The Young & Restless

It may be pretty tiring but totally worth the 3 days trip to London. One thing’s for sure, it was scorching hot here even on the 1st day. We checked into a hostel called St. Christopher’s Inn in Shepherd’s Bush. Breakfast is provided from 8-9am. Happened to share rooms with a beautiful and friendly girl named Hester from Holland. Had a little chat with her. Like us, she came down for 3 days to London to meet up a friend. Awkwardly, she resembled Kirsten Dunst who played Mary Jane Watson in the Spiderman movie. Could it be her? Check it for yourself hehe..;-)

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Left to visit Big Ben, London Eye & the famous ‘London’ Bridge…oops, wrong info, I didn’t really go to London Bridge. We went to Tower Bridge instead hehe.. though both are located closely over the River Thames. If you don’t know what Big Ben and London Eye are all about, let me give a brief explanation here. Big Ben is a huge grandfather clock alike tower while the London Eye is an enormous ferris wheel, so tall that the highest point, anybody sitting at that position is able to view the entire city of London. The Tube/Underground (or as we call it LRT) was unique in a way that they have many stations that are interchangeable to different types of line (we only had Putra, Star & KTM which practically travel in a straight line). There is a lot of ways to link to 1 station using different routes.

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Didn’t ride the Eye as we didn’t think it’s affordable having to pay 15 pounds per person. Took tonnes of pictures, will be uploading them to my yahoo photos since friendster had really taken up almost the entire capacity.

Next day, we paid Madame Tussauds a visit in Baker Street. Street sounded familiar? It’s where the most significant detective of all time, Sherlock Holmes hailed from. A house full of wax with celebrity figurines here and there. They all looked so real you couldn’t tell if it’s really them I took pics with hehe.. From Tom Cruise to Brad Pitt, with Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts, Robbie Williams etc. We snapped pics on every ‘celebrity’ we could meet. Unfortunately there were many that I didn’t spot visible..namely Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Aniston..even Simon Cowell & Will Young weren’t displayed! Surprising. On another section were the figurines of superheros; Superman, Hulk, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park. Some reknown ppl such as Steven Spielberg (he’s pretty short in real), legendary Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley all were present. Next section came the famous politicians (yeah Bush & Blair here) around the world. Of course, even Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, Williams & Harry and princess Diana were all displayed. Further down, there’s even a few famous footballers; David B., Wayne R, Michael O and even their coach Errikson was built such a way on a spectator bench where 3 ppl can sit next to him for picture shots.

Next section was the Haunted Chamber-Live played by real actors. Similar to the one in Genting, you entered with a small group of people in a dark and gloomy area where people would suddenly pop their heads out or tapped on your shoulders behind you, scaring the shit out of ya LOL.

At night, went to meet an old friend of ours from TARC at Chinatown in Leicester Square. Slightly earlier on, we strolled along Piccaddily Circus, one of the busiest streets in London and nicknamely the Time Square of London. Got back almost 2am. 

The heat was really coming to a toll within these few days. We didn’t expect the weather to be this hot prior to our arrivals. Well, 1 litre of water bottle comes in handy whenever we went. Buckingham Palace was fascinating. It used to be the official London residence of the British monarch Smart horses and men with shining armour marched across the streets proudly. Heard from one of the local tour guides that it is not accessable to outsiders till in August. 4 hours before our coach leaves for Liverpool. Decided to do a little walking and window shopping around Leceister Square and Covent Garden. Couldn’t get anyting decent here. Prices for the souvenirs here at least cost 20 pounds..siao. While Kei stayed back awaiting for his parents’ arrival, we boarded the coach back to Liverpool about 11pm.

Ahhh..relief…after 4 days and 4 nights my throbbing head and eyes, having to face the laptop to  almost 24 7 finishing off my A.I. assignment. So glad to say it’s finally done now and I’m having a few hours off before heading to London with Kei, SC and Ting for 3 days. Time is now 1am and our coach leaves at 6.45am. Not sleeping yet? LOL, don’t think I will be able to in this 5 hours anyway. Probably will be sleeping on the way to London which takes 4 hours to arrive. We managed to book a hostel cheap enough at a student rate for 5 of us. Oops, did I say 5? Yeah, Yen backed out a few days ago as he wanted to join another group of friends to Scotland for 5 days. Fortunately though, he’d still be paying the amount of deposit we’ve agreed earlier on as we couldn’t find any last minute substitution. A waste in a way but we’ve tried doing all we could.

I’m hoping to visit the famous Madamme Tussaud’s house of wax. Imagine taking pictures with ‘real’ celebrities hehe. Heard they totally sealed Michael Jackson’s figurine. Reason? People were all busy touching his infamous ‘nose’ till enough is enough LOL.  London Bridge, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, London Eye…here I come!

Just finished Artificial Intelligence test today, at least 2-3 days of rest before consuming to extricate my brain power thinking how to write up my assignment as half of the 100% marks are located here. A blink of an eye, a month has passed since I set both feet in UK. Time flies.. but then again, I can’t wait for another 2 months. Can’t wait for the europe tour. Still haven’t decided which package I’m gonna take. More choices are coming in this and next month. Hopefully I do pick the appropriate one as I want to return before 22 Sept for the OIAM finale. LOL still being a fanatic even though I’m overseas. Talking about OIAM, pray Suki who lost in the knock-round last week will get the judges’ votes, if not the viewers to fill in the Top 12. Never did notice her in the beginning but later, I felt she had the x-factor aura developing within.

Oh yes, will be going to London for 3 days on the 16th, both vacation and also sort of pick up Kei’s parents who’ll be arriving on the 19th…LOL..but then we’d have to return back to Liverpool cos new class begins on the 19th itself.

Yesterday was Kei’s bday. Treated him buffet at a restaurant called Buffet Star. It’s 6 pounds per person. It’s our first time having since arriving in UK. Pretty much the same price you get back in Msia. This restaurant has a variety of both western & chinese cuisine which is why we picked it as it’s cheap and tastes good. Obviously we’d savour as many food as possible and every moment of it LOL.

Went to Albert Dock the next day. Here we get to see ships stopping by at bay for tourists to embark onboard to have pics taken. After that, went to stroll along the dock before entering into an art gallery. Many paintings that I definitely couldn’t decipher as some were pretty deep. Spotted 1 famous painting by Picasso displayed in 1 part of room and I seriously don’t understand why were his drawings masterpieces. LOL..guess you need a real artistic person to understand the meaning behind his works.

Then went to the most famous Beatles Story shop in Liverpool. If you didn’t know, one of the most popular band in history’s hometown is right here. So many items bearing their names were proudly displayed in the shop. There was even a machine where you can specially carve a 1 pence coin into a memorable souvenir with the words Albert Dock The Beatles Story Liverpool. Each penny carved costed 50 pence. Made 3 myself.

Last Tues, went over to visit the Liverpool World Museum. Been years ever since I last visited our own museum back home.

Started off from the highest floor and we slowly made our way to the ground floor. On the 5th which was the museum’s highest floor, we learnt the history of astrology, the discovery of the 9 planets in our solar system that we have today and who which scientist discovered the respective planets, moons, stars etc. There was even a planetorium with a 30 minute movie of how the solar system was formed, each stars located in the galaxy and their given names. It’s like a small cineplex where you sat surrounding the centre. Up above our heads were like a half sphere resembling the sky during the night. It’s very fascinating to watch a narrator spoke through the movie, the sphere would then starts spinning with the small tiny dotted lights resembling the stars in the sky.

Descended down to the 4th floor to witnessed the mesozoic era where thousand species of dinosaurs once ruled the earth. There were even evolutions of mankind were potrayed as centuries after centuries passed.

On the 3rd level were the ancient world civilisations, mainly the B.C. where the birth of Egyptians, Greeks, Romans & Anglo-Saxons lead to the many creations and inventions which proved to be very useful in the future of archeology studies.

Another floor down, we get to witnessed the magical world of colours. Childish as it may sound but do you know colours seriously play an important part of our daily lives. They help us to distinguish the difference between good and bad, our feeling and emotions etc. Another section of the same level, we found ourselves looking at bug species (Hehe…disgusting for ya gals ;P) Various types of preserved animals are well kept and even the finest fossiles are displaced.

On the 1st floor, we have the underwater world. Here, an assistant explained to us the survival between crabs, hermit crabs, sea anemones and star fish. That’s about it of the museum. Left to do some shopping before heading home.

Went to stay overnight at Kei’s place yesterday. He lives roughly 30 minutes walk from our apartments. Yup, 30 mintues alright but it’s still okay as you don’t get tired walking here at all…unless you’re carrying a bunch of loads. Internet connection.. crappy as ever. They blocked BT files, Kazaa all these programs which kinda annoyed me as I wanted to continue my Desperate Housewives season 2. I was hoping to download in library but the line is just as crappy. It’s very fast alright, just the line’s very unstable.

Had a chance of observing how he ’survived’ here for almost a year now. I just wondered to myself, they can be here for more than let alone 3 months, coming September would be already a year for them..why can’t I? Seriously I was yearning to go back last 2 weeks as I so couldn’t take the pressure. Missed my family and all my friends back home so greatly (you guys know who you are ;’() Therefore I’m gonna strive to stay these 3 months, then I can return home to meet you guys again, having our mamak sessions as usual, our chatting sessions and everything. You just can’t do all these here. Everything closed the latest by 7pm as the wind is very chilly at night even though it’s summer (can’t imagine winter!).

Okay, enough of my whining LOL. Had Bak Kut Teh for dinner. One very filling meal for the night. All these while, I pretty much tighten my expenses a little, getting everything as cheap as possible, eating only cookies for lunch. Even dinner was pretty uptight. Of course, if I’m hungry I’d have to eat, just not as nutritious as I’m back in Malaysia.

Kei showed me a lot of pics they took last year, so many places they’d really went…Scotland, Edinburgh, Wales, Manchester. Regretted a little why didn’t I make the point to come last year. So it is, I must a make a point to visit as many places as possible within these 3 months now that it’s already coming to the 4rd week of my stay. Time is running fast.

Finally had the mood to start blogging again after the last time, forgive me..been really down the past 2 weeks due to extreme pressure on my first subject…think most of you knew why (3 lab tests back-to-back and final exam few days later..how crazy is that??!!!) Now that I’ve cleared the 1st one (3 more to go), I could at least have some break for these 2 days. Really, I’ve never had such tremendous pressure ever since I last stepped into college days many many months ago. Probably because I’ve enjoyed too much back then and now suddenly returning to uni life for these 3 months has gotten my adrenaline pump rushing again.

Last Fri, Uni had arranged a social gathering for us to Alton Towers which is located in Staffordshire, about 2 hours from Liverpool. LOL don’t be mistaken here..Alton Towers is no way about a tower itself..it’s actually an amusement park

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Entrance fee is supposedly around 20 pounds (that’s RM140) but since the Uni arranged the event, it’s free for us. It’s a really a waste if they hadn’t gone. In total, 5 coach buses arrived about 8am at our Marybone apartment doorstep to pick up the students. Along the 2 hours-journey, we came across a large grassland with cows scattered around which the biggest problem here was it stank so badly of faeces that all of us had to cover our noses till we’ve passed the grassland.

Arrived the entrance of Alton Towers about 10.30am. There were a lot of other coaches here as well who came where majority are students from all over UK.  A briefing was given to us to be back here at the same spot by 5pm. The first ride we went was ‘The Beastie‘ ride, which was pretty mild for our age LOL. Next we went to the Hex Towers. It looked to be somehow torn down tower..somelike spooky feeling. There was even a legend behind it which stated;

On a fateful, stormy night 100 years ago, the Earl of Shrewsbury refused to give money to an old beggar woman, and brought the fury of a gypsy curse upon his kin: whenever a branch fell from the enchanted oak tree near Alton Towers, a member of the family would die! After a lightning storm struck the tree, felling a branch, one of his relatives indeed dropped dead. Chaining the remaining branches to the tree could not defeat the evil. Now, deep in the Towers’ chambers, the tree has been unearthed: the curse has returned, and the room is starting to move! Hex is a ride that will leave you spellbound.

Now as far as how true the legend goes, I’m pretty doubtful but one thing’s for sure..there wasn’t much fun really. It maybe somewhat like a haunted tower but as we enter a room, it started to ’spin 360 degrees’ that’s about it. Had lunch at McDs. Me, Ting & Shion Chung ordered Chicken Tikka, 2.99 pounds per person..just the burger itself..yeah I know..stop converting everything to RM..but can’t help it lah..currency so big..can’t resist LOL.

After lunch, we went for one of the most challenging ride, Rita: Queen of Speed and boy it was really fast!! Absolutely loved it. No wonder it’s voted in it’s main site as the no.1 ride in Alton Towers. Only downfall here was the ride was so popular, we initially waited for 45 minutes till when it was almost our turn when the unexpected happened. It was delayed due to some idiot who apparently dropped his/her cellphone while riding on board and have it squashed completely which then disrupted the system. We almost gave up riding but thank god we didn’t back out as we’re so near to the end of line.

Next we went for the wet rides; Katanga Canyon & The Flume. They’re both pretty similar to the ones you’d find in Sunway Lagoon. While were queueing up for Flume, my handphone rang and I was rather surprised it was Peytsei’s voice. Was really planning to call her on Sat but she always seemed to be one step ahead wan LOL. Not the first time..I remembered I intended to call her last time but then she already called before I could. Talked to Pra & Mel as well. Thanks a lot for the  call Peytsei…long distance call sumore talk so long..paiseh ler..After getting off The Flume, it was already almost 5pm. There were more rides that we missed but too bad time’s running out as we need to make our way back to the main entrance. Got back to Marybone around 7.45pm.

How bad can everything happened at once to me? I’m getting really sick and tired now. Dah lah received bad news from Mel that she’s getting offer from UMS, Sabah which is so far….and she can only return like once or twice a year!! :(..Arrgh..I just did freaking so badly in my lab test 2….markah kesian also not enough to save me. My internet connection is so f***king screwy right now. Keeps getting cut off now and then for no reason. DAMN I PAID 50 pounds (that’s almost RM350 if you don’t realise) for these 3 months not to be expecting this kinda service from the apartment for god sakes. Another major lab test this thursday…wth..there wasn’t a day I can’t have my mind eases up of studies for once. And what’s even worse is next Mon is my major paper. How nice of a feeling having to be rushed everyday for test, assignments etc. It’s major nightmare here I tell ya. Not enjoying 1 bit in UK. Definitely not.

P.S.: Here’s wishing a Happy Father’s Day to my dad back home =)

Well, I really dunno where to begin. It’s been 2 weeks since my last blog being posted. Very unlike me as I posts as often as I can be since I was rather free few months back then. Now back to school was never fun at all. You get tonnes of pressure, tonnes of assignment, not to mention tonnes of stupid minor tests now and then. There’s just no time to have a day where you can actually stop thinking all of these things for a moment. No. Constantly I have to fend for myself all the time in UK. Adding to the burden now is I have to think what to cook for dinner, what to buy for dinner, where to get the cheapest stuffs in town where I’m totally a stranger to..and you know how just time consuming are these things. I sound so dependent, don’t I? Well I definitely agreed with you..whoever who’s reading this post. Okay I won’t continue on with my utterly useless ramblings cos it’s making very childish than I already was LOL.

Thank you so much to Adrian, Mel, Huoy Feng & Peytsei for sending me off to the airport on the very day. It really meant a lot to me as your all my best friends. Had fun hanging out in 1U the day before (you guys finally had your chance of playing bowling for the 1st time! =D) Thanks to my cousins, my uncle who came as well. Had a gathering with ex-bbians a night before I leave for UK with Dina, Kanesh, Ka Ken & Wei Wern. Thanks for the farewell cards guys, really touched you all took the time to purchase one and write ’sweet essays’ in them for me. I’m now doing well in okay, probably still a little not so adaptative with the environment as yet. To tell you the truth, I actually shed tears on the 2nd day itself..getting emotional with having to leave my beloved family and friends for the 1st time even though it’s just for 3 months period. Anyway I will get used to it eventually as I slowly eased myself into their lifestyles. So can’t wait for the 3 months to be over to meet up with you guys back at Msia. Take care everyone and god bless!

Wow, this weekend’s really packed for me..having to attend a number of farewell gatherings with my gangs and at the same time, packing my stuffs here and there..dang I barely had time to lay some of my Control & DSP notes as to be not so blur up in UK when they start the lessons next week (Actually I do have the time but those times are taken up to lepak & rest LOL)

Yesterday had dinner in SS2’s Mongkok Char Chan Teng with Peggy, priest, Finrod, Odiee & Sookie. Tried the spiral pasta this time and loved it. A little bit spicy but definitely satisfying. Wanted to have KTV session after that since it’s just above the restaurant but Peggy was too tired so tak jadi. While Odiee & Sookie left, the rest of us went to Klang to drop Finrod directly to his doorstep. Went for a mamak session first since it’s Finrod’s treat hehe.. Ordered the roti tisu which instead of shaping up like a cone, it’s thoroughly leper LOL. Since I was going to UK in few days time, they made several hilarious request to get them stuffs from UK…what Playboy mag, Penthouse, Cleo etc..LOL. Aiyoyoh, can’t believe I have to get these mags..but don’t think the customs will let me through when they found I had these in possessions.