Friday 23rd September 2011, 8:44pm GMT +1
The London experience sure is a strange one today, I see almost every single nationally and races in this place except English men. You see, Germans, Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, Indian, Russian, Americans, maybe Japanese here, but hardly any of the locals here. Maybe it’s just because we were in the town area of London.
London as compared to Keele is a rather densely populated area I would say, London is like comparing Orchard Road in its peak period while Keele is that of Ulu Pandan Road.
The weather here is actually warmer than that of Keele, all you need to comfortably walk round London is probably a long sleeve shirt and a pair of long pants of jeans, no jacket, gloves, no scarf required. At least for me that what I ended up wearing in London.
Today was mainly touring London to look for an area with lots of music shop, this particular street in London has like the most number of Music instrument and Sheet Music shops, it’s like musicians’ paradise. I was basically too busy buying things I forgot to take pictures…oops, oh wellz.
Well, we were mainly traveling on foot, it’s a long walk but great exercise, we started of at Earl’s Court Road Station where most of us were in need of a toilet. Well, but to our surprise, and for some horror. The toilets here weren’t the same kind of toilets you will expect in our MRT stations. The video will explain why…
To excess the train, you’ll need tickets, otherwise an Oyster card if you are a resident in London. They also have like zones for the different areas where the stations are located. This implies that if you get a full-day Zone 1 and 2 train ticket (for £6.50), you will be permitted to travel on board the train to any stations located in Zone 1 and 2, which was what we did as we were going to Westminster to see the Clock Tower.
One thing about the train transport system here (which I am amazed), is actually the number train lines and train station there are here. You can walk from one station to another on your own, if you like because the train stations are everywhere, every turn of a street you see one (that is if you are observant), blending in with the shops till I couldn’t recognize it myself until Irfan pointed it out to me.
Train lines here are way more complicated than that of Singapore’s, until, I still don’t quite understand the map. It’s interesting to know though, that in an interchange, unlike Singapore where trains on a different line comes in a different platform, here trains of a different line shares the same platform, so occasionally, you might find the train coming to a halt in the middle of the tunnel, not because the tracks are faulty, but mainly because they have to queue up for the same platform.
The design of the train is also different I would say. One being that there is no air-conditioning in the car, of course you won’t need that, you have air conditioning on the outside! And secondly, unlike Singapore MRT, you cannot travel from car to car directly, the cars on the train here are separated, wonder why though. Another thing I realized, the platform where the train stops is not always straight like the ones in Singapore, they can be curved, giving rise to the uneven length of gap in between the train and the platform.
They are allowed to eat in public transport, on the way back to white city station I saw a guy eating peanuts, in Singapore we get fined for doing that. They might allowed to smoke in train stations as well I think but not in train cabins, in Singapore we also get fined…haha…really different, though in some ways similar.
After we got out of the Westminster Station, we were approached, rather stopped by a bunch of ladies, asking for donations and selling little pocket flowers. They approached me a gave me a flower asked for donation for homeless children (though according to my friends they were asking for donations for a hospital), I thought oh I could be nice and donate a few pence.
I took out my wallet to search for some coins only to find that I had spent it all on the train tickets, leaving only 5pence, so I apologized to them and offered five pence. Well, in Singapore, ignorance or decline would suffice in such cases, in fact one will be contented if someone gave 10cents but in my case they insisted that I donated more, 5pence was simply not enough, they wanted me to give notes (I guessed they saw some notes in my wallet), they would give change for it if it’s too much.
Then I got really suspicious and decline, passing them the flower they gave me, I declined to donate. But they continue to insist that I donate, they cornered me and shaft the flower in between my collar, persuading me to donate because all my other friends were donating. Well, angry that they took things too far, I stood firm and decline them while trying to keep my cool, I was on the verge of declaring them daylight robbers. So it was the battle of insistence, until I said the magic phrase, “No, please.” that they let me go, without a thank you or anything.
I thought about it after that while walking to Buckingham Palace whether I did the right thing by opting not to donate. I was not angry that they did not thank me or bid me goodbye, I wasn’t angry that they just stopped us while we were following Michael Spicer, I was angry that they did not have the attitude of contentment. Well, 5pence is not much, but a 100 of 5pence would give you 5 pounds. If they were truly desperate to help needy homeless children, I believe they would have rather 100 people donate 5 pence, than to insist and blackmail someone to give notes. Clearly they wanted money real fast, but I suspected it was not for the love of homeless children but for selfish gains.
I may have been a little stingy on my part, I was not willing to give my 50 pounds to them since I needed them for lunch, for some musical instruments as well, as the rest of the week. I know on my part I acted selfishly as a way to defend myself from being cheated. I was just too intimidated by the method of approach these ladies used, but that doesn’t justify my self-centeredness. It was just a prompt to me that I should be avoiding these people.
Well, so my friends and I were discussing about that and I was kind of convinced that it was just a cheat after all, apparently, the lady gave another rationale behind the donation, which was for a hospital instead of homeless children. So we really got very suspicious that they were cheat.
Well, whether or not it was a cheat or not, I don’t have a say in it. But if it really a cheat, then I pray they will repent of their ways and follow Eph 4:28, not longer stealing and doing honest work. And if they are doing honest work for these children in hospital, I would affirm them and perhaps get them to consider Phil 4:11, and their method of approach people, especially Singaporeans.
Anyway, so continue on our journey to the Buckingham Palace, but we didn’t get the see the queen there…because “I(We) forgot to inform her that we’ll be coming” - Michael Spicer. LOL! But nevertheless I got some pictures. And again without me, cus I want this documentation to be mainly in my point of view.
So after that, we made our way to St. James’s Park because some of us have been holding our bladder since the time we got off the a££ord van after a 3 hours drive south. And then we proceeded on in the direction of Chinatown point and the district of music shops we were planning to go to.
One thing about the birds here in London, and probably the whole UK, they are huge! Pigeons here are way fat and densely populated here, Crows are like 1.5 times bigger than Singapore’s to the point they start looking like Ravens. Ducks here can be as tall as the height of my waist from the ground.
We had our lunch at 3.05pm, at a place called Nicholson’s. Pretty awesome food there, you should try their Fried Brie with Jam. Cheese lovers will melt at the taste of this. This is also where I had my first cappuccino, never drank it till today. Truth be told, even though I hate coffee, cappuccino is really nice!
The catch about this place is the waiting time for your food, if it’s the peak period, your food can take close to an hour to come, in fact Anna (whose food came last) was still eating her meal at 4:05pm, we spent like an hour here sitting and eating.
After lunch, we headed for the music district, of which I forgot to take photos, I’m sorry. So describe it, think of the music shops in Peninsula Shopping Complex, plus Excelsior plus Parklane Mall and Brash Basah, and an additional store selling saxophone.
Well, most of the shops here are guitar shops, like multiple Swee Lee, Davis Guitar, Guitar77th, SV Guitars around here. The equipments are generally more expensive as compared to Singapore, but you get to see the good stuff you don’t see in Singapore.
So I bought some souvenirs as well as 3 other instruments - Jaw Harp, Ocarina, and a tin whistle. Instruments you hardly find in Singapore.
There are of course other things you can buy from here, including J.S. Bach score sheets and Rachmaninov piano scores and dream theater albums. Guide books that teach you how to play an instrument from scratch, from saxophones, to guitars (including bass), to tin whistles I think.
Lots more stuff I could have bought if we spend more time there. But I guess 2 hours was enough for us. So we opted to walk around the town area to see other things as well, from Chancery station, to Oxford Circus station, right down to Marble Arch station where our feet were wobbling, where we took a train back to White Estate to meet Mike.
But because the jam didn’t allow him to enter the town area, we went somewhere else, where Michael Spicer used to reside for 4 months in London. And so, right now, he’s fetching us back to another place outside London for dinner. So yea..I guess it gonna be a long ride back to thishostel after this..will continue to update you guys on what's going on here...
