London Day Two, 2014

I hate jetlag almost as much as I hate blogging on an iPad. While Kenneth and Celine managed to get a full night's sleep, I was able to sleep for ad grand total of an hour!  So I was up till the dark blue sky washed into a pale grey and a steady drizzle tapped on my window.

Ken, Celine and I headed to Costa Coffee for breakfast and then to Folyes bookstore, my favourite bookstore in London! After that I took the tube to lunch with my Agents: Jay, Helen and Andrea. 

It's always great catching up with the wonderful ladies of Jacaranda and it was really nice meeting Steve Barron, Ng Yi Sheng and. Michael Jenkins and everyone.

I had a really good time and we discussed our projects and is had to talk about the new book and Emma's current project.  We'll be catching up again over the next few days at the London Book Fair.

The rest of my photos are in my camera and I'll only be able to download them once I am back home.

Oh and I had one of the best fish and chips I've ever had. Yum!!!

After lunch, Emma and I walked back to the hotel and checked in on Ken. I had been fading steadily since lunch and  as soon as I hit his couch , my eye lids felt like they weighed ten tonnes and gravity finally took hold.

They flipped back open when Ken sympathetically -not- snapped: "Don't fall asleep on my couch!" He kindly invited me for a roast beef dinner at his cousin's house but I was just too tired and headed back to my room and promptly passed out.

And guess what? I'm back up again!! Well, I'm going to try to get some sleep now. Till tomorrow! 

London Day One, 2014

So my journey to London was quite an eventful one. Mum and Dad offered to give me a lift to the airport at 6:30am so I could check in by 7am for my 9 am flight. As you can see by the photo below I did make my flight with Auntie Susanna, Mika, Kenneth and Celine (not pictured) several obstacles had to be overcome first.

1. We had left the house when Mum asked if had my passport. I replied that I had but just to be sure I checked only to discover I did not. Panic ensued and Dad u-turned back home. I made a frantic rush back to my room and, thankfully, it was by my printer!

2. We left for the airport once again  and the heavens opened unleashing blankets of rain. We could hardly see in front of us. Dad missed the turning to the expressway to the airport and we drove around before his car started breaking down. We made it to a petrol station near home and tried to call a cab to no avail.

3. My big brother came to the rescue and he drove to the station to pick me up. Thanks, Kor. Once we were off, I realised I left my heavy jacket in the car. He u-turned back to get it and then we floored it to the airport. Auntie Susanna, Ken, Mika and Celine were already there and we checked in and boarded the flight with time to spare. 

4. I was hoping for a smooth flight but three hours in, in the middle of breakfast service, the plane hit turbulence and an airpocket. Someone screamed and I gripped Auntie Susanna's hand till I practically cut off her circulation. thanks Auntie Susanna!

5. We landed at around 4pm and Auntie Susanna, Ken and Mika were met by Auntie Susanna's sister, Auntie Dolly and her daughter, Kim. They looked really happy to catch up again. 

6. While Miks and Auntie Susanna went off with Kim and Auntie Dolly. Ken,Celine and I headed to our hotel before going to Earl's Court Exhibition Centre to check out the Singapore Pavilion at the London Book Fair. It looks good even though it's still under construction. 

Kenneth then headed to catch up with Auntie Susanna and Mika while Celine and I opted for a fish and chips takeaway dinner before calling it a night. Sadly not much sleep was to be had by me. I hate Jetlag!  

Stay tuned for day two.

London Day Four

Sorry for the delay...but things got rather busy when the fair started. Celine and Kenneth spent most of Sunday making sure that the Singapore Pavilion was set up to perfection and it's needless to say it was, because let's face it it was and there's no bias here. Shiuan, Michelle from the National Arts Council of Singapore and all the publishers were there too and then it was off to the hotel to get ready for the first day of meetings!!

After a dinner of king prawn fried rice from Golden Dragon, I knocked off to sleep only to wake up again at 2am. I managed to go back to sleep a few hours later and I got up in time at 6am to get ready for my first day at the fair. I wanted to look intellectual or at least seem intellectual so I decied to don a bow tie after learning how to tie one on youtube. I ended up looking more nutty than dapper.

The first order of the day was to head for breakfast...I was starving, so I grabbed a bacon and sausage bap and a juice. I had barely scarfed it all down (it's a miracle that I didn't spill anything on myself) when my phone rang: it was Enrico, letting me know he had arrived. "Can't talk long, it's costing me lots of money I said. "look for the Singapore Pavilion.

My bacon and sausage bap

Figuring it would take Enrico some time to find me, I wandered around a bit before making my way back to the pavilion. By the time I got there Enrico was there waiting for me...I don't know why I was under the impression that he was directionally challenged but he is not.

We had time to head back to the hotel to drop off his luggage before our meetings. We arrived back at the exhibition hall with minutes to spare before our first meetings. We had a break for lunch before our next meetings so Enrico and I headed up for the less crowded cafeteria. Now I understand why they were less crowded - it's cos they were more expensive!

I have to say that it was quite exhausting walking around the halls and it was nice that the organisers arranged for masseurs to massage the sore muscles of the attendees, but the massages weren't for free- they were charging ten pounds per session.

Enrico at the Singapore Pavilion

At  the Singapore Pavilion

Shiuan, Rosaline and Michele

The Singapore Delegation

Anyway the day ended with a networking night and I met up with some members of  SCBWI UK, including Candy Gourlay and Anita Loughrey.

With the first day of the fair over, Enrico and I headed to Chinatown for dinner, and what Enrico did not know was that I had planned a little post dinner adventure for the both of us.

London Day Two

After only a few hours of sleep I awoke and unpacked and tidied up a bit before I decided to try to go back to sleep. Celine, Ken and I decided to head to Costa Coffee for some breakfast before they headed to the exhibition centre to check out the Singapore Pavilion and I headed to Daunt Books Chelsea to drop off 30 of my books for sale on Tuesday night, which is when I'll be apart of a panel discussing Singapore Literature.
We met up at Daunt before We set off to Leicester Square as we were going to watch Mark Haddon's Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night -Time

Celine attacking her lunch

With some time to kill - Ken and I headed to the National Portrait Gallery while Celine headed to the museums of consumer spending. Then it was time for lunch! Ken spotted a reasonably priced steak restaurant so we all ordered the same thing and choked down, it was good!!

Kenneth savouring his.

My lunch and I

So with our stomachs satisfied we went in search of the theatre and thank goodness no one listened to my directions otherwise might have ended up in Vauxhall or Shoreditch.

The play -quite simply like the book-is brilliant! Luke Treadaway is an amazing actor and the show will keep you spell-bound even when you are suffering third degree jet lag, This is one show you definitely have got to watch when you're in London.

My friends Gee Yung and Chris arranged to meet up after the show and we all enjoyed a nice dinner of tapas. Then they had to dash of for a show of their own but not before we arranged to meet up for Sunday brunch.
Then the three of us checked out a comic book shop before taking the tube back to Earl's Court for our second night in town. Our trip's moving along faster than I would like. In less than a week we'll be back in Singapore.

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