Monday | 11 June - the contrasting weather

I'm uploading photos now, before I hop on the train just before 10am, where I will meet Grace Ong who is coming down from Beckenham. We'll be going down to Picadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square together.

The weather's quite cool now - about 12 degrees Celsius, and it's not very humid (my skin is drying up, have to constantly moisturise, though I don't do it very often), quite contrasting to Singapore weather..



Will update my past few days' happenings later tonight when I get back. Quite alot of photos I've taken, and I'm starting to feel a little depressed at the snapshot photos which lack alot of quality. But oh well, sometimes you take for the sake of taking to keepsake, especially since you're on holiday, and it's not so often that you get to go a thousand miles from home to see such things.

Saturday | 9 June - Beckenham, British Museum, British National Library & Royal Albert Hall

Today was rather rushed. Left London bridge at 7am, just after helping Yujia with her luggage and sending her off in her cab. Managed to get to London Victoria in time for the 7.52am train (: which saw me back at 8.10am. I had woken up Aunty Amy and Uncle Peter prematurely - they were clearly not impressed. Aunty Cynthia came to fetch me at 9.40am, so I had about an hour plus to pack and freshen up.

Beckenham is a nice town. It's a little busier than the place at Sydenham Hill, with restaurants, pubs, and lots of shops. The walk from the Beckenham Junction Station is about 10 minutes wheras Sydenham Hill is just a matter of crossing the road. Aunty Cynthia stays in a very lovely and cosy flat on the first floor. Arriving at her place at 10.10am, I unpacked and settled down before leaving at 10.40am - in time to catch the next train at 10.54am!

The train was fast and I arrived at Victoria just after 11am, and was able to meet Catherine at Holborn at 11.30am, what was originally arranged.

It was really really good seeing Cat after so long! Her hair's much longer, and she's looking forward to getting a haircut back home! Apart from that, she looked great, and I trust her studies are doing just as fine. We went for lunch at the nearby Subway (£4.75 for my footlong with drink and chips) and then went to look for the British Museum, for a Tour conducted by one of her mates at Imperial.


Cat and me, at the British Museum

Will write more later as we all have to sleep here at home! Church tomorrow (:

Love to all!

UPDATE - Back from King's College, Off to Beckenham, Kent

Bonjour!

I just got back from King's College at London Bridge after spending 2 nights there with Yujia (my friend from church). Got to see London Bridge, Millenium bridge, Shakespeare Globe Theatre, Tate Modern (will be going today).. and also Covent Garden and Chinatown at Leicester Square on Thursday. I left King's College at 7am, and managed to catch the 7.52am train at Victoria.. got back to Sydenham Hill at 8.10am!

I'm packing now to move off to Aunty Cynthia's house at Beckenham. Grace Ong (my schoolmate from ACJC, and now Medical School) is staying there with her aunt too, so I will probably go hang out with her. Will be staying at Aunty Cynthia's place until Sunday at least - have plans to lengthen my stay at Beckenham till Monday or Tuesday night, depending on Aunty Cynthia's plans.

Today, i'm going to Holborn to see the British Museum with Cat (my schoolmate at ACJC, now at Imperial), and probably have l lunch with her. Lynn (also from ACJC, now at University of Warwick at Coventry) and her sister will be joining us.

The British Museum

Thereafter, I'll probably roam London on my own (or with Lynn and sister). I have plans to see the Photographer's Network and the Tate Modern, and perhaps St Paul's Cathedral (across the River Thames from Tate Modern) if time permits..

Gotta run.. will update with photos from Beckenham.. Love to all at home.

jonk!

Thursday | 7 June - Covent Gardens with Yujia, Alicia and Grace, Dinner & Ice cream, King's College.

Met Yujia more or less on time at 4.30pm at Covent Garden. With my backpack and CompuTrekker, I made my way to Victoria, made a transfer at Green Park, and then to Covent Garden. Thankfully, I got out of Covent Garden station without too much trouble.

At Covent Garden, I met Laura, this British girl doing some work for charity. She's 20 this year, and is on her way to Brixton to study music. She told me about Camden Town where it's quite big on the pubs and music scene. I walked around and watched the Buskers perform. The statue performers are very good at what they do, and their costumes are nice. I also saw a mime, and magician, as well as musicians.


The street magician

A street musician


After I met Yujia, we went walking around while waiting for Alicia and Grace. We went to the Disney shop because Yujia wanted to get a soft toy for her younger sister.

The Disney Shop


The Group of us.

When we all met up, we went to have cookies and hot chocolate at this popular cookie-ery - Ben's Cookies. Sitting down, we talked about old times and what we've all been doing.



After hot chocolate and much chat, we went on to meet Sarah Lim, who is studying in London as well. In the meantime, I took the liberty to take portraits in the streets.

The Many Faces of London


Shortly after, we parted ways as we all had our own dinner programmes. Yujia took me to have a Japanese dinner in Chinatown.. Which she treated me. I then insisted that I pay for dessert. So we had Haagen Dazs (:


Kintaro, the Japanese Restaurant

Ice cream was lovely. In fact, I've been eating so much ice cream since I'd come to London! We took the bus home from Covent Garden, back to Yujia's place at King's.


Yujia and me, on the way back to King's College

I was really tired by the time we got back, so I had a shower and went straight to bed (or rather, the floor). Yujia went to check on some stuff online, and joined her friend who was baking kueh lapis (wow!).

The floor was really quite comfortable after all! Had no trouble sleeping, and woke up feeling quite good (:

Thursday | 7 June - Buckingham Palace, Changing of the Guards

Woke up early on 7 June to pack and go watch the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace.
Was there at 11am, and the parade started at 11.30am, with an elaborate show of bandsmen, horsemen, and soldiers.
And tons of tourists.
Afterwhich, I wandered around the parks and streets, exploring some art galleries and shops. When I got tired, I hopped onto the first bus I saw, which subsequently took me to Picadilly Circus, where I had my McDonalds' lunch!
Afterwhich, I grabbed some maps from the London Tourist Centre before finding my way back to London Victoria to get my train back home. I then packed to go meet Yujia and Covent Gardens.


Woke up to the lovely flowers.. Looks like lavender thought I cannot be sure.


A mother and child at Sydenham Hill station


Train to London Victoria arrives every 30 minutes.


Mind the gap.


Buckingham Palace Road, a 10 minute walk down leads you to Buckingham Palace.


Parks and sitting down to take it easy is a way of life in London.


Seen at a Restaurant along Buckingham Palace Road.


Police warning outside a building.


School excursion to Buckingham Palace. The place is crowded with tourists and locals alike, and children on excursions can be seen. They're both local as well as visiting school groups from Europe (eg. France).


A PETA activist protesting outside Buckingham Palace.


The Palace Guards


A closer look.. Looks torturous!


The Policemen get checked out by some tourists.


Cyclist cycling past Buckingham Palace.

The Many Children at Buckingham Palace..






A very crowded Buckingham Palace.

The Changing of the Guards

Band marches past..




The Ceremony






The Park next to Buckingham Palace

The Parks are big and the trees majestic.

Alot of people run and jog in London.

Pigeons are everywhere.

Working people in the park..

MY FIRST HOT SHOWER IN LONDON!

okay. i normally take cold showers back home in Singapore.
now i had to take a HOT shower. not warm, but HOT!
my extremities were freezing - fingers and toes. and in the shower, they felt like pins and needles when the extreme cold and hot met.
anyway, it felt good feeling clean, brushing my teeth, and doing the paperwork if you know what i mean.
and calling home (:
don't think i'll be sleeping now. will go clean my lenses and plan what lenses i'm going to bring out today.
am definitely going to bring the telephoto, and maybe not the super-wide for the morning.
i'll be back at sydenham hill later to collect my stuff before going to Yujia's place at about 4pm, with all my barang barang.
looking forward to that!

Wednesday | 6 June - London City

Jonk at the London Eye, 4pm on 6 June.


I finally got the thing to timestamp in London date and time.
I'm currently 7 hours behind you guys, ie it's 11am there but 4am here.

I had slept at 9pm and woken up because i had a runny nose. Gona go back to sleep soon.

Well anyway, this morning, Uncle Peter (whom I'm staying with) briefed me about his home - his wireless internet (which finally woked at night, because of some line problem), his VoIP phone, the SIM card he issued me, how to get around by bus and tube, the attractions I could visit, etc.

Went on to explore the neighbourhood. It's beautiful - will post more photos soon.

We had a simple lunch of toast, char siew bao, and cake. And Uncle Peter suggested I make full use of my travel card and go explore London. So I ran out of the house to catch the 2.02pm train (they come every 30 minutes).

Victoria, London

At Victoria, I walked out of the station - without a proper street map, and only the tube map and bus-attractions map.

I ditched the map for two reason - it was bulky and it made me look like a tourist. So I literally wandered London, keeping in mind the turns I made, so later on I could cross the street and back track, taking on a different view (:

Englishmen on the streets - there are MANY MANY parks in London, and people bother to go there just to sit down.

As it turned out, I walked very very far (about 3-4km, making numerous turns..
From Victoria, I went down Buckingham Palace Road, down to Buckingham Palace, along the way taking at look at the shops and Buckingham Palace Mews (museum) and alot of interesting stuff. I saw the Girl Guides Association of UK!

Finally, down a long road.. Buckingham Palace. Taking photos was hard because the sun was shining from behind the building and statues, causing terrible backlighting, and underexposure of the critical subjects, and overexposures of the nice blue skies. Have to come at different times of the day. Or at night. gah! Also, I was alone and felt very afraid of exposing my gear too much, or being confronted for taking blatant photos (alot of my people photos were shot from my belt level).

Buckingham Palace
The Queen Victoria Memoral in the circus in front of Buckingham palace.
The Queen Victoria Memoral from the front, with TERRIBLE backlighting.
Chilaxing by the Statues

Further down, the road, the streets were adorned by Union Jacks.

As I came to learn, today they commemorate D-day with an event called "Beating the Retreat" (in reference to the drums played when forces march in retreat from the war). That night, there would be a commemoration at the Horse Guards Parade just outside St James Park.

Admiralty Arch is next to the Horse Guards Parade. I walked through it and ended up at Trafalgar Square - National Gallery, Nelson's Column, and busy people..
Admiralty Arch
National Gallery

Along the way to the Admiralty Arch, I witnessed road rage! Two police cars came in promptly (they drove on the pavement!).
Road rage on the streets - the police came in promptly to accost them

From Trafalgar Square, I noticed - BIG BEN! A long way down Whitehall to Parliament Street. So I walked.. Along the way, I saw a protest outside a government building. Police were on standby..

Protest outside the MP's office.

Then at last, I was at Westminister - where Parliament House, Big Ben, Westminister Abbey, and the London eye are.

Westminister Underground
Big Ben
House of Parliament - One very massive building, with a nice gold sheen.
London Eye
Bridge Street

Next to the London Eye is an open area for Buskers. As it seems, all these buskers do (and do VERY VERY WELL) is pose as statues. Fancy that! There are enough statues in London already! Tomorrow, I'm going to put a hat in front of one such (REAL) statue and by lunch time, I'll have cash to eat fish and chips and buy souvinirs for all at home.

Statues.. I mean, Buskers.

As I mentioned earlier - things in London are big and vast, even the monuments and statues. And there are SO MANY STATUES - will take more photos when I explore London tomorrow.

Duke of York Column
Some building I saw. Towers over you, like you've shrunk by a quarter.

It's 5.30am now, and it's as bright as Singapore 7.30am, even 8am actually.
It was still as bright as Singapore 7pm at 9pm last night. (:
Daylight savings. haha.

Today is a new day. And I'm out to get it. I think I'll go take a shower and BRUSH MY TEETH. then nap about 20 minutes before having breakfast with Uncle Peter and Aunty Amy at 7am. Aunty Amy will leave the house before 8am to get to work on time. I might just follow her.

Tonight, I'll be staying at London Bridge, until Saturday when I'll be moving to Kent with Aunty Cynthia.

Carpe diem baby!