Introductions

I know I haven't introduced things properly. Partly cos I've been busy, partly cos I'm just starting to get to know things/people. So now that I think I can manage it, I shall make a few introductions (this is not to say that I'm not busy. I currently have about 3 pieces of tute work to complete, but it's nearly midnight and so it can wait till tmrw.

This is London.

This map shows most of the city, or Zone 1 in the public transport system.

The red rectangle is where I spend most of my time in the city. Zoomed in map below.

(1) is the Waterloo Campus where most of my classes are.

(2) is the Strand Campus where I have one class a week.

(3) is the Maughan Library, which is pretty amazingly old.

The green line is the part of the Strand that I often walk along, and it turns into Fleet Street somewhere between the Courts of Justice (the light blue blob) and Chancery Lane (the yellow road labelled B400)

The purple blob is the closest Apple Store.

Friends

Berlin

She's probably the one you guys have heard about most because I've hung out with her the most. She's on exchange from Melbourne Uni. She's fun to hang out with, funny, and really sweet.

Teresa

She's also on exchange from Melbourne Uni. She's a English Literature student. She will probably be the one wanting to go sightseeing together.

Susan

Susan is ALSO from Unimelb on exchange. She's so funny. I feel like I should just be walking around with my phone mic on record just so I can catch all the funny things she says. And it's the way she says it as well.

"Why is she making friends with only Australians?"

Well no, it's just that we formed our little group pretty early on (like on the 3rd day or something) because  we had Study Abroad Welcome Meetings and stuff during orientation week, and so we always took the train/bus together and got to know each other better. Here are some other non-Aussie people.

Michelle

Michelle is another funny one. She's Singaporean, but from New Zealand, here on exchange. She's funny in the same way that Tim Thong is funny. Same accent and everything, and she can say the funniest things with the straightest face. 

Abigail

Abigail is so cute. She's from Bournemouth. She also has a printer in her room and she has kindly allowed me to use it to print lecture slides. (It's okay, I'm contributing to paper and ink) She lives 4 doors down from me.

Evangeline

A lovely Asian British girl. We just hang out at mealtimes and in people's rooms and she was part of the massive group that went to Platform 9 3/4 a few nights ago.

Lorelle


Lorelle has amazing long wavy blonde hair. She's has a northern accent.

Victoria (Tor)
Tor lives 3 doors down from me. She's the one who inspired me to move the furniture in my room. She's very innocently sweet

Sundeep
Sundeep is hilarious. She's British, her family is from North India. Love her sense of humour!

So there's the general bunch of people that I see around, eat meals with, hang out with, have class with. There are most definitely also a few randoms here and there. I will get photos with the ones that I don't have photos with yet.

Old-school buses

I left Borough Market for 5SSMN228, Corporate Finance, in the Franklin Wilkins Building at the Waterloo Campus. We got stuck straight into EBIT, PE ratios, cash flows and capital asset pricing models. No nonsense in second year *nods*

So after 2 hours of regenerating brain cells, I went to the library to see if I could borrow my textbooks so I don't have to buy them, or at least I have time to go look for a secondhand copy. I went to the Franklin Wilkins library where I found a 1993 copy of my Corporate Finance textbook. I got it on a monthly loan. We'll see how well it does. I know the book is nearly as old as I am, but I'll use it for now and compare it to the newest edition if I make any friends in that class.

Then to the Harry Potter Maughan Library to look for my theology book. The place is HUGE. And you have to go through rooms and rooms of books. I found the current edition of my textbook on a weekly loan.

Then to Ryman down Fleet Street to get some stationery. By this time I was carrying my handbag, my notebook for Corp Fi, 2 textbooks, 3 ring binders and 2 sheafs of superior high white copy paper, each with 500 sheets. My arms nearly died. So I was going to walk along Fleet Street and hopefully find Berlin, when I decided it was too heavy and I was just going to take a bus. I was waiting at the bus stop when this cute looking bus came towards me. I seriously thought it was like a school bus or a grannies' day out bus or something. But no. It had a number and destination at the front, and it stopped at the bus stop
And everyone else got on when it stopped. Everyone else got on at the back. Yeah. It was one of those old buses that had a pole at the back and you could jump on if you were late. SO CUTE. So small, with rounded corners, and the inside was benches (as opposed to individual seats). They run on Route 15, just in case anyone is going to London soon and wants to ride on one of those.

Currently sitting outside the Strand Campus, waiting for Berlin and hoping to get a good photo of an old bus. A couple have gone past but I'm not exactly staring at the road with my camera poised, so I haven't got a good shot yet.

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Borough market

Currently sitting on the steps to the courtyard of Southwark ("Suth-ek") Cathedral.

This week, London has experienced a heatwave. And by heatwave, I mean 25 degrees. Really.

So today I decided to go to Borough Market before class. Borough market is a massive food market with all sorts of culinary delights- artisan cheeses and sausages, cheeses, breads, hams, paella, chorizo, brownies, cakes, nuts, pastries...

There were free samples. I tried an organic mixed nuts thing. Yummy.

Some of the stalls looked really cute. Of course I took pictures.

You can't go to a food market without trying the food. So I bought a steak in gravy pie. Nice and English for you. It came in a foil thing with a little wooden fork! The English are so peculiar. I would've just used my hands. It was a nice pie. It had solid chunks of meat, and none of the low grade mince smell/aftertaste that I'm getting so used to at halls.

Then I just found a spot to sit in the courtyard of Southwark Cathedral and enjoyed the weather and the atmosphere. There's a turd shaped rock that everyone keeps sitting on.

And there are heaps of young families having a day out. I was just watching one little girl 2 metres in front of me, her parents were just playing with her and taking pictures, and she looked up and saw me and smiled.

Michelle, who was supposed to be market buddy, is on her way, but I'm going to have to leave to get to class soon.

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Platform 9 3/4

Today Teresa wanted to go to visit Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross National Rail Station (1). Just cos we can. So we decided that we'd do that then go for a wander around town and get ice cream and take pictures.

At dinnertime, it was just going to be the 2 of us because Susan was tired and Berlin was out. Then after dinner Abigail decided she wanted to come with us instead of going to watch Grease at Guys Campus with Lorelle and Evangeline. Then Teresa convinced Susan to come. Then as we were waiting for Teresa at reception Sandeep came back from class and found that all her friends (us) were going to be out, and she wanted to hang out with people. Then the movie was full so Lorelle and Evangeline went to King's Cross and waited for us. Then at King's Cross Berlin called me and said she was there with Chris. Then Berlin had a friend from Melbourne, Michael, coming.

So in the end there were 10 of us- Teresa, Abigail, Susan, Sandeep, Lorelle, Evangeline, Berlin, Chris, Michael and myself.

Platform 9 3/4 was actually a let down. It wasn't even at the station. Apparently it used to be at the station, but because they keep renovating, and probably also cos something like that causes congestion, they moved it. It was just outside, in a little alcove. But Abigail was really cute and got really excited anyway :)

Then we took the tube to Leicester Square (2), because we knew it would be all lit up and pretty. We went into M&M world!

Then went to get ice cream. We treated ourselves because you can't get Haagen-Dasz in Australia!

I had Vanilla Choc Brownie and Praline&Cream, yum!

Then we walked to Piccadilly Circus (3) and watched buskers do really bad renditions of California King Bed and Baby.

We walked south down Regent Street, down to Pall Mall and The Mall, walked along The Mall to Trafalgar Square(4) then down Whitehall to Westminster Bridge(5) then across Westminster Bridge along the Southbank(6) to Waterloo Bridge (7) where we caught the bus home. At one point we found a bench and just sat there and watched the world go by. It was peaceful.

Speaking of Westminster Bridge, something I came across today while searching for student discounts: http://www.studentbeans.com/worldweirdweb/fails/penis-shadows-found-on-westminster-bridge1820.html

LOL. (I know you're laughing, dad)

So yes. The views were beautiful, but the photos not so much, due to a lack of DSLR. But I'll steal some photos from Berlin, she had her big camera.

Got back just before midnight, and I don't feel like sleeping yet.

Just doing some reading

For the past two days I have been (trying to do some) reading. The Nature of the Firm, Ronald H. Coase. The amazing (ly unengaging) Nobel Prize winning paper, 1937. It's actually not that bad. Maybe a bit confusing cos he uses fancy language. But suddenly my split ends and orientation brochures seemed to draw my attention, and looking up random things on the internet to expand my general knowledge seemed like a very worthwhile use of my time.

I got through it. Eventually. 2 and a half pages of notes later.

Having finished that I went to see if the music room was free. I miss my piano. I miss a tuned piano. I miss being able to play when I want, as long as I want. I don't like having to book the room, and being kicked out when the next person comes. I don't like the piano being slightly not the same note as recordings on my phone. I'm glad I'm not pitch perfect, and that my pitch memory can be modified by what I'm hearing often. Which means that soon my reference of pitch will be tuned to this shocking piano, and I won't even notice it anymore. The piano wasn't free.

The walls are not soundproofed. But that's really not making a difference to me. Although I did think that the point of a music room would be to soundproof it.

This morning the cleaner Dulcie came to clean my room. I feel bad that someone is cleaning my room, so I tidied up a bit so that hopefully I make her job a bit easier. Though the cleaners just vacuum the little walkway in the room and wipe down the sink and empty the bin. This place is still really dusty. I want to go down and borrow the vaccuum cleaner from the housekeeper myself.

I'll stop whinging. Happy things.
- I chatted to Dave on Skype with the webcam this morning!
- We're planning to go into the city tonight to take pictures :)

This is terrible. I can't think of anything else that's happy. *back to being depressing*

Everyone seems to be out. Though I guess appreciate time by myself cos I've been going out/hanging out in people's rooms/having people in my room quite a lot.

In other news, some of these comments made me gag just a little bit
http://www.kclfs.com/videos.php

 Back to my internet surfing. 

The Lion King

Last night for Susan's birthday, a massive group of us (including some random friends of friends who didn't even know Susan) went out for dinner and then went to see the Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre. For those of you who don't know, the musical is basically the Disney Lion King movie acted out on stage.

We met at Bella Italia Covent Garden. Bella Italia is a massive Italian restaurant chain, and we'd seen them everywhere so we thought we might try. In the morning we were just in Susan's room chatting about it, and we thought we'd see if there was a student discount, so we googled and found studentbeans.com which gave us 50% off the bill. I had the special of the day, which was penne with ham, mushroom and peas in a cream sauce. With the voucher, dinner (including the service charge) came up to 3.50. I LOVE being a student sometimes.

For the show we got 25 pound tickets right up the back, but the upper circle was pretty well tiered, and so there were no problems whatsoever with people's heads. Totally worth it.

The music was surprisingly untight. Some of the singing was good, but how the music came together was less than spectacular. Especially the chorus. But I guess it's not a performance known for its music.

But the costumes were SO GOOD! They were pretty creative, except for Timon which was just a puppet, moved around by a guy dressed in green. Why green, I don't know. But I loved the baby elephant and the rhino especially, so cute! You had to use your imagination a little bit obviously, but it was really well done.
Happy Birthday Susan!

The Maughan Library

About 10 minutes from the Strand Campus is the Maughan Library, which is this massive old library for the university.

Today I decided to take a wander down after Industrial Organisation, because I have a 2 hour break between that class and Systematic Theology.

The place is HUGE.

I found the Round Reading Room, which caught my attention because it was so pretty. I wanted to take a picture but it was so quiet and everyone was studying, so I had to make do with my phone, because you can't turn off the click on my camera.

The Maughan Library is also Dumbledore's office in the Harry Potter films. I learnt this afterwards.

Intellectual stimulation

This sounds really nerdy, but I think I'm getting really bored and restless without some solid uni.

In other news, I nearly wrote a full song today. But I only had the piano for an hour and a half, someone else had already booked it for after me. So another half done one. Wish me luck to ever be in the mood again to finish it.


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First day of classes

I've forgotten what it's like to study.

Currently sitting in the Franklin Wilkins Library on a computer while my friends are sorting out their subject preferences and stuff. This keyboard is weird. It looks like a fairly normal keyboard but my fingers seem to be disagreeing with it. The @ and " are the other way round. And there's a £ sign, and a few symbols above the numbers are swapped around. It's actually taking me a long time to type.

So yes, 9am Monday mornings are Communication Skills lectures. First year soft skills subject, looks like it's gonna be a breeze. I'm looking forward to the more Corporate Finance/ Industrial Organisation type stuff.

I remember being a lot more clueless in my first ever uni lecture. Stats. And a bit lost. I don't think I had friends, and Central One was HUGE. This room was small. In fact, too small. Half the lecture sat on the floor. We weren't even late and we had to sit on the floor.

Speaking of late, we thought we were gonna be late cos the tube stations were PACKED. At Victoria Station we waited and had to take the 3rd train that came. So thankful this is my only 9am start.

After the lecture we went to Chinatown for lunch. Well I'd had my packed lunch, but the others didn't, and so i just ordered a small spring roll dish and snacked while they had their lunch. This place was called Wong Kei, and apparently they have like 5 floors D:

I love how Chinatowns the world over always have the cheapest food.

Hillsong church

In the afternoon I went to Hillsong Church in the Dominion Theatre on Tottenham Court Rd.

Sleepy now, will update tmrw.

SO. Hillsong Church. Just thought I'd make a start on finding a church, cos this is the 4th Sunday i'm here, and every Sunday so far I've just wanted to go sightseeing somewhere, or last week I just wanted to get settled into halls.

The service is held in the same theatre as We Will Rock You. I thought that was pretty cool.

Nothing much surprising, really. Stock standard type of service, band, lights, clips, worship, anchor, preacher, worship.

I did meet some really lovely people. When I walked in I was just standing there, looking ahead to see where the service was, and a girl maybe a bit older than me, Gimmy, saw me looking around and asked me if I was okay, and then she introduced me to her friend Anni on the Welcome Team. She was lovely.

After the service they went to the pub, but i had to head back for dinner


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Brick Lane Market

Sundays are going to be market days. I think. Provided it doesn't get too cold/study doesn't get too much/I don't become too lazy.

So today was Brick Lane Market. I'd read up on it, and I was fully expecting to be bombarded by Indian/Bengali people asking me to go into their restaurants, but there was none of that at all. Maybe it was still early. Well it wasn't that early, it was like 10.30, but even so the streets were really empty and some of the stalls at the market were not fully set up. There were a few different market-like spaces, so I just wandered into them as I saw them. Lots of clothes, jewellery and food. The food smelled SO GOOD. It was all Indian food. If I hadn't just had breakfast and if I didn't have to go back to halls for lunch, I would've had some.

There were actually lots of coats for sale- fur coats, trench coats, duffel coats... I nearly bought a black duffel coat, but I don't really need one yet cos the weather's still pretty warm, so I thought I'd delay that expenditure. There were some pretty good quality coats, most of them second hand, and not all that cheap, but not too expensive, and really, that's about the cheapest they're going to be anywhere. So yeah I didn't buy one. But now when I do need to start looking for a winter coat, I know where to go.

Underground party

Here is evidence that I rocked up to a party.

Today there was an Underground party at halls, which means you come dressed up as one of the stations from the London Underground.

My friends convinced me to go, and I really had no excuse because the bar is literally down the corridor from me.

I had no dress up clothes, but at the last minute when I did decide to go, I went to Susan's room in my normal clothes and mentioned that I was considering going as Angel, but didn't have a white skirt (I had a white top). She happened to have a white dress, so I borrowed that and made a halo out of paper and pinned it to my hair.

The Fubar is really small. And I have only just discovered this because it's the first time I've actually been in there. Everyone ended up in the common room next door.

The party started at 7... uhhh the bar has to close by 11. Got there at 8.30 and left by 10. I really don't like big parties. Much prefer chillin in my room with my hot chocolate *happy*

Tate Modern

I'm currently sitting on a couch in Tate Modern. I quite like that about this gallery. There are couches everywhere, just for you to sit and be pensive. It's a good way just to soak up the atmosphere.

Susan was going to come with me today, but she wasn't in the mood. Totally understand. Art galleries only work when you are in the mood to appreciate them. Just that the melancholy that I am is generally always in the mood.

These galleries remind me of the ones at Fed Square or the Arts Centre. More modern. Wooden floorboards, white walls, simple frames. (as opposed to rich carpets, dark red walls and carved golden frames, such as in the one I visited in Edinburgh).

I've only visited one gallery so far, the dreams and surrealism gallery. I don't know what else I expected, but it was so abstract. And some of it was pretty disturbing. And some of the artworks were really deep, some were just a few scribbles passed off as genius, with extravagent descriptions that made you think "...really?"

I think I prefer classical art. Although now I am inspired to go buy a little A5/A6 art diary to draw little fine-liner drawings.

I think I have it me to do one more gallery, before my 21st century attention span gives up on me.

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Fubar

The campus bar is called Fubar.

In the night I was woken up a few times by lots of people talking in the corridor, presumably on their way back from the bar.

So in the morning after breakfast I fell back asleep and woke up at noon.

I was still feeling a bit bleh and a bit sore from yesterday I think. So I did nothing. I didn't go to the fresher's fair cos I heard it was really crowded and I didn't feel like pushing past people.

Mid afternoon I decided I wanted to feel pretty and so I put on a dress and tights, I've pretty much been wearing jeans for the last month and I'm getting a bit sick of it.

After dressing up, I had nowhere to go. In the end I just went to the piano room (which is shocking), then 10 minutes down the road to the shops, because I decided that I should at least get out of the house.

Chilled in Berlin's room with lots of other people, but then excused myself to go to sleep cos I was getting really sleepy, and I want to do something tmrw. Yet to figure out exactly what that is. Now that I'm at halls and I have somewhere to chill that's my own space, I think I'm getting a bit lazy.


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iPhone

Today was a terrible day. But it got better!

In the morning my cleaner came into my room. Her name is Dulcie and she's really sweet. She'll be coming every Thursday morning.

Hmm so when I went to leave the building to go to uni, I slipped on the steps (I blame my shoes, I wasn't in a rush or anything) and my phone was in my hand, so it copped the asphalt and the screen cracked. Pretty badly. I was devo.

So I called Dave, and he said I should go to the Apple Store and tell them what happened and see if I could get it replaced.

Then I went for a departmental welcome for Theology and Religious Studies. There are so many American exchange students. Whyyyyyy.

After that I went to look for an Apple Store. I knew there was one at Covent Garden, and I roughly knew where it was, so I thought that I'd just go and feel my way around til I found it. I couldn't find it, so I asked someone at the Vodafone shop. The encounter was something like this:

Me: "Hi, where's the Apple Store?"
Him: "Turn right"
Me: *looks questioningly for more information*
Him: "Turn right"

Ummm so I did. And I walked all the way to Holborn Station, by which time I'd decided that it definitely wasn't around there, and-

OH BY THE WAY I WALKED ON DRURY LANE. Like "Do you know the muffin man" Drury Lane. It wasn't all that exciting really.

Uhhh yeah so I couldnt find the Apple Store, so I pulled out my cracked screen iPhone *sad* and looked up the map. I found it- turns out Apple is super smart that you just type "Apple store" into the search bar in the maps and they come up- and went there. I had to book a genius bar appointment, and the next one they had was at 2.20, and it was 1.50 and I had to get back to uni at 2, so I booked an appointment for 3.30. I was late. I already knew I was going to be late, so I rushed back to uni, and when I got to uni I couldn't find the room, and was already 10 minutes late, and I was flushed, and warm... and... and...

AND THEN THE SESSION WASN'T EVEN ON. ANGRY. There were other people there too wondering why there wasn't someone official-looking. Someone (a student) came in with their phone at about quarter past and read out an email that said "This email is just to confirm the Management Welcome Session at 4pm at..." GRRRR. So I went upstairs to where I had reception and checked my email and I'd gotten one too. You know what? The email had been sent at 1.13pm. YEAH. The schedule that they sent out last week said 2pm, no one had told us it had changed, and they sent out the confirmation 47 minutes before the original time.

I had a one-to-one meeting for 4.30 with the Study Abroad person (every exchange student was given a time slot). So if this management thing was at 4, I couldn't go, could I? So I went to the Study Abroad office to tell them this, and it was supposed to be open but it was closed. The sign on the door said it would open at 3. So I had to go see them at 3.

I had booked the genius bar appointment without knowing that there was the management thing on at 4, so I was going to be late to the session because I couldn't change my appointment without going there again, which would mean that I probably wouldn't be back by 3 to see the Study Abroad office, and if the Study Abroad office was only opening at 3 I probably wouldn't be able to get to Apple before 3.30 anyway.

By this time I was so worked up and angry that I just went to chill with Berlin at Pret while she ate her lunch.

At 3 I went to the Study Abroad office. There were so many students there. And the staff didn't seem to know what they were doing. They were talking amongst themselves about what was happening.

At 3.20 I got to the Apple Store. The good news is that they replaced my phone for free, no fuss, just signed a thing to acknowledge that they'd done it. SO THANKFUL I LOVE YOU APPLE JUST FOR THAT. Now I'm really paranoid the screen is going to break again, so I'm gonna look out for a (better) case or something.

At 3.50 I left the Apple Store.

At 4.05 I arrived the Waterloo Campus.

At 4.10 I actually found the room I had to be in. I asked 2 people where it was, the first one directed me to a non-existent reception, and the second one had no idea.

The rest was bleh. On the way home at Victoria Station Berlin was like "wait here I need to get something from M&S", and she went to get me Percy Pigs to cheer me up cos she knew I'd had a crap day. She's so sweet! Thank you God for friends. 

Fridge

Today I got a fridge. So I can start making myself sandwiches! yay.

uhhh just had a easy morning, got the fridge, chilled with Nathan and Paolo on Google+, chatted to Dave, then the fridge came so I wiped that down, then went to Sainsbury's to get food to fill up my fridge! Lunch, then went to Walworth shops just to check out what was there, wandered around a little bit, bought some food (Oatberry clusters and chocolate brownie mini bites from M&S!), then went to Tutu's Nightclub, which is the campus nightclub at the Strand Campus, for an International Student Mixer. It was at 5.30-8.30. Don't ask why it was at such an awkward time.

I thought the night would be more structured, but apparently not. There was just a dance from an Indian dance society, which was really really good! Then someone from the Gospel Music Society read out a really sweet poem, then the rest of the time was just hangout. Drinks are really cheap! Pints were like 2.50. Pounds ofc. My coke (yes, just coke, not vodka coke) was 1.50. They didn't do lemon lime bitters! Sad.
So I met lots of people, not that any of them matter much at this point in time, really. But it's nice to meet people...? It was really loud. My voice started to hurt.

After that a whole mob of us wondered what to do next. I was quite happy to get home, being the grandma that I am, but I didn't wanna do that by myself and so I went for a wander with like 10 other people down the Strand looking for somewhere to hang. The Aussies wanted a maccas and everyone else wanted a pub.

In the end I don't know what they settled for because I left to join a Finnish girl Juliana (I think that's it... or Duliana or something) and Berlin, who had called me to ask what I was doing cos the 2 of them wanted to leave but didn't want to leave by themselves either. So Beth and I left the mob wandering down the Strand and met them and took the bus home.

Upon arrival home we were hungry. We'd missed dinner due to the time of the mixer, and I'd just had a little baguette thing with ham and cheese at like 5.30, so Berlin and I hung in my room and I made us sandwiches from the contents of my fridge, yay. And we just sat and chatted. I'm glad I've found another grandma friend :) I love this girl.

All these names are irrelevant to you. But this blog is for my sake as much as yours.

Wash dishes, shower, blog, keep accounts for budget, sleep.

Sandwich bars

I love sandwiches. London has amazing sandwich bars, with amazing sandwiches. Fresh, healthy, yummy.

Study Skills

Today I attended a compulsory session for all Study Abroad students called "Study Skills". I learnt absolutely nothing. Although I did suddenly appreciate the fact that back home I don't even have to think twice about how to reference anymore. I'm going to have to learn a whole new style here. Ugh.

Then Berlin and I hit Oxford St. Bought something for Sophia from Forever 21. Also bought basic cheap clothes from Primark, because I really need clothes.


We walked all the way to Marble Arch, and I took a photo, just to prove I was there. I'm a bit over taking photos, really. I'm no longer a tourist, just a student.

Also, today I found the lollies I was chewing when I lost my first tooth! I don't know how I recognised them, but I guess there aren't many lollies around shaped like pigs' heads. I have no idea how some Marks and Spencer lollies made it to my flat in Penang, but hey. I got so excited I took a photo *excited*

Got back 2 hours ago and I have no idea what I've done. Apart from done my bed, snacked, and umm... gone online. The internet tends to do that.

***

After dinner I went exploring around the halls. I haven't had much of a chance to do that- I'd just found the closest toilets/showers/kitchen, and the shortest route to the dining hall and common room. The essential places. Today I went exploring a little more. All the main facilities are in the oldest building, which is done up in a Victorian style and is really pretty. I've even seen the biggest bedroom in the building, and it has a nice fireplace (although boarded up and used as the head of the bed). In this building I found the 2 little libraries,

 and music room, and had a tinker on the (horrible) common room piano, but I didn't find the computer room or TV room. Will explore further another day.

Met some really loud exchange students. I suddenly appreciate quiet.

Linen change day

Or not. It said it was linen change day on the calendar up in my room. So I took my bedding down and asked reception where I had to put them. He said that linen wasn't being changed today. Then I said it was on the calendar and he looked and agreed. So then he called out to the housekeeper across the hall and she said there was no linen change today and he said it was on the calendar and they had a fight about it.

In the end I took my linen back up to my room. Ugh.

The pub quiz never happened

Now the girls are chillin in my room.

Berlin was running late from running errands in the city, so we decided to have a girl's night in.

Went to Sainsbury's and had lots of fun. I'm sure the rest of the supermarket hated us.

(I bought a clothes rack!)

Enrolment

Went into uni for an info sesh in the morning and enrolment in the afternoon.

The bus took forever. gonna try the train tmrw and see if that's any faster.

After the info sesh, went for a wander around town with some girls from Melbourne. Walked through Victoria Embankment Garden. So pretty

Chilled at the Waterloo Campus.

Got enrolled and got my ID card.

Came back.

Asked about renting a fridge. Not really that cheap (not that expensive either), but the communal kitchen is gross and I need a fridge.

Early dinner then out for a pub quiz tonight.

Will be a late night, another early morning tmrw. Will sort out the fridge thing tmrw.

Catered Hall

It's not bad, for mass produced food.

There is certainly a lot of it.

I feel like I have to eat all it, or as much as possible, cos I can't eat won't be able to have it later.

I still take a long time. And I'm talking to people as well, which makes me even slower.

There's always so much potato. Roast potato, chips, potato wedges, potato gems, hash brown, mash potato...

Henceforth, my life will probably be boring

Sorry peeps, but you probably wont be hearing about many exciting adventures as I begin my life of study, eating and housework. I'll still try to make my life sound interesting, though!

New places, new faces

Today has involved a lot of getting lost. Feeling lost. Lots of questions. But making a few friends, too. Looking forward to life.


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Halls of Residence

Today I left Earl's Court and settled into halls, my home for the next 3 months.

The room is pretty basic, but nice. There's lots of storage space. I don't trust the pantry or the bathrooms though. They look a bit icky.

The place is huge. There just corridors everywhere. It actually reminds me of old school hospitals.

So many questions. But at least I have the Internet on my phone to answer some of them :)


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Bleinheim Palace

I quite liked this one.

Bleinheim Palace was given to John Churchill by Queen Anne. John Churchill was an ancestor of Winston Churchill.

I'm really not into war and all that political stuff, but this place did manage to shove a few bits of history into me anyway. Now I know stuff about Blenheim Palace

They did have an interactive display with a video and models that moved and lights that lit up when appropriate. It led you through several rooms that showed the history of the Palace. A nice change from guided tours and/or self guided tours with a map. Or even audio guides.

All in all, I'm glad I did this tour. It would have been hard to visit these places on my own, especially the Cotwolds, because there's really no other convenient way or travelling between these one-street towns. I found the tour a bit rushed, though. It is already one of the tours with fewer places, but still. Perhaps I'm just used to taking my time with stuff. I would especially have liked to spend more time in Burford and at Blenheim. I didn't even get a chance to walk through and enjoy the gardens, I kinda just had the time to glance up and down it and take a few photos. Such as this one of the back of the palace.

The Cotswolds

The Cotswolds are a hilly area west of London that span across Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and a few other counties. The name comes from "cots", which are sheep pens, because the area used to have lots of sheep farms and produce a lot of wool, and "wolds" which is the old English word for hills. Hence, "Cotswolds" means the hills with sheep pens.

Today I am part of an organized tour to the Cotswolds and Blenheim ("Blen-im") Palace.

Got to Victoria Coach Station bright and early! *yawns*

Our first stop was Bibury, just a little town, with the famous Arlington Row that used to be storehouses for wool, but which have since been converted into dwellings.

Our tour guide is alright. Slightly lacking in confidence sometimes, but he's doing a good job having to tell the stories in both English and Japanese (there are 6 Japanese on the tour, so he's doing separate commentary for them). It's good just being able to follow along half asleep.

We're now in Burford. I opted out of having lunch with the group (you could pay extra and have lunch in a pub, i looked at the price and I was like I could do better than that), so I'm just chillin in a little teahouse, the Copper Kettle Tea Rooms.

Lunch is here!

****

After Burford we went to Bourton-on-the-water, which is also called the Venice of the Cotswolds. Really, there's just a little river running through the town.

I got a butterscotch chip Cotswold ice cream in a waffle cone and sat by the river and ate it. I don't know what the difference is between Cotswold ice cream and normal ice cream... it just tasted like ice cream to me, but the butterscotch was yummy :)

We were also lucky enough to see some builders making a dry stone wall. These are basically walls made from pieces of flat local Cotwold limestone, piled up on each other without mortar or cement to hold it together. Pretty impressive, really, cos they're pretty solid walls. They do put a layer of cement over the topmost layer of limestone, but that's just so people don't steal the stones, and also because on top of the stones lying flat, they put a layer of flat stones upright so that the jagged edges stick up. To keep the sheep from escaping, apparently.


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Notting Hill Gate

Also written for yesterday.

After the V&A Museum, I went to Notting Hill Gate Station to catchup with a family friend, Ze.

We took a slow walk through the neighbourhood, and he showed me places of interest regarding his childhood. At some point it occurred to me that I'd been around that area before when Maddy and I went to the Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising. But he was able to point out stuff like schools, which you can't tell from the outside, because all the facades look the same. It's only when you look closely through the window that you see there are kids in there. But don't do that for too long, that's very pedo-ey.

Then we walked up Portobello Road where there's usually a market, but Thursday is their quiet day, so we just walked into any shops we fancied. The shops range from boutique to mass produced bags and souvenir type stuff. Will check out the market some other time. After we'd exhausted the shops and stuff we still had a bit less than an hour to kill before dinnertime, so we went to their family's little house nearby. Cute, and very 70s.

We had dinner at this Brazilian tapas place near his house, set out like a buffet. It was quite nice, though a lot of the food had a lot of cheese. We had so much food and I had a food baby after.

Got back to the hostel for an early night.


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V&A Museum

*yesterday*

Today I slept in a bit, but I still wanted to do something and not laze around the youth hostel all day, so I took a trip to the Victoria and Albert Museum of Art and Design.

It's basically one massive massive museum of artsy stuff. I gave myself a couple of hours to get lost, and get lost I did. Not that it mattered, because eventually I found myself where I started, and so I knew how to get out.

I didn't go through all of it, but of what I did, my favorite bit was the theatre and performance bit, which had awesome costumes! Then next favourite would be the jewellery section with lots of shiny things.

It was quiet, with only the odd school group. It was quite enjoyable.

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Oxford

Today I went to Oxford. It's not quite as cute as Cambridge, but the university buildings are still old and pretty.

Again, took a slow walk through the city, then sat down to have some lunch. There were heaps of buskers around, mostly poor uni students trying to scrape up a living. *empathises*

I went up to Carfax Tower to get a view of the city and its spires.

Then I went to Christ Church Cathedral and College. Apparently it's the grandest of all of the Colleges, so I chose to see that one, even though there were a few others with free admission. I did also walk past a couple of the other colleges, so I kinda got to see them too. Christ Church is the place where the dining hall for Harry Potter was filmed.

Christ Church College had a nice quadrangle (Tom's Quad). Talk about perfectly manicured lawns.

Then I went to the Pitt Rivers Museum of Anthroplogy and Archeology. It sounded more interesting in Lonely Planet, to be honest. But it was still interesting. There are over 300,000 artefacts from all over the world from all sorts of time periods. I joined a "highlights" tour because there was one starting just as I got there.

The tour guide showed us the shoes of 15 year old Chinese girls when their feet were bound up. They were literally like 3 inches wide. It made me feel sick. Kinda like the execution story at the Tower of London, but not as bad. I just had a drink and a lolly even though they said no food and drink. I'm sure they'd rather me just pop a lolly into my mouth than have me faint in the middle of their museum. I am definitely not become a doctor or anything related to blood or body parts, am I?

I wanted to go see the Museum of Modern Art, but it was closed. Boo. It looked interesting, even as I stepped into the foyer.

Then I got distracted by shops and stuff as I made my way back to the station. Just looking. Some of these places have really cute stuff.

Cambridge

Good weather.

Train.

Walked slowly into town. Quite a long walk, but I saw stuff.

Lunch from Eat. Thai Chicken Baguette. I thought I was adventurous.

Wandered around the market.

Ate lunch at the Backs, watching people punting on the river.

Lunch was amazing.

Sat on a massive tree stump and wrote a postcard.

Bad weather. It started to rain. Then pour.

Queens' College. The wind killed my umbrella. Another one bites the dust. I think I just won't own an umbrella, I'll end up spending a fortune on them. I'll just wear my hood when it rains.

Great St. Mary's Church. Good weather again.

Cath Kidston mug.

Bought groceries.

Dinner, leftover lasagne.

Gonna go make myself a hot chocolate soon.

Tired. Didn't sleep particularly well last night due to people checking in halfway in the night.

(The youth hostel is quite pleasant. everyone keeps to themselves, except in the kitchen when the elderly couples are there, then we all feel obliged to have some conversation. I don't have enough space. My locker is pretty much my dump pile. There aren't even shelves.)

One Month

As of today, I have spent a whole month in the UK.

It's felt like longer.

Partly because I miss you all.

Partly because I've done so many different things.

Mostly cos I've been so many places.

Youth Hostel

Today I checked into the youth hostel. I had actually already booked the youth hostel before Rachel and Joo Chew offered me accomodation at their place, and when they did it was not really worth canceling the reservation cos I wouldn't get much money back anyway. Plus I wouldn't know what it'd be like to stay at a youth hostel. Not that I'm expecting it to be luxurious, or something that I'm going to wish for once I'm back home, but I think it'd be worth the experience anyway.

It's pretty basic, but it meets my hygiene standards. Apart from the cutlery. And the tea towels are a bit sus. I'll wash the cutlery before I use it then just shake it dry. And the mugs looked a bit old. If I get the time to go get some basic cutlery and stuff I will.

Went to a few supermarkets to check out food and stuff. Milk. Juice. Also ended up buying pre made Italian food from M&S, cos it was 3 servings for £5. It's M&S, so the quality should be good. It's not my kitchen, and I'm the only one eating, and I'm only here a few days, and I'm out during the day, so it's really not worth cooking.

Need to get hot chocolate. Essential.

So now there's lasagna in the oven. I'll eat, sort out wifi stuff, then shower and sleep. Full day tmrw.


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Changing the Guard

Changing the guard at Buckingham Palace is must see in London, even if you can't hear what the guards are shouting to each other and you spend half the time on your tippy toes trying to look over other people who are also standing on their tippy toes.

It was a lot of fuss just to swap guards over, really. But at least it provides entertainment. The ceremony is accompanied by a brass band, which played various predictable pieces of music, and also Queen's We are the Champions. And also another song, which the people next to me (a whole group of them) seemed to know. They started singing along.

Doctor Faustus

This post is about Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe, the play that I went to see at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre tonight. But it's midnight and I'm super tired, so I'll do it tomorrow. I just need this here to remind me to do it. Toodles.

*****

So yesterday I went see an Elizabethan play. It was pretty much a Shakespeare play, in old English and all, only it wasn't actually by Shakespeare. It was performed at the Globe Theatre when it first came out in the 1600, and so the performance in the reconstructed Globe last night would have been pretty much exactly as it was as when it was first performed. Minus the super modern plastic raincoats that they were selling for 2 pounds, and the electrical lights they used when it got dark. And the hidden sprinkler system in case the place caught on fire (the whole thing is pretty much made out of wood, and the original Globe burnt down). The night was an activity in experiencing standing up to watch at play, like the poor people would have done in Shakespeare's day. Except they stank a lot more.

The play is centered around themes of God and the devil and faith and logic. It is about a smart German guy called Faustus, who decides to sign his life to Lucifer in return for 24 years of guaranteed life, and Mephistopholis, a little devil, as his servant.

'Twas a little bit hard to understand what they were saying sometimes, but then I just admired the costumes and stuff. They were pretty cool. So old school. And the sets too. They even had people physically drawing the curtains, and when some of the devil-like characters came out, they were literally like paper mache horse heads. Or actors carrying a metal head and body.

The place is pretty small, and there's a little part of the stage that juts out to the centre of the 'O', so the actors could actually stand right in the middle and address the crowd. But that also meant that they were acting out there right in the middle of the audience, so when they spat food (just celery sticks) and threw things around, the poor people closest to the actors copped it.

Rachel and I were running a bit late, and we were soaked cos it had been raining pretty hard while we were walking. We literally walked in, and Rachel turned around again to try to buy a raincoat, but the doors were already shut. 

It rained for some of the first half, which made it a bit hard to hear cos everyone was rustling their plastic raincoats.

At the interval we were tired already, so we went to sit in the gallery for a while.

The play was from 6.30 til 9.15ish, so when it started it was still kinda bright, and it actually got dark as the play went on. That was pretty cool.

Enjoyable night becoming more cultured.

Jane Eyre

I just remembered I didn't tell you guys how Jane Eyre was!

It was a decent movie. Love the dresses and the houses (but what's new?)

The story was a bit brief cos they had to cram it all into 2 hours. In fact, in order that the movie didn't drag, it probably couldn't have gone for much longer. The story itself is quite mellow, not action packed, so on screen it would have been just a lot of wafting about, which would probably make it totally boring. But I felt like they expected the audience to know the story, and so didn't do a lot in the way of explaining what was happening.

The book is better. But read it, then watch the movie, and you'll appreciate the movie a lot more.

I love Sundays

Sundays are always my favourite day. Relax a bit, read the newspaper magazines, go to church, hang out with people.

Sundays in London have been a little bit different, but it still has that relaxed vibe.

Today I woke up at 9.30. MASSIVE sleep in.

Waited for Tesco to open at 10.30, then went to get some eggs to make pancakes. Had pancakes with strawberries, raspberries and blueberries and ice cream and maple syrup. I love food. Clearly.

Lazed around at home for a bit. It actually wasn't all that long, because by the time we'd gone to Tesco and come back, and made the pancakes, and ate it, and chatted, it was like lunchtime.

So I didn't have lunch, just a light snack before Rachel and I went to the shops at Lewisham, just for me to grab essentials and have a look around the place.

Once in a lifetime, a match is made in heaven. Today I met my match in a handbag shop, or really, a bag shop, called Travel Zone. I am super fussy about what I want in a handbag. It has to look somewhat sophisticated and not like I found it off the street. It has to be big, to fit all my stuff, preferably including a jumper. I have a lot of stuff, and while I'm travelling I'm carrying around lunch and a drink bottle as well. It has to have long enough handles so that I can open it to get stuff out while it's on my shoulder. It has to be easy to open, so that I can chuck stuff in easily. It can't be fiddly with buckles and clasps. And while I'm in London, it has to be a zip so no one can pickpocket at busy train stations.

Today I met the perfect handbag. It had EVERYTHING, and more. It's deceptively big- it looks small, but can fit a lot. There is a big pocket, which is what I need just to chuck stuff if I'm in a rush, but it also has side pockets. It has a little pocket on the outside where I will keep my tube map, because I need that one a lot. And it even fits my puffy jacket! So yeah I'm pretty much in love with this bag.

Then Rachel and I met Joo Chew in the city. We went out to dinner in China town, in this dingy little restaurant down a quiet little lane. It's called C&R Malaysian cuisine or something like that. It had really good Char Koay Teow. And you guys know how much convincing it takes to get me to eat hawker food, let alone like it, cos usually it's really oily and unhealthy. But this one was really good. It wasn't soggy, or too oily. It wasn't expensive (though Joo Chew wouldn't let me pay. I actually pushed it, but he refused), and a good serving size. The food came quickly. And it was very flavourful. Gosh I'm fussy, aren't I? The waiters weren't very cheerful, but that's not particularly unusual in Asian restaurants.

Then it rained, like poured, while Rachel and I walked to Shakespeare's Globe to go see a play. We actually got soaked, though she had an umbrella and I had my puffy rain jacket.

Today I spent my thousandth pound in the UK. Just sayin'

The London Pass

Just some reflections on the London Pass. For anyone planning some sightseeing in London.

http://www.londonpass.com/

If you've been keeping up, I bought a 6 day London Pass without the travel option. I paid 85.50, because there was an end of summer sale on at the time I bought it. This pass basically allows you to go into all of the sights listed for free.

Well, it was definitely worth it. It pays for itself pretty quickly. These are all the sights I visited, with the normal entry next to it (as quoted on the London Pass website. I'm pretty sure some of these places had a different student concession admission fee)

Thames River Cruise 13.50
 Westminster Abbey  16
 Banqueting House 4.80
 Royal Albert Hall 8.50
 Kensington Palace 12.50
 Museum of Brands 6.60
 St Paul's Cathedral 14.50
 National Portrait Gallery 5.50
 Tower Bridge Exhibition 8
 Kew Gardens 13.90
 Shakespeare's Globe 11.50
 Tower of London 18
 Apsley House 6.30
 Handel House Museum 6
 Windsor Castle 16.50
 National Theatre Backstage Tour 7
 Curzon Mayfair 13.50

Total 182.6

Don't forget that Eton College would have made it onto that list as well, had Maddy and I not been so excited about cake that we missed the tour.

It was tiring having to go full blast for 6 days straight, and as you've read if you've been keeping up, by the last day I just wanted to sit and do nothing. The other thing about having to do it 6 days in a row is that you don't get much time in between sightseeing to plan what you're going to do the next day, and I spent quite a few nights up late just trying to figure out what I was doing the next day based on what I wanted to see and what was closest to what. But then again, travelling and sightseeing IS pretty much trying to cram as much as you can into a little window of time.

Obviously, I didn't quite enjoy everything I went to, and not everything was worth the entry fee, but you never really know until you've done it.

You may or may not be a little bit tired of grand houses and art galleries, depending on how intense you are. I'm currently borderline. Give it a little while and I will quite happily visit pretty palaces and exhibitions again.

The travel element really isn't worth it. The website charges an extra 50 or thereabouts for a weekly travelcard for Zones 1-6, I think. A travelcard gives you unlimited travel within the zones you paid for, for the amount of time that you paid for. Reality is that you don't NEED to travel out to Zone 6 that often, if at all. Only Windsor Castle, Eton College, Hampton Court Palace and Kew Gardens are further out from the city. Other than that, all the sights are pretty much in Zone 1, and there may be a few in Zone 2, not quite sure. I got a Zone 1-2 weekly travelcard, because I was staying in Lewisham, which was in Zone 2. I paid 27.60 for that, my trip to Kew Gardens return cost me an extra 1.70 (I have a 16-25 railcard which gives me 1/3 off off-peak fares, usually it would be about 2.50), and my return ticket to Windsor cost an extra 6.60. So all up transport only cost me about 36, not 50.

That's all, the last 6 days have been pretty packed. Goodnight.

(Do the maths yourself if you're actually interested, it's late and I'm tired and I ceebs) 

The Thames by night

Straight from the movie to Charing Cross to meet Joo Chew, Rachel, Joo Ern and Echo, Joo Chew's wife, for dinner.

We went to a little gourmet burger place near Charing Cross, and I had a Mexican burger. Tried to be a bit more adventurous, those who know me know that I would usually quite happily order chicken with cheese and salad :)

Then we went walkies at Covent Garden. It was so busy. And I saw the Apple Store at Covent Garden lol. Don't ask me anything about it though, cos I didn't even go in. It just reminded me of all you back home. *cough paolo/dave/samdevaraj*

Crossed the footbridge to the other side of the Thames and walked along it for a bit. There were some stalls lined up against the river, so just enjoyed the atmosphere. I was really crowded so we did lose each other quite a few times, especially because us girls were looking at the clothes and stuff at the stalls.

Then public transport drama. Waterloo East walkway was having maintenance work, so we had to go find the little street entrace on Sandell St. Which looks easy on a map, but we couldnt find the street, then realised that we were on the wrong level. what was the street level at one entrance was the first floor on the other side of the station. Then when we found the little entrance, there were no trains at waterloo east cos apparently there was some fire evacuation thing at London Bridge on the same line. So we walked back to Charing Cross. And waited quite a while for a train. Anyway finally got back home. Tired. Will try to have a quiet day tmrw and go with the flow, though I still feel the need to plan something. Trust.

Curzon Mayfair

After 5 days of running around London I really didn't feel like another art gallery or palace or church, so I opted for a movie, which is also covered by my London Pass.

I'm going to see Jane Eyre! (this is the bit that makes it English, therefore justifying my decision to sit in a dark room in front of a screen in London)

Ummm yes so after the National Gallery I came here to get tickets, then took a walk to Buckingham Palace. Maddy had said that the exhibition at the Queen's Gallery, which was really close by, was quite good. But yeah I dont want to spoil art galleries for myself by making myself go to them when I've had quite enough for a bit.

So I took a stroll around Mayfair. Nice area, as I'm sure you all know. I found a little shop which had really nice leather bound books, including the classics and Shakespeare's Sonnets and Keats and stuff. SO NICE. But expensive as, obviously.

Then to Buckingham Palace and the park, which I have already blogged about.

Back to the cinema. I was way early for the movie, but because I'd gone for a wander before I wasn't sure how long it'd take me to get back, and I'd rather sit and blog than be late.

This place is pretty nice. Doesn't look like much from the outside, but the inside has a nice bar and marble in the toilets. Obviously I don't know what the actual cinema looks like yet.

This would be my first time going to see a movie by myself. Don't have a problem with it, I just usually feel that if I'm going to spend the money going to the movies, I might as well go with someone. But it's all good.

Gonna go in now.

***

Oooo big screen! :)


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Green Park

Alright, back. Sharing a park bench with 2 old Italian ladies. Cute. It's very quiet and peaceful.

In the distance there are people sitting in the sun with their beach chairs. Bless these English people who have to treasure every little bit of sunshine.

This morning I went on a backstage tour of the National Theatre. It was built by (I'm sure those aren't the right words, but I can't find the right ones) Lawrence Olivier. It is a fully working theatre, and so we got to see all the sets and tech stuff backstage, and we got to watch a bit of an understudy rehearsal. It was really interesting getting to see a theatre in action. There's so much space backstage and so many different levels and ao many different things going on at once. The Theatre is a production house as well as a theatre, which means that the sets and props are also made there. They have a metalwork section, a carpentry section, then a scenic production section that will paint the sets and all that. We got to walk onto the set of one of the current productions, A Woman Killed With Kindness, about a woman in the who is unfaithful to her husband, but instead of raging at her, her husband tells her she can live in any of his mansions, but she can't see him or their children. It sounds really good, and our tour told us at the end that students 16-26 can sign up online for a free entry pass thing and you can get £5 tickets. Probably comes with a whole lot of spammage about their shows, but I'll check it out when I get home.

Anyway, the point about the sets was that pretty much everything is fake, made to look real. Everyone else probably already knows this, but when I go to see a show I try and enjoy it, and I don't think about things like that. The set was of a house, and everything was made of wood. Like staircase, which was painted to look like stone, and it DID look like stone. Except when you walked on it, it sounded hollow. Out tour guide was young, she was really good and enthusiastic and... Innocent in a way. She didn't play things up and make the storied elaborate, just told them really earnestly. The tour did go overtime a little bit- it was meant to be 75 minutes but went for almost 90, but that was okay because it was interesting (unlike the Kew Gardens one with the old lady) and also I hadn't exactly planned what to do after that.

Then I took a nice walk across the Thames and took the train to Green Park. This weekend the Thames Festival is happening, so along the river there were all these little stalls selling food, clothes, souvenirs. I took a slow walk through a little bit of it.

I was headed to the Curzon Mayfair, to get tick-

Wow that was odd. I just happened to look up while blogging and there was a guy walking past and he did a double take and told me that I was pretty and that I should be a movie star. He had an accent. He asked if I was Japanese. Then he asked if he could sit down next to me (the italian ladies had left). So he sat, a bit of a distance away so he wasn't uncomfortably close. Then told me I was really pretty again. I said ummm I'd rather study, thanks, then he just had a little monologue with himself about how if you study hard God will reward you. So I smiled and nodded, being aware of the phone that was in my hand and the bag that was next to me. After a while he said he'd give me his card, if I ever wanted to have dinner. I was like ummm no thanks, but he gave it to me anyway. It was a brochure for Kleftiko Fully Licensed Greek Restaurant. 0207 7603 0807, if anyone's interested. So I asked if he was Greek and he was like yeah but I'm British. Then he said bye and upped and left. He was just being friendly. I think. Or maybe that's just how European guys are. He didn't seem sus and I don't expect to see him again, but if I was ever looking for a Greek restaurant... I now know one! (uhh that was sarcastic, it's okay dad. And Dave.)

Ummm so about the Curzon. I kinda have to go there now, update later!



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Location:Spur Rd,London,United Kingdom

London Pass Day 6

Currently sitting outside Buckingham Palace on the steps of the big monument thing, Which is currently covered up in plastic so I don't actually know what it is. It's pretty hot and sunny. These weather forecasts suck. It said windy so now I'm carrying around my big puffy jacket.

In fact, I'm sitting in direct sunlight and it's really hot so I'm gonna go across the road and blog in the park in the shade. Brb.


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Location:Palace St,London,United Kingdom

Windsor and Eton

Today is London Pass Day 5. Maddy and I decided to take a trip out to Windsor, west of London, to go visit Windsor Castle and Eton College. After last night's shenanigans, we decided that a later start was in order. So the later start plus having to travel to Windsor meant we got there close to lunchtime.

After a few issues about not being able to find each other on the train cos she'd forgotten to charge her phone, we finally found each other at the platform when we arrived.

Windsor Castle was nice. We say Mary's Doll House, which is a massive miniature house, fully furnished with... everything. It was given to Queen Mary as a gift. It is amazingly intricate- the Banquet Hall is set with little plates made of silver, and there is electricity and even working plumbing in the doll house.

Then we went to the Drawings Room with some drawings and pictures- some drawings by Da Vinci, paintings by various artists and pictures of Prince Phillip Duke of Edinburgh and the Queen. Did you know that they were 3rd cousins? ...yeah...

Ummm wandered the State Apartments. So many rooms and paintings and fireplaces. I think I've had my share for a while...

Went into St George's Chapel to take a quick look. All these churches are actually starting to look the same.

Then we decided to go have afternoon tea! *excited* I love afternoon tea! We went to a cute little place called the Crooked House of Windsor, and it was very literally crooked. As in the walls were slanting, and I'm pretty sure the ceiling was too. I'm sure it was architecturally sound, the place was just made to look like it might collapse any minute.

Maddy had scones and tea, and I had a Victoria sponge cake! Mmmmm... such decadence

The waiter was kinda grumpy. So when the bill came we paid using all our change, including coppers.

Oh then we kinda forgot the time. We were planning to go to Eton College, which started off as a school for the poor, but then turned posh and now heaps of Prime Ministers and princes have been educated there. There was a tour of the college at 3.15, and we knew we'd miss it, but we were just going to walk around there by ourselves anyway. Turns out you can't walk around in the college unless you're with a tour guide, and nothing had told us that. We asked at the gift shop. So then we just walked along the high street and stalked marvelled at the schoolboys(' uniform). They were wearing very posh uniform.

When I finally got home I felt like it was the first time I've had to rest in a little while.

Joo Chew and Rachel are out on a date, which is kinda cute. So I actually have a quiet house to myself.