It's London, baby!! [Part 2]

As promised, here's the 2nd installment of our trip to London at the end of April. This was on the 25th of April, Sat and the day we went for Singapore Day in London. It was held at Hampton Court Palace and we were incredibly lucky to have awesome weather on that day. It didn't begin particularly well with a light shower in the morning but it soon cleared up and the sun emerged in all its glory by 9am. Part of the reason why we stayed at Hotel Ibis was because there was a bus chartered for people going to Singapore Day and that was out transportation to and from Hampton Court Palace. I must say, we did pretty well with the 3 of us sharing one bathroom even though we had to wake up at 6.30am to be ready for the 8.30am bus. Anyway, we made it on time and arrived without any problems at Hampton Court Palace, luckily with the sun already in its rightful place.

The many Singaporeans turning up for the event

As the clouds begin to clear

We were surrounded by greenery along the whole way there

I just love this picture,

like it's just aching for someone to sit down on it and enjoy the day

They had such lovely flowers in bloom, many different colours

Before you start to wonder why I'm gushing about the sun and the weather all the time, you must understand that it is pretty uncommon for the weather to be so nice in the UK even though it's supposed to be summer. My uncle even commented that he couldn't understand why I didn't appreciate it more but that's only because we get it all the time in Singapore, no?

Found the trees hilarious though, like Hershey's kisses

My obligatory photo of myself :D
The ERP sign over the entrance was a good touch in my opinion.

I found it really funny.

Do we need to pay to get in?

Damn, forgot to bring cashcard

And it beeps as you pass under it...haha

They had these big balloons which were tethered to the ground which depicted several "quirks" and icons from Singapore. For example, there was one balloon with all the different sort of bans (i.e. no dogs, no food, no drinks, no durians etc) and one with Ah Meng on it.

Once the gates were opened, people flooded in and we set about deciding what to line up for and try. Haha, seeing some "kiasu" people running to get to the queues first was so funny. On hindsight, I should have gone to get the chicken rice first because the queue never shortened throughout the whole day. So disappointed but I went to get Hokkien Mee first. Wasn't too bad but it had beansprouts in it which I hate. Much prefer the one at BT market and the portions were small.

Rojak and Old Chang Kee curry puff stalls

While there were really long queues for some, it wasn't the case for some other stalls although they still probably ran out in the end. It wasn't this bad..haha..this picture was just taken very early on when people were still streaming in.

The hawkers hard at work

I was pretty excited when I saw this, I'll admit. But the pieces of ( I don't know what it's called...the main flat pieces) were all stuck together and was quite disgusting to eat. The other stuff wasn't half bad though.

That's the main stage where Michelle Chong and Adrian Pang were trying their best to entertain everyone although they were fighting a losing battle when everyone was busy queuing for free food...haha.

Once people had enough of queuing, they started finding spots to sit in front of the stage. Again, we were lucky it was such a good day. We were able to sit and enjoy the sun and the warmth even though there was a strong wind blowing.
The muah chee was surprisingly good.

Never heard of the place before though.

As I said, long queue for the chicken rice. Such a pity. Was one of the dishes I was really looking forward to. Would have tried cooking it myself but it was too much of a hassle for just one person.

Me writing some words of encouragement for the Singapore youth olympics team.

Damus was approached to do it but he asked me to write it instead. See, Damus, I helped you out ok? Not because xiao mei mei asked me..haha.

HAHA! The SAF section. I can't believe that they had a section for National Service. 9 times out of 10, you'll hear from guys that NS is a waste of time so I was wondering what the purpose of putting this up was. Surely not to let ppl know what a great experience National Service is?...Is it?

Combat rations on show and they had portions for you to try as well. I couldn't believe they were trying to make it seem as if it was a culinary treat. It was preserved food in packets that you ate when out in the jungle and hoped that you didn't need to go to the toilet after eating it. Context is such an important aspect of everything.

The helpful sign...haha.

See? Told you there was an Ah Meng balloon.

Adrian and Michelle putting on a show

Mark Lee was hilarious although he kept slipping into Hokkien which I got lost with quickly.

Jack Neo doing his thing

Hossan Leong doing his bit as an SIA stewardess with the Dim Sum Dollies.

Rui En.

Taufik Batisah and the Broadway Beng appeared later on in the show but we didn't stay around long enough to see them.

Enjoying the show

Soaking up the sun and laughter

And so, it was time to go. Back through the ERP gantry.
Which reminds me of what I'm going to have to remember if I'm driving my dad's car when I'm back home. Putting in the cashcard when going under the ERP gantry and paying more money *groan*

Isn't that just lovely? Come a couple of days/weeks, I'll probably be drenched in sweat because of such weather. If only there were a balance between the two...

We had a bit of time to kill before heading back to the bus so we walked around Hampton Court Palace for a while and spotted this family of ducks building a nest near the entrance to Singapore Day.

After taking a short break at the hotel, we then headed out into the city square to look around. Stopped at a waffle place just outside the train station to get something to eat as we were hungry. The food at Singapore Day was too little to fill up our stomaches.

My chocolate waffle.

Quite nice but very messy to eat, much less walking and eating at the same time.

In case you were wondering, this is a Beard Papa cafe. Apparently, their cream puffs are very good which they were. But I never hear of good stuff like this..haha.

After a couple of hours walking around, we stopped at Aberdeen Angus Steak House for dinner. And none of us had the steaks on offer. Haha.

And that concludes Day 2 of our trip to London. I bought 4 Uniqlo t-shirts during the walk around as I wanted new t-shirts and I found some I liked. We took the train back home and slept around midnight, knowing we had to wake up early again as we had decided to join a tour tmr of Windsor castle, Stonehenge and the town of Bath but more of that in the next post. To be continued...