The moon is very big, bright and round tonight...

Today is my sixth day at work in a row. Yep, and I'm ready to collapse, except I'm not... I do so want to collapse and rest, but I can't...

Because I had 9 coffee drinks today. Yes, NINE. Two personal, and seven for work purposes. Geez, if I had known I would be drinking so much coffee for work today, I wouldn't have had 2 for myself!! Normally I do not have any at all. I would choose strawberries and cream, or raspberry or mango drinks. But TODAY I wanted to try some coffee, and ended up drinking more than I ever imagined I would in a day.

I only finished my 8 hour shift, waited 3 hours for training, did an hour and a half training session and walked home really quickly while talking aloud to myself all the way, and still, wide awake.

First, I had my 10 mins break. I really had to drag myself out of bed today, so I thought.. why not? Let's try the Caramel Macchiato. Then I had my lunch, and I tried the Caramel Latte. At noon, I was informed that it is a special occasion today. The district manager was visiting today, and we were going to have a coffee tasting session at our store for the customers, and of course us partners as well. We tried 3 different kinds of coffee, with fruits, nuts, berries, cheese, gingerbread etc. We had the Sumatra, Columbia and Ethiopia. Then, my store assistant manager wanted me to try espresso shots. One full good one, and one dead one, so that I know what they are, and I do not use dead espresso shots in the drinks I make. Okay, so that in all was 7 drinks.

Training wasn't too bad. I had expected a long boring session of talking and demo. Instead, I was sitting amidst a group of Polish hysterical girls, laughing and talking loudly in their language, not paying attention to the training, and they are all from 3 different Starbucks stores in town, including mine. That's the Northend, Centrale and Whitgift stores. Of course, there were a few people who were not Polish, but our numbers are minimal. By the end of the session, I was speaking perfect Polish English. "After you blend, you throw away them" kind of language.. hehe. We were introduced to 3 new drinks for the summer launch, and the drinks included one suggestive looking food which made the girls even more hysterical and hyper.

Thank goodness I am finally off from work for tomorrow... :)

The moon is so very big and bright and round and beautiful tonight.

My cookings...

A couple of my experiments in the kitchen... :P

This is fish/ seafood chowder, inspired by the Lim Coopers. I made a big pot for more than one, fortunately it was edible. We had garlic butter loaf with it..Beer was on the house as usual, sponsored by Andy...

This is shiok sendiri mushroom, ham and tomato rice...
Must be improved, to be cooked for more than one in the future...:)

St. Gertrudes Roman Catholic Church...

My little TY beanie bear...

Bloom the Bear

When pretty flowers are in bloom
It helps to erase winter's gloom
Beautiful flowers everywhere
Are sure to bring you lots of cheer!

Ooh La La....Mexican dinner!! :D

The first couple of weeks after I arrived in this country, all I had was fast food. And very soon got sick of it. Then after, I realised that I actually am interested in cooking. Since then, a sort of barter system started going... :) I cook for my housemates and Gene, my housemates cook for me and Gene, I cook for Gene, Gene cooks for me:)

Different dishes from different cultures, guinea pigs for each other... (well, mostly my food is for them anyway), experimenting a variety of food...:)

Today's special was Mexican made by Andy - Tacos!! With Tortilla Chips and beer!!




Yummy yum yum........hmmmmm........

The 2008 Wimbledon Championships...

Last Thursday, the guys took the day off, and I was not working anyway... so we woke up super early, and took the 7:30 morning bus and tram ride to Wimbledon...

This is just walking towards goodness knows where after we got off the cab...

Ah, the queue...

So many people sitting in lines already???

Omg, yes... and we joined them... I think some of them camped here overnight?? We were like in the fifth zig zag in the queue or something...

Robin, me, Dennis

Robin, Andy, Dennis with their queue cards and beer...

The sun was super hot, and we were all roasting... we wore our jackets not because it was cold, but because the sun was scorching HOT on our skin!!

Ahh....guess who's bored?

I did not do this... please do not sue me...

We finally get to walk towards the gates...yippee!! We're moving, we're moving...

First glimpse from outside the gates...

Then we had to go through security checks like at the airport, get our tickets...

and WE'RE IN!!!!!!

Board says who plays who and where... I just followed the guys. They already knew where they wanted to go...

This is court number 19...

We went into Court No.18 to watch Ladies Singles Miss V. Zvonareva vs Miss T. Tanasugarn. The guys patiently explained how the game works... it was my first time to watch a tennis match, and I had no idea how the points and everything else works... Dennis explained the best...He's a great teacher:)

View from our seats, we can also see Court No. 19 because we are sitting high up...

Very hungry, so got burger and chips before the game started...

Watching my first ever live tennis match begin...

That is Miss V.Zvonareva serving... she's quite LCLY...:)

The umpire and photographers...

The audience inside and outside the court...

Hmmm, some tennis fanatic with tennis balls stuck all over his cap...interestinggggg....

Miss V. Zvonareva from Russia

Miss T. Tanasugarn from Thailand - she played really well. She got injured, but played on with awesome passion and good spirits....Miss V. Zvonareva was pretty ill- temepered, saw her hitting her own head with her tennis racquet... quite scary.

Game over, Miss T. Tanasugarn won!! Hurrah for the woman!!! Too bad for Mss LCLY:)

We walked around a bit, and took a break...

Had super yummy strawberries and cream, Andy says they are not to be missed at Wimbledons... and yes, they're yummy yum...

Watched gentlemen singles next... it was Cilic from Croatia vs Nieminen from Finland...
There was a bunch of gentlemen dressed up in business coats and all, cheering for Nieminen throughout the game... YAKORRRR!!! YAKORRR!!! OI OI OI!!!! (It was actually Jarkko, his name...:P)

This is Cilic...

This is YAKKORRR!!! OI OI OI!!! His skills were amazing, when he played, it looked like he was flying from place to place... amazing amazing...

For all of us who couldn't get into the centre court (because we only got £20 tickets), and IF you want to watch what's in the centre court, you can sit on the grass and watch a BIG screen. Duhh... better off sitting at home watching TV then.... that's Maria Sharapova on the screen by the way:)

We went back to Court No.18 to wait to watch the William sisters, but the sisters weren't playing yet... it was Stepanek (Czech Republic) vs Troicki (Serbia)

Troicki was injured at the ankle, but he kept on playing... they really go all out!! He removed his entire ankle support and wrap and played on till the end...

Mr. Radek Stepanek from Czech Republic

Next up, not the William sisters yet... it was Paul-Henri Mathieu vs Jeremy Chardy, both from France...

Chardy getting ready....

The tough competition begins...I'm on Mathieu's side:)

Mathieu preparing to serve... he's really very very good...

The weather started getting really chilly, and it started to rain. The William sisters got moved to another court, so we didn't manage to see them after all. We got the tram back to Croydon again, had some Indian dinner, and ran home in the rain...A truly eventful, one of its own, maybe the only once in my lifetime - live Wimbledon Championships... I am very fortunate and grateful that I had the opportunity to be there...