I'm finally back in boring old Slough.. it hasn't been boring since I came back though.. I've been worked to pieces on plant, unable to find time to clear my 300++ unread emails and update my outdated training file till today! But well at least I finally found time to do it today. I am still reeling a bit after leaving home again.. the 2 weeks back home were the best time of my life in a long long while! No books or exams to think of, no pressures of work.. just back to meet everyone, eat the food I miss and enjoy the sun! And I certainly did all these. Thanks my friends for taking time out to meet up and sorry to those I'd not been able to catch up with. I really enjoyed ur company, and u're one good reason why it was so hard to tear myself away from home again. I ate most of the food I'd missed so much during my past 8mths in UK.. laksa, yong tau foo, hokkien prawn mee, minced meat noodles, chicken curry, lor mee, fish head curry, prata, duck rice, nasi padang, char siew rice, oyster omelette, fried kway teow, nasi lemak, SUSHI BUFFET!!, chicken rice, KFC, chilli crab, "mala" steamboat, Thai green curry, braised tofu, bubble tea, ice kachang, bubur chacha.. all this and more.. I had it all! Put on 3kg in my 2 weeks back, and no wonder lah. I even found time to cook up a storm for my granny and uncle, and now dey noe I CAN cook! And dey did say it's nice too haha.. though my granny was as usual fussing about how I was dirtying her kitchen! I went to watch Singapore humiliate Lebanon at the many-last-matches-but-still-not-closed National stadium, and was thrilled by how the crowd actually helped the Lions to a victory by jeering at the Lebanese and affecting them! I went to sing ktv a good 4 times (its good my auntie has the system installed at her new place.. saved us lots of $$ manz.. thank her for dat!), watched many footy matches with my mates, and even went to MOS for the first time though it wasnt really dat fun (free entry was good though). Went running and enjoying the sun, and put on a tan, as well as some colour in my hair.. everyone was quite shocked when I came back, even I'm still abit not used to the colour (I'd wanted it darker and less bright) but I think it's not that bad afterall. All in all it was a wonderful 2 weeks back home, and know that I'm already missing everything and everyone back in S'pore oredi!
Since I came back, the weather has been pretty good too.. no more snow.. pretty warm in the noontime though it stil gets frosty at nite. The daylight is much longer now they've switched back to summer time (I seriously dun see the point of dis jumping back and forth.. we still have 24hrs a day rite? and there's still dat many hrs of daylite mah.. y deceive urself by bringing the clock forward then saying "ooh we've got 1 more hr of daylite mate!" duh! aniwei its in winter dat we need dat extra hr.. not summer!) The nice weather has allowed me to go running a few times.. and I managed to create personal history by finally reaching the half-marathon mark! I was really shattered by then though.. now my concern is how to sustain it for 42km! And I'm still not running enuff for me to feel prepared! Haiyah.. 1st marathon.. I'll just aim to complete it lah haha
I wasn't really allowed to unpack my stuff fully or rest properly after coming back.. cos I was back in the full swing of the travel bug! Spent a couple of days reading up on Belfast, and suddenly I found myself in the Northern Irish capital that was ravaged by civil war just a few years ago! Never would I have dreamed that I'd be there one day, but dat day had come sooner rather than later. At very little cost too! I managed to dig out some really amazing deals on Ryanair.. 1p each way.. tax included.. try to top that manz! I asked Charles, the news spread quickly, and in no time there were 10 of us on the trip! It was a shame though that Yingyi had to pull out cos of an impending flu, so in the end 9 of us went.
Belfast was nothing like wat I'd imagined it to be.. I couldnt see gun wielding rebels and foul-mouthed thugs everywhere.. alrite granted some buildings were still in disrepair, and barbed wire could me seen on many of the fences.. but I found the people of Belfast most polite and nice. Almost all the pple on the street.. you look at them in the eye u can be sure to get a smile back instead of taunts and insults like wat you get in wonderful England from the ill-bred English teenagers. Belfast city is amazingly neat and developed considering the amount of turmoil it has been through in recent years too. Nice bridges, modern shopping centres, a sleek airport, efficient transport network, and in general a city well planned out to with tourists in mind. I was truly impressed.
If that was impressive, I was even more in awe at the natural beauty the country had secretly hidden from the world all these years. I heard the coastal drive was one of the most scenic u can find anywhere, and I din quite believe it till we actually sped down the coast, taking in the blue skies and the adjoining clear waters shimmering in the april sun. The weather was perfect for such a road trip too, remaining sunny throughout and allowing us to make the most of the experience. I'd never heard of the Giants' Causeway till a month ago when I was in Dublin with Charles. He said it's one of the most bizzare and moving natural wonders of the world, and now I believe him totally! Those hexagonal stone columns standing in their thousands against the relentless, pounding waves.. creates a surreal image of a city of thousands of skyscrapers drenched in a thick mist. Throw in a Irish sunset and the smell of the ocean.. it was really picture perfect! I think it must really be the most beautiful natural structure I've seen for a long long time!
The meals we had there were superb too.. All the servings were HUGE! I wonder how the Irish men and women remain so slim if they're eating dat quantity of food for every meal! I had an Irish breakfast which had practically everything possible thrown in - sausages, ham, bacon, mushrooms, hash brown, egg, baked beans, soda bread, potato bread, luncheon meat, black pudding.. a really hearty morning meal! And it had me full for much of the day! I had a Guinness at nite too.. had a taste in Dublin and now I was back for more. This one was still creamy and smooth, but somehow it cant match the one I had in the Guinness brewery (naturally).
The hostel we stayed in wasn't the best though.. totally no atmosphere at all.. much like a abandoned old house.. spooky eh.. you see this wasn't the main hostel bldg.. it's another house bot by them I suppose, and converted into hostel rooms.. so there wasn't any facilities or activities, or in fact any staff there at all! Very few pple staying there as well.. if we'd known early we'd have paid for 2 persons and 9 of us stay haha! Somehow the power for half our room and the bathroom tripped on our 1st nite.. so half the sockets couldnt be used after dat.. and the toilet on our level had no water! But dats only to be expected from a 10+pd/nite hostel.. at least I was glad the place was safe and the bed firm and the linen clean and the duvet warm!
After the rest came back early ydae morning (dey'd to rush back to work but I'd just taken the whole day on leave) I went around exploring the city as we hadn't really seen much of it, having spent most of our time on the coastal drive. The city sights weren't too special though the people were nice, but there were some nice little buildings and churches, and I went to the docklands which had seen the rise of Belfast as a maritime town. It was precisely here that the Titance was built years ago. making the docks even more special.
All in all it had been another good trip, definitely well worth the 2p we paid for our air tickets!
