All About My Weekend in London
Seeing that it is Friday night of my 10th week here in Nottingham, UK, I shall just take a little bit of time off my work to blog properly about the weekend I spent in London last week.
On Friday, 23rd Nov, I took the 3pm train from Nottingham station to arrive at London St Pancras at about 5pm. On the train, I was sitting opposite a loud man who, at one point, asked if I wanted to sit on his lap because there was a mix up in seats for a few people. I must have looked very embarrassed and scared because at the next moment he laughed and said, "Don't worry love, I was only kidding!" After which, I just listened to songs on my iPod as I slept here and there throughout the journey. At different points of the journey, I'd hear the loud man laughing with his 5 other friends, who were playing games with poker cards.
After a long wait, I finally met up with Kay, who brought me to a small chinese restaurant in Chinatown that sold DELICIOUS roast duck and all other kinds of roast meat. There, at the restaurant, I also ate proper, chinese-tasting white rice. Oh goodness, it was WONDERFUL just eating the white rice... The rice they serve in the hall can be quite inconsistent. Most of the time it is dry and a little on the hard side, not fragrant. So when I do eat the rice served in FB, it would be with a lot of gravy that would then serve to "soften" the rice and make it more enjoyable to eat (not that it is a torture to eat the rice served in FB).
Oh yes, Kay and I actually had dinner, went to Starbucks and then watched "Rent" the musical with another Singaporean called Eng Liang (a.k.a. EL). They were really nice company! "Rent" was also FABULOUS! Our seats were really lousy though. But the singing was really really good, and even though we thought the set a little plain initially, we later realised that they didn't really need an elaborate set to being with. Musicals-wise, I still wish I could watch Mary Poppins, it's closing in January. I actually thought we could watch Mary Poppins, but the tickets were just too expensive. By the way, the first two photos were taken at Covent Garden, the second 2 photos were taken in Starbuck's.
Anyhow, after "Rent", we walked a portion of South Bank, where Kay taught me a few techiques to better handle my camera when taking night shots.
I stayed the night in Kay's flat, which was really nice and cosy, waking up nice and fresh the next morning, Saturday, 24th Nov, all eager to have... DIMSUM LUNCH!! Oh my goodness lunch was FANTASTIC! I'd been craving for dimsum for such a looooong time, which made lunch even MORE satisfying! It also helped that they had everything I wanted to eat! Here are SOME of the dishes I got to enjoy:
After lunch, Kay and I parted company with EL and headed down to Portobello Market. It was so interesting walking down the street lined with pushcart stalls selling all sorts of things. I was too busy try to catch sight of everything around me that I forgot to take photos, haha. I bought this really cute polka-dot scarf and we had churros with chocolate (which was absolutely, sinfully delicious).
For dinner, I met up with Elaine, my MGS friend with whom I was once SUPER close to in Primary 5. She sat next to me in class, the person I would always go for recess with, and was the person I used to call about homework in Primary 5. We were never in the same class again after Primary 5, so we are no longer as close as before. However, it was really really nice to meet up with her again, to talk about our shared memories and other MGS gossip, where she was the one updating me on everything going on in MGS because she's just more in touch with the MGS circle. Anyhow, we had dinner at Ramen Seto, a Japanese restaurant Kay recommended. I really want to eat sashimi and sushi, but I settled for ramen and Japanese rice, which was just as satisfying, actually.
It was an uneventful night, with my visiting Elaine's host family, seeing the house in which she lives, then going over to the quaint, cosy B&B just a few doors down from her home. We watched an episode of "Criminal Minds", a tiny little bit of "Madagascar", then went to bed. About the B&B, it is called Avalon Cottage and it really is so pretty. The sink and shower were hidden behind cupboard panels, so if you enter into the shower area, it is as if you are showering in a cupboard, so Narnia-ish, haha.
Sunday, 25th Nov: Hillsong London!!! I really like this church, you know that? I keep telling people that if I were staying in London, I would definitely make Hillsong London my home church here in the UK. So it really is a big pity that there is no Hillsong Nottingham or something... The worship was, of course, FANTASTIC! Albeit, a little over the top in terms of their "entrance". It was something like, the musicians walking to their instruments in style, getting into position, then they started playing the introduction. Afterwards, the worship leader and the 4 lead singers would run on stage and just begin singing, a lot like how a performance would begin. Their music and singing is very impressive though. They had 4 lead singers, 4 backup singers, 3 keyboards (the 2nd keyboardist had 2 keyboards, the 1st keyboardist played and sang), 2 electric guitars (one of the guitarists played and sang), 1 bass, and the worship leader played the acoustic guitar and led worship. All the songs they sang were so familiar, with a majority of them from Hillsong's newest album, "Saviour King". If I remember correctly, they played it EXACTLY like the CD! It was really cool and really good.
The message was rather good as well! Ok, maybe it was just a good week for the church message-wise, because Kay actually told me that she found the messages in Hillsong London "airy-fairy". Therefore, there could be the likelihood that in the end I would begin to dislike Hillsong London because of their type of messages if I had attended a few more times but... Shucks. I really like this church, haha. After service, we were standing outside the Dominion Theatre (where Hillsong London holds its services), when we actually bumper into another MGS girl, Shirin! She was with her sister and boyfriend (I think). It really is such a small world...
Lunch with Elaine, Tzen (she came down from Nottingham to visit her aunt) and Kay was GREAT because... we had DIMSUM! haha
(Ok, I wanted to put another photo of Elaine and myself outside Holborn station here but somehow, it's taking forever to upload!)
Then I had to go to London St Pancras to catch my train back to Nottingham... I was sad to leave and yet at the same time happy to head back to Nottingham, to my own room in FB. Even though it meant that all the work was waiting for me there. But at least I got to put down my duffel bag, instead of lugging it all around with me from place to place. By the time I reached back at Nottingham train station, it was 5:10pm and the sun had set. Daniel very kindly agreed to pick me up from the station so that I didn't need to travel back to FB alone "in the dark". He was very late though. He only came at 6pm! But I was fine with it because I had brought a case with me to read so I was just sitting in the station, reading the case while waiting for him to arrive.
The rest of the night consisted of: (1) Picking Tzen up from Beeston train station with Daniel. (2) Having dinner at Sukho Thai with Tzen and Daniel. (3) Unpacking all my stuff when i got back to my room after dinner. (4) Enjoying Krispy Kreme donuts in Tzen's room with Erica and Trang.
It was a really good weekend, this one.
On Friday, 23rd Nov, I took the 3pm train from Nottingham station to arrive at London St Pancras at about 5pm. On the train, I was sitting opposite a loud man who, at one point, asked if I wanted to sit on his lap because there was a mix up in seats for a few people. I must have looked very embarrassed and scared because at the next moment he laughed and said, "Don't worry love, I was only kidding!" After which, I just listened to songs on my iPod as I slept here and there throughout the journey. At different points of the journey, I'd hear the loud man laughing with his 5 other friends, who were playing games with poker cards.
After a long wait, I finally met up with Kay, who brought me to a small chinese restaurant in Chinatown that sold DELICIOUS roast duck and all other kinds of roast meat. There, at the restaurant, I also ate proper, chinese-tasting white rice. Oh goodness, it was WONDERFUL just eating the white rice... The rice they serve in the hall can be quite inconsistent. Most of the time it is dry and a little on the hard side, not fragrant. So when I do eat the rice served in FB, it would be with a lot of gravy that would then serve to "soften" the rice and make it more enjoyable to eat (not that it is a torture to eat the rice served in FB).
Oh yes, Kay and I actually had dinner, went to Starbucks and then watched "Rent" the musical with another Singaporean called Eng Liang (a.k.a. EL). They were really nice company! "Rent" was also FABULOUS! Our seats were really lousy though. But the singing was really really good, and even though we thought the set a little plain initially, we later realised that they didn't really need an elaborate set to being with. Musicals-wise, I still wish I could watch Mary Poppins, it's closing in January. I actually thought we could watch Mary Poppins, but the tickets were just too expensive. By the way, the first two photos were taken at Covent Garden, the second 2 photos were taken in Starbuck's.
Anyhow, after "Rent", we walked a portion of South Bank, where Kay taught me a few techiques to better handle my camera when taking night shots.
I stayed the night in Kay's flat, which was really nice and cosy, waking up nice and fresh the next morning, Saturday, 24th Nov, all eager to have... DIMSUM LUNCH!! Oh my goodness lunch was FANTASTIC! I'd been craving for dimsum for such a looooong time, which made lunch even MORE satisfying! It also helped that they had everything I wanted to eat! Here are SOME of the dishes I got to enjoy:
After lunch, Kay and I parted company with EL and headed down to Portobello Market. It was so interesting walking down the street lined with pushcart stalls selling all sorts of things. I was too busy try to catch sight of everything around me that I forgot to take photos, haha. I bought this really cute polka-dot scarf and we had churros with chocolate (which was absolutely, sinfully delicious).
For dinner, I met up with Elaine, my MGS friend with whom I was once SUPER close to in Primary 5. She sat next to me in class, the person I would always go for recess with, and was the person I used to call about homework in Primary 5. We were never in the same class again after Primary 5, so we are no longer as close as before. However, it was really really nice to meet up with her again, to talk about our shared memories and other MGS gossip, where she was the one updating me on everything going on in MGS because she's just more in touch with the MGS circle. Anyhow, we had dinner at Ramen Seto, a Japanese restaurant Kay recommended. I really want to eat sashimi and sushi, but I settled for ramen and Japanese rice, which was just as satisfying, actually.
It was an uneventful night, with my visiting Elaine's host family, seeing the house in which she lives, then going over to the quaint, cosy B&B just a few doors down from her home. We watched an episode of "Criminal Minds", a tiny little bit of "Madagascar", then went to bed. About the B&B, it is called Avalon Cottage and it really is so pretty. The sink and shower were hidden behind cupboard panels, so if you enter into the shower area, it is as if you are showering in a cupboard, so Narnia-ish, haha.
Sunday, 25th Nov: Hillsong London!!! I really like this church, you know that? I keep telling people that if I were staying in London, I would definitely make Hillsong London my home church here in the UK. So it really is a big pity that there is no Hillsong Nottingham or something... The worship was, of course, FANTASTIC! Albeit, a little over the top in terms of their "entrance". It was something like, the musicians walking to their instruments in style, getting into position, then they started playing the introduction. Afterwards, the worship leader and the 4 lead singers would run on stage and just begin singing, a lot like how a performance would begin. Their music and singing is very impressive though. They had 4 lead singers, 4 backup singers, 3 keyboards (the 2nd keyboardist had 2 keyboards, the 1st keyboardist played and sang), 2 electric guitars (one of the guitarists played and sang), 1 bass, and the worship leader played the acoustic guitar and led worship. All the songs they sang were so familiar, with a majority of them from Hillsong's newest album, "Saviour King". If I remember correctly, they played it EXACTLY like the CD! It was really cool and really good.
The message was rather good as well! Ok, maybe it was just a good week for the church message-wise, because Kay actually told me that she found the messages in Hillsong London "airy-fairy". Therefore, there could be the likelihood that in the end I would begin to dislike Hillsong London because of their type of messages if I had attended a few more times but... Shucks. I really like this church, haha. After service, we were standing outside the Dominion Theatre (where Hillsong London holds its services), when we actually bumper into another MGS girl, Shirin! She was with her sister and boyfriend (I think). It really is such a small world...
Lunch with Elaine, Tzen (she came down from Nottingham to visit her aunt) and Kay was GREAT because... we had DIMSUM! haha
(Ok, I wanted to put another photo of Elaine and myself outside Holborn station here but somehow, it's taking forever to upload!)Then I had to go to London St Pancras to catch my train back to Nottingham... I was sad to leave and yet at the same time happy to head back to Nottingham, to my own room in FB. Even though it meant that all the work was waiting for me there. But at least I got to put down my duffel bag, instead of lugging it all around with me from place to place. By the time I reached back at Nottingham train station, it was 5:10pm and the sun had set. Daniel very kindly agreed to pick me up from the station so that I didn't need to travel back to FB alone "in the dark". He was very late though. He only came at 6pm! But I was fine with it because I had brought a case with me to read so I was just sitting in the station, reading the case while waiting for him to arrive.
The rest of the night consisted of: (1) Picking Tzen up from Beeston train station with Daniel. (2) Having dinner at Sukho Thai with Tzen and Daniel. (3) Unpacking all my stuff when i got back to my room after dinner. (4) Enjoying Krispy Kreme donuts in Tzen's room with Erica and Trang.
It was a really good weekend, this one.
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