A day gone by..

Well, it's been around 2.5 months since I arrive at London. My brother was asking how come I only post pictures of the fun I been having. Well, I told him there's not much about work that I can post here I guess. Work is really the same. just that life is better. No late hours (sometimes still do of course). But really, there's not much exciting going on. Abit of culture different. People here don't really like to go for lunch with colleagues. Not like in sg, where we always go for lunches etc.

Anyways, went to Camden Town on last Sunday. Took some pictures. It is a big market there. Lots of those small small stalls and shops. And alot of very interesting things to see and buy there. Not that I bought alot of things. Only bought a pair of Aldo heels for £21. Very nice. I like it very much. Makes me feel classy.. haha.. but still feels abit uncomfortable coz it's still new i think.



Alot of food to eat there too. Food from everywhere.. Africa, Greece, Jap, Chinese etc etc.. Had a german sausage and potato and salted cabbage dish. But in the ended i only finished the sausage. Coz the potato/salted cabbage is too salty for me. and the smell is very strong.. although it smells like cai bor, i still couldn't manage to finish more..



Oh, melvin pointed out something interesting to us during the camden town trip. See the above pic, there are 3 levels of water. It's called Locks. Then see the below pic, the second gate had been opened to allow the water to flow in so that the boats can dock. quite interesting...



After that, went to National Gallery to watch a Renoir exhibition, courtesy of Tricia and Ernst & Young. Hee.. the tix costs £12 per person! so ex.. lucky we got free tix from EY. The paintings are simply beautiful. Very nice landscape paintings, and wonderful technique. I find myself appreciating paintings more and more. Never seen so much in my life before.. hee..

For dinner, we went to Belgo for mussels and fruit beer! yummy... never knew there are such fruit beer around.. i had a mango one. very sweet though.. but nice.

we were too excited and finished the mussels so quickly that i forgot to take a pic! by the time i remembered, I could only manage to take the shells.. haha..




in all, quite a touristy day. well, we're definitely still tourists.. there are still so many things in this fascinating city for us to explore :)

Oh, I got my tickets for the Wembley match today!!! so exciting! I'm going to Wembley!!




it's personalised with my name and address on 1 side of the tix.. i can't wait....

but first, I'm going to Austria this weekend! Salzburg and Vienna :) leaving on fri and coming back on tues.. till then..

Trip to Manchester

Over the last weekend, I visited Manchester. Hui Tze, a band friend from NTU, is on secondment to Manchester. So i went and got free lodging! hee.. and free dinner and breakfast too! Thanks hui tze!

Photos of my Manchester trip!

Well, for pple who know me well enough, will know that the highlight of the trip will definitely be a visit to the Theatre of Dreams, aka Old Trafford, aka the home to Manchester United. hee...



I was really excited when we reach Old Trafford.. the stadium is so huge.. even bigger than Emirates Stadium aka home to Arsenal. I went there during my first week in London with my Mum coz it's in London.. but there's nothing much to see except the Arsenal merchandise store. Whereas at Old Trafford, we went for a stadium and museum tour. Well, u can say that they are smarter than Arsenal in earning money.. coz the tour plus museum costs us £9.50 each!

But, it's really an experience. For countless times, i see the stadium, the tunnel which the players walk through to get to the pitch, and the seats where the home team sits at during the match.. and I can't imagine that I finally get to go there one day! And even got to go into the dressing room.. and see their bathing area.. haha.. but the bathing area was out-of-bounds, and of course, the players were not there.. hahaha.. but i was sooo excited.. Hui tze was exclaiming that we actually spent 5.5 hours at Old Trafford alone lor.. haha. from 11am to about 420pm. Amazing right?

Anyways, I like Manchester. Not because it's home to Man Utd. but i find the buildings, urban planning nice.. it's not too old like central london, and not dirty. But of course, there are dirty and old parts of Manchester too. Well, i knew because we went for a historic trail of Manchester city, and got to see some old canals and bridges etc. Really very old, like hundred years old kind. and some are like the world's oldest steel bridge or so they claim.

There's alot of shopping to do in Manchester. But too bad, we didn't have enough time.. but honestly, shopping wasn't one of my top priority anyway.. given the limited time we have, I rather we walk around Manchester and go sight-seeing. But I'm sure I will be back at Manchester. Because I am very determined to catch a match at the Theatre of Dreams during my time in London!!!!!!

Phantom of the Opera

Okay, I declare Phantom is my favourite.



My first time watching Phantom was when I was in sec 2. Haha i kept thinking it was when I'm Primary 5.. but i thought it's sec school coz I rem chunhui selling me her phantom t-shirts... okies so i did a google check and found this article! New York Times

Its an article dated Oct 1994, and it mentioned that "Next year's big social event is the February opening of "The Phantom of the Opera," the Andrew Lloyd Webber megamusical". so = 1995 sec 2 Haha.. feeling nostalgic..

Anyways, although the seats today was abit restricted, me still enjoyed it thoroughly.. didn't yawn during the show at all. The songs are really very nice.. and they sing so well. I'm going to check out all the music stores and buy the CD that is cheapest! hee...

Musicals..

Well, after being in London for some time, how can I ever miss out on going for musicals? so far, i attended 3! hee..

Les miserables



Wicked


Fame



so far, my favourite is still les miserables.. the music is good, orchestra perfect, and singing/dancing brilliant.. absolutely enjoyable.

Wicked was not bad too.. i like the props. But didn't really understand the amazing idea behind the story coz I don't really know the wizard of oz story. but, the songs are not too bad too.

Fame is about a group of young pple learning dancing/music etc in an arts college in New york. They really dance sooooo well.. it's amazing how they have that kind of stamina to dance throughout.. really enjoyable. we had a very good seat.. 6 rows infront of the stage! at only £10!! the best seats and cheapest of all my 3 musicals. wicked was the most ex, and the seats are the lousiest.. but no choice.. huili already went there at 10.05am and still didn't manage to get the good seats coz it's simply tooo popular.

Tomorrow going for Phantom! Hope this will be good. going to cost £35! the most ex after Wicked at £20. I was actually supposed to attend Phantom back at home on 1st Apr. Bought the tix like a few months ago in 2006. Well, didn't expect to be in London back then haha... so in the end, my mum went with my bro and sis instead.. haha..

Shall update u again!

Dublin trip

Wow.. glad to see that there are pple viewing my blog! hahaa... thanks gals.. hope u all are having fun at home too!

Well, me, aijun and melvin went to Dublin over the last bank holiday (ie public holiday in UK). it was not too bad a trip. For the first time, I took plane myself. It was quite interesting. 3 of us came from different places and meet in Dublin. Melvin went a day earlier coz the air tix was cheaper on a Fri than on a Sat. And Aijun went to Belfast before coming down to Dublin. She said Belfast is beautiful. Giant Causeway is nice. So me and huili and also melvin plan to visit Belfast during the August bank holiday.. hee..

Anyways, ya.. I flew from Gatwick airport. Flight was at 10am. I woke up at 6plus am and left home at around 715am. As Gatwick is quite far, I had to take a train from London Bridge station. Pretty exciting.. haha.. coz it's like gg on a real first trip since arrival in London. and by myself!

Click here: Dublin photos part 1

Part 1 is more of our first day at Dublin. By the time we met up around 2pm, we rushed down to the Guinness factory. Me and Aijun were early. We were at the hostel around 12noon.. so we went for lunch with Melvin! hee..

Guinness factory was impressive. They showed us the whole process of brewing guinness. From how they select barley, hop, yeast and the water. There's a mini water fountain in the factory which we took a few pictures. It's nice, with the lighting and all.



The whole showhouse is really quite impressive. Right from the ingredients, to the brewing process, to the barrels, to the marketing, and the final product, a FREE Pint of Guinness on the house! Of course it had already been included in our Eur 14.50 ticket!

And guess what? it's so coincidence that we actually bumped into Hui tze and Elizabeth there, while me and aijun were having lunch. We were sitting in those seats where we can look through the window to pple-watch, and saw them walking past! and they are also headed to guinness! saw them again at guinness.. they left first.. then we saw them again at Temple Bar! and the best thing is, we saw them again at Trinity College the next next day!! Faint... issit coz Dublin is too small? or we're too lucky? haha.. anyways, they also went for a day trip to the same place as us. But well, we didn't bump into them though! haha..

Talking about the day trip, here's part 2:
Click here: Dublin photos part 2

We went on a day trip to Glendalough and Kilkenny. Glendalough is a place with lakes, forest etc. very scenic. It was the location of the wedding scenes in Braveheart. Wonder how many of you has seen it before? Well, I remember I watched it until i slept halfway. haha!

I quite like the place.. scenic with lakes etc.. my favourite. but pity, it was raining slightly.. and was quite cold..



then after that went to historic Kilkenny. It was once the medieval capital of Ireland. The guide said Kilkenny beer was mainly for export, and u can hardly get it in Kilkenny. Anyways, we didn't go around looking for beers coz we were giddy and pukey enough.. mainly me. The mini bus which we took for the day was super lousy! the whole trip was so shakey and unstable. made me so sick and pukey.. and the guide was quite corny.. well, he did try to explain abit of things to us, but he seems to be totally uninterested during the whole day.. and gave me the impression that he would rather be in bed on a Sunday morning. Anyways.. at Kilkenny, there is a very impressive Norman castle. Not too bad. But we didn't go in coz the tours were all full for the day alread. So we just took a walk around the castle compound. Good weather, but also abit rainy.

The last day, we went to Trinity College to look at the Book of Kells. This is an illuminated manuscript produced by Celtic monks around AD800. It's really very impressive.. because it's decorated with numerous colourful illustrations and illuminations. And it makes you wonder how they manage to do that in the olden times.

In all, a good trip.. good company.. but somehow we didn't have time to visit all the attractions. There was still the Dublin castle to visit etc... but i think i wont be gg back to Dublin in the near near near future...

Life in london thus far..

Finally i managed to upload all the pics which I took during the Easter holiday.. hee.. well, we went on a road trip to Stonehenge, Bath, Canterbury and Dover. It was a fun experience.. first time whereby I get to go on a road trip.. and packing sandwiches and making potato salad for the trip! haha..

Check out the photos from the links below:
Stonehenge
Bath
Canterbury
Dover

Stonehenge was the mystical ancient place where the stones were constructed by the ancient people. It's amazing how they actually built it.. with no help from the modern technologies of today. Although it's just a few stones, but personally, I quite like it.. too bad we had to stand quite far from the stones itself..

Bath was a very nice town. Like Stonehenge, it's also a National Heritage site.. with alot of the buildings all preserved and conserved. Well, we were very lucky.. coz when we reached the famous Roman Bath, the guards didn't wanna let us in coz the Bath was closed already. But after walking around, and went back to the entrance, we saw a group of tourists going in! so we quickly went to join the tourists.. and Bingo! we got in, and for free!! haha.. From the pictures, you can tell that the Romans in the past really know how to enjoy life. Such a big bath for them to bath..

Canterbury was nothing much, except for the Canterbury Cathedral, the mother of all cathedrals in UK. It's a magnificent and very well preserved cathedral i must say. As it was Easter, there happened to be a service, and it was also part of our plan to attend the service because the famous Canterbury boys' choir was singing. Hee.. i almost fell asleep during the talking.. but the choir was good.. amazing how boys can sing so well.

Dover is the town where pple cross the Channel over to France. It's by the coast of England. The white cliffs there are magnificent! Can still rem how it looked like when we drove in and I saw the great white cliffs for the first time.. But somehow, my photos didn't really turn out very nice for the cliffs coz didn't really get a good place to take nice photos.. the highlight of the Dover trip was the Dover castle. Dover Castle is also part of UK's National Heritage site. Within the Dover Castle, there lied a very extensive network of tunnels which we went in to tour. Alas, cannot take pictures in the tunnels.. "In May 1940 these tunnels provided the nerve centre for Vice Admiral Ramsay to plan The Secret Wartime Tunnels Operation Dynamo – the evacuation of British and allied troops from the Dunkirk beaches of northern France." - quoted from english-heritage.org.uk hee..

Over the May 7th bank holiday, me, aijun and melvin went to Dublin.. but got to wait for a few more days before i upload the photos.. coz now busy looking for accomodations for my Austria trip in end may.... hope we can find good and cheap accom.... it's always a tedious process to search for accom!!!

Will update soon!!!

London Marathon

On Apr 22, it was the day of the London Marathon. and guess what? My place was actually part of the route!! early in the morning at around 9am, me and shuwen went downstairs, eager to catch abit of the marathon atmosphere. it's almost like a festival kind of thing.. with ballons, banners etc. And the supporters are really very supporting. Including ourselves! we were clapping and cheering. According to shuwen, who is a veteran runner, it's never like that in singapore. Maybe because due to the hot weather, the runs usually start at unearthly hours like 6am etc. So naturally, nobody will wake up so early to go to the expressway to cheer for you. Whereas here, the weather allows u to start the marathon at 9am. And by around 935 - 940am, the first lady runners have already reached my place at Surrey Quays!

Click here for pictures from the London Marathon!!

The runners are all very on! There are so many pple who really took an effort to dress up for the run. Imagine Supermans, Scooby, nurses, firemen, gorillas, paddington bears etc.. it's amazing! Ha.. although it looks fun, but I don't think I will ever take part in a Marathon in my entire life. hahaha....