london! :)
London was wonderful, even though I arrived with a heavy heart on Wednesday night following a pretty bad weekend. It was Guy Fawkes Day and I had loads of fun watching the fireworks coming up from random houses on the bus from Stansted into downtown London. I spent a lot of money shopping and spent half a day in Topshop alone (no kidding) and picked up something like 20 tops and/or dresses and trying them on endlessly before narrowing it down to just two; saving my money for the Boxing Day sales! I was so tempted to buy so many things because Topshop stuff is lovely and I miss it so much now that I don't get to shop there regularly anymore. Had to keep restraining myself from getting things ("No, it's winter now... and you'll only get to wear that six months later when you get back," and then a voice goes: "But it's pretty! And you might not be able to find it again! And it's summer all year round back home anyway! Cost-per-wear!") including this grey blazer which cost 60 pounds (I didn't!).
We also had a lot of Chinese food. We had Chinese food every day, and our default travel plans always meant we Tubed from King's Cross to Leicester Square for brunch and then navigate anywhere from there. My mind (and tummy) swooned with all the familiar tastes (Dim sum! Roast duck! Roast pork! Soya sauce! Milk tea Hong Kong style! Anything but fries!) from home and I was just. So happy. So happy having all this stuff to eat. It almost felt like I was home again ♥
We kept wanting to walk down to Westminster and check out the River Thames, but both of us have been to London before, so we kept postponing that part and all we ended up doing was shopping at Oxford Circus and eating at Leicester Square. We explored Covent Garden quite a bit and I just basically jumped into every familiar store I could find (MUJI, anyone?! Oh God I miss Muji so much.) and walked around the market where I laughed at everyone getting their names painted in fancy lettering by random Chinese dudes with coloured paint for 20 pounds. :/
I also went a bit nuts at Piccadilly Circus (I found it, lip_stick_love!) and bought what is possibly a lifetime's supply of Japanese curry, green tea and ochazuke seasoning ♥ ♥ I also managed to snag the latest issue of Wink Up while I was at it. This was before I went to the Chinese supermarket at Chinatown the next day and bought the most random stuff on earth to eat (instant noodles... from Singapore, no less. My wallet cries at the arduous plane journey it probably took to get to London and the exorbitant shipping costs the supermarket passed down to a lowly consumer like me). While I was at a cafe serving Malaysian/Singaporean food having assam laksa (the best thing on earth when it's raining) I kept thinking, "I can buy 7 bowls of this back home with this money :( :( :(". But the best money is made off homesick people :(
We were also on our way to Knightsbridge when we walked through Piccadilly so just imagine me laden with all this food while walking the rest of the way there before barging into Harrod's and ransacking the Krispy Kreme parlour. Yes, that was me...
BOOKS. akdgkjdfgfg it is difficult to explain exactly how comforting it is to see everything in English, even the street signs, the information signs, to look at people drive on the RIGHT SIDE OF THE ROAD again, and the presence of all these familiar and comforting shops (Topshop! Muji! Uniqlo! Boots! Marks and Spencers!!!!). I headed to Waterstone's just two buildings away from Japan Centre and blew even more money buying books to read. The next day my friend and I found a used bookstore around Leicester Square with rare first editions of the most random books ever, including an 1887 copy of the Statutes of England, and I very nearly screamed with delight when I found an elusive copy of Archy and Mehitabel by Don Marquis for 3.50. AHHHH. HAPPINESSS :D:D:D
The weather is shit. I thought the rain was a London thing (I mean, it is...) but when I got back it was no better and the wind is literally howling outside my window right now. :/ There is rain everywhere. It rains like crazy in Singapore too, especially during this period. The rain in the morning in London today was horrendous and my umbrella proved totally ineffectual when my crazy friend suggested we walk from King's Cross to Leicester Square for lunch; it got blown inside out so many times we decided to take the Tube, and he was supposed to have gone for class today, but he skipped out and went home with us instead ahahaha. THE RAIN >:|
We also watched Chicago and Avenue Q, which was great! Avenue Q wasn't really supposed to happen because we watched it on Friday night, and we were supposed to be in Bristol on Friday, but as it turned out we'd missed our bus to Bristol the night before after we finished watching Chicago (which contains another story altogether). This was really stupid because we had an hour to spare, so we decided to go have a drink (really bad idea) and lost track of time, ended up having to run from Victoria station to the coach station, which my friend said was "400m away" and was most certainly not 400m away, and got there to find the bus... missing. MISSING.
Before that I made an arrangement with my friend, who was coming from Bristol to watch Chicago with us, and stupidly we forgot to exchange numbers. We were supposed to meet at 6.45pm in front of the theatre but I got increasingly worried when it became 7.15pm and she still didn't show up. I was on the verge of calling someone to find her number on a computer when she popped up in front of me explaining that (due to the shitty weather) several passengers were stranded elsewhere and her bus had to make a detour to pick them up. Which was good because she finally turned up. But still, my nerves :OOO
We were supposed to hit up the Tate Modern, the Vanity Fair exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery as well, but we were all museum-ed out by the time we'd finished the National Gallery. (Also, I am pretty proud of myself this time, because I finally managed to see most of it. My family is not very museum-oriented, so every time I came to London and visited the National Gallery, I'd only get to see part of it and then have to leave. And because London is so far away from Singapore, we'd only visit once in a few years -- by which time I'd forgotten what was there -- and end up seeing the same part of the National Gallery over and over again. But not this time! I spent a good five hours there this time! :D). So, am saving the other two for the next time I go to London.
I had a load of fun, but I'm glad to be home :)