In other news, I’ve joined the world of COUCH SURFING. My profile can be seen here.  I know right, another “social networking” site >.<

I have a travel predicament I have to make in 6 days. Qatar Airways has a special deal flying from KUL to a few destinations I’d really like to go to. My travel dates would be end of April into May but it might be too soon – unless this couch surfing stuff takes off.

The next morning Cece & Carly were flying back home. After spending a week with those girls (and I mean almost every waking minute with eachother!) it was sad to see them go. Carly teared up and I did too..sigh. If all goes well I’ll be back in the US again next year “The seas parted ways and left em’ to be!” (Seas = C&C and EM’ = M&M) ha ha I know I’m so special. So yeah it was just Marie and I for the rest of the day. We were waiting for Aash to call me back so he could give us directions on how to get to his apt for us to store our shit for the rest of the day. In the meantime though we made friends with the tube guy at the Royal Oak station. I dunno what we talked about but he liked us enough to offer his office for us to leave our luggage in while we got breakfast and all. In return though we got him some breakfast and he gave us a surprise big bear hug as we made our way to Aldgate East/White Chappel to meet up with Aash.

Aash lives off Selby Street @ White Chappel. His living room view is a cemetary where people died of Bubonic Plague (refer to past reference of Bubonic Plague). White Chappel is also where the Jack the Ripper murders took place. Lots of awesome history if you ask me! We didn’t have time to have a personal tour of the area but he did take us to the only ‘farm’ in London town aka Spitalfields City Farm. Well, we actually just walked by it cause we were answering the call of hunger… LUNCHERS @ Casa Blue on Brick Lane. Casa Blue is a nice cozy… cafe (?) There aren’t really any proper tables to eat on. Lots of beat up couches and places to lounge. It’s a place to snack and drink basically. Food was good though! I think we ordered their special platter and this special cocktail mixed with energy drinks and other stuff…it was called thai something or other (not the actual name but it had the word ‘thai’ in it). It was really good and before you know it, a bunch of people I’ve met in various stages of my life grouped together drinking from a fishbowl, in harmony. Aww….  Eventually we moved from Casa Blue to the Vibe Bar (hazy recollection of events!) and then finally to this bar/club that was in a warehouse – right behind the RootMaster ‘bustaurant’. Finally about 10 p.m. or so I had to make my way to the airport to catch my flight back ‘home’ – beligerent, sad and a tad confused. It’s a good thing the airport officials a) allowed me to sneak in an extra 5KG for my check-in luggage b) allowed my overweight carry on luggage on board. All good in the hood. Stansted airport officials aren’t assholes after all…well when it’s close to midnight that is! (A reverse Mogwai!?)

So that concludes uSUK Tour 2009… “tour” because it was like going on tour. I was constantly with people and I imagine being in a band ur always around people and at times they get on ur nerves and also it’s hard to get some “alone” time etc..etc.. It was also very tiring but all worth it. It certainly did not SUK (as in uSUK – blah baadd wordplay sorry). Now that I’ve been “home” for nearly 2 weeks, I’m enjoying some time alone doing absolutely nothing. At the same time, I’m doing a lot of thinking which I did little of when travelling. Soooo.. you know how that goes.

Now for some pictures to accompany this post:

Cheers! And it’s back to ‘mai’ random ramblings whenever I feel like it!

It’s 7:15 a.m. I woke up in a sweat and rushed immediately to beat the morning shower rush. I think I may be getting a little old for hostels. Everyone here is pubescent. Oh well, they can look at me as a motherly figure

So here’s a quick run down of what I’ve been up to.

I took AirAsia X to London. It was a smooth flight and I was lucky no one sat next to me on the flight so I got to use both seats as my temp. “bed”. Despite what people think, the seats DO recline – well at least the plane I took. It was the OAKLAND RAIDERS sponsored plane! I highly advise people to pre-pick their seats. I strategically chose mine so they were close enough to the toilets. The food was decent but was finished in .5 seconds.

Immigration took about 30 mins and probably another 30 mins to wait for my luggage to arrive. I made it just in time to catch the 1800 bus from Stansted Airport to Liverspool St. in downtown London.

Jump to the part where I reach the hostel (Smart Russell Square). It’s close to the Russell Sq. tube station which is a plus. They screwed my booking up though. When I booked my rooms, I accidentally double booked ONE NIGHT so I wrote them to cancel that ONE night. What they did was cancel that ONE night along with the last TWO nights as well. I think anyone with a decent command of English would understand what I meant in my email, but instead of apologizing one of the people behind the desk wanted to “challenge” my email. Whatever. I ended up paying extra for the last two nights cause they put me in a 6 person room. Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise cause a 24 person room is kind of a mess. The bunks go up to three levels, everyone’s things are on the floor and it’s hot.

BUTTTTTTT…. I met with Gina last night and I traded one of my July 3rd Blur @ Hyde Park tickets for a July 2nd Blur @ Hyde Park ticket…which is…. today!

Jump to the present where I’m sitting in the Hostel breakfast room where I think the average age of people is 17. SIGH….

Picture post coming up…

Of course today of all days the POUND is selling at close to 5.9! It’s ridiculous as last month it was only 5.4. When the exchange rate differs by only a few .01 it doesn’t really matter but it does show a bit of a difference It doesn’t really make that much of a difference with .1 difference. For example I changed RM1500 and got £255 – £277 if it were selling at 5.4. That’s a 22 pound difference. With 22 pounds I could buy me enough round of beers for a massive beer hangover the next day! That says a lot.

So I’m all set to see Blur. I’ve been reading reviews and I even managed to catch a snippet of their performance at Glastonbury online. The connection was slow though because I had to change IP Proxies to a UK one (proxy descrimination!!) Anywhooo…my music playlist now is arranged according to their set list. “Purists” may complain that it’s too singles heavy but seriously though – it’s a killer set and I can’t wait. 2 Nights of Blur and some pretty good opening acts.

Check this space for more updates! I’ll see if I can ‘twitter’ from London via my phone. I’m still deciding whether I should bring my lap top. Bringing it means I’m bringing my work with me, but at the same time I can choose to ignore work. Typing everything out when it’s all still fresh in my head helps. Plus my travel buddy wants his 2 mins of fame. He’s dying to get out there and get all middle earth on you!

The big news to-date is in exactly one week I’ll be on my way to London to see Blur. I feel I’m at a buffet and got greedy with all the food and now I have too much on my plate. Forgive me for the awful puns!

I have an article to write for AirAsia’s inflight mag Travel360 about my budget travels to London on AirAsiaX. I’ve also got 2 reviews of the concert I’m submitting to two local online music/lifestyle mags. Plus a ton of stuff to settle before flying out.

My checklist for things I need to bring onboard with me on a long-haul no-frills budget airliner:
- Inflatable travel pillow
- Mouth/nose face mask
- Wet wipes
- Face H20 spritzer
- Blanket/pashmina
- Music to get me by for 14 hours
- Panadol
- Eno
- Thick socks in case it gets too cold onboard and the key to keeping warm is keeping your feet warm!