Fishy business

We went to visit the Billingsgate fish market last Saturday. It was the first real WET market that I've seen in the UK, and sold all manner of fish and seafood in bulk. Since it shuts at 9am, we left home at 6am (!!) and braved the cold just to see what they had to offer -- and boy, did they have tons!

It's one of those places that caters to larger scale buyers (so the smallest qty they sell is 2kg of any item), but we went with some friends whom we split the loot with. We bought salmon, crab, red snapper, giant scallops, huge prawns, etc... Doesn't sound very impressive if you live in Singapore, but trust me - seafood (fresh and large stuff esp) is quite a rarity in London, the land where "jumbo king prawns" are just the size of your little finger... All in all, it was quite an interesting excursion, but not something we're likely to do regularly. Nevermind, the stash in the freezer should last us for a while yet =)

Christmas this early?

We decided to start setting up for Christmas a little bit earlier this year, since we'll probably be quite busy nearer the time. First to go up was the tree (fiber optics ones are the best - it took just 20 mins to set up!). Now there are 4 pretty huge pressies under the tree, no prizes for guessing whose they are.

As I'm sitting here now, there's Christmas music playing in the background, which is quite pleasant. Sigh.. I do like the feel of this time of the year, and with all the forecasts of a long and cold winter we might even have a white Christmas (for once!).

In many ways, it doesn't really matter whether we celebrate it early or late -- what's important is what we're celebrating, the birth of Jesus! "O Holy night, the stars are brightly shining, it is the night of our dear Saviour's birth.."