Situational Awareness

How aware are you of your current surroundings?

On another note, I've been declared shopoholic by SK. That's a cool callname, but unfortunately it doesn't add any value to my CV.

A Walk by the GMT...

I seem to have a lot of time in my hands these few days.

Did another London sightseeing walk today. I started off after a very filling lunch with Andy at Crossharbour (a good reason to have the walk), and I ended up at the O2, also previously known as the Millennium Dome.

And you might wonder...

Where's the bridge?

Answer : There's no bridge, but a foot tunnel!!

The Greenwich Foot Tunnel. Somehow they might think that building a tunnel under the Thames would be cheaper than building a bridge over it. I don't really understand them....

No matter. Anyways, I wanted to go to the O2 to see all the hoo-ha thats been going on about it being a major entertainment spot. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures from there, but one thing I can say: it's huge. And round. And full of pubs and restaurants. And also a cinema and a concert hall. Other than that, I don't see any other reason to visit it (maybe because it doesn't have shopping.)

And speaking of shopping, who wants to join me for a bit of Camden Market window shopping this weekend??

Left for Liverpool with Xiang (Chee Siong) on Thursday night. The journey was supposed to be 2 and a half hours but it took almost 3 hours to get there. Maybe because there was some serious rainfall going on in the Midlands, which was why we had to stop at Tamworth for 20 minutes. Nevertheless, we arrived at Liverpool Lime St station and when I got off, zomgwtfbbq; why is it so cold in Liverpool? The night's temperature was probably 10 degrees, and I didn't bring my coat cos I thought it's gonna be as warm as London >.< Nevertheless we met up with Xiang's cousin and friends and they took us back to their dorm where we were supposed to stay for 2 nights, 3 for Xiang. Fortunately I got the bed, while Xiang say his sleeping bag damn comfy, dun need mattress also can....bagusnya, cannot sleep at all that night hahahaha!! Now he knows how I feel when I slept at Ahbon's room for 2 weeks!! Went around the city the next day. There was nothing much to see though, what was only the most impressive things in Liverpool were the Albert Docks, Cunard and Liver buildings and the Cathedral.

St. George's Hall


The Cavern Club

The Liver Building


Liverpool Cathedral

We also went on a YellowDuck tour of Liverpool!!
A YellowDuck is a tour where you get to go around the city in an amphibious vehicle, so you get to go into the water too!! But trust me, there are some things that I wouldn't really want to know about Liverpool, like the toilet in a pub thats made of expensive marble from Italy. ^^

The City of Liverpool


We took off to Manchester on the second day by bus. It was only an hour to Manchester and by the time we reached there, it was only 10am. We wanted to have the dim sum at the city center, but it wasn't open yet, so having 2 hours to spare, we went to Old Trafford to have a look around and to let time pass by.

Honestly, the stadium wasn't as nice as the Emirates Stadium (while there might be some biasness there, but it's true!!) and the worse thing was, the t-shirts that they sell in theie mega-store looked that they were sold in Petaling Street!! All the designs that you see at the store are so horrible that you could have sworn that you have seen some Indonesian workers wearing them while they are at work at a construction site or at Kota Raya on weekends. Finally, we went for our dim sum lunch at Oxford Street and we ordered a lot!! And they weren't bad at all, only the chee cheung fun wasn't good cos it was a tad too thick >.< . After stuffing ourselves up with dim sum AND dessert, the total bill came up to £6 per person, which was really cheap!! We also went to Market Street for some shopping cos Xiang's friend wanted to buy a Man United jersey and they were selling for £43 at Old Trafford (rip-offs...) The shopping area was really busy and more organised than Oxford Street in London and there was also a huge ferris wheel at the center of it!!


Chinatown
Piccadilly Gardens

It was quite an enjoyable trip, and whats more, I also got some souvenirs for PF and SK at dirt cheap prices!! So, when's the next trip to Bicester??

Delays, Diversions

LONDON (Reuters) - Police defused a bomb in a parked car in London's theatre district on Friday and launched a counter-terrorism investigation.

Explosives officers were called to examine a car parked in Haymarket early on Friday morning, London police said in a statement.

"They discovered what appeared to be a potentially viable explosive device. This was made safe," they said, adding that counter-terrorism officers were investigating.

A police spokesman confirmed the device was a bomb.

I knew this was going to happen after reading this news report.

PICCADILLY CIRCUS: Route 38 is diverted westbound from Holborn to Regent Street and experiencing severe delays due to the emergency services blocking some roads in the area while investigating a security alert on Haymarket near Piccadilly Circus. London Bus tickets are valid on London Underground by any reasonable route.

Route 38 is diverted westbound from Holborn via Kingsway, Strand, Trafalagar Square, Cockspur Street, Pall Mall and Regent Street.

Only 1 in 3 buses are going through to Victoria.

Now I have to walk a further distance to get to Chinatown. Yeaaa, I could take other buses, but this particular bus is...specially bendy, hahaha....

As to why it is special, someone wrote about the 73, also using a bendy like the 38, like this one on Charing Cross Road...

The bendybus replaced all RM's on the No.73 route on saturday 5th September 2004.

Also called an articulated vehicle, it is operated by a single driver.

There are three doors for entry and exit.

Passengers are required to purchase tickets prior to boarding or to touch their Oyster (touch & go) cards to units fitted in the doorways. However the absence of ticket inspectors on the bus led to it being called the 'free bus'.

The bendy bus is made up of 1.5 buses joined by a consatina bendy bit. It is comprised of only one deck.

FYI, I do pay for my fare ok....unless I forget to.

Portobello Market

After tinkering with this flash code for a few minutes...a new way to viewing posted pictures without scrolling down!!! TA-DAA!!



But I'll still post a few pictures for references to some of the stuff that I'm writing while the rest are basically 'miscellaneous shots', lol...

And so, the pictures taken are all from Portobello Market, which was the highlight of last Saturday. Famous for its antiques market and even more famous by the movie 'Notting Hill', it was, of course, flooded by a sea of people wanting to get the next best deal after Bicester. :)

While the main highlight of this market on Saturdays was its antiques market, I wasn't too keen on antiques and only took a brief moment to go through the items there. But after going down the hill (we started from Notting Hill Gate, which incidentally, was on a HILL) things really started to get interesting. It became more of a farmer's market, with many fresh fruits and vegetables readily available at I-dare-say lower prices than the major supermarket chains. And they're not sealed and packed as in those damn supermarkets!!

Fruits on Sale!!

Another highlight was the FOOD!!!! We stopped at a German booth where they were selling burgers and hot dogs of those sort. We actually tried it out cos there was a long queue for it, so long queues are never wrong :P. For £2 a meal, it was freakin cheap and the portions were huge too! And I also went on and tried some Ghanaian stew, which wasn't bad at all, directly opposite a shop the girls were in!! See!! I've bought again and I blame you 2 girls for it!! :P

The delicious Schnitzel for lunch :)

Enjoying my Ghanaian stew :P

But while I didn't get anything from the market, the girls were all too delighted to look at the charms for sale there, but they didn't really buy much there though. But from what I've heard, they'll be off to Portobello Market this Saturday again primarily for charm hunting while I'm in Liverpool and Manchester. They (THANK YOU GOD!!) couldn't have picked a better time to go there again, hehe.....Girls at work................................

Bicester Village

The original plan was to visit Oxford and its many heritage buildings, but it ended up being an Oxfordshire shopping spreee!!


After an hour's bus ride from London Victoria, we arrived at Oxford's Gloucester Green bus terminal. As we haven't even got a single itinerary prior to arrving to Oxford, we didn't have a clear heading. In the end, after having brunch at the terminal, we set off for a 30minute bus journey to the nearby village of Bicester, where the Bicester Village Retail Outlet is. All of the things that Bicester Village offers are actually cheaper than high street prices by a minimum of 30%. Housing high street shops like Burberry, Ferragamo, Hugo Boss and Polo Ralph Lauren, it is more affordable than London's high street shops, even after taking the 15pounds return bus ticket into account.

And after a day's shopping, what seemed unlikely had happened. The guys have actually bought more than the girls!! Actually, it was just me, haha!! But Chee Siong also did quite well himself too. He had gotten 2 pairs of Timberland shoes for £12 each!! Is that cheap or what!!! Other than that, we had also gotten identical wallets for God-only-knows reason. On the other hand, the girls did get a Burberry scarf each, and a mix of other items such as Clarks shoes and other stuff.





As for me, my final tally was a tie, wallet, slacks, shoes and cologne. I also wanted a pair of £12 Timberland shoes but my feet can't fit into them, so Chee Siong told the kindest gesture of buying the pair I wanted. Cis... >.<

The shopping is not over though. I'm (secretly) planning another trip there before I come back to KL. This time, I need a belt, some polo shirts, maybe some working shirts, bla bla.....