Saturday, 3 May 2014
I left 25 minutes after midnight and
walked to Hotel Campanile where the coach was already waiting. I quickly made
my way in and selected a seat towards the rear of the bus. There were fewer
people there hence more quiet. I tried to sleep before we had to get off at
Calais border control. We got down and went through the French and British
immigrations. The British lady who served me asked what I was planning to do in
London. Duh, I thought, not to see the Queen that’s for sure. ‘I’m going to
watch football,’ I replied.
She: Oh, are you? Which team?
Me: Arsenal.
She: Is it the European match?
Me: (No, silly, Arsenal are out and
besides there’s no European match on weekends. Idiot!). No, it’s the last home
match of the season.
She: And have you got ticket to see the
match?
Me: (Yes, of course you silly fool).
Yes.
She: Can I have a look at it?
I actually rolled my eyes at this, it
was an instant reaction and I couldn’t undo it. Unlocked my backpack and
searched for the ticket before handing it to her.
She: (reading aloud) Oh Arsenal vs West
Bromwich Albion. Sunday, 4 May. Right. You come to watch football match often?
Me: Not really. But I support them all
the same, all the way from Malaysia.
She: So after London, where will you
be?
Me: I’ll be flying out to the Czech
Republic before going to Austria and flying back to London for a few nights
before flying home.
She: And when are you going home?
Me: (just about managed to stop rolling
my eyes again) 12 May. (Frowned). Yes, 12 May.
And before she could ask any further, I
searched my backpack and showed her my return ticket.
She: 13 May
Me: (No, you fool. 13 May is when I get
home. 12 May is when I fly out. But I’m not going to spell it out for you)
She: OK then.
What. A. Dummy.
We re-boarded the coach and drove on to
the port. Boarded the ferry and had to disembark the coach again during the
ferry crossing. It took 90 minutes and of course I couldn’t sleep. Re-boarded
the coach again just before docking at Dover and we settled in for the remainder
of the journey to London.
We pulled into London Victoria coach
station at 0650 and I slowly made my way to the tube station. Changed tubes at
St Pancras for the Metropolitan line for West Harrow. Arrived at West Harrow
station around 8 and Ken arrived within 5 minutes to fetch me. I was studying
the map but his road wasn’t shown as it was a new development.
It was a beautiful gorgeous day after
the miserable Dutch and Belgian weather and I didn’t want to stay indoors. But
I was overcame by sleepiness and succumbed to it. Finally went out to explore
the town of Harrow after 1530. I opted to walk there instead of taking the tube;
it was, after all, only one station away.
You could tell the demography of a
place by its stores and Harrow showed itself as a low-to-middle working class
level. I’m not complaining, just an observation.
I met up with Ken at 1930 and we had
dinner at a Turkish restaurant. I decided not to have kebab and opted for a
vegetarian dish. It was good and made up for the average lahmacun we had for
starters.
I persuaded Ken to walk back instead so
we strolled back to his pad. He continued assembling his table with parasol and
chairs that evening and finished it. We watched Gravity that evening before
retiring just after midnight.
Sunday, 4 May 2014
Now, I had already bought ticket to
watch Arsenal-West Brom match a month before the match and subsequently bought
flight ticket out on Saturday evening. Then of course the schedule was changed
to Sunday lunchtime and in anger, I emailed the club asking for a refund.
Having thought further about it, I decided I’d stick to the match - after all
it was the last home match and I already to give the match against Newcastle a
miss because they rescheduled it to Monday evening - and change my flight
instead which I did the very next morning. So imagine my horror when I found
that the club actually did read my email and had taken steps to refund me for
the ticket. Checked the club website but the match was sold out. Sold out.
Bloody hell. I emailed the club and was advised to check Ticket Exchange.
Thankfully, after being in the queue, losing my position in the queue when
Google Chrome crashed and having to start again in Internet Explorer (I went
through all this when I purchased the ticket in early April too), I managed to
find one empty seat. Phew phew phew. Syukur alhamdulillah.
Woke up late today after getting up
earlier for morning prayers. Had cereal for breakfast and then chee cheong fun.
Left at 12:10 and went to the station. Missed the train as I reached the
station and had to wait for the next train. The train was bound for Baker
Street so at Baker Street, I had to get a train that went to St Pancras before
I could change for the Piccadilly Line to Arsenal. As a result, I only got to
my seat 5 minutes before kick-off. In fact, I didn’t even hear the whistle and
only realised the match had started after I saw the two sides running after the
ball. Too bad Olly scored at the other end and not in front of me (I was at the
East Bank). The match was pretty much barely memorable to be honest but the
atmosphere and just being there was enough for me. I was somewhat gutted though
that Rambo wasn’t in the line-up. Oh, and guess what? The stadium wasn’t even
full! So much for the match being sold out!
I stayed on to see the lap of
appreciation and left an hour after the match had ended. Wanted to check out
Highbury House but there were too many people queuing ahead of me so I left
after 5 minutes.
Made my way back to West Harrow and
after prayers, had an early dinner. Went to shower after that and left after 8.
Made my way back to Baker Street and walked to Gloucester Place for the 21:00
easyBus to Stansted. I had an early morning flight and would have to overnight
at the airport.
We reached Stansted at 2210 and there
appeared to be some renovation works at the airport. It further reduced the
waiting area for passengers and even the prayer room had been relocated and was
much smaller. I tried to get some sleep from a seat but some idiots were intent
on keeping everyone else awake so I left and went to the prayer room. Tried to
get some kip there but it didn’t work either as the occasional person would
come in for prayers.
To be continued
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