Travelogue (Scotland/ London) - Part 5 (FINAL)
Day 8 – 2nd May (Sat)
6.45am
Finally reached Victoria Coach Station, London. BREATHEeeeeeeee!!!
Decided that I was too “traumatized” for the day and resigned to taking things slowly for a while – this meant that I did almost nothing except to laze around in Uma’s home.
Day 9 – 3rd May (Sun)
Hooray! Got my energy level back up and joined Uma and Joe for their trip to the Columbia Road Flower Market.
Followed by a trip to the nearby Brick Lane market…
And the Sunday Up market...
And lastly, the Old Spitalfields Market.
We popped by Petticoat Lane Market too. But unfortunately, we were there too late and all the stalls were gone :(
Having walked around the whole day, we then decided to head back to Uma’s to prepare for dinner. Just as we were about to get started, their friends popped by so we ended up going to the nearby pub for a drink whilst playing boules at a nearby park. Just in case you were confused, we ordered drinks from the pub and brought them to the park.
It was cold and it took me a while to get accustomed to the game. But it was great fun.
After a while, we went back to Uma’s and they started preparing two versions of Sheppard’s pie on one tray – one based on the original recipe and the other non-veggie (for me)! Once we had a hearty dinner, we settled down for a game of MOODS - a board game where you were supposed to pick a mood card to dictate the tone and manner in which you read out the sentence from another card. The sentences were random so you could find yourself saying things like “I want to puke” in a flirty manner or etc. Well, let’s just say that you could end up in really awkward and/or funny scenarios whilst playing the game. Haha.
Day 9 – 4th May (Mon)
Around 9.30am
Uma and I woke up darn early to get to Madame Tussauds. We had bought tickets the night before via lastminute.com at a cheaper rate and it was stated that we needed to be there before 10am for collection and entry. We thought we were early but we were so wrong. There were already loads of people queuing in front of us even before the museum opened. Nevertheless, we got into the museum and started taking silly pictures with the famous at once…
As we were the first to step into Zach’s display area, two staff promptly ambushed us with four pompoms and cajoled us to stand near Zach for a picture. We were very surprised by the sudden attention and wanted to decline initially as it was kinda embarrassing. But soon, people began pouring into the room and the two staff looked at us with the “please do it” kind of eyes… so we did it in the end…
Ta-da!
12 noon
Bade Uma goodbye and went off to Victoria station to meet Xiao Xu, PC’s Taiwanese web mate. After which, we headed on to Chinatown to have steamboat for lunch. Along the way, we bumped into a peaceful protest being carried out at Chinatown.
2pm
Bade Xiao Xu goodbye and went on alone to O2 to catch Body Worlds!
People had warned me about going to Body Worlds as most probably I would walk out feeling disgusted and uncomfortable. But it turned out to be quite ok for me though I did “hallucinate” for a while when I was walking through the exhibits thinking that some of the bodies hanging from the top would fell on me. If that really happened, then I would be really disturbed.
I even bought the book for reading (though I have yet to get started on it).
7pm
My hallucinations came back when Uma offered meat for dinner. So I decided to become non-carnivore for the day – i.e.: although I wasn’t going to take meat, I wasn’t about to start taking veggies either. I’d settled for something starchy instead. I turned to Maggie Curry Mee for comfort.
In fact, if I remembered correctly, I was literally pestering and ‘begging’ Uma to give me that pack of mee. I was badly craving for it since I returned from Scotland. I kinda regretted stuffing too much calorie bars and not having enough space to carry some spicy Korean instant noodles or cup noodles over. Darn!
Day 10 – 5th May (Tues)
8am
Almost missed my coach to Bath Spa by a mere minute or so. Had paid £16 for the return trip and was looking forward to seeing the small town.
11.20am
Finally reached Bath Spa! While I was there, I visited the Roman Baths Museum (admission cost £11)…
The Pulteney Bridge (below’s the view from the bridge)…
The Guildhall Market and The Royal Crescent. I wasn’t a spa kind of person so I gave the spa institutions a miss. All in all, Bath Spa is a beautiful and peaceful place. But it could get a little boring for people who weren’t into spa treatments. So if you were like me, perhaps a half day tour would be good enough.
Some other intesting sights that I had chanced upon…
9.30pm
Went back to Uma’s but she was down with flu. So I popped by a nearby Chinese eatery, bought some food and went back up again to have dinner together.
Day 11 – 6th May (Wed)
Took my own sweet time to wake up late that morning, before heading down to Queens Theatre to catch the musical, Les Miserables. Had gotten the ticket at half price (£18.10) via lastminute.com the night before. It turned out to be a really good musical that made me shed quite a few tears. But I still preferred the voice behind Corset a few years back though. :P
After the musical had ended, Adeline and I met up for Korean dinner near Chinatown and caught up on the good old days.
We even spent some time exploring Top Shop, H&M and etc along Oxford Street and Regent Street! Too bad Uma was still down with the flu bug then and couldn’t join us.
Day 12 – 7th May (Thurs)
It was drizzling when I reached the Buckingham Palace in the morning (around 10 or 11am). But that didn’t stop the crowd that had gathered way in advanced to see the changing of guards. I too, found a space to squeeze in and waited for the excitement to start.
What surprised me was that the changing of guards included a musical ritual where two royal bands took turns to perform a series of songs from classical to classic pop (i.e.: star wars and one other pop tune that I couldn’t recall now). It was pretty entertaining actually and could be quite funny as well when you noticed one of the band members was trying hard not to groove to the tune while playing his instrument.
Around 12 noon
Decided to leave the changing of guards ceremony that was still in progress for shopping along Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square.
Around 5.30pm
Popped by Chinatown again for a quick dinner at a small Japanese restaurant tucked in one of the back lanes.
7pm
Found my way to the Apollo Victoria Theatre with my barang barang and got ready to watch Wicked, the musical!
The set was amazing and the musical was really great.
You could tell that all the performers had put in their 101% effort and their vocals just simply blew me away! After the musical had ended, I rushed to the counter and wanted to get a copy of the soundtrack. But soon I realized that it was recorded by the US cast and not the London cast that I had just watched. So I decided not to buy the soundtrack and went back to Uma’s. After all, I hadn’t seen the performance of the US cast and it was the London cast that had wowed me. So I really couldn’t think of any other reason why I should buy it. Sigh. Hopefully there would be a London cast’s version soon.
Day 13 – 8th May (Fri)
It was drizzling again that morning as I made my way down to Westminster. Somehow, the weather kinda made me lose my interest to really explore The Houses of Parliament and the Big Ben…
And the Westminster Abbey (a UNESCO site). Just the queue alone freaked me out. And what you see in the picture below was just a fraction of the actual queue length.
As I walked on, I noticed another protest taking place opposite The Houses of Parliament. Hmmm… wondered if protests were a usual sight in London…
I continued my walk down to Nelson’s Column and on with my last minute shopping to get presents for my family.
Around 5.30pm
Bought dinner from McDonald's (around Piccadilly Circus area) and went back to Uma’s to rest for a while before my departure back to Singapore. Strangely, the food was a lot less oily than in Singapore's. It actually was very juicy. But Singapore's version of fries tasted better and crisper. If only I could have the best of both worlds back in Singapore.
Around 7.15pm
Met up with Uma halfway through to Heathrow airport. Throughout the journey, I was trying hard not to laugh out loud or to strangle her as she went on and on about Fruits Basket (a manga series turned anime) and how the rat would turn into human and etc, which didn’t make any sense to me at all. I bet the other passengers on board must have been thinking what these two mad Asian girls were talking about.
Once we reached Heathrow, we grabbed ourselves some snacks over at Starbucks and chatted away until it was time for me to board my plane.
London to me, was a place that I would dread staying for long as it kinda sucked up my energy and left me feeling down and a little lethargic for some strange reason which I couldn’t really put a finger to. Perhaps it was the weather. Or perhaps it was the way things were done or looked.
Scotland on the other hand, though not a shopper’s heaven like London, was a peaceful place where I could perhaps stay on for a longer period (but not indefinitely). I especially liked the Highlands as it gave me a sense of peace. The air was fresh and the people were friendly and passionate about nature. But I don’t know how to drive, which is a huge barrier to wanting to live on the highlands as there were no other popular forms of transport.
I guess I’m best suited for Singapore after all. Hmmm…
6.45am
Finally reached Victoria Coach Station, London. BREATHEeeeeeeee!!!
Decided that I was too “traumatized” for the day and resigned to taking things slowly for a while – this meant that I did almost nothing except to laze around in Uma’s home.
Day 9 – 3rd May (Sun)
Hooray! Got my energy level back up and joined Uma and Joe for their trip to the Columbia Road Flower Market.
Followed by a trip to the nearby Brick Lane market…
And the Sunday Up market...
And lastly, the Old Spitalfields Market.
We popped by Petticoat Lane Market too. But unfortunately, we were there too late and all the stalls were gone :(
Having walked around the whole day, we then decided to head back to Uma’s to prepare for dinner. Just as we were about to get started, their friends popped by so we ended up going to the nearby pub for a drink whilst playing boules at a nearby park. Just in case you were confused, we ordered drinks from the pub and brought them to the park.
It was cold and it took me a while to get accustomed to the game. But it was great fun.
After a while, we went back to Uma’s and they started preparing two versions of Sheppard’s pie on one tray – one based on the original recipe and the other non-veggie (for me)! Once we had a hearty dinner, we settled down for a game of MOODS - a board game where you were supposed to pick a mood card to dictate the tone and manner in which you read out the sentence from another card. The sentences were random so you could find yourself saying things like “I want to puke” in a flirty manner or etc. Well, let’s just say that you could end up in really awkward and/or funny scenarios whilst playing the game. Haha.
Day 9 – 4th May (Mon)
Around 9.30am
Uma and I woke up darn early to get to Madame Tussauds. We had bought tickets the night before via lastminute.com at a cheaper rate and it was stated that we needed to be there before 10am for collection and entry. We thought we were early but we were so wrong. There were already loads of people queuing in front of us even before the museum opened. Nevertheless, we got into the museum and started taking silly pictures with the famous at once…
As we were the first to step into Zach’s display area, two staff promptly ambushed us with four pompoms and cajoled us to stand near Zach for a picture. We were very surprised by the sudden attention and wanted to decline initially as it was kinda embarrassing. But soon, people began pouring into the room and the two staff looked at us with the “please do it” kind of eyes… so we did it in the end…
Ta-da!
12 noon
Bade Uma goodbye and went off to Victoria station to meet Xiao Xu, PC’s Taiwanese web mate. After which, we headed on to Chinatown to have steamboat for lunch. Along the way, we bumped into a peaceful protest being carried out at Chinatown.
2pm
Bade Xiao Xu goodbye and went on alone to O2 to catch Body Worlds!
People had warned me about going to Body Worlds as most probably I would walk out feeling disgusted and uncomfortable. But it turned out to be quite ok for me though I did “hallucinate” for a while when I was walking through the exhibits thinking that some of the bodies hanging from the top would fell on me. If that really happened, then I would be really disturbed.
I even bought the book for reading (though I have yet to get started on it).
7pm
My hallucinations came back when Uma offered meat for dinner. So I decided to become non-carnivore for the day – i.e.: although I wasn’t going to take meat, I wasn’t about to start taking veggies either. I’d settled for something starchy instead. I turned to Maggie Curry Mee for comfort.
In fact, if I remembered correctly, I was literally pestering and ‘begging’ Uma to give me that pack of mee. I was badly craving for it since I returned from Scotland. I kinda regretted stuffing too much calorie bars and not having enough space to carry some spicy Korean instant noodles or cup noodles over. Darn!
Day 10 – 5th May (Tues)
8am
Almost missed my coach to Bath Spa by a mere minute or so. Had paid £16 for the return trip and was looking forward to seeing the small town.
11.20am
Finally reached Bath Spa! While I was there, I visited the Roman Baths Museum (admission cost £11)…
The Pulteney Bridge (below’s the view from the bridge)…
The Guildhall Market and The Royal Crescent. I wasn’t a spa kind of person so I gave the spa institutions a miss. All in all, Bath Spa is a beautiful and peaceful place. But it could get a little boring for people who weren’t into spa treatments. So if you were like me, perhaps a half day tour would be good enough.
Some other intesting sights that I had chanced upon…
9.30pm
Went back to Uma’s but she was down with flu. So I popped by a nearby Chinese eatery, bought some food and went back up again to have dinner together.
Day 11 – 6th May (Wed)
Took my own sweet time to wake up late that morning, before heading down to Queens Theatre to catch the musical, Les Miserables. Had gotten the ticket at half price (£18.10) via lastminute.com the night before. It turned out to be a really good musical that made me shed quite a few tears. But I still preferred the voice behind Corset a few years back though. :P
After the musical had ended, Adeline and I met up for Korean dinner near Chinatown and caught up on the good old days.
We even spent some time exploring Top Shop, H&M and etc along Oxford Street and Regent Street! Too bad Uma was still down with the flu bug then and couldn’t join us.
Day 12 – 7th May (Thurs)
It was drizzling when I reached the Buckingham Palace in the morning (around 10 or 11am). But that didn’t stop the crowd that had gathered way in advanced to see the changing of guards. I too, found a space to squeeze in and waited for the excitement to start.
What surprised me was that the changing of guards included a musical ritual where two royal bands took turns to perform a series of songs from classical to classic pop (i.e.: star wars and one other pop tune that I couldn’t recall now). It was pretty entertaining actually and could be quite funny as well when you noticed one of the band members was trying hard not to groove to the tune while playing his instrument.
Around 12 noon
Decided to leave the changing of guards ceremony that was still in progress for shopping along Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square.
Around 5.30pm
Popped by Chinatown again for a quick dinner at a small Japanese restaurant tucked in one of the back lanes.
7pm
Found my way to the Apollo Victoria Theatre with my barang barang and got ready to watch Wicked, the musical!
The set was amazing and the musical was really great.
You could tell that all the performers had put in their 101% effort and their vocals just simply blew me away! After the musical had ended, I rushed to the counter and wanted to get a copy of the soundtrack. But soon I realized that it was recorded by the US cast and not the London cast that I had just watched. So I decided not to buy the soundtrack and went back to Uma’s. After all, I hadn’t seen the performance of the US cast and it was the London cast that had wowed me. So I really couldn’t think of any other reason why I should buy it. Sigh. Hopefully there would be a London cast’s version soon.
Day 13 – 8th May (Fri)
It was drizzling again that morning as I made my way down to Westminster. Somehow, the weather kinda made me lose my interest to really explore The Houses of Parliament and the Big Ben…
And the Westminster Abbey (a UNESCO site). Just the queue alone freaked me out. And what you see in the picture below was just a fraction of the actual queue length.
As I walked on, I noticed another protest taking place opposite The Houses of Parliament. Hmmm… wondered if protests were a usual sight in London…
I continued my walk down to Nelson’s Column and on with my last minute shopping to get presents for my family.
Around 5.30pm
Bought dinner from McDonald's (around Piccadilly Circus area) and went back to Uma’s to rest for a while before my departure back to Singapore. Strangely, the food was a lot less oily than in Singapore's. It actually was very juicy. But Singapore's version of fries tasted better and crisper. If only I could have the best of both worlds back in Singapore.
Around 7.15pm
Met up with Uma halfway through to Heathrow airport. Throughout the journey, I was trying hard not to laugh out loud or to strangle her as she went on and on about Fruits Basket (a manga series turned anime) and how the rat would turn into human and etc, which didn’t make any sense to me at all. I bet the other passengers on board must have been thinking what these two mad Asian girls were talking about.
Once we reached Heathrow, we grabbed ourselves some snacks over at Starbucks and chatted away until it was time for me to board my plane.
London to me, was a place that I would dread staying for long as it kinda sucked up my energy and left me feeling down and a little lethargic for some strange reason which I couldn’t really put a finger to. Perhaps it was the weather. Or perhaps it was the way things were done or looked.
Scotland on the other hand, though not a shopper’s heaven like London, was a peaceful place where I could perhaps stay on for a longer period (but not indefinitely). I especially liked the Highlands as it gave me a sense of peace. The air was fresh and the people were friendly and passionate about nature. But I don’t know how to drive, which is a huge barrier to wanting to live on the highlands as there were no other popular forms of transport.
I guess I’m best suited for Singapore after all. Hmmm…
Labels: Scotland/ London
posted by ikan bilis at 9:33 PM
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