::L::O::V::E::

it's valentine's day.

probably another commercial day to boost the retail market, the campaign is already on for awhile at the airport. perfume anyone?

 or flowers? how about dutch tulips or bulbs?

 in potsdam, it's the same, a chocolatier at the old town showcasing their love product

even the nature, the ducklings are in love, or it's that just your illusion?  what is love to you.  for you personally the best description of love is taken from 1 cor 13.

love is patient. love is kind. It does not want what belongs to others. it does not brag. it is not proud.  it  is not rude. it does not look out for its own interests. it does not easily become angry. it does not keep track of other people’s wrongs.
love is not happy with evil. but it is full of joy when the truth is spoken.  it always protects. it always trusts. it always hopes. it never gives up.

that said, you really prefer the chinese version of this scriptures (1 cor 13), it's so much more poetic  romantic and descriptive. one of the very first chinese christian songs that you learned in the early days when you first fall in love with Jesus.  today you still love Him. and because of Him you learn to accept and give love.  because God first loves you, now you can love your honey, your one and only.

爱 是 恒 久 忍 耐 ， 又 有 恩 慈 。 爱 是 不 嫉 妒 。 爱 是 不 自 夸 。 不 张 狂 。不 作 害 羞 的 事 。 不 求 自 己 的 益 处 。 不 轻 易 发 怒 。 不 计 算 人 的 恶 。

不 喜 欢 不 义 。 只 喜 欢 真 理 。凡 事 包 容 。 凡 事 相 信 。 凡 事 盼 望 。 凡 事 忍 耐 。爱 是 永 不 止 息

happy valentine's day.  in fact, when there's love, everyday is a valentine.

west.end.london

your original plan for tonight was going to pilates, but a phone call change the plan of the night.  your ex-colleague or rather your ex-manager called and a plan is set for dinner.

 meeting at piccadilly circus.... the happening place in the west end

 and the neon light. it's been awhile since you last set your foot here...

 dinner on him at a parisan style brasseries just at the corner of piccadilly circus or rather the edge of soho

 it's much bigger than you thought, the food is very reasonable, or even cheap in your opinion for london standard.... you weren't hungry and since you can locate a main course salad on the menu, you settled with the fixed price menu...

 carrot salad as starter

 and the minced steak as main, it comes with french fries... the food is certainly not bad and nothing more you would expect for the price of the menu.... the highlight was the bottle of 2010 chablis white wine and that costs more than the meal.  you had a great conversation, mostly about the past and occasionally touching on the current business. not too bad especially when the dinner was paid for ^^.

when you parted with him, you just swing through china town to grab something. and china town is very charming at the late hour, the shops are still open, chinese new year music playing on the background, very festive on the 3rd day of chinese new year.

sans.souci.no.worries.無.憂.慮

this all happened last friday as soon as your course ended at 4pm....

the weather hasn't been kind. it snowed over night and continue snowing the whole day. you finished your course early at 4 pm, sun is about to set but you are geared up for sans souci. you are so close to the palace of sans souci, you just want to seize the chance to get there before sunset and all you want is just a glimpse. a glimpse of this stylish rococo style palace.

so you went, your german colleague told you it's just 5 min walk away, it took you 15 min, 5 min to the edge of the park another 10 min to get to the close proximity with sans souci.

sans souci is beautiful indeed, rococo style architecture and lovely motifs, yellow wall, and you not only got a glimpse but also an up close and personal with sans souci.

you feel safe, there're enough tourists or locals wandering around and so you hike up the steps to the palace, the back view but a better view as you suspected, not just for the architecture but also the outlook to the park, in dusk.

you wanted to locate the chinese house, a prussia interpretation of chinese, but you couldn't orientate yourself, there's no map within the proximity. you tried, but the park is vast and there's not a soul outside the proximity of sans souci.

the snow is getting heavier  you begin to accumulate snow yourself, so you abundant your idea of searching and retreat to your hotel. the last stretch of the journey was unpleasant, snow accumulate in your glasses, your shoulder and your hat. you beginning to look like a snowman.

you made it back to the hotel, albeit accumulated bulk of snow but you're not wet nor soaked. you're glad you went out, and met sans souci - up-close and personal^^

sans.souci.no.worries.無.憂.慮

how you wish you can dwell in the place or a state of no worries all the time. but you know that's wishful thinking and you're really thankful for this trip cum training, an extension of your territory, somehow, some part of you, you are still untamed and adventurous as ever.

::cny::greetings::

it's been on your to do list, but you just didn't get to do it, the last week past like swift seconds. you saw this on a friend's post and this is want you intend to do, to relate the chinese new year 4 character greetings to biblical context. the photos posted here don't have the precise meaning to the chinese greetings. these are just the food you cooked and eat on the first day of chinese new year, celebrated in a very subtle way.

步步高升 Eph 2:6 God has raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.

金玉满堂 Prov 15:6 The house of the righteous is filled with treasure.  you got this snack box from the church today, you also celebrated your pastor's wife birthday and this is an indonesia snack box, you thought the mandarin orange do fit the chinese saying where the orange implies "gold"...

心想事成 Ps 37:4 God will grant us the desires of our heart

万事如意 Rom 8:28 In all things God works together for the good of those who love Him

岁岁平安 Phil 4:7 The peace of God will guard our hearts and minds in Christ

事业有成 Jer 29:11 God knows the plans for us to prosper us and give us a future and a hope

红运当头 Deut 28:13 God has made us the head and not the tail (as a result of Jesus' shed blood)

笑口常开 Ps 105:43 God brings His people out with rejoicing, and His chosen ones with shouts of joy.

it's hard to separate cultural to beliefs, in your case it took you a rather long time to understand what is biblical from what is purely superstitious. you embrace this festival purely from cultural and family value perspectives and the rest you just let it go, knowing that this is just how you perceive chinese new year. it's just a renewal of your mind, an absolute personal choice.

that said, you are going to have an early night for you will be on the road again tomorrow.

happy chinese new year! 新年快乐！

reunion.dinner

you got back in time, arrived at 2pm and the reunion dinner is not started till 6pm.  flight was delayed a bit from berlin, nonetheless you're still ahead of time, to off load your luggage, do the dirty laundry and load your luggage with clothing for next week.

the original plan was a dinner cook up by your mil, but she has been suffering from discomfort foot and it's also coincide with your sil birthday, so it's a double happiness or two celebrations in one occasions.

 peking duck

 steamed scallop

 soup

 lobsters

 chicken dish

abalone mushroom braised mustard green

 mini "pun choy" that doesn't resemble the original pun choy, it's more qualified as a clay pot dish in your opinion

the dinner lasted from 6pm to 10pm, a lengthy one with many dishes.  at the end a tired you, yes, tired from whole week of travelling, tired from waking up extremely early in the morning because you want to check out the park of "no worries" (another story), tired from an hour delay of the flight. tired from lack of sleep....

tonight you just come to realization that despite the same festival - chinese new year, it's celebrated in a totally different way by chinese from different countries and backgrounds. tonight you come to realization that you indeed married to a cantonese family, and celebrating this festive the cantonese way! you love your life, your life have cultural diversity!

::potsdam::

it's been a long journey but you arrived.

thursday was your first full day in potsdam. the training was held in the hotel so you have plenty of time to sleep in and enjoy your breakfast before you start.

with off site training, you are spoiled with endless choices of lunch and tea breaks. the samolina pudding is very good, so as the bite size eclair and cream puff.

your afternoon tea break, a black coffee with a mini donut...

your current company has a very strong masculine presence in the sense that most employees are male, at least in europe. you were glad you are not the only lady in the class.  it's 18:2 including two instructors.

class ended early, so you check out the old town, which is just a nice stroll away

 lovely eatery, you wonder who will sit outside at this time or in fact during the entire winter

it started to snow again while you're strolling through the old town, the snow's light, flowing very slowly from the sky...

the window display of the vintage or curious shop

beautiful restaurant located at the corner of the old town, it took awhile to locate and you're glad you find it.  a bit to feminine to the guys but you insisted and they joined you...

 there's not much of choices on the menu, it's probably only 3 choices for each category - starters - mains - desserts.  for your starter, you chose chicken liver. it's glazed with chocolate, cinnamon and raspberry reduction

 your mains - rabbit rolled with herbs, broad beans and gnocchi. lovely dish but you couldn't finished your plate... you love how the restaurant decorated the dish with dried flowers and herbs.. it's indeed very feminine

your glass of riesling, you actually wanted to refrain from alcohol but the chicken liver is quite rich that you have to wash it down with white wine, so you did have your portion - a glass. it's indeed a lovely evening in germany with french inspired food.

from here, a couple of them went into this pub for further drinking. the healthy ones (including you) headed back to the hotel for a workout session.  for you that's swimming and for other, that mean sauna session or a gym workout.

::spring::festival::greetings::春::节::

it may be a few day earlier, but you just want to take the opportunity to wish everyone who celebrate a very happy chinese new year.

 you baked quite a lot of cookies because the longer you're away, the more you yearn to celebrate the spring festival, the south east asian way.  you know it will never be the same again even if you got the chance to go back during this period, both your parents are now return to the Lord, it's just never going to be the same again.

 but at least you can still create and bake these cookies, which frankly speaking is only the norm for singaporean and malaysian. it's not even something that other countries - hong kong, china, taiwan are used to...

you just do it because it's a reminisce of the festival, of the good and jolly time. and you try to tag each photo with some chinese auspicious words

your very first attempt of ostmanhut jelly (桂花糕), it's not photogenic in this plate and under the room light. you used a fish mould, so it does look like a scary fish, whilst in reality it's really quite pretty if you put it in a white serving plate, it's golden and clear where you can see the ostmanhut flowers and goji  clearly.

happy chinese new year if you don't at the chance to post anything until saturday which is already the eve of new year.

gong xi fa cai 恭喜发财!

p/s: scheduled post. you're very close to a place called "no worry", guess where?

::gelato::

craving for gelato on a cold wintry night. well, it happens sometime....

you drop by here after you are done with your ramen at tonkotsu.  just a block away after all.  it's empty when you arrived

 gelupo has some peculiar taste of gelato. in your cup you had sicily blood orange (citrus), rhubarb crumbly (sweet), ricotta and sour cherry (milky)

 again, it's too big the portion for your sweet life, sometime you wish you could share this with someone and not trash the half eaten gelato away.

 the corner where they sell all the product of italy, may be specifically product of sicily, you wasn't sure as you didn't really take a look at them

the ice cream cart is interesting, you can imagine this cart in action out on the street and your memory travel to the ice cream cart back home where they will ring the bell and you know the ice cream man has arrived the neighborhood and you will ask your mum for small cash and run out to buy a popsicle to quench your thirst. the one in your memory is not gelato for sure, and years later you are now here enjoying your sweet portion.

p/s: scheduled post as you are travelling and will only arrive your destination very late in the evening.