Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Autumn In My Heart: First Beat

I had planned to go on a tour in May but found out at the MATTA Fair in March this year that the tour would only take place in end-August/early September and cost way too much. So I changed my mind and bought a ticket to London instead for mid-September. This would be my first trip in early autumn (and probably my last as it completely slipped my mind that we now have our performance appraisal in September instead of October). This was also the lightest that I’ve packed so far. Back when I started returning to Blighty, I used to bring half of my wardrobe along with me. Then there was one time when I unwisely brought a wheel-less bag. Yes, imagine me hauling my bag up and down those stupid tube stairs and changing stations. I was going to fly RyanAir to Italy on this trip and as I refused to pay for check-in bag, I had to keep my cabin bag below 10 kg (I also had to purchase a new cabin bag that meets RyanAir’s specifications). On my previous trips flying RyanAir, I usually checked in my suitcase but made sure it was below 15 kg as I was only prepared to pay £15/€15 for the checked-in bag (a 20-kg checked in bag on RyanAir costs £25/€25) so this time I had to pack 1/3 less than what I normally packed.




Friday, 11 September 2015

CT picked and drove me to KLIA for my morning flight to London. I don’t know why I willingly put myself through 13.5 hours’ of flight every year but apparently I conveniently forget this every time I buy a ticket and only agonise over it just before taking off. My check-in bag weighed 9.7 kg and that was before I removed my powerbank (for some reason, I was told to carry it on board and not check it in). Not bad eh. We were supposed to take off at 0950 but the haze was so bad that there was a delay in taking off. We finally departed at 1030. I was so sleepy as I had a poor night the night before but apart from take-off and a brief spell after the first inflight movie that I watched, sleep eluded me. I watched The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and after many failed attempts at sleep, I watched True Story.

We landed at 1630 and finally disembarked at 1645. I rushed to the immigration and cleared it by 1658. There was a long wait for the bag though. Flying Airbus A380 means too many others passengers means an extra-long wait for bags. I then took the tube to Bayswater and arrived at the hotel at almost 1900. After checking in, I went out to get some food before resting.

Saturday, 12 September 2015

I had no specific plans today and although there was an Arsenal home match against the Orcs of all teams, the expensive £ deterred me from purchasing a ticket (I did check for a ticket on Thursday but they were all sold out unless I tried Ticket Exchange). So I checked out at noon and after performing prayers at Malaysia Hall, set out for Knightsbridge. It was a fine early autumn day with beautiful skies and fluffy non-threatening clouds and the temperature was still mild enough. After checking out Octavia at Brompton Road and a brief stop at Harrods, I walked to Mayfair and from there Oxford Street before walking back to the hotel.

I had a light dinner while checking football results before making my way to the easyBus stop near Baker Street to catch the bus to Stansted.

I arrived at the bus stop at 2030 and waited for the bus. easyBus had rescheduled the time to 2100 but 2100 came and no bus came. By then, there were a few National Express coaches had already come and gone. I did ask and was told they charged £12 for the fare. Finally at 2130, one National Express coach pulled up and the driver asked if there were anyone on easyBus as he was willing to take us. It was like he knew we were stranded there. Well, we accepted his offer gratefully and boarded the almost empty coach.

Ahh Stansted. Most RyanAir flights departing from Stansted depart in early morning which means you have to travel very early to get there or overnight at the airport before. A lot of travellers choose to do the latter but the airport is not designed to accommodate us who are willing to overnight there. I would prefer anything but overnighting there but I reckoned I’d rather be there at the airport than risk a broken down vehicle or arriving late at the airport. I sought shelter in the prayer room but of course sleep was elusive.


To be continued