zuanqing extraordinaire: QQ

Best friend Edwin was studying in Amsterdam and since I had the rare opportunity to visit London, I couldn't possibly miss out on a chance to visit him in Amsterdam which was just a train/plane ride away!

So I researched on some train and air prices and decided that taking a plane was the fastest way as I didn't have much time to spare. By plane it's only about 2 hours away, with a one hour time difference if I remember correctly.

Hence before I made my way to London I bought my air tickets from London to Amsterdam on easyJet - a budget airline which caused me about slightly less than S$200. As I was trying to cut costs I chose to fly from Gatwick airport (the main airport of London is Heathrow Airport) which was definitely less accessible than Heathrow airport (which you can access via tube easily). Thus I spent another S$40 to book bus tickets via easyBus (yep same company as easyJet) to be picked up from a location in London to Gatwick airport and back. Not sure if I had chosen to fly from Heathrow and save on the bus costs the amount spent would still be the same. Haha.

Anyways on 30 Oct afternoon I made my way to Earls Court by tube to the bus pick up location. I made sure to choose an early arrival time so I don't miss my flight. It was an evening flight - so I'll reach Amsterdam at night, have a full day the next day, and then fly back to London in the morning the following day.

As I was on the bus, enjoying the view of the setting sun as we turned into Gatwick Airport

In my haste to pack, I forgot about the 100-ml rule and hurriedly bought empty 100-ml bottles from Boots so I can keep my 200-ml makeup remover from being thrown away - it was expensive! Eventually, they only allowed ONE lousy small bag of bottles and I had to throw some bottles away. Thankfully most of them were finishing.

Flying over Amsterdam at night

And I finally met up with best friend at Schiphol Airport!

Upon touch down, free wifi was available (wheeeee! so much better than the London airports) and I made contact with best friend who was slightly delayed cos of the train. The first thought I had was "all the male airport staff are so cute!" hahahaha. No kidding man. I saw mostly young, buff men. Even at the immigration counter. Unlike those usual ajhumma and ahjussi type of officers you see at most airports. Haha.

When I met best friend we had a quick dinner at Burger King before he brought me to explore the red light district a little.

Buying a train ticket and everything is in Dutch!

Vending machines for piping hot snacks and burgers

Some blurred shops along the alleys of the red light district as I didn't dare to take too many photos openly

Basically, prostitution and sex shows are rampant over here. You will pass by "display windows" where it is just a small room with floor to ceiling glass windows and doors. The prostitutes will be posing in front scantily clad, and if you were interested, you can ask for a price and upon consent, the curtains will be drawn and you can proceed to do your thing.

Saw many posing and soliciting business - of all ages and sizes. Also passed by some with the curtains drawn. It was quite an eye opener the way the trade was conducted so openly in Amsterdam.

There were also "theaters" where you view "sex shows". You can see signages that go "Live Sex Performance" etc along with blown up photos which I was too *gulp* to take a close look at. Especially since I was with a guy. But I heard from friends that such shows are usually funny instead of erotic? Not too sure man. But pay to see someone have sex on stage? Errr no thanks.

After walking around a bit more we headed home to Edwin's apartment by bus. I was exhausted and couldn't wait to get into bed! It was tiring lugging my heavy travel bag around.

Edwin stayed in this small student apartment with another house mate. The apartment had 2 bedrooms, 1 living room, 1 kitchen and a toilet. It was shabby looking but provided all the necessities. I have no idea how Edwin can study though. His bedroom is smaller and so cramped there's no space for a study table or a proper wardrobe. Lucky he's a guy.

What you see is what you get. This angle was taken from the door. I have to say it's quite cosy though. Which helps in the cold weather. Haha.

And that concludes my first night in Amsterdam. Will continue about the next day in my next post and that will finally bring me to the end of my London-Amsterdam travelogue!

Some mobile snaps:

Super amusing photo of baby quarreling with her enemy - my auntie's chihuahua! These two had a long feud since years ago man.

Was wishing for a craftholic bunny just the day before and this magically appeared on my desk one morning! Thanks to my sissyyyy heheh <3

OTD for company Lunar New Year cocktail reception: Love Bonito Caitlin Cheongsam Dress in Pink. Received praises that night :D and did I mention that our GOH Minister Lui Tuck Yew took the MRT to our event? We had to shift the welcome party from Fairmont Hotel lobby to City Hall MRT station. Faints. Good thing the train only broke down AFTER he alighted! Hahaha

Rare lunch with the parents - Blanco Prawn Noodles. Yummy

Yes doggies?

Friday lunch at Group Therapy. Food and coffee were both awesome! Would definitely go back there again since it's so near my office

Hope I am doing alright with the upkeep of my blog thus far... Lol. Would appreciate any comments or feedback for improvement! :D

YES! Finally uploaded my London/Amsterdam photos and sitting down to blog about my trip that happened 2 months ago :D

Must say that for a 8-days trip in a new country I didn't really take many photos. Mainly because the weather was too cold I just can't be bothered to take my hands out of my warm toasty pockets to take photos haha. And partly because I travelled alone for a few days. No tripod to take photos of myself. Haha. So it's a lot of scenery/tourist attraction shots I guess.

Nonetheless, hope my posts will still be interesting reads!

So on 26 October which was a Thursday night and eve of a PH, my parents sent me to the airport after a family dinner at Bedok. Which was awesome, really. They don't have the habit of sending us to or picking us up from airport and poor me usually cab both ways :( So I was glad Daddy gave me a lift especially when I was flying alone for the first time!

Was excited and slightly in trepidation as I didn't really know what to expect of my first time flying solo. Plus I can really be such a ditz at time. Really thankful I made it there and back safe and sound haha.

And it was my first time flying SQ in like over a decade! Been taking budget flights the past 2 years I forgot how it feels like to be pampered onboard. Hehe.

I needed a flight buddy so I brought Birdie Jr along with me :p

Poor thing got squeezed quite thoroughly as we passed through customs. He is perfectly harmless officer!

Anyway SQ is totally awesome! I had a nice supper onboard coupled with a nice glass of Riesling. Birdie Jr definitely approves!

However, the entertainment onboard was mildly disappointing and I ended up watching cartoons and animation films. And some Taiwanese variety show which got me laughing as soft as I could without people thinking I was insane haha. And pro-tip for people with small bladders like me: Always get an aisle seat! I felt so paiseh to keep disturbing the man sitting at the aisle that I tried to hold it in as much as I can and when I see that he goes up to go toilet I immediately spring up and out as well! Haha. 13-hour direct flight some more. But he was quite nice about it the few times I had to go la. :)

It was breakfast onboard before we landed in London early in the morning on 27th. I was supposed to take the tube and make my way to Mish's place from the airport before she went to work. So my plan was to touch down, try to find wifi or data sim, contact Mish and set off.

Most unfortunately I had switched to an iPhone 5 and pre-paid data nano sim cards were not available yet. And the airport did not provide free wifi too. You gotta pay and I wasn't going to. And and and my phone was dying so I desperately needed to charge it!

Thankful for these charging points available at the airport.

But the next obstacle was... my phone had no service at all! My mobile plan included roam in subscription so by right I should be connected to any of the London network but no. "No Service" throughout the entire time I stood there charging my phone. I was a bit panicky because how was I going to contact Mish?? I mean, I did have her home address and directions there but what if she wasn't home or something happens along the way?

But the excitement of being in London trumped the panic attacks. I stood there reading Hunger Games off my iPad while my phone was charging and I noticed a pay phone in sight so I decided to call Mish using a public pay phone! (which cost a bomb by the way zzz)

Mish was so nice she said she would skip work for that day and waited for me at home! So after establishing contact I went in search for the tube, excited that my trip was officially kicking off!

Got myself a travel ticket. Spot me in the cctv!

The trains in London are much smaller than Singapore's, and they allow eating and drinking in the train which totally rocks by the way. But then I understand where Singapore's gahmen is coming from when they imposed the local law of no eating and drinking lah. Cos the London trains really quite dirty some of them. Oh another similarity is that there's no network service also. I think it's worse than Singapore's one lol.

Most of the stations do not have lifts (or at least I didn't see them) and I had to lug my 16kg luggage up and down stairs pant pant. As I was going down this particular flight a nice lady actually came and help me! Touched max. But no more chivalry in London. Le sigh.

After about 45 mins I reached the station near Mish's apartment - Canada Water! They actually have free wifi in the tube stations. According to Mish there is zero network underground so they are installing wifi which will be free till end of 2012. So I'm guessing the wifi is actually chargeable over there now haha. Lucky for me :p

My super hot friend in super cold weather. She was wearing short shorts underneath lol. But I still think she's crazy cos the weather was damn friggin cold!

Safe and warm in her room! That's her pet Noodles which she shares with her housemates :) It's super cute but I don't think it liked me very much haha

more of Noodles

After some settling down Mish took me out to sightsee a bit! I can't remember all the places she brought me and I didn't snap very many photos. But it was a great time of catch up as we walked through London in the cold weather :D

First stop was the Borough Market where there were lots of food! Yummmmms.

According to Wikipedia, Borough Market is a wholesale and retail food market in Southwark, Central London, England. It is one of the largest food markets in London,^[1] and sells a large variety of foods from all over the world.

The retail food market only opens from Thursdays to Saturdays! Glad I was there to try some of it.

Toasted cheese sandwich

me looking happy with my toasted cheese sandwich

me and Mish!

and we had reaaaalllyyy goooood oysters. so fresh they taste just like the sea! this Hongkie dude was selling them and he has perfect camera sense - totally smiling for my photo haha

Pork burger jia dan!

Mish brought me to a coffee place and I was pleasantly surprised that their coffee was good - thought England all about tea and scones only hahaha. That tall blond guy with the specs is Mish's eye candy btw. Lol but i suspect he is gay.

pheasants on display

After filling our tummies Mish brought me to the Tate Modern museum which is free entry! Like no such thing in Singapore can. Still say wanna promote culture and arts.... Right.

Anyway according to Wikipdia (again! haha), Tate Modern is a modern art gallery located in London, England. It is Britain's national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tategroup (together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool, Tate St Ives and Tate Online).^[2] It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year.^[3] It is based in the former Bankside Power Station, in the Bankside area of Central London. Tate holds the national collection of British art from 1500 to the present day and international modern and contemporary art.^[4]

Mish is such an art buff she could literally tell me the background and history and artist etc of like every piece of artwork there haha. Art is not really my cup of tea so luckily it's free LOL. Still a pleasant enough experience, but it was pretty crowded for a Friday afternoon though.

One of the very few rare artwork I can recognize.. Picasso!

A balcony at the museum where you can see some skyline of the river

Soon, the woggers were arriving in London from Paris and we made plans to meet-up!

Passed by Trafalgar Square on the way

Reunion with the woggers! We sat at a random restaurant with drinks and fries and discussed our sightseeing plans for the next few days. After which, woggers left to meet Swi's colleague who is based in London for dinner while I left with Mish to have a Vietnamese dinner!

I am a big fan of Vietnamese food and this wasn't disappointing! The portions were pretty huge and I had difficulty finishing up so we packed the remainders home which I think were taken care of by Mish's housemates. Lol. The restaurant was run by Asians - I believe they were Vietnamese and about 95% of the patrons were Asian too. 4.5/5!

After dinner it was a short walk back and we stopped by the supermarket to do some grocery shopping. Okay some is an understatement. LOADS of grocery shopping as Mish had to stock up on lots of stuff. The bags were heavy and the weather was so cold the short walk seemed like a marathon. Oh and the supermarket cashier refused to let us buy wine cos we both didn't bring our IDs out! Not sure if they are always this strict but I shall take it as a compliment that I look young LOL.

We finally made it back with the groceries while almost getting frozen in the cold. I was really exhausted cos I was jet lagged and still adjusting to the euro time zone. When it was 4pm London time I felt like it was 10pm already cos it was 12mn back home.

Conked out soon after I shower on Mish's comfy bed with an electric blanket. The best thing invented for the cold weather! :)

To be followed up with the next post on London sightseeing!

Some mobile snaps:

Freshly cut and styled hair at Salon Vim done by director Gary Chew on NYE. Love how it looks when he styled it. Unfortunately now it looks nothing like this now. Haha

OTD on first day of work in 2013: cotton on basic top x love bonito bandage skirt

My almost OTD on Sunday - GAP tank bought from Cambodia (yes I question its authenticity too but I only paid 4USD for it so... hahaha) x H&M skirt x Miu Miu ballet flats. Almost because in the end I didn't make to to church but changed to shorts and went to Loysel's Toy for a solo brekkie and coffee which was kind of nice.

Love bonito Camella corset x Miranda skirt in Sunflower. Got the top off a re-seller in S and it is so super ultra duper tight I literally cannot slouch in it. Breathing was constrained and eating was restricted lol. I would be selling this away! Tho it looks really good paired with the skirt. Oh welllll.

Batik printed dress I got from Cambodia also at USD10! (Bargained down from USD18)

Wore it for a work function which had a floral and batik theme. But it's prolly those wear once only kind cos it's too big for me and I gotta keep pulling it up. The prints are really pretty tho. Any takers? Hehe

OTD for today: Ohvola top which I got from their warehouse sale last Sun x TVD paneled jeggings in black! Was trying out my missy pixie Enna loafers in gold which just arrived in the mail and I love them :D

I really like shiny and glittery and shimmery and sequined stuff. Haha

And to end off my post, here's a photo of QQ standing guard by my bed! She was just sitting there, very still with her eyes trained ahead. Super cute lah.