That’s the one main thing that came to my mind after couple of days in UK…
The hotel's main building...restaurant, bar and office
Bentley
19th March, I boarded a plane from Penang Airport at 12:25pm then waited about 2 hours for the next flight to Stanstead, London at 4:30pm the same day. Arrived at the Stanstead Airport, I had to wait for almost an hour in a queue for Immigration Check (passport clearance). When I walked out of the arrival hall, I saw a man holding a board with my surname on it!! Dengan selamba saya mendekati beliau…and introduced myself. The time was almost midnight, whilst walking to the car I noticed the coldness has began to freeze me….arrived at the car, I was kind of shock to see the car he drives! It’s a BENTLEY!! How cool would that be to have a Bentley in Malaysia (Sultans and some money-ass-licker-ministers would have this car) Arrived at the Old Red Lion Hotel about 30 minutes after…a guy (hotel staff) approached me and guided me to my room, No.6 with 2 plates on his hand…that was my first refreshment in UK. First day in UK was not easy…I had a problem to sleep. I wasn’t even jet lag or anything near to tired; perhaps I was kind of excited to finally reach UK…I had never dream to come to UK though….I finally managed to get a sleep at about 5am then woke up at 7:20am that morning….
The hotel's room..my room was no.6 (top floor on the right)
My first refreshment in UK
At 9:00am, I went to the hotel’s restaurant to have my first breakfast of Full English set (toasted bread, ham, hotdog, egg, beans, cooked mushrooms and tomato, orange juice, tea) I was scheduled to be picked up by our Finance Manager at 10:00am that morning….she was punctual! Arrived at 10:02am and straight away she went out of her Porsche and approached me….she’s a lovely lady…few years back, we used to chat in emails…she shares any interesting stuffs like holiday trip to Africa, Italy and Rome…sometimes she tells me about her weekend day-in with husband enjoying a BBQ with couple of wine at her house with relatives…tells me about her daughter who had failed her driving test for 9 consecutive times…she’s no stranger to me as she knows a bit of my social (party & drink) life…she then showed me which roads to take to go to the office at Great Wratting, Haverhill. We arrived at the office, she introduced me to the colleagues that were in that day…..I have seen their pictures last month though, so I wasn't having problem to remember their names and faces….She then gave me an envelope (cash allowance inside), a mobile phone and walked me outside the office to see the company car then gave me the key…its aToyota Avensis..I was not supposed to stay at the office that day but since I had nothing to do…I decided to spend my time listening to one of our new support staff’s conversation with customers….we setup a dual connection to his phone where I can use the other connection to listen to whatever the customers and he were saying over the phone…..I helped him on solving several of the issues where he couldn’t provide immediate solution to customers query…too bad though, that was the only time I had with him because he was on holiday to Spain the week after whilst I will be in the office using his table and stuffs..I ended up leaving the office at 5:15pm with the others…..my journey back home..I was lost!!! Damn it!!! There have 3 roundabouts which I remember if I drive from the hotel, it will be 9-9-12 o’clock turn. I missed the 12 o’clock turn and I ended up driving back to the office from another direction….that was the only time I got lost though…I arrived at the hotel about 45 minutes later and straight away went to the hotel’s restaurant to have my dinner….then back to the hotel, unpack my clothes into the cupboard and watched tv (resting)
The hotel's restaurant
Ian's dog (the hotel's owner)
21st March, Saturday…..I woke up early at 7:30am then enjoyed my morning relaxation in a hot bath tub…..I had my breakfast at 8:30am and the hotel’s owner, Ian introduced me to one of his old friend who had arrived last night from Kuala Lumpur…his name is Ian as well!!! We both seat at the same table and had small chat about Malaysia (mesti la pasal politik yang bengong..haha) he’s staying in Damansara and been working in Malaysia for over 18 months…..I finished my breakfast earlier than his then I left the table to have my morning cigarettes outside….WARNING! you are not allowed to smoke in a building (this applies to most bar or pub in UK) I spent couple of minutes in the car studying the car’s manual and the map…the car is equipped with a GPS navigation screen but I was having problem to set it up…yesterday I had already been given a big thick book containing the road map of all city/town in UK…looking at the road map, I figured the journey to Cambridge was a straight forward road and I was right…there have plenty of road signs along the road as guidance...excluding the speed limit signs and speed limit camera every 1 mile or sometime less…the journey took less than 30 minutes (17 miles distance) although the speed limits were 30mph and 40mph…..the first problem I had in Cambridge was to get a parking…I was told by my manager, the hotel’s owner and the company’s cab driver that the parking fee in UK is very expensive…..£1.20 per hour! You can buy a pack of nice sandwich with ham in UK with that amount! I finally found one parking park as they call it (it’s a 5 tiers parking building) and there I had another problem of having a big car but a very small space for parking (Malaysia has wider gap for parking and driving lane) I found one good spot and it has wider gap for reversing and parking..fuh….
View outside the hotel
The company's car
To be continued…
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Woke up very early at 5:00am to do what I had to do...returned the hotel’s key and took some pictures…too bad I didn’t get the chance to say good bye to Ian…he was not there that morning….I had a one last glimpse of the surrounding and drove to the office where the our company driver (Bentley) picked me up at 8:03am as promised....I salute! They always punctual! I left the car, key and mobile at the office and off to London...
Since I didn’t manage to get to London earlier, our CEO made a little arrangement as a warm gesture from him to not be able to spend much time when I was there….he arranged the driver to take me to London for sightseeing…although it was quick and wet (raining) day yet it was worth a visit...the driver had to make a quick stop to allow me to take pictures...we were early in London to avoid the protest on G20 Summit...my flight back to Kuala Lumpur was at 5:30pm and I was dumped at the Stanstead Airport before 1:00pm…I bought 3 magazines (cost me about £15 purposely to empty my pocket from shillings) I was questioned (by security authority) 3 times whilst I was at the airport…another 12 hours journey back to Malaysia...
I arrived at 2:15pm, 29th March and had another flight to Penang at 7:30pm...instead of 7:30pm though, the plane was delayed to 10:40pm…I was bangas di LCCT bertemankan sigup dan kereta F1 (simulation game)…Finally I arrived at home at midnight....
the driver
