[L.E.P.A.K series: London] Chapter 27: The Morning After

 Yes. This is it. This is the last of my L.E.P.A.K posts. The adventure is coming to an end. 

Just a little bit more to go. Are you ready? 

 I'm not. :(

 But here goes! Our morning market stroll was greeted with all kinds of 'wacky'.

Seriously. Who would be looking for Ice Cold Water in this weather?

The must-have Notting Hill shopping bag. ;)

Umm... for those who are patriotic inside and out?

Alright. There's nothing really 'wacky' about this stall. 

It's just that we passed by it, took a shot and moved along... 

.

.

.

 ...and then when we passed by it again, much later...

WAA-LAH!

Lots and lots of pastries to choose from. We bought some to munch later. 

It was a very 'bread' day for us. £1 each or 3 for £2.70. 

Very affordable to the locals but that's a whooping RM13 to us. Oh well.

Merry men playing merry music for the merry people on the street. 

They were pretty good but we're pretty poor, so yeah. Haha.

This was the point where we decided it's time 

to make a U-turn and head back. Time to go 'home'. :(

One last pretty before we go.

Good bye Baker Street.

Struggle struggle. Resist resist.

Waaaaaa.... at the waiting lounge.

Attempts one last shot together.

One last London meal. Yes, bread again. But this was soooo yummy too. 

The Real Prawn Salad with crazy load of fresh prawns. Squashy. Yummy.

And so it begun... our 13-hour flight back to Malaysia.

Think the story has come to an end? 

 Think again. I'm not done yet. 

I want to remember some details on board.

You see, our plane took off at approximately five in the evening. The scenery outside changed from daylight to sunset, from sunset to total darkness and from night to sunrise and back to full daylight as shown in the sequence of photos above. During our flight from Malaysia to London, it was just daylight throughout the entire journey as we were travelling backwards in time, so we were stuck with 13 hours of daylight.

 So naturally this time, everyone went to bed at one point during the flight. 

That's normal right? 

 The thing was that it's Air Asia X. Not exactly the most comfortable long haul flight out there. Economical, yes. Spacious comfort, yes, if you pay more for a premium flat bed. So yeah, all of us 'economical' travellers were making the best out of the situation. 

 That was until a guy came right beside my seat and decided to create his own 'flat bed' 

by laying on the floor. 

 Say woot?!?!

You see. The usual plane seating would be 3-3-3, until you reach towards the curvy end of the plane where it gets narrower and the seating order changes to 2-3-2. Cik Anai and I were lucky enough to be seated at the very first 2-seater row. Yay! That means no stranger sitting with us. Double Yay because that also means we don't have to risk sitting next to a super big guy or a super smelly guy or a super talkative guy... (okay, I'm sounding a tad too bias and judgemental here but you get the idea). 

 But apparently we got ourselves a super strange guy instead. Who was laying right beside my seat, on the floor, trying to be as close to the side as possible because hello, the floor is of course, the aisle! And because it was 'night' time and everyone was 'asleep', no flight attendant actually noticed or came to ask the man to 'remove' himself. 

 Awkward. 

 The awkwardness continued for about 15 minutes or so and finally he stood up and left. 

 -_______-

After that, we passed through what we believed to be the desert, the Himalayas and we're home! 

 Our instant reaction?

H.O.T

Hot. Hot. Hot. Ha. Ha. Ha.

Our first meal upon touch down?

Curry Mee and Koay Teow Ting.

Unfortunately, we had them at the airport. So not yummy. 

 But we were too hungry to care. 

Sigh.

Yup. We're home.

[L.E.P.A.K series: London] Chapter 25: Windsor Castle

June is here! And I have only but a handful of posts left for my L.E.P.A.K series. :( 

I’m bracing myself for the end of this adventure. *sobs*  Now where did I left off from my last L.E.P.A.K post? Oh right! The Changing of Guards Ceremony came to an end and we were once again off to our next location and it is no where within London city. 

What?!? 

 These two girls are barely back in town for less than 24 hours and they're crazy enough 

to head out again? 

Of course not! Don't be silly. 

 We rode the tube back to Westminster Station and from there bought tickets out to... 

to... Windsor & Eton Riverside! That's right. 

 We're heading to Windsor Castle. 

 Speaking of Windsor Castle, Cik Anai and I sort of owe ourselves to the place. Just the name itself was grand and influential enough to 'save' us. Hahaha. Here's what happened. Just the day before when we were supposed to ride the Eurostar back from Brussel to London, we naturally had to go through custom once again. The usual Q&A between the custom officer and us ensued. The difference this time from the one we had at the airport was the fact that we did not have my crazy-ass 32-pages long itinerary with me to do the convincing job. Not to mention we both looked totally worn out from our two days of adventure. Even our appearance was probably very suspicious looking. Hahaha. 

 Oh no! 

 And then it happened! Lady Officer asked me "Where will you be heading to London tomorrow?" in which I went on to answer, "We're going to St Paul's then to catch the Changing of the Guards and probably Windsor Castle but we're not too sure about that one." 

 SCORE! 

 Why? Because Lady Officer immediately perked up and insisted that we should pay Windsor Castle a visit in which I replied "Really?!" and we went on a little from there. She then looked over to Mr Officer at the next counter who was 'interrogating' Cik Anai and asked "How? Okay?" and we both got our stamp of approval to enter. 

 Weeee! 

 Because of that, we make sure we visit Windsor Castle no matter what. The reason for the initial uncertainty was that we had planned to catch Wicked (the musical) that evening and was worried we wouldn't be able to make it back on time. We did make it back on time after all yet we did not catch the musical. Big big bummer but more about that later. Right now let's head to Windsor!

Within an hour's train ride and we reached our destination.

It was certainly a beautiful place to step out to. A curve and a stroll later... 

(Just so you know, I'm fighting the urge to post every single photo of every single step we took so as to avoid being longwinded and have to actually have two separate post for this place) *must resist* 

 Therefore, a curve and a stroll later...

...we found ourselves in front of a cross-road. Hahaha. 

Silly pun that amuses no one else but myself. Sorry about that.

I love this shot of myself *shameless* except for the awkward sitting pose. :(

And then it was the start of pure awesomeness.

The Round Tower is one of the signature architectures of the castle which 

you will see in many photos.

Here's one last pretty shot before I turn on my story-telling mode again. I love this shot of Cik Anai. It's certainly nice to visit on a weekday with less crowd around. That is if you don't find wondering around a grand and old castle that bit spooky. 

 Now, the best part about Windsor Castle is what's inside it and unfortunately, just like in St Paul's Cathedral, no photography is allowed. Windsor Castle is actually the Queen's weekend residence. Yes, there is actually the possibility of you walking around castle grounds while the queen is at home. 

 According to the Royal Windsor website, Windor Castle is the largest inhabited castle in the world. It is one of the Queen's three official residences and is often said to be her favourite. To know whether the Queen is at home, check the flag that flies over the Round Tower. The Royal Standard flies when the Queen is in residence and at other times, the Union Jack flies in its place.

Within those walls are the royal apartments and I must say, walking inside it will simply leave you in awe with your jaws hanging, literally. Hahaha. It is so grand, so luxurious and so well-aged. Though of course Her Majesty's private apartments are never open to visitors but one can imagine how life would be in here.

There is one amusing thing in this scene. Look very closely. 

 Can't see it? Wait, Cik Anai will zoom in for you.

Here you go! 

No no, I'm not talking about my weird facial expression. 

Look at what's on my right. 

 5 

 Yes, 5! Hahaha. That's the speed limit. 

For cars and bikes I hope, not pedestrian walking speed. Funneh.

At the very last leg of our self-paced walking tour is St George's Chapel. 

 The beauty of St George's Chapel is very much different from St Paul's luxurious appeal nor is it comparable to Notre Dame's classic charm. If I were to find the perfect description for St George's Chapel, I would say 'serene beauty'. It is very haunting and for a lack of a better word, eerie. Not in a bad way but you can't help bowing down and be respectful of the place. Maybe because it is the resting place of many Monarchs.

After a short yet informative tour inside St George's Chapel, we stepped out and were greeted by the royal guards. Unlike the crazy crowd at Buckingham palace, the numbers here were manageable, so we took the opportunity for a one-on-one photoshoot session with a fellow guard-on-duty.

Hahaha. Kacau aje.

We attempted to 'see' the most out of our half-day tour at Windsor by trying out luck at another route back to the train station. Different route, different things to see.

Which led us to the realisation that it was some Apple / Mac launch day! 

No wonder there was no one at the castle. They were all here. Hahaha.

Then we stumbled upon Mr Iduntalkmuch's famous ice-cream place.

Two doors down was Gadget Boy's boutique shop selling clothes for the ladies. Typical of Gadget Boy. Hahaha. Our biggest surprise though, came when we made a turn to the next road. Turns out Daniel ain't merely a boutique shop but a huge departmental store like business. Like HUGE. Hahaha. We joked among ourselves saying "Gadget Boy ho-liao!" 

 An hour's train ride later, we rushed towards Victoria Theatre to attempt to get ourselves tickets to Wicked. Crazy girls thinking of scoring tickets to one of the most on-demand musicals of West End! Na-da! Actually, there were still tickets, except they're priced at a whooping £90 each!! That's like RM450 our money. Cray cray man! Even if I'm crazy enough to splurge, I can't expect Cik Anai who's totally clueless about the show to spend that much. No can do.

We asked if there were no cheaper seats and the lady at the counter said yes, at £19 for a seat with blocked view. She said that the seats were good for those above six feet tall but not for us. Disappointed we left the place with broken hearts. I regretted oh so very much later that I did not grab those £19 seats and just kneel or did something to make myself higher to watch. But what's done is done.

Instead we found ourselves back at Piccadilly Circus with a night crowd as busy as in the day. Knowing how disappointed I was over most our unfortunate incident, Cik Anai proposed we catch some other musical. However, since its over 7.30pm, most shows have already started and we were left with a handful of musical to choose from.

And that's how we ended up with Mamma Mia! Not the biggest production nor the most interesting story. Seen the movie, know the songs. So it was not a musical filled with surprises yet it's still amazing to see how they work the stage and the whole story with one multi-rotatable centre piece.

And for some crazy reason, we rewarded ourselves with some ice cold Haagen Dazs 

on a winter night. Yup. We're definitely getting used to the cold. Hahaha. 

 And that wraps up our last night in London. Boohoohoo! :(

The Surprisingly Sappy Sisters

Seriously. Me and sis. We don't do mushy mushy stuff. We're even awkward giving each other hugs. It's not like we don't love each other. We do. In a weird understated kind of way. We're just not very good at showing affection. Hah! So it was weird that after a 4-day trip sending younger sis back to KL plus a short family trip to Melaka thrown in together that I came home feeling what I'm feeling right now.

And it's not just me okay! :( 

We sad face together-gether.

Betul-betul sungguh tak sangka.

*sigh*

That little space she occupied on my table while she was home for the past 

three months is now empty. T__T I remembered how I complained she was invading 

my space back then. And I must say looking at the photo now, that's a tiny little space 

I managed to offer. =P 

The only thing she left me with?

One used game cash card. 

That tiny bottle of hand sanitiser was mine to begin with anyway. 

*sigh*

Oh adik.

Summing up December in 500 words

Warning: This would be one of the few posts that were written in one straight go, without the usual think-write-read-edit process. It’s a total pour of words without proper structure, proper sentencing, proper formatting, etc.

Here goes!

December was the down month of the year. Seriously, not the best way to end the year. Grandpa got admitted to hospital because of fever, which was suspected to be dengue, which later was proven not. “Chikungunya”, that’s what the doctor said. Anyhow he was weak all over. If that wasn’t bad enough, dad got a sudden lapse of heart pain while he was visiting grandpa. Thus, dad got admitted to hospital.

Talk about irony.

Then talk about being lucky it actually happened in a hospital where immediate attention was given.

Sigh.

So it turned out dad got a serious blood clot in one of his blood vessels and a minor operation, or like how the doctor put it “a procedure” was called for, to open, unclog and keep the blood vessel clear and good. Dad’s insurance did not provide coverage for this and 20k plus of money was spent. Of course, it wasn’t so much about the money. It’s dad’s well-being that we were worried most.

And dad is now on long-term meds which even though it’s not about the money, still very much takes up an extra sum every month from now on.

Again, like I said, what matters most is dad and everyone’s peace of mind.

No no. It did not end there however. Two days after dad got discharged from the hospital, our house was burglarized. By a totally silly burglar nonetheless who took away RM50 and a speaker. Still damage was done and again money was spent on fixing up the doors. We finally resolved to install an alarm system as well. Again money. Hah!

Really. It’s not about the money. It’s just a sad sad series of unfortunate incidents.

After barely a week out of the hospital, grandpa was not feeling well again. This time much worse than the last and everyone was fearful of his life. He couldn’t walk, couldn’t eat and I know it hurt dad most that he couldn’t do much or physically be there for grandpa because of his “house-arrest” after his own “procedure”.

Obviously 500 words are not enough to sum up the month because after all that pour of negativity, I got a call of good news.

I won my dad a Christmas gift from MPH. RM100 worth of vouchers, a really awesome mug plus a set of won’t-be-used postcards. I think I’m actually getting a kick out of writing slogans for contest. ;-) I guess it pays to write for a living, in more ways than one.

And that hopefully marks the end of the family’s dark period.

As we enter the new year, I really do hope we have more good things to look forward to. In all honestly, health is really and truly one’s greatest asset. No amount of money can make up for the health of a loved one or that of your own. So a great reminder to everyone out there, take good care of yourself, be conscious of your diet, live healthy, live happy because it’s not just about living your life as an individual but as a unit, as a family and even as a friend. Because even if it doesn’t matter to you, it matters a lot to others. Because if it hurts you, it also hurts others. And as corny as it may sound, you are not alone in this world and YOU MATTER in every way.

It’s an hour away to 2011.

May the new year brings forth awareness of the importance of good health to everyone.

Oh Happy Pill

Happy Pill, where are you?
I've been missing you lately.
Did you left for a holiday without me?
Or did evil Debbie Downer get to you?

Happy Pill, get yourself together.
We are depending on you.
Remember Muse?
She's been lonely without you.
Poor thing.

Happy Pill, you're not gone
and we're not sad.
It's just the sky had been a little grey lately.
No, no. Rain did not fall.
No, no. Lightning did not strike.
But I ain't seeing no rainbow either.

Happy Pill, come home soon will ya?
Before Sad Soda really do come knocking on the door.

Oh Happy Pill.

I NEED A SIGN!!

I can't believe it! My eagerness was my downfall this time. T__T I'm in such a depressing mode right now you'll probably see dark clouds floating above me. *sigh* I made a wrong move to go with PosLaju. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a rant on PosLaju service. In fact, I'm very much satisfied with their service so far, though I believe many would think otherwise.

I should have gone with just Pos Ekspres.
*smacks her own head*

Heck, probably normal post was even a wiser choice.
*bricked*

But nooooo... I thought I had it right with PosLaju.
*dies*

The problem is, there is no one at the other end to sign and receive my application. Someone explain to me why is there no one there? Even when I tried calling, no one is answering the phone either. T___T And it's a RULE to have it signed! Even though I called up and requested to have the letter just place into the box but noooo.... it's a procedure to sign. SIGN!!

I need a SIGN.

There goes an opportunity.
There goes my day.

x___x