8 Jun 2015

Borough/Lend



The best way to start your mornings in London if you're on the South of Thames is to head to Borough Market! When I visited the UK, I realized that weekends are largely market/picnic days for the Brits, and man do they love their markets as much as I enjoy them too! Please do note that Borough Market is closed on Sundays, so if you arranged to visit Borough on a Sunday, sucks to be you! :P 

Though the market is open every Monday to Saturday, Saturday is the peak day where all the stores will open for business. There are also live cooking demonstrations on Thursday, so if you wanna see some Jamie Oliver/Gordon Ramsey prodige chopping up lobsters with much swag, do come down on that day.


My favourite stall from the market would be Kappacasein - a stall cooking up some cheesy goodness at a corner of the food stall area at Borough Market. There are two types of food they sell: Potatoes with Raclette and Cheese Sandwich with a sprinkle of spring onions.


look. just look. BUBBLING CHEEEESE


they tilted the raclette down and used a butter knife to scrape a layer of cheese onto the potatoes


omg (thanks mao for being a hand model)

Both the potatoes and the sandwiches are £6 each (SGD12). Sounds really costly, but let me tell you, it is worth your EVERY. CENT. and every single space in your tummy. My advice would be to share it with a friend (not friends) as that's two sandwiches in 1 portion. My personal favourite would be the Cheese Sandwiches as I'm a huge fan of anything with onions and garlic (super unladylike but who cares) but please also do give the potatoes a try! I personally went back on another day just to have the cheese sandwiches for breakfast, but having two cheese sandwiches all to myself was a bit too much for me to handle. 

And by the way, do watch out for the dripping oil from the sandwiches. Not sure why there's oil but.. just watch out.


Next stall that was recommended to me is: Bread Ahead! They are famous for their vanilla custard buns! But do try the other flavours too as I'm pretty sure they'll be as good. It is around £2 for each, depending on the flavour you get! The vanilla custard buns are around palm-sized, and the vanilla custard filling not only fills the bun up but also fills you up, and make you feel all happy and sweet inside. :3


T'was the season for cherries and strawberries when I went! £2 for a 15x10x10 box of strawberries! Super worth it!


Never forget to end your trip to Borough Market by visiting Monmouth Coffee Company! (it is pronounced as mon.merth, not mon.mouth) Coffee in the UK is really affordable, ranging from around £2 to around £3-ish. I had to queue for my coffee at Monmouth, but surprisingly there were still seats! The cafe is famous for its Flat White, but too bad I didnt know how to appreciate it... should've ordered a mocha instead. What caught my attention was the array of jams and butter on the table in front of me while I sketched the afternoon away in the cafe. Apparently, if you pay a small sum of money, you can help yourself to those bread loaves on the table and sample the various jams they have! 

Borough Market is located right at the exit of London Bridge Station on the Northern Line (black line), NOT AT Borough Station. It is really convenient to access, and it is just a stone's throw away from London Bridge and the Southwark Cathedral (right next to it actually).

Alright, that's all I have for now about London. Sitting in the airport lounge now, jewing the free wifi and waiting for the gate to open. See you all in Copenhagen!

xx,
Ming.

7 Jun 2015

The London Travel Photojournal


everyday is a day of dérive

This is prolly the trip of a lifetime, up to this point in my (close-to) 21 years of existence on this Earth. I can't count how many blessings I've received on this trip but I shall share them in the form of photos with you guys! :)

Nobody actually knows how much I love London ever since I set foot on this amazing land in December 2012, as part of a 15/16D package tour to Central Europe after my A Levels. I really enjoyed the company I had on that trip but I did not get to enjoy London at all. I told myself, "One day, just one day, I'll travel to this faraway land all by myself and experience life there."

And bam! This trip happened. I wasn't even sure that it is even going to be confirmed up till the moment I booked my flight tickets to London (the whole airtickets/fly by SQ thing is another story on its own all thanks to my very amusing mum) Up till the moment I landed in Singapore, I still felt a strong sense of uncertainty whether my trip would work out well... and damn it did... well sort of. At least I didn't get pickpocketed (well almost)/raped/mugged/attacked by balaclava men (hehe inside joke).

I really want to thank all my friends that I met up with in the UK for the good fellowship and conversations we had over afternoon tea/pizza/corona/snakebites/beer/wine/weird food from the supermarket. It was extremely nice to catch up with you guys after such a long time (well except for Yan Han and Hazel, it hasn't been very long but hope you all are enjoying yourself in Iceland with all the funny funny names of places I can't pronounce :P)

Special special thanks to Jackie and Mao. Thank you, thank you, and thank you for letting me hobo at your place(s) and cooking so much good food while I'm here. Esp esp esp esp esp Mao, thanks for taking me to so many places and your favourite haunts in London, and sorry I made you suffer for a week (fyi, apparently I laugh in my sleep) D:

Thank you Valerieeeeeee for coming with me up North, with misadventures happening Every. Single. Day. on the rail trip. It was great catching up with you after so long... like 2010??? Thanks for going through all the shit with me (L I T E R A L L Y) and introducing me to my new secret hideout in London the next time I return and the goodness of Paperchase (!!!!!!!!!!! PLS DON'T ENTER THIS PLACE IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS RESTRAINING SPENDING!!!!!!!!!!!!)

There's something about solo trips that makes it so therapeutic, as you're hanging out with yourself most of the time and you can get to have uninterrupted thought chains and unlimited me-time. There's also something about Londoners that really make my day, as it is totally normal to say hi and smile at random strangers you meet. The men there are so gentlemanly, I never expected anyone to help me with my luggage at the tube stations but there were people who actually did.

I'll live to tell the tales that happened during this trip to all the people I meet in the future (eg husband and kids) and I dare say that this is the most legitimate holiday I've ever taken in my entire life. I literally woke up anytime I wanted on most days, ate good food, indulged myself in good art at the museums and gorgeous sights by the Thames, fell asleep on grass patches (and DID NOT GET PICKPOCKETED), had the most meaningful conversations with my best friend I haven't seen in a year and most importantly, living the life of a Londoner.

In the upcoming posts, I'll be introducing some various things you can do in London and some of my favourite places I discovered on this trip in the UK! BUT MEANWHILE I'm happy to announce that....

I'm flying off again tomorrow to another country HAHAHA(been seriously under the weather these days) so I'll be blogging simultaneously along with that! Hehe see you guys soon~

xx,
Ming.