Our New Car to explore the Yorkshire

After a long discussion, we finally decided to pick Italian car  – Alfa Romeo 147 model with 5 doors and 1.9 engines. It is a great car and we really enjoy driving and travelling around Leeds and Yorkshire. The weather is quite unpredictable at the moment. It comes rains and comes shine all the time. Hopefully hot summer will be arrived soon even though we are in June.

Having a car is having the freedom to discover all the places we wanted to visit. I am currently on my 11 driving lessons, and it needs 40 lessons to pass. It might take sometimes because I only can get 2 lessons per week because the coach is so busy. I am doing quite well on learning how to drive, and I really enjoy driving, although it might be a lot of practising ahead for me to do.

I really can wait to drive our own car and practice by myself.

Our New House in Leeds

We have moved in to Leeds for two and half months now, and always add some new furnitures or decoration in the house. It feels like a proper cozy and warm home now. Compared with London, we got a lot of spaces of the house in Leeds, and it is a nice modern stylish flat with open kitchen, 2 rooms and 2 bathrooms (one for John’s office and also be a guest room and one for us with a massive wardrobe to put my shoes and clothes, which is the highlight of the flat).

We do really enjoy the location of city centre and so easy to go shopping and eat out just by walking 5 minutes. I will imagine that the house will be full of good memories for us, and we do enjoy living in Leeds so far. However, I do miss London from time to time, missing its busy,  metropolitan and my friends, and the most importantly so many choices of shopping which that Leeds can not compared with.

Metric – You rock my heart!

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.

Jamie Oliver Italian Restaurant Leeds

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.

Broken Bells

Like the Band of Horses, I have never heard the Broken Bells before, until I watched TV series ‘Chuck’ last episode in season 3, and since listening this album over and over again, I really love it. The famous song is ‘ The High Road’ but I love all the songs in the album. It is label in Spotify with one my my favourite bands Mew, and no wonder I like their style, just not as rock as Mew.

It’s worth mentioning that ‘The Ghost inside’ sounds like from The Dandy Warhols album  – The Dandy Warhols are Sound

I highly recommend this one, 4 of 5 stars. Currently, they are performing in London this month, shame that we are not in London.

You can listen their album in their MySpace or Spotify

My Friends Visiting Leeds

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.

Band of Horses

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.

Kirkstall Abbey

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!

My late 28 birthday present!

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.

Miike Snow (2009)

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.