Friday, 9 May 2014
I woke up feeling a little under the
weather. Guess it was from being rained on since Wednesday. I looked out the
window and groaned when I saw it was raining. Oh no! I had a late breakfast and
checked out at 11. I was more or less done with exploring downtown and wasn’t
in a hurry and besides, it was raining anyway.
I was walking leisurely when I saw bus
no. 2 bound for the airport so I went to check a few bus stops to see its
route. This would mean I needn’t go all the way to the bus station and go
through the train station which was under renovation (plus carry my bag down
the stairs into the station). I could instead catch the bus from a bus stop
near to my pension. Great!
I spent about 90 minutes wandering
around before returning to the pension. It rained again just as I was leaving
for the bus stop. The bus came after 10 minutes and we reached the airport half
an hour later.
I was told to remove my scarf at the
security check but told the woman that I was a Muslim. She consulted her
colleague and they both showed me to a room and I removed my scarf for them to
check. Yeah, because of course I looked like I could strap kilograms of
dynamite on myself and blow things up.
We landed at Stansted Airport on time
and I was the first to clear immigration (one advantage of not being a British
or from any EU countries). I went to perform prayers before making my way to
the bus terminal. My shuttle arrived early and left before the scheduled time.
We reached Baker Street at 8 pm and I crossed Marylebone Road to get the bus to
my hotel. I was there for all of two minutes when an elderly Pakistani came
over to talk to me. He said he was a doctor and for lack of a better reply, I
responded, ‘Oh, good for you.’ He asked where I was staying, if I had plans
that evening and look, hey, he happened to be free that evening so would I like
to have dinner with him? I just about managed to stop my jaw from dropping at
this. Wow, what a confident man. I can never summon up the courage to chat up a
stranger let alone invite him for a meal a couple of minutes into the
conversation! And then I wondered why I attracted all these strange men. I
thanked him as politely as I could and thank God my bus arrived shortly after.
After checking into my hotel, I went
out to get groceries and dinner. I’d stayed at the hotel a few times and this
was the first time that I had WiFi connection, not to mention a big room (the biggest room I’d stayed in in the hotel). The WiFi connection was quite slow though but hey
better that than nothing, I guess.
Saturday, 10 May 2014
It rained early this morning and the
morning started of grey and gloomy. Today was to be a leisurely day, no rush
whatsoever. I’d planned to walk quite a bit today and after breakfast, I walked
to Knightsbridge via Hyde Park. It was a pleasant stroll and there were quite a
few people in Hyde Park, walking their babies, walking their dogs, playing
catch with their dogs, playing football, even practising walking on a rope tied
between two trees. I went into Harrods and even went up to the Pradasphere
exhibition. After Harrods, I walked out to Piccadilly Circus, up to Leicester
Square, Chinatown then Oxford Street. The weather started going crazy and it started
raining heavily when I was at Oxford Street. Sought refuge in The Plaza and had
a baked potato while waiting out the rain. After that, I walked up and down the
street, going in and out of stores, diverting into Bond Street and out again (I
even went into the LV flagship store but didn’t enter Chanel). But nothing,
nothing caught my fancy at all. I walked all the way down to Primark and if
anything, the frenzied shoppers in there put me off even more.
It
started to pour again so we crowded back into Primark for shelter. I saw a bus
which would pass Bayswater so I ran after it. Was finally back in the room
after 6 pm. That was 8 hours of walking done today.
Sunday,
11 May 2014
Had
a leisurely start to the day. I wanted to leave early but got a message for a
mate back in KL whom I helped to buy her Neverfull so ended up leaving the
hotel at 12:30. I took the tube to Finsbury Park as I wanted to check out the
Arsenal store there (the Armoury was closed for refurbishment) but I left
disappointed. There are many halal restaurants within the vicinity of the tube
station so I had lunch at a chicken shop – the owner is a Gooner and had the
club flag draped over his TV. After lunch, I walked to the stadium. The (box?)
office was opened and I renewed my membership (it cost £39 now, an increase of
£3). Popped into The Arsenal Store Highbury House but found it similarly
disappointing so I left empty-handed. I walked around the stadium before making
my way to the Royal Oak entrance for the screening of the Norwich City-Arsenal
match. We didn’t play well in the first half, almost complacent in fact
(because we had secured fourth place). I even overheard someone behind me moan
that even Spuds were scoring. So we were so happy when Rambo scored and the
minutes later, Jenks scored his first goal for the club.
I
returned back to the hotel and stayed in.
Monday,
12 May 2014
I
checked out after 10 this morning and took a bus to Oxford Street. Last-minute
shopping and all because I couldn’t find anything from either Arsenal stores! I
returned back to Bayswater and sat in Whiteley’s for a while. It rained just as
I was returning to the hotel to get my bags and didn’t stop raining when I left
at 18:30 for Heathrow. I was lucky there was no hardly any queue at Heathrow
(maybe everyone else had dropped off their bags much earlier).
We
took off on time and I stayed up until after supper was served. It got cold
after a while, despite me turning off the vent above me. The lady next to me
even took her hoodie and gloves (!) from her cabin bag.
Tuesday,
13 May 2014
We
landed at KLIA at 17:35. KLIA2 had opened while I was away so there were a lot
of people in the KLIA Express train. I got home two hours after touching down
and set out to unpack after sorting out the kitchen.
Will
there be another trip to the Grove next year? I’m reluctant to leave dad alone
but I know I need a long break from the office.
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