Monday 24 January 2011

Roaming London

Carrying with my previous post...
I caught the train back to London at 3:01pm, the train itself inside was different this time, there weren't tables provided for each seat, it felt more like a bus...
Anyway, I sat myself diagonally across this woman who had a huge luggage case with her since I couldn't be bothered looking for other empty seats with
no one sitting around it and swung my portfolio on the shelf at the top.
Later on, I think in the next stop, a guy came on and sat in f
ront of me with a magazine, 2 bars of chocolates and a drink. When the old couple sitting on the other side left their seats at the next stop the man moved himself to the empty seats. Why am I explaining all this mundane stuff? Just ead on and you'll see. The man is quite hilarious.
During the 1 hour 48 minute journey I started to fall asleep, tired from only have 4 hours of sleep, doesn't really matter if I slept, the train terminate
s at Euston anyway. Before I fell asleep I had begun to think about the places to explore in London when I arrive at 4:49pm; drop off my portfolio at Liverpool St station, visit Selfridges for the first time, walk around places in London that I haven't been to before. I texted Louise to ask what station to get off for Selfridges - no I have never been in there in my life despite Nikki telling me how amazing the gelatos are in Selfridges, and it was Bond Street station. Nice, it was on the Central line, not a lot of train switching required, perfect! Also texted Nikki is she was free to meet with me in London, she never texted back ; - ; *heartbroken*
Anyway, after planning that out I slept for a couple of minutes I think. Woke up to find that the man had fallen asleep too, he was sleeping slightly towards the window, exposing
his love handles that had poked out between his shirt and jeans. It doesn't end there. I slept for another couple of minutes before I woke up again, this time the guy switched sides, he was basically lying on his side in his seat, as if it was a bed. His legs bent and slightly raised as if attempting the foetal position with his mouth wide open. At times his head was sink against the chair and his face would scrunch in annoyance.
I didn't dare to take a picture encase the woman sitting acr
oss me saw and snapped at me. But hey that was the train fiasco!

Arrived at Euston and made my way to Liver
pool St station, dropped off portfolio at Left Luggage. This black guy was there with a kettle in his hands. He seemed pretty reluctant to let me drop off my portfolio folder and tote bag that held a sketchbook for £8 since it was £8 per luggage, but he let me anyway :]
When I headed for the underground I
saw tow pigeons in the middle of the huge station doing IT. One was on top of the other and the one on top was flapping its wings like crazy! Some women on the other side saw as well and laughed! Whoa, I was ready to flip my phone out to record and make it viral on YT but the pigeon flew off like nothing happened just when I took my phone out. Dayummm!! Would've finished my Media Studies practical work then, a viral video!

Off I went back to the undergound, catching the westbound Central Line to Bond Street. Arrived, walked out one of the exits and realised that I had no idea where Selfridges was on Bond Street - never been on this street before. So I decided to look out for happy shoppers who had those bright yellow Selfridges bags and follow the direction that they had come from.
On my way I passed a Disney Store, an extravagant one at that
. They decorated it to the theme of the new movie Tangled! OMG! So yeah I ran in, didn't really see anything I want apart from the expensive plushies which I wanted really badly. There was an upstairs that was dedicated to stuff for babies and toddlers, that's where the plushies were at. So cute and pretty!

Exited the store, walked on for a couple more minutes. Eventually found a huge stone building with pillars and glowing lights. It had to be Selfridges. Passed one of the pillars and saw "Selfridges and Co." on this gold plaque, yup I arrived!
When I entered I felt so out of
place. The inside was gorgeous, there was catwalk music pumping through the speakers, designer brand names at every stall - Bobbi Brown, MAC, Yves saint Laurent, Clinique, Dior, Clarins and etc. I was at the skincare and make up section, GALOOOOOREEE! ♥ I immediately hunted down Bobbi Brown and MAC, both of which were conveniently next to each other, perfect! There were make up artists at every stall working on women's faces, felt like I was backstage at some fashion show. Didn't really want anything off Bobbi Brown, it was too crowded there for me to get a good look at the products, the stall was smaller than the MAC one. So I headed over to MAC, looking for the Blot Powder which I felt that I need at that very moment as I was sweating profusely from the immense body heat that was emitted by the surrounding crowds of middle-class women. I couldn't find it, let alone could be bothered anymore, there were too many women there smapling each and every product! So I hurried off elsewhere inside...
Eventually I found myself in the stationary section. Art Box was to my right, I felt like squealing from joy - I love Art Box! Sadly they didn't stuff like cups (like the Poppin' Fresh one I'm drinking out of right now as I type this) and the stuff that I want, it was a small area. But wow, th
ey sold Hello Kitty kigurumi's! Black + pink and White + pink. Priced at £65 each. Ouch! Screw that!
I carried on exploring afterwards. Passed All Saints, some boutique brands, more stationary, stuff from the USA and the Valentines candy section - looking like I was browsing for something for my 'boyfriend' HAH;;; I was worried that one of the SA's would come up to me and be all like "So what are you planning to get for your boyfriend?"
After walking around in circles not daring to venture to the first floor or basement floor - gadget area, I decided to leave after passing Louis Vuitton and J
immy Choo.
During the entire time I made sure to hide my the D&G badge on my fake D&G bag that I got from HK, just encase so
me snobby upper-class women spots it, tells one of the snobbiest security members and I get escorted out for wearing fakes.
Overall, Selfridges made me feel part of the rich crowd as well as allow me to see how upper-class/middle-class ladies present themselves to emitt a wealthy aura. I wasn't surprised when I realised that a quarter of the shoppers happened to be Asian. Me leaving the store empty handed made me feel poor again...

Headed back to Bond Street station and left for Oxford Circus, one stop eastbound on Central line.
Walked around Oxford Circus, not knowing where I was going. Eventually found Uniqlo - again I wanted to squeal from joy as I have never been there. Entered and to my disappointment it felt like the Asian version of GAP, all the staff members were Asian and t
he clothes as well as prices were similar to the prices in GAP (maybe a bit cheaper). Nothing in the sales section interested me...There weren't any skinny jeans on sale!
Exited, carried on walking and realised I had no idea where I was now and wanted to leave for Picadilly/Regent Street. Eventrually I entered Tottenham Court Road and found its underground station! Hurrah! But I hated the station itself. In order to get to the train I had to walk down some stairs. Being tired and in an I-don't-give-a-fuck mood I went down some random stairs with these French people in front. The experience wasn't pleasant. There was no roof, the roof above pathway leading towards the stairs as well as the roof above the stairs was missing and all was left was metal netting and...horrible chunks of black/grey dust *shudders*. Felt like I was in some horror movie. It was gross. Why the fuck didn't I turn back and head out!? By then I knew I would need to wash my hair that night, it was just so dirty... At that moment I remembered that there was another set of stairs to the right, which looked far more pleasant with its mosaic tiles, before I even entered that tunnel of hell.
When I arrived at the platform and left the hell hole I realised I was
at the wrong platform for Central Line. Fuck. So I went through some other way and found escalators going up. HURRAH! I didn't have to go up those horrible stairs again.
Arrived at Picadilly. Finally, somewhere that I was familiar with!
Headed to Japan Centre, got my brother, Eric, his Newtype magazine after spending like 10 minutes on the phone with him asking him what Japanese mag he wanted. I was tempted to get myself the Non-no magazine which not only featured HoMin but had a
pair of red Hello Kitty headphones with it as a freebie! £10.20 I think it was! Really wanted it! ...But alas, I must save money.
Oh and also the magazine book
section moved in Japan Centre, it's now at the far back in the middle. The shelf across the Non-no magazine sold bathroom stuff as well as skincare. Sadly the products weren't to my liking, the skincare stuff were some random brand names that I never heard of! They looked crap...If only they sold Hadalabo or Juju ; ^ ; !!!

Headed to Trocadero for a Subway. Outside some black guys were dancing on the road, disrupting cars and stuff.
There was no Subway...the cart was....gone *CRIES* Really wanted a sub as well! I also explored the mini stores above, they sold a lot of cute Asian stuff since the owners were Asian themselves. But it was so damn cramped! I noticed that there was a lot of Totoro merch. Was tempted to hit the arcade section for a round of DJ Max Technika, but thinking about it again I was alone
and sucked at that game. Around that time there would be plenty of Asian pros at the arcade, pros would just laugh at me as I play ; - ;
When I left the black guys were still playing around the road with people watching them and doing nothing. Oh London...


Went to China Town. On the way there I dropped by this shop that sold Japanese, Korean and Chinese snacks. Nothing ineterested me, so I left. When I was leaving there was this Japanese toddler at the door all like "Sa-poh-roh?!" something something to his parents "...Nani?" in some chibi JunSu voice. DAWWWWW ♥
Passed HK Diner - favourite place for food and Bubble Tea. Was so damn tempted to ask for a take away Bubble Tea...Bubble Tea is £3.60 there;;;; Good thing I hurried off to China Town.
When I stepped into China Town I noticed that they were putting up the lanterns...Yeah, when there were crowds everywhere. There was a string of lanterns on the floor whilst some guy was putting up the latterns, I almost stepped on a lantern as well! I bet other people in the street must've stepped on one! There was a box of lanterns outside the green Asian snack shop! And I thought Asians were clever! Clearly not these ones.
Visited Wonderful
Patisserie and found out that they sold original Bubble Tea for £1.50 - was tempted. Shall get them next time!
Walked down China Town Market - favourite place at China Town. Passed this store painted in white on the right side, but I stopped and turned back to it when I caught a glimpse of Prettia foam hair dye sitting on top of this huge white cabinet...OMG!Hurried in and basically found the stuff I could get back in Hong Kong's Sasa, Watsons and Mannings. Well sort've. The Prettia form dye boxes where from Japan, not HK, since the box was in Japanese and its design was far prettier and sophisticated than the HK one! Also saw each cabinet selling different Japanese products. Canmake, Dollywink, Etude House, Korean cosmetics, BB Creams, Kiss Me Heroine, Mellish, Beautylabo, Palty and etc! Wow that was heaven. But I scowled when I saw the price sticker for Prettia, Beautylabo and Etude House BB Mineral...£18! My Imju Fiberwig was £21/£21.99, that's double the price that I paid for in HK! Rip off! They also sold Usamimi hairbands, or as some may call them "Twist and Bend" hair bands that give you the cute bunny looking. £6.80 each. Getting one for Louise as super late birthday gift when I go back next week. BTW, they have LOADS of Dollywink lashes. Must ask them about the price...
Went into China Town Market, saw even more Totoro stuff - must be Bubsbeauty's influence LOL, and now I'm planning to get a furry Totoro plushie on a chain for £3.50, or maybe 2 for £5. Hmn...
At that time it was 8:30pm, 2 more hours to go. I was getting tired and had no idea where to go next so I decided to head back to Liverpool St station...
Arrived, realised I ran out of water, walked around hoping WHSmith or BK was open to find that they were closed! ASDFJKL; FFFUUUUU!
So I got myself McD's, deli of the day and medium diet coke. Had to wait for my deli of the day. Whilst waiting a group of 3 people came and ordered. 2 guys 1 girl. The girl had one of those whiney annoying voices, and spoke like a spoilet brat. One of the guys was her boyfriend, they sure weren't afraid to show their 'love' for each other in public *hates it when couples kiss openly in public randomly eurgh*. But what I hated the most was the girl, she was wearing one of those huge fur coats - they look like the stuff old hags like Cruella Deville would wear, and was speaking like she was all that. She had problems paying the order with her card and was being all rude to the kiosk guy. I hate these kinds of people...At that moment I really wanted my deli to be done!
Eventaully got my deli and left to find a seat in the station itself since McD was packed! Finished my lunch/tea/dinner and went looking for a bin to realise they had removed all bins thanks to the London bombings in the past. So I had to go back into McD's, find a staff member and ask him to dispose it for me. So much hassle!
Pretty much spent rest of my time - an hour, sitting there texting people, watching people walk past, remembering that I needed to take photos of crowds of people for my art, taking photos of people like a weirdo.
When it was 10pm I went to collect my portfolio, paid the £8 *wallet cries*, waited a bit longer, headed to platform 14 for the train, found a table seat, sat down and done.
Later 2 muslim women came and sat across me with loads of shopping bags and placed them on the table - at this point I was doing my English homework on the table (making notes from a book). I got pretty agitated by this, why can't they put the bags on the shelf above?! They later shoved the bags underneath the table, making the space smaller so that my legs couldn't move freely! ARGH! FML!

I started feeling dizzy and unwell after 45mins of note taking and gave up.
Eventually arrived back at Ippy at 11:45pm-ish, dad hadn't even left Stowmarket yet so I had to wait.
During this time I watched two girls dressed like hookers come to the station to order some train tickets in skimpy thin outfits - WEREN'T THEY COLD?! Some guy that came in from the platform and said somethign to the 'hookers' as if he knew them, said something to them, they didn't respond and walked away, he followed.
A 'couple' came in where this nicely dressed girl was making her way to the platform whilst the guy who looked like some stupid chav was all like "don't leave baby girl". Ew, they're going out? What a mismatched couple. The girl carried on walking whilst prying his hands off her arm until they were out of sight.
A drunk guy came in on his phone was like "I can't call a taxi!" There was a taxi area outside, there had always been at least one taxi outside the train station...

Eventually dad arrived before I gone insane from the coldness and loneliness. Came home and ate steak with fired rice, yum. Was reluctant to wash my hair because I was so tired, but remembering that horrible stiarcase area at Tottenham Court Rd...*shudders*
Oh and the skin on my hands became red, dry and sensitive again. Someone needs to remind me to wear gloves when I head off to Reading next week.
Slept for 12 hours that night I think...

3 comments:

  1. Hey this is in response to a post on your old blog but I figured I might as well post it here too.
    http://tanxuelei.livejournal.com/114147.html?view=80355#t80355

    I've dealt with similar things in Korea (as a white Person), being leered at simply for being white (in other words looking like an American). There was the attack on the American chamber of commerce, attacks on Americans in the subway system with people yelling racial slurs in Korean. I don't speak Korean but my Korean friend assured me the slurs were pretty bad - people assuming I'm a pedophile due to the way the Korean press regularly associates foreigners with sex crimes and general sexual perversion.

    Sure, some stupid American GIs ran over two Korean girls in a horrible accident, but after that Korean guy shot up Virginia Tech there was no significant anti-Korean backlash to speak of in America... so if anything the race based blame is WORSE on the part of a lot of Asians (something you wouldn't notice since they're not racist against you... also white people largely suck it up and just feel lucky to be in Korea when they are victims of racism with the exception of a few sites like the one below)

    http://briandeutsch.blogspot.com/2007/12/boycott-korea.html

    I don't agree with this guys views but he gives a great accounting of the facts. By all means, if you don't like dealing with animonsity and want to feel comfortable, go to a country where the majority of people look like you. But just don't fool yourself into thinking that means the country is free of racism. You might think thats the case because the western media is focused on the problem of racism in the west, perpetrated by white people, and the narrative of racism being a "white" problem has been globalized so to speak.

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  2. Also western Academics of the 1970s such as Chmosky still by in large remain in prominence, they pushed the idea of racism or colonialism as a western invention and a white problem. Asians and every other non-white person is happy to go along with this narrative. Recent sociologists have a more sensible standard based on actual evidence, but it takes society a while to catch up to the latest science.

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  3. I want dollywink eyelashes too, Joo =3= But they're probably mad expensive.

    ReplyDelete