Sam — Now Brought to You By UK CCTV

WHAT — First time in London

Sat — Arrive, Operation Pig Out begins with Lea constantly feeding me!

Sun — Operation Pig Out continues (combined with much wandering)!

• Yum char with almost all of Team Welly at Joy King Lau.
• Flower markets
• Spitalfield Markets
• Brick Lane
• Kat & Deb's for delicious home gourmet fancy cooking (complete with ONION DIP a la Nestle & Maggi)!

Mon

• Eggs Benny at Canteen
• Psycho Buildings exhibition (complete with rowing on the roof)
• Street art hunt!
• Fancy, grown-ups dinner at The Clerkenwell

Tue — Monchichi and Sam reunited!

• Squirrel in Green Park? Spotted!
• Gates of Buckingham Palace? Touched!
• Leake St. tunnel of glorious street art? Photographed!
• Pint shared in freezing winds? Check!
• Brick Lane curry? Yes!

Wed

• Ben's Cookies
• Seven Dials shopping
• Lamb & mint cornish pasty
• Two of my many favourite Chinese dishes
• Maison Bertaux 100+ year old French cake shop

Thu

• British Museum
• Burrough Markets
• Umm, WEST SIDE STORY!!
• Viktor & Rolf exhibition
• Vietnamese yum yums!

Fri

• Final mocha and blueberry muffin
• Back to Toks

The BAD

• Very cold, occasionally rainy weather
• Stuffy, hot Tube trains
• Delicious, fatty food available at the drop of a hat

The GOOD

• Cold meant the hairs on my knuckles stopped growing
• Everything else

Overall experience? AWWWWWESUUUUM. I wish I was there longer. So many more people to see, things to do, pies to stuff into my mouth... *sigh*

I also realise how much I miss banter. Banter as in: the flight attendant casually saying to you as she's trying to pull out your TV screen, "Oh no, now you can see the hole in my stocking. I've been trying to hide it all day!" Banter as in shop keepers, cafe workers, asking you what you've been up to, how you found your food, offering suggestions for anything.. Banter is pretty difficult to find in these here parts, although it's nice when you do find it.

Guess it's a cultural thing.

West Side Story was amazing of course. Amazing dancing, singing.. the works. I forgot about the end shooting scene and jumped in my seat. Whoops.

The Viktor & Rolf exhibition was also eye-opening. Usually at these haute couture fashion things, I find myself thinking how strange everything is, and how it's obviously meant only for display, because no one would ever be able to actually wear it off the catwalk.

But V&R's stuff was really interesting. Clever and innovative designs, making political and social statements. And some of the stuff was actually wearable.

Street art photos are here: Street Art photos link

All other photos are here: London 2008

As always, if you're not on my Flickr contact list, you won't be able to see the people photos, m'fraid.

Missing photos (that I can remember) that unfortunately *cries* got cut thanks to my ailing camera (the digital just died the other day as well *bawls*):

• St. Paul's cathedral
• Millennium Bridge
• Outside the Tate Modern
• Giant grassy couches