my class ended at a little past 12pm (a very good survey course on British history, i must say) and my train was to depart at 12.45pm. and i still had to validate my Britrail pass. marvellous. so i grabbed a prawn-mayo sandwich from Greggs, zoomed my way to Central Station, queued for a while to validate my pass and made it to my platform at around 12.30pm. double-checked, triple-checked if i was on the correct platform, since it was my first time taking the train in UK.

'where are you, i don't see you!' 'where are YOU? tell me what you see around you!'
okay, after 6 hours on the train, i was bored out of my brain. it got interesting when this lady next to me started talking to me about West Berlin & Milan, told me how she would like to have the Singapore Sling at Raffles Hotel and introduced me to her husband from New Zealand 'hey we come from the same part of the world!' but about 1/2 of the time was spent whining to dawen about how bored i was & him telling me how bored he was already from walking around in circles waiting for me to arrive.

after a 3 hour morning bus ride (one which we were asleep for most of the time), we arrived at London's Victoria Station and took the tube down to our hostel - Ace Hotel.


it might be a little pricey, but it was a good experience - the showers/toilets were clean, the people helpful, a bar located downstairs (which i didn't like because everyone was smoking) and dawen and i actually played boardgames one night. haha.


playing the fool at Tower Hill's souvenir shop.


walking along River Thames, we did all the tourist-y things and snapped loads of photos. i really enjoyed the relaxing stroll we took all afternoon, taking in the sights of the floating naval museum, the Tower Bridge, Tower Hill, the Eye of London (all said pictures shall be uploaded to multiply in due time). we also visited Tate Modern and browsed books along the South Bank. lovely, really.


the unilever series at Tate Modern, people were queueing up to slide down these large tubes!


this picture, is dedicated to all my IBM-employee relatives. haha, my sister, my brother-in-law and my uncle. i just had to take this picture.


some consumer indulgence at Leicester Square and Covent Garden. and nope, i didn't spend a single cent on clothes. maybe just not yet. PO, this is Urban Outfitters by the way, hur.


dinner at Misato (Chinatown), we had to queue for about 30 minutes to get in. we tried the Sake Maki, but it couldn't compare to Wasabi Tei's (oh-mr-fierce-chef, i miss you so). our main dishes of Katsu and Teri Chicken came in HUGE portions, which we had to struggle to finish. after all, this place was recommended by dawen's friends for its value for money. i can see why now.


i really liked the breakfast at Ace Hotel, but my richer boyfriend who has catered hall food back at Southampton was disappointed that they didn't provide English Breakfast.


and we were off to Portobello Market! a whole variety of goods were being sold - antiques, clothing (they look like they're from thailand though!), accessories, food & fruits (yum, we were most excited about eating, of course).


jie, this picture is for you. haha.


lunch came in a delicious german chicken patty burger of 2 pounds. yes, i know there's the whole bird flu scare going around in Britain now, but my mom says that as long as the meat is cooked thoroughly its safe for consumption. but anyway, the burger was hot and succulent and good. need i say more? dawen actually got another burger after he finished his chicken leg baguette.


fresh, juicy dark red cheeries, orgasmic. see, we're totally captivated by the allure of food.


mr chiew, are you still reading?


i saw with my own eyes, the Elgin Marbles, taken from the great Parthenon. jingwen, the meteopes were really fantastic, now i know why Peleggi goes on and on about them. see the pictures on my multiply soon!


and then it was Oxford Circus, Bond Street and the main shopping districts of London. this is dawen and his idol (or rather the picture of his idol) at Niketown.


all the buzz, all the people. we visited the boutiques at Bond Street - Jimmy Cho, Chanel, Tiffany&Co, Gucci and many more - for a look-see. dawen was oogling at all the sports cars that were parked along the street, pity we didn't take any pictures of them. we then walked around and finally found the 'underground' Nike Dunk SB shop that dawen was looking for and it was around that time that my right calf started to cramp. :S


because we were near Chinatown, we returned and had dinner at Wong Kei (as recommended online). i love London's Chinatown, its really vibrant and there's really a wide selection of Chinese food/groceries/products. if only Newcastle had such a bustling one. anyway, he ordered spicy tiger prawns with rice and ended up giving me half of 6 prawns he had (on top of my own dinner). see, i'm going to return roly-poly.


Koenig Books, a bookstore with really interesting and amusing books. we didn't have much time to browse though. :(