final splurge for the year

No, not plastic surgery (I wish! I wan a hidung tinggi, keke)

I probably shouldn't after my recent financial hemorrhage, but I need this because I'm starting work on Monday and my hair look half decent.

More importantly, I really shouldn't because.... announcement coming soon ^__^

London 2010: Shopping, dinner

Oxford Street is a shopping street in central London and is probably the best place to head to, for moi at least. It has 3 H&M stores! Three, tiga, san! There could be more though.

Oxford Street starts from the Tottenham Court Rd tube station all the way to Mable Arch tube station. I only got as far as Oxford Circus tube station and that's only halfway. Wish I could've shopped more but my bags were getting really heavy and I promised I would be back round 5pm so we could head out to dinner. In fact I was already running late but I know by now things happen when there's H&M, heh.

Anyway, guess where my hosts took me?


#1. Is it who you think it is? Yes, it's Jamie of Jamie Oliver! I have a couple of his cook books so I guess you can call me a fan.

The place is cozy and super crowded. We didn't make a reservation so we hung out at the bar a bit, chit chatting and taking pictures while waiting for a table. London has a lot of these Michelin star celebrity chef restaurants and Jamie's Italian is one of the more affordable ones. According to Dav, one of the must-try is Heston Blumenthal's The Fat Duck, where a full dinner course will set you back by at least £180 and you have to make a reservation months in advance.


#2. We had some lovely scallop and squid ink pasta, carbonara with some fat spaghetti, fried squids AND truffle fries. I've heard of truffles a lot and this is the first time I tried anything with truffles in/on it. With all hubbub surrounding truffles, I expected it to blow me away at first bite but I find myself struggling to figure out what they're supposed to taste like. Inferior taste buds, wattudu.


#3. Picture with my hosts, Dav and Steph :)

It was a good dinner. It's kinda like a farewell dinner for me as I'll be flying off tomorrow. Sobs~~ can't believe my holiday is coming to an end already.

Thanks guys, for taking care of me. Love you much!


#4. My haul for the day. The green bag has all the foodstuff from Marks & Spencer, a pile of clothes from H&M and cheap books from Waterstones.

London 2010: Rained-in day

For some reason, wherever I go, lousy weather follows. When I left London for Paris, London was sunny with a cool breeze. When I got into town on Thursday night, the weather was mild enough for me to walk around in just a sweater and windbreaker. Yesterday somehow, when I decided to go walking about town, it rained. And it rained the whole day.

So I went to the National Gallery. There's a free one-hour guided tour but I got bored after 10 minutes. I got myself an audio guide and saw Renoir's The Umbrellas, Seurat's Bathers at Asnières, Van Gogh's Sunflowers, Botticelli's Venus and Mars, van Eyck's The Arnolfini Portrait, one of Monet's not so famous Water Lily and a couple of Degas. The collection's not huge but there are some really good ones. I now have a new-found appreciation for pointillism, first developed by Seurat. It's a very beautiful technique.

The shop at the gallery has some pretty unique memorabilia items along with books on artists and their art. I really love the umbrellas with art prints but they're expensive at 25 pounds for one. Maybe when I'm richer, haha. What I did get was an owl for The BF's friend, coz his wife collects them. I think it's a Christmas trimming.



I had purchased a dinner and show package for Wicked last night. Dinner was a two course at a very nice hotel about 5 blocks away from the Apollo Victoria. It's supposed to start at 6pm but I conveniently didn't read that part and was sort of preoccupied with spending more money at H&M. As a result, I only got to the restaurant at 7pm and wolfed everything down in 15 minutes. It was a nice dinner but I would've enjoyed it more if I don't swallow without chewing. So many tragedies related to H&M, haha.



I absolutely adore Wicked! It's funny and Defying Gravity is so so good. Wicked is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz and it puts a new twist to what came to be in the story. The set looks amazing! I'm so happy :)

Paris 2010: Montmartre

I stayed at the delightful Plug Inn Hostel in Montmartre. It's clean, comes with breakfast and free wifi, which is more than enough for me.

Montmartre is a large hill in Paris's 18th arrondissement. It is said the name Montmartre originated from Mont des Martyrs (Mount of Martyrs). There was once an abbot called Saint-Denis who went around preaching the Christian faith to the Gallo-Romans. He was decapitated for that, on the hilltop in 250 AD. He didn't died immediately, as one would expect, but went on to collect his head and carried it all the way to the fontaine Saint-Denis, descended the north slope, and fell down dead! A church was then built in the place formerly called Mont de Mars, which name was then changed to Mont des Martyrs.

Frankly, I didn't do a lot of research before coming here. I just wanted to pop by Paris for a bit since I'm in London, and someone said Montmartre is a nice place. There's a famous Basilica of Sacre-Coeur, one of the must-see in Paris. I decided to walk there and it was a nice surprise when I saw this...


#1. Cobbled streets and a quaint flight of stairs all the way up the hill! Feels so Paris, you know what I mean?


#2. Basilica Sacre-Coeur, about 10-15 minutes walk from the hostel.






#3. Panoramic view of Paris from Sacre-Coeur.

At the bottom of the hill is Boulevard de Clichy, full of kebab shops (cheapest thing to eat around here, as I discovered) and bars and sex shops. Well, it's not all that surprising if you remember that Moulin Rouge is just around the corner. Quartier Pigalle is actually a red light district area; imagine peep shows and pimps. In the day time though, the area looks like a charming village in the olden days and doesn't feel unsafe. You can also find tourist-centric products, like magnets, chopping boards and mugs, all printed with the landmarks in Paris if you're interested in those kind of knick knacks.


#4. Candy store.


#5. So mind boggling. I don't even know what some of them are.


#6. Such beautiful blooms at a florist on the walk to the Metro. There's a Chinese takeaway shop nearby, and I'm starting to miss eating rice.

The rest of my day was spent shopping. There's no need for me to tell you what I bought or how much I spent, but one thing I have to tell you is that VAT refund in Paris is not as good compared to other European countries.

Paris 2010: The city of Paris

So here I am in Paree, the city of love!

The Eurostar is certainly a comfortable and convenient way to get to Paris. It leaves central London from King’s Cross / St. Pancras to Gare du Nord in central Paris. It’s not the cheapest way to get to Paris (fares are cheaper if purchased at least 2 months before) but it’s comfortable and the quickest. Check-in is 30 minutes before the train departs although it’s advisable to be there about an hour before as the customs queue can get quite busy.


#1. St Pancras station, home to Eurostar

I bought a Standard Premier pass, which comes with breakfast, from the Eurostar website here. You get to choose your exact seat (remember to watch out for the direction the seat faces) and the power socket (either UK or European) on the seat. The rail pass costs me £142 (about RM715). Again, if I had planned my trip in advance, it could've been cheaper. Read up The Man in Seat Sixty-One for more info.


#2. My breakfast

I have booked the next 3 nights accommodation at the Plug Inn Hostel, which is just a skip and a hop from the Moulin Rouge.


#3. Le Moulin Rouge

However, navigating my way here from Gare du Nord was a painful ordeal. It's true that the French doesn't like speaking English.

London 2010: Diwali in the city

We spent the entire morning making breakfast (roesti with oven baked bangers) and watching Zoolander. I haven’t seen it before because it was banned in good ol’ Malaysia, which I don’t understand why, because it was thigh-slapping feet-stomping hilarious! OK, maybe I do know. In the show, our PM is a cina ah-pek. So unthinkable hor? The gahmen takes things too seriously sometimes..mehh.

Yesterday the clock was turned back one hour. I didn't know that all digital clocks will adjust automatically. A brother of my friend’s, whom I met for dinner later, forgot about this and was rushing coz he thought he was late, haha. Used to happen to me in Ozzie too.

Anyway, since Deepavali is just around the corner and because there's a huge population of Indians in the UK, it was fitting that there's a Deepavali festival in Trafalgar Square. We were there because Dav secretly wanna be an Indian, according to Steph.


#1. Some bhangra dance happening, I think.


#2. Indian sweets given out at the festival.

The festival is not just a cultural showcase of some sort. It is significant to Londoners. Do you know that the national dish of UK is actually tikka masala? That's how in love they are with Indian food.

In every city, you can always find a small community of likes converging in a particular suburb. That would naturally be the best place for "local" cuisine. In UK, the Indian community more or less converged in East Ham and that was where we went for dinner. There’s even 2 Indian temples there.


#3. Dinner was at Chennai Dosa and I ordered a Butter Panner Masala with chapatti. It was really really good albeit just a tad on the salty side.

My friend's brother, who I mentioned earlier, just moved to London from Luxembourg, and one of the things he had to do at work was attend an orientation on “Living in UK”. In the class, he was taught that it takes a longx6 time for the British people to warm up to you. If you’re lucky, you’d get invited to someone’s home for dinner in 6 months. The British people do not criticize you directly, instead opting to drop hints or beating around the bush (I wonder if they do the same when praising you?). If I kena something like that from a British boss, sure die coz I'm a failure at reading between the lines.

Oh and then, while walking to the train station after dinner, I saw the green laser beam from Greenwich. Yayy! Another item struck off the list :)

London 2010: Borough Market and a ghost tour!

My good old friend and gracious host, Dav, have a soft spot for ferrets. They're this cat-like mouse-like looking creatures that can spray odors when startled, just like a skunk. He has been considering getting one but in the meantime, all he does is talk a lot about ferrets and visiting them at a nearby farm.


#1. Cute and lethal.

Then, I ran a lot. We ran after buses, after trains and more trains. Save for that exercise, we had a very relaxing Saturday. Thank goodness coz I was tired from all that walking in the last 2 days!

The Borough Market is a very interesting makan market. It's a mish mash of everything! You can get mediterranean stuff, chutneys and jams, fresh seafood, barbeque ostrich and kangaroo, chocolates, organic vege, etc. And cheeses, oh my the cheeses. There are cheese with names I've not heard of and one was even aged in a wine barrel (tellingly called drunk cheese, haha). Feel like buying some of them back. We tried a hot apple juice with cinnamon, wild mushroom soup and chocolate mousse, and they're all very good, especially in the cold weather. The market's not very big but it's big on food!


#2. An eclectic mix at the Borough Market.


#3. Halloween pumpkins! Not cheap at 45 pounds @_@

Since it's Halloween and all, we did a Ghost of the Old City Walk with London Walks. Our guide is Shaughan, made up to look pale, hunchback and dressed in a flowing black cape.


#4. Reminds me a bit of Emperor Palpatine.

The walk started at 7:30pm, by which then the sky was already pitch black. I don't think the walk was ever meant to be scary coz the guide was funny, cracking so many jokes here and there. Due to said funniness, the ghost walk is not spooky one bit but was in fact, very informative. Even Dav and Steph said they didn't know some of the places existed. There's a church behind the St Bart's Hospital, which I walked by the other day, that I didn't know was there and it sounded like a place worth checking out.

After that we went back and attempted to watch a scary movie, just to continue on with the theme. We saw Shutter Island...fail max.

London 2010: Greenwich to Westminster

"We are all made of star stuff."

- Carl Sagan


I almost wanted to stay indoors today but luckily I'm stubborn enough to persevere on with my plans to go to Greenwich, coz I had just the most beautiful day!


#1. One Canada Square, the tallest building in UK

It didn't start out that way though. When I got off at Canary Wharf, the wind was biting. My fingers and nose felt like thousands of pins were set upon them. For that few minutes while I was looking for the DLR, I regretted being outdoors.


#2. The Greenwich foot tunnel, linking Greenwich to the Isle of Dogs, crossing beneath the River Thames

I only know I wanted to see the Prime Meridian line and that I didn't mind poking around a bit at the planetarium, so it caught me by surprise when I walked into this huge field surrounded by ancient complexes with tall roman columns. It's the Old Royal Naval College (currently being used by the University of Greenwich) which was constructed by Sir Christopher Wren, the same dude who did St. Paul's.


#3. The Old Royal Naval College

So I was walking around and exploring, and I thought I heard music behind the wall. I turned the corner and saw that it was a chapel. As I went up the steps and came into full view of the chapel, I felt... overwhelmed. The ceiling was ornately decorated with delicate Greek motives. Warm light poured through the windows, turning everything it touches a golden hue. What made the whole experience even more magical was a fantastic flute and harp mini concert from the Trinity Laban, a music and dance university.

As I took a seat at the pew towards the back and flipped through the programme, I realised that the concert will be performed by professionals in their field of study - Anna Noakes, Professor of Flute, and Gabriella Dall'Olio, Head of Harp Studies. Such luck! Anna and Gabriella presented 3 sonatas, lasting about an hour altogether. It was truly an experience of a lifetime.

For that one hour, almost no thoughts went through my head. This is exactly what I need. The opportunity to be lost in a moment, completely and utterly absorbed by something so simple. Bliss.... the best one hour ever spent!


#4. The Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul (no photography is allowed in the chapel so I googled this for your visual pleasure)

Also on the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College is the Painted Hall, one of the western world's finest dining hall.


#5. The Painted Hall with its stunning paintings by Sir James Thornhill

Then it was the hunt for the Royal Observatory, the home of the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and Prime Meridian of the world, Longitude 0° 0' 0''. It was across a big park and up a hill.

The Prime Meridian divides the Earth into the eastern and western hemispheres. All the time zones in the world is measured from GMT, so you're either ahead of GMT or behind. Malaysia is ahead of GMT by 8 hours, which explains the jet lag I'm still experiencing.


#6. A green laser beam projects into the sky from the square opening up there, indicating the Prime Meridian line but it's only visible at night. The digital clock is an atomic clock which is phenomenally accurate to one second in one million years!


#7. Left foot on the Western Hemisphere, right foot on the Eastern Hemisphere


#8. Fish and chips, the quintessential British dish

After lunch, I took a river boat to Embankment. It's brr cold but no visit to London would be complete without a cruise on the River Thames.


#9. I nearly died from chill factor when taking this picture from the Golden Jubilee Bridge

South Bank is an area of London where the arts and culture converge. Here's where you can find the London Eye, Tate Modern, National Theatre...


#10. Street performers, all doing their statue thing (the Golden Jubilee Bridge's in the background)


#11. A room of lights that goes on and off to the beat of the music


#12. And if you walk all the way to Westminster Bridge, you'll get an awesome spot to photograph the Houses of Parliament and the Big Ben


#13. Portcullis House, just opposite the Houses of Parliament


#14. To cap off the day, I joined Dav and Steph for the screening of a horror movie. It was sponsored by Jameson whiskey so naturally we get free drinks and some popcorn too! The show's called Quatermass and the Pit, and involve a lot of grasshoppers, some hopping, some not. You just have to watch it!

London 2010: Tower Hill to Temple

It was an overcast day (boo for photography) and my old body that's not adjusting well to the time difference had me only leaving the house at 12pm. Since I'm not particularly in a thinking mood or art appreciation mood, I decided to go to Tower Hill and work my way from there.


#1. This is Tower Bridge. Many people get it wrong, including Fergie Ferg.


#2. Her London London Bridge that wanna go down everytime she came around, actually look like this. Not impressive looking compared to Tower Bridge but imagine her singing "My Tower Tower Bridge wanna go down"...don't think it's gonna work.

This is actually the New London Bridge. The Old London Bridge was located about 100m from this current bridge and used to have houses and shops built on it. The Old London Bridge was almost 600 years old when it was finally demolished in 1831.

It was a pleasant day to walk along the Thames River. Even though it wasn't very cold, the strong wind made my bones shiver. A windbreaker is very necessary and I'm glad I brought mine, as ugly as it is.


#3. St. Paul's Cathedral. Many important services were and are still being held at St. Paul's, including the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. There's a lot of benches within the church compound and it's nice to just sit around for a bit. Oh, I saw a big fat squirrel, almost the size of a cat!


#4. I decided to see the Temple Church made famous in The Da Vinci Code. It was bloody hard looking for this church and for a couple of times I suspected it doesn't really exist. But Lonely Planet said it does and after I circled the place a few times, found a small sign in an alley that lead to it. Now, I don't remember what was it Professor Langdon found in Temple Church and I didn't get a chance to find out coz it was closed by the time I got there (closes at 4pm)...bummer.


#5. Everyday can be a Friday!


#6. Stumbled upon this interesting building on Queen Victoria Street. It's an HSBC branch. Just love the modern architecture.

I capped off the day with a ducky dinner at Four Seasons (not the hotel chain I thought it was, haha) and a stroll in Soho. Good end to Day 1!

London 2010: the case of the missing hour

It's about 7:30am London time and I'm already up. Think I'm having a little wee bit jet-lagged. Got in at 7:30pm London time (2:30am Malaysian time), which works out to a 14-hour flight. I thought it was 13 hours? Where did that extra hour come from?

Neways, when Airasia launched it's London route, I said it was suicidal to take such a looong flight with narrow seats and no in-flight entertainment. Look what I did to myself....

3:33pm. Only 3 hours into the flight and 10 more hours to go...*sigh* *groan*. They served us lunch about an hour ago, late because there was a small turbulence... soooo hungry by then. I think I’m in love with Airasia’s in-flight meal. I had a lovely chicken spinach lasagna and it was piping hot and delicious! I’ll fly Airasia just for the plane food haha. Still, I can’t say I’m equally impressed with their plastic cutlery. The ends of my fork broke and even though I prodded and sifted through what remained of my lunch, I couldn’t find the other bit...ugh.



6:16pm. The sky is still so bright that it’s hard to tell what time it really is. Took a short nap earlier and found that the seat only reclined by 10 degrees or so. Good thing I’m not taking the red-eye. In fact, I should try to stay awake as much as I can because it’s only 11:16am in London and I wouldn’t want to get seriously jet-lagged when I get there. I’m beginning to feel bored and my bum hurts. I’m also stuck in my choice of window seat and the guy next to me seems to prefer to keep to himself. Oh well. I’ll go play with my pictures now.



9:41pm. I’ve been occupying myself with Solitaire for the past 2 hours or so and I’m awfully hungry right now. Where’s my food?? I’ve always said I cannot imagine sitting in a plane for more than 10 hours and especially in an Airasia flight but look at me now, taking a 13-hour flight to London. Actually it's better than I imagined. The seats are definitely more spacious (it’s an Airbus after all) and there's an entertainment module I can purchase for RM30 if I'm totally bored outta my wits. So far, I've read 3 chapters of A House for Mr Biswas (funny), played said Solitaire, slept, oh and I finally spoke to the guy next to me. He's from Scotland and he's been on holiday for 3 months...so nice.

Overall, the flight was pleasant, love love love the food, and it's on time. I haven't been on an Airasia flight that was delayed, ever. Touch wood. I'm thinking of doing more trips to Europe now. Spain next year, maybe?

portraits of Toby

Taken with the 50mm lens while hiding in the room from my mum's karaoke party.