Sesame chicken and not-so-udon noodles

Today I decided to brave the cooker again and go on another culinary adventure using a recipe I found for sesame chicken and udon noodles. For one thing I didn't have any Chinese leaf, which sucked because I used to love it as a kid. So I had to swap that for regular lettuce. I also couldn't find any udon noodles, which is probably because I didn't venture far enough into china town, or even into the area at all so the noodles became regular egg noodles. The recipe came out rather nicely, i even put in effort enough to toast some sesame seeds. It's sort of minimal effort for a nice presentation too, just pile everything in according to the recipe. It took a little longer than it said on the recipe to make, but that's probably just because I'm not the greatest or most practised cook in the world, and maybe something to do with the fact that I kept having to check and re-check the recipe to see if I was doing it right.

It was nice, the chicken seemed a little unhealthy as it was fried and the peanut rich sauce was amazing but tasted like it had evil amount of calories (high calories = yum) but this was all balanced out by the healthy veggie salad. Mmm!

Burrminghum

Today I broke my must-not-make-any-impulse-purchases pact in Birmingham. It's not often I get a Saturday off so it's always fun to go out and investigate the more pushy/shovey side of shopping life which happens to fall on a weekend. I made the mistake of going to Muji. Every time I visit this shop I make complaining noises about how against mass production and overpriced designer items I am, yet still every time I find something to buy. I've been eyeing up a stamp set there for some time, lucky for me and my bank balance they hadn't got any, so I settled for a little fine line pen in purple.

I also made the mistake of saying, "oh hey let's go to Selfridges, you know, just to look around". I bought a jar of Fluff and a couple of boxes of Hello Panda biscuits in strawberry and chocolate. I also discovered an entire stationary section with owls on everything which was just proof that retailers see me coming from a mile off. I bought a notebook (of which I have almost an entire bookshelf worth) and a set of stickers (I love stickers, I have piles of them).



I also (again) made the mistake of walking into the Bullring. One of the stores had an entire window devoted to the promotion of Gwen Stefani's new fragrance line from her Harajuku Lovers brand. There are 5 little bottles with a little plastic dolls as a lid. They are all very different fragrances which seem to really reflect the personas of the doll. One is Gwen and the other four are her dancers Love, Angel, Music and Baby. I chose Love. It's a nice smell, sort of fruity and flowery at the same time. I want Music now. Lucky for me these are only around £12 a bottle!

All in all I only spend around £25 on random purchases, none of which I have regretted, so maybe I'm getting better at this? If only there weren't so many things I want!

Oscar

>.<

手 のひらサ イズの ぬいぐるみ!

First things first... it snowed today! And the UK as always had grinded to a halt. The transport network is in bits, and even TV presenters are taking snow days leaving everyone else to pick up the pieces! Of course this gives me the chance to show of the capabilities of my new shiny camera. This was taken through a window on the easy setting. It takes the picture almost instantly, which is better than the other camera which took around 2 or 3 seconds to open and close the shutter after the button is pressed. Here's my back garden, excuse the mess!

I'm guessing this must mean that my Japanese studies have paid off? My certificate came in the post this week - I am officially certified for level 1 Japanese. That's about the level before GCSE. I'm wishing now that I'd taken it to level 2 because I would have had a GCSE equivalent! Just in time, I saw this amazing Japanese nuigurumi book on etsy for a mind blowing price, and decided to try to find it elsewhere for less. Only having the cover (with Japanese title) to use as a reference, I got my geek specs on and quickly translated the title. The cheapest site for Asian books (although with rather frustrating customer service from previous experience) is always yesasia.com, alas they are out of stock. I'm not one to sit around and be patient while they restock. I found out you can enter an ISBN into BookButler.co.uk and it will search 115+ shops for the lowest price. Of course there are no shops that stock the book which is kind of the story of my life! Anyway, it looks like I'm going to have to fork out the £25 on etsy if I want this book any time soon. :(