peterkim blog

I had a pretty full day today. My Saturdays have become sorta routine in that I’ll spend the morning out shopping for stuff I need for the flat, then spending the afternoon exploring London. I went to IKEA on both of the last two Saturdays so it was nice not to have to go to IKEA this Saturday (I sorta miss the 95p English breakfast though).

Last Saturday, I went to Surrey Quays to check out a Cuban festival. There were a ton of people there. It turned out to be more a celebration of a bunch of African and Carribean cultures. It wasn’t that interesting walking around by myself so I left after just being there for about ten minutes. I caught a random bus that I knew was headed towards Central London (I like getting on buses and sitting in a front row seat on the top; it’s a great way of really getting to see the different neighborhoods in London). The bus went through some neighborhood that had a bunch of streets named after stuff in Canada. I could see Canary Wharf in the distance (which I still haven’t visited yet but want to). The bus then went through Rotherhithe—a friend from church in NY who married a Brit and has lived in London commented on my Facebook photo to ask what the heck I was doing in Rotherhithe. I guess there really is no good reason to go there. I got off at Waterloo and walked by County Hall, walked over Westminster Bridge, got some good photos of the London Eye and Big Ben, then went home.

County Hall:

County Hall and the London Eye:

Yes, I was in Rotherhithe:

The Saturday before that (June 21st), I wandered aimlessly through Central London. For some reason, I always find myself going towards Leicester Square, the place I actually least want to be. Anyway, here are some photos from that day.

This tow truck actually picks up the car to put on the truck:

Neal’s Yard in Covent Garden:

Finally, about today. I had a bit more of a plan. I went to Argos in the morning to buy something for the bathroom. Argos is weird. I don’t know if other cities had this chain, but in Chicago, there was something called Service Merchandize. I think Service Merchandize actually had a showroom but basically you walk around, figure out what you want, then give the list of things you want to the cashier. They ring it up then send in the request; you wait for some stockboys to get it from the shelves and put it on the conveyer belt for you to pick up.

Argos is sorta similar but even more weird. They don’t even have a showroom so you can’t actually look at what you’re buying before you pay for it. The public area of the store is basically a bunch of rows of booths that each have a massive 1000+ page catalog that lists all the products they sell. When you figure out what you want, you punch it into a stock checker thingy; then if they have it in stock, you write the catalogue number on the piece of paper and take it to the cashier. Then you wait for them to get your purchased items. For the first couple of weeks I was in London, I really tried hard to avoid Argos because I really like being able to actually see and touch the products I’m potentially going to buy. But it sorta become unavoidable; Argos has a lot of stuff that’s pretty hard to find elsewhere and has reasonable prices too. So since then, I’ve been going to Argos and I guess I’ve just gotten used to it.

Anyway, I went back home to drop off the stuff, then went out with a plan. No aimless wandering today. Or that was the plan. I went to my real estate agent’s office to take care of some errands, then walked through Shepherd’s Bush Market. This market is sorta more geared towards the working-class local population that lives around Shepherd’s Bush. (aka it’s not like the yuppie touristy markets you’ll find in Central London). Lots of Halal food that looked and smelled good—I already had lunch so I didn’t get anything, but next time… I also stopped by a pet store and saw some hamsters.

Shepherd’s Bush Market entrance:

The Time Out London book highly recommended the Wellcome Collection so I took the tube to from Goldhawk Road to Euston Square on the Hammersmith and City line. The Wellcome Collection basically has a bunch of random stuff related to this guy named Henry Wellcome. He started a pharmaceutical company so he was really interested in biology and anatomy. But apparently he also had a strong interest in archaelogy so he sponsored some excavations in Sudan. Anyway, the museum had some weird stuff like old artificial limbs, Napoleon’s toothbrush (it’s amazing how the fundamental design of the toothbrush hasn’t changed since then), and human torture chairs. I don’t know if I share Time Out London’s glowing review of the place but heck, it was free and I’d say it’s worth the trip out there.

Wellcome Collection building:

I made my way down to the area near where the British Museum is. There was some street festival going on which was neat. A Korean restaurant was selling some food on the street as a part of the festival but they were selling both Korean and Japanese food. I think because there aren’t so many Korean people here, they have to do both Japanese and Korean in order to make money. Kinda sad but I guess that’s pretty common in places with small Korean populations. I walked to a Korean grocery store, then walked to Chinatown to get a pastry. During this walk, there were a whole bunch of gay people walking around because today was the London Pride parade. I tried to avoid the crowds (not because they were gay but because I just don’t like massive crowds). I went to Trafalgar Square and noticed a lot more flaming gay people; there was live music and lots of booths set up promoting gay causes. I stopped in the National Portrait Gallery for a little bit to get another museum in for the day, then came back out to check out the London Pride celebration.

London Pride celebration:

I went home, had dinner, then took the bus to Notting Hill to watch My Winnipeg. The movie was showing at the Gate Picturehouse. Pretty neat theatre. I like being able to drink alcohol during the movie. The seats were also nice and plush. Overall, a really classy theatre—I think that’s the best way to describe it. Movie was good. There was a trailer for The Visitor; it really made me miss New York. Even though I’ve only been in New York City for a year, I feel really attached to it. Got out and took the 28 bus back to Kensington Olympia.

The wife comes on Thursday so I’m looking forward to sharing some of these adventures with her. We’ve booked a couple of weekend trips to Dublin and Paris and we’re considering an extended trip to Morocco or some other relatively exotic place. We also need to visit some other parts of England like the Lake District or Wales.