Saturday,
19 September 2015
I
wasn’t in a hurry this morning and only left the hotel at 1100. I walked to
Oxfam at Westbourne Grove but nothing caught my fancy. I retraced my steps and
from my hotel, walked to Mount Street. I had done some research the evening
before and thanks to this article, turned a 180◦ and decided to buy
a Moynat Cabas tote instead of Goyard Saint Louis. So maybe it was a good thing
I didn’t manage to get it in Paris after all, silver lining and all that.
I
was welcomed very warmly at Moynat and asked to see the tote bags. I was told
one of them was being discontinued. The store only had the Petit Model (PM or
small size) and Grand Model (GM or large) sizes. The Moyen Model (MM or medium)
had sold out back in early August and they still hadn’t received any new stock
as the artisans in Paris were off on their summer holidays. So I decided to
bite the bullet and go for the GM size (even though I find my Louis Vuitton
Neverfull GM a bit large). The friendly sales assistant also explained that
they could ship it to me at cost (minus 20% VAT) but I would be subject to
possible import duty back home on top of the insurance and posting costs. Well,
I managed to ride on The Connaught’s wifi and sent WA message to Yan who told
me that there may not be an import duty on bags (I double checked this, no
import duty on bags) but I would be subject to 6% GST on the value of the bag
when the bag arrives home. What??!!! I sat down at some seats and contemplated:
should I get the bag there or ask them to post? I could ask the Paris store to
post too for that matter but would still be subject to that blasted GST.
Finally I decided to just get the bag. So I went back to Moynat and swiped my
plastic. Oh, in the interim, I did go to Goyard a few doors away but was told
both times that the store was full. Well, that did it. Moynat for me then,
thank you very much.
At Moynat
I
walked to Oxford Street and continued on to Cancer Research shop at Marylebone
High Street. I was in luck this time and bought some accessories. I also picked
a couple more accessories at another charity shop on the walk back to my hotel.
Accessories that I bought
I
went out again shortly after arriving at the hotel to get some food.
Sunday,
20 September 2015
I
checked out at noon after a late breakfast and a light lunch. After storing my
bags (yes, plural. They had since doubled!), I headed for Malaysia Hall to
perform prayers. Then I walked to Whiteleys to browse before settling down with
my book. I’d completed my shopping anyway.
I
went back to the hotel after 5, collected my bags and walked to Bayswater Road to
catch a bus to Shepherd’s Bush. The traffic was surprisingly heavy then; we
heard a few ambulance and police car sirens as we waited. I finally got bus 148
but it was a slow ride before I finally alighted at Royal Crescent Gardens.
From there, I walked the short distance to the bus stop. When I discovered that
easyBus has started serving London Heathrow, I decided to take it as I didn’t
want to struggle up and down the tube stairs and change stations. The online
ticket was only £1 (+ £0.50 for credit card fee).
The
bus was late and I was already starting to panic and contemplating my options.
It arrived at 1835, 15 minutes later than scheduled. It was the heavy traffic that
caused the delay. I don’t know how easyBus broke even for that trip as I was
the sole passenger. It didn’t take long to reach Heathrow from the stop at
Shepherd’s Bush. We arrived at Heathrow Airport Central Bus Station at Terminal
2 at 1910 and I followed directions to Heathrow Express. For Heathrow Terminal
4, you actually need to take Heathrow Connect but just follow signs to Heathrow
Express and it would lead you to Heathrow Connect. I managed to board the Heathrow
Connect train with 10 seconds to spare. Phew! Had I missed that, I’d have to
wait ten minutes for the next train. We arrived at Terminal 4 four minutes
later and I immediately took the lift up to the departure level to check in. It
wasn’t 8 p.m. yet and already there was a long queue. I had to wait a while to
drop my bags because there were only two counters for bag drop.
I
immediately went in after dropping my bags (they totalled less than 15 kg!) and
went in. There was a long queue to clear security and another long one at
Travellex for VAT refund (after getting my form stamped by the brusque, stern
but efficient custom officer). It was almost 9 when I was done and I hurried to
the multi-faith prayer to perform prayers. The announcement to board was made
very soon after I finished so there wasn’t any time to browse the duty-free.
We
took off pretty much on schedule. Sleep eluded me again. As usual.
Monday,
21 September 2015
We
landed at KLIA at 1800. I had anticipated it would take a while to unload the
plane so I went to perform prayers first. I only had to wait about 7 minutes
after performing prayers before my bags came out. I had dinner in Cyberjaya and
only reached home at 2110.
So
that was my early autumn trip. I’m not sure if there will be another autumn
trip to Europe and in any case, it’s getting ridiculously expensive to go to
Europe or indeed anywhere with the weakening Ringgit.
The
End
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