Barclay's ATP World Tour Finals - 24 November 2011

Just came back from the night session of the Barclay's ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena. Today's one of the last days of the Group stage and we saw a doubles match and the last of the Group B group matches. Not having the luck to see Federer play (missed out again by a whisker as he was playing during the day), we saw Nadal and Tsonga instead.

As both Nadal and Tsonga were vying for the remaining Group B place in the semis (Federer was the first to qualify), the match was destined to be intense from the beginning. Naturally, the match was very tight with both Nadal and Tsonga playing some exceptional shots, however, Tsonga was clearly the more outstanding player, which was reflected by some of his very impressive shots.


In the end, the match went to three sets before Tsonga finally broke Nadal three times to win (he was broken in the second last game by Nadal and so was made to break Nadal for a third time in the set to win).

Watching the tennis in O2 was a great experience. Apparently, O2 is the world's largest indoor tennis stadium and given it's multipurpose facilities, they were able to make fancy light work and sound effects in between games. Amongst the most impressive was turning the blue courts into a screen on which short videos were projected.


Looking forward to our next visit tomorrow where we'll be treated to the last of the Group matches, including one featuring the number 1 doubles team and one featuring the leading player in Group A of the singles matches - Ferrer.

MBA Enrolment and Registration

I have just registered and enrolled for my MBA studies. It was interesting seeing how different working in the UK is compared to Australia and now I get to see the difference on the study front as well.

The enrolment and registration process was relatively straightforward. Most of the fields were pre-populated and so it was more a process of reviewing the details than actually having to fill things out. As part of the enrolment process, we have to upload a photo for our student card. Not having a decent photo on hand, I went into a meeting room and took a mug shot with my mobile. That appears to have worked so hopefully I won't get a message later saying that my photo is too crappy to be acceptable.

One part of the enrolment and registration process required us to provide details on how we'll be paying our fees. This is where my head was pulled out of the clouds and I was brought back to the harsh reality of our quid pro quo society! Studying my undergrad and my first postgrad in Aust, I never really had to worry about the fees as they were deferred and automatically taken out of our pay when we started working. As such, the vast sums of money that we have to fork out for our self embetterment never really bit me - the only times that I was even aware/reminded of their existence were when I received the annual statements around tax time with the current outstandings of my educational debt.

This time, however, things are slightly different. Although nothing's confirmed yet as discussions are still taking place regarding my study support (my boss is speaking to his boss, and his boss is speaking to his boss), I am prepared for the worse and am ready to pay the fees out of my own pocket. As such, I opted to pay by quarterly instalments, hoping that will ease the burden a bit.

Now that all is done on my end, I guess I can only sit back and twiddle my thumb while I wait for the Uni to process my details and send me my bill and study pack!

Disneyland, Paris

Some might say I'm a little too old for Disneyland but hey, if you ask me, I'd rather live a little younger than a little older! This is the mindset that I'm finding more and more appealing. I mean, why waste your life working and doing other grown up things? Life is too short to be stuck in an office, or spent drinking hazardous chemicals. Instead, we should embrace life and live to our heart's content.

Disneyland was a great getaway. Unlike other trips, where the main activities involved staring at famous sites, Disneyland allowed us to live our childhood again and do all the things we loved doing, such as shooting targets with laser guns on the Buzz Lightyear ride, or sitting in a roller coaster in the form of a train going through man made mountains that were supposed to be mine shafts.


And how could this be complete without staying in a themed resort hotel, in our case, the theme was a cowboy them.

After the two days of re-visiting my childhood, I must say, I enjoyed every bit of it! Actually, maybe except for the 1hr+ queues for some of the rides and the 1 hour delay with the Eurostar trip back, but hey, these are only minor gripes considering how much fun we had over the two days!

Jamie's Italian, City of London

Ever since this Jamie's Italian opened recently, it's been very popular with the city workers. Every time I walk by to get my coffee, the place is packed with happy men and women in power suits wining and dining in the cavernous room hung with legs of ham around the bar area. The scene makes the restaurant very enticing, like it's calling you in or something.

Then on Monday, I was finally drawn in with Irene after meeting up with her for lunch. As we were early, there were many tables available and we were seated in a nice little section. The menu was quite intensive, making it difficult to choose what to have. In the end, I settled on the blackboard special of a pasta with a salumi ragu, whatever that is. Irene was tempted by the white truffle pasta at an apparently bargain price of £25 but in the end, she settled with a more humble pasta, saving the delicacy for a future visit. In addition to our mains, we also ordered a starter of a mixture of breads.


The bread in a bucket was first to come. Within the bucket was a variety of bread and each tasted delicious. It also went well with the oil and balsamic vinegar dip, with the balsamic vinegar having a nice subtle taste. Then came the pastas. Both pasta was delicious and it was apparent that the pasta itself were freshly made. My pasta, however, was a little salty but that was probably the way it's supposed to be with the salumi.


Anyway, it was a great lunch and looking forward to visiting again, especially so that Irene can order her white truffle pasta.

Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecote, London

Apparently, this is a pretty well known restaurant in London, famous for their sole offering - steak and fries. I had long wanted to visit this restaurant after hearing about it from colleagues and tonight we finally had the chance after Irene finished work late.

Not long after we were seated, we were asked how we want our steaks done. We initially asked for medium rare but apparently the French don't do medium rare - just rare or medium - and so we decided to go for medium. They also had a nice offering of affordable wine and so we got a half bottle of a Bordeaux red.

As part of the set menu, we were given a plate of walnut green salad each and half a baguette, sliced. Both the baguette and salad were really nice. Shortly after the starter, we were brought our mains - a perfectly cooked and sliced steak with some delicious fries. The steak was served in two portions to ensure that the second half did not get cold. When the second half of the steak was served, they also topped up our fries.


The sauce that accompanied the steak was divine. Although the steak was cooked medium, it turned out more like medium rare - pink on the inside. However, unlike many other medium rare steaks, there was no blood oozing out of this one.


After the mains, we couldn't help but order dessert. The list of dessert was extensive, all with French names. I ordered a Le Mont Blanc, which was ice cream topped with a hazelnut sauce, cream and almond flakes. Irene ordered one of the favourites with a French name that escapes me. Ultimately, its a meringue with ice cream and chocolate sauce in the form of a tower; it is no wonder this is a favourite as it was superb!



This was a great steak dinner and one that we'll return to when our steak craving comes biting.

We are officially Arsenal fans...

Man, it's unbelievable how popular soccer is here! It's almost impossible to get decent tickets to matches between top teams unless you're a member of one of them. Hence, with the intention of experiencing a soccer match between two top teams, both Irene and I have become Arsenal members and will be amongst the many Red members vying for tickets on 22 December for tickets to the Arsenal vs Manchester United game.

It was actually a difficult journey finding a club to be a member of. Each club has their own policies with costs and benefits varying between them. My first choice was actually Chelsea given their lower cost of becoming ticket only members and the discount you get when buying tickets as a member. However, all the matches that we want to go to with Chelsea are scheduled on days when we are away and so it would've been a bit pointless joining them.

Arsenal, on the other hand, has a bigger stadium and have matches that does not clash with our other bookings. Furthermore, Irene seem to like Arsenal more. Her thinking is that Arsenal is a waning club and so should be easier to buy tickets to their matches. I hope she's right but in any case, I'm hoping to see a few matches!

My Old Place, City of London

Irene and I came here for dinner on Saturday night after finding ourselves stranded in the City of London with no restaurants open for dinner on weekends. I have heard many good reviews about this restaurant from colleagues, both Chinese and westerners, and so have been keen to try this place out.

As we approached the restaurant, we saw another party walk in and by the time we got to the door and smelt the scent of delicious food akin to that of hawker stalls in Hong Kong, we saw a bunch of people waiting to be seated. Shortly after we arrived, another couple joined the queue behind us. Given the popularity of the place and seeing the many tables of happy diners with large plates of deliciously looking food, we knew we have found a place worth visiting.

After waiting a while, a waitress finally came and rounded us all to the downstairs dining area. There, we ordered a plate of spicy stir fried beans, a sweet and sour deep fried pork, a bowl of rice, two large prawn skewers and four lamb skewers. I also ordered a bottle of Sing Tao while Irene ordered plum juice.


It didn't take long for the food to come. First came the drinks, then the beans, followed by the rice, sweet and sour pork, prawn skewers, and finally, after a short wait, the lamb skewers. Every dish was cooked to perfection. Chinese people like their stir fry to be cooked on a well heated wok and the beans were definitely stir fried on a well heated wok. In addition, it's seasoning was spot on, culminating in a delicious dish of stir fried beans. Sometimes, the simplest things are the hardest to do well and so this one simple dish goes a long way in saying how good this restaurant is!


The sweet and sour pork was well battered. This version is not the same as the HK version in that the pork are not little pieces but rather large thin slices. Most sweet and sour pork that I have these days have batter that are too thick and so does not end up being crunchy. Not this one. The batter on these sweet and sour pork were still crunchy even with the last piece eaten at the end of the dinner. Furthermore, the sweet and sour sauce with this dish was superb! Literally mouth watering!


Finally, the prawn and lamb skewers. The prawn skewers were not in skewers and was more like two average BBQ prawns - a bit of a let down in terms of size and presentation. The taste, however, was great. With the lamb skewers, unlike at Little Lamb where there was hardly any meat to bite into, here they had a decent amount of meet for the teeth to get into. Furthermore, the seasoning was spot on!

Overall, a fantastic Chinese meal, the best that I've had in a while.

Little Lamb, Chinatown, London

Went here for dinner with some friends on Friday night. Irene found this place after seeing some good reviews on the net.

The four of us were initially seated upstairs on a table for six. After sitting there for a while and having ordered already, one of the waitress came up abruptly and demanded that we move downstairs. Asking her why we had to move, she struggled to provide a reason and eventually said that someone else had booked that table. Funny thing is that we also booked in advance so any mistakes with matching tables to bookings were entirely their fault. After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, we finally decided to give in to their requests and moved downstairs to a stuffier room.

The brush with the waitress aside, the food was quite reasonable but nothing unexpected given it was a hotpot and the food did not require much preparation. However, the soup bases - one herbal and one special spicy - were quite good. In addition to the hot pot dishes, we also ordered some skewers but were shocked to see how skimpy they were when they finally came. Nevertheless, what little we had to dig our teeth into did taste quite good.

Overall, the dinner was quite pricey, with a few hits and misses. It definitely won't be a place I'll be rushing back to but it's an acceptable choice for a hotpot venue if nothing else is available.

Bengal Clipper, Shad Thames, London

After a spur of the moment decision to eat out, Irene eventually booked a table at Bengal Clipper for dinner. This Indian restaurant caught her eyes one night and given that it's on the Taste Card, Irene decided to try them out.

A sign outside the restaurant says they have a set two course dinner for under 13 quids but because we were using our Taste card, which has a buy one get one free offer, we ordered from the a la carte menu. The menu was quite extensive, consisting mainly of chicken and seafood dishes. Prices are quite steep, with mains costing on average 10 quid each.



At the top of the menu, they had a short blurb about the chef and all the great places he's worked at. They also mentioned that various guides have listed Bengal Clipper as a must try Indian restaurant in London. Going through the dishes, several of them mentioned that they are made with a special sauce unique to Bengal Clipper.


We ended up ordering a naan bread, a mixed starter, a giant prawn cooked with their special sauce, a chicken curry cooked with their special sauce, a duck curry, a pilaw rice, a plain rice, an Indian pistachio ice cream, and another Indian dessert. Food wise, every dish was very tasty and their portions were reasonable. Their special sauce was indeed quite unique, not having ever tasted anything like it at other Indian restaurants.



Overall, the food was great but if we were to pay full price for it, we would have found it too expensive! Even after the Taste card discount, the meal cost 40 pounds, which is on the pricey side.

Suffolk, England

We went to Suffolk last weekend; it was a wonderful trip! The car we hired was a brand new Vauxhall Corsa - it was really fun to drive, being very solid and smooth, and having a nice set of features such as seat and steering wheel warmers.



Through our trip, we visited Colchester - oldest recorded town in England, Jimmy's Farm near Ipswich where we saw and ate rare breed pigs, Framlingham Castle, Woodbridge where we had a pub dinner, Southwold, and Ipswich. On the Saturday night, we stayed at a B&B in the middle of nowhere - Old School House B&B. Though the location was a bit remote, the place was very nice and the host very hospitable.


At Colchester, we bought some fireworks and was hoping to find a place to light them that night as part of Guy Fawke's night. Unfortunately, the area was too remote and dark for us to find any place suitable so we ended up lighting the fireworks after we got back to familiar territory in London.




Personally, I find these road trips to be more fun and exciting. This was definitely a great trip, one that I thoroughly enjoyed!