10th May 2008 - Day 5

The day after the competition. Today, I checked out of President Hotel and moved my stuff to Premier Inn in Heathrow. I was told it was "right next to the airport." When I reached the airport, I found out I had to take a bus! Lesson learnt. In London when they say right next to, it is really really far away. Like how Singapore is "right next to" Malaysia. The bus ride costs a bomb! 4 pounds one way. That amounts to a total of 16 pounds!!! sob sob

Had the last day of the exact same English breakfast. I am getting sick of the same thing everyday. I mean the food is nice, for the first day. And it's ok the second. But the 3rd, 4th, 5th!!!! OMG. I have had enough. Just one piece of toast and juice is more than enough for me. LOL.

English tea. Last meal together with the rest of the participants =) It's a nice photo.

Nicholas from Denmark. =) He sat on my right at breakfast and was in front of me during the finals at the US Embassy. A really nice guy =)

Me, Ayaka, T

Me, Meriem, T, Hajar, Ayaka

Goodbye President Hotel

Upon checking out of the hotel, I was waiting in the lobby with T for Ms Amy who so kindly insisted to accompany me to Premier Inn so that she can make sure I am settled in. While waiting, we talked a bit to Patricia who left shortly, and also to Tom who was waiting in the lobby after checking out. T was so nice as to say he'd accompany me to Heathrow earlier even though his flight was later at night. =) Thus I wouldn't be going around on my own.

We stopped by at a nearby Tesco before going to take the Tube. I saw butterscotch yogurt! I have never seen a yogurt flavoured butterscotch in my LIFE. LOL. So I bought that, 3 cookies and 2 scone-like things which I forgot what they were called. Then we began our journey to heathrow. Random photos were taken in the train as we went along.

I found this sign hilarious. It is between two moving trains. Risk of death indeed.

I took this photo of the advertisement about their broadband because I noticed something. It cost 7.50 pounds per month. Convert that to Malaysian Ringgit and it is CHEAPER THAN STREAMYX!!! And I thought everything in London costs more. Internet costs one pound for 10 minutes. Haha which Malaysian would fork out almost RM40 for an hour in a cyber cafe?!! It's like RM2. Or at most RM2.50. haha unless you are desperate and in another country maybe =p

Took this as we waited a few minutes for the next train. I thought the pigeons were really nice to look at =) We had to get down for a moment and board the next train that came because the one we were on did not go to terminal 1,2 or 3.

Unfortunately, I really did not expect everything to take so long. By the time I checked into Premier Inn and went back to Heathrow Airport where T was waiting, it was already around 2+pm. I felt kinda bad, sorry T! Ms Amy went back to President Hotel where she was going to meet her son, who stays in London. T and I could not go back to the city, as he had to be back in the airport by seven to check in 2 hours at least before his flight at 9.30pm. We decided that lunch was of absolute importance right at that moment. So lunch it was! Surprisingly, we found this nice restaurant in the airport, and the prices were around the same as what I had back in that restaurant in Russel Square (the green pasta meal).

Like every restaurant has a bar like this. Even at the airport! It is so cool!

I could finally eat the yogurt! It tasted like butterscotch candy =)

We went for the jacket potatoes for lunch, which were HUGE potatoes and also coincidentally, one of the cheapest meals on the menu. We both agreed that potatoes this size do not exist back in our home countries. =p

Mine! With baked beans. I don't like the greens. Especially with no dressing. Urgh raw veggies!! Gave them to T. Butter is good in London! I don't know if it's all psychological but I don't eat butter at all back home. And I keep eating butter in London. It's so good! =)

T's meal. With tuna. He ate my greens! yay! I can't eat much raw veggies with no dressing!

After the meal we decided to just randomly stop at stations since we couldn't possibly go back to central London. Well, we could, but it would be silly to go all the way back, walk around for ten minutes and go back to Heathrow. We stopped at Hounslow West and Central. Went down and I had to pay a couple of pounds every single time, because apparently my oyster card (one week travel pass) was only for zone one and two, and I am now in zone 4, 5, and6. It was more village-like there, as it was slightly towards the outskirts of London.

Lady at the booth told me not to buy the cherries that I was eyeing because they were expensive this time of the year.

The houses here are all so nice and English! =) Lovely! I love the brickwork. Back home its all plastered and bricks are only seen when the buildings are in construction.

Our next stop was Acton Town. T declared it was all too boring being out of the city, so we decided to travel more towards the city center. We decided on South Kensington. As we alighted from the train, we found ourselves... IN THE CITY!!!! Awesome! Haha. We walked around for awhile and got COOKIES =) =D =) I have been looking for them cookies for ages! Wanted to get some back to Malaysia. Went to the store and bought a bag of them to bring back. Then had one myself, they served it with ice cream. No I did not have two. Haha the other one was T's. =) T had triple chocolate cookie and vanilla ice-cream. I'd like to have the triple chocolate, but he took the last cookie lol. First time having TOFFEE ice-cream, with a cookie some more! =) My cookie was double chocolate. Walking along, T said that he felt guilty for downing too many calories. I looked at him and laughed. "You're worried about calories?" I have never seen someone his size worried about calories. He wisely revealed that he used to be a chubby kid. Haha. I remarked that I would love to see photos of him when he was a kid. Probably one of the cutest kid in his class then =p Maybe even now wahahaha

We passed this beautiful picture at the window of a painting shop along the streets. I couldn't capture the art in a photograph though :( unfortunately.

And... a LAMBORGHINI!!!!!! Not one! A whole showroom of them!!!! This is just a photo of one. =D =D =D Mine! mine! mine! MINEEEEE!!!

Next we saw "free admissions!" It was an exhibition in the british museum. We had half an hour to kill, so we went in, and ended up in the Europe section of I think the 17th - 18th century if my memory is not failing me. =p

In the museum:

Table- ITALIAN (Turin) about 1733

Two manual Harpsichord FRENCH Paris 1681

The lights in the museum were ever so pretty. Again, my amateur photography does the real thing no justice.

The streets of South Kensington:

I love this view. Especially the tree with no leaves, its dark branches sticking out majestically towards the sky, a sharp contrast to the greenery of the surrounding trees. The leafless tree just gives a feeling of melancholy amidst the ordinariness of its surroundings. Even T had something to say about that tree. He said the people who lived in the house behind that tree was so lucky. =) I know you're thinking, it's just a leaf-less tree, probably dying. But its not just a tree! It's the kind of ordinariness that extraordinarily stands out. Something an observant person would notice =p I have a tree like that back home in KK my home state of Sabah. An old durian tree (is it a durian tree?) that stands solemnly the whole year, most of the time barren. It did surprise us once though, when all of a sudden green leaves sprout out of nowhere. Never saw it bearing any fruit though. Anyway, back to London.~~~ Set against a backdrop of very English buildings, with a row of cars each on the dark grey asphalt stands 2 visitors, one from Thailand one from Malaysia. That's South Kensington on the afternoon of 10th May 2008!~~

Time to go back to Heathrow Airport. T checked in and then I left Heathrow Airport. Thanks so much for accompanying me =) It was really awesome hanging out.

Next stop, Leicester Square, Central London. Was to meet up with Adrian for dinner. Wouldn't have had the time if I had the homestay thing on. We went for dinner in Chinatown. Ironic as it sounds, I was in London for 5 days and I ate 2 chinese dinners!! After that I wanted to buy candies back. Adrian showed me a store and i bought almost 20 pounds worth of candies! I think he was quite amused by how I said the candies were "so pretty". i should have taken pictures of the candy store! Unfortunately I was too caught up with the colourful candies. You don't get stores like those here.

After that Adrian had to go back to his studies, so I was left to wander around the streets of London for awhile before heading back. I don't really remember where I went. I know I walked around Piccadilly Circus and Tottenham Court Road, and basically just wandered around looking at the buildings and the streets and the people. Many stores were already closed as it was getting late. I noticed that the stores were basically the brands we get back home in the shopping malls. Nothing truly new. The famous double decker red bus and black taxis were of course abundant. I stepped into a souvenir shop whose store still looked open and the shopkeeper told me "sorry ma'am we are closing". Another comparison. Back home, shopkeepers will lure you into their stores even when it's closing time so they can MAKE MORE MONEY!!! Hahaha.

The city comes alive with lights! Note the Union Jack! The UK Flag! Proof that I WAS IN UK! =)

I tried to take photos of London at night. The city comes alive with all the lights and the awesome sights. Unfortunately, it's really hard to capture on camera. With flash I cannot see anything that is far ahead. Without flash it is too dark and I don't get much either.

This place actually looks awesome in reality. It just doesn't turn out as good in the photo. Ah well, I guess it can't be helped. I really loved the way the building curved from the front to the back. Perhaps if it was a day photo, that would have been a great photograph. If I am not mistaken (which I might be, I was kinda tired already by then) I was at Piccadilly Circus.

The red bus!! Trademark of London! =)

I saw a LIMO!!!! Can you see it? LOL I must really sound like I am from some ulu kampung (a.k.a. village). Haha but I have never seen a limo except in TV! =p

I was already getting very tired since I slept for around two hours only the night before. Plus all the traveling and spending like half the time in the tube, I was dead beat. Wanted nothing more than to go to that inviting bed in Premier Inn. It's a very nice place, especially compared to the previous accommodation =p And its purple =) Everyone who knows me well know I have a soft spot for anything purple. Hehe I like blue too, even better if both colours come together like the poster on the wall of the room.

Earlier in the day when I checked in they changed the room from a twin sharing to one with a nice big double bed as Faustina would not be staying with me. Of all the shopkeepers/receptionists that I met in London, the lady at the reception was most friendly. She looked Philipino, and it just reminded me of what Gian said in his speech, on how Philipinos are all over the world in the service industry, and that in President Hotel itself there were 5 Philipinos at the front desk. Well there were at least 2 here. =)

Anyway, I took the tube from somewhere when I saw the red and blue underground sign. I had to change line after one station and it was another hour before I reached Heathrow Terminal 3. From there, I had to take a bus. I walked out towards the bus station, and I forgot which bus I was supposed to take. So I just went to ask a driver who was already in the bus. "Are you going to Premier Inn?" He said yes, so I went on that bus. 4 pounds off my allowance.

The bus stopped at several places, some of them really grand. The last station was premier inn. I recognised the logo, but I thought, even in my half asleep state that it looked a little different. Perhaps its from another angle, I thought.

Alas, when I went in, it was much much much bigger than I remembered. Perhaps its in another wing I thought, in denial. I AM IN THE WRONG PLACE!!!! I even tried putting the card in the slot in front of the elevator. Obviously it wouldn't work because I am in a different Premier Inn!

So I went to the reception and stupidly said "I think I am in the wrong Premier Inn." The guy at the front desk asked me which premier inn am I supposed to be. I told him (2nd stupid statement) "A smaller one." Hahahahaha He looked at me and courteously said, "but you have to tell me which because there are 2 other premier inns." (3rd stupid statement) "I don't know which, but it's a smaller one." He rephrased his answer. lol. Then I realised I had the booking slip printed out with the address in my backpack (thank goodness!). I took it out and gave it to him, and asked how do I get there. He said I had no choice but to take a cab. There was a phone on the wall right next to me, so I took it up. I had no idea where I am. I just knew I was in the wrong, and grand-er Premier Inn. I asked the receptionist quizzically where I was, and I couldn't make out what he was saying. So I passed the phone to him, as I could not possibly call a cab when all I knew was that I was in one of the branches of the premier inn and its the 'bigger one'. He helpfully called the cab and I then went towards the door to wait for the cab.

It came soon enough and it was quite a drive to the RIGHT Premier Inn. I recognised it the moment I reached. The cab stopped, and I looked for a meter, but there wasn't one. The driver did not tell me how much it was. I was feeling very very very sleepy at that moment already and so here comes stupid statement no 4 "Is it free?" LOL yeah right like any cab in the WORLD is free. "No ma'am", says the cab driver ever so politely, "that's 11 pounds." Urghhh. There goes my allowance again. 11 pounds!!! Back home I could have a buffet dinner in a five star hotel!!!

Oh well. At least I was back. No pictures at this time of the day. I was really too tired to remember to take any. The bed looked so inviting. After the quickest shower imaginable and all the usual brushing teeth and all I practically jumped into bed. The room was nice, the bed was really really nice. Which made up for all the mix up with transport. Softly I drift off to slumberland. My last night in London. The city that will remain fondly in my memory for as long as I live =)