This is the Blog TITLE!: 2008-09-28

Aloha guests, as usual I'll start this post with an apology for not writing more often. I usually write only when I really feel like writing. Some may see this as laziness and yes it is, but it is also to ensure you will not get half-assed posts about minute details about my daily life. Such as did or did I not wax my legs, paint my nails and gel my hair today. That sort of stuff can be found all over in many many other blogs.

So yeah, just to get this London trip out of the way, I'm gonna briefly wrap up the remainder of the trip. This is so I can get back to my regular blogging about nonsense and also because the rest of the trip was void of any hot girls in close proximity bar 1 or 2 random ones.

So, I'll pick up from after the Paris day-trip. Well the day after the trip we did nothing much. Stayed in London and went to Chinatown to pick up a few souvenirs and just basically do nothing much. Visited Lilywhites though, which was awesome.

The day after that, was actually the day I was pretty much looking forward to the most coming on this trip. The day we would leave London for Liverpool. Took the train from our Gloucester station to the central point, which I cannot remember the name. And from there boarded the train to Liverpool Lime Street. I think the ride took 2 hours but it was smooth and comfortable all the way.

Forgive me but I can't remember exact details at the moment due to the long time I have taken to write up this trip. Anyway, in Liverpool I stayed at the Travel Lodge. Which is a chain of some sort around England I think. It's a very modern place for tourists, clean and sterile.

We walked around the area near to where we stayed, which was actually really close to Liverpool One, which is their central shopping area. Very chic and clean. Ate lunch at the docks, which is surrounded by shops, upmarket pubs and restaurants. Ate at a pub-cum-nightclub. Nice cosy place. I also visited the Beatles museum which was pretty nice. They recreated the Cavern inside there which I thought was brilliant. It's structured really nicely and the only gripe was I wished I had more time inside.

I had to rush or I would've missed the Anfield tour. Took a cab to Anfield from there and it was a pretty short ride. Cabs in England are pretty cool. They're old looking cars but fully modified to be nothing but a cab. Here, cabs are just cars which are painted differently and driven by cheating gangsters. Over there, cabs look nothing like a normal car. Their backseat fits 4, all facing each other Limo style. The driver sits alone in front and is shielded from the passengers by a plexiglass window. Even if you want to, you can not sit next to the driver as there is no seat there.

Reaching Anfield, I just had to marvel at actually standing there.

Went in to sort out a few details about our tour and then we went into the museum which holds all the throphies and just cool stuff, including the European Cup won for the 5th time, meaning they were able to keep the real thing, the same one Manchester United won in 1999, being kept safely in the Anfield Museum.

Went on the tour of Anfield then, and among us there was one Arsenal fan and a Man United one, obviously being the main targets for the rest of the tour. Went into the interview areas, player changing rooms, refree changing rooms, and finally walked down into the ground itself, touching the legendary This Is Anfield sign on the way of course. One cool thing was when we were walking down the tunnel, they played a recorded clip of what the players hear when they walk out, thunderous cheering and singing from the fans.

In the ground itself, got to sit where the players sit, where Alex Ferguson sits and just basically absorb the whole experience in. Also of course got to stand on the Kop End, from which the Arsenal fan was shown the exact spot Ryan Babel went down in the penalty box. I'm sure you all know which one.

The tour concluded and we went to Liverpool One to do some shopping. Ate at their McDonalds which is totally different to our shit one in Malaysia. They actually have edible stuff there. Their Burger King is more similar to ours, but their breakfast is the bomb. Some sausagey thing which tasted pretty damn good. Also had lunch at Nando's there, which is also almost exactly the same as the Malaysian one. In there though there were these 2 race models, I think they were race models anyway. Dressed in the skimpiest skirts you will ever see with makeup to look like Roxanne. Needless to say every single guy was staring at them every opportunity they got and every girl was giving them dirty looks for even being alive. Oh yeah, in the Liverpool One store, the sweetest girl attended to me. They had a few mistakes done on my jersey so she got me sorted out and was just really helpful in general. Of course the Liverpool accent did no harm to how adorable she looked. I love European accents, English and Irish ones in particular.

Left Liverpool and headed for Windemere after that.

In Windemere, I stayed in a bed and breakfast place. It is basically just a house, which the owners rent out the rooms. Beautiful place, very charming. There we went on a tour of 10 lakes, in which a old man took us around the Lake District giving us commentary in the process and I will not even bother explaining it in words because I simply cant. The view, the beauty and just the serenity of the place is beyond words. The green and slow pace of life there is just really so appealing and you can sit on a moutaintop and stare at a lake for days and even then you might still not get over how beautiful it is.

If someone came up to me and said Malaysia was going to sink in 2 days and I would have to Windemere to stay, lets just say, I wouldn't think twice about it. The town is next to a lake and walking there at night is really beautiful. Really calm and homey. Well I guess all small towns are like that, where everyone knows everyone. Just a really really nice place to stay. Ah, it may seem as if I don't have much to write about Windemere but because I didn't really do anything much there. You have to be there to understand and just soak it in. You don't even have to plan anything. Just stay in a B&B, take long walks everyday and thats basically it. The beauty of a simple life.

The next couple of days were spent back in London. Did some more shopping and then went to see a play. Stomp. If you don't know what this is, just look up Stomp Out Loud, the DVD. It is a percussion unit where they use everyday objects to make beats and music. From trash can covers, broomsticks, plastic bags, lighters and even sinks. I've seen many plays in my time but I have to say this was the best experience of them all. The auditorium was small, which amplifies the closeness and sound of the performers and you can see their facial expressions and intensity. No sound is wasted due to the size of the place.

We also visited the National Museum in which there were many interesting things, including, the Rosetta Stone, which I find extremely fascinating. Look it up on Wikipedia.

Well, that's about it. After that, the next day I flew back to home sweet home, Malaysia. Funnily though, after every trip, even the good ones, Japan, Thailand, Bangkok, when on the way home and when I come back, I always think, well that was really nice, but it's nice to be home. Y'know, being home-sick on the way home. But after this trip, I was sorta sorry to be back. Almost as if I would rather have lived there much longer. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to appreciate that I had the chance to go there and hopefully return there one day to live or work maybe?

Reasons to stay in Europe: