Hello~ I realize I write in an incoherent mess...so I decided today, Ill write in a list what has (or hasnt) been happening lately:

1. Some good news is that I got offered university housing. finally! I was dreading to receive news that I have been rejected a place because my app was too late. but all is well. No need to go flat-hunting. It would be so troublesome since im busy during business hours. anyways, so Ill be staying @ Goldsmid House over the next year. It houses about 100 UCL students. I checked out the place (not the rooms though) and realize it is actually further away from Uni than where I am staying. But you wouldn't believe where it is. It is on Oxford Street, near the Hyde Park end. crazy?! what am I going to do? Im going to be soo broke with all the shops on Oxford. The place is opposite Selfridges Department Store also!

2. Im deliberating whether to get a bike, because the traffic on Oxford Street is pretty horrendous, and moreover, there is no bike storage at the place. The other two (no, three) options is taking the tube, the bus, or walking.

3. I met up with Desmond last night with Eric and Chris. I havent seen him for 5 and a half years! but he hasnt changed. haha. wait. he had grown taller. anyways, we had pizza at this reallyyyy cheap (well, cheap for London standards) place. it was like 3 quid for a 11 inch pizza. not bad, huh? and it was piping hot too :) afterwards, Chris took us to his old pub, Marlborough Arms, or something. the pub was exactly where I wanted to be at that moment. it was sooo warm. you know, the weather has changed dramatically. last night, it was so cold. I dont know what to do when the real winter comes. Chris kept joking that this is still t-shirt weather. yea riiight.

4. I realize I havent updated since York. I did miss work afterall on the Monday. I spent that day biking around York. Its not as small as I thought. lols. I went biking down the river. The scenery was so so beautiful. I took heaps of photos which Ill put up when I can.

5. I changed phone networks from Vodafone to O2. Apparently each time I 'top-up' (thats the term here) I get 300 free SMS! woo hoo. btw, I got gibbed with Voda. grr.

6. I discovered a funky shopping place. Its in Camden Town..not far away from Kings Cross but probably too far to walk (lolz I did...but prehaps not again!). At first, I was sceptical. The main street looks and feels very ghetto, the shops selling gothic and punk clothes with the average customer having more than a few piercings on their face. BUT if you peserve and keep walking up the street and across the canal you arrive at the Canal market and a bit further on is the Camden Stables market. And the stores they have there is cool. They sell alternative clothes that suit all tastes - whether you are into that whole techno/psychedelic music scene, I saw a shop selling 'astranout-pants' (thats what they remind me of! ) that people wear to raves and glow in the dark...if you understand what I mean. Or if you like the hippi-style of clothing - there were a lot of stores sellings fisherman pants and all things Indian, Thai, Cambodian, Nepalese and Tibetan. mMM I like. hehehe. There were yummy food from various parts of the world. Of course, I tucked into Indian fare...Rogan Josh FIY :)

Oh, I gotta run. Im kind of late. Im taking the train to Reading...its a city west of London. I can only board this train in Paddington so I reallyy should leave now. I should take an hour or less (?). Anyways, Im going there to meet my cousin. Ill finish this post tonight because Ill be bumming at Eric's place where there is internet.

Have a nice day!

Update - its Sunday morning...one of those rare chances to wake up late, but Im wide awake at 7am in the morning. So Im sitting in front of Eric's laptop squinting at his bright screen. Thats the problem with Mac computers...I dont know the settings, for example to reduce the brightness of the screen. Everything else is different as well. You know those short-cut buttons like crtl + F (to find) or crtl + C (to copy) and so on...they dont work on a Mac. thats what happens when you are so used to coventional c'puters.

Anyways, I cant explain why Im awake so early. I tried falling back to sleep but I cant. It cant be the coffee I had yesterday, since I had it early arvo...and plus my regular coffee a day has made me more or less immune to the usual caffeine effect.

Oh yes, so yesterday, I miraculously made it to Reading on time....well 10 mins late, but earlier than my cousin. I say miraculously because there was tube construction work going on at Kings Cross St which meant instead of catching the City Circle line to Paddington, I had to catch the Bakerloo line to Oxford Circus and then change to a different line to get there. But once I got to Paddington, there was a train leaving in just 2 minutes to Reading.

Reading is quite modern. I really only got two other places in England to compare with (outside of London), and I find it a bit in-between York and Leeds. Leeds is really a post-industrial city, whereas York looks and feels like a town/village - a sort of behind-time kind of place..in a good way...some parts just so well preserved. I went to Reading to basically visit my cousin who is studying there. I went there after lunch, so we had afternoon tea and then we went around the town. They have a great shopping plaza called The Oracle. Thats what I miss...shopping malls. You only get street shops in London. There was also this beautiful river that ran outside the shopping center and surrouding it were outdoor eateries and cafes.

Unfortunately, I didnt take a single photo. But I will probably visit Reading again. Its so near, and plus I got a youth rail card. I applied for it yesterday...its 20 quid, but you save 1/3 on train tickets (note. this is separate from the tube - its the national rail network and not the intra-London tube). Uh-oh. I can forsee lots of weekend trips around England. There are two places I have in mind: Liverpool and Warwick. I still have my heart set on visiting Edinburgh but: 1. its the furtherest, and so the most expensive, 2. since its in Scotland, its getting colder by the day, 3. I don't know anyone living there, and I cant afford accommodation (yea, Im cheap) :P

I returned back to London early evening and met up with Dez in Kings Cross since I had to go home, drop off the stuff I brought in Reading (yea and they were really random items: a bowl, tupperware, a bottle of wine and three packets of chips), and pack an overnight bag. We took the tube to London Bridge Station and Dez showed me his Uni (Kings College - the med campus. its soo nice. and big also for purely med/dentistry courses. he says its supposedly the largest med campus in Europe..wow. anyways his campus looks better than mine !) Then we headed towards London Bridge (okay, I stand corrected...it is London Tower - you know that photo at the top of this blogger - 'the' London Bridge is actually further down the river from the Tower and does not look impressive...actually, it looks plain) because there was a festival going on...its called the Thames River Festival. It was already dark when we got there, and the bridge, no I mean tower, is stunning at night with all the lights on. It looks just like it does on the photo above. We had dinner listening to some indi band performing on an ad hoc stage. It was a perfect night out on the waterfront with the London Tower in the backdrop.

Afterwards, we walked and walked..from the London Tower to Westminister (thats like three tube stations away). We passed the London City Hall (you should google it and see the photos, its a cool looking building - Dez tells me it is built by Norman Foster..who also built the 'Gherkin' - um, thats the nickname..dont know the real name! ) Tate museum of contemporary art, the Shakespeare Globe theatre where 'Shakespeare in Love' was filmed, saw the magnificant St. Paul's cathederal which lies on the other end of the bridge from the Tate, the London Eye of course, then saw Big Ben. A long walk indeed. And then we caught the tube from Westminister to Canary Wharf. I had a huge mobile phone scare. I thought I left my cell on the tube. I even had Dez call it and it reached my voice box! we thought either someone took the phone and turned it off, or its sitting on the tube seat but because there is no reception underground, its not ringing (either outcome, its gloomy). after rushing back to the tube station we inquired at the office. and guess what.....Dez called it again for the sake of it, and it rang..and it was in my bag!!! ohh my. I was so relieved. Yea, Im so silly too! what a scare though. Running through my mind was what I was going to do and how I could tell my dad I lost the phone he got me only in Feb this year, which in itself was a replacement phone for the phone I lost in India (which was my mum's phone...the phone given to me to replace the phone I had flushed down the toilet at Monash Uni, which before that was to replace a phone I lost in a club). Okay, so I have a history of losing/or in one instance, short-circuiting (lols) my cells.

We met up with Eric and Daphne and headed back to Eric's flat. ow ow ow...I have pins and needles. I cant move my right foot. yea, Daphne's housemates came over too and we sat talking...later on they started watching this Thai horror film which I refused to watch. Instead, I went on the internet. I cant deal with (the possibility) of nightmares. They didnt end up finishing it because everyone got too tired.

Eric and Dez is still asleep...Im going to make breakfast. So hungry.

Im off now. Dez tells me there is a Hillsong Church along Tottenham Court Rd, so we will probably check it out today.

Love you all