Easy. Have a smartphone and a data plan. Your life is saved. Is it? True… and false. 1. Get Citymapper Luckily, London has one of the most accurate GPS tracker. So your connected smartphone can know exactly where you are. Postal codes in London also work very well. No need to remember all the lengthy…
Vietnamese Students: Going Abroad to a Comfort Zone?
“Oi, no more talking about Vietnamese students abroad and their decisions to return or not,” you may be saying. It is already as old as the hills, and still recently found its way to go viral all over the social media among us Vietnamese people who used to be, have been, or simply care enough…
Bar Italia — A Soho Corner with Mojo
“This coffee shop is very small but what goes on in there is as big as the world.” — Dave Stewart For twelve years now, since I became a fan of Pulp’s Different Class, I have told myself to get here one day. And I made it today. What is this cafe like to get written grittily…
The Telegraph: A Visit to Remember
“If someone is seen carrying a copy of The Daily Telegraph, three things could be told about him or her. That he or she is educated, articulate, and opinionated,” said the man who guided us through the visit to a highly successful newspaper business in the UK. And it pretty much summed up a better…
#SyriaVote, Social Media, and My Friend
Last night the House finally passed the Syria airstrike proposal by Prime Minister David Cameron and the Tory after a lengthy debate against the opposite side represented by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. On Facebook hashtags #SyriaVote or #DontBombSyria have become the most viral. Many of my friends have joined the protest against bombing Syria along with numerous people either…
Coningsby Gallery
Coningsby is a small and cosy Contemporary Art Gallery on Tottenham Street, London that I must thank the love for Harry Potter for letting me know. As a Potterhead, I always thought there was no theme park or film-making exhibition better than real city where the wizarding world meant to occupy. If there is only one choice, I’d…
Matilda The Musical
There ain’t many things you can do in London if you live on a low budget. Like me. Before making the life-changing and expensive decision to study in London, I had created a detailed list of expenses for a month, which included such necessities as rent, bills, meals, travel, AND West End Theatre. By nature…
Observations on A Bus
People travelling by bus share the Commuter Culture that I wrote the other day, but there are also things on a bus you can see differently from an underground journey. One explanation that could be behind all: that a bus moves way more slowly than a train, so people mostly take it to travel a…
The Commuter Culture
More than three million people travel by public transport everyday in London. Interestingly so many commuters of so many backgrounds have established quite a culture that is distinctive and imposing to a Vietnamese newcomer like me. 1. Long Strides, and No Heels Londoners walk in fast pace and long strides most of the time. No…
Garden Lodge
On this day 24 years ago, a legend passed away in this house. He was known to the world as Freddie Mercury, and also one of the best rockband frontstars of all time. Living in London to me is more than just reaping the benefits and opportunities of a best known, civilised, and supercalifragilisticexpialidocious city in…
What Can An Underground Station Tell You?
Thanks to the ugly imperfections of the London Tube, there are quite a lot of distinctive details of a certain underground station that can sculpt your impression like no other. 1. Architecture and Decorations London Underground Stations have a wide variety of architectures and constructions, which can give you an image of the stations’ ages…
Mudblood and How the Movie Sucks
There are two types of differences between a book and its film adaption: tolerable, and intolerable. When a book is made to screen, time is a humongous obstacle. And it is so especially for Harry Potter, a lengthy series of books full of adventures and complicated events. Thus cut, cut, cut — a big part must…
Kaleidoscope Eyed 