Monday, January 26, 2009

We try....

London is nice.....when it's not raining!! But it has been raining a lot. so the camera rarely leaves home, hence not much pictures.

From the little pictures we have, here a picture of our temporary room with Michelle & Martin, really small but nice & cosy, they have been really really really good hosts....and to think of them letting people she just met once into their home, they're just so generous.


the streets of Acton, a bit wet....actually a lot wet. rains damn a lot!!

So we ventured around town, went for a tryout at Starbucks (heheh....can get free coffee if i really work there!!), then went exploring around town.

Ended up in Victoria tube station to submit application to Pret A Manger (better here, got nice sandwiches to eat!! HAHHAH), and then found Wicked!! outside. We'll probably catch this since we're not working and have time on our hands at the moment.


Then we walked and walked and walked and ended up at Buckingham Palace, but got no changing of guards in the afternoons (yeah, it was 4pm and already dark) during winter. So must go back again lor....

so must be a little touristy and get a picture with Buckingham Palace in the background....



and a picture of the statues assess....


and the tube station...


This is gross but....don't know why, but ever since in London, there seems to be excess amount of nose shit produced!! hahhaha......so it's true what they say, London air is polluted..... hahahhah

Then we went to the famous duck place in Bayswater. Everyone who has been to London before has been raving about this place and everyone insists that we try it out. And yes, it's true, it's reaaaaaaaaallly good!! Beats Sunrise in Seapark hands down!!


We still can get asian food, at a premium of coz. But so far, we've been to this cheap pub where u can get 2 main meals for £7, value!! plus 2 pints of ale and beer, only comes up to £10. if don't convert, it's damn cheap!! but if you convert the pints, it's still cheaper than Brussels in Jaya One and it's not watered down!!

Of boots and home cooked meals

Bought a pair of boots coz my leather converse all star low cut makes my feet cold whenever we go out into the cold. Was actually eyeing a Dr Martens (want to relive the grunge days 15-16 years ago), but ended up with Crocs boots for a ridiciously low price of £15 (they had 70% off the actual price!!)

So now, my feet are warm and dry when we go out.... Thanks Crocs!!

We made the flat a cybercafe, got 4 laptops in the house, iphones, ipod touches, PS3....niceeeeeeee..

Ever since we were here, we've been meeting up with all the people we know in London. And we've had them cook for us too.... let's see, there's been Steph who cooked pasta with the yummiest mushroom soups i've ever had and then there's been Michelle & Martin again, they always cook for us.

Here's the white wine sauce pasta she made...


And Martin's rissoto filled Peppers that he made from scratch..




and beer.....so damn cheap if you buy from the supermarket, a big bottle is less than £2.


we are fed very well here, and looks like i'm not going to be losing weight anytime soon....hheheh

Thursday, January 22, 2009

1st outing into London

It was our first time out in a totally unknown place (my built-in GPS has not been loaded with London map....yet!!) and in the cold weather. Luckily enough for us, a bit of the Fifoto witchcraftery has rubbed off and we were lucky to have blue skies and some sun in the normally gloomy english weather!

we're squatting at this lovely 2 bedroom flat in a gated residential area

With no idea of where to go, we called Michelle to direct us to the nearest Primark. Primark is this place where you can get really cheap clothing and bedding stuff. So off we went. And since it was already lunch, we had a bite at Pret A Manger. They sells sandwiches and coffee....it was quite nice, but once you convert to M'sian currency, i was having a RM20 sandwich, so the moral of the story is, DON'T convert when you're overseas.....you'll never eat!!

our Pret A Manger meal

bacon and eggs sandwich........nice!! i could easily get used to the food here

coffee....dedicated to Highway

blue skies!! so not the typical english weather

dead trees and blue skies....

we'll be seeing a lot of these from now on....

our next stop, to meet up with a fellow indo....who's been living here for ages. he's actually a friend of my mom's cousin. he's trying to hook us up with a place to live

Double deckers.....

Chinatown at night..all ready for the CNY

Piccadilly Circus at night.....damn, should have brought out the big camera

So it was quite a fruitful day, found Primark, established contact with a friend of a relative, got our permenant Pay As You Go cards, had a taste of Chinatown (you can get maggi mee in London, even got Lingam's Chilli Sauce!! All buatan Malaysia, but a bit expensive la!), had our first pint and english pub food, and experienced our first cold and wet night waiting for the bus.

Can't wait to really see downtown London next!!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

13 hour flight

20th January 2009, nothing bad happened till today and we FINALLY managed to get our asses on the plane towards London.

Didn't really sleep the night before, aips got anxiety attack (hehhehe) and last minute packing and all that....

Arrived at KLIA waaaaaaaay to early, manged to check in our overweight luggage (6 kgs over) without paying RM190 per kg, and the good news was, the flight was 80% empty!!

Had our last nasi lemak & teh tarik which was too overpriced, RM11.90 nasi lemak special and RM5.50 glass of teh tarik which didn't taste like teh tarik!! If you're ever going to leave the country, don't ever think that you'd enjoy your last asian meal at Asian Cafe!!

our hand carry stuff

aips up in the heavens with her wine

beeeeerrr......

our not too bad airplane food

the empty plane

what more can you ask for, beer and video games....no la, i slept most of the time

London below

So we're bunking in with Michelle & Martin in Acton now, really nice place they got here. got PS3 and loads of games....

we're going to go out and venture London now.....and brave the cold winter weather, but it wasn't too bad when we arrived last night....oppss...it was evening. thought it was night coz it was already dark by 6pm.


Tuesday, January 20, 2009

D Day .... Departure Day

So it's finally here, after a 7 month delay, it's time to board the plane to jolly ol' england!!

no pictures la, packed camera away already....

the next post will be from freezing London, hope we can find free wi-fi (altough i heard it's pretty impossible!!)

Toodle-OO's!!

going to go wait for the taxi now!!

Monday, January 19, 2009

it's soooo near!!

T - 1 day!!

Today was a day of running around like a headless chicken trying to settle everything that needs to be settled, and of saying final goodbyes....

still have yet to close my suitcase.....got some stuff to put in somemore, guess we won't be sleeping tonight....hope our suitcases won't be too overweight, but i have the feeling it will!! DAMN!!

anyways, i've got a new angle.....hehhehe


a wide angle!!

Sunday, January 18, 2009

a feast...

T - 2 days!!

Really busy these last few days!! Trying to pack up our suitcases, trying to meet up with as many people as possible, trying to tie up all loose end.... stress!!

Anyways, we had to go for Umai-Ya's weekend lunch buffet. If you love Japanese food, go here!! Damn VALUE!! i think we paid RM55 each inclusive of taxes, with that, we had a feast!! Ordered anything on the menu and the best part is, the beer is also on the buffet menu, so it's like free flow!!

we ordered only expensive dishes, salmon shashimi....ask for the belly, DAMN nice!! soft shell crab, the extravagantly named hand rolls, green tea ice cream (we each had at least 2 scoops....i had.....hehehh) and beer!!

what we started with, as usual, i'd rather eat first than to take pictures, so this is the only picture of the food

beeeeerrrr........
back to packing up all our shit.....

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Last Saturday in M'sia

T - 3 days!! excitement building up!!

Busy day today...

- shot a wedding in Seremban
- nieces birthday in A&W with the A&W bear
- friend's house warming
- drinks with wife's ex-colleagues (quite drunk.....)

wow, a busy day....just got home (1:56AM) but i am posting this up as 17th Jan....

Too tired, can't even find a picture to post up for today....sorry (i'm just a lazy bugger!!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GLENN VALENTINE!!!

Friday, January 16, 2009

Happy 23rd Birthday!!

To all that wished me over facebook, sms, phone calls, e-mails & other forms of communication, a big THANK YOU to all of you....

Thanks for remembering that i am 23 years old today!!







and to fiona & allen, vicki, kim & chee khoon, prescillia, bruce, kit & emilia, bernard, lena ng, ke-vin, gia min, glenn, highway, suet & beh, mei june, chuis, rachel, sandra, shak, pia, wendy......

Happy Birthday to me.....23 or 32....age is just a number!! whichever also can la!!

and it's T - 4 days.....

Thursday, January 15, 2009

16 years.....

T - 5 days...

Finally got my new Driving License done..... figured I'd better change it after 16 years of holding it....if not, when i drive overseas and get pulled over, the coppers wouldn't believe that the picture on the license is me...

see what 16 years does to a person.. wait, not 16 years yet, still got a couple more minutes....

still got resemblance or not??

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Las Kopek

T - 6 Days....

The Blackberry has been returned to its rightful owner..... yeah, i know.... so sincere of me right?? (if only the Blackberry wasn't password protected!! hahah)

Well, just have to settle for different type of berry la.....ribena berry with longan from that rat infested really expensive mamak in taman megah

last kopek....ribena longan

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

The Countdown has begun

OK!! The time has finally come for the Countdown to start....

About this time next week, we should already be in KLIA, bags checked in and sipping our morning coffee at McD's and waiting to get into the departure gate.....

So it's T - 7 days....

On other news, my mother in law found someone's Blackberry in a toilet. She asked me whether i wanted it, so what did i do with the berry??

Monday, January 12, 2009

1st Pot Luck of 2009 at Caroline's

I just loooooooove it when Caroline invites us to her place for dinner parties!! The food is ALWAYS good and in abundance!! and the company is .... simply excellent.... also not forgetting the exquisitely yummy wines that we get to savour!!

So i didn't have to wait another year to taste the Keong's yummy home made bread!!


It was a pot luck, and there was like 20 or so people that were supposed to bring food, if one person brings food for 10 people, 20 X 10 = A WHOLE DAMM LOT OF FOOD!!

Everyone brought yummy stuff, there was stuffed duck, roasted duck, curry chicken with potatoes, some sausage thingo (had some fancy name to it, but i forgot), pasta, beggars chicken, salads, nyonya kuih, gado-gado .... and loads loads more la....






it was a mixture of asian, western and dunno what else...

after too much wine, you do some weird stuff

if you need to get personalised designer greeting cards, look for this guy at his site here......

us with the Keong's and foldees....

the Keong's with their guests

the amount of wine & champagne consumed that night

the bad thing about Caroline's house parties are that.....

NOW I CAN TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOOD & CRAPPY WINES!!