Day 186 Goodbye London

London did not feel like London, portobello market looks different, the streets start to look unfamiliar once again for some reason, but yes it's London, I could recognise the sky, the London sky, that somehow remain unchanged.

In a few hours time, i'll be leaving this little 'paradise' that I have been in, for the past 6 months. In actual fact, I have already 'left' ever since I was 'displaced' from my hall and when the school term came to an end. My normal day to day routine has ever since been 'disrupted.' And to a certain extent, that sense of place (that is rooted to Oxford street- Goldsmid house) has been contested. That's perhaps how normads feel? A wandering fella in a place where he doesn't own anything, but one thing i own- the memories.

After 'dumping' our 'barang barang' (trying to socialise back to Singlish here) at Summer's place in the morning, Meng Kiat went to visit the London zoo at Camden (He wants to see gorillas from different parts of the world) while I stayed behind at Summer's place to just spend my last few hours chilling out instead.

Summer cooked me lunch, and boy was it as good as her Mum's cooking! I remember I used to devour her mum's cooking back when I was that little fat boy (Now still fat la!)

The last 'supper' ??

I decided to walk down Portobello market (which is only a few metres away) after lunch to do some last minute 'walk walk.'

Bought this street sign which I will not only hang on my wall in Singapore, but i'll engrave them in my brain and heart too!

The clock strikes 1pm, and the time has come for the final good-bye

Summer sent us to the tube station, this picture of her carrying my guitar makes her look like a Indie rocker babe man!

Good-bye Summer, I'm going home to embrace a hotter, wetter and more humind summer

My luggage exceeded by far more than the given weightage. The girl at the counter insisted that I need to pay £120 worth of fine to get my baggage up on board.. for a moment, I was devastated! I was about to reach out for my barclays card to accept the fine, but MengKiat suggested that I try appealing through the customs officer from SQ. The counter girl heard our conversation and said 'There's no point in appealing, you have exceeded our baggage allowance and you have to pay no matter what..' My heart has sanked to the bottom of the sea on hearing that...

'But thanks be to God who always lead us into victory....'

Despite the circumstance, I walked to the customs office and approached the first officer I saw.

Her name I remember was 'Joe Chan,' probably a HongKong national. I explained to her my problem and the next thing she did, she walked to my check in counter and told the counter girl 'Let him pass...' and that was it... the £120 remained in my wallet. Thank God!

13 hours later......... (The first time I set foot on Terminal 3 Changi Airport)

I'm Home

Day 185- Last day in London

My last official FULL day in London, feels kind of weird. Somehow the places you've been to and the things you usually see don't appear to look like what they normally should. The university feels like somewhere else, Oxford street which i walk on everyday looks different for some reason. Perhaps it's the play of my own feelings, and through that certain emotion, it played with the 'lens' which I begin to see London today.

Meng Kiat went for the university tour in Oxford, while I had my own university tour back in UCL to settle some final administrative stuff

The Geography department's computer lab

Met up with Summer and Peggy for lunch before waving the last goodbyes

After which I went to Camden town to have my last dose of marijuana (Nah I'm kidding) or rather... to be stopped by the regular raggae boys who ask me 'Would you like some wheat inside the house? what about some 'apples'? '

And the time has finally come... and is here, to bring my whole London experience to a high 'closure.' Catching my FAVOURITE musician/guitarist play live! JOHN MAYER!!!!!!! I would have left much earlier back for Singapore if not for this concert. I was like rationing on bread and water the past few days because everything is running low on reserves. All for the LOVE of Mayer! But I guess it's a once in a life time thing, he probably will not come down to Singapore given the minute market we have... and it is sad that his style of music don't really cater to the Singaporean crowd. Back home, it seems like the Mat rockers get more attention then my Johnny May.

Brixton Academy. They even have the name John Mayer engraved BIG BIG at the front of the theatre.

When we arrived, there was already a LONG queue. It was like the old Nokia snake game which goes round and round the corners of the building. The ticket I bought was free-standing... both Meng Kiat and I were like... 'Shyzer.. with so many people infront of us, we gonna be way behind and blocked by the tall Ang-mos'

And an unfortunate accident occured in front of us while we were queuing to get in.. Well.. at least some entertainment.. (*hint, London should widen their roads, it's so narrow!)

It was SHOCKING when we entered the theatre. The front was not packed at all! BECAUSE EVERYONE WENT TO BUY BEER! Meng Kiat and I (being Singaporeans, correction, half) quickly dashed to the front and secured a space very near to the stage. SHIOKS! Man... this is a culture shock for us... if it was Singapore, i think people would have packed the front and reserved the spaces with their pathetic tissue paper packets for their friends who came late

Some local brit band opened for Mayer. Never heard of them before though. But boy was their music GOOD! I enjoyed every song .

Just some thoughts here... if this local (brit) band is already so good but sort of 'unknown,' how is it possible that back home (in Singapore) our local bands would aspire to tour the world by competing with these Ang-Mos??? Not trying to put down local musicians here, but think about it, English music came from the Ang-mos, how are we gonna re-package it and sell Ang Mo music back to the 'originals?' So my point is... if you're chinese, sing Chinese song... unless you're just happy staying comfortable in the local scene that is..

ANYWAY! Enough talk about that, looks who's here!

Mayer was just so so so so so GOOD... I have never ever attended a concert gig as kickass before. You MUST catch this guy live if he ever comes. I'll sponsor you half the tickets if you would. He's the best musician/guitarist ever. It was worth every single moment catching him, even if I had to eat worms and drink longkang water for the rest of the month in buying his tickets. The stage lights, the dynamics of the band, the 'feel' of his fingers on the fretboard and the way he pick the strings was just unbelieveable!!!

Mayer with his Gibson ES-335

This was the part where the 'Climax' came. Mayer was playing through his continuum album initially, while he was doing the final solo for 'slow dancing in a burning room,' the lights went off with his last note ringing in the background, once the light came on again, Mayer came in at the chorus of 'Why Georgia' with his acoustic guitar from his 'room for squares' album and the whole crowd went SO CRAZILY HIGH!!!

Not forgetting the signature Spastic face of Mayer

'Gravity... stay the hell away from me...'

And the whole world did change after the concert. Look at the aftermath.

And so will my world be reverted back to the old world once day breaks. Yes, this is my last night in London.And Meng kiat says, 'Hey I'm sure you'll be back someday.'

I sure will, someday, somehow. But I guess the feeling's gonna be different. These 6 months, I came as a 'citizen' and student who lives in London. I experience the bi-weekly fluctuation in prices of the meat and vegetables, gets interrupted by the rain or snow for my usual runs, open the windows when it is getting warmer- I do the 'everyday' thing. The next time I come, I'm just a mere tourist having a 'getaway' These are times I will cherish, and it's really coming to an end

Day 184 - Last 3rd day

The first thing we did in the morning was to return our rented car.
Thank God there were no scratches, dings or anything that was spotted though
i met up with a 'small accident' on one of the roundabouts from Liverpool to London.
I bet many angels must have been crushed in between the 2 cars then


After that, we headed to somewhere around Russell square (which is near my school) and grab some really cheap lunch... Valentia style


The rest of the day had no agenda... as you can see, we're just travelling from place to place and look at how tired they were..

And for the 101th time, I became the tour guide who brings people around the Westminister area to see the London eye, Big Ben... and yeah you have heard it the 102nd time too

And I brought them shopping along Oxford street, the place where 99.999% of my London times were spent.

This probably is the last and very final picture I have with my beloved hall



And it was time to say a temporal goodbye to my dubious brothers before meeting them back in Singapore 2 days later... (What a goodbye) Thanks for spending so much $ to come and look for me and accompany me travel europe. Good times... yeah


Meng Kiat and I decided to stay for 2 more nights because we're catching John Mayer Live the following night!!!! SO eggcited!!! Both of us had dinner @ Chinatown together with Hansen. After which we went down to a nearby arcade to have some fun (This marks the last time I'll be in Chinatown)

And also a last and final 'lomantic' walk along the waterloo bridge.. ah, everything's coming to an end. My London experience.