Monday, November 24, 2008

LET'S GO TO LONDON!!!!!! CHAPTER 2

23-11-2008, Sunday
After checking in into the hotel (Sheraton Park Lane), I dumped all my stuffs in the room and headed to the hotel's cafe ;Bracewells Restaurant. Wot a day to start breakfast with ha ha ha the 'BELGIAN WAFFLES!'
I practically devoured the whole thang. I wasn't that hungry...just being a real schmuck over indulging prick when it comes to eating.
BELGIAN WAFFLES
Well, amongst the delegates, I must say I was impressed with our youngest participant; 3 months old. She was the best behaved one. Sitting quietly on her uncle's lap. Enjoying the ambiance of Sunday morning;
OUR YOUNGEST DELEGATE
Sunday eh...We planned to go do the sunday shopping thingy so we hired a small bus.OUR DRIVER FOR THE DAY
Destination: Bicester Village. Bicester is about 45minutes away from London. It was raining pretty heavily. Well, it was snowing earlier on in the morning when I arrived, then it rained...weird..well i guess thats London for ya...
Hmmm very very sloshy huh
ON THE WAY TO OXFORD
Before we reached Bicester, we stopped by Oxford...The 'Student' town I guess. I felt like I was back in my Uni in Canada once upon a time (gosh..its been too long). I saw places that reminded me of the crazy times when I was in school back then. The buildings mainly pretty classic looking...duh why am I looking at the buildings..no... can't help it...I'm in the maintenance industry..I was even commenting on the condition if the elevators in the hotel...(ish....typical).
OXFORDOXFORD
Yep, I felt like I was in the vicinity of Uni of Toronto...but this is OXFORD man!!!!!Lotsa brain accident smart ass people came from this Uni (ooops pardon my English LOL)....
OXFORDOXFORD
Some of the delegates did some shopping there...I didn't have the urge at all! Whoah...my lucky pocket that day.
OXFORD

VIP CARD
We then moved to Bicester Village for some serious shopping there. The traffic started to pile up. We were quite lucky to be taking that small bus coz the driver didn't have any problem with parking. He had this huge parking there. We started to explore Bicester....
We saw the people over there were better dressed there...sorry..other places...this was just my one day observation....
The Sales on the 'branded' stuffs there were awesome. Some people were crazy buying Tod bags and Gucci shoes..I got myself this nice suit from Charles Tyrwhitt. They were reeeely nice. My colleague was buying shirts for work. Before we know it...our hands were full with shopping bags.
MISS SIXTYDOLCE! DOLCE!

LUSH
PASTIES :-)
FAT FACE
I think we did tremendous amount of walking. I could feel my feet were hurting. It was getting cold too. I wasn't sure what was the plan for food. So my colleague and I stopped by Pret to get some bite to eat. Gawd there were millions of people in there ha ha.
SEAFOOD SALAD
I got meself some seafood salad and some cwoffee. They were good. I was feeling a little chilly and the cwoffee helped. There we bumped into some other Malaysians. what a bizzarre coincidence but apparently they were from Paris and stopped by London before shooting off to Malaysia.
We continued our shopping mission until we realised that it's winter and it gets darker earlier than what we spoil Malaysians are used to. Our tummy started grumbling and we moved on to get something to eat. The real meal. We hopped into the bus and we went to near Woodstock to this nice restaurant; The Trout. Very 'personal' place. I love the ambiance. Love and love the menu. Love and love the food.

THE TROUT - MENU
THE TROUT
FISH!
MUSHROOM AND BUTTER SAUCE WITH PITA BREAD
Naturally...belly was full and we were all ready to retire. So, made our way back to the hotel. I fell asleep in the bus (yeah..this is what you get from eating too much ha ha). I must say a day well SPENT...
(To be continued...)

Sunday, November 23, 2008

LET'S GO TO LONDON!!!!! CHAPTER 1

I had never been to this country before. Well, almost, I stopped by Heathrow once upon time before...transit didn't count ha ha. I was given the task to organise the trip for some of my clients and my colleagues. It was pretty challenging when you were given insufficient time and when some restrictions apply....to cut the effing story short, my flight was at night, so on that same day, i went out shopping for warm clothes (i hadn't been to a cold country in a while so all my winter stuffs vanished he he). I had very little time to pack. I managed to'zip' my bag up 20 minutes before the taxi arrive for the airport...

I was the last one to fly. The rest left a day before me. So, practically I was traveling by myself. 13 hours! Bloody bloody! I got tired just thinking about it.

STARBUCKS K.L.I.A

At the airport while waiting, I got a bite to eat...at 11pm I felt really alone....
The flight was full. I was already exhausted...so I passed out....

When I woke up...I heard..."Tuan-tuan dan puan-puan, kita akan mendarat sebentar lagi" (ladies and gentlemen, we will be landing shortly...). Wow, I slept through!!!!

I looked over.....it was around 5:15am. Wow! look at the city of London! all lit up! (Like jakun only...)

LIGHTS IN LONDON
I was still groggy but I hoped the trip would be OK. Oh, I hope I wasn't stopped at the immigration and asked like 10 million questions ;-) why I went to London. Nah I was afraid that I might answer,"It's none of your f***ing business!" or something like that considering how stressful I was organizing this short and short noticed trip...

I reached the immigration, they asked,"What's the purpose of your visit?" I answered politely,"For a seminar in central london. I will be staying in Sheraton". She looked at me and stamped my passport. Well, that was quick.

After retrieving my luggage, I walked out looking for my ride. There was this little miserable sign saying my company name, I missed that the first time.

I had a little chat with the driver...he was pleasant and he said he would visit Malaysia in a very near future.

I reached the hotel. Oh yes, it was effing cold! -2 degree Celsius! Yah my a** froze LOL.

I saw my colleague Iza waiting for me at the lobby. It was probably around 6-ish early in the morning and she said I could go straight for breakfast.

(to be continued...)

TOO MUCH HAS HAPPENED TOO LITTLE TIME

I stopped blogging for a bit since I last moved to my birth place in end October 2021. 5 Months after, only I could bring myself to write so...