Soundtrack:
Killing Me Softly
Sunday,
16 September 2018
I
slept through my alarm and only woke up half an hour later. I hurriedly
performed prayers then had a quick shower before heading out to Castel San Pietro.
In contrast to the previous afternoon, there was no one there at all and I had
the place all to myself. A man did show up shortly after but I didn’t see him
again. I spent maybe 20 minutes up there before returning back to the
apartment.
We reached Mantova about 40 minutes later. I
got down at the bus stop at via Legnago and slowly made my walk across the
river Mincio to the city. It’s a beautiful walk because the city is sprawled in
front of you across the river. I made my way to Palazzo Ducale and then to
Piazza delle Erbe and sat soaking in the atmosphere. It’s a pretty compact city
centre which was good because I had planned to depart by the 13:29 train for
Modena. I stopped at a place selling sliced pizza and bought some. The owner
didn’t speak English so I pointed and asked if any was vegetarian and telling
her I wanted ‘piccolo’ size. After my light lunch, I continued to the station.
The
ticket office was closed and I couldn’t understand how to operate the machine
and after trying to get help from some locals, I went to the platform. I
sighted a train conductor and bought my ticket from him. We reached Modena at
14:42, enough time for me to perform prayers in the train en route.
I
asked for a map from a local and armed with the map, walked to the city centre.
The Cathedral of Modena, Torre Civica and Piazza Grande are UNESCO World
Heritage Sites. There were a lot of people at Piazza Grande with a stage and a
woman speaking into a microphone. People were sitting voluntarily to listen so
it must be a political sermon or something.
I
returned back to the station to wait for my 17:41 train to Milano Centrale (I
had bought the ticket online a few weeks back). I was not amused when I checked
to screen again to find the train ETD delayed by 55 minutes. I didn’t feel like
walking into te city again so decided to just wait. After a while, I checked
the screen again and this time, it showed my train was delayed by 100 minutes
and a few other trains delayed as well. One was delayed by 245 minutes! I
wanted to ask if I could change my ticket but the queue at the counter was
perpetually long – probably because of the delays.
A
regionale train pulled up and I hurried back to the platform. I approached a
lady train conductor and asked if I could board the train. She said I could but
it would be better to wait for my train as it would be faster. I told her I
didn’t want to wait anymore as I had waited long enough and who knew when my
train would eventually arrive. She repeated that while I could, my original
train would still arrive at Milano Centrale first. Somehow I doubted her
because the screen showed my train was still delayed. She also said there were
many delays because there was a woman who was in the tracks (thrown? Suicide?)
somewhere and it caused a chain reaction.
Being
a regional train, it of course stopped at various stations and before, the
seats were all occupied. I was so glad I boarded at Modena where there were
still a few empty seats available. We finally arrived at Milan at almost 21:00
and I rushed to the Terravision bus stop for the bus to Milan Bergamo. I
apologised for being late and explained that the train was delayed and the
driver and conductor accepted my story. Alhamdulillah.
The
bus left at 21:15 and we arrived at the airport about 50 minutes later. I
immediately headed for the washroom to freshen up and perform ablutions. I
ended up performing prayers at the nursery room (one lady was there charging
her phone so it wasn’t as if I was stopping any nursing mothers). Just as I
finished, a man came in and wanted to use the WC. Jeez. Then I walked around to
find a seat. Sleep? Elusive as usual.
Monday,
17 September 2018
I
got up from the uncomfortable seat and went to the RyanAir check-in area to
have my boarding pass checked and stamped. Then I went to clear security. I was
not happy to be asked to remove my jade bangle and other bracelets. WTF? It’s
never easy to take off and put jade bangles. I refused and told the officer to
take them off for me if he insisted on it. I was waved through after they ran a
wand over me.
I
went to the washroom to ‘dry clean’ with body wipes and changed clothes before
performing ablutions and prayers. I was not happy when I looked at the screen
and found that my 06:30 flight was delayed to 11:30. Like seriously? By five
bloody hours? Had I not cleared security, I could have gone over to Orio Centre
for at least 90 minutes. Having no choice, I sat down to wait with other fellow
passengers.
At
10 or so, there was an announcement for us to collect meal vouchers from a
counter so we all trooped up to queue. We were each given two €5 vouchers for
us to spend at a coffee shop. I asked what accounted for the delay but the two
ladies at the counter couldn’t answer me, instead saying the flight was now at
12:00 @$&&#+!!&() I was thoroughly sick of croissants, buns,
sandwiches and the like by then so only spent €5 on chocolates and water. Then
I went to one of the two public power plugs available in the whole bloody
terminal to charge my iPad (you have to pay at other power points, WTF).
I
almost lost track of time and suddenly heard an announcement for my gate. I
grabbed my things and hurried over downstairs, cleared immigration and rushed
to my gate. The queue was long and slow and we only boarded the bus well after
12:00. I tried to doze off during the flight; after all I had a poor night.
We
landed at Stansted about two hours later and had to take a train to the main
building. The queue for non-EU citizens was short so I was able to clear
passport control quickly. I went down to the bus station but the snotty woman
there wouldn’t accept my ticket which I bought a few weeks back as I had
already accepted the terms and conditions even though I explained I was held
back by a five-hour delay. Damn you. So I had to fork out £12 for a new ticket.
I
got down at the stop at Bishop’s Bridge Road near Paddington Station at 15:25
and walked ten minutes to my hotel. My mate was meeting me and I had managed to
inform her that I would be delayed. Still, she was leaving for Nottingham that
evening. We spent some time in the room before venturing out into the warm
London evening. Dinner was had at Noodle Oodle, a halal Chinese restaurant.
There was just enough time for us to return to the room where my mate performed
Maghrib prayers before leaving for the tube station.
After
she left, I went for a walk around before returning to my room. I rang home and
was about to doze off when I had a sudden violent tummy upset. It returned
again and all pharmacies were already closed, Boots Bayswater being the last to
close at 12 midnight. I took some Smecta (only realised it had expired) and had
some black tea. Still, I couldn’t help being thankful that I was in a hotel
room and not in an airport, train or bus station; I was able to lie down and
not having to move with my bags; and I had quick easy access to a clean
bathroom.
Tuesday,
18 September 2018
I
woke up for prayers and ended up staying awake trying to claim compensation for
my delay. I showered and had breakfast (with ORS) before finally leaving after
10. It was late but I was afraid if I would be purging again. I took the tube
to Bond Street where I wandered around (not fruitful) and then walked over to
the Salvation Army shop before walking down to Selfridges. I was luckier at
Selfridges and after paying for my purchases, went up to fourth floor to the
Tax Refund. I decided to perform prayers while waiting (Selfridges has a prayer
room, how cool is that?!) but my number was called when I was performing
prayers. I went to ask for a new number and was advised to go to the machine
and do it online as it would be faster than waiting as the queue had grown by
then. I had help from a Malaysian-born Chinese man with my form.
I
was relaxing in the lounge and browsing the WiFi when I had another sudden
violent tummy upset and rushed to the washroom. I only left about ten minutes
later, praying that would be the last time I needed to use the bathroom in a
hurry. I walked to Marble Arch and rode the tube to Bank station. From the
station, I walked to Sky Garden. It was a blustery day and I sat shivering as I
waited to enter the building. At 15:20, I went to join the queue and we went
inside to wait for the lift.
The
lift whisked us up to level 35 (you could access levels 35 and 36) and the view
was magnificent. The sun came out then so the city shone below. I walked around
and up the stairs to level 36 before coming down the other set of stairs. I
spent an hour there before going down.
I
took the tube to Temple and walked to the library of the London School of
Economics but was not able to enter. I walked on to Holborn and rode to the
train back to Queensway. After buying dinner from Tesco, I returned to my room
to rest.
Wednesday,
19 September 2018
I
woke up at 04:45 today and performed prayers after a quick shower. I then had a
light breakfast before finishing packing up. I left at 06:10 and walked to
Queensway and rode the tube to Notting Hill where I changed lines and trains
for the District line to Earl’s Court for the Piccadilly line. I wouldn’t
normally have taken this route but this was what the travel planner on
Transport for London suggested. I reached Heathrow 54 minutes later and went to
drop off my bag. I also asked if I could change seats and as it was an A380 and
a few empty seats were still available, my request was accommodated.
Alhamdulillah! After dropping off my bag and getting the boarding passes, I
went to the VAT office to submit my form. The queue was slow what with some
people still trying to fill up their forms with their miles of receipts.
I
returned to the departure level after submitting my VAT form and cleared
security check. I then browsed the shops but was in no mood to shop. We were
called to board at 08:30 and I was happy to find my seat was in the third row
and very close to the cockpit.
I was sitting that close to the cockpit!
We
landed at Abu Dhabi after 20:00 local time. We had to wait a while for the
First and Business class passengers to get down and disembark before we could
follow suit. This time, we didn’t have to take a bus to the terminal building.
I just had time to freshen up and catch up on social media before making my way
to Gate 6 for my flight back to KL.
We
were served dinner and then I tried to sleep. I only managed a brief doze
before I was wide awake again.
Thursday,
20 September 2018
We
landed at 10:20 and I was home about four hours later. As usual, I set about
tidying up the kitchen and dining areas, even dad’s clothes drawers before
unpacking. I was done by 16:00 and had an afternoon nap.
And
that was my trip to the Caucasus and Italy and a little bit of London.
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