London Day 4, 5 & 6

Day 4 

Went to Covent Garden which used to be one of my favourite places to go in London! It used to have such a rustic feel with so many local vendors and little shops selling lovely handmade items but now they've seen to have brought in all the high end brands such as Chanel, Dior, Burberry and many others which doesn't make it feel as rustic anymore :( However, I still really like the fact that there is always live music in the square at the ground level of Covent garden where people are just having tea and cakes outdoors. I also had one of the best hot chocolates I've ever had at Whittard and it was the Salted Caramel flavoured one! After a very good Indian lunch, I then wandered around Oxford street whilst Uncle Maneksh, Aunty Rita and Hari headed back home to meet a friend. I really need to start exploring places that I haven't been to in London because I'm starting to get a little bored of seeing the same shops all the time. My mission is to visit more vintage and local shops! 

Day 5 

Went to the Tate Modern with Zoea, Ashleigh(her bf) , Zara(her sister) and Mark(her sister's bf)! I was basically 5th wheeling... Nah I'm kidding I did not feel like that at all hahaha

and I did not really enjoy the exhibits because to be honest I cannot understand modern art and therefore neither can I appreciate it. I really want someone who truly understands modern art to tell me what they see in an art piece because I am seriously curious as to what they can see in a painting that makes no sense to me at all

For example, in this painting above, the artist wanted to show how any colour could be paired with another colour. There was another painting of a few horizontal and vertical stripes with a red square in the top left hand corner, with the artist just wanting to make the red stand out in the painting. 

????????? (it's all very bizarre) 

This exhibit was the most interesting of all and it was by a Singaporean artist who worked in Malaysia and in the UK, and he photographed people wearing fruit masks 

After the Tate, we all headed towards Camden Market and there was a Mad Hatter tea party happening along the sidewalk! The shops in Camden Market were so nice as they were as local handmade goods and vintage stores and Zoea brought us to a vendor selling rings and I got 2 which I am in love with! We then headed to the food market and I got a salad bowl kind of thing, a raw cacao coconut ball and tried some coconut pancakes which were so yummy!

We passed by the Cereal Killer Cafe which serves - you guessed it - Cereal! 

We then headed to SOHO to meet Catherine (another friend from work) for dinner! We stumbled into a lovely Spanish restaurant and had a really good chat :) We talked about Japan and their culture and how even though they had managed to survive so well throughout the years being a "closed economy" - as they don't expand as much as other countries due to the fact that they do not see the importance or the need to be speaking English in the 21st century, this is one of the reasons why their economy is going downhill. We also talked about how much the Japanese actually dislike foreigners and I really enjoy conversations like this because it makes me feel informed and it is just really interesting to be hearing the other side of the otherwise perfect Japan with their amazing food and amazing city and amazing people that I've heard so much about! 

This is Zoea! 

We met through work at TTP as we were both working in the same production and we got on really well from the first day we met. Personally, I find it quite rare that I can immediately be talking about more in depth issues with someone that I've just met and I'm so thankful for this friendship :') 

Did a little painting that evening

Went back to Oxford street and got myself a smoothie this time! (after getting 2 items at Urban outfitters but to be fair they were on 50% sale and I am making an effort to only be buying things that are on a substantial amount of sale!)

It had berries, coconut water and bananas and other ingredients which I've forgotten but it was not worth the 4 pounds :( I then met Catherine again to get stuff from John Lewis and then we met up with Windson for lunch. We then split again after lunch where I followed Catherine to get shopping done whilst Windson went to get his stuff and then we met up again for dinner and this time with Zoea and Ashleigh

We had Shoryu ramen in Kingly Court at Carnaby Street and I had the White Natural which was the only vegan option and it was excellent!! I drank every bit of soup that was left and I was extremely satisfied with my meal and so were the others with their ramens :)

After dinner we then all parted ways to head back and I got on the tube with Zoea and Ashleigh for a stop before I had to change lines :( I really wish we had more time to spend together but I guess all good things must come to an end? 

It was so nice seeing familiar faces from home these past 2 days and being in the company of friends after roaming around the streets of London by myself in the time since I've been here! Hopefully in the next few days I will make an effort to explore new places in London :)

London Day 1, 2 & 3

So I headed out on the 23rd morning without any plans in mind besides taking a ballet class at Dance works and the class was really good! I forgot to bring my shoes over from Edinburgh .... but I just wore socks and they worked fine. Dance Works was just opposite Selfridges (on the right) and their window displays are amazing! 

I just wandered along Oxford and Bond street in the day and had class from 3-4:30 and when I walked out of the studio I was greeted by amazing christmas lights that all came on and I was seriously in awe!! 

I love just standing in the middle of Piccadilly circus and just bask in the atmosphere :')

I would love to catch the Book of Mormon again!!! But I may get tickets for Les Mis instead or even Wicked hehe

So this juice stand OBVIOUSLY caught my eye but I wasn't hungry at all so I might come back to try their juices some time soon

Leicester Square had their own little Winter Wonderland with the Huge Coco Cola van which was very nicely lined up with lights all around it! There was a street hip-hop performance going on as well and it was really good :) The street performers I find, have just got so much character and swag and they really know how to please the crowd and spread their joy when dancing!

Finally a picture of London in the day hahahah

So on the 24th at around 12pm, Windson (friend from work) called me and asked if I wanted to watch Miss Saigon - a musical about the Vietnam war that afternoon at 2:30 as he had free tickets and of course I agreed because who would pass up on an opportunity to see a musical!! (ok I know many would probably not but I love musicals) and so I headed down to Leicester Square and picked up a Christmas present for a friend on the way to the theatre, stopped for lunch at this place called The Detox Kitchen at Kingly Court and headed down to meet Windson at Prince Edward Theatre 

The theatre was gorgeous!! and the musical was pretty good, the singing was of course fantastic but I wouldn't say its my favourite but I'm so glad I caught it anyway :) and of course it was so nice to see a familiar face from home again! Windson and I didn't really have much time to chit chat though as he had to rush off for Christmas dinner with friends but Im seeing him again on the 27th with other friends from work which I'm so excited for! (Especially you Zoea :) ) 

I decided to walk from Piccadilly station to Green Park station just to enjoy the night life in London :) I passed by Waterstone's and decided to head in. They had the most adorable categories of books such as "Bounded printer paper to make you smarter" and "Unputdownable", which I thought was pretty funny

I then passed by a chocolate store which I forgot the name of but they labelled all their chocolates as being suitable for either vegans/vegetarians which I thought was so thoughtful!

I settled for the Stevia dark chocolate which cost 5.60 which is honestly really expensive but I didn't know it was going to be that expensive as it was priced by weight and I couldn't gauge the price :( But I just took it as a christmas present to myself hehe

I then passed by another book store with this beautiful window display :') I like how so many of the stores here take so much effort into making their window displays so beautiful and you just see people gathering round and appreciating the displays which is a very pleasant sight 

25th - Christmas day!! I spent the day helping to prep for Christmas lunch and then Uncle Maneksh, Aunty Rita, Hari and I headed to the neighbour's house for a bit in the morning where I gladly offered to take the role of caretaker of the children ahah and honestly I enjoyed it because 1. I didn't know the neighbours at all so I just wanted the parents to have a nice get together and chit chat 2. I actually really enjoy playing with children - and I ended up helping to fix build a caravan out of lego and reading Frozen with the girls which was nice :) We then headed back to the house to have christmas lunch! It was deelicious! I was so full that I still feel full now that its 8pm and I haven't had dinner and I don't really know why cos it's not like I ate that much... but oh wells

Ohamgee how could I forget - Justina passed gifts to Windson to pass to me as it was too expensive to mail stuff over form Singapore and I opened them today as a Christmas gift and I was so incredibly happy!! She got me so much stuff with the highlights being - Freeze-dried durian chips (OMG??), a Starbucks tumblr, Avocado soap and very very nice perfume :) and my mother brought over some ginseng for me which I cannot stand the smell/taste of.... but I know it's cause she loves me!!

Anyway, so tomorrow is boxing day and I might head out to catch some good sales in the shops! Im definitely gonna pop into Lush and get a bath bomb - or just to smell everything :)

Hope that everyone had a splendid Christmas with the ones that they love and also to enjoy the rest of the holidays before the new year which is in just 6 days!!!

Last 2 weeks of Semester 1

I can't believe that I've finished a whole semester of Uni overseas! I would describe it as an emotional rollercoaster but I'm glad I've managed to go through the whole school-studying-exams things after such a long break (same goes to any other fresher in uni - good job!!) I must say it was quite hard getting motivated and staying focused on studying for exams as I got distracted/procrastinated so easily?! I knew I had to study yet I kept giving myself so many breaks which I don't understand why but all my papers weren't too bad so thats great! It also didn't help that having a paper on the last possible day of exams meant watching people go home everyday, you could feel the emptiness of the house which was really really sad :( They started to serve less food and even turned on fewer lights at the cafeteria which made it worse! But the most painful sound to me was the rolling of the wheels of someone's suitcase on the pathway out of the house :(( But I'm done now and I cannot describe how happy and excited to finally be done!! :)

 Went to Mother India cafe with Sophia and Tessa and it was so good! Gotta love some food authentic Indian food :) and you know you'd always be able to find vegan/vegetarian food at Indian restaurants!

I finally made it to the Christmas market! I'd think it'd be slightly pathetic if I didn't visit the christmas market whilst I was here so I'm glad I did hahah but I didn't really have much time to take my time and appreciate all the different shops selling such a huge variety of things but it was still nice to at least be in the whole christmassy atmosphere :) 

This lady selling nuts was so nice and gave us so many samples to try! They even had strawberry peanuts? But I didn't try em. I can't remember the names of the nuts but they were all so yummy but also because Erin and I were so hungry! There was even white-chocolate coconut peanuts!!

Just gotta love all the Christmas lights!!

Dinner out to celebrate the end of exams! Now I know that you can easily have vegan pizza at any restaurant - just order a vegetarian pizza and take out the cheese (or egg if there's any) and just fyi I like to eat my pizza with ketchup, is that weird?? hahahah idk but its a great combination!! 

This was the flying-spinny thingy that went up to 60m high! I so wanted to go on it but I had no time plus I think it's quite dangerous when its windy!

These were my 2 for 4 pounds small meals for lunch on the train ride to London! They were so good and came with a dressing of soy-garlic which complimented the salad so well :) There were 2 middle-aged men sitting opposite me on the train and they were being extremely inconsiderate: They were talking really loudly, drinking beer and burping out loud (SO RUDE) and even sang out loud (and no they did not sound good) for a period of time - I was so annoyed, disgusted and quite frightened frankly speaking because I didn't want to be harassed by 2 drunk men. But they got off halfway through the journey thank goodness and all was good after! I was being a little ambitious and downloaded 3 movies for the train which took 4h 45 min but I only managed to watch Begin Again and The Longest Ride which I both thoroughly enjoyed, I liked The Longest Ride better and I highly recommend everyone to see it because its just such a sweet film about love and sacrifice :') 

I'm finally in London now and my suitcase is ginormous! I don't even know why I have so much to bring but I couldn't seem to take anymore clothes out after doing 2 filters of my clothes hahah I hope I'm not the only one with this problem. Any who, I had my first home cooked meal in Uncle Maneksh and Aunty Ritta's place (family friends who's house I'm staying in) and it was sooooooo good! We had salad and falafel to start, then lentil and potato curry with spiced rice for the main course which I had 2 servings of, and some banana ice cream, raw chocolate ball with coconut flakes and mango for dessert! I haven't been this satisfied with food in such a long time :') I'm currently now chilling in the bed listening to christmas tunes and deciding where to head off to tomorrow, probably going to visit a cafe and go for ballet :) 

Cannot wait to start enjoying life!!