sophia’s travel by night

i am leaving back to portland tmrw. leaving behind very good frnds, and fiona. when will the next time i c them again? seem like the taipei crew has moved to europe. reunions r not easy since every1 is far apart, even tho not really. still for me, i dunno when the next time i will come thru ths area. i'd like to explore other parts o the world still so may b limited in chances o being in london again. still, it's going to b good to go "home" again. def miss the honn's

i just want to say quickly there r mosquitoes in LONDON! killed one last nite, saw 1 ths morning

was sleepless last nite, so instead of tossing n turning in bed, i started reading Eclipse , hoping to fall asleep reading. instead i read 1/2 way thru the book when nicky came by to get me to bed cuz b4 i realized it, it's already 6am! jetlag is bad! tossing n turning again, i finally fell asleep n next time i woke, it's nearly noon. picked up rodney at nearly 2pm n started to head in direction of Arundel Castle , we've not had any intake of food yet, just tea. so we saw a cute village on the way, Petworth , this is a really beautiful n ancient "village". we parked n walked about the windy roads looking 4 food. saw a sign tht looks like potential yummy place, taking us nearly out o the village tho. when we finally found it, we were disappointed to hear tht the chef has just left the bldg. is is nearly 3, all the food services all just ended, only pints r available. so we ended up waiting til we reached our destination. we found tea shop by the river n were able ...

these r products tht nicky uses n i tried it on tht first nite we arrived n going out. i put some to conceal n brighten my dark circled eyes. YSL's Touché Eclat, is a brush pen. n ths other by by Dermalogica, intensive eye repair. it's even better than YSL thingy. i tried it. sometimes, it's nice to b girly. i don't often experience ths.

arrived at London heathrow airport yesterday morning, early, like 7am. tired cuz i hvn't slept much on flt, maybe age has something to do? i just couldn't sleep. i did manage to watch a few flicks on the mini screen in front of me. i do believe if i was given a tv n controller, tht's wht i end up doing on flt, catch up on films. n'way, during the flt, i'd accendently lock myself out of my taiwan sim card. which i did a few days earlier w/my american sim card. so i cudn't get hold o anyone. managed to b met up by nicky n since we'r both dead on our feets, we took our most expensive cab ride ever to Horsham, her hometown (150 quid!) nice sunny day, not too cold. sunny is the important part. tried to sleep a little had pub lunch w/rodney in crawley wnt home to b talked into going to nicky's hairdresser's wher i promptly fell asleep in the shop in sitting position. then we quickly grabbed our chg of clothes to her sister's to chg for girls' nite ...

this is friday morning. sunny n cold out. ther's things to do out ther, pick up my library stuff... maybe if tht purse is still at buffalo exchange? tired of dark heavy clothes. when will it b warm enough yet? back tracking now to yesterday. made the chicken dish from the Breakaway Cook cookbook. it calls for cilantro, mint, rum, orange juice, lime, onion, garlic, cumin, salt, pepper... just to marinade the meats. it was quite amazing, even if the prep took a while, the cooking didn't take too long. n it tasted so amazing! oops, can't take foto to share (no camera/ nor fone) was going to serve it with quinoa, but like so many shopping mishaps i've had, i had bought bulgur instead but all ths time, i had thought i bought quinoa... i guess i was going to buy tht n ended up not getting it for some reason, tho in my mind, tht's wht i remembered i hv... haha! is ok. i ended up mixing jasmin+brown rice to serve. n pea+feta+mint salad goes quite well with the flavors of th...

broke my cell fone, k800i, while skiing. has been a strange morning/day. nothing wnt right. n while wandering alone on the slopes, lost. i forgot my pocket was unzipped n snow got in. as i was using it to connect to my frnds, i didn't realize it was wet. n i forgot to make sure i let it dry completely b4 i try powering on. didn't occur to me all the warning signs... so as i try to restart it, it fried it instead. it's my fav ever cuz it's a fone n great camera all in 1. plus it has most o functions i need, notes, calendar, contact, reminders, etc... but best o all is that when i travel, it's the only thing i need. no need for a camera + its charging cords, extra wt, extra thing to lug around. i debated about iphone. i really love it, everything it's got. but just doesn't hv the camera i come to expect from mine. well, so i debated about 770 like chris has. another great camera/fone. my fotos of japan last fall was taken w/it. quite like it. but it's stil...

i've heard from frnds & on kcrw's good food program about eric gower, the breakaway cook n yesterday, i got my copy of the book from the library, finally! wow, i'm really amazed at how simple everything is and approachable. the ingredients r basic but so amazing. i like the way he writes too. as if he's simply talking to u, like a frnd. i can't wait to try cooking things from it. then i looked online to c about his other book, the breakaway japanese kitchen, it's sold out! so the used copies for sale online r ranging btwn 27-191usd! crazy. but not to worry, the library has 2 copies available to borrow. phew! tmrw. i will try something... prob not hv time tho. going skiing at mt hood.

thurs morning, nearing noon. gray with fast moving, very heavy clouds in the sky. warmer than yesterday. --- i'm sitting here listening to KCRW's in-studio performance of Tyler Bates, composer of the Watchmen film. and updating my fb & blogging... debating if i should venture out to try the lunch at Bento spot i read about or just eat in? tonite is the monthly 1st thurs artwalk in ths town. should b fun & interesting. so, i don't hv a place to show my work but online. so here's my latest progress in learning the method of encaustics painting.... n now i've also (finally) posted a few of the pcs for sale on ETSY.com just as a test. had signed up last yr to sell, but hv been so lazy about it all. then now i'm here... most o t/work r in taiwan or newport, it's hard to fig out wht to sell. ok, the first foto is now the 2nd painting... so much layering n texture tht's not easily seen here as foto. but i'm loving it. altho it isn't as easy a...

in an Oregon monthly magazine (march issue), ther's an article on breakfast/ brunch places in Portland. so we've decided to expand our choices for restos. 1st on my cravings list, was Swedish pancakes, at least tht's wht i thought when i saw the foto n descriptions for Broder Cafe . tho i wasn't very thorough in my reading, etc... it was also serving breakfast daily starting 9am. tht suited us fine since we had a funny sleep schedule last nite. Broder is located in the SE Portland neighborhood. we don't go ther often, at least it's not in my streetcar/ walking distance thing. well, thinking we'd b early enough to miss the sunday morning crowd, we got ther by 9:30 n already, ther's a wait list! Already?!!! i guess many ppl read the same article? anyhoo, the wait staff was nice enough to open up the next door tavern as waiting area so we won't hv to b in the cold. when we finally sat down, i realized we weren't ordering swedish pancakes, but danis...