Yes, I’m still alive. I’m still very much alive here in London. I just had been lazy updating my blog here. I am simply more active on Facebook as it is easier and less time-consuming. Well, basically the main reason why I do not update my blog here is because I rarely have any time to sit in front of the computer alone in my room.

I lead a hectic lifestyle here. I would really say I’m blessed to have a really active social circle here. That’s what I always thought I would lead my life here in London and I am actually living it out now. I live in a shared room and I have an awesome roommate who brought in a PS3. So basically my room is the common room for my hall cause everyone just hangs out here playing Fifa10 on the PS3. Whenever I’m not in classes, I’m at home in the afternoon doing some work or just resting from a late night. At night, whenever I’m not out chilling with my friends, I will be in my room and there would most likely be a Fifa tournament going around. I like this lifestyle. I never feel lonely, I always have company and it’s great. So that’s really the main reason why I don’t have much time to update this blog cause I really hardly spend any time in front of the computer any more.

Anyway, it’s been really a wonderful journey so far. I just completed a reading week aka holiday after just 4 weeks of study here. I feel so lucky to be in UCL instead of Cambridge, Oxford, LSE, Imperial or any US colleges. I think the lifestyle here is so much laid-back. Perhaps it’s because of Singapore. After the stressful 2-years of A-Levels in Singapore, everything just pales in comparison. But perhaps it has to do with the way classes and exams are structured in UCL. Somehow things just feels more laid-back in UCL as compared to other universities but it might be just me taking the stress and workload easily, looking at things in a positive way.

I haven’t really been travelling much in UK before the reading week. Heck, I haven’t even explored much of London yet. It just takes me forever to settle down. Luckily for the reading week, I had the opportunity to travel quite some bit. Somehow it brought out the need in me to travel again.

I did not really plan my reading week, but it turned out pretty well in the end. Turned out to be pretty adventurous too. Let me share the story. I was fed up that my reading week plans are not turning out well. By Friday lunch I had my last class and I am officially on holiday. I am lucky the Econs department did not give us any assignment or test during the week. I was looking for things to do during reading week. I got fed up trying to plan up a holiday in the last minute, I decided to simply go to Manchester and find Seira, my really good friend from Singapore. So I bought a one-way ticket to Manchester on the morning of Sunday, 8 November. At night, a thought occurred to me that Edinburgh is not exactly that far away from Manchester; it’s halfway through from London. Everyone in London seems gung-ho about going to Edinburgh I had no idea why I thought I should go give it a shot. Called up Xuxin to see if it’s alrite if I bunk in over her place a few nights. It was really spontaneous and random and she said OK. She was kinda surprised to hear my plans of coming over to Edinburgh in a few hours. She was really hospitable and nice. In Edinburgh, I saw 4 other UCL kiddos on 2 separate groups coming for the free tour of the city that day. I know 2 of them, 1 from each group. You see, Londoners have a fascination for Edinburgh I have no idea why! Came back from Edinburgh on the 12th of November to Manchester and slept over another night at Seira’s. Went back to London the following morning and rested for a few hours in my room. Later that evening I met up with Ruben and we went up to Cambridge. Spent the weekend there at Geoffrey’s and basically had one heck of a time in Cambridge with the people I met at Khazanah’s. Super awesome time there. Practically know 6 of the 20 odd Malaysians who made it to Cambridge for the year. Really cool meeting up with so many buddies there.

Here’s some very little photos from my short trip during reading week. Sorry I could not post up more photos here. I really am a bummer in resizing photos and all for the blog. It’s all up on my Facebook, so you could only check it out if you are my friend there.

Anyway, till then, I hope to update this blog again soon with some other happenings around. I can’t believe how fast time is passing by. It’s already mid-November and Christmas is coming soon. My mom is flying over for Christmas and my aunt, who is working near Shanghai is also flying in to London to meet me. We are all going to meet my uncle in Prague before going for a really ambitious road trip in Central Europe. I am excited! :)

Old Trafford at Manchester

Some old structure in Edinburgh

The 1 million pounds clock in Cambridge

Some college in Cambridge

Ruben and I after punting in Cambridge

I’m safe in my uncle’s place now. Lucky for my crazy sleeping habits in Malaysia where I sleep at 3am and wake up at 11am, I’m not really jet-lagged here. Slept mostly in the aeroplane and bus journeys. But there were all hour long naps, so it was great that I finally got a 9 hours sleep the previous night.

Anyway, here’s a descriptive journey of my trip so far. I’m too lazy to put photos here. If you want to see some photos get to my Facebook photo album =P

Well let’s start from the beginning. My KL-London flight was supposed to depart at 11.40pm. But we were delayed by slightly over an hour. Reason: the flight was full and the cabin crew had difficulties trying to sort passengers with infants. There was a row very near me with 3 infants and that is not allowed under rules because of the shortage of oxygen masks in case of emergency. So the cabin crew had to run around the airplane, contacting ground staff trying to sort out this problem. Alas if I’m not wrong, they simply upgraded a single mom and her baby to business class cause all other seats are taken. It was a really tense environment. Nobody wants to be delayed cause there are lots of complications - missing the airspace time slot allocation, congestion at Heathrow etc.

We did miss the flying time slot over Afghanistan. We had to fly later and at a lower altitude. The Captain also reported some problem with Bangkok but I’m not sure what exactly. Well I believe the pilot must have flown the plane at a faster pace because we were scheduled to land at London 15 minutes late only. Alas congestion at Heathrow forced us to holding and we had to circle around East London for about 10 minutes before landing. Lucky me. I will be pretty screwed with my schedule if the plane is delayed more.

It took about 12 hours for the flight instead of  13 hours. Filled my time sleeping and fiddling with the in-flight enterntainment. Watched some comedies and played some video games there. But I spent most of my time sleeping, conserving energy for my crazy transit the following morning.

Checked out of airplane, went through immigration. Luckily things went smoothly with not much questions asked. Got myself an Oyster card and headed to the Tube on the Picaddily Line for an hour long ride to Caledonian Road station. Had to drag my big luggage and hand-carry for a good 15 minutes or so to my self-storage location. ABC Self-Storage is the company I went with. About £30 for 2 weeks of storage. Plus I get to use my own padlock!

My shoulders are really aching cause of all the lugging. It’s not over yet. I had to travel to King’s Cross St Pancras and transfer to Liverpool Street station to get a bus or a train to Stansted. Finally got myself into a Terravision bus to Stansted. It’s supposed to be £9 but they don’t provide change for £10! I’m not sure if it’s company policy or simply the bus attendant way of collecting tips for himself but I couldn’t be bothered. I just wanted to get to Stansted airport on time and catch my flight to Brno.

By then I was too tired to look at London, I slept throught the bulk of the hour long journey. Reached Stansted and checked in for my Ryanair flight. Security check over at Stansted is really tight. I finally had some time to relax and have my lunch. I also had some time to check out some shops there. Looked at football merchandise there and am just waiting for my time to get hold of that Arsenal jersey. The shop also sell football and offered to inflate the ball! lol. Anyway I also went to the perfume shop and thought it was quite cheap. I did some conversions and figured that perfumes are way cheaper there as compared to KL or Singapore. Well, shall see how. Might do some shopping and get myself a ck perfume there on my way home.

Got into my flight at Ryanair and off I went to doze off again. It was nearly a 2 hours plane ride but half the time the Ryanair staff are peddling things to sell. They were noisy like those pasar malam junkies selling stuff. Got a good hour rest on the flight.

Reached Brno and immigration was really simple. No forms to fill up. Just a simple stamp on my passport and I’m cleared to enter Czech Republic. Met my uncle at the airport and headed home for a quick shower. Luckily I had all the rest here and there on my journey cause immediately after my shower and a short Skype session with mom, I went out my uncle’s sister company Summer Party.

Drank beer and ate meat (turkey and pork ) and bread the whole night. Luckily we went back early cause by then I was already a little tired. 9pm Czech local time is about 3am Malaysia time and it’s right in my sleeping time zone already.

StaroBrno is the local beer. It’s really smooth. Had a sip of their local Cola too. I have no idea how to describe that. Anyway, this is the crazy journey so far. It was more than 24 hours of travelling since I left home to KLIA on Wednesday night. This is the start of the trip. I shall update more soon again. Cheers!

As I’m typing this, I have slightly more than 24 hours to go before this crazy travel plan starts:

Wednesday, 9 Sept 2009, 11.40pm
KL - London (Heathrow)
Malaysia Airlines
Expected arrival time in London 5.50am
Total travel time: 13 hours 10 minutes

Once in London Heathrow airport, I’ve got to checkout and make my way to Caledonian Road tube to get myself into ABC Self Storage to store my big 30kg luggage at a self-storage company for 2 weeks.

Immediately after that, it’s a mad rush to London Stansted airport for the following flight.

Thursday, 10 Sept 2009, 1.35pm
London (Stansted) - Brno, Czech Republic
RyanAir
Expected arrival time in Brno 4.35pm
Total travel time: 2 hours

Thankfully my uncle will pick me up at the airport in Brno. It’s a mad day of travelling with all the rushing and minimal margin of error. Luckily I will have the Friday to rest before backpacking with my uncle on Saturday and Sunday.

I will have the next 5 weekdays to travel alone around Brno and its surrounding area before the weekend comes by again for my uncle to bring me backpacking again.

Places I intend to cover: Brno, Vienna (Austria), Brastilavia (Slovakia), Budapest (Hungary). Places I might also go: Prague, Krakow (Poland). Apparently I just found out I got a friend who’s already in Krakow! Might be worth it to go there this time around. But shall see how again when I reach. It’s a free and easy plan. Just go and wander around! Which reminds me, I haven’t actually done much research on things to see or do in the places that I plan to go!!!!!

Anyway, I’ll be flying back to London on the 21st of September. Will reach London at 6.15pm. Luckily Yi Rhu offered me her place to put in a night there cause I doubt I will be able to check-in to my uni residence at night. I will check-in to Campbell House East the following morning and go back to collect my luggage at the storage location before International Orientation the following day. Hectic travel plan! You BET!!!!