Science Museum

Visit my flickr for more piccies! I've added it on to the Central London set :)



This video clip was taken in the 'play land' of the science museum where we saw heaps of kids playing with toys like bubbles of different shape, lights, building bridges, playing with fancy lights and lots more...It is actually dry ice that goes from solid to gas on a glass of dark liquid (didn't really know what it was). Very pretty site.

Queen Street x 1000

I better update my blog before I will be bombarded with interviews as well as having to research on each company before I get to them. I shall be posting more up on flickr rather than here when things start to get busy.

If any of you are feeling lost in my Flickr album, click here. Think it'll be more strategic looking at the photos from here :)

Hokai, here we go

British Museum (10.07.08)
The weather was out, I got excited, me and D shot off for a walk to the British Museum via a short cut. I came across really nice building that I couldn't help but to take a photo eventhough I know I'm gona be here for a while...

Anyway, I stumbled across really nice flowers in front of the buildings and I couldn't stop thinking about mum :). I took photos for her.

We went through a park on the way to the museum and stumbled across a squirel so nearby! Apparently, it was the only one we saw at that time of the day and I took a clip just for you YJ, Hehe...



When we arrived to the museum, it was super huge!! Like 5 times bigger than Auckland. It was really a historical museum as there were heaps of artifacts displayed. As we went into the building, it turned into a dome, in which we think that we can come here anytime whenever we are bored.

We passed through egypt, greek and bits of others but we were amazed with one room where this professor used to collect pieces of specimens and collections all over the world. Man, so much to see.

After that, we went and meet up with a friend out at the entrance and we had dim sum at china town. Gosh, super greasy, I think it was the cheapest alternative to go to.

After that, D's friends took us to Harrods out at Knightsbridge (Woohoo!) which was nearabouts Piccadaly Circus tube and this is where I see London crowd. Sales everywhere, all packed with people!! Not only that, we also went out to Piccadaly Circus, Oxford Circus and I can tell you that there are perhaps huge shops everywhere across the centre tube line stops.


I manage to secure myself a nice introductory package of Biotherm that I was wanting to buy from Malaysia and got it for a really cheap price. Not only that, the kind sales lady gave us more samples to try on too! I learnt about new cheap as shops like H&M (where they update their stock every season) and Primark (£4 for a shirt and tie)

We came home with our legs aching but I was happy to finally see SHOPS and I bought something hehe.

Friday (11.07.08)
I went shopping nearby out place and found a market (Chapel market) and a mini shopping mall (Like Westfield pakuranga) nearby. Bought stuff from Sainsbury (Another 'pak n save' place) and walked home carrying about 10kgs worth of groceries. There are offers going around and some stuff were cheap and some were not.

Weekend
Went out to Kensington (East) where I went for a free dermalogica class. They do heaps of stuff like jewellery making, pilates etc and I got my face studied again. It was really nice and interesting but it took a Massive long time to get back as the bus had to go through Oxford Street (Like Queen Street, with pedestrian crossings) and Weekend crowd was CRAZY. Never in my life I've seen so many people walking!

Even at night time, feels like a 'pasar malam' with no pasar hehe. We went and met up with friends for drinks out at Leceister Square and got home earlier to rest.

On Sunday, we checked out Canary Wharf out East. This area consist of amazing tall buildings who were mainly own by banks, and my eyes went o.O when I saw these buildings...they are TALL!! As though as I feel like I'm in New York. Also, this area is privately owned, so much so that they have security taking care of the border and they are also situated near the river, where they have the right to lift the bridges up to increase security. Quite interesting. Check the photos out!

Today
Just went through a few agencies. Big interviews tomorrow...

Hay's Galleria and Tower Bridge

The weather was crap today, but being me who wants to just get out and see most of London before I get torn with work, I dragged D out in the awful rain (I told myself that I will be doing this many times, so might as well start now). Its better than staying at home surfing the internet anyway..

So we checked out another 2 places where my interviews will be held. Funny how these interviews are placed so near the tourist spots. Talk about luxury. We took the number 17 bus again and it crossed the London Bridge.

We walked to Hay's galleria, it was quite nice, D told me in ancient times, this place was built with a large roofing area to allow the imports and exports sales to happen..markets were set up to sell and buy stuff...

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Nice eh?
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View the other way
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Lawn bowl, open to public :)
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Elo~~

And this is where I realised I was fooled when I was young when I saw the Tower Bridge :(

'London bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down,
London bridge is falling down, my fair lady...'

HL: Don't sing this to Keira!! It's a lie, it's a lie......SOB

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If only it didn't rain...
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Some interesting building nearby

After that, we went to meet up with a friend out at a station called Piccadily Square. We had yummy burger and fries at some takeaway shop (£1.50 kids meal for meeeee) Oh and I took the Subway for the first time!

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There were no rubbish bins, nor toilets due to the bombing. It was similar to taking the LRT, only that it is bigger and heaps of escalators.. oh, and people are in a rush too. There is one rule that each of us had to remember when taking the escalator, to give way to the people on your left....if not, there'll be the common remark shot at you 'bah~~ tourists'

Piccadily Square is like Queen Street...lotsa shops, people and pickpockets

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Neon lights
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Lillywhites...cheap stuff! Shopppinnnggg ~~

Our friend took us to see China town, since she wanted to bring us to walk...but the weather was crap.

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YAWN. But I think we'll be shopping for chinese stuff here.

We had drinks at a bar, and dinner at a chinese shop J&J brought us to (it had a perak waitress who orders extra dishes out of courtesy)

We learnt that Jobs were created in London for the sake of making them. To write a bank cheque required 4 different people to do it!! One to pass you the form, one to sign, and one to return it back you. We also learn of the places to avoid in staying, tube lines to avoid too.

I even noticed that the chinese restaurant had two people, one to pick up the dishes, and the other to hold them. OMG....anyway, this was why employer love NZ, Aussie and Asian people. We can multitask! Our number one strength.

London day 1-3

06 July 08
The first day of touching down was...ok I could say. My head was spinning badly and the taxe driver that breaks so hard every 20metres doesn't help my body either.

We got through the customs ok, as I was surprise that I didn't see what I was told. Hustle and bustle, rudness, etc. It felt the same a any customs you go through. We had to do a health check up, and that the lady at the counter was very nice. They scanned my body to check for things, and after we got to our luggages, it was out and waiting :)

The interesting thing was, it was like Malaysia. There were indeed nobody at the customs, and that we did not even fill an in-depth declaration form, we walked straight through the green lane. And it was a good thing we rung the cab before hand. Cheaper, and he was waiting for an hour (silly guy, we told the people to send him in an hour later). Total cost on a van cab was
£41.

We were greated greatly by Joyce, Jason, his bestfriend and gf. We had a scrumptious meal, plus also manage to capture the men's tennis finals game. 4 hours!! I zonked out almost immediately when I fell onto their couch bed.

Weather: Half rain, half cloudy, half windy

07 Jul 08

Felt like my head was still spinning and that my body wasn't fully adjusing to the time as yet. Jason took us out to learn the bus route. The first and most common bus was number 17. Similar to NZ, we use the oyster card and it gets topped up at the subways and when you go into a bus, its like a touch-n-go process. Each bus stops at certain alphabetical sign, as there were so many of them on the streets. And the route from the start to the end on one numbered bus costs 90p.

I think London is like Malaysia and NZ. You behave like a Malaysian on the streets, and like a New Zealander at work. I was beginning to love this place as I didn't feel neither here nor there.

We traveled to a HSBC to sort out our stuff, only to find that we can do it at any branch. And since London is a new country, there were so many things to see in the bus. Oh, all day buses were double deckers, and the night ones are like caterpillars hehe. We saw lotsa 'Pret a Manger' cafes which was similar to Hollywood Bakery, there were heaps and heaps of HSBC branches. Thank goodness we've got an account with them. Rested more today as I still didn't feel too well.

Weather: Half rain, half shine


08 July 08

Sun was out today!! So I dashed out saying goodbye to D who had to wait for the FEDEX box to come. I shot straight to take the same route. Head was feeling better than yesterday. And here comes the pictures.....

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General buildings (not much dirt as I thought, could be just this area only)


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Zee buses you see everywhere...nice red colour to liven the place up

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St. Paul's Cathedral, where Princess Diana and Prince Charles got married :)

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Tourist buses,heh might take one when I settle down :)

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Black taxi cabs (Expensive cabs, we were told to avoid them)

Almost every gap between each buildings, I stumble across small parks for people to read. London indeed do keep their greens well. And they fully maintain the plants and landscaping is really well done.

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I was almost amazed that lots of buildings are literally made out of bricks. Just like Malaysia, but these are not covered by cement. I guess that is how you differentiate the old and new buildings...anyway, this is alley to where I temporarily stay...
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More to come in the next post!

Bali

Am in the midst of updating my blog, only to think that I shall post my Bali photos up as a picture blog instead. Shall describe each of them as I post...

Click here to see it
:)

Promise that I will write something about my London photos...

First stop - KL

Was hungover the first time on Friday...gosh,never ever doing it again. It was a good thing I spewed and was able to eat the next day :P

Saturday, 21.06.08
We were up early at the airport...friends and family came by to say their goodbyes which was so sweet of them. I couldn't hold my tears when I hug my family...as I wouldn't know when I would see them again. Time felt short while everyone was at the airport, for we had to hurry in as we had to board in 20mins. After going through the long queues and trying to run and walk at the same time with our heads still in the air and hungover (we heard the announcement about 3 times) we were crazily on time, as we saw the last couple of people handing their tickets to the ladies at the counter.

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Thank you all for coming :)

Weather was not as bad as I thought when we headed back. D's friend picked us up and we head straight for supper (YUM).


Sunday, 22.06.08
Can't remember what happened here, think we went shopping at BU or something. D got me a lovely gift :*

Monday, 23.06.08
Did my birth cert at State (although I just remembered it's faster at Masalam, Shah Alam after processing). I was surprise as there were only one person at the counter and no one else o.O

Tues-Wed

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Headed to KL! Woohoo

It was a last minute decision that we stayed at the Renaissance Hotel (thanks to dad's membership, heh) as we wanted to do more shopping! Checked out the laptops at Digi Mall (apparently the electronics in this area has now equaled with Low-Yatt) and then headed of to KL.

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Our 'upgraded' room :P

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View from our room (Mmmm, pre-bali). If you notice, the tennis court is actually sunken (not the same level as the pool)

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What we sorely miss

First time, I headed to PAvillion!

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Would you like fries with that?

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Where's HooOoommee

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Famous Amos! Yuuuummm~~~

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Harvey Norman by the Palm

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Look at that!! My Initials printed on a whole series of kiddies clothes!! H.G!

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Old tv

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Gooo Endless Summerr~~

We had dins dins back at the hotel. Was buffet style after we had a mini dip in the pool

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Mini wonton soup!

We were knackered after having to visit 5 different shopping malls (Sungei Wang, BB, PAvillion, Lot 10 and Digi Mall). Our legs were extremly sore. Lunch was also at the hotel, some de Marche restaurant. Mediteranean food.

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Ceaser salad to begin with

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Mains

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Dessert

We had a frustrating moment to our next place - 'vanity stop'

I shall update more later =). Dad's home!

And the way we gooooooooo

Speak of the devil...

09/06-immigration rung and confirm
10/06-immigration sent documents
11/06-D got his
12/06-I got mine
13/06-we booked our tickets!

Leaving next Sat!

Last minute farewell on the weekend and the following Fri hopefully...