Day 4 in London..
Date: July 4, 2009
Checklist Item Crossed #11 — Buckingham Palace
A Change in Plans…
9.30am – Y woke me up. It’s a good thing she did or I would’ve overslept. I had planned to see the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace that morning. I was already running late. Showered, got dressed, no time for breakfast! 10.10am – Got a bottle of Evian at the shop downstairs, walked to the Underground station….oh, crud. I forgot my Oyster Card. Walked back to the apartment; 10.20am – Arrived at the Underground station, topped up my Oyster Card, then found out that the train wasn’t in service due to railworks on the Piccadilly line (dammit). Took the bus to Hammersmith, chatted with a nice but talkative London-based Sudanese lady who had gotten on at South Ealing with me; 11.20am – Hm…too late to go see the Changing of the Guards now — it was due to start in 10-20 minutes. Decided to mooch around the shops at Hammersmith station for awhile, then took a train to Piccadilly instead.
Checklist Item Crossed #11/12 — Lillywhites @ Piccadilly Circus/ PRIDE London Parade, Regent Street
12.30pm – Looked for the Liverpool home jersey for Rina’s brother at Lillywhites, a sportswear store at Piccadilly Circus (it turned out to be a size too small for him when I took it back to KL…); 1.15pm – Finally finished shopping at Lillywhites, it started to drizzle outside. Saw a small crowd gathering by the roadside just outside the store and realized that I was standing along Regent Street and that the PRIDE London parade (that’s the Gay&Lesbian parade, if you didn’t know..) was going to pass through. Oh, yay! I thought I was going to have to miss the parade, I guess it was a good thing the Buckingham Palace plan didn’t fall through after all! 
Also, I was lucky to be one of the earlier ones to be there because I got to be right up front at the barricades instead of having to fight for a good view with the crowd that was gradually growing all around. I could feel the nice cool English wind brushing against my bare arms; 1.45pm – Still waiting. It had stopped drizzling and was getting a bit warmer — was still glad that it was still slightly windy. Nice weather today! Crowd growing bigger; 2.15pm – The PRIDE London parade had finally arrived. It was my first live parade of any kind ever; 2.45pm – The parade was AWESOME!!! I saw Boy George too!!! 3.30pm – Parade ended, I’ve managed to exhaust my camera battery, the film rolls of *BOTH* my manual Kodak cameras (that I had purchased at the London Eye a few days earlier) and the space on my SIM card *AND* phone memory, having taken 200+ pics at the parade alone(!). Took a train to South Kensington, then onwards to NottingHill Gate.
Boy George in the middle!!
Checklist Item Crossed #13 — Portobello Market
4.30pm – Walked around the famous Portobello Market, bought souvenirs worth £40 — overspent my daily budget!! 
Plus, my camera battery had died halfway through the PRIDE parade, so I didn’t take any pics of the market. I still enjoyed just walking and window-shopping as I passed the hundreds of different stalls selling all kinds of stuff; 6.30pm – Bought a packet of Fish&Chips back for dinner. Still a long way back to Y’s place and feeling rather hungry, I decided to buy a Cheese Crepe and a bottle of Fanta to fill my tummy; 7.15pm – Got onto a bus at Hammersmith, got stuck in after-work traffic for an hour, watched people getting annoyed and restless. Ahh….it’s the same the world over (rolls eyes); 8.30pm – Finally arrived home, shared dinner with Y and her nice cat, Krazy (Kooky still scares me to this day!~) 10.30pm – Finished trying to pack (I wouldn’t have time to pack everything tomorrow night!), felt hot, took a shower; 12am – Sleep.
