25/4/07 - 1/5/07 : London, England
Part II : The Life

So the story begins.. When I first arrived in London on 25/4/07 at 10pm, I had to make my way to Waterloo to find YF as I would be staying at her place for a night. Thankfully she was able to adopt me that night as the very nice Xue has actually forgot all about my arrival and went to Bath!! Haha.. Thanks so much to YF and I am deeply regretful that I did not even take a single photo with you! Sobz.. Anyway, because Xue has forgotten about me, she promised to be very nice to me when I'm in London, and so, I had this 1.90 pounds ice cream treat from her! Haha..


This is LSE, YF's school. I followed her to see her school the next morning as she had classes and couldn't bring me around.


So the night when Xue came back from Bath, I took the Metro from YF's place to Bond Street and Xue met me there to bring me to her room.

Her place was opposite Selfridges, quite an atas shopping place I think. This is how it looked at night, from Xue's room. I did not take a picture of her room as I thought it was rather messy and that she'd kill me if she saw it on my blog. Haha...


We had lunch at this restaurant called Belgos the next day and I had roast chicken with fries and white house wine while the rest had mussels with fries. It was nice although a little pricey for Singapore standards.


And later in the evening, S and I went to watch WICKED!! It was the highlight of my entire London trip!! Totally, totally WICKED! If any of you ever has a chance to watch it at all, just go! It will be worth EVERY CENT OF YOUR MONEY!! Trust me.. I'm like totally addicted to it now. Haha.. Anyway, the pictures below show the theatre on the outside and from the inside.

Oh, and something unexpected happened during the performance. One of their props, the broom, broke while the two lead actresses were fighting. And there was this quite long pause while the actor and actress was suppressing their laughter upon seeing the broom. I think it was the best part of the musical for me as I felt the actors and actress were the most natural then and it was really a test of their professionalism to carry on the show as per normal (which they did!). I'm still loving it!

Well, there were other musicals too, very many, in fact.

We wanted to watch Phantom actually, but the tickets were sold out. So we caught Les Miserables instead. LL said that it was very very good and that she would pay to watch it again. However, S, Xue and I were less involved in the show and could not really appreciate it. So we still felt that Wicked was better! Haha..

Didn't manage to take a photo of the theatre showing Les Miserables as we were having dinner at Da Pai Dang and had to rush over immediately after that. It was my decision to eat there as YF recommended their Dou Hua there. Haha.. So this is how it looks like! Delicious! Especially after about 4 months of not eating it. Heavenly xia.. Haha.. But it costs a bomb too. With the amount I paid for one serving, we can get 10 in Singapore. Do your math. Haha..


Talking about expensive food, I finally convinced myself to pay a freaking 5 pounds for duck rice at the all famous Four Seasons chinese restaurant near Bayswater.

We had a plate of Ma Po Dou Fu to go with the duck and I think it was good too. But I still think I can get better duck rice with that money in Singapore. Haha.. Anyway, R insisted that if I did not try the Four Seasons duck rice, then I have not been to London before. Hmm..

Singaporeans are always thinking of food. So what happens when there's free food? Chiong ah!! Haha.. There was this Eat London event going on over the weekend which uses food to build the main symbols of London. Unfortunately, we did not manage to see the masterpiece as they had already taken it apart when we arrived. But we managed to get the free food! It wasn't nice but at least, it was free! Haha.. A very rare thing to experience in such an expensive and touristy place, you know..


This is Liverpool Station in London. Nothing special as I just happened to pass by and I thought I could find platform 9 and 3/4 there. Haha.. Of course I didn't, that platform only exists in Kings Cross Station. Really regret not making a trip to Oxford and borrow D's coat to take a picture in their dining hall. Think I can make all Harry Potter's fans jealous! Hahahah..



Oh, I thought this was interesting. The pedestrian crossings in UK has this "Look right, look left" thing on the road to tell the people where to watch for oncoming vehicles! Haha.. Well, we don't have it in Sweden. Tell you something, Xue said that she was initially quite confused when she first arrived as one side of the road told her to look right but when she looked further, she was told to look left! Haha.. What else to expect of her la. Her usual blur self.. But that's what makes her so likeable, I guess. Haha..


Oh, S and I went to Portobello to see the Antique market and try the very nice hotdog which was recommended by LL and Xue. However, we went to the wrong stall and tried a rather awful tasting one. Sadz..


There was one day where I had planned to visit Legoland in Windsor. But the single trip bus there costs 8 pounds! And another 8 pounds for me to come back. Yeah, so this poor student had to give it a miss. So I walked around London instead and came across Hard Rock Cafe in.. Picadilly, I think. Nothing facinating about it though. Walked one round in the shop and didn't manage to find anything I like.


Soon, I left London for Edinburgh from some bus station near Victoria Station to meet up with Dom. Next post!