Tag: Life In UK

  • London: The Breakfast Club

    London: The Breakfast Club

    London: The Breakfast Club – Have been looking for a good breakfast in London lately and I found this on a recommendation by a friend – The Breakfast Club. I went for a brunch last Saturday and it was a crazily long and cold 45 minutes queue for it. I guess, the food is really good, or the premise is very small.

    After spending almost an hour outdoor in the cold air, the lady came out and told us that our table is ready. Indeed, the place is rather small. Hungry and cold, I quickly placed my order and ordered the first thing on the menu, a Full Monty Breakfast @ £9.70, which I guess is one of their best one since it’s the first Club Classic section. It’s a typical English breakfast set which consiss of bacon, sausage, black pudding, eggs, home-style fried potatoes, mushrooms, beans, grilled tomato and toasted multigrain bloomer.

    I don’t know whether is it my oriental taste bud is not suiting the English food, or what, I find it not that interesting. Black pudding is the least interesting of all, so do the salty sausage. Overall, it’s somewhat similar to other English Breakfast that I’ve had before, except the potatoes was quite nice. I don’t like the portion of the mushroom was that less. Try the All American pancakes for your first visit, it seems to be a better choice as my friend told me.

    Click here for the list of outlets for The Breakfast Club. The one I went to was at Camden Passage, out Angel Station.

  • London’s Chinatown During Chinese New Year

    London’s Chinatown During Chinese New Year

    London’s Chinatown During Chinese New Year – London’s Chinatown has one of the biggest Chinese New Year celebration out of Asia, read again, it’s not the ‘the biggest’, but one of the biggest, so there’s still other great CNY celebration places like Sydney, Vancouver, NYC, Los Angeles, San Francisco and more.

    Although Newcastle has a Chinatown, it’s rather quiet during normal days and during CNY too. So, I’ve travelled down to London to experience the Chinese festive season and to see how great the celebration was. The celebration venues cover the Trafalgar Square and Chinatown where the square has a main stage for performance and Chinatown is the end point for the parade. Sounds interesting?

    Unfortunately, I woke up late due to a party I had the night before and only got to Chinatown at noon! The sound of Chinese drums ‘dong dong qiang’ can be heard from far where the sign of lion dance could not be seen in any near distance. The most craziest thing was the packed crowds, where you can hardly move a bit and the worst, you can’t even see what’s ahead of the crowds. I’ve no idea where were the crowds heading to. It’s like an open-day for Chinatown, people just visit the place, for fun. Seriously, there’s not much to see in Chinatown at that time, it’s just maybe, a few Lion Dance, and that’s it. Why would people wanted to visit the Chinatown so badly during CNY but not normal days?! It’d made me so difficult to walk and look for food at that time. I wanted to have a good lunch at Chinatown, but the ended abandoning the place and head over to Covent Garden for food.

    So, Chinatown during Chinese New Year was really crowded, but honestly, it’s not as fun as I thought. Yes, there’s  the festive feeling, many people, there’s Lion Dance, and lanterns (that were not light up), but that’s it. Come at night, it would be better when the crowd dispersed, or very early in the morning, but not noon time. Now, I want to try other places’ Chinatown like NYC, SF, Sydney and Vancouver which I’ve read that it’s very happenings during Chinese New Year.

  • How I Celebrated Chinese New Year In The UK

    How I Celebrated Chinese New Year In The UK

    How I Celebrated Chinese New Year In The UK – ‘There’s no such thing as Chinese New Year here in the UK’, some said to me; but the beautiful festive just went on as usual with good food, gambling & friends, minus the receiving of Ang Bao and the reunion with family & friends back in hometown. The feeling before Chinese New Year was quite depressing, especially a few days before, when you see people posting status about heading back hometown, posting photos of CNY decorations and the preparation for this festive.

    However, the festive feeling turned on when I changed up a set of clothing, and went for a good meal with a bunch of Malaysian-friends who were in the same situation of not getting to celebrate Chinese New Year. The family back in the hometown got to eat a good meal, so do we, far away from home. The most important thing is get-together, since it’s a tradition festive, getting-together for a little bit of time is good, it’s not just just spending the whole day at work and being alone.

    I shut myself from working on assignments, I stopped thinking about budget during the past CNY weekends and had a good time eating some really good meal. There’s the first ‘reunion’ dinner at a Malaysian restaurant then a KTV session on the CNY’s eve. Then I attended a Chinese New Year dinner organised by my university’s Malaysian Society and spend the night with many Malaysian on Chor 1. The celebration shifted from Newcastle to London where I had a good steamboat and drunk night, with again friends from Malaysia, but specifically, Penang. Lastly, a visit to the super-crowded Chinatown in London on Chor 3 had gave me a strong feel of the Chinese New Year atmosphere in a foreign land. A great weekend I had, and it’s time to get back to work. Happy Chinese New Year to all!

  • London // Quick Visit To Westminster & Seeing Big Ben, London Eye

    London // Quick Visit To Westminster & Seeing Big Ben, London Eye

    London // Quick Visit To Westminster & Seeing Big Ben, London Eye – You know, I was trying to cover most of the important places during the 4 days getaway to London back in November, but then it’s was pretty lame and didn’t really see much because it was like quantity over quality. And right, I failed to cover everywhere. Wooooo! Not sad because London is so near that I can visit at anytime.
    So, a quick visit to Westminster, crossing the Westminster Bridge, looking upon the Thames River at the London Eye that is not an eye, and seeing Mr Ben Ben the Big Ben, and also the Parliament building. “Wow, beautiful, good, nice, take a photo, jom, let’s go, next!”. So that was a pretty short while.
    Westminster Underground Station.
    FAKE and doesn’t even look like Charlie Chaplin.
    Crossing the street.
    Most-photographed angle of Underground sign and Ben Ben the Big Ben. Why Ben?
    Parliament Building & Big Ben.
    London Eye!
  • Sunday Night At Canary Wharf

    Sunday Night At Canary Wharf

    London // Sunday Night At Canary Wharf – I wonder why on earth would anybody want to go to Canary Wharf on a Sunday night?! Yeah, that’s us, the siao-kia, the crazy bunch that had nothing to do in London, wandering around randomly and made an evening visit to Canary Wharf.
    Although it’s just located in Zone 2 of London, but the architecture and street at Canary Wharf would probably brings you ‘out of London’! Erm… You can call it the office area of London, sort-of CBD of London, or the International London, or not-London, or Singapore-in-London, or Sydney-in-London, or whatever. There’s no Victorian-style building, they all all just modern, International-style office blocks with big brands like JP Morgan, HSBC Citibank and blablabla.
    So, Sunday night, no working hours, no white collars, it’s literally a small dead city, except it’s quite windy, and security guards patrolling the office blocks. It’s good to see another side of London, modern, tall (still shorter than most buildings in Kuala Lumpur), and clean! (I have to say that Canary Wharf has the cleanest street in London, seriously, London is not that clean after all).
    Should’ve got over to Greenwich to view across the Thames for a better view of Canary Wharf, but nevermind, there’s still chance.
    Jubilee Line of London’s Underground, the only line that looks new, clean, and good, even with anti-jump-to-the-track-and-die-suicide platform screen doors too!
    Canary Wharf Underground Station.
    Interesting underground station full of exposed concrete.
    JP Morgan!
    HSBC.
    Cycle Hire @ Canary Wharf.
    The street that doesn’t looks London.
    A piece of… s…. superb art.
  • These Chinese New Year Songs Will Make You Feel Festive!

    These Chinese New Year Songs Will Make You Feel Festive!

    These Chinese New Year Songs Will Make You Feel Festive! – First time of my life, I am living so far away from home, centred at the middle of the Earth – UK, cold and missing home, I don’t get to reunion and celebrate the fun Chinese New Year with my family back in Malaysia.

    Despite there’s still quite a numbers of Chinese (from China, Hong Kong, Malaysia & beyond) are residing here, yet the feeling and atmosphere is totally different. Chinatown is where the only place I can be at to feel the reunion of – overseas Chinese. That’s why I am heading to London’s Chinatown during CNY!

    I definitely don’t like the feeling of being away during Chinese New Year, it’s the only time of the year where everyone will be back. Even some times it’s just HELLO and BYE BYE, that’s still better than not seeing each other. Go home if you can, call home and if you can’t, let’s just listen to some Malaysian-made Chinese New Year songs that will ease the homesickness and I am very sure-ahhhh, these Malaysian Chinese New Year songs are so much better than the original-China’s version.






    The dragon year 16-mins medley from Astro is still the best after all!






    I think that it’s only in Malaysia-lah, that TV stations, radio stations are all ‘competing’ to release their own Chinese New Year song. I don’t really see that in Hong Kong, or Singapore, or Taiwan! Awesome right?
    Happy Chinese New Year in advance, from Newcastle.
  • St. Paul Cathedral, Millennium Bridge, Tate Modern

    St. Paul Cathedral, Millennium Bridge, Tate Modern

    London // St. Paul Cathedral, Millennium Bridge, Tate Modern – This 3 places is actually a set of attractions that is close-by to each others in London. After having a good, and not full brunch at Duck & Waffle, we headed to the magnificent St Paul Cathedral to capture a few photographs then cross the famous Millennium Bridge, view the Tower Bridge from far and do a short tour of the Tate Modern Museum.
    I’ve got to know about the Millennium Bridge from Harry Potter’s film and, wow the pedestrian-only bridge, crossing the River Thames is just awesome in the way of great architectural design.
    Found about Tate Modern in top-10 free & must-visit in London and I’ve to say, that’s not my thing! Although it’s artistically cool, but it’s also artistically boring. Being an interior designer myself, I fascinate the minimalist interior, but not the art pieces, they are just so abstract and un-understandable. However, there were some times that we were creating fun ourselves, trying to figure out what is what. You will understand the feeling when you visit it.

    ST. PAUL CATHEDRAL

    St Paul Cathedral.
    Nicholas and St Paul.
    Ball and reflection.
    4 Penangites, 4 ex-Chung Ling Kias, in London.

    MILLENNIUM BRIDGE

    Notice anything about the sculpture? oOo
    Caramel Hazelnut vendors are everywhere around tourist area. £2/cup of hazelnuts.
    Panoramic view of everything. Tate Modern at 1-o-clock.
    Tower Bridge at far, with The Shard on the right. The Shard is known as the tallest building in EU. Wahahaha, KLCC is so much taller than this.
    A photo with The Shard.
    An awesome view of the dome of St Paul’s.

    TATE MODERN

    Stare.
    Splash of inks.
    A meaningful frame of black background.
    An unusual black glass that has its meaning.
    A piece of cloth that convey some message.
    Well? What can you understand from the abstract art pieces?
  • London: Sunday Brunch At Duck & Waffle, Heron Tower

    London: Sunday Brunch At Duck & Waffle, Heron Tower

    London // Sunday Brunch At Duck & Waffle, Heron Tower – It’s just amazing having a good brunch at 40th floor, overlooking the city of London. That was one of my Sunday, two months ago. I thought a trip to London would be a budget one, but I ended visiting some quality restaurant at one of the tallest building in London, the Heron Tower. It’s on the 40th floor and remember don’t go to other floor as you will ended heading back down and up again like what we did. Funny! The concierge down there must be laughing at us, heading up and down.
    Doesn’t looks like a grand entrance to Duck & Waffle.
    Duck & Waffle, the name of the restaurant has already describes their specialty – the combination of duck, and waffle. Of course they do serves other food, but their food is pretty creative too!
    The bar area.
    Interesting bar counter.
    Back to the restaurant experience, located on the 40th floor of Heron, you can get a very good view of London. The toilet greets you first, then only you will see a bar. Weird location of toilet which made us thought we were on the wrong floor. The bar has a very interesting concept design with typography and bottles hanging at the ceiling. Heading into the restaurant area will give you an amazing view of London. Unfortunately we were seated on the west side, the best view would be the east and it was not a clear sunny day for a good view. Another interesting thing about Duck & Waffle is that it operates 24/7, so you can head over here early for sunrise breakfast!
    Me & Jin.
    Chern & Alvin.
    Group photos of 4 guys with London as background.
    Food will be the main attraction of the restaurant of course. Price starting at about £10 and being cheapskate Malaysians, we ordered a few dishes and shared among 4 of us! To be honest, the portions were really small and the stomach was hardly full after the brunch. I guess it’s just a food tasting session for that morning. 5 food, and it costs each of us about £16. Yes, it’s rather expensive, but the taste was quite nice. =)
    Here comes the Duck & Waffle. A crispy duck drumstick, a fried duck sunny egg, a waffle and mustard maple syrup. Very weird combination, and trust me, it’s good. £17.
    Bacon Wrapped Dates. The blend of sweet and salty. Another fun combination. £9.
    Spicy Ox Cheek Doughnut, with apricot jam. The least interesting one, to me. £10
    Wild Cornish Pollock Meatballs. I like this one, but there’s just 3 small little meatballs, which I find it not enough for four of us. HAHA. £11.
    BBQ-Spiced Crispy Pig Ears. I’ve to tell you this is highly addictive and you can hardly stop eating this! £5.
    A picture of the 30 St Mary Axe designed by Foster + Partners before leaving.
    There’s the LOVE Sculpture located right across of Heron Tower.

    Duck & Waffle
    40th Floor, Heron Twower,
    110 Bishopgate, London EC2N 4AY,
    Telephone: +44-203-640-7310
    Business Hours: 24/7

  • Oxford Street, Bond Street, Chinatown, Covent Garden

    Oxford Street, Bond Street, Chinatown, Covent Garden

    London // Oxford Street, Bond Street, Chinatown, Covent Garden – The walk continues from the British Museum to Oxford Street and beyond. Walking in London can never be bored as you are just keep walking pass interesting retail and shopping street, accompany with extremely high traffic of human pedestrian.
    You need to have the skill and patience when you are walking at the heart of London because human traffic congestion is inevitable. It’s hard to get used to it at first, you may wanna throw out some four-letter words or sending regards to people’s mother at times because of the huge traffic of pedestrian, but as you walk along, you would just have to accept and embrace the human-jam. ^$&%(*&!@)&@
    That was fun, and happenings. At least it’s mind-refreshing, the rush of people just add a little bit of excitement to life. Unlike in Newcastle, it’s just so slow, so slow that everything’s got so bored here.
    Jin was the guide of the day, he brought me and another friend, Alvin on a walk to the famous and busy streets in London.
    Theater at West End, London, somewhere very near to Oxford Street and West End is the ‘Broadway’ of London.
    Oxford Street with Christmas lighting at night!
    Lots of Nike Shoes at Nike Town.
    Starting at Oxford Street & Regent Street, the famous shopping street in London which you can find 3 Zara outlets on the same street, several Uniqlo(s) and H&Ms and more! (I would call it a Singapore’s Orchard Road-equivalent, but longer and more crowded).
    Let’s get ready for the human-jam and scream (*^(%*^$&#.
    Apple Store on Regent Street.
    Late lunch of the day at Wasabi, the Japanese fast food that floods London.
    Bond Street, where you will find a row of exclusively high end designer’s labels from Prada to Hermes to labels that you’ve never heard of. A walk in this area will suddenly makes you feel high-end for a little while if you can’t afford it like me. That’s fine, and I enjoyed flipping the price tags of the items here.
    A photo with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. Yo, what’s up.
    Bond Street of London.
    A stopover at Chinatown, Leicester Square for dinner to give the feet a rest. Had a sumptuous dinner at the famous Cantonese Roast Duck restaurant – Four Seasons and to be honest, the ducks were real darn good. Price was affordable but expect a little wait and staffs ‘chasing’ you to leave after finishing your meal. Never feel bored of Chinatown as I see it as the most happenings place in London, not because I am a Malaysian Chinese, but the place is really exciting with many nice eatery that provides a good taste of Asia. Seriously. The Chinatown just feels like Hong Kong to me, crowded, noisy and Cantonese!
    Chinese supermarket, New Loon Moon.
    Four Season – 文兴酒家. They claim they have the best Cantonese roast duck in the world.
    Cantonese Roast Duck!
    Stop-by at the M&M World. Always full of people.
    Covent Garden, the night ended here where the Apple Store caught my attention. The street performers, the Apple Market and the place where the TVB series, Triump In The Skies 2 filmed had just brought my excitement to another level. Cheers to London.
    On the way to Covent Garden.
    Covent Garden Underground Station.
    Since when Master Yoda grows to this height?
    Oh my Apple Store!
    Raw and rustic Apple Store at Covent Garden.
    As it says, Apple Market.
    Giant Christmas ornaments hanging in Covent Garden Market.
    To the fans of Chong Siong Wen Siu 冲上云霄2, Triumph In The Skies 2, you will recognise this place.
    Christmas Tree!
    Lego fun at Covent Garden.
    An outdoor cafe.
  • Very Short While At The British Musuem

    Very Short While At The British Musuem

    London // Very Short While At The British Musuem – After meeting up with the friend, we head over to some crowded street in London to get a glimpse of Londener’s lifestyle and activity – to Oxford Street and surrounding. While on the way, we passed by the British Museum, with a very interesting Greek Revival exterior and a modern interior.
    The best thing about this place is free. Free as in free of entrance which you could just hardly find elsewhere, but what you are seeing is not British history but artefacts from all over the world. Yes, story, history, artefacts of everywhere, from Roman to Egyptian to Asian to everywhere. No idea how did the British got them but it’s one huge historic museum which I spent less than half an hour in there! They steal? They borrow? They snatch? They discovered? They’ve got it as diplomatic gifts? I am not sure, I don’t know.
    Since it’s free to enter, so it’s not bad to take a very short walk. Perhaps I’ll come back again and do a longer walk!
    Greek Revival Architecture of British Museum. Interesting or not?
    The modern roof covering the open public space in the museum.
    Here is me and the roof.
    Egyptian hall.
    Greek hall.
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