Tuesday, February 21, 2006

1:27 am - Kingston-upon-Thames

OK. Kingston-upon-Thames is technically not in London. It's in Surrey, south of London. But hey, it's still under Zone 6 of London Transport!!!!

And for the uninformed (of which I was one once), when u see a name which has "upon" in it, it is usually followed by the name of a river. This is partly cuz they prolly ran out of names and had to re-use names for towns :-P!!!! So there's a Stratford in London - and there's another Stratford which is the birthplace of Shakespeare. The latter is more commonly known as Stratford-upon-Avon cuz it is located at River Avon.

Therefore, Kingston-upon-Thames is named thus cuz the Thames run thru it. And I would prolly would not go there save for the fact that it was the closest stop to the Nikon office (30 mins walk away).

On the way back, me decided to walk along the Thames and took some pics long the way.

View along the Thames - it's nice to walk along the river. Peaceful and quiet. In the middle pic above, if you click on it to enlarge it, you can see rowing practice taking place.
Oh, there were no cows around...

Bird-flu is approaching!!!! Look at how fat the goose is. Imagine it roasted... ;-P~
I was pretty intrigued by the orange coloured tag on the goose's feet. On the right is a pic of a duck "couple". yeah, the brown one is female while the nice green-headed one is male.

Kingston Bridge - a little further down and you'll find yrself at Hampton Court Park and Palace - wif an excellent (so i read) maze and gardens. Me din have the time to go there - had to pay and me din have sufficient time. But it'll prolly be lovely during spring!
Middle and right pics - pigeons trying to keep warm on the cold winter evening.

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Thursday, February 09, 2006

2:27 pm - Train stations - The rail thing!!!! (Part 1)

I just love the train services in London! You can get to almost anywhere by rail! There are the British Rail services, the London Underground (or the Tube), and recently the Docklands Light Rail.

And each station will have it's own characteristic! In fact, for some stations wif multiple platforms, each platform has it's own "identity" (see Charing Cross and Baker which are excellent examples).

Here are some pics of these stations:-

King's Cross Station. Yup, the place to go to get your trains to Hogwarts - just head to Platform 9 3/4 - and mind the trolley that is halfway thru the door!

Baker Street - the oldest Underground station. take a closer look at Sherlock's head and u'll see it's amde of many tiny little heads! (The pic on the left above was taken by a Canon digicam)

Left: Yup, watch yer step, ok?
Middle: Euston has one of the widest underground platforms that i've seen
Right: Elevated station for Docklands Light Rail - elevated most of the time (except when it goes under the Thames) - very much like our LRT back home.

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Sunday, February 05, 2006

2:57 pm - Greenwich - Journey to the middle(?) of the earth!!

Yup, Greenwich (pronounced "Gra-nich" - a silent "w")! The zero degrees longitude place! Actually, Greenwich is a beautiful place which boasts of more than just the Royal Observatary (which is the main draw, of course). Unfortunately, we jus din have the luxury of time (and daylight hours) to see more.

From left to right:- The National Maritime Museum (had an interesting collection of anchors on its grounds outside); the view of the Royal Observatory from the bottom of the hill; autumn leaves lined the path to the RO

Pics taken at the RO, Greenwich

The views from the RO were quite nice too. You can see the Canary Wharf business area and the Millenium Dome (not in the pics cuz not clear).

If you are there, dun forget to check out the many quaint and interesting shops (there was one which sold all kinds of clocks) and the Greenwich Market too. And if you walk around, you might find sum nice place to eat too!

This pic was taken using a Canon Digicam (see the difference ;-P). We stopped by this Turkish diner place which served pretty good British roast meals. It was nice and warm - both the place and the service!

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2:24 am - Canary Wharf

The Canary Wharf area is the new business district. It looks pretty modern and cool - and it's linked by the Tube as well as the brand new Docklands Light Rail (like the LRT back home).

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Thursday, February 02, 2006

5:31 pm - Science Museum

These pics were taken at the "Flight" gallery at the Science Museum. These pics really mean a lot to me. The last time I was there was in 1993 and all the photos I took were lost when I misplaced the roll of film. So one of the "things-i-must-do-cuz-i-din-do-it" was to take a pic with the spitfire and the Harrier at Science Museum. Done! :-)

It all started wif the Wright brothers' plane on the left. Then it slowly evolved.

The Spitfire - one of the best (if not the best) planes in WWII! And the Harrier - the most succesful VTOL jet plane til today!

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5:12 pm - Soho Spice

This was prolly the most expensive meal I had which I had to pay (well, only half - "Dutch" style, of course) - so the expensive shark-fin lunches I had wif Datuk Tony Tiah is excluded! Perks of practising in me previous firm! :-)

This was at Soho Spice - and the bill came to slightly less than 46 quid (for 2)!

I had the prawns (of course - the first I had since I got here!!!!) while Michele had the lamb.

Oh, see the bottle of water near my left elbow? Well, that too is the most expensive WATER (yes, pure, normal, plain water - not even sparkling!) I've ever had - 3.25!!!! I was so tempted to ask if I could keep the bottle...

Still, it was an excellent meal! The place was nice and comfy too. Oh, the meal oso came wif naan bread which was brilliant!!! The prawns were fresh and sufficiently marinated - still juicy despite being barbequed! Yum! No regrets. :-)~

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