my good colleague and a keen mountaineer. He often goes to Japan to climb Japan Alps. It horrified me when he told me all about his latest climbing experience there…

Boys are boys no matter how old they have become. Ladies, don’t you agree?

Happy Easter. Have great fun!