You know how I said that I left my heart in San Francisco last year?
Well this year,
I left my tooth in London.
Haha, that's funny. Except that it isn't. Except that it is. Haha.
Actually it would be if much funnier if my tooth could magically grow back and I didn't have to pay more than 2000 freaking bucks to get a replacement. Ah well, such is life.
London!
London was great up till the point that I tripped like the clutz that I am and fell flat on my face and skidded face first across the bricked pavement and emerged with my favourite jeans torn, my specs broken, with a big gap where my tooth used to be and my lip swollen to the point where it was much much thicker than Angelina Jolie's. In a really grotesque way. Anyways, more on that later. ;)
Highlights of the trip (before my great fall of DOOM)
1. Shoppingggggggg - I know the exchange rate was a horrible 6.28, but I still managed to get cheap deals! My best buy was a cool t-shirt for my bro that cost a measly 1 pound! You can't beat that - you can't even get a nice RM6 t-shirt in the Pasar Malam man. Bought working pants for 5 pounds, a t-shirt for 4 pounds, and a pretty dress for 10 pounds. Cheap, even by Malaysian standards. :)
2. Fooooooood - the pictures say it all:
Left to Right, Top to Bottom:
a. English Breakfast - For three glorious days, I had an unlimited supply of sausages, bacon, sauteed mushrooms, hash browns, waffles, eggs, baked beans. *drool*
b. Curry Laksa Lookalike - SO NOT GOOD! Supposedly some sort of Japanese fusion food - looked like laksa but tasted like crap. The restaurant was called "Wagamama's". I'm pretty sure that's not a Japanese word. Bleh. Sakae Sushi and Sushi Zanmai reign supreme!
c. Ravioli with Porcini, Ricotta and Prosciutto - Haha fancy words that actually mean mushroom, a type of cheese, and a type of ham. DAMN GOOD. Had this at Zizzi's, which our nice English host Kathryn brought us to.
d. Hotel Chocolat - YUM. I could only afford the stuff on half price. Honey-infused chocolate pecan canapes and a block of Strawberries and cream. YUM.
e. Bacon Burger and Curly Fries - Haha, more American than English.
f. Thornton's - best chocolate in UK. Their pralines and truffles are to-die-for. *drool*
g. Mussels in white wine and garlic sauce - Cheryl brought me to Belgo's, a Belgian restaurant. I had a bowl full of mussels man. Yummy garlicy goodness! 5 pounds for so much seafood is quite worth it yah...
h. Mushrooms and cream in a puff pastry - it had some fancy name, but that's pretty much it. Cheryl's choice at Belgo's. DAMN GOOD! 5 pounds too!
i. Raclette - okay I know this looks like crap, but it is AMAZING. It is apparently a Swiss/French dish of crispy-brown small potatoes and oodles and oodles of high quality CHEESE. It comes with pickled onions and gherkins too (yuck), but you can easily avoid eating all that. But the CHEESE. I want to own a 100kg block of that CHEESE.
-- I didn't get to eat the classic Fish and Chips with salt and vinegar out of a newspaper wrapping! :( There's always another time I guess.
3. Sightseeing - most parts of London are really nice. Such a wonderful mixture of historical stone buildings with wonderful architecture and statues. And it didn't rain at all!
a. London Eye
b. King's Cross station - I was at Platform 9 and 3/4!!! Harry Potter dream come true. :)
c. St Paul's cathedral
d. The tube - I love the tube!
e. Aslan! Haha.
f. Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. I think.
g. Dragon statue silhouette
h. Tower Bridge
i. Big Ben against the Big Blue Sky.
4. Wicked - Wicked was Awesome! Definitely the best part of the trip. I was in the 5th row man. All for 20 pounds - so worth it! I could see their faces so clearly - every expression, every emotion. I spent the whole time gaping in awe at the dazzling costumes and dances, laughing out loud at their hilarious jokes and puns (which were plentiful - tinged with sarcasm, poking fun at pop culture), cheering wildly along with the rest of the audience as the protagonist defied gravity, gripping my seat in suspense during the dramatic moments, and sighing like the wide-eyed romantic that I am as they sang incredibly touching and heartfelt lyrics to wonderfully composed melodies. I wanna watch it again! Kinda impossible. Haha. Oh, and did I mention? The leading male character is HOT! His name is Fiyero. What a fiery HOT name. HAHA.
5. Hot Badminton Players - I know what you're thinking - WHAT? Haha. On my way to London, I was seated in between two ENGLAND BADMINTON PLAYERS. As in, they were just returning to England from the Jakarta Thomas Cup games!!! The one on my left was really hot, as was the one sitting across the aisle. The one on my right was the typical pasty and freckly Englishman. Haha. How do I know this? 1. They were wearing Thomas Cup shirts. 2. They were reading the badminton section of the newspaper. 3. They were talking about their training and future tournaments. 4. I remembered their faces and googled them and voila! Hot badminton players!!! Haha. I won't put their pictures here... but if you're curious and wanna google (if you've read this far anyway) - try "Dean George". ;)
Highlights of the trip (after my great fall of DOOM)
1. The fall itself - Part of me will always be in London... haha. I was walking back at 11pm from the station to Cheryl's place (which she kindly let me crash at for 2 nights)... still on a Wicked High, I guess. And I tripped. It was quite an awful fall - definitely the worst I've had in my life. Damn my freaking slow reflexes. My hands were virtually unscathed! Ah well. Thank God my scars have almost fully healed... all that's missing is a tooth. Thank God I didn't lose an eye or fracture something. I have much to be thankful for, still. :)
2. Waiting at the hospital for 5 hours - UK's emergency healthcare is free. Thank God! Before treatment though, we had to walk to a clinic nearby, which said they couldn't treat me and referred us to the Guy and Thomas hospital instead, where we spent some time waiting at the Minor Injuries division (and saw a guy with a broken finger o_O), and were then referred to Dental Injuries, where a couple of student-dentists poked and prodded at my face/mouth while their scary supervisors questioned them on what to do with me. Haha. They all have really nice bed-side manners. They always tell you before they do something that might hurt... and in the end it doesn't actually hurt, whereas the dentists in Malaysia never warn you and it always hurts. PLUS! the dentist gave me a good dose of anaesthetic, so I was happily numb and oblivious to all the drilling and filling. ^^ What a novel experience.
3. Getting stared at like I'm either a domestic abuse survivor or a terrorist - I've never gotten stared at so much in my entire life. I did look like quite a freak show lah, so I don't blame people for staring. I had to resist the urge to growl at the kid who kept staring rudely though, just to scare him off. Haha! And I say terrorist, because I borrowed a couple of masks from the dentists to wear... and in the tube they made the regular announcement "If you see any suspicious-looking people, please notify the relevant authorities". Some dude looked at me and then hastily looked back and then looked at me suspiciously again! Haha.
Hours before the fall, with my teeth still intact
R.I.P, little tooth.
May you turn into dust and travel far and wide, wherever the wind blows you! Haha.
