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.

I passed!

Phew...I passed my Unit 2 Securities exam!! Believe me...the pressure was on...it was so scary...

The results slip came in an envelope and I was thinking - should I open it or not....so I pulled out the paper gingerly and I saw the words in font size 8 and italics 'Pass'. I gave such a huge sigh of relief that the receptionist said to me 'well done'!

The exam centre was at Monument and guess what, there was a huge monument to remember the great fire of London in 1666. Actually the Tube station Monument is named after the monument itself...but I'm sure you knew that.

Anyway, I thought I'd be a tourist to celebrate my pass, so I paid 2 pounds and walked up 331 steps (I think) up a spiral staircase and viewed London from the platform on top! You could see quite a lot of the city from up there (there aren't many tall buildings in London) and the view was pretty good.

Exams

Argghh...studying!! And the pass mark is 70%!!! It's worse than Uni....can you imagine aiming for H2s and above all the time?

3rd Week

A short post to mark the beginning of my 3rd week in London (not that I'm counting). Went to Covent Garden/Soho/Piccadilly Circus yesterday and it was very exciting, with all the different sights and sounds, and experiencing the bustle of the city. I met up with Anne's JC friend by the name of Phoebe, and we, together with a friend of hers, had dinner at this spanish place in Soho which was really good in my opinion. You know, value for money - loved the tortilla (which is potato and egg omeletty thing - not the Mexican type?) and paella. Ate so much food for 'only' 12 pounds!

Walked along the perimeter of what is Chinatown but all the shops were closed, and tried to take in as much information from Phoebe as I could (she was telling me about this Malaysian restaurant if I needed my chicken rice/nasi lemak/etc fix). Come to think about it I don't even know where it is now...it's in some little lane somewhere!

Walked through Leicester Square with all the cinemas, theatres showing musicals etc, jazz bars (Jane Monheit is slated to perform in June or something). I would definitely go back there and have a proper walk around again.

Ok this short post is turning into a long one, so I shall end here, because I've got to go back to my study. I've got an exam this Friday so please all those who are reading this - pray for me! Hahaha...thanks!

2nd day at work

My second day at work was slightly better than the first....at least I logged on and checked my emails. I'm still having that headache/common cold stuff and it's a horrible feeling having to do work with a blocked nose! Weather's still cold....not really helping.

I went to view 2 flats today. They were surprisingly small, I thought our flats in Singapore were small! And they were expensive too. Gee...sometimes I wonder what did I get myself into? I think I'm slowly getting used to this place and the timezone. Not so disoriented anymore. But still a little shocked at the prices of food. Trying to get used to the new people on the desk. I don't really like the feeling of being all new on the desk, it's fun meeting new people and talking to them, but then you've got to do work as well and you're not really useful!

I bought some microwavable dinners (or TV dinners as they are sometimes called?) and that's what I've been surviving since yesterday. Lunch was soup and sandwiches - grand total of 6 pounds. You go figure how much that is in your home currency!

Ok, gotta go, I'm going to continue eating my tv dinner!

GBP 39 blog entry to tell you....

Yes, I'm in London, and it's 3.32am in Singapore, and 8.32pm in London. And I'm very very very sleepy. I must have brought the monsoon weather with me because when I arrived it was 15 degrees C and this morning it started raining and it felt that a Melbourne winter - I'm dead serious. It really felt like being back in Melbourne.

Do you know why my blog title is 'GBP 39 blog entry'? Because my internet connection (wifi in the service apartment) is GBP39 for a month! I thought it was free before I arrived. GBP39 - SGD120 or more! Who pays that kind of money to get an internet connection in Singapore? But as you know I can't check emails or use MSN at work, so until I subscribe to an ISP network, I really haven't got much of a choice, do I? So I'll make the best out of it.

When I got out of the plane, Heathrow terminal 3 reminded me of a cross between Bailieu Library & old Engineering building, i.e. furniture, walls, signs, toilet facilities look like they've been there since the 1950s which they probably have. Not that everything has to be new, but really, the airport reminded me of Melbourne. As a matter of fact, this is my first time in London, and I will say that it resembles Melbourne somewhat, although I should be saying Melbourne resembles London because London came first right? The buildings are either gray, or light brown or beige.

Anyway, guess what - at the immigration counter, the officer was filling out all kinds of forms when I told him that I'm here on a work permit. And I 'casually' mentioned that he had so much paperwork to do, and he said, 'Yes, you have to go for a chest x-ray'. I replied, 'Are you kidding?'. He said, "No, why would I be kidding? You come from Singapore which has TB". So I was promptly told to go to the health control section, wait in line, get more paperwork done, went to a room, took off my shirt and took a chest x-ray. All in the name of preventing TB from spreading/getting into the country. And all because I had a work permit which is longer than 6 months. Why didn't they do a medical when I applied for the entry clearance visa? That's why it's called an ENTRY CLEARANCE VISA right?? I'm actually going to find out whether I really needed to have one. Does anyone know how WHO classifies Singapore in the TB world? And to make things worse, the whole process took me half an hour to forty five minutes, and I had a taxi waiting for me. And when I tried to make a phone call to the taxi company, one of the health control people told me not to use the mobile phone. I was already very exhausted from the journey, and all this was happening. When I was finally cleared, it was a good two and a half hours after my plane landed, and my luggage must have gone round on the carousel half a million times.

I'm braced for more 'inefficiencies' of this nature from now on....imagine opening a bank account, getting a tax file number!

Please use the lift if you are carrying bulky items or feeling unwell

An observation yesterday and today on the train to work:

As usual, millions of people spill out of the train when the doors open at Tanjong Pagar MRT station. Then I see a group of about 40 people waiting for the lift to the upper platform which leads to the exits. These people are from the earlier train(s) as they were an isolated bunch of people crowiding around the lift doors.

Now there are the stairs, and then there are the escalators only a short walk away. It got me thinking: why wait for the lift? Are people really that lazy to walk such a short distance to take the escalators? I thought the lifts were for people who are disabled/in a wheelchair/or as the announcement goes 'if you are carrying bulky items or feeling unwell'.

London

Guys, I'll be moving to London for work, leaving this Sunday 6 May afternoon. Hope to catch most of you soon before I leave. And for those overseas, God bless and I hope to see you soon in the near future.