No day, but today.

I AM BACK!!

You know what? Setting foot in London has never made me feel this way: I am more grateful for Cambridge than ever! No wonder Cambridge is UK’s 2nd most popular choice of residence after London.

Please don’t get me wrong, I heart London. Who doesn’t? The Underground experience is the best and my best buy is the Oyster card. haha! But seriously, I am such a city girl. I could see myself living in London :) Why not?

Although I am quite sure that I will never get on the London Eye ever, if I do live there. What is so fun about this? I seriously don’t get it. Sorry, I am not a fan of ferris wheels. Definitely not a massive one that’ll give you a 360 view of London in 45 minutes. Nah…I’ll take a rain check.

Anyway, when we first arrived in London, the right thing to do was to head on over to the much talked-about Portobello market!

These houses remind me of the rows of townhouses in Bangsar that is my dream place to live. Except that I hope in that neighbourhood, people will have the sense to paint their facades with unadventurous colours such as these :) It’s not too bad, isn’t it? The teal blue next to the grey house is my favourite.

Guess why I’m standing at this gate?

Because! :) So happy to know this! I don’t want to say it…but yes. Animal Farm is my favourite novella. After Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ and Angela Carter’s ‘The Magic Toyshop’. Shoot me.

We pass by more of these houses and strangely, don’t they look like the houses turned restaurants at Jalan Alor and Changkat Bukit Bintang? :) Sweet.

It was here that I officially had a migraine. AND PORTOBELLO MARKET hasn’t even begun!

After this picture, it’s officially taking a trip down to the busiest place I have ever been! Even more people, more crowded and more expensive than the Chatuchak Market in Bangkok! You can imagine! But going with friends are fantastic. They keep you going. Till the very end. Until we arrive at our favourite…FOOD SECTION! :D

The whole street was flanked with food stalls, antiques, clothes and you-name-it.

It was quite a lovely sight to see the colours and the vendors. IF only there weren’t so many people.

Walked passed the guy selling paella! So good :) And then…couldn’t resist…

Ghanaian food!

I have never had it before and it sure did smell extremely good! 

Bought a small rice with 2 stews (beef and spinach) and WOW! It was extremely good and the most satisfying meal I’ve had in the whole of England haha! It’s really good. Especially the chilli sauce. It’s super fattening, but who cares? :p Oh, did I mention it tasted really good? It’s good, good, GOOD! :D

Next stop, Covent Garden! We wanted to see where Eliza met Prof. Higgins. Grace and I thought it was here so we snapped a picture just in case. Until we found the real thing!

Tada! St. Paul’s church! :) Okay, Covent Garden wasn’t so bad. It was quite a nice place, in my opinion, except Grace was a little disappointed that there were no violets for sale in sight.

Oh well, we walked around abit. Went into every shop (almost).

Took pictures like this one and the snapped the rest and kept it in my head because even though I like Covent Garden very much, I was getting a little impatient looking for a place that sells pointe shoes. I walked and walked and walked but found nothing! And I can’t believe Teacher Katy told me that there were many shops in Covent Garden. But where? So the best thing to do is to get coffee and chill. That’s what I did :)

I skipped the Globe tour because I wanted to meet my very lovely host, Rachel and Shern earlier at their place. I was so happy to see her finally! :) She’s still as funny and as down to earth as ever. The only thing that changed was her surname, now that she’s married :) And look at my host climbing up her couch, plucking mint leaves to make me a Mojito! She even made her own chocolate ice cream! And her husband cooked dinner! Oh my…looking at them and feeling their hospitality really made me miss home alot. ALOT.

That’s Rachel, hopping off to the kitchen to whip up a welcome cocktail drink!

Both Shern and Rachel live in a very very cosy 1 bedroom flat that cost £800 to rent every month. I thought it’s quite pricey but I guess it’s quite a deal in an area like that. :) I felt very welcome there.

The next morning, we took a train to the posh neighbourhood of South Kensington where their church is. p/s: Dearie, doesn’t this look like Beringin Residence? :p Dis they copy these terrace at South Kensington?

It was a very pretty morning but the construction works everywhere spoilt it.

I followed the couple to their church called the Holy Trinity Brampton.

This is the church where Tim Hughes attends and an even more interesting fact coming right up!

See the Alpha course? Sounds very familiar? Well, because it is! This is the church that started it all. Metro is introducing their excellent Alpha Marriage course :) Not bad huh? To think that I visited the church that started it all. And when I walked into the service, I can see why :) Feels exactly like Metro. And it happens to be Metro’s 29th birthday today too. I miss Metro very very much!

Rachel and I went to Oxford Street after that. And hmm, nothing photo worthy of the shopping district except maybe Rasa Sayang ;p Feel the lurve!

Rachel was so patient with me. Temaning me everywhere and being my tour guide. She’s fantastic! I’m happy Shern and her are coming to visit me in Cambridge in 2 weeks! I’ll be a good host too, I hope :) Guess why I’m smiling so hideously?

THAT’s because, I went to Covent Garden again today. Unsatisfied that I didn’t find what I wanted yesterday, I painfully made my way there even if it’s to walk from Bayswater. (Not that far anyway ) I just didn’t like taking the tube to Covent Garden. It’s when I was there at this station that I realised I am 193 steps below ground level, so close (almost) to hell! :P Creepy!

And guess what I found?

The sole reason I came to London! :D Geddit?

The sales staff at Bloch, Drury Lane, are highly professional, helpful and very friendly. I finally got fitted for my very first pair of pointe shoes. It is big deal for ballet dancers to get their first pointe shoes but I guess for me, this is extra special because I bought it in the heart of the ballet performances, Central London, and that lady who helped me get fitted was AMAZING! I highly recommend BLOCH at Drury Lane, Covent Garden if you’re living in London and need ballet supplies.

I’m very happy today. :) But I miss Yew Gene (very much). I know he’s having a fantastic time in Melbourne and I’d be quite thrilled to know that he did actually think of me even for a minute :) Or so.