some more freebies

london 2.22pm 10C sunny saturday 2019

i got another free doughnut today. steve emailed me with the information that the same company that gave me free doughnut yesterday is opening in islington today too and they are giving away free doughnuts. so i went there very early, and was amongst the first few. i chose the apple crumble doughnut again, because i like it. i did not see steve or the malaysians in the queue. but they have till 2pm to join in.

i was chatting to the others in the queue while we waited for it to open. i was thinking to myself we are all queueing here because it is free but i wonder who would buy these doughnuts, since they cost £5 each, £4 if u buy 6. but luckily i did not voice it, haha. because one of those in the queue said she might order one for someone they know who is not in the queue and pay it. so people are willing to pay those prices.

perhaps i am still old fashioned to think £5 is still a lot of money to pay for a doughnut… to me i can buy a whole chicken and have 4-5meals out of it, or you can buy a whole lunch with that money. but maybe to others, they think of it as it is such a small amount of money because  you can only buy lunch with it and sometimes not even enough to buy lunch. 

 

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it is quite plain on the outside unlike the others. i wonder whether i really like apple pie, and not doughnuts as such. it makes me think i shall make an apple pie if ever i can get bramley apples reduced price cheap. they make excellent fillings because they have a sourness to them that goes well with suger, and they dont have much water in them so that the pie is not too watery.

it hailed little balls of ice when i was coming back at trafalgar square. even though it is supposed to be 10C.

i was at the victoria library earlier and there was a notice about free comics to be given today… so i asked the librarian where are they and he said he  forgot to take them out of his office, and he went to his office to get them, a small bunch of  3 different comic books donated by forbidden planet, a comic book store.

and he gave them to me, even asking if i want more to give to others. i had a look at them, and even though i took them, i can see it is not something i will like. i prefer the comics of my youth rather than these. the art work does not appeal to me and reading through them, i did not like the storyline either. it is very simplistic. maybe u can say of course they are , because they are for children, but i dont recall it was that simple in the comics i read when i was little. but memory can fool us, and maybe they are simple too. the librarian said nowadays the comics are made to appeal to adults too. the artwork i think is geared to appeal to adults, or they think. though it does not appeal to me and i am an adult. haha. but not the right kind, obviously.

the librarian pointed out to me a display of the comic books held in the library and said it is to tie in with this free comics offer, to let people know of the library collection. i asked him if they have superman and batman comics, and he pointed it out to me, but they dont look like the old comics to me… the artwork is different and not to my liking. i confess i am liking the old comic’s style of art. 

just comparing my life in london with my life in kL if i live there.

london 4.45pm 14.3C (high 15.8C) cloudy night monday 2018

i remembered a email voucher from krispy creme giving me a free doughnut which they sent me a few days ago and i saved it.

today i decided to redeem it, so went to victoria station whre there is a krispy kreme kiosk. its quite nice , the doughnut, but very sweet of course, not only from the topping, but from the filling. i had my own water bottle which i drank from, because it can make u real thirsty, but also i passed by the water dispenser in the main concourse which reminded me that this station has a free water dispenser.  so i filled up my bottle. i had thought i shall go to the wing shot, that place where we got our free chicken wings, to redeem the voucher they gave me for another free chicken wing portion. i had saved the voucher in my email, and i opened it when i was in victoria, using the wifi there.

however when i arrived at the shop,in cambridge circus,  i found that  the email wont open and i have to get online again… which i did at the pret nearby, though by the time i did it , and went to the shop i found when i tried the door it wont open, even though i can see the workers inside… even though the notice open hours says that they open at 11am.  the time was 11.30am. they are late, and i remembered that when we were queueing that first day, they too were late and let us in only after 30mins after their opening time.

so i think i shall go there after 12pm tomorrow, just to  be sure they will be open.

ah well, i was thinking what i might be doing if i were retired and living in malaysia, kuala lumpur, which i would be doing if i were to have lived a different life instead of the one i lived. and i realise i would be rather more house bound, as it would be too hot to be out in the afternoon , not to mention there wont be any reason to go out  as the bus is too erratic and the journey long, and not airconditioned, and does not go to many places. usually i walk to the village nearby, where u can go to the wet market to buy food groceries, like veg, and fish or fowl, or meat. at least that was where my mum goes when she was alive. i wonder whether i would do that if i were to live there. or would i prefer to shop at the supermarkets. it would require i drive as people are really depandant on their cars or motorbikes. and i dont like to drive as it is real easy to get into an accident when you get older and older and your attention span and skill goes out the door. i have not driven in london for a long time now.  so i suspect i shall be quite house bound if i were ever to live there.

i am glad to be living in london rather than in kL.

the freedom pass here in london is a great enabler, it allows me to just up and go and make me not need much of a reason to go out, whereas if i have to pay, i would need a good reason to go and many times there is no need to go at all. even so i dont always go out. i hear from the two malaysian sisters, that they have gone to croydon for a freebie, and i said that is far, but they said not at all. they live in hounslow, so that it is about equal time travel to croydon as to come to central london for them. so for them, the effort and time to come to central london is as much as going to croydon. of course they have the freedom pass too so  cost is not a consideration. whilst for me, it is certainly much more of a bother to go to croydon than to central london as i allready live in central london.

i am now seeing more of the others who go to freebies as a hobby.

london 8.45pm 10.1C night dry saturday 2018

the two chinese malaysian ladies, steve and his wife.

today steve and the chinese malaysians were at the free doughnut given out by a veggie vietnamese popup in shoreditch box park. this is a set of ships containers that have been adapted to hold food stalls. this new place do baos, but all vegetarian. they are called eat chay… steve was saying chay is vietnamese for vegetables. then i remembered the chinese for vegetables is chai so it sounds an appropriate name. then steve asked me how is it different from chai, which is tea.

that made me pause, got me thinking…yes, come to think of it, how is it different? i think it is the tone. chai for vegetables, is even in tone. but chai for tea is sharp … right? i must say i am tone deaf that is why i have difficulty speaking chinese.

but i am a bit disappointed at the freebie. it is a ring doughnut with a vietnamese coffee topping. or that was what steve said, otherwise i would not have guessed that topping was any special. it was sweet that is all it tasted of to me. i thought we get a box of it. they had said a box , but it turned out that one doughnut was placed inside a small box. haha. so technically they are telling the truth. if i had known it was just one, i would not have bothered going . haha. but also it is strange to get a doughnut, when the place do not have doughnut on its menu. 

steve told me his wife was not there but waiting for the amazon giveaway in covent garden. he said last time he went to one of theirs they got a box of organic vegetables. after getting our doughnut, for which we have to wait till 12pm instead of 11am as advertised…though steve ask for another one for his wife and they gave it to him.  we went to covent garden to meet the wife. but we found out that you have to have a smart phone app from amazon, and since i dont have a smartphone i have to leave the queue. luckily, his wife mentioned that i have to have the app… so  at least i did not have to wait and then find out. his wife had allready got hers, and it was some kind of eraser. its a lucky dip and u pick the number. does not seem worth the bother to queue. so i left and came home. i think i would have liked if we got a free bao or something like that at that eat chay. 

anyway, i came back and ate a char kuey teoh that i cooked yesterday . very delicious it was too. ah well, that is how some of us spend our days. haha. going to freebies and thinking of food. it is something to while away the time and it seems a chance to meet up and chat to friends which we make who are also doing the same thing. so that is something we all have in common.

talking of bao, or pao, as we chinese call it, the chinese ladies were talking of the paos we can buy in chinatown. tai pao, they said. usually frozen , there are fresh ones to be had, road side stalls selling freshly steamed paos, used to be £1.50, then going up to now £2.50 each. they are very salty unfortunately. that is what always disappoint me whenever i buy them.  food is one thing we all never get tired of , either thinking of it, or eating it. 

 

running into fellow freebies

london 12.32pm sunny 14C tuesday 2018 ageuk canteen

i have just been to a free vegan mac and cheese in farringdon.

whilst waiting, the guy who i know from the last freebie, that guy from goa, was just ahead of me, and he was the one who spotted me. we were wondering what is this vegan cheese they must be using as they are a vegan place. well i got to find out today. it is more like a sauce, and does not taste cheesy. i dont think they are successful in imitating the cheese taste.

so now i am at the ageuk canteen in their headquarters building in tavistock square. it is a very pleasant place to hang out. there is no hassle to buy anything, and they even provide microwaves for people to warm up their food. and i was looking at the notice boards and leaflets looking to see if they have put up their password to their wifi. and a lady asked me if i need any help. turns out she works there, even though she was using the microwave. anyway she offered to go to the desk and get the password and gave it to me printed on a piece of paper. it was a very long password with numbers and capital letters. 

added. 2.27pm 15.6C sunny virgin lounge haymarket

Well here i am in the lounge. and what do you know, when i came to the desk at the lounge and handed in my card, the lady just ahead of me turned round and exclaimed, you again!! i was surprised until i remembered she was one of those waiting in line and who hailed me when i took my cheese and mac at that free giveaway earlier today. she was a chinese lady, also from malaysia i recall, but lives in hounslow, west london (near heathrow airport). she was one of three malaysian ladies who do these freebies. the other two were not there today. she said there was supposed to be giving out a topping too and she took out her time out copy and showed it to me. it looks like there is a group of us who have found a new hobby in our retired old age. haha. going to freebies in and around london. though i have noticed in the latest round of freebies, that the places are asking us to buy a drink or another item to be eligible for the freebie. perhaps they are realising that we are not good customer material. haha. ah well, i suppose every good thing eventually come to an end. there will be one giving out free meatballs, but ask that we buy a drink or another item. so i simply did not put them in my diary. i prefer not to go so maybe they are right in doing it, they effectively screen out people like me.

i think it depands on what they are offering. i remember i took up the offer from a burger place, it was a free burger for a drink, (which costs £3) and i took them up on that offer. i thought it was still a good bargain, as you can order their double burger costing £12 and that was a very substantial meal. and the drink was a coffee that was unlimited refill, though i could only drink one refill which was very welcomed too. these things are very salty and can make u really thirsty. so it does depand on what the offer is. the one with the free meatballs did not look quite substantial enough for me.

ah well, it is all very lighthearted fun for me, and i hope these businesses really do well and thrive. i happen to pass the kim chee place, where they recently opened and gave us free lunch and it was rammed pack with people. it was lunch time and i am glad they are doing well.

though from what i can see on the bus and peeking inside the eating places lining the strand, (a street that runs towards trafalgar square) , every eating place seem to be jammed pack with people buying food… it seems to me u just have to open up a eating place for lunch in london and you will make a profit. everyone just wants to buy food for lunch, no one is home packing anything at all. it gives me the impression that everyone in london has money to burn. 

 

 

free film preview contd

london virgin lounge haymarket 12.39pm 26.2C cloudy sunday 2018

i have just seen the movie, hotel transylvania 3 nearby. its a U certificate , so it is for all ages. and there were a lot of kids there. but it did make me wonder why they asked that i bring ID. in the end no one checked whether i got a ticket even , nevermind ID. they asked ID in the form of a credit card… so maybe that is just to ensure the adults have money to buy popcorn and drinks for the show.

i was early, it was before 10am when the doors are supposed to open. even so, the cinema had people allready inside. i noticed they had bought drinks (the family next to me even bought a huge hotdog sandwich) and huge boxes of popcorn.

the film was ok . the story is very lightweight. i am not a kid so am not the target audience. the animation shows the expressions and the emotions very well. they are digitally done, i think, as they dont look handdrawn. whatever the technic, it is very well done. i have heard that fur, water, hair are difficult to draw and depict, but here they were all done very realistically. what i noticed by its absence is the very small role played by the little kid, his grandson.  he was not featured much and never showed his vampiric powers, unlike what i heard about the 2nd film when he had more of a part to play.

its a pleasant enough film.

i have wondered if they would show the 2nd film on tv because they often do so when a new sequel comes up. and i had a look at today’s tv guide, and see hotel translyvania 2 is showing today at about 4pm.

added 9.10pm. i got a chance to see the hotel transylvania2, and it makes me appreciate the HT3 better. the HT2 and even the first one are quite dark, not only in theme, but also in appearance. the atmosphere is night, and the colours are subdued, mostly greys and blacks. and it really brought to my attention how bright and colourful this 3 version is. and i find i feel quite happy at the end of it, rather than the other previous versions. maybe because this latest version is set mainly in the day… quite an anomaly because vampires dont like the sun … and the plot of the previous two are very serious and caters to an adult sensibility, with adult injokes, whilst this latest one is very much aim at children, with quite a frivolous ending ,almost child like solution, really. the ending dont seem to matter really, just that it leaves you with a feel good feeling at the end. i think if u can suspend your adult logical thinking and just see it as a child , to get a feel -good feel about it, you will like this movie.

 

carluccios free breakfast

london 10.15am macdonalds in victoria place. 6.1C sunny? cloudy maybe. saturday 2018

its so early and allready i have been to places. haha. i went at about 8.30am to the carluccio free breakfast offer. i went to the waterloo branch, wearing my bathrobe. haha. it can double as a dressing gown. anyway i think i was the only one wearing such things, when i arrived. and the staff were very welcoming… the maitre d even said i look the part. it was a really nice full traditional breakfast… coffee, juice  and they even ask how i want my eggs. sunny side up i said. and cappuccino and orange juice. it was lovely.

the cup have their name on it, so maybe i should have turned it round to show it. the eggs are beautiful, i would not be able to do it like that if i were to make it myself. so white, the egg white part of it. 

it is a wonderful promotion. and with all such promotions it really is free… there is nothing to pay. it is what i like about the uk promotions. i think everywhere else , i am thinking of america here, you would be expected to pay something. but not here, in good ol’ uk. i wonder if steve will be going to this… maybe not, as i dont think he likes to dress up. haha. waterloo is very near me… (wait…  everything is near me!.) but the waterloo branch is not very posh or at least not to me… most of those in there that morning were travellers i think. some of their branches in covent gdn, or south kensington, or marylebone have customers that look very rich…at least that is how they look when i pass by and peek inside the shop windows… so i daresay it will feel strange to walk in there wearing a dressing gown. esp when the only people wearing dressing gowns in london are tramps , rough looking old men, sleeping rough and dragging a lot of baggage with them… haha. 

anyway it was a lovely breakfast, and then i went to victoria station, on the shuttle bus that ply its route between the two stations. and now here i am in the macdonalds using their wifi. and i found today’s daily telegraph too so i shall read it in these quiet and pleasant surroundings… i know, no one would describe a macdonalds place as pleasant… haha. but it is really. the papers are a great find, as the libraries are closed this easter weekend… and i can get the tv guide now for my weekend viewing.

added. the service charge estimated bill for my flat for 6 months april18-sept18 came today. £683.16  just for the record. 

a nice day out

london 6.34pm 13.8C dark clear dry friday 2017

today is an unusual day for freebies. so many occurring today that they clash. but the one i wanted to go to was the free fish and chips at cutty sark gardens, at 12pm. so i made my way there and got there in plenty of time, but there was no queue at all. i met my friends, the couple who likes going to these freebies, and it was really a delicious fish and chips.

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its a nice change from the usual freebie fares. i have been to this part of london before, on a walking trip, when the route included a walk under the thames, at this point. here the thames is rather narrow, so the walk was not long. 

then i took the train back to leicester square, but the freebies being given out  , free doughnut and free eclair,  i did not bother get as one has too long a queue, the doughnut one,  whilst  the other has finished its quota of 50 eclairs.

and then i met my friend ian at the virgin lounge and chat about his holiday to menorca recently. and later we went to see the new lights of the advertising billboard in piccadilly. ian said he thought there will be one huge sign, but it was all bits and pieces of smaller adverts. i too hoped to see a big one and i thought it would feature one every 10mins, but nothing doing.

its been a nice bright blue sunny day today so it was pleasant to be out and about, and all these freebies is just an excuse to get out. i really made use of my freedom pass today. 

italian food exhibition, ikea 30th anniversary

london 3.06pm 19.7C cloudy saturday 2017

i think a lot of us like italian foods, and this exhibition today at the vincent square exhibition hall tries to popularise them. we were able to get some free goodies too, like this lot of stuff that i got. there were also samples of food to try. mostly dried meats, and the pesto sauces and other sauces that we can try with pieces of bread. there was even a demo where a chap was making mozzarella, and we could taste it . it is actually not salty at all, very different from the usual bought mozzarella they sell in the supermarkets. and lots of dried pasta, so many weird looking pasta shapes. 

those cartons i found out are cooking creams. i have no idea that there is even such a thing. i googled it, but still could not figure it out. what is it? how do u cook with it? can u use it in coffee as ordinary cream, or what? they might be useful, because they can be kept in the store cupboard and do not need refrigeration. all those items have italian labels, so might be they cannot be bought in this country. the soft drink is rather nice, its peach. but i doubt we can buy it here. they dont tell where to get it, so i wonder if it is just a goodwill gift on their part and not a advertising gimmick. its a pity they are not sold more here, instead of the watery drinks that we get. on the other hand, it might be they are very expensive… they were telling us those 180mg of pesto, and other sauces are like £6 each. so much. maybe i misheard her, but that much for a small bottle of sauce. i suppose they are used to flavour pasta dishes. like instant pasta sauces that u can take out of the bottles for a quick meal. they sell wines too, and they gave us glasses to sample them, not that i bother, because i dont really like wine. but a dedicated person could get real drunk if they want to sample all these wines from all the stalls. haha.

i got an email from ikea to celebrate their 30th anniversary they are giving us free cake and a £5 voucher. but when i tried to find my ikea card i could not find it, and rummaging through everything, especially all my coats, i find 2 old £1 coins, and went to the sainsburys nearby to buy anything just to use it up before the dateline. i suppose there will be lots of people doing the same thing i did, just buying anything to get rid of it. haha. i found out even though the supermarket has changed their self service tills so that they will not accept the old £1 coin, you can change it at the till, and you might not even need to buy anything. but i bought anyway, two useful things, a reduced price mushroom 300mg 69p and a full price fresh tomatoes 75p.

but it is rather a interesting observation of human nature, this dateline when the old coin becomes invalid, seems to make people just recklessly spend, almost as if it is of no value and so can be wasted. it is strange because the £ coin has its value. i wonder if people really are desperate to get rid of it, or is it just me. and i myself dont know why i should be so worried. after all when the £5 note was going out of validity, i did not panic nor felt i got to rush out to get rid of it. in fact, recently i found an old £5 note and was able to easily exchange it for a new one from my bank , no questions asked… and it is more valuable than a £ coin. human nature can be so funny, as in peculiar sometimes. we behave irrationally. 

i wonder if a lot of beggars are getting the benefit of this mindset, as people just throw it into their begging bowl , especially on monday when they might not be bothered to go to the bank to exchange it. 

then i read this in my wordpress reader, a chap who is divorced and felt the whole weight of the inequality that the laws pile on the father. it is a injustice to divorced men, no wonder so many of them commit suicide. there is a huge incentive to make women file for divorce, they not only keep the children, they also get a huge amount of money from their husbands. and as we see in another case, women can come back to sue for more money many years later even though they have got a settlement. makes me glad i am not married to a woman.

i hope all those men who got married to other gay men, dont start taking the mickey. i would like to think men are not so greedy as those harriden women who are just gold diggers. but then, who knows, if the law gives them that advantage, those men too would start getting into the act. it seems the first person to file for divorce gets all the advantage. 

 

freebies

london 12.51pm 20.6C cloudy. tuesday 2017 supposed to be very warm today, from hot weather carried by hurricane gert. but it is not coming. just shows that forecasting is a hit or miss affair. they have revised, downgraded, their high for today.

i got an email this morning from krispy kreme , telling me i got a voucher for a free doughnut. rather nice of them to give it to me. so after the library i went to victoria station to redeem it and got myself one. on the way there in the station , were loads of people giving away free lucozade cans, 150ml, and i got 4, because they were giving it to me in each stall, and there were lots of these stalls placed all over the concourse. haha. i could have gotten more. but i am not really very keen on drinking these fizzy drinks. i prefer plain water really. but still, if it is free , it is nice to have … and to drink. it is not often i drink these things. and to think people actually buy these things. anyway, i had thought to take a swim but decided to get back instead. for lunch, as well as see a tv of a japanese cartoon, called tale of princess kagoya. the way they draw the cartoon is supposed to be special. light and airy. i think it was a studio gibli effort. its pretty to look at. now i had my lunch, just a simple warmed up dish of fried rice and chicken/celery that i had made leftover from yesterday. it is a quickly made meal, just warm it all in the microwave and that is it. haha.

and catching a nature program about the savannah in africa. it is the play of nature , all the animals there interacting with each other and with the vegetation to create the grassland ecology. a species of bird, quelea, and the wildebeest are the most numerous migratory creatures there, but it seems there is another that is not well known and not obvious. ants and termites.  they are plenty and stay there all year round. and they eat more than a third of the savannah plants… more than all the other animals combined.and it is the aardvarks that controlls the ants, eating 100,000 a day it seems.

 well, not mentioned in the program, but what i found out… we know why the wildebeest migrates and dies in huge numbers along the way, not only as food for the predators, but also just dying from drownings as they cross the rivers. it seems when they decay they return vital minerals back to the soil and replenish the soil of nutrients. so if u think all those dead wildebeests floating bloated in vast numbers is a terrible waste, dont think it. haha. nothing is wasted in nature. 

i am resting till it is time to go to the virgin lounge to meet with ian, and take him inside as my guest for our meeting there. it is only 1.30pm.

its a nice life i lead. nothing exciting like an eclipse, haha. but i dont fancy these large gestures of nature, i find them rather troublesome really. i mean large gestures like that means earthquakes, and floods , or droughts, or other natural disasters, and frankly my dear i dont like them.

 

bargain london

london 2.45pm 18.1C

it’s very pleasant to spent time in this virgin lounge. there is a film show on now , da vinci code, (2006). they have been showing films every sunday for july. though it is difficult to hear what is said, as the volume is set low. or it maybe i am a bit deaf and so dont hear it. but the films are not what i am here for anyway. so it does not matter than i cannot hear much of it. 

nowadays i have to rely on the subtitles to know what is being said on tv. thank goodness for it really. my enjoyment of the tv is made more so because i can read what is said and so i dont miss much of the dialogue. 

added. am writing this on the bus 88 now. there is no wifi here, but it does not matter as my chrome book allows me to write things offline. i checked earlier with the tfl website to see if this bus is coming, and it did not say it was. that is why i was real surprised to see it when i left the virgin lounge. i had intended to take another bus, but this one came along just in time. i wanted to take it to the tesco just to see what is on bargain offer there. it is early closing on sunday.

i think the timetable of the bus has been disturbed and made unreliable because the whole of regent st is closed to traffic because of this time of year, when every year in july, the whole of regent st is pedestrianised. 

its quite sunny now looking out of the bus. earlier it was drizzling. which made up my mind for me not to bother going to tower bridge to see the indonesian festival there. but it seems it is quite sunny now but it is allready 3.16pm so the festival would be near its closing time.

i was reading this morning about how venice residents are real fed up of the huge amount of tourists in their city and wanting to limit the numbers going there. well, here in london we get roads closed for events so that is the effect the tourists and catering to them have on the locals living in london. but london is big enough so the effect is quite small.

i was in venice many years ago, in the 90s, and i noticed if u just go a little bit off the main tourist routes , the city can be remarkably desserted… even in peak season. but maybe now even those out of the way spots are full of tourists, who knows right? i think every tourist attraction is now full of people. which makes me glad i saw them before they got so crowded.

then there is that japanese article about the birth rate falling in japan and that is because the men are unable to get permanent full time jobs. and so are not good prospects for marriage, or want to have babies. and there is another phenomenon…  it seems there are lots of single men who dont want to have sex at all and hide out in their parents home completely cutting themselves  off from society. its a strange society that one in japan.

 i got to the tesco at 3.30pm and just in time to get all the reductions. a whole free range chicken from £6 to £1.50. and 2packs of chicken drumsticks reduced by 3/4 to 37p a pack. that seems to be the prevailing rate of final reductions. 25% of the original price. it is another of the fun things about living in london. i got an email offering me a monthly subscription to the empire cinema chain . unlimited film shows for £20 a month if i want to go to the central london cinemas of that chain. that is a nice bargain price i think. so now if u like to watch films on the big screen, it is quite affordable now.

seems to me it is not that expensive to get your entertainment and stuff in london after all. and there is all kinds of free vouchers for free food or reduced dining in london as well. i got the voucher for free hamburger from primeburgers. it is the last of their free monday offers, it seems. so i am looking forward to this monday (tomorrow) when i shall be able to get it. they have certainly made mondays a lot more attractive these past month or two. 

added. wed 26.7.17. it seems paris is the most touristy city, (7 visitor to 1 parisien)according to this report. surprising to me, kuala lumpur is 2nd. london is 13th. (1.5visitors to 1 londoner). i am surprised  venice is not in there,it has been ruled out because most of the visitors are day trippers and from cruise ships, rather than those who stay at least a night there.