Metric is my one of my favourite bands, and they released the album Fantasies in 2009 is really awesome. Metric is a Canadian indie and alternative rock and New Wave band. Originally formed in Toronto, the band has also, at various times been based in Montreal, London, New York City and Los Angeles.

They didn’t released so many albums, but Fantasties and Grow up and blow away, and the EP called Eclipse (All Yours) from – Eclipse – Twilight Soundtrack are all my favourites.

I highly recommend this band for you if you like Rock, Electronic, Indie and Alternative. I couldn’t pick which one is my favourite song, because they all are. I really love their style, hope they will release more good albums soon. I just missed their concert in London, but if they come to Leeds, I am certainly will go to see them.

It always make a different day when you discover or listen a good band or good songs. 5 stars for them!

You can listen their songs in their Myspace page or Spotify in the UK for free.

Friends and us went to try the new opening Italian restaurant – the famous chef Jamie Oliver Italian restaurant in Leeds city centre. The chef was not Jamie in person, but follows his recipes. It was opened few weeks ago, and we alway wanted to give it a try as a food lover.

The starts was amazing, like tapas style. We had one vegetarian dish and one for seasonal meats. It was like the picture – look and taste were really gorgeous with cheese and bread! And we also ordered the white wine called Trebbiano Gargenega Del Veneto (2009) was light and fruity (reason price, but good value) I really enjoy the wine and the starter.

I ordered the lamp chop as my main course and I did try others pasta as well. My lamb was perfect – not too pink, not over cook, and it provided three sauces for me (mint, nuts and basil) I really enjoyed the main course. The other pasta was not bad. However, my friend’s pumpkin risotto was a little bit runny, but tasted not bad either.

The portion was big and great, some of them we could not finish. The environment was quite posh and stylish. The service was excellent and really helpful.

Overall 4 star out of 5. I will definitely recommend it to you.

Eileen and Miwa came up to Leeds this week and stayed with us for 3 days. I miss them so much and all the good time we spent in London, and I haven’t seen them for 3 months since we moved to Leeds. Sadly the weather was terrible – raining and cold while they were here.

I showed them a little bit Leeds City Centre, and went to Jamie Oliver Italian Restaurant in the evening, and had a such a wonderful dinner, then went to the Sky Lounge in City Inn for more wine and chatting. It did feel like we usually see each other and catch up in trying good food in London.

In second day, Melanie joined our group too, so we drove them to York. Unfortunately it was raining so we saw the raining side of York. The positive side of raining is that all the trees and garden were so green and we had the fresh air. York is always lovely to visit. The only downside of York is too expensive on food because it is a tourist town, and everything is over-price.

After touring around York, we drove back to visit Temple Newsam. It was such a historical house and full of histories. I love big old house like that, such as Henry VIII’s Hampton Court in London, and Chatsworth House in Derbyshire. It always make me think what if I were living in that era and what I would be, or doing what things? I am always fascinated about 14th -19th Centuries histories and culture.

Friends were back to London on Weds, and I felt like we are not being apart that long, just doing our normal life in London, rather than in Leeds. I miss them and doing girls things while we were in London.

First picture was in Jamie Oliver Italian Restaurant, and second one was that I made Gong Fu Tea for them while they were playing the Ipad.

You can see more pictures in York and Leeds here.

I haven’t heard of this band before, and I heard their song while I was watching TV series “Chuck” in last episode of season 3 – On My Way Back Home. Then I found their album in Spotify.

Band of Horses’s style like Miike Snow, Kent, Kings of Leon and Death Cab for Cuties. Their new album ‘Infinite arms’ is pretty cool. I give it 3.5 stars

My favourite songs:

• Factory
• On My Way Back Home
• Infinite Arms
• Older
• For Annabelle
• The Funeral (from The Road Mix 2007 Soundtrack)
• The End is Not Near (from the O.C Mix 2006 soundtrack)

You can listen their music in MySpace page and see whether you like them.

It is incredible sunny and hot (about 25 degrees) in these two days, and it feels like properly summer with the hot heat. We decided to walk down to the canal and had a picnic in Kirkstall Abbey museum at the weekend. The Abbey was built in 12th century, and sadly was destroyed by Henry VIII when he reformed all the Catholic churches in 14th century.

You can see that the church was enormous, but only half left behind and preserved it, so I needed to touch the stones and felt I touched something so old and valuable. It was really nice to imagine how did normal people live in that era?

It was so peaceful and natural surrounding by the canal and parks. People were sunbathing, and enjoyed the great day of summer with their friends. What a wonderful weather and a fantastic day!

John was back from San Francisco yesterday, and bought me a new Mac Pro as my late 28th birthday present. The new Mac Pro 13 inch is fantastic. Compared with my white Mac book, it got powerful screen resolution, better hard drive and all the new feature from the Mac Pro. I really love using it. It certainly feels stronger and professional.

Luckily we got the Ipad for free as John’s boss gave him for his programming. It was completely out of stocks in San Francisco when he tried to find one. It’s really an amazing computer. I can imagine using it when I am reading book, playing games, sharing pictures with others, sit lazily on the sofa just browsing the website. UK will be released the Ipad at the end of this month and sell £429 for 16G (wi-fi), and £699 64GB version complete with Wi-Fi and 3G access. It is quite expensive buying in the UK, as the price you can buy a brand new laptop.

Something about Apple which people are obsessed about is its stylish design, professional programmes, nice and simple to use, and it always leads the frontier technological invention.

I saw one website was introduced Miike Snow’s - ‘Song For No One’, and after listened to the whole album, I really enjoy this new album releasing in 2009.

Miike Snow is from Swedish band, and these days I just can’t fall in love the Swedish electronic music.

My favourite songs are:

• Animal
• Silvia
• Song For No One
• Black & Blue
• A Horse is Not A Home
• Plastic Jungle
• In Search of
• Faker

Highly recommended, check it out in Spotify for free (UK only) or their MySpace page to see whether you like them or not.

May 13 1988 the great musician Chet Baker had passed away. He is always one of my favourite Jazz musicians with his legendary trumpet and sentimental voice.After watching his documentary in BBC iplayer – Let’s get lost, and knew much more about Chet. He was such a talent for music and trumpet. Jazz was the most popular music in his era, and he was naturally picked it up without any properly training.

Chet’s personal life was quite a story. He had married three times, and all women just felt in love with him instantly. However, he never settled down in a place. Not like nowadays’ musician, he didn’t have too much glamour extravagant life style. He had been tried very hard to survive in recession as a musician. His life was like a dream – floating and travelling all the time. He was alike a lot of  musicians – do whatever he liked, no limitation and all about freedom. He preferred performing in Europe rather than the State personally and he was such a hit in Europe in that time from Let’s get lost documentary.

He was such a charming and passionate musician. Even after watching his documentary, I did fall in love with him as well. Chet was indeed a handsome and boyish look with his incredible gentle and soft voice. When he sang, your heart is literally melting, and you could just non-stop listening to his music, just like a magnet.

I found it is so interesting that even he aged in late 50, he still could sing and perform so well, and his voice didn’t age at all. Unfortunately drugs got him killed – what a pity! As my website is using theWordpress programme, the 2.8 named the version called Baker because the owner Matt Mullenweg likes Jazz as well.

One thing I like about Chet’s music is more unique and the way he liked to play jazz, more like smooth Jazz rather than commercial jazz.  Chet’s music will always in our hearts and every time when I listen to his songs, it makes me think, day-dreaming and feel the world – about sadness and happiness. I could listen to his songs nights and days.

Found an interesting article about Chet Baker’s

Since we moved to Leeds, we haven’t got time to explore North Yorkshire yet. It was warm and sunny yesterday, so we decided to travel to York for a day, and to enjoy the Spring weather.

York was founded by the Romans in 71 AD, so is famous of its nature beauty and historical heritage. It is a wealthy small city with a lot of historical churches, buildings, and houses in every little corner. The picture I took in the front cover was one of the churches properly had knocked down by Henry VIII in 16th century.

We also went to see the famous Jórvík Viking Centre and experienced how the Vikings’ lives were in 866 AD. It was really authentic experience and they said you supposed to smell of the Vikings’ cooking too. It was indeed a really fun experience. At lunch, I ordered a famous ‘a taste of York’ roast belly pork sandwich and was incredible delicious. After lunch and few cup of tea, we went to see the Railway Museum and to see how Britain was so powerful and rich when it had discovered the steam engines and the world was changed after it.

York is really a nice place to visit and I am sure we will return it next time to discover more castles or scenery nearby York as well. Here are some pictures we took.

从搬来利兹之后，忙于各种各样的东西，都没有时间去旅游。昨天太阳高照，我们决定去出了名历史悠久的约克城市观光下。约克大概有1千9百年历史，果然是历史悠久的城市，所以你到处可以看到很多15－16世纪的教堂啊，18世纪的房子。象伦敦一样，路上的每个砖头都有历史味道，当然，以年龄来说，约克比伦敦老很多。约克曾被称为当时的英国首都。约克是一个蛮富裕的城市，可以感觉到以前或现在都是蛮有钱人住的城市。一个蛮小休闲的城市，居然很多名牌都部落在街头，感觉游客们个个都穿得富贵华丽，街头也有很多名贵的豪华车，不愧是以前的首都。

封面的照片应该是16世纪亨利八世反对天主教然后毁灭掉的教堂。我还走过去摸了摸1千多年的教堂石头，教堂的毁灭真的蛮可惜的。我们还去体验了北欧海盗侵入约克的时期，地学研究家把海盗们在约克的生活点滴都用假人雕磨出来，假人还会动也会和你说话，虽然有点毛骨悚然，不过还是蛮真实的体验。

中午时候我点了约克最老最有名的烤肉店，我点了烤乳猪肉三文治，超正超多肉 － 真的吃肥死我了。喝了星巴克Latte充实精力后，我们去参观了英国铁路博物馆，看了许多旧的火车和汽车展览，体验了英国蒸汽时代英国的繁荣和如何成为不落日帝国。蛮有趣经历的。

我相信下次我们还回去约克玩，开车去约克周边的城堡啊，坐下小船之类的。等大家来，带你们去约克玩。点击这里我们照了有些约克的照片！

Before my birthday, I already got the best present ever! Plus John’s family bought some presents for me as well – they are incredible nice and sweet. Nothing really special happened on my birthday day. We shopped some households stuff and John treated me to have a big sunday roast, which is my favourite food ever!

We walked to the Whitehall road, and the restaurant called The Roast near the canal served really nice british food. It was sunday, so they only served sunday roast. It was £5 per person, then we had some sticky toffee pudding with custard too! Yum! Beef was tender and juicy with a lot of vegetable and the home-made gravy. The yorkshire pudding was nice and light, not flowery at all! Oh, comfort food is the best sometimes. Definitely need to return!

Trini sent the song from Lorene Scfaria called 28 , singing that we are turning to 28! Things ganna be great!