.nocturnalge.

Monday, January 14, 2008

.excited to get home!.

-in my draft for the longest time..-

just 3 more days and I will be back home sweet home. The journey has been kinda short but it feels so long! Recalled how Christine and I got quite home sweet when it came to our Venice trip. Bidded them farewell, sent Ryan off from his hostel, having a long talk with H and back to our really ulu Venice hotel where I caught up with Songjie and Laura.

Then the following day, I headed to Milan, and found myself shopping non-stop as it was the first day of sales. No time for Duomo as I was busy squeezing through crowds. Met up with Matti, the Finland chap and Annisa from San F and had the best accomodation I had so far. Milan trip was short but yet good, as I wondered when I will be meeting those people again. ( Did a lot of shopping. )

Took a flight back and remembered running back to my Bath hostel with all the heavy loads as I couldn't wait to get home. Cooked myself a bowl of nice hot mee sua and was so glad to see my cosy little room again. Caught up with M and S at night and decided to foresake visiting Devon as I desperately wanted to finish my last assignment due, which turned out to be a good choice. Such a huge relief as I submitted the assignment at the management office. phew. Went back, did my laundry, ate M's leftover porridge and started my packing which was unexpectedly disastrous.

Next day was the trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon, Shakesphere's home town. The small town turned out to be really nice, and it easily became the best UK town I had visited so far. (I didn't visit many in the first place) Got some time to get to know S better and all the bird feeding moments - hilarious! Had lousy fish n chips before we headed back to Bath. Suffered from damn bad headache on the way back.........

my girlfriend in stratford. can't wait to bring her home with me.

And on the 9th, we had our last lunch together in Bath and proceeded to the University to take some pictures(need to get the photos from Mich.) Took a few hours before I bidded farewell with M and S and rushed to the train station to catch my train to London where I met Jose, Mark & Ching. Ate at this Malaysian/Singaporean restaurant which was gooddddd. Starting to feel quite sick and it became worse as I stayed up the whole night talking to Jared and Jose before I headed to the airport for my flight to Oslo!

Oslo was snowing but it was boring. It was an adventure as I stayed in this really lousy low-grade hostel with drug addicts. :/ I was just so glad to leave the place to Bergen the following day. Had a 7 hour train ride which was scenic but Swiss kinda spoilt the novelty of seeing Alps and being high above the clouds. haha. Also, I was too sick to appreciate the snow outside. sigh.

Met M at the train station finally at night and was so glad to catch up with her. Met her NUS family which reminded me of the Bathies. As she was busy with her orientation(and getting drunk) and I wasn't feeling well, I ended up staying in the whole of Saturday sleeping. Met Greg and Carolyn the next day, and it was good meeting them before I bidded farewell with all of them. Will miss all of you!

Came back London and ate Four Seasons with Jose. Stuffed myself with so much duck + mei cai kou rou until I wanna puke. Suffering from migraine now and I just wanna sleeeppp. Jose is really really nice to set up a mattress, bedsheets and pillow for me. (She forced me to write this down. haha)
-end-

//part 2- the rest of the UK days. 120108 - 140108

So Jose brought me around London for the last few days and it was the most awesome time I had. Watched the play, Wicked, which turned out really touching. No wonder people say " If you go London, don't forget to drop by the theatre. "

Also did some last minute shopping at Oxford Street and ate another mussel feast! shiok.

Last stop was to Arsenal Emirates Stadium as I bought some goodies for my fat brother.

After the play, sent J back halfway and had to rush to take the last train back to Bath. I managed to get to the train just 1 minute before departure time. Gosh, was rushing like mad man. As I was in the train, I was glad that in a few days time, I wouldn't be in such a mad rush anymore. What a journey.

So I reached Bath at 2am on the 14th. Did my packing and unknowingly, I packed till about 6am before I went to bed. Woke up 4 hours later and rushed my packing as I needed to catch the 12:43pm train. It was panic attack when I realised I had SO MANY bags to carry by myself. To make things worse, went to the girl's room and realised EVERYTHING was cleared, including the jacket I left there. Ended up getting my jacket at 12:20pm, and carried everything with an empty stomach. So glad I decided to call for a cab though, as I couldn't imagine lugging EVERYTHING alone to the train station.

And so Bath, there was about it. Spent my 4 months in Pulteney Court. Will remember the familiar building, the corridor, the girl's room, the clear skies, the garden, the washing machine, the kitchen, and my cosy "bloody" room.

After finally reaching London, met up with Uncle Asoka and went to his place. So thankful he gave me a lift and helped me a lot during this whole trip. Without him, life wouldn't have been so easy. Had a good feast, and some nice talk with both of them, before they sent me to the airport. Had problems with the baggage but again, I thank God for letting me meet a slack counter. She was understanding towards my situation and allowed me 36kg of baggage for checkin! And thanks to Heathrow lifting the 1 baggage rule 4 days before I left, I was able to lug everything into the departure gate with minimal problem. Phew.

floated away at
8:06 AM