London

So why don't i make a list of what i will and will not miss about living in London (or the UK) just to remind myself of what i can still take advantage of while it lasts. So let's start with what i shan't miss so we'll end on a good note. It all is part of a memorable year and I wouldn't change a detail.

What i will NOT miss.

1. British pork
   
2. ebay.co.uk/amazon.co.uk.
   
3. food portion. thats why yall so skinny.
4. the tube.
   
5. banking system, counter and online. You cannot go in and open a bank account without prior appointment. How shortsighted and parochial is THAT? Whats more, for HSBC cards at least, when asked to put your card number on a website, that means you have to type in your "account number" not the "card number" as imprinted ON the card. stupid much? And, your online bank account takes a few working day to reflect your current account. There's no such thin as "pending transaction"
   
6. AND to open a bank account, you need a residence verification letter. fair enough. But, UCL registrar cannot issue a letter to confirm that i, the undersigned, do indeed live in a, erm, UCL-OWNED hall of residence. Seeing as UCL loves breaking records and climbing world rankings, there goes one new thesaurus entry under stupid.
   
7. everything shuts off at 6PM. why?
   
8. Charing Cross road saturday nights. on second thoughts, it's a good opportunity to call out racists.
   
9. People don't say sorry when they push or walk past other people. I'm not generalizing. if you conduct a statistical analysis, i'm certain one of the findings would be people in Paris say "pardon" more often than people on the tube here.

What i will miss (in no particular order)

1. Ryanair
2. my flatmate's Belfast accent
   
3. my friend's Dublin accent
4. the first three go to the Irish. EAT THAT, BRITAIN! haha
   
5. Covent Garden
6. Selfridge's
   
7. roast duck at Four Seasons!
   
8. ridiculously flexible cellphone plans
   
9. free admission to museums (the National Gallery in particular)
10. the narrow, pedestrian-friendly streets
11. the best public transport, hands down. (minus the tube's ventilation system, or the lack thereof)
12. the gorgeous unfolding curve of Regent Street at Piccadilly Circus.
13. the walk along the South Bank at night
14. the pretentious Mayfair, Marylebone high street, and everything the postcode W1 encompasses.
15. Kensington high street
16. Carnaby street
17. the intellectual Bloomsbury
18. supermarkets. the selections are madness!
    
19. Marks & Spencer
20. Superdrug
    
21. countless kinds of beers/lagers
22. the Londonpaper
    
23. the 5pound unlimited BlackBerry data plan. are you JOKING? the world's cheapest.
24. the Brunswick, Russell Square. rain or shine the place makes me happy whenever i come.
25. Charing Cross road (except sat nights)
26. space & time for me to self-actualize
    
27. the Britons' much narrower personal space than their American cousins. Seriously, being neurotic is never in vogue.
    
28. amy winehouse. hah.
29. frozen food
    
30. red leicester cheese
31. olive oil spread - totally underrated. Seriously how many geniuses did it take to come up with that?
    
32. baked beans

Pizza for dinner!

Bought frozen chicken bbq pizza (thin & crispy) from supermarket. Generously added ham, cheese, and tomatoes for extra yum. I'll make one one day! Shouldn't be that complicated right? What you need is a pre-made dough and then whatever toppings you like, which in my case would be bacon, cheese, (insert one meat here), and bbq sauce! yumm...grr...seems like my stomach is growling again.

On another note, the BlackBerry camera is not bad at all. given enough light and all, it is in fact pretty good at micro-shooting.

specs

I trekked all the way across central london to Westfield and the journey reminds me again why i HATE taking the tube: crowded, hot, and stuff. that said, Westfield is a really fresh high-end mall. nice building too (high ass roof, which creates this major airy effect) BUT the point is, i found these awesome specs at Topman. well, THEY found me. i was this close to getting a pair but...15 pounds?! for a pair of glasses which might have been made in thailand (or china) and sold for, uh, 4 pounds? i could just wait another few months and go back to thailand and buy a dozen right?

BUT what if i couldn't find them? what if they're some sort of patented product, etc? The point is, they fit me and the contour of my face like a dream! it's very rare that i feel such an affinity with a pair of glasses. except maybe the ones i got when i was 11 (because my mom said i would go blind after an extended period of short-sightedness.) ok, decision decision.

ps: they're called "TORTOISESHELL GEEK PLASTIC SPECS" haha how fresh.

Guess who

is STUPID enough to spill tea (with milk and lots of sugar) on his laptop? who else. in one evening i was capable of ruining my plan to be productive, self-causing a sleepless night, AND denting the already THIN wallet. woke up at 7:30, dashed to the apple store on Regent St only to...

new keyboard - £55; "hardware repair" - £40; and VAT - £14.25 to top off a grand total of £109.25. tadah. can i die now?

No, not yet. the guy said some internal damage may also have been caused as a result of my sheer stupidity, which they can do nothing about (both the damage and my eternal stupid self). But i should be grateful (FOR WHAT!) that everything seems ok. some laptops shut off when liquid is spilled on. mine did not. only that the keyboard became mad erratic. eg. when i typed nrugkhapan to log into my email i got sth like nrugwtf.

our team better win the design proposal challenge this afternoon so part of the damage will be covered. if not, oh well. OH WELL. flying off to south of France/Monaco this Thursday to cheer myself up cos im just cool like that. UGH. dammitdammit.

Goose-huggers

My friends wanted to eat French tonight and we knew of a place in Farringdon, so we met at 7 and headed over...much to our disappointment. lots of people gathered about outside the restaurant yelling through megaphones and stuff. obviously they are animal rights activists protesting against foie gras. whoa friday NIGHT, what are the chances? too bad for the restaurant (and us), no one dared to go in. quite a scene.

otherwise Comptoir Gascon is a nice reasonably priced restaurant and i consider going back in the future, but not for foie gras. i like the taste of it but not crazy about it. i don't condone those who eat them, nor do i blame them.

holyshit.

I won tickets to London Fashion Week?!

Sunday

means the day when everything is dead in this country. i've been trying hard to come to terms with the fact but i'm still not over it. the biggest supermarket close to UCL which opens till midnight every day closes at 6PM on sundays. my department building is closed all day sunday. (and this is an architecture school mind you). i ran into a friend at the library last sunday and he was like "what are you doing at the library ON SUNDAY!?!" as if it's a social faux pas. Come to think of it maybe it is. my flatmates are in bed by 10PM sunday night. what kind of world have i come to?! Oxford Street, the most bustling street in the world, is DEAD come 8PM on sunday.

and this is not a European thing either. as i remember rome and turin were VERY lively sunday night. talk about turin! man so much fun and this deserves another post in its own right. we got back to the hotel 5AM one night.... the prof took us clubbing. what?

me stealing the motorbike

Moules, frites, et biere...

How Belgian. i first had this when i was in Paris two years ago. since that was a chain restaurant (Leo..sth), it was cheaper than what we had tonight. Belgo is in fact a chain, too, albeit a little more upscale. The mussels are fresh but the overall taste (Provençal: tomatoes, celery, and other ingredients) was okay. i preferred the Thai green curry style my friends got, though (people over here co-opt lots of thai cusine into their food, from "Belgian" mussels dish to potato chips). However, the chips are really nice (crispy on the outside, juicy soft on the inside: see image) and the beer (St.Feuillien Blonde, 7.5% alc.) is good, too.

As a devoted vegetarian Mimi had to miss out on the mussels.

This place is crowded even on a Monday night. but then this is Covent Garden we're talking about.

Some of the mussels weren't "cooked", that is they're not all that firm but i ate them anyway. hope i won't get food poisoning later tonight haha. but my sturdy Thai stomach is immune to all kinds of things.

A Few Things

1.
I've finished Unaccustomed Earth. Over a week ago, in fact, making it one of my quickest reads. I didn't want to blog about it until now because I was mourning my lost camera and thus losing appetite for everything.

Now i've come to appreciate the fact that i have to commute to school by bus as it gives me time to read a few pages when the route already grows old and i'm no longer worried about getting off at a wrong stop. Unaccustomed Earth is beyond words. Very different from the Intrepreter of Maladies in that the plotting is more experimental. The ending of almost every story is fresh and unpredictable. My favorite stories are Hell-Heaven - i read the last few pages again right after i'd finished them - and Once in a Lifetime and the least favorite one is probably the last one, Going Ashore, the ending of which, I think, is too convenient and underinvested, especially compared to the well crafted stories leading up to it.

2.
Flying off to Italy in a few hours! Finally i'll get to see, feel, and photograph the architectural sculptures of ancient Rome that i spent hours on end last semester cramming for the exams.

3.
It was a beautiful morning, glorious even. Here are a few shots i took. Who would have thought a sunny day can foreshadow a forelorn evening.

London is hella expensive man...

IT IS! i thought it's just only me but when i asked london natives they say the same thing. seriously i can't see how you can get ahead here financially here...

Tonight for example. i went out of course, because our weekend starts on wednesday (whee)! We ate korean and that amounted to 10.15 pounds each. and thats not that bad yet. went to a pub where i got a double shot rum&coke for 4.59 pounds. and then a beer for 1.59 (thats pretty cheap actually). and when they kicked us out they proceeded to another pub. at first i thought we were all going home but then what the heck. got a gin&tonic. 4 pounds. hello? i think maybe im just a cheap ass and the pound is in fact depreciating lah. ok whatever.

i think this post is really incoherent...because of the buzzz?! gahhhh.. i paid this much so i deserve to be a little buzzed out ok. you know what's *really* expensive, like surprisingly expensive? apples!!! 3 pounds for maybe 6 apples?! uhh welcome to london i guess.

. . . . .

on another note, the Genius feature thing in itunes is pretty... interesting. Below is the list of songs from my own library that Genius has thematically singled out for me:

somewhere only we know - keane
i knew i loved you - savage garden
stand inside your love - smashing pumkin
yellow - coldplay
stop and stare - one republic
closer - travis
happiness - goldfrapp
sweetest goodbye - maroon 5
come undone - robbie williams
love song - sara bareilles

im pretty emo arent i. never knew...

Because i was craving smoked salmon so bad and London is the best place to do grocery-shopping (second to Paris, bien sûr)

I made myself a bowl of salad! so simply yet homey. I stopped by Sainsbury's at 11pm on my way back and got a bag of crispy lettuce, Scottish smoked salmon, and vinaigrette dressing. and voila my supper at midnight! kind of gratifying but i wish i had bought bacon, crouton, and cheese to top it off. Also, Sainsury's "sweet balsamic" is not all that great actually. I should have bought normal balsamic vinaigrette. But i just can't help but pick everything that has "sweet" in it. Oh well. But don't you just love those crispy juicy cherry tomatoes. Believe it or not i didn't discover their bursting their bursting deliciousness until this summer! not a veggies person here, so kind of tried to avoid them the whole time.

Seriously look at how perfectly boiled the egg yolks are. I totally could have done just with two semi-hard boiled eggs, white rice, and soy sauce. Those would make perfect comfort food.




Back at Brown my supper, if any, would be unhealthy carb-loaded noodles with 2-3 hard boiled eggs. Now that i have a decent kitchen to myself i think salad is a much better choice. ultra healthy, ultra Posh.

Hello London

I left library at 7:30PM on Sunday on a starving stomach only to find out that everything was closed! this is almost as bad as Paris. welcome to London you say.

On a exceedingly surprising note, i've been allocated a room in a UCL hall! i checked out the room today and almost fainted because the flat is amaaaazing. my room is new and clean. the BEST part is that i have a big kitchen to myself! ok thats a lie because i have to share it with two other flatmates whom i haven't met. moving in this Wednesday. cheers to my post-hobo life... finally!

PS: i just looked at my blog archive and noticed that i only had 3 posts in August and 4 in September?!

Underground

I came across this drawing on ffffound.com a while ago and starred it as favorite. The lines are very confident and photorealistic. I like it a lot. And two days ago as I sit in the tube on my way to university, one lady steps into the car, holding an eco bag by Marks & Spencer that has this very image on it. Exceedingly beautiful. i'm so getting one.