coffee and cheesecake

london 4.49pm 13C sunny friday 2019

i have just come back from having coffee and cheesecake at the john lewis 5th floor canteen at their oxford st store. i used the voucher for it so i get it free. on the way up there was an old lady also going there, and she too have a voucher. it is valid from 1 May. its a nice treat.

on the way down in the escalator i saw one of the floors was the kid’s floor and they are selling croc shoes. many people say they are a fashion disaster, but i actually like them, and would like to have one, but all the sizes are kids sizes. they dont sell adult sizes anywhere anymore. at least i have never seen them being sold in adult shoe stores. they are quite pricey even the kids shoes, about £26.

they are made of plastic so i guess they too will come under plastic pollution and be condemned i bet as a pollution item.

yet they are ideal for walking in a wet warm country (i am thinking of a country like malaysia, one in the tropics, where it is warm, (and so u can wear them without socks and any rain water can drain from them, as they are full of holes aren’t they?) and prone to rain, and floods, and also great for trekking in the countryside where u might have to wade through rivers and streams.

i googled them and it seems you can buy them online for £33 adult size, £19 kids size. but another website are selling these but not the croc brand for £6, £10. i think of them, but i doubt i will buy them. haha. i will continue to wear flip flops. 

added 5.27pm light raining now, 13C

how to change your duvet cover

london 3.05pm 11C sunny wednesday 2016

this method seems very easy to do and takes the hassle out of changing your duvet cover. she rolls the duvet bolster -like and then evert the duvet and roll it out right side out. 

though i have my own method which i have been using all these years and it is quite a quick method , much quicker than this one , it does require some dexterity and a bit of strength, esp as my duvet is a king size double duvet, two duvets in one, and is thus quite bulky. it is bulky but quite light, being made of down and feathers. 

i turn the duvet cover inside out, and then reach inside right to the other end to the two corners, and then through the two corners grip each corner of the duvet and then flip the duvet cover over the duvet and let it roll over and down the whole duvet. and that is it, all left to do is to button up and flap the duvet so that everything settles inside the cover. it is very quick unlike this folding of the duvet into a bolster… 

Digital StillCamera

Digital StillCamera

day of the dead celebration at the chelsea school of arts, which is near the tate britain. i happen to pass by on my way to the tesco, and on the way back saw a bit of this projection on the facade.

this morning i went to see the nurse in my gp practise for a checkup. they offer this checkup to any one of their patients who are 40-75yrs old. i have been getting quite a lot of phelgm and a chronic cough for some time, the phelgm getting more noticeable but did not feel i want to bother the doctor about it.  it seems rather trivial.

so i was rather glad that they have this checkup to give us. the nurse seem to think it serious, she told me i should see the doctor, and also to get a resting blood test. luckily the receptionist told me i can see the doctor now, as there has been a cancellation. so i am glad i dont have to wait. the doctor sent me upstairs to get an xray. this branch seem to have quite a lot of departments for testing. which is great as it saves me having to make another appointment with the hospital to get the chest xray. and the nurse told me to give a sample of phlegm which i try to cough up and drop it off at the box for them to test it.  so i am rather glad that i am being seen to and so quickly too. the xray will take a week for the result to come back. 

well, i felt quite unsettled after the appointment, not so much for myself but thinking about how health and bad health can really make a person feel very sad. esp as after the checkup i read a post by garfield hugs talking about the pain she is having. she seldom talks about the pain, so this one must be real bad for her to mention it.  i know how sad it makes me if i have loved ones feel pain or suffer bad health because there is nothing we can do about it to relieve that pain. i wish i got a magic wand that i can wave and make pain disappear. though i do am aware that pain is a good indicator of something going wrong, and so can be an early warning. but long term chronic pain is something else entirely. 

anyway, i remembered i have the john lewis free voucher for a cake and coffee  and it expires soon, so i decided i shall cheer myself up and go to their sloane square branch where they have cheese cake. their other branch in oxford st dont have cheese cake and i fancy cheese cake for some reason. so here i am sitting in the top floor cafe, under the skylight which is bright with the setting sun, and a grand view overlooking london and on the other side looking down the air well, with their christmas hangings. 

Digital StillCamera

Digital StillCamera

in a way it is just as well i dont get a lot of these free vouchers for free cake and coffee. they are just full of suger and not very healthy. but the few times i get them is just right, enough to make me enjoy them butnot that often that i get unhealthy amount of suger in me.

the store is putting out its christmas decorations for sale. amazing how every year they do this and there are still customers who buy them. i would have thought people would have built up a huge amount of these decorations and can reuse them every year so that there is never any need to buy any more. but it does not work that way. maybe just as well there are so many willing to buy them every year and keep the profits coming and make businesses still stay open instead of closing. 

experiencing

london

You heard of the advise that u seek experiences rather than things. so u spend money on experiences like holidays, or travelling, or hearing a concert, or musical , or play, or seeing a cinema film. people say experiences last a lifetime of memories, whilst things after u acquire them the novelty rubs off quite soon.

maybe this advise do not apply to buying a chromebook (or laptop) as it enables me to experience lots of things on the internet. so right away i can prove that buying things can be worthwhile so there is an exception to that advise.

Anyway, i thought i shall get the experience of going to a cafe and having a cake and coffee just like what so many experience all over this city of london and which most people enjoy everyday. I thought i shall see what it is all about as i have not done this for ages. i felt it was not worth the money.

 a few days ago on the day i received the john lewis vouchers for free cake and coffee in their cafe, i redeemed the july voucher and had my first free cake and coffee with them at the oxford st store.

(today i read that oxford st has the highest recorded amount of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in the air of all the places in the world. oh dear. am i worried? should i be? how dangerous is nitrogen dioxide? nitrogen is the largest amount that constitutes the air we breathe.  wikipedia says nitrogen dioxide has an acrid smell and is a intermediate product in the production of nitric acid. but when i ws in oxford st i did not smell anything acrid in the oxford st air. they said the high amounts was caused by  the NO2 spewed from the engines of the  buses that jam up the street everyday. )

but lets get back to the cafe experience. well, it is a nice experience, though i will be happy to get it once a month using the vouchers rather than everyday. i suppose it is the location too which enhance the experience. i am sure it is more of an experience to have that on a sidewalk table in paris, say, or even along the old compton st in soho than up on the 4th floor in john lewis, even though u can chose a window seat and look out over the roof tops.

 i had cheesecake and a cappuccino , though the cappuccino is not really like a normal one. not frothy enough. it would cost about £6 i think. it is an average price for london i think. not really worth it if i have to pay that but can’t complain if it is free.

There is no wifi in that cafe so there was nothing to make u linger there, unlike a side walk cafe. I am not the only one using the voucher. a elderly couple were ahead of me and they handed over the voucher expecting it to apply to both their cakes and coffee but of course it did not. it only applies to one. but they also selected sandwiches and barquettes for lunch so i guess the aim of the free vouchers has been fulfilled. it is to bring people to the store and to the cafe and hope they will buy lunch there. The cashier showed them a voucher meant for two, but theirs is like mine, and it is for one.

maybe for my next voucher redemption i shall go to their store in westfield stratford and see if they have a better selection of cakes and coffee there. it is also redeemable in the store in kings road, in chelsea. That is a much posher store, so maybe their cakes and coffee is much better. 

Talking of experiences, there is the one about watching a football match on tv. last night was the life broadcast at 9pm on my tv of the brazil -germany match. quite a shocker , simon was watching it, and he told me germany scored 4 goals in quick succession. it must be quite a sight to see, though i missed it. haha;. i dont mind. but it must be terrible for the brazilian fans. after that i had a look in, and i can see the brazilian players were just demoralised.