It seemed like no trip to London is complete without brunch at The Breakfast Club; as a first-time traveller to London, I naturally included that in our itinerary. We were there at about 11am and there was a queue of about three groups in front of us. The waiting time was about half an hour, which was pretty reasonable.

The Breakfast Club opening hours

We took the time while queuing to look at the menu and decide on our order.

The Breakfast Club menu

Notes from around the world (both written ones and those with monetary value) adorned the wall iin The Breakfast Club. Among those that I could recognise were renminbi, Hong Kong dollars, and of course, our very own Singapore dollars. And a random photo of Henry VIII ಠ_ಠ


We ordered one set of Panackes and Berries (£9.50 or SGD $18) to share. I'm sure we were judged for being stingy Asians because the table next to us ordered up a storm of two mains, one set of pancakes to share and a drink each. In our defence, we were on a budget!

The pancakes were good although I'm deliberating about whether it's worth the price. For SGD $18, I'm sure we can find better pancakes but I guess that's just how expensive London gets. The berries were so fresh compared to the ones we have in Singapore, which always taste slightly stale. I loved that the whipped cream wasn't coyingly sweet and paired well with the pancake.




After bunch, we continued our walk to Oxford Street, where London's biggest Primark is situated. We walked into many of these souvenir stores because both Cheryl and I collect magnets. We wanted to find the cheapest deal. Most of these stores sell magnets at about £3 (SGD $6) which we thought was an exorbitant price. Ended up getting our London magnets for only £1 — stay tuned to the location of the shop!




Thrift shops were a dime a dozen in London and, as budget travellers, we naturally gravitated towards them. Cheryl eventually bought a couple of items there. Compared to Singapore's thrift shops, London's has more variety with better known brands. Their sizes ran slightly bigger as well but since oversized clothes are all the rage now, there's no reason you shouldn't pop into these thift stores to take a look.





I considered getting this as a work bag but who am I kidding? I'll never use something as cheery as this. Also, I was in Europe so my biggest consideration was: does this provide easy access to pickpockets? Unfortunately, the answer to that was a resounding yes, so I left it on the shelf.


Since Cheryl got a jumpsuit, we could take photos at the photobooth inside Bershka.



Funny story time. People were distributing this TimeOut London magazine for free and being a kiasu Singaporean — but also mostly because I'm a journalism major and wanted to study the difference in magazines between London and Singapore — I wanted a copy of it. But Cheryl kept rejecting those copies out of habit akin to the way we say no to flyers in Singapore. As we were going down Topshop's second storey, I noticed it was lying near the escalator so I actually went up again to the second storey just for this magazine. I must be crazy...


London's architecture never ceases to amaze me. How can a normal H&M look so beautiful? And the fact that is this what Europeans see, and take for granted, everyday just blows me away.

An abomination of what they called Tinkerbell found in the Disney store

At long last! When I was interning at Singapore Airlines, I often hear the stewardesses mention this humongous store called Primark. they spoke of it as if it was a shopping destination of its own — in a way, it is. One of the biggest thing I missed about London (and most of Europe) was Primark. Oh, glorious Primark.


Unfortunately, we only had less than 30 minutes to shop because we were rushing to the Tower of London. God knows why didn't we schedule Primark for another day when the Tower of London was closing soon. Perharps the thought of Primark is enough to make one lose its mind. The most efficient way was to split up and meet at the entrance at a stipulated time. I went crazy in Primark. When Cheryl met me again, I was carrying a whole basket of items and mind you, the basket was about one third of my height.


It didn't help that I was very susceptible to novelty items. Cheryl made me put back half of my shopping basket anyway, and my wallet remains eternally grateful to her for not allowing me to be impulsive.


Navigating our way back to the hostel to grab our Tower of London tickets, which we stupidly forgot to bring out.


Took this photo because I was proud of acclimatising quickly in addition to having zero jetlag. But London's weather is erratic and I found myself shivering by nightfall.