julyett

Paris 2010 Day 2 - Disneyland Park Paris

2010-05-14T10:20:00.000+01:00

second day (friday) i decided to schedule our trip to disney to try and avoid the weekend crowd :)

remember I was saying we were pretty tired after our first day, we both had sore feet and was still in the climax of our flu sickness...so we didn't get up until maybe ummm lunch time :) we didn't get to the park until around 2 or 3 in the afternoon!

but it didn't really matter that we started our day sooo late, we were both too tired to be walking around and lining up for rides for A WHOLE DAY in the park...

in addition to our late wake up call, we made a mistake of not buying a train ticket that specifically goes to the area where the park was. so we had to jump out of the train, exit and buy a new one (this is about 30 mins. into the trip already)...we were lucky we didn't get penalised as we went out of a train exit that was already outside of our 'inner city zone' ticket (to clarify, there are zones for the train and the ticket that we bought was mainly for zone 1 which is basically just going around the city. while the park was in zone 5 or something like that, clearly out of our bounds :p)

by the way, i've inserted random trivia all along my blog entry :)

Disneyland Park (French: Parc Disneyland) is a theme park which is part of Disneyland Paris. Operated by Euro Disney S.C.A., it is one of two theme parks in the resort complex just outside of Paris, in the new town of Marne-la-Vallée, France. (wikipedia)

finally we have arrived, initially adam was the video guy and of course i did the photos...but he got annoyed cause i kept asking him to take pictures of me all the time and having to swap the slr with the vid cam that he's holding :p

The park is based on a concept pioneered by Walt Disney at Disneyland in California and further employed at the Magic Kingdom in Florida and Tokyo Disneyland in Japan. Occupying 566,560 m² (140 acres), Disneyland Park is the largest Disney park based on the original in California.
The park opened as Euro Disneyland on 12 April 1992. (wikipedia)

at first our strategy was to walk around the park, see and enjoy it and then find out what rides we went to go on...

In 2009, Disneyland Park was the fourth most visited theme park in the World, and the most visited in Europe with 12,740,000 visitors:
an increase of 0.4% since 2008. (wikipedia)

we first decided to go to discoveryland basically it's all about the space age stuff like buzz lightyear (From toy story), star tours, captain EO with Michael Jackson music...

Discoveryland is where the future predictions of great visionaries come to life. Fast-forward to the edge of the universe with Space Mountain: Mission 2 or be 'reduced' to laughter at Honey, I Shrunk the Audience. (tidbit taken from disney website)

below is the space mountain: mission 2 (click on the link or the name of the ride to read up more on it) ride, now adam's not too big on roller coasters so we skipped this one, well alright we 'reasoned' the line was too long anyway :D ... instead we ended up lining for a ride that really, really ... was a waste of time! :p

Since 2 April 2010, the New Generation Festival has been held at the park. (wikipedia)

and here we are in line, waiting to get into the Honey, I Shrunk the Audience ride...it was the first ride we lined up for and boy did we waste our time! :p

In order for the fourth park to be based on the original (in Anaheim, California) modifications were made to the concepts and designs of the park. Amongst these changes was a shift from Tomorrowland to "Discoveryland", giving the area aretrofuturistic theme rather than futuristic. Other elements that were altered include the Haunted Mansion, which was redesigned as Phantom Manor, and Space Mountain. (wikipedia)

it's basically an OLD SCHOOL 3D show, when I mean old school I MEAN 3D that didn't even look like 3D because the technology (maybe) that they used or the show..they just never updated it...DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME ON THIS RIDE :) that's one tip anyway :p IMAX is way better, even just a regular 3D movie (we have those here in London, you don't have to go to an IMAX theatre to be able to watch 3D...their movie houses present 3D movies it's just the screen isn't as big as an IMAX but just your regular sized movie screen)

The park's location in Europe brought forth its own challenges. For instance, Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant is said by its designers to have been necessarily reevaluated for a continent on which authentic castles stand.[2] Modifications to the park were made to protect against changes in weather in the Parisian climate. Covered walkways were added and Michael Eisner ordered the installation of 35 fireplaces in hotels and restaurants. (wikipedia)

after about an hour and half wasted on the ride I previously described, I decided to choose ahead of time the rides that I really want to go on. so now, we're no longer going around the park and THEN deciding what rides to go on...i just picked what rides i want to do and we went to that area... oh below is the sleeping beauty castle :)

"People walk around Disney World with humidity and temperatures in the 90s, and they walk into an air-conditioned ride and say, 'This is the greatest,'" said Eisner. "When it's raining and miserable, I hope they will walk into one of those lobbies with the fireplace going and say the same thing." (wikipedia)

on our way to our next ride we chanced upon this colourful and whimsical parade! :)

we all know wall-e ... (ok if you don't click this link to find out more about him :p and get up and rent/buy his movie and watch it! :p)

of course you have mr. & mrs. incredible (trivia: the incredibles is one of adam's favourite disney movie :D) and on the side you can see the ratatouille rats :)

guess who's on this ride :) stitch, tigger, pinocchio and mr. geppetto! and yes you can click on their names to read more on them on wikipedia :p hehe

some trivia on the sleeping beauty castle ...

Sleeping Beauty Castle is the fairy tale structure at the center of Disneyland Park and Hong Kong Disneyland. It is based onNeuschwanstein Castle,[1] with some French inspirations (Notre Dame de Paris and the Hospices de Beaune especially) (taken from wikipedia)

so i decided i wanted to try the pirates of the caribbean ride and it was in adventureland...

Adventureland brings you a whole new world of excitement and thrills, as you rub shoulders with pirates on the high seas, tackle perils with Indiana Jones or take to the trees with the Swiss Family Robinson. (from the disneyland park website)

basically the ride (if you've ever gone to a disney park) takes you around this world with little pirates (just like the 'it's a small world ride) acting out fighting scenes etc. and you have a little drop on the small scale (really tame) ride that gives a little splash when your 'car' reaches the bottom...

i hope that explained the weird face i have below, i was waiting for them to take a photo (of course i want to have a photo! pffft! :p) but a the same time my instinct was to hide behind adam so i don't get wet hehe :)

at least this time we actually had fun on this ride :) (yup click on the link, that i took from their website, if you want to read up more on it :p haha)

see, see :) me...photo :D hehehehe

after adventureland, we went to frontierland just to see what else is there. btw you'll probably ask where are the photos, is this it? well aside from not wanting to overwhelm you with LOADS of photos, i realised as well (if you will remember what i told you earlier) that adam was holding the camera not me therefore we didn't end up maxing out the memory card, sorry to disappoint :p (like i always do, when i'm the one holding the cam)

Mosey through the legends of the Wild West. Cruise on a paddle steamboat and ride a runaway mine train on Big Thunder Mountain. Young folk can play in the Pocahontas Indian Village, while sharp-shooters can test their aim in the Rustler Roundup Shootin' Gallery. (from the disneyland park website)

at this point both of us were already tired, so i decided to just visit the last area we haven't been yet...the fantasyland. but on our way there we both started to feel really hungry so we went around to look for some food...now looking around for food + feet tired from walking = not too good...we didn't get to really see fantasyland, instead we just headed straight to Main Street, U.S.A cause there's a wider choices of places to eat and sit :)

Enjoy the boundless charm and hospitality of a small-town, during 1900's. Stroll past Victorian stores, take a horse-drawn streetcar and cool off at the Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlour. Just like in the good old days, when Walt Disney was a boy. (from the disneyland park website)

and here in the main stream we enjoyed the last of the parade...with almost all of the disney characters that are in the park...for reasons of wanting to not overwhelm you with pictures AND a really bad spot to watch the parade, we weren't able to take & post a lot of the photos :(

but i have to say, whether it was a parade in hong kong disney where mickey was speaking chines or japan disney where he spoke japanese or in france where, yep he spoke french! it still brought a smile to both of our faces :)

it was just being a big kid, with the wonderful disney song blasting over the speakers and just seeing all the characters right there in front of you..truly magical! :)

although it was already late in the day (around 6pm) it was still pretty bright so they didn't really have the usual fireworks that you'll see/find in disney parks :(

after the farewell has been sung, and the last wave of the prince & princesses were seen we headed off to fantasy land to do a final walk before the park closes (they close at 8pm)

once we were there, i said to adam i wanted to try this ride called Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains i'm not sure why but it was described as 'venture into the dark and scary forest with Snow White' right-oh that ride was definitely FOR KIDS hehe :p

after that flop ride, we decided to start heading back and just call it a day :)

Fantasyland is the happiest of Lands, where the fairytales and stories that inspired Disney's Classic animated films come vividly and magically to life.

Michael Eisner dedicated the park on 12 April 1992, saying:

To all who come to this happy place, welcome. Once upon a time... A master storyteller, Walt Disney, inspired by Europe’s best loved tales, used his own special gifts to share them with the world. He envisioned a Magic Kingdom where these stories would come to life, and called it Disneyland. Now his dream returns to the lands that inspired it. Euro Disneyland is dedicated to the young, and the young at heart... with a hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration for all the world. (wikipedia)

all in all it was a fun day, though we went a little too late and really took our time, it was so much better for both of us and making our disney trip more enjoyable :)

day 1 & 2 done...two more :)
oh and if you want to see more photos click here

Paris 2010 Day 1 - The Islands all the way to the Eiffel Tower

2010-05-10T22:34:00.009+01:00

I haven't blogging, I've kinda given up on it already (or maybe one day my passion for it will be renewed) but I thought to do a special one for this trip cause it's PARIS!!! :)

Those who have known me since my high school days would say that's it's always been my dream to go here, not just for a holiday or visit but to study my master's in Paris...now that never really happened and I doubt it ever will but at least I finally got to go...FINALLY :)

This time instead of going by plane we thought we'd take the eurostar, the trip was just 2 hours and you get to see the countryside...i tried to take some photos but the train was too fast!

Aside from my dream to go to Paris those who knows me well knows that one of my favourite movie is Amelie...from here on you will a few photos and references to the movie and the significance of it...for ease I will do a color coding for this post pink is the color of the text if it refers to the movie Amelie (or any movie in general), purple if it's a general reference and of course black for my narration :)

gare du nord is significant to the movie as it is where Amelie takes the train to go to her dad's place from the city...
-In US movies, both the exterior and the interior of the Gare du Nord are seen in the 2002 film The Bourne Identity with Matt Damon and again in the trilogy's finale,The Bourne Ultimatum, released in August 2007. It was also seen in Ocean's Twelvein 2004, and Mr Bean's Holiday in 2007.
-It is also mentioned in "Polaris" by Jimmy Eat World off their album Futures. In addition, the station was featured in the video for the song "Home" by Blake Shelton.
-The station is also mentioned in The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.
(taken from wikipedia)

One good thing about Paris is their metro system, although the stations are all in french it's very easy to work out and quite fast/efficient in taking you to the places you want to go. ALTHOUGH, I must say this is one of the things I didn't like about Paris as well, they don't seem to clean their trains/metro system/train stations that quite a few of the stops we had to do just stunk! Trains are quite old and just yucky and just not clean :( but oh well touristy areas are quite nice :)

We just dropped of our bags in the hotel, we're staying in Balard area it's closer to the eiffel tower but it's quite a ride to go to the other 'tourist' areas. I decided to start out trip in Paris by going around 'The Island'.

The Ile de la Cite is where Paris began. It was settled in around 300 BC by a Celtic tribe, the Parisii, and in 52 BC was overrun by Julius Caesar's troops. The Romans called the settlement Lutetia Parisiorum and turned it into an administrative centre, building a palace-fortress at the western end of the Ile de la Cite. In the tenth century the Frankish kings transformed this fortress into a splendid palace, of which the Sainte-Chapelle and the Conciergerie prison survive today. (tidbit taken from Rough Guide directions Paris)

Pont Neuf is Paris's oldest surviving bridge, built in 1607 by Henri IV, one of the city's first great town planners. (tidbit taken from Rough Guide directions Paris)

The bridge is the one you see in the background...

We kept on walking till we reach one of the popular destinations in Paris...the Cathedrale de Notre-Dame...

It is one of the masterpieces of the Gothic age. Notre-Dame was begun in 1160 under the auspices of Bishop de Sully and completed around 1345. The cathedral's seminaries became an ecclesiastical powerhouse, churning out six popes in the course of the 13th & 14th centuries. (tidbit taken from Rough Guide directions Paris)

In 1820 the cathedral underwent a restoration, remaking much of the statuary on the facade and adding the steeple and baleful-looking gargoyles. (tidbit taken from Rough Guide directions Paris)

After our short visit to the cathedral we kept on walking to discover more of Paris. Our destination this time is another church called St. Sulpice, a very silly silly trip as it turned out but I'll talk more about that later on. We walked past this park and saw this little girl feeding the birds, which of course started me off to sing 'Feed the birds, tuppence a bag...' hehe but yeah you get the picture :)

After a nice walk we've reached our destination and decided to rest for a bit under the sun's shade, listening to the water fountain and just enjoying Paris. :)

Remember what I said about the silly reason why we came all the way from the cathedral to this church is because of this...the gnomon. Now you might be asking what the gnomon is, for those of you who loved the da vinci code movie you will know what this is, otherwise its....

when we reached the church and adam realised we came all the way for this he sat down in defeat :p

admittedly i was very much disappointed by what i found i thought there would be more than this oh well :) it was good though cause we got to see more of paris walking here :)

after we were both rested enough to continue on I said I'd like to see the pont des arts (can you feel it now? trivia! trivia! hehe :p) The delicate and much-loved Pont des Arts was installed in Napoleon's time. It offers a classic upstream view of the Ile de la Cite, and also provides a grand entrance to St-Germain under the watchful eye of the Institut de France, an august academic institution whose members are known as "immortals". (tidbit taken from Rough Guide directions Paris)

Anyway enough of that I'll tell more about the photo below, on our way we walked past this lovely shop. I realised it's Laduree, I've read a lot about this shop on blogs and told adam that they make really good desserts and macaroons. I also know that they are pretty expensive, so I was surprised when Adam said let's go buy some! So we went in (unfortunately you can't take photos, I would've given extra money to just take some photos they're just sooooo pretty!) and we bought an eclair for him and this other dessert for me and some macaroons to share (price came up to almost having a cheap meal for the both of us! 20+ euros hehe) But let me tell you, they were definitely worth the price!

We didn't really plan it but we ended up in the river seine, a bit tired and wanting some rest.

River Seine is a slow-flowing majorriver and commercial waterway within the regions of Île-de-France andHaute-Normandie in France and famous as a romantic backdrop in photographs of Paris, France. It is also a tourist attraction, with excursion boats offering sightseeing tours of the Rive Droite and Rive Gauche within the city of Paris. (tidbit taken from Wikipedia)

So we had our yummy desserts here, enjoying the view and just basking in the experience. Imagine that, a mouth-watering dessert in such a lovely place!

The dessert I had, I'll insert a little bit of trivia here...I know my dessert wasn't a macaroon, unfortunately due to my insistence to wait until we got to the hotel to eat them led to their murders :( I didn't bother taking photos anymore but I have to admit they still were pretty good!

The story of the Macaroon (taken from their website )

These small, round cakes, crisp on the outside, smooth and soft in the middle, are the most famous creation of Ladurée. The story of the Ladurée macaroon starts with Pierre Desfontaines, second cousin of Louis Ernest Ladurée, who at the beginning of the 20th century first thought of taking two macaroon shells and joining them with a delicious ganache filling.

These small, round cakes, crisp on the outside, smooth and soft in the middle, are made every morning in Ladurée’s “laboratory”. The pastry chefs measure out very precisely the required amounts of almonds, eggs and sugar, before adding one final ingredient, a pinch of unique “know-how”, essential to the making of such a delicacy. Once cooked and filled, the macaroons are put to one side for 2 days before going on sale, the time it takes to achieve a perfect balance between texture and with each new season, Ladurée pays tribute to its most famous creation by creating a new flavour.

The existing range of macaroons is always the starting point when a new one is created, as the variety of colours is as important as the range of flavours and a vital part of their appeal.

We were really lucky cause as soon as we finished our dessert it started to rain! So we ran for the louvre to seek shelter. And when the rain let up I sneaked in a photo, of course it wasn't scheduled for us to go and see the louvre (i wanted to start the visit to the louvre early, so i scheduled it on another day :p)

After the photo Adam asked where we need to go next and I said to the Eiffel tower! He said alright let's walk there. Remember the tips I told you about when travelling, one of them was to wear comfortable shoes? Boy was I right about that advice, I wished I actually listened to myself though cause after our walk I ended up with sore feet and about 5 blisters! :(

With the disappearance of the palace, the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, built between 1806 and 1808 to serve as an entrance of honor at the Tuileries, became the dominant feature of the Place du Carrousel. It is a triumphal archthat was commissioned in 1806 to commemorate Napoleon's military victories of the previous year. The more famous Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile nearby was designed in the same year, but it took thirty years to build, and it is about twice as massive. (tidbit taken from wikipedia)

So onward we went from the louvre to the Eiffel tower, you might notice as well that the ground is white that's because it's sand! Later on I'll show you what happened to my shoes after walking through the tuileries...

The Tuileries Garden (Fr. Jardin des Tuileries) is a public garden located between the Louvre Museum and the Place de la Concorde in Paris. In 1667, at the request of the the famous author of Sleeping Beauty and other fairy tales, Charles Perrault, the Tuileries Garden was opened to the public, with the exception of beggars, "lackeys" and soldiers.[6] It was the first royal garden to be open to the public. (trivia taken from wikipedia)

hehe yep my boots was covered with sand/dust and everything white! :) therefore another tip for everyone, if planning a walk along the tuileries remember not to wear dark coloured shoes if you don't want them to end up like this! :)

The walk in the tuileries garden will eventually take you to the Place de la Concorde...

Place de la Concorde has a much less peaceful history than its name suggests. Between 1793 and 1795, some 1,300 people died here beneath the Revolutionary guillotine, Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, Danton and Robespierre among them. Today, constantly circumnavigated by traffic, the centrepiece of the place is a gold-tipped obelisk from the temple of Ramses at Luxor, offered as a favour-currying gesture by the viceroy of Egypt in 1829. (tidbit taken from Rough Guide directions Paris)

Our destination, so close yet so far :p haha Bridge you can see behind me is the Pont Alexandre III

a bit more trivia about the river seine: (all trivia taken from wikipedia)

-Legend has it that after Jeanne d'Arc (better known as "Joan of Arc") wasburned at the stake in 1431, her ashes were thrown into the Seine, though counter-claims persist to the present-day.[12]
- According to his will, Napoleon, who died in 1821, wished to be buried on the banks of the Seine. His request was not granted.
- In January 1910, the Seine flooded 20 feet above normal, drowning streets throughout the city of Paris and sending thousands of Parisians fleeing to emergency shelters. The 1910 Great Flood of Paris was the worst the city had seen since 1658 when the water reached only a few centimetres higher.[13] Until the 1930s, a towing system using a chain on the bed of the river existed to facilitate movement of barges upriver.[citation needed]
- The Seine River was one of the original objectives of Operation Overlord in 1944. The Allies' intention was to reach the Seine by D+90 (i.e., 90 days afterD-Day). That objective was met. An anticipated assault crossing of the river never materialized as German resistance in France crumbled by early September 1944. However, the First Canadian Army did encounter resistance immediately west of the Seine and fighting occurred in the Forêt de la Londe as Allied troops attempted to cut off the escape across the river of parts of the German 7th Army in the closing phases of the Battle of Normandy.
- Some of the victims of the Paris massacre of 1961 drowned in the Seine after being thrown off from the Pont Saint-Michel and other locations in Paris. Dredging in the 1960s mostly eliminated tidal bores on the river, known as “le mascaret.”
- In 1991, the banks of the Seine in Paris—the Rive Gauche and Rive Droite—were added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in Europe.[14]
- The river is a popular site for suicides and the disposal of bodies of murder victims.[15] In 2007, 55 bodies were retrieved from its waters; in February 2008, the body of supermodel-turned-activist Katoucha Niane was found there.[15]over the space of 6 years a total of 306 bodys were retrieved the highest number in one day being 16.

Pont Alexandre III is an arch bridge that spans the Seine, connecting the Champs-Élysées quarter and the Invalides and Eiffel Tower quarter, widely regarded as the most ornate, extravagant bridge in Paris[1] [2].

The bridge, with its exuberant Art Nouveau lamps, cherubs, nymphsand winged horses at either end, was built between 1896 and 1900. It is named after Tsar Alexander III, who had concluded the Franco-Russian Alliance in 1892. His son Nicholas II laid the foundation stone in October 1896. The style of the bridge reflects that of the Grand Palais, to which it leads on the right bank. (taken from wikipedia)

movie trivia:
-In the movie Anastasia (1997), the bridge is damaged by Rasputin in an attempt to kill Anastasia, who in real life was the granddaughter of Alexander III
-In the movie A Very Long Engagement, Marion Cotillard's character kills François Levantal's under the bridge.
(taken from wikipedia)

i'm not sure what park this is but i thought i'd put this photo here to show that walking to the eiffel tower is lovely :) you find little gems like this! :) pity i couldn't enjoy it to the full cause of my aching feet :( REMEMBER! COMFY SHOES!!! :)

at last we're here! :) i like this photo that adam took of the eiffel tower :) the queue wasn't too bad eventually we reached the top, if ever you get around to going up to the top of the tower remember to bring a light jacket or something cause it get's a bit cold up there! :)

The Eiffel Tower (French: Tour Eiffel, [tuʁ ɛfɛl]) is a 19th century iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris that has become both a globalicon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The Eiffel Tower, which is the tallest building in Paris,[10] is the single most visited paid monument in the world; millions of people ascend it every year. Named after its designer, engineer Gustave Eiffel, the tower was built as the entrance arch for the 1889 World's Fair.

The tower stands 324 m (1,063 ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-story building. It was the tallest man-made structure in the world from its completion until 1930, when it was eclipsed by the Chrysler Building in New York City. Not including broadcast antennas, it is the second-tallest structure in France, behind the Millau Viaduct, completed in 2004.
(trivia above and below about the eiffel tower are all taken from wikipedia)

The tower has three levels for visitors. Tickets can be purchased to ascend either on stair or lift to the first and second levels. The walk to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the walk from the first to the second level. The third and highest level is accessible only by lift. Both the first and second levels featurerestaurants.

The tower has become the most prominent symbol of both Paris and France, often in the establishing shot of films set in the city.

The structure was built between 1887 and 1889 as the entrance arch for the Exposition Universelle, a World's Fair marking the centennial celebration of theFrench Revolution. Three hundred workers joined together 18,038 pieces of puddled iron (a very pure form of structural iron), using two and a half million rivets, in astructural design by Maurice Koechlin. The co-architects of the Eiffel Tower were Emile Nouguier,Maurice Koechlin and Stephen Sauvestre.[11] The risk of accident was great, for unlike modernskyscrapers the tower is an open frame without any intermediate floors except the two platforms. However, because Eiffel took safety precautions, including the use of movable stagings, guard-rails and screens, only one man died. The tower was inaugurated on 31 March 1889, and opened on 6 May.

The tower was met with much criticism from the public when it was built, with many calling it an eyesore. Newspapers of the day were filled with angry letters from the arts community of Paris. One is quoted extensively in William Watson's US Government Printing Office publication of 1892 Paris Universal Exposition: Civil Engineering, Public Works, and Architecture: “And during twenty years we shall see, stretching over the entire city, still thrilling with the genius of so many centuries, we shall see stretching out like a black blot the odious shadow of the odious column built up of riveted iron plates.”[12] Signers of this letter included Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier, Charles Gounod, Charles Garnier, Jean-Léon Gérôme, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, and Alexandre Dumas.

i've mentioned a some popular culture trivia of places in paris, for eiffel tower there's a whole page dedicated to it so I thought i'll just mention a few and if you want to continue on reading here's the link (trivia from wikipedia)
-2007 Featured in Rush Hour 3 as the climax battle. Portions of the fight was actual footage of the famous landmark, whilst other sequences were replicated built sets.
-2009 G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra depicts the tower being destroyed by a rapidly expanding cloud of metal-eatingnanomachines.
-1996 The tower can be seen on TV in Independence Day (film), as the UFO lands on the tip of the structure.
-1998 The tower, along with Paris, is destroyed by a meteorite in Armageddon.
-2009 the animated movie, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, features the tower is being toppled by a large-sized sandwich causing chaos in Paris.
-2001 In Moulin Rouge!, a pistol thrown from Montmartre by Christian (Ewan McGregor) during the finale bounces off the tower underneath the smiling moon.

I say goodnight to you for now with a photo of our dinner, we had it past 10pm already (we took forever in taking photos of the tower hehe). Adam had a boring toasted bread with ham and cheese, a croque monsieur, while I had some escargot! :)

A croque-monsieur is a hot ham and cheese (typically emmental orgruyère) grilled sandwich. It originated in France as a fast-food snack served in cafés and bars. More elaborate versions come coated in aMornay or Béchamel sauce. The emergence of the croque-monsieur (and variations) is mirrored by growth in popular fast-foods in other countries.

Escargot is a dish of cooked land snails, usually served as an appetizer. The word is also sometimes applied to the living snails of those species which are commonly eaten.
Escargot, IPA: [ɛskaʁɡo], is the French word for snail. It is related to Occitan escaragol[1]and Catalan cargol, which, in turn, may derive from a pre-Roman word *karakauseli[2].

yummmm!!!!! :)

i have to say, one good thing that comes out of my blogging is that i learn more about the history of the places i've been and things i've seen and heaps more trivia as well! :) yay for google (and wikipedia hehe)!

day 1 done, 3 more to go :)

by the way if you want to see more photos click here

Project 365 :) Day 21-34!

2010-02-14T02:29:00.002Z

Wow! Can you believe a month has gone by and I've taken 34 photos already! :D sorry I wasn't able to post an entry earlier, I have a reason for that (you'll know in a bit :p)

Day 21: you've probably read in my previous posts about borough market...that day we went again but instead of buying cheese, bread and oil w/ vinegrette, we got some fish :) and here was a really weird one :p oh and yeah the fish we bought were really fresh and hubby cooked them really nicely =D

Day 22: sunday...we went to ikea! =) for those of you who doesn't know what this is, it's a massive store that sells good looking furniture for very reasonable prices. we picked up a computer table for me :) and uhuh i'm wearing 2 jackets :p hehe

Day 23: you might remember me complaining about the dark gloomy days london has been having, well that day was alright, the sky was actually blue and the sun came out even for just a little bit! i took this photo on the bus ride back home

Day 24: and yes i'm trying...really trying :p i still love to eat but hopefully this thing will cancel it out :p hehe

Day 25: see i told you, i love to eat hehehe and yes they are krispy kremes :p hehehe

Day 26: i was running out of ideas but i thought i'd take a photo of this cute little group :) the adorable bunnies just outside spital fields market (close to my work)...every lunch break i try and have a quick walk around the area, but i've been struggling lately as it was just too cold for me

Day 27: yes yes on the plane to turkey! :D we stayed there for 4 days...i promise i'll try to post something soon

Day 28: underground cistern :) more about this on my turkey post, i promise :)

Day 29: the blue mosque...i gotta say i thought turkey was going to be warmer than london, it definitely wasn't!!!!

Day 30: on our last day we went to what they call 'spice market' and they had an amazing display of spices, herbs, teas and turkish delights! :) down here i took a photo of some jasmine tea :)

Day 31: yes, yes, yes the sun came out that day! this is what our restaurant at work looks like, food is mediocre but cheap enough that it's my best option to have my lunch at, plus the view it has is priceless (specially on really clear days, like this one :p)

Day 32: although the sun was out that day, it didn't show itself too long so i asked this nice lady if i could take some photos of her flowers in her shop...and she was nice enough to say yes :D

Day 33: caught this on my way home, walking towards my bus stop...lucky i got a good one as i didn't have my tripod with me and most of the shots i took were really shaky :)

Day 34: no it's the brussels globe that's the new addition it's the turkey snow globe. but it didn't look as nice so i cheated and made the brussels globe the focus of the photo anyway :p

right...so that's it for now, wish me luck to keep on going :) oh and if you do decide to take up project365 let me know we can start a support group for each other hehe have a good week guys!!! :D

Project 365 :) Day 11-20!

2010-01-31T02:01:00.000Z

So far so good guys I can't believe that I only have 20 days and I'm already running out of ideas! But you know what, the guys at flickr has been really great! They leave really nice comments which helps me challenge myself that I don't take too mediocre photos :)

But in saying that it has been really hard to take better photos as it's been to cold for this tropical-weather-girl :p And I've just been hibernating and staying indoors, this hopefully explains most of my photos :)

Day 11: too cold to go out so i thought i'd just take a photo of my beloved monchichi :)

Day 12: this was a good day, the sun came out! even if it was just for a few minutes hehe so the story here is that wherever the sun was i'm there :) i found this really good strip of sun beside this water feature close to work so i spent 30 minutes sitting down 'meditating' and enjoying the 'warmth' of london sun and the sound of water trickling :)

Day 13: and that sun hid again and was pretty miserable this day...and yes happy food! :) chocolates! :D and yup that's my favourite chocolate for sure! :D

Day 14: yup! you guessed it another cold day so warm fuzzy socks on and relax on the bean bag for me :p

Day 15: oh yes! the sun was out today hehe 'nuff said :)

Day 16: nope no sun on this day but i had to take something good right? :p it was just one of the plants beside the building close to our place...hmm i'm running out of stories now as well haha

Day 17: oooohhh this was a pretty good day, sun was out for a good one hour and i was really dragging my feet to go back to work...just one of those days when you want to spend it outside cause it was just nice and sunny...i stumbled into this really drabby park in centre of london and i couldn't have imagined taking a photo like this... pretty cool ay? :)

Day 18: cold day as you might have guessed :p and yes i'm running out of ideas at this point already haha :p the poster "keep calm and carry on" during the early spring of 1939 and the war with Germany almost inevitable, the British Government Ministry of Information commissioned a number of propaganda posters to be displayed throughout the country upon the outbreak of war. the plan for the posters was to relay a message from King George VI to his people that all capable measures to defend the Country were being taken. (source: http://www.keepcalmandcarryon.com/pages/history) and you thought there wasn't any trivia tidbits for my project 365 posts hehehe :p (btw if you want to read more about it here... wikipedia )

Day 19: this was a lucky shot, the bird was walking in front of me and before it flew away i got this photo...a bit blurry though but looks alright, sort of hehe

Day 20: i have an interesting story for this one...lately i haven't been able to sleep, takes me about an hour or sometimes two (so i end up sleeping around 3am or something like that) just tossing and turning in bed...i've tried counting from 1-10, meditating, blocking out my thoughts... i'm getting there! hehe so i thought i'd stare at my amethyst candle thing count 1-10 repeatedly until i feel sleepy, and you know what it works! so there you go, no more sleepless nights! hehe

Belgium: Day 1 Brussels

2010-01-25T22:43:00.000Z

Brussels is the capital of Belgium and the centre of government for the European Union. (all trivia on Belgium are taken from eyewitness travel guide book).

What can I say about my trip to Brussels, it's all about discovering the sights...I started the day without really knowing where I should go and see. I bought this travel guide book (eyewitness travel), browsed through it and had an idea what things I should see. But the thing is, I couldn't work out the map or I just didn't feel like being thorough about it like I did when I was in Japan (I will blog about this trip when i get the chance... one day hehe)

So make sure you have your camera/video camera and off we go! :) I started my walk to discover Brussels and what else do I find but a bus/car (whatever they're called) that sells Belgian waffles! I have to admit I had a waffle a day for my whole stay here (yup I think that's how I got my double chin hehe) Not only do they have these waffles mobile like this but they have them in little stores almost at every corner at Grand place (where the tourists are)

So where we were staying was pretty much in the business district and what they would call the upper town. I just kept walking and saw nothing but buildings that looked like office buildings, until I stumbled into this park thing, I wasn't really sure what it's called but I think it's sort of connected to their Palias Royale. Now what I watched out for were people who looked like tourists and those sightseeing tour buses and so I followed where they were coming from and just kept on walking :)

Until I came to this place...pretty grand ay? That's cause it's the Palais Royal...

can you feel it? yup a trivia tidbit is coming up! :) It is the largest of the palaces, the low-rise Palais Royale is the official home of the Belgian monarch and family. A flag flies to indicate when the king is in the country. Construction of the modern palace began in the 1820s on the site of hte old Coudenberg Palace. Work continued under Leopold 11 (r.1865-1909) when much of the exterior was completed.

And as I continued my walk, this park across the palais looked interesting enough and I thought I'd go in and have walk in the park :) boy was I glad I did it! By the way as a side note when I was 'discovering' Brussels, these places/tourist spots that I'm telling you about, I didn't know what they were until after I got back from the hotel and looked it up on my guide book hehe.

Parc de Bruxelles.. on the site of medieval hunting grounds once used by the dukes of Brabant, the park was redesigned in the 1770s with fountains, statues and tree-lined walks.

You know the funny thing about this is I just kept walking and walking and somehow I stumble upon something interesting and it really was like reading a story book where you turn the page and voila!

The arch is called Mont des Arts has a carillon clock on the side facing up the hill that includes figures from Belgian history that move on the hour.

This would've been an awesome photo if not for the 2 people walking up the stairs :( but the sky was just beautiful I couldn't pass this photo up :) Or maybe I shouldn't have said anything, hopefully you didn't notice them hehe

Looking at these photos just make me smile and think of how wonderful it would be to have blue clear skies again, yup you've guessed it it's been miserable the past few days here in London :(

This was a really exciting find...shop after shop of used and antique books. It was like looking into another world, words that I don't understand as most of them were in French and dreaming that one day I can go back and buy these books and appreciate what they had to say...

Galerie Bortier, built in 1848, is the only shopping arcade in the city dedicated solely to book and map shops, and it has become the haunt of students, enthusiasts and researchers looking for secondhand French books and antiquarian finds.

Here is another example of a wonderful surprise, I had no idea where I was going and there you go one of the oldest shopping 'mall' in the continental Europe!

Galeries St-Hubert 16 years after ascending the throne as the first king of Belgium, Leopold I inaugurated the opening of these grand arcades in 1847. St-Hubert has the distinction of being the first shopping arcade in Europe, and one of the most elegant.

And of course we cannot forget about the chocolates as we are in Belgium! Chocolates of the mannekin pis! (More photos and story of this little boy in the next blog)

The legends of mannekin pis...the inspiration for this famous statue remains unknown, but the mystery only lends itself to rumour and fable and increases the little boy's charm. One theory claims that in the 12th century the son of a duke was caught urinating against a tree in the midst of a battle and was thus commemorated in bronze as a symbol of the country's military courage.

Le Pigeon was home to Victor Hugo, the exiled French novelist who chose the house as his Belgian residence in 1852. Some of the most complimentary comments about Brussels emerged later from his pen.

The Maison du Roi was first built in 1536 but redesigned in 1873. Once the residence of ruling Spanish monarchs, it is now home to the Musee de la Ville, which includes 16th century paintings, tapestries, and the 650 tiny outfits of Mannekin Pis.

And yes I know I don't post enough photos with me in it but that's because I do most of my travelling alone..So I have to resort to asking people to take a photo of me or if I feel like it I bring my tripod along with me! :) Problem is if there's too many people or if it's crowded can't really use my tripod :(

And here I am again, I couldn't really ask this tourist to take more photos of me (even though he didn't quite get the whole of the tower hehe) but there you go that's me again :)

This is the Hotel de Ville, the focus of the grand place, Brussels' historic Town Hall dates from the early 15th century. It occupies the entire southwest side of the square. Still a functioning civic building.

you might recognise these photos from my night shots of belgium..well these are how they look when the sun is up :)

Le Renard was built in the 1690s as the guildhouse of the haberdashers by the Flemish architects Marc de Vos and van Nerum. Facade details show St Nicolas, patron saint of merchants, and cherubs playing with haberdashery ribbons.

Le Cornet displays Italianate Flemish style. This Boatment's Guildhouse (1697) is most notable for its gable, which is constructed in the form of a 17th century frigate's bow.

Le Roi d'Espagne now houses the Grand places finest bar with a view of the bustling square and its splendours above ground level. The gilt bust over the entrance represents Saint Aubert, patron saint of bakers.

as a side note...was a bit hard to take a photo of this as tourists were just constantly coming up to it to touch the arm...

Everand 't Serclaes was murdered defending brussels in the 14th century; touching the bronze arm of his statue is said to bring luck.

Because I was travelling with a limited budget I couldn't purchase one of these, I so wanted one but I just had to suffice with a photo. They're paintings of the different sights and life in Belgium...

And the wonderful grand place...nuff said :)

Grand Place...almost entirely rebuilt by merchants after French bombardment in 1695, the cobbled square is one of the world's best Baroque ensembles. This bustling cobblestone square remains the civic centre, centuries after its creation, and offers the finest surviving example in one area of Belgium's ornate 17th-century architecture.

One thing I found out Tintin (the comic book) originated from Belgium, hehe silly me I didn't know that :p But I betcha you don't know Smurfs was born in Belgium too did you? :)

Tintin's creator, Herge, was born Georges Remi in Brussels in 1907. Herge came up with the character of Tintin the reporter, who first appeared in the story Tintin au Pays des Soviets on 10 January 1929.

Best known for The Smurfs, Peyo was also a member of the team behind the Spirou (Belgium's oldest comic strip journal was launched in 1938).

And yes more chocolates :) I bought some to give away to you guys but well...you prolly know what happened to them ;D

As I kept walking, take note I was starting to get really tired at this point now...and was already contemplating how I'm going to get back and if I will find my way (actually it was more like, goodness I have to retrace my steps to find my way back to the hotel and that's quite a long way...uggh)

I saw this beautiful church and couldn't resist to go in and see the inside...

Cathedrals Sts Michel et Gudule...the white stone facade from 1250 is an outstanding example of Brabant Gothic Style and the national church of Belgium.

and suddenly I wasn't too tired anymore...a quiet walk around and just taking it all in..the solemnity and quiet after the hustle and bustle of the outside world...

Work began on the Gothic cathedral in 1225 under Henry I, Duke of Brabant, and continued over a period of 300 years. It was finally completed with the construction of two front towers at the beginning of the 16th century under Charles V.

the intricate details, the artistry... imagine doing all these when they didn't have the technology we have now... amazing isn't it?

this would be where the priest would say his sermons... it was amazing how grand the carvings of this pulpit...

Baroque pulpit, the flamboyantly carved pulpit in the central aisle is the work of an Antwerp-born sculptor, Henri-Francois Verbruggen. Designed in 1699, it was finally installed in 1776.

phew...i'm pooped :p and yes another tourist kindly offered to take my photo and in turn i took a photo of this nice couple (with their camera of course) :p

i was afraid i was going to doze off, i was too tired to get up and start my LOOOOOONG walk back..but it must be done...

Hotel Ravenstein, over the centuries, has been the home of patrician families, soldiers and court officials. And for the past 100 years, the Royal Society of Engineers.

Old England...this former department store uses glass and steel rather than brick, with large windows and twisted metal turrets. The building is now home to the Musee Instrumental, moved from the Sablon. Today the collection contains more than 6,000 items and includes many fine examples of wind, string and keyboard instruments from medieval times to the present.

Eglise St-Jacques-sur-Coudenberg one of Brussels' pettiest churches, it's 18th-century facade was modelled exactly on a classical temple. The barrel-vaulted nave and half-domed apse are sprinkled with floral plasterwork and contain several fine Neo-Classical paintings.

Place Royale in the centre of this attractive, symmetrical square is a statue of Godefroi of Bouillon, a Brabant soldier who fought the first Catholic Crusades and died in Palestine.

Place du Petit Sablon...this square is a jewel of the upper town. originally a horse market, the central area became a flower garden in 1890, surrounded by wrought-iron railings decorated with stone statuettes. Each figure represents a medieval trade or craft that brought prosperity to the capital.

i took a different route going back which gave me the chance to find the last few photos/sights before i got back to the hotel and propped my feet up for a some much needed rest...

(just to make sure all italicised notes in purple font here are taken from Eyewitness travel Brussels)

blogging for me... :)

2010-01-20T00:12:00.000Z

you may have noticed (or not) that i haven't been updating my blog that regularly anymore...i just lost the will to blog...i forgot why i started to blog in the first place...that is to do it for me :)

somehow it got stuck in my head that my blog should always be pretty, i should be really careful of what i say or do...as they have said, you can't please everyone so instead of thinking about what people will think or react with whatever i say here i will just blog at will! :)

it's my blog and i'll do whatever i want with it hehe

now that's all out of my system i want to share this project i've recently started, some of you may already know the 'Project 365' I'm not really sure where it originated and people has prolly done it in the past. the gist of it is that you take a photo a day for 365 days and at the end of that you reflect on the photos that you've taken. you can think of it as a photo diary as well, i'd like to think that in addition to it being a diary (most of the photos i take brings back memories no matter how mundane it is :p) i find it challenges me to take better photos and be more creative in what i produce... i sure hope i finish this project (unlike others that my dad will tell you i never do finish or 'excel' in ;) like that time i took tennis lessons or my swimming or bla bla bla hehe) oh and if you want to read more about project 365 just click on that link :)

anyhoo, i was think before that i will post this project 365 after i have collected 30 days of it but then i thought why not blog about every photo i take! that way i would have a chance to express myself and blog more! :D

so here's my 10 days so far... and don't worry my adventures of the past months will eventually find itself to my blog one day hehe (somehow 24 hours of the day isn't enough to do all you need to do and the things you WANT to do hehe)

just remember comments, suggestions or any other thoughts are welcome :) in fact i beg you to comment it makes it all worthwhile to blog more hehe :p

Day 1: You might notice this is just a photo of our view from the window, what a great start with the project ey? too lazy to think of anything i just captured this hehe

Day 2: Yes another lazy photo :p my creative juices wasn't ready yet so i took of a photo of the next thing i could think of the little trinkets we've collected from our trip which are...the mannekin pis, a brussels globe thing and a house/building from bruges and a little thing from malta (left to right description), before we leave london we should get some from here too haha

Day 3: some of you may already know my little sheep friend here, he was left behind by the person i'm temping for and cause of it's cuteness i am entertained by the sheep when i'm bored (which is 99% of the time hehe) so there he is coming out from behind my water bottle :)

Day 4: ah yes, this was the day that i woke up and there was snow everywhere! i had to get out and take some photos! unfortunately snow in central london doesn't really last long, either it melts on its own or they put this grit or something like that to melt it :) the only nice 'snow' photos were that from the plants...thus the photo below (notice i'm making an effort with my photos now hehe)

Day 5: ahh yes this would be one of the days i stayed at home and couldn't be bothered to go out...out of ideas i took a photo of my amethyst candle holder...isn't it lovely? :D they say the amethyst stone brings peace and relaxation and helps in your meditation...that's prolly why i've been too relaxed lately and couldn't be bothered to go out to brave the cold haha :p

Day 6: for the smart one you've prolly realised by now i have been hibernating in my nook/apartment with all these cold weather (cause of the 'inside' shots hehe) and yes it's a mocha-coffee cake it was just too good to not eat specially with a warm tea and some relaxing on the bean bag while staring out at london city :) sigh hibernation...both a good and bad thing (i now have rolls on my tummy cause of the cold weather, that's right i blame the weather! hehehe)

Day 7: so if you don't know by now what my favorite color is tsk tsk you prolly don't know me at all hehe cause even if i just know you as an acquaintance you WILL know what my favorite color is...photo below is our center piece on the dining table with the table mats behind it

Day 8: ahh this is more of a mystery for the viewer this is actually just a little piece of the statue at camden market. one day i'll post a bigger photo of her but for now enjoy the play of colors and texture ;) notice how i'm really making an effort with creativity here now hehe whether or not you like it you have to admit it's a big improvement from day 1, 2 & 3 hehe

Day 9: yes ladies and gentlemen i was stuck at home again and so i thought i'd take a photo of my next favorite thing in the world ;) those who know me know what that is already ;)

Day 10: this time around i got off my bum and made an effort to walk around the area where my work is and find something interesting to take a photo of :) it's a water feature behind liverpool street station :)

so for those who has supported me since the beginning of my blogging adventure, thank you :) i really appreciate your awesome comments and your excitement to find out what i will be doing next :)

wish me luck with this project :p oh, oh for those of you who would like to view more of my photos visit my flickr site just click on that link and it would also be on the links left hand side of my blog

Amy's baked macaroni, with Adam's twist

2010-01-15T00:38:00.000Z

Everyone who knows me, will tell you if I have a craving for a specific dish I just have to take my fill...and will eat it again and again (for months sometimes) until I just get sick of it. Well lately I've had that craving for Amy's baked macaroni so I thought I'd share her recipe with you and hopefully you'll like it as much as I did oh but this one has Adam's twist on it too :)

Ingredients:

500g pasta (Amy prefers the pene type but with the ridges in it is the best so it collects the flavour - the bigger & longer the tubes the better)

approx 500g mince (give or take 100g)

1 x onion

couple cloves of garlic

1/2 butternut squash (Amy's optional extra,)

1x beef stock cube

1x tinned tomatoes (Amy usually gets the whole peeled and mush them up in the frypan)

2 x tbs tomato paste

1/2-1 cup wine (Amy's optional extra)

2x eggs

1x cup grated parmesan or romano cheese (or whatever you like)

1/2-1 cup water

1x tsp sugar

herbs / salt / pepper to taste

Other optional extras;

some chicken drumsticks (Adam's twist)

some chilli (Adam's twist)

chopped bacon

chopped mushrooms *we definitely added this

finely chopped carrot

Method:

pre-heat oven

If you include the squash: first chop up the butternut squash and lay pieces on the bottom of your baking dish, lightly sprinkling with olive oil and salt to taste. (I usually cut it lengthways about 0.5cm thick and cover the bottom of the dish) pop this in the oven to cook while you prepare everything else.

heat saucepan of water to boil then cook pasta whilst you are preparing below (I usually use a pot or large saucepan so i can mix in all the sauce with the drained pasta at the end).

heat up some oil in a frypan

finely chop the garlic and cook careful not to burn, add chopped onion*, cook until golden

add the mince and cook until brown

add the tin of tomatoes, tomato paste and sugar

crumble the beef stock cube (optional) and

add optional extras (ie bacon / mushy's / carrots / wine / chilli)

bring to boil then reduce heat and simmer

stir up and simmer for as long as you like (or as long as it takes the pasta to boil!)

add water and any herbs / salt / pepper

once pasta cooked, drain and return to pot/saucepan

beat the eggs and mix in along with most of the grated cheese

add the cooked sauce to the pasta and mix in together

remove baking dish with cooking butternut squash from oven and add the pasta and sauce evenly to dish. (what we did was before we put the pasta in, we placed the raw chicken drumstick first and then poured the pasta in)

sprinkle with remaining grated cheese and maybe cracked pepper

return to oven

cook on moderate heat - approx 260deg for about 30-45 mins depending on how crunchy you like the top!

*another optional extra with the onion - I sometimes caramelise it by adding some balsamic vinegar, tsp sugar, tsb butter (adds sweetness to flavour)

Hope you like it! Let me know how it turns out :)

a lovely memory

2010-01-09T14:09:00.000Z

for now i'll let the photos speak for themselves...

have fun with belgium, at night :)

posting the photos reminded me of the lovely trip to brugges & brussels :)

i'll tell the story of the trip next time...take care everyone!

walking..covent garden & along south bank

2009-11-08T22:57:00.000Z

last september (i know...i have been really lazy in posting new entries :p) i thought i'd go and visit one of my fave. places in London...the convent garden :)

why you may ask, just cause...just cause it's where you will find the royal opera house and where you will find the royal ballet :p that's why :D

anyhoo the story for today is more of covent garden and a lovely walk along southbank..when i got there i got a treat with a nice display of ice sculptures of London's attractions (brought to you by smirnoff, in case you didn't see it in the photo :p)

the gherkin (maybe i'll take a photo of this..one day :p) it's basically a skyscraper in London's main financial district...the name refers to the plan's highly unorthodox layout and appearance (tidbit taken from wikipedia again :p)

below you will see the big ben clock...

and the london eye :) some of the other attractions i'm not too familiar with :p

i walked a bit more and did some window shopping or more like 'stall' shopping? anyway there were some nice knick knacks hand-made (that's what it says on their signs) that are really nice :) but as we don't really need additional 'junk' i just took photos (or the stalls that allowed for you to take photos, some of them doesn't like it when you take pictures and you buy nuthin :p)

after walking around a bit i thought i'd catch a bus and have a lovely walk along southbank..mind you it is september and the wind are starting to feel crisp and a bit cold (i dunno if i said that right oh well :p) but it was still a nice walk despite the cool weather...

the lovely canopy of trees made me think of my home...how pinoy's will just love places like these...young lovers holding hands and whispering loving thoughts...or friends just hanging out and spending some quality time...but most of all just an image of me spending a day there reading a book and enjoying the sights and sounds (like this man over here :p)

and i kept walking and stumbled on this creation...felt like i was in wonderland haha

especially when i stumbled into this bit of heaven... (ok ok, it may not be but it's pretty close for me :p)

under this bridge is the southbank book market of used books from really old to more current ones...i did say to myself i'll go back and get my new reads from there (when i have the budget to do so :p hehe)

after spending a lot of time browsing through the books i discovered some little thoughts on the benches :)

this one made me want to sit down and ponder on things :p

and the one below just simply made me smile :)

see, i reckon you just have to open your eyes and appreciate the little things in life..you'll discover things that are usually overlooked cause we're just too busy :)

after taking a moment to ponder on things and breath the nice crisp air, my walking led me to this nice little cove of shops at southbank with some wood carvings in the middle of it :)

there was a small family with a young girl playing with the wood creations, i wanted to take a photo but was a bit scared her parents won't like it so i just made sure it's the wood i captured :)

these were just some of the creations with different shapes, figures or stories that was purely for design or something you can use like a table or a chair :)

after the wood creations i thought i'd capture the things that gives character to 'southbank/river thames'

a lone bridge, unused but tells a story...

okidoki :) done with wondering what the history of this broken bridge is? that's how it was for me anyway, just looking at these things fires up my imagination on what they've gone through and that..ahh history :)

as we near the end of my walk i give you blackfriars bridge and my usual tidbit of facts...

Blackfriars bridge is the third bridge across the Thames in London which took 9 years to build and opened to public in 1769. This bridge serves as a supplementary to the ancient London Bridge and the Westminster Bridge. (again credit goes to wikipedia :p)

i sure hope you like our trip to southbank today...i leave you with a lovely photo on the other side of blackfriars bridge with London Eye :)

till next time! :)

a windy day in the museum

2009-10-26T23:23:00.001Z

it was a very cold and windy day...

and so i decided to make the trek to a modern art museum...

across the millennium bridge i go...

into the massive building of tate modern...

to be continued...

--------------------------------

i know i haven't made a blog entry for a long time, to put it simply it's all because i've been lazy :p

i thought before i make another entry i want to make sure my photographs are 'prettier'

for a long time i've said i won't use photoshop too much but just the basic, and then i found the most amazing thing...photoshop actions! thus the photos from here on...

(above is a 'comic' transformation of my photos to tell a more entertaining story of my adventures, hope you like it)

(below is a more 'accurate' representation of the things i see in my explorations)

for those of you are harry potter fans this bridge might look a bit familiar, that's because it is in the movie when a bridge has collapsed this is that bridge. the millennium bridge.

you might also remember it from a blog post early on (our first day here in london).

i met up with adam for lunch and went straight to tate modern after that. it's just a few minutes walk from his office.

you will hear this advice from me again and again...museums this size should never be undertaken in just one day if you really want to appreciate it.

get ready for a bit of history here...(credit goes to wikipedia)

The galleries are housed in the former Bankside Power Station, which was originally designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect of Battersea Power Station, and built in two stages between 1947 and 1963. The power station closed in 1981. The building was converted by architects Herzog & de Meuron and contractors Carillion,^[3] after which it stood at 99m tall. The history of the site as well as information about the conversion was the basis for a 2008 documentary Architects Herzog and de Meuron: Alchemy of Building & Tate Modern. The southern third of the building was retained by the French power company EDF Energy as an electrical substation (in 2006, the company released half of this holding).

alrighty that was probably a bit boring for you, for those not interested its pretty much a big building as originally it was a power station. now it holds more modern/contemporary art/pieces/installations...

for those of you who are art enthusiast some of the names may be familiar to you such as Claude Monet, Anish Kapoor, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko...and the list goes on...

personally i've never been that much of a lover of these kinds of works...but after my visit to the museum i can say it has definitely changed me in how i understand/see contemporary art...

comparing my visit to the national art gallery (again check my previous entries) where i felt in awe that what i am looking at has so much history and wonder what the paintings that hung there has gone through...

with tate modern, i left with so much emotions it was overwhelming...works which made me feel inspired, in awe, weirded out (trust me there some pretty weird stuff in there), disgusted, scared, freaked out...what i'm trying to say here is that no words can express what i felt there, you should really go and visit and see for yourself...maybe you'll feel the same way as i did or maybe you'll just say "huh?" and come out thinking that was a waste...

but even if you don't like 'contemporary art' or 'modern art' you would definitely like the view from the top of tate modern (As the photo above) specially on a good day :)

some have said it's a good place to be (as they have a restaurant on top) when the city welcomes the coming of the night and lights starts to come on...

if you want to look at/read more about tate modern here's a link for you... tate modern on wikipedia

and after a very emotional day, i spent the night at a really nice london pub 'blackfriars' with adam and his workmates :)

*side note about the pub... from pubs.com

This narrow wedge-shaped pub is jammed against the railway line at Blackfriars. It was built in 1875 near the site of a thirteenth century Dominican Priory, which gives the area its name and was the inspiration for the pubs design. The exterior of the building has jutting wrought iron signs for each bar and the pub's name is proudly displayed in mosaic tiles.

[i promise to try to post more often :p i have so much backlog of posts/photos it's not funny hehe]

goodnight again!

2009-09-19T23:00:00.001+01:00

i haven't posted for quite awhile...been lazy :p i will try to post soon

for now i bid you all goodnight :)

*view from our window of kings cross/st. pancras :)

back to our regular program :)

2009-09-04T11:53:00.006+01:00

a few posts ago I mentioned something about buying skates, i was looking through my photos and i missed some pics of that day so I thought I'd post them here :)

when we were looking for skates (we started around lunch time) we eventually got hungry and thought to grab a lunch and have some chinese...where else but in London's very own chinatown! :)

it's not as big as Sydney's chinatown or even Manila's but it has all the signature of a 'chinatown' :D

after our yummy lunch of duck, dimsum, noodles and bbq pork we headed of to make our purchase (if you were paying attention before, we decided to get them from a store at picadilly. photo below)

for those of you who has watched bridget jones diary, picadilly was quickly shown there and of course London news (tv) and some other movies i have yet to discover :)

below adam got upset cause i slowed down (turned around) and took a photo of them, party poooper! hehe

but anyhoo because i've done a post about this before i though i'd include the more fun bit of this story....

us actually USING the skates for the first time hehe

that's amy, and below with adam doing their moves. they both were pretty good, got the hang of it after an hour or so

while i on the other hand was just stiff the whole time, didn't know how to stop so i had to try and catch a pole (more like run into a pole) to stop me from going all the way down the sloping road hehe

i think i'm more of a leisurely skater, it was really lovely that day. couples, kids, families out on the park with the warm sunshine :)

i had loads of fun just cruising around with my groovy skates and watching the sights go by :)

normally there's a road dedicated to skaters at hyde park but they closed it due to an event so we tried to share with the people who rides their bikes in the bike lane...after a few side shouts (this is a bike lane! watch it!) one of the guys on the bikes suggested we go to one of the other parks cause there's a bigger lane that we can skate on

we started walking towards kensington gardens we chanced upon this lovely cottage (can't remember the history of it now)

oh and of course here's us :)

more scenic areas trying to find the garden

at this point we all were starting to get REALLY tired, hauling skates on your back, after doing 2-3 hours of skating and LOADS of walking...doesn't really help with the everyone's mood

but somehow the beauty of the place helps lighten the load...here adam is trying to find the gardens with his new iphone :)

and finally we have reached kensington gardens...

this area is called the round pond which has been used since Victorian times to sail model boats and now a popular place to see water birds (taken from www.royalparks.org.uk). it was created 1726-1753.

perfect way to spend a lovely summer's day reading a book and enjoying the peace and quiet. *sigh

after a long (but fun) day of skating and walking we set off for home...kris & amy

adam & i :) see you on your next skating adventure! :D

Borough market

2009-08-29T21:44:00.004+01:00

some lovely, yummy food from borough market :)

we originally planned to go to the tower of london today, but with my great planning skills i didn't research how to get there :p so we decided to do it another time and just shop around at the borough market

It's been there since the 13th century, it didn't look like it is now but has grown over the years as a testament of British' love for food.

here you can choose from a wide range of food, drinks and other stuff...

plants & flowers...

chocolates, fish market, meat market...

good bread, olives, olive oil...

fresh fruits & vegetables, organic food...

and lovely, lovely cheese...

this is definitely one of the places and things I'm going to MISS when we leave *sigh

for now we enjoy the good food and bought ourselves some yummy cheese, sausage, good bread, olive oil & vinegrette and wine :)

i love london! :)

toys, toys, toys :D

2009-08-27T19:43:00.003+01:00

i've been dreaming of a polaroid sx-70, it's been so hard to get i've almost given up

and then i stumbled upon the polaroid back for a diana f+ so i thought i'll get that and the 35mm back of diana f+ as well...but because it's under the lomography umbrella they are way too commercialized and really expensive :p

lunch today i walked around spitalfields market (it's my fave. place now :D) thursday they sell antique stuff...and i found this stall that sells old/antique cameras

just my luck! :) it made my heart race and i couldn't believe how retro and old school they all are! unfortunately i forgot to take a camera that time, would've been so awesome to take some pictures! (such irony, sigh*)

why the fascination with old school cameras when all the brand new digital ones are out?...it's something new to me, everything now is instant, sharp, precise...i don't know, i just like the feel of old things, how the photos come out when you take them & the waiting for them to actually develop...we'll see how we go...

anyway, enough of that... here are my new toys :)

the first one is a polaroid land camera 1000

yes, yes...they have stopped making the film for polaroid cameras but at the end of the year with the 'impossible project' they're bringing back the polaroid films! :)

the second one is a pop-out camera...it looks really fun (and complicated) and i can't wait to play with this one!

a little trivia...these cameras were made in the 1936 to 1942 period by Balda-Werk of Dresden, Germany. The format of 3cm x 4cm provided a total of 16 exposures, but note that this format is different from the usual 4cm x 4cm superslide format.

and the grandfather of all lomos (so they say...)

Voigtländer is an optical company founded by Johann Christoph Voigtländer in Vienna in 1756 and thus the oldest name in cameras. It produced the Petzval photographic lens (fastest lens at that time: f/3.7) in 1840, and the world's first all-metaldaguerrotype camera (Ganzmetallkamera) in 1841, also bringing out plate cameras shortly afterwards. It set up a branch office in Braunschweig in 1849, moving its headquarters there later. The company issued stock in 1898, and a majority of the shares were acquired by Schering in 1925.

i can't wait to try them out!

and while i was taking photos of my toys, i thought i'd take one of the beautiful orchid that amy gave me for my birthday :)

i wish the blooms would last forever...

summer in london is really lovely i reckon :)