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Exploring London by Foot

Morning! It's almost 6am here.

I wanna do a recount of yesterday's events. Quite a long day!

In the morning, Other Half has his orientation for international students. We left a little early thinking we had to take the bus instead of the tube as there were engineering works along the Jubilee Line we were taking. But! As it turns out, in London's many interconnecting lines, we could get away without taking the bus. Cool!

We reached King's Cross a wee bit early, so we stopped for a cup of hot chocolate and light breakfast. Thinking that all the kebab stalls are closed, we tried this sandwich shop just opposite of the tube station. I had tuna sandwich, and the tuna serving is way better than those sanwiches found in Singapore's 7-11. I kept one sandwich in my bag, just in case I got hungry later, a highily likely situation. Haha!

Off we went to find his school, about a 5 to 10 minutes' walk from the station. The weather's cold today! Nice :) We found his school, an old dreary looking building that doesn't look like a school at all (maybe it's they way school buildings are here), and we parted there. I sent Big Boy to school! Hahahaha :p

I continued to walk around, wandered the many streets of London while waiting for him to end. I had about 4 hours. At first I walked along the road, thinking it would lead me to the train station again but on a different path. After 5 minutes of walking, I realised, the frequency of people is dropping, I can't possibly be nearing the tube, am I? I checked again with the map, and true enough! Haha I was going south west instead of west! Made a turn, and passed by their housing estates, many of which have been converted to hotels and rentals. I took a stroll, admired the area, and occasionally checked my position on the map. On track to Russell Square! We went there the day before, so I was already familiar with the place.

Rested for a while at Russell Square Gardens, the park next to Other Half's school (another campus). I like their parks! Greenery, people actually sitting and enjoying the scenery.

I was greeted by a squirrel as I entered the park. Sooooo cute!!! I was so fascinated can! You don't see squirrels so openly hopping around on the fields back in Singapore! It hopped slowly from a tree, crossing the pavement and into the bush, then emerging so daringly from the bush to meet me. I, paranoid that squirrels here are equivalent to the wretched monkeys at our reservoirs, I didn't dare get too close. Haha.

There was a bench with bouquets attached to it, the bench was in remembrance of a lady who passed away a few years ago. The bouquets and a couple of birthday cards were put there recently, her birthday's 2 days ago.

I settled down on a bench, took a break after all that walking, and ate the sandwich. Then!! Baya called! Woohoo! We'll be meeting for lunch at some halal Carribean place at Tottenham Court Road. I could walk there even since I have the time.

Wait wait! I went to British Museum before walking off again! It was just behind the park, and admission is free WOOHOO, so I dropped by for a while. The place is HUGE! I didn't know where to start, and how's the flow like. Exhibitions are on Egyptian and Greek ruins, stolen from the individual countries I guess. Haha! I was reading the panels, but the info just wasn't absorbed into the brain hahahaha.

So off I went walking again. Supposed to walk towards Tottenham Court Road, but once again I took a slight turn off the track, and ended up at Holburn instead. HAHA. The place is quite boring. Quite a few office buildings. Shops weren't open. I ended up at the Holburn Library while waiting for Big Boy to end school. Planned to walk to his school (yeah, not near, I know) and fetch him :)

Read the British History for Dummies. I love the dummies series! Their language is hilarious! But the British history is very complicated. Didn't complete the book, but I did come across a whole load of scandals/complicated marriages, and the church issue - Catholic versus Protestants. I somewhat remember that there's no Catholics in England, but I wasn't so sure.

And another observation, there's much fewer churches here than Italy. Okay fine, Italy is THE place for Roman Catholics, history and all, naturally there'll be many churches.

Anyway, Big Boy was out an hour early! Didn't give me the chance to fetch him haha! We met in the tube station instead. Meetings in tube stations are a little tricky. There's absolutely no network coverage in those tunnels. Siao rite! Then if something happens, how to contact?! Wahseh.

Had lunch with Baya, jerked chicken with pea rice. The portion is HUGE. Worth the money, but just that I can't finish it. The taste is pretty good too!

We went walking - again - to Leicester Square, the Soho area, Chinatown, and Trafalgar Square.

The Soho area is the other part of London we haven't seen. Shops for adults (if you know what I mean), some with the sign at the door "we sell the blue pill", a porn cinema, gay pubs even. And we saw the teenagers hanging out. Just like all the mats and minahs of Singapore.

Baya said there's an Eid celebration at Trafalgar Square, but not our kind of celebration. There was sort of nasyid by two ladies from Africa. Their songs really have a nice beat to it! Very catchy, not like the nasyids here, especially the English ones.

[Lazy to type summore]

Went to see 10 Downing Street, then the Big Ben and Eye of London from afar.

Went back. Too tired already. Had dinner at Malaysian Hall at night, was very sleepy already, dozed off to and from that place.

Ok bye!

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