Mai, Oh My!

We arrived in London on my 29th Birthday (10/10) and by the time we got to our hostel it was late. By the time we all freshened up, it was later so in the end we ate a late dinner at this restaurant Punjabi @ Covent Garden. The food was excellent though and the bottle of white wine cheaper than an appetizer . How adult of us no? No crazy birthday antics though and no conversations with taxi drivers about Jupiter and all that. Pretty low key and I think everyone was tired anyway.

The next morning Cece & Carly were flying back home. After spending a week with those girls (and I mean almost every waking minute with eachother!) it was sad to see them go. Carly teared up and I did too..sigh. If all goes well I’ll be back in the US again next year “The seas parted ways and left em’ to be!” (Seas = C&C and EM’ = M&M) ha ha I know I’m so special. So yeah it was just Marie and I for the rest of the day. We were waiting for Aash to call me back so he could give us directions on how to get to his apt for us to store our shit for the rest of the day. In the meantime though we made friends with the tube guy at the Royal Oak station. I dunno what we talked about but he liked us enough to offer his office for us to leave our luggage in while we got breakfast and all. In return though we got him some breakfast and he gave us a surprise big bear hug as we made our way to Aldgate East/White Chappel to meet up with Aash.

Aash lives off Selby Street @ White Chappel. His living room view is a cemetary where people died of Bubonic Plague (refer to past reference of Bubonic Plague). White Chappel is also where the Jack the Ripper murders took place. Lots of awesome history if you ask me! We didn’t have time to have a personal tour of the area but he did take us to the only ‘farm’ in London town aka Spitalfields City Farm. Well, we actually just walked by it cause we were answering the call of hunger… LUNCHERS @ Casa Blue on Brick Lane. Casa Blue is a nice cozy… cafe (?) There aren’t really any proper tables to eat on. Lots of beat up couches and places to lounge. It’s a place to snack and drink basically. Food was good though! I think we ordered their special platter and this special cocktail mixed with energy drinks and other stuff…it was called thai something or other (not the actual name but it had the word ‘thai’ in it). It was really good and before you know it, a bunch of people I’ve met in various stages of my life grouped together drinking from a fishbowl, in harmony. Aww….  Eventually we moved from Casa Blue to the Vibe Bar (hazy recollection of events!) and then finally to this bar/club that was in a warehouse – right behind the RootMaster ‘bustaurant’. Finally about 10 p.m. or so I had to make my way to the airport to catch my flight back ‘home’ – beligerent, sad and a tad confused. It’s a good thing the airport officials a) allowed me to sneak in an extra 5KG for my check-in luggage b) allowed my overweight carry on luggage on board. All good in the hood. Stansted airport officials aren’t assholes after all…well when it’s close to midnight that is! (A reverse Mogwai!?)

So that concludes uSUK Tour 2009… “tour” because it was like going on tour. I was constantly with people and I imagine being in a band ur always around people and at times they get on ur nerves and also it’s hard to get some “alone” time etc..etc.. It was also very tiring but all worth it. It certainly did not SUK (as in uSUK – blah baadd wordplay sorry). Now that I’ve been “home” for nearly 2 weeks, I’m enjoying some time alone doing absolutely nothing. At the same time, I’m doing a lot of thinking which I did little of when travelling. Soooo.. you know how that goes.

Now for some pictures to accompany this post:

Cheers! And it’s back to ‘mai’ random ramblings whenever I feel like it!

Farewell to America (I’m sure I’ll be seeing you again soon – as in next year!) and hello again to the UK!

Met with C&C and M at Heathrow Terminal 4 on a fine rainy London afternoon (Airport no 6 or 7 on my trip). After several coffees later we decided to make our way to the hostel where we’d spend 3 wet days together.

Our hostel (Torquay) wasn’t too far from the Royal Oak tube station on the Hammersmith and City line. Our room faced the highway and a popular (and famous!) skate park  – Meanwhile 2 -  in central London. It was a quad room with a bathroom ensuite – cozy at first but not so cozy after several showers later and the room became a swamp. (semi) beggars can’t be choosers cause we paid only GBP11 / night which is pretty much a steal in central London. Personally, I like the noise of the highway (and the view of the skatepark), it’s quite soothing at night but I guess it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.

We wanted to take it low key the first evening there so we went to eat some Fish & Chips (the quintessentially British food – next to curry?!) The lady at the hostel (also named Maya) told us to go to Mr. Fish on Porchester Road so we did. It was good but it still wasn’t what I hoped it to be (served in newspaper and the works – but apparently it’s become a health hazard now to serve them that way!). We walked around a bit in that area but I think we went in the wrong direction because it was all residential-ish / business like buildings. Finally after not finding much to do (and the priority task to STAY AWAKE to cure our jet lag) we headed out to Camden town and hit a few pubs there (The Oxford Arms, Spread Eagle, Dublin Castle) and hopped on the tube back “home” before closing time – but not before a couple photo ops of course!
Of the 3 times I’ve been to London never did I go on one of those “bus tours” but the 2nd day we did just that and you know what, being a tourist is kinda awesome! I guess I got caught up trying to “blend in” so much in the past but whatever, fuck it. You cover A LOT of London on those tours and it gives you an audio guide as well. It’s London on speed…basically. We already started the day kinda late (4 girls, one bathroom, low water pressure etc..etc..) so we just stayed on the bus till it came full circle and hopped off somewhere in Bayswater where we ate pub grub and drank some ciders (and some of us swooned over the fellas sitting next to us..hoho).

We had big plans to go on the Bath – Windsor – Stonehenge tour the next morning. We booked the tickets through the Big Bus Tour lady (the same tour company we did the sight seeing tour the day before with). She was very helpful but unfortunately the actual service was crap and the tour wasn’t booked so we ended up looking like fools at 8 a.m. when they kicked us off the bus. M in all her pissed off glory went to complain at the main office (she was about to stab a bitch – no joke). I stayed with CC to look up other options online. M ran into two American dudes (Jay & Scott from Philly) who were also looking to go for the same tour (Stonehenge) so we got booked on one that was leaving at 1 p.m. – enough time for us to hang out at Victoria Station, have lunch, sleep etc…etc… Just when we thought shit couldn’t get any worse, it starts POURING all the way to Stonehenge! It was freezing cold, windy and to make matters worse the stupid tour bus driver told us to take everything with us off the bus! Basically anything we bought earlier got drenched. We didn’t even get to listen to the walking audio cause we were too busy a) holding on to our shit b) holding an umbrella c)both. It made for a funny experience though and I’m surprised (and happy) no one got seriously ill cause we were all going to SCOTLAND the next day.

TO BE CONTINUED……

Tomorrow I will be on an AirAsia X plane (my first long haul flight on a no frills airline) to London! I seriously need this mini break, even though I am sorta ‘working’ by churning a couple articles out for it.

Of course today of all days the POUND is selling at close to 5.9! It’s ridiculous as last month it was only 5.4. When the exchange rate differs by only a few .01 it doesn’t really matter but it does show a bit of a difference It doesn’t really make that much of a difference with .1 difference. For example I changed RM1500 and got £255 – £277 if it were selling at 5.4. That’s a 22 pound difference. With 22 pounds I could buy me enough round of beers for a massive beer hangover the next day! That says a lot.

So I’m all set to see Blur. I’ve been reading reviews and I even managed to catch a snippet of their performance at Glastonbury online. The connection was slow though because I had to change IP Proxies to a UK one (proxy descrimination!!) Anywhooo…my music playlist now is arranged according to their set list. “Purists” may complain that it’s too singles heavy but seriously though – it’s a killer set and I can’t wait. 2 Nights of Blur and some pretty good opening acts.

Check this space for more updates! I’ll see if I can ‘twitter’ from London via my phone. I’m still deciding whether I should bring my lap top. Bringing it means I’m bringing my work with me, but at the same time I can choose to ignore work. Typing everything out when it’s all still fresh in my head helps. Plus my travel buddy wants his 2 mins of fame. He’s dying to get out there and get all middle earth on you!

It’s official! I’m going to see BLUR this July @ Hyde Park (2nd & 3rd) – It’s like a dream come true and I don’t say that to be cliche – I really did dream about it!

Get this – a day or two before Blur officially announced they were re-uniting with Graham Coxon I dreamt I was at the concert. When I actually received word of their announcement a few days later I impulsively bought tickets for the first announced July 3rd Hyde Park concert. Tickets sold out in 2 minutes when they were officially on sale but I was lucky and had presale codes. Obviously at the time I didn’t really think much about how I was actually getting to London. Around the same time AirAsia launched their long haul flights to London for cheap but I had already booked tix to London for my October trip enroute to the US for Rosie’s wedding. Long story short – even though one of my favourite things about travelling are the airports and the frills you get on the flight like free wine and postcards – it’s a wonderful thing to know that getting to London has become more realistic for many people (sans frills) – myself included and here I am, a little under 2 months away to actually see Blur in the flesh – albeit them (and me) being older, heavier and more cynical

My tickets are all booked and I have at least 2 projects revolved around this trip. Leaving July 1st and guess what??? I bought 2 tickets for their July 3rd show and with that extra ticket I’ve traded for their July 2nd show too. Why yes, yes I can.