32 Countries!

My mom just asked me how many countries I've been to. I just did the tally by updating my world map below and it's 32! It'll be 34 by the end of the year! My mom's in the 40s though so I don't know if I'll ever be able to catch up to her.


visited 32 states (14.2%)
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The Queen

I got my hands on this picture of the Queen at the Garden Party I went to. Don't you just love her colourful outfit?

Tea with the Queen...

... and hundreds of other people.

The Canadian High Commission is allotted tickets to the Queen's Garden Parties every year and they give them away by lottery. Any Canadian citizen can apply and then bring a (not necessarily Canadian) guest.

Unfortunately, cameras are not allowed inside, so we had to take this one picture, drop the camera back off at my place, then go into Buckingham Palace. We got to go in through the front entrance and walk through the palace to get to the "backyard" (there must be a more posh name for that). It's funny, because we visited Buckingham Palace as a tourist on one of my first weekends in London. I remember the audio guide talking about how that's the entrance that diplomats and others use to enter the Garden Parties.

Inside the palace grounds, there were lots of people already lined up forming a human hallway for the Queen to walk through to the Royal Tea Tent. Some people had been picked out of the crowd to stand in the "hallway" for the Queen to talk to on the way. It must have taken her about an hour to get through to her tent, and the ominous rainclouds were threatening the whole way but she was prepared with a white umbrella with black trim! (It didn't rain luckily.)

She was dressed in a beautiful light purple suit and matching hat with turquoise trim. Her outfits are always so cheerful, yet classy! Her husband was also there along with Prince Andrew and some members of the Royal Family that I didn't recognise.

Tea was served in the regular tents for us commoners. (There was also a diplomat tent - maybe I'll get to go there next year!) The Queen has a special brew for the Garden Parties, and it was quite good. There were finger sandwiches with the crusts cut off, mini scones with clotted cream and jam, and lots of different mini-desserts. I went back for seconds and thirds of the scones (clotted cream is SO good).

We walked around the big grounds. It's so strange that this palatial oasis is surrounded by city traffic. There was a rose garden, a huge vase statue thing, a garden house to sit in with a croquet set, a tennis court and a small island closed off to us. Maybe the island contains the Queen's secret underground escape hatch!

It was a fun experience - getting so dressed up, seeing the women in their coordinated outfits and the men in top hats, coat and tails, eating delicious tea and treats, and seeing the Queen. If you know you'll be visiting London around this time of the year and you are Canadian, I highly recommend applying for tickets!

A close-up of the last pic so you can see my hat! Hats were mandatory for the women. I splurged and bought one for £35.

Country Walk #4: Gomshall

Sorry, no post about Country Walk #3 because my camera was broken.

It was sunny, warm and the ground was actually dry for this walk (yay! no slippery English mud!).

These shrink-wrapped haystacks look like alien offspring pods.


These country walks are on public footpaths that go right through people's property. We regularly have to go through kissing gates (I'll have to take a pic of that next time) and climb over fences to follow the path, though it's not always obvious where the "path" is! Can you see the little wooden plank that comes out perpendicularly to this fence (under the two horizontal pieces of wood)? That's a step that's used to climb over the fence.

I was scared to go so close to the horses (don't laugh - I'm allergic! ...and maybe slightly paranoid), but I made it through.


I guess they don't look too menacing. I'm just glad they didn't lick me.

We passed through a small town on our walk with this cute British phone booth sort of in the middle of nowhere.

Where's Sam?

Very kitsch, but fun anyway.

Bangs are a big step for me

I finally decided to go for it and get bangs (or a fringe as they call it here) for the first time in over 10 years. I've never liked bangs before, but I LOVE this haircut! Definitely my favourite haircut ever!

If you're ever in London and you have asian hair, you MUST go to this Japanese salon, Moga. My hairdresser was a senior stylist named Yuki and she was great! She suggested the hairstyle after I gave her really basic parameters (need to look professional, but not old, plus I'm hopeless at blowdrying).

It was, of course, expensive (£41), but everything's expensive in Central London. That's the most I've ever paid for a haircut but I sort of saved up after not getting my hair cut for 7 months. Well worth it.

What were your best, worst and funniest moments of 2007?

Best:
Leaving India and my 3 weeks of vacation with good family and quality friends. I just felt like a huge weight had lifted off my shoulders and I finally returned to being myself, a positive person that I like.

Worst:
Freaking out over when I thought my FabIndia carpet was "ruined". It was my favourite thing that I bought in India and just made me happy every time I saw it. I just got so angry inside and it didn't help that I was stressed with my move to London. Then when I tried to get a replacement in FabIndia, I got so frustrated that I burst out crying in the store. (I hate it when that happens - it's so embarrassing!) Looking at it now, it really looks fine and isn't ruined at all, but it somehow doesn't make me as happy as it did before.

Funniest:
This is always a hard one for me, but I would say:
Getting to know Thomas in Spanish class and our outings afterwards. He totally cracks me up! Watching Avenue Q with Lara was pretty darn hilarious too!

Quiz Night Champions!

I just got back from the office bi-annual Quiz Night. It was held in the Red Room, a super-cheap pub in the basement of the office (how sweet is that!). Quiz Nights are a British pub tradition - I think we should have these in Canada. After being behind the table next to us for the whole night, we surged through in the last round to claim first prize! My team has won the last 3 times in a row so I was just happy not to have broken their winning streak. It was lots of fun and I even managed to contribute a few answers (like spelling supercalifragilisticexpialidocious). My team has asked me to join them again next time. It's so nice to be accepted! :)

Sorry, no pictures. I think my camera's broken. :(

Country Walk #2: Hassock - Lewes

I went on my second country walk, this time to near Brighton about an hour away from London. Although the leaves don't turn to such a large variety of brilliant colours as they do in Canada (I'm told that this is because England doesn't have such a quick frost), it's still beautiful to be walking in the crisp autumn air.



We passed a man who was standing at the edge of a field/forested hunting area. His job was to try and herd the partridges back into the area if they came his way. There were man scattered all around the border and we could hear the gunshots in the distance. It was a little scary to hear them if you ask me, but I guess hunting is a long English tradition.



We visited this old English church that had old paintings on the inside walls, but unfortunately I didn't take a picture. Here's the front of the church though. It's quite common to have a small graveyard on the grounds of the church.



And a small Remembrance Day display...

First CTC bike ride

I went on my first CTC (a cycling club) bike ride today. It was a newcomer ride, so it was at a very relaxed pace, without much traffic and quite flat. We had a beautiful day for it - sunny all day which is rare. It was so great to be outside in the sunshine, riding along the Thames. We ended up cycling 20 miles which, because we were going so slowly, was pretty easy to do. But when I got home, I pretty much passed out on my couch! I guess it had taken more out of me than I thought. Or maybe it's a blood sugar thing? We had eaten lunch just 2 hours before I got home though. I guess I'm just not used to endurance activities. Anyway, it was great to get some exercise and I'll definitely be going on some more CTC rides.


I was at the meeting point waiting for others to arrive for the ride and look who came trotting by - the guards for Buckingham Palace. It must have been time for the Changing of the Guard. It's so crazy the stuff that is "normal" when living in London.



Here's the Thames. We cycled on the South bank all the way to Kew Gardens which is in the west of London. The view was nice and relaxing with lots of people out walking, jogging and cycling.


We even passed a rowing competition! (It's so British!)

The English Countryside

Last Sunday, a couple of colleagues and I went on an all-day walk in the country. We followed one of the walks in the Country Walks book published by Time Out, which I fully intend to purchase so for anyone visiting me, I highly suggest we go on one of these walks so you can experience the amazing beauty of the English countryside.

We caught an early train from Victoria Station that took 45 minutes to take us to Borough Green. It drizzled rain almost all day, but I still had a great time. I'm SO glad we did this. It was just what I needed - fresh air, nature, and some good exercise. And I kind of like the rain anyway.

In England, they have ancestral paths that cut through people's property, and the people who own the property aren't allowed to prevent this. Our walk went along some of these ancestral paths. Some properties were very welcoming - we used their handy wood step to climb over their short fence and then it was just open field. And others were less welcoming, with fences on either side of the narrow path.

We walked through apple orchards with ripe apples falling off the trees, through wide open fields with flocks of sheep calmly grazing, past horses wearing rain-aprons, and down streets with storybook houses and beautiful English style "wild" gardens.




And past this mansion owned by a super-rich Arab, the book says.


I think he owns this "modest" garden too. It's crazy how rich some of the people in England are, but at the same time, it's great to be able to see this beauty and walk through it. You haven't really seen England if you haven't been to the idyllic English countryside, I say.


We walked around all day, only stopping for some lunch (and to try and dry off a little) before taking a train back from Seven Oaks. What an amazing day!