myLife: October 2007

The third continuation people......I will TRY to post the final one as soon as I can :)

Day 13: UK

Ahh.............Back in London. How refreshing. It was a cold morning which was really nice coz I was startin to get really cross with Spain's extremely sunny weather. I think too much heat had gone into my head back there. Anyway, we went to LSE coz Grace had some appointment there before walkin to Primarks at Oxford Street for some cheap buys. There were loads of really nice and affordable clothes and accessories there. The amazing thing is that they all come from rather respectable soundin brands such as 'Cedarwood State', are of good quality and are cheaper than Giordano or Bossini in S'pore. I couldn't really spend much time there though coz I had a sour stomach and needed to grab a bite a.s.a.p. So we left and headed to Chinatown for some crispy noodles before walkin back to LSE (which is at Holborn) to check out Grace's medical screening. After everything was settled, we walked back to Passfield for a quick rest before makin our way to the British Musuem which was juz like 1 street away?? It was closin by the time we got there so we juz browsed around its souvenir shop before goin to Trafalgar Square. The musuem has an extremely interesting ceiling, so I made sure I snapped a few pics of it before I left ;) Trafalgar Square was not as lovely or clean as I thought it would be but it was good enough for me, so I juz walked about snappin pics here and there. There were some I think middle or high school teens that kept waving to someone from their bus. And I was so stupidly blur that it took me like a couple of mins to realise that they were actually wavin at me. For what reason?? That one I don't know. But they seemed to be quite a nice lot, smilin and wavin and givin me the thumbs up and stuff. Unfortunately, I was so stunned that I juz turned my back on them. Quite a rude gesture from my part come to think about it, but I was juz so unamused back then. After everything was done, we decided to visit the famous Hare & Tortoise at the Brunswick which is just opposite Russell Square station, for dinner. Its this little eatery sellin Malaysian, Singaporean and contemporary Japanese food and it was always so crowded durin lunch and dinner time that even an hour of waitin wouldn't get you in there. And that was exactly what happenned to us. So after half an hour of waitin outside in the cold, we decided to take-away instead and bring our dinner back to Passfield. I had a fabulous Penang Prawn Mee while Grace had a Curry Laksa Bee Hoon. A huge portion of delicious food for only around 5.5 pounds per dish, no wonder the eatery is so popular.

Passfield Hall's frontside and the view from our room window

the musuem's fascinating ceiling

Trafalgar Square and a light show event

Trafalgar's surroundings

the Brunswick. This interesting mixed development complex juz opposite Russell Square station.

Day 14: UK

Went to the British Musuem first thing in the mornin (after breakfast of course) and saw the free exhibitions and write-ups on Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome and Pre-Roman Italy. It was so interesting. I could spend the whole day there actually if I wasn't so pressed for time. Gave the Egyptian one a miss though coz I never really favoured Ancient Egypt as I always viewed them as rather creepy. Took bus 168 bound for Hampstead Heath to Primarks coz we were all a lil lazy to walk and did some shoppin there again. I bought these 2 really nice sweaters and a white belt for only 15.5 pounds!! That would be arnd s$46 which is a steal considering their brandin, quality and design. I juz love the products there coz they are so cheap and yet so good!! There were like these shower creams for sale for only 1 pound ( arnd s$ 2.9) and their names juz make them sound so crisp and divine (I wouldn't buy them though coz they sound a lil too feminine to me but oh still so nice names). Lilac Crush, Pink Sorbet and Coconut. I was really impressed at the way the names make them sound so captivating except Coconut which sounded rather plain, I would have gone for the name Coconut Cream or Coconut Butter instead. If only they had like an Ocean Blue Sorbet, that one i'll buy :) Went to Pret a manger aft that to grab some takeaway food to bring to the nearby Hyde Park for a nice lunch by the lake. It was a great day!! Strong winds, dark skies, a cold air temperature and sprays of light, fine rain every now and there. The perfect London weather. Not like my first day in London from Singapore where I almost died because of the stupid heat!! It was to Buckingham Palace after lunch. Not much to see there but still interesting. There was this group of German university students there whom were so noisy that I was openly annoyed with them. That was until one of them approached me and asked if I could take a pic of them. I grudgingly agreed and stood up. There were so many of them that I almost fell backwards trying to include all of them in the pic (I was standin on elevated ground with my back towards the stairway which was goin down). After a few pics were taken, all of them thanked me and started clappin and cheerin for me. Weird but a nice gesture I guess. Thats when I realised that they r actually a really nice bunch of ppl who happened to just be a bit too noisy. Sigh........I guess I have to be a lil less judgemental in the future. Anyway, after all that, we made our way by the Tube from Hyde Park Corner to Notting Hill to visit the Portobello Market. But it was closed . So we juz strolled around and took in the sights of this lil classy London district before buyin some dark chocolates at Tesco and some cutleries and plates at the Woolsworth nearby. It was a mad rush back to Russell Square aft that coz we wanted to go back to the Hare & Tortoise for dinner and we were dying to beat the dinner crowd. I ran ahead and guess what?? I made it!! :D I felt so fulfilled. It was to Waitrose aft din to buy some cream and strawberries followed by Russell Square's Tesco Express for this really cheap choc cake. We were plannin to make this really great dessert that we learned from Aunt Alison. A simple choc cake or roll doused with thick fresh cream and littered on top with fresh English strawberries, simply orgasmic. The Tesco cake tasted bad though. It was really sweet and had a rough texture. But I wasn't surprised coz it was not exactly small and was topped with frosting and choc curls for only 1.82 pounds. Obviously quality had been compromised.

aww............so Londonish

The British Musuem, exterior and exhibits

the gardens adjoining to Hyde Park

Hyde Park and its lake

me at Hyde Park. It was a very windy day

some questionable vegetarian sushi for lunch at the park. Followed by this yummy hoisin duck wrap which i didn't take a pic of :(

Buckingham Palace and the marchin of the guards

Notting Hill

an interesting way of display innit?? At some pizza joint in Notting Hill

Hare & Tortoise interior

Day 15- UK

Today was one of the more relaxin days.......Basically went back to Aunt Alison's house at Claygate to pick up the stuff that we left behind. We first made our way to London Waterloo as usual and bought 2 day tickets. One for unlimited rides from Claygate to any London terminals and one for unlimited rides from any London terminals to Claygate. After we bought the tickets, we realised that the next train that stops at Claygate leaves in 2 minutes and is at Platform 3. We were at platform 10 or somethin so I was like RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had to cross 7 platforms in like 1 1/2 mins!! We made it though without breakin a single sweat even though I was wearin a jacket coz the weather was so cold and dry. Sigh........why can't we have such nice weather in S'pore?? Bad luck I guess. So anyway, we boarded the South-West train which was terminating at Guildford. Claygate was one of its stops though along with a few others like Clapham Junction, Hinchley Wood, Surbiton , Effingham Junction and London Road. So Peter was at home and helped us with the packing when we arrived which was greatly appreciated. We gave him our gifts after that includin a wallet that aunt Rose and Grace got for Phillipa as a belated bday gift from the Champs-Elysees, a blue picasso scarf from Barcelona for aunt Alison and a stack of assorted canned terrines that I got for the family from the village behind the Sacre Coeur in Paris. We left aft that and made our way back to the station. While waitin for our train, I decided to take a quick detour to the nearby Sommerfields to buy this Lyon's Chocolate Swiss Roll which we were goin to have for dessert tonight and a Mars muffin, which I wolfed down in the train on my way back to London. In London, we went back to Passfield and dumped our stuff before takin the Tube to Camden Town. It was quite a horrid place from my point of view. Interesting but horrid. It contains shops like those found in Far East Plaza which are spread out on a seemingly former industrial wasteland settlement filled with loads of people who either look like thugs, goths, voodoists or secret society members. Now I know why Andy said that it was shit. Its like the total reverse of Surrey in the worst possible way. After constantly being on guard and visiting its many street markets which are interesting although it still gives me the creeps, we went back to Passfield for a simple dinner. Instant Korean U-dong with some minced pork and veggies cooked in the dorm's kitchen and a dessert of chocolate roll topped with fresh strawberries and smouldered in double cream. How heartwarming :D

Camden Town and Camden Market *shudder*

me lookin retarded :p

dessert's rundown:

cake- Lyon's Chocolate Roll (pre-packaged) from Sommerfields

strawberries- fresh English strawberries from Waitrose

cream- reduced fat double cream from Sainsbury

Of course it wasn't as good as aunt Alison's one. But she got her chocolate roll fresh from a baker at Weybridge!! But it was delicious enough though. The cake was dry but cocoa-ish and the buttercream inside was excellent. Rich, oily, smooth and sweet . Everything buttercream should be ;)

Day 16: UK

I was so desperate to see the sea that we booked 3 tickets online the night before to go to Brighton (yes I know that I saw the sea less than a week ago in Spain but I wanted to see it again!!) Anyway, we woke up at 6.45am to catch the Tube from Russell Square to London Victoria where we boarded the 9am bus bound for Pool Valley station in Brighton. This cute (but a lil nerdy) university girl sat next to me in the bus and soon, she was fast asleep. I wouldn't really complain if not for the fact that after a while, she was leaning so much to my side that her head was pressing me right below the shoulder. It was a really heavy head too and the sunlight that was shining in reflected on her blonde hair and went straight to my face. It was a royally awkward and a tad annoying situation. After a while, I was like 'Ok I know she is cute and I don't want her to have a bad impression of me, but if she doesn't get her head off my arm on the count of 10, then I will do it for her' Thankfully, the bus hit a bump at that moment and she woke up, moving her head in the process of course :) 2 hours later, we were in Brighton and 10 mins aft that, we were at Pool Valley station, our stop. Went straight to the beach coz it was like juz a street away (yeah I know many good things are juz a street away durin my trip lol) and walked towards Brighton pier. The pier was interesting, it contained loads of stands and stalls selling ice cream, confectionary and seafood and a huge room which contains an arcade, a jackpot corner and the toilets. We walked along the beach after that and I wandered off in front to do some exploring while the other 2 lazed behind. The beach is an interesting one coz its a pebbly beach unlike the common sandy one. This means free acupressure everytime you lie down and no need whatsoever to brush off any sand bits on your body when u get up after that (coz there is no sand) We spent almost the whole morn and afternoon on the beach except for an hour or 2 when we wandered into the shopping streets further inland. There is this really amazing shop there that creates all types of chocolate artwork and confections such as massive rocky roads and solid chocolate ballet shoes. Lunch was a very Brighton fish n chips by the sea as usual comprising of freah haddock soaked in batter and deep fried, thick chunks of homemade fries and mushy peas sprinkled with salt and malt vinegar. After lazin arnd and explorin the beach some more, we took the 4.30 bus back to London. The evening back at Passfield wasn't so good. Lets just say we were cooking in the dorm's kitchen again when the fire alarm went off. It was really noisy and blared through the entire building. Everyone started running out and many emergency switches were activated so u have stuff like the rollers coming down automatically at the reception area and so on. Worse still, I thought it was us who triggered it (and a few others). The fire brigade came and so did the police makin loads of noise as they whisked in. It was juz so nerve wreaking. I was like 'Uh oh........we are in serious trouble' I know it sounds trivial but it was a major MAJOR scare for me. When we left the building and made it through the courtyard towards the main entrance of Passfield, we found swarms of people from Passfield outside. One guy was even in a singlet. Thank goodness it wasn't us who triggered the alarm but some girl on the 3rd floor who burnt somethin and started fanning it. Whew!!