I'm finally back! Despite the foggy condition at Heathrow, there is no delay at all. When I first arrived at Heathrow 2 weeks ago, I didn't have much time to take a look at the airport surrounding though this is not the first time I've been there.
But on the day when I came back, I soon realized that Changi Airport is the best! Heathrow, being known as one of the busiest airport in the world, wasn't as organized as Changi I would say. Maybe it's the busiest time for Heathrow on my return cuz everybody is rushing home for Christmas. And due to the fog and flight cancellation the day before that, the condition is quite chaotic. It is crowded, messy and long queue everywhere. I am glad to be back :)
Having said that, I am having a mild jetlag. I couldn't went to bed till 4am tis morning. By the time I knock off, the alarm started to ring. Time to get out of bed and go to work, while everybody else seems to be taking leave this week to go holiday...urghhhhhhh :(
Home Sweet Home
on Tuesday, December 26, 2006Temperature -2 Severe Fog
I just came back from a short walk at the shopping area nearby my hotel. It wasn't a pleasant one but at the same time I felt so restless staying in the hotel room playing with the remote control. I decided to go for a walk but it wasn't a long one. It was soooo cold my ear almost wanted to fall off. In addition to the severe fog that causes hundreds of domestic flight cancelled in Heathrow, it is really not a good time to do shopping out there.
So, I'm back to the hotel again playing with the remote control :)
Visibility < 100m
on Thursday, December 21, 2006Temperature : -2 to 1C Foggy
It looks scary. The visibility is only within 100m. All you see is fog. Left right front back, you are surrounded by fog. The weather has been like this in the UK for the past 2 days. It's much colder than last week when I first landed. As I was watching the news minutes ago, I was stumped to find out that a lot of flights are cancelled due to the bad weather. And this is most likely to last till Friday. I'm going back on Saturday and I'm praying hard that the weather will turn out fine :)
The flag is up, the Queen is in
on Tuesday, December 19, 2006
This is Windsor Castle. Can you spot the flag? When it is up, the Queen is in. Yeah..this was yesterday when I paid 13.50 pound = S$40 for a visit to the castle. IT IS expensive but it's an eye opening experience. How frequent will you get to visit the castle, maybe just once in a lifetime. The interior architecture is just superb. Unfortunately, phtography is forbidden.
Anyway, I am came back to the hotel tonight, full of satisfaction. Because why? Because.......finally after 8 days, I get to eat a bowl of rice!! And it is fried rice with eggs!!! Yummy!!! I have been surviving on sandwich everyday for almost all of my lunch, cereal on breakfast and after 2 bad experience I had with room service, I stopped ordering it for dinner. And I missed rice. I stopped taking dinner for a couple of days only to realized that there was indeed quite a couple of nice restaurant nearby. I decided to give a try to this Thai restaurant upon checking out their menu at the entrance and making sure that the price is reasonable, although there is no limit of my food allowance.
I ordered fried rice with eggs and a plate of stir fried mix veggies. Hmmm...that was delicious. It makes me feel at home. Very chinese like cooking style. I came back to the comfort of my room, happily updating this blog and catching up with the "killer" news again :)
Day 7 - London
on Monday, December 18, 2006
Temperature -> 6C sunny
After a night of recovery from the headache I had last night, I'm off to London in the morning with Andrey, a colleague from Russia. While waiting for the rest to arrive later, we head off to Harrods. The famous luxurious shopping center where Princess Diana used to do her shopping. The rest of the day are on sight seeing.
Seen at the top is the London Eye in the far left. Far right is the Big Ben. London Eye was initially built by British Airways as part of their promotional activities and it was meant to be temporary. But because of popular demand, it has now become a permanent landmark in London.
Tower of London of which many mistaken it as London Bridge.
River Thames from Windsor leading to London
Event of the day -> Department Christmas dinner at Guananbara, London
It was a Brazilian...whatsoever restaurant with live music. Sounds good? Brazillian food is not common in Singapore, so you must be wondering what sort of food will it be. So am I.
It was a "Oh My Goodness" kind of place the moment I step in. My eyes almost pop up and my jaws are dropping. I can't believe I'm ending up at such places.
The moment I opened the door, all I see is darkness, smoke, smells of alcohol. That is not all ok. It was sooooooooo crowded I got to squeeze myself in to find where my other colleagues is AND the music is sooooooooooo damn loud!!! Sorry.....I got to use the d*** word cuz it's really d*** loud I can hardly hear myself even after shouting my lungs out. I felt as if I'm in a red light district. You can imagine how the ang moh is...drinking, dancing, couple mushi mushi here and there, bar girls going around selling turqilla. I juz can't believe it that we're having a department dinner in this place. I'm having problem hearing and talking throughout and became a passive smoker for 1 whole hour!! Oh my goodness. All I care off is to eat fast and leave fast. My head is getting heavier, my throat is aching, my ear hurts and I'm loosing voice. Imagine we have to use our mobile to key in messages to talk to one another. Having said all this, there's always something to be thankful. That there are ppl on the same channel as me. They hate the place as much as I do. So we ate as fast as we could and leave the place after an hour.
Here's some pics that I took though you couldn't tell that the place is that bad from the pics. But believe me....IT IS BAD!!!
Brazillian food? It's just another set of western food to me.
Me and Marina below -> can't wait to leave the place.
Day 4-5
on Friday, December 15, 2006Temperature 9-13C, Cloudy
The long awaited Thursday finally came but ended up in a little disappointment. Why long awaited, because there is late night shopping on Thursday in Windsor during Christmas season. Why disappointed, because it doesn't really make much difference. The street probably have a couple more people than usual, shops are open but yet is as quiet as if it's closed.
Good thing though that I went with 2 of my colleagues today and found out from them that there's actually burger king, mcdonald and CHINESE FOOD nearby!! YAY!! I dun need to struggle on room service anymore! muahahahaha :)
After a few days watching the TV during the night, something funny I noticed abt the TV media here. If you have been following the news lately, even Asia1.com reported it, there's a serial killer in British island killing prostitutes. So far 5 is dead naked within 10 days. Everyday when you switch on the TV, this is what is being reported and when the news session ends, it takes a break, news again to report on the same thing. Every day and night without fail. The thing that puzzled me is that, it seems that other than weather forecast, this is the one and only news that they have been reporting and nothing else!! I am serious ok......British is such a big country and I'm totally not convinced that they have nothing else to report other than the killing. I dun understand loh. So boring...other TV channel sucks as well. Just when I'm typing this in my hotel room, I'm still hearing the same stories.........
Day 3
on Wednesday, December 13, 2006Temperature 9C, Sunny :)
At last, after 2 gloomy days, I see sunlight with blue sky and cooling air. Love it!! Managed to do a quick snap before the weather turn bad again. As I was walking along the main road outside the hotel while waiting for my 'driver' to pick me up to work, I soon realized that Windsor is indeed a beautiful town. It was dark, drizzling and gloomy last two days, so didn't even bother to step out of the hotel. But I haven't got a chance to take good pictures on it and are yet to explore the castle and shopping area. Hopefully.....weather will be good over the weekend.
Just an overview.............................
My hotel. Doesn't really give a "wow" feeling but it's decent, clean and cozy
Cathedral? It's just diagonally opp the hotel.
Talking about that fish & chips, not to mention that it cost a bomb but it taste -> sucks :( I am so NOT HAPPY with it loh even though I dun need to pay for it. I regretted....regretted of not bringing any 3 in 1 milo, regretted of not bringing cup noodle....muahhhhhhh...I missed it! Maybe....I'll go grab some over the weekend when I'm at London Chinatown hehehe....
For the next 13 days
on Tuesday, December 12, 2006This is my bed.....
This is the dining place for breakfast......
This is my toilet .........
Temperature : 7C - Chilly
I totally knocked out b4 7pm yesterday night thinking that I can possibly sleep for 12 hours (as what I can usually do in Sin) but guess what, I woke up at 3am feeling energetic and couldn't get back to sleep till 5am. Luckily I managed to snooze another 2 hours before I got a wake up call at 7am.
Windsor, a small little town that I'm staying right now, is a nice town afterall. My hotel is located right opposite Windsor Castle. Yeah...nice castle but...sad to say....I have no time to explore. Imagine, I'm off to work at 8, leave office at 5.30. By the time I reached the hotel, it's already 6pm. To make thing worst.....it's already dark at 4pm, shops are closed at 5.30. So you see lah....how to explore like that!!! Dun talk about shopping. Want to take pictures also cannot!!!!!!Day time gloomy, at night lagi cannot say.
And there's no where that I can get dinner other than ordering room service. Look at this. Guess how much this meal cost me? If not because I can claim it back from office, cut my throat...I will starve till the morning breakfast!
Make a guess. How much do you think this meal cost me?
Day 1
on Monday, December 11, 200610 Dec 2006 5:05pm London
Temperature : 8C
After a long 13 hour flight, I'm finally settled down at the comfort of my hotel room. It's 5pm local time, 1am Sin time and I'm trying to keep myself awake for another couple of hours before going to bed.
The weather is extremely gloomy. You could have imagine....grey sky, cloudy, cold and light drizzles. Urgh...... Hate it. The sky is almost dark by now, shops are closed and it's raining. So I'm stranded in the room, going online, watching TV and possibly, ordering room service or maybe not :)
Going alone on a business trip is not as fun as I thought. Gu gu tan tan yi ge ren....haiz..... I have 13 more days to go..... and I've started to miss Singapore and ppl in Singapore....Yeah....I MISS ALL OF U!!!
