Random! >D Malaysian-styled!
As title says - coz in the span of 2 days, I'd stumbled upon things that reminded me of home.
1. Malaysian meal at Leicester Square
On Sunday, after disassembling the exhibition (mega post+upload on that coming soon!), I hopped over to Leicester Square - since it's been WEEKS since I last walked around Chinatown - and I actually wanted to eat Malaysian that day.
Aaaaand I had a great dinner :D Seafood hor fun - though missing lots of the usual seafood that back home woulda cook, but hey, nowhere else in the entire London (so far) can cook something like it :D
And for dessert, I had:
YEEEEEEAAP At the height of great summer (whose hot weather can rival that of Bangkok! I'm SERIOUS!!!), it's cooling to eat ice cendol - regardless of what the old man and Mom woulda say/done - before I can even order one back home, they woulda stop me for fear it'll upset my temperamental gut - but heeeey, in the UK, the ice cendol didn't gimme anything else other than a very satisfying dessert, so YEAAAAAAAA XD
Only thing, because they lacked the actual ais kacang machine to grind the ice into those flakes they'd used for cendol, the sods here did it the manual way...by breaking the ice with a handy ice-pick/ice-breaker.
Which explains why I'd spent at least 10 minutes crunching kinda-slightly-huge chunks of ice buried beneath ma cendol ^-^;;;
But it was still nice. Cendol not that sweet, but the lil' red beans made up for it.
And it's been AGES since I last ate a proper cendol back home (before parents had the chance to stop me)
So it's good. REAL good.
And I washed my dessert down with one of Malaysia's favorite tea-time drink - soya+cincau :DDDD
The Malaysian restaurant where I ate all this had updated their menu for summer - besides this, they had otak-otak (GBP1.80 for 3 sticks?!), prawn chilli, some lobster dish, and oh yeah - Roti Canai XD XD XD
WOULD have wanted to eat them all, but I already had my meal, so probably I'll try them on my next trip :DDDDDD
Okay, moving on to the next one.
2. I spy with my little eye...OMG SERIOUS KA?!?!
Heheh. After that wonderful dinner, I took a walk 'round my usual haunts at Leicester Square/Chinatown. And while walking around the corner...
...I spied something familiar in the window.
Then I went into the store, grabbed the bag, and paid immediately - oblivious to the price on the bag.
After almost 6 months of non-Malaysian coffee, I FINALLY found a store in Leicester Square selling my Ipoh White Coffee ^___________^
Not the usual brand I'd drink by Chek Hup (hehe, I STILL remember the brand!), but it's the Old Town White Coffee - Hazelnut Flavour :DDDDD
Took this pic back after I returned from Chinatown.
And then I made a drink the next morning.
And DAAAAAAMN, white coffee has never tasted this great :D
I know, I sorely missed my Ipoh White Coffee - and I ran out of it last year. Father malas to ship it over (actually, it costs a lot just to ship a parcel, even, so it's easier if I drink the local coffee here...but it just doesn't taste the same!!).
But now, I've FOUND BACK MA OLD LEGAL DRUG WOOHOO!!!
I also passed 2 sticks each to Qnqush and Aleks during the next day when I met them.
Qnqush's gonna leave for Moscow the next day, so as a last-minute parting gift, I gave her that - to (perhaps) remember me by when she drinks it...
But Aleks made a drink out of it - and she told me today, she LOVES it ^_________^ Though she was...surprised to see the packet kinda 3x thicker than the local coffee sachets here, and she told me she had mixed 1/2 the packet first, found it tasted weird, then she dunked the whole pack in, and only then, finally taste the kicker :DDDDDD
HEheh. Nothing beats Ipoh White Coffee.
Especially the Hazelnut one XD XD XD
And now I have...wow, 9 sticks left TwT;;;
And the bag of 15 sticks' cost me GBP5.50 (roughly RM17.50 - kinda 2 times the original Malaysian rate, but well, they did import it in so...half the price paid is for the import tax and VAT).
But well, it's the one and last time I'd buy it before returning to Malaysia, so let me have ma long-needed cuppa :D
And lookit what I found in one of London's local papers:
3. AirAsia in the UK
London to KL is only GBP160 pounds one way.
Which is SO DAMN DIRT CHEAP, compared to the GBP500 I'd bought in February @ MAS one-way, and that was before AirAsia announced that it's opened a new route to London =.=;
But KL to Penang's gonna cost GBP5 (roughly RM25)?!
Now THAT is a little pricey.
'Coz I remember it's just around RM10 (about GBP2) last year.
And according to Mom, back home, AirAsia and MAS are offering FREE FLIGHTS - just pay for the hotel.
But well, I ain't home yet Mom, so I can't really compare.
But the KL-Penang route is definitely more expensive than I woulda expect.
Oh well, nice to see a bit of the Malaysian spirit/nolstagia around.
And last, but not least - heheh, a teaser for shirou_ohsakura:
^_____________________^
I swear, while walking around Leicester, I had something in my mind telling me to head down to the Trocadero to check out the anime store there...
...my gut feeling told me that I will need to get something from there, or else I'll regret it...
...so I went to the Trocadero, ran up the escalator, into the store, walked straaaaaaight towards the back...
...and saw my lovely lovely new boy. :D
We probably are attuned to the same wavelength/brainwave or something, for him to call me from so far away - and for a figurine, even.
And the crazy thing is:
The one that I bought, costs GBP25.
The ones I saw in the store - they are some that were GBP25, some were priced GBP27, and the one in the display showcase was going for GBP29.
But the crazy thing is, they're ALL the same product, SAME FIGURINE.
I asked the blur white-guy assistant there.
He studied them all and their prices.
And confessed to me that he really really couldn't see the difference between them all - except the price.
So I said it's okay - I just want the one I picked.
Which is the first GBP25 one that I saw.
And learning from Constance, I took a few more of the GBP25 and tried to pick the one with the least damage.
And the second crazy thing is:
The one in my hand that I FIRST SAW and FIRST PICKED and EVENTUALLY BOUGHT, is the most perfect one - no weird extra rubber bits off the hair/face, no weird scratches, no distortion whatsoever.
So okay.
Probably figurine and I are fated to be together LOL
Right now, he's still inside the box - not sure how long I can keep it in its mint condition, but I've been tempted to break the seal and release him.
My glorious one.
More shots of him coming soon! >DDDD
*runs before Cons hits me for the lousy cliffhanger*
But I think you can kinda guess already what I'd bought, based on the Vol.2 text XD;
And I've just gotten back from Camden Town a few hours ago, to do some needed shopping for CC and myself, and heheh...buy again my top hats, this time 2 for GBP15 (which means I save 1 pound off the last time I bought the first one for Zails) - I had to buy 2 because the current Zails one got pretty damaged from all the moving TwT;;;
So 1 is for Zails and one more is for Ely @ Eireann "Ely" O'Kellyn, the other Elementalist.
And also bought the elusive white gloves. FINALLY.
I think Zail's wardrobe is pretty complete now - and I'm really proud of what I've set out to accomplish ^__________^
And if all goes well - I'm gonna go as Zails for this year's Comics Fiesta XD XD XD XD XD
It's past midnight now, and I need to get some sleep before the final showdown fight confrontation meeting with a certain Benedict Anderson.
-L
1. Malaysian meal at Leicester Square
On Sunday, after disassembling the exhibition (mega post+upload on that coming soon!), I hopped over to Leicester Square - since it's been WEEKS since I last walked around Chinatown - and I actually wanted to eat Malaysian that day.
Aaaaand I had a great dinner :D Seafood hor fun - though missing lots of the usual seafood that back home woulda cook, but hey, nowhere else in the entire London (so far) can cook something like it :D
And for dessert, I had:
YEEEEEEAAP At the height of great summer (whose hot weather can rival that of Bangkok! I'm SERIOUS!!!), it's cooling to eat ice cendol - regardless of what the old man and Mom woulda say/done - before I can even order one back home, they woulda stop me for fear it'll upset my temperamental gut - but heeeey, in the UK, the ice cendol didn't gimme anything else other than a very satisfying dessert, so YEAAAAAAAA XD
Only thing, because they lacked the actual ais kacang machine to grind the ice into those flakes they'd used for cendol, the sods here did it the manual way...by breaking the ice with a handy ice-pick/ice-breaker.
Which explains why I'd spent at least 10 minutes crunching kinda-slightly-huge chunks of ice buried beneath ma cendol ^-^;;;
But it was still nice. Cendol not that sweet, but the lil' red beans made up for it.
And it's been AGES since I last ate a proper cendol back home (before parents had the chance to stop me)
So it's good. REAL good.
And I washed my dessert down with one of Malaysia's favorite tea-time drink - soya+cincau :DDDD
The Malaysian restaurant where I ate all this had updated their menu for summer - besides this, they had otak-otak (GBP1.80 for 3 sticks?!), prawn chilli, some lobster dish, and oh yeah - Roti Canai XD XD XD
WOULD have wanted to eat them all, but I already had my meal, so probably I'll try them on my next trip :DDDDDD
Okay, moving on to the next one.
2. I spy with my little eye...OMG SERIOUS KA?!?!
Heheh. After that wonderful dinner, I took a walk 'round my usual haunts at Leicester Square/Chinatown. And while walking around the corner...
...I spied something familiar in the window.
Then I went into the store, grabbed the bag, and paid immediately - oblivious to the price on the bag.
After almost 6 months of non-Malaysian coffee, I FINALLY found a store in Leicester Square selling my Ipoh White Coffee ^___________^
Not the usual brand I'd drink by Chek Hup (hehe, I STILL remember the brand!), but it's the Old Town White Coffee - Hazelnut Flavour :DDDDD
Took this pic back after I returned from Chinatown.
And then I made a drink the next morning.
And DAAAAAAMN, white coffee has never tasted this great :D
I know, I sorely missed my Ipoh White Coffee - and I ran out of it last year. Father malas to ship it over (actually, it costs a lot just to ship a parcel, even, so it's easier if I drink the local coffee here...but it just doesn't taste the same!!).
But now, I've FOUND BACK MA OLD LEGAL DRUG WOOHOO!!!
I also passed 2 sticks each to Qnqush and Aleks during the next day when I met them.
Qnqush's gonna leave for Moscow the next day, so as a last-minute parting gift, I gave her that - to (perhaps) remember me by when she drinks it...
But Aleks made a drink out of it - and she told me today, she LOVES it ^_________^ Though she was...surprised to see the packet kinda 3x thicker than the local coffee sachets here, and she told me she had mixed 1/2 the packet first, found it tasted weird, then she dunked the whole pack in, and only then, finally taste the kicker :DDDDDD
HEheh. Nothing beats Ipoh White Coffee.
Especially the Hazelnut one XD XD XD
And now I have...wow, 9 sticks left TwT;;;
And the bag of 15 sticks' cost me GBP5.50 (roughly RM17.50 - kinda 2 times the original Malaysian rate, but well, they did import it in so...half the price paid is for the import tax and VAT).
But well, it's the one and last time I'd buy it before returning to Malaysia, so let me have ma long-needed cuppa :D
And lookit what I found in one of London's local papers:
3. AirAsia in the UK
London to KL is only GBP160 pounds one way.
Which is SO DAMN DIRT CHEAP, compared to the GBP500 I'd bought in February @ MAS one-way, and that was before AirAsia announced that it's opened a new route to London =.=;
But KL to Penang's gonna cost GBP5 (roughly RM25)?!
Now THAT is a little pricey.
'Coz I remember it's just around RM10 (about GBP2) last year.
And according to Mom, back home, AirAsia and MAS are offering FREE FLIGHTS - just pay for the hotel.
But well, I ain't home yet Mom, so I can't really compare.
But the KL-Penang route is definitely more expensive than I woulda expect.
Oh well, nice to see a bit of the Malaysian spirit/nolstagia around.
And last, but not least - heheh, a teaser for shirou_ohsakura:
^_____________________^
I swear, while walking around Leicester, I had something in my mind telling me to head down to the Trocadero to check out the anime store there...
...my gut feeling told me that I will need to get something from there, or else I'll regret it...
...so I went to the Trocadero, ran up the escalator, into the store, walked straaaaaaight towards the back...
...and saw my lovely lovely new boy. :D
We probably are attuned to the same wavelength/brainwave or something, for him to call me from so far away - and for a figurine, even.
And the crazy thing is:
The one that I bought, costs GBP25.
The ones I saw in the store - they are some that were GBP25, some were priced GBP27, and the one in the display showcase was going for GBP29.
But the crazy thing is, they're ALL the same product, SAME FIGURINE.
I asked the blur white-guy assistant there.
He studied them all and their prices.
And confessed to me that he really really couldn't see the difference between them all - except the price.
So I said it's okay - I just want the one I picked.
Which is the first GBP25 one that I saw.
And learning from Constance, I took a few more of the GBP25 and tried to pick the one with the least damage.
And the second crazy thing is:
The one in my hand that I FIRST SAW and FIRST PICKED and EVENTUALLY BOUGHT, is the most perfect one - no weird extra rubber bits off the hair/face, no weird scratches, no distortion whatsoever.
So okay.
Probably figurine and I are fated to be together LOL
Right now, he's still inside the box - not sure how long I can keep it in its mint condition, but I've been tempted to break the seal and release him.
My glorious one.
More shots of him coming soon! >DDDD
*runs before Cons hits me for the lousy cliffhanger*
But I think you can kinda guess already what I'd bought, based on the Vol.2 text XD;
And I've just gotten back from Camden Town a few hours ago, to do some needed shopping for CC and myself, and heheh...buy again my top hats, this time 2 for GBP15 (which means I save 1 pound off the last time I bought the first one for Zails) - I had to buy 2 because the current Zails one got pretty damaged from all the moving TwT;;;
So 1 is for Zails and one more is for Ely @ Eireann "Ely" O'Kellyn, the other Elementalist.
And also bought the elusive white gloves. FINALLY.
I think Zail's wardrobe is pretty complete now - and I'm really proud of what I've set out to accomplish ^__________^
And if all goes well - I'm gonna go as Zails for this year's Comics Fiesta XD XD XD XD XD
It's past midnight now, and I need to get some sleep before the final showdown fight confrontation meeting with a certain Benedict Anderson.
-L