blogging in the uk

it's thursday and it seems like i have lost a few days already. wow.

arrived safely in london late last night (very late!). i was in a (supposed to be) direct flight from loas angeles to london but unfortunately, our flight was diverted to new york city because of engine troubles.

i was in deep slumber when i heard the captain announce that we were already landing. i even made a comment to myself, 'that was fast!'. well, apparently not. something went wrong with the engines, they did not specify. it's good they didn't, or i would have panicked like crazy.

we landed at the jfk airport around 6 am, and our flight was re-arranged to leave at 9:00 am. that's three hours of my time wasted. so instead of arriving at the london heathrow airport at 2:40 pm, we arrived 7 hours late!

i took the heathrow express to paddington, and followed my friend's advice, to take the train to west ham, transfer to another line and alight at canning town. since it was already late (i cleared immigration around 10 something) some of the train lines weren't running anymore. boo-hoo. i ended up getting off at east aldgate. that's where i spent a lot of moolah calling my friend through their coin-eating parasites here (public phones). hate t-mobile for not activating my roaming service. hate their public phone system here for swallowing my pounds without even letting me make a freaking call. and who knew that public phones do not give change? hah. sigh.

bottomline, i took a cab from east aldgate to my friend's place on barking road. it took me around 15 minutes and 15 pounds. nice. the cabbie was kind, he was very chatty. i didn't mind chatting up with him. he kinda looked like beckham. hee.

staayed way up late chatting with charl and her p. slept around 3ish and woke up around 9 am. the masochist that i was, went to the waterloo international station (yes, the eurostar) to ask if they can do anything about my train ticket from london to paris and back.

since the french consulate was so efficient, my schengen visa would be released in the states on the 31st, while i have booked my train tickets for today, july 28! i still cannot get over this, even if i have been trying my darn best, just to be happy and excited with london, and probably edinburgh, glasgow, and belfast.

bottomline: they cannot refund my fare (almost £200), priceline refuses to refund the more than $300 i paid for my hotel accommodations in paris, and the french consulate had the gall toc harge me $44 for visa fees for that freaking visa i'll never have the chance to use in the first place. le sigh. charge to experience.

i've been going around london since this morning. i've been to the house of parliament, big ben, westminster abbey, buckingham palace and now i am inside an internet cafe in south kensington. nice. internet access is £1 for half an hour. gee. more updates soon.