Tuesday | 19 June - Windsor Castle, Great Windsor Park, The Long Walk, Phantom of the Opera

The group that went to Windsor.

Windsor was great. Went to Waterloo to meet Milton at 9.45am, and Shawn and JIA LUN came along. Joel joined us later.
We got tickets cheap - a 2 for 2 offer, so we paid half price at £3.90 each for the return journey. The 50 minute trip there was passed by playing cards - Bridge, Dai Dee and Egyptian Rat Race (which I keep winning).

Today happened to be the Royal Ascot Races, held at Ascot which is a short drive from Windsor itself. The Queen was in attendance, and she was probably at Windsor Castle at her royal apartment.

Upon arriving at Windsor, I got maps and we went to Windsor Castle. £6.50 entry, and we were in to explore the place. Really big and beautiful and there were many intersting things inside - Queen Mary's Doll House collection, the Royal Art Collection (featuring works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangelo and more), the Royal China Collection (porcelain tableware), Armour and weapons, the St. George's Cathedral, and the castle environs.




Afterwhich, we went to grab some lunch at a cafe (I had a stuffed potato with tuna and corn, and an ice cream) and clever me went to buy two 2l of drinks for £2.60!! This shop had a one for one offer (: Pretty good deal, considering a 500ml bottle of coke at the cafe cost £1.30 (:

Then we went to the Great Windor Park. Gosh, it was so beautiful and massive - the Long Walk is so simple with the boulevard of trees gracing each side of the road path, and that was beauty in itself. The 3 mile road leads to Windsor Castle. The group of us sat under a tree and ate our lunch while we talked. After lunch, we passed the time playing cards and enjoying the lovely breeze and summer weather, while Jialun made sketches for his sweetheart. I'm kidding, but Jialun was drawing whatever he saw. Very remarkable interest and means of expression, and I really admire Jialun's drawing ability.

Then the moment we'd all been waiting for - PHOTO SHOOT! Took lots of scenic shots of the Long Walk, Windsor Castle, and also us with the lovely scenery. We took cool shots as well - I enjoyed it!




After the Great Park, we made our way back to the train station, with 30 minutes to spare so we walked around Eton for a very short while - not enough time to visit Eton College though. Well it was good enough fun, and we went back from Windsor via the train to Waterloo, grabbing dinner at McDonalds' before catching the Tube to our various locations for musicals. JIalun and Shawn went to watch the Lion King while Joel and myself went to catch Phantom of the Opera with Bird, Yanling, John and Milton.

Phantom was quite an awesome musical. The set was great - very elaborate and well designed and thought of. The thing that kinda grew stale after a while was the constant use and re-use of the same tunes, with lyrics changed accordingly with the situations and dialogue. Nonetheless, the strong melodies and themes held true - song like Music of the Night and That's All I ask of You were really well sung. The performers weren't bad, singing and dancing well. And there was much use of pyrotechnics and explosives - flames and firecrackers were used for effects, the phantom would escape using a small thunderflash and a shroud of smoke. The smoke machine was very cleverly employed for the water scenes (:

it was training on the outside when it ended. So we waited outside for the rain to simmer, while we took some photos of ourselves. Then we headed home via tube, along our own separate routes.

I found myself at Green Park at 10.45pm, with a train that would depart from Victoria at 10.52pm (though it actually departs at 10.50pm). So with great determination, and really couting every second, I hopped onto the Victoria line train, alighted as soon as it arrived, ran and cut through the crowd like a meandering stream, dashed up the escalaor, tapped out of the gantry and ran up the stairs into the Victoria station, made a quick check on the Departure boards to confirm my train's platform, dashed through the gantries and boarded the first carriage of the Orpington line train as soon as I saw it..

Ten seconds later, the doors closed and the train departed. Thank goodness - it would have been a 30 minute wait for the next train just because of that 10 seconds lapse.

I'm going to have a shower before hitting the sac. Going to update the photos asap (:

I'm meeting my friends at Westminister tmr, and then going to watch the Changing of Guards again. Then we'll see what there is to do before going for dinner at Edgware Road for dinner at night.

Monday | 18 June - Tower Bridge, Baker Street, Serendipity

Woke up late - again ): 9.30am and I rolled out.
Quickly got ready, didn't shower (it's not needed here since it's not so humid) but fixed a quick breakfast and hung out my clothes to dry with just ONE MINUTE to rush to the train station to get the next train to Victoria.

I happened to hop into the carriage where the Ticket Inspectors were on - they checked my Oyster card which was obviously in service (:

Then from Victoria, I took the District and Circle line all the way to Tower Hill. Upon getting there, I got out - and it rained.
Was marooned there for almost an hour.

When it simmered down, I set off for Tower of London and Tower Bridge, in the gloomy weather. Long queues formed for tickets to Tower of London. Seemed very interesting, but I went into the Visitor Centre (free admission) to watch the video which showed a general overview of what's inside Tower of London and a very rough idea of it's history and significance - THERE! I've seen Tower of London. Took a few photographs, though I think the only nice photos of Tower of London would be taken from the inside, or from the air (by helicopter or from Tower Bridge).

While taking photos of Tower Bridge with my tripod, it began to pour! DRAT. So I dismounted my camera from the tripod, hid it under my sweater and ran for shelter. Decided to hide from the rain until it was clear that it would be sunny. So just as well - I had lunch while waiting. I had a £3 meal, which was a BUY ONE GET ONE FREE. So I ended up having 4 pieces of chicken and a lot of fries. Not bad by London standards.

The rain stopped and I carried on my way to see where I could take more photographs of Tower Bridge. it was about 12noon by then. i walked along the banks of the river thames, on Tower Bridge itself, and across to the opposite banks. Finally found a few good spots to take the photos with proper exposure. I went on my way, talking towards London Bridge and turning out to the main road where I could take the train from London Bridge Underground. I seem to be going by this place MANY MANY times.

I'd originally planned to go to South Kensington just to take photos of the flowers I had seen yesterday at Cat's place. And perhaps go to the museums. But the gloomy weather made me decide otherwise - I decided to go to BAKER STREET - home of Sherlock Holmes!

Took the tube to Baker Street, making only one transfer - I'm quite attuned to riding the tube now (:

At Baker Street, I realised there was more to see - Madam Tussauds Wax Museum, a Beatles Memorablia Shop and Museum, an Elvis Presley Memorablia Shop, and the famous 221B Baker Street Residence of Sherlock Holmes. Went into all those memorablia shops - very nice collectables and badges and such, and also a little Beatles Museum and Sherlock Holmes Museum! But I wouldn't part with my Sterling just for that! So the only two souvinirs I took home from there were - 1. the business card of the Sherlock Holmes Museum and 2. a mental note to remember to take a photo of Abbey Road, of Beatles Fame.

Leaving the place, I contemplated having an ice cream - STUPID JONK. It was then that i ran into these blokes:


Jia Lun, Shawn, John Hsu, Gillian and Huipei.

OH MY SON. what a small world. Serendipity strikes everywhere!

Gillian left, and the rest of us went to Canada Water to go back to Huipei's brother's rented apartment (he's a fourth-year medical student at King's) - they'd be staying there for a few days before they fly back home. The apartment is a really lovely place, and I quite liked the layout (albeit it was quite a messy living arrangement) and how cosy it was.

After a short rest, we took a bus to London Bridge (see - i'm there AGAIN) where we took a train to Tottenham Court Road (where they were to catch Les Miserables the musical). I got myself a Java Chip from Starbucks to indulge in ): £3.15!

On the way, the bunch of them went to get Krispy Kremes at the station before we took the tube to Tottenham Court Road. We had dinner at Wong Kei Chinese Restaurant at Chinatown. Food seemed quite decent, and portions large. However, we were in a smoking section ): And the waiter sounded MORTIFIED when I didn't make an order. He was like,

"NI BU CHI FAN?"

And I was like "BU CHI!"

HAHA. So we had a good time over dinner, eating and talking and drinking tea (i like) and toasting to our promotion.

Then they went to get their tickets and subsequently, meet up with another group - my OG, comprising Yan Ling, Xinrong, Bird, Milton, Kaiping and Thomas. Was great seeing them, and we talked a bit while waiting to go into the theatre.


The Group at the Theatre.

I went home for dinner. Aunty Amy cooked chicken rice, which was really lovely. We finished the whole platter, including veggies and I ate the leftover curry from last night's dinner. This was followed by ice cream, which Uncle Peter cleverly concocted some fudge made out of melted dark chocolate (from the microwave). It was good - and I'd better exercise alot when I get home!

I spent the rest of the evening planning a day trip tomorrow for us - considering going to Windsor OR Salisbury/Stonehenge OR BOTH. Both seems out of the question, it's way too rushed.

Adeline sent me a text to sell me Joel's here and is bored and gave me his London line. Will rope him in for tomorrow's outing.

Hope tomorrow goes fine. I reckon we'll go to Windsor!

Will update with photos asap!