Carnaby Street

I remember Carnaby Street being one of those hip shopping street. Located in Soho, I was surprised to see how much it changed since I last came here. Gone were shops selling hippie stuffs, collectors’ items and old record, and in came trendy wine bars, designer clothing and offices. It used to be a spot to get Beatles memorabilias in the years gone by.

One of the shop which caught my eyes was ‘David and Goliath’. The selection for boys T there was quite good, although there were not exactly cheap. After a couple more shops, it was time to go. With the nice sunny weather, I set out for Covent Garden via Piccadily Circus and Leicester Square. I’ll blog more about them later.

Day 3

The business part of Day 3 ended pretty early today. I actually enjoyed the first couple of session this morning, but the plenary lecture was a stop start affair. Some of the bits were really interesting but I left without being able to take much in. This was followed by a lunch debate, lunch being prawn sandwich and a banana, plus yoghurt.

The afternoon session would pretty much be the review of the posters, with prize giving at the end. The bulk of the Malaysian delegate decided to venture out to town. After the debate, I decided to do the same although much if my shopping list has already been sorted, well at least until I told Anita that I would be going out. Destination - Covent Garden, but first, lunch.

Edgwere Road

Should you be looking for Halal Food, you couldn't go wrong with Edgwere. Located near Marble Arch and Hyde Park, it was full of Arabs who moved here since the early 80s, establishing shops and the likes here. Malaysia Hall happened to be right around the corner from there, so, as student, once we god sick of the cafeteria food, that was where our destination was.

I was surprised when I was there yesterday on two fronts. First, the same old restaurants and shops were still there. The same kind of food, but instead of the usual old cafe, there were shisha bars here. I had my order of kebab - I should gave walked round the corner to a better one right opposite. I guessed I was too hungry then. None the less, the kebab was OK and it was real cheap.

Next surprise was beggars. Yes, I was not kidding. And they were all Arabic, some of them old mothers with small children, as well as old men, walking towards you, greeting you with Salam, making you really felt uncomfortable. There were several of them. Some of them started talking to me in Arabic, according to some Chinese friends, they only target Moslems. You would feel really awkward if you wee a Moslem, and one never expected Arab with their proud and oftentimes arrogant past to turn out this way.

I just ignored them, got on with my dinner and left the place. Should any of you venture to these areas, do expect beggars, and if you were a Moslem, expect them to approach you. And there were a few of them about.

Apple Store

As I mentioned earlier, I achieved one of my personal goal, which was to shop at an actual Apple Store. We were not talking about a local dealer a la Machines in KL or the lot, but an actual Apple Retail Store. Since the recent facelift, all the terminals came with an iPad for information of the product, answering all your query. Failing that, you just had to press a button, and one of the genius would come right over.

It was a Friday evening and I entered the store about 30 minutes before closing. The place was full and abuzz. The store I went to was the flagship for London. A two story, very posh outlet just outside Oxford Circus tube station, right along Regent Street, a quarter of the way down to Piccadilly.

Anita wanted me to buy her cases for her iPhone, and wanted it specifically made by Cath Kidston. I got her a couple although I was disappointed that the selection were limited as far as iPhone 4 was concerned. There were a few more to choose from if you have the older generation phones.

The important thing was, I actually visited a retail Apple Store, got the bills, and the carrier bag to go with it. I was content!

Day 2

We finally concluded the Conference program just after 5.30 pm. I have to confess that the last hour or so was an absolute agony. Some of the lectures were right over my head, and I can see delegates around me booting up their laptop to surf, or just simply nodded off. I caught up with today's notes and tried to decipher them, failing miserably. Enough brain wave for the I thought. Next plan, get dinner.

It was still bright outside when we caught the taxi back to the hotel. The non-Moslems decided to venture into Chinatown for a proper dinner. Myself and the other Malays in the group went for a kebab at Bayswater, and I decided to split up right after.

Sat in front of me was THE Jeff Szer, a prominent transplanter from Melbourne.Alone, I went to the Apple Store at Regent Street to get the iPhone sleeves Anita ordered. Lucky for me, I managed to get some. There you go. I made history of shopping at an actual Apple Store and being served by an actual Apple Genius!

Unfortunately, it started to drizzle outside. So I had to cut short my planned evening stroll around West End. There would always be tomorrow night of course.