Stepped out of High Street Kensington tube station, to be greeted by the glaring sun and an O2 shop right in front of us. It was past lunch and we were to meet Deb’s friend, LN who was kind enough to pass us her UK mobile phone. Anyway, as usual I don’t really trust maps (having bad experiences right here in KL) and started asking shopkeepers for directions to Kensington Palace… but only to be replied with blank looks…

And so, me and LN’s fiancé had to resort to trusting the London map and figuring out the right direction to the palace… and thank goodness we were indeed on the right path!

Anyway, as the sun was up, there were many people sunbathing at Kensington Gardens, where LN and fiancé enjoyed some private time there while waiting for me, ah ya and Deb to tour around the palace. And now… where’s Skyfish? hahaha that girl instead went on her preferred tour of shopping!

A statue of William III greeted us at the main entrance of Kensington Palace

A bit of history on Kensington Palace. It started out with William III and Mary II purchased the place in 1689 (it started out as a Jacobean mansion actually and was renovated and extended as the years gone by). I’ve always love the story of William and Mary, I find it like a tragic romance story as Mary passed away at a young age of 32 and she never got to see the renovation work done by William at Hampton Court Palace just for her…

Rear view of Kensington Palace

Rooftop of Kensington Palace

Anyway, back to the present, the Palace was also a home to the late Princess Diana. When we were there, there was a photo gallery exhibition of the late princess. Her collection of dresses were also on display, besides Princess Margaret’s.

The Orangery, a place to rest and dine, was built by Queen Anne in 1704-05 to serve as a greenhouse for exotic plants

Opening times of the Palace

Statue of Queen Victoria in the Gardens with the view of the Palace behind

Deb, me and a friendly swan at the lake in Kensington Gardens

Opening time:

Summer (1 Mar - 31 Oct): 10am - 6pm (last admission at 5pm)

Winter (1 Nov - 28 Feb): 10am - 5pm (last admission at 4pm)

The palace closes on 24 - 26 Dec

Getting there:

We came out of High Street Kensington station, but I advise to just enter the Palace from Hyde Park as the Garden and the Park are connected…

How much it cost?

Adults: GBP 12

Child: GBP 6 while below 5 yrs old enter for free

Finally… I’ve watched the movie! I think the review to the latest Potter movie is not that good. Many told me that it’s boring. But after I watched it… I … really like it! hahaha…

I think this is the best Potter movie so far. Maybe coz I’ve been reading the book. This movie is quite dark. Less happy children screaming. Explain a bit more about everything…

I don’t remember much of the story. Afterall, I read the book few years back. But according to Xell, they remove/change a bit of story from the book which I think made the movie shorter and more interesting.

I like the movie. I’m not sure if it’s coz I read the book. If you don’t read the book, you can still watch the movie. It’s pretty good!

I’m at work. And I’m bored! Oh god… it’s not that I don’t have anything to do. In fact I do have some work lining up for me. But heck… I tell you…

DOCUMENTATION IS FREAKING BORING!!!!

Wah I tell you… really sien lor. Documentation is sooo boring especially hor… You have to write test cases!!! -_- I officially hates test case now! HATE TEST CASE! I can never be a QA lor. I will die of boredom testing the same thing over and over again! *vomits blood just thinking about it*

Well… programmers hates testing! I totally agree although I am not so much of a programmer now. Me now Consultant! hohoho~~~ Junior only la… *sighs* Programmers can’t do testing, you know why? coz they will test everything positively just make sure their codes works the way it’s suppose to. Other than that, they won’t think of other weird scenarios to test d.

Other than test cases, still have to draw ERD la…process flows la… all these are not as bad as test cases!!! *vomits more blood* Actually hor… my test cases not as complicating as my senior. But… I still feel like dying… *vomits even more blood*

ok lar… enough. Just want to release some tension here. wahaha… It’s Friday night! Me go dinner with wn! Whee~~~!

And tomorrow is potter day! Getting the final book and watching Harry Potter. So happen Xell and I bought tix for the same time. Will probably see each other at 1u. Ta for now…

wah… Snake can’t stop complaining no update. I went Malacca last weekend to attend wedding lar… then I fell sick. Then I got lazy… then I got busy… then I got tired… hahaha… damn~ a lot of excuses! Anyway… Xell ask me to blog about Portobello Market… so here it is!

Portobello Market is one of the most famous street markets in the world. I can’t believe one year in London and another trip back, I’ve never been to this market before! Anyway… Portobello Market stretches about 2 miles of Portobello Road. Its easy to get there, just take the tube and get out at Notting Hill Station. If I am not wrong, it’s only open on Friday and Saturday and the market starts 9am to 5pm.

There’s many section at the market. I think Antique is the most famous part of the market. We were there very early, so many stalls were not open yet or some are still setting up their stalls.

There were fruits, flowers, bread… the bread looks yummy… and we bought strawberries and rasberries! Strawberries in UK are cheap and sweet and huge and perfect looking. Cameron’s one can’t compare at all!!! Look…evidence!!!

It’s cheap, I think cost 2 pounds or so only!

Same goes with the rasberries!

They even sell beautiful doll house and look at those tiny items to decorate the doll house!!!

More random stalls. All these can be found at the antique section. The antique section is huge! There are lots of shops that sells antiques too. Too bad I am not a fan of antiques. haha…

I just had to include a picture of Xell & I at Portobello Road. hahahaha….

There’s plenty to see and buy at Portobello market. It’s really difficult to give in detail on what they sells coz you can find literally everything!

If you plan to go to the market. Visit this site for more information!

http://www.portobellomarket.org/

All of us except Skyfish used the London Pass during our wondering-around-aimlessly in London. In fact, me and Deb actually analysed the benefits of taking the London Pass (including travel) instead of the Oyster card (which Skyfish opt to use instead).

We purchased the 6 Days Pass, including travel, which cost 112 pounds. Therefore, it would only cost 18.70 pounds per day for the Pass! Please note that when the site said free 1 day, that only means travelling and does not include the attractions. Unfortunately, we didnt read that part properly and on the last day we had to pay for our entrance fee to Windsor Castle.

Anyway, how does the London Pass works? Well, it offers free entry to 56 tourist attractions in London and if you’ve included travel, then travelling on the tube, national rail and bus would be absolutely free! But if you’re not taking the 6 Days Pass, you can’t use your London Pass travel ticket during peak-time in the tube. As for us, since we’re using the 6 Days Pass, we can travel around London anytime we want to. And to hop on the bus, just flash your travel pass to the driver while for the train service, just stuff your travel pass into the reader and wait for it to come out the other end and the gates open for you.

Unfortunately, Deb’s travel pass went bonkers few days later and the gates refused to open for her and she have to keep running to the officer-in-charge to let her through. I think the magnetic strip on her card got messed up by her handphone. So, please don’t put your travel pass together with any electronic devices that messes up magnetic strips like Deb’s Sony Ericsson mobile phone…

Anyway, there’s other perks that come along with the London Pass but we didn’t really used any of them. The main reason we wanted the pass was the free entrance. We mostly go to the most expensive attractions that is covered by the Pass like Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, Kew Gardens and Apsley House. And you even get a cute small London Pass book which lists down all the attractions and perks offered by the Pass, very handy book especially walking around with the wind blowing extremely strong and you wouldn’t want to be holding a gigantic map at that time…

By the way, you can choose to either collect the Pass from the Visitor Centre nearby to Picadilly Circus station, or have it delivered to your door step (but I think you got to pay extra for that service). And us trying to save money, decided to collect it ourself and head out to look for the Visitor Centre… my my… and ended up with an experience which still left me quite speechless. You see, as usual, us being horrid tourists, enjoy asking for directions the moment we’re not sure of the directions and too lazy to take out our map and figure it out, and end up getting more lost. Anyway, we saw this decent looking elderly man and thought he looks kind enough to point out the directions. Trust me, the saying “Looks are deceiving” should never ever be doubted! We walked up to him (he was manning a walking tour at the corner of the street) and below is our conversation:

Silly us: Excuse me, sir. Can we asked you a question?

Elderly man: *turns around* Why, sure!

Silly us: Do you know where’s the Visitor’s Centre?

Elderly man: Of course, I do! *smiles*

Silly us: *looks back at him smilling and waiting*

*few seconds later and we’re still looking at him*

Elderly man: Oh, were you asking for directions? I thought you just wanted to know whether I knew the place!

I was absolutely stunned and horrified! I believed my jaw really dropped open at him and I was speechless! I couldn’t even shoot him back! Oh my goodness, he was really enjoying himself, teasing us in that way! How evil! But anyway, he finally did pointed us the right way but I was still horrified over that experience till now…

Link to the site:
http://www.londonpass.com

Few days before new year, I made a list of new year resolution. Since it’s like half of the year for 2007, I just wanna look back and see if I’ve actually “accomplish” any of my resolution. (Since people always say they don’t make new year resolution coz they never happen… hohoho)

Took this from my old post in my old blog…

1. Get back my original weight!!! I used to be 45kg, not anymore!
2. Hope to get a higher pay cheque.
3. Go for a trip - either UK or Japan
4. Clear up my credit card debts!!!
5. Buy a laptop.
6. Buy a car.
7. Finish reading all my “existing” books and buy more!!! hahahahaha……
8. hmm….
9. hmm….

Let’s see…

1. I am much slimmer now… but I don’t think I am 45 kg. Now I am probably around 48kg. I wonder if I will ever be 45 again. hahaha… coz it’s hard to give up on good food. muahaha… but still compared to 52.5kg. I did lost quite some weight.

2. I did get a bit of increament lar. Now is appraisal time, wonder I will get anymore pay raise or not. hahaha…

3. I did went to UK!

4. this one… hahaha… totally fail. hahaha… I went UK and came back with even more debts. hahahahaa…. ok la… Now I am working on it.. so we shall see end of the year.

5. Can’t accomplish until item 4 is accomplish.

6. Can’t accomplish until item 4 and 5 is accomplish.

7. I am still not reading my books! hahaha… Sweet… the crunchyroll site is soo addictive lar. I am not reading anymore!!!

ok lar… that’s about it. We shall see again end of the year. haha… I think item 4 and 5 will still not be accomplish by then. hahaha… And no… I am still not planning to get marry. hahahaha….

When we were planning our accommodations in London, me and Deb were quite gung-ho to stay at those budget hotels meant for tight-budget students. We wanted to re-live our student days (and forgot how dreadful it is being poor)… And so, we insisted that we spent at least 2 nights at one of this place and we were going crazy over the Quest Hotel, which is located at Bayswater (I did not even realised how close it was to Hyde Park until the last day). For me, I was crazy over it coz it’s associated with the Astor Hotel, which I stayed when I was in Tianjin, China and I absolutely loved that hotel. But anyway, *chants* back to London, back to London, stop digressing…

Exterior of Quest Hotel

*ahem*

Anyway, as I was saying, we moved from our cosy and spacious rooms in Travelodge, King Cross all the way to squeeze into a 4-person room (at least it comes with en-suite washroom). And the tenants before us actually left their luggage behind (and Deb regretted not taking it)!

Look at how bloody narrow the room is, big contrast to Travelodge!

Most of our conversation in the room is:

“Move out of the way”

“Excuuuuuseeee meeeee”

*grunts while moving luggage one side*

Well, the perks of the place… you get a very cute and charming guy manning the counter and if the guy’s not there, the girl behind the counter is also very cute and friendly. Ah ya used the opportunity to pretend to be stupid tourist again and asked the guy many stupid questions… and sorry, no pics of both guy and girl…

And then, on our last night in London, we wanted to finish up most of our food and drinks we brought there… so we had 3 packets of instant noodles each for dinner! But it was good! The hotel got its own kitchen and dining hall at the lower ground, where the occupants can enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning or snack in the middle of the night or just sit there and watch the telly… There’s also a laundry room, but we didn’t use it, I think it’s not free… But once, when we entered the kitchen, we were greeted with a wonderful aroma of fried rice! My goodness, this fella cooked fried rice even better than me! *covers face in shame*

Anyway, in conclusion, I’m grateful for not living as a tight-budget student again… and next time we visit London, it’s back to Travelodge!

If you guys get adventurous, you can book your budget rooms here –> TravelStay

“So, did you go bag packing when you were in UK?”

One of the few questions shot over me when I was back from my trip.

My reply: *chokes* if drinking water

*snorts* if not drinking water

Anyone who knows me well would know that I can’t survive bag packing! The last time I carried a bag pack during a trip to Taman Negara, the bloody bag was twice my size and I was tilting towards one side whenever I take a step and somebody would have to guide my bag from behind…

Anyway, back to London… we spent 8 blissful nights at Travelodge London Farringdon which is about 15 mins walk from King Cross Station. Please don’t mistake it for Travelodge Royal Scot which is just a few blocks ahead of it. That was what happened to us… after dragging our luggage like forever looking for the Travelodge logo, we were delighted to finally spot one. But then, the moment I approached the counter, they told me I got the wrong place and that it is just 3 mins walk further down. We stepped back out to the blistering wind and stared down the empty road which looks pretty dark and dodgy… I was thinking “Are these people trying to play tricks on us just because we’re lost tourists??”

And I stepped back in and only noticed the word Royal Scot on the wall, realised our mistake, and pretended to confirm the directions to our hotel. And it was really just 3 mins down the road if you are not dragging huge luggage (not mine) down the uneven road and pavement.

Anyway, I love the hotel, great service, very friendly staff (even though they didn’t give me a bigger room) and it even got a bus stop right in front of it, which we did not utilised until the last few days… hahahaha Skyfish and ah ya shared a room while again poor Deb was stuck with me in a room half the size of skyfish’s. But it was really clean and it’s got working hot water! I cannot survive if I do not have running hot water…

All toilets comes with bath tub too!

Look at Skyfish and Ya’s room! Double the size of our room…

It even comes with a place to hang clothes too! Eeee, you see how messed up is Skyfish and ah ya’s room…

If you book the hotel at the right time, you can get super saver room! Like us, we got lucky (obviously, we stayed up till 4am just planning this free 4 months ahead and thanks to Snakebyte for helping us search for the best location), the room only cost 13 pounds per person per night, which is 26 pounds per room per night (Imagine if you have 3 people, you save even more)! What a bargain! But if you’re unlucky, then the room might be expensive.

There are many Travelodges around London. London Farringdon is really convenient coz you can take a bus (number 63) which stops exactly right in front of the hotel from King’s Cross station. And if you’re heading to King’s Cross station from the hotel, there’s a bus station right across the street too (which we did not realised we could do that until the second last day)!

Planning a trip to London? Here’s the site for you to book your room at Travelodge.

http://www.travelodge.co.uk/

And the link to London Farringdon itself:

https://www.travelodge.co.uk/find_a_hotel/hotel/hotel_id/270/LondonFarringdon

Never a big fan. Never really watch it when I was a kid. In fact the only character I know/remember is Optimus Prime. But you know what? This movie is soooo coool man.

Although I can’t identify any of the transformers, both bad or good also I dunno who is who. hahaha… But seriously… the transformers are so cool! I love the transformation! The graphics is so cool! The robots look so damn real.

Storyline? No need to talk about storyline. Just watch the robots! haha… Final action scene a bit messy though. And the ending … er… ok la… let’s not talk about any story related stuff here. Just go watch it for yourself!

oh oh… there’s actually one part where I find the transformers very funny and cute. hahahaha…. Sounds so weird to use the word ‘cute’ to describe cool robots huh? Go watch it and see if you find them cute like me. hahahaah….