Author Archives: Grace

Coins – The Royal Arms

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Every now and then I’ll pick up a shiny new coin and just be like wowed out by the cool design (little pleasures I know) and at the end of last year the coins started to have a similar theming across them. Turns out they were the new Royal Shield of Arms design – basically all the coins together form the Royal Arms. The design was chosen by a competition back in August 2005 though I’m not sure when they started to actually release the new designs – I’m sure only mid-way through or late last year. This is the first time, apparently, that a single design has been used across a range of United Kingdom coins.

I finally collected all seven coins at the beginning of December last year so I thought I’d finally post about it. Entertaingly when I told James I was collecting the coins he started to collect them too but I think its only recently that he has completed his collection (if he has completed it at all!) The hardest coins to collect were the 2p coin and the 50p coin.

The best thing? Now I can spend it. Watch out world for my £1.88!!!

Darts – A work thing again

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It’s been just over three years since I last wrote up a darts even from work. The “sports event” has been resurrected in recent times though the central organisation hasn’t really been there and the motivation to represent our teams has been left for the more social of the team to get a team together. I heard that the boys were going to put a team together and I was outraged (heh heh) that they weren’t considering a more representative male/female balance so I volunteered my services, crap as I may be at darts! The venue was, once again, at the Princess Alice which, though inconveniently located in the East at Aldgate, had a decent second floor darts venue.

The competition tonight was seriously competitive and though we managed to beat two of the other three teams tonight because it was scored on a cumulative basis we ended up in third spot. Oh well, good times were still had by all!

Duck Date at Golden Dragon

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It wasn’t that long ago that I went to Golden Dragon and was admiring their new chopsticks but I found myself back there again tonight on my duck date with Sandra, on the recommendation of Laurence for their crispy duck. Both Sandra and I love crispy duck though Sandra more than admits that a lot of this has to do with the yummy hoisin-ish sauce that accompanies it! 😛

I was amused tonight that when they were setting our table they gave Sandra a fork! ha ha!

The crispy duck was quite good at Golden Dragon – crispy and light just the way it should be and though Sandra enjoyed it she still thinks the Crispy Duck crispy duck is the best in the whole of Chinatown. To accompany our duck we also opted for a couple of dishes, both of which I must admit were guilty pleasures – the shredded crispy chilli beef especially! The prawn dish was a sizzling prawn dish served in appetising sauce. Both our dishes made our table very orange!

Next time we have a duck date I”m aiming to add a bit more colour than orange to our table!

THRILLER Live

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Missing out on tickets to the real thing I thought that Thriller Live, whilst not a substitute in real terms, would at least be a consolation prize. In our minds Rehana and I thought Thriller Live was going to be a musical about Michael Jackson’s life from childhood to now – a biopic of sorts. Instead it ended up being a tribute instead. Once we got over that confusion in our minds we were able to enjoy the show as we sat through the re-telling of hit after Michael Jackson hits. Its amazing to think he could fill a solid two hours with his songs and it actually made me appreciate just how wide a range and style he has – from R&B/gospel to soul to disco to pop to rock. The musical pieces also reminded me just how great a visionary and entertainer Michael Jackson is. It such a shame that all the other weird stuff going on in his life has detracted from what otherwise would be considered pure genius.

Thriller Live didn’t really have a plot jumping seemingly from one song to another without any real connection. There was some loose association with time but this was very loose and some hits, such as Thriller, of course, were left to the end as a finale. However, notwithstanding, the show was highly entertaining and full of energy. The show was strongest when delivering some of Michael’s most movie-like music videos such as Smooth Criminal and Beat It which demonstrated a balance between his singing and his dancing. Naturally the moonwalk got some of the biggest cat-calls and cheers of the night.

There were six main performers in Thriller Live: Sterling Williams, who was adorable when singing the pieces from Michael Jackson’s youth, John Moabi, Ben Forster, Earl Perkins, and a female singer whose name escapes me for the moment, I think it was Michelle someone or other, who were the main vocals for the various other more mature songs and finally there was Ricko Baird, who started off strong as an excellent MJ imitator all the way down to his mannerisms in moving around the stage (though gradually as he increased his energy he seemed to lose the discipline and became a little less Michael.)

From a singing perspective it was interesting to have the different styles of the singers come through. Some times it work, such as Sterling Williams as a young Michael Jackson, and some times it didn’t such as Ben Forster’s performances. Despite the fact on his own he was very good and actually exhibited the most energy of the cast there the down and dirty in his performances was just missing. Rehana didn’t much like the female singer as she seemed to perform just at one level – loud, but I actually did like the female voice on some of Michael’s songs as it gave a good balance against the otherwise male singers in the cast.

The band were totally awesome and I was impressed that some of the guitar solos even got highlighted during the show with the guitarist coming out on to stage to showcase. Great use was also made of the stage and especially the LED screens used to flash up details about Michael’s career. Great use of it was also made during the Thriller piece which was particularly well choreographed.

Small warning to those attending – you will be encouraged to get up and dance at least twice throughout the performance!

Paul and Kelly’s Wedding

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On to the show!

Paul and Kelly’s wedding reception was held at Addington Palace near Croydon in Surrey. It was an absolutely luscious venue. The Palace is an 18th century mansion set on some beautiful grounds and a lovely golf course annexed to the place. Although used mainly for weddings it is also apparently becoming popular for film, video and television recording ranging from, according to their website, music videos for Girls Aloud to historical dramas. Even The Bill apparently comes and shoots there regularly.

In any case I must admit to being very impressed upon entering the Palace. Unlike other venues which may sometimes cater for more than the one wedding in a day Addington Palace only caters for one wedding a day so that meant that Paul and Kelly had the run of the place. This included the Great Hall (where the dancefloor was located and gorgeous with the impressive giant chandelier), a Library and Lecture room, the room which had the bar, plus about three or four other rooms. It was a massive venue and quite often finding people, if they weren’t in the bar where most people ended up thanks for the free bar, meant searching three or four rooms!

The reception really was just a giant party and it kind of operated on that basis as well. There wasn’t a sort of welcome to formally start the evening – probably due to the fact that people were arriving at all sorts of time. Still, it wasn’t until about an hour into the reception that I saw Paul and probably another half hour after that until I saw Kelly. Kelly’s dress, by the way, was exquisite!

The event officially started at 7.30pm and at around 9pm people started congregating in the Great Hall for the cake cutting and bouquet throwing. This was the first time I saw Paul and Kelly together and weren’t they just so sweet. Even sweeter when they came back about 15 minutes later to dance their first dance.

Although the work people didn’t outnumber the rest of the guests at the wedding we certainly formed a large part of it (with probably around 30 people from work at least in attendance.) We were joking that it was almost like another day at work! At the very least this meant there were plenty of people to talk about but sadly not too many people were willing to brave the dancefloor and it wasn’t until very late in the evening, when everyone was well and truly sloshed, that we could get a few more people out there. (The non-work people, however, were more than happy to get out there and show the stuff.) Though the live band were good and managed to cover a wide range of songs I’m sure I won’t be the only one to admit that they were a bit scary because the lead singer was coming around and singling people out to sing on the mic and also to do dance solos!

By about 11pm people started trickling out to try and get the public transport home. Sandra, Julian and I stuck around until just after midnight which actually was a lot earlier than I thought we would be leaving but still I had a great time and was pleased to see that Paul and Kelly had a great day too. I bet they’re really looking forward to their two weeks off in Mauritius!

Sandra’s pre-Paul and Kelly Reception meal

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Friends Paul and Kelly from work were wed earlier today and aren’t they lucky that the English weather has decided to behave. After two days of unpredictable weather and after yesterday’s giant chuck down I was thinking that it might have been a bit of a wet wedding but in a blessing for them the sun was out and it was just gorgeous. I didn’t go to the wedding but will be attending the reception later. The venue for the reception is quite a bit south and from my place in the West would be quite a hassle to get to and though I didn’t mind the journey getting there I didn’t want to have to rely on the public transport to get home at the end of the night nor was I willing to face an over £50 taxi bill to get home so Sandra offered to put me up for the night. And even better she offered to cook us up a pre-reception meal!

I’ve talked before http://www.thekua.com/sista/?p=1900 how the English wedding is a bit different to those I’ve been to in Australia – mainly that not everyone goes to the wedding ceremony and wedding meal (which generally happens during the day and over a late lunch) but almost everyone is invited to the later reception which is basically a big party going until the hours of early dawn. Here the feature is normally light finger-food plus a bar (sometimes free, sometimes pay as you go.)

At any rate we weren’t sure when and how much we would get fed at the reception tonight so Sandra cooked up a delicious early dinner. She started with some yummy foccacia breads (which were extremely filling on their own actually) and then stuffed pork wrapped in bacon.

Mmm … lovely meal. My only concern was being able to fit into my dress for the reception!

UK Aware

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Whilst I don’t consider myself a greenie I do think I try where I can to help out with not adding too much to the world’s current environmental issues like recycling, trying not to produce too much waste, walking where I can, and not taking showers everyday (ha ha – just kidding.) This is all of course excluding my probably giant footprint from all my travel 🙂 so I was quite interested in checking out what kind of messages UK Aware might have for me. UK Aware’s tag line is Ideas for Greener Living. Its an exhibition which showcases latest energy efficient products, latest innovations in green enterprise, and is a forum for allowing the consumer’s green questions and needs to be answered (including lots of speeches and panels and demonstrations.)

This year UK Aware also has the Morsbags Area (where you can re-use old material to make your own bag) and the Clothes Swapping Area.

I went along this morning to check it out but the thing that struck me the funniest was the paper that was scattered all over the ground (though I didn’t get any snaps of the paper) – whether it was the pamphlet that you receive when you walk in, or bits and bots from exhibitors etc. – it was everywhere. I’m sure they will re-cycle it or something but I do wonder how even an event like this can overcome such “waste”.

Golden Dragon

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Golden Dragon is one of Pat’s and my go-to place for yum-cha, especially now that our favourite Laureate has shut down (and since been taken over by Mr Wu’s Chinese buffet!) Quality is fairly decent and consistent and service is generally quick and efficient (and sometimes friendly though most of the time its just sufficient without being over the top.) Normally there are lines out the door and once inside on the ground floor you’ll find everyone sprawled out taking over the entire entrance. Its clear that this is one restaurant not being affected to much by the credit crunch. Love their new chopsticks!

Easter BBQ at Nate and Caro’s

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Nate and Caroline are the consummate hosts so BBQs are their house are always a heap of fun. The weather didn’t quite come out to play but at least the rain stayed away and we were able to have a lovely lunch outside and in the fresh air. There were two funny moments that had me nearly wetting my pants with laughter – when Nate dropped one of the sausages from the BBQ on to the floor (funny because the last BBQ I came to at their house he did the same thing only that time he dropped a chicken breast only to drop it on the ground again after he’d rinsed it …) and then when, in a fit of excitement at giving a good toast to good friends, he kneeled a bit too hard on their picnic table and cracked the seat (funny also because Kia and I had just avoided doing the same thing on our side of the picnic table. Great times. Here are some photos from today.

The boys all having a go on the barbie:

The food on the barbie and on my plate including Caro’s kick-butt kebabs and strawberry and ginger dessert:

Some group shots including the broken picnic table!:

The Museums

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So, Akhlaq and I were trying to decide what we could do on Easter weekend and we decided to do what it seemed many other people thought would be a good activity on an Easter weekend where the weather was a bit blah – and that was to head to the Science Museum. I was supposed to meet Akhlaq, Batool and Bob (Batool’s sister) in the early afternoon but as usual, partly the fault of the demonstrations at Hyde Park and partly, from what the girls said, Akh taking so long to get ready – ha ha, they were over two hours late so I ended up taking a tour of a couple of the other museums in the area – the V&A (Victoria & Albert) Museum and the Natural History Museum.

To say that the two museums were busy was an understatement. It also didn’t help that each of the museums had security checks on all bags going into them.

The V&A was buzzing in the reception area but as I made my way up to the higher floors there was a noticeable drop in the crowd level which made it quite comfortable to walk around and explore. The V&A is a museum for decorative arts and design so holding all sorts of pieces of works from ceramics to furniture, and textiles to photographs. You could get lost in a museum the size of the V&A (with over 4.5 million objects!) so I limited my visit to only a few of the galleries like the Fashion and Jewellery, some of the British Galleries and Textiles.

Moving on to the Natural History Museum two long queues greeted me. As a hint for those trying to get in a bit quicker – today there were two entrances open – the obvious one out the front of the museum which snaked all over the place and was extremely long and there was one on the side, I think its called the Exhibition Road entrance, which was much much shorter. Having said that the lines moved fairly quickly and I think the wait was mainly due to security. Not sure if they were operating a 1 in 1 out policy though I imagine they wouldn’t want too many people in the museum all at once.

Once I got inside the NHM it was a madhouse with people absolutely everywhere. I did a quick run through the “space” gallery (love the big escalator up into the big ball or planet or whatever it is) but then got a bit annoyed with all the people so decided to hit the lower ground floor with “Investigate”. Open for everyone it well suited for the little ones because it was all about the hand-on approach – touching things, looking at things under microscopes, putting things together, drawing etc.

My favourite part of the NHM was going back into the main hall (where there is a giant dinosaur skeleton) and climbing up a couple of floors to look back down at all the people moving about the museum like ants. It was crazy!

By the time I was done with the V&A and the NHM Akhlaq and Co still hadn’t turned up so I headed over to the Science Museum to start having a quick look around as the day was getting on. On the way I saw this big crowd and went to investigate and it was a dude eating fire. Always entertaining for a few seconds of thrills.

I absolutely love the Science Museum – its just so much more interactive and cool and engaging than any other museum. Its no wonder that there was so many people, children and adults alike, who were here today. I didn’t get to see the Wallace & Gromit exhibition (something for next time) only because I didn’t know if we would have time to do it but its here until end of October so I still have some time. The other aspect of the museum which is pleasing is that its just nice to look at – everything has this cool factor that makes it just a fascinating place to be in. The Secret Life of the Home is a particularly interesting gallery where you can find out how ordinary things in the home actually work. Watch out for the poo in the toilet! LOL.

When Akhlaq, Batool and Bob finally made it we had about an hour left until closing (although advertised as open at 6pm the museum starts shutting down at 5.30 to get people physically out of the building by 6 …) so we immediately hopped into a simulator ride (nothing too exciting but okay) and then spent the rest of the time in the interactive Launch Pad.

Love the Science Museum!