Flying Etihad

 First time to fly Etihad.

 Well, it's a bit squeezy. I'm just 5'1" and the leg room is already small for me. Imagine the tall people. They probably experienced major leg cramps.
Anyway, the service was not exactly spectacular. My lighted 'call an attendant' button remained unnoticed. It was pure work for them, no personal touch. Then again, it's a super long flight, so I have to give them credit for not being snappy at people.

Food was okay. Snacks were okay too. Food-wise, there's no shortage. I gained weight just by flying to and from London.

Movie list was okay.

I couldn't sleep straight because the seat wasn't comfortable, and as mentioned, too squeezy.

 At Abu Dhabi airport, our stopover.

The point of this photo is the time difference. Between which countries? I forgot already.

I bought this at the Abu Dhabi airport on our way back. Was so happy, because I couldn't find this anywhere else. The salesladies keep telling me this scent has been phased out.

Proudly Homemade

 Giant choco-chip cookie and a glass of slim milk.

They're adorable! So big and chunky!

Harrod's

 Harrod's Food Hall. Sniff, was in a rush so we didn't get to try anything there.

 Going up to the first floor.

 The Harrod's Bear.
They were standing outside the toilet area.

 Shrine at the basement (or one of the lower floors)

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Hmm wasn't impressed with Harrod's. Perhaps it's the lay-out. It was too crowded and dizzying, that it reduced the feeling of luxury.

And we were there as a buying customer okay? We weren't just checking it out.

We were looking for Gucci wallets and a Chanel bag. Fine, not for me, for someone else. But still. Wanted to buy stuff there but they just didn't have the stocks.

When in London, Watch a Musical

There's a lot of choices for musicals, as in a lot. I didn't feel like watching the usuals like Phantom of the Opera, Wizard of Oz.. etc... so I chose Ghost. I love the movie, so I thought it would be interesting to see it as a musical.

 

Am I glad I chose that. The special effects were simply amazing!

If you've seen the movie, you'd remember the scene where Patrick Swayze entered Whoopie Goldberg's body. And Whoopie became Patrick. They were able to do that in the musical!

 

 We bought our ticket in the afternoon, about 2 or 3pm, for the 7:30pm show.
 We used the gap (3-7pm) to shop. Went to Selfridges, then Harrods. Got dizzy going in and out of the Tube.

 Around 7:20pm, still so bright!

 At the theater bar. People were buying cocktails and bags of chocolates. I was feeling stingy then, so I didn't buy anything. Really, I should've just bought. Afterall, we were in our honeymoon, for pete's sake.

 Outrageously long head in front of me. Good thing after the ..er.. what do you call the rest period.. like the recess... is it called the *'break'? Anyway, after the break, someone changed seat with the big head in front of me, so I was able to watch the show without obstructions. However, the vacant seat beside me also got filled by the latecomers (grr).. the worst part was, the girl beside me had offending body odour. grrrr some more!

*Intermission! I was re-reading this (about 5 minutes after I wrote the paragraph) and suddenly remembered the word.
*Sometimes I'm just too lazy to google the word

 Love the effects, couldn't remember the songs though.

They did stick to the movie, so that was nice. 
I heard they're shutting this musical down soon. Think the Broadway shows were not doing so well. The night we were there, the theater in London was packed.. but they're closing it down too.. perhaps the special effects cost too much.. I'm just glad we were able to watch it.

 After the musical, we looked for a place to eat.  This was challenging, since pretty much all the restos were closed already.

 We kept walking and walking, until my foot blisters were already cursing me and I was already limping.

 We reached Oxford street, and eureka! McDonalds!

Forgot what my order was. We brought this to the hotel, since the store was already closing.
It wasn't that late. Maybe around 10:30pm or 11:00pm.

Tiong Bahru Bakery

Here I am, still blogging about Singapore food.  I can't help it because food there really is so much better. Most of the time, you really get what you pay for. 

 

Anyway, I tried Tiong Bahru last September.  After our honeymoon in UK, I went to Singapore for a few days. Wanted to do a lot of food-tripping, but had food poisioning on my second night and so was down for a day and a half. (This was truly upsetting)

 

Anyway (for lack of a better word), before I got to Singapore, I already wanted to try Tiong Bahru Bakery because I saw a friend's post in Facebook. Plus, another close friend also highly recommends it.

The name sounds so local, so kopitiam-ish, but the head pastry chef is actually a real French.

 My friend recommended (and still recommends) the salted caramel bun (aka Kouign Aman).. Seems like it really is the bestseller since they only had 2 left on display.

 Mmm... I love dining out with my 2 girlfriends because they're so easy to talk to when it comes to food. For us, it's simple: Try everything like there's no next meal.

When we ordered these, we were still very full from our ramen and gyoza lunch. Imagine if we were famished.

I liked the salted caramel bun, liked the apple crumble flan. The lemon tart was a tad too sour for me (and I love tarty desserts).

(Sorry, I'm too lazy to straighten up the picture)

Food!

 Ube flavoured buko shake at PHP45 from Coco Fresco, SM Lanang.
 First three sips were pleasant and interesting..but the rest was such an effort for the throat. It's too thick, too sweet, and too cloying.

 Churros from Dulcinea, Abreeza Mall. Still the same taste, except there's hair imbedded in one of them. Ugh.

 Stuffed pizza! The stuffing is noticeably lesser than before. (By before, I mean 4-5 years back).

White cheese pizza. Now this one is still as yummy as before. Mmm...

Euston, We Have a Problem

Platform nine. Train going from Manchester to Euston, London. USD 162 for one way.

As first class passengers, we were given a box of cookies and a can of soda (or juice or coffee).
I brought some snacks myself. A shortbread cookie from the hotel, Cheetos, and a bar of Wispa (I love this chocolate bar).

The problem was, we were seated against the train's travelling direction. Meaning if the train was moving towards the south. We were facing the north.. or something like that. I'm sure you get what I mean.

That plus the fact that our co-passengers were sooooo noisy, their voices were like tiny hammers inside my head. I felt like puking then.

Anyway, the good thing was we had a bus waiting to transport us to our hotel after the train ride. The luggages were super heavy!

This was our room at Lancaster Hotel.  We requested for a king size bed, so when we got back from dinner, the housekeeping had already combined the two beds and have changed the beddings.

The view. Or lack of it.

After checking in, we rushed out because we had an 8:30 reservation at Jamie Oliver's Restaurant.
The tube ride was expensive! Plus, I was surpised at how old the station was... and oh, how hot it was.

But, in the end, we were not able to make it to our reservation (and later on got an email from the restaurant) because the guy from the concierge told us the wrong station to get off from.

Anyway, it turns out Jamie Oliver's restos are spread everywhere. He also had one near the station where we got off.

Puttanesca was so-so... Too al dente.

Steak and side order of polenta chips. Okay and okay.

Do I recommend Jamie Oliver's resto? For the experience and bragging rights, yes.  For the food, no.

We took the bus home.. Goodie, it looks like the busses in Singapore.

I must say, London at night scared me. It was dark, and it somehow gave me the feeling that there's danger hiding on the street corners.

This is totally unrelated to the London trip. Anyway, I bought this bag at Manchester , and I love it! The leather is soft and it's so light. Side note though, I learned that it's cheaper to buy it online. Also, the leather is very fragile. I just noticed two nights ago that mine got 2 small scratches near the long strap hook. Made me sad =(