Luica’s Blog

There are some amazing views from different rooms of my office. Being surrounded by Victorian red-brick houses and being close enough to see both the London Eye and Big Ben, I am always watching out for the right light/time to take interesting cross-processed photos.

Although it took me a coupe of attempts to get the composition and light right, I am quite happy with this. I like the typical LOMO vignetting, the colours of the blue sky contrasting with the red-brick chimneys. I also like the dark shadows of the buildings.

After living in Hong Kong for 25 years and having never seen snow before the age of 21, I am always excited to see snow. Even thought it would have been nice to have had a white Christmas, I still had fun sliding down Alan and Mary’s driveway with only an inch of snow two days later.

It was a beautiful snow scene where I live, with the red brick walls contrasting the white flakes (sorry - it is not the beginning of Snow White!) My mum would be so pleased to see it snowing, althought I am not too sure if she could cope with the cold.

A present from my office secret Santa - a tin of Jelly Belly beans.

I was messing around with my 350D last night and took some shots of my favourite sweets. Toasted Marshmallow and Buttered Popcorn are the best flavour and Blueberry Muffin (two Blueberries and one Buttered Popcorn) is my favourite recipe. Brad likes the Juicy Pear, Dr Pepper and Cherry, and can never be bothered to follow any of the recipes.

Well done to Brad, who made a perfect Christmas dinner (with a little bit of help from our head chef Mary) in our tiny little kitchen.

The chicken (none of us were particularly keen on turkey) was tender and juicy; the stuffing was tasty; the roasted vegetables were sweet and excellently done, and of course the gravy (my little contribution to the dinner) was just right!

The organic Christmas pudding wasn’t exactly my favourite dessert but Mary loved it so much that she said she would eat the rest (which is half!) for breakfast tomorrow morning. I heard that it is nice when fried in butter, but I don’t think I will find out for real some how.

Mary and Alan are staying with us in London this year, after having spent Christmas in Newmarket for the past 35 years.

They arrived on Christmas Eve and we had a nice but simple dinner - pasta with cabbage, pine nuts and bacon, and of course plenty of drinks (Port and Lemonade for Mary and me, and various Ale for Brad and Alan).

We enjoyed Catherine Tate’s Christmas Special. Brad and I exchanged our first present at mid-night. I am already reading the photography book today and Brad is yet to try his Hugo Boss stainless stell shoe horn.

We didn’t get up until 10am on Christmas Day and we started opening our presents before noon. Brad got me a Crumpler photo bag - Bunny Man 002. The leather gloves I got him was a perfect fit - size 10 hands are huge!

Mary and Brad are busy cooking Christmas lunch now and I should better give them a hand soon.