London Excursions Part III

I mentioned we had several visitors. Well besides Ganga, we had a surprise visit by Ernest! Early morning on 24th Nov he gave us a ring, and told us he was heading down to London from Exeter! He arrived late at night, and we were up late chatting away :) Had to drag ourselves to sleep else we'd not be able to do anything at all on Sunday!

Ernest had not been to London before, and Jon hasn't really done a lot of sightseeing, so we planned a full day of major sights!

First up - Piccadily Circus! We took a bus there and walked the rest of the day.

A quick walk through Leicester Square, past the National Portrait Gallery, and we were at Trafalgar Square :)

This particular photo was actually taken on a previous occasion. I thought it's appropriate to add it in now to show the square and the crowds there :)

Down Whitehall to see the Horse Guards. Such wonderful creatures! The horses I mean, not the guard ;)

Since it was still November at that time, Jon still had his Mo :) But it's gone now!

This is the sculpture of Women in World War II along Whitehall.

The walk along Whitehall brought us to Downing Street - where the British Prime Minister stays! I never knew it was caged up behind a high fence. Everytime you see it in the news it looks like it's just along the road. But I have wondered about the security of the place before. Now it makes sense. The whole street is safely behind bars..

This is the Cenotaph commemorating citizens killed in the two world wars. The red wreaths were from Remembrance Day, where the Queen, Prime Minister, and other representatives from various countries and groups, place wreaths in remembrance of those who lost their lives.

Here comes Big Ben!

And the Houses of Parliament!

We popped by the river Thames to take a look at the London Eye :)

Then we decided to head to Westminster Cathedral. Ernest and I were just discussing how wonderful the choirs are during Evening Song, and it'll be great if we could catch the service at Westminster, but it was supposed to be later in the day and we were too early. But as we passed a notice board,

we saw that for that day it was to be held at 3pm..and it was 3pm! So we ran excitedly to the entrance to catch Evening Song :) Made it just in time!

Some famous writers buried at Westminster

A quick walk through St James's Park (to see the Palace from the bridge in the park) and we were at the Mall.

Then another quick walk through Green Park (the sun had set by then) and a further walk, and soon we were at Oxford Street to see the Christmas lights!

Well, after a whole day of walking and sightseeing, we were ready of a good hearty meal. And since Ernest hadn't eaten Singaporean food for several months, we brought him to Nyonya, a restaurant that serves Singaporean/Malaysian food at Nottinghill :) Rachel had introduced us to the restaurant previously, it's quite good. So between the three of us, we had a ton to eat, and I was sooo full after that!

Too bad Ernest had to leave that night! But that certainly was one fun-filled Sunday!

Spamalot

The lot of us went to watch Monty Python's Spamalot on 29 Nov. From what I've heard of Monty Python, I thought Spamalot was going to be a riot! But unfortunately, or maybe that was the idea, it was mainly slapstick. Compared to Avenue Q, I thought Spamalot paled in comparison. The humour was less witty, and just..less. Wasn't laughing as much, nor as hard as when we were watching Ave Q.

But still, it was entertaining enough :) More enjoyable when you just switch your brain off and enjoy the slapstick ;)

London Excursions Part II

Here are more pics of the various places Ganga and I visited :)

On the way to Leadenhall Market we stumbled upon a second-hand book shop set in a church where we picked up some cheap reads! Beautiful place for a bookshop.












Leadenhall Market all decked out in Christmas decor:

Patisserie Valerie - Ganga was looking for this place cos it was recommended by her friend. The cakes and pastries did look good, and some were just so cute, like this hedge hog!

And this was an interesting find! Wedding couples of all orientations, races, and ethnic groups :)

One of the nights we decided to have a potluck of sorts at Sat's and THH's place. Ganga made some curry, Sat did stir-fried beansprouts, and we brought some baked salmon, and 2 veggies. Quite a healthy meal :)

We were taking the chance to discuss and plan our road trip to Cardiff and Bath which was that coming weekend. And also to decide on a musical to watch! We decided on Spamalot! So Ganga and I were tasked to go grab some tickets the next day for the night's performance :) Yay more musicals :)

More on Spamalot...next.

London Excursions Part I

I've been slack in updating the blog! Between planning for holidays, running around London, and reading some super engrossing books (more on all this later), there hasn't been much time for blogging!

There've been several visiters to London! Ganga came up to visit Sathia, and together we've been wandering some bits of London that we've both not seen (she's visited before) :) We explored places like Petticoat Lane, Spitalfields Market, Leadenhall Market, British Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, the Natural History Museum Christmas Market, and a spot of shopping (well maybe several spots, heh) at Oxford Street :)


The visit to Petticoat Lane was unplanned, but a good find! I managed to find some good buys there :) I had thought it'd be mostly household items and bric-a-brac, but the part that we came across was like high street but half the price :) Didn't go crazy shopping (I seldom do), but did get two really good fitting pants there! I was so pleased! :)

Sculptures outside Liverpool Street Station


Some British Museum exhibits:


An interesting piece. Turning weapons into works of art, this chair is made from machine guns!


Like the Taoists, the ancient Egyptians also believed in providing for their dead by making replicas of houses, food, providing servants, etc. But instead of burning these, the ancient Egyptians left these replicas in the tombs of the dead.


The Rosetta Stone! This is a really important piece of history! This stone bore the inscriptions of the same message in three languages - Egyptian hieroglyphics, Demotic, and Greek. Because of this stone that the ancient hieroglyphic script was deciphered.















850BC relief of Osorkon II



















This is one grumpy bird. C'mon, give a smile!! :)


Ancient sculptures belonging to the Babylonian Empire. These used to stand at the entrance of city gates, their respective pairs being located at the New York Metropolian Museum.




























[ps: will add more comments and photos when we come back from our trip! we're going away for Christmas!!]