Day 1-5 in very brief summary =)

There's a computer for general use in the little hotel we are staying in. Good, so I can blog!

It's really a very little hotel. Our room is so small that we have to manouvre to get to anywhere, amongst our bags, the hotel furniture, and the dustbin. Haha... I think it's like the same size as my bedroom at home, only my bedroom didn't have space for a toilet! =b

But it's very cosy and the service is great and it's really convenient to be just 5 minutes walk from Paddington station, which goes to basically anywhere else in London.

So... what have we been doing?

We arrived about 5plus am on Saturday morning at Heathrow Airport. The flight itself was a bit of a learning experience of accepting each others differences - when we got on board, i promptly swooped into dreamland (thanks to the very efficient air sick pill) while poor mel was left to amuse himself with the movies. but then when i woke up and was all ready to chat or sth, he was worn out and took his nap time. so... all a bit frustrating, but i was reminded that life won't always go the way you want it to huh.

so, arrived at heathrow, took the express train to paddington. even at only 6am, the sky was all bright and chirpy to welcome the day ahead!

we got a bit lost finding our way to the hotel, but overall not too bad.

so saturday. we spent the day explorin paddington. we walked all the way down to hyde park, walked through part of hyde park too, walked along edgeware road, which is a bit like their version of arab street. lots of lebanese and turkish eateries and all those people smoking the long pipes.

we saw Harry Potter in the window of many shops, but I'm so thankful we didn't buy straight away, cos towards the end of our day, we saw it going for 6.99GBP in woolsworth!! haha!! =D that's about $22 SGD btw. *smug grin*

so i got 2 copies - for my aunty and for dillon. if anyone else (of my friends) wants, leave me a comment to this post k.

we also enjoyed a late lunch in a quaint pub called The Bear and The Bishop, where I began reading the Potter book, and I finished it by dinner time! =D ha. no spoilers here, but it's really an awesome read. =D totally worth it.

Sunday we took a one-day coach tour out to bath, stonehenge and salisbury. I think for me, the best part of the day was by far the cathedral at salisbury. Our guide was really good, giving us so much historical nuggets all along the way. I really wish I could have written in all down, cos it was so so interesting!! But from what I can remember, Salisbury Cathedral was Roman Catholic until King Henry the 8th came along. He was Catholic, but he wanted a divorce from his wife, and the Pope wouldn't let him, so he was really furious and decided to get out of the Catholic faith and set up his own 'church' - the Church of England. So Salisbury was one of the many catherdrals that made the switch along with him.

The inside of th church was so beautiful, and the architecture so so intricate to look at! And we went into the Chapter House too, and saw the Magna Carter - one of only 3 remaining original copies in the world! It was in latin =b but there was a translated one around. Basically it's a document that spells out the rights that led to freedom of the slaves in the past.

Bath and Stonehenge were beautiful too. I shall wait till our pictures are developed and create a beautiful honeymoon scrapbook and show everyone who wants to see =) heh. The most beautiful thing about Bath were the golden stones from which most of the buildings are made. Not the same slate grey type you'd see in the rest of London - it's really a pretty warm gold, and under the afternoon sun, it was gorgeous!

Monday we took the Big Bus Tour - a 24 hour hop-on-hop-off ticket to go round the whole of London. We got off at stops where we wanted to walk around, such as Chinatown (a very short street only though), Trafalgar Square, London Bridge and London Tower, Big Ben and St Paul's. We had lunch in the Crypt of St Paul's Cathedral and bought the ticket to go in. It was so beautiful - in fact, I'd say it was just as beautiful as Salisbury, but in a different way. Salisbury was beautiful cos of the history and the ancient architecture. St Paul's is beautiful in a more modern sort of way.

We climbed about 300 steps up a very narrow one-way flight of stairs to reach first the Whispering Gallery, and then the Stone Gallery. There was a last and highest gallery called the Golden Gallery, but I was too much out of breath to make it =b Haha... but it was really good exercise, and the view from the Stone Gallery was already really good - a panaromic view of the whole of London!

Yesterday was designated SHOPPING DAY 1. Hee hee... we managed to walk the whole stretch of Oxford. Right from Marble Arch to the Picadilly line. Heh. Took us about 8 hours or so, with lots of stops in between! Haha. I feel so proud of myself cos I sticked to my budget and still got lots of cool stuff and presents too. And mel got lots of nice stuff for himself too, so it wasn't a one-sided trip k =)

My favourite buy would have to be... an empire waisted beige top with an emerald green and purply blue design on it. From Dorothy Perkins Sale at only 5GBP!!! That's about $15 SGD.

Total clothes count is: that top + green dress + white shorts + blue top + blue espadrilles with red flowers. =D

After all that shopping, we lugged all our loot to watch a musical - Mamma Mia - at Prince of Wales theatre. It was so funny and sweet and the singing was great and the dancing was great and I told Mel the 41GBP per person fee was all worth it! (When you consider that the average meal for 2 there would be 15 GBP) I'm so glad we went for it.

today is another free day. We had originally planned to go strawberry picking on the outskirts of London, but found out it's too much hassle without a car. So we are leaving our hotel soon to take a picnic to Kensington Park and spend the morning there reading books. Later on we might do a bit more shopping or just walk another side of London we haven't been to yet. =) I must say, we're doing quite a lot of walking to compensate for the yummy krispy kremes and ice creams... hee!

Yup. So that's my trip so far. I'm really enjoying myself, and Mel is too, and it just feels a bit sad that it's already almost halfway through.