Leeds Castle, Kent Day 1: Arrival in London

 

Recently, I've been trying to clean up stuff on the external harddisk and I came across a London folder which documented my trips to London. 2 years ago, I blogged about my virgin sales conference experience in London. I was privileged to be invited the following year, when this appeared in my mailbox:

 

We'll be heading to a castle, how cool is that! I couldn't wait for the dates to arrive. It was then back to the usual routine and before I knew it, it was the day of departure for London. Leecher accompanied me to take a cab before he scooted back home to catch up on his TV shows, lol! This Leecher super not romantic one, he doesn't send me to/fro the airport. In his words, I can find my own way home, lol.

Breezing through the departure gates. Hunger pangs hit me even though I had dinner with Leecher earlier before heading to the airport. A visit to Burger King for their Mexican drumlets to curb the hunger, before washing it down with jasmine green tea.

Walking around after the meal to aid with digestion, by heading the duty-free shops for shopping :) 

 

No makeup face to endure the next 12h flight; hence I went to the toilet to apply some moisturizer on my skin so it won't be dry on board. I have a bad habit though - I don't reapply moisturizer once I'm on the plane, which is extremely bad (I know!) for the skin since cabin air is so dry.

   

I took the red-eye flight to London, so we'll land early in the morning. As it was drizzling during departure, our flight was delayed for a couple of minutes. Nevertheless, I was all set and ready to doze off :) 

 Always a pleasure to fly with our national carrier. I do kinda miss the flying days now that I'm not traveling frequently for work. 

I miss inflight food! Beef stew and potatoes + vegetables to start the night/morning. In the past, I will usually be on movie mode to catch up on all the movies that I wanted to watch. Nowadays, I will be catching up on sleep instead, only waking up during meal times and toilet breaks. 

The lovely view outside :)

As we slowly approached Heathrow, breakfast is served. Even though it was 4AM, my appetite was so good that I polished everything off the plate - even the bread, lol! The muffin was so yummy that I was craving for 2nd helpings but decided to curb my sugar intake. I did saved the cereal for snack later, in case we needed to wait around the hotel for the others to arrive. #dontwastefood

Peeped through the window and saw that we will be landing soon. Meanwhile, I'll just have to endure the sun rays piercing through the windows while I catch up on more sleep.

Yeah, finally landed. I was glad to be up and out, giving my body a good stretch after being confined to a tiny space for 12h. We met up with the HK team since I had made arrangement for airport transfer. We calculated that it would be cheaper to get a private car rather than the hassle of airport express + cab. Our driver was already waiting for us and we walked to the car park where the car is located.

Cruising to the hotel while the rest of us slept (what's new!) in the car. The whole journey took close to 1h due to morning jam. It was close to 9AM when we arrived at the hotel. There was only 1 room available for early check-in but Clarins allowed us to use her room to freshen up. Shower, here I come! 

❤ ❤ ❤ Read the rest of my London-Kent Castle adventures here ❤ ❤ ❤
① Leeds Castle, Kent Day 1: Breakfast & Shopping in London
② Leeds Castle, Kent Day 2: Hello, Leeds Castle
③ Leeds Castle, Kent Day 2: Stables Courtyard 
④ Leeds Castle, Kent Day 2: Team Dinner   

The Jitches Adventure in Malacca: Conquering Jonker Street

Before we switch over to gloomy Monday again, I'm back with another Malacca entry and also updated 4 other K-dramas under the list *pats back for being so hardworking over the weekend but ignoring the pile of to-be-ironed laundry, heh* Hunger pangs hit us as night approached. We headed over to Jonker street, which came alive during evening as the entire street will be lined with vendors paddling their goods. 

  

We were so hungry that we literally ran to the first food stall and bought 2 mini durian puffs to calm the tummies before they started to protest in union. One bite and it was gone. Nevertheless, nothing fancy to shout about as the durian filling was more watery than creamy.

Deep fried squid which was so yummy; best for sharing. We roamed the street with snacks in hand while taking in the sights. There were a lot of stalls selling cheap accessories, especially earrings. Qian started to rope everyone in to buy so we can hit the quota, lol! 

 

Towards a corner of Jonker street, there is a food street selling lots of hawker food - zi char, noodles, fried kway teow etc. We managed to grab a table, ordered lots of food from various stalls and ate to our hearts' content.

Besides the above, we also ordered spicy lala and stingray. We asked for extra chilli but the end product was still not-so-spicy, much to our disappointment. Nevertheless, it was quite satisfying to see the table filled up with food and us polishing it clean a couple of minutes later. #eatingmachinesontheloose

 

Let's eat & grow fat together, Jitches! 

Jonker Street
Jalan Hang Jebat, 75200 Melaka, Malaysia

 Read our Malacca adventures here:

Malacca 2014: 5 things to do in Malacca  

The Jitches: Journey to Malacca

The Jitches Adventure in Malacca: Hotel Courtyard @ Heeren and Asam Laksa at Jonker 88
The Jitches Adventure in Malacca: Snacks & Pastries in Malacca
The Jitches Adventure in Malacca: Geographer Cafe 
The Jitches Adventure in Malacca: Breakfast, Chicken Rice Balls and Heading Home  

Sunday Brunch: PS Cafe at Dempsey

 

 If I had to pick one cafe that I will head back, PS Cafe @ Dempsey will be on the top of my list. My first visit here was way back in 2009, where we had our Christmas team lunch together. Fast forward 5 years later, I'm still working with the same company but minus 2 other colleagues who left the company for other pastures. As I'm typing this, I recalled that the pri-school gang celebrated one of my birthdays here as well. So this marked the 3rd time I'm heading back to PS cafe, which is considered an achievement given that I rarely revisit cafes. 

 

Heading towards Kaiwei & Yanni's house to pick them up for our double date, but the main agenda was to celebrate Yanni's birthday.

PS Cafe offer both indoor and alfresco seating options. If not for the sweltering heat, I would gladly jumped at the option of sitting outside to enjoy the scenery. Thus, we joined in the queue and waited for approx 45 min before we got a table indoors. It's a pity that they don't take reservations for weekend brunch at this outlet :(

Handwritten menus has a certain charm over me, especially when the handwriting is so neat & tidy! Their dessert counter is strategically located at the entrance of the cafe, aimed to attack the dessert bugs in all of us, lol! 

 Gigantic slices of cakes are displayed on cake stands. With a wide variety of cakes on display, ranging from carrot cake to butterscotch cake, my personal favourite is their signature double chocolate blackout cake served with dark chocolate sauce. It was a pity that we were too full from our brunch that we didn't get to order desserts :( Well, there is always next time!

  

We finally got a table and immediately placed our orders.

  

 Hot Chocolate for me, as usual.

 

Well, I can't really recall what the rest ordered for their drinks but it looked like Passionfruit French Fizzes and banana milkshake. Leecher had his daily brew of coffee which I concluded it wasn't worthy of a pic, haha.

 

Kaiwei & Yanni.

We literally over-killed ourselves by ordering 1 main each and 2 side dishes. OK, I admit I ordered 2 mains as I was so famished that I thought I could finish everything. Leecher gave a skeptical look when I ordered but I brushed him aside and insisted on ordering my items, haha. 

Instead of my usual eggs Benedict order, I opted for Blueberry & Banana Pancakes, which was blueberry pancakes topped with caramelised bananas served with fresh whipped butter and maple syrup. I'm definitely not a fan of bananas, so that got distributed out before I started eating. The pancakes were slightly fluffy and chewy, which was how I liked them to be. 

An item from their daily special menu - Eggs Benedict on crab meat patty, served with salad by the side. We spotted this item on their chalkboard menu and Yanni decided to head for this. It was certainly a good choice, for the crab meat patty was really good. The 2nd dish that I ordered, Homemade Toasted Muesli - greek yoghurt and berry compote topped with homemade almond and seed, honey-toasted museli. I wasn't expecting a gigantic bowl of museli, lol! Leecher was literally giving me the how-are-you-going-to-finish-your-orders-stare which I kind of avoided and felt like kicking myself in the ass, haha. 

 

No visit to PS Cafe is ever completed without a plate of their PS Truffle Shoestring Fries, tossed with truffle oil, grated parmesan and parsley. Best for sharing! 

PS Brunch Burger, served with wagyu beef and US chunk patty topped with gruyere cheese, wilted spinach, crispy smoked bacon, tomato, crispy onions, herby mayo and fried egg on a toasted sesame bun with PS fries and aioli. This is one huge serving of burger that even Kaiwei was struggling to finish. Leecher headed for Corned Beef Hash - homemade corned beef with crispy potato skins, grilled onions, chilli capsicum, cos and toast with a fried egg and homemade tomato relish. Leecher was pleased with his dish apparently for he didn't even leave some for me to try, boohoo! Well, I shall forgive him on that since I was struggling to finish my food, lol!

 
A trip to PS Cafe never fails my (food) expectation, for I'm sure we all added at least 1cm to our waistline after the meal, haha! A lovely place and quality brunch food options, I'm sure that we will be back again in the near future. 

PS Cafe at Dempsey

28B Harding Road

Singapore 249549

Tel/SMS: 9070 8782

Note: No reservations for weekend brunch