Merry Xmas

Merry Xmas!

I was quite upset about the fact that my Secret Santa swap parcel hasn't arrived yet -- I think my partner probably still didn't have chance to get it sent before the holiday. I don't know what happened. But I can understand there must be something important or serious coming up which makes her impossible to make a trip to PO. I just hope everything's fine and she's doing alright.

Anyway DH got two days off before the Christmas Day so we did spend some quality time together.

We had a very lovely "post-winter solstice celebration dinner" in Gaucho on Wednesday night. They certainly have the best beef steak in London, almost as good as those we had in Buenos Aires two years ago.



On the following day, we took a lunch cruise from Embankment. I have been living in London for 1.5 year now but it's my first time to cruise over the Thames -- I am trying to live like a local and such cruising sounds a bit too touristy. But touristy or not, indeed it's a wonderful experience to appreciate the scenery on the riverbanks while enjoying festive Christmas lunch.



Since Embankment is so close to Waterloo, I naturally took a quick detour to I Knit. I didn't buy any yarn though but just got what I need: another pair of 2.75mm circular plus the winter issue of Spin Off magazine. I am planning to knit more socks this year and want to do 2 patterns simultaneously to avoid SSS.



Then we went to John Lewis to shop for Secret Santa gifts which we were going to exchange with some other friends on the Christmas Day. I picked two little boxes of very challenging puzzles.



DH picked a Maze ball which he adored and almost found it difficult to part with.



On the Christmas Eve, we headed out to Westfield pretty early to do some last minute Christmas shopping. I managed to get two pairs of cord pants from Marks & Spencer, plus some skincare products from Boots. Then we found the newly opened Lego Shop where we got some brick box and figurines.



We then went to Chinatown to have yum cha (Dim Sum lunch) and dessert with another friend. After that I took a little detour to Mitsukoshi bookstore. My new friend Eva is the one to blame. After she brought me to this Japanese bookstore, I am totally hooked and it has now become a regular spot to visit whenever I am in the area. I love Japanese knitting books. They have very stylish photos and have everything charted clearly and logically. But the books are quite expensive. This booklet (size similar to Rowan booklets) costs about £15, a bit over my budget. Guess I can have a pass... at least till my next visit.



On the Christmas Day, we went to a friend's place for a Christmas dinner. Interestingly, when he told us that party would start at 2pm, I thought we were going to play games or scrabbles or whatever till 7pm when the dinner really started. We were quite shocked to see a table of food ready when we arrived. Oh the British Christmas Dinner actually IS a Christmas Lunch.Friends and relatives treat it as a traditional gathering and start eating around noon till evening or whenever. That's how the lunch also becomes a dinner.



We just finished packing and I am leaving to Egypt in three hours. We will spend 9 days there and come back on 3rd of January. Am bringing my Java programming textbooks (the electronic versions that I can read on Kindle!) with me as I get three homeworks due by 15th of January. But I am also tempted to bring something to knit along on the road. Hum... Maybe a pair of mindless vanilla socks? Or my all time favourite Swallowtail or Ishbel?

Alright. Should try to sleep for two more hours before leaving home. See you all in January.