Busy week!

I've been pretty busy since my last exam!

On Thursday, I needed to get some stuff from Boots, and remembered that there was a Jessops at Canary Wharf right next to Boots, so I went there to get my stuff (I spent £22 on hair items! Well, admittedly, that included shampoo) and popped by Jessops to ask for a charger for my battery. Sadly, they didn't have stock on hand, so I'll have to go back later. The guy at the store said there will be stock later this week. Maybe I'll go on Friday or Saturday after exams?

Anyway, Mel and I decided to meet up for an afternoon of shopping and a quick dinner. We had a late lunch at BK, and spent like an hour just sitting there and chatting before we finally went shopping. x_x I can't believe I spent so much money! I bought two £50 dresses and a load of hair accessories.

The dresses are really pretty!!! Both are sleeveless (straps are slightly thicker than spaghetti straps), and one has a white background with light turquoise, dark turquoise and dark-ish pink patterns. There's a strip of light turquoise at the waist, where a ribbon is. Even Patrick said it looked nice! The second one has a red bodice and a red skirt with cream flowers. The upper border of the bodice had a strip of cream edging it, as well as a strip of cream at the waist where there is a ribbon. Once I get my charger, I'll put on the dresses and take pictures to post!

Even though we'd had lunch only 3 hours before, we still decided to have dinner at 7pm anyway. We went to Chillies and had a nice dinner of steak (Mel's), and fajitas (mine). We wanted to have dessert too, but felt too full. I needed to buy some baking stuff as well, and thought that Tesco's might have strawberry essence, so we stopped by before hopping on the train home. *sighs* Too bad there wasn't any strawberry essence... Does anywhere in England sell it??

Anyway, we went back to my flat to pick a yukata for Mel to wear on Saturday, as we were going to the London MCM Expo (I meant to post about it but just plumb forgot). We ended up talking alot, and she finally went home at 2am (OOPS, I really hadn't meant to keep her here for so long!) but we picked out my new Uniqlo yukata that I've posted before somewhere (too lazy to find the link now). It's red with white and pink bunnies and carnations, and a yellow obi. We also had a practice session of putting on yukata. It was fun!

On Friday.. I didn't do much. I just studied mostly, but was suddenly inspired by something (I honestly don't know what) to go grocery shopping, so at 8.15pm, I ran out to Waitrose and was back within 25mins (Waitrose closes at 9pm btw). OH I remember now!! I got my taiyaki pan, so I wanted to get ingredients to make taiyaki with. Too bad I forgot to buy the adaptor, so I couldn't even use the pan in the first place! (Btw Ling, once I read the instructions manual and figure out how to clean it without zapping myself, I'll make some, take pictures and send them over!)

On Saturday, Mel and I had actually planned for her to come over at 9am, but because of public transport trouble, she ended up reaching here at 10am! Not that it matters, cos I woke up late anyway :P I managed to do my hair and "make up" (read: lipstick and gloss) and put on my yukata and obi before Mel arrived, so when she came, I just put her yukata on her and packed my bag, then washed some grapes and preened a little. Then we went to Waitrose to look for nail polish remover wipes and water, but ended up getting only the water.

We took the bus to Shadwell station, only to find that the DLR wasn't on from Bank/TowerGateway to Canary Wharf/Poplar!! So we took the bus to Blackwall and took the train from there to Custom House, where ExCeL is, which is where the Expo was being held. It was packed!! Seriously packed!! Loads and loads of cosplayers, although most of them were Naruto or Bleach cosplayers. There were kids cosplaying too!!!! *squeals* SO CUUUUUTE!!!!!!!

Mel and I spent alot of time queueing - waiting at the cash point to get cash, waiting to get tickets.. Oh that reminds me! There was this guy cosplaying as Jack Sparrow! He looked SOOO accurate, albeit his hair was slightly too light. Great cosplay! *hearts*

When we finally got into the convention, it was super packed x_x Lots of people everywhere! Not many Asians, but still a fair few. Lots of stalls selling plushies and merchandise - I was sooo tempted to get a few, but they were expensive, so I settled for only a Chocobo plushie (from the Final Fantasy series, even though this one was labelled as from FF7) and one of the black cat from Kiki's Delivery Service. CUuUuuTEeE!! I'd also gotten a book from this seller, called the "Gothic and Lolita Sewing Book". Mel mentioned she had one issue of the magazine, but only my issue had the sewing bits in it! *yay* Lucky me! I'd only bought it because of the sewing patterns and tips anyway lol.

I hope Mel had fun! She seemed fairly enthusiastic, especially at the DDR competition thingies, but she didn't want to do it in a yukata (quite understandable).

I didn't stay there the whole time, so at about 4pm, we went home. We took a cab from Poplar, and stopped outside Waitrose to buy ingredients for dinner (well, lunch, really). I cooked my favourite spaghetti recipe - spaghetti with prawns, lemon, chilli, garlic and rocket. I'll post the recipe later! We also had a raspberry trifle for dessert. We were so stuffed!! Especially since I cooked a little more pasta than what the recipe called for (it calls for 400g pasta, but they're sold in 500g bags, so I just cooked the whole lot).

James happened to see it and commented that it looked "just like the magazine picture! =^_^= A great compliment, that is! He also mentioned how fast it took to cook. I don't know if it's just because I've gotten alot of practice making this, but it takes me only 15 to 2omins to make it, including preparation time! The sauce cooks really quickly - in only 5 or 6 minutes. I use fresh pasta, so that takes only 3 minutes and is done the same time the sauce is. Anyway, yeah, I told him to take what was left in the bowl (which was one small portion) and he said it tasted nice and fresh. Yay!

After dessert, I washed up the dishes, and Mel and I lay about, talking. We eventually moved to my room and watched anime while waiting for some files to finish transferring to her iPod. After that, she went home, and I studied for a bit before I went to bed.

Patrick came to London today. Only thing is that it's a Sunday and Bank holiday weekend, so there weren't many trains out of Shrewsbury! He ended up having to take a train to (somewhere I don't remember) then take a train to London Paddington from there. The whole journey took him about 5 hours!

Also, I was late in going to greet him, as while traffic was better than I thought, there were so many people at each stop that we had to wait a full minute at every stop! We took a cab back, though, so it wasn't bad at all coming home. I cooked dinner for him, since he was feeling really tired (he'd only slept at 7am - party at Auntie's last night!). Dinner took about an hour in the oven, so to sate his hunger in the meantime, I toasted bread and served it with pork liver pate. Patty loved it! I loved it too - I've always been fond of that bloody livery taste even as a child. Patty hates liver in pan mein, but I remember I always took his portion of liver hehehe.

We had roasted lamb with a redcurrant glaze (I bought it in a ready-to-cook pack from Waitrose yesterday. Mel was craving for meat, but by the time we were done with dinner, we were too stuffed to eat it!), baked potatoes and rocket salad with homemade lemon vinaigrette.

I didn't really follow any recipe for the vinaigrette, I just sloshed together 4tbsp olive oil, 2tbsp rice vinegar, 2tbsp lemon juice and seasonings (i.e. lots of pepper) and whisked it till it was nice, thick and saucy. It still tasted not bad with the rocket, but I still think I should've used that honey-mustard dressing I wanted to try but couldn't cos I didn't have mustard.

The potatoes were good! Even though I'd baked it for a shorter time and at a lower temperature than what was recommended, it still turned out really soft and its texture was almost melt in the mouth! We had a potato each, and Patty used an ungodly amount of butter on his. I wonder why the heck he doesn't put on weight!!!!!

Yeah, he looks even skinnier now. I had him try on that men's yukata I bought for him ages ago, and it fits him perfectly, but he's just too skinny. FEEDING TIME!! Tomorrow, I'm hoping Misato is open so I can bring him there. He can demolish his plate while I eat half and tapau the rest.

Anyway, this post is getting waaaaay too long, so I'll stop here and post the spaghetti recipe next. G'night people!