Monday, August 29, 2011

[L.E.P.A.K: London] Chapter 10: Off to Meet the Queen


After filling our much neglected stomachs with thick, yummy pies, we're off to meet the Queen! But first to get there... Baker's Street! Home of the famous Sherlock Holmes.


So it's no surprise that the entire tube station was filled with silhouettes of Holmes.
From rows of individual tiles in all colours...



... to well-arranged tiles that form a much larger Holmes.

Which reminds me, this is a shout-out to dearest Cubbie, an avid Holmes fan to the max! If we ever come here together in the future, we'll put this tube station as one of our destination in our itinerary and allocate a time slot for you to take pictures from every possible angle ya? =P In return, we have to put in some time for me to get to Abbey Road, too. Deal? ;-)


Oh and right outside of the tube station is of course Mr Holmes himself, standing tall and ummm... dark. My only regret? I should have stand next to him instead of being the one behind the camera but we had our destination in mind and the walking crowd was zooming by continuously. So... yeah.


That's our destination right ahead.
Only about 5 minutes walk from Baker's Street Station.

We handed over our pre-booked and printed tickets and asked about the closing time. The friendly attendant assured us that there was enough time to enjoy the entire place and then proceeded to usher us into the lift. Immediately as the lift doors opened, we were 'attacked' by flashes of light, making us feeling all celebrity-ish. Hahaha. It certainly was a nice time to visit Madame Tussauds as there was almost no crowd in the place. So we took our time with the celebrities.



First up, my friend Johnny said "Aye!".


Cik Anai got in between Justin and Mr Perry. :P

We took lots more photos with everyone but I'll save you some jealously from all our Hollywood sting and proceed right along to other more humble figures.


Like Shrek and tiny ginger bread man down there!
Didn't know Cik Anai were such buddies with them.


I met the other 'Sherlock' here as well and
I helped him figure out some cases.


Picked up my golden man while I was there and
thanked every possible Tom, Dick and Harry in my speech. *grins*


Little did I know, while I was busy receiving my award, Cik Anai was being naughty
peeking under Ms Monroe's famous blown dress.


We then reached the hall of fame and met Michael there.

There was a camera set up right in front of him with an assistant ready to take your photo and probably charge you a fee for it. However, instead of forcing us to pay to take a photo, he kindly offered to help us take a photo together with our own camera. What's more, he even offered us some props! Hahaha. So nice, right? It was the same when we 'met' the Queen. The best thing was, these people knows how to take a good photo. So you don't have to worry about out-of-focus shots. Nice right?



And then there were the Beatles.
So young and joyial but I kind wished there weren't so many things going on at the back there. Hate the backdrop. :(


Fancy meeting Mr Obama in London,
attending to a busy me nonetheless. Hehe.


Cik Anai on the other hand, went over to Downing Street
to pay the Prime Minister a visit.

Lots of things happened after that.


Threw some punches with Muhammad Ali.


Met up with genius Einstein who kept on insisting that E = mc2.


Sang some tunes with Pavarotti.


Got kidnapped by the Hulk.


Shared a picture perfect moment with Spidey himself.


And even showed my claws that rival that of Wolverine.

After that, we stepped into the scary part of Madame Tussauds where a seriously haunting Scream Room awaited us. There were literally screams coming out from that room and it didn't help that two equally spooky guards were standing in front of the door asking us whether we wanted to enter. There were no clues at all what awaited us behind the closed door. Sooooo scary wei! We chickened out in the end and took the less scary route out of the place. *relief sigh* Maybe if there were more of us, instead of two gals stepping into unknown, we might have taken the plunge. Hahaha.

Instead, we took the happy and joyful cable ride through the history of London. Sorry no pictures here as we were too preoccupied with the ride. But seriously, who would have thought there was even such a thing going on inside this little dome building? It's amazing so much is fitted into one venue!

Aside from that, there was even an auditorium inside where we sat and enjoyed a 4D Marvel Experience where superheroes were rescuing London from outside threats. The best part of this 4D experience that I have yet to experience anywhere else is the surprising stab from the backrest whenever Wolverine stabbed and slashed someone on screen. Ouch!! Did I just spoil your fun with that spoiler? *grins*

A short look-see stroll in the souvenir shop later and we were finally on our way back to our hotel to call it a night.

Our dinner?

.

.

.

Yummy Shepherd's Pie from Harrods!

Next Up? Pa-Pa-Paris!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

I Got it from My Mama

I've always thought I got my little 'loose-screw-in-the-brain' syndrome from my dad.
The quirky, funny, creative side of me definitely came from the man who plays waiter and surprises me with silly riddles. Because let's face it, mom is way too serious and...
*forgive me* but possibly slightly slow. :P

"But I still love you much much, mom!"
*over compensating*
Hahaha...

Anyway,

BOY WAS I WRONG!

Tonight I came home to a bowl of fresh vegetables with Yakult as salad dressing!

I repeat "Yakult"!

And it was yum-meeee!

Who would have thought?

Hmmm.... so was it mom after all?


Tuesday, August 16, 2011

That's What I Call 'Dedication'

Was tempted to post this up for the past few days
but was waiting for the right moment. *snickers*

And the day has finally arrived!

Tinki finally posted her entry on her fast-growing-hair... or so she say. :P
And her many close-up shots that you see to prove her point...
well it took some serious effort to take those shots.


See! Even an Art Director got involved.

The things a blogger is willing to do for her readers!
Such dedication. Tsk tsk tsk.


Saturday, August 13, 2011

[L.E.P.A.K series: London] Chapter 9: Yummy...


Wondering what Mr Man is looking at?

Well, hopefully he's not reading this blog but in all possibility that he is, then
"Hi there, Mr Man! Please don't be offended by what I'm going to say because I don't mean it to be an insult. Just a light-hearted humour." Here goes...

Monkey See, Monkey Do.

*grins*

You see. We were busy taking pictures of our umm.. 'destination' because hello, tourists here! *points to self* In come along Mr Man in his smart suit, stopped, looked and decided to join in the fun and took some photos using his phone as well. Hahaha.

Always glad to inspire others.

*smiles*

So where is this 'destination' we're talking about anyway? If you've followed my previous posts, you'll know the answer is....


Harrods!
We were pretty bummed that Harrods was undergoing some construction work while we were there. Kinda ruined the pictures. :(


But that didn't stop us from taking more photos! :P


We actually didn't quite make it here after spending too much time at Tower of London but we have a few short hours to spare before our pre-booked time slot for Madame Tussauds, so we decided to give it a go. Oh and here comes some travel advice! ;)

Hiyashibeeps' L.E.P.A.K Travel Tips No.8:
If your schedule is tight or you simply want to utilise your time to its fullest, take note of the opening times of each attraction you're planning to visit. Schedule those with later closing times last in your itinerary. For instance, Madame Tussauds' last admission time is from 5.00pm to 5.30pm and you can stay in there till 7.00pm. So why head there during the afternoon when you can go somewhere else that closes at 4.30pm. Right? *winks*

Oh right. So back to Harrods shall we?

With only that precious hour to spare, we head to the one section
NO ONE SHOULD EVER MISS in Harrods.


The Food Hall!


I was looking at all that food and salivating. It didn't helped that we had nothing since a survival breakfast that morning. Shocking right? I did not feel hungry till I saw all that food in front of me.


PIES!

Surprisingly the food was not ridiculously expensive. Quite affordable in fact. I felt like buying every flavour and try a little bit of everything. If only I live there, I'll probably drop by after work and buy myself a different choice of food every day. Even so, I bet I can go on an entire month without any repeats! Yum.

To further proof my point.


Foood...


and more fooood!


Even the lady behind the counter is just as charming
with her matching top hat and apron.


I somehow managed to do some 'grocery shopping' here. Bought myself some cute little bottles of jam with equally cute illustrations of London's various attractions, some Thyme biscuits and a bottle of apple chutney claimed to go superbly well with roast pork. Even though my family rarely eat roast pork these days, we still have our ways of enjoying the chutney. Yum.

The only boo point of the food hall is that we couldn't find anywhere to actually sit and eat our food. Which was good. Hahaha. Because there and then, we decided to head over to Hyde Park which was only about 5 minutes from Harrods to enjoy our lunch-tea-dinner meal of the day.


*sigh*



The view that greeted us as we stepped into Hyde Park.

Never have I seen bare and botak trees to be that pretty. Hahaha. Remember I mentioned about how I will come by every day to buy myself a meal from Harrods? Well if that happens, you'll see me sitting here every day to enjoy it as well. Lovely lovely isn't it?


As we unpacked our food, furry horses passed by.


Sooo furrrry.


As for the food?
Look at how crazily packed my salmon pie was! It's crazy loaded with chunks of salmon.
YUM for the third time in this post.


And that's it. We're off to see giant figurines next. :P


Monday, August 08, 2011

Dory Couldn't Have Said It Better

Swim
Songwriters: Mcmahon, Andrew Ross

You've gotta swim, swim for your life
Swim for the music that saves you
When you're not so sure you'll survive

You gotta swim and swim when it hurts
The whole world is watching
You haven't come this far to fall off the earth
The currents will pull you away from your love
Just keep your head above

I found a tidal wave begging to tear down the dawn
Memories like bullets, they fired at me from a gun
Crack in the armor, yeah

I swim for brighter days despite the absence of sun
Choking on salt water
I'm not giving in, I swim

You gotta swim through nights that won't end
Swim for your family, your lovers, your sisters
And brothers, and friends

Yeah, you gotta swim through wars without cause
Swim for the lost politicians
Who don't see their greed as a flaw

The currents will pull us away from our love
Just keep your head above

I found a tidal wave begging to tear down the dawn
Memories like bullets, they fired at me from a gun
A crack in the armor, yeah

I swim for brighter days despite of the absence of sun
Choking on salt water
I'm not giving in, well, I'm not giving in, I swim

You gotta swim, swim in the dark
There's no shame in drifting
Feel the tide shifting and wait for the spark

Yeah, you gotta swim, don't let yourself sink
Just find the horizon
I promise you, it's not as far as you think

The currents will drag us away from our love
Just keep your head above
Just keep your head above, swim
Just keep your head above, swim, swim
Just keep your head above, swim



I know it's not a new song but I just discovered it recently and I've been having it on repeat since. Then I youtube it for the video and love it even more. I guess I just found another pick-me-up, be strong and fight when the world gets you down song.

Yosh! Fighto!

Or like how Dory from Finding Nemo would say it,
“JUST KEEP SWIMMING!"


Sunday, August 07, 2011

Boy Meets Girl (Penang Version) Part III


So as we all know, Ah Girl likes Ah Boy. *nods*
Ah Boy however, likes pork dumplings. *shrugs*
Ah Girl tried her best to woo Ah Boy. Haha. Imagine that.
So so... did Ah Girl finally get her boy in the end?


Well... WONDER NO MORE.

Click to enlarge!



I know I said boy-chase-girl storyline is pretty predictable and boring
but hey! happy endings are always a must. Right? *grins*


Anyway, now that this is done. I guess it's time for me to get back to my L.E.P.A.K post once again. See, the thing is I've been editing photos more than I'm writing these days. Gotta arranged them nicely to be developed into tangible photos. Ya ya, I'm old fashion that way. As much as I live and breathe my dear computer and the internet, I still like my books paperback, my CDs in casing and my photos in real photo albums. So yeah. Not quite open to change, am I? LOL. Anyhow, patient is virtue. I'll get back to writing real soon.


Till then! :)


Monday, August 01, 2011

Boy Meets Girl (Penang Version) Part II


Who would have thought a silly sketch can turned into a 3-part comic?

Yup, there's even a part III to this.

*grins*



Who says the girl is always the damsel in distress?
Or that the guy is always the one doing the courting?

Oh no no no!
That is just too predictable and b-o-r-i-n-g.

So will Ah Girl get her guy in the end?
I guess you'll just have to wait and see!