I Love London: Part 2

Day 4, 6th July: 1st day of work in London!

The office was cool! It looked like Ikea and I sat at Nick’s place. Nick is the guy that I was supposed to report to, but stuff changed and I report to a gwai poh in KL instead. So Nick isn't my boss but he gives me work to while my boss is just for erm.. aesthetic reasons? =D Nick’s place is so cool as it is by the window and did I mention that the office is by the Thames river? So at Nick’s place, I see a replica ship beside me and more ships passing by. On the first day, we had a welcome lunch at Pizza Express.

(from l-r) Nick, who else, Sabina, Elsa, Ayse, Simrit, Tatiana, Carrie, Achilleas, Chris or Tom, Tom or Chris, Darren

Sabina is Nick’s boss, the director of research, has a doctorate and adds the ‘Dr’ to her name which I thought is weird. I don't think people do that unless they are a medical doctor or a lecturer.

Ayse is Elsa’s boss. Her name is pronounced Aishah, not ‘want to die’. She’s from Turkey.

Simrit is a project controller, sits in front of me and isn't very friendly.

Tatiana. I dunno what she does.

Carrie is a project controller too and has a very strange but amusing laughter. She suddenly laughs when there is something funny, showing that she is listening all the time despite being very busy.

Achilles is my team mate. My prediction of how he looks was totally wrong! From Constantine Maroulis in American Idol, the sole Greek man that I have seen, I thought that Achilleas would have long curly hair and erm.. be a bit sexy la, like Troy and wearing Gladiator slippers (Brad Pitt gave false impression that Greeks are handsome and sexy). But Achilles has no hair!! After a while, I thought he had some resemblance to Mr Bean instead but since I was sitting beside him and with Nick absent, it became quite amusing to kacau him also la.

Darren, Chris and Tom: The only thing I know is that they are in the HIV team and one of them plays cricket with Nick on Tuesdays.

Come to think of it, half of the team isn't local. Nick himself is from Wales and he’s only 25 and have people report to him already. Achilles reports to him, is 31 and has a Masters some more. My boss herself is only 26. She is more keng, she is the regional line manager whereas Nick is senior research exec. Me? But in comparison to the others in Malaysia, I’m the youngest (not that everyone is much older too) and the others are having the same position too. There is even a 27-year-old but a research assistant only. So I am going to be a (kiuk) manager soon and then apply for transfer to London =P

I digressed. So on the 1st day after work, we didn’t go anywhere cos we had to follow our colleagues home. We would be staying with them. Coll with her boss and me with Nicola who isn't from our team and hasn’t even met Nick before.

Day 5, 7th July: Covent Garden

After work, we went to Covent Garden. A market takes place there every Thursday but we went there to have this Belgian food that was recommended by coll's boss. Covent Garden is known for its many eateries. Mind you, it isn't easy to find places to eat at night in London. Certain areas are pretty quiet and shops here close at 7pm.

Day 6, 8th July: London malls are stupid!

Nicola said that there is a mall with Primark near our place. So since coll went to watch her Wicked after work, I decided to stop there on the way home. It’s called Southside Mall and it’s only a bus-stop away from my usual stop. I got there just in time.. to watch Primark close. The other shops were already either closing or about to close. It was very irritating, I felt like slapping each and every one of them. Hello, it is only 7pm in the evening!!! Why does the mall open when all the shops inside are closed?? Only Gap was opened, it’s opens until 8pm (wah, so impressed!) and since they don't make size 27 jeans, it’s useless to look. Since the stupid mall is closed, I walked across the road to Sainsbury. It’s a supermarket but it sells handphones, camera, iPods, GPS and books. Books are cheap. Gadgets are cheap too but there were no canggih ones. Sony Cybershot 7MP goes for RM300+ I think, Garmin Nuvi for RM600 and books are about RM20 (this is based on an exchange rate of RM6).

Day 7, 9th July: Cabut from summer party hahaha!

At first, I thought that we were pretty lucky to have come at a right time when the company organised its summer party. But you know la, I am anti social and don't drink much as well. These Londoners like to stand in a circle, hold a drink and chat. They are everywhere. Once I saw a big group of men wearing suits, I thought something happened. As I approached, they were actually standing outside a pub drinking beers. Looked kinda funny. So that’s what happened at the party. We dunno anyone and were too kera sumbang to make friends. We each grabbed a bottle of beer and drank from it, only to realise that NO girl was drinking beer especially from the bottle. They were all sipping champagne instead. My gosh, we must have looked like wild girls. Coll was worse, she drank few sips and poured it down the toilet. At least I finished 3 quarters of my Budweiser before deciding to cabut to Oxford Street for shopping. You see, shops are opened later on Thursdays. We didn’t even wait for the food, we cabut with me still holding my bottle of beer and I drank it all the way to the station =D Must have looked like a kaki botol. The only regret is that I didn’t say goodbye to Nick, for he was going off for holidays the next day and wouldn’t meet anymore for the rest of my stay there. He was still at the office when we left for the party and hadn’t arrived when we absconded. I thought that I would say a proper goodbye at the party ma.

We went back to Bond Street and Primark where I bought a bag and some hair rubber bands. I picked up some blouses but after much consideration, I decided not to buy them just because they were cheap. They are not cheap actually for that quality. We had dinner around that area and got home at 11pm. I thought that Nicola would be home already but she wasn’t home. I heard later that the party ended at 11pm.

So Nick’s gone for his holidays and my ‘landlord’ Nicola and her bf too. In other words, I’d be having fun at work with no superior and have the whole house to myself, don't need to be clean and tidy! But being home later would be a scare.

To be continued..

I Love London: Part 1

Day 1, Friday 3rd July: Long flight to London

After arriving in Heathrow from a 12.5 hour flight, we got stuck in traffic for another 2 hours. Tell you, being on your butt for 14 hours straight with limited space to move can drive anyone insane. The in-flight entertainment system was crap; it was a trial-and-error thing. Whatever movie played wasn’t what you selected. I got tired of playing all the movies just to see what they were, so I played games and napped a little, while wearing a mask all the time.

The cabbie who picked us up was so cool. Crew-cut, dressed really smartly in a long sleeved shirt and Bluetooth in his ear, he looked like a CIA agent. He was holding up a board looking for ‘Mrs L S Ann’ and I felt like an important dignitary from Malaysia arriving in London to pick up the map of where the chest of buried government secrets are.

In a huge 9-seater cab, we got to London Bridge Hotel where we stayed for the weekend. The room was nothing spectacular except that it had an LCD tv which we didn’t watch at all.

One thing that we realised upon arrival, it was super bright in London. At 9pm, it looked as if it was 7pm. It’s a good thing as this means that we have more daylight to do our sight-seeing. We conked off on the first day without any dinner.

Day 2, Saturday 4th July: Ready for action on the 2nd day!

We started by having English breakfast at the hotel and then off we went. First we went to Victoria cos my coll wanted to watch some theatre called Wicked. She kept asking me if I wanna go, theatre is a must-watch here yada yada but I don't want to because I’m not interested in theatre, especially some Wizard of Oz thingy and I especially don't wanna go cos she don't wanna accompany me to the wax museum.

1. Why should I accompany her when she doesn't wanna accompany me to the wax museum?
2. Why should I spend 30pounds to accompany her when she doesn't wanna spend 12.50 to accompany me?
3. Why does she need someone to go with her? She doesn't even need someone to help her take pics but I need someone to take pics of me and the wax figures. Even her housemate asked her how am I going to take pics if she doesn't wanna go with me.

So give me 1 good reason why I should spend RM180 to accompany her when she wouldn’t pay lesser for me who needs the company more? If she had followed me, I might have gone with her but I would rather spend my money watching Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables , Grease, We Will Rock You, Mamma Mia, Billy Elliot or Lion King. I think it’s a waste to watch Wicked when there are so many other more popular ones around. 2.5 hours and RM180 for Wicked, I would be outta my mind.

Then, we went to Portobello Market in Notting Hill. It is most famous for antiques but there are stalls selling food, fruits and other knick knacks too.

Singing for money. This man asked me not to take pics after I photographed him.

Lots of bread that look too hard to be eaten. Only good for banging people’s head.

Got this vid of some street performers too. Much cooler than the berlagak black man who don't let me take his pic, think he’s very cantik ah?

I was at Notting Hill! Oily and sweaty already at the end of the market trip

We saw this mysterious looking building called Spire House that we weren’t allowed to enter, so we just took pics outside the gate.

I think I make a horrible tourism ambassador.

Next, we went to Kensington Palace. We didn’t go in as we don't wanna pay RM75 =P

In front of the palace gates. Behind me is the figure of William of Orange. I remember him from my History books, I think he is someone’s uncle from Britain.

People still remember Princess Diana

On the palace grounds

I think the plant sculptures are so cute

Little squirrel run run run

The palace compound is so beautiful, isn't it?

There was some dance-dance event taking place at the entrance of the palace.

And then we went to the Royal Albert Hall. Gosh, it was marvellous.

Opposite the Royal Albert Hall was the Royal Albert Memorial (according to my coll, cos I've forgotten) that looked like some Indian+Chinese altar from far, with the gold statue looking like the round fat man that Buddhists like to keep.

From there, we walked to the Royal College of Music and had some snacks at the Science Museum. Museums, as Lawrence said, are just for having meals. I berdosa la that day, for I bought carrot cake, jelly and sandwich but I only ate the jelly and half the carrot cake. The carrot cake was nice though. And if I were to visit a museum, it wouldn’t be the Science museum. Boring..

The Royal College of Music

One of the more magnificent buildings and the sounds of piano coming from it made it even more marvellous.

This is the Imperial College of Science and Technology.

All the buildings here are beautiful. I wouldn’t mind going for classes everyday if my classes were here and my lecturers were cute mat salleh men =D

At some place nearby which we dunno the name.

That night, we were super tired and came back to the hotel to have dinner. We had Peruvian food below our hotel (to follow in a post specially dedicated to London food). Our hotel has a Malaysian restaurant called Georgetown btw.


Day 3, Sunday, 5th July: Intensive sight-seeing and covered half of London already!

We walked to the oh-so-famous London Bridge which was just nearby our hotel. We are pretty much in the London Bridge area actually, so lucky. We stayed at the London Bridge hotel and get down at the London Bridge station everyday to work. The London Bridge that we played the game when we were kids, the one that 2 people will hold hands and the other kids will walk under the ‘London Bridge’ which will topple and ‘capture’ the unlucky one. That game la. So we skipped all the way to the London Bridge while singing Fergie’s ‘How come everytime you come around, my London London bridge wanna go down like London London London.. ‘. So, I present the London bridge..

That’s the London Bridge that I'm standing on.

Dunno what’s the hype about the bridge, I thought it would be something more spectacular. I think the English must have been bluffing us all along la. Funny thing was this Asian couple asked us where is the bridge when they were actually standing on it =D

But what the heck, I’ve been to the London Bridge and walked across it!

Let me tell you which bridge is more spectacular and deserves more publicity: the Tower Bridge

The bridge can split into 2 and rise when there are huge ships but we never had any chance to see that. We took umpteenth shots at the bridge til coll's camera ran out of battery.

I have pics without my face in it, but wth, I wanna prove that I’ve been there =D

From that side of the river, I got these shots too.

Getting better at camwhoring but there is nothing else in the picture other than my big head.

I 'forced' Timmy to put this as his wallpaper =D

Behind me is another of my fav buildings, the Tower of London. More pics to come when we get across the bridge.

Quite a popular venue, dunno what’s it called but it’s some concert hall. Don't wanna ask coll what is it cos she'd know that I'm blogging at work =P

Some thing called ‘art'.

HMS Belfast, which we again didn’t pay to go in.

No need to pay la, been there, done that, take pics, prove it, can already =D

And too bad that we didn’t eat here as planned to. Or maybe it was a good thing that we didn’t?


Once over the Tower Bridge, we went to the Tower of London. My favourite, lots of pics too but only the best goes here:

I think what used to be the moat is so cool. Truly majestic tower la.

Next destination: Buckingham Palace. We got there just in time to watch the changing of guards ceremony, which was uber cool! There was already a large crowd there but let’s just say that I was pretty lucky to manage to get to the front to get a good view and super uber vids of the oh-so-famous bearskin hat guards! (didn’t managed to get a pic taken with one of them though, moaning to ensue later)

Part 1 of the guards marching off after the ceremony:

Part 2, somehow cos the vid split into 2 halfway through:

I lurve these guards!

Me in front of the Buckingham Palace.

(parts of the story removed) In short, I think I got horrendous pictures taken of me not due to lack of photogenic-ness but let's just say, lack of skill.

Nah, this is a better pic.

Let me just say that just for shift-changing, all these protocol has to be done. Horses, police, band, marching.. but they have to draw in tourists, isn't it?

Right outside the palace, there were 2 parks: Green Park and St. James Park. Parks in London are very pretty, I must say and the nice cool weather makes it very nice to sit there. Sit there and do what, I dunno but I think I was kinda strange holding an umbrella when all these people were lazing around in the sun. Heck, some of them were wearing bikinis.

I don't remember if this is Green Park or St. James Park. They were just opposite each other. I think it's Green Park though, cos it's erm.. greener?

Then we bypassed the Spencer House. I think Princess Diana is related since she is Diana Spencer and her brother is the Earl of Spencer.

Spencer House that looked abandoned.

We had cakes and ice-cream for lunch and then to Piccadilly, where it is known for huge billboards and the Ripley’s Believe It or Not. We also went to this supposedly-popular departmental store that my boss recommended, Fortnum and Mason, where things are nice to look at but expensive.

Yummy looking jelly-candy

These are actually hand-painted chocolates. I think they costed 10 pounds, if I'm not mistaken. And that is RM60.

And the huge billboards that Piccadilly is famous for. I don't see any billboards in any of the places that we went, so I guess that’s why the Londoners go ra-ra about it. I think if they were in HK or Japan, they would pengsan already.

We went to this cheap sports shop called Lillywhites where I bought 2 MU t-shirts for bro. From there, we went to Chinatown, where I felt I could relate when I heard Cantonese!

At every Chinatown entrance, there must be a board with 4 words that says ‘Chi na a town’.

There was this shop serving Chinese buffet. It made me curious and I discovered that it was actually ‘chap fan’. Cheh..

Then I saw this shop that reminded me of my 1st love. Or maybe it was my 2nd love after Andy Lau.

Next stop: Oxford Street. It’s really a marvel how we could go to so many places in 1 day yeah? I tell you, my legs wanna patah. Later I’ll tell you how my left knee hurt so badly in London that I couldn’t go down stairs that made me so miserable that I wanna come home.

So this is Oxford Street. Lots of familiar brands there that are cheap compared to Malaysia.

What the .. ?

My fav brand

I bought a Zara blouse there for 10 pounds and moaned over and over again that Gap doesn't sell size 27 jeans. How stupid is that? They have 25, 26 and 28 but they told me that they don't make 27?? I tried to squeeze inside the 26 but can’t and the 28 doesn't accentuate my butt =P What a waste cos it costs only 10 pounds. 10 pounds for a Gap jeans =( There was this bargain shop called Primark too where clothes were a few pounds but you get what you pay for la. we were so tired already and there queue to pay was so long, so we decided to check it out another day. We had a sneak preview and know already what to grab on the next trip here.

We took a picture at where we thought was Soho but it wasn't actually. So ini pun jadilah:

We had Pret sandwiches for dinner before dragging ourselves back to the hotel. So freaking tired that day and can’t believe that the next day is a working day. We are actually here for work, we sort of forgot that.

That weekend, the Pride of London, which is a gay parade, was taking place but we didn’t catch it cos we were at some other end of London. There was some parade which would be fun to watch but later some lesbian fall in love with me, how?

To be continued..