Katie-Ella

Baby Food

2009-07-06T19:42:00.003Z

Yesterday I gave the Pip his first taste of "food" and he liked it. He is 5 months old now; my little baby is growing so fast. This weekend he will be moving to his own room. Mr KE and I will miss him a lot but it is for a good reason : we are having the flat valued next week. So lots of housework this week!

Small Steps

2009-06-05T18:51:00.003Z

Well, today I made the first steps towards finding childcare for the Pip for when I go back to work. Not big steps, to be honest, all I did was look up the list of local nurseries on the internet and write down the phone numbers of the ones that looked promising.

It's something I have been avoiding for a while and I can't really put it off any longer. It's tricky because I haven't decided whether a nursery or a childminder is the best option - at the moment I'm 80% leaning towards a nursery - but I haven't actually been round any nurseries yet. So it could change once I've had a look around a few.

The last few months have been so packed with changes that in one way, it seems like they rushed past in the blink of an eye. Is my son really 4 months old now? On the other hand, it seems soooo long ago when I was waiting to give birth. So much has happened since then and Mr KE and I will never be the same again.

Last weekend I left the Pip with Mr KE for the day while I went into "big town" for the first time since before Christmas. I have left him for a few hours before, but never for this long. So it was quite a big step for me (and for Mr KE too!) although I don't think I would have been happy leaving him with anyone else other than his father.

Still, for many reasons, I have to go back to work by the end of the year so I just have to get on with it. Yeah. Don't get me wrong, I do want to go back to work but like every other working mother, I do feel pangs of loss and guilt. It's tough but just one of those things that has to be done.

What's the other 58%?

2009-05-20T18:56:00.003Z

OK, I haven't blogged in ages because I've been busy, looking after baby, too tired to blog ...blah blah blah. You know how it is.

Anyway, I read this article this evening and I was moved to blog. Ignoring all the tax-stuff in the article, what surprised me is that Pringles are only 42% potatoes! What else is in Pringles for goodness sake? I knew it was processed but not that processed. From now on I'm sticking to Kettle chips.

Evening

2009-04-27T18:59:00.002Z

Mr KE took this photo a few days ago from the back bedroom window. It's warmer now and it's getting easier to get out and about with the Pip. He's nearly 3 months old now and just a little darling.

After winter months and being stuck indoors, I am really looking forward to the summer. Our first summer as a family :)

New Boots

2009-04-14T12:41:00.004Z

Since November I have been practically living in my trainers. At that time I was hugely pregnant and huffed and puffed my way around, so no high heels for me. Now I don't go out without the Pip in a buggy or a carrier so in the interests of Health and Safety, I have stuck to flat shoes. If you have been following my blog for a while, then you would know how much I love my high heeled shoes.

But there is hope!!

I have been wearing these boots and they are practical but not too granny-like. OK I wouldn't have looked at them 18 months ago, but things are different these days :)

Dancing Queen

2009-04-03T18:14:00.006Z

My family and close friends know that one of my favourite things is to put music on really really loud and dance around the room. I've been doing this since I was 11 (or so) and the people around me just have to live with it hahaha. My poor neighbours!! The woman who lives in the flat downstairs must be very patient or slightly deaf, because I stomp around like an elephant and play the same song on repeat up to a dozen times. Well, I only do it during the day ....I'm not totally inconsiderate!

Anyway, I haven't been stomping around lately. Late last year when my bump was so big that I could only sway gently. Since the Pip has been born, I have been too tired to even think about it...I just slump on the sofa waiting for his next demand.

Then today, while the Pip was napping I suddenly felt the urge to put on a bit of Rihanna and woohoo, I was prancing about the room like my old self! Things must be getting better. The old me is coming back, slowly but surely.

I was a bit concerned that the baby would wake up, but he didn't. Well, he might as well get used to it ;)

A present from my son

2009-03-21T20:44:00.005Z

Look what arrived for me by post, beautifully wrapped.

A lovely leather baby changing bag. The best thing about it? It doesn't look like a changing bag.

Lots of handy pockets and a strap that fits on the Bugaboo Bee. Perfect!

Lots more pockets and compartments inside...plus a matching travel changing mat. Another great thing about it, the zips open the bag all the way so you can quickly get to the contents.

Wasn't it thoughtful of the Pip to save all his child benefit money to buy me a nice handbag for Mother's Day? And he's only seven weeks old...aaahh, children are so advanced these days :)

(There were also two breastfeeding tops, but the bag was definitely the star attraction)

Any excuse for a new handbag

2009-03-11T21:20:00.003Z

My sister came to stay at the weekend and had to nip outside for a few minutes, so she asked to borrow my keys so she could let herself back in. She laughed when she saw the contents of my handbag...muslin, spare vest for the Pip, nappy, babywipes and other baby paraphernalia. No more lipsticks, mascara and yesterday's theatre tickets.

The old Katie-Ella is still around though. I'm currently lusting after this bag (sorry, couldn't grab a picture) but you need to go on a waiting list, the earliest availability is June!! Aarrghhh, can I wait that long??

5 things: Being a Mother

2009-02-27T19:15:00.005Z

Listening to a baby crying is the most emotionally draining experience in the world.
You have to eat whenever you can. Because you may not get another chance to make that sandwich for a few hours!
You can get used to being tired all the time. People have said that I should sleep when the baby sleeps. Good advice in theory, but in practice because I am alone during the day I can never relax enough to actually sleep. I'm always in a state of high alert in case he starts crying again.
Breastfeeding makes you thirsty all the time.
Despite all the crying and the feeding and the endless changing, his cute little face is still enough to make me smile and feel that everything is alright with the world.

If anyone were to ask me - is it worth it? Well, the answer is, yes without a doubt. But be sure that you are ready. Be very, very sure...because there ain't no going back!

Week One

2009-02-20T19:39:00.004Z

It's Friday night and the Pip is in his crib, hopefully settled for a few hours (fingers crossed). Hooray, I've survived a week on my own and everything was OK. It's still very early days but I'm a lot more relaxed and feeling really optimistic about everything.

At the moment, I am trying to implement Gina Ford's routines. She's quite controversial because she puts babies (and mothers!) into strict routines from the day one. Some people think that it's a bit too extreme - and some mothers believe that it's cruel to put a baby only weeks old into a routine i.e. that feeding/sleeping etc should be completely flexible in the first few months. Having said that, if a baby is hungry - of course you have to feed him/her...the routine is just to set some structure into your life.

I'm still feeling some self-doubt though - am I being a good mother? Or a bad one? Oh well, if the Pip has issues when he is a teenager, he can always blame Gina Ford.

I got you, Babe

2009-02-15T21:44:00.004Z

Tomorrow Mr KE is back at work and I will be at home with the Pip on my own. Actually, I've already had a trial run because he had to go in to work last Monday. However, this is officially the end of his paternity leave so from now on...it's just me and you, baby.

To be honest, I don't think it's going to be a problem - I'm sure I'll be fine on my own. Mr KE and I have done the last few weeks without any help from friends or family and one good thing is that we have had to find our own way. There is no one to tell us how to do this or that, offering wanted or unwanted advice. As a result, we have gained so much in confidence every day.

Not that we haven't had offers of help. My parents offered to stay for a few months to help us out, but all things considered I thought that it wouldn't be a good idea. For one thing, it's a horrible time of year to be in the UK. Nasty weather and gloomy skies combined with being stuck indoors all day with a newborn baby...a recipe for stress and anxiety.

Our little family

2009-02-07T12:47:00.003Z

My lovely little boy is finally here! Mr KE is still at home on paternity leave and we have spent the last few days getting to know our son. It's been tiring but we are both really happy.

I said to Mr KE today that I must be coming back to my normal self because I am starting to make lists again, haha the control freak returns. Although it would be nice to have some help, it is also nice that it's just the three of us at home on our little "babymoon". We are learning as we go along but seem to have slipped into a routine already. Yes, thank you Gina Ford!

Patience is a Virtue

2009-01-25T01:16:00.000Z

Still. No. Action.

Aaaarrrrgggghhhhhh.

The Waiting Game

2009-01-16T12:50:00.004Z

Well, the flat is as tidy as it as ever been. The fridge/freezer is full of food. I have enough toilet paper, shampoo, soap and other household necessities to last me weeks without a trip to the shops. Lots of coffee, tea and biscuits for visitors. Hospital bags are packed and on standby. The baby's clothes are all washed and ready. The crib is made up (although I still have to figure out how the steriliser works) and the camera battery is fully charged.

Mr KE has told me not to call his mobile at work unless things have kicked off because he gets into a panic when he sees me flash up on his phone. So I have to text him unless it's action stations; he's been very calm, bless him.

Sunday Night

2009-01-11T20:39:00.002Z

It's Sunday night and still no action. There's no rush; I'm just enjoying these last few days of living according to my own schedule. Which mainly consists of napping, watching daytime TV and wandering down to the local shops. I think I've watched more Poirot in the last week than I have in my whole life.

Mr KE seems to be in a last-minute panic. He is wandering around the flat, tidying up and throwing things away. Four full bin bags in the last two hours! He is one of the worst hoarders ever, from a family of great hoarders, so for him to throw stuff away is a very big deal indeed.

On the other hand, I am displaying zen-like calmness. Repeat after me : Everything is going to be alright.

Killing the Germs

2009-01-06T08:59:00.004Z

It's been really cold the last few days. OK, not extreme cold like -40 but cold enough for Mr KE to wear his longjohns into work today. I don't mind the cold weather so much; at least it's a proper winter then - not just days of gloomy, damp, drizzling weather. Kills off all the germs too!

Mr KE is back at work and I am now officially on maternity leave. Just a few more bits and pieces to get; I was supposed to get my nursing bras yesterday but I couldn't face taking off all my winter clothes to try them on...gloves, hat, scarf, coat, fleece, jumper, long sleeved t-shirt and short sleeved t-shirt. Then putting them all back on again. Exhausting work!

New Year's Eve

2008-12-31T18:41:00.003Z

It's New Year's Eve, Mr KE and I have got absolutely nothing planned and it's great. We have had a lovely Christmas break, just the two of us taking it easy. I haven't even been sale shopping; haven't even been into town....which is very unlike me (contrast with last year) but oh well, I have other things on my mind! This year I have spending my money on buggies and baby clothes :)

So what have we been up to?

We had roast chicken for our Christmas dinner; with pigs in blankets (cocktail sausages wrapped in streaky bacon), roast potatoes, baby carrots, peas, bread sauce and gravy. No christmas pudding because Mr KE doesn't eat it and I'm not such a big fan. Instead, lots of chocolates and sweet gooey things all day.
On Boxing Day Mr KE went to watch our local football team with his friends while I snoozed on the sofa.
We have been sleeping in, going on long walks in our local parks and eating lots of indulgent food.
Mr KE has been DIY-ing while I watch TV ....yes, it's a hard life....

It's now 7pm, we have no plans for dinner (takeaway? forage in the fridge? just eat more chocolate?) and the lack of pressure is really relaxing. You know what I mean - it's New Year's Eve...must have a good time.....even if you get totally stressed out doing it!

Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas Breakfast

2008-12-26T17:49:00.009Z

(Couldn't decide which photo to post - so I've posted both...)

When I was young, we always had ham sandwiches for breakfast on Christmas morning. We would normally get up late, after the excitement of Christmas Eve, Midnight Mass, opening presents, and wander downstairs in search of food.

By the time we got up, the kitchen would be in full swing preparing for lunch, guests etc. There would be a big ham in the kitchen, ready for us to cut thick slices of salty meat and make sandwiches.

Mr KE's mother does the same, so to me - christmas breakfast is not complete without proper ham! With just me and Mr KE around, I got some slices from our local deli and very nice they are too.

We ate in the kitchen because I couldn't be bothered to clear the dining table - lazy me.....

...of course, Christmas means a never ending supply of chocolate. We started straight after breakfast with these yummies. Special thanks to our chocolate supplier, you know who you are!

Christmas Eve

2008-12-25T23:26:00.003Z

Mr KE popped into M&S on his way home and fancied these chinese snacks, so we had them as starters on Christmas Eve. They were all duck-based and came with a little pot of hoisin sauce.

For our main course, we had individual beef wellingtons, potatoes dauphinoise and green beans. The beef wellingtons were from Waitrose but I made the potatoes from scratch; they are basically potatoes cooked in layers with double cream and milk. Very decadent indeed!

As for the Beef Wellingtons, they were OK but I can't help thinking that it is a bit of a waste of beef fillet. If you haven't had it before, beef wellington is beef fillet, pate and mushrooms wrapped in puff pastry. Very 1970s dinner party. These days it's more fashionable to have cook things simply eg if I had a good bit of beef, I would just pan fry it with a bit of salt and pepper.

Anyway, we were too stuffed after our meal for any pudding, so we just crashed out on the sofa for a rest before heading off to midnight mass. I had to have a nap before our walk up the hill...I need to conserve my energy these days!

Christmas - Past, Present and Future

2008-12-23T22:00:00.005Z

This will be the first Christmas ever that Mr KE and I are spending together on our own - and this is probably the only Christmas that it will be just the two of us. Well, for some years to come anyway.

We normally spend the holidays with his parents in the countryside but this year we are avoiding the journey and staying at home. To be honest, I'm quite looking forward to spending some you-and-me time with Mr KE in our London nest before the pipsqueak arrives. As I have been reminded by lots of friends who have young children - spend as much time with your husband as possible, go to the pub, eat out and enjoy sleeping in. I know that they are not trying to be negative about having children, but the reality is that life will be completely different...but that's okay.

From a practical point of view, this means that I am cooking our Christmas dinner!! My mother-in-law always has christmas completely organised so usually we just turn up at their house, eat lots of delicious food and spend the whole holiday sitting on the sofa watching TV and eating chocolates. I am totally useless daughter-in-law, hahahaha.

Although we aren't really thinking about Christmas (we haven't even got a tree), I still have to make some kind of effort on the food front. I've even written out "menus" :) .... good little wife or what??

My Last Day at Work

2008-12-19T21:02:00.003Z

Today was my last at work. I have a few days leave to use up so my maternity leave doesn't officially start till the New Year. It feels really surreal, because I've always had a mental picture that I would start seriously preparing for the pipsqueak once I had finished work. So now, that's it.

It was a very quiet day at work, with a lot of people on leave or at meetings etc. The overall feeling in the office is one of pessimism; everyone thinks that 2009 will be a very difficult year. In a way, this is a very good time to be on maternity leave as I will be away during the hard times.

I can't complain about my conditions; I can have up to one year's leave and go back to my current job, or my Employer has to provide me with an equivalent position. (This is Employment Law in the UK) I get 12 weeks maternity leave at 90% pay and statutory maternity pay (SMP) for 6 months after that, which is about £500 a month. The company will also continue to pay for my health insurance, mobile phone, pension and car allowance (hooray!) while I am on leave. In this situation though, the most valuable thing is that your job is essentially safeguarded for one year.

The UK minimum is 6 weeks at 90%, but it really depends on your Employer. A friend of mine had 6 months full pay, then her SMP kicked in. She was on maternity leave for a year, went back to work for a few weeks, then resigned. And you know what, her company actually owed her money because you still accrue annual leave when you are on maternity leave, so they had to pay her for the annual leave that she didn't take. Unfortunately, not all companies are that generous!

The Hospital Tour

2008-12-19T20:26:00.003Z

On Monday afternoon Mr KE and I went on a tour of the hospital's maternity wing. We waited there with a few other couples...and waited ...and waited. The tour was supposed to start at 4pm, then at 4:40 a doctor popped her head round the door and told us that all the midwives (who normally give the tour) were busy. So she would give us a short tour instead, in a little while.

Fair enough, in a busy hospital, us "tourists" are not the priority. So it was 5 o'clock before we actually had a look a round the delivery suites.

The delivery rooms themselves were OK, you get a private room with en-suite bathrooms, armchairs, birthing balls and CD players. Some of the rooms had facilities for water births. We were advised to bring pillows (!) because there is chronic shortage in the NHS...people steal them apparently. Even so, they are still hospital rooms with lots of medical equipment in the room eg resuscitation equipment, monitoring equipment. So not really an environment where you would to spend a lot of time.

You are only allowed 2 people in the suite with you, for security reasons, infection control and also out of respect for the other people giving birth. It made me smile thinking of the Brunei hospitals which are over-run with visitors.

We also found out about admission procedures. When you come in, you get assessed by a midwife and there is a triage system (like A&E) where the more serious cases get prioritised. So there is no point going in too early as you will just have to wait in the corridor. As the doctor said, there is nothing more annoying than seeing someone else walk straight in when you have been waiting with contractions for 2 hours. But they will just take the person who is more advanced in labour, regardless of how long you have been waiting.

After watching lots of movies where someone starts contractions, and it's quick quick get to a hospital; it's quite reassuring to find out that it's more like start contractions, go the hospital, the midwife will probably send you home and say come back when you are really in labour. Like in 8 hours time.

So the lesson of the day was: stay at home as long as possible. That's what I'm going to do (hopefully).

Chocolate Making

2008-12-13T20:37:00.002Z

While my workplace seems to be all doom-and-gloom, Mr K-E and his colleagues have been defying the recession with lots of office outings. Two weeks ago they went ice-skating at Somerset House and on Thursday night, his team went on a chocolate-making evening.

I was really jealous, so I asked him to take lots of photos for me.

The set-up was a long table covered in greaseproof paper.

To start off with, the instructor explained the difference between "real chocolate" and "confectionary bars". It is all to do with amount of actual cacao in them. So Cadbury's Dairy Milk is a confectionery bar, not strictly speaking "chocolate".

I remember a few years ago there was uproar when the EU were going to impose a standard i.e. only a product with in excess of 50% cacao could be called chocolate. This would mean that most of the "chocolate" in the UK would not be allowed to be sold as chocolate....well, that idea was quickly shot down and manufacturers still call their low cocoa/high vegetable fat bars chocolate bars.

Anyway, back to the chocolate making.

Everyone has their own "stations". You start off with the fillings, a bar of soft dark chocolate (like a ganache) and a bar of semi-brittle nutty paste.

The funny looking fork is for dunking in chocolate. (More about that later)

You get mini cookie-cutters in different shapes. You can see the round one in this photo along with big bowls of dark, milk and white melted chocolate. On the table there are also saucers of dry toppings (cocoa powder, coconut etc) and caramel-covered almonds.

They used a special kind of chocolate which stays melted at room temperature.

In short, you cut a shape out of the "block" and then use your fork to completely cover it in chocolate. Shake off the excess and leave it on the table to dry. If you want to decorate it, you need to do it before it is completely set.

People were quite sceptical before but everyone really enjoyed it.

Look at the state of the table!

You also get two glasses of champagne to help with creativity :)

These were Mr KE's efforts. Some people were eating the chocolate all the way through, but Mr KE was concentrating so hard on making them look nice that he didn't eat any during the session.

He wrapped them up nicely and brought them home for me to eat.

They are lovely, really fresh - the nicest chocolates I've ever had. And I'm not just saying that because my husband made them!

New Car

2008-12-07T21:31:00.001Z

We picked up our new (second-hand) car on Thursday night, woo hoo!! It almost didn't happen, because despite two e-mails and a phone call to our bank warning them that there would be a large transaction on our current account, there was still a problem during the money transfer.

Aarrrggghhh!! Luckily the cashier at the car dealer persisted and finally (after one hour of calling the bank and holding and being transferred from one person to another) the transaction was processed. Most dealers do not take personal cheques or credit cards, so unless you want to carry thousands of pounds with you in cash; the only way to transfer the money is by direct debit. Oh well, I suppose it means that the money in my current account is secure.

This weekend we drove down to Southampton to see my favourite nephew :) who is really cute. Mr KE loves the new car....after driving our little "lawnmower" for 5 years, oh, the thrill of having power steering and 5th gear!!

A different kind of shopping

2008-11-29T23:13:00.000Z

This morning we got up early and drove to the DHL depot to pick up our Mothercare stuff, then unpacked it all at home before going to our NCT class. All before 9:30 in the morning, on a Saturday : a time when when I am normally still in bed. Well, they say parenthood brings new experiences.....

Woohoo, I feel so much better that we have all the stuff we need now. The only things we need to get now are the car seat and the car. Oh yeah, pretty big item :)

We checked the delivery in the living room. We already have a cot and a crib, but we decided to get a Moses basket too so the pipsqueak can sleep downstairs while I watch trash TV.

Mr KE bought Arlo from Mamas and Papas.

Mr KE's favourite outfit for the pipsqueak is this bearsuit which is a pramsuit for wearing when we go out.

It's really cute and soft. It has ears, mittens and even bear footprints!

He also spent ages playing with the Bugaboo, changing it from mode to mode. Rear facing to stroller mode and back again. I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon.

Architecture in Liverpool

2008-11-27T22:53:00.001Z

A few months ago, Mr KE went on an "official mission" to Liverpool with his colleagues. It is the European Capital of Culture this year (hard to believe, I know) so there were lots of cultural events and architectural exhibitions talking place.

Here are some interesting photos from his weekend away.

The last photo shows a famous Catholic Cathedral. I don't like it myself - a bit too spiky.

Big Sigh.

2008-11-27T22:33:00.000Z

Mr KE worked from home today because our Mothercare delivery was supposed to arrive today. We also ordered stuff from Argos (a chest of drawers and a new drying rack) ....organised huh? Unfortunately, the best laid plans can still go wrong.

The Argos stuff arrived OK, but Mr KE had to call Mothercare. Despite all their assurances and "guaranteed next day delivery", everything is arriving tomorrow. Aarrggghh. There's no way I can take a day off and Mr KE has to be at work too. How annoying. Now we have to drive to the depot because they won't deliver at weekends.

Breathing as a form of Pain Relief?

2008-11-23T16:59:00.001Z

Mr KE and I signed up for NCT ante-natal classes and yesterday we went for our first session. We had to go to Brixton because our local NCT classes are only on weekdays, which kind of defeated one of the main reasons to join the NCT i.e. to meet other mothers in your local area.

Anyway, it was very useful; there were 7 couples there and one woman who was there on her own. I felt really sorry for her because everything was set up for couples eg giving massages during early labour, breathing exercises etc.

I had heard from friends that the NCT are good, but they have very strong agendas eg they are very into breast feeding, natural births and non-intervention during labour. Almost religious, I would say :) The instructor wouldn't even really talk about "formula" feeding but just pushed the "breast is best" mantra. She also said that women should have "realistic expectations" of childbirth .....uh, ok but I don't think it is necessary or noble to suffer through extreme pain in the year 2008. I guess we will go through that in more detail next week when we discuss pain relief.

There was a couple there who were interested in hypnobirthing. Eeek. Mr KE wanted to laugh, but managed to stifle it. And yes, it is very middle class - the couples were doctors and accountants...even in Brixton.

On Tuesday evening, we will have our "NHS " ie free ante-natal class. It will be interesting to see the difference.

Five things that have been keeping me busy.

2008-11-16T22:02:00.000Z

Five things that I have been up to lately:

Fending off agents (aka recruiters/headhunters/bloodsuckers) calling me about positions in the Middle East. As the economy in the UK seems to be heading into a long recession, a lot of companies are expanding their operations in the Middle East and there is a big push to recruit suitably skilled staff. It so happens that I work in one of these "niche" sectors and if I were in different phase of my life, I would be very, very tempted....but it's not the right time for me.

Discovering a whole new world of shopping for things that I never knew existed! Who knew that there were so many different types of buggies, baby car seats, cot mattresses etc? One item that we chose fairly quickly was the buggy. There were three main requirements: I wanted the lightest one on the market, Mr K-E wanted one that he wouldn't mind pushing around and we both wanted one that could face either way. So the Bugaboo Bee it is!! (With all the accessories, of course....)

Making long lists for all the stuff we will need in January. Our plan was to buy everything from Mothercare in one big hit and get it delivered all on the same day, thus missing the Christmas rush. Sounds pretty stress-free right? The only problem with on-line shopping is that someone has to be in the house when the stuff gets delivered. Suddenly our straightforward plan doesn't seem so straightforward afterall.

Getting used to the idea that I won't be wearing high heels for a while :(

Being excited / scared /happy /anxious all at the same time. So much to do; we still have to buy our new car, clear more junk out from the flat, buy Christmas presents and send Christmas cards etc. Mr KE and I are always busy at work in the run-up to Christmas (I'm actually moving office on 5th December) plus we have our NCT & NHS "parentcraft" classes to attend. And try to meet up with friends and family before Christmas. Happy times!

Octoberfest

2008-11-03T22:58:00.000Z

I've been very distracted lately, what with all the stuff going on at work, visitors from home and Mr KE and I trying to get ready for big changes. So I haven't been keeping up with the blogging but will try to get back to doing it regularly.

While everyone at my work was been fretting about redundancies, Mr KE and his work gang have been ignoring the credit crunch. Last month they celebrated Octoberfest at a German bar in Old Street.

I haven't messed with the photo, his friends always look like this after a few litres of beer!

The food doesn't really appeal to me...sausages and sauerkraut...urghh. I guess it's just stomach lining for the beer.

Stand By Your Phone

2008-10-26T21:13:00.000Z

It's been another busy week (and weekend) for me and Mr KE. It was an eventful week at work for me, starting with another Monday morning announcement about the company's "resilience plan" for the expected downturn.

We were told that we were all at risk (including Directors) and that we had all been assessed and ranked according to performance. We were given a breakdown of numbers for people who were at risk - i.e. 3 Directors, 4 Grade XXX, 3 Grade YYY etc. There an explanation of the standard legal procedure i.e. that anyone at risk would be called in and HR would try to find them a position in another part of the company or another part of the world. If this was unsuccessful, then it would mean redundancy.

Everyone was asked to be available from 1pm onwards on Friday afternoon. So stand by your phone....for bad news.

I work in a satellite office, so we were away from the "hub" and tried to find some humour in the situation. We were even joking about calling people at 1 o'clock to scare each other. Anyway, while we were laughing about it - when suddenly my phone started ringing.....it was 1 o'clock....and I could see from the number that it was the Business Unit Director (i.e. the person who would be making the dreaded calls)........OMG!!!

Everyone in the office stopped laughing... and for a minute, I thought the worst!! But to cut a long story short - he was calling me to ask about a contract I was working on. Everyone around me was listening intently, so I had to shout out - it's OK folks, he's only calling about XXX! Not being big-headed, but I never really thought I would be at risk anyway.... but still....it took a while for my heartbeat to return to normal.

Ack! How insensitive, huh?? Anyway, the process was delayed and the calls only began at 2:30 because the HR representative was late coming back from another office. I thought that was pretty cruel, as everyone was basically waiting to hear if their jobs were safe.

Someone from our satellite office was made redundant - from the same Grade as me. In fact, there were 3 names from my Grade, and they were all in about the same age late forties / mid 50s (I think). It's not nice when anyone is told "you are weakest link, goodbye" but from an Asian perspective, I'm glad that the assessement was based on performance rather than age/experience, if you see what I mean.

I think in Asia, the idea that seniority is based on age is so ingrained that a person in their fifties would never be made redundant over someone in their early thirties. As someone said to me once, there's no point having twenty five years experience when it actually means one year's experience X 25.

So, *phew* and back to work.

Hooray!

2008-10-19T20:01:00.000Z

Clever Mr KE has fixed the car! He had to go to Halfords on the bus with the old car battery in a rucksack and bought a new one. Then he fitted the new battery and voila!

So there's no big rush to get our new car now. At least that's one less thing to worry about :)

Cuts

2008-10-18T14:09:00.000Z

I'm sitting at the kitchen window watching Mr KE downstairs fiddling with the innards of our little car. He's so cute when he gets out all his spanners, pliers etc. He doesn't really know what he's doing, but with the help of the internet, anything is possible, right?

I'm still very busy at work although there is a overall feeling of pessimism as the country seems to be heading towards a long recession. On Monday, all the staff were all called to a meeting (actually it was more of an announcement) and told that the outlook was bad for the next 18 months. Yeah, no shit Sherlock.

The dreaded R word (redundancies) was not mentioned but it was highlighted that 80% of our costs are staff costs. The London and other SE offices are doing OK but the Northern offices are in dire straits. Unfortunately, the company can't just shut down the Glasgow office (for example) because of long leases on company premises and also because it wants to maintain a presence throughout the UK.

So the pain has to be spread throughout all the offices. Realistically, this means that every office will have redundancies, even London. I have heard off-the-record that a list has already been drawn up although staff will be told that everyone is at risk. The word is that the cuts will be at all levels - from top to bottom. The redundancies will also be made at the same time; so not 2 or 3 one month and then 2 or 3 next month etc which generally leads to widespread breakdown of morale. Short and swift is the aim. Let's wait and see.

Arse!

2008-10-12T18:37:00.000Z

We have a little car that's about 15 years old. Even though it's tiny, has a lawn-mower sized engine and is worth around £2.50 ; it has been a faithful friend over the last 6 years. Since Mr K-E and I only use the car once every few weeks, we just couldn't justify running a more expensive car.

However, as things are changing around here, we have been planning to buy a new car by the end of the year. In fact, we have just about decided on the car and model etc, and all that's left to do is go to a car lot and pick one out.

Then, this afternoon, we had loaded up our little car with all our recycling, when ....arrrghhhh... it wouldn't start!! We don't have AA Homestart, so tomorrow morning Mr KE is going to walk over to the garage and ask them to have look at it. What bad timing! Hopefully it's just a flat battery because there would be no point spending ££££s on a car that's worth £200...

It's so annoying because now we might have to decide..is it cheaper to repair the car or just rent one for a few weeks until we get our new one?? Fingers crossed, it will just be a small thing, like a loose wire or something equally easy.

On a better note, while I'm typing this, Mr KE is cooking dinner. On the menu - rump steak, oven chips, salad and a homemade tomato salsa. Can't wait.

Neighbourhood Chinese

2008-10-10T20:15:00.000Z

It's been a long and tiring week. On Friday evenings Mr KE usually has a few drinks with his friends before we meet up and have dinner in town. Then we have a wander around Leicester or Trafalgar Square before heading home to our nice comfy sofa.

Tonight I came straight home, so we decided to eat at our "local" Chinese restaurant. Friends and family know that I live opposite a Chinese restaurant - but we never actually go there. Once in a while we get a takeaway, but in general we eat Chinese food in Chinatown. In the 8 years that we have lived in this flat, we have only been in there 4 times (including tonight). I think the last time we ate in was more than 4 years ago.

The food is OK, but it's just a little too close for comfort. I've never been the friendly neighbour type of person, and I just find it embarassing when the staff recognise me. I don't do neighbourly chat, unfortunately.

Also, it doesn't feel like eating out when you can see your own front door.... and your own kitchen.

Sunday Night Dinner

2008-10-05T21:08:00.000Z

It's been a while since I've blogged about cooking, although rest assured I have been trying to to cook more and not just live on processed food.

Tonight I tried a new recipe -roughly based on Jamie Oliver's Meatballs and Pasta. I love Spagetti and meatballs, so I had high hopes for this one.

The recipe actually calls for half beef/half pork mince, but I only had beef mince so that had to do.

Mr KE prefers fusilli to spagetti so I used fusilli instead. The recipe says to bake the meatballs and sauce together without the pasta - yeah, well, who follows recipes anyway.

Pour the tomato sauce on top.

The recipe asks for mozzarella and parmesan, but I didn't have any mozzarella so I used a cheddar/parmesan mix instead.

This is what it looked like when it came out of the oven. It tasted OK, but I thought the meatballs were a bit dry. (It wasn't as nice as the meatballs I had as a kid.)

Maybe because the mince beef was a very lean mix and there wasn't enough fat in it to keep it moist. The next time I'll try it with half pork and see how it goes.

Duck Tour

2008-10-05T20:35:00.000Z

Mr K-E went on a team outing last week. They went on a Duck Tour, which is a ride on a World War 2 amphibious troop carrier converted into a bus. The bus takes you round Westminster and then onto the Thames.

Mr KE said it was quite fun, especially for kids. You can join the tour near the London Eye.

He is also of the exclusive :) "over and under club" which means he has been over and under a bridge in the same vehicle.

Apples in Norfolk

2008-10-01T21:12:00.000Z

While we were in Norfolk, we went to an "Apple Fair" in the village. A neighbour of Mr KE's parents has a walled garden with more than 85 varieties of apple trees. He and his family organised the apple fair to raise money to repair their local church bell tower. Village fundraising!

Mr KE's parents were busy helping, while Mr KE and I tagged along.

The walled garden. You can see that all the walls and cottages are made of traditional Norfolk flint.

The organiser really knows his apples. All different varieties were available for people to compare. As for me, I only know 3 types of apples i.e. red, green and brownish :)

A medieval tent was set up and people could try fresh pressed apple juice. All the apples were from the trees in the garden; organic of course!

In the garden, there is an apple tree which was planted in 1887 in celebration of Queen Victoria's Jubilee. This 121 year old tree is still producing lots of fruit, although it looks like it's about to fall over any minute and has to be propped.

It wasn't just the apple trees that were on show. The garden had lots of beautiful features, like this statue above and the old well below. There was also topiary (hedges cut into animal shapes, chairs etc), formal planting and (of course) tea and cakes for sale.

A Norfolk Garden

2008-10-01T20:15:00.002Z

Mr KE and I spent the weekend at his parents' place in North Norfolk. His parents live in a Norfolk Flint cottage about 10 minutes away from the coast.

The weather was nice (for September) so I spent some time in their garden and took some photos while the sun was out. I really like their garden because it's really interesting and looks good all year round.

This part of their garden always reminds me of the sea. It looks beautiful, even in September - so you can imagine waht it looks like in high summer. At the end you can see their blue summer house. The summer house is a cosy space with doors that open completely at the front; the whole house is built on a turntable so you can rotate it to catch the sun.

You can also see one of their beloved Siamese cats in the photo.

Another view of the garden. It's divided into sections, almost like rooms.

This a view of the house from the bottom of the garden. It is actually a terrace of 5 small cottages converted into one big house. As one of their relatives said, "You've bought a whole street of houses!".

Their back door. You can see the "flint", which is the traditional building material in the Norfolk area.

Credit Crunch Lunch

2008-09-23T21:47:00.000Z

Today I had lunch with a colleague at the Carluccios just round the corner from my office. It was nice lunch, but I was partially distracted by other things...i.e. thinking that the last time I had been in there a few months ago, it had also been with a group of colleagues. Unfortunately most of those colleagues have now left due to the slowdown at work.

Since the last time I blogged about hard times at work, things have gotten worse. We now have very, very few contract staff in London and the situation in our regional offices is still very bad. Last week two people from the Glasgow office started an 8 week stint in London, a last-ditch attempt to avoid redundancy.

Last week, Lehman Brothers . This week??

On the brightside, this time last year I was working crazy hours and it was very stressful. I guess you get to the stage where you think it's normal to work till 8 every night; and over weekends too. But really it's not.... So the good thing is that these days, at 5:30 I'm thinking about going home and not about how much more I can do before the vision blurs.

Thames Festival: Sunday

2008-09-18T20:59:00.002Z

We had such a good time on Saturday we went back to the Thames Festival on Sunday for more. We watched more free-running under the London Eye.

It wasn't as packed as Saturday but it was still very busy.

There was a Night Carnival which started at 6:30. We were right at the front so Mr KE took lots of photos.

Apart from the floats, children in costumes, puppets etc, there were also lots of scantily clad ladies dancing along the route. For some reason Mr KE took lots of photos of these ladies ...hmmmm.

One of the best floats: dragon and rider.

It was a bit cold standing on the roadside while the floats went past; but it was worth it. We went home tired but happy.

Thames Festival : Saturday

2008-09-18T20:59:00.000Z

Last weekend the Thames Festival was on.

Mr KE spent both Saturday and Sunday at the South Bank. We started off on Saturday with a visit to Borough Market.

We had lunch at this place near Southwark Cathedral.

Look at the big dish of paella (spanish seafood rice).

I had paella and Mr KE had a burger.

We walked past the Golden Hind.

There was lots going on; shows, food and special events.

As part of the festival there was boat race on the Thames and we watched the boats from the South Bank.

It was really interesting with all sorts of boats racing; dragon boats, big boats and little row boats.

The bridges along the Thames were packed with spectators. This is Blackfriars Bridge. If you click on the picture, you'll see the crowds and a London Bus going past.

There was lots of free entertainment, like this martial arts show sponsored by the Korean Tourist Board.

This show is called Jump, and it has travelled around the world. Hooray, we saw it for free and it was very funny.

Food stalls were everywhere. There was literally food from every corner of the world.

This was a French/Creole/New Orleans type stall. We were impressed by the giant pots.

We saw this guy on the outside of the Tate Modern.

Specially commissioned graffiti. I hope you can appreciate the scale, because he is huge.

These guys were there too.

This is a close up on the "brain" from the photo above.

The detail on the graffiti is incredible.

By the time we got to Waterloo, it was dark.

We watched some free-running (parkour). It was not bad, lots of youth groups trained by the guys who did the stunts in Casino Royale.

As night fell and the tide went out, there was a big party on the shore of the Thames.

I'm sure you will agree, it was lovely day out.

Red Shoes

2008-09-14T21:41:00.000Z

It's late on Sunday night; Mr KE and I have had a really busy (but fun) weekend so just a short post for now.

I just thought I'd show you my new Camper shoes that I have been wearing all weekend.

They are really comfortable and flat-ish. Best of all, they don't look too ugly :) I just can't bring myself to buy flat shoes but for practical reasons, I have put my high heeled shoes away. So bye bye kinky boots and bye bye silly shoes, I'll see you again soon.

Good Food / Bad Food

2008-09-12T21:04:00.000Z

On Thursday night I had dinner at Benihana on Sackville Street, in Piccadilly. It was a work do, with some colleagues from Sweden and their top Clients. It is a teppanyaki restaurant i.e. a Japanese hotplate with the chef cooking all the food fresh in front of you. Very tasty, fresh and healthy food; the chefs are entertaining and do lots of tricks with their knives, tossing things around etc...well you get the picture. The main drawback is that you end up smelling like fried food when you come out!

That was definitely good food. Unfortunately I was in work mode, so no pictures but I came home tired but happy.

Tonight (Friday) Mr K-E and I met in the West End after work and we had dinner in town before coming home. I actually wanted to try a Mexican place called Wahaca, but the queue was tooooo long. TGI Fridays is just across the road from Wahaca, so we went in there. My suggestion = big mistake.

The food was bad. We haven't been into TGiFridays (or any of the others i.e. Hard Rock, Panet Hollywood etc) for more than 12 years and now I realise why. I had chicken wings, fries and onion rings while Mr K-E had his usual steak fajita. Everything tasted of salt. Or sugar. The steak didn't taste like beef. The onion rings weren't onion-ey. *sigh*

The best thing about the meal was our shared starter (a chicken quesadilla). Even Mr K-E's beers weren't cold enough. Tasteless food and expensive too!! How annoying .......Ggrrrrr.

Tired on a Monday night

2008-09-08T19:42:00.000Z

Sorry for the lack of updates; we have been busy lately and I have been too lazy to blog :)

Some things we have been up to:

Mr K-E's work had their (late) summer party at the Royal Festival Hall. It was on the 5th Floor Terrace and the guests enjoyed a lovely sunset view of the Thames, drinks and canapes. There was jazz band in the early evening and then later, a covers band to get the party into full swing. I didn't stay long, just long enough to do the "supportive" wife act, hahaha.
We have been trying to clear out our flat...not easy...where does all this stuff come from? Aaargghh, all my books and shoes.....
I had the day off on Friday and spent the afternoon in town shopping (hmmm, see point above...this is where all the stuff comes from..) I discovered a Busaba Eathai behind Selfridges. A Thai version of Wagamamas, v v good.

I'm sure we have been up to more, but at the moment I am too exhausted to think. I'm just sitting on the sofa waiting for our pizza to be delivered. Yep, it's a lazy night.

I'll just leave you with this picture of a cute coffee van which was parked outside our flat a few weeks ago. Doesn't it look like a toy?

Selfridges, Birmingham

2008-08-31T11:44:00.000Z

Mr K-E was in Birmingham earlier this week because of work and he had a look around Selfridges while he was there.

It's strange to see a building with no windows; but it makes perfect sense because it's a retail building. Retailers don't want any natural light.

The facade is unusual; normally architects try to break up the facade into sections that give the impression of windows, even if they are fake windows. Maybe impart a sense of scale to the structure. (I'm not an architect myself, so I'm only guessing) For example, if it wasn't for the two people at bottom of the photo, it wouldn't be easy to gauge the size of the building.

Detail of the facade.

The interior continues the "rounded" theme.

I think this looks organic. Mr K-E thinks it looks rude.

Mr K-E hates saxophones

2008-08-27T19:47:00.000Z

Mr K-E doesn't like jazz, so I was surprised when he wanted to come along to see Polar Bear at the Roundhouse. Polar Bear are an "experimental jazz-electronic band" - not really my thing either, but they sounded interesting and I was curious to see what the music would be like.

The warning bells rang when there were two saxophonists and no vocalist. Okay. The drummer was truly awesome and no doubt the saxophonists were too; but as the performance went on, I could sense Mr K-E becoming more and more agitated. The venue was sold out and the rest of the crowd were obviously loving it. There were people shouting, "yeah man" and not in an ironic way.

After Polar Bear finished their set, they came back on for an encore and Mr K-E lost it. He said, "OMG, I cannot take anymore of this crap", grabbed his coat and walked out. I had to apologise to my confused friends and tried to leave discreetly. Not an easy task, as it was cabaret seating (little round tables) and Mr K-E was practically stomping as he left.

I guess "experimental jazz" isn't for everyone.

On a different note (geddit, hahaha) we saw this Banksy original on the way to the Roundhouse. So it was worth a trip to North London anyway.

August Bank Holiday

2008-08-25T15:02:00.001Z

We kicked off our bank holiday weekend with a family dinner at New World restaurant in Chinatown, which has been a family favourite since I was a child. I met with some relatives from across the sea and we had a lovely dinner.

My favourite sister :) and her husband were in London and stayed over too, so that was an added bonus.

Then on Saturday, after a full English breakfast, we waved off sister and husband, before heading off to the South Bank...one of my favourite places in London.

We went to see Psycho Buildings, an exhibition at the Hayward Gallery. It was described as "artists take on architecture"...and it was good. There were only about a dozen installations but they were all original and thought-provoking.

Our favourite installation was snappily titled Normally, Proceeding and Unrestricted With Without Title by Gelitin. They had created a "lake" with rowers on the roof terrace on the Hayward Gallery. The best thing about it was that the public could participate; although we had to queue for an hour to participate for about 5 minutes.

I hate small boats so I was really nervous. This photo shows the rickety floating platform that served as the alnding area.

I was also paranoid that we would actually row off the roof...to a 3 storey drop below.

Aaarrgghhh.

Mr KE loved it.

After all that excitement, we had an early dinner at Wagamama.

Mr K-E had Chicken Katsu Curry and I had Yaki Soba (fried noodles). We also had some gyoza (little dumplings) and tori kara age (fried chicken pieces).

Then we were off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz.

(The summer production at the Royal Festival Hall)

We weren't allowed to take photos of the set, but here's a photo of the Hall before the show began.

Mr K-E had got us seats in the 3rd row (clever Mr K-E!) so we had a great view of the performers and orchestra.

The Royal Festival Hall is a brilliant venue, not stuffy and poky like the theatres in the West End. It opened after a complete refurbishment last year, and it is super-duper. It has proper air-conditioning!! (My number one complaint about theatres in the UK)

Lost in London

2008-08-24T14:36:00.001Z

On Thursday night I was out on a girlie night with other women from my team. We were defying the credit crunch. Yes, spend your way out of the recession :)

We went to Meza in Soho which a pretty cool place to hang out, although we all thought the food was over-priced. The cocktails were super though, so that made it worth it. In the basement, there is a Cuban place called Floridita where you can dance the night away. I left after dinner but the others continued into the night.

Anyway, we had a really interesting discussion during dinner about our "local communities". There were 4 of us : one Bruneian (me), a Korean, an Iraqi and one Bulgarian. We are all about the same age; two married and two single. One thing we all had in common was that we didn't hang around with people from our "home communities" in London - in fact, most of us actively avoided them.

Although it's nice to meet people from home sometimes, I just don't think it's worth the hassle because (I've found) that they can be the most nosy and judgemental. They will ask you lots of questions, not because they are genuinely interested, but because they are trying to weigh up your income, your husband's income, your lifestyle etc.

As my Bulgarian friend said - the killer questions are : Where do you live? In a house or a flat? Where do you work? What car do you drive?

You can practically see the wheels in their brain turning while they try to calculate your "standard" ..... whether you live in a four bed penthouse in Chelsea (envy) or a one bed council flat in Croydon ( oh dear).

My Iraqi friend added that the worst is when people judge your lifestyle and drag your family into it as well.

This is why you will never find me hanging around in Brunei Hall or tramping around the streets near Bayswater/Queensway. I like being lost in London.

Tough Times

2008-08-18T18:53:00.002Z

Things are tough in K-E workworld. XYZ Group are not happy with the way that our UK company is forecasting and wants us to sort it out or else! The problem isn't really with the London business unit but with business units in other parts of the country eg Glasgow, Birmingham and so on.

Just to explain, XYZ Group is a PLC and we answer to shareholders and the market. The number one thing that shareholders want is reliability i.e. no surprises. So if you are forecasting 5% profit, you must make 5% profit. If you are forecasting 2% loss, OK that's not good...but if you actually produce 5% loss, that's very bad news. On the other hand, if you forecast a 2% loss, then declare a 10% profit, that doesn't send good signals because either a) you have no understanding of the market that you are operating in; b) you are cooking the books or c) both.

Anyway, the forecasting has been flip-flopping all over the place in the UK business mainly because no-one really knows what will happen in the next 6 months. All we can say is that things are looking dire in some parts of the country. All temporary staff have been laid off in some offices.

In London, we are under a lot of pressure to let freelancers go and support the other offices around the UK. Frankly, we are hardly in a position ourselves to give work away.

On another note, the last time there was a recession in our industry was after 9/11 and it lasted for about 18 months, I think. At the time, I was a junior member of staff and most of the management stuff just went over my head. This time round, I sit in on the resourcing meetings and know who are people next in line to be laid off. It's very strange. I've realised that the more senior I get, the more careful I have to be about what I say to more junior staff.

More Park Life

2008-08-10T16:49:00.000Z

We had a few nice summer evenings last week, so instead of watching TV at home, I dragged Mr K-E to our local park.

This park is less than 10 minutes walk from our flat. At the weekends it's very busy, but on a weekday evening there are only a few joggers and families around.

There is a small lake in the middle of the park with a wooden boardwalk. It's nice to be in the middle of the ducks and reeds. Very relaxing, said Mr K-E.

In the evening, you can see the ducks going to sleep. I had never seen ducks asleep before. They turn their heads backwards and tuck them inside their bodies.

Very cute!

A nest. I think these are two ducklings. They looked quite big but they are still fluffy.

Mr K-E took this shot before we headed home.

What a shame.

2008-08-09T09:53:00.001Z

Accordingly to a press release from the BDNOC (Brunei Darussalam National Olympic Council); the reason that no athletes were sent to represent Brunei was the refusal of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports to "endorse its approval for the athletes to participate".

The reasoning:

The swimmer had not attained the required achievement in regional and international competitions
The shot-putter was not fit to participate due to an ankle injury.

I can understand why the shot putter was not sent; but why not the swimmer? She could have at least taken part in the heats! And Brunei would have been represented.

All that talk about not being able to win any medals is a load of crap. If only countries that were sure to win medals participated then only about 100 countries would participate.

Frankly the amount of money that the various ministries spend sending their staff on shopping trips and holidays *sorry* "conferences and meetings" around the world, flying first class with allowances coming out of their ears, it can't be that Brunei couldn't afford to send a delegation to Beijing.

So what is it all about then? Is it that Brunei can't be represented by someone called Maria Grace Koh?

(Sorry if I sound so bitter. I'm just going to have to work on Monday and to put up with all my colleagues' lame jokes about this. Aarrrggghhh, why can't there be good news about Brunei in the media for a change!)

I'm not proud to be a Bruneian today.

2008-08-08T18:51:00.000Z

You know, I'm normally really proud to be a Bruneian. Because I've lived in the UK for many years now and because Mr K-E is English; most of my colleagues and people I meet assume that I'm British i.e. I hold a British passport and consider myself to be a British citizen.

I'm always proud to say - actually I'm a Brunei citizen. I don't have a British passport. I still consider Brunei my home etc...

(To the amazement of people from other countries who can't believe that I would not take a British passport, when I could easily get one. )

BUT NOT TODAY.

How could Brunei's Olympic Committee miss the deadline to register our athletes? How? How? What do these people do? There's a whole committee to look after two athletes! Everyone was there....even Iraq and Afghanistan...even the poorest countries in the world were there....

I'm so depressed.

From the BBC website:

Brunei excluded from 2008 Games

The International Olympic Committee has excluded Brunei from the Beijing Games after the South East Asian country failed to register any of its athletes.
Brunei had until midnight ahead of Friday's ceremony, which started at 1245 BST, but missed the deadline.
"It is a great shame and very sad for the athletes who lose out," an IOC spokeswoman said.
Brunei's absence means that only 204 countries will compete at the Olympics, which officially started on Friday.
The IOC's Emmanuelle Moreau said in a statement: "The IOC tried up until the last minute to have them register, but to no avail."
The Brunei athletes involved are 15-year-old swimmer Maria Grace Koh and shot putter Mohammed Yazid Yatimi Yusof.

Ham in Maple Syrup

2008-08-02T21:56:00.001Z

This is the current star ingredient in the K-E household. Maple syrup yum yum yum.

Today we cooked a gammon coated in maple syrup and ground cloves, yep it was deeeelicious. I always find that gammon is really salty, so I soaked it for hours first and then boiled it to get rid of even more salt.

This is what it looked like when it came out of the oven.

I also roasted some potatoes and carrots to go with it.

Ham with roast potatoes, carrots, peas and cheese and parsley sauce. I made the sauce from scratch, even Mr K-E was impressed.

PS If you wonder what the difference is between gammon and ham. Well, when gammon is cooked it becomes ham. But not all ham is cooked, eg parma ham.

The Palm Tree

2008-08-02T21:37:00.002Z

There is a little roundabout at the top of our high street which has been the subject of numerous local "campaigns". The council wanted to remove it and replace it with traffic lights *gasp* which would be better for traffic flow but everyone was in uproar locally...Hahahaha, local politics...

Then there was a public consultation to see what we could do with the roundabout. I remember there were four options i.e. piece of art, village sign, antique lamppost and something else. I don't remember a palm tree being one of the options!

You wouldn't believe the fuss over this little roundabout. Someone has commented on our local forum - why is it a palm tree?? What's wrong with a good old fashioned English Oak? :) You just can't please anyone!

Park Life

2008-08-02T12:39:00.002Z

We have a few local parks near us but last Saturday Mr K-E and I decided to walk to a park about a mile away. We are quite lucky that this area of South London has lots of parks, but somehow we have never been to this particular one.

It was lovely day, warm and sunny. We had ice cream in the park and watched families picnicking, sunbathing and playing games like football and rounders.

Looking at the photos, it's hard to believe that we were in "inner city" London.

Bruneians and Free Food

2008-07-27T11:14:00.000Z

Sorry I don't know to embed videoclips...but look at this.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YCw1dvHM3CM

Holy Cow! Mr K-E says, "It's like disaster relief but without the dignity." He also says, "..but everyone in Brunei is so fat anyway."

That's enough comment from you, thanks.

More pictures here.

Monkey!

2008-07-26T12:02:00.003Z

Yesterday, Mr K-E and I went to watch Monkey:Journey to the West at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.

The music was written by Damon Albarn (of Blur) and the visuals were developed by Jamie Hewlett (who did the Gorillaz). Mr K-E was really excited about it because Monkey was one of his favourite childhood TV shows. I don't think it was ever shown in Brunei, but the legend of the Monkey God is familiar to most Chinese people I think.

We had an indulgent afternoon, eating out before and after the performance. We had lunch at Zizzi's where I had a delicious seafood risotto. Then after the show we had drinks and dinner at Browns.

The show was completely sold out and there is only a five day run, so we were lucky to get tickets. It was a combination of chinese acrobatics, martial arts, opera, animation, dancing and original music. Sounds like a mess, but it very good.

The Royal Opera House is a beautiful building, inside and out. I'm already thinking about dragging Mr K-E to an opera or ballet later this year.

Skin and Bones

2008-07-26T11:44:00.000Z

Last Saturday we went to an exhibition at the Embankment Galleries in Somerset House.

If you are interested in fashion, architecture or design in general, I would definitely recommend it.

Somerset House is often used in film shoots because of its cobbled streets and stone facade buildings.

There's only one film I can think of at the moment - Sleepy Hollow with Johnny Depp.

We saw these interesting mermen outside the Seamen's Hall.

I love London

2008-07-18T17:13:00.001Z

We spent last Saturday wandering around the South Bank. It was a lovely afternoon and there was lots going on.

Despite all its problems, I really love living in London because of the diversity and wealth of cultural experiences available - free!

Like this dance troupe entertaining the crowds queueing to get into the Hayward Gallery.

This is Appearing Rooms, an "aquatic sculpture" by Jeppe Hein. You can walk through rooms formed by the water jets.

You can see the London Eye in the background and Big Ben too, if you look closely.

There was live music outside the National Theatre and people were square dancing.

There was giant furniture there too, which Mr KE loved.

"Grass" sofas, armchairs and coffee table.

This is "art" too, but I didn't really get it. Something about music and light responding to human movement.

This is the "Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef".

All the coral is actually crochet, which I thought was pretty cool.

Underneath Waterloo Bridge there are long tables set up with second hand books for sale. I have spent many happy weekends browsing here while Mr K-E watches the skaters a few hundred meters away.

When K-E went to lunch

2008-07-14T21:08:00.001Z

Mr K-E and some of his colleagues were taken out to lunch by his Boss last week. They went to Latium, a modern Italian restaurant in Soho.

He thought it was a really nice meal so (like a good blogger's husband) he took some photos of the food - much to the bemusement of his colleagues.

His starter: Buffalo mozzarella with grilled courgettes and oven dried tomato. ( Mr K-E says : the mozzarella looks like hard boiled egg in the picture, but it was delicious)

Main: Sea Bass on Mediterranean vegetables with white wine sauce.

He managed to get shots of other people's food too. He didn't take any photos of his pudding because everyone was smashed by then. They didn't leave the restaurant till 4, and it was straight to the pub. It's all right for some, isn't it?

Thank You!

2008-07-14T21:03:00.000Z

Some very nice people sent Mr K-E these chocolates for his birthday.

Thank you very much! Now - which one shall we open first....hmmm decisions decisions...

Fat Pig

2008-07-11T20:03:00.000Z

Last Friday Mr K-E and I went to see a play called Fat Pig at Trafalgar Studios on Whitehall. The male leads were Kris Marshall (from the sitcom My Family and the BT adverts) and Robert Webb (from Peepshow).

The plot is: A man meets a girl who is funny, pretty, clever and great fun to be with - just one problem, she is really, really fat. They date and fall in love, but he keeps it a secret from work colleagues because he is embarassed by his fat girlfriend. When his colleagues find out, they are horrified and waste no time making fun of him. The reaction of his blonde, sexy ex-girlfriend, who can't believe that he would choose a fat girl over, was especially entertaining.

In a Hollywood movie there would be a happy ending but as this is the theatre, the ending is a bit more realistic albeit painful to watch.

It was meant to be a comedy (and Mr K-E laughed his head off at some parts) but I found it a bit hit or miss. I guess because I've watched a lot of the two actors on TV and it seemed that they were just playing their TV roles.

Plus: The theatre is very small which gives it a very intimate feel. We were sitting right at the front and I was worried that they would trip over my handbag, they were that close. At some points, I could have reached up from my seat and touched the actors (without getting up). So it was easy to get drawn into their "private" conversations.

Minus: The play is set in America and the actors tried to maintain American accents through out.. I say "tried" because they didn't succeed, which spoilt it slightly for me.

Brian Wilson at Kenwood House

2008-07-06T22:58:00.001Z

Last weekend we went to Kenwood House in Hampstead Heath (North London) to see Brian Wilson i.e. Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.

It was actually Mr K-E's company summer outing and it was an all-day picnic with the concert at the end. I didn't think I could handle all day in the park (hayfever...sniff ...sniff) so we just turned up for the concert in the evening.

It was a lovely setting; just a shame that it's such a trek from our South London neighbourhood.

We had the usual "English" picnic food - sausage rolls, quiche, chicken drumsticks, sandwiches, lots of beer...all arranged by Mr K-E's work so I can't complain.

Apparently he's the one playing the keyboard.

There were people at the front in deckchairs, but it was more fun in the picnic area.

Cake

2008-07-06T22:41:00.000Z

Mr K-E's birthday cake; it is a chocolate ganache cake. The recipe is from Nigella's How to Eat.

Happy Birthday

2008-07-01T20:30:00.000Z

Mr K-E's birthday was on Monday. We just went out for dinner at a local Italian restaurant - Mondays are no good for birthdays...The food was yummy. It was the first time we have been there and we are definitely going back soon.

Starters : Calamari (deep fried squid) for me and Bruschetta (tomatoes, basil, garlic on toast) for the husband.

Mains: lamb for me and Argentinian sirloin for the birthday boy.

Happy Birthday honey. I'm sorry I didn't make you a cake. I'll make you one this weekend.

Mr K-E's Cruise

2008-06-30T22:18:00.001Z

A few days ago, Mr K-E and a few friends went cruising on the River Medway in Kent. One of his friends has a cabin cruiser which sleeps 4 people and they spent a nice afternoon cruising followed by an evening in the pub.

They had to negotiate a series of locks on the way. According to Mr K-E, it's quite hard work dealing with the locks because you have to open the paddles to let the water through the lock gate.

Then once the water levels have equalised, you push against the big timber arms to open the gates. You really need to put all your weight into opening the gates.

One person needs to stay on the boat to keep it steady because it's very turbulent in the lock when the water is pouring in.

This got more and more complicated as the afternoon went on and they drank more and more beer.....

Most of the way there are no roads nearby, so it was peaceful countryside. They didn't pass another boat all the way.

Barcelona, June 2008 : Food

2008-06-29T22:02:00.002Z

I have finally had a chance to sort through the Barcelona photos and I will upload them over the next few days. Here are some photos of the food we ate in Barcelona.

This was our typical breakfast. Cappuccinos, toasted cheese and ham sandwich for Mr K-E and ham baguette for me.

We could have had a buffet breakfast at our hotel, but it was 16Euros each. A bit steep, especially as the Euro is now 1.23 to the pound.

So we decided to have a small breakfast and big lunch instead.

We had paella for lunch one day. It's the classic Spanish dish: rice cooked in seafood stock with mixed seafood. The yellow colour is from saffron, I think.

I liked it, but the seafood taste was a bit too strong for Mr K-E.

We had lunch at this tapas bar. Look at all the hams!!

The tapas is lined up on the bar, little snacks eg bread and cheese and ham held together with toothpicks. When you have finished, they count up your toothpicks.

Once when we were lazy, we had Spanish fast food hahaha. Just as greasy and fattening as fast food everywhere else.

Lunch:
Bread with tomatoes and garlic
Patatas Bravas (Potatoes with a spicy sauce)
Bacallao (Salt Cod) Fritters
Small Fish

Lunch took ages. I am not exaggerating when I say we took more than 2 hours to have lunch. Everyone just seems to take their time...except for us impatient tourists.

After that, dessert. Mr K-E had Creme Catalan which is the Spanish version of Creme Brulee.

I had something called "apostles sweet" which were crisp pastry rolls filled with custard and sprinkled with icing sugar. You also get a small jug of warm chocolate sauce to pour over....yum yum.

We had dinner at this trendy restaurant. People eat dinner late in Spain... it was 10:30 when we were seated. You could see people arriving and meeting their friends for dinner at 11:30!

The food was lovely and the cava was delicious.

(Cava is Spanish version of champagne...)

For dessert, we shared a cinnamon bread pudding with cinnamon ice cream.

It was the first time I have had cinnamon icecream, it tasted really good.

And last but not least..no holiday would be complete without lots of icecream.

Barcelona, Baby!

2008-06-19T18:49:00.001Z

Barcelona was great :) We had a great time and I will post some photos once we have had a chance to sort them out.

There was so much to see and do that I didn't even get a chance to look in any shops. Yep, I just walked past Mango, Zara and *sob* even Loewe. Although I did manage a sneaky peek in duty free before we flew home but the selection was tiny. Probably a good thing, I don't think I really need another handbag hahahaha.

Things we did

Saw lots of interesting architecture (this was the highlight for me)
Ate like dinner at midnight like proper Catalans
Ordered random tapas.....is it meat? is it seafood? Enjoying the surprise when it arrives...
Wandered through the Gothic Quarter
Explored the Olympic Park Area and the castle on the hilltop
Wandered along the beach
Went to L'Aquarium and enjoyed the breeze in the harbour area

We walked miles everyday and I am still exhausted!

Going Away

2008-06-12T21:28:00.001Z

I'm glad I enjoyed the quiet time at work without getting paranoid because suddenly it seems that work is landing on me from all directions...oh well, back to normal.

Tomorrow I am heading to Barcelona for a long weekend, boy, am I looking forward to it. As usual, my husband, Mr Last-Minute, is "busy" sorting out all his toys eg camera, chargers, packing etc.

We booked a taxi to take us to Gatwick and it costs £39 now! I guess all the taxi fares have gone up because the petrol prices are going crazy. It's worth it...I don't fancy dragging my suitcase to the train station at 6am.

Another Sunday night

2008-06-08T21:03:00.000Z

Is it Sunday night already? What exciting happenings have going on in the K-E household?

Mr K-E got completely smashed at a wine-tasting event at his work. Well, it wasn't so much the wine tasting but the beer afterwards...
...and the next day his parents came to stay for a night. So I had to do all the tidying up; I wasn't impressed!
Big Brother has started again, which means Mr K-E hogs the TV from 9pm onwards every night. This will last for a couple of weeks until he gets bored of the idiot contestants.
We went to a friend's housewarming/birthday party yesterday. It was a barbeque so we were mainly outside all afternoon. There was a stack of cupcakes inside, which I didn't realise was the "birthday cake" and the letters actually spelt out a birthday message. So I ate one....hey, it's cake... I couldn't resist.

Will the excitement never end?

Rib Roast

2008-06-01T21:05:00.001Z

I often see people buying beef "rib roasts" at our local butcher and I have always wanted to try them, but they are huge racks of 5 or 6 ribs. That's just too much for me and Mr K-E to eat, even in one week of leftovers, so I normally just buy a chicken or lamb chops.

Yesterday I was at the butchers and I thought - sod it, I'll just ask them to cut me one rib. The butchers did it, no problem, but one rib is still enormous.

Hahahaha, Mr K-E was a bit worried when he saw the size of it!

During the bad-old BSE (mad cow disease) days, beef sold on the bone was banned; now rib roasts, oxtails etc are back, yum yum.

We are lucky to have a really good local butcher; the shop is really popular and you usually have to queue for about half an hour on Saturday. This is considering there are 9 butchers serving customers as fast as they can. Anyway, while I was waiting patiently in line, there was a couple behind me and the bloke was moaning about the queue. He said, "Why is there such a queue? I've been waiting 15 minutes already, the meat is good but it's not that good ...etc ..."

I just thought, what an idiot. Why are you here then? If you don't think the meat is worth it, go to the supermarket down the road!

Rib roast with potatoes, parsnips, broccoli, gravy and a blob of horseradish sauce. Yum yum. The fat keeps the meat really juicy and tender while it cooks; and then you can trim it off once it has done its job.

What's wrong with this advert?

2008-05-31T18:36:00.001Z

Something about this advert has upset some right-wing US bloggers; so much so that Dunkin Donuts has been forced to drop the advert.

The woman in the picture is US celebrity chef and she has been accused of "mainstreaming violence" and supporting terrorists. Can you guess what it is??

It's her scarf!! Arrrggghhh!!! It's just a scarf! Apparently, because it looks like a traditional Arab keffiyeh; she must be supporting muslim extremists. Because, you know, keffiyeh = terrorist.

The crazy thing is, Dunkin Donuts gave in to these ridiculous people. Truly, I despair.

New Shoes....

2008-05-31T16:25:00.001Z

I got some shoes from Terra Plana a few days ago and have been wearing them every day. Their shoes are really comfortable; plus there was £10 off for bringing in an old pair of shoes.

For once, I was practical and bought a pair that I can walk around in all day.

I'm looking forward to tramping around Barcelona in these honeys. There are lots of little design quirks, eg the soles, which are just so cool.
I like it!

Creme Brulee

2008-05-27T21:23:00.000Z

When we were in Paris, Mr K-E and I loved to eat Creme Brulee. It's a kind of egg custard pudding. So when I saw it on the Ocado (Waitrose's online shop) website, we ordered it as part of our normal monthly shop.

Verdict: Not bad, but we couldn't get that crispy top in our grill. I think you need the powerful professional kitchen grills or a blowtorch.

Breaking and Entering

2008-05-20T20:04:00.001Z

I have taken some photos but the camera battery is dead and we can't find the charger...ggrrr!! So we can't download the photos. Of course, Mr K-E and I are blaming each other. No photos for the time being, I'm afraid. Not that they are that exciting to be honest.

On Friday night I met Mr K-E met on the South Bank and listened to some free jazz, then had dinner at an Italian restaurant, Strada. By the time we got home it nearly eleven, and I had just shut the front door when I heard knocking outside. It was our neighbour from the basement flat, poor thing, she had just come back from Paris and she had left her house keys there. Her flatmate was away, so she was really stuck.

Luckily, we had a key for her back gate. Mr K-E sprang to action with his DIY tools, he put on his gloves, smashed a window pane with his hammer, carefully picked out the glass, reached his hand in and managed to open her door. What a hero!

Madonna

2008-05-13T21:59:00.000Z

I'm watching Madonna on TV, it's her performance from the BBC's Big Weekend and my feelings are mixed. I have been a Madonna fan since I was 10 and spent many, many hours dancing to La Isla Bonita when I was a teenager.

The show was going really well; then she decides to play the guitar. It's obvious that she's not a natural musician. She has to concentrate so hard that she is practically standing still throughout the whole song. Her singing which is dodgy at the best of times goes completely tuneless ...

Madonna, please - leave the guitars to guitarists. Stick to the jaw-dropping dance routines, the edgy clothes, the fantastic staging...that's why we love you.

The Economy Bites Back

2008-05-12T19:38:00.000Z

Ok, so it was inevitable that the credit crunch would affect my work sooner or later. Sigh.

Today one of our biggest clients pulled the plug on our biggest development. 13 people had been working flat out on it, so it has created a big hole in our workload. To be honest, it's not such a big deal because there's more than enough work to go around. We heard the news at 11:30 and by 3pm, two other team leaders had called my Boss to ask if they could have his available resource. Hahahaha, we aren't people in megacorp, we are "resource".

It's just a shame that it won't launch as we have done so much work on it. Market conditions, investors getting nervous, etc etc....

Fish and Rice

2008-05-11T21:38:00.000Z

Home food, comfort food, soul food: I grew up eating fish and rice and it's one of my all-time favourite meals.

Salmon Teriyaki with homemade teriyake sauce.

Easy peasy teriyaki sauce: 50% soy sauce, 50% sake, a teaspoon or so of sugar (depends on how much sauce you are making) plus one lump of ginger. Heat it up and you are ready to go.

Summer Dresses

2008-05-11T20:57:00.000Z

The weather has been hot hot hot and I have decided that this will be the summer of the dress. No more will black trousers rule my wardrobe!

From left:

A loose Marimekko dress which ties at the back. I really like this because it's loose, I can just throw it on for work, the colour and print is pretty and the styling is unusual. I'm a big fan of Marimekko; the Finnish design is just so cool. (Mr K-E's comment was: Looks like Margaret Thatcher! It's a "kind" of style, extreme yet weirdly conservative. My response: Who wears dresses around here, you or me?)

Roland Mouret inspired dress from FullCircle, another one of my favourite labels.

The polka-dot dress is from Eucalyptus. I have a few dresses from Eucalyptus and they seem to fit me really well. This one isn't for work though, too much exposure, if you know what I mean.

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-11T16:59:00.001Z

Happy Mother's Day to my Mummy who is in Brunei. I hope you had a nice day. Sorry I couldn't speak to you because I was out shopping :) while Mr K-E was doing DIY.

Remember this? Hahahaha!

(Sorry everyone, private joke between me and my mother. Happy Mother's Day to all mothers out there.)

Ratings?

2008-05-07T21:51:00.000Z

Am I the most unobservant person ever, or is there now a new "ratings" bar at the end of all my posts? What is this all about? Arrgghhh. How do I get rid of it?

Hiding Stuff

2008-05-07T21:30:00.002Z

Today I came home from work to find a card pushed through the letterbox. Hooray, I thought, my Amazon stuff has arrived, I'll go to the post office on Saturday morning to pick it up.

On closer inspection, I was aghast to find that instead of the normal "this package is too large for your letterbox, please collect from the post office" message; the box for "...this package has been left..." had been ticked. The delivery man had filled out in handwriting - in the white box in the garden next to the brown bin.

Aaarrgghh, I ran into the garden and checked in the box and whew, it was was there. BUT...

where does this delivery man think we are? This is South London, where someone could have seen him hide the package and then run off with it 5 minutes later. Hey, I don't even want to speak to my neighbours, let alone trust them.
that white box was rubbish that the council hasn't collected. Aarrgghh, what if the council had collected today..with my books and CD in it?

Oh well, I am probably making a fuss about nothing; everything did arrive safely after all. I put on the Justin Timberlake album straightaway. Aaahh, Justin makes everything better.

Noooooo!

2008-05-02T19:02:00.000Z

I can't believe that Ken Livingstone could lose to that comedy politician Boris Johnson. The Evening Standard has declared Boris the winner but the votes are still being counted. Who are these people voting for Boris? The common theory is that it's the "doughnut" vote, i.e. the people living outside the city centre. Oh, and a small enclave in Kensington and Chelsea.

My support for Ken can be summed in one word : buses.

It's all those bastard car drivers, I'm telling you.

Resistance is Futile

2008-04-29T19:48:00.000Z

I've been doing quite well with this....yep, no clothes, shoes or bag purchases since the beginning of January. OK, I did buy a top in Next but it was only £7 and it didn't lead into a mad shopping spiral. I have bought a few books and CDs, but on the whole, I think I deserve a pat on the back. *pat*pat*

However, the last few months abstinence have cleared any queasiness I felt after gorging on Christmas presents and January sales. Shop windows are starting to look interesting again. I must avoid my favourite hunting grounds until the feeling passes.

....resist...resist...resist...

(I seem to go through this every year! Last year I cracked on May 5th Hahahaha...Am I destined to repeat myself?)

M&S panties and other exotic goods

2008-04-23T21:23:00.000Z

The weather has been luver-ly....warm and sunny. I've lived in England for too long : I'm blogging about the weather hahaaha.

So, what have I been up to lately? Relatives have been visiting and I have been busy doing stuff like:

frantic pre-visit flat cleaning;
stocking up on yoghurts, smoked mackerel and other food that Mr K-E and I never usually buy, but that people from Brunei seem to love;
doing the rounds of Debenhams, Marks and Spencer etc etc. Plus, adding the fun of buying clothes in cheapo places like Primark and supermarkets.

Forget the museums and galleries. A visit to London is all about the Clarks factory shop, M&S panties and lunch at Nando's.

Preparing for a Siege

2008-04-15T21:18:00.000Z

The news in the UK is full of credit crunches and house price collapses. If I were a nervous type of person, I would be scared but to be frank, I've gone past the point of paying attention to the scare-mongering newspapers.

Let focus on something much more important. For example, my weight. Aaaarrrgggghhhhhh!

I saw some photos of myself lately and boy, I had better get myself down to the gym. I'm eating like a marathon runner but living like a bear in hibernation. If the Japanese ever invade London (as my grandmother used to say), I'll be OK because of all my fat reserves : I don't think that will be happening soon, do you?

Is it just my family, or Chinese people, or people in SE Asia or wherever; we have this "siege mentality" that we have to stock up with lots of food and water, the fridge, freezer and cupboards should be bursting with food, because hey you never know whats going to happen and you'll be thankful that you have those 100 packets of instant noodles.

I don't know what this has to do with my expanding waistline but there must a connection somewhere. Yes, I know; eat less, do more. *sigh*

I'm confused.....

2008-04-07T22:11:00.000Z

The weather has been completely nuts lately. Warm and sunny - then on Sunday - frickin' snow. Proper snow too, enough for snowmen, which in Central London is generally enough to have a public holiday declared.

*yawn* it's bedtime.

Will blog when I have more energy.

A Quick Note

2008-04-02T22:08:00.000Z

Sorry I haven't written lately - just a quick note to say I've been tied up with other stuff going on in my life. Nothing that exciting, just more work stuff and I will hopefully get back in the swing of things in a week or three. Anyway, I've heard some great news, but it's not my news really so can't share. See you guys later.

Operations (or What I had to think about today)

2008-03-27T20:34:00.003Z

Sorry - I've just realised this is a very involved post about work! I'll be back to the dodgy photos tomorrow :)

I had an intense day today at our Bristol office with the other members of the Operations Strategy team. Immersion in operation management strategy all day = exhausted brain.

Just to give you some background:

I work for ABC which is a PLC i.e. with public shareholders. The management board of our parent group sets out the growth and profit targets for each operating company. All the employees are aware of this, but most of us just get on with it and leave the management to the Directors. However, last week I was asked to be part of the strategy team. Eeeek.

This year ABC Group has told ABC-UK-CakeShop (my operating company) that as part of the latest 5 year targets, we have to achieve 5% growth every year and 0.5% increase in profit every year.

That's not easy. 5% growth means that if you are a 1000-employee company, you need to hire 50 new staff a year to grow by 5%. You need to provide enough office space, IT support, HR support, training etc for those additional 50 people. Plus, if natural staff turnover is about 10% anyway, you actually need to recruit 150 a year. There are a lot of costs associated with recruitment - because you don't just want to recruit the next guy on the street. It is estimated that the recruitment costs for each new member of staff is equivalent to one year of his or her salary. HR time, management time, agency costs, handover costs, inefficiency while "learning the ropes", colleagues having to "show you the ropes"....adds up to tens of thousands of pounds in lost earnings.

And most important of all, if we hire 50 additional staff, we need to make sure that our sales income can support all of these guys.

Consider that we need to do this every year....

0.5% profit increase per year is even harder to achieve. This means, year on year, we need to become more and more efficient at generating profit. We can't just charge our Clients more money every year without any added value (they would just tell us to **** off). How can you make everyone in your company produce 0.5% more profit this year than last year?

This isn't just increase in profit but increase in percentage profit. For example, 2008, you have 100 staff. If overall costs are £20,000 per staff member; then £2,000,000 is break even. If you earn £2,080,000, that's £80,000 profit - 4%.

Now it's 2009, you have 105 staff which hits the 5% growth target. Break even is £2,100,000. You earn £2,185,000 i.e £85,000 profit. More money than last year, but still only 4% profit so you have actually failed. Vastly oversimplified, I know - but just an illustration.

One obvious way is to outsource our low-end or back-office work to other countries i.e. reduce the direct costs. Everyone knows about Indian call centres, right? We are already doing this i.e. we have ABC-Manila which handles work for the UK and Hong Kong. ABC-India is also up and running, so soon we will be under pressure to send work there too.

The thing is, that's not enough. We will also be competing with companies from countries with lower costs eg India or China. That's already happened with software and telecoms providers. Within the next few years, we predict that the big players from these countries will also try to penetrate the UK market in our industry.

There are other strategy teams looking at different aspects, but I am in the Operations team which is all about delivery. How we can improve our systems and processes company-wide, how we can produce more for less, while still improving quality.

The UK Ops Director is ultimately in charge of this and it is an immense reponsibility. Operations seems to be today's theme. Terminal Five at Heathrow opened today and the baggage system has gone haywire. BA's Director of Operations has been on the news apologising profusely. I bet he's having a bad day.

Happy Easter

2008-03-23T13:08:00.000Z

It's Easter, which means church, chocolate and DIY. The Pope is on TV, the chocolate eggs have been plundered and I am eating hot cross buns.

It's cold and rainy today, but that's not going to spoil my Easter mood.

Happy Easter everyone. Rejoice!

Thursday night in Chinatown

2008-03-22T20:40:00.000Z

After work drinks I met Mr KE who had to work late and we trotted off to Chinatown for dinner.

We went to Lee Ho Fook on Gerrard Street which is not one of our usual haunts. Maybe it was late, but the service was really bad and when the bill came it was £40 more than expected. After a quick look through the receipts, we found that they had charged us for the next table's food as well. Hmmmm.

We thought it was a mistake, but I have since read the review on London Eating and it has happened to two other reviewers. They are cheats! I am tempted to go to the police station and make a complaint!

The food was OK. We had crispy duck (disappointing, dry stale pancakes, cucumber and spring onions that had been sitting around all day, average duck); beef in black pepper sauce (good), noodles with prawns (nice) and lobster in spicy sauce (nice but messy).

I've posted a photo of the lobster. 7/10 for taste, 4/10 for presentation and 3/10 for service.

Colleagues or Friends?

2008-03-22T19:57:00.000Z

On Thursday night I went for a few drinks after work with my colleagues to start off the long Easter weekend. Drinking with colleagues is interesting (can't find another word for it) because it's different to drinking with friends. Everyone is trying to avoid the guy with bad BO and you hope you don't get stuck in the corner with the office whiner.

Plus there is the usual slagging-off of people who don't buy their round. Those people are considered scum. OK, a bit of background is called for: in the UK, people generally buy drinks in rounds i.e. one person will buy drinks for the whole group, then another person will buy the next round etc. So over a night, people will take it in turns to buy drinks and if it doesn't even out on the night, that's OK because over time everyone will buy his/her fair share of drinks.

See, it all works well except for "round-dodgers" who are universally disliked. Even though it appears all casual, it is noted. Women can be the worst, I'm afraid to say. They are happy to have drinks bought for them all night; which stinks in this day and age. It might be OK, if you are with your friends, who are generally more forgiving, but let's face it..colleagues are not your friends.

Sunday Night

2008-03-16T21:27:00.001Z

I've been meaning to make a cheesecake for ages, so today I tried this recipe. If you are trying it out, don't forget to read the tips too.

At the end of the recipe, it says to leave the cake to cool in the oven for 5 to 6 hours. *shock* Apparently this stops the cake surface from cracking. Normally I can hardly even wait for cakes to cool before pouncing on them. After 4 hours I cracked and took it out of the oven.

I don't have a roasting pan big enough to act act as a proper bain-marie so I just filled up a pan with hot water and put it on the shelf below the cake. It seemed to do the trick.

I managed to restrain myself and we had the cake for dessert after dinner. Dinner was rib-eye steak with salad, plus chips for Mr K-E. I used leftover sour cream from the cake to make a sauce with some mushrooms.

The cake was nice but not as sweet as I expected. Mr K-E has a sweet tooth and he suggested, next time double the amount of sugar. Hmmm, not sure about that.

Now I feel sick after two helpings of cake. I only have myself to blame, hahaha.

Strategic Bluffing

2008-03-15T20:38:00.001Z

A few weeks ago, my Director forwarded me an e-mail about high-level strategy teams that are being set up at work. There are four teams : People (i.e. human resources, I believe), Clients and Markets, Operations and Finance.

I was surprised and flattered to find myself on the list for the Operations team, especially as the other people on the team include MDs for the various operating companies. I will probably be the youngest person in the team of eight. Obviously, this will be good for my career and an opportunity to make an impression on the top guys.

The problem is, this is making really nervous. I am a tech-ie at heart and usually sneer at phrases like KPIs, Core Competencies, Operations Management etc etc. Hey, all us techies know that the real progress is made by the front-line troops...who needs all this management bullshit?

Well, deep in my little techie heart, I know that this is the way up in terms of career progression. It's great that I've been put forward and now I have to show that I can make a contribution to long term corporate strategy.

But aaarrrggggghhh, I don't know anything about strategic operations management. And there is an all day workshop in April with all these top guys and me...trying to sound intelligent. I can just imagine the scene.

UK MD: So, Katie-Ella what do you think about XXXX? Do you think it will make a difference to our overall product delivery?
Katie-Ella: Erm. Erm. Actually........Erm.....*pretend to faint*

Not good, huh?

Like a true bookworm, I believe that everything can be learnt from books, so I've been trawling Amazon trying to find a dummies guide to corporate finance, operations management etc. Any suggestions gratefully received!

Under the Eagle by Simon Scarrow

2008-03-13T21:42:00.000Z

Sweaty men fighting it out in Roman times. Combines some of my favourite things: a) military men b) fighting with swords and c) Romans. What's not to like?

How long has it been since I've blogged about a book? I've been reading lots but haven't got round to posting about this book; I suppose I should update my "what I'm reading" picture before it withers and dies from neglect.

This book was fun. Yes, I have a military fetish. Yes, I love reading about Rome. Hey, even before that Gladiator movie I was already into Lindsey Davis and Steven Saylor. It's a period of history that fascinates me - the complex social structure, the empire, the civilisation that was "lost". Plus, it's history-lite.

The book's two main protagonists are Macro and Cato, who serve in Second Legion. This book is the first in a series and I presume the series will continue with their adventures and some historical background thrown in.

Macro is the experienced battle-hardened illiterate soldier who has made it to Centurion through guts, hard work and a bit of luck. Cato is Macro's young, bookish inexperienced assistant who doesn't know what he's doing and has to prove himself. They are plagued by corrupt superiors, bullies and deceitful women. Sound familiar? Yeah, I know, just like a dozen other cop movies and bad TV shows. Original, no. Entertaining, yes.

Justin

2008-03-13T21:22:00.001Z

I'm watching Justin Timberlake's "My Love" video. Why is this man so weirdly sexy?

He looks like any other guy on the street.
He's skinny.
He can sing a bit.
OK, he's a straight guy who can dance.

He's just strangely attractive. Yep, I know lots of other women who agree :)

Mr K-E and the Mountains

2008-03-09T19:20:00.003Z

Mr K-E is back! After 10 days of this...

Here's Mr K-E wrapped up warm as it was -12 degrees. Bbbrrrrr.

He took a few photos of the food, like a good blogger's husband. This is weinerschnitznel.

This is schinkenbratkartoffeln - which means bacon and fried potatoes. It also comes with two fried eggs on top. Just what you need to warm you up on a cold afternoon. Mr K-E says you have to eat fast, or else your food freezes (literally)!

Mr K-E was in Switzerland with his friends for 5 days and then Austria for the rest of the time. Here's the house they rented while in Austria. It has a sauna and plunge pool too, how civilised.

Five times Five

2008-03-08T11:13:00.000Z

Apparently if you write down your goals you are more likely to achieve them. About a zillion management self-help books can't be wrong. I don't think it's the magical effect of writing them down that does the trick. If you actually a) have goals to write down and b) make the effort to list them, then you are probably quite a focused person anyway.

So. Where do I want to be in five years time? To be honest, I just want an extension of where I am now, just more so. (Doesn't make sense? Never mind)

So, deep breath...here we go...

Katie-Ella's five things I want five years from now

1. ..to have a happy little family: me, Mr K-E and our little mini-mes.

2. ..my parents to be worry-free and enjoying their retirement.

3. ..to be fit and active, with time for myself and the things that I enjoy doing eg reading, hanging round in bookshops for hours, wandering around museums.

4. ..to run my own team at work, with my own Clients and all the financial responsibility that brings.

5. ..to be a little less materialistic and a little more concerned about my fellow man.

I'll make that handbag list tomorrow.

Whose life is this anyway?

2008-03-06T21:17:00.000Z

It's Thursday night and depressingly, I have nothing to blog about. No exciting foodie tales, no sunny-side-up snapshots, no sexy mama thrills this week. OK, I could blog about work, ye Gods, I can just imagine all my (2) loyal readers rolling their eyes now.

This week has been spent in a series of meetings in stuffy, over-heated rooms. To be fair, they haven't been boring. I usually have to pay careful attention in meetings anyway, in case I have to leap in and defend my corner.

Sometimes I do wonder...what the heck am I doing here? It's almost like I'm living someone else's life - going to work on the bus, eating sandwiches for lunch every day, being all "professional" at work and sending snotty e-mails to people who aren't doing their job, going home to a messy flat and eating McCain's oven chips for dinner. Who is this woman exactly? And how did she reach this point : sitting at big table trying to out-manouevre a load of overweight fifty-ish white guys in bad suits?

Not me, surely? I'm the girl from Kampung XXX ( a small neighbourhood in Brunei) who eats chicken rice for lunch and drives to Gadong to work every day. I'm the girl who has breakfast with her Dad and loves to eat deep fried fish with soy sauce and rice. I'm the girl who doesn't have any interest in domestic affairs; goes to HuaHo with her Mum after dinner and just pushes the trolley around. I don't even put the food away when we get home, I just slink off to watch TV in the air-conditioned living room with tiles on the floor. I'm the girl who likes to hang out in Booker International and buy magazines on Saturday afternoon.

My real life is starting to feel a little bit unreal.