I have always wondered what it would be like inside a floatation tank. The very fact that one hour’s float is the equivalent to four hours’ deep sleep is enough to appeal to almost everyone I know.
Our house in Cheltenham – or ‘Chelty’ as I alone like to call it – has been rented out, unfurnished, for the last six years while Mr Changmoh, Cost Centre #1, #2 and I have been living in Sin(gapore). We have now reclaimed it – for a short while at least – and holed up here over the Christmas holiday. Cue a massive online shopping spree for beds, sofas, tables and chairs before our arrival in mid-December.
Following copious research – well, a bit of light Googling – and after finding myself sitting next to a lovely auctioneer at a dinner party (CL-O, I salute you) I discovered that you can pick up a bunch of beautiful antique furniture from around 200 auction houses across the UK online at unbelievably good prices. As Cheltenham is not going to be my permanent home, not sinking a fortune in to furnishings seems to make a modicum of sense. Read More
Before hotfooting it back to Singapore shores, which I reached last night (is there anywhere better to be in January? I don’t think so; it’s lovely to be home) I popped up to London for a few days to stay with my sister and meet her darling new arrival, my new nephew, Jago.
She knows that I don’t get much chance to don a pair of skates in SG so – as if she didn’t already have her hands full – rather sweetly planned a skating trip to Hampton Court Palace in Richmond, not too far from Barnes where she lives and where I’ve been staying.
We tried to get a slot on the Somerset House rink but it was rammed. In a way, Hampton Court is more spectacular and skating under the shadow of the Tudor front of King Henry VIII’s palace on the banks of the Thames wasn’t a bad way to go.
I don’t know if it’s because I love the story of Hansel and Gretel but I am very partial to a gingerbread house – especially at this time of year. I like looking at it more than I like eating it but most of all, I love decorating it.
Right on cue, at the very start of the festive season, Cost Centre #1 and I were asked to the Shangri-La’s gingerbread house Christmas workshop just before we left for Blighty:
In truth I didn’t get much of a look-in on the design front, “Mummy, this is MY house. Stop interfering.” Which is almost enough to make me want to do it all over again.
Thanks to my sister’s creativity on a rainy day, now I can.
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I’ve just arrived in Blighty for the Christmas hols. The last week or so was a blur of packing, provisions and purchases.
The Provisions Bit: We are good friends with our immediate neighbours who are in possession of a strange thing called a dehydrator. It’s basically a sort of giant heater (rather like a hairdryer) that dries out almost any type of fruit that you put inside it to a crisp crunch.
It looks like this:
