Southampton

Last week Des and I made a short trip to Southampton to visit a friend.

This was our first ever overnight trip since we arrived in March this year. We planned the trip about 2-3 weeks before and was very excited about leaving home for the first time.

We booked our bus tickets via online and it cost us about £12 for two persons for return tickets. It was supposed to be even cheaper (about £2 per person for each return), but i guess they ran out of the cheap ones by the time we booked. We were going back and forth as to whether to book accommodation, but at least we managed to convinced a friend to let us stay over at his place for free :P That saved us up to £50 for a night's accommodation, which promptly went into our food expenses for the trip. Hehehe...

We took a bus from the city and arrived 4 hours later. It was quite an uncomfortable ride actually, not because of the seats, but the rules that says seatbelts is compulsory. I swear, the belts are so tight it felt like I was strapped to the seat as if I was to be propelled out of the bus.

Bar Gate, Southampton - Front View

So TaDah! We were in Southampton around noon and guess what! Apparently, the day we arrived was the hottest day of the year! I really dun know whether its a good thing really, the fact that the weather was absolutely glorious with loads of sun (unlike the Bath trip which was threatening to rain) or it was just plain hot.

Bar Gate, Southampton - Back View

So apparently, if you are not familiar, Southampton was the place where Titanic took off for its maiden trip. And I only found out about this when I arrived +_+

I took lots of pictures of explanation of places/statues so that I wont forget

Guess what we're looking at?

Shopping Malls!!! Who would have guess that a small town like Southampton would have more than THREE Shopping Malls!?!?! London only have, like what, ONE?? (I only know Harrods, and it doesnt even count!) Obviously, it is nothing compared to our MidValley and OneUtama lah, but still, SHOPPING MALL!!

For those of you who are suprised at our excitement, shopping mall is a GREAT place to shop! Cause you know why? When the weather turns bad, you can STILL shop while getting away from the rain/sun! Oh yea, I havent told you how miserable we are when it was raining and there is no shelter along the shops...

So we walked along the walls in which Southampton is famous for...

Shade, glorious shade!

Walls, walls and more walls...

This was apparently where in the olden days people point their weapons out from the walls to shot at their enemies wor...

Obligatory tourist picture - Refer description in picture below.

Some memorial...

We walked the whole day finding our way with a map of Southampton FOC. Yea, we are suckers for free stuff now...

Found and old church.

Doest this picture reminds you of Bukit Tinggi???

Yeap, this was how wonderfully glorious the weather is. Shesh...

Then we found a memorial for those perished in the Titanic...

By the time we arrived at this place, it was past noon and we were both very tired and hungry. So we rested for a bit and hunt for food...

Remember the £50 we saved from accommodation? This is where a huge chunk of it went. We went past some restaurant and settle for this small Italian rest. While we were waiting for our food, Des called up Stephen and told him we were in some Italian rest and he mentioned that he had wanted to try out the place for some time. So I guess we choose the right place then!

I, on the other hand, has picked up a very bad habit. I'm (finally) learning to love beer. Beer here (in UK, in general) have absolutely NO bitterness in it! Seriously, the only thing that keeps me from beer back home is the bitterness. But here, there is ABSOLUTELY NON! Since, I have been happily ordering my beer. But I still havent managed to master the art of finished the entire pint by myself... :P

After the food, we continue walking and found the quay where the Titanic has took off(?)

Yea, we only managed to go until the sign only. Any further we're not allowed to.

We hopped into the Titanic museum, but no pictures allowed inside wor. For £2 per person, it was quite worth it cause since we came all the way and it was kinda eerie and sad too looking at all the memorabilia and stuff.

A picture from a carefully balanced camera on top of a beam...

For something nearer to heart, we found Mint Casino. Membership was free, but it was a very VERY small place. Smaller than Starworld, smaller than International Room, about the size of the common VIP room but with less table, more slots. Get the idea? I think they only have like 3 roulette, and 3 card-game tables and the rest is slots. And we contributed £5 to your yearly bonus, so please say thank you! :P

And we also found Maxims the next day! But unfortunately, it wasnt open, so we couldnt get it. How dissappointing...

Presenting Mr Stephen Lim! Who graciously allow us to bunk at his place for a night! Thank you very very much! You come London we make you aubergine dish ok?? *wink*

A view of the hostel

So we met up by dinner time and we even managed to cook dinner at his place! After the dinner, we went out again to catch a movie. Bad thing about being in UK without a car is that you'll have to figured out how to get home if you ever stay out later than the last bus. And so, we walked back to his place after the movie, in which during the process came to realized that a 20-min bus ride equates to 1.5 hours of walking *pengsan*

The next day, we continue our trip to explore the town and came to a quay.

And apparently, this is Queen Elizabeth-dunno-number-what-told-by-some-bus-driver-dunno-correct-or-not.

A picture taken towards the end of the day while we were waiting for some free bus service that loops around the town (legs cannot take it already).

And our bus back to London was around 4pm, so we're strapped to our seat again for the trip back home.

And so that was the end of our trip to Southampton. It was really very good, good to be able to finally go for a short holiday and taking a break from our work.

To sum it up, actually, a day trip to Southampton is sufficient. But with our 2D1N trip, i think we pretty much cover EVERYTHING in the town area, so that is good enough. Plus it gives you more time to walk around and an opportunity to revisit the places in case it was closed (in which our case, all museum is closed on Monday, so we had to go again on Tuesday). There were apparently markets on the weekends, too bad we missed it. Perhaps, there will be next time...

As usual, the compulsory update. I've officially quit my three-month-stint data entry job in Universal (yes, I was with Universal Music, but I really don't think it is gonna make any impact at all in my resume). I've found another similar job (but hopefully more challenging) and is due to start next week. It pays much better, but money wasnt the thing that makes me move cause I was ready to settle for something much lesser anyway. Yea, for someone who insist that money is very important to be considering a lower paying job, you can really imagine what kind of job I had.

So meanwhile, I'm taking this week off to rest (not like it was stressful prior to this anyway) before starting on Monday. So wish me luck, hope I'll be able to start the new job next week and I'll be happy with my job!

Des on the other hand is still doing good. Someone screwed up his scheduled and he is stuck with midnight shifts for almost two weeks now. Which totally sucks cause I'm at home for whole week and when I wake up, he comes home to sleep the day off. He was supposed to be working day shifts this week! Anyway, perhaps, next week he'll be on day shift and things will be better.

Also, because of the sudden change, his whole schedule is all messed up and we now are stuck in a situation where BOTH of us do not know when we'll be going on leave! Hence, we couldnt plan anything for now and RyanAir was giving away free flight tickets and we couldnt book any cause we have no idea when we'll be available! How frustrating, since the EVERYTHING (bus/train/flights) works very much like AirAsia, the earlier the booking, the cheaper it is (remember our Southampton tickets?).

So yea, this is it for now. I'll try to keep up and post at least once every fortnight, so at least it will keep you all up to date with whats going on, ok? So take care all of you and until next time!

June already!

The last time i check, has it been two weeks since I update already???

For those of you new to my stories, please excuse my grammar. Laugh at me and enjoy my stories ya! Since we ran out of pictures, I thought I post some old pictures of us...

A trip to the Eye of Malaysia - Feb 2007

Time flies when you're busy. Its been almost three months since we first arrive. Hahaha. And partly because we're both busy working, we havent really been anywhere compared to the initial few weeks. Also, we're both trying to adjust to Des's turbulent schedule.

A tip to those dating hoteliers: Make sure at least ONE of you has a fix schedule. That is the only way to maintain some sanity, otherwise it really brings a whole new meaning of staying together but not living together.

I mention before, on days where Des works midnight, we'll play this game of trying to spot each other on the bus going OPPOSITE direction in the morning; him going home to sleep and me going to work. When I'm off work, i'll rush back to have dinner with him before kissing him goodbye as he goes to work and me going to bed.

When he works afternoon, I'll have to get dinner on my own and then wait for him to come back work at 12am to kiss him goodnight before I go to bed. Morning shifts are a little bit better as we'd still be able to have dinner together without him rushing off work.

His typical schedule would somewhat consist of six days work with two days off. He would usually work a week of midnight and another of day/afternoon and the cycle goes over and over again.

This would also means that our offdays RARELY coincide. Take this weekend for example. He works midnight and while I'm up and about on my weekend, I'll usually stay home and be really quiet because he's sleeping the day off (he comes home at 8am remember?). Then, when I'm off to work on Monday, he will be having his day off mucking about at home while I'm off work.

A trip to PD - July 2007

I'm not complaining. Life is like that. I guess I knew from day one when I first dated him that he will be in this line and his schedule will be like that. There are days when I daydream about having regular weekends off together and going out as a family to shopping malls and stuff. It doesnt really help with the fact that most shops close early or completely anyway.

So, can you imagine life with both of us jumping shifts like crazy? It would very well literally means that we might not see each other for days even though we're living under the same roof. Yea, I know how that is. We worked at the hill before remember?

Also, whenever our friends ask us to go on trips, my typical answer would be, "Wait for Des's schedule". Cause its not like we can just pick one weekend in three months time and decide we'll go somewhere that time.We really dont know what time he'll be working by then. "No annual leave meh?" Yes, Des do have annual leave, but he's still new to this job, and frankly speaking, we havent really figured out how things work out yet :) So there, like I said, not just any weekend that most people can just pick without filling up forms, but he will also may have to take annual leave or I will have to take leave if we're to go weekday. See what I mean?

Our 7th anniversary

Anyway, we're planning to go Southampton for an overnight trip in two weeks time, and considering a day trip to Oxford at the end of June, right before I start my new job. Yeap, I've found something else and I'm looking forward to it! Its still a temp job, but better paying and hopefully way more interesting and challenging compared to what I'm doing now!

Des on the other hand, is still doing alright. Midnight shifts reminds him of the hill as there isnt much to do at night. We both encounter loads of 'mind boggling' experience in our working life here but this really isnt the channel to talk about it. Not for now anyway *wink*

The house is still standing. Though the garden really is a nuisance as the grass grows so fast and Des has to resort to doing some of the work manually. Obviously both of us doesnt has 'green fingers' and I've decided that if we were to have a garden someday, I'll covered it with concrete and make space for cars instead. Hahahah...

If you're wandering how we're coping with food, we both miss KL food very much. Though Des is coping very well by experimenting with food and there are days we have curry chicken, ayam masak merah and soup! To save money, Des cooked extra for dinner and I'll tapau the food for my lunch for next day work. Des gets free meal when he is working and this means that we would literally go to work for one week and not spend a single cent (or pence). Compare this to our lifestyle back home where we'll practically jump for not having cash with us and now to survive a whole week with just 1 pound.

Not us, but Ulu Yam deep fried siu pau - Food is high priority in our relationship.

Oh, lets talk about cultural shock stories. Both Des and I thinks that there must be something that we both dont know about bus insurance, because the people here doesnt seems like the back of the bus, meaning there will be empty seats at the back but the middle and front will be jam pack like sardines. I dunno, perhaps they knew that those sitting at the back is not insured or something. They just dont like to move to the back of the bus and would very much prefer to hog the middle part. Hmmm...

And what's with dry toilets? There were days when I wanted to give the bathroom a good wash and I admit I dont know how! I long for a hose and to be just able to spray at everything to make it clean. You know how disgusting it is to WIPE your toilet clean and not be able to wash it with running water??? I dont know, perhaps, again, there is something that they knew but we didnt...

The same way we frown at them eating their rice with fork, I was frown upon when I eat baked beans with rice! :P yea, so that is the part when WE are the weirdos. Also, lunching together-gether wasnt something of a regular basis as I would have been broke by then and also talking out loud like yelling across the office is frown upon. Yea yea, I amaze myself sometimes. I'm so quiet I didnt recognize myself at all. There are times when I feel as if I'm the only one in the office when in actual fact I was with 40 others. Apparently, I wasnt the only one who feels this way, Des thinks the same during his short stint in the ballet school and current place as well. Oh well, perhaps this is a chance to give my voice box a rest after all these years...

Registration of Marriage - Feb 2008

Otherwise, as always, everything else is still moving alright. So far we are managing in terms of financial needs with both of us working. Money in the bank is growing slowly but surely. And yeap, we're ready to take in visits! So please let us know if you're anywhere near London and we'll be glad to have you over! Extra bed, check, extra pillows, check, extra food, check! Last I heard, the pound is weakening (damn!), so this would be a good time to come! (Why am I promoting London?)

:) Alright, so much for this time around. There will be more pictures the next time around after our trips. Take care all of you yea!