The end-of-the-week post has been POST-poned until today, the beginning of a new week.

Some long-overdue (well 3 days or so) glimpses of my efforts at trying to be a skilled photographer:


I have no idea what this lion is for. Perhaps an statue erected in support of the England Cricket/Soccer teams (whose emblems are 3 lions)? Makes sense if you ask me, they need all the help they can get.





"Scenic" shots of the Thames. I quite like the last sunset one. Then again, I suppose many people have already taken such photos before.



The Tate Modern museum. Don't mind me saying, in the 2nd shot, the museum looks a bit like a phallic symbol.


Saint Paul's CE Cathedral, taken from the South end of the Millenium Bridge.


Some random shot of the LSE Library at night. I was quite fascinted by the blue lights on the ground, something I have never really seen before despite my 4 months there so far.

Alright, Friday night was the night of the much awaited Cathsoc Pub Crawl! The itinerary of the night consisted of visiting 2 venues, but the amount of alcohol we consumed was like woah.

The first stop was a German restaurant at Old Street. This place wasn't exactly a bar, it was more of a proper restaurant serving dishes like pork knuckle and sausages. It was really German alright. The waitresses were dressed in German maid dresses. And the atmosphere was awesome! There were these 2 groups of Englishmen who were having some "friendly banter" with each other, singing songs such as "Sit down shut up! Sit down shut up!". I am definitely coming back to this place. Check out the booze man!!


One litre of Eredinger. Ok, maybe it does not look big...


This shot should put the size of the mug into perspective.


Group photo. From left: Dan, Alison, myself, Mattei and Mattei's friend who was visiting from the USA, Christina.


Cheers mate.


Look at how much he drank?! Well, actually he didn't have ALL of it. Thing was, after Dan, Mattei and myself finished our litre of beer, I decided that I had enough for one stop. However, Dan and Mattei had another half litre more!! Sheesh, I need to train myself up.

Ok with that we wrapped up our visit to the German place and headed for (final) destination number 2.


I could have swore I was not drunk when I saw the words SINGTel. What on earth was this shop doing here?!

Ok enough of Singapore Telecom, our next stop was a Cuban pub, Cuba Libre at Islington.


The entrance.



My drink for the night - Mojito. It consisted to 2 shots of rum (which if I'm not wrong has over 50%), sugar, lemon and mint leaves. Potent cocktail. In fact, I had 2. Was quite close to being wasted after that.


Alison's marguerita, which I accidentally spilt in my semi-drunken state. Fortunately she had already finished it somewhat.

After my 2nd Mojito, I was gone. And to think that Dan and Mattei were going for a third one!! Well, I somehow made it back to hall on my own (by bus). Thank goodness.

I woke up on Saturday morning, thankfully not feeling much of the hangover from the night before.

Saturday consisted of doing laundry, work and attending a talk by James Gomez. Shan't elaborate too much on the talk, but it was eye-opening to say the least. Then we went to Covent Garden, where I did some retail therapy. More on that later.

Sunday, I finally had some good Singaporean food - Chicken Rice, Yong Tau Foo, Fried Bee Hoon! My stomach was well and truly smiling after that heck of a meal.

Monday, I did more retail therapy. All in all, my total expenditure was less than 100quid.


My 3 Fred Perry shirts. Thoroughly satisfying purchases for me. The long-sleeved ones were only 16 quid! And check out their design, cool indeed!


Alright, this one was a bit of a heartache. As you already know, I'll be off to the Theatre of Dreams soon, and I thought I needed the appropriate attire. So off I headed to Lillywhites during my 3-hour break on Monday. Well, jerseys there went for about 34quid. Only problem was, no size!! Smallest was XXL. No choice then, I headed to search for other shops, and when I finally found my size, it cost a whooping 40quid. It was now or never. Sigh. Well my bank account does feel emptier, but I guess I feel happier, so it balanced out eventually. Looks like the term "Retail Therapy" does make sense after all.

And to top of the start of the week, I attended a Chocolate Tasting session organised by the LSE Swiss Society and sponsored by Lindt. Yes, chocolate! We learnt a bit about how chocolate was made, and the art of chocolate tasting. Technically, based on the climatic requirements, it does seem possible to grow cocoa in Singapore haha. And I never knew it could be so sophisticated. Like we had to feel, smell and look at the chocolate, listen to the sound when we broke the pieces and of course taste it. Then there were different aspects to the flavour of the chocolate, such as woody taste, tobacco, mushroom, olive, vanilla, fruity, burnt etc.


The 3 types of chocolate we tried.

The one on the left was from Cuba, 55% Cocoa. Fruity and sweet, the nicest of the lot. 2nd one was from Madagascar. Slight hint of vanilla, 65% Cocoa. Was ok I guess. The 3rd one was just 75% Cocoa, strong and bitter. By the time we reached the 3rd one, LDMR had set in and we didn't really enjoy the chocolate. Still, it was worth the 1 pound. In fact, I am now a member of the Swiss Society (in addition to Singsoc, Cathsoc, India and Japan)!!

Right, hope the nice long entry has left you dear readers satisfied. Now it's time to hit the books, literally. Hope my head won't hurt from it.

See you in a bit.

It was just another Wednesday morning. Or so I thought...

Having woken up at about 8, all lethargic and groggy, I reluctantly dragged myself out of bed and headed to the dining hall for breakfast. Upon reaching the lift landing, something caught my eye...


NO KIDDING! That white thing was really snow! Seems like the BBC was right about the weather forecast after all. For once at least.

It was just as well that over breakfast, ZhenQiang decided to make a trip to Regent's Park to check out, take pictures of and play with this fascinating white substance called snow.

Armed fully with our heavy duty winter-wear and our snapping devices, we left for R.P in haste, lest the snow melted before we arrived.



Right. Many of you might think us too trigger-happy to take such shots. But hey, it's not like you see something like this everyday do you? At least not in London.


A snow-covered car. Pity the owner hahaha.

We reached R.P in good time, and immediately put our cameras to good use.






Some "scenic" shots. I have NEVER seen Regent's Park like this.



Of course, no winter would be complete without a snow fight would it?








More random (scenic) shots.


YES! This is a dustbin alright! I just thought, the way the snow formed a sort of duvet atop the bin was really neat.


London Business School, where my Mum did a 4-week course 8 years back.


London Central Mosque


The first of the few Mr Frosties we would encounter



Ah, this Snowman looked in much better shape, pardon the pun. I even gave him rabbit's ears!


One could perceive BT Towers in the distance


This mini lake was frozen! The cup's there as evidence


A frozen tap

Zhen Qiang and I decided that, in the spirit of fun, we would create our own Mister Frosty as well.



Yes, considering it was our first attempt, it was a pretty remarkable achievement! Seriously, it's the first time I have ever made a snowman! He didn't have a name though.

Unfortunately, ZQ had to return to hall to get his stuff as he had lessons, leaving me to check out Primrose Hill (and the view she had to offer) alone.


This was, by far, the best snowman we saw. As you can tell, it had a Lucozade bottle for a nose and a bonnet. And it looked nicely fed/fat. His creators took care of him really well.




Miscellaneous hill-top views.

Right. A totally cool experience. Well, those who have been skiing will probably feel that what you might have just seen was nothing compared to what you have experienced. Alright, the thing is, all this happened in Central London, right at my very doorstep. No additional costs were incurred during this mini-trip.

In addition, this snow actually gave me an excuse to visit Regent's Park leisurely and really admire whatever was on display. I mean, when I go jogging on the outer road, I hardly have time so much as to even glance at my surroundings, focusing soley on the road ahead. In a way, I killed 2 birds with one stone today then.

Of course, along with the snow came the relevant puns, e.g "There's snow way I'm going out there." or "Snow joke this weather.". Haha, the punster is always filled with such cold jokes.

What a day. In fact, by the early afternoon, the sun had made a brief cameo. Bloody hell! What has global warming done? In the short term at least, it has made the scenery in London nicer? I'll leave you to decide whether that's true or not, and well, more photos on that next time.

Right now, I'm going visit a special place where dreams do come true.

Good night mate.