I guess it has been more than a month since I wrote anything in this blog, partially intended while the rest just being plain lazy. I thought by keeping myself rather silent others would feel compelled to jot something here as our past time reading while waiting for other webpage fully downloaded. It was quite a month I must say. I don’t know where to begin. I guess a little bit about my trip to London wouldn’t hurt. I know, I know you guys have heard it a thousand times before and from me alone but come on, it was a good trip. Well it started out when my passport need a renewal, actually it won’t expire until end of august but the thing is, I need to extend my permit by early july and I doubt the immigration would be happy to see my passport due to expire in a month, since I was warned last year for being a couple months late for the registration I need to get it done rather early this year or I would be in the deported list, might save me some money for the ticket. There it goes, I gotta renew my passport, hey we got our embassy here up in Dublin right? Guess what it takes up to 3 months for renewal of passport and it’s not even guaranteed it will get done within those periods, wouldn’t it better to say it may take indefinite length of time instead giving me some false hope I might get lucky it’s issued within 3 months? But I found out if I come to London the whole thing would take only 1 whole day provided I get there really early in the morning. Okay, the whole things got me confused, déjà vu all over again like in my add maths class with Miss Chong, jeez those geometry problem not really my strong point in maths! How come it takes at least 90 days longer for the passport done here in Dublin than it is in London while there is daily flights to London from a couple of different cities in Ireland which only takes an hour roughly, mind you there very few Malaysian in Ireland compared to the UK and the embassy office opens at 9 am till 1 pm. I just don’t get that. anyone?
Ok then as a result I decided to cross the channel to renew my passport, the very reason of this trip. Then some people would like to tag along to have some fun for that weekend, the idea was to get there on Saturday and along with having fun then on Monday I shall go to HiCom for my passport. That was even better!!! We all got excited and everyone seemed to want to go, I got more excited which means I got so close to becoming manic. At the end only 3 people were going including me. Yeah so much for the excitement. Anyway I joined ema and mas on Saturday which was a day after they got to London. I was home for less than 12 hours that Friday night since I drove back from Navan that evening and got to limerick around 10 pm. My flight was at 7 or maybe 8 am. I was pretty exhausted on that Saturday morning and how I wish I didn’t have to leave for London. My day couldn’t get any worse when I discovered my luggage didn't quite make it to the plane and was left behind in Shannon airport instead, after almost 45 minutes waiting by the baggage carousel like a weirdo, I always feel like that, when you were the only one standing next to the baggage reclaim and there is no more luggages on the belt or other people but you, I feel like I’m lonely and desperate in that situation, I know it sad or even pathetic but I can’t help it. For the record it wasn’t my idea to put the bag into the cargo in the first place, it was that clerk in check-in counter, she looked like her name could be orla or maybe aine or maybe mary, what I’m trying to say it, if you bumped into her in the daytime in flea market in Mersing or Bentong you know she’s irish.
“why don’t you leave the bag in the cargo would be easier for you”
easier my ass!! Thank god I got the important stuffs with me i.e my passport, tickets, phone and MP3 player. My wallet’s pretty much the resident of my back pocket, so not worried about that.
I caught up with the remaining team member in Bayswater tube station, went for a walk in Portobello market, boy! What a walk, I couldn’t see why these 2 guys got so excited about this place, looks like Oliver Plunkett street to me only longer, wider road and yes much much better looking people around. I guess I was a bit worried about my luggage, I got a bit cranky actually, felt like this was an omen for how bad this trip was going to be, kept telling myself I don’t believe in that kinda crap. The weather was so hot, that didn’t help either. things got so much better when we got to Nahar’s café. Finally, malay food and typical Malaysian style restaurant, sempoi but got some kicks! I was so happy, you know me and my Malay foods. suddenly I got this feeling that this gonna be such an awesome holiday. Indeed it was!!!!
I didn’t remember much about what we did for the rest of the day but I got my luggage that evening, it practically delivered straight to me as I was standing by the reception of the hotel we stayed in when this guy walked in towards me carrying a very familiar bag and that when I exclaimed that was my bag. Kinda embarrassing in hind sight really who cares I got my bag, the day finally picked up. Went to Mawar restaurant that night for dinner, at last I managed to set my foot in this place. There was another story about this restaurant, really funny but I’m not gonna tell it for the moment. It was full and there was a live performance by this talented singer who later I found out to be Art Fazil, singer songwriter I knew back in the years at home. Beautiful voice, good quite old malay songs delivered nicely with his style of singing while plucking his guitar. It was more than what I bargained for early at this trip. I enjoyed the night greatly. Later we went to see the lake house in Leicester square where the other two spent halftime of the show napping, luckily none of them snored
The next day we went touring around London, we even took the touring bus. I was too tired in the middle of it but Mas practically dragged us to finish the tour. He insisted on going to this church which I couldn’t even remember the name of it for a couple of pictures outside the place. I had fun though especially when walking along Thames river, stopped by for coffee along the way. Enjoyed every second of it and we were so loud and laughed all the time, giggling like a couple of stoned tourists, stoned asian tourists. Sang our theme song taken from Heat magazine commercial
“we’re going to London to buy heat magazine!”
we were like crazy but fun people.
We found Melati restaurant, another place serving a mixture of Indonesian and Malaysian cuisines somewhere near Leicester square. It was quite a search, stopped by an internet café and we got the map on how to get there. Boy it was worth it, we were famish. We ordered a number of dishes and told by the waitress that it would be more than enough for the 3 of us, she practically advised us not to order anymore dishes. That’s embarrassing, I kept thinking I should’ve just ordered that sambal goreng with tempe regardless what she thought about us, hell we paid every penny of it. The waitress couldn’t be more wrong as we ate every single dishes clean. Nothing but empty plates on the table at the end. I told you guys we were starving. Excellent foods I must say. So we went back to the hotel and fell asleep right away.
Finally came Monday, gotta do what I was here for, managed to get to the immigration office quite early in the morning. Even then I had to wait for about 2 hours before called in to the counter, not complaining since sick people have to wait even much longer than that at the hospital before being seen. Nothing much happened from the whole process nevertheless the reception at the front counter was somewhat unwelcoming to certain people. We had to be sorted at the front counter according to whatever immigration business that brought us there. It struck me though that there weren’t any posted instructions or at least signs for us once we got there, the only thing was a small triangular folded worn yellow manila card on the desk that faced slightly towards the officer’s direction with this written on it
“ sila daftarkan nama anda dalam buku pendaftaran”
in MALAY, didn’t remember if there was any arrow on that card pointed to the book which lying wide open on the desk. Okay I did as it said while scanning around for anymore instructions, none. Apparently once you step in to the office, register your name and details including your id number with address then sit down until your name is called, then the officer will deal with you accordingly and issued your turn number. At last I grasped the concept. The officer was a lady about at her late 40’s who was very nice to me, soft spoken and talked even gentler to me once found out about my profession. Ok I can live with that and everything basically done in less than 5
min, filled in the form she gave me and handed it back to her, gave me my number while going through the checklists. I got everything ready so I was asked to sit down waiting for my turn to be called. Ema and Mas preferred to wait outside in the hall, there was a small room right across the office which located at the basement of the embassy building that was converted into a small canteen. Ready cooked meal for breakfast were sold here I mean malay breakfast meal they even have teh tarik! Imagine. They wanted to wait for me before getting some breakfast little they knew it wouldn’t be until 2 hours later. Since it took quite a wait, those 2 guys decided to stay in the waiting room, the same room as the front desk officer lady. Once I finished the whole thing, met them outside looking irritated and annoyed, I knew it, they were hungry and the long wait definitely didn’t help. Turned out that they were so pissed off at the counter lady, apparently she was so obnoxious to people after I left, gave out and easily got worked up when people kept asking her questions. I didn’t blame them, there were nothing to guide or tell them what to do, no there was one, yup but in malay language and in 20 x10 cm manilla card that wasn’t even put to face towards the waiting people. How many non-malays can speak fluent malay these days especially here in the UK? Come on be practical and I don’t think only Malaysians come to deal with them at this office, they need to make it clear to visitors if they don’t want to get disturbed while dealing with others and subsequently get all annoyed and start yelling to everyone. It was not fair, not all professional as well as embarrassing to our country. The lady literally gave out and rude to those unfortunate people and had the nerve to complain loudly that these people were inconsiderate. I’m sure she lives in the UK long enough to notice how friendly and professional people can be when dealing at the counter. What I was trying to say is that I was glad that Honza wasn’t there to witness such an embarrassment to our country which by the way allegedly enriched with gentleness and politeness as part of our culture. Anyway, we had our rather pricey nasi lemak and off we went to London Eye.
It became a bit cloudy when we got to London Eye, a little bit of drizzle which later died out once we were airborne in one of those shuttles. The whole ride took like 40 minutes, thank god there were 3 of us otherwise it would’ve been
one of the most boring rides ever, yeah it was all excited when you were about to get into the capsule but it got old pretty soon after the wheel started to turn. There’s nothing much else different to see after the first 10 minutes so we kept ourselves busy with taking our pictures, boy busy we were then as if no one else were inside the shuttle but us. Was fun anyway then we parted ways as I had to collect my passport later that evening while Ema on the way back to Cork. Mas came with her to the train station en route to Standsted for her flight. Mas and I later met up in Leicester square, we bought tickets to see some West End shows. Considering how late we were at the time we settled with a musical inspired by Queens songs – we will rock you. Indeed it rocked me very well! Great show and I had great fun, enjoyed every minute of it, boy they were talented! I left with queens songs kept playing over and over in my head.
Tuesday was our last day here, Mas and I had flights to catch to our separate destinations later that evening, home as in Malaysia for Mas (lucky bastard!) and home as in Limerick for me. We took the tube to Museum of Natural History and spent the morning there, nice place to go and learn too hahahah, well I liked it, from dinosours to mammals, from human physiology including reproductive systems (always an interesting subject I might add) to halides and meteorites. Great place to bring along your kids. Right after that we had our lunch in Nahar’s again and off to the airport. By 7 pm I left Mas on his own wondering for another few hours before his flight home in his selipar jepun!!! So that was it, the trip was definitely one that hard to get over with and certainly an unforgettable one. It was pleasure and business very well mixed c'ya know whak a mean!
Ok then as a result I decided to cross the channel to renew my passport, the very reason of this trip. Then some people would like to tag along to have some fun for that weekend, the idea was to get there on Saturday and along with having fun then on Monday I shall go to HiCom for my passport. That was even better!!! We all got excited and everyone seemed to want to go, I got more excited which means I got so close to becoming manic. At the end only 3 people were going including me. Yeah so much for the excitement. Anyway I joined ema and mas on Saturday which was a day after they got to London. I was home for less than 12 hours that Friday night since I drove back from Navan that evening and got to limerick around 10 pm. My flight was at 7 or maybe 8 am. I was pretty exhausted on that Saturday morning and how I wish I didn’t have to leave for London. My day couldn’t get any worse when I discovered my luggage didn't quite make it to the plane and was left behind in Shannon airport instead, after almost 45 minutes waiting by the baggage carousel like a weirdo, I always feel like that, when you were the only one standing next to the baggage reclaim and there is no more luggages on the belt or other people but you, I feel like I’m lonely and desperate in that situation, I know it sad or even pathetic but I can’t help it. For the record it wasn’t my idea to put the bag into the cargo in the first place, it was that clerk in check-in counter, she looked like her name could be orla or maybe aine or maybe mary, what I’m trying to say it, if you bumped into her in the daytime in flea market in Mersing or Bentong you know she’s irish.
“why don’t you leave the bag in the cargo would be easier for you”
easier my ass!! Thank god I got the important stuffs with me i.e my passport, tickets, phone and MP3 player. My wallet’s pretty much the resident of my back pocket, so not worried about that.
I caught up with the remaining team member in Bayswater tube station, went for a walk in Portobello market, boy! What a walk, I couldn’t see why these 2 guys got so excited about this place, looks like Oliver Plunkett street to me only longer, wider road and yes much much better looking people around. I guess I was a bit worried about my luggage, I got a bit cranky actually, felt like this was an omen for how bad this trip was going to be, kept telling myself I don’t believe in that kinda crap. The weather was so hot, that didn’t help either. things got so much better when we got to Nahar’s café. Finally, malay food and typical Malaysian style restaurant, sempoi but got some kicks! I was so happy, you know me and my Malay foods. suddenly I got this feeling that this gonna be such an awesome holiday. Indeed it was!!!!I didn’t remember much about what we did for the rest of the day but I got my luggage that evening, it practically delivered straight to me as I was standing by the reception of the hotel we stayed in when this guy walked in towards me carrying a very familiar bag and that when I exclaimed that was my bag. Kinda embarrassing in hind sight really who cares I got my bag, the day finally picked up. Went to Mawar restaurant that night for dinner, at last I managed to set my foot in this place. There was another story about this restaurant, really funny but I’m not gonna tell it for the moment. It was full and there was a live performance by this talented singer who later I found out to be Art Fazil, singer songwriter I knew back in the years at home. Beautiful voice, good quite old malay songs delivered nicely with his style of singing while plucking his guitar. It was more than what I bargained for early at this trip. I enjoyed the night greatly. Later we went to see the lake house in Leicester square where the other two spent halftime of the show napping, luckily none of them snored
The next day we went touring around London, we even took the touring bus. I was too tired in the middle of it but Mas practically dragged us to finish the tour. He insisted on going to this church which I couldn’t even remember the name of it for a couple of pictures outside the place. I had fun though especially when walking along Thames river, stopped by for coffee along the way. Enjoyed every second of it and we were so loud and laughed all the time, giggling like a couple of stoned tourists, stoned asian tourists. Sang our theme song taken from Heat magazine commercial
“we’re going to London to buy heat magazine!”
we were like crazy but fun people.
We found Melati restaurant, another place serving a mixture of Indonesian and Malaysian cuisines somewhere near Leicester square. It was quite a search, stopped by an internet café and we got the map on how to get there. Boy it was worth it, we were famish. We ordered a number of dishes and told by the waitress that it would be more than enough for the 3 of us, she practically advised us not to order anymore dishes. That’s embarrassing, I kept thinking I should’ve just ordered that sambal goreng with tempe regardless what she thought about us, hell we paid every penny of it. The waitress couldn’t be more wrong as we ate every single dishes clean. Nothing but empty plates on the table at the end. I told you guys we were starving. Excellent foods I must say. So we went back to the hotel and fell asleep right away.
Finally came Monday, gotta do what I was here for, managed to get to the immigration office quite early in the morning. Even then I had to wait for about 2 hours before called in to the counter, not complaining since sick people have to wait even much longer than that at the hospital before being seen. Nothing much happened from the whole process nevertheless the reception at the front counter was somewhat unwelcoming to certain people. We had to be sorted at the front counter according to whatever immigration business that brought us there. It struck me though that there weren’t any posted instructions or at least signs for us once we got there, the only thing was a small triangular folded worn yellow manila card on the desk that faced slightly towards the officer’s direction with this written on it
“ sila daftarkan nama anda dalam buku pendaftaran”
in MALAY, didn’t remember if there was any arrow on that card pointed to the book which lying wide open on the desk. Okay I did as it said while scanning around for anymore instructions, none. Apparently once you step in to the office, register your name and details including your id number with address then sit down until your name is called, then the officer will deal with you accordingly and issued your turn number. At last I grasped the concept. The officer was a lady about at her late 40’s who was very nice to me, soft spoken and talked even gentler to me once found out about my profession. Ok I can live with that and everything basically done in less than 5
min, filled in the form she gave me and handed it back to her, gave me my number while going through the checklists. I got everything ready so I was asked to sit down waiting for my turn to be called. Ema and Mas preferred to wait outside in the hall, there was a small room right across the office which located at the basement of the embassy building that was converted into a small canteen. Ready cooked meal for breakfast were sold here I mean malay breakfast meal they even have teh tarik! Imagine. They wanted to wait for me before getting some breakfast little they knew it wouldn’t be until 2 hours later. Since it took quite a wait, those 2 guys decided to stay in the waiting room, the same room as the front desk officer lady. Once I finished the whole thing, met them outside looking irritated and annoyed, I knew it, they were hungry and the long wait definitely didn’t help. Turned out that they were so pissed off at the counter lady, apparently she was so obnoxious to people after I left, gave out and easily got worked up when people kept asking her questions. I didn’t blame them, there were nothing to guide or tell them what to do, no there was one, yup but in malay language and in 20 x10 cm manilla card that wasn’t even put to face towards the waiting people. How many non-malays can speak fluent malay these days especially here in the UK? Come on be practical and I don’t think only Malaysians come to deal with them at this office, they need to make it clear to visitors if they don’t want to get disturbed while dealing with others and subsequently get all annoyed and start yelling to everyone. It was not fair, not all professional as well as embarrassing to our country. The lady literally gave out and rude to those unfortunate people and had the nerve to complain loudly that these people were inconsiderate. I’m sure she lives in the UK long enough to notice how friendly and professional people can be when dealing at the counter. What I was trying to say is that I was glad that Honza wasn’t there to witness such an embarrassment to our country which by the way allegedly enriched with gentleness and politeness as part of our culture. Anyway, we had our rather pricey nasi lemak and off we went to London Eye.It became a bit cloudy when we got to London Eye, a little bit of drizzle which later died out once we were airborne in one of those shuttles. The whole ride took like 40 minutes, thank god there were 3 of us otherwise it would’ve been
one of the most boring rides ever, yeah it was all excited when you were about to get into the capsule but it got old pretty soon after the wheel started to turn. There’s nothing much else different to see after the first 10 minutes so we kept ourselves busy with taking our pictures, boy busy we were then as if no one else were inside the shuttle but us. Was fun anyway then we parted ways as I had to collect my passport later that evening while Ema on the way back to Cork. Mas came with her to the train station en route to Standsted for her flight. Mas and I later met up in Leicester square, we bought tickets to see some West End shows. Considering how late we were at the time we settled with a musical inspired by Queens songs – we will rock you. Indeed it rocked me very well! Great show and I had great fun, enjoyed every minute of it, boy they were talented! I left with queens songs kept playing over and over in my head.Tuesday was our last day here, Mas and I had flights to catch to our separate destinations later that evening, home as in Malaysia for Mas (lucky bastard!) and home as in Limerick for me. We took the tube to Museum of Natural History and spent the morning there, nice place to go and learn too hahahah, well I liked it, from dinosours to mammals, from human physiology including reproductive systems (always an interesting subject I might add) to halides and meteorites. Great place to bring along your kids. Right after that we had our lunch in Nahar’s again and off to the airport. By 7 pm I left Mas on his own wondering for another few hours before his flight home in his selipar jepun!!! So that was it, the trip was definitely one that hard to get over with and certainly an unforgettable one. It was pleasure and business very well mixed c'ya know whak a mean!
