Today, I went to 8 apartments looking for a permanent roof for the next 10-11 months for my stay here. It was nice to see all these apartments and compare them. I did not take pictures of most of them as the agents have printed them off but there were some agents who did not prepare anything.

My requirements are pretty much simple which is the location needs to be near the city center, it must be equipped with a washing machine with dryer, microwave oven, stove, dish washer and all kitchen utensils. I do not intend to furnish it myself as one year will be just a wink of an eye and I will be stuck with the problem of trying to get rid of the furniture.

Well, here are some pictures that I have taken today.

Typical Living Room

My Fave Bicycle Racks or Hooks?

Kitchen

I found the apartment that I like which overlooks the Southampton Walls and have views of both side of the building which I am going for a second view tomorrow.

Cheers.

If you know me personally, you will know that I am gifted to be quite hairy for your regular asian kid. Some culture believe that it measures the manliness which I couldn’t agree more. Well, everything has its ups and downs.

It is regular occurences that I get myself to close to a flame and get the hair on my arm or hands burned. Just brushing near a fire will wipe out my hair. I usually don’t realize it until I smell burning hair and once I found the area of disaster, it always looks like a site that has gone through a forest fire. The hair will twirl back.

This is the picture of the damage after I got myself to close to the flames on the stove.

Burnt Hair

Recovering from the third degree burn pain (yeah rite), I still manage to cook up a brilliant meal. Well, tons of people have told me boiling pasta till they cook ain’t cooking but I beg to differ. Here are some of the other variations that I have prepared over the few days.

Pasta with Irish Stew

Pasta with Chicken Meatballs

Cheers!

I went out later today then as planned to further explore the city. I was a bit tired yesterday which explains my early return to the crib. The good thing about today’s venture was that I return with a map that I bought from the Tourist Information Center. I also took a chance to snap a couple of pictures of the tourist spots.

One Of The Many Titanic Memorials

Titanic set sail from Southampton on its maiden journey which resulted in a lot of memorials scattered around the city in the memory of those who lost their lives. The main city of Southampton is also surrounded by an ancient wall and is well preserved.

Walking Next To The Southampton Walls

I came across the Archaeology Museum and popped in. The Museum is free and I believe is a part of the walls which will give you a good feel on how it is to be inside it.

Archaeology Museum

Having a chat with the nice lady at the Tourist Information Center also made me realize there are free weekly guided tours along the Southampton walls. It starts at 10.30 a.m on Sundays and the meeting location is at Bar Gate as pictured below:

Bar Gate

I will be joining the walking tour next week and stay tune for my blog post about it.

Cheers.

Finally, the weekend that I have been waiting for has arrived. I have so much exploring to do and I seriously need to stock up on food.

I was trigger happy with my camera when I started my journey to the city center and here are some of the pictures:

Outside My Apartment

The Street

A Random Ship

I spend quite a while in the City Center especially in ASDA on buying food.

Here are a sneak peak to what I have been cooking up (heating up instant stuff realy but I cooked the pasta!!!) and eating.

Pasta & Chicken Curry

Pasta With Sweet & Sour Chicken

The next in my Menu includes Meatballs in Tomato Sauce and also Irish Stew… Yummy!

Cheers,

bennyong

I am starting to get a bit frustrated with getting my O2 sim card replaced. It is so complicated that I would spare you the details. Well, luckily I received a free Orange sim card that I ordered a couple of days back in the post today. This means, I can finally have my new UK number after my previous one went dead on me.

Word of advice, that if you are in the UK and would require a sim card, order it for free instead of paying £9.99 in the shops to get them. All you need is a valid UK address to post it to. I am not sure if they send it to hotels or offices but my two previous encounters of staying in a service apartment works fine. This post is also useful for students.

Here are a couple of links which are valid at the time of posting for you to order your free Prepaid (Pay As You Go) Sim Cards:

1) 02 Sim Cards (Request Up to 4 Cards Max)

2) Orange Sim Cards (Request Up to 4 Cards Max)

3) Vodafone Sim Cards (1 only)

4) T-Mobile Sim Cards (2 Sim Cards)

5) Virgin Mobile Sim Cards (1 Sim Card)

After receiving your sim cards, you will need to activate them by usually simply calling a toll free number and later putting in some credit to your phone. The good thing about Pay As You Go sim cards is that you do not have to sign any contracts and may terminate it whenever you wish.

Having your UK sim cards will avoid you paying expensive roaming charges with your home country mobile.

I hope the tip above is helpful to anyone who needs a UK mobile number and be able to save up some cash while being in the UK.

Cheers,

Benny Ong

Read the title? Well, not exactly but if you would consider buying a pre-marinated packed of Chicken Wings from Tesco meant to be oven cooked and putting it in the microwave instead; it is fair to say that I have cooked up a meal indeed. Here is a picture of what it turned out to be:

“Yummy!”

The verdict, it taste suprisingly superbly good. I did not finish everything but will keep the rest for dinner the day after.

Well, that’s all for now and I better go shower and get ready for bed.

Cheers!

Today, I set out to conquer a mission that many have said was impossible. Well, I decided to walk to the office after getting fed up with the taxi costs. So, I confidently started my journey with the bus map in my mind after seeing in on the website. If I can’t get directly to the office, I would be more than happy to settle for a bus ride.

So, I left at 8.30 a.m. and aim to reach the location at 9.30 a.m latest. I walked along the path by back tracking the journey the cab took to fetch me home last night. After about 30 mins of walking, I got myself to a dead end. Well, not a dead end exactly but there was no longer a footpath next to the highway. I wouldn’t be that crazy to risk myself getting run down.

So, I took a diversion which led me to the Central Train station and although there were several bus stands scattered around, I found the one I wanted but the next available bus is coming in 30 minutes. My overjudgement of the matter as buses run like every 15 mins in London but not in Southampton. I ended up taking the cab to get in the office on time.

Well, if you are wondering that I walked back from the office. The answer is no because it was to dark and cold. Plus feeling tired and drained was to helpful as well.

I managed to go out during lunchtime whereby I wonder around the city center. They have all my favourite stores in one place, H&M (I use to work there), Primark (Damn Cheap Trendy Clothes), Argos (I just like browsing through their catalogs), WHSmiths (Where All My Fave Web Design Magazines are available!!!), ASDA (Cheaper Tesco Alternative) & The Works (Love buying cheap books).

I also did a tour of the Southampton office and the site plus I manage to see the old factory which is vacant now due to it shutting down.

Side tracking a bit, my UK mobile sim card died on me a week before I got here (The irony!!!) and I tried to reactivate it today but was told I will have to say goodbye to the number. Well, this could be a good start to adapting to change but we will see.

Cheers,

Bennyong

P/S: I can’t wait for the weekend to start exploring at my own pace.