Tea with the Queen

"It's our first night in London, a real flurry of events since our flight was delayed for an hour and the ride home took more time and effort than expected (car sickness is horrible). It is heckin cold here. 16 degrees out but nice and warm indoors at Aunty Betty's. It's very cosy and comforting having locals here to guide us (for a bit) and Aunty Betty and Uncle Morris have been very hospitable and kind to us. It's not courteous to complain about the lack of wifi but it does put me in a frenzy since I'm the one planning the itinerary and bringing the family around (Google Naps). I would type way more but apparently we've been up for more than 24 hours, not counting the forty winks in the plane."

I tried to keep up the reflection every night in London, but it was tricky with the welcoming warmth of Aunty Betty's lulling us to sleep after a whole day out in the cold. But for the most part I took little notes and a lot of photos. Almost a thousand, which is reasonable. Don't worry about that, I've cut it down to about three hundred to give you the best of the trip. Don't get me wrong, London is a really photogenic city, but my photos just don't do justice to the amazing architecture and landscape.

There is an extremely long post under the cut:

The flight to London was 13 hours long, but with the impeccable service of SQ, it was an enjoyable flight, although it was delayed for an hour. I didn't mind though, what's one more hour to a 13 hour journey anyway. Made full use of my time napping and catching up on blockbusters: Kingsman, The Theory of Everything and Gone Girl. There was also American Beauty/American Psycho, Reflection and Froot on the in-flight entertainment so I was more than a happy girl. 

The first thing that hit me when the plane took off was how much I missed Singapore. One of my favourite things about going away is the occasional seeing and hearing Singaporeans. I KNOW. People I've told have given me weird looks because it's all about getting away from the local crowd but but but isn't there some sort of novelty in briefly seeing SGreans precisely because it's familiarity in a foreign place??? I found it cute when the plane landed and a Singapore Girl slipped back into her Singaporean accent when conversing with the others. That unthinking, unquestioning quality of our behaviour when we are somewhere we belong, in the company of others who understand us too.

Call me dramatic or patriotic but the safety and familiarity of SG is something that I've never taken for granted. And it's definitely not something you take for granted when you spend three weeks planning for London with so many gaps in understanding about where you're going, what you're about to do, and how much time you need. (It's the thrill of travelling, Shu!)  For somebody planning a holiday for the first time, having never bought a single thing online by herself, to wielding a visa and making hundreds of pounds in transactions for entry tickets, it was a big responsibility. To make matters worse, I've always been a perfectionist and a control freak and I guess it's only reasonable to want to make the best of a rare (and expensive) opportunity. 

My uncle said my itinerary was drawn up with "military precision", which made me second guess myself and remove some flexible plans but I surprised myself when the entire trip turned out to be spot on (even if I do say so myself). We were never once severely behind schedule, and even if we were late, I had over-estimated my family's attention span so we made up for lost time. It was really satisfying to see that they were enjoying themselves, even if it was hard to take all of their respective interests into account.

Aunty Betty and Uncle Morris' house north of Central London! 

My mom was like "Wow! Even the clouds here are nice!" MOther can you pls.....

It was very convenient to get to places on our itinerary from their house via the Tube. It was a cosy place with three bedrooms upstairs (a cupboard under the stairs!!!), a living and dining area and a kitchen, a front garden and a backyard full of huge colourful roses!

+ 2 9  M a y  2 0 1 5 : D a y  2 +

Uncle Morris brought us out to familiarise us with the city. The first day HEY turned out better than expected!! Based on the findings of the first day, I think I did quite well with the planning and the map reading. As well as I could with my little amount of research as well as experience with cold af, European countries with whacky 9pm sunsets. Think I can handle any SG street now *crack knuckles*

Charing Cross Station on the Tube

 Trafalgar Square. Please remember this sky.

Uncle Morris took us to Buckingham palace via Trafalgar Square, which, as sua ku and paiseh as we can get, triggered the natural "AHAHA MONOPOLY!!"

Then we saw Admiralty Arch!

A lot of London's landscape is buildings of Georgian architecture alongside a modern, glass panelled, grey and silver buildings that Singapore is practically flooded with.

Buckingham Palace

Unpopular Opinion: Though it's Buckingham Palace aka the Queen's office, it's less impressive compared to a lot of the other buildings in London. 

We went by the Buckingham palace first, to check out the ever amazing change of guards but the procession was cancelled due to the bad weather and all the tourists left. But the worse part is NOT that my first plan got foiled by the bad weather, it was that we Singaporeans failed to display the resilience of our culture, the "in-case" culture, to kiasu all the way until it was worth giving up. Shortly after we left, the weather kinda cleared and we saw from a distance away the horses and guards marching towards the palace again. I'm just going to pretend that the changing did not resume, that it was 100% cancelled due to the rain.

We had plans to head inside for an exhibition but Westminster Abbey was due to close earlier, so we had to make a loop.

St James' Park near Buckingham Palace

White Hall

Actual horsey?! 

The towers of Westminster Abbey! An extremely beautiful abbey, the place of the crowning of monarchs since 1066 and also the burial place for many prominent people including Charles Darwin, Sir Isaac Newton, Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters. There's a part of the Abbey called Poet's Corner where the writers and poets are commemorated, and even a memorial statue of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles in the north quire aisle that we couldn't see! Edit: just in, Philip Larkin is to be honoured at Poet's Corner too!

No photos inside the Abbey but it was one of the most beautiful sights, here are some from a simple search on google!

The Quire (Image from here)

The famous King Henry VII's Lady Chapel with its ceiling of carefully sculpted pendants and emblems (Image from here)

Uncle Morris left us on our own to find our way at Westminster Abbey, and in retrospect it was pretty fun reading the map and find our way around London without GPS, with just good old orientation, asking strangers and hoping for the best. I guess it's not that hard when you have maps and signposts on site every so often too but I'm just gonna pat myself on the back for this one. 

Isn't this an extremely English photo?? I mean, Big Ben, red bus, The Book of Mormon, gloomy sky.

We visited the Royal Mews aka the royal stables and carriage house.

The Gold State Coach

The Gold State Coach has been used for the coronation or every British monarch since George IV. It looks terribly impressive but it's been described as an equally uncomfortable ride by many royals, akin to "tossing about in a rough sea" and has "distressing oscillation" because of the lack of modern stabilisers. Looks like we will never be royals, and for good reason. 

Tritans on the front and back to demonstrate the British's naval power

RoOOOOyals

Learning about their extravagant royal proceedings made me realise how chill our NDP is, like textbook and minimalist HAHA. Next, we viewed the Painting Paradise exhibition which featured art of the royal gardens and nature. Here are some of my favourites!

Pleasure Garden with a Maze, c. 1579 - 84 (Lodewijk Toeput, called Pozzoserrato c.1550 - 1605 )

"The maze is the setting for feasting and frolicking. These activities hint at the allegorical message of the painting, which warns that it can be as difficult to escape from the ensnaring pleasures of the senses as to find the path out of the maze"

Each leaf and each petal was hand-crafted out of porcelain 

The final item on the itinerary for the first day was a ride on the London Eye! Having the fast track tickets and by-passing the queue = pure bliss.

This is why they call the UK weather unpredictable. Look at the blue! 

Ben you're so fake

The clouds look like they are moving!

The pointy thing is The Shard, the equivalent of Ion Sky

So sappy but every time I see the Thames I think of There's No Place I'd Rather Be by Kit Chan help

The first day turned out to be such an overwhelming experience. It's the stuff fairy tales are made off?! Of Kings and Queens and Princes and Princesses?! As with so many things I experience, going there made me feel so small, just a small ignorant speck against the power of religion and years of tradition and history. I still have so much to learn about the world!!!

+ 3 0  M a y  2 0 1 5 : D a y  3 +

The next day was spent in the Kensington area. The first stop was Kensington Palace, current residence of Prince William and Catherine. The palace was also home to lots of British monarchs. I didn't take many photos but this place wins for best quotes, e.g.:

"George II was puntual, methodical and deeply occupied with foreign affairs. During the early years of his reign, the 1730s, Kensington was home to a sparkling and glamorous royal court. Queen Caroline's strong influence over her husband prompted this satirical verse:

'You may strut, dapper George, but 'twill all be in vain; We know 'tis Queen Caroline, not you, that reign'"

 A statue of Queen Victoria, Kensington Palace in the back.

 IMAGINE WEARING THIS THO

"Visitors to the palace were not permitted to enter unless they were dressed in the finest brocaded or decorated silks. Only the wealthiest guests could afford these clothes, which were often heavily embroidered with real silver and gold thread."

My favourite exhibitions were those under Victoria Revealed, which included the various stages of life of Queen Victoria, the longest reigning monarch (though Queen Elizabeth II is about to surpass those 63 years), under whom the British Empire expanded and flourished.

"Governess" of Queen Victoria

This lady told us stories of Victoria's childhood, which a lonely one because her mother was very protective and isolated Victoria from other children. She only had her little spaniel and dolls to play with.

"For a woman alone to be head of so large a family and at the same time reigning Sovereign is, I can assure you, almost more than human strength can bear."

The story of Queen Victoria is really interesting, from her childhood to her reign, to her falling in love with Albert and facing his death.

"How is it that I have deserved so much love, so much affection? I cannot get used to the reality of all that I see and hear."

Some of Queen V's accessories after Albert's death. The charm bracelet contains photographs and locks of hair related to loved ones the Queen lost over many years.

"But how I, who have leant on (Albert) for all and everything -- without whom I did nothing, moved not a finger, arranged not a print or photograph, didn't put on a gown or bonnet if he didn't approve it shall not be able to go on, to live, to move?"

+++

There was also a fashion exhibition of the dresses the Queens and Princesses would wear, especially around the era of the first television broadcasts and worldwide appearances.

"That it is a possibility for some of you to see me today is just another example of the speed at which things are changing all around is" - Her Majesty The Queen, First televised Christmas Broadcast 1957

 King's Staircase

One of the King's State Apartments is The Cupola Room (below) was where George II and Queen Caroline entertained guests and had opera singers and dances. The King's Drawing Room next door was where "suitably dressed" visitors gambled away their fortunes, and these were considered the focal point of social events in the day.

 The incredible ceiling of the Cupola Room

The ceiling of the King's Drawing Room 

The King's Gallery (below): "Queen Caroline died at St James' Palace on 20 November 1737 after a harrowing illness caused by a ruptured hernia. Kensington's heyday, with its splendid parties, magnificent balls, brilliant social scene and lively intellectual debate, had ended. 

Unable to speak of her without weeping, the grieving George II demonstrated a 'tenderness of which the world thought him utterly incapable'. He ensured that all household officials were supplied with black clothes. 

Despite their frequent disagreements about her collections and the arrangements of his paintings, he insisted that nothing be changed at Kensington after her death, ordering that even the wood in her fireplace remained untouched."

Later, I had tea and scones!!!! Aw yes, I saw the opportunity and I took it; tea and scones at Kensington Palace B) And it was delicious! The jam and clotted cream went exceedingly well with the soft scone and a pot of warm tea in the cool breeze!

Took the route out via Kensington Garden's Flower Walk!

We told ourselves that we would have to turn left at the signpost of Royal Albert Memorial and we were hoping we didn't miss it but then we saw this:

 Damn right we were on track.

Royal Albert Hall, a concert hall

Up next was the Natural History Museum! Our cousin May Lin decided to accompany us for the rest of the day. They had incredible displays about volcanoes and earthquakes, rocks and jewels, fossils and insects!

 Sophie the Stegosaurus 

 Some interesting displays

 GIANT SLOTH 

Then we went to the Science Museum. It was less interesting for us and there was a lot to take in and we were kinda tired already.

This guy is buzzed tho 

An astronomical clock

+ 3 1  M a y  2 0 1 5 : D a y  4 +

On the 4th day, we decided to take a detour to the famous King's Cross Station to look at Platform 9¾  and the Harry Potter Shop! I did my research before the London trip so I could make full use of it. I made sure to read all 7 books and watch the films before flying so I believe I have earned my right even though I didn't have the series with me growing up. A little late to the party but never too late to party amirite.

I'll make up for the lack of Harry Potter related photos later on, you'll see.

Next we visited Covent Garden Market! Lots of hand-crafted items and sweet shops there, but also many high-end brands like Burberry, Dior and Chanel.

Street performers too!

But the main highlight of the day was The Lion King matinee at Lyceum Theatre!

Obviously no photos for this one, but I have a lot of feels????? Lemme at it for a sec.

OKay so we were pretty spoilt for choice about what to watch because they had musicals and plays like Mamma Mia! Phantom, Les Misérables, Death of a Salesman, Woman in Black and so many more but The Lion King seemed like a pretty good choice for the varied ages and interests in the group. The thing is tickets are so pricey!!! But you know, going to London and not watching something in West End?! Blasphemy. 

I got to experience WEST END!!! And it included a bar, people eating and drinking Lyceum popcorn and Lyceum wine during the show, ushers carrying souvenirs and programmes up and down the aisles during intervals; they really make an event out of this huh! 

ONE MINUTE IN and I'm crying. It was so overwhelming to be in THE west end watching THE lion king. It was just as I saw in our TSD videos :") The opening scene was so powerful and moving I shed tears!!!!!!!!! It was surreal being there watching the colours and the animals come to life and hearing the strong vocals oh my god. Just that one minute in and I felt it was already worth the money I swear. It really does live up to the hype. 

(Some photos are from other productions but they're mostly the same)

I mean can you look at the costumes (Image from here)

(Image from here)

(Image from here)

All of the main characters were strong vocally and physica-- that's totally a redundant statement THIS IS WEST END 

(Image from here)

I was truly quivering when the grown up Nala was singing about leaving the savannah to look for a new home. IT WAS SO PAINED and helpless yet so head-strong :") Though the spectacle is amazing, with it's high-energy ensemble items and magnificent set changes, the heart-felt moments like the above, and Simba's realisation of his destiny were absolutely gorgeous and moving.

Oh but the only part that made me kinda cringe was when Zazu sang Let It Go? 

(Image from here)

I related deeply with Scar who cried "oh sing anything but that". Whoever knew that West End updates it's musicals with Frozen Fever eh? I can't do justice to what I watched so I'll stop here lest I butcher my impression and lasting memories of this west end wonder. 

Me and a lost photo opportunity to be returning that look the poster is giving me

+ 1  J u n e  2 0 1 5 : D a y  5 +

The "at last the atmosphere is as chilly as my heart" face. And kinda filmish huh

Alrighty so the next day was actually a day tour that I looked up online, which is frankly terrifying because you never really know what you're signing yourself up for when the money has already been paid. You could be taking the tour in an old ricketty bus with stale smelling seats and a rude and irritable tour guide. You just never know. That was why it was one of the more stressful points of the trip for me, but as it turned out, I had nothing to worry about.

The bus was nice and new, and the tour guide and bus driver were nice and also funny, so it was a very pleasant experience to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and Oxford (all these are west of Central London).

Windsor Castle aka the Queen's "house", and she was in residence that day!

We visited the China Museum, where there was an interesting display of the Rockingham Service, porcelain ornaments made by Rockingham Pottery in the 19th century that had designs of pineapple, sugar cane and oak leaves and views of India on them as a tribute to the height of Britian. 

Ironically, after the service was suggested, the project bankrupted the ceramic artists.

We also viewed Queen Mary's breathtaking doll-house, which we weren't allowed photos of, of course, but again, Google works. This doll house was a gift to the Queen and artists and craftsmen chipped in with intricate wares to pimp it up.

 (Image from here)

(Image from here)

The tour also showed us around the State Apartments, which were flippin rad. We need to talk less about having a prince charming and more about having a castle. 

 St George's Hall, where they still have banquets to this day. And all the cutlery has to be laid out using a ruler for #aesthetic (Image from here)

Waterloo Chamber: Portrait room of peacemakers of Britain who helped with the reorganisation of Europe after the overthrow of Napoleon  (Image from here)

The Grand Reception Room. This photo really doesn't do justice to the magnificence of the room. It's one of my favourite of the State Apartments. (Image from here)

The Queen's Ballroom (Image from here)

St George's Chapel, which we didn't have the time for, unfortunately

We had to head back to the coach for the next item on the itinerary, Stonehenge! On our way we got this:

Voted as the best Cinnamon bun in all of England. IT WAS DELICIOUS.

Cattle grazing near the woods they used for the shooting of HP and the Sorceror's Stone.

South of Windsor and about an hour's journey out was the legendary Stonehenge, one of the seven wonders. The mystery of Stonehenge persists to this day and many conspirators believe it was the work of aliens or the supernatural because of the size of the stones and the distance the stones had to travel.

Our tour bus dropped us at the visitor centre a two minutes drive away from the actual stones. Once there we had to take a shuttle to view the stones. The visitor centre hosts an exhibition and some samples of the stones:

Big ass sarsen stone replica that weighs about 28 tonnes

Bluestones that look grey but are blue when wet or when freshly cut

Me trying to be funny at Stonehenge also the wind is messing with the hair

YES PLEASE

It was an open field and the wind was howling like :O How do the cows stand upright is that why they were all sitting down. Anyway, so we talked about these stones being extremely heavy but  the sarsen stone is also really difficult to shape and work. The prehistoric people didn't just move them from across England, they even formed tongue-and-groove joints that the lintels sit on.

My lil sis hates audio guides but I love the commentary and anecdotes. It told of the rocks having special acoustic properties, and was believed to have special healing powers. An interesting story was of archaeologists consulting an expert from Madagascar who was incredulous that the former were at a loss of what to make of Stonehenge. It seemed straightforward to him that Stonehenge was a way to connect with ancestors and the dead. He said something along the lines of "wooden houses are for the living, and stone houses are for the dead".

Also it's summer but like 11 degrees celsius

My mom was like CAN WE PLEASE GO BACK it's sO COLD. And guess what, we got good wifi at Stonehenge. Pretty strong connection, worldly or other-worldly. 

NEXT WAS OXFORD!!!! It was a pretty long ride north of Stonehenge and we covered about 300km for the entire trip to the three places. It's fairly exciting to tell your friends you're going overseas at this point in time and watch them fall off their chairs asking which college you'll be studying at. So imagine my cheap thrill at telling people I would be heading to Oxford.

Exeter College

Imagine how happy I was when I got my wish to go to Oxford for some hint of JRR Tolkien and the first stop was at Exeter College.

A lot happier than I look here 

Jesus College's Quadrangle

"The first women to study at Jesus College crossed this threshold  in 1974"

Brasenose Lane

Brasenose College

St Mary's Church

Radcliffe Camera

Bridge of Sighs

Bodleian Library, biggest in Europe second only to British Library

The Divinity School, served the hospital wing in the Harry Potter films, and where Professor McGonagall taught students to dance in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. 

This day out turned out to be my favourite day in London. Although we didn't have much time for each location, and it was constant rush back to the coach, we covered a lot of ground in one day and they were all must-sees. Unfortunately, by the time we got back to Central London, it was already very late and the temperature had dropped incredibly so.

+ 2  J u n e  2 0 1 5 : D a y  6 +

Day 6 was also a long one that involved a lot of travelling. We had to head an hour south to Greenwich first and then two hours up north. 

Royal Observatory Gardens with the National Maritime Museum and the Queen's House in the distance

Greenwich is pretty out of the way but the prospect of going to Longitude 0° was too attractive for me to resist, made simply irresistable by the fact that Tom and Mary Crick took a walk here in Waterland.

Singapore time is 7 hours ahead of London's

And most importantly, the Prime Meridian, the standard of time reckoning throughout the world

Visited the National Maritime Museum too

A figurehead

More figureheads

The Cutty Sark!

"Cutty Sark is a British clipper ship. Built on the Clyde in 1869 for the Jock Willis Shipping Line, she was one of the last tea clippers to be built and one of the fastest, coming at the end of a long period of design development which halted as sailing ships gave way to steam propulsion." -Wiki

Trying to get to Watford Junction for the next item on the itinerary, which was:

YEAAAAH

The lady at the counter was so nice! She gave us all passports even though they're only for kids.

Cupboard under the stairs heheh

We had to queue up and enter an introduction room first, where they played a clip of how the Harry Potter series changed the world. Then they let us into a theatre for an address by the Golden Trio about what we would be seeing and how the films were so epic. It was swell seeing everybody around us being such huge fans, some people waiting years to make this trip and so many from all over the world. It was such a warm welcome into the fandom for me; I feel very lucky to have had the chance to see what many of my friends want to. I took many many many photos, of almost everything that was inside the studio, but I won't be posting everything here, just some of the highlights! 

The Great Hall!

The Gryffindor common room!

Dumbledore's Office

A guide was teaching two boys some wand moves. It was so cute!

The Burrow!

Borgin and Burkes

The Ministry lobby

Ugh Dolores Umbridge's Office. You know not exaggerating when I say going past this was so uncomfortable for me. I was totally recoiling at the set and the cursed quill and the pink dresses ugh

I didn't realise that she dons darker shades of pink as her power grows.

*crowd booing*

*crowd cheering*

This was one of my favourite displays?! It's so pretty!

They had a display on animatronics but this was the creepiest shit ever

DIAGON ALLEY

Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes!!! 

I really like Thestrals.

When I get to the end of the tour, we entered this huge space with this reconstructed model of Hogwarts that took the creators 8 months to put together! It was simply breath-taking. It was the perfect end to the tour and it properly evoked wistfulness and contentment at having been part of the story.

The tour was FAB!! It was so surreal seeing all of the elements and to think that a bunch of dedicated people put all of it together (Ollivander's wand boxes, all 17000 of them, were inscripted by hand). The scale of the production, the franchise and the amazing influence it had on kids and will have on future generations is just stunning (oh god pardon the pun).

 I feel faintly embarrassed for taking such a long time to get into the books, but my family just didn't really like Harry Potter much, for some odd reason, and I never thought to read them until now. Well, at least now they're all exposed to it???

+ 3  J u n e  2 0 1 5 : D a y  7 +

Heads up! Day 7 and Day 8 has quite a number of close up of food photos, which may not be suitable for viewing since it's Ramadan now, apologies if it's inappropriate!

My cousin Weng decided to take us out for lunch, but before that we went to the British Museum because who can miss that amirite

We went past St Pancras Renaissance Hotel! So beautiful omg

Model of the British Library lmao

We visited the Sir John Ritblat Treasures of the British Library Gallery which held many beautiful and precious historical, religious, literary, musical, scientific manuscripts and even hand-painted maps and books!

There were hastily scrawled documents which was, as Philip Larkin was quoted in the introduction the "magical quality of manuscripts"; frustrated marks or a flash of inspiration from an author's pen can be so fascinating. There was the original Beowulf manuscript, one of the most epic pieces literature (that also inspired Tolkien), and writings of Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, and even a letter from Harold Pinter to his good friend defending Samuel Beckett and attesting to the influence Beckett has had over Pinter.

There was also the Diamond Sutra, the world's earliest dated printed book, Leonardo da Vinci's notebook, Shakespeare's First Folio and many sacred and religious texts. How extraordinary to see these documents!!!

The main highlight of the day, however, was lunch with Weng at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, at the Mandarin Oriental.

We are humble folks, really and this London trip has already taken a lot out of us, but why not go all the way and have lunch at a 2-star Michelin restaurant amirite?? It's only my uni fees.

Luckily for me we got the Set Lunch Menu at 38 pounds, which I guess is reasonable for two stars... The whole menu celebrates British history and elevates it. If you look at the website, the menu states the year around which the dish was centred. 

We always wonder how small portions of food at fine dining restaurants satisfy right? Well turns out they serve a platter of bread and butter at the start and leave you chatting between your courses. We were surprisingly full after the second dish! Oh and they serve and remove your dishes in SYNC can't get more fine than this B)

The starter was a choice between Hay Smoked Salmon (c.1730) (Smoked beetroot, pickled lemon salad, parsley & sorrel) and Ragoo of Pigs Ear on Toast (c.1750) (Anchovy, onions & parsley). I thought, if I'm going to have pigs ears for the first time and not be icky about it, there's no better place than in a fine dining restaurant, right?

 Totes. It was flippin delish! 

I was glad I didn't choose the salmon, don't fancy the hay smoked taste though I like my smoked salmon a lot. The pigs ear was deep fried and cameralised in sweet red wine. It went really well with the thick toast! yum

The second course was Roast Pollack with Parsnips (c.1954) (Confit parsnips, buttermilk, samphire & lemon balm) and Slow cooked Pork Belly  (c.1920) (Pease pudding, bacon & mint oil). 

I got the Roasted Pollack (it's fish, all you uncultured swine) (just kidding, I also didn't know I just took a chance with it). Wow this is some finesse right here.

I found the dish a bit too sweet though. The fish was nice and, if I may, "glistening", but the sweetness of the parsnips, buttermilk and the natural sweetness of the fish became a bit overwhelming for my unrefined salty oily Singaporean taste buds. The pork belly was a much better choice and the pease pudding with bacon was totally my thing.

Runaway Peas

Dessert was a choice between Bohemian Cake (c.1890) (Chocolate & yuzu mousse with honey ice cream) and Rhubarb & cardamom custard tart (c.1800) (Rhubarb jam, cardamom custard & rhubarb sorbet)

This is the Bohemian Cake I would sell my soul for.

Or this. Might consider splitting my soul into horcruxes.

Both desserts were *long dramatic pause* *masterchef title shot flares up and disappears* *thoughtful chewing by Gordon Ramsay* phenomenal. 

The chocolate cake turned out to be really bitter like REALLY bitter but yeah, you're supposed to have it with the honey ice cream and honey tuile for sweets or the yuzu mousse for a tart but flavourful explosion in your mouth. I'm just going to straight up take the comments out of masterchef im not even sorry. Oh the cake had a wonderful biscuit base, it's the kind of cake base I would sacrifice my little sister for. She had the custard tart which was also yummy, so maybe I'll sacrifice her and eat her dessert. 

 Complimentary Chocolate ganache infused with Earl Grey, with a caraway biscuit to end off

After that we headed down to the British Museum, another must see. Of course, a trip there cannot be isolated from the criticism that the artefacts don't belong there.

One such item is the legendary Rosetta Stone 

The Nereid Monument

The famous Elgin Marbles, or Parthenon Marbles, said to be "looted" from Greece

The temple was richly decorated with the frieze that ran around all four sides of the building.

Metopes showing a fight between centaurs and human Lapiths after the drunk centaurs tried to carry off the Lapith women.

Weng then brought us to The Museum Tavern were we had beer and chat. Arthur Conan Doyle and Karl Marx drank there too!

Hotel Russell

Blue plaques all around indicate an important person occupied the building. Here it says "George Orwell (1903 - 1950) and Sir Stephen Spender (1909 - 1995) wrote for Cyril Connolly's Horizon Magazine based here (1940 - 1948)"

This is a supermarket run by the people for the people, because there was no big supermarket for the people in the area.

Dinner was at The Fryer's Delight! I bet you've realised by now that this day is the only one I have food photos for. It's something that got on my nerves too while in London. We were having Asian meals almost everyday over there because of this stretch along Golders Green that had Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Vietnamese and Korean. It got a little annoying that we weren't taking the chance to try European cuisine, especially at places like Covent Garden with it's many shops. We even had Singaporean fried rice at Greenwich! It just had big chunks of chicken and huge slices of capsicums in it; very Singaporean alright, lazy and rojak smh. Most of the Asian food we had was good though, so that's not so bad at least.

Haddock, Cod and Skate, with traditional pickled onions, mushy peas and a chicken pieee. I really liked the mushy peas and pickled onions! 

After dinner, Weng decided he wouldn't do with us not seeing some very important parts of London, so he took us to Chinatown London via Leicester Square and then we returned to Golders Green via Oxford and Selfridges, the orchard road of London

Chinatown! Drooling @ the roast meat and dim sum selection 

Odeon Cinema aka where they lay out the red carpet for the premieres 

Shaftesbury Avenue aka where Hermoine brings the trio to after Bill and Fleur's

+ 4  J u n e  2 0 1 5 : D a y  8 +

We decided to round off the trip with the London Bridge area! 

 "Church of Scientology"

 Shu failed at planning, she should have gone to St Paul's first

We went to Tate Museum of Modern Art's Poetry and Dream Gallery of surrealism! If it were purely up to me I would have spent hours there! It was all so fascinating. I'm no critic and I really don't have any visual art background but I really liked what I saw! If you're interested in seeing more works, the Tate website has paintings featured!

This piece caught my eye (what does that say about me........): 

Cadeau, 1921 ("Gift" in French, by Man Ray 1890 - 1976)

"A humble flatiron is transformed by the addition of a row of nails into a new and potentially threatening object. The nails and the evocation of hit metal suggests sadism or violent eroticism ironically at odds with the work's title, the French word for 'gift'. Man Ray's original version was lost but became well-known through its dramatically-lit photograph of it..." (more)

 Portrait, 1937 (Roland Penrose 1900 - 1984)

"Penrose was a crucial figure in introducing Surrealism to Britain. He developed a type of word-and-image portrait in which the poetic and painted elements are mutually enriching. The abstract forms suggest, rather than depict, the subject while the ornate frame exaggerates the unconventional quality. When submitted for an exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1940, portrait was rejected because the organisers considered some words offensive (presumely 'arse'). In its place, Penrose submitted a painting of a group of hands, which were later discovere to spell 'SHIT' in sign language." (more)

Mobile, c. 1932 (Alexander Calder 1898 - 1976) 

"As I look up at Calder's mobile, I see an equation floating in the air. The mathematician in me is always in search of those equations that surprise, those that tell a story. Add up the odd numbers and the sum is equal to a square number: for example, 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 = 4 x 4. Calder's equation has a similar beauty to it. He takes the large sphere on one side of the equals sign suspended from the ceiling and pulls it apart to equate it with the strange array of shapes that sit on the other side. It seems to defy logic, yet, there it is -- suspended in perfect balance." --Marcus du Sautoy, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford (more)

 Portrait of a Doctor, c. 1935-8 (Francis Picabia 1879 - 1953) (more)

 Nude Woman with Necklace or Femme nue au collier, 1968 (Pablo Picasso 1881–1973) (more)

Right next door was the Globe! I wanted to go on a tour there but I didn't think the rest of the gang were very interested, so we simply stopped by :-)

Ok get this, we were dressed for like 14 degrees weather as with everyday that we were there, but by the time we got out to the London Bridge area it was blazing hot!!! And I had on a layer under my jeans like.....zzz
anyway

We also took the most notorious medieval, The Clink, out of the itinerary even though I was really interested in going. It was the alternative to the creepy London Bridge Experience/London Dungeons where they tell you all about the ghastly prisoner tales of old London (ie. Jack the Ripper) because my sisters are scaredy cats. Nonetheless, I was pretty stoked about having more time for Borough Market and the Tower of London!

Borough Market was sooooo great!!!!1 They had so much food available it made me want to be a cow I NEED 4 STOMACHS

No points for guessing what my family ate at, of all places, Borough Market!! That's right! Malaysian Chicken Curry. I couldn't do with just that so I got this too:

DamMNAN gud

So colourfuL!!!

 I frickin love borough market omg

 I couldn't resist

 150 years ago beautiful tall tea clippers from India and China visited this exact spot 

 HMS Belfast: a museum ship, originally a Royal Navy light cruiser

 Tower Bridge! Commonly mistaken for the London Bridge. The latter is actually really boring

The pointy thing is The Shard and the round thingy is City Hall. Many people were hanging out there and enjoying the sunny weather

Made it at last to the Tower of London! The Tower has been a residence, a prison, an armoury, a treasury, a menagerie, the home of the Royal Mint, a public records office, and is the home of the Crown Jewels of England. OoOOOo

We got to see the Crown Jewels and the Royal Regalia!!! We saw really rad things like the Sovereign's sceptre that has a 530.2 carat diamond are u kidding and a punch bowl 1m wide that can hold 144 bottles of wine :O

The Tower also held lots of animals that were gifts to the crown.

I misunderstood how wickedly sick the bottle nipples were

So uncultured of me for thinking this but I feel like the armoury could be memed

I am trying my best, legolas senpai notice me

We went up bloody tower which is apparently haunted, and there were these carvings on the wall help

Where Anne Boleyn and many other ladies were beheaded. It's said her ghost haunts the White Tower carrying her head under her arm :OOO The whole place is haunted la, there's apparently the ghost of a bear there too.

Yeah so the Tower of London rounds up the London trip! We went back that night to the Tandoori restaurant my mom fell in love with on one of the days to have a nice dinner with Aunty Betty and Uncle Morris to thank them for their hospitality. 

+ 5 J u n e  2 0 1 5 : D a y  9 +

The moral of the story is that if you leave me to decide what to do on holiday, you're either gonna learn a lot or hate the trip. I was really stressed about the trip to begin with and I didn't stop being antsy until we reached Heathrow airport, where my mom asked me stuff and I was totally blank and she said of me, "she's gone, the trip is over and she doesn't need to bring us around any more so she's blur again."

Hey, to be fair, it was a good kind of stress. I really enjoyed myself and I'm super proud that I managed it! In retrospect, though the planning was stressful, it was right up my alley since I'm such a planning freak. I was also very lucky to have been granted the freedom to take us anywhere and by some stroke of luck, my itinerary was well-paced and well-placed. Having done research first and then plotting the attractions on a map, I found that a lot of the places were clustered together, which made visits very convenient. My soft skills have greatly improved man gimme five

(I actually made a list of tips but nobody wants to hear me whine more about planning, I'm sure)

The highlights of the trip were the day tour (to Windsor, Oxford and Stonehenge), The Lion King,  the Warner Bros Studio tour, Dinner by Heston, Tate and Borough Market. A lot of the trip had been about immersing ourselves in royalty and courtliness characteristic of England and English history, and Windsor Castle was the best way to experience the grandeur. These were all especially colourful and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that made me feel very privileged but also very thankful to be alive, to be able to taste and smell great food, enjoy unique experiences and be affected by great art. 

The flight back home was a beautiful way to end off the trip. It was a rather empty plane so my neighbours were moved to other seats and I got three flippin SQ seats to myself :") We flew into a sunset, and alongside the stars, the splendour of which photographs cannot capture. With sunrise, I felt a sense of limbo, forlornness at having to leave days of foreign thrill and exploration behind, but excitement in returning to a familiar land with new eyes. 

Alright I'm done talking, I'll end off with the most important compilation of photos from London.

Vincent: "You suck at taking selfies with attractions"

Me: "IT'S ON PURPOSE"