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My feelings

I'm officially broke..

Tuesday 4 September 2007

Day Trip to Croydon

*This is an overdue post again*

Next day after the Notting Hill Carnival (Part 1 & Part 2), I went straightly to Croydon, which is the south of London. As it was out of the tube network, I need to either take a train or tram from Wimbledon to get there. I never tried the tram before, so I decided to get to Wimbledon to catch a tram.
That's the outer view of the Wimbledon train station where I drop off from tube to continue my journey by tram from the same station. Journey took around 30 minutes from Wimbledon to Croydon.
This is the tram on the street of Croydon. What's the difference between train and tram? train doesn't go into the streets, while tram does. Train has higher ground clearance, but when you sit in the tram, you feel like cruising just above the ground. Trams are electric buses.

So why did I went to Croydon?
Well... I went to the Home Office. The Home Office building is called Lunar House. I went there for my appointment of changing my visa.

My appointment was at 11.30a.m. but I need to be there by 11a.m. I arrived and queued up starting 10.30a.m. Got my number at 11.35a.m. then went upstairs for further process. It was a long wait at the counters... At around 12.30p.m. my number was called and the process went on quite smoothly. They informed me that I'll need to wait for 2 hours to get my documents back. So I went for lunch!!

I had buffet lunch as it was quite cheap. £4.50 for around 20 types of food to choose. Bargain!! and it tasted like home cooking. As usual, I was too hungry and enjoying the food too much then I forgot to took photos of what I ate.

After that I walked around Croydon town centre as I still got plenty of time. As I browse through the products in a computer shop, I saw this unusually huge universal remote control for TV and etc. You can estimate its size by using the batteries to the left. Those who use this remote must have swollen fingers...
Went to Whitgift Shopping Centre after that. It's the largest shopping complex in Croydon.
Centrale which is opposite to Whitgift. Didn't manage to go as I ran out of time.
As I went back to Lunar House, a lad asked me if I could speak mandarin. I was asked to help a crying girl who stood there with a luggage. I spoke mandarin, she looked at me, I spoke English, she looked at me as well.. She only told me she come from Mongolia. No wonder she doesn't understand either Mandarin or English. She gave me 2 pieces of paper in her hands showing some handwritings of "She need to immigrate, please help her" and another piece written "Home Office". Then the guard came out then brought her into the building and found out that she is only 16 years old. The guards asked for help from the minor section then I went into the office as I was in a hurry.

I arrived just in time to collect my documents and my passport. Before I went on my journey back to London, I took a short walk again to the next tram station. This market reminds me of pasar malam...
In the end of the day trip... I got myself this....
A visa which wrote Residence Permit under the participation of International Graduates Scheme... which I can work full time for a year. The one upside down is my student visa which is actually still valid.

So... when will I get my job??

4 comments:

Sabrina Woon said...

Wah.. buffet lunch so cheap one... very worth it!!

Angel Valerie said...

i want my share of everything. boohoo.

Pearly said...

the buffet really great bargain..
haha
u have the same 'sickness' as me..always forgot to take the food i ate~
welcome to da club ya..

oh yea..i've linked u up~
have a nice day ya ^^

Jay said...

yeap... that buffet sure is a bargain... i was quite surprised!! takeaway box for £3.50 only... but it's limited to one box only. oh by the way, it's a Chinese buffet.

[milky ~ pearly] haha.. u told me before.. anyway.. thanks for linkin' me.. ur blog is listed dy..