Down to Earth

Dear Bloggy,

I'm back home! Finally, get to feel my comfy bed again. Well, I'm not saying that my friend's bed is not comfortable but you know, "home sweet home" so goes "bed sweet bed". You know what I mean.

3 days and 2 nights I was in Newcastle. The reasons I went there were because I wanted to meet my ex-KMYSians and meeting my future collogues from UITM. I have informed Jia Yi, my junior in KMYS that I was coming to visit them last month. It was really fun and lots of things I've experienced when I was travelling alone.

It started on Friday morning, I forced myself to get up very early in the morning to catched the 7.57am train to Petersborough then changed to a train to Glasgow which passed by and stopped at Newcastle. Wah, I was very excited because many months I've been prisoned myself in Norwich and didn't really go anywhere except for last spring, went back home and visited my friends in Liverpool. That was it. So, I reached Newcastle station around 12pm onwards which was on time as stated in the ticket. Once I got down the train I exited from the train station and across the road there is a Subway. I was damn hungry and ordered vegie delite sandwiches. At first, I thought of walking around the city alone but I gave up. Looking at the complicated structure of Newcastle city made me headache. Plus, the weather wasn't that good, dizzling and windy. In the end, I decided to stay in the train station.

This is Newcastle's train station.

It was a bit chilling and I didn't bring my jacket. Great! I texted Jia Yi to inform her that I've arrived safely and thankful she said she was coming back soon from Durham Hospital earlier than expected. I was happy because previously, she told me she might finished her practical at 6pm and I don't have to walk around the city alone! Yay! I waited for Jia Yi for around an hour then she appeared. hehe She couldn't recognize me because of my glasses. LOL ^^

Jia Yi brought me around Newcastle city (please see the pictures). From the historical castle tour to the beach which situated outside the city. We had to take Metro of course. I have no idea why, later that afternoon, it was really sunny and I felt so blessed! Because I got to take good pictures for my own collections. Happy^^

This is me in front of some kinda historical building. I totally forgot the name.

Inisde the castle tower. I had to climb the stairs. Thanks to Jia Yi. Grrr...

Wah!!! I made it! I was at the highest roof and it was nice chill weather.

One of the views I took from the top of the castle.

The shiny windows building is sort of like "Istana Budaya" according to Jia Yi. She said it looks like caterpillar shape.


The Millenium Bridge!The special about this bridge that it'll tilt when the ship pass by.


Me again!


The theatre building. Reminds me of Liverpool.


This place known as monument.One of my favourite shots. Nice eh?


This restaurant called Colman, served traditional fish and chips. I like it. It's situated outside the city.


Introducing Jia Yi, my tour guide and junior from KMYS.


The seaside.


Jia Yi and me in shadows.

Later in the evening, we met the other juniors from KMYS - Adam a.k.a. Caster, Khairi and Muhksin (not from KMYS but KDU) in a Thai restaurant known as THAI SIAM. Yeah, we had thai food for dinner. We ordered two prwan tom yam, all kinda fried rice with different flavours and shared. But Jia Yi was pissed off with the unfresh prawn served and she complaint. She argued with the manager and in the end we got price off for one of the tom yam bowls that we ordered. I think she should become a lawyer rather than a doctor cos she scares off the other three guys who had dinner with us. Funny. After dinner we took more pictures around the Millenium bridge. We waited for the lights to turn on as Jia Yi said it's beautiful. Went back at Jia Yi's place quite early because it was Friday night and we didn't want to risk ourselves to bump into drunken people.

Jia Yi and me on the Millenium Bridge.


The candid Khairi. One of my juniors.

Ok let me just jump into what happened the next day. As I've promised Ikmal that I would meet him at the train station between 11am to 12pm, I decided to take a bus from Jia Yi's place around 11.30am. Jia Yi made me pancake for breakfast, it was delicious and I've started to miss her pancakes. After breakfast, I got ready and catched the number 36 bus as what Jia Yi instructed me to get to the train station. Yup, I got into the bus and after 15 minutes, the bus stopped. I noticed that everyone on the bus got off but I was blurred and still sat on the bus. The bus driver saw me and didn't commented anything until 5 minutes later, more people getting on the bus. The bus moved again and it came back to the place where Jia Yi's house situated. From the driver's mirror, I saw the bus driver was looking at me so I got up to him and said "err...", the driver said "you're lost". I responsed "yes, I think so". The driver comforted me "it's ok. Don't worry, I'll get you another bus". It was very nice of him that he actually stopped another bus for me, his friend's bus and asked his friend to bring me to the station. So lucky to have bumped into these nice people. Finally, I got to the train station and met Ikmal for the first time. Later, Reena came, then Putri and a friend. All of us went to a Muslim restaurant to meet up Dr. Mus, her husband and Sati.

The UITM family gathered. I'm new to them.

We chatted and laughed but most of the time I was quiet as I'm new to them and I was trying to get use to the new people. In fact, most of the time they were talking about past things which I wasn't very familiar. However, I enjoyed the moment and appreacited their stories. In the evening, we were at Kak Intan's house, another UITM family who is doing PHD in Newcastle. She such a sweet lady.

Us in Kak Intan's house.

That day wasn't a good day as it was raining the whole day but I managed to break a record. Stand in cold weather witout wearing my jacket. I couldn't believe my body has a high immunity towards cold. hehe.

The final day, I didn't go anywhere. Well, the night before that, Jia Yi and me were planing to go for shopping but I was very lazy and with the strong wind that whole morning and afternoon, I just felt like staying indoors. Jia Yi scared that I might be bored to death so she called Fang Eng, and we visited her house. James was there too. We chatted and laughed about the KMYS days. How I miss my college days. I just realized that, the family tree of KMYS is quite strong that altough we might not be closed enough to be friends, we will still help each other whenever we can. It's like a tradition.


Fang Eng, me and James.

Later, Jia Yi and me baked Pandan Sponge cake, wah!!! really nice ^^ She baked chicken wings for me and cooked pasta. Basically, I was full for both lunch and breakfast. Really appreciate her care during my stay in Newcastle. I came back to Norwich on the same day. The train delayed. Sigh...as usual. So I was stucked in Grantham for the connecting train back to Norwich. Came back around 1am in the morning. So exausted.

ALright then, this is the longest entry for "Down To Earth". Will update more soon.

This entry was posted on Monday, 23 June 2008 at 6/23/2008 11:34:00 am. You can skip to the end and leave a response.