Today...

I visited my favourite uncle from TP; and found out that... ... someone got a promotion lor, got his own room already lor, hao lian his Agnes B wallet, some more going to Greece in August somemore lor... ...hehe okay I know I am being very annoying with the lors (but please note that everything was said in jest; I love my favourite uncle!). We had a quick late-lunch at Design canteen, & the Muslim food tasted as good as it did 2 years ago. Caught up, and he updated me about some of the changes that were going to take place within the school; new F&B outlets, new extension for the sports complex, etc.

We bade farewell after he'd walked me back to where I parked the car, and I headed over to the my favourite swimming pool in Singapore. Did 20 laps (and panted like mad) before I got out of the water, washed up and drove down to TPJC to pick B1 up. We got me a new camera from Funan and... had Indian food after!

What a great, great way to kick-start the week!


ps. now I'm $1103 poorer.

London; the rest of it.

On our second day in London; we did more rush-abouts and visited a few more touristy sites, mostly just touch-and-go, not that we had any problems with that. The sight of throngs of other tourists was off-putting, and we aren't exactly such big fans of queues. Anyhow, we managed to find our way on the Underground without Jay's help today since he had to work and couldn't join us; Felicia made sure we got off and on the trains at all the right stops.

ready for boarding at Portsmouth Harbour; another 2 hours to London Waterloo.

counting the number of train tickets for our little UK tour; kudos to cousin dearest! 

Our first stop was at Tower of London, followed by the Tower Bridge. 

look at the crowd in the centre of the picture. Pesky tourists... *shakes head* tsk I am so annoying, I know.

teeny: Hello from the Tower of London!

there was an elephant parade to save Asian elephants going on; so brightly painted elephants (like the one above) were spotted all over central London.  

Tower Bridge; one of the most recognizable bridges around. I used to think this is London Bridge; the one that we've always been singing about.

It was my 4th day in England and I've yet to try the famous English fish and chips. So...

I made sure I had some for lunch today, on the way to Camden Town. And I also learnt that the English eat their chips with vinegar and salt. Or brown sauce. & NO CHILLI SAUCE :(

Camden Market; think Bugis Street with lots of clothes from China/Korea.

Camden Market wasn't as interesting as I thought it'd be (cept for the food stalls that lined the perimeter of the market); most of the clothes here look like those that I always see on Taiwan/Korea clothes sprees. Apart from the market, you can find lots of tattoo parlours heavily advertising their services, random shops selling tiny trinkets, an Aldo outlet store etc in Camden Town. We spent a relatively short time here; and I got myself a clutch from Aldo that was on sale, before making our way to Covent Garden.

Covent Garden; more ellies...

Covent Garden's another interesting place if you're looking for tiny items; just that they aren't exactly cheap (I mean, apart from the usual postcards and souvenirs). There are shops here selling the cutest whatnots; strawberry-shaped paper clips/bookmarks/etc, bags made out of recycled materials... useless but really cute stuff basically.

Regent Street?

Idled and peered into more shop windows along Regent Street as we made our way down to Chinatown (again) for dinner (I love Asian food!). I had piping hot Bat Kut Teh for dinner that evening, and even though it wasn't the best that I've had, it still felt really good to be finally sipping hot soup in that cold weather.

Post dinner. We got onto the train back to Portsmouth, & I started shivering again. I was so dreading the thought that I was going to fall sick; the moment we reached Portsmouth Harbour, I hurried as quickly as I could to a snack station to get a cup of hot tea, held onto it tightly and chased away the cold. Over the next few days, I developed a slight flu. Blah.

After we got back on the second night, we spent the next 20-odd days travelling around UK (England mostly) and Europe; but we came back to London 2 nights prior to my departure back to Singapore. We did what I'd wanted to ever since I saw someone's pictures of it online sometime back, and we bought tickets to watch Wicked at Apollo Victoria Theatre!

While we were somewhere in Florence (Italy), I tried to make an online reservation for tickets but the internet connection/ticketing website was anything but cooperative and I was kinda worried that tickets would be sold out if we didn't buy them any sooner. In the end, we only managed to get the tickets on the day itself, at the ticketing office. Turned out to be a little blessing in disguise though; we were able to use our student cards to get much better seats at much lower prices. I almost jumped with joy (only I didn't la) when the lady told us it was 25 pounds per ticket for students, instead of the 62.50 pounds each that we'd almost bought online hee hee hee.

I loved it I loved it I loved it.

The hotel that we stayed at when we got back to London was just a couple of minutes walk from the theatre; it was perfect for the both of us to try to remember and sing the songs that've just been sung in the theatre on our way back. I was a very happy person that evening.

One day before I left for good, we went to Buckingham Palace to see the changing-of-guards procession. It was a 10-minute walk from our hotel so that wasn't too bad. There were lots of tourists at the parade square when we reached; the pavements and everywhere else were filled with throngs and throngs of people (the policemen would shoo people off the roads) and I know I am a contributing factor but... urgh... crowds! They make me dizzy. 

fountain within the palace compound. on a side note, maybe I should have cropped the heads out.

We waited for a good 30 minutes before we could hear the band playing as the guards marched in. It was a really brief affair, at least from where we were standing; on the opposite side of the palace. Once the guards've marched past the parade square and into the palace, we couldn't see all that's happening behind the gates; too.many.people. So we stood and watched the second group of guards come onto the parade square, march past it, and disappear behind the palace gates.

here they come...

and there they go.

After Buckingham Palace, we had a quick brunch and headed to....

King's Cross! Platform 9 and 3/4!Cheap (pun intended!) thrill, I know... it cost us probably like a little over a pound to get to the station :p

Then, we did a tai-tai afternoon and dropped by Hummingbird Bakery along Old Brompton Road (tube station: South Kensington) for Red Velvet Cupcakes and coffee.

<3

i'm such a sucker for objects coloured red...

cappucino for you?

And all that, my friends, were parts of the London that I've visited. To end this entry, I'm going to share a chio photo of Felicia at Hummingbird:

thank you so much for everything babe! <3

London; first day away from Portsmouth and back.

After Felicia's last day of work (for a month) was over, we hopped onto the earliest train from Portsmouth to London the next morning. The journey took us about 2 hours, after which we finally arrived at London Waterloo. Digressing a little, I love it that public transport in UK & Europe is sooooooo convenient (i.e. when they are not on strike).

Jay and Felicia got me an oyster card; and if I haven't remembered wrongly, the maximum amount that will be deducted per day of usage is capped at 5 pounds, regardless of the number of stations that you've been to.

oyster card; I used it mainly for the Underground.

Nice cover page; I like the 'names' they've given the stations.

Earlier on, I made a list of all the tourist attractions that I was keen to visit, and we started off with the Science Museum. The walk from South Kensington station to the museum was (omfg) long; and this would mark the start of A LOT of walking for the next month to come. Okay, I'm going to start showing you some of my extremely touristy shots!

it was bright, sunny but windy; lovely weather.

inside the Science Museum. LOTS of kids on excursion.

The museum is huge, and there are so many exhibits that it's impossible to finish looking at and appreciating them all in a single visit. I guess it might be a good idea to check out their website, and look at what is of interest to you before you arrive at the place. That'll beat rushing about trying to cover all the exhibits (unless you're planning to spend an entire day in there).

exhibit.

fibonacci spiral; Mathematics Gallery

We saw some of the world's oldest calculators, computers, and interesting shapes & patterns that are results of mathematical formulations in the Mathematics Gallery.

cute? morbid?

dolls; Plastic Gallery

There were long draping flaps of plastic in the gallery so...

fake doll 1

fake doll 2

I'm posting this because I like the colours.

After spending 1 or 2 hours in the Science Museum, we made our way (just down the road) to the National History Museum. I was really excited about visiting this museum, because of some self-created evolution hype a little while ago. Like the Science Museum, this place is huge and filled with way too many exhibits. I regretted not looking up online the specific galleries that I wanted to visit; we ended up skimming through the galleries because of time constraints. Dear National History Museum, I'm really sorry that I didn't take a good look at you, but, I'll be back again someday, I promise!

National History Museum

Anyway, it was really nice to see people lying around the grass outside the museum (and everywhere else); families with their giggling toddlers, couples in lovey-dovey mode, groups of girls talking, laughing and munching on some strawberries, everyone just wanted a piece of the sun! 

THE dinosaur skeleton.

and... a little closer

We spent like, probably another hour or two roaming the grounds of the National History Museum, checking ourselves out in funny mirrors, looking at stuffed animals and so on, before we headed back to the underground station, and travelled towards Oxford Circus. Window-shopped along Oxford Street, then Regent Street before heading to Chinatown, near Piccadilly Circus. For dinner! 

welcome to London's Chinatown!

The familiar smells of roast meats and Chinese spices were awesome. Not to say that I haven't been enjoying my meals in England prior to Chinatown, but I think I'm a die-hard Asian at heart; when it comes to food (and maybe men) at least, I love our spices way too much! We had dinner at a place that serves Singaporean and Malaysian dishes; and I couldn't finish the char hor fun that I'd ordered because the portion was simply too big. After dinner, I developed some weird, random craving for bubble tea and we set out to look for it; and I had my most expensive cup of chocolate ice-blend with pearls at 3.30pounds (S$6++). See what weird random cravings can do to your wallet???

After finishing the very expensive cups of bubble tea, we hopped onto the tube, and headed back to Westminster, then Waterloo (where we first arrived) to see River Thames, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and London Eye.

inside the Tube.

The interior's much smaller compared to our MRT trains, and it can get really crammed at times. Big carriages for small people, small carriages for big people hur.

must.pose.

The sight of Big Ben greeted us the moment we stepped out of Westminster station, and we heard it's half-hourly chime a few minutes later.

Felicia's mum calls it the 'dua liap jeng' (big clock in Hokkien) 

London Eye along Thames. & nope, we did not pay 15 pounds to get up there.

Westminster Abbey behind us, across the road.

We walked really quickly back to Waterloo after all that snapping of pictures for fear of missing the train back to Portsmouth; it turned out there was a delay instead and we were stuck at the station for a good 45 minutes at least. The big crowd went crazy when it was finally time to board; EVERYONE was running and rushing to get a seat. We joined in and it was pretty fun, don't ask me what's so fun about that, I just know I was smiling to myself (again) amidst the other jostling commuters.

Later, I shivered on the train all the way back to Portsmouth.

Home sweet home ♥

I know I love travelling and all, but it's always nice to be back home too (especially after having to sit through some kid's wailing non-stop for 6 hours on the flight back grrrrrrrr). I was really happy to be back (and finally away from wailing kids), so happy that I was literally grinning from ear-to-ear (to myself tsk) the moment I got off the plane, all the way to the arrival hall; thinking about how Mumsy's waiting for me on the other side of the glass door (and cheap Chinese food finally). While I was paying for the Choya (Mum finally requested something alcoholic! Finally!), I couldn't help it and exclaimed to the cashier, "I'm so happy to be back home!", exactly the way you'd expect a doofus to behave, down to the big dopey grin.

Be back soon!

In less than 12 hours, we'll be on the plane back to London (where we'll make our way back to Portsmouth to do our laundry, pack up & prepare to leave... in 2 days' time).

When in Rome...

The title of today's entry is a little misleading because I'm not really in Rome anymore right now. We left Italy this morning; hopped onto a night train from Rome, arrived in Milano early morning, and finally boarded the train to Zurich (approx. 12 hours of train ride in total!) after a 2-hour wait.

I've been watching The Pianist on our bumpy night train here, and I was not only entranced by the beautifully haunting melodies played, but also gaping in silent horror at the sadistic deeds carried out by the Nazi soldiers during WW2. I felt a wee bit queer when we finally arrived; almost everyone speaks German here so I couldn't help but be reminded of those awful scenes in the movie, though it was totally unnecessary, everybody has been nothing but friendly and helpful so far; for which I am extremely thankful.


After our 12.70chf lunch at McDonald's (the most expensive Big Mac meal I've had in my 22 years), we took a walk along the main shopping street and cuzzie reminded me that we only have 4 more nights to go in Europe. It also means that I'll have 1 more night in Portsmouth and 2 more in London when we're back in UK; I'll be heading back home soon.

It's been almost a month.

A month; of course, it is nothing but an infinitely tiny measure of time. But in this short span of time, travelling's opened a whole new world to me; my life has suddenly become enriched with precious new experiences; there are simply too many new sights, smells and sounds to be put into an entry like this. And I've also learnt lessons; some teaching me that people are not always the stereotypes that others make them out to be, or that you can never be thankful enough for all that you have. I had an experience in Rome that left in me, a bad case of guilt; and I hated myself for permitting my own narrow-mindedness.

It's getting a little wordy here now; I shall stop soon and head to bed in a moment, we'll be heading to Luzern later in the day to catch a glimpse of the Alps. Can't wait!

in Florence

I'm not quite prepared for the weather in Florence yet; no one's told me it was going to get as hot as Singapore. I had 3 gelato cones within a day in Venice to deal with the heat, all for less than 1.50euros each, but here in Florence, you can get only a 'baby cona' with at least 3euros. On a side note, souvenirs here are slightly cheaper than what you can get in Venice; the same ones to be exact.

We'll be spending a night in Firenze, before hopping onto a train to Rome in slightly less than 15 hours.

ps. My hall application didn't get through... and now I'm looking at renting a place outside school with G. This is sooooooo fun please, thanks G for looking through the websites! Love!

I come from a family of 'blur' queens

We're really supposed to be in Venice by now already, but cuzzie found out that she remembered our flight date wrong when we arrived at the airport (probably one of the worst things to happen when you're travelling...); so here we are now, spending a night in Bristol, in a superior double room with 2 queen-sized beds (bounce bounce!), and slightly less than 20 hours before it's time for our actual check-in.

Well done mummy lee girls! We win when it comes to things like that hurrrrr.

in case i forget

When I get back to Singapore, I will swim, skate and do sit-ups until my tummy is no longer wobbly like it is now, then go get a navel piercing (FINALLY!).

In case you see me wolfing down food madly when I'm back home, please remind me about the piercing tyvm.

And about my facebook status update just yesterday, about 'the one thing that you'd like to change about yourself'... I'd really like for me to be much less of a klutz; I keep bumping into corners of doors/furniture, ramming my toes into concrete steps or bricks used as door stoppers (what a bad, bad idea), bruises not-so-magically appear all over my body, my elbows/toes/basically-anywhere-you-can-think-of are scrapped (you can imagine how unsightly that is)... they hurt so freaking much sometimes I could cry from them, these moments of clumsiness. urgh!

do you know how lucky you are?

"happiness is the consequence of personal effort. you fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it."
-eat, pray, love


why do everyone like to think that happy people have it easiest? don't they know it takes a lot of hard work, a mighty effort, to stay atop all that happiness once it's been found?

i've been thinking about it for quite some time, nothing concrete yet of course, but yeah, i'm getting out once i'm done with what i need to be done with. or maybe even earlier, if circumstances permit. anywhere will be good; a busier city, or maybe even the countryside.

the little travelling i've done so far made me realize that i'm happy now, but i'll be a teeny bit happier somewhere else. and as usual, i'm bubbling with excitment again, just thinking of leaving again.

Hang on little tomato.

It's my 11th day here in England now, 6th night since we left Portsmouth for our little backpacking trip (okay to be honest, we haven't really been 'roughing it out' in hostels and all that much, just a night!); my lips are no longer peeling like how they did the first few days I arrived, I'm using far lesser of the chapstick today as compared to a few days back, but slapping on much more moisturizer though, it gets a little windy at times and it makes my skin really dry. Starting to get better acquainted with the spring temperatures too; though at times I'd wish I could turn off the air-con when it got a little cold... just before I realize there's no such switch, it's the street temperatures we're talking about! Brr.

Spending my first night in Keswick (say kehzik) tonight; it's another busy little town here in Lake District, and the owners of this little house that we're staying in are really lovely people. Actually, I guess we've both been lucky so far; all the people we came to meet were nothing short of friendly (I'm actually quite afraid that won't be the case when we're in Europe).

We'll be heading to Derwentwater later on, once we're done with sleep and I'm done with massaging my feet (they hurt terribly; I don't remember ever having to do so much walking all my life). Okay I shall quit being a whiney bitch because I'm really happy to be here in fact.


ps: the title's of the song that I'm listening to right now. I love Pink Martini so much!
pps: I do miss you guys and I hope everyone's having fun wherever you are right now. Love!