The United Kingdom part 3 | V&A and High Street Kensington

Am writing this while waiting for Photoshop to do it's Free Transform. Yes, it is taking that long.

And there's a lot of gas in my tummy now. I miss kerokan!! And for all of you who don't know what kerokan is, it is an Indonesian way of making gas escape your body where they use a coin, or anything metal and rounded (like a spoon), and scratch your back using it. It creates red marks on your back, and the more gas you have, the redder it gets. If done well, will result in something like this.

And if not done too well will look something more like this.

Which is what my back usually looks like when my mom 'kerok's me.

I just (literally, a few seconds ago) found out that there is actually an english term for it! It is called coining. So there you go.

Anyway. I shall continue my post about the UK!

Since the last post, we kept walking down the paved road, and it brings us to the legendary V&A museum! (I don't know if it's really legendary. It's just supposed to be super famous among designers?)

V&A! This is their college. Royal College of the Arts, if I'm not mistaken.

Look at the details!!! Beautiful!

And finally we saw an idle red iconic phonebooth! Us ladies had to have our own photoshoot session.

Ms. Chia, the 'funny phone booth'.

Ms. Hau En, the 'stuck in the phone booth'. And a random man on the side.

I'm free and fabulous like that.

Ms. Huyen, the 'stop halfway while opening the phonebooth door'.

Ms Ong. The 'awkward meeting with the phone booth'.

Ms. Jenal, the 'hide and seek'.

Ms. See, the pout.

So we continued into V&A.

The entrance.

London is having their Design Festival period!

Their interior is very luxurious. They have the old expensive building vibe. It is a huge space where they have lots of different exhibitions happening in different spaces.

They have this space in the middle. So the building placement makes a square shape.

Their eating space.

Their tray. So pretty!!! And they have other tray designs as well.

Their staircase. Look at the details!

And the ceiling! Breathtaking.

Oh hello there.

One section of their exhibition.

Such a pretty tableee!!!!

Another section which is more modern. These are students works.

The ceiling.

Another student's work.

Book cover illustration winner.

I loved this one. It's so nice!!

So nice it deserves two shots.

Another exhibition.

Pretty chairs

This kind of thing I don't understand. Too artsy already.
I'm sure it has some deep chim concept, but we were in a hurry I didn't read it.

A bookshelf!! Reminds me of the letter "a".

Another pretty ceiling

And they had a series of exhibition of our Jesus! A hall of stained glass depicting the journey of our Lord.

Starting with a cross.

Rest~

I find this so pretty! Look at her face!

So that was V&A. It was very pretty, but I wouldn't say I had the time of my life. I'm not an exhibition person to begin with after all. We went there just because it was in our itinerary. But it really was beautiful. We don't have that kind of space in Singapore yet. Oh maybe Gillman Barracks? It just opened, I havent visited it yet. It's supposed to be a complex of galleries.

Finally went out. Note the traffic light, it says "wait". So polite.

Another exhibition.

And they held it at the most random places. Amazing.

This is another example of art that I don't understand.

This still makes more sense.

Now this I like. Can I do something like this for Context 2?

This is also nice.

Typo.

So, that was the last exhibition for the day. It's amazing how they hold exhibitions at such unexpected places. It's like walking in a HDB area and suddenly finding some random exhibition on the first floor.
We continued exploring our first day. I remembered my BB battery was low that day. And having problems with the SIM card. I didn't know which to choose, and went with what the store owner suggested, which was a brand called "Orange". And I'm very happy with it. Cheap and easy!

Their tube tunnel. So nice and exploding with their culture.
Unlike Singapore. Modern and cold and rigid.

Random store in the tunnel. With a newspaper rack and newspapers all over the place. And a road cone.

This is High Street Kensington. I wouldn't say this is their Orchard Road,
but there were major brand stores over there. 

You can see the tube station on the left.

H&M. They were having a sale, but I didn't buy much. Save money, we just reached.

And suddenly there's a church.

Some monument and school kids.

Uniqlo!

Still fascinated by the red bus.

Inside Topshop. Their products are cheaper than Singapore's, but still expensive.

American Apparel!!! I've only heard of this brand from youtube, and now I get to really see it!
They sell a lot of basics. And they are quite pricey. They are a nicer version of Giordano IMO.

URBAN OUTFITTERS!!! 

They are really worth their hype. Shopping there is an experience on it's own. Look at the interior!

So I didn't shop, but Urban Outfitters was definitely a highlight. I love the kind of stuff they sell. And not only clothes, they sell all sorts of other stuff. Maps, mugs, books, and useless silly stuff.. So nice!

So we head back to our hostel's tube station which was Bayswater. (Later on we found out that Queensway was actually nearer). We wanted to try their fish and chips, so we went into this restaurant that sells it.

Interior.

Resting out butts after a long walk.

Woohoo! Authentic British Fish n Chips! But really, the taste was the same.

So that ends our first day in London! We headed back to our hostel, and had a good night sleep.

I actually enjoyed the bunk bed experience. It's nice having a space limited just for yourself. I had my bag near where my feet was, my bible with my mini Daiso reading lamp next to me. Having my bible so near in somewhere so foreign gives me a sense of peace and an 'at home' feeling. My BB and water is near as well. I feel that I have all I need in life around me.

And I took the blanket from my Fin Air flight with me. Since the blanket was wrapped in plastic when we first got it, it gives the sense that it was new and clean. And I get easily disgusted with everything, so having a new emergency blanket was nice. True enough, I can't kick off the disgusted feel of the blanket I was using in the hostel. That was when my Fin Air blanket comes in handy. So I covered myself with the Fin Air blanket, and then with the hostel blanket. Now I'm protected from whatever germs and bacterias and whatever was on their hostel blanket. Hmph! But after a few days I came to terms with the hostel blanket and we became close friends. But I still used my Fin Air blanket until now :D

K ttyl!! I'm doing my homework and my eyes is in pain now due to looking at the screen for too long. Bye!