I was so stress and nervous about my job interview on Friday. For the 40 minutes, I gave my presentation on ‘create ownership in the ward and change nurses’ culture on research’. I am quite please with it as I managed to squeeze all the content into 5 minutes. Following that is 13 scenarios that include anything that can happen in the ward. When I came out of the interview, I was confident that I will get the job. My manager rang me that evening and told me that I was successful. I was quite concerned on my performance as I knew they have got 2 vacancies and there are only me and another applicant. I want to get the job because of my ability and not other reasons. She said I got 25 out of 26 marks in my interview and I felt so proud about it. Being a team leader means so much to me. I still remember those times when my family doesn’t want me to be a nurse by various reasons. I said to myself, I will prove them wrong one day. William said my personality and confident change so much since my nursing training, I know there are lots of challenages in front of me, but I will try my best to fulfill the role as team leader

Got free ticket to go to London Red Bull Air Race today. I was allocated the standing area along the river in West Silvertown. It turned out that we were given free upgrade to the Grandstands Seat which worth £50 per ticket. We were all given a mini Union Jack to support the British pilot and the Mexican Waves were so much fun. The show was fantastic and will definitely go again next year if we got free tickets again.

Surprise ..surprise. The weather is good today as a change. Me & William decided to go to this well known Whitstable Oyster Festival near Canterbury. We went to Whitstable for seafood few years ago and this time the town is full of life and culture. There are lots of performance, craft, music and food stalls. The first thing we had to is the oyster stall where it is only 50p each. It worths every single penny as the oyster is full of textures. We had 1.5 dozens, winkles, crayfish and half a fresh crab. They are so fresh and juicy. Of cos like any other time, I came back with tummy cramps. I am sure it is nothing to do with the seafood but just me. Nevermind, it is all sorted after a few tablets.

Eight Jewels duck is a famous Shanghai dish that involve taking the bones out of the duck and stuffs it with glutinous rice and many other ingredients. There are are not many restaurants in Hong Kong or China selling them nowadays and most of the restaurant require pre ordering. I have never try one before, so the following recipes may not be authentic but I can ensure you that it is very delicious.

1) First of all, try to take out all the bones of the duck carefully. I am not sure if there is an easy way of taking the bones out without damaging all the skin of the duck. I usually start from the neck and use a pair of scissors to cut off the meat from the bones. I prefer to use scissors rather than knife as I found it easier to control. You have to be extremely careful on the first stage as you cannot afford to make any holes on the skin. Once there are holes, it is almost impossible to stuffs the ingredients in without any leakage when steaming. One of the best tip I can give you is try to put your hand right inside the body of the duck and use your fingers to separate the meat from the bones. That is the only way to ensure you are not breaking the skins. The whole de-boning procedure takes me an hour the first time and half an hour the second time.

2) Once You take all the bones out (apart from the wings and the legs), put them in boiling water and prepare it as broth.

3) Soak 2 cups of Glutinous Rice into the prepared duck broth overnight.

4) Marinate the inside body of the duck with Ground Ginger, Chinese Five Spice, White pepper, Sesame oil and Chinese Rose Wine (I don’t have any exact amount and you just need to be more creative). You can then marinate the out of the duck with Chinese Rose Wine and Dark Soy Sauces (You can marinate the duck overnight).

5) Cut 2 pairs of Chinese Sausages, some Chinese Ham into dices.

6) Soak the Lotus Seeds, Chinese Mushrooms and Dried Scallops into water.

7) Stuffed the body of the duck with the dices of the Chinese sausages, Chinese Mushrooms, Chinese Ham, Lotus seeds, dried Sclloaps, soaked Glutinous Rice and some prepared duck stocks. Make sure you leave plenty of space in the duck cavity for the Glutinous rice to expand.

8) Use either long Bamboo / Metal skewers to sew the neck and the bottom of the duck. This is to prevent any ingredients leak out when steaming.

9) Steam the duck on the wok for 3 hours.

This year, I have decided to book a feast at home rather than going to the restaurant. We went to Billingate’s Market 1830 and bought two lobster, crabs and prawns. The lobsters were live and I need to ‘prepared’ = killed them in at home. It is rather messy as the lobster still jump around after you cut it into halved. But it is all worth it as it taste nicer than the one in the restaurant.

I have been involved with a charity called Cancer Equality by chance. They are trying to produce a booklet on ‘Coping with eating difficulties when you have cancer for Chinese patient’. Last year the charity has produced a booklet for African
Carribean patient and had massive positive feedback.

My role as a volunteer in this steering group is to liaise with Chinese cancer patient or their family, provide professional information, designing and proof read etc You may be asking why I ask for your help as you may not have suffer from cancer personally. We have been having great difficulties to find Chinese who has suffered from Cancer so that they cancer provide first hand experience on their problems with eating and diet while they went through treatment.

I would be very grateful if you know any Chinese patient who are willing help us. Please forward this email to them. Their identify will be anonymous. Thank You.

Having picnic in Greenwich Park is one of our favourite activities in summer. There are free outdoor Brass Band Concert twice a month in summer. Me and William has decided to go for a picnic with Futing & Alice. There are lots of families bringing their little toddler to the park. A little girl even had a nice sleep under the tree with pillow, duvet and her cuddly toy. Having free music,good food and nice weather - What can you asked for more.

Yesterday me and William has decided to tour round London as the summer weather has finally arrived. We head to Borough market for a big breakfast, then walk along the river. Found out that it was the re-opening of Royal Festival Hall. We ended up spending the rest of the day there. There are many free concert, show and dance through this weekend. We went to the Hip Hop Philharmonic Orchestra concert, solo performance of guitar & cello, BBC youth choir of the year and finished off with the amazing strictly come dancing show. All the performance were truly amazing and wish I can still until 2230 to see the Lights & Projections of the Royal Festival Hall.

Summer is coming and is a great time to enjoy London. I have already circle round the few coming festival in the coming months. 21-24th June: Taste of London / 29th July: Red Bull Air Race / 7th-9th Sept: Hay’s Galleria Oyster & Seafood Festival / 15-16th Sept: River Thames Festival.

Just spent a week in Shanghai and it was truly an amazing city. You can see the tallest hotel and fastest train the world next to traditional residential area where they still share the bathroom and kitchen. Which is the real Shanghai? My impression of the city is crowded, chaotic, wealthy and energetic. My quality of life in Shanghai has massively increased as I can take a taxi everywhere (around £2-3), can go into a restaurant without seeing the price of the menu and can have a massage everyday (only £4 per hour). There are lots of opportunities for entrepreneurs and Chinese who educated abroad. For me? I will go wherever is best for my family.

I have been randomly selected as the juror in Old Bailey and was prepared to attend the 2 weeks jury service there. I was quite scared when I received the letter as I never been to court and don’t know what to expect. All I know is cases in Old Bailey are quite serious.

The whole morning was wasted as there are lots of hanging around. Me and 30 other jurors were called into the court. I can’t remember when was the last time my heart was beating so fast. Since the case will be around 2 months instead of 2 weeks. We have to tell the judge if we can commit to it. My names have been called and I went to the judge and explained it will be very difficulty for the ward if I am away for a long period of time. He wasn’t quite convince my ‘important role’ and put me on standby. Funny enough my GP was in the same case as me and he was on standby as well. The best excuse of escaping from doing that case is if you had a prepaid holiday. Can you believe it?

At the end, they have found enough jurors for that case so I was released. I was quite disappointed, as I want to be a juror in a small case for 2 weeks. Never mind ….will see if I am lucky enough to be selected again.