My Blue Heaven

Photos @ Maze

The Review

I liked the menu (modern french with an asian influence). Between the two of us, we shared 10 dishes, and 3 desserts. Plus 2 cocktails (I had a strawberry caipirinha and Kwai had a peach and passionfruit cocktail), finally finishing with coffee and complimentary petits fours. The menu was really cool – it was kinda like a-la-carte tapas, where you pick from lots of different small dishes – allowing you to sample lots of things at a fairly low cost. A foodies heaven! They also had the chefs selection 7 course menu, with the best signature dishes (from the aforementioned tapas style menu) that work the best together. We ended up choosing the chefs menu, plus 5 more dishes and 1 more dessert. 🙂 I was absolutely and utterly stuffed by the end… had a major food coma, not helped by the cocktail at the beginning! The price was also really quite good value – which is suprising for a top restaurant owned by a famous celebrity chef. A chefs tasting menu would normally be about twice what we paid. I guess its only been open for a year, so prices might rise later. Not that it mattered this time, as work is paying for the bill. (I’m finally cashing in my reward from that Hoover project a month or so back).

Anyway, we really enjoyed the 3 odd hours spent there. I’d probably rate it as the best dining experience I’ve had in London so far. It was great that the restaurant and staff weren’t stuffy or snobby at all, unlike so many fine dining places. The decor was very modern (perhaps a little cramped, but hey its London), and the atmosphere quite trendy and lively. The service was excellent – the staff were discreet (ie not in your face all the time), polite, friendly and very attentive to details (eg when one of us went to the toilet, a waiter would almost immediately come over, pick up the napkin, shake it out and fold it neatly on the chair for the customers return!!). Oh and it was a NO SMOKING restaurant too! Yay!!!! When a customer at the table next to us started to light up a cigarette, a waiter very smoothly and politely informed him it was a no-smoking restaurant and took the offending cigarette away.. as I sat there silently cheering!! 😛 We felt quite comfortable there, more so than other restaurants where the atmosphere feels a bit stiff. And getting to visit the kitchen and meet the chef topped off an already wonderful evening. 🙂

Current listening :: “Bubble toes” – Jack Johnson

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Wishful thinking

Sometimes I wish there were some sort of magical portal doorway that I could step through here in London, and I’d be transported to Sydney on the other side. It would be so nice to just drop in on friends/family on the other side of the world with just a step through a doorway.. I could like, go to a friend’s party or birthday or wedding.. for just a few hours.. and then step back into London. Could even go home for mums cooking one night. Would have to factor the time difference of course.

Someone invent one please?

Miscellaney

Current listening :: “Mofongo” – Yellowjackets

O.M.G.

Those bboy crews in Korea are friggin nuts! Pretty awesome stuff… I dunno how they do it! I can barely do the frog squat thingy where u balance on your hands with your knees on your elbows. I can hold it for maybe 10 secs at most! Here’s another crew from the same show (gets really good from 4 mins onwards). Damn.

I’m probably a bit slow on the uptake, but I’ve just signed up with YouTube, and have been discovering some pretty cool videos. I knew about it before, and I’ve browsed MySpace videos and Google Videos.. but never actually checked out YouTube in much detail. Possibly a dangerous discovery for me as I can see myself spending half a day at work on this website.. haha. It’s the whole Web 2.0 thing.. they’ve been yapping about it at the Internet World exhibition I went to last week.

I’ve been kinda getting into watching breakdance/bboy stuff on the web. Prob coz I’ve been thinking about taking some break dance classes at Pineapple. Ok, I KNOW I will never be able to do stuff like that video above, but Kwai says break dance is really good for helping with hiphop.. esp footwork.. and also it’ll be great for fitness.. it’ll buff my arms right up! Heheh. Not like gross huge, but I could do with more muscle tone. My arms are getting kinda flabby. And it sounds fun! 🙂 Just gotta find time to get to a class.

Oh and I’ve also been checkin out what my old dance school has been up to.. DanceKool. Looks like they’ve got a few vids up on YouTube too. Check out Poppin Sam. Awesome freak!

Current listening :: “Full Moon” – Brandy

Rockin my suburb

I’ve just been reminded how much Ben Folds friggin ROCKS!! I found his myspace profile (incidentally, I’ve been added as a friend on his myspace friends!! WHEEEE!!!!) Anyway, he’s got 5 new songs written specifically for the new animation movie Over The Hedge.. I’ve just listened to “Still” on his myspace page – and I immediately fell in love with the song… within the first 5 seconds. Damn, he is one talented songwriter/musician. Can’t wait to hear the rest! I was also reading his blog, which is quite funny. It was cool reading about the process through which he wrote those songs. Interesting stuff.

Anyway, I’ve been soooo tired this whole week. Ever since the move last weekend. It’s messed up my whole week – that friday night with 3 hours sleep. I’m feeling pretty run-down now.. like I’m on the verge of getting sick (got a minor sore throat.. really hope it doesn’t develop into anything more). And I haven’t been to the gym or dance class at all this week. In fact, I haven’t done any exercise at all since wednesday nite last week.. thats over a week ago. Ugh. I feel gross… unhealthy, unfit and tired. I really need to exercise (gym or dance) at least once in a week. Otherwise my body starts to go into slob-mode… and I just don’t feel very good. I eat more, I feel more tired/lethargic, and my mood goes downhill (as my poor boyfriend can attest to). I guess things have been so busy, there are so many things I still need to do with the new place… such as finish unpacking the boxes! I needed to take it easy… esp since my body is weak and rundown.. I don’t wanna push myself too hard and really get sick. Patience. *sigh* But I wish I could have done at least one class this week.. yoga or pilates or even hiphop class tonight. Perhaps I can do something on the weekend hmmm. After a good nights sleep tonight, I might feel more up-to-it tomorrow. Or Sunday. We’ll see. At least its the weekend! TGI Friday! 🙂

Miscellany

Oh, the landlord has FINALLY paid back the bond for my last place. Only yesterday. Took her long enough! Now I’m settling into my new place… its starting to feel a bit more like a home.. but as mentioned above, there’s still lots of work to do. Kwai is gonna install some new lighting – we discovered that you can actually put halogen lights into the normal light sockets using a halogen plug-in, like this one. So now I can have halogen lighting at home! Yay! I still need to buy a bookshelf. The living room is currently half filled with stacked boxes, coz I have nowhere to put those things. Myself and Kwai are gonna visit Ikea tonight. Such an exciting way to spend Friday night. Forget bars, pubs and clubs.. Ikea’s where its all at! And they’re open till midnight. Haha. 😛 The builder will be coming in next week to do the bathroom. Yay.

Otherwise.. travelling to work from my new place is a lot better than before – I always get a seat on the comfortable air-conditioned trains 🙂 …which is MUCH preferable to playing sardines on the overcrowded, non-airconditioned tube. Especially as summer draws near!

Current listening :: “Still” – Ben Folds (Over The Hedge OST)