UK Trip Day 5 – Grandma Doris’ House and Into London Town With The Gang!

I cannot begin to tell you how very tired I am. There are days when I think everything in my life is going smoothly like how I managed to do a core build-up, access the canal and get the working length of an anterior tooth all in one session which is considered quite a feat for myself since my previous molar and premolar root canal treatments have always been too tedious to do due to poor visibility and dentist lousility. If that is even a word. Might I add, the IOPA came out looking pretty good, without any comments from the lecturer, which usually means no problem. A really really good day, as I made a rubber dam joke and my lecturer gave a hearty laugh and said good one! I have never heard him laugh with so much happiness before, haha. I was even extremely lucky to get ANOTHER pulpotomy case to do in the afternoon. There was a pulp polyp  and I excavated it. I think I was more afraid than my kid patient.

Then there are bad days. Like when my macbookpro’s trackpad fucks up on me and the laptop was sent to the service center for five days. Or whatever gadget that falls sick, it will totally ruin my day/week. Thankfully interpersonal relationship dramas have been kept to a bare minimum in the past few months – everyone’s behaving well. Myself included. I get pissed off at gadgets more than people. 😐 And I am also having a super hard time trying to do up my sticker monster store. I am not even sure if I want to have a store now.

Oh right, one more bad thing for a bad day. Damn damn damn DAMN Bangkok ‘peaceful protests’ which caused me to burn my air tickets and miss out on my beautiful hotel room (I mentioned about how the walls are painted in bright pink, yellow and orange right? As in, colour themes for individual rooms right?). 🙁 Just a bad time to go. Please please please please I hope I can go when I graduate. I hope I have time. 🙁

So, time to travel back in time again.

During my UK trip in August 2009..

These are pictures from my 5th day in UK.

Went over to Grandma Doris’ place. A plot of land to remember Grandpa Dennis with. We went to visit his cemetery a couple of weeks later as well. I’ve never actually called a cemetery beautiful but it sure beats our Bukit whatevers. Soft grass that suburban Malaysian family homes like to grow, beautiful trees without overbearing fragrances, strong winds that blow at your coat tails and all who were buried there were literally pushing daisies. Daisies everywhere! Garden accessories were placed all over the tomb stone. Garden gnomes, colourful windmills, the deceased favourite flowers growing at the grave… very peaceful. 🙂

Grandma Doris is really proud of her green house! I can’t remember what else she grew in there (for god’s sake it was in August 2009 T_T) but if I recall, there were bell peppers and definitely some tomatoes too.

Look at her oddly shaped and juicy tomatoes!

SO CUTE RIGHT?!

Uncle Terry explained that it was to scrub the mud off your shoes before you went into the house.

See what I found on her kitchen table?!?!
This is a photo of my family back in the late 70s.
top l-r: Uncle Terry, Kooma, Kaima, Dad
bottom l-r: Mama, Taitai (granddad’s mum) and Yeahyeah.

Don’t think my dad met my mum yet at that time..but Kaima already met Kaiyeah! hehe just that he hasn’t gotten the parental approval to join the family photo.

Grandma Doris’ house is full of trinkets and she said she had a gift for me. A precious porcelain doll! So dainty!!

I can never get over the big puffy dandelions.

Fly, fly away!

Lunch back home was Uncle Terry’s homemade pizza. Tomatoes that you saw in his hands earlier now sliced and oven baked with pineapples, some cheese, pepperoni and a thin crust. MMmm.

Later that afternoon was my maiden trip into London!! Can you believe how excited I was? It was like going into New York, something you have heard so much about for your entire life and never ever imagined that you would walk those streets one day. Dad was worried because I had never taken the train down to London before, but I think with my pretty modest grasp of the english language, I should be able to read some signs and hopefully approach a person or two for help if I was lost. =\

A LONDON TRAIN STATION! <3 not quite the Underground, but still!! It rained for a bit like how the Brits always complain about, but it got warm again. Was damn cold when it rained!

Old guy enjoying his yoghurt. I was going down to London which was 45 minutes away to meet up with Sush, Chun Guan and Adrian. On the way down to London, Nien (who was touring Paris at that time) messaged me about souvenirs for our classmates. I thought it was pretty cool that I had a fellow classmate who was also touring Europe at that time!

People actually bring bikes into the train!

Me looking disheveled after the rain. The red scarf was bundled in by Uncle Terry who put quite a lot of effort into making me look warm enough for my dad to feel okay about me going out in the cold (as cold as a Malaysian would think).

I was also going down to meet a customer at Victoria Station!!! Well those of you who already know about me going all the way to the UK to cod, old news. But those who don’t, well YEAH:D A lady from the US wanted me to send a packet of stickers to her niece in the UK. I was expecting a 15 year old girl or something but turns out she was a nine year old accompanied by her aunt. 🙂 Awww.

Passed by some fields while on the way down.

Alexa and her stickers!!

Alexa and her aunt, sister of  my customer in the US. 🙂 So glad Alexa loves the stickers. They wrote an email saying that all her little friends at school were so envious! (hopefully she helped to promote The Sticker Monster!!)

oooh, ooh.. that’s Victoria Station by the way! <3

And what’s that outside Victoria Station? *screams*

OMG THE UNDERGROUND SIGNS. *jakun mode on*

Not a good first photo of Adrian. Sorry Ad. Bwahahaha. 🙂 Adrian is in his 4th year now, doing medicine at Uni of Nottingham. So nice of him to come down to say hello!! *syok sendiri* I think he had to meet some other friends too la.

Some fresh products to make my grandmother happy. She loves fruits. Buying them, looking at them, she loves them!

A better photo of me. Adrian surprised me with his coooooool bikkkeerrrr boyyyy jackeeet. Soooo cooooooooool. I guess I don’t know much about cold weather fashion. But I drooled quite a bit when I checked out some girls at my bro’s uni in Manchester. Not at how sexy they were lah but at the boots!!! the jackets!!!! the gloves!!! the beanies!! the bags!!!(okay lah bags can use in Malaysia also). Damn jealous that I can never ooze style like that. My leggings only saw the light of day in the UK. When leggings were in, I stocked up in so many colours and whatever other designs that tickled my fancy along the way. Could never find the right time to wear it.

Big Ben? I don’t know..

Very disappointed that I didn’t get to see Big Ben or London Bridge. 🙁 When I was there I didn’t quite feel the need to see those monuments but after coming home to Malaysia, I was kicking myself quite a bit. Sigh.

Just had to snap one of this for the dental geek in me.

Double decker buses!! Not like we don’t have those in our region, but they did originate from the UK, no? Sush wanted to take me to ride in them and do a mini tour around the city but unfortunately family obligations were aplenty. 😐

While on our way to meet up with the rest, I pestered Adrian to bring me to see Platform Nine and Three Quarters!

Much to our disappointment, that particular platform had to be accessed with a ticket which we didn’t want to waste our money on. Apparently there is a real trolley half submerged into the wall. In the Harry Potter movies, everything looks like they are in the 1800s. So it is hard to imagine that he really left for Hogwarts from the King’s Cross station which is bustling with activities come rush hour.

Not at all like in the 1800s.

A nicer photo of Adrian. Give chance.

LONDON CABS!!

Just one of the many pubs with the pretty flowers hanging down.

So iconic! I have this as a keychain!

Spot the Malaysian!!!

We met up with Chun Guan first before looking for Sush. That’s a photo with the Odeon, taken by some lousy random person who also happened to be a Malaysian.

You can tell how old these photos are. 🙁

Right. In the middle of London?

Finally a proper one with the Odeon!

Some celebrity I guess.

I had to take in all the gorgeously old architecture!

Even the KFC is at the bottom of some old grand building.

Discussing where Sush asked us to meet her.

Wrong angle of the famous landmark at Picadilly Circus.

Cloudy skies.

Still at Picadilly Circus!

HOLYMOTHER! Saw a Wira on the streets! Or is this a Perdana? Damn sparkling. Proton cars back home never gleam so much, why ah?

Don’t know whether busker (but no instrument), beggar or broke tourist (because of the backpack).

Sush brought us to a Korean restaurant. This is my miso soup!

Obligatory photos while waiting for the food to arrive.

Sush and me. I like Sush’s outfit!!

Something like steamboat but instead of a hot plate for you to fry your food,

Some noodle dish.

Chun Guan’s cute smile with an atas looking waiter at the back.

Had to have a group photo all the way in London!

Camwhored a little bit more.

With my darling Sush.

Blue and blue!

Myself and Adrian.

Group photo without the help of anyone nearby.

We made our way over to Chinatown.

Shady looking alley.

So suggestive..

How does that even make smoking fun? Stop already!

I HAD to make a trip to one of the shops in Soho!

Chinatown!! I didn’t know it was this small though. I thought it was far bigger than this.

Being excited with Sush who just layan me only.

Diddling the lion statues at Chinatown. Might get struck by lightning for doing this.

walking away from Chinatown! I love this shot!

Walking back to the tube and stopping to camwhore.

One more!

Amidst the old architecture there were some new buildings too!

Didn’t know Ripley’s Believe It Or Not came from England.

Posing with the famous Underground tube.

Victoria Station!!

Nice candid shot of the two boys.

Sush and I with a very important sign at the back of me. It was calling out to me.

My brother just arrived from Malaysia that night and so there was a small dinner to welcome him to UK. Hehe. A bit of a visa screw up, long story, so we were there for four days without him.

Hi Mervyn!

L-r: Aunty Betty, Uncle Steven, Dad, Me

Dinner was at a small Italian restaurant down the road (complete with Italian chef who is also the owner coming out to exchange pleasantries and mope about slow business.)

Mussels that my Uncle Terry raves about.

I think it was my Carbonara. I am so unadventurous. 🙁

Quiche? Not sure.

Someone’s chicken stew..beef stew.. but yums!!

A plater of cheese for everyone!

Damnit, I am hungry now.