Hyde Park Corner

dear all,

as i said in my last post, i went 2 london yesterday, i.e. saturday to attend a carnival in the famous hyde park with a bunch of fellow trainees in london. i thought it was really amazing that there was an indian, a chinese, a russian and two polish besides me in the group. that's what AIESEC does 2 u, woah! we were 2 meet at 4 pm but i reached london at 3. so i decided 2 take a trip 2 this area called hyde park corner.

but before that, i usually take the train 2 london and the return journey costs me 7.55 pounds. this time i discovered that there is a bus service to london from bracknell, the return journey of which costs me just 3 pounds, woah! and it takes 30 minutes longer each way and u can see the towns and the people and the sexy cars too on your way. so goodbye to train to london, bus will be the name of the game from now on.


so lets begin the journey to hyde park corner. as soon as i got out of the bus, i saw this:

amazing yeah!

(PS: plzz excuse my photography skills, next time ill use zooming and focusing and other basic features while shooting photos :) and this applies to all the photos coming up.)


London Underground: those of u who don't know, one of the weidely used public transport mode in london is the london underground aka tube. its basically the train network built underground. i thought the trains wud be automatic but i discovered that they were actually run by human drivers. and the tracks are pretty deep underground. they r 100 yrs old. u wudnt really like it because the platforms are really old, it gets warm inside the trains, as there is no air conditioning. only sum of them are airconditioned. and in busy hrs there is hardly any space 2 stand, it get pretty crammed. but the good thing is dat u can go anywhere from anywhere in london using the tube, its pretty well connected. u mite have 2 change a couple of trains here and there.

London public phone booth

London bus - they all are the same

London taxis - they all are the same, black, pink, green, blue, most of them black.

sexy yeah - lamborghini

DIY - Describe It Yourself

mini cooper - england's favourite car

cycling - england's life style

there are separate cycle tracks just like roads

23rd sepetember is the day when the entire london will be on cycles - they call them bikes. imagine the entire london on bikes!

it was a warm sunny day in london, u'll see a lot of topless guys, thxfully none topless girls, though i've seen one, not in the city but on a mototway :)

a roller skater - a cool alternative of walking, isn't it?

enuff of random things, it was time 2 go for sum shopping:

and now its time for the sexiest things of hyde park corner. mind u what's sexy to me and what mite be sexy to u cud b very different :)
















Mandarin Oriental - one of the fines 5 star luxury hotels in london

Park Tower Casino - an elitist casino in london

and just 2 give u an idea how elitist it is, i'll take u through its car park :)

Above: Mercedes S Class, costs $87475 - $186575

Below: BMW Z4 M, starting at $52000

Above: leaving for casino, yeah!

Below: BMW 7 Series, costs $75800 - $122600

Above: Mercedes CLS, costs $68375 - $93975

Below: More S Class Mercs

and now THE SEXIEST things of hyde park corner, which will make those mercs and beamers look "cheap":

One of the finest 5 star luxury hotels in london - rooms available at GBP 299 - GBP 649 per night

and its car park, HOLD YOUR BREATH:

Porsche Carrera GT, price $633776

on the left we have bentley continental flying spur priced at $230000

and on the right we have ferrari 599 fiorano priced at $264034

Rools Royce phantom priced at $439950

in order 2 shoot these cars i had 2 go rite in front of the hotel's entrance, which i was initially reluctant 2 do. this is because once i tried 2 shoot lamborghinis in dubai in front of a hotel's entrance but the guards didnt let me :D nothng like that in london :)

and after seeing all of this hotness i was feeling very very thirsty but i had 2make myself content with an 80 pence coke :)

and just in case u haven't realzied, i am fanatic about cars. i mite not have any of those ever unless of course i win a 35 million pounds national lottery, or may be if im lucky i ll be able 2 buy one of my favourite mercs with my earned money :)

Canary Wharf

hello everyone,

finally we have got sunshine, perhaps after 5-6 days. this afternoon when i suddenly looked outside the window, wow there was bright sunshine. even though as a person coming from pakistan where the weather u all know is quite warm [warm will be a massive understaement], i initially liked the cloudy and rainy weather. but as ppl suggested to me, i had gotten sick of it. so thank god we have sun out this afternoon finally, i just hope it stays this way over the weekend. speaking of the weekend, we have a long weekend, monday is a national holiday here.

so tomorrow, i.e. saturday, ill be going 2 london in the afternoon 2 spend the afternoon and the evening with some of the @ trainees in london. the plan includes clubbing at one of the london nitelubs after the dinner at a russian restaurant but i dont see myself doing dat :D i just cheked their menu online, and they have fish courses. its an expensive restaurant. im not sure if i wanna risk so much money 2 try the russian taste. ill decided when the time comes, tomorrow evening.

during this week i got my debit and credit cards and today i got my first salary too, woah! before today i was left with just 10.79 pounds, so it was a good thing 2 happen, receiving the salary. the sad part is dat 60.8% of it will be going 2 my landlord. if u r wondering y, here is the reason: in UK when u move in u pay one month's rent along with a security deposit, which is equal to one month's rent. so u end up paying two month's rent when u move in. last month i didnt pay him the security deposit. so ill be paying it with this month's rent. lets hope i can manage comfortable in the remaining 39.2%. only time will tell.

and last weekend, i went 2 london 2 see a freind [kashif] from pakistan. he just finished his undergrad from LSE [london school of economics] and now is working with blackrock, which is the asset management arm of the famous merrill lynch. since we both share a deep passion for finance, he was happy 2 take me 2 canary wharf, one of the two financial centres of london, the other one being the city. and what a place that was. huge sexy buildings, well sum of them were sexy, and all of them belonged to the sexiest financial services firms: credit suisse, citigroup, hsbc, lehman brothers, barclays, barclays capital, bank of america, to name a few. one building would belong to just one firm. the rest of the firms are based in the city. since it was a weekend, the area was completey deserted. in kashif's words, on weekday evenings this is full of people dressed in suits who are all stressed up. after all they work 70 to 120 hrs a week depending on which sector they wud be in. kashif works 70 hrs a week and he is asset management. his flatmate works 100 hrs a week and he is in investment banking, deutsche bank - one of the leading IBs. goes without saying they all eran handsome salaries.

now ill go out 2 enjoy the sunshine.

cheers.

Random Thoughts

hi everyone (whosoever is reading),

i just watched JNC pix on facebook. i really miss being there, and emad u r looking so great as always. hope 2 c u soon in london.

the weather's great here, sunshine plus rain and hence rainbows and bracknell's greenery, u wish u were here!

sumone plzz tell me about JNC. i wanna hear the details. many congrats to the OC for making a profit, and i heard about the pir sohawa dinner too, woah! i hav missed a thing, havent i?

and i watched a red ferrari F430 Spider yesterday which motored passed me at a slow speed. so i watched it in all its sexy glory from front 2 back. i dont think i'd be able 2 get it out of mind any time soon.

its a good idea 2 enjoy the weather here rather than blogging. so ill resort 2 the former.

cheers :)

First two weeks in England

finally i hav got a chance 2 write since my arrival in UK. its been great last 2 weeks. my flight 2 eng was very interesting. it landed on time at heathrow but after the arrival the captain came 2 no dat there is a nite curfew at heathrow, which basically means no plane can take off after midnite. since the plane had 2 go back, the flight was diverted 2 gatwick (another london airport) and it took good 2 and a half hrs 2 take off frm heathrow. u no its a busy airport. all this while we were in plane. finally when we reached gatwick, we were asked 2 hang in the air beacsue there was an accident on the run way and it was being cleaned up. so kept on hanging in the air over gatwick for good 50 min. finally we landed at gatwick after a total of 4 hrs delay around 1 am. the check out was smooth, i was picked up by UK's National Exchange Manager from the airport. the airport is so far away from the city, first we took a train, then a bus, and finally a taxi and reached home around 5 am.

the next day i sfhifted to bracknell (the town where my off is) and spent the next two nites with an indian trainee there, also working in my off but in a different dept. he happens 2 b an ex-AI.

i got my first taste of the favourite english passtime, i.e. drinking. the indian trainee shares the house with two brits and they went 2 a pub in the evening. i accompanied them. while they spent next 5 hrs drinking bear and getting "lightly drunk" by the end of it, i had pineapple and other juices enjoying chatting with them. it was fun nevertheless.

the morning after that, i was at the global HQ of DHL Logistics in Bracknell on the 3rd floor of the 13 storey building, and it was streategy and busniess planning department. the ppl are really nice, the environment is awesome and the work is interesting. its gonna be very exciting to work in this company because of the business and internal challenges it is facing at this point in time.

it took me a a couple of days to find myself a nice place 2 live, got one with a sri lankan family. my room is spacious enuff, it has a tv as well as a fridge (a luxury from UK standards), so dats cool. the house is great and the ppl are very hospitable.

i spent my first weekend in england site seeing in london. british history is rich with our history, after all they ruled us for good 90 yrs. went to windosr castle, it had stuff that british had captured from various places they conquered. it also had the weapons and dress of tipu sultan, fascinating isnt it?

then we went to the famous tower bridge (popularly known as the london bridge), nothing spectacular there except for the grandeous river thames. the next site was the beautiful parliament building and the big ben and the famous london eye which gives u a panoramic view of the city of london. the city is awesome i wud say because of its traditional setting marked with modern architecture here and there, primarily in the financial district which is called canary wharf.

my uncle was visiting me from toronto, he had rented a car, and while roaming around in london, sumtimes after midnite, we passed by areas which will astonish u with their elitist seetting; the ritz, the rolls royces, the ferraris, u no what im saying. seriously, going 2 the PC in lahore on your BMW 7 series or mercedes S65 AMG, or porsche 911 turbo, to attend a rs. 25000 pass fashion show seems like mediocricity. we passed by an elitisit night club which had a queue of ppl outsiode it, waiting 2 enter. my abrupt comment was: "ye behn chod sari sari raat ayashi kertey hain, subah inhe kaam pe bhi nahi jana hota, semegh se bahar hai itna paisa in ke paas kahan se ata hai". the spontaneous answer was 3 generations of business with good luck! simple isnt it? so if u want 2 b rich enuff to go to ritz at 1 am in your ferrari and looking to spend 10000 sterlings in that nite, u cant do it but ur great grandchildren can. so start working ur ass off so dat ur great grand children can enjoy that status. funny isnt it? there's a cheap way too, if u happen 2 be a pakistani resident, which u r, u can become at least rich enuff 2 go 2 a PC in your beamer and spend 50000 rs in a nite on ur ayyashi. it will only take a few unfair means of doing business here and there, trust me.

the famous trafalgar square, in one of its corner, has the statue of the british general who lead the british forces in the 1857 war of independence, again fascinating for a guy like me.

so these were my first cpl of weeks in the land of the ppl whose ancestors ruled us for 90 yrs.


and my contact info is:
cell: +44 (0)7942 389381
off direct line: +44 (0)1344 744247

now im gonna figure out how 2 spend my 2nd weekend in England.