travelling OUT of London

Yesterday we had planned to go strawberry picking, but what with the somewhat dismal weather and the hassle of finding the relevant farms without a car, we decided to forego that.

had a lovely picnic brunch in Kensington Park, near the Diana Memorial playground. lots of kiddies running around, and the sun came out every few minutes to warm our cold hands. our FEAST included ploughman sandwiches (mature cheddar, reduced fat, rye bread), original glazed krispy kremes doughnuts, a bunch of white seedless grapes, hot chocolate (me) and cappucino (mel), a bowl of prawn-mango-mixed-rice salad, and strawberry trifle pudding! =D

Haha... as expected, we couldn't finish, and the trifle is still untouched and sitting in our room by the window (natural fridge).

We lay on the grass and read our books that we got from the thrift book shop. I am so happy at the 5 books i found, all ranging between 1.3-1.7GBP each (4-6 SGD). Titles that I gave away when I hit my teens, along with my Enid Blyton collection. I got 'What Katy Did', 'What Katy did at school', 'What Katy did next', 'Heidi', and 'Pollyana'.

In the early afternoon, the sun was more or less gone forever, and it was just overcast and brrrrrr.... windy, so we let the park and went to walk the length of Tottenham Court Road and Charing Cross, popped into a few bookshops, but everything was pretty expensive and not like the little shop I had got those books from. Finally ended off at Paperchase - a THREE storey one! Woo hoO!!! We must have spent an hour in there, ooh-ing and aah-ing at all the pretty things. =)

Later on in the afternoon, we took the tube out of London to Hilingdon. I met this guy in Malaysia at a conference last year, called Jason. Yesterday morning I called him to say hi, and he invited us over to his area to spend the evening there.

The journey was loooonnggg... about 1.5 hour in total on the train. He picked us from Hillingdon, and it was so different from central london. It's called the 'Green belt', and the government is very strict about building any property there, cos they want to conserve the environment there.

A 15 min drive through winding tree-lined avenues and quaint little towns brought us to his home/office. It was like a fairy tale picture! and his 'house' is really sort of like a mansion, with turrets and a huge huge beautiful garden and a pond, and rabbits and foxes (which we didn't get to see). The building houses their chapel, their offices and function rooms, and individual pads for those staying there. Altogether cosy and 'english', and we were treated to a tour of the whole place! =)

After that he drove us out somemore to a really cool pub called The Royal Standard of England. Apparently, it's the oldest freehouse pub left in England!! =D How awesome that we got to go! =)

Had my first fish and chips of the trip. it was HUMUNGOUS. So a good thing mel and I shared. We had sticky toffee pudding and home-made vanilla and ameretto ice cream for dessert too. =D yumm. I was so full and satisfied I could roll home.

And I tried a very yummy beer called Strawberry Fruli from Switzeland. SOOO yummy and it was PINK! But the alcohol content must have been qutie high, cos I got very red after finishing it =b

After dinner, it was a long ride home and we were so tired that all we could do was collapse and sleep. But still, it was a miracle of a day, considering it had started off on a blank slate!