Day 11
'Twas on a Sunday morning, and we went to a service at Westminster Abbey. (So that's the most traditional service I have ever attended. It wasn't as boring as I feared it would be.)
Within the chapel, we saw the graves of Dickens and Kipling and Handel, but got chased out before I could spot any queens. Westminster is quite eerie. It is extremely cold for some reason - colder than outdoors. And I started to tear when I entered. Quite inexplicably. It really gives you the chills.
Then, for some absurd reason, we left and forgot to see Big Ben. Such a big London icon, really near Westminster Abbey, and we managed to forget.
Oh well. It gives me a reason to go back one day right?
Anyway, we then took a bus to St Paul's Cathedral. It was significantly warmer, brighter and altogether far more pleasant.
Charles and Diana got married at St Paul's. William & Kate married in Westminster but having seen both churches now, I definitely prefer St Paul's for a wedding. (Dear friends, should one of you ever marry Prince Harry, please hold your wedding in St Paul's. Haha!)
We then went back to Oxford Street for some last minute shopping and I finally got my M&S tin. It was this gorgeous tin with pictures of tea and biscuits and people having tea and altogether a lovely container I instantly knew I had to have once I set eyes on it. I first saw it on the day Mum & I had previously gone shopping, but we were carrying far too much to add a tin on to the load so I decided I would get it from another M&S. Except I visited 3 M&Ses in subsequent days and it was either sold out or not available at all. So I was so happy to finally get it in the end.
We ended the day with a wonderful turkey Christmas dinner with Aunty LK's family.
Day 12
Mum and Aunty LK decided to go for lunch on their own, so it was up to Rachel & I to decide what we wanted to do.
Rachel stayed home, but I didn't want to spend my last day in London staying inside. So I decided to go shopping. On my own pretending he's beside me. This marks the first time I was ever allowed to go off alone in a foreign country, and I must say it went really well. I'm hopeless at directions, but by God's grace, I didn't get lost at all. Miraculously, I seemed to know exactly where I was headed and I walked in all the right directions. (Ok I didn't actually know. I follow my gut and most of the time my gut is wrong but this time round God gave me some internal compass just for the day.) And I didn't get attacked or pickpocketed either. Thank God for keeping me safe:)
On our previous shopping day, Mum & I had barely finished Oxford, but Aunty LK suggested I also check out Bond Street. (Oxford, Bond and Regent Street are the streets with all the shopping).
Anyway, so I went to Bond Street and was greeted by the largest, most beautiful Victoria's Secret I'd ever seen in my life. (Haha actually I haven't seen that many VS stores. Just the small ones in SG that I never bother to enter.) Aunty LK said it was gorgeous and I had to check it out, so I entered. Let's just say I've never been excited about lingerie in my entire life, but this store thrilled me. I swear I've never seen so many beautiful bras before!
I'd really entered the store out of curiosity, not intending to buy anything. But then I saw this gorgeous bra and immediately felt like I had to have it. It was baby blue and silver lace and absolutely darling. I probably spent ages trying to look at other stuff and forget about it, but I still kept coming back to it. So finally, I gave in to temptation and got it.
Now that I think back upon it, I think it partly made me think of Elsa from Frozen because it was in that colour scheme. And I kept wondering whether or not to buy a particular turquoise something else because it was so much like Ariel's tail colour. I don't think I'll ever grow out of liking things because they remind me of something Disney.
(Wait... I just realised my favourite colours are turquoise and purple and Ariel's shell and tail combination is turquoise and purple omg Disney so subtlely influenced my favourite colour choices and I only JUST realised this???)
Anyway, I must have looked really young and inexperienced, because the cashier asked me if I'd had any help, and I said no, and he was like wow ok, and asked if it was my first time there.
Now that I think back upon it, I think it partly made me think of Elsa from Frozen because it was in that colour scheme. And I kept wondering whether or not to buy a particular turquoise something else because it was so much like Ariel's tail colour. I don't think I'll ever grow out of liking things because they remind me of something Disney.
(Wait... I just realised my favourite colours are turquoise and purple and Ariel's shell and tail combination is turquoise and purple omg Disney so subtlely influenced my favourite colour choices and I only JUST realised this???)
Anyway, I must have looked really young and inexperienced, because the cashier asked me if I'd had any help, and I said no, and he was like wow ok, and asked if it was my first time there.
I continued to walk around Bond Street but didn't see anything in particular that interested me.
One nice thing about these streets is that they're lined with random people who give you moisturizer samples that have gold or diamond dust in them or something. And in this sort of country, moisturizer is essential. I have to take it cos it's free right? Haha so Singaporean:)
Anyway, I headed back to Oxford Street and browsed the shops. Shopping alone in London is wonderful. There's no one holding you back in a store you're uninterested in or rushing you elsewhere, and everything's new (and thus exhilarating). I generally prefer shopping with people rather than alone cos I'm quite fickle and I like asking others for their opinions, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself here.
I ended up wandering back into Primark but the paying queue was far too long so I didn't get anything this time. As a matter of fact, I was so happily walking through all the stores that I forgot to note the time (Mum wanted me back by 3.30pm so we could do final packing and bathe before our flight) and by the time I remembered to check my watch, it was 3.10pm. Cutting it a bit close. I rushed to the tube and marvelled at how fast it was (4 stops in 6min) and ran back and stepped through the front door at 3.29pm. Not bad hahaha
And thus concluded our trip to London.
-
I'll be back. There's so many more shows to catch, and I'd like to finish the British Museum and Natural History Museum, check out places like Madame Tussaud's, the Sherlock Holmes museum, basically loads of the other museums, have a quaint little British pub and pie experience, remember to see the Big Ben. And do more shopping.
Till next time then!
No comments:
Post a Comment