Of Sunday Markets

1010am: left MinShin's place

1030am: arrived back at my place

1130am: left Baker Street for Aldgate East

1230pm: and so the day begins with markets!

We went with the sole aim of checking out the Sunday Up Market, but we couldn't find it and ended up walking around Petticoat Lane Market and Spitalfields Market.

I would highly recommend Petticoat lane if you're into cheap cheap clothes and bags and jewelleries, but please bundle up before u head out for some outdoor shopping! We were such idiots - we were all pantsless, only with stockings. My toes were freezing cold and I couldn't even feel my own hand at the end of the day.

Dude at the stall:" Come come, take my picture and I will smile for you!"

Sherene trying to stuff the entire simosa into her mouth as we headed from Petticoat Lane to Spitalfields.

We are such tourists. I like how we all whipped out our cameras when we arrived at our destination. Oh did I also introduce my new friend here, Sushii. Yes that's her name - Sushii, like the sushi you eat! She's Vietnamese and Chinese and she's pretty cute :)

There were too many sinful temptations.  Even though we tried to resist, we gave in eventually. Both Sherene and Sarah bought a 10-pounds bag from this Malaysian couple who had a stall at the market. They closed the deal in less than 2 minutes.

At the delightful delights stall, this Iranian owner claimed that he used to be on Iranian TV. Haha

Sherene: Damn, those green stuff with pistachio nuts are good

Iranian owner: Get 1kg of those ok?

Sherene: What's 1kg in pounds?

Iranian owner: I don't know.

Me: 1kg is to 2.2 pounds.

Sushii flicked out her calculator and started to calculate.

Me: Get 0.5kg if you want 1 pound.

Sherene: Deal!

And so we walked away as happy customers.

This basker had the cheek to scare unsuspecting ladies by touching them as they walked past.

Finally, 3 of us (without Sushii) as happy, but broke college students at the end of the day. Like I said, we were all pantsless - what were we thinking!?!

Boy, aren't you marketed-out now like us?

Let's chase it with orange juice, says minshin.

To be more precise, let's chase it with innocent orange juice.

Min Shin's my ex-classmate from Nanyang. She idolized me (I'm not even kidding) like a goddess, just because I taught her a few Maths question back then. Few days ago, I bumped into her while I was on my way to meet Jermyn. I really cannot believe how small this world can be. Or perhaps, it's more accurate to say that Singaporeans own this place. They seem to be everywhere in London!

So last night I sms-ed MinShin to ask if she would like to catch up over drinks. We wandered around her neighborhood for a good 10 mins and then realized that it would be impossible for us to find somewhere to sit and have a good chat since every single bar is filled to the brim. So, we popped by Tesco to get a bottle of wine/vodka/champagne/beer and that's when we both realized that we have similar tastes! We both love Champagne :) And she had a bottle of vodka at home, so we added two cartons of inoccent orange juice to the cart as well. Not so innocent eh?

Min Shin's humongous champagne bottle that she had for her 21st bday!

Her place is really nice and romantic when she turns off the main lightings. Actually, I haven't come across a horrible place in London yet. Even though the buildings look old from the outside, the interiors are of top-notch quality. She lives next to Jilyn, another ex-Nanyang classmate of mine. We chit-chatted for a little while before she left to skype with her boyfriend. It was really nice to catch up with friends I haven't seen in ages, see how they have grown and changed, how everyone else has a boyfriend, how all of us are so worried about the job prospect out there, and how old we have become. I wasn't close to Min Shin back in those days, but I am mildly surprised to find out that we have a lot in common in terms of our taste in drinks, music and such.

And so we talked... into the wee hours of the day with champagne and chips. And then I told myself that it was impossible for me to walk home, so we called it a day when my head felt a little heavy...

Oh the bottle that I'm holding in the picture up there, it's big. Just for comparison sake, we lined it up against the normal champagne bottle :)

Everyone's a little racist sometimes...

....but that doesn't mean you go around committing hate crimes... Look around and you will find, that no one is really colour blind...

That's Avenue Q for you! Everything is so crude but true! Love it because it's so funny. The jokes are so subtle, and I can't stop laughing.

I wonder why some people dislike musicals? They should all be like Chris, my musical and travelling buddy in London :) But he's a little too ambitious la, he wants to watch all the famous musicals here! *faints*

For now we are happy, or healthy, for now, for now, for now. But only for now, for now, for now! For now there's light, there's love, there's happy end, but only for now!

When everything's put togethere into a song, the message is just more meaningful.

Anyway, today The Mentor said I'm doing a great job at the office :)

My firsts

Yesterday was my first day of school in London. I was lost because I couldn't find my building that was supposed to be on Little Tictchfield Street. Why am I not surprised? I need human GPSs to guide me all the time. I was on Great Titchfield Street but no one seemed to know where the Little one was at. So I ran all the way to the Regent Campus Building, asked the security guard and he was kind enough to give me a map to direct me towards the other campus. Yet, even with it, I managed to lose my way twice before finally finding it.

I was literally panting when I sat down. That's when I met Yutaka from Japan and Emily who proclaimed herself to be a Malaysian even though she was born in London and has only been back to KL for 4 years. She does have the Malaysian accent though! Then a Bangledishi girl introduced herself to me while I was staring into blank space thinking about nothing. See what I mean when I told you that London is like a melting pot of people! In my next class, there were literally no white student in it. I was mildly uncomfortable because I'm so used to be the only non-white back in SJU. Then, a really attractive looking Bangladeshi girl plonked herself into the seat beside mine and we started chatting until we were interrupted by the professor.
___________________________________________________________________

Today was my first day at work. Today was also the day the sun finally made a guest appearance after hiding behind gloomy skies for the past few weeks. That's the view from my room! Last week, The Mentor showed me around the office and brought me to the trading floor where his department was situated at. He had told me that we would be moving office, but I didn't expect it to be so soon! Sigh, so now I'm not working among the live traders anymore. We moved to the other section of the office, but I still love my job. The Mentor was really patient in explaining the workings of an investment bank to me, all the different terms and what was expected of me. I have my own desk with my own pass and my own account on The Employer's intranet. Everything is so official and it kind of reminds me of my working stint in Singapore. The mentor then told me about the project that I will be working on and I love the rush that I felt. I felt so intellectual once again working with the experts. Oh did I also mention that I am the only female in their department. I wonder why they picked me as their intern? I like it though. No girls to bitch about me, no girls to judge me, most importantly, I can wear the same old shoes and make-up and clothes without even worrying about anyone noticing me. I'm pretty sure those guys couldn't care less about my outfit as long as I'm presentable :) Hehe.

During lunch hour, The Mentor brought me on a walking tour around the vicinity. He was so darn cute. He actually sent out an invitation to my email account and waited for me to accept it! River Thames is next to the building, and I saw Pudding Lane (like the pudding u eat) where the Great Fire of London started at the bakery place. We stumbled upon Cloak Lane and The Cheapside street. I wonder how cheap can the financial district be? I love everything about London. Like seriously. My colleagues aren't too old, but not too young as well, so I can actually do some solid learning while at The Employer's. The Mentor used to work at Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers. WOW. At 4.30pm sharp, those folks even invited me to their "tea/coffee" break at the pantry. The Mentor made me a cup of tea, traditional way, with a pack of Twinnings Earl Grey instead of using the coffee/ tea maker :)

First days, and I'm loving it already!

The things that Asians do

http://thingsasiansdo.wordpress.com/

check this out yo.

What are the odds of this happening?

I bumped into Jilyn from NY on my way to meet Jermyn for lunch. 50 steps later, I bumped into Min Shin from NY as well. London is amazing! I keep meeting people I haven't seen in ages!

Dim Sum brunch with Jermyn was yumyum but expensive :(

Saturday 23/01/2010

I feel weird writing my date as 23/01/2010 instead of 01/23/2010. Why must America be different and write/spell everything differently? Like color instead of colour. I miss having my u's in my words, but I can finally use them again here in London!

So today, 23/01/2010, I finally went to the British Musuem. It's huge and free! free stuff are the best. We went in and walked around, and I spent most of my time at the Egyptian section since I have read about them over the summer and have personally been to Egypt.

Procession going on outside the British Musuem - Life is too short to be controlled! Something more sinister is actually going on below ground in Westminster. So mysterious. Haha. The Police and Security actually monitors our every single move on London's streets and the procession is opposed to the surveillance they have here in London. We all want to live in freedom! I certainly don't like to be profiled by anyone.

Justin finally brought both Chris and I to Malaysian Hall, a cafe styled after the Malaysian kopitiam at the Malaysian High Comm. I kid you not because the tables, chairs, hygience level, service style and food are exactly of those found in Malaysia. And they are all decently priced. We all suspect that the kopitiam food are subsidized by the Malaysian government, so that explains the notice outside the entrance?

Only Malaysians are allowed to enter the building.

Now I know where to go if I'm craving for REAL Malaysian food. In fact, I just had roti canai and teh tarik there. Yum yum :)

Happy Birthday Ms Ngan!

Happy birthday Ye Ring! Technically yering is my "kai jie jie" since her mummy adopted me to be her "kai lui" eon years ago. It all happened when I was still in primary 2 or 3 (maybe?). I was sitting in class after school and then yering's mum came over and talked to me. I think I came across as a really obedient girl (as usual, duh!), so she took a liking to me and asked me if I would like to be her "kai lui". Back then, even though I wasn't particularly fond of Yering since she was prepetually driving people nuts as the monitress of the class, I said yes nevertheless.

Look how far we have come Yering. 13 years :) I'm so sorry if I had not remembered your birthday earlier this week! Cannot blame me ok, my tiny brain cannot contain so much. Thanks KB for reminding me =)

Earlier yesterday and today, I was in a dilemma. I was supposed to attend a social party on a boat which was scheduled to leave the pier at 7pm and it would be sailling along River Thames for a good 4 hours before docking. Yering's surprise party was on the same day, same time. I had told her beloved boyfriend that I will try to sneak out earlier to meet them halfway through the party, but I realized later that I couldn't since it would be cruising on the river and I can't possibly swim back to the shore by myself!

Usually, knowing myself, I would have gone for the social party, since I could easily have a bday lunch with yering anytime later. Then I had this brief conversation with a girl at the kitchen while having my lunch. She mentioned that she's not going, since the friendships that she would be making on the boat would not last anyway. It struck me that 13 years of friendship definitely triumphs over a night of glitz and glamour on the boat. I thought about the fun pictures that I would be taking on the boat, about the new friends that I would be making, but I said to myself: to hell with that. I've had my fair share of living on a ship for 2.5 months, I've had enough social parties, and most of those friendships don't last anyway. I don't want to miss out on another important occasion. To be honest, even though I didn't know most of Yering's friends, but I'm really glad that I ditched the boat party and made it to her place. A part of me feels complete =) Finally, after 10 + years, I got to celebrate Yering's bday on the same day itself with her. I can finally tell those around me that I've attended one of my best friend's bday celebration!

Yering, if u're reading this (I know you are), have a blessed year ahead! Thanks for being my longest and oldest friend =)

Ms Ngan is so pretty hor.

Working in London

I might be overeacting a little bit but I went to see my employer - Jefferies International today at their office in the London financial district. Got the chance to understand my role as an intern there a little. Looks like I will be working on the trading floor with the legit professionals and all. Cool stuff! It really doesn't matter if it's an unpaid job, the experience is all that counts!

What do you see?

I see a sea of blackness everywhere I go in London. Londoners need to be more creative when they dress up! Everyone here wears black all the time, from top to bottom, as if they were gonna attend a funeral. With my mighty bright wardrobe, I feel kinda out of place. Speaking of which, time to get a new wardrobe eh? I would need more shoes as well. At the rate I'm going, I think I will wear out my shoes really quickly since I have to walk to everywhere now in the city.

I stood on the west and east hemisphere at the same time

Today we made a half day trip to Greenwich - the original home of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and is famous for being the source of the Prime Meridian line that divides the East from the West (longitude 0° 0' 0'').

After our buffet lunch, we hiked up the hill to the observatory where the scenery is gorgeous. That's Sarah on the west hemisphere, Sherene on the line itself and me on the East Hemisphere =)

Balancing on the line ain't easy ok! jkjk.

I am a hardcore jumper. Wherever i go, I just do random shots at places. I literally had to jump 10 times to get the perfect shot. My shoes even flew off once when I attempted the famous V jump.

Perfecto now

River Thames at sunset. I heart London :)

Finally...

Finally, I'm done shopping for my essentials. I bought only one plate and 2 bowls and have 1 set of cutlery. So friends, if u're planning on visiting me, please bring your own silverware =p Haha. KB laughed at me for being so kiam.

So far...

So far, I've been eating out and London food is amazing. To be honest, I haven't come across bad food here :) Boy, this city is so cosmopolitan. Love it! Everytime I walk on the streets, even though I have to weave my way through the crowd, I like listening to the myriad conversations going on - there will be Chinese, Cantonese, Malay, Spanish, French, Korean, Japanese, American English, British English and so many more languages!

One of my friends noted that I've been spelling words in the American way without the "u", so it's high time I switch back to the British mode eh? :)

Encounter at the grocery store

Today was first day of orientation at University of Westminster. I feel really overwhelmed with information. Really. How on earth can the American students party all night long every single day and take in so much at the same time?

Anyway, funniest thing happened to me today. I was doing my grocery shopping, happily comparing my chicken prices at the frozen section when an ah ma walked over to me and asked me if I were Chinese. The conversation goes like this in Chinese:

Me: Uhm, yes I am Chinese.
Ah ma (holding to a walnut cake package): Tell me if this is sweet. I have diabetes, but this cake is only 1 pound. I want to buy! I stood there and picked the nicest one.
Me: Yes, it's sweet. It's better if you don't eat it.
Ah ma (looking over my shoulders): What are you buying? Chicken? Are they cheap?
Me: Uhm... I guess?
Ah ma (pointing towards to duck): What is this... duck?
Me: Yes
Ah ma (pointing towards the pork): Is this pork? Why is this 2 pounds and the other one 3 pounds, but they look the same?

I read the labels and one was healthier and free-range and approved by the ministry blah blah blah, the other one wasn't, but I didn't want to confuse the ah ma, so I told her that they are essentially the same.

Ah ma: You don't know how to read English! Don't pretend!
Me: .....
Ah ma: Eh this one 2 for 3.50 pounds. Can I share with you?
Me: .....
Ah ma: Never mind, I think I'm going to buy both. Wow, your basket is filled with so many things. Can you carry everything?
Me: (Smilingly) Yes. Bye bye!

And I walked away.

Little quickie

I am so freaking tired right now and school hasn't even started! Within 4 days, I feel as if I've been through more than 86 hours.

Orientation with IFSA - Theatre Show - Orientation with IFSA - Long Turkish lunch - Walking Tour with IFSA - Drinking in a pub - Living off 2 hours of Macdonald internet for 4 days - TGIF dinner (I know, we are still so American in London!) - Clubbing with friends until 3am - Moved into my new dorm - Went shopping for essentials - walked up and down Baker Street like 4 times, 20 mins each time - Unpack - Met up with Christopher Lim and had Malaysian food - Entertained Meshal for 1 day - Did more shopping - and I'm finally back in my room now.

Next week is gonna a hectic week again with SCHOOL orientation. Sigh, so many orientation for what!

at TGIF for dinner

We had the Pearly Queen of London come in during orientation for a speech about charity. Her outfit damn kua zhang leh.

At the club with the friends. Brett is humorously funny!

Crazy Jared wore shorts in this extreme cold weather when we were out and was banned from entering the clubs/ pubs. He had to go back and change before joining the rest of us.

With some of the girls and one boy of course.

London clubbing is crazzzzzzzzzzzie!

Guess who's in town?

Meshal came. My SAS buddy here hails from Saudi Arabia and is in town for a 1.5-day transit enroute back to the US. It's funny how friendship starts. I still remember the first time I met him. I was on my way back to the ship in Croatia. It was about 10pm and I left my group of friends at the bus stop as I wasn't up for any clubbing/pubbing that night. I was walking, forlornly all by myself towards the ship with throngs of people engrossed in their own little group conversation behind me. Then Meshal caught up from behind and said hi to me =) He introduced himself and I thought to myself, why would any guy from Saudi call himself Michelle?? LOL. how ignorant was I!

We talked a little after that. That's how we met =)

Not gonna lie, my initial impression of Meshal was some rich oil tycoon from Saudi, but to contrary, he's a very down-to earth guy despite some rich-man habits of his. Let's just say, he flies First Class to wherever he likes whenever he fancies. Flights are like bus rides to him la. Haha.

So today I hiked to the hotel to meet him, then we went sightseeing a little. Like me, Meshal eats practically everything. He travels extensively as well, and has this queer habit of collecting tea from places he's been to. In fact, he gave me a box of Sri Lanka tea that he recently procured from the aforementioned country itself. Shopping with Meshal was unbelievable. We went into a few shops. He saw what he wanted, tried them on, and immediately paid for them without thinking much. Boy, how I wish I had that kind of purchasing power eh?

Once again, I picked him up at his hotel at 8pm for dinner. He wanted to go to Edgeware Road because apparently it reminds him of home since this street is fashioned after the Middle Eastern streets with a whole stretch of restuarants and shops. Even though it was a 20 minute walk from the hotel, he insisted on taking the taxi, so I happily hop onto one and subsequently made my first taxi trip ever in London with him. He brought me to an Iran restaurant and I had kebabs, rice and a yoghurt drink which was called dough. How queer! We had tea afterwards as well and like I mentioned before, he has this habit of collecting tea, so he wanted to purchase some, thinking it was genuinely Iranian tea. The shopkeeper, a cunning one, then lied to him saying that you can't get the tea from anywhere else, so Meshal ended up buying 100 grams of tea wrapped in aluminium foil from him for 15 pounds! I knew it was a hoax since it was a little dodgy, so we went to check it out at other stores. Turns out it was just plain English Tea called Ahmed Tea! If I were Meshal, I would have just let it go and take it as a lesson learned, but he went back to the shop and demanded his money back. My heart literally stopped beating. Meshal has guts that I would never have (well, maybe someday I will do that) but when I questioned his moves after that, he said it was a matter of pride, not money... and of course, he got his money back!

Boy, what a day with my guest-of-honor.

The place I call home for the next 5 months

After living off Yering at her place for almost a week, and a few days at the hotel without a roomate, I finally moved into Marylebone Hall on Saturday! Move-in day made me feel like a freshmen in college again, except this time, I have a single room with a private bathroom and a shared kitchen. I really like my place - small yet lovely.

After so many years of moving in and out of hostels, apartments and flats, I have finally mastered the skills of compact-packing. I am amazed at my ability to squeeze all the stuff that I have on my bed (that's like only half of what I have) into 1 big Samsonite Bag, 1 carry-on and 1 backpack. To be honest, I am pretty amused at how much a luggage bag can carry.

My bathroom is so cute. My first reaction when I opened the door was :"Wow, it looks like aeroplane bathroom. This picture was taken from the showering corner."

After procrastinating for 1 day (which is so not my style as I like to live in a clean and tidy room), I finally managed to squeeze a few hours in between meeting people and my shopping time to unpack! Jo, if you're reading this, I know you would hate having a roomate with pink bedsheets and all, so I decided to try it out now since I'm living alone. It doesn't look that bad at all!

My shared kitchen with 7 other people. Sigh, nothing is provided for us, so I had to go shopping today for pots and pans and bowls and plates and cutlery and cooking utensils and sheets and pillows and showering gel and shampoo and tissue and everything else you can think of. My total settling-in bill adds up to a massive figure already and I'm not done getting my essential stuff!

Sigh, that's the price of studying abroad I guess... But I adore my room tremendously nevertheless!

Britain is my campus!

I am brimming with excitement right now! I kid you not. Today was my first day of orientation by IFSA (Institute for Study Abroad). Needless to say, I was bombarded by tons of information. First were the introduction to London itself and the petty things we have to take note, like pickpockets being everywhere and how they are naturally attracted to Americans. Even though I’m not one myself, but I consider myself under that category. Do you know that Americans are the 3rd most pickpocketed group in the world? Number one would be the Swiss. Tadada!


Studies sound intense with lots of independent work to do. I am kind of worried right now. I want to travel so desperately during my weekends and I don’t think that I will be able to manage 20-hrs of work at Jefferies, plus 3 classes, even though I would like to consider myself a superwoman. When I move into my dorm and sort out my schedule next week, I will have to sit down and seriously consider my options. On a side note, IFSA has lots of exciting weekend adventures lined up for us, first to Bath, Dover and an adventure weekend at Wales. Manz, the guy who gave the presentation had me really psyched for this entire semester, mainly because I get to do so much of these cool stuff (well, plus the fact that he was super cute with the British accent!)

Oran, another administrator here to help us along the way, is uber nice. He’s like a big brother. I LOVE IFSA SO MUCH! The people are just lovely. Word has it that the British people are not friendly at all, but I beg to differ. So far, I’ve met really nice people along the way. Well, maybe because I was smiling all the time. You see, the British people hardly smile (due to their mediocre dental health care here. Hehe), and as long as you flash your pearly whites at them, they say that the British would say yes to anything. So far, at the Madrid airport, I met this British/Spanish guy who offered to help me get back to central London if I missed the last coach from the London airport. He was really nice and chit-chatty. Mind you, in London, people are chit-chatty for only 2 reasons – either they are super friendly or they want something from you. In this case, I honestly think that this young chap was friendly. Then when I had to move to the hotel all alone on the tube, a gentleman offered to carry my heaviest luggage bag when I was standing at the stairway, staring blankly at the million stairs that I had to climb. Next when I came out of the tube station and stood there trying to get my bearings, another elderly man came up to me and pointed me towards Chinatown and Soho. Even though I thought it was hilarious that the guy would naturally assume that I wanted to go to Chinatown, but it goes to show that Londoners aren’t as bad as people make them to be.

So far, at my hotel, I have the entire room to myself. My roommate isn’t here yet! For some reason, she only arrives tomorrow. Even though it might be a little lonely here, but hooray! I get the entire room to myself for 2 nights =)

David Castle, a former policeman came and gave us a prep talk on safety issues as well. It was another eye-opener. It was right after lunch, but all the sleepy souls were awaken by his vibrant personality. We had a lively discussion and David commented that Americans are so much more outspoken than the British students who are generally more reserved. Is that true? Hmmm, I will find out real soon! Really random fact that I knew before hand, but I still don’t understand why – Pepper sprays are illegal here in London. We had tips on travelling in Europe as well, and the “baby trick” stood out the most. Pickpockets work in groups. One lady would shove a baby into your hands and another person would steal your wallet when you are caught offguard. Under these circumstances, David said you could just kick the baby away – how horrendous would that be! But apparently, the babies are padded anyway and they bounce off the ground? LOL.

Lastly we had a student come in to talk to us about accommodation. Manz, I am super excited! I will be on campus and my dorm is the most central of everything. It’s only a few minutes walk away from most buildings. But security is so tight that we have to swipe 5 times to get into our rooms =/

Super pumped. I wish I can stay here longer than 5 months!

P/s: Watching my first theatre show tonight.

Part and parcel of travelling

On my last day in Madrid, I kinda chillax in the hostel until 12pm, then made my way with Siang-ee and his mum to the airport. We checked-in a little tad early. After sending off Siang-ee's mum at 3pm, both of us happily went in search of food (mainly to satiate my hungry stomach la) before we made sure we had the right gates for our 5pm flights. Many flights were delayed previously, but the weather was not that bad by then, so I happily assumed that mine would be one time. Little did I know that my flight was delayed. Grossly delayed by 2hours! Siang-ee was crossing his fingers real tight by then as he has to rush back to the US for school on Wednesday, but he learned that his flight was delayed as well as he was in line at his gate. Madrid's airport is disgusting. Seems like all the flights to the colder countries were delayed. Sucks big time.

So we split purchase a pack of cookies to munch on, mainly to help me kill my boredom till 7pm by having something on hand to eat. At least Siang-ee had his laptop to play around with. At 630pm, I went on to check my flight status again. DELAYED for the second time. What nonsense is this?!?!

See, my flight 5997 was delayed from 510pm to 1055pm. Sigh, by then, I was worried that Yering would have funny thoughts about my whereabouts because I should have arrived back in London... so I resorted to paying 50 cents euros to send ONE email, and they limited me to 5 minutes to type my message. Westerner airports charge us for everything! At least we get free internet at some Asian airports, do we?

Siang-ee's flight was delayed as well till 930pm, but I decided to bid him farewell then and went on to the cafeteria. I plonked myself in front of this big screen and susbsequently stared at it for the next 3 hours before they finally announced the gate number for my flight! Almost everyone at the cafeteria was London-bound as well. People started buying duty-free wines to drink. Kids were running around. When the gate number popped up, everyone was cheering because I'm sure they were like me - all I want to do is to go back home (Yering's place)!

So this is the line outside the gate minutes after they announced the status of my London flight. My goodness, I've never seen so many people for one budget-airline. I quickly went on to pay more money to check my email for the last time. As expected, yering replied with directions on how to take the midnight buses back to her place, since it would be past 12am when I arrive back at Central London.

I met this extremely cute Spanish British guy when I was in line. His accent is so sexy! As we talked, it struck me that he is an extremely intelligent guy majoring in International Business, and he likes to travel as well! OMG. what an excellent friend to make. He said his dad could give me a ride to central london from the airport if I needed one but then I decided to take the bus instead since it was more convenient for me. In a rush to catch the last bus from the airport at like 130am, I forgot to say goodbye and to leave my contacts with him. Such a waste, since we had such a good conversation! Oh wells, that's part and parcel of travelling I guess? You meet interesting and nice people, but it's kind of like touch and go kind of experience eh?

Ok so now back to my torturous journey back to Yering's place. Miss Ngan gave me the wrong directions! Well, can't exactly blame her since she is also one blur queen. I sat on the N11 night bus from central london all the way to ealing broadway station (according to her directions), only to find out later from the bus driver that I should have gotten off midway to transfer to another bus! So I idiotically sat on the same bus again, except now that it was in the opposite direction. The bus driver was kind enough not to charge me double the fare. By then, I was already falling asleep on the bus. By the time I reached back at Yering's place, it was like 4am in the morning. My goodness, what a long and ardous day. Ms Ngan, I know you read my blog. Thank you very much ah! But actually right, even though it was a long ride, I actually got to see various neighborhoods in London. Hehehe.

So much for travelling alone, with delayed flights, and arriving back in the middle of the night!

Madrid day 3

Contrary to my own personal expectations, I enjoyed touring the bullfighting ring tremendously. Our guide was fab! She spoke excellent English and becuase of the cold weather, no one else was there except for us - so we paid a minimum price for a private tour. Awessssssssssssssome. We started off at the entrance, proceeded in while she told us the history of bullfighting, some of the regular rules and things about the ring. Did you know a bullfighter only has 20 minutes to fight a bull and he would be given an extra 5 minutes at maximum to kill off the bull. Otherwise he would be punished by being locked up for an hour or so. Poor bull, on the other hand, will die no matter what at the end of the match. It's not cheap to rear a bull for fighting, in fact it costs about 8000-20000 euros. Manz, how extravagant! This extreme heartless sport has raised much controversy before, but all the funds collected from the ticketing sales are donated to charity. That's how they argue their way against opponents of bullfighting.

To date, only 3 female bullfighters have made it to the top. This strenous sport requires a lot of strength!

I would love to watch a bullfight one day in Spain. It sounds really interesting!

This ring sits 24,000 people. It is the most important ring in Spain. The largest of all is in Mexico, which sits about 48,000 I believe.

This Muleta is made of silk and lead and weighs from about 8-10kg.

The cape aint' that bad, but it still weighs about 5 kg. Bulls are actually color-blind, but they kept the color just for tradition sake.

Next up, short visit to the Real Madrid Football stadium (note, I call this real football, not soccer!)

That visit was followed by a walk through the flea market. This basker was really good! He played the Fur Elise song using a combination of wine glasses of different heights and sizes. He actually had his own CD on sale - really wanted to buy one but decided not to waste money on unecessary stuff. Times are hard for everyone, even if you have the talent. Such a great player still has to raise funds along the streets.

This flea market is one of the biggest in Madrid and by huge, I mean it literally. We spent just about 1.5 hr walking from one end to the other end. They sell anything except food. Things were really cheap and you could find fur jackets as cheap as 10 euros. My goodness, but I wouldn't buy it la of course. Ryan air is particularly strict with baggage excess and I ain't paying a heavy penalty fee just for some cheap jacket. Bought some stockings though! Can't wait to wear them in London. Only in London dare I dress up differently because everyone is so fashionable here! I would easily blend in even if I were wearing something outrageous. Hehehe.

Looking for a good place to lunch near the flea market wasn't easy. I don't know what's with the Spanish and their dining habits. They they really long lunches and almost everyone eats-out! We walked the entire street and every single restaurant was filled to the brim. We could hardly find an empty table. Even the standing spaces were taken up by customers having tapas. So finally we picked Ovieto, a slightly higher-end restaurant to dine in.

Ham with cabbage and Veal cooked in Red Wine. Yum yum!