August '07

Off to Scotland!

We set off very early in the morning for our train to Scotland.

Assemblage 23 @ Electrowerkz

We bought two tickets to Assemblage 23 at Electrowerkz ... when we got to the door we saw lots of smoke -- no, it wasn't from people smoking outdoors, it was from the stage smoke pouring out from the venue!

When we got inside, we noticed that EVERYONE was wearing black. Yes, that they were all goths was a reason, but another good reason was that the UV lights made anything non-black GLOW. For a non-attention-seeker like myself, this was not a good situation to find myself in! Some people had glow sticks and stuff, particularly the ones I call the Hand Dancers ...

It was a good concert, as I recognised half the songs and the crowd were in good spirits. All good, except for some chick who was talking loudly and incessantly throughout the night behind me, and also a tall woman with sharp elbows taking out everybody's eyes behind her ...

Skinny Puppy @ Astoria

Had dinner with Adrian at Hummus Bros and then wandered down to Flat White for some flat white. Then Muffin and I were treated to a night of shouting by someone wearing underpants on the outside followed by someone spouting blood at Astoria.

 

It's Monday and I ain't working! :D

We have a blissful week of staying at home and NOT WORKING! Luxurious!

After two days of not cooking (and eating baguettes) I decided to make something special. Dinner is courtesy of Marks & Spencer ...

... grilled steak, garlic and parsley pasta, wedges with sweet chilli and sour cream

 

Papa's last day in London

As papa was leaving for Sydney today, we decided to show him some London Markets.

First stop was the Borough Markets -- we bought some cheese from Neals Yard, some coffee from Monmouth, some Chorizo Sandwich from Brindisia and then some delicious fish and chips from Fish!.

Papa spotted some nice Baklava so we bought some of those, washed down with more coffee ...

Next stop was the Camden Markets ... which, according to papa, feels "punky". I wonder if he knows what goths are ...?

We decided to head home and relax a little before embarking on the tedious journey to the airport ...

 

Tedious and smelly -- everyone was crammed like sardines onto the stuffy tube on the Piccadilly line. Heathrow International Airport seemed a little too chaotic for a large international airport -- I reckon our international visitors weren't too impressed about it either ...

Luckily we decided to get here more than 4 hours before the flight was due to depart ... so we killed some time by eating (again) at a bar/restaurant in the terminal. Papa had a bacon sandwich (very salty, too much BBQ sauce), while Muffin had a beef burger (he had the best food out of us) and I had a really salty duck salad drenched in BBQ sauce (gross). Can't complain too much -- wasn't too bad for airport food ...

Papa's whirlwind tour of London

We hopped on the bus from Kentish Town to Liverpool Street ... I pointed out the new Eurostar terminal at St. Pancras, and some streets from Monopoly ...

From Liverpool Street, we wandered about (found Petticoat Lane, and Spitalfields Market which was under renovation) until we found Brick Lane.

At Brick Lane, we dropped in on our favorite curry joint Sweet & Spicy and ordered a chicken curry, dhal and a fish curry. Cheap and tasty indeed!

After lunch we did the sights from the comfort of the RV1 bus. We got off at Tower Bridge and walked along the Thames towards Waterloo, taking a few obligatory touristy snaps along the way ...

We found a pirate ship and a Nero, so we stopped for another coffee ... then we slowly made our way to Waterloo ...

From Waterloo, we caught the overland to Richmond, where we were hoping to catch a glimpse of some deers at the park. Alas we never made it to the park, we slowly ambled along the Thames past some nice-looking pubs and restaurants and found a shady spot to rest in ...

Soon it was time to meet up with my cousin and check out her new place in Chiswick Park. We had a pub dinner later that night (papa's pork chop was mouth wateringly tasty, as was Muffin's sea bass. I should've ordered a smaller portion of mushroom pasta instead of a large one -- I was close to bursting after I ate the apple crumble!)

Welcome to London, Papa!

Papa lands in London after a vigorous week of martial arts training in Frankfurt. So we drag out the steamboat kit and got crackin'.

Papa obviously feels right at home ...

Papa kept hinting about adding more oil and other stuff into the already tasty stock of onions, mushrooms, babycorn, fish, tofu and chinese lettuce before finally emptying a whole packet of instant noodles complete with stock powder and congealed oil into the mix ... :|

More eating!

There was a gathering / feasting with work people -- even though we're supposedly on leave, I can't say no to free food ... so we showed up :)

The weather was fantastic, no-one was smoking near us, the company was good, and so was the food! A perfect London summer day, I reckon!

Home sweet home

We arrived back in Waterloo ... from the relaxed towns of Brugge and Antwerp straight to the busybusybusy London underground.

When we opened the door to our apartment we were greeted by a blast of smelly air -- I had forgotten to throw out the garbage before leaving for our one week holiday :P