일요일, 4월 23, 2006

yohoho kids, here are the pictures from kris and tanya's trip to london last week! for all of two days! it was short, but good. hehe, even though i, in a fit of sheer vanity (not a common occurence, i assure you), neglected to bring an extra pair of flat shoes. hence, i ended up walking the streets of london in my single solitary pair of wedge heels that my parents gave me for christmas. what i forgot to consider was that even wedge heels, after more than 12 hours of walking, start to pinch. meh.

anyhoo, our journey started at king's cross station. we tubed it down to tottenham court road, got checked in, and the exploration commenced. we saw the london trocadero, stumbled upon london's chinatown (complete with cream cake shop and a window full of hello panda biscuits), and made it to the national portrait gallery and trafalgar square, even though i was limping by this time. the disappointing bit was that nelson's column was covered in scaffolding for some building works, hence we missed out on seeing that, and there are no full pictures of the trafalgar square landscape because they're all marred by the hulking scaffolding lurking around in the background. oh well, maybe next time.

ran through the mass of pigeons, and kris picked out which pigeons needed to go on a diet. following that, we found ourselves walking down the jubilee walkway, with buckingham palace in the distance.

kris: hey! it's that street i always see all the parades on off the telly!

yes, more gratituous pics of the cake/sweet shop windows. i could almost taste the mangoes, i tell you. meantime, i got a touristy picture taken outside some monument, and kris got trampled by the horses of helios. the sunshine was lovely, and it really is quite a bit warmer down south than it is in durham. hark the interesting picture of the flora in leicester square!

spring scenes mark 1: st. james' park (no, not the one of newcastle united fame), was full of the most beautiful landscapes that i've ever seen. i think the pictures can speak for themselves. i have to bring your attention to the uber touristy shot of me up there by the railings with the skyline behind me. i promise i will never do that again. *hangs head in shame* right next to that there's a picture of kris with a cup of tea. more on the cup of tea later.

yay! more sunny lovely springlike shots! for some reason despite the hosepipe ban, london's trees and gardens are still in the pink (green?) of health, and the trees were bursting into flower when we were there. i almost thought that the deckchairs were free for people to sit on when this guy appeared out of nowhere and started demanding some similarly ignorant people to cough up the dosh for the use of said deckchairs. i felt stupid for a second there.

buckingham palace: for some reason there were loads of tourists there hanging out, hoping to catch the changing of the guard (i think). kris and i took in the sights for a little bit, then ran off in the direction of the thames. well, to say we ran off is a bit optimistic. he briskwalked and i hobbled off, more like. anyway, while we were in st. james' park, kris bought a cup of tea from a stall at the entrance to the park for something like 2 quid which contained about 3 sips, max. nevermind that, the proprietor, obviously knowing that her stall had a monopoly, felt that she could treat her customers like swine. hence, we had to wait ages to get said cuppa, which was sloshed into the cup and was dripping over the edge, without so much as eyecontact. talk about service! you know the brand mnemonic - buy regularly and never desert? well customer service is an integral part of that. bah!

' i am drawing this picture because i believe in angels. unfortunately, my landlord does not! an angel came down from heaven and whispered in my ear to draw a picture here for everyone.' ~ the artist who drew esmerelda the field mouse. it was the sweetest thing that i had seen all day.

in the evening, we met gav and laura in covent garden for some upmarket pizza at fire and stone, followed by some late night coffee at the charles dickens coffee shop. the one major difference between london and durham is that people come out in london to go to the theatre/go for a coffee/dinner, whereas here in durham, most times the only thing to do at night is to go out on the piss. heh, don't quote me on that though.

next morning, we got up nice and early and headed down to covent garden again to have a poke in the shops, my feet having sufficiently recovered from the escapades of the night before. (still painful though). got some loot in covent garden (including the infamous devil's dandruff book on clubbing stereotypes that kris loved), and moseyed on to harrods.

harrods, harrods, harrods, playground of quintessential extravagance. we made a beeline for the krispy kreme doughnut stall, but oh, the queues!! people were literally standing there in a line which snaked all the way to the end of the room, money in hand, waiting to pay it over for some doughnutty goodness. in the end, we settled for ice cream.

after the ice cream, and me getting a lip gloss so's i could get the harrods bag (yah yah, laugh all you like. it was a hard candy lipgloss though!), we walked up the street to the natural history museum. aaaarggghhh, i don't like dinosaurs, but made my way around all the exhibits just for the heck of it. oddly enough, it was pretty enjoyable! if anything, the victorian architecture with its atrium ceilings and carved pillars were a sight in itself.

after that, we tubed it to camden market. unfortch, there are no pictures from here on in because my camera died good and proper. but suffice to say, it was an eye-opener. we were offered weed in the streets, wandered down dark alleyways, and i smelt the best-smelling (presumably tasting) chinese food i have ever smelt (?) in england. that, and i managed to get a thai silk powder blue jacket which currently holds pride of place on my wall. yay! the absolute barrage of vintage shops there horrified me a little bit because kuching kurap dresses like the one i was wearing (70s style) were selling for over 60 quid each. food for thought really, because if i bought stuff from home and sold them here, i'd probably make a killing...

since our train was at 9, we tubed it back to tottenham court road to collect our bags and get some grub. had some awesome curry at an indian restaurant called soho spice, and dawdled back in the hotel lobby. as usual, we lost track of time and arrived at king's cross with mere minutes to spare before our train pulled out. phew!

all in all, i had a wonderful time with my pookie in london. despite the fact that we tried to find the bpp campus, but we got lost and it was getting dark and my feet were slowly killing me the whole 2 days we were there, we both had a great time getting to see the london sights. i'm just glad that pookie came down with me too - it made the trip even more lovely than it could have been.

but from now on, nose to the grindstone for the exams! grr. :)