oRion

Can't believe that this is alrdy the second last night of my stay in London!!

N I m beginning to miss .. miss the freedom; the space I have and to some extent, the weather!!

 

N to be able to catch up with good buddies here whom I hardly have the chance to meet and ain't from Sg is certainly cool..

 

On the other hand, I also can't wait to get home!! haha.. contradicting..

 

I must say my weekend trip to Paris is just amazing. To my surprise and perhaps to the disbelief of some, I kinda like Paris, quite alot!

Impressed with the cleanliness (compared to Ldn); city planning; the parisian architecture and the way the French live- relaxing by the fountain reading a book.. Seems like my ideal Sunday which never materialise in humid sunny little dot (Cant imagine reading a book at Suntec FOuntain of Wealth). 

 

A repeat trip to France is a definite on my next destination list!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another weekend.. almost gone.. I must say time really flies.. 

And something I found out about London is.. they have nice architectures!!

 

N they have greater plans to build more stunning buildings.

 

Some of my personal likings incl.. the redevelopment of the British Museum's Great Court ; The Gherkin and The London City Hall - all bearing Norman Foster's name. 

 

and not forgetting the latest cbd in london - Canary Wharf. Then again, the commonality between these buildings is they are built using glass and steel. One said its a guy's thing to like such buildings.. it could well be true.. :D

 

 

 yeap.. dinner dinner.. can be a chore.. i don't mean eating

BUT thinking of what to eat.. where to buy the rawies.. cooking instructions.. n worse of all, cleaning up!!

 

Kudos to my mum whom without fail cook for me since the day I started terrorising her (n maybe others, I hope not)..

 

N today.. after loitering tesco (local supermarket), I decided to not COOK anything fanciful (btw, I dont)

NOthing fanciful but taste superbly.. I dare you to challenge!

 

Indomee.. with sausages and egg!

Finished off with HOT milo and apple..

 

Yummx..

Here comes a new week.. weekend was never long..

But had a great day out on Saturday.. Thanx to Ewei for playing host despite her busy schedule.

 

Sightseeing along the not-so-good-looking River Thames, to the magnificent Tower Bridge, to the impressive London City Council building, to the overhyped Tower of London and to the movie-made famous Nottinghill and Portobello Market. Shopping at Oxford circus and Piccadilly is always a challenge for me - a challenge to not get lost in the jungle of shops. Dining at the famous Four Seasons was a repeat, as I hvnt tasted such yummy roast duck (not even in Singapore) for a long time.. Worth a try if you hvnt try it yet (but never ask me to get a roast duck back to sg!) London is said to be the mecca for clubbing and I've tried it. NOthing great, but again its too soon to concur as I believe the club I went to was probably the lousiest in London. haha..

 

Some shots to share..

ahh ha.. delivering the second piece since my blog's resurrection..

 

11 days here in Ldn.. n just 2 days ago, I PROUDLY celebrated my 1year anniversary in my present company!! (to the surprise of many.. ) haha..

 

Alas I am getting used to life here.. slping past midnight (about 7+ am in sg like now!), struggling to wake up in the morning and can't wait to get off work each day.. haha..

 

SO what have I been up to over the last weekend.. to the usual places - Convent Gardens; Chinatown; Picadilly Circus; Oxford St.; Knightsbridge.. done heaps of walking especially when I got lost!! Lost in London! Well, not exactly lost, just took the wrong buses, ended up at areas where there are no direct buses to get home and I have to walk a distance to the right bus stop.. lol..

 

n yeah! I visited the museum too.. The British Museum! Fantastic architecture with the Great Court designed by Lord Norman Foster.. definitely worth a visit.. I've attached some pixs..

 

Enjoy..

 

 

Its been a long long while since I last wrote.. a site almst forgotten..

Let me try to get this back to life.. and see how long it will go on for.. ahaha

 

Wanna make a bet? I think.. at least 5posts.. hMm..  or more?

 

This is my 1,2,3,4.. 5th day in London..

A place where everywhere else in europe is experiencing heatwave except here - flood flood and more flood.

A place where its Radio and TV stations desperately need a revamp..

 

Well, not everything here is bad. At least my apartment is decent.

 

5days.. n it seems like I hvnt done much here! Of cz I wasnt referring to work, I believe I have worked hard! :p

I believe..

 

Gonna get on the streets tmr and prob do a little of those touristy stuff..

 

meantime, pixs of my dainty apartment.. mine for 30 over days only..

 

 

Christopher Wong

One (SINGAPORE)

SO whats Whiteband day?!

Whiteband Day falls on 17th October which has been declared by the UN as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty since 1993. Whiteband signifies the campaign's symbol and expression of solidarity against poverty. The simple gesture of wearing it puts forth your support in the call for action to eradicate poverty.

 

C'mon! Join the ONE voice and stand in support of the world's poverty to MAKE POVERTY HISTORY!

 

 

 

 

Its been a week after slumping into london working hours.. my weekend don't seem to end till Monday 4pm and a typical working day don't seem to end anytime before 2am.. Bedtimes at 4am are now considered early, sometimes I just wonder if this is an utter depletion of my youth or a blessing in disguise.  

Honestly, I do feel the bond btw myself and a few colleagues as we made fun of one another at odd hours and encouraged each others to spur on. I also appreciate the times when colleagues get together on late nights after work till the early mornings.. Perhaps, this is the positive side of the coin to working ldn hours??

Then again, I really do not know how much I can cajole myself to adjust to these horrendous graveyard hours especially come 30th Oct, I will start wrk at 5pm and end no earlier than 3am.. Having said all these, I still miss my evenings out..

 

"Mr Olaru Ottunu, former United Nations under Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict received the Sydney Peace Prize in November, 2005 and delivered an impressive lecture which led to a standing ovation. In his lecture entitled Saving the Children from the Scourge of War, he explained why the children are the primary victims of armed conflict as both the targets as well as instruments. Children, as targets because in the midst of armed conflicts, they are killed, maimed, deprived of education and healthcare as well as scarred with emotional trauma. Children as instruments because they are uprooted from homes, recruited and used as child soldiers – combaters; spies and even sex slaves. There is a need to protect children because they represent the hopes and futures of every society and apparently, these hopes and futures seemed to be heading towards maximum destruction.

 

Mr Olaru has led an UN-based campaign to mobilize international action on behalf of children exposed to war, promoting measures to protect children. His hard-fought efforts finally led to the UN Security Council adopting the Resolution 1612 which endorses a series of measures to institute a serious, formal and structured compliance regime for the protection of children exposed to war. This Resolution 1612 served as a fundamental for the need of international public campaign for compliance. On his own initiative, Mr Olaru is establishing a new independent organisation – LBL Foundation for Children devoted to the providing hope, healing and education for children in communities devastated by war. It is certainly admirable to hear that he has used the prize money he received from the Sydney Peace Prize and from another Prize (German Africa Prize) as seed money for this new foundation.

 

Midway through his lecture, he drew our attention to what he described as the worst place on earth to be a child today – Northern Uganda which coincidentally is Mr Olaru’s birthplace. In his words, the human rights catastrophe unfolding in northern Uganda is a methodical and comprehensive genocide. An entire society is being systematically destroyed – physically, culturally, socially and economically – in full view of the international community. Further statistics left me deeply astonished and anguished with the magnitude of prolonged destruction. 2 million people displaced into concentration camps which are massively congested with poor sanitation and rampant with diseases; leading to 50,000 deaths every year; 2 generations of children have been denied education and 41% of children who are under 5 have been seriously stunted in their growth. HIV/AIDS has also became a deliberate weapon of mass destruction as soldiers tested positive for HIV are deployed to the north with the mission to commit havoc on girls and women. No one can imagine how fast the rate of HIV infection has accelerated exponentially. This tragedy in Northern Uganda has gone on for 20 years under the regime that is sinfully practicing genocide, practically seeing the destruction of a society and a civilization.

 

Urging world leaders to uphold their declaration of the “Responsibility to Protect” and not succumb to dirty politics as he felt the betrayal was painful especially when it comes from those who are in a position to raise their voices and to act but have instead joined in a conspiracy of silence, adopting a policy of “We see no evil, we hear no evil”. In concluding his lecture, Mr Olaru used this address to make an urgent appeal to the leaders of the western democracies to review their continued sponsorship and support for a regime that is presiding over the genocide of its own people; to take action and stop the genocide in Uganda."