Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Officially had my 1st long weekend at work... totally enjoyed it too! The weatherman said it would be bright and sunny all weekend, and much as I don't trust him, I hoped he was accurate. And how accurate he was! So blazing (burning!) was the sun that most of us are sporting fresh suntans now lor! What's with the weather manz... flooding in S'pore and sun-tanning in UK??
^^Start of the adventure!
^^Me pointing towards my house across the marshy wetlands (wait a minute... isn't that what "Slough" is supposed to mean?)
^^ One side heaven one side hell... the edge of Eton and Slough
^^ The streets were paved with landmines!
^^ Lalang?
Anyways, we went on a walking trail (haha as usual too giam siap to take bus!) to Eton College and Windsor. Now I understand why all the seniors say anywhere else is better than Slough. Well not that Slough is really THAT bad in all aspects lah... just that it really doesn't attract anyone to live here if they din have to work here or something lor... I mean... if there's not one tourist information centre in the whole town, and no single brochure on the town at the tourist centre in London, that pretty much gives you a hint ba ;p Windsor was a more typical English town... well atypical in a way... its a damn nice English town! Nice enuff to attract the Queen to stay there during summers (in Windsor Castle that is)! Nice stone bridges over nice 'lil streams... swans and ducks frolicking freely in the waters... cafes by the roadside, people licking at gelato ice cream on benches... totally buzzing with activity. Thronged with tourists too, but I thk the place still retains its small town charm as compared to London. Not so far away was Eton College. With the royal angmohs cluttered in Windsor, they have to send their young to school somewhere too... so enter Eton College! Cambridge styled, the colleges and halls are built along the streets of this high-class "school village".
^^This kind of env.. of cos conducive for studying lah!
^^Jumping around in excitement
^^This is Windsor!
^^Windsor Castle
^^Ice Cream parlours galore!
And at one of the small restaurants along the main street there was where we had our Sat lunch..all of us decided to take a break from our belt-tightening and give ourselves a treat. Haven't really tried their authentic Indian food since we came over, so chose an Indian restaurant. I had chicken curry, served with Indian keropok (super big big piece one and got yoghurt dip and some dried mango-y kind of fruit summore), pilau rice and naan. Really really well worth the 6pound we paid for it. The rice was very nice, not juz plain rice, but with lots of spices added, and coloured too.. got red and green and yellow and orange grains... nice! The naan was the power one thou... together with the curry!! Shiok ah... thou not very hot, it was spicy enough, and very very rich and thick. The serving was so big we all were so bloated by the time we downed all the food... too much carbo mah... but we had so much joy eating we din realise till our belts started to feel like giving way! Summore I helped finish an additional half a naan and some rice the rest couldn't finish! Definitely worth going back again!
^^Indian crisps and all the exotic dips!
^^My mutton curry!
^^Pilau rice with my curry poured on!
^^Naan bread.. super big and delicious
^^All happie with the great food!
After the way-too-filling lunch, I was so amazed Jack and Albert actually made room to feel like having tea a couple of hrs later! Well the pastries and cakes in the shop windows did whet my appetite too la haha... but the naan was still blowing itself up in my tummy then! Anyways we went into the cafe... met with a bad bad experience.. another of those look-down-on-Asians kind of shop owner. Oredi stopped us when we tried to go into the shop to find seats. When we told them we're going to buy food then he allowed us to go in. Then when Jack and Albert tried to order, the bastard din let them order... wanted all of us to order together, cos he dun wan any of us to not order and sit in his shop. Bloody lousy attitude.. they should hang such bad service staff lor!
Well but apart from that one bad guy.. Windsor was a very nice place lor... hard to believe that it's just a 45min walk from plain old Slough lor! Well at least plain old Slough has its plain old Mars choc factory, which intermittently emits whiffs of heavenly milk chocolate aroma to the whole district (you can smell it distinctively from Lonza to my home and almost all the way to town centre lor) to create a symphony of growling tummies evrday! Evening time, we trudged back to where our reality lie for the next 18mth.. tired as can be... only the beginning of the long weekend.
^^See I pushed the house over on Yew Zhen!
^^Casanova Jack gave flowers to all the gals! How come guys dun have!!!
Sunday was more of a relaxed, less action-packed day. Elaine our senior at Lonza invited us to her place for lunch. She told us her housemate wld be cooking, but we still made egg-mayo-tuna-sweetcorn filling for sandwiches... how unnecessary that was... our food was totally put to shame by the dishes of Kaleel, Elaine's Pakistani housemate! His curry chicken and muttom dishes were really out of the world.. I dare say they can match the Indian meal we had the previous day! His rice was oso power... oso got flavour one! Then Elaine cooked satay chicken... a taste of home! Plus bak kut teh!! Awwww my goodness!! We tucked into the feast and promptly forgot abt the tub of sandwich filling we'd brought! And 9 of us managed to finish the food cooked for 13 of us lor. I've already decided I wanna go learn some cooking skills from Kaleel! At least pick up something here mah! Elaine's house, in any case, was sooooo nice lor! Very very nicely furnished, and a very homely kitchen! Plus a large garden with a bbq pit and lots of space to sit ard! Then their rooms oso so nice! Fully furnished, and pretty good standard furnishings for that matter... I thk definitely better than the furnishing at my place now (since I last posted, the toilet flush has spoilt, the toilet tower rack come crashing down, the curtain pole in the living room torn off the wall by some mysterious force...). Hopefully these probs can be sorted out soon ah... very pek chek to live in a house with so many probs leh... and most imptly.. my wardrobe isnt even here yet so I still can't unpack my luggages!
^^The chefs in action
^^The chicken curry is definitely restaurant standard though it doesn't look so
^^Now this salad looks nice!
^^Elaine's satay chicken!
^^Brownie with glee!
Monday was supposed to be the highlight of the weekend... bank holiday! And we were going to London to catch the Notting Hill Carnival! The largest street festival in Europe! Well it became evident later on that Europe isn't particularly big on such festivals leh... since I thk Chingay would have beat this one flat! We left really really early, before 7am, walking to Slough Central to catch the 7.55 bus to London. This bus was the cheepest (2pd) cos later ones would be more expensive. We reached London very quickly, and started our adventure at Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. Dinno London actually have such nice parks one! Totally enjoyed strolling there, disturbing pigeons and geese and swans and playing with dogs and squirrels!
^^The Royal Albert
^^Albert Memorial (Now now... who's this bigshot Albert?)
^^A little friend welcomes us to Hyde Park
^^The serenity was breathtaking
^^Did they say no swimming? And what do we see in the background? Pple swimming??
11.30am, we'd walked a long long way to finally come to the site of the carnival! Soooo many cafes and shops have oredi set up tables outside their shop windows to capitalise on the heavy human traffic! Finally picked our spot and settled down, where we brought out our egg-potato-tuna-sweetcorn sandwiches to munch. Jieli was so anti the sandwiches he’d rather go buy fish and chips for 3pound lor! Well but the rest of us found the sandwiches quite okie leh… I even enjoyed it (well I gotta admit that with my strong taste buds, I dumped a load of hunny mustard sauce into my sandwiches)
^^Buay tahan look on Jieli's face
^^Fish and Chips is much better!
Waited for a really long time for the procession to start… supposed to start at 11 but it didn’t till 1+! And when we finally saw the first performers prancing and dancing down the middle of the road, we were so excited, expecting something of the standard of Chingay. This was supposed to be the largest street carnival in Europe leh. However, it turned out really disappointing in the end. We saw a lot of black people performing. In fact this carnival was supposed to be for the black people to celebrate the end of slavery. This year was supposed to be the 20oth anniversary so it was planned to be extra special. However all we saw were performers who looked like they were more interested in staying in bed, yawning and fanning themselves and sipping their drinks as they moved along. The more onz ones had beer and wine bottles in the hands as they danced around showing off random dance moves. Some of their costumes were quite nice though. However, after awhile it got all boring, cos every performance was the same! The same blasting hip-hop music, the same costumes, the same sianz look from half the performers and kee siao look from the other half! Worst of all, after each bunch of them… the next bunch only came by after a long long wait (say 30min?) Chingay where got wait 30min to see one float one!
^^Mata procession!
^^The procession starts!
^^Glamorous costumes
^^Disinterested performers
^^Mobile sound system in a truck
^^More performers
After almost 4hrs of baking in the sun (yesh blazing hot again. I even pulled up my sleeves and got quite a nice tan to build on wat I got in Windsor!) we finally buay tahan liao! Was actually looking forward to a nice procession with nice floats and performances and a real “carnival” with stalls and balloons and stages, so I was really disappointed. Squeezed out from amongst the crowds (actually a lot of people have gone by now), and started another long walk (save on transport mah!) towards Chinatown. Yups as I predicted, the Chinese really got business mind. Bank holiday all the nua angmohs slacking away but Chinatown was still buzzing with activity. All the restaurants and supermarkets and shops were open for business as usual. We went crazee in the Chinese supermarkets. Okie lah almost double the price of S’pore, but at least we’re getting Chinese groceries at long last! Spent a bomb (6.50pound each), and I even grabbed another gigantic bottle of extra-hot thai chilli sauce!
Lugging the shopping bags, we trudged around Chinatown looking for this Chinese restaurant the seniors had recommended! After a long long search, we finally found it, tucked away in the same corner we started our search!!! It really was not bad ah just as recommended, though the prices was a tad too expensive (6pound per person!!) Yingyi, Wenseen, Jieli and I ordered Nasi Lemak, “Wat Tan” Hor Fun and Black Pepper Seafood Bee Hoon to share, plus Guo Tie and Ngoh Hiang! Din really fill me up, but at least it was quite enjoyable lah… worth going again, though I might go to King’s Cross station to look for the one I ate 2 years ago when I was last here!
^^Paddington bear at (where else) Paddington Station!
^^Wat Tan Hor Fun!
^^Guo Tie!
^^London Nasi Lemak
^^Another hor fun the others ordered
^^Our black pepper bee hoon
^^Ngoh hiang!
After dinner, the task fell upon our human GPS system Charles to get us to the 702 bus stop by 8.30pm for the scheduled bus back to Slough (sounds like a sighzzz doesn’t it!) Along the way we passed by so many theatres showing famous musicals and plays! Mamma Mia, Phantom, Grease, Les Miserables… they have it all! And I thk I’m gonna save up to go catch a few of those!
^^Sun setting over London
Anyways we saved on the bus again, cos the 8.30pm one was just 1pound! Then we dropped at Chalvey and walked back so saved on the transport back home. However, on the way back we saw so so many police cars on the bus routes that I started to get alarmed. We saw a bus surrounded by more than 10 police cars, and as we headed away from it saw at least 1 police car/minute rushing in that direction! Dunno if it’s a bus hijacking or another false bomb alarm, but I think it must be really stressful to stay in a city like London, where sirens blare and the emergency services are zipping around the streets the whole day… in a way the terrorists have succeeded haven’t they, putting fear into people and disrupting their lifestyles…
Last of all in this entry.. I’ve read the news that Spanish international footballer Antonio Puerta has died after suffering a heart attack in a match.. so may these few lines be a tribute to him. Wonderful young player, such a pity, but he played well while he was at it... and died doing what he loved most. In remembrance....
senz posted at 11:41 PM
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