A Month Already?

I am so sorry guys…

 

Weee…. I am flying…

I just came back from Indonesia a week ago after a long and wonderful holiday. Despite the flight itself, which I can only summarise as a little bit hellish, to say the least… I have to say that it was quite a successful holiday. Not only that I got to celebrate my baby brother’s engagement party, but also that I could enjoy a lot of food that I could not have when I am here. I am pretty sure now that I am back, my weight scale would not be happy to see me on it.

Not only that I got to celebrate my baby brother’s engagement party, but also that I could enjoy a lot of food that I could not have when I am here. I am pretty sure now that I am back, my weight scale would not be happy to see me on it.

LOL. Worth it.

 

Our typical dinner of five… D;

Anyway… I did not bring my WIP with me *gasp* *shockhorror*.

I know.

But here’s a thing… I have a stockpile of stash back there in Indonesia as well as here in the UK. I was thinking of using those stash to make something too, instead of letting them rot there. BUT, unfortunately (or fortunately? I am not sure about this one), the holiday was so awesome, I didn’t have time to go through my stash over there and do something about it.

I have a little niece, remember? She is now a year old, and she could now tease people. My DH said that teasing people must be in my gene because he could see everybody in my family is very good at it.

Ah… Back to WIP… This is what we’ve got so far…

a very big sleeve…

x ❤ x

 

A Day Out…

So my DH took me to Stoke Holy Cross. I had to wiki it because I had no idea what kind of place it is. He told me that the place we are going to visit is called Caistor St Edmund — which at that time meant nothing to me. So… reluctantly, put the knitting down for a little while and probably enjoy a bit of sunlight.

Now… what is Caistor St. Edmunds? I heard you ask. I wouldn’t blame you if you haven’t heard about it. It is the first time for me myself. Apparently, it is a huge grassy field.

BUT, not just an ordinary grassy field. In this field, there used to be a Roman market town of a tribe called Iceni. Now I got a bit excited, as there were some ruins of their walls. We do love our ruins…

The day was beautiful, although a bit breezy. Caistor was quiet, only a few interested visitor was in view. But, one thing that excite DH the most is that whoever managed this place has now improved the place and has implemented an Augmented Reality experience in this place.

So, in some spots where you could see and read the information panel in the area, DH could just point his beloved mobile phone and start to enjoy the techie bits. Actually, it was quite cool. All he needed to do is to download the apps — everything can be done with an apps nowadays.

On Sundays, the church — St Edmund Church — not to be confused with St Edmundsbury Cathedral in Bury St. Edmund, served cream tea. I never had cream tea before. It was basically a scone, served with cream and jam, and a generous pot of tea. They only do sultana scones, unfortunately, so I have to pick them out 😦 I can handle a couple, but not too much.

However, it was a wonderful afternoon. I wished I have had my knitting with me, that would have made me feel very British…

x ❤ x

Crochet, Coffee, and Choo Choo Train…

Time off… 

I am off for a trip to Edinburgh, so had to leave my knitting WIP at home. The project is to big to be carried around. 

So… 

Tadaa! Crochet project is easier to handle while travelling. I have to carry scissors everywhere though. I’ll think about that particular problem a bit later.

As my husband says… we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Did i misquote? 

WIP Weekender…

Okay… I have to admit that picking up a title for a post is getting more and more difficult. Of course I can always use “WIP update” or something generic like that, but I don’t like using it too much. It sounds so… meh. How do you creative people make up titles for your posts anyway? Tell me tell me tell me…

Anyway… Weekend! Again! This time it is this wonderful Bank Holiday weekend… apparently. Usually… there are two things that might happen in holidays and weekends: 1. You have a lot of activities — going to the city, shopping, dining out, or even getting a day trip to nearby historical towns. Or 2. The plan is to do as little as possible, and only move from your sofa when it is needed — and knit all day and all night, while having this crime drama on the telly.

Of course you can always have something else in between, like having fun in the allotment plot when the weather is less crappy, or banning husband from the kitchen while baking some awesomeness in the kitchen. Or combination of everything…

But I am glad that I have time to blob in the sofa for a long time and knit without any husbandly intervention. It does feel like a holiday when I slouch, and knit, and every now and then there is a husband approaching and offering some hot drinks. Gosh! Luxury…

Look what spoiling can do to the progression of a WIP…

x ❤ x

How About WIP?

Yes 😦 I guess you realised how much I have been trying not to talk about the WIPs. I have to admit that it has been an embarrassingly slow progress with the knitting WIP. I am still on the same cardigan I am trying to make for my sister.

I did bring this project to Indonesia. But I was too busy playing with my little niece, and eating all those nice food, so I kind of neglected the project altogether when I was there.

 

On the bright side, the jacket and the dress I made for my niece fits 😀 She wore the pink one for CNY, and the white one for her baptism ceremony. Out of curiosity, is there any difference between baptism and christening?

The knitting WIP itself, is so far has reached the sleeves bit. One of them. While the body parts are waiting, dangling in the stitch holders.

The other WIP, as in the cross stitch WIP. I think it is borderline UFO now 😦 I am trying to get back to it soon, but I need more time 😦 Wish me luck guys…

x ❤ x

SNOW!!

Okay… I missed the snow again this year. It’s been the second year I was in Indonesia when the big snow in the UK (read: Norwich) happened. In a way it is a good thing because snow means cold, but yesterday (the last weekend, basically) I woke up to this:

Snow!

My husband is definitely not happy about the whole snowy thing, because we had to go out and about in the city, and do out allotment. Oh yeah… we’ve got an allotment plot now 😀 (that’s another story though). Plus… it was his birthday.

Lol. He really doesn’t like snowy birthday.

For me? Well… It is kind of exciting really, because I haven’t seen of felt snow for awhile now. It is not enough to build a snowman, but hey, who wants to build a snowman anyway. (No, Anna! I don’t want to build a bloody snowman… )

Hopefully it is warmer today as I might want to go for a little shopping trip.

Gotta go. Have a nice day 🙂

x ❤ x

PS. Do you know if you type “have a nice day” too fast, you sometimes end up with “have an ice day“?

It Means… Food!

Horrible flight, finally arrived at my hometown. Mum set up a small welcome celebration… It means FOOD!

Going to visit my friend in Malaysia, and at the same time having a long awaited holiday there. She thought it would be a wonderful idea to introduce me to the local culture. It means… FOOD!!

Coming home from Malaysia with a feverish cold, and my aunt thinks the only way to get me recovered from this is by giving me a good nutrition. It means… FOOD!!

Chinese New Year is coming. And in the CNY Eve, the whole family gathered in my aunt’s home. We had fun and celebration. It means… MORE FOOD!!

The next day, the CNY day… gave red envelopes to little nieces and nephews. More people coming, and now wishing each other health, happiness, and abundance. I know what is abundant… FOOD!!

Seriously, I haven’t gone to see my scale now. I don’t dare to look at the current number lol. But meh… who cares? Not me. Not now.

x ❤ x

The Flight…

I’ve flown hundreds of times. Probably thousands. I can’t say that I am a seasoned traveller, but I travel often and so far… travelling was easy. But this last trip to Indonesia was horrible. It is borderline traumatic, and I can understand why this kind of experience could make some people giving up travelling altogether.

It started with the day I left the UK. My husband took me to Norwich airport just in time when I received this:

When I asked the officer in the check in counter, she told me that she is going to rebook me a flight — she hinted that the next flight from Norwich might be full, as few flights before have been cancelled as well. That’s not good enough, because I have a domestic flight in Indonesia — and that’s what I informed the lady in the counter.

Long story short, I caught a direct flight from London to Jakarta few hours later. KLM paid for the taxi that took me there. Good enough, it was just tiring.

Then I got a bit of problem entering Malaysia when I went there to visit my friend. Apparently my passport’s quality is so poor that scanner couldn’t pick the barcode. The Malaysian immigration officer told me that many passports made in the Embassies has this problem.

Not a big deal, really… But I don’t like being sent to a special room, waiting for my passport being investigated.

Anyway… This holiday in Malaysia was awesome. Like Indonesia, Malaysia has an interesting and rich culinary culture. Going there with a local is definitely an advantage, because I could get to eateries where only locals would know about. But I will talk about Malaysia a bit later.

The last part of the trip is this flight back to Norwich. I received THIS, when I was waiting for transfer in Amsterdam.

Wait… Okay, I have to say that it is funny. It is annoying, and it is tiring, but the text was definitely funny. However, I could not just laugh out loud in front of a bunch of angry people. That is not cool.

KLM got me rebooked again, and it is fine. I mean, if the problem is the weather, then there was not much the airlines could do. But I have to say that I don’t like the other airport I was sent to. I am talking about the immigration gate.

I know… I know that they need to be extra careful for some reasons. I can understand if they need to be more thorough with everything. BUT, I don’t think that they need to be intimidating and rude too. The immigration and security officers in Norwich are far more humane, and polite, and kind. They do their job without having to humiliate people.

You know what? I can understand every single words they’re talking behind the immigration gates. When they giggled and mumbled about “so many immigrants”. Oh yes we do speak English, and some of us even speak English better than they do. The officers in Norwich never did this. They might talk about us, but at least they have the decency and professionalism not to let us hear it.

Anyway, that immigration bit is the worst part of the journey. The bus ride home was bearable, although I did want to go to the loo, but the bus toilet was out of order 😦 See? Holding my wee for 3 hours was more bearable than the 5 minutes in that immigration gate. That’s how traumatic it was.

I am glad I am home though…

x ❤ x

Chinese New Year 2017

First of all, I would like to thank everybody for the warm New Year wishes. I apologise once again because it seems as if I have abandoned this blog for far too long. Like I said on the earlier post, I am still in Indonesia, and — surrounded by friends and family — it is hard to find an alone time where I could sit down and write.

But here I am…

The year of rooster…

Chinese New Year in Indonesia used to be banned before 1998, as the Chinese Indonesian has been repressed by the New Order regime, under our former president Soeharto. My parents told me that for more than 30 years they were not allowed to celebrate Lunar New Year — which means they could not celebrate their own tradition.

Since the Chinese New Year is now no longer banned, it seems like the Chinese Indonesian have appreciated this celebration more, and no longer taking it for granted. In Solo, for example, we decorated our little “Chinatown” with hundreds and hundreds of red lanterns.

The crowds, and the lanterns…

I have to admit that this year was the first time I went to see the lanterns, although they have been doing this for the past few years now.

People from all around Indonesia came to see this too, and every year more and more crowds gather in this place to enjoy the night view. IF you happened to be in Indonesia or Solo in particular during the Lunar New Year, try to come and see… Not only to see the lantern, but there are also a lot of street food to try too.

Nightime is when the party starts…

Anyway… I am not going to talk about food now, because… really, it would take a whole new entry to talk about CNY food 😀

Last FO Of The Year

I really can’t believe that it is that time of the year again. I am glad though, that I can squeeze in one more FO before the end of the year.

After I finished this project, I have to say that I quite like the result. I haven’t attached the button, but I think mum would like to pick her own button later. I still believe it would look better in a brighter colour, but… oh well…

I will definitely get some photo of her wearing it, but unfortunately it would have to wait until I see her again when I go to Indonesia for the next visit.

Anyway…

Just in case anyone would love to see some photos I took from my Christmas visit to Wales. Here are some pictures of my in laws small holding.

I have to say that the place was so beautiful both when it was sunny, and when it was frosty. My husband and I have been talking about the possibility of us to move over there. First, it would be nice to live in a countryside. And, second, it would be wonderful if we could live near the in laws, as they have got older, and it would be easier to keep an eye on them if we live nearby.

Who knows I would be able to have my own sheep, and produce my own wool?

or some mohair, or alpaca, or angora…

Oh well, that’s an idea to think about, isn’t it?

Anyway…

I might not have time to post anything until next year (which is only a couple of days from now), so I would like to wish you all a festive and joyous New Year, and a wonderful adventure for the year ahead.

See you soon.

Love,

x ❤ x

Mel