30th Birthday Trip - London Part

Don't really want to share any negative stuff here, especially about this trip, supposedly so dear to me. So I'll just share the happy stuff and the experiences. (Just that... I don't know where to start)

Though I may not say it's a fun trip, it is still a great trip for me. This is my dream, my first time going to the UK and Europe (part of). It was an eye-opener for me, it's kind of like what I expected, but better. I think I love it more than I thought I would. :)

Let's do the London part:
And so Day 1 (9 June, Fri)... we reached there at 7am, got to our airbnb apartment at Peckham Rye area around 9am and well, there was not much time for any jetlag. haha! So we were out and going after settling and resting for a while. Honestly need some resting from the stairs! At the train stations, and the apartment itself. Narrow stairs in the apartment doesn't help. HAHA! The apartment was okay, it was a little dark on the living room side though. And a little far away from the city. Took us some time and much more pounds to travel out. But at the same time, a little closer to some places we had to go, and it was extremely cheap compared to the hotels in town. I guess there's a give and take factor in everything we do. But no, not this apartment the next time round. Haha!

So... we went to the Natural History Museum after a well, not-so-nice McDonald's meal. HAHA! The museum was cool...... despite some of the exhibits looking worn and weathered by human beings. It was so huge we were a little confused if we have finished all the exhibits. And then to Victoria and Albert Museum... Statues are massive. Day 1 was rather short because we were still quite tired. Turns out places around our area really closes very early. Managed to buy some groceries from the supermarket nearby though and that was lucky enough. haha.

Day 2 (10 June, Sat): Went to see the Colonel's preview of the Queen's Birthday parade. Quite cool with horse guards, marching bands, soldiers with hairy top hat. So cute. But the weather was really hot. Sun has no mercy on us the entire morning. Shake Shack burger for lunch, the burger was really good! Everything else is not included. Lol. But fries was nice too.

Walked around the area, take photo outside the Westminster Abbey. The queue was super long, we didn't buy any pass, anyway we didn't really intend to enter so we just took photos outside. =x And walked along the streets to take more photos, saw some parade for USA stuff going on, which gave us a little shock. Walked across Trafalgar Square, where the parade party eventually made their way there. Proceeded to Piccadilly Circus to look at how the ticketing systems for theatres work there. So anyway, Lobster roll for dinner at Burger & Lobster! Omg I must say I really miss the lobster roll!!! And got ourselves some tickets for the following days as well. :D

Day 3 (11 June, Sun):
Old Spitalfields Market in the morning... we were not exactly early actually but it took us some time to get there as well. There were a lot of stalls, quite a huge area outside the actual market to explore. Donuts are irresistible so we each had 1 for breakfast (?) quite a late one haha. Actual target there was the Poppies Fish and Chips. Sister recommended because it's really nice, and yih was really determined to eat some fish and chips. Just that oh gawd the portion was super huge. We should have shared but we didn't. Lol! In the end none of us finished the chips, i think yih didn't even finished the fish. Lol! We had some other random things also lah.

Then back to regent street and oxford street for shopping. Yay! But all shops close at 6pm latest for Sundays. 😅 Bo bian... Chiong ah! Managed to go a few shops, Primark was amazing but it will flooded with people and clothes were really everywhere, so I grabbed just 2 or so, and went to pay while the other 2 waited outside -- it was chaotic. Shoes shopping for the new nmd designs. Apparently it was rather hard to find suitable ones -- either no size or no nice colour. HAHA Managed 1 for friend and the other 2 also bought a pair each.

Day 4 (12 June, Mon):
Harry Potter Studios Day! Dropped at the wrong stop (oops), but managed to still get there in time. Haha! Seeing details in books and movie images in real live is definitely amazing. Houses, creatures, all the items, and scenes like the grand hall, the rooms just makes you want to re-watch the entire series again. Like seriously. And I must say the butter beer is delicious. But everything else was sold at a price on the high side so I think we all didn't buy anything. Actually, it was funny how we scrimped and saved at the start of the trip (i.e. didn't really enter any payable premises and buy a lot of fanciful things), and later just spend without even thinking in the later part. And I also had so much pounds and euros left after the trip. HAHA

After spending half a day there (which is enough to cover everything if you not so hardcore into seeing every detail like a inspector), we went to Wembley Stadium which was along to way back to London city. It wasn't opened and well, the outer rim is so big we didn't bother going around to look for entrance or whatsoever, so we went to shop at the outlet stores beside. Bought a pair of superstar in my shade of blue, an adidas t-shirt, and some superdry t-shirt. Went back to the city by late evening for a show at the Savoy Theatre -- Dreamgirls! First show of the trip. It's one of my favourite musical movie, and this musical haven't toured before, so I wanted to go. My friends were nice to go along with whatever I wanted to watch, and were also ok to be squeezed dry of their time. HAHA. (Because most of the time in London, we had takeaways or cafe or sandwiches to keep the wallet fat and to keep meal time short).

Oh ya, Happy Birthday to myself, but pretty much nothing for this trip due to all the complicated matters. Oh wells... at that moment I really thought to myself that I'm better on my own, or back at home. Like what's the point honestly.

Day 5 (13 June, Tue):
Day-trip with the English Bus Company to Stonehenge and Bath (topped with a secret place). Totally loved it. Impressed with the weather, the sky, the structure and the stones. HAHA! No, we didn't go for any roman bath, but it was fun walking around, the guide was really good. Had some good bread and scones at Bath for lunch too!! We got to Bath first, (after the secret place, but secret, so you have got to find out yourself, I heard there are a few different ones depending on any specific wishes from the group).

And then we got to Stonehenge around 4pm or so, sun was omg strong. HAHA! Took slow walk around the place while trying to listen to the audioguide. And the formation just looked so nice from every single angle. Really love the place. And the sky helped to make the photos look super nice too. Lucky! :)

And back to the city... and it was still bright even though it was late already. lol! Fish and Chips (from a random shop?) or maybe I searched for one around the area on the spot I can't remember already. It was nice!! It was a brilliant to share 1 portion from that previous experience and we all ready wondered how the table nearby is going to finish their food -- each of them ordered a main and they had something to share.

Day 6 (14 June, Wed):
It was going to be a day we will watch 2 shows because they have matinee shows on this day. So we stayed in the city area and did some other tourist thing. hahaha. But first, we had to visit Borough Market. Excited to know that it reopened after the recent attack. We were not even sure if we would be able to visit it before we leave. Not all stalls were opened but good enough, we had some good food, Yay!

Also went to St. Paul's Cathedral, probably one of the only places we paid to enter in London (lol), because it was highly recommended and we had time. It was really beautiful and big, but no photos inside. Now, the audioguide was really useful, there's virtual tour, and explanations equipped with some graphics also. Helped us to understand the structure and all. Eventually we went up to the whispering gallery through the narrow and spiral stairs, it was quite a tough climb actually (many many steps) and we decided to stop there. To go up to the next level is another 300+ steps. And the whispering gallery was already amazing enough. They were so strict they had staff at each of the half around the circle to catch people taking photo. All right.... And whispering really works, staff spoke to kid who was standing on the bench and repeatedly ask his mother if she could hear, but actually it will only be possible if the person is further away so apparently the mum didn't hear it. And staff don't even need to walk around to tell people no climbing and no photos allowed, they just had to speak into the wall. Great design, for great purposes.

After the Borough Market, got ourselves to London Bridge (just to see it), there were still a lot of notes and flowers for the attack previously. But of course, London Bridge was nothing much so we went along to Tower Bridge. Haha! It was lunch hour and it really puzzles me how could I ever eat my lunch in the sun. Walked through the Tower Bridge (without going up because need to pay) and passed by Tower of London as well. HAHA!

And then we were back to the Leicester Square for our show - The Book of Mormon at 2.30pm. Coincidentally, yuhui's brother and friend turned up and sat beside us. Haha! It's quite a good show and it was quite funny, putting some humanity and humour to faith.

We then finally had the time to go to the Theatre Cafe to utilise the voucher they gave us for each of the ticket we bought. So we could each get a drink and a piece of food. (all names are related to musicals of the time)

And then Mamma Mia at night, okay, this show wasn't requested by me so I'm not dominating the entire trip, just in case you think so. It was good! I love the set, the music and everything! :) We were sitting so high up that we could actually see some scene change preparation. Haha extra views for lower price, not too bad actually!

Day 7 (15 June, Thu):
Went to Tate Modern after a good breakfast around the vicinity.

Tate Modern is really big! We didn't expect to spend so much time there. But was happy to see really nice exhibits. And able to recognise some works I've learnt in my studies. HAHA! And we were really tired from walking through the entire place.

Then went to the British Library to take a look too. It was so nice, though no very big and it looks more modern then classic Victorian style shelves. And i guess people were really staring at us somehow I do not know why.

We finally decided that we will have time for some high tea on that day before we catch our show in the evening. So after much choosing, we settled with Bea's of Bloomsbury. The scones were nice! some of the other bakes were a little dry. Overall, still a chillax afternoon after many days of going here and there (but the worse is yet to come hahaha)

And so it was Les Miserables at night! It was soooo good! And interestingly they have standing tickets (limited to 10 people, and of course it was super cheap), so you got to stand for like 3 hours or so, at the highest point of the theatre!

Day 8 (16 June, Fri):
Our last day in London!!! :( Anyhows, we decided to go back to Buckingham for the change of guards but turns out it's really not fantastic because you can hardly see a thing from outside the gates. HAHA! But we went to the St. James Park right beside and was surprised to see quite a crowd and pretty nice sights of ducks, swans and pretty flowers.

And then we left for outlet shopping at the Bicester Village. Please note that train tickets have to be bought separately for this trip. We sort of didn't know and had to pay when the trainmaster came by. But kindly helped us to issue the tickets. Bought a few stuff there! :D Hightea cum Dinner at the farmshop there and it's actually quite nice! By saying this, we really ordered a set of hightea. haha!

And that's all for the London part. We had to drop Oxford because we had no more time already. But the fact is we should have dropped Buckingham on the last day and went to Oxford instead. And probably we could have gone into a few other buildings/museums/palace, looking at the amount of pounds we had left we do have some time to spare. HAHA! Oh wells... regrets bring reasons for subsequent trips. HAHA!

All in all for the London part, good time spent I feel. Not too busy most of the time (we only returned late because of the shows and right, we didn't leave too early everyday if I didn't remember wrongly) But we did for a few days, lah. Haha. Moreover, because we had the entire apartment, we could do some cooking some days, be it breakfast, dinner or supper. The tiring part of the trip was mostly in Europe. Lol!

About the accommodation:
But at the end we were still faced with some problem with the airbnb. To save that kind of money, we had to travel quite far to the city (though the journey is not too long, it's extra spending also and we got to learn about their train system a little through this place haha). And after we left, the owner accused us of leaving uncleared stuff in the fridge and made us pay for her cleaner's extra hours. It was totally weird because we had to pay for 2 hours of extra work which I really thought was unreasonable. And we also encounter lock out for one of the days as the owner set the lock to the wrong date and it took us some calls (international) and time to get the owner's friend to help us solve this. And we thought we were nice to not make her refund us for the mistake. In the end we were backfired. We didn't even make a huge mess and we washed every single thing we used in the house. The only thing we did wrongly was to not note the initial stage and to throw our shopping bags away. I thought of many ways to steer ourselves out, however, friend was also not willing to continue arguing. Oh wells, and btw this airbnb thing I was a little displeased about it as well because it was just suddenly booked by travel mate without further discussion and it was paid immediately. After that travel mate was also not willing to ask for any cancellation when we realised that it is actually quite far away from the city. I booked the rest of the accommodation and I'm sure I made better and safer choices. But to respect the decision, we went ahead with it of course. Only to let the aftermath happen, so if I had made the booking, I wouldn't have let this pass. The listing is not even available on airbnb anymore. So anyway, if you come across a host called Amarlie and the apartment is at Peckham Rye area Bellenden Road, better be careful!

I'll come back with the Brussels and Paris part. (Hopefully) LOL

35歲的目标

好... 之前說過的，要回顧一下我那個三十岁的目标 2013年改版

1. 存錢，也許在眼前想買的是車子，但最終要買的是房子。如果沒結婚，35歲時可以存夠錢買房子搬出去。
2. 希望可以找到心仪的对象, 不想一个人过一辈子. 看到太多的例子, 不想和他们一样. 我希望有自己的家庭, 也可以让父母不必为我担心. 毕竟他们也不年轻了. 而且, 我也不年轻了. 「這個就不改了，我對這個的心還沒變。不排斥任何人介紹朋友給我認識喔！哈哈！」
3. 去一些我一直很想去的地方. 像前面說的，美國，英國和歐洲，也不是說其他的國家不能去，但以這三個地方為目標吧。要在30歲前達到的目標 － 至少一個。
4.  希望我可以一直坚持梦想, 做我喜欢做的事.
5. 不玩音樂後可以完成更多想做的事：學跳舞、重新參加運動（的俱樂部）
6. 多點時間給家人，也希望在乎的人能多點時間給我。一年至少請家人吃一次大餐！

三十歲過了😭😭😭 所以已經不能是三十歲的目標了。:( 所以只可以換成35歲的目標了。很多沒有做到，但至少做到了一點點，還算不錯 哈哈。

回顧一下：算是做到30歲生日的時候遊了英國倫敦(London)、比利時布魯塞爾(Brussels)和法國巴黎(Paris)。然後也做到了我一直一直很想做的一件事 -- 獨自一個人去一趟旅行，而且去了我最喜歡的地方 -- 台灣 😁 不知道會不會有下一次。今年想和家人去一趟。

開始回去運動，是喜歡的bodycombat (而且是以前在cali最喜歡的教練 hehe)，最近也做piloxing. 其實真的很累，不太想做，但還是拼一下吧。哈哈

1. 還是存錢，雖然還是沒存到很多。哈哈還是買房子吧。一定要有自己住的地方。
2. 想要真的談戀愛...
3. 還要做喜歡的事情--現在的工作。
4. 一年至少表演一场。不然全部都会忘掉的，而且真的会懒惰。
5. 去一次美国、意大利、日本、韩国
6. 学一学钢琴／吉他

繼續加油吧。覺得今年時間過得有些快... 做事情沒那麼快... 需要更多的動力。