A way delayed entry : London Trip May 2008

ye lah i know i am very lembab at this. well, people like me don't have the luxury of updating their entire life's chronicles every other hour, every other day like ebi.

so, anyways, due to constant pressure from close friends and family members, here it is. a lil' short story on our recent trip to London.

BEFORE DEPARTURE
memang lawak. when mak first told me we were leaving on 14 May, little did she realise the ticket said 12.00 midnight on 14 May. So, it meant getting there at the airport 2 hrs before departure which is 13 May at 10:00pm. With the intinerary in her hand, she said "Hang make sure hang sampai Penang by noon on the 14th coz we are leaving malam tu"...so, without further delay saya pun cepat2 la beli one-way ticket on Air Asia leaving on 14 May, in the morning.

Thanks to Makcik Jah who stumbled upon the itinerary on 12th May and immediately called me to clarify if what she thought it meant is true. apa lagi, kelam kabut la start packing. so u can imagine how kelam kabut everything was on 13th May. As if that wasn't enough, Mak only realised Shafique's passport has expired at about 4p.m. on that day they were spose to board for KL, to catch the connecting flight to London.At this point of course I too, didnt bother to catch another flight to Penang and told them I would meet them at KLIA to check-in from there instead.So Mak did her PR thingy in a wham and Shafique's passport was produced in time before the immigration closed.

p.s.this episode clearly brings back memories to the time when Shariman's wedding caterer put up the wedding a day earlier thinking it was on 18 instead of 19 January. but that was fun. it was like having a pre-wedding feast that night.

KUL-DUBAI-LONDON
At Dubai Airport we had 6 hours to kill so what else is there to do other than eat, eat and eat. we had one of the best ice creams and briyani and green curry...
at Heathrow, I met Puteri and hubby who were on their way to return their rented car as they were leaving for Msia the next day. Puteri handed over her Oyster cards for me to start with.

We too, rented a 7 seater Sharan MPV that just could not take all our luggages in. 3 times of reloading and uploading with Shafique squashed into nothing larger than a 7 year old finally got us heading to Sheffield. After several arguments in the car on who is reading the map right, we finally arrived about 4 hours later.

At Sheffield, Uncle Alan and Aunty Mahani's hospitality is beyond what one can imagine. Her house is warm and cosy. Food is abundance. Her garage is as good as Amapang's Cash Converters. Macam2 ada...

here are some of the pictures taken at her place during our two day visit.









in london, you have to be of a certain age to drive an MPV.


Shariman didn't comply, so I was the only backup.But Ba did most of the long-distance driving of course. I only drove around town..hehehe


FROM SHEFFIELD TO HERTOFRDSHIRE
Our intention to drive up to Scotland din't materialise as we had too little time and also because the main thing is to get Shariman and Dhiana settled down in Hertfordshire. but i can't seem to find where are pictures of us in hertfordshire.so i'm moving on to our story in Wolverhampton

IN WOLVES
Still can't believe we had so much fun with E.T. in Wolverhampton. And not to forget the warm hospitality from Sanya and family. and the good food, of course.


missing ET


the best tandoori and chicken curry ever in history


at the park with the girls. and all-girl outing at drayton manor!


shaz made some histerically superb kebabs


and we had lovely scones to go with it


and cans of coke of course


we came accross these two lovebirds at the mini-animal park. so cute.


with darling areena

FROM WOLVES TO LONDON
Sempat singgah sekejap di London before heading to Kent. Shopped at Camden Town. Nice until we received a call from Mak asking us to head to KENT before it gets dark. :(


baker street, obviously hehehe


camden town

IN KENT
we made a quick stop at Aunt Ah Im's house in Kent. The last time we were here was in 1985/86 so I don't quite remember anything. But it was a lovely reunion for Mak & Ba.


Mak & Aunty Ah Im, reunited. She got us an extremely good fish & chips for dinner from this shop.


with her boys. it's amazing how the GPS managed to get us right at the doorstep without guidance. they were sooo surprised to us there.

they didn't quite trust the GPS to take us to Cloth Hall though, so they drove us there, in total darkness! memang ada rasa mcm nak patah balik...


Cloth Hall during the day


the view from my room.


our room. shariman & dhiana had their own. tapi penakut so ET accompanied them.

As if staying at Cloth Hall for one night was not scary enough, we extended our stay for 3 nights in total! but it was all worth it, especially when we got to shop in Ashford!


with shafique at the vinyard


with ba at the small cute pond in front of the cottage



we had plenty of fresh raspberries and blueberries!


this is one of the pictures i liked very much!

other than that..we cooked up a storm as the cottage had fully equipped kitchen facilities. kari ikan cod, lasagne, roast chicken, u name it, we had it all.

BACK IN LONDON







the trip was a good one. only that alfy and eiman weren't around :(
perhaps next year i should revisit.