Questions and answers

my garden

 

Where do you live?

I grew up in the countryside in Thailand, which has the rice field, buffalos, cows and the farmers of course.

Now I live in Southwark area in south London.

Earliest London memory?

one summer we had a lot of sunflowers.

I first moved to London in March 2006 after 6 years in Birmingham. I would say I prefer London than Birmingham because everything so convenient here. I can get on the bus to Oxford circus or China town in 30 minutes. I had a lot of friends from Thailand who live in London.

First thing you do when you get home?

Go to bathroom and cook something to eat and check my email.

What do you collect?

close up with my finger.

I love Shoes and clothes. I get bored easily so I need new clothes and I just need more shoes to wear which depend on the weather.

Favourite shops?

Any charity shops as you don’t have to expect when you will see when you get there. You would find designer stuffs in there in a very cheap price.

Recently, I bought Paul smiths jacket for only £ 3.99 and a pairs of Hudson jeans for £ 1 (reduced).

For fruits and Vegetable, I like to go to East street market in Camberwell road. The market sells a lot of cheap thing. I always buy an oranges for example £1 I would get 10 oranges. 1 kilo of pak choi would cost me about £ 2.49. I love the market atmosphere.

Best meal?

My cooking is the best.

Which building would you like to live in?

The Shard because of the building is too high I would wake up with the sunrise beyond or even sunset on the clear sky I would watch the sky above me.

What would you do as mayor for the day?

No cars day, I think it would be nice if we don’t have to worry about traffic jam.

Ever had a run in with a police?

No

Best advice you’ve been given?

My father says: “ be yourself and respect the other”

What animal would you like to be?

A bird so I could fly.

When was the last time you went to the theatre?

I went to see Rock of all ages it was fun night out

Where do you go for a nightcap?

I prefer staying in.

Have you been on holiday recently?

I went to South of France for a week and I was fun.
my dream I would like to go to Argentina one day. 

Morning frost

It’s getting colder at night and my tomato is dying. I felt sorry for it. I bought some plants inside today for example the lychee, papaya and mango. In a week time I will bring 4 pots of the chillies plant inside. I have to let the tomato die of the frost weather. Oh! Well winter is just round the corner. I have to keep my plants survive from the winter.

Next year hopefully the weather will be better than this year.

Visit my old friends

My Lovely boss

Steph is a funny women

my neighbour as well as work colleague

the boss of the boss

On September 28^th, I had a chance to go back to Birmingham. It has been 7 years since I left.

me and Jo

I went back because of my old boss she has invited me to her retirement party at work. I used to work with her for 7 years at The University of Birmingham in the library. I love it over there as I had so many colleagues around me. It was like I was a baby in the group as I was a tiny girl for them.

My old boss she is lovely and very hard working women. I think she was very proud of me that I had done a good work for my future. I do expect that she is my boss and she was the one who has helped me to get the job. I would say that (in my culture) we had to respect the boss and the older one.

Julia, Sue, Marry and Robert

Anyway, I went there on Friday afternoon by train. I arrived at Birmingham about 12.08 and by the time I get to the party was about 1.00pm. Janet was doing her goodbye speech and there were too many people in the staff common room. I couldn’t even see her at all.  

Brian and I

I gave Janet a hugged when I saw her. I think she was very happy to see me at the party.

I also have seen a lot of my old colleagues and we had a chatted but only a few minutes to each friend as there were too many people wanted to talk to me. Some of my old colleagues was very surprised to see me and kept asking me about my life since I left my work at Birmingham university library. I told them about what has I been in the past 7 years.

It was 2.30 and it was a time for me to leave them to go back to London. I was thinking this is a chapter of my life. I wouldn’t for get them at all. They are still being my friends and my boss. I was very grateful to know them. I would definitely go back to visit them again in the future but I wouldn’t tell when.

I was lovely to see all of you guys. Love you all.

Back to work

I went back to work for the first day after a month off. I knew that all of my colleagues are missing me while I was away. We had alot of conversations to catch up about it. It was nice to be back at work.
At the moment we are getting alot of student and also books. I heard that all PHD student just finished their study and they returned all the books to us. We had tone of books to put back on the shelf.
From Monday next week, I will be getting very busy as all new and old student starting. I am looking forward to it though.

Winter is coming

Brazilian Papaya

Thai herb

2 tomato plants

 11 Lychee trees

Indian Papaya

Ginger

 I will bring some of my plants inside in a few days time. The temperature is dropping fast saddly, my chillie is growthing nice and healthy. I would love to keep them out side but as the cold is coming, they would dies and never recovery from it. I had 4 chillie plants and I afraid I don't have enough space to keep it.

Chillie

Chillie producing a few already

other chillie

The ginger plant, getting big since I growth it in June. I need to bring ginger inside as well as the lemon grass.

Lemon grass

My lychee tree is growthing nice and strong. I try to plant the lychee since March but because of the weather this year wasn't warm enough. The lychee was trying to growth and at the end it about 4 inc. tall. I am going to have 11 lychee plant from seeds. I seed I bought from Asda. 
I will give away some of my lychees to my colleagues at work. I gave away some of my money plants until nobody wanted them. 

a lot of tomatos

My papaya tree is growthing too. I would love to growth one but the one is doing well was the Brazilian papaya. I am still waiting for the Indian one as the plant still very small. 

I had 2 big tomatos plants and they are doing very well. The plants has given us a lot of fruit and still growing strong and healthy. I also has a few small tomato plants in the front garden. I hope it going to survive in the cold winter. 

Last day of my 4 weeks holiday

From Monday 17^th September, I am going back to work. I felt like too much holiday to spend in one goes. What I had done during my holiday since the end of August until mid September?

I spent most of my time walking in a long distance, visited my local library and the market of course.

I also spent a lot of time making breads, cake and other dishes, some of my dishes were not so successful but some were nice. I tried to do the Chinese sweet on one occasion but I found it was too complicated and as well as the measurement wasn’t right from the recipe. It was turned out disaster.

I wasn’t spent most of my time just doing some cooking but also I managed to go out to see a few festivals in town. I love going out and about rather than just sitting at home.

Millennium Bridge

I have been to the Notting Hill Carnival on Monday 27 August. I enjoyed it very much. I took a few videos from my phone and put it on in my You Tube. The festival was fun and we managed to get a nice location, actually it was perfect because we were sitting on someone’s house for hours. We got a very cleared view from the top. The good things was I don’t have to flight with the other spectators for a nice view. The owner is originally from Jamaica and he was very nice old man. He kept dancing in his front door while we was sitting there.

I liked the Notting Hill carnival because of the people, the music and the food.

We were there until 6pm.

    

Waterloo Bridge

South Bank

During the Olympics, We always went for a walk by the river Thames in the evening. We would see a lot of tourists and the local residents around. There were also some lived screens for people to watch by the town hall. The spectators would sit on the grass and having a picnic during that time. I was nice though to see people from difference nationalities around London.

One night, while were walking around there near the London Bridge, we stopped by the Switzerland camp, which was not far from the Tower Bridge. We had some Swiss beers and some snacks. There were a lot of Swiss people there as well as a live music. We usually park our car at the horse statue and walked along the River Thames from there to the London Eye. During summer season there were plenty of performance along the ways. We would stopped by the Scoop to watch the play there but if there weren’t any things interesting to us, we would continuing to South Bank and watch this space, which normally plenty of stuff going on there.

Piccadily festival

near London eye

Anyway, that was part of my activities during the Olympics as well as watching live from television.

Piccadilly Circus

Feather on the ground

On one Sunday evening, I was watching the news at 6 o’clock and I heard from the news reader says about there is a festival in Piccadilly Circus right now. We decided to go there straight after that. It was 7pm. And by the time we arrived at Regent Street everything nearly done. We have seen the leaflet that there is a strange thing going to happen at 10.30pm. We just hang around and wonder what is going to happen in the next hours. Suddenly, on the top of the building, we saw there are a group of people preparing themselves on the top of the building roof. They were wearing clothes like an angle. Everybody just have to watch out from the top. I was fun at the end because they were doing a pillow flight on the wire swinging around in the circus. It was so beautiful night and most of the audience were very happy with it. The pillow was filled with feather and it could be the feather from the ducks. There were so many feathers on the sky like snowing in the winter. There was a man came toward me and he said to me “ Merry Christmas” it was a wonderful night in the summer time. I loved it.

Thames Festival

too many people

This performance was excellent

On the 8-9 September, there was The Thames festival which we also went there to joined the crown. There were so many people and the weather was great for the crown. We went there on Saturday night and on Sunday night. On Saturday the crowns wasn’t as many as Sunday. I found that on Sunday there were far too many people. We were there until nearly 9pm. As we have to watch to closing ceremony for Paralympics. We managed to get some photos of the night parade though.

Anyway, I am glad to go back to work tomorrow.

Paul Hollywood's Focaccia and Pitta recipes

I love Paul Hollywood recipes below;

Focaccia

Make 2, Prep 3 hours and bake for 15 minutes

This lovely, oil-rich Italian bread is great for sharing and is particularly good served still warm with extra virgin olive oil for dipping, and perhaps some salad and olives or antipasti. The dough here is really quite wet, so you might well prefer to knead it in a mixer. However, I’ve suggested you make it by hand because it’s useful to get to know the feel of a good, wet dough and this one is a little more manageable than, for example, a ciabatta.

What you needs;

500 g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting

10 g salt

10 g instant yeast

140 ml olive oil, plus extra for kneading and to finish

360 ml cool water

Fine semolina for dusting (optional)

To finish

Flaky sea salt

Dried oregano

Before baking it.

After

1. Lightly oil a 2-3 litre square plastic container. (it’s important to use a square tub as it helps shape the dough.)
2. Tip the flour into a large mixing bowl and add the salt to one side of the bowl and the yeast to the other. Add 40ml of the olive oil and three-quarters of the water, and turn the mixture round with your fingers.  Continue to add water, a little at a time, until you’ve picked up all the flour from the sides of the bowl. You want dough that is very soft- wetter than a standard brad dough. Use the mixture to clean the inside of the bowl and keep going until the mixture forms a rough-dough.
3. Coat the work surface with some of the remaining olive oil, then tip the dough onto it and begin to knead. Keep kneading for 5-10 minutes. Work through the initial wet stage until the dough starts to form a soft, smooth skin. This is supposed to be wet, sticky dough, so try not to add more flour.
4. When your dough feels soft and elastic, put the dough into the oiled tub. Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise until at least doubled in size – about 1 hour or more.
5. Line 2 baking tray with baking parchment and drizzle with olive oil.
6. Put more olive oil on the work surface and dust with fine semolina if you have some. Carefully tip the dough onto the surface. Rather than knocking it back, handle it gently so you keep as much air in the dough as possible. Divide the dough in half. Stretch each piece out to a flat, even piece and place on a baking tray.
7. Put each tray into a clean plastic bag and leave to prove for a bout 1 hour, until the dough is doubled in size and springs back quickly if you prod it lightly with your finger. Meanwhile, heat your oven to 220 c.
8. Make deep dimples in the focaccia with your fingers, pushing them all the way through the dough to the bottom. Drizzle each focaccia with olive oil and sprinkle with a little flay sea salt and oregano, then bake for 15 minutes, or until cooked through. Tap the bottom of the focaccia and you should hear a hollow sound. Trickle with more olive oil, then cool on a wire rack.

I wasn’t followed the whole instructions but I adapted with I’ve got. For example I don’t have a bread machine, I used my hands to knead and mixed it. My first focaccia was very nice and I loved it.

Pitta Breads

Makes 6-8/ prep 1-2 hours/ bake 5-10 minutes per batch

You’ll be amazed how easy it is to make authentic-looking pitta brads at home. These are delicious when freshly baked, split open and stuffed with good things such as hummus, salad and falafel- or almost anything else that takes your fancy. They also freeze well and you can pop them straight from the freezer into the toaster.

Ingredients

250g strong white bread flour

5g salt

7g instant yeast

160ml cool water

2tsp olive oil, plus extra for kneading

Fine semolina (or extra flour for dusting)

my little pitta bread

1. Tip the lour into a large mixing bowl and add the salt to one side of the bowl and the yeast to the other. Add three-quarters of the water and the olive oil, and turn the mixture round with your fingers. Continue to add the remaining water, a little at a time, until you’ve picked up all the flour from the sides of the bowl. You may not need to add all the water, or your may need to add a little more- you want dough that is soft, but not soggy. Use the mixture to clean the inside of the bowl and keep going until the mixture forms a rough-dough.
2. Coat the work surface with a little olive oil, then tip the dough onto it and begin to knead. Keep kneading for 5-10 minutes. Work through the initial wet stage until the dough starts to forms a soft, smooth skin.
3. When your dough feels smooth and silky, put it into a lightly oiled large bowl. Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise until at least doubled in size- at least 1 hour, but it’s fine to leave it for 2 or even 3 hours. Meanwhile, heat your oven to 220c and put a bake-stone or baking tray in to the centre to heat up.
4. Dusting a work surface lightly with fine semolina or flour. Tip your risen dough onto it. Fold it inwards repeatedly until all the air knocked out and the dough is smooth. Divide the dough into 6-8 equal pieces and shape each piece into a ball, keeping them covered with a tea towel as you work. With a rolling pin, start rolling out the pieces of dough in rough oval shapes, about 3mm thick, stopping with your have as many as will fit on the stone or baking tray with some space in between.
5. Take the hot stone or tray from the oven, scatter with a little semolina, the later the pitta breads on it. Bake for 5-10 minutes taking the pitas out of the oven as soon as you start to see any colour on them. Repeat with the remaining dough. Leave the pittas to cool, keeping them coverd with a cloth as they do so; they trapped steam with keep them soft. Eat within 24 hours or freeze.

 Reference; How to bake by Paul Hollywood 2012 published by Bloombury