Lead into Gold

Dear KLM,

Please stop sending me emails with "Have a European Winter Holiday! SGD$1,389 only!" I am getting an unintended winter in what appears to be the worst winter in years. Seeing emails like that makes me want to shriek and get on a plane and fly where the temperature never drops below 25 degree celcius, and the food never fails to make one salivate.

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Last Wednesday, I went for the Arcade Fire at the O2 with Jia (and on another tangent, fuck they played Modern Man the next night). It was awesomezzzly awesome and awesomezzzly fun. I could not have asked for a better companion. Well that and the two happy drunk Brit girls next to us.

Getting there however, to the O2 arena, was an adventure in itself. I'm quite proud that I didn't get a single panic attack, even though it was a decidedly good time to get a panic attack. After praying multiple times that there'd be no suicides on the Central Line, I managed to get my ass to Stratford without much incident. At stratford however, I got lost. When I finally found the Jubilee line, I got confused by the directions because it was a terminus. After asking a cleaning lady, I sat down as people began to stream in. However after 10 minutes the PA announced that there was a signal failure at North Greenwich, and the train would not be able to run -______________________________-

The concert tickets said 6:30pm, and it was currently 5:40pm. I was stuck in Stratford, a completely alien place, and needed to get to North Greenwich. If there ever was a good time to get a panic attack, it was at that exact moment. However somehow I managed to keep calm and ask for help and was directed to bus 108. After finding the right bus stop (which was a mess since all the commuters had been redirected), I managed to squeeze in. On the bus I started to feel a little worried that I would miss the stop/the bus would take too long, but I kept myself distracted by looking at road signs and landmarks, so I had a rough idea where I was. Outside, it started to snow.

When we finally reached North Greenwich, 3/4 of the bus got off. Then I went off in search of food. I ended up with some unsatisfactory Chicken Yakisoba from Wasabi since there was nothing else to eat. When Jia finally came, we raced to get in side, thinking we were late, when we realised we were very very early. Why print 6:30pm on the tickets when the actual concert starts at 9:10pm? GAHHHHH. Anyway Devandra Banhart came out at 8:00pm, so that was something. The rest of the time was spent chit chatting and stoning, as we watched the mosh pit swell in size.

The concert, when it did finally start, was good. I love Arcade Fire. Jia and I sang along, jiggled in our seats and stood up and danced towards the end. Exuberance ftw.

Getting back however, was a nightmare. There was a massive queue just to get into the tube station, and everyone was having a mass singalong to Wake Up, which was kind of cute. At the station, we got sandwiches from the shop and stood outside eating. We saw a Ha-Ha Road on a map. Twice, drunk men men shouted KONNICHIWA at us, and waved randomly. However when we walked into the tube station, we got separated by the mass of people and never saw each other again. Boo.

I ended up taking the tube to Southwark and catching 45 back home, after a chilly and snowy 5 minutes out in the cold. During those 5 minutes, I was insanely paranoid because it was Southwark at 11:45pm in the night, and eyed the few people around suspiciously. I question my wisdom repeatedly. However of course, nothing happened. Phew. I even took some pictures: