I have to admit...

It took me a while to get used to London.

See, there was a time when I could relax. When my head didn’t ache, and when I had nothing to worry about aside from what to wear for the night. But times have changed.

This was my first real vacation after 4 years of using days off for flights home. It dawned on me upon arrival how I’ve forgotten how to relax. When was the last time I didn’t think this much? When was the last time I felt calm?

To be fair, the city itself hasn’t changed from when I left in 2004. My memories of London were none other than fond ones. As a child, I loved that a pound could buy me candy, comics, and even more candy. It was like a SUPER dollar. Studying abroad there was one of the best decisions I ever made. I had a good mix of BU dorm mates who frequented the hole-in-the-wall bars openly discussing politics with the locals, and friends at London Universities who took me to the fanciest of clubs and other secret places known only to Londoners. With the former, I saved many a pound and learned just enough to pass PolySci. The latter? Indulgent and delicious to put it simply. I remember drinking mojitos made with freshly crushed raspberries at GBP13 (hardly ever paid for by us girls) and going straight to work the next day with a cardigan over my clubbing gear. What else could a college kid ask for?

I was in heaven.

Now 4 years later, as Suen and I hit the same bars and even fancier restaurants, I wonder what it is about me that isn’t so impressed anymore. Is the air more polluted since I was last here? Or did I just not notice it then? Did the quality of the cocktails go down? Or have I just gotten used to the ones I still complain about in SF? Bourbon & Branch didn’t seem as good as the London cocktails I had before, yet I longed for their signature elderflower martini. People seemed impolite and the service was lacking – big time. Was I really standing in line for 10 minutes on a Fast Check Out lane? How long more to go before I pay for This Water?

Have I grown out of London?

It took me 2 full days and a few $0.35 text messages to the bf to realize how silly I was being. 2 FULL days before I actually let myself enjoy London for what it was. As a friend once said (and received hell from me) "Chillax Danielle."

Now I know where he was coming from.

Down nostalgia lane:

This was the dorm I stayed at while studying abroad


It was located on Queen's Gate to my friends' surprise and right smack in South Kensington, one of the poshest areas in London. If BU was good at anything, it was real estate


London Bridge Station was where I used to stop for work. Each day I'd take in a waft of freshly baked pastry crust and cooked meats. And when I couldn't resist...


...I'd get myself a cornish pasty


This was the PR firm building I used to work at on Holyrood St. They've relocated to Sterling St but I thought I'd stop by to see it anyway


This was where I used to have hour-long lunches. With a view of Tower Bridge and the Thames, it was always hard to leave each time. Now I can't believe I had the luxury of taking hour-long lunches!


My favorite lunch from M&S: a chocolate flapjack and fruit salad with passion fruit. Not surprisingly they still have both items exactly as they did before


I walked by this building near Carnaby St and noticed how vaguely familiar it was. Then it hit me that this was Kingly Club, one of the many clubs we visited in 2004. Funny how the slightest things can strike a memory

Day 3:

That same day, I made a trip to Harrod's


...and managed to sneak a picture of Ladurée for your pleasure. That was before the lady at the counter yelled, "No pictures Madam!" I don't know if I was more shocked at the warning, or the fact that she called me "Madam." Ech


Pretty candy at Liberty London


Milk chocolate tiffin from EAT before dinner. In all honesty, I got it cause it said "tiffin"


After dinner at Nobu, I worked on my laptop while Suen...


...slept soundly

At least for an hour before she woke up and started working herself :)

Quintessentially English

Cornish pasties. South Molton Street. Selfridges. Sunday roast. Oxford Circus. Park Lane. Covent Garden. M&S. Underground. Harrod's. Bayswater duck rice. Treacle tart. Ale pie. Camden Lock. Fish & chips. Tiffin. Caranaby Street. Tuck boxes. South Kensington. Dodgy. Hyde Park. Queensgate. Queensway. The Queen. Kingly Court. Portobello Market. Anise drops. Notting Hill. National Rail. Buttery flapjacks. Oyster card. Afternoon tea. 97. Clotted cream. Wicked. Bayswater. Waterloo. The Thames. WH Smith. Waitrose. Cheers love! Quid. Pound. Pence. Bond Street. Claridge's. Patisserie Valerie. Soho. Ladurée. Fortnum & Mason. Wagamama. Crisps. Topshop. Bangers & mash. Chips. Mews. Sainsbury's. Victoria & Albert Museum. Boots. Wotsits. London Eye. Piccadilly. NatWest. Jubilee line. Beano comics.

Words I haven't used since 2004. And they all came back to me last week in London.


Day 1:

Shopping at Selfridges, Topshop, H&M, etc.


Dinner at the wrong duck rice place...


We thought we were at Gold Mine (where the chef who used to work at Four Seasons currently is) only to discover 3 days later when we went back for seconds that we had the wrong restaurant! Regardless I had crispy duck at Queensway 4 times last week


Quintessentially girlie: masking in the hotel before our night out


With Bliss' Lighten Up mask on


I swear we don't usually do this. Swear on my shoes. ALL of them


Shortly after we left a club to celebrate a friend's bday, we made our way to Milk & Honey

...and so the night ended

Day 2:

English breakfast at a bar. No fussy mimosas or eggs benedict. Just iced cider and hearty meat dishes


Suen and her Sunday roast complete with Yorkshire pudding and mint sauce


My English breakfast. I remember the toasts and tomatoes used to be drenched in oil. This plate was fairly healthy though. Ahem


Covent Garden



Softy at Covent Garden



Paul Patisserie for macaroon research


Shoe shopping (for Suen mostly)


This was when we discovered she had lost her credit card


Colorful walls at Covent Garden. Hidden within is a lingerie store that made GBP200 on a corset that day


Suen calling about her CC



From credit card to Candy Cakes



This place was so adorable I couldn't resist getting a cake. The concept is simple. Muffins glazed with candy-like frosting at a royal icing consistency, decorated with candy. I had high expectations only to discover that it was...


...not-so-candy like. Ech. The lady at the cute lil' French store next door told me they were moist and yummy, but they just ended up being disappointingly dry and artificial. For GBP4 I could get better cakes at M&S. Still it was a cute store, so much kudos for that


Afternoon tea at Claridge's


Scones, sticky clotted cream and strawberry jam


Loved the Tiffany-like tea set and cutlery



I was horrid in these shots looking like I was (as Suen said) "scared" or terrified. So this ended up being the best shot despite how I looked like Humpty Dumpty. Shortly after was Indian food from the east eaten from boxes at the Metropolitan Hotel, while Suen worked

More to come once this jet lag passes.

Right down to the minute

5 hours into my flight, and another 5 to go.

There’s really no better time to reflect on life than when one is stuck on a plane, virtually confined within a 2 by 2 feet space. I had opted for the best aisle seat in the house, exit row responsibilities and all, but this one came with a broken entertainment system. Is this a sign? Should I be resting?

I’ve been surviving on adrenaline (in other words caffeine) since Monday, and was still packing when the car came to pick me up for the airport. Endless email chains, client meetings, capability off-sites, project handoffs, and more emails. When work was over, there were other necessities to concern myself over: picking up the dry cleaning, purchasing foreign currency at the bank, checking in with the insurance company, finding the right birthday gift for the lil’ sister, getting laundry out of the way and making sure I had something essentially Californian for a family friend I’m meeting. I slept less than 6hrs each day and felt each night, as if my head was putting up a strike with its painful throbbing.

So what does a girl do in a situation like this? She makes a conscious decision to end it all and accept the fact that there’s nothing much she could achieve once she got on the plane. After all, I’m going on vacation! How could I forget that?

Easily it seems.

If the bf were here, he’d make silly jokes to ease my furrowed brows. And I’d suppress my laughter so as to not give him the benefit of knowing he has so successfully been the relaxed party in our almost 4-year-long relationship. He’d then wrap his arms around mine and murmur, “Try to sleep hon. Just try.” I’d be annoyed at him for suggesting the obvious and scowl as I do whatever I could to keep him awake. Depending on his mood he’d a) frown and reluctantly play cards with me, keeping awake with iced Coke b) stay asleep leaving me no choice but to snuggle up against his chest and sleep in the comfort of his warmth and scent.

I’ve been on too many long flights alone to let myself enjoy this reflective moment. Majority of them came with painful goodbyes, which makes me wonder if that’s the reason why I often dread packing and departures regardless of the destination. And yet when asked, I always say I want nothing more than a job that allows global travel. Perhaps my desire for cultural exposure outweighs my dislike of flights. Or perhaps I have hope that I’d have enough opportunities to travel with loved-ones in the future to outgrow this loathing. I can’t tell.

Right now, I’m so afraid that my shuffle would run out of battery. Since my nano was stolen (2 weeks ago, suspiciously by someone within my office building), I’ve had to live with this teeny spare. It belongs to the bf, neatly tucked away in his “wire drawer” with spare chargers and earphones (still wrapped in plastic!). This makes me smile.

The bf’s an awfully unsurprisingly private person, and having me “declare my love” for him is unnerving, but I really can’t help it. I know, as with every other relationship, there’s always a chance that things won’t work out and that if it were to happen I’d have these archived posts to remind me of the loss. Oddly so, this has always been a fear of some friends, but never mine. In the present, I know that I love him very much, and that I can’t imagine my life now if we hadn’t been together. And if the world already knows, it’s not a secret anymore. It won’t make a difference 5 or 10 years later.

There are so many other things I can list about him and about us that make me smile even more but I’ll save that for now, and savor the moments as I try to sleep just as he would ask of me.

Feeling pink

I’m feeling in the pink today -- not to steal Lilly Pulitzer's tag line or anything.

Thinking back, I haven't bought or worn anything this color since college (unless you count blush). Black, gray, navy, cream, blue, white, and more white. That's been my wardrobe the past 3 years. It's such a lovely hue, I don’t know why I ever stopped. Effortlessly so, it all came back to me during an accidental shopping spree this afternoon.

Jersey pink top with bow on the side. I love the ballet neckline on this, and tried to take a picture of the back but this was the best I could do

Humble spoils of the day


This top makes me feel like I'm in college again: carefree, young, and innocent. And it matches the new Tod's wallet that just came from NY!

Could it be the recent opening of the girlie Sex and the City movie that got me into pink all over again?

The girls and I watched the much anticipated yesterday. First it was dinner at Out the Door, then IceBee for frozen yogurt, then the movie, and finally Cosmopolitans. Most of us thought the movie was disappointing. The script was lackluster and repetitive of the series, and the plot was to me, unrelatable. Regardless, it was the perfect way to spend a Saturday night.

There were SO many girls dressed up for the event, people-watching became an activity. Wendy even told me that in NY, some girl standing in line for the movie took off her flip flops and changed to Manolos. Lol. How funny!


1 last pink goodie: surprise 18th birthday gift for my lil' sis

In the rush of things

uhacktheplanet2: hey ur blog is acting weird..u know that?
daniellechong: no it isn't
daniellechong: y do u say that?
uhacktheplanet2: b/c it doesnt show any post
uhacktheplanet2: it just says "shut down
daniellechong: i did it on purpose
uhacktheplanet2: ok...
daniellechong: it's my way of being a depressed artist
daniellechong: LOL
uhacktheplanet2: NICE!
uhacktheplanet2: I knew u were an artist

That was a friend being supportive of my "creativity," since he saw this handmade invitation. Little does he know, that this is actually the closest I've ever been to being an artist:

Guess who?

In my Sculpey phase of 2007, I made a miniature bf with a tan, spiky hair, glasses, big feet and all. He's also wearing the Fidra Golf shirt I got him! Not as adorable as the real thing, but this will do for now huh?

Today, I took a stroll back from the gym as opposed to my usual sprint. It occurred to me then that I've been rushing through everything in my life. Speeding through college. Graduating early. Achieving a multitasking record of doing 5 things at once (talking to mommy dearest on the phone, making macaroon batter, sending emails, watching 30 Rock, all while boiling sugar). Speed walking through crowds in the airport regardless of my destination. Heck I even run everywhere within my agency.

What is it that compels me to do everything so quickly? Is it the Chinese saying I grew up with harng tak fai ho sai kai (walk faster for a better world/life/future)? Or is it just me wanting to achieve too many things too quickly? It's about time I stop and smell the roses. And London is where I'm going to start.

Organic strawberries, raspberries and peaches over vanilla bean yogurt, topped with toasted almonds. This season's fruits are just amazing. I wonder how much they will be missed