the lastsplash

I was back at the Tower Bridge today. A look of it in the day this time. Beside the Tower Bridge is the Tower of London , the royal palace and fortress and home of the crown jewel. This is the main tower, The White Tower, where the Kings and Queens used to live. And further down the Tower of London is the London Bridge ... well, the modern-day version. And I don't think it is gonna fall down anytime soon... About another 1-km down the River Thames is the Tate Modern museum. There was some weird performance going on... And one of the exhibits, But my favourite is this Picasso work, Girl in Chemise , which I recognized instantly and got me really excited! Finally, after all that tired walking for the day we made our way across the river on the Millennium Bridge . And the bridge in at night!

Finally I am back online! Managed to borrow an XP setup disc from the hotel reception to do the recovery. My laptop had been displaying the blue screen of death for a past week ever since I shut it down abruptly at the Changi T3 security check. Oh, forgot to mention I am in London right now for a conference ! All has been well so far, 'cept for my laptop which crashed and some weird incidents at the hotel. But all that is fixed and the conference is over. So I'll be enjoying a short break over the weekend. =) Before I start working on my trip report, I have some spare time to show you some photos of the places I visited in the past week after the daily conference itinerary. The winter day is short, so we only went to a few places... This is the venue of the conference, QEII Conference Centre. It's in the heart of Westminister, where you can find the Big Ben and Abbey... A lil' silent protest against the war near the conference centre... This is certainly a "culture

I wanted to just sneak a snaps of the famous works. To my surprise, I saw many snapping away at almost every sculpture and relief they saw. Some posed in front of the sculptures with their million-dollar smiles. There were even a couple of them with their SLRs hanging openly on their necks ! Even when so many people were doing it, I don't think photography was allowed. =p Of the museums I been to, only the Munch Museum (where I assumed it wasn't allowed and left my camera in the locker!!) and the Chinese museums, allowed photography. But anyway... I did it discreetly (at times not really!) with my new camera phone! Of course, if I wanted nice, well-taken pictures I would have bought the book and not goof around with my phone. These pictures are really to share with those who have not been to the exhibition yet, what you are missing. Nothing beats standing in front of these magnificent Greek Masterpieces , taking a glimpse at some of the objects which have left Louvre for the

Am truly rusty. Took two days to tackle a simple problem. Throw in the rain, the gloomy sky, inconsiderate fools in the train and bus, loneliness, Friday evening, emotional strings (the one you love ain't happy and you can't do no thing bout it but to feel the same), plus nobody to eat sushimi (sushi+sashimi) with you and some other factors, the recipe for a miserable boo boo evening. Even Chef Gusteau can't do better! Nothing like some rumbling rage driving actions (Bam!! Bang!! Boom!! Takedown!) and punk music (the tracks in Burnout Legend are awesome!!) to perk the mood! Alleviate me from this sh**y feeling. Yes, I had rediscovered the sound that had brought me thru' my teenage angst. Whereas teenage years had left me long ago, these mood swings had stayed by me. But no fear, all is well as it just mean that my heart is alive and kicking and all things will end well! -Stresemann YEAH-

It has become a tradition for four of us to come together to celebrate my dear's birthday every year. Even if it meant having to miss out a rare BBQ chalet with my colleagues. But as they say, good things usually come in pairs. I can't be too greedy, so I had to choose one. It was none other than my dear's birthday celebration! This year we had dinner at Waraku Japanese Restaurant in The Central . It was my second time there. But since they hadn't been there before, we decided to give it a try. The food wasn't fantastic, so I won't talk about it. Let's talk about the people! Theresa with "大饼" hanging in front of her, our mahjong-kaki and dear's best friend, 发发 frowning at the size of his mini bowl. It was certainly on the tiny size (including the portion of sashimi). A notable point about Waraku is the size of their regular bowls. Really big indeed. =p The real fun of the evening came after the dinner at (no, not at the pub lah ... old people