London (3rd Week) - 31/03/08

Week Three into London and the weather has gotten much better!

Well, it was snowing for a couple of days in the week. Though its only for a very short while. The first snow spell came when we were in the city walking about when suddenly rain turned to bits of hail and then turn to snow!

Apparently, snowing is very rare in London, cause the second it happened, everyone took out their camera/phone to snap pictures of the snow! :P

The weird weather continued for the rest of the week, and for a couple of days we woke up only to see that it is snowing outside! It wasnt your Switzerland snow experience where everything is covered in white, but rather you can see its white specs falling lah. Though the minute the snow came down, it melted. Not cold enough for it to maintain-lah.

Anyway, we were in Leicester Square (pronounced as Les-ter Square) to meet up with Stephen, and suddenly we realized we were surrounded with people holding pillows.

The first thought that went to my head was "Why, pillows got sale ah??" and we went asking around. And what do you know, we were in the middle of the World Pillow Fight Day!

So at a count down, everyone start hitting each other with pillows! And obviously we were standing politely AWAY from the crowd taking pictures. Though some pillows got torn and it created a snowing effect though...

Other than that, we spend the week attending interviews though. No job yet, just interviews. But at least there is a start. I admit, I was disappointed though when my first interview came back negative, with the usual response of "They really like you, but not what their looking for". Oh well, fingers crossed that Des will get what HE is looking for.

Other than that, things has been going pretty steady lah. Arranging for internet connection in our house, hopefully with fingers crossed until cannot recognised that it will be up by next week. Though we have no idea how to set up the broadband though...

I'm ending this week's pose with our FIRST ever attempt at baking. Wait, before you judge my cookies, it is our FIRST try at baking and FIRST time using the oven. So dont you laugh at my burnt-and-weird-looking-and-hard-but-very-chocolaty-cookies! :P

Until next week!

London (2nd Week ) - 21/03/08

Hello everyone! We're here for almost two weeks now, can you believe it!?!

Everyday we've been going out checking out London. And most of the time, the London map is close to us. How do we decide where to go? Easy, all we need to do is to find the nearest shoppping/markets and off we go! :)

Dont worry, its not like we're spending and buying everything yet. But cause we both love markets and hypermarkets, it only makes sense to hunt down these area. These pictures are near our place, about 20 minutes walk from our neighbourhood. Not exactly near, but there is an open market, like our pasar malam during the day.

One thing that is different in these places compared to back home is how the shops are aligned next to each other. Shopping complexes arent really big outside the city, but its nice to walk around the roads with the shops next to each other. Of course, though it is sometimes freezing, but its better than to walk along Bukit Bintang in the afternoon KL sun right? :P

Nuh, this is what I mean. One Saturday we came to this place (sorry, I forgot where!), and there were people gathering up in a field worshippping God. Very charismatic, very enthusiastic and very lively. People were singing out loud, complete with mics and drums no less!

Sometime last week we went to London Bridge as well. Have you hear about the story where a man bought the WRONG London Bridge?

Well, apparently, there is this rich man who wanted to own London Bridge. You know the song about "London Bridge is falling down..." where we used to sing when we were kids and we go around each other and when the "bridge" falls down to trap a kid?

So yea, the man thought he bought the famous bridge. Turns out it was the WRONG one. Well, technically, he wasnt cheated, he DID bought London Bridge, but the bridge that we were actually singing about is TOWER BRIDGE, the one taken here behind us.

So see, the song is geographically incorrect! It should be sung as "TOWER BRIDGE is falling dow..." instead.

Yea, I know, I still havent managed to put up any pictures of our place. Wait, I wanted to do something, but havent been able to. Just wait for it. meanwhile, here are a couple of pictures of houses near us.

Now that I noticed, apparently these houses are actually slightly different from ours. But looks almost the same. One thing I noticed though, is how the houses are very different every few blocks. Not like our terrace houses where the whole taman looks the same, but rather, every five houses is of different design.

OK, just a sneak peak of our entrance to our house. I'll never be able to get a clear view of the side view of our house because our place is fenced up.

Yesterday, we did something very healthy. We walked for FOUR hours. Why? Cause we wanted to save some money from changing trains and decided to take a slow and leisurely walk towards Oxford Street.

Did I mention that it was very cold and it was raining as well? This is Hyde Park, by the way.

Can you imagine a separate bin for dog poo?

And so this is what we've been up to for the past week. We registered ourselves with a couple of recruitment agencies, but nothing came in yet. We have been applying for other jobs as well, but slow response though. Maybe its the Easter weekend, so hopefully after the holidays are over, things will be better.

And so, family and friends, dont worry about us (yet!) We'll send you SOS if we're in dire need of help here. Meanwhile, we both have gotten our mobile no, and a couple of yous out there got our nos. Just spread it around and we will be glad to hear from you! :)

Until next time, take care!

London (1st Week ) - 15/03/08

Hi everyone! We've both arrived safe and sound in Wimbledon! Now settling in nicely.

This is proof that both of us is still alright. Hehe We were on our way to South Wimbledon. The weather was horrible for the first three days of arrival as there is a storm coming. So there were like strong winds and we were all nicely bundled up.

This is a picture taken from our bathroom view. Its a nice quite neighbourhood, with shops and tube station all within walking distance.

I wanted to take a few pictures of our house where we were staying, but weather has been nothing but gloomy and wet, so I havent got a nice picture of the house and its interior yet. Wait. Will be coming soon.

We went off on our own on Wednesday (we arrived on Sunday) to Leicester Square, and took a couple of pictures. We werent really the tourisy type and since both of us has been to London many years back, we werent like overly eager to hit every since tourist spot.

But we did come across many statues as we make our way around. Didnt know what this is but it looked nice. :P

A picture of the Big Ben. And we went into the House of Common! Why I was particularly excited over this is because in that day's morning, we were just watching the TV as their PM as announcing the Budget 2008. And then in the afternoon, we were at the same room where he made the announcement!

So, things are going well (for now). Now that we've settled down, the challenge is to get a job. Both of us haf our UK no now, so watch out for our sms to keep in touch yea! We havent gotten around internet access for our place yet, hopefully in due time we will be able to sort things out.

So yea, keep watching this space and I hope to upload more pictures soon! :)

13/03/08

We survived our trip to London and we're here in Wimbledon!

Its been busy since we came and weather has been horrible since we arrived! :(

512 has been temporarily been suspended due to some sensative issue. Dont worry, it will be up again in due time. Wanted to post some pictures, but somehow Blogger is reluctant. And my time is up in cyber cafe. Will update real soon! Wait for it! :)

Gathering in Colours - March 2008

Past week I have been busy doing a bit of catching up. Below are some of the few pictures I took.

Frankly speaking, I am slightly apprehensive when it comes to posting up pictures of my friends. Not that I have anything to be ashamed of, but rather what is their take in me posting up pictures here.

But then again, I was going to post them up in Friendster/Facebook anyway. So instead of emailing to them, enjoy it here! :)

I've decided to play a bit with colours so here are some of the results. No photoshop yet though, mostly cropping and colouring only. Slow slow a bit, can or not? :P

Picture in sepia - College friends

Picture in black/white - School friends

Picture in yellow - YL and Me

Picture in blue - Des and Me

Picture in green - Blur, Des and Me

And check out my new specs in the last picture! In fact I've gotten an additional TWO more pairs! Buy one free one, damn cheap. If got chance, will post all four up!

Mirrors - 1st March 2008

I've always like taking my reflection from a mirror. In fact, I really do think that my mirror image looks a whole lot better than I do.

I like the effect that mirrors has. Somehow or rather, things just looks better and much more interesting.

With the camera by my side most of the time now, I just cannot stop doing the tourisy thing whenever we came across mirrors.

I'm turning this place into a camwhore blog, can't you see?

Don't say I don't warn you...

KL VIew - 29th February 2008

Des took me to a place that has a restaurant overseeing a fantastic view of KL. And we were very lucky to get a good seat.

Below is a great picture with my Olympus camera. I couldnt get a shot without the tree, but I guess the tree sort of put the picture in dimension(?).

Somehow or rather, there seems to be lights above the twin towers. Des said that it might be the moon. What do you think?

I'm learning to use Photoshop. Playing around with the brightness and contrast. And I've even removed bits of the leaves on the top corner of this picture below!

Slowly but surely, I hope that my photography skills will improve! :)