2nd day being a tourist in London

This morning I woke up around 8 as usual, since I wanna tried my best to visit couple of places. First thing in the morning, I went to Tower of London, my co-worker highly recommended me to go even it could take more than an hour to go in. Luckily, I went there even before the ticket office opens, so I went in without much waiting. So there is an old man guiding us ...

The Tower of London is a place where the kings and queens used to live, and also it's a place where they used as a jail for many people, even queens, prince or other famous people like St. Thomas More. I vaguely remember he said that some king was actually jailed here by his own son and finally died here too. And Thomas More was jailed here such that he could change his mind and lead people to turn away from Catholicism. Of course he didn't and he becomes a Saint.

So I gotta see some jewelrys that Queens and Kings used. I saw a diamond that weigh 3 thousands something carat ... it didn't get polished, so it looks like a piece of plastic. I wonder if I see it on the street, I wouldn't even pick it up .. haha ... anyhow, they dun allow to take pictures inside ... so you could only see the exterior.

After that, I went to Webminster Abbey and hoping to go inside ... however, they're closed on Sunday. So I turned around and go to the Webminster Catheral instead, it's quite an old church and it takes me quite a bit of walking before I can get there. A signature of it is there is a McD right outside of the church. It's the usual GRAND looking inside, and I paid 3 pounds to hop into a lift (escalator), driven by an old man, to the top of the tower, so I could see the London. I'm just being cheap, instead of paying 10 or 20 pounds to get on to London Eyes, I chose this one instead. One thing I keep forgetting is these cathedral is not under the Roman Catholic Church ... anyway, I still prayed there for a short period of time.

Then I took the bus to go to British Meseum, where I didn't see the whole thing before they close yesterday. It's just so amazing how all these stuff get "taken" away from their original places and now being stored here. After thinking for a while, maybe it's a good thing la ... at least, they're in good hands. I saw the very famous mummy ... and surprisingly I spent quite a big deal of time reading the description and the history of every pieces ... I wish I have the whole day to really look at every single item carefully.

My final item in the wish list for today is St. Paul's Cathedral ... once again, I thought it's a Catholic church and they said they have a service with Ballet at 6 ... I was a little disappointed about it .. it's a meditation kind of thing, where some young people was dancing ballet and the band was singing ... and trying to lead you to meditation. One little surprise is 2 female dancers are chinese ... 'cos I dun get to see much chinese around and I found 2 here. After that, I joined Joey for dinner, and she brought me to an "local" indian place to eat ... it's pretty good la ...

1st day being a tourist in London

Today morning as a tourist, I started with Buckingham Palace and I can go inside the Palace. However, they dun allow to take picture at all, so I can't share with you any scene inside the palace. They had given me the audio guide thing, and since I was rushing to finish this one soon so I can see the Changing of the Guard ... I was always ahead of the audio track. haha .. Here is the back of a building inside the palace .. and the green open area has been used as a party place for the queen to meet with many many thousand guests every year.

Inside the building, I saw lots of the jewels that she wears, or other kings and queens wore before. I saw how grand the cutlery, tables, chair or pictures are ... when King George wants to build this palace, he used 3 times over the budget that parliament allowed him, and it is too detaailed that it couldn't be finished before he dies, so the budget was carried over to the next queen.

I finished the tour within 1 hour 15 minutes ... I think I can spend more time in it, 'cos there are just so much to see and I kinda forgot what I have seen inside already ... so bad ... now I walked to the front gate and try my best to peek thru the gate and see the changing of the guard. At first, I was quite excited, but this whole thing takes 45 minutes and since I'm so far away and I can't really see in detail what they're doing, what they're playing (the band) .. I just felt kinda bored.

I walked over to the National Gallery and browse around for 15 minutes, then I headed to Notting Hill to meet with Joey for lunch. We ate in the Portorbello Street and we briefly walked around there as well, it's just like the Ap Liu Street in Shum Shui Po ... so I didn't spend too much time. And we went to British mesum, so she could explain to me what she understand .. and it's good to have her around to explain to me what the "main" attractions are and what's the interesting fact ... however, the meseum closed after an hour and we have to rush to Tate Modern to continue our meseum jorney.

The building now holds Tate Modern used t be a factory building. They converted it to a meseum and moved those works starting from 1900 to here from the Tate meseum. It also looks very nice inside .. She also tried her best to explain to me what she knows, but too bad, I don't have good enough background to understand some of them. Anyway ... we saw lots of paintings and some really weird "arts". Like there are some TV showing some sort of "arts" inside. Like some artist likes to use clown to display different kind of impression .. and on the TV, s/he has this clown jumping up and down and yelling ... that's a piece of "arts". There is another one called "Flip, Flop and something something" .. I went into this huge room, with 4 projects, and each project display a corner of a lab with different colors, 3 of them are flipped in different orders ... and the video is quite static plus some background noise ... and that's it ... I don't know, I just don't have this artistic mindsest to see thru these things.

Anyhow, Joey cooked dinner and so we had dinner at her place. Quite a nice place .. I kinda imaged it'd be some 'old-style' looking apartment, turns out it's quite big and modern ... haha ...

TGI Friday ...

TGI Friday .. today my team leader in UK assigned me a ticket which will be my first little task in this company, I am of course happy to take it and I'm also a little nervous, but Ian explained to me what's the exact problem is and I believe I can take care of it in a jiff.

So I took off around 6, and took a bus .. forgot which number la ... that destinated at Waterloo Station. You can take the EuroStar train to France, and I can see people lining up going thru custom, and that reminds me how HK people line up to go in to China before.

Oh btw .. initially I thought I'd go to Hyde Park Corner tonight to listen to people's talk ... but my co-worker said it's not Friday ... so I decided to visit somewhere else instead ... and Webminster, Big Ben, London Eye and also Millinenium Bridge would be my destination for tonight.

I always like to get lost somehow and then "discover" new thing ... Ops, I did it again. I left the Waterloo station and saw the circular IMAX Theatre and I walk toward some square and I suddenly got this bright sunlight from my right hand side, and here I'm ... I can see the sun THRU the London Eyes .. This is quite impressing ... While I was struggling whether I should get a ticket and hop on the London Eyes ... I couldn't find the ticket booth .. it's alrite, I am not gonna go then.

I walked quickly over the bridge and saw the Big Ben, the Parliament and the Webminster Abbey. I walked along the street and I saw whole bunch of government building, I believe they're Whitehall ... which is where the Prime Minister works and I also passed by 10 Downing Street ... All these location are quite familiar to most HK people, and now I am finally gotta see it ...

You know, these places is those people who used to make all different kind of decision for your home town ... and u saw it on TV, on newspaper, and finally I can see it with my real eyes. I continue to walk along, and I passed thru the Horse Army Square or something ... and I see this really nice entry ... I guess it's those Gothic building, but I think it's really nice ... passing thru it, I saw Trafalgar Square plus the Nelson's monument .. there are lots of people just sitting, waiting, feediing bird .. and up there it's the National Gallery and next to it, I found the National Portrait Meseum. I have to pass today, but I'll visit them some weeknights again.

There were really lots of people in Trafalgar Square, lots of shops too. And I feel it's like Mong Kok in Hong Kong. As I continue to walk in the crowd, I saw this TV-tower, so I tried to walk close to get a better picture and I think I walked into the SOHO area once again. However, this time I think I entered into a different part of SOHO, and I think I finally know why SOHO is "attractive" to some people ... I was asked "Darling, wanna come up?" once ... haha ... of course, I didn't stay too long and return to the sqaure and get some food.

I finally had the Fish and Chips today ... now I know how bad it can be, heehee. After that, I went back to the Webminster Abbey and the Big Ben area to take a few night shots .. You know, at first I dun feel the London Eye has nothing special before I see it with my eyes, but today and tonight ... i realize it's beautiful and I am delighted that it'll be in London for at 20 years more.

I walked along the Thame Path and waked thru so many different bridges, like Hungerford Bridge, which looks kinda cool from outside. But I like millineium bridge the most, because it's a path to St. Paul ... it's a pedestrian-only bridge and when you walk on it ... I just feel like I'm walking on the corridor in the church ... you know, it'd be really interesting if my future wife will be walking along this isle and get married in St. Paul's ... although I think it'll take her and her dad 30-40 minutes to walk from this side til the altar .. haha ... just a crazy idea ... that pretty much ended my wonder night .. and my legs were in great pain.

Another Nice day of London

I had lunch in an English pub ... finally with my team lead and an coworker. I ordered the bangers, which is essentially sausages and smash potatos ... I also ordered a capuccino, which I thought would keep me awake till 5 or 6 ... and of course it didn't do its job, I feel asleep at my desk starting somewhere around 4 o'clock. Not sure if anyone noticed me, but I'm sure some of them did ... I was supposed to read some Perl code and ask as much question since my co-worker is just next to me ... I did ask some, but not much. It's really some smart code that they're doing, which I've never done before. Thanks God for giving me this opporunity.

Tonight's destination ... First, walking on City Road South ... and saw the Bank of England

on the left hand side, the Royal Exchange and the Stock Exchange are close by, although I didn't really see the Stock Exchange, but I"m sure I saw it 'cos according to the map, it's right there .. haha.

So as I walked around and I didn't even notice I am very close to London Bridge ..

I was distracted by the fire trucks that parked next to this little church. And there here I am .. finally the first time seeing the famous Thame river and the London Bridge. A song that we used to sing a lot when we were little ... of course, I"m a little disappointed .. haha ... i thought it would really give you an impression or feeling that it will fall down or something but it's a rigid concrete bridge .. and nothing special compare the the Tower Bridge.

So I walked along the Thame path ... passed a tiny St. Magnus The Martyr Catholic church ...

so tiny that it is "embedded" within the tall building and hotel around it, but u can see the cross on top of its roof from far away. I passed London Tower ...

I heard from my co-worker that it's the place where people get beheaded in the past. And there is a DeadMan's hole ... it's the only place where people can possibly find their friend's "head" after the execution ... sounds scary ah ... I dun think I saw the hole but I could have ... but it was kinda dark and I dun quite wanna see anything "un-usual" ...

Anyway .. I get to the Tower Bridge, it's a really nice bridge and I can see the intersting building - City Hall and next to it is the College of London ... and I can see lots of other interesting thing, like another cool looking building, it's just like those lava lamp ... and I believe it's the Swiss bank or something ... i walked over the bridge and I had dinner in an Italian restaurant ... nothing particular that worth mentioning, after that I just went to take tube back to hotel ...

St. Paul's Cathedral

Hm ... I had chinese food for lunch again ... the 4-pound lunchbox from downstairs. I am so sleepy today which I pretty much fell asleep during the meeting, and it's a 1-on-1 meeting with a russian guy in our team. I was writin and all of the sudden I dunno what i"m writing ... and then I accidentally close my eye and I woke myself up and trying reallly hard to hold my pen and keep writing ... I didn't know one can still write while he's sleeping .. haha ... pretty funny, and I dun even know if he noticed or not too ...

oh well ... so my luggage finally arrived at my hotel and I finally get to use my own towel and make the hotel more like a home now. And since i don't need to buy any new clothes, I can go out and walk around the city ... first place to go is the restaurant my sister suggests ... Smith around Chatterhouse .. i finally got there with 20 something walk plus getting lost ... haha .. it's just my nature to get lost .. I found it !!! But it's a very crowded pub .. and I really dun

wanna be in a pub by myself ... people are really loud and environment is really crowded .. people dressed nicely standing everywhere yelling at each other ... i really want a quiet sitdown place to eat ...

anyhow, I kept walking around trying to find another place to eat ... and London is such an amazing city, it always gives you some surprises ... after walking around/getting lost for about 20 minutes, I saw a nice chapels far away ... and i later on found out it's the famous St. Paul's Cathedral. It's HUGE, and pretty ... too bad one side of it ie being remodeled so it's covered. And I found this little ramen place at the corner ... and I had the worst ramen in my whole life ... even worse than the Nissin one .. and I grabbed some california rolls for 'siu yeah' .. and the little bag of wasabi costs me 10 pence ...

I walk to the nearby tube station ... and figured out how much i need to pay and which platform I should go to .. and which station i need to change trains ... but as i said, it always gives u some surprise ... the train driver announced the Tower something station is closed ...

(nowadays they close station very frequently if they see any unattended bags or items), so I figured out I can get off 1 station earlier and I can walk "internally" to another line ... hm ... but when I arrive ... the station has some smoke and some strange smell ... I right away associated the closure of that station and this smoke ... the train came by and I hopped on it w/o further worrying. And I"m safe at hotel typing now ...

2nd Day here ...

I got quite a lot of sleep last night and I guess that's why I can't put myself to sleep until 12 tonight. Today, noting interesting happened, my lulggage is still stucked in Minnesota ... 'cos the Northwest strike cancelled the flight to London. They said they'll deliver it to me tomorrow, we will see.

Free breakfast at the hotel ... and after that trying to "rush" to work, which is something I haven't done for a while since I left Hong Kong ... and ppl here do walk fast ... but it's really cool ... a really good feeling and just feeling like I'm walking to work in Central ..

I ate Pret sandwiches for lunch .. later I found out that this store is everywhere in the city ... I guess they're much like subyway or mcdonald in US. Price is decent, I ordered a chocolate crossiant 'cos I dun think that sandwiches is enough for me ... plus order an interesting orange juice .. not sweet at all ...

my co-worker gave me direction to H&M store on Oxford Circus ... and I can take Bus-55 right outside of my hotel and get there for only 20 minutes. I shopped at H&M until the last minutes, 'cos I really really need to get 1 new clothes or even a pair of "trousers" if I can ... so I ended up picking a striped sweater .. whatever, i just hv to keep my finger crossed for my luggage to really arrive tomorrow.

And I walked around the Oxford circus ... and accidentally passed by lots of italian restaurant and pubs .. and I think it's the so-called SOHO area. I wanna go try those pubs, but usually they're very crowded and it will look quite stupid for me to wait there alone ... so I decided to walk even further ... and I arrived China Town accidentally ... i guess everything is kinda close by .. and I decided to find a restaurant in China town for dinner ... i know it wont' taste good, but what the heck ... I should at least tried before I made comment ... rite ?

So it turns out to taste okay ... and I walked back to the oxford Circus and took the same bus back to hotel ... if the luggage arrive tomorrow night ... then I can go to somewhere but not clothing stores ... I guess I wanna go check out the Westminister abbey or London Bridge at night ... will see ... or I should go back to Oxford Circus again to get something for Di Di ... not sure la ...

Arriving London ...

Today I finally arrived at London. Now staying in a okay comfy hotel room typing the blog. This trip begins with a quite unpleasant situation, Northwest went on strike, 1st flight was delayed for about 30 something minutes while I only had about 5 minutes to walk from 1 gate to another gate. And while I was considering myself lucky that I got on the London plane .. I didn't know my luggage was still lag behind, EVEN my 2nd flight wasn't able to depart with 1 hour delay. That made me waited in the baggage claim area for quite a long time searching my bag and also fill out the application form for them to transfer my bag to my hotel "tomorrow" with my finger crossed.

Another strange thing happened during custom, they somehow evaluate my entry very very carefully. They somehow have to copy my passport, my greencard .. and they asked so much question about my position in mBlox, and why I'm here and what exactly I'll be trained on. So strange ah .. I was worried that some stupid terrorism was using my name ... I guess not ...

So then after get out of the baggage claim with only my laptop bag .. i bought a train ticket to London Bridge, where I can take tube to Old Street station. He only told me to go to Platform 4 ... and then ... nothing. But I somehow spotted a train opposite to us when we stopped at our 2nd stop that has "ThameLinks" on it ... and my ticket also says "Route: ThameLinks ONLY" ... so i quicky hopped on to that train and asked one of the passenger ... and he said this would be right train. So I successfully arrived London Bridge station within 15 minutes.

I dunno if they're being unpolite, or I really looked like an idiot ... I totally forgot that I need to "get out" of the train station before "getting into" the tube station .. so before i got out of the train station, i saw these gates then i asked those ppl where I'm going to get ticket ... and surprisingly they pointed me to somewhere ... of course leading to nowhere .. and afterall ... i figured out I need to use the train ticket to "get out" ... so I tried and doesn't work, and then I turned to this Indian-English guy asking him why my ticket can't go thru ... he then pointed at the sign and said impolitely, "Look at the sign ..". FINE ..

anyway ... w/o luggage, i need to use the towel, the razor, the soap from the hotel .. and I have to rush to Marks and Spencer for some underwear, socks and new clothes to wear ... what a waste ... sigh. And tonight I had Indian food .. it's okay ... and the chinese food for lunch .. hm .. cheap lor ... hehe.

9th day @ new company ...

I should have done a better job updating this blog .. and I will go back and put in some pictures and what I saw in Canadian Rockies ... and of course, putting more what I've seen in this new company.

I am having serious headache these few days, and all of the left side ... seems weird to me, 'cos I never had such a bad headache before. I hope it's not something serious as I'll be heading over to London in a week or so.

Met with couple people and I guess I'm starting to feel more confidence this company would succeed, although majority of revenue are coming from the content that I'd personally never subscribe .. haha ...