Manor Park, East Ham, London..15-22 Jan 07

Salam...

On the 14th of Jan 07, Sunday, a day after we finished our final semester exams, that night, we headed to Simferopol Airport to board the flight that would take us to Kyiv before we landed in Gatwick. The flight was delayed 2 hours..it should've departed at 9pm, however, we had to wait until 11..so this was what we did to kill time..hehe.

55 minutes later we arrived at Kyiv. Of course, it was midnight, so there wasn't much to do..and so after a few snapshots we slept at the terminal.


Me calling my family and brother izu..to remind him to pick us up..kehkehkeh.



Owh yeah..did I tell you how many of us were there? All in all there were 3 groups. The biggest was ours : Me, aishah, tira, achot, atiq and kak diana. Next there was the threesome kak muna, kak mas and fyra. And last but not least there was the pair : Ismail and Vimal. All of us flew together ; however in London we split places and travelled separately. We were to stay in East Ham, kak muna's group in Golder's Green and Ismail in Earl's Court.



15 Jan 9am - the plane departed from Kyiv to Gatwick, London, non-stop 3 and a half hours. Upon arriving, izu picked us up at the airport. The route to his house from East Ham underground was like we were in India..ade kedai Madras laa, Chennai Dosa laa..macam2.


And then there was their favourite's..Sam's Burger..tp tiap2 kali diorang makan, I was with my dad..huhu. Anyway, the best thing was, rempuh2 je dapur izu..nampak hobnob's, which is unavailable in Ukraine. Bile tanye izu, die kasi makan. I pun makanlaa!! hehe..terus abes cookies tuu..keh3...sorry yer brother izu.



That night, sometime around 4.40pm after maghrib, we headed off to the Embankment, along Thames River. The night looked gorgeous. As they say, a picture's worth a thousand words..so look at the pictures yourselves..

...Big Ben...

London Eye

16 Jan - We left early in the morning around 10am and headed towards Buckingham Palace. Of course, what else if not march-spectating. At first we thought of bullying the "bobby" like what Mr. Bean did ; fortunately he stood behind the gates. Later we took a few snapshots at Green Park. We did intend to stroll along the narrow paths of Hyde Park, however, small droplets of rain were starting to dribble ( plus Hyde Park is best visited during summer - colourful flowers would be blooming alongside the bushes and ducks would be quacking, swimming in the pond ).


So, it connoted our next stop - the very popular Madamme Tussauds ( i didn't go coz i've went there before ) and so i went to Heathrow with izu to meet my dad who was on transit before going to Amsterdam. But it was just for a while before he had to go. This was the first time I met with Mark & Spencer's mouth-watering caramel...macam taufufah...seedaapp..costed only 61p.


Then we headed to Bayswater and rempuh masuk Wan Daus's office at the Malaysian Hall (Wan Daus is my ex-senior in SMAPK and we were also in the same English Debate Team) and asked him to treat us. Dapatla makan mee bandung and ayam goreng..hehe. Lame jugak tunggu die balik. Among the stuff in his room that stole my attention were these posters...hmmm...??curious.



Sempat mencuri ketupat yang tergantung..hehe.


After the treat kitorang tangkap sket gambar kat Malaysian Hall...senang sket biler ade presiden UKEC nie...keh3.

Later we headed off to Middlesex University coz izu wanted to empty his room and bring all the stuff to his house in East Ham.

17 Jan

The girls entered London Dungeon ( and again i didn't coz i did so 3 years ago. But it wasn't me alone. Achot couldn't fight her fear and refused to enter. :P ).


Next went to Shakespeare's Globe. Nothing much here coz..well, it's just a globe. Haha. Unless you're a literature freak. But the girls did whack up some souvenirs. Then kitorang makan ice cream kat Artcafe...seedaaaapp. The favours tasted natural - I chose raspberry together with caramel. Yum2. Disregard the fat-fear feeling and let temptation win over. Hehe. Sempat lagi ade gambar candid nie..isk isk isk.

Owh yeah..and this was the 1st day we spent our money on souvenirs, clothes and all that. I got my first dress. Hehe. I'll tell u which one later :P . The mural on the wall below was found at one of the underground stations (Piccadilly Circus if not mistaken). They believe it was made by a Malaysian artiste by it's touch of art and design.


18 Jan - The day was quite breezy, so we didn't go out as early as usual. Izu janji nak masak. Hehe..and so alhamdulillah dapatla makan nasik ayam. Nyam2 sedap.



Owh..and yeah i forgot to tell you, abg aishah (Suhail) and his friends (Lokman and Hakimi) who just arrived from KL were here too. After that we went to Canary Wharf. Wanna know how windy it was? The pictures speak for themselves. We heard in the news that someone died at Canary Wharf on the same day we were there sebab kena tiup angin...ish3. Alhamdulillah we were safe.


Process mengangkat tira untuk sesi posing di atas tembok.


Berjaya!!kekeke :P


Lepas tu ape lagi..Oxford street...shop till u drop!! (nie la namenye perempuan..kehkehkeh).


The day continued with us having a walk between the dazzling lights of the shops at China Town.


After that we took the tube to Killburn and met Lina Nadrah (SMAPL debater + achot's ex-schoolmate) and also Shamsir aka samtak, my ex-schoolmate merangkap our batch's s/u. Lina's doing law at King's College and Shamsir's taking medicine at Queen Mary. Malam tu tira masak nasik goreng untuk bekal gi Cardiff esoknye. Thanks tira. :)


19 Jan - Today we had to wake up early and rush...terpaksa exercise pagi2 buta, lari marathon utk catch up the Megabus that would move at 8am. We were kinda late, hehe..tapi alhamdulillah selamat sampai. The journey took 3 hours.


Cardiff is a very nice and quiet place. We visited Cardiff University and spotted quite a number of Malaysian students that smiled upon seeing us. The university looked rather old (well, it is matter-of-factly) like other typical old buildings that dwelled upon Great Britain.


The weather that day wasn't that windy, and there were no big waves, so we had the chance to stroll on the decks alongside the bay.

We're not pretty sure wether this was a real ship or a fake one. Then again, who cares? No one can stop us from imitating Titanic scenes..hehe.



But for this ship? Well, it was real. We nearly wanted to walk inside, if not flabbergasted by the stern and solemn looks of the sailors inside.


Kitorang sempat shopping jugak!!yea..yea... :) There were lots of designer shops..GAP, ZARA, Profile Pink (I got myself a coat here..hee) and they also had a shopping complex, shopping arcade and a central market (that somewhat resembles Malaysia's pasar malam).

Picnic tira's nasik goreng at the bay (tapi lepas tu makan jer chicken cottage :P).


Balik tu, we met ainul aka stone n ayie aka wan zul at Victoria Station. Both are my ex-schoolmates. Malam tu they overnighted at izu's. Thanks guys for the thoughtful visit..


20 Jan - Had to wake up early and make the move to pick up dad at Bayswater. The other girls went to High Street Kensington and Oxford Street with Wan Zul and Stone..pergi shopping la tu. Terharu sebab abah sanggup turun balik untuk spend time with me..huhu. At first things were rather chaotic because nearly all hotels were fully booked, only suites for big families were available. Rupe2nye Pak Lah nak datang.

At first we booked a room at Holiday Villa, but it was a single room and quite small to accommodate two people..double and twin rooms were already unavailable. After searching at the hotels nearby, dad found a suitable and nice room at Britannia's Court. Abah's stomach started to grumble (mine too :P) so we devoured lunch at the Malaysian Hall. After solat we took the tube to Oxford Circus. And what else..abah belanje akak shopping..yea yea lagie..hehe. These boots abah yg pilih..and also the white Tie Rack scarf. Trime kaseh abah :) .


21 Jan - This morning atiq, kak diana and tira where scheduled to enlight the Megabus that would take them to Oxford. Tira had an auntie staying there who was to greet them. Me? Of course I was with my dad. After breakfast at the hotel, we went to Artcafe's cybercafe to copy pics of me at London from tira's external hard disk into abah's thumbdrive. Punyela banyak gile gambar sampai tak muat..ish3. Then izu and achot sampai Bayswater Underground Station and Abah had to fly back to Amsterdam. Huhu sdeh...

Next, the three of us went to Edgware Road and borong some chocolates at Woolworth. It was kinda cool coz we get to "pick n mix" them. I chose all that were my favourite..nyam2. Then we left achot with her friends Dek We n Kuzie, and Izu and me met Aishah and her brother at Piccadilly Circus..and i did a bit of shopping, again. :) Bought something at Harrods.

This was the new green dress that i spoke about earlier. Winter coat warne putih tu pun baru beli kat Cardiff. kekeke. Malam tu kitorang makan kat Chennai Dosa..indian food..spicy but very nice. I ate white steamed rice that came with 9 different dishes..curry chicken, tandoori chicken, mutton, beaf, indian cuisine...lots more that i frankly do not know, tapi telan je :P..and i also sipped some "filtered coffee" that tasted not to sweet yet not too bitter..just perfect.


On the way home I spotted milo, nestumalt and nespray at one of the grocery shops, maka ape lagi belilaa...kat Ukraine takde. Sebelum tido kne kemas beg dulu..esok dah kne bertolak awal.


22 Jan

Today, everyone woke up early. However, in each's eyes one can spot that gloomy feeling..kitorang tanak balikkk!!! Seriously, this trip was cool..lagi2 dgn gelagat izu yang tak henti2 buat lawak and tak kesah pun melayan kitorang yg macam2 nie..ish3...a tribute to you izu!! :) You made a very good big brother to all of us...


Nie gambar2 on the way nak balik..sume cover sdeh behind the smiles..hmmm. Owh yeah and that pink scarf was given by izu..thank you very much..scottish rocks!! :P



Yang ni batak skejap sebab jumpe poster Prison Break yang besar..kat Ukraine takde.

Byebye everyone...



In the aircraft. Look closely and you'd see that my eyes were red.


Bye2 London..we wish to meet you again someday ( and Hobnob's too :P ).

ps: Yesterday I lost one of my gloves that i bought somewhere at Piccadilly Circus. Dahla yang favourite pulak tu. Wore it everywhere I went. Sdeh.. :(