# Trafalgar Green!

Let's take a short break before going to Santorini, and let's visit Trafalgar Square, which has been transformed into a green space today.

2000 square metres of turf would cover the square for two days to promote green villages in city under the Visit London's campaign. The turf was sourced from the Vale of York.

As we were already in China Town, we decided to drop over at the square to have a look at the rare sight of greeneries in London... and we saw this.

It was amazing to see that a small patch of grass would attract such a massive crowd! Makes me wonder how deprived Londoners are of greeneries...

We decided to join the crowd on the grass to enjoy the long-waited sunny weather in London.

When the weather is sunny, and when there is some greens to relax on, we can definitely see some bottles of beer in the scene as well. These guys below sure know how to enjoy a picnic.

We hang around there, looking at random people, watching the sunset, and just chilling out. As the blazing sun went down, the whole square was bathed in golden light...

Here are some people riding on the magnificent lion, enjoying the sunset.

I looked up and saw Nelson's column in golden glow, reflecting the beautiful sun rays.

As we were leaving the square, we saw a peculiar pagoda! On closer look, we realized it was actually the church under construction. It was very interesting how the construction work produced an illusion that transformed the church into a eleven-storey high pagoda. (And it looks good too!)

For comparison, this is how the church looks like originally...

That's a nice little trip to a GREEN Trafalgar Square. If only it can be green all year long...

# Canary Wharf

This is is London's traditional financial centre, The Square Mile, Canary Wharf. These three buildings are the three tallest buildings in UK - One Canada Square, HSBC Tower, and Citigroup Centre. Although not as impressive as US's skyscrapers, these are considered some "WOWs" for UK.

I have been to Canary Wharf a few times to visit friends, and I could always feel a difference between the place and the Central London.

Central London is full of people and activities, and lots of buildings scattered everywhere. People are rushing, crowds are shoving, street-sellers are shouting out prices of their goods, shops are busy, shopping streets are packed full of crowd, weather was crappy as usual traffic was haphazard...

Canary Wharf is full of tall buildings, and lots of working people wearing suits, carrying solemn looks. The place is spacious, and cleanliness is maintained. I like the cleanliness, but somehow, I feel some feelings of emptiness when I was there a few times.

I don't know how to describe it, the place seems perfect and nice, well-planned and well-maintained, but it lacks of a feel of... life. I know it's somewhat a crazy notion, but that's the feeling that the environment gave me.

Just like these statues, the place feel the lack of "Living Qi"

Perhaps it is due to the fact that the whole place is such a concrete jungle that the "Qi" that it exudes is that kind of cold, metal "Qi".

The "metals"...

Perhaps it is because the city garden is man-made landscaped that it look too fake.

Perhaps it is due to the fact that the place is only full of working people, looking serious and rushing for work during weekdays; and become lifeless during weekend when nobody is around.

Some French-style open air cafe. Only difference was the seats in France were full, here most are empty.

Perhaps it is because I have been too used to living in places in London like Wood Green or Whitechapel which are so pack full of activities, street markets, all kinds of people (different races, different backgrounds, different social classes), where almost everyday we can hear police siren going off or see police cars zooming past. (Hmm... it's starting to sound a bit like the dodgy end of London now...)

Perhaps I'm a bit too particular about places, but I prefer a place which there are some communities and people and activities, where we can observe life going on, than a place which are clean and beautiful and well maintained, but somehow you just don't feel you belong there in someway.

Canary Wharf is really nice and clean and meets all the requirement of proper town-planning. I enjoyed my leisure strolls with friends at the place, I enjoyed the calm feeling I have with the quiet surrounding. But somehow, I just can't feel I can actually belong the the place like that.

More photos taken in Canary Wharf.

# Piggy Year!

It's piggy year! It's my year! I have survived through the second cycle of Chinese almanac! Yay!

There is a lot of confusion and debate on whether 2007 is a "Fire Pig" year or a "Golden Pig" year. Many confused "Red Pig" with "Golden Pig" as well. Checking with I-Ching shows this year is indeed a "Fire Pig" year, yet many mainstream media keep promoting the "Golden Pig", and even major banks went all out with their golden-pig-savings-account, blah blah... After all, "Golden" pig sure sounds better than some "fire" piggy. Now let's see what these people say when the real "Golden" pig comes...

Even before CNY arrives, sweet Sharon made us some wonderful cookies, like Almond Rosettes, Almond Melting Moments, CNY Peanut Cookies, and White Choclate Chip Cookies... She is so good in baking, her peanut cookies are one of the best I have had! I can't help remembering another time when she made us extra-chocolatey brownies which made me go crazy for days!

As CNY was creeping near, everyone was busy doing food shopping, card shopping, gift shopping, etc etc. I felt the pain when buying the expensive chinese new year card in Chinatown, oh how I miss the beautiful yet cheap cards in Malaysia!

The various shops in Chinatown really went all out to get business during Chinese New Year. As usual, the "Prosperous" symbolical items are up for grabs. Besides the normal crystal trees, "Fuk Lok Shao", miniature Shaolin monks etc, there was also a lot of "GOLDEN" pigs in ALL shops. Suddenly piggy banks are collectible items...

Some street hawkers set up their stalls along the streets too, posing competition to the shop sellers. There was a myriad of CNY decoration items, and the "Redness" all around could really blind people sometimes.

More redness overload...

The dragon decided to join the celebration too...

For me, it is always nice to have a walk in Chinatown London during the festive season. You get to see the lantern display, the bustling of crowd, some friendly westerners wishing us Happy New Year... I particularly like to have a stroll during the night, where all the lights displays were switched on.

And there are these same old three huge tanglungs which are always hung on the three gates at the three entrances to the main street of Chinatown.

I stopped to give a pat to the stone lions guarding the street too, it's new year after all.

There are also some other things which were must-do's during CNY.
Like buying egg tarts from Kowloon...

And having a good meal of Dim Sum with a bunch of good friends!

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!
HAPPY PIG YEAR TO ME!

# Snow again!

It snowed again! And this time, it's proper heavy snow - in fact, the heaviest snow I have ever witnessed during my four-year stay in London. There has been lots of "publicity" for this long awaited snow, from BBC weather forecast to tabloid newspaper to betting agency. I have been excited waiting for the snow to come.

Despite proclaiming loudly that I will wake up early to see the snow, my housemate had to literally drag me out of my bed to wake me up. *shame*. I pulled apart my curtains and saw this...

I took a closer look and saw this!

IT IS SNOWING!!! I mean, I have seen fallen snow before, I have also seen snow falling before, but those were all out of London! In London, I have not seen a proper snowing before. I got caught in a hail before, but not snow. The snow I saw in London are always on the ground, and they look more icey than snowy.

We immediately put on all our jackets and ran out to greet the snow. It is falling! Falling!

And remembering my family has been complaining that I always take too many photos without me actually INSIDE the photos, I decided to be good once in a while and post this half-awake-YD-with-snow-falling-onto-her-head photo to let my loved ones back home know I am healthy and happy here. :-)


And while we have been frolicking in snow and trying to catch snowflakes with out tongues, there were some neighbours trying to clear away the layers of snow from their car. I wonder what they were thinking about us chattering excitedly and taking pictures of everything.


As the snow gets heavier, Ray took out his umbrella while I was still prancing about in the snow. I took the opportunity to take a shot of his dazed look while looking at my hyperactive behaviour.


No, we didn't make snow angels on the ground. It's way too dirty to do that in London street. I decided that I must at least leave some footprints in the snow to commemorate this rare event. So I chose a clean patch of snow-covered corner... and started walking backwards to make the footprints! kekekeke...


Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

# Snow!

Thanks Panda for his concern on my safety during the storm. I'm all warm and safe. Interestingly, I did not realize the severity of the storm until reading the news, despite being out almost the whole day. It was the last day of our examination, probably we were too excited to notice the storm, although we did feel the extremely strong wind on the street.

The news and weather forecast reported of sudden drop of temperature and forecasted snow. For once, UK's weather forecast seemed to be sufficiently accurate - the temperature dropped, and the snow came, except that it came late. ;-)

When I parted the curtains in the morning, I was pleasantly surprised with the snow-covered backyard. It did not feel that cold yet, but it seemed it has been snowing since midnight. Here are some pictures...

Our backyard. The fluffy tree with snow all over looks kind of cute to me. Beside it is the tool shed.

More snow-covered houses and yards.

Chimney!

After the initial excitement over seeing snow, I dragged myself back to the unpleasant reality - it would be another day with mass disruption on transport system. And unfortunately enough, I would be using all three of the main transport system to travel to school - bus, tube, and train.

Grrwwww... Blame the Met office, yea. ^_^

# Cold night, hot food

Sometimes life can feels so sweet with such simple things...

It was just another misty, cold London night and we decided to have some hot food in China Town. As usual, almost all the restaurants were packed full with people, even the ever-famous Wong Kei which attracts many customers to its no-frills super rude service.

We nearly gave up until we saw "1997", which surprisingly does not have too many customers inside. At first we were a bit hesitant, but the warmth of the waiter in welcoming us made us decide to give it a try.

It was pleasant to see the surrounding was clean enough, and I was more pleasantly surprised to find the old style marble top table with patterns adorning its wooden edge. Ah, such a sweet old memories of childhood...


Despite the ongoing swearing and gossiping among the workers, they were very friendly towards customers. Service was fast and we were immediately served with hot chinese tea. I particularly like the typical chinese tea cup, which was spot white clean.


I like the kettle even more! It was the typical old-style kettle we used at home, large and bullky and easy to get burned with the hot metal surface. Yup, this IS the kettle where our tea is put. A more common ettique was to provide customers with the smaller and more decorated teapot, but I just love the old-fashioned style of presentation.


The cutleries were standard too. Ancient wooden chopsticks in bamboo container. Red-colour menu with best dishes of the day. And of course, the essential soya sauce and toothpick in traditional chinese restaurant!


I just love the setting of the restaurant - the old-style furniture and cutleries and the simple yet clean environment. It brought back so much childhood memories of the older times when everything was so simple. Life was thrifty and simple. Household equipments were old but durable. People were friendly...

I was already starting to fall in love with this cute little restaurant.

Despite the name of the restaurant being very Hong-Kong-ish, ("1997"), the cooks and many of the staffs were from Malaysia. So they do a lot of Malaysian dish. We all decided to go for the curry mee to cure homesickness... Wow, the portion was huge, and they sure put a lot of ingredients in it! Though it does not taste authentic enough, I am satisfied with the compensation by lots of ingredients in it. However, it's still a bit expensive for a bowl of curry mee.


Hot tea poured from the traditional kettle = 0 pound
Unauthentic curry mee but with lots of "liao" = 7 pounds per bowl
Wonderful dining experience at a cold night in London = PRICELESS

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Update:
Oh ya, I forgot to mentioned one important feature. The bowl which they put our curry mee in, was not the conventional bowl too. They just put it in the metal pot (the shape is similar to those clay pots) which they used to heat up the food with. Here's a picture which shows my bowl, erm, pot, more clearly.

# Time flies

... and I am back in London. Another year of study to go.  :-(((

Wasted 2 hours in the airport immigration control. Strict security has slowed down clearance. I envy those who can go straight to the line of "UK Passport Holders". After waiting for ages, I finally got to get to the passport control desk. But the officer told me I NEED a medical checkup! Bloody hell. He thought I was a first-year student.

After explaining to him and showing him documents that I have had my records with the NHS and he can go check on my health condition if he likes, he let me through. With my stomach growling (I haven't had my dinner), I took the tube home, arriving around 10.30pm.

Took me a few days to clean up my new room and unpack everything from boxes. Now my little room looks more inviting... Here is a 360 degree tour of my little square room. (photos are of not such good quality, I only have my T610 with me so that will have to do)

Here is my work station, with my laptop and board and photos and everything in place, before I make a mess again soon.

Beside my desk is my cabinet which I stuffed everything in there. Next to it - my personal TV in the room! (With the license too! Landlord pays, yea yea)

Next to the TV are the fridge and the little tea corner of mine, with teabags and mugs... Check out the two fish lanterns on the wall, gifts from James, made in Malaysia! Now I miss the Lantern Festival/ Mooncake Festival back there... Anyone doing Lantern post soon?

Last but not least, my sleeping corner. Cosy little bed... Thanks KK for the warm duvet!

Now it's really time for bed.

# The Queen at 80

(Photo from BBC)

Today is the Queen's Birthday! and boy, she looked lovely in pink!

A friend and his wife has gone to Windsor to (hopefully) see the Queen, we did not manage to go, but were equally excited for this event!

Happy Birthday Queen!

BBC Full Report (with videos, pictures and news in depth)

# Album of Spring

Spring is here! After reading the wonderful posts about hanamatsuri and sakura by panda, moody, robin and others, I can't resist but to compile a small Album of Spring, to celebrate the arrival of the long-waited season.

First of all, the album cover...
(Gotta apologize to kk for putting him on the album cover without permission)

We went to the park opposite our house, anticipating a sea of flowers. But when we reached the flower garden, we found THIS.

We found some daffodils and some patches of flowers blooming here and there, and have to settled for those. While we didn't get to see many flowers, we did get to see a lot of ducks and swans.


Lacking the collection of the flowers, I decided to turn the focus of my album to other subjects - the kids.


It was fun watching the kids, accompanied by their parents, having their great time at the playground. Many of them found the sandbox the most wonderful place to roll around and giggle for every little joy.


... and I found this little boy looking around to find someone to acknowledge his achievement of building the "sand castles" on the table. :-)


Beside the river, the mum and the kid are feeding the ducks...


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Bonus Tracks

Undaunted by the failures of finding our "sea of pinks", we continued our search in other parks. Well, our efforts did paid off - at least we have got one tree blooming in pink. hehehe...


And we found a "sea of yellow and white" in another park too!


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