Sat
Hitched a few rides on the open-top buses of the Big Bus Company; went on (another) tour of the City of London and Westminster... around London Bridge, Tower Bridge etc etc, London Eye, Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus, St Paul's Cathedral, etc etc... bringing my parents and my sis around... feeling like a tour guide...
Simple Japanese dinner in Chinatown...
Sun
Went on the near-3 hours' journey down south-west to Winchester to visit my cousin Justin who's studying at Winchester College... went on (also another) tour of the little town of Winchester and the Cathedral, as well as the College. Mom was impressed...
Dinner at Shanghai Knightsbridge; my 9-year-old sis Jane was so tired that she fell sound asleep in her chair.
Mon
Skipped the second lecture, only to go with my Jane to the Natural History Museum... I've been there so many times that I hardly need the map anymore... we took 3 hours to complete two exhibits... Jane reads almost each and every word on the panels! Quick lunch at the Earth Galleries Cafe, then... went back to the hotel to send my dad off... who left for Zurich for some business matters.
Mom, Jane and I made our way to the famous Madame Tussauds wax museum... spent some time there admiring the life-like figures and taking pics with the celebrities... they look so real! That area's also home to Arthur Conan Doyle's character Sherlock Holmes... there's a Sherlock Holmes Museum but we were too late and didn't make it for the last admission for the day.
ICSS had a CNY dinner tonight... but since my family's here, I didn't go. Heard it's really good though - especially the dessert.
Tues
Skipped the second lecture again. Went to Buckingham Palace to witness the Changing of the Guards ceremony (which, unfortunately, did not take place due to the poor weather... but we did manage to see two little parades of the Queen's Guards and the Horse Guards).
The Cell Biology tute with Dr Lamb in the afternoon wasn't as boring as expected... but it was more of an English lesson than anything else... complete with 'worksheets' for us to 'spot the errors' made in English grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure etc. Dr Lamb is a good mentor... and from what I heard he really cares for his students... but I just wished he wasn't so egoistically occupied with his seemingly-perfect command of the English language.
We managed to secure tickets for the West End's The Lion King, one of the musicals which I've been wanting to watch... so... that happened in the evening. It was not bad! A colourful performance... engaging music... and it follows Disney's original animated film so closely that the scenes and dialogue are almost the same, 'cept for a few extra songs. It was interesting to see how they staged certain sequences.
Wed
Mom and I decided at breakkie that I'd wag the whole day's lectures. So... in the morn... shopping around Knightsbridge... got me some new clothes. Just in time for CNY.
Had a humble McDonald's (good 'ole Maccas... or Macadees... or whatever) lunch... sat around in the hotel room for a while... then my mom and sis walked me back to my hall... and said our good-byes there. They'd fly to Zurich to meet up with my dad, and head back to S'pore in a few days. Poor Jane was crying all the way... from the hotel to my hall... and from my hall back to the hotel and to the airport... and on the plane also... asked if I would go back again in March. Aww... I dunno.
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