Let's hit the shops

After bumming around at home in the morn, my grandma and I decided to walk to the local shopping centre in Wimbledon (I also wanted to walk off the French toast that I ate hehe). One annoying thing about shopping in London is that everything seems so "cheap" but it's deceiving. I was shopping for shampoo and conditioner and they had a promo "buy two for £4" (man it's gonna be tough not having the "£" sign on the keyboard) and I was like "Bargain!" but followed by "Hang on, that means it's $10!" Everytime I go shopping now, it's like a mini maths marathon, having to multiply everything by 2.5.

Debenhams - like our Myer

It's a bit blurry but the capsicums are individually wrapped - a bit excessive I thought

Nat (my lil cousin) and her friend Amelia met up with us with my aunt and they had Macca's. Do they serve milk in Australia? The bottle says "fresh organic semi-skimmed milk" - what the hell is semi-skimmed?!" Is it the same as "semi-full cream"?

Geting settled in

Greetings everyone,

I haven't done much yet and have not ventured into central London so as you can tell, I'm stuck by my laptop a fair bit and I think my blog posts might diminish a bit as time goes by, but for now, I can impart a few of my musings:

• I arrived in London about 6:30 in the morn and it took over an hour to get through immigration. Luckily our bags didn't get checked - although a customs dude came up to me while I was walking through and asked where I was from. I just gave him a deadpan look and said flatly "Sydney" and he was like "oh, that's fine" - hahaha I was on a plane from Hong Kong, so he must've thought I'd like stashed away dried mushrooms...
• The car trip to my uncle's place took freakin' 2 hours - man you think Sydney traffic is bad, you should try driving here - it can be in the middle of the day in some little lane, but there'll be a traffic jam - compared to Sydneysiders, London drivers a bit more scary but probably more skilled in the sense they have to be to avoid all those potential accidents. Foe example, they kind of just turn out from a side road without any notice and it's normal over here - no beeping of horns or smattering of expletives.
• The first place we went to (me, my aunt, uncle, lil cousin and grandma) was . . . wait for it . . . Ikea. Hahaha, it was a gi-normous one though and lemme tell you, walking through a maze of furniture, trying to find the exit when you're jet-lagged and haven't slept properly for 48 hours. We were trying to find a shower head and left empty-handed.
  

More Photos (ones I couldn't uploaded b4)

Vic and Calvin at Lowenbrau- you two are a big part of why I miss Sydney so much

The PLC gals at my surprise farewell dinner at Lowenbrau - (top) Cyb, Ali, (bottom) Ange, me, Yvonne, Annie

Farewell drinks with my PJC clan - Thanks Julia, Martine, Kath, Gloria and James for all the fun and crazy times - I'll miss you guys heaps!

Some Photos

My messy bed

The view of my bed - hahaha I was too lazy to get up

The view outside my window

My cousin - Nat

Tears and Farewell

Hi Everyone!

After what seemed like an eternity, I have finally made it to London! Yay!!!!!!!! A few comments (oh, btw, I think most of my posts would be done in point form as:

1. I am lazy
2. I have a memory like a goldfish so as soon as I remember something, I need to write it down, otherwise I forget it)

• I was all calm and composed at the airport until the very last moment when I was standing at the Gate waiting to board. I got a call from someone whom I had hoped would be the last person I speak to before I leave and I completely broke down. Being the caring friend that he was, his advice was "Stop being a girl!" Hahaha, I would never have thought I would miss Sydney, but they showed Finding Nemo on the plane and I was like "Geez, I never knew that Sydney Harbour was so beautiful" (yes, yes, I know it's a cartoon, but still, it's obviously based on the real thing)
• Why are all male flight attendants (is that the PC term?) gay?
• An almost non-stop 24-hour flight can make one feel very frustrated and when I get frustrated, I find I take it out on people around me. I get so angry at people who cut in front of me or see I have a trolley full of luggage and they just stand there in my way. I think I literally uttered out "Do u mind moving?!" a couple of times when people said "sorry", I would mutter "so you should be!" hahaha, I know, how bitchy of me
  

Anyway, I'm about to go eat now - I can't even tell if I'm hungry or not - will try to make a post later tonight.

XoXo
Elvis

My Surprise Farewell

Hey'all!

I know that I said that I'll start my blog once I'm over in London, but I just wanted to give a big shout out to everyone who came to my surprise farewell dinner yesterday night at the Lowenbrau. Big hugs to Calvin and Ange for organising it (man I think I ate my week's worth of meat in one night). I just tried to upload some photos but net connection is woopass slow cos my stupid bro went over our monthly limit, but will get them up as soon as I can.

It's been quite an emotional last few weeks for me - quitting my job, knowing that I will soon be leaving all my family and friends behind and my most beloved possession . . . my CAR *wails* I can't wait to get over there, but at the same time, I'm scared s#%tless.

Some of my random thoughts:

Packing: I've noticed that my strategy at the moment is to dump everything into my suitcase and use the excuse that I will tidy it soon - I think by "soon", it'll probably end up being the night before. Sorting through my clothes is not an easy task as I come across so much stuff/crap/random items that I've:

• never worn,
• forgot about,
• shoved in a corner in the hope that I'll forget about them.

And let's not forget the clothes that I once was able to fit into but now, I don't think I could squeeze one thigh through *ahem* note to self: having no car in London = taking public transport = more walking = banishment of fat = a skinnier me = reason to buy new clothes = shopping. Hmmmm, so having no car in London means more shopping - I swear I could link anything to shopping though . . .

Public Transport: It never ceases to amaze people my absolute loathing of public transport. The only thing that really, really gets to me are people on the bus who insist on staying seated next to you when it's near of the bus trip and there are lot a whole bus full of empty seats. Why won't they move?! I had this talk with someone a while ago and they said that it might be cos that person might feel you would be insulted if they move. Lemme just say "I DON'T CARE! Gimme my personal space!"

And yes, the number of times I've taken the bus to Uni has more than doubled in the last two weeks from 1 to 3 . . .

Stupid things I've done this week:

• Thought the mouse that I bought for my laptop didn't work and was shouting like a madwoman "Why isn't my mouse working?" until I realised that the laser thingy doesn't work on glass (I have glass covering the top of my desk).

Actually, that's my only stupid thing for the week, so yay, go me.

Well, that's enough ramblings for today - am so sleep-deprived today as I could not stop thinking about this necklace I wanted in the city yesterday night so I woke up at 6am in anticipation of going to the city first thing in the morning - got there but wasn't as nice as I remembered it to be, so was waste of a trip and I went home with nothing; (