london, oh london

caught in the midst of anti-war protests, tube accidents on the central line causing train delays and closed stations, glum faces clad in thick coats of beige, black and navy blues, and blustery single digit temperatures - this was london as i got off my tube journey from Heathrow Airport to Tottenham Court Rd yesterday - misty, foggy and very, very cold... the way i always remember London and the way it always will be... 5 degrees? brrr... it feels more like sub-zero...

my rucksack was weighing a ton as i trudged through Oxford St .. they had closed the usually busy street as an estimated 1 million Londoners took to the streets, in an almost festive mood, with placards, banners and Bush-Blair masks to protest Blair's support of the war in Iraq .. we definitely don't see anything quite like this in Singapore.. talk about being on a little island of our own.. umm... London always gives you the feeling of being in the centre of things..

still i got to eat at my favourite Young Cheng restaurant in Chinatown for dinner before coming back to watch the news of the protests on tv (with Blair declaring the war as "an act of humanity".. oh oh.. sounds like a boo-boo here.. channel4 was quick to respond today, in the usual dry Brit manner of humour, with a fake "newscaster" reporting on interviews with Iraqi children on the streets thanking Blair for letting them die more quickly and hence more "humanely" with bombs rather than slowly dying on the streets of hunger due to UN sanctions.. hahaha.. )

today, i attended church service at this sw london vineyard place in Zone 2 and they served donuts in the middle of service and coffee and fruit at the start and end.... pretty weird but definitely keeps you awake.. heard they started that in canada and then copied it here... nice worship songs too and the pastor was funny.. that was followed by lunch at chinatown (again) before we headed off to the Science Museum to see this James Bond exhibition (which we didn't see in the end 'cos it would cause 8 pounds 95 and they were really crowded) and to see this Open Air "Earth From The Air" Photo Exhibition by Yann Arthus-Betrand (really amazing except that it was too cold)...

London is always so much fun... :)

i'm headed off to Brazil tomorrow. may not be able to update much after this.. may update if i can find at least 14.4kbps Internet access along the way?? :p