Honeymoon in Europe : Day 11

Route : London

It was raining the night before and it was still drizzling when we woke up this morning. We were pretty lazy and so we 'nuah' a bit on bed. I've took yoghurt with cereals and toast for breakfast today since I've tried ham & cheese the previous morning.

The rain had stopped by the time we finished breakfast. It's shopping day ! I am such a happy gal. Though, everybody says everything is expensive in UK, but I still shopped and I spent wisely. Our first stop is definitely Primark. By the time, we are there at about 10.30am, there were already shoppers and there were like 10 people in front of me at the fitting room queue. It cleared fast because there are is more than 20 rooms in there and they don't limit the number of pieces you brought in to try. I ended up buying 3 tank tops at 1 pound each; a pair of gold mary jane ballerina shoes at 4 pounds; 3 bras at 4 pounds each; a black handbag at 6 pounds, 1 top at 4 pounds (I think); etc, etc...Together, we spent about 50 pounds at Primark.

Little did after meeting up with Yen, we were told Primark could sell so cheaply was because they had factories in poor countries and sort of abusing child labour.... how sad I was for a good 10 mins as my patronage to Primark encourages the company to abuse more of child labour ! But every Londoners and tourists are buying like nobody's business...so this made me least guilty...hee... Yen told us more that during Primark official opening on Oxford Street, people are so determined to lay their hands of the goods that women fought at the door and in the store for the merchandise.... aww.....awful...so kiasuism doesn't just happen in Singapore.....

Happily, we continued through Oxford Street visiting Marks & Spencers buying nice cookies and chocolates for colleagues at company and for ourselves....Bought a pair of black patent heels in Clarks. I was surprised by the designs they have. They are hip, trendy and fashionable without compromising comfort. Although the pair of heels is going to cost me 34.99 pounds, I still buy it. Because I cannot find such nice design in the Clarks in Singapore and I could do tax rebate so it should be well worth it. The sales assistance is also good in their service. They recommend suitable shoe protect for every pair of shoes you buy. But they never push the sale nor forwn when you reject.... How nice is that and they given me the confidence that they know what they are selling.....

Browsing through a few more stores and we were getting so tired from the walking and carrying the shopping bags that we decided to return to our comfy little room to rest. We also shopped until we forgotten to have lunch and we ended up 'tau pah' nice pasta from 1 of the eatries near our hotel. So happy I was that I admire my shopping again before packing them into my suitcase.

We were meeting Yen, her boyfriend Ben and Ben's childhood friend this evening for a game of live English soccer match. This is one of Alvin's biggest wish to accomplish on this trip and this is also 1 of the reasons why he seconded to go Europe. We are going to watch Tottenham Hotspurs Vs Everton at Hotspurs' homeground.

We met Yen at Liverpool Underground station as she is going to treat us dinner at one of the restaurants she worked. So Liverpool station is also the connecting station to switch to National Rail of London. This not not named after the Liverpool soccer team and also not where the Liverpool stadium is located. The National Rail will bring you to the suburbs of London city and probably greater London. This station is also like the Raffles Place MRT of Singapore. Liverpool station nested in the heart of The City of London's financial hub.

Many Tube stations of London were built plenty of years ago and some of them are really old rundown. They existed even when our dear father of Singapore , LKY, studied in London when he is a young adult. So you can imagine how old the stations are. There's no lifts, no escalater and no aircon in the trains...... This is one of the better maintained old station, Hotting Hill Gate station where we got off to switched lines....

Yen arrived at the Liverpool station and brought us to her restaurant, Leon, that served Mediterranean food. We had a full dinner just be having the 8, 9 types of different finger foods. We met up with Ben's friend at the National Rail platform to catch the train to White Hart Lane where Hotspurs' stadium is located. During the train journey, we chatted and got a big surprise from Yen ! Not only did I found out thet the lady we met on the day we arrived was Neo Swee Lin, Yen also know many theatre artistes in Singapore as friends. People like Emma Yong, Pam Oei, Hossan Leong, Sebastian Tan....YES ! SEBASTIAN TAN !!!!! etc etc and many more. She always meet up with all of them when she is back to SIN for holiday. Alvin and I was getting so excited, he for Hossan and me for Sebastian that we insisted Yen to return for next CNY and asked her to intorduce us to her frens... Ha ha ha.....She don't have the intention to return home for vacation for next CNY because she will going Brazil for holiday this December. However, we dangled carrots in front of her by promising to paid for her trip back.... the airport taxes !!!! Ha ha ha...Yen doesn't seem impressed by our 'kiam seap' gestured though...ha ha ha....

We knew we arrived at the station because many many people started to get off the train and we followed. You could see fans in all sort of attires.....in jerseys, sportswear, officewear in coat and tie, women in officewear and high heels..... The entrance to enter the stadium was so tiny that I have to practically squeeze in. This is done of purpose so that only 1 person can entered the stadium at a time and no one can take the opportunity to sneak in without a ticket. All drinks sold in the barcame in plastic bottles, so are beer. This is to prevent angry fans to throw the bottles around and hurt people. Though this don't often happen in English Soccer now as the authorities are so experienced that they know what to do for preventive measures.

We got good seats, front row, just at the corner kick edge... This seat cost us each 45 pounds. We actually couldn't get any tickets as public sales had been closed long time ago. We were lucky when the galfren of Ben's brother helped us with the tickets. She worked in one of the clubs of a team. The rain began to fall again and we could feel cold wind gust blowing at us. The match opened on time at 8pm with the commentator introducing the players from both teams through the giant TV screen......

...while the mascot of Hotspurs going around delivering his cheers and waves together with the young Hotspurs......

The match started soon after. The rain also got heavier as the match progressed. It came and go throughout the whole match.

Hotpsurs were not playing with all his might and very soon, Everton was awarded a free kick, and followed with a corner kick in a couples of minutes later.

Fans from both sides cheered, yelled, shouted or scolded with all their might whenever a goal is missed or silly mistakes were made. Tens of ushers were patrolling and monitoring the areas with their eagle eyes so that no fights were broke out. It was definitely exciting and safe.

Without realising the time, it was half time and the closing score was : Hotspurs 0, Everton 2. Much to the fans of Hotspurs dismayed as they were playing on homeground and should performed better. But they were not.

Hotspurs were finally awarded a corner kick when the match continued into the 2nd half of the game. We could see they were trying their best but with no luck.

Despites all efforts, Hotspurs didn't seem to be in their top best and the game score perched at Hotspurs 1, Everton 3, after 20 mins into 2nd half. By then, many Hotspurs fans were frustrated and angry, they left the game. We too, knwoing there would not be any twist of fate in the last 15 mins, we also left.

By this time, there were many polices outside the stadium with barricades and we were told by Ben that there were special exits for Hotspurs fans and Evrton fans which will lead to different rail stations. This is to prevent clashes and fights by the supporting fans from the 2 teams. I was impressed by the arrangement.

While we continued to walk back to the rail station, more polices were seen, some of them on horses. We soon were stopped by a queue. Looooooooong queue for people waiting to take the train. we obediently joined the queue. There were no room for jump queue as the polices on horses guarded these queues closely. They did not hesitate to tell those queue jumpers to move back to the end of the queue politely and sternly at the same time. Trains were specially arranged to stop longer at the station so that as many people can board the train as possible.

Double IMPRESSED. I am indeed very satisfied with such arrangement and crowd control by the police. There were not a stint of chaos at all. How I wished our authorities could learn fron the London police for such measures when dealing with events that handles thousands of people.

We returned back to Liverpool station and Ben drove Alvin and me back to our hotel before they proceed home.... The rain continued to drizzle. After a hot shower, we tugged under our cosy bed in our comfy little room and soon, we were in dreamland.