Winter Trip, Part 2.

Assalamualaikum,

So, as previously mentioned in the 1st part of the Winter Trip series (it seems so long ago. Oh wait, it was, since it more than a month ago -.-), I spent the first half of my winter break travelling in London & Ireland with my family. So, catching off from where I left off (which was our stay in the city of Cobh), we then drove to Dublin for our last few nights in Ireland.

In Dublin, I got the chance to meet up with an old friend of mine, Faghira Afrina! She was my best friend from back in Standard 1, and is basically one of the few people who knows me inside and out, and know all my secrets (well, most of them, anyway), and who puts up with my clinginess and over-attachment (yes, I am overly attached to the people I love most). We spent a few hours walking around Dublin, and had dinner together with my family.

So, yeah, that’s Faghira ^ up there. 🙂 The second day was spent walking around Dublin with my family, and I also managed to meet up with two other friends from SSP, Sarah Aqilah & Adibah Kasuan.

(As you might noticed, I’m trying to fly through with the story so I won’t have to make this long lol)

So, yeah, that was Dublin. We were only there for two nights, and then it was time to fly back to London on New Year’s Eve. And to be honest, that night, I actually drafted a post or two to be posted (the cliche ‘Happy New Year post’ and all) but never got around to actually posting them. -.- Perhaps I’d edit them and post them up but no promises on that!

On New Year’s Day, we (without Dad) went to Watford for a tour of the Warner Bro’s studio for Harry Potter!

Weee! That was a very very very fun and exciting tour, as I really enjoyed the background story of how Harry Potter was made, and that I was able to actually see all the props and costumes that were used in the movies (like dude, Hermione’s dress during the Yule Ball is so bloody pretty), and there’s like a bunch of other cool stuff in it that would really make a Potterhead like myself happy.

On January 2nd, my family flew back to Malaysia, so I went off to stay with my friend in Brunel for a night. After dropping off my stuff at her dorm room, we walked around Brunel for a short tour, before heading to Wembley Park. She wanted to bring me to lunch at a buffet place in Wembley Park, and while we were there, we kind of visited Wembley Stadium (no tours though, not enough time to do so).

After our lunch, we rushed (by tube and walking) to go on a tour of the legend- wait for it – dary Emirates Stadium!!!

But no worries, despite the fact that I took lots and lots and lots of pictures inside the stadium and on the pitch (well, by the pitch) and in the changing rooms and all, I won’t bore you with all those pictures here. Instead, if you’re friends with me on Facebook, you can go and check out my Winter Trip album to see all the pictures that I took.

Seriously though, Emirates Stadium is beyond beautiful. Like, seriously. Oh. My. God. I actually ran from the tube station to the stadium, and when I first saw the red color on the walls of the stadium, I was almost screaming out in happiness and OH MY GOD I AM FINALLY ON THE LAND OF THE GUNNERS LIKE OH MY GOD THIS IS SERIOUSLY HAPPENING NOW LIKE WEHHHHH SERIOUSLYYYYY!

But yeah. Special thank you to my good friend, Adilah Soleh, for putting up with me and for being my photographer throughout the whole day, I wouldn’t had this much fun if it weren’t for her. :’)

So after our tour of the stadium, we took the tube to London, to drop by Malaysian Hall and meet a few friends there. There was a solat hajat for the flooding back home in Malaysia, so a bunch of my friends were there as well. I took the chance to come and meet some of them, since I haven’t met some of them in a while, and there were also some that I’ve known for quite some time but never actually met in person (ehem Jalal ehem kalau you baca ni, hello ^^) (also hint hint Amir hint hint hai bruh *waves*).

January 3rd was the day that I planned to meet up with two of my good friends from way way wayyyy back in 2005/2006. So, back in 2005/2006, I spent about a year and a half living in the UK, and I went to a local high school there as well. One of them, Tony Bowerman, was a close friend throughout my one year and a half at King’s Wood School, and he’s probably the only one that I kept in touch with even after I got back to Malaysia (postcards, letters, Facebook messages, etc). Considering the fact that the last time we met was in December 2006, we decided to meet up for lunch while I was in London, and so we met.

Tony treated us to a lunch buffet (which was super nice!) and drove us (well, mostly me, since I haven’t been back to the town in sooooo long) around. They showed me our old school (which has been transformed into another school), some of the places we used to go as kids (lol, ‘kids’), as well as my old house. It was awkward at first, as we haven’t met in about 8 years, but we got over it quickly and man, it felt like old times! :’)

That night, I met up with some other friends from Kolej Tuanku Ja’afar for dinner at Bayswater. It was nice being able to catch up with the people who were supposed to be my collegemates and possibly university-mates (should I stayed in A-Levels and not move to ADFP lol).

  

And then came January 4th.

Arsenal vs Hull City. 3rd round of the FA Cup. Emirates Stadium.

OH MY GOD ANOTHER TRIP AND VISIT TO THE OH SO BEAUTIFUL EMIRATES STADIUM. AND IT’S NOT JUST ANY PLAIN OLD VISIT, IT’S TO FREAKING WATCH A FREAKING MATCH LIVE LIKE OMG DREAM COME TRUE TO WATCH ARSENAL PLAY LIVE IN THE EMIRATES STADIUM LIKE OH MY GOD WEHHH OH MY GOD!

Like oh yeahhh Arsenal played well and won 2-0 against Hull City. And I seriously couldn’t believe that it was really happening. Like, seriously, I am there, in the Emirates Stadium, watching Arsenal play a home match LIVEEEE like oh my God it was at the top of my bucket list and I can finally cross cross cross cross cross that off! Like, seriously, the atmosphere was just amazing! The crowd, the cheers, the chants and the ‘Oooooooooooooooh Santi Cazorrrlaaaaaa’ and all are just superbly amazing! Thank you so so so very much to my senior slash friend Ika Hadilah for bringing me there, for buying the tickets for me and everything! :’)

Before leaving to the airport on January 5th, my second host (Syaza Nadiah, a friend from KTJ) took me for a walk to the Queens Park Ranger stadium for a while, since I wanted to see the stadium from the outside (hey, when you’re in London, you have to visit as many football stadiums as possible, right? 😛 Oh, and before the Arsenal match on Jan 4th, Ika and I went to visit Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium as well).

So, yeah, that sums up my trip to London & Ireland, which has been a fun two weeks. I owe my family for the most part of the holiday, and to my awesome friends (to my hosts, Adilah Soleh & Syaza Nadiah, to my KTJ and INTEC friends, to Tony & Bradley, and to everyone else) for making it an awesome trip.

I’ll write about my trip to Florida and Chicago soon (I promise, I won’t take another month to post an update. Probably a week, or two, but not a month. Pinky promise!). Until then, stay awesome and take care :* And thank you for still being here on the blog even though it’s pretty much dead.

Oh, and if I may say so, Happy New Year! (even if it has been a month plus since New Year’s lol). 😛