Vapiano Italian Restaurant in London

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Vapiano is franchise Italian restaurant in Europe and the State. My friend Kevin took me there when we were working together. From their website page, it is described the restaurant is ‘Somewhere between the nicest of fast casual and hippest of casual dining restaurants is Vapiano’.

The interior design is clean modern, open-space, casual with high standard quality food, especially there is fresh basil plant in every single table. Pasta is home-made, and it cooks in front of you, so it makes sure all fresh. It comes with a big portion as well, and you can choose your pasta types. My favourite pasta is Scampi E Spinaci, which is king prawn with pesto and baby spinach and Salsiccia Con Fichi , which is spicy Italian sausage with fresh figs. (both £8.50,  I just made it sound so fancy, did I? ) They are the best. Pizza is making in front of you including the dough, crispy edge with interesting filling.

Price is incredible cheap and so reasonable. Pasta and pizza starts from £6. Dessert from £3 – £5. All the staff and chef speak Italian. It is a friendly and self-service restaurant, so suitable for a quick lunch and dinner place, but also somewhere you can enjoy hang out with your friends.

We have been there many times and it is always my favourite quick Italian health restaurant. You can see more restaurant picture and memu here. 4.5 stars out of 5 for sure and highly recommended. We always went to the one behind Topshop in Oxford Street, you can not miss it.

Vapiano是一个在欧洲和美国十分流行的意大利连锁餐厅，在牛津街Topshop后面是我们经常去的地方。朋友介绍我去，之后我就几乎是他们的常客。店里装修十分时尚及现代，干净又整洁。每台桌面上都有一盆新鲜的Basil香叶，随时需要随时栽放在你的意大利面里。所有的意大利面都是厨师每天新鲜制作，所以十分新鲜美味。有8－10种意大利面条给你选择，我最喜欢的2道是 ‘菠菜大虾意大利面’ 或是 ’新鲜无花果加意大利辣香肠‘ 超级是我的最爱，价格十分诱人，才8镑多，大大分量加新鲜原料。pizza也是新鲜到连馅底的面粉都是现场撮然后加下原料的。

价格实在便宜，这么新鲜好的餐厅意大利面从6镑起，甜点也是3－5镑。所有的东西都是现场炒和煮给你看，你可以学到东西又可以吃到好吃的意大利菜，当然所有的厨师也是意大利人，都说意大利话。不仅是自助式服务，健康，简单快捷的意大利餐厅。假如你赶时间又想吃个健康的意大利菜，Vapiano绝对是我首选。你可以从这里看到 菜单和更多图片。绝对推荐4.5星！

Christmas Day

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I think we did pretty good on Christmas food even though it was our first time to cook Christmas dinner. The food was very tasty and nothing went wrong, so I was very pleased with them. Then we watched some movies and went to have a walk in the park. In boxing day, we went out in Westfield, but it was so crowed, so we went to have a walk in Holland park. To be honest, we did eat so much food and I am a little bit sick of food or eating out, which is unusual for me, because I am always in love with food. (was it sound too weird?) It did remind of me so much like the Chinese New Year – family and food.

I do think I need to on diet soon. But overall, I am quite happy with this Christmas holiday. I forgot to mention that I was so excited to receive so many Christmas gifts. 2010 is coming as well as our big day. Afterwards, we will move into new house hopefully in February. Hope everything is going smoothly and well. Wish everyone had a good Christmas.

我想今年的圣诞过的还是不错，虽然是我们第1次煮圣诞大餐，但一切都准备的紧紧有条。食物十分美味，我十分满足我们的烹饪技术。圣诞当天我们吃了大餐然后就去公园散步。晚上看这电影渡过，好像就像我们的中国新年吃吃喝喝然后无所事事。Boxing Day我们去商场逛街吃饭，啊？实在太多人购减价货品，我们就走了，去另一个公园散步。圣诞实在吃太多东西了，现在看到食物再美味，或想到出去吃饭都怕。

我想是时候减肥了，总而言之，这个圣诞过得还是乐姿姿的。我们的大子日即将到来，过年后我们还要搬去新的房子，希望一切顺利和开心。祝福大家也有个美好的圣诞节。

My New Boots

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I have bought myself an expensive Christmas gift of the finest and prettiest boots ever from Kurt Geriger. It is totally worth it. The boots were made in Italy and the fine leather and classic simple style. Oh, it is so pretty that I could not bear to wear it. I got confession, I think I am not only obsessed about food, but also shoes as well.

这个圣诞，我买给自己一双十分漂亮的靴子，虽然贵，但做工和皮料来说真的值得这样的价钱。靴子是在意大利制作的，我们都知道意大利出好靴子。当我打开靴子盒子的时候，心跳加速，真靴子太漂亮我有点舍不得穿，让我觉得开心。难得买到心头好，我会好好珍惜我所有的鞋子的。

Friends’ Christmas Dinner

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Friends are organised an early Christmas dinner in an Italian restaurant. There are thousands tourists and people rushing through Oxford Street. The Christmas sales is on yesterday. I have brought so many gifts for myself – more shoes and clothes, so my financial status is poor at the moment. I do need to save up more rather than spending. I think maybe I am a spendaholics! But I do like pretty things…

Nice spending time with friends and have some laugh. Enjoy your holiday!

Early Snow before Christmas

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It is coming end of 2009 and surprisingly we might have a white Christmas this year. It was snowing heavily last night and it has more than 5 inches snow after three hours. Actually I have been waiting to snow this winter, and it did visit us earlier than I had expected. I heard that German had their coldest winter with minus 35 degrees these days. Oh, god! It must be so cold!

Snow is always fun and beautiful. London had the heavily snow of 18 years in Feb and I had so much fun with friends. I love heavily snow because it looks like that everything covered with a pure white coat. However, on the other hand, it is sad to hear that there was no electricity in some area because the damage of the heavily snow. Moreover, many trains and flights had to cancel because of that. You can imagine that how frustrated people feel when they want to travel back home for Christmas.

John’s parents will come down to London spending Christmas with us so we don’t want them to be stuck in the train. Anyway, merry Christmas to everyone – It’s time to eat a lot of food and have fun.

It is always nice to have a cup of tea, listening Jazz, looking out and window inside the cozy warm home in the snowing day. I was so excited last night that I had to take a picture from our window.

到了2009最后一个月的月底，昨天超大的一场雪让我们觉得或许今年会有一个白色的圣诞节。昨晚连续下了3个小时的大雪，雪堆积有5尺之深。我总期待着雪的到来，约翰说，很少会在12月下雪的。但这次欧洲一股冷空气降下，听说德国最低气温有零下35度，天啊，一定冷死了。

大雪永远是漂亮和美丽的。伦敦年前2月份下了最大的一场雪 。我和朋友们都乐疯了，少见下雪的我当然喜欢下雪，外面什么东西都好像披上了一件毛茸茸的白色外套。但有小部分地区因为雪太大，没有了电。可想而知，雪不再是漂亮的东西。同时火车和飞机都停走停飞，很多人圣诞都无法回家和家人团聚，所以，白色圣诞对很多人来说不是好事。

约翰家人圣诞来伦敦和我们一起庆祝，我们可不想他们的圣诞在火车上过因为雪太大！无论如何，祝大家圣诞快乐！下雪天最好的时刻就是在待在暖暖的家里，喝着热辣辣的英式奶茶，听着爵士，看着外面的雪。

Preparing Christmas Gifts

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preparing gifts

One more Christmas year is coming. Everywhere is full of Christmas promotion. John always thinks that it is annoying that people always promote Christmas that early. I guess it will be same feeling that I feel about Chinese New Year. Maybe I don’t experience much Christmas in the past, so rather annoying, I quite enjoy the atmosphere. Of course, it is also an excuse for me to shopping.

We bought some Christmas gifts for John’s families, and I am wrapping up today. Normally, we will travel to north and spend Christmas in Sheffield or Leeds, but Melanie (John’s sister) and Paul will spend their Christmas in Malaysia this year. Then it means John’s family will come down to London, and we will be the host. It also means that we need to cook Christmas dinner. Yes, I do need to practise my roasting turkey first.

John is not fussy about Christmas, however, I think it will be an exciting Christmas. I bought John’s winter-fleece pyjamas. Hope he likes it. Moreover, I also will send some cards and little gifts for my friends in China.

一年的圣诞又快来啦，哪里都是圣诞的宣传和折扣。约翰对圣诞没有什么特别的感觉，总觉得圣诞太商业化。也许象我们对中国过年没有那份热情一样。可能这是第2年在英国的圣诞，对我来说还是蛮有新鲜感的，到处都很多圣诞装饰，再说，也有很多圣诞shopping 折扣，对我来说，可以找借口shopping!

我们上周买了很多圣诞礼物给约翰的家里人，我今天也都在包装中，觉得我包装不细心，没有我姐包装的好看。约翰比我还细心，不过他没有时间。上年我们去住在北部（谢菲而）约翰家里过圣诞，但约翰的妹妹（梅乐尼）和男友今年打算去马拉西亚过个热辣辣的圣诞，所以约翰的家人决定来伦敦和我们一起过圣诞。当然，也就是说，我们要准备圣诞大餐给大家，我要赶紧练习我的烤鸡先。

虽然约翰没有太热衷于圣诞，但我觉得这会是个兴奋的圣诞节。我买了羊毛的睡衣给约翰做圣诞礼物。我想他应该很喜欢！（我买的他都喜欢的）。我也在准备邮寄卡片和小礼物给中国的朋友们，邮寄给大家我们一颗圣诞的心！

Mew’s gig in Shepherd’s Bush Empire

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MEW's gig

My friend Syrinx had introduced Mew‘s since March, and we love every single album they produced. John bought their tickets when I was in China, and because we booked that early, we got two fantastic seats ever.I never like standing because I am too short. Beside, I don’t like people jumping and sweating on me. (lol)

It was a cold raining night. We went there earlier by half an hour queueing for good seats. It was literately only 50 meters away from the band in the sitting seat first line. The warm-up band was ok, also touring with Mew in the UK.  The concert hall was full of young people and many scandinavia fans too.

Jonas Bjerre has incredible high voice and it combines with their music perfectly. He wore a causal white shirt and jeans. Jonas didn’t say much, but said it was their last performance in the UK, and it was kind of sad. I guess UK fans were passionate and crazy about their music and properly they didn’t expect like that.  The background animation was fantastic as well. It’s said that Jonas had designed all of them –  they were scary, weird and unusual. (I heard those images were from Jonas’s dreams). It was certainly creative, and so their music.

They performed most popular and well-known songs, such as ‘ Special, 156, Am I wry, no and The Zookeeper’s boy etc’. I don’t think two hours of their performance was enough, and of course, we wish them to perform all their songs, which is impossible.

The atmosphere, the quality of their performance, and most important – their music were superb. And the enjoyment was far beyond words that could describe. Mew played ‘Comforting Sounds‘ to be their last song, which was sad and emotional, and it was a perfect ending.

I found the black and white picture from Mew‘s official website, which I can see myself and John in the first line of Level one! (haha)

La Roux – In For the Kill

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la-roux

Even I am not a huge electronic pop fan, I heard some songs from Florence + The Machine and Ladyhawke. They are ok, but not really my music taste. However, La Roux‘s new album is outstanding and it worths recommending.

I realise that some music or album you need to listen more than one time, then will love it. Or even play in in different period. First time listen maybe a little bit judgemental, second time might feel interesting. Some music you wont’ be instantly loved it, but maybe second or third time. I do remember I didn’t like Keane’s third album ‘ Perfect Symmetry’ many months, but I love it so much one day after I listened them again.

I love all the songs in the whole album, especially song called ‘In for the Kill‘ ,’I’m not your toy’ and ‘Cover my eyes‘ but the whole album is amazing.

Morocco Food Review

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Morocco Spice

I haven’t seen Miwa from Japan since I returned from China, so we went out on Saturday night. All of my good friends love eating and trying various nationality food in London. We discovered a restaurant in Soho called Maison Touareg .

I haven’t tried Morocco food before and I know the food is very popular and delicious. It is famous for their lamb and chicken. John can eat chicken, and I love lamb, so we give it a try.

Food is absolutely delicious and interestingly, you also can order those water-pipe (nor sure the real name.) I gave it 4 stars out of 5. Price is reasonable. Appetite is from £3, main course from £12, and wine is from £17. Each we paid £18, not bad indeed.

All About Music – Alternative Rock

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More new music

The Temper Trap

I always love to add new music into my Ipod. An Alternative band from Australia called The Temper Trap’s ‘ Condition’ is absolutely delightful to listen. The famous song ‘ Sweet Disposition’ is so hit and become the sound of 2009 according to BBC. When I listened their first song, I thought it is definitely a British Rock band, surprisingly they are from Australia. Also, They became so famous because this amazing album in the UK, then well-known in Australia afterwards.

Every single song in the Album are my favourite.

Green Day

We haven’t heard Greenday releasing new albums for such a long time. Even though I am not a huge Greenday fan, the new album called 21st Century Breakdown is fantastic. The album is not only random music, but actually tell a story. It is divided into three acts, each loosely following a young couple, Christian and Gloria, as they’re confronted with a manipulative, authoritative culture according from Culturebully. Would it be great that when you’re listening songs, you can imagine a movie?

It seems they wrote many songs for Heroes and Soldiers. I still love some of their songs, and never feel tired of them. Some of their songs always make me feel sad –  I call it as the rebellious sadness.

There are many favourite pieces in the album:

  • 21 Guns
  • !Viva La Gloria!
  • Peacemaker
  • ?Viva La Gloria? (Little Girl)
  • Restless Heart Syndrome

Muse

Great news that Muse released the New album called ” The Resistance” in September. It is more alternative + classical music combination. Great album and I’ve been listening since Sept.

They are all on the tour. Muse and Green day’s gigs are so expensive (£50), and also performed in O2 and Wembley stadium –  too big! We saw Muse in HK, and it was great, same price but you can see them so clear. However, they are too big in the UK, I don’t think they will perform in a small concert then. Pity!

I can’t wait to go to see MEW’s concert next week. One privilege living in London is to see many concerts regardless singers are superb or unnoticeable.