The Happy Oyster

Tap! Tap! Tap 'n Go with the Oyster card!
It's one of the things Londoners do. Keep one in your wallet and it makes you feel that the 'world is your oyster'! naa...not really. (you dont' have to believe everything that I say! ;) )

Really what it does is, it allows you to top- up money to travel across all transport systems in London, namely the London Underground, the buses, DLR (Dockland Light Railway), trams and some boats and upto stations on the National Rail services which are in London.

All you need to do is tap it at the barricade machine (I don't know what that device is called. This is my best description of it) in the station and it records your entry. When you exit, you have to tap it again at the barricade machine and it will deduct the cost of the journey automatically.
Also, mind you, there is no other way out. If you have tapped 'in', you have to tap 'out'.

The best part is that these cards can be topped up at any local cost-cutter, convenience stores or newsagent shops at the counter for no cost.

I used to go to a local newsagent at Amen Corner in Tooting, South london, as the gentleman was a nice 'Patel Uncle' (as I called him). There are a lot of Patels in London (they are a certain Gujarathi community) and they are very enterprising by nature. My parents loved having conversations with him when they visited me. Also, with the remaining change left after the top- up, by default,  I would buy a Bounty chocolate and eat it on the way while walking to the station :)

The London thing to do before stepping out of the house

Peri Peri

This is my favvvv restaurant in London. Strange that this comes from a vegetarian! Nandos is a portuguese restaurant specializing in lemon and herb flavoured chicken. Nandos is popular for its extra- spicy Peri Peri sauces. Although the only thing I could eat there is the Veggie Burger, the Peri Peri fries and unlimited coke, I love the ambience of the place, the posters and the Peri- Peri story written on the wall. Nandos is also known to have very controversial adverts. They have almost more than 200 outlets across UK. They also have a fannnnnnntasticccccc website. Very very creative! Check out www.nandos.com. I zzimply lovveeeee ittt!!! It's Peri Peri good!

Found this grafitti on the wall! i like :)

Nimrod road on a winter morning on my way to uni

I kept drawing smileys on the snow settled on the cars all the way to my bus stop :)

One of the windy days in London

Chop!

So Ian, my tutor from the corporate branding class thought it would be interesing to take us out for lunch to a Japanese restaurant, since we had one chinese and one Japanese classmate. What better place than Wagamama! So in we went! And I was pretty kicked about eating with chop-sticks. I hadn't started eating non-vegetarian food as yet, so thankfully, the waitress promised to fix me a veggie version of a coconut-based noodle soup, which by-the-way, came with a pair of chopsticks instead of a soup spoon! How the hell does one drink coconut soup with chopsticks huh? We all had a good laugh and just for kicks, I made an attempt after which I finally had to ask for a spoon!