A Gift

...the gift is a bear
from a friend who is dear
so that i will not be lonely
along my journey...

note: picture courtesy of Mr Rock

I simply do not understand

I accompany a friend of mine, also a Malaysian, to open a bank account today. We went around all the 3 neighbourhood banks, and none successful. My friend just got her employment letter today, and she thought it would be easier to open an account that way. However, all the banks, ask her for the proof of address, which can only be in the form of other bank's statements or utility bills such as electricity, water, gas or a land line. If this is the case, most of us as foreigner who just come to UK to work, will never get to open any bank account. How can they expect us to have utilities bills since we just moved here, and also most of us will be renting, the bills will not bear our names. So we asked can the proof be in the form of a letter from the landlord, together with the bills? And the answer is still NO. So so so disapointed.

Having said that, it still depends on which bank officer you meet and whether you are lucky enough. A friend of us went to open an account in Liverpool, and the guy only ask for her passport, its that easy! This is a very rare case though. So try your luck!!!

Hopefully when its my time to open one, I will get lucky, haha...

Portobello and the London Freewheel

Its a Sunday, and its sunny... A good day to go out and enjoy! I went to Portobello Market in the morning. They have dozens of little antique shops, colorful buildings, restaurants, clothing shops, souvenir shops & stalls selling 2nd hand stuff here. We had fun window shopping, and I bought 3 postcards to send to my dear frens back home. Too bad some of the shops are not open on Sundays.


portobello market signage


a shop selling wallies decorations


Lush Times - this is the shop that impressed me most. They sells bath and hair products. The smells are so sweet, and they make the products just like food... haha.. i almost tempted to eat the soap bars :p


antiques


colorful buildings

After Portobello, we took a bus to Piccadilly, and walk to St James Park for the Hovis London Freewheel. Today Londoners get to cycle around London's famous landmarks with peaceful minds (the roads are closed to motor vehicle). This event is actually aimed to encourage more people in London to cycle. Hmm, but for me, I think its just too dangerous to cycle in the city centre.


thousands of cyclists participate in this festival, seeing them reminds me of someone, hehe...


cycling acrobatics performance


panda cycling???


a guy doing a test... but i am not sure what it is... hee..

London

I am here for 3 weeks plus already... just cant believe it. I have fun here holidaying everyday. Weather has been good for the first two weeks since I arrived. No rain, and we have sunshine almost everyday. Now, autumn came and the weather starting to get colder and colder. I already feel very lazy to go out :p Dont know what will happen to me when winter comes, hee. As for food, I enjoyed their sandwiches (which I bought from Tesco, Marks & Spencer or Sainsbury) at first, but after a few days, I started to look for asian food. Luckily, the place I stayed at that time, which was Bayswater, offers lots of choices on asian food. The famous roast duck is there. So far, I have tried the roast duck and fried rice in bayswater; Briyani rice at Khan's; nasi campur & meehoon goreng in Malaysian Hall; wanton noodles, rice with curry and sweet&sour pork in Chinatown; even go as far as Oriental City in Colindale for nasi lemak ;) Now, I am running out of money and since I stayed at a friend's house now, we cooked quite often.

Below are some of the places that I visited:

Trafalgar Square at the background- a place always packed with tourists and pigeons.


Piccadilly Circus - my sis told me before I came, this is not a circus, its a roundabout! with the famous Eros statue in the middle


Chinatown- we had our lunch at a Hong Kong char chan teng, which served very delicious seafood curry with rice.


Kensington Gardens - so peaceful


Royal Observatory at Greenwich - where east meets west


Malaysian Hall at Queensborough Terrace, Bayswater.


Tower Bridge - taken during sunset. Its very windy on the day we went to tower bridge, but we still waited from afternoon till it gets dark, so that we can take the different looks of tower bridge ;) This is also the 1st day of the London tube strike. No train for us to go home after our little day tour.


a street performance at Covent Garden. This guy is imitating the scene in the Matrix.


London Eye - took the ride during sunset. The view is worth the £13 we spend.


Big Ben - We walk across the bridge to big ben after our ride at london eye.


Buckingham Palace- for the changing of the guard.


Camden Town - lots and lots and lots of shops selling all kind of things, especially weird things, haha.


British Museum - Not really enjoying myself here, coz I am not a museum person, haha. They have mummies here and lots of ancient sculpture.

I will be visiting Oxford next monday.... yoo hoo..

Half a world away

Hmm, I have not been updating my blog lately... been very busy, lazy, etc... yaya, all excuses... Just wanna update all my blog readers that I am now half a world away fr Malaysia. I am in a place where this sight is common :)



ya, you guessed it, its London!

Been here for a week plus. I have fun and visited lots of places, but was home-sicked, and I miss all my frens back there. Will update more when I settled down... stay tuned.