12 June 2011, Sunday

Life in London - Take Two - Going around

Second day (Sunday) was a very wet day (even for rainy Singapore). Nevertheless, the four of us (YC, Francis, Raymond and myself) went on and travelled around a few touristy places, including going to Trafalgar square, the Big Ben, Chinatown, Ministry of Defence building, Buckingham Palace and Picadilly Circus. 

We woke up early in the morning and went to Morrison's, the supermarket near our place, to stock up on necessities and our food supplies for the next few days. After that, we went home to put stuff down, then went out and do some touristy things.


Before all that, we went to Shaftesbury avenue, where Double Negative London is, to test out the route we'll be using come Monday. There was a Three Mobile store just beside the Curzon theatre, so we went over to get ourselves some pre-paid mobile voice/text/data plan. It was the £15 plan that gives 3000 sms and unlimited plan. Later we found out that Three mobile was the only provider that gives unlimited data at the moment. I was already using Three the last time I was in London.


After that we went for lunch at Taro , a Japanese restaurant just behind Double Negative's Shaftesbury Avenue office. 

My Curry Rice

Francis' pork chop bento (or was it chicken?)

After the meal, outside the restaurant, Francis assessing the damage

Grabbing a coffee at Costa

My ice cappucino

The Shaftesbury office taken from across the street

Hello again, London Chinatown

Ship in a bottle...

... at Trafalgar square

Me standing up but looking like I'm lying on grass :)

Francis deep in concentration

Really rainy on the second day. I gave up on using the DSLR in the end because I am worried it'll spoil in all this rain

The weather was really cranky. It rained and stopped and rained again. Overall it was cloudy the whole day. In the end all our feet and socks were soaked and my DSLR and lens were coated with rain in spite me trying to hide them under my coat.

All our shoes were soaking in rain water

Under a bridge

Shops under a bridge

Saw a London bus parked by the road

Raymond at the bus

Me in front of a London bus parked by the side of the street

Ministry of Defence building

After a few rounds of rain then shine, we decided to have dinner.

Francis was very tired

But he was happy (because food was coming)

The restaurant and cafe we ate at

My dinner - Lasagne

What Francis had (I took this because he was sitting across from me)

The restaurant / cafe from outside

Just beside that cafe

We turned a few corners and came to the Big Ben

Big Ben again

Just when we thought we were done, at Victoria train station where we take the National Rail back to Streatham, we made one last detour, to see the Buckingham Palace.

Buckingham Palace

Gates into the Palace

The Royal Guard

Francis, like a star!

Francis is happy with his camera

Day 3 and Day 4, we went to work. First day we went through the induction with the new hires. Gave us some time to recuperate from our jet lag.


So its day 5 now, and it looks like I'm going to be more awake than the last few days.