[Day 1] Let's go to London!
As I approach my 30th birthday, I realise I have never visited London even though I've been meaning to do it my entire life.
So I bought a ticket to watch Ben Whishaw and Judi Dench act the hell out of a stage play, and LIVED MY DREAM.
The first thing mum likes to tell everyone is that we flew on the A380 Airbus. That's right, an AIRBUS! It has TWO STOREYS so you can fit twice as many people and it has a STAIRCASE and it's HUGE and did we mention it's HUGE? I dunno man, it's not like we were flying business class. The only difference was that the window only had 2 seats so that if my mum couldn't sleep on this 13-hour trip, she could only harass ME.
Watched "Salmon Fishing In The Yemen" and "Tron Legacy". One had Ewan McGregor speak with a Scottish brogue, the other had Daft Punk. Good stuff! I'd watch more but my plane routine was mostly:
- Eat
- Try to sleep
- Use toilet
- Listen to mum prattle
- Reduce tailbone pain
- Not die
I did get a lovely shot of somewhere near Kabul from the plane, though!
Landed around 4 PM to the merry winds of OH MY GOD IT'S SO COLD weather of 12°C. Took the airport transfer coach back to our hotel. Ironically Doris took the Heathrow Connect to hers and reached earlier because we shared a coach with several guests who were dropped off before us.
So we checked in around 7, marveled at how small the room was, and freaked out like a proper net addict because there was no free wifi! Turns out free wifi was only applicable if you booked the room online direct from them, otherwise it was £5/hour or £13 for the whole day. Either way it was a more cost-effective solution to lug my notebook to Doris' hotel two blocks down and leech her free wifi. Thankfully I didn't need to do that often because I used a UK sim card in my phone that had a data plan. It wasn't much, but 150MB to upload pics to Facebook and Whatsapp Pearl, I'm not complaining. 8D
Here's the bed.
The radiator was behind the curtains. There were no fires because it was impossibly hard to turn on. In Tokyo last year I gawked at the Singaporeans who cranked the aircond to 16°C in March and here I was sleeping in a cold room and felt totally fine with it.
The view behind the curtains. Mum tried to get a room with a view, but they were fully booked. All I need is a view that tells me the day's weather.
I shall not miss the lack of bidets in English toilets one bit.
Stepped out to get a sim card for mum's phone and look for dinner. Paddington has got lots of eateries, but since nobody wanted to try the local KFC, we went into an empty cafe and got the worst dinner ever.
Clockwise from left: Jacket potato, fish & chips, chicken tikka sandwich
Due to miscommunication we ordered one dish too many so the sandwich was mostly uneaten. Doris asked for sour cream for the jacket potato but the waitress had no idea what sour cream was. I ordered "Fish FINGERS & chips" but despite confirming FIVE TIMES she still gave fish and chips. =__= Foreign wait staff who can't understand English? It's like I never left Malaysia!
The KFC would've been a better bet, yes.
Thus ends my first day in London. Next up: Parks, shopping, cheap food, meeting friends and family, and bulimia!
So I bought a ticket to watch Ben Whishaw and Judi Dench act the hell out of a stage play, and LIVED MY DREAM.
The first thing mum likes to tell everyone is that we flew on the A380 Airbus. That's right, an AIRBUS! It has TWO STOREYS so you can fit twice as many people and it has a STAIRCASE and it's HUGE and did we mention it's HUGE? I dunno man, it's not like we were flying business class. The only difference was that the window only had 2 seats so that if my mum couldn't sleep on this 13-hour trip, she could only harass ME.
Watched "Salmon Fishing In The Yemen" and "Tron Legacy". One had Ewan McGregor speak with a Scottish brogue, the other had Daft Punk. Good stuff! I'd watch more but my plane routine was mostly:
- Eat
- Try to sleep
- Use toilet
- Listen to mum prattle
- Reduce tailbone pain
- Not die
I did get a lovely shot of somewhere near Kabul from the plane, though!
Landed around 4 PM to the merry winds of OH MY GOD IT'S SO COLD weather of 12°C. Took the airport transfer coach back to our hotel. Ironically Doris took the Heathrow Connect to hers and reached earlier because we shared a coach with several guests who were dropped off before us.
So we checked in around 7, marveled at how small the room was, and freaked out like a proper net addict because there was no free wifi! Turns out free wifi was only applicable if you booked the room online direct from them, otherwise it was £5/hour or £13 for the whole day. Either way it was a more cost-effective solution to lug my notebook to Doris' hotel two blocks down and leech her free wifi. Thankfully I didn't need to do that often because I used a UK sim card in my phone that had a data plan. It wasn't much, but 150MB to upload pics to Facebook and Whatsapp Pearl, I'm not complaining. 8D
Here's the bed.
The radiator was behind the curtains. There were no fires because it was impossibly hard to turn on. In Tokyo last year I gawked at the Singaporeans who cranked the aircond to 16°C in March and here I was sleeping in a cold room and felt totally fine with it.
The view behind the curtains. Mum tried to get a room with a view, but they were fully booked. All I need is a view that tells me the day's weather.
I shall not miss the lack of bidets in English toilets one bit.
Stepped out to get a sim card for mum's phone and look for dinner. Paddington has got lots of eateries, but since nobody wanted to try the local KFC, we went into an empty cafe and got the worst dinner ever.
Clockwise from left: Jacket potato, fish & chips, chicken tikka sandwich
Due to miscommunication we ordered one dish too many so the sandwich was mostly uneaten. Doris asked for sour cream for the jacket potato but the waitress had no idea what sour cream was. I ordered "Fish FINGERS & chips" but despite confirming FIVE TIMES she still gave fish and chips. =__= Foreign wait staff who can't understand English? It's like I never left Malaysia!
The KFC would've been a better bet, yes.
Thus ends my first day in London. Next up: Parks, shopping, cheap food, meeting friends and family, and bulimia!