Liederaband

Okay so it's a tuesday. School was, as yesterday, as unproductive today since the syllabus is over. But school will be school, theres fun in it if you know how to make it. And as for piano class, that was cancelled today, due to torrential rains brought upon by the monsoon season!

So the events of the day weren't so fun. But hey, it's when the sun went down things got interesting. My friend Aizad, whose Mom who has a friend, happened to get free tickets to this Orchestra thing in Mount Kiara. Having not been to an orchestra before, what the heck lets go for it!

So at 6.30pm I headed off to Aizad's place since Fariz, Yin Hun and I were all carpooling there to Mount Kiara with his parents. We were actually still early. The thing started at 8.30pm, so the four of us had time to try out Little Big Planet BETA for the PS3. It's an awesome simple game. But its totally cool. YouTube it to know what it is. So anyway later we headed off for the Orchestra.

We got there just on time. 8.30pm sharp. Just as people were crowding around the entrance to the auditorium. We took a side detour and snatched up some agenda books on a side table.


It was free seating, so we managed to get decent seats. And man, if you were there, you'd want decent seats. Cause German schoolgirls are HOT! Well maybe not all, but the musician kinds sure are! Most of the orchestra members were girls. There were only about 4 guys or so. And according to the speech the German Embassador gave, they were all ranging from 14 years old to 21 years. So basically their all in high school. Sweet!

While waiting for the event to start, opening up the agenda book, I found out the event's name was Liederaband.

And the pieces being performed were from famous composers such as Mozart and Bach.

And the full orchestra was fully German. Except for one asian girl, but maybe she's German too. The maestro on stage was Malaysian though. A short stocky chinese dudes who was VERY energetic. But hey, don't take my word for it, see for yourself!

The first half of the event, they were performing pieces from the baroque period, which was quite boring -



But after the intermission, things got Way better. -

and here's a scene from the intermission. Just some random video I was taking when 2 girls from the orchestra, the 2 recordists came out of the side door. And Fariz really liked one of them, so I couldn't resist taping them. And I also got Aizad's blur face in there too.



Okay so here's a 3rd video, I posted this up because it was really cool how the all of them plucked the violin, viola and the cello throughout the whole song, even the HUGE double bass!



And don't think the thing was so short, I only uploaded 3 vids. But there were 25 in total. Yeah, I taped the whole thing... So it ended at midnight and to me, was really worth it. Espcially since we got it free!

Okay so when it was finally over, it made us all feel like taking up a classical instrument. As for me, I got my eyes set on the cello!

Okay something stupid and random here, but anyway.. see these chairs?? The two German recordists in my second video sat here! Foolamak!

Cheerio!
-Ashraf J.


Owh yea, while I was posting this I came across a really cool vid. Which makes me feel like resuming skate. Hmm, we'll see about that.

Post Raya

Well it's the last day of the Hari Raya AIdilfitri holiday week. And yeah, school is tomorrow which is just the BEST continuation of a weekend isn't it? So how do I decide to finish of the meager remains of a Sunday? Well, my day went like this.

Getting out of bed, perfectly early by my Sunday schedule, I dragged my feet downstairs to a heavy-aired, full-of-rempah-smelling kitchen at 10:30am. Well whaddya know, my parents cooked Nasi Pilau for breakfast. If you dont know what it is, i doubt google or wiki wud help, its a local name. But well, it tastes close to nasi bariyani. Since my mom just only returned back from her four month long trip to Scotland, I guess it's no wonder their so eager to cook extravagantly. So well, I didnt finish what was on my plate -- I mean who would, if you've gotten used to eating sunny-side-ups for breakfast for an entire month because of puasa?

Around 2pm, Tubbs and I got a lift from my sis to Summit. And actually, we also had to go for our interact meeting at McD's in ss15. So why were we there? Because I couldn't let my craving for a Subway MLT go on any longer! If you've watched Harold and Kumar go to Whitecastle, you'd understand. At Subway, we walked in, went up to the counter. Then Tubbs said he wasn't hungry. And well, actually neither was I really. So we just sorta turned around.. And left. So abit of an oddity there.
Well to pass the time, and time we needed to let ourselves get hungrier, we went to Popular. I wanted ribbons. Well inside, suddenly some lady springs out at us from nowhere and starts promoting something. Tubbs did the typical malaysian and raised a hand and walked away. I on the other hand, tak sampai hati, so I stop and lend an ear. Not saying I'm all that nice, there's occasions I would just walk off. Like this one time where some lady started promoting something to me... in Mandarin. Yeah, now I'm really interested in your product, cause I absolutely understand you.
So what this lady wanted was to promote this Celcom Xpax thing. a School of Xpax pack.. I think? Well anyway it was this little prepaid sim pack that lasts till you're 25 years old. And it has additional perks like free sms and calls your whole birthday week. It's only For students. So heck, seems like a good deal to me. And it's free to boot. Just 10 bucks for reload credit and you get additional 10 bucks in there. So Tubbs and I both took one. Then I got my ribbons. And we went back down and got our SUBWAYS!! So seeing as we were kinda late after that, since the meeting was supposed to start at 2pm, we got a cab to McD's.

And somewhere in front of SriKL, there was a police road block. For who knows what. And get this, our cab kena tahan. And we had to wait by the side. We had to wait there for like 5 mins till here comes some pot bellied police man inspecting the cab. So here goes the conversation between the cabbie driver and him.

"Ni nak pegi mana ni?"

"Ni ha, nak bawak budak-budak ni makan kat McDonalds. Diorang lapar ni dah dekat Lunch tau."

So this policeman whose wearing shades inspects the car for a while longer. Then lets us leave. Question Mark much?

At McD we rendezvous with the others. Mainly Ken Yoong, Jen, James. We sat ourselves down in a comfy corner. And Tubbs and I started to devour our Subway MLT's! YUMMY. Shortly after, Shiva, Tira and JunYi - Who report to YuanPing that where was some straange pink object lying in the middle of the street outside. Which turns out to be her wallet. And at that she totally went "Omg omg omg omg!" and went out to get it. Padahal Tira already took it in with her. Heheh.

After the meeting James, Jen and Diane leave for home cuz they have PMR while the rest of us hit Subang Parade. There, well, it's not exactly a very lively place to hang out. Perfect for a family and to shop though. So we went to Toys'R'Us! To hunt for some really good waterguns. And not just those average piss-squirting water guns; but the pumpable high pressure guns. Unfortunately, they didnt have it. My part done, We followed Tira to get her moms jeans back from some really hidden altering shop beside MPH. Hey wait, we got the jeans before going to Toys'R'us. After Toys'R'Us we got ditched, sorta, by the rest. I went to get some mouthwatering Famous Amos cookies first, then baru we headed home on a U67 Rapid KL.

We singgah Razlan's place for abit, since it started drizzling. Then we remembered Tira ajak beraya at her house at 4.30. Which was in 5 minutes. And that we also had an other open house to go to with Azim. but then, we were late for Azim's friend's, so we cancelled and went to Tira's instead.

When Tubbs and I entered Tira's house she was entertaining Shiva to this movie on her lappy called Another Cinderella Movie. ????. Then the others arrived one by one. Emirul, Syahira, and soon Adli with Aiman. We all ate kuih muihs and had a drink's of Sparkling grape juice.

Basically it went like this:







And if you didn't get the message, we were tryna act like we got high and drunk on them. Cuz coincidentially Tira served it in shot glasses. And I repeat, it was sparkling grape juice. ZERO % alcohol. I don't drink, and neither do I smoke.

So well the day was getting late. And not forgetting SCHOOL the next day. So we had to leave, well Tira halau'd us actually.

So guys,
SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDILFITRI
or
HAPPY EID MUBARAK!

till next time!

Days Three Thru Four - Out with éos

Have you ever had a dilemma about holiday? Like when it's a holiday, you're supposed to rest, take a break, after all school's put you through, but at the same time, you don't wanna have that feeling of regret that you didn't fully maximize the time you had during the holidays when school reopens?

Maybe so, but maybe not. But it's that way for me.

So I actually got up in the A.M. part of the day today. But well, of all the reasons why, I was just hungry. Like excruciatingly hungry that my stomach grumbled 5 times per minute.

So off I went to the kitchen to go and see what could possibly be used for fuel. So there I was, standing in front my household fridge which has been in the family for over a decade. Do you guys ever just stop, and stare and a particular object in your house, which you take for granted, but you've probably grown up from child to adult with it. Well it was that way with me and the fridge, the telly, my bed, and the sofa. Everyday things which last it seems forever.

So anyway, yeah, there i was in koreking the fridge for anything nice to eat. Good news to my tummy, I found Waffle Crisp! The super-delicious breakfast cereal that tastes like WAFFLES and HONEY! Yumm~ So I took a bowl and placed it on the counter. Then I went back to the fridge for milk, ALAS! No milk. It has been awhile since my family went out grocery shopping. So no milk. Yeah, something that could actually get me grumpy in the morning. Nobody likes Dry Cereal. So there went the cereal chucked back into the fridge.

Contingency Plan - Lets cook something.

I felt adventuruos today, so what the hell, I chopped up some potatoes and onions and garlic and stirfried them. and cooked them with whatever spices i could get my hands on. Then I made an ommelette.

Well around the time I was cooking, my friend, Aizad text'd me. He ajak'd me to go play tennis and to go swimming with him and the others, Abu and Fariz. So sure, I didn't have any plans that day.

After cooking, I had to gobble down an INCREDIBLY disgusting concoction of mine. the potatoes I cooked were too salty and got burnt because I was on the phone too long, but the eggs turned out fine. So well, it was a sad breakfast for me.

Well later I walked to my Fariz's house, so I could hitch a ride to Holiday Villa, but I didn't have to walk all the way, because he picked me up while I was still infront of Etika Jaya. Owh, and today just felt like a day for photography, so I brought my eos along. So here's just some pics of the neighbourhood.







From there, we went straight to Villa. Where Abu and Aizad were already waiting for us at the lobby. I've never really been in Holiday Villa. So well, with camera in hand I went snapping away. It does look rather lavish. But since it's so close to home, the extravagant magic doesn't stretch out a whole lot.

So we walked past a courtyard, then a gym. Then we arrived atthe pool and there was a counter at the side where there were two hotel workers.







Aizad wanted to go swimming, so he stayed behind at the pool while the three of us went up the Tennis Courts. Well, at a tennis court, we played tennis obviously.

Fariz's Surf

The tough competitor

Abu

It's my first time playing tennis and I was well, would you say I rock at tennis or I suck, if on the first serve I manage to hit the ball up.. up.. and away, into the parking lot?



Yeah, well that happened. We had 3 balls with us. All Fariz's. The first two went over the fencing into the parking lot below. The third.. couldn't be recovered because it went in the direction of the swimming pool. And all of it was MY doing! I dunno.. maybe it's just my superbly masculine strength or something =P

We just hoped it didn't knockout any swimmers unconcious. It'd certainly suck to drown because of a stray tennis ball.



So because we didn't have any more balls with us, Abu and I had to go and get them back. We went down and around to get the 2. Then threw them back up towards the tennis courts.

When we went back up, Aizad had joined us. Must have been no hot girls swimming in the pool, or he probably got bored of swimming alone.

Abu was tired, Aizad was hungry, and Fariz was relentless. So I joined Fariz for a bit more of tennis, then we called it a day and packed up.


Then we decided to grant Aizad's wish to eat at Taj's Curry house for some dinner.

It's a mamak restaurant just across the street from SJMC, in the same row as the Windmill, which I think has been around since I could remember!



When we walked into the retaurant, what a surprise, I found Lavynnia eatng dinner there with her bro and mum! Or rather, it was Lavynnia eating and her brother and mum watching! =P Anyway, ignoring them, Aizad got his nasi lemak, I got myself a thosai, Fariz and Abu both ordered nasi goreng. After we ate, Aizad had a call from his mom. Apparently, his cousin, Adib, which we all knew was staying over for the night.

Then well, the plan to just play tennis.. kind of shifted into a spontaneous sleepover. So we all agreed to just crash at Aizad's place, since we all had extra clothes for would-have-been swimming.




At Aizad's house, we just crashed in the kitchen for awhile, playing some music with Aizad's piano and some noise with his violin.



Then we decided to play around with my camera shutter. We managed to make images like these:






After that we went upstairs and played Rock Band on...



his PS3 till like 4am. The game was really cool, it's like Guitar Hero except there's even a drum set and a microphone so people can play till max of 4 players. Guitar, bass, drums, and vocals.




Before we went to sleep, Aizad forced us to watch 28 weeks later, but it was sooo late none of us had the energy for an action/thriller. But we watched it anyway. Luckily we had a friendly companion nearby to keep us some company.

Meet Ed!

The next day, we went to Aizad's second apartment to swim. He owns one of the apartments next to Carrefoure.

After some splashing, and some marco polo, and some diving, we gout out, dried ourselves, and had lunch in Nandos, Subang Parade. After that, there isn't much more to tell. So the day is pretty much, that.


Owh yeah, I also had this pic to show: Click it to enlarge!



Toodles!

Who Wouldn't Love The Holidays?

Alright, after about three months, it seems like the perfect time to resurrect my blog. So here goes a little tell about of how I spent my first three days in this long awaited and needed august holidays.

Day One

Saturday

Well, for starters, this day was more of a business trip rather than a holiday weekend. Today, SMK Seafield's interact Board of Directors went to SMKSU for this leadership training thing. So well, I had to get up at about 7 in the morning, and what a hassle that was! As previously planned, four other interacters were to hitch a ride with me to SU, so one by one they showed up at my house, around 7.30 a.m.

First came Razlan, then came John, last came Rayvin, who got complete lost. Oh wait, my bad. Last was Pravin, because he didn't even SHOW UP. So well my dad and I and the rest got into the CR-V and scooted over to Pravin's place. After he lodged himself together with the other three in the back, we headed off to ss18.

When we unloaded at Subang Utama, we bumped into Jun Yi, who was well, first there. then we sorta had to wait an eternity for our President. When Leonie finally arrived, we gave her the cold shoulder and denda her to belanja us makan. But, like all (self-proclaimed) great leaders, their never late. You were just too early. So there goes proof that there's no such thing as a free lunch.

Anyway, all 16 of us trooped upstairs into one of the school's classroom/hallrooms. Yeah, here's about the time Seafieldians would go "booyeah! We have an airconned hall!" So then there the little training program went on. from 8a.m. till 2p.m. YAWN.

It was alright at times though, Rern Sean was being Rern Sean. And I met with other primary school friends, like Dheepan and Sheng Ling. All of them were interacters too.

Later that day, I went to Pyramid with Pravin and Razlan for lunch. Well nothing fun there, just three guys eating lunch in Hartz Chicken Buffet. Well later we bought these jumbo playing cards just for kicks. And when I say jumbo, I mean like it wa HUGE. Well, we went to the park later that day and played with them.




Basically, this day was a holiday spoilt by work. So it was quite void of excitement.

Day Two
Sunday

Odd enough, do you guys ever remember when you were kids? Like REALLY kids. Before puberty, where you could just meet strangers like other kids at the park and make friends in heartbeat, when you were so full of like you woke up before your parents?

Well, now I'm in my teens. And well, from morning glory, I've become the sort of nocturnal. So anyway, On Saturday err, morning? Well, I woke up at 2. So the morning was gone. Bummer.

So today, the weather was awesome. Blue skies with patches of clouds placed perfectly in the right place to block out direct sunlight. And the wind was marvellous. Downside: It's Subang Jaya, where the freshest air you can get, is probably at the park, which is most likely always placed next to a main road. So what do you get? Crap polluted CO'd air.

Today, Pawan came back home! Well, our home at least. His old home. Because he moved some time ago to Seremban. So well the foursome friends were complete today! So of course we were off to have an adventure. So Pravin, Razlan, I and Pawan went to 3k because Pawan got wind of a book sale by Pay-Less Books there. Razlan was also enthusiastic for similar reasons. Pravin and I on the other hand, wanted to check out the gym. Pravin and Razlan both joined the school's newly born Rugby team. So they needed to get in shape.

Well, the four of us walked to the bus stop in front of Summit and took a metrobus to 3k. And the stupidest thing, and bad luck for Pawan, there was NO book sale to be seen there. A wedding, yes, but no book sales were to be heard of in 3k that day. The concierge lady said he must've been mistaken with 3C, the neighbouring childrens facility. So in utter dismay, Pawan and Razlan didn't manage to get their books. But hey, they still joined us in the gym. And we booked it for 1 hour.

So the workout was well, tiring. What else could it be.

Fast forward an hour - The four of us got hungry, and hey, how convinient it was for a nicely placed A&W restaurant placed right next to the 3k building. Now lets all run 10 miles on the treadmill, do 50 rips on the weights, and do 30 sit ups only to award ourselves with a nice coney dog, double scoop ice cream waffle and a rootbeer float =D

After that, we had to make our journey home. So it was a nice slow walk. No rush. Pawan, Pravin and I reminisced about our old primary school as we passed by it. It looks so pathetic and old now compared to it's glory days when we strode the halls.

One of the greatest nostalgiv landmarks, was the monsoon drain right infront of the school. We well, er, Pawan had this crazy idea of actually going threw one of the sewage pipes.




I was somewhat reluctant. Then he and Pravin both went through it. So then I was like "oh what the hell!"

So the three of us went through the drain pipe! It was DISGUSTING in there. And it smelled like longkang!

Why I love being a kid.

Unfortunately after our little "expedition", Pawan was late. He needed to get back home. Seremban. So we hadnt much time left. So off to home!

Pravin was Pooped. He actually had to take a break going up the stairs.

Then when we got back in USJ2, it was bye bye to Pawan. So after all that, the day I say, was concluded.

Crossing The Pond

A week flies by since the semester holidays and with the enthusiasm of a big sister having give her baby brother a diaper change, I resume school. The semester exam results are finally handed back, life actually could get much better. But hey, how can we appreciate the good times without having to live through the dull days?

So finally, after six days do I come across some free time, so anyway, this post is about my family and I, and what we did in the two weeks of the holidays.

***

Mark the dawn of the 23rd of May.
Having to catch a flight at 10 o'clock, we had to depart home in the wee hours of the morning. Stepping out the front door, light was scarce, but having stepped in and out of the threshold of our terrace doorway, muscle memory was sufficient to navigate our way around the porch to load all baggage into the car. After all loading was done, we left for one of Malaysia's proud buldings, KLIA.

Upon arrival, we checked in our luggage at the counter. Unfortunately, we hit a snag regarding overweight luggage. The problem was soon solved though, after some mixing and matching the stuff from two separate bags to equalize the weight. After checking in those, we were handed our boarding passes and headed to the terminal. By then, the sun was already a bright glaring orange ball in the sky. None of us had our breakfast yet. So we headed over to the airport's BK for some breakfast burgers. Well, Burger King doesn't have a breakfast menu.. so I got myself a double black pepper while my sis had a double mushroom swiss.. umm. Yummy! Everyone else didn't have much to eat in spite of air sickness which was inevitable in the flight that was soon to come.

We headed back down, and proceeded through our boarding gates.. no waiting was needed because, well, we were kinda late. So we just walked right through the security checks, got rubbed here and there abit because I got sounded off for wearing a metal belt, and boarded the MH0004 to... Err.. We were ABIT late.

It took about half an hour for the captain to get the plane ready, soon, we started to taxi on to the runway. Then, with an eager look, took flight! Bon Voyage! MAS has been upgraded a wee bit since the last time I flew with them, which is approximately a decade ago. There were actually private screens for entertaintment now, and they had a detachable remote control! But being me, I didn't really indulge myself in technology. Why watch a movie or play games when you can do them at home? I spent the hours gazing out the window down to earth which I found way more fascinating. Some hours passed by and soon the stewardesses of the "Best Aviation Service" rolled out with trolleys of food. With makeup that looked thick enough to keep them warm throughout winter, they began asking passenger to passenger on their preference of meal keeping a nice solid plastic smile on. I admit, I admire them for their effort to still manage to keep it on while dealing with some more.. difficult passengers. When I was asked to choose my meal, I was utterly disappointed to be told that apparently, one among the two choice of food were finished, and I had to either settle for "Not-my-mom-or-dad's-cooking" Fish Curry or Veggie Pasta. The latter it was. And then, the moment I dug in I was extremely disappointed. Airplane food used to be one of those things I looked forward to, and believe me, a decade ago it was so much better, even for economy. As for small consolation, the dessert was a mini-Magnum ice cream. After that, I had a game of checkers, battleship, stared off into the space through the window, and then dozed off. The flight took a whole twelve hours, which meant that at least one bathroom break was inevitable after chugging down about a dozen cups of orange juice. So what seemed like ages, we finally landed at Heathrow. The first thought that entered my head upon arrival was:

"God, I'm so proud of KLIA"

You'll know why when if you ever get the chance to go there. Let's just say I like the laptop better than the typewriter.

So after collecting our luggage from the conveyor belts, we went to the entrance to wait for my cousin who according to the plan was fetch us from the airport. The wait took longer than expected because of the traffic jam, so in the meantime, I had the chance to go site seeing around the airport, and Wow! Things sure were expensive over there! If you thought Baskin Robins was expensive here, check this out:



Well later, when my cousin finally arrived, the whole family went to the parking lot to find a rental van waiting for us.


So we loaded the boot, strapped ourselves in, and of we were to our pits stop for the night.

Along the way, I was just the perfect picture of an over enthusiastic tourist, snapping pictures of everything I saw, including this!

Poor Old One-Legged Spongebob

The distance to our motel was in relative, like from KL to Subang. When we finally got there, our jetlagged bodies just gave in and crashed on the nice comfy beds.

The Inn we stayed at

The somewhat pretty staircase

Sometime during the night, having travelled lightly, the bunch of us decide to head over to the local supermarket. TESCO! Using my cousin's van, the six of us got there in about under 10 minutes. It was kinda odd for once. they had no suck veggies like bok choy or khailan.. looking at the rows of chicken and beef felt VERY weird. Because you know they weren't halal, but back at home given the same setting, it felt more welcome. The other difference between here and home is well, bread. Theres a whole aisle just for bread! And they have all kinds of brands. I mean all we have at home are Gardenia and High5 plus the local supermarket made GiantBread, CarrefoureBread and TescoBread. Forgive me other bread brands if I missed you out. Maybe I'm ignorant, or maybe you just haven't reached that high in the market yet? So after collecting all needed supplies,of junk, I drifted off with the trolley to the cashier, where we met the cashier lady who was oh so sweet in the way she spoke. I don't know about you guys but I'm a fan of the the biritish accent. So I think what happeend there was something we bought was mistagged, so she said to the other lady "Nancy, could you help me?" in such a way where you would just smile listening to her.

The weird combination of Orange and banana we bought. And it was delicious!

Next day, we checked out and headed off to my cousins house, which would be where we would be staying for the next few days. Leaving Travelodge, the maroon van we rode drove out of the parking lot and into the european morning. Cold. Dry. Windy. And a bunch of these weird flowers flying everywhere and getting stuck in your hair. But hey, the outside weather didn't matter, because we were in a Van which, unfortunately only had HEATERS! I mean, we're Malaysians! We wanna cool down, not warmed up! Why do you think Asians go to Europe and Europeans fo to Asia? The whole journey was stifiling HOT. And we couldn't open the windows in fear that those flying "dandelions?" might fly in and cause my sister to get an asthma attack. And did I mention, somebody blew a gas bomb in the van. So from then on, the whole journey we were practically being marinated and cooked. But of course there were some consolations. The view!




So well we finally got there before dying. My cousin's house was in Guildford. Never heard of it? Guildford's in Surrey. Still never heard of it? Well here's a hint. Harry Potter's favourite aunt , uncle and cousin live in privet driv, SURREY. Anyway, Surrey is I think. somewhere to the southeast of London. It was somewhat suburb. I liked it. We went abit out of the way past some farms and horse ranches to reach here:

Nice name for a house doncha think?

Shoe Rack

We met my cousin's Father-in-law there too. He was there on vacation too.

That night, we ate, Malaysians staple food. Rice. I forgot what the extra's were. But I remember we drank alot of Tesco labeled Orange Juice. And well, the sofa was so comfortable, and with the central heating turned on, I snoozed off before everyone else.

***

Next day we just hung out in their little cottage. While the parentals were catching up with my cousin and his wife, I entertained myself with the telly. . My cousin and his wife had two kids, One girl, one boy. More soon to come? I don't know.

She's Aisha. He's Ali.

I met them once before, before they migrated to the UK. But that was when Ali was just a baby and when Aisha still had very little memory? So they were practically strangers to me as much as I was a stranger to them. And! Did I tell you I'm really good with kids? It's like this special talent I have. They just come on to me. Literally!

Bottom line: David vs Goliath, the latter lost.

After a whole day of getting bullied, and running for cover upstairs and hiding under the bed, the little menaces finally gave up the hunt. And the lousy part was, I slept.. all through DINNER! And do you wanna know what we had for dinner that night?


These, have got to be the most delicious, most succulent kebabs I've ever had the pleasure to put in in my mouth, to chew and savour slowly, and to swallow. It's lamb by the way. And it's halal! well, duhh. If not I couldn't eat it. The meat was supplied by a halal butcher from pakistan i think. Yeah every country in the world is becoming multi-racial this millenium. I ate mine cold. But it still tasted good.

The next day we went to London.how we got there: We took the train from Guildford station.

And we bought this day pass which costed 14 POUNDS per head. 14(5) x 6.5 = RM 455.

Okay, that's not it. That costed only 2 bucks.

This is the ticket:

So there we were, amazed at the train station. Well maybe it's just me. Eventhough there was that ktm station back at home right behind Carrefoure, I never rode on it. Ever. So being a fan ever since I was a kid after watching endless episode of Thomas the Tank Engine, I was a big fan of trains. unfortunately steam trains are practically extinct, I guess this is still fun to watch. So we arrived at Waterloo Station in about, I guess the time it takes to get to KL from Subang Jaya. And with only having the knowledge of the famous places in London from the board game Monopoly, we HAD to get ourselves a map. So we did. Then well, I from here on out, let the pictures do the talking.

First up, we roamed the streets of London.

Then it was off to the undergound.

Then to Tower Bridge

Strand Station

McDonald's was abit extravagant. More like a cafe than a fast food parlour.

Let's not forget those famous london phonebooths!


He accidently fumbled and dropped one when after I took the picture.
Pay close attention, this double decker actually has a Malaysian number plate!

Trafalgar Square


That's faeces on the path.

And this is the culprit:
Buckingham Palace


Hey, the of the oddest things were, see those guards? We're not the only ones from Malaysia. Their wearing Baju Melayu. And he's guarding Buckingham Palace!

Saw some British Skaters

Tried to get into Platform 9 3/4
There was a Jamaican man jamming away in the underground
The Big Ben

Believe me or not, that Big Ben photo was taken sometime about 7 pm. And it was still that bright. Summer can do wonders I guess. It only get's dark at about 10pm there.

So anyway, after a whole day out, and still hungry, after only feeding on chips and buns, we headed back home, which is my cousin's place.

And that night I ate this thing, which you can't get back in Malaysia.

***

That's London over, still to come:

France
Scotland