Third London trip of the Year

I love London. I love walking around the city. Despite walking through cigarettes' smokes that momentarily lingers in the air, or smelling the fumes of the cabs, buses and private cars, it is amazing walking through the small alleys in SoHo, the not-so-fast-paced streets in Angel that's filled with vintage jewellery and costumes, as well as Chinatown that has all shades of dark red.

Shame that I didn't bring my camera because yesterday's afternoon had a cloudless sky. The sun was beaming down happily on us, and while we were at Angel town, I was telling my friend that I would not want to come all the way here to have McDonald's that cost the same figures as back home.

Until we saw a guy giving out McDonald's coupons that cost £2.59 for a burger-and-fries OR burger-and-soft-drink.

What the heck. It's cheaper than Subway where we wanted to go in the first place.

So technically, we were the face of hypocrites.

My friend had to leave first so I went on my own to Charing Cross Road. As I step out of Leicester Square Station, I realized that I hadn't taken down the address of the Cass Art outlet at Charing Cross Road. All I know was it faced the famous street, but in front of me was a long stretch of it. I turned right to see if I'm in the correct direction. But then I had hit the Singing in the Rain theatre. So it can't have been somewhere down that side. Because I vaguely remembered seeing Cass Art after the theatre. So I doubled back to Leicester Square station and continued my way down the street.

Finally after 10 minutes of being in Charing Cross, I found the store.

Only to be told that they don't sell the portfolio that I wanted. And that the other outlet in SoHo has stock of it. Thank God the salesperson gave me a map of how to get there. I went through Wardour street, passed Chinatown and the World of M&Ms and found myself in SoHo. For particular reasons, SoHo looks more dodgier when it's dark, given its reputation for being a red-light district. Once I found the store and settled my purchase, I headed to the nearest underground station (WTH, Oxford Circus) and decided that I did not want to walk and stand in the tube, racing against time to catch it to find myself standing and constantly changing tube lines, instead of sitting.

Again, God has been kinder to me. I saw a bus that heads to King's Cross near River Island at Oxford Street and managed to get on it. Even though the journey was longer, but at least I got to sit down, be a spectator and watch people walk instead or participating in the street walk. I was even slowly munching on a chicken tikka sandwich (for 99p, which is considered cheap compared to the usual £1.30 or £1.50)

I managed to arrive at King's Cross on time and found a nice spot on the second coach before the crowd comes in and it'd be tougher to find a seat.

I've said it about ten times and I'll say it again: I love London and I'm gonna miss it because right now, I can't afford to travel so frequently to the beloved city because of my studies.

Wish me luck for the next semester!