Has it really been a year?

Has it really been a year since I updated my blog? Shocking!

Paris

Hello all! I went to Paris from Tuesday to Thursday and it was fantastic...did all the usual touristy stuff - Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Champs Elysees and Notre Dame. I went alone and I flew to Orly Airport from London City Airport - it was more convenient than flying from Heathrow or Gatwick as I'm nearer to London City Airport. Anyway, strangely enough I liked Paris....although people who have been there didn't really like it that much. It was not dirty at all, the people were generally friendly, and I had a great time walking and finding my way around, navigating through the metro, trying to speak a little French and eating croissants and baguettes!

The weather wasn't very kind to me though - it rained the whole of Wednesday and most of Thursday. My jeans were wet along with my shoes and socks, and I trudged through the streets with swollen and soggy feet! My flight into Paris was delayed for 6 hours - initially there was a 'techinical problem' (I saw people fixing the wires on one of the plane's engines) and then when we boarded the plane and the pilot taxied to the runway, the pilot announced that he was aborting the flight because of the same 'technical' problem. They finally found a replacement aircraft and we left at 2.15pm when I was supposed to have left at 8am! So by the time I got to the hotel in Paris it was 6pm, and all I saw was the Eiffel Tower against the setting sun, and the Arc de Triomphe.

The Louvre was amazing - the exhibits, the building itself and the interior was simply breathtaking. There were so many people in the museum though - it was so noisy and crowded, it felt like Orchard Rd in a museum! The Mona Lisa was on display and there was literally a crowd of 200 surrounding the painting, and with museum workers shouting 'no photos!' at the top of their voices. There were so many other paintings, sculptures, egyptian and greek art that I really had no time or energy to browse through everything. I think I'll definitely go back there sometime again...

There's so much more to see in Paris which I didn't have the time for, and I definitely need to read up on the history behind the things I'm seeing or else it just becomes another 'thing' that I'm looking at.

Arsenal vs Fulham

I went to my first EPL match this afternoon - Arsenal vs Fulham. A colleague managed to get tickets for me which costs me 42 GBP...but it was really exciting and enjoyable. I've uploaded the photos already so go see.....I gotta go to bed now as it's getting late, but will update soon!

English

Now I have to blog about this. I am increasingly finding it difficult, tiring and frustrating to speak in complete sentences (i.e. proper English). Hahaha....I find this actually quite funny because do you know how I get my release? I HAVE to meet up with Singaporeans/Malaysians to banter in Singapore English or else I'll go mad.

For example, 'Can ah?/cannot meh?' seems so much easier on the tongue than 'Would it be possible to...' Maybe I've been speaking terrible English all this while and no one dared to say a word to me (friends, this is the time to let me know), or I've never really been conscious of the way I speak. Even in Australia, I spent most of my time with Singaporeans/Malaysians so I wasn't particularly aware of my language. Now that I'm the only 'non-native' (my sister would roll her eyes at this) English speaker in the office, my spoken English does sound awfully bad in the sense that it doesn't seem 'correct' for some reason. Mind you, it's not the accent, but the sentence construction.

Another thing I realised - American words. I keep saying the word 'pants' when I mean trousers. Never ever use pants here when you mean trousers, because pants means underwear in this part of the world. Side-walk (Am) vs pavement. Thongs (Aus) vs flip-flops. You get the picture. And there is no 'flat white' (coffee) in this part of the world.

The supermarkets are quite quintessentially English sounding in my opinion: Waitrose, Marks and Spencers, Sainsbury('s?). The others are Tesco and Asda.

I've also been watching Gordon Ramsay's show on the TV - the 'F' word. It's great - I passed his restaurant Claridges in Mayfair and he's got a new pub in Limehouse which I want to go to at some stage.

Hmm...what else happened. Wimbeldon mens' final is over with Federer winning it for the fifth time. I'm off to a picnic jazz thingy on the 21st. I've booked tickets to see Harry Connick Jr perform at the Royal Albert Hall in November. Car bombs were found in Piccadilly Circus and Parklane two weeks ago. I still walked around the west end on the anniversary of the 7th July train bombings. My shipment from Singapore is going to be delivered on Thursday afternoon. I think I'm going to catch the Lion King &/or Phantom in one of the theatres here. I haven't seen a movie for ages, I think I'm going to catch one, but an adult ticket is prohibitively expensive (12 pounds in Leicester Square).

Hmm...what else...ah yes - pronouncing names of the places around here. How do you pronounce:

Southwark
Leicester Square
Grosvenor Place
Edgware Road
Westminster
Greenwich
Debenhams
Graham
Tottenham Court Road

I'll give you the answers in the next post!

Back on the internet!

Hi everyone! I'm finally back on the internet after being disconnected for one month! It took so long just to get the telephone line connected and an internet connection set up...but it's good to be back!

Le Tour de France held its prologue leg in London today. I went to Trafalgar Square and there were two huge screens set up where you could see the race going on, and I walked to Buckingham Palace which was part of the route and the picture on the left was taken just outside the palace.

The weather today was nice and warm, the sun was out and it was great to be able to walk around without an umbrella! Everyone was out - St James' Park was packed with people lying on the grass watching the Tour de France on the giant screens and catching some rays. This was such an improvement over my Wimbeldon washout. For those of you who don't know - I went to Wimbeldon last Saturday and it rained the whole time I was there and I didn't even see a single ball being played! All I saw was a plastic sheet over the grass and rain pelting down! I'm going to send in my ticket for a refund....

The Live Earth concert thing was also going on in Wembley stadium. I went to Southbank and walked along the river. Walked across the Millenium bridge thingy, took pictures at London Bridge (which is not Tower Bridge). Went to Borough Market to walk around, eat scallops, eat sausages and just browse. It's very much like Queen Victoria market in Melbourne - brings back good memories of my time in Melbourne. Then walked along The Strand to Covent Garden to browse again....lots of buskers out, and people lounging in the cafes.

Hope tomorrow's weather is going to be as good as today's!

Touristy stuff

Last weekend I went and did touristy stuff - went to Buckingham Palace, Green Park, St. James' Park, Big Ben and House of Parliament. And so I went ah....so this is what the big fuss is all about! I think they are worth having a look - after all they're historical buildings and I'm sure historians/archictecture buffs would marvel at them. What I found fascinating were all the spires and pointy things with gold flag-like things on them. I'm referring to Big Ben and the houses of parliament. It seems that they have numerous lightning conductors adorning every corner of the building. Maybe they are there to prevent pigeons from resting?

Yesterday was a beautiful day - the sun was out, it was warm, the parks were filled with people sunbathing, just having a walk and having a picnic. I really enjoyed walking around on my own, observing other people having a good time. Of course I wished family and friends were with me (read: wish you were here kinda postcard), but I can't have everything can I?

Anyway, I've officially moved into my new flat, and I'm going to vacate my service apartment tomorrow. So adios my service apartment which has served me well in the last 4 weeks...

EAT.

EAT. My latest food haunt. They sell soups, sandwiches, juices, muffins, biscuits and other good stuff. I like the sandwiches - I've eaten the crayfish and rocket leaf sandwich and it's good. Their soups are good too - coriander and brocolli, chicken noodle soup. Heh heh....that's when I get my hot soup and sandwich craving.

Funnily enough today I feel like eating Chinese food. I'm even of having dim sum at this Chinese restaurant near my new flat. Maybe I'll do a Sunday dim sum lunch thing. Oh yeah, I went to Bayswater last sunday and ate at this Chinese place called 'Four Seasons'. Their roast duck is really good! Lots of fat though...but everything else about it is great! Maybe I'll go back there for my Chinese fix.