a day (24hrs) in London

am back from Paris and spent the night in London before my mom flew off on saturday morning.

friday afternoon started with us getting checked in to the Hilton at Euston before my mom and i visited HK Diner at Leicester Square for some soup noodles (Dumpling soup noodles for my mom and Soy Chicken soup rice noodles for me) before we wandered for 3 hours till dinner. it's been so cold in the UK (and even in Paris though slightly warmer there) and the chilly winds were getting to my mom who started to drape a scarf over her head like a gypsy. we were getting tired of walking around so we had a plan - we would walk into a shoe shop and pretend to look at shoes and take turns to have a seat on the comfy chairs. :)

thankfully we met my brother (who came from uni because he had some meetings/classes/whatever) 15 minutes before the scheduled time and trotted on to Belgo Centraal at Covent Garden. First of all, it was a friday night and thus really crowded but we (praise God!) managed to get a seat almost immediately, bypassing the 10 people ahead of us because we were looking for a table of 3 and everyone else was for 2. hehehe... i ordered a Portuguais Mussel Bowl which was mussels with smoked chorizo, garlic, paprika, olive oil, basil and tomatoes, with potatoes.
had a funny waiter who reminds me of the camp guy in Project Runway who was 4th (Austin)- and we had this banter thing going on because i asked another waitress in front of him to check why our drinks hadnt come yet and he came up saying, 'sweetheart, is there a problem?' and i said, 'i just asked where our drinks were' and he went, 'sweetheart i've only got two hands'. later on he came back after we had ordered a poached pear for dessert to say 'sweetheart, just want to warn you, our pears tend to fly off the plate so be careful because i dont want it getting all over your lap' (because the pear is soaked in syrup so it's slippery on the plate). how cute! the 2 desserts of the month are yummy - they have poached pear and a blackberry and almond tart, both served with vanilla ice cream. mmmmmmm...

let's just say that the scene in Heathrow on a saturday morning is insane. and we were getting VERY frustrated. while i was there though, i heard someone call my name in the crowd and turned around to see this guy called Mus whom i worked with at the arts centre last year (he's graduated) and it was cool having a random chat in the middle of the airport while both of us were waiting for family members to clear check-in.

when my mom finally got her bag checked-in and we went upstairs to the departure area, we were met with YET another queue to get in and strangely enough they were handing out clear plastic bags to all people carrying laptops because they needed to do security checks on all laptops. first of all, how do you carry a security check on a laptop? do you make everyone switch theirs on and fiddle with it? do you look for any parts that can possibly be used to make a bomb? (or activate a bomb - which in this case is, like, everything). whatever it is, Heathrow needs to do something about efficiency. having a queue of 100 people 3 hours before a flight and still only having 2 counters open for check-in isnt the wisest idea. because you will end up with more people 2 hours before and you wouldnt have cleared the people who came 1 hr before so it will all snowball and have loads of people rushing up to the gate just before the flight takes off. or else the flight gets delayed. sigh.

after leaving the airport, my brother and i decided to pop by South Kensington to have some crepes (it's the dine-in branch of the famous Creperie de Hamstead). it's a quaint cafe with white and green frontage that you will see when you turn right at the South Kensington tube entrance and left at the first junction (Exhibition Road). we had a crepe each (or rather, my brother had a crepe and i had a galette - the savoury version) and some hot drinks to warm us up.
my brother had the Belgian Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Crepewhile i had the Brittany Style Galette - which had grated carrots, bacon, chives, goat's cheese and cheddarwhile we were in the vacinity we visited the Victoria & Albert Museum.

my brother: the V&A has stuff collected during the glory days of the Empire
me: you mean stuff stolen? stuff that should not be in the UK but back with their rightful owners which are the former colonies?
my brother: yup

anyway we walked around the Fabrics and Materials exhibition which was Ooh La La! they had all these clothes on display - like a section for all the fashion capitals (London, Milan, New York, Paris, Tokyo) where they showcased all these designers by having an item of theirs that summed up their style. and they had these old dresses and suits to show the transition in design.and they had this special exhibition of JC de Castelbajac which was, erm, interesting. i loved the museum shop - it's kind of one of those designer concept shop where they sold jewellry, clothes, accessories, books, postcards, CDs and other little trinklets.:)

anyway my brother was 'convinced' into buying a 3-CD set of Art Deco music and i was listening to Fred Astaire singing some of my favourite dancey tunes... ahhh... they've even got him tapping in the appropriate places in the song! *swoon*

Putting On The Ritz
If you're blue and you don't know
where to go to why don't you go
where fashion sits
Puttin' on the Ritz
Different types who wear a day
coat pants with stripes and cutaway
coat perfect fits
Puttin' on the Ritz
Dressed up like a million-dollar trooper
Tryin' hard to look like Gary Cooper (super duper)
Come let's mix where Rockefellers
walk with sticks or um-ber-ellas
in their mitts
Puttin' on the Ritz

Have you seen the well-to-do
Up and down Park Avenue
On that famous thoroughfare
With their noses in the air
High hats, and arrow collars
White spats, and lots of dollars
Spending every dime
For a wonderful time

If you're blue and you don't know
where to go to why don't you go
where fashion sits
Puttin' on the Ritz
Different types who wear a day
coat pants with stripes and cutaway
coat perfect fits
Puttin' on the Ritz
Dressed up like a million-dollar trooper
Tryin' hard to look like Gary Cooper (super duper)
Come let's mix where Rockefellers
walk with sticks or um-ber-ellas
in their mitts
Puttin' on the Ritz

(tap dance break)

Dressed up like a million-dollar trooperTryin' hard to look like Gary Cooper (super duper)
If you're blue and you don't know
where to go to why don't you go
where fashion sits
Puttin' on the Ritz
Puttin' on the Ritz
Puttin' on the Ritz
Puttin' on the Ritz

Move...
Move...

Gotta dance
Gotta dance...

If you're blue and you don't know
where to go to why don't you go
where fashion sits
Puttin' on the Ritz...
Puttin' on the Ritz...
Puttin' on the Ritz...

moving rrrriiiiggghhht along...