I had such fun. I must admit I only saw a small fraction of what Scotland had to offer and there was so much more to see, but my main reason there was to spend some time with my brother and I am glad we did. We had a very good time of just talking and catching up. In this day and age where people live and work miles away from family, its nice to just see each other. I got my brother hooked up with skype and hopefully we will be able to chat more now :) 

On the Sunday, We didn’t really do anything. Joe and Allan had friends over for dinner and I met some of this friends, which was always fun. We talked and talked about all sorts of things, from Politics, Economy, Time Travel to Aliens, Ghosts and Religion.  

As the guest all left, I helped my brother do some internet stuff and then came the time to say goodbye. They dropped me off at the train station and I headed on the sleeper to London. I will see them next year for my wedding next

The train ride back to London was comfortable. I had gotten a sleeper and it was very different from the ones back in Malaysia. Even for normal economy, two passengers are given a room, and it was very comfy. I got the room to myself and fell asleep within minutes. I got up at 7:00am and was worried as the train was still moving! It was suppose to reach London at 6:45 and I thought I had missed the station. I quickly went outside and saw a fellow passanger to told me that the train would be delayed and only reach London at 10:00am! Wow, 4 hours delay. A train attended got all the passanger details and said they would issue a full refund Wow.. I was impressed. At 10am, reached and took a cab to the office End of Scotland journey, but I hope to return again.

It was an awesome weekend. On Sunday, I didn’t really do anything. Suzie has to work in the morning and she was out of the house before I woke up. I got up around 8am, made myself breakfast and then went online. After checking my emails and talking to Sara on skype, I finally decided to watch the vast collection of DVDs that Suzie and her housemates had. Since I was in England, I decided to do a tribute to London Gangster movie, starting with the classic, Lock Stock and two Smoking Barrels, Layer cake, Snatch and many more. At the end of the evening I had watched about 7 movies, and then it was time for me to head to the bus station. Suzy came back just about an hour before we had to leave, took me to the bus station for dinner and we said our goodbyes. I did enjoy spending time with her. Its interesting as I never played with my cousins as kids. I don’t mean when I was like 3-4 where I don’t remember playing with them, even though I have photos of doing so, but as older kids or as teenagers we had very little contact. So now meeting them is really tons of fun as I can see the family traits in all of us, a little of each aunt in them The bus journey was interesting to say the least. It was a full bus and the last person to board was a man who looked like he just arrived from either India, Pakistan or Bangladesh. Anyways, he looked not quite right when he boarded the bus and sat at the back row. Then the bus was off and after about 45 minutes, somebody shouted out in a British accent , ” Oi Driver. Come and sort out your man or there will be some trouble on your coach. He is sick all over the place”. I looked backed and the Asian man (Asian means either Pakistani, Indian or Bangladeshi here, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and such are called Orientals), had puked all over the floor and on a few of the passengers and just sat there. The driver had stopped the bus, cleaned up a little and the man wanted to puke some more. Apparently he had been drunk, which would have explained the strange look on his face. Well, amazingly the bus driver just left him on the road, in the middle of the highway and drove off. I kinda felt bad for the poor lad. In the middle of nowhere, on a cold english night. Hope he made it home alright. Anyways, the bus continued and I was blessed that I could not really smell the puke, though the others on the back were not so blessed. We arrived at London Victoria, I quickly got on to the next train and before 11:30pm, I was already in bed sleeping.

Firstly, I am confused why this city is even pronounced the way it is. They call “Lester”, which is rather odd cos what happen to the Lei sound? Then again many things in England are not pronounced the way they spell it. Situated in the East Midlands, its a nice place not to far from London. The bus ride took a little over 2 hours, and cos me £14 return. If I took a train is only 1 hour, but much more expensive.  I  left London at about 2000 and reached here around 2245, not to bad seeing the bus stopped to pick up passengers twice and that traffic out of London was rather heavy. As soon as I arrived I took a cab to Suzie’s place and we talked and talked and talked. The next morning we woke up quite late and then she took me to the city center where I visited this huge mall. They had some cheap stuff too so I bought a new pair of shoes and some leather gloves for my trip to Edinburgh. We ate lunch at a Chinese restaurant named “Oriental Buffet”, how original I thought, and we just ate and talked. Then we saw the European fair that going on right now, which had stalls from different countries in the Euro. There were mostly food stalls but a few interesting shops with skafts and stuff.

I come from a huge family. My father has 5 sisters and my mom comes from a family of 14 children. As such, I have many aunts and uncles and of course many cousins. I have a few living in England, and last Saturday I stayed over at my cousin Anu’s house in London and had a chance to meet her hubby and 2 kids. Its so nice to meet family and I loved spending time with my two newly discovered Nephew and Niece. The older Varon spend the day showing off his toys and played Nitendo Wii with me. The younger Aditi, was very shy for like 30 minutes but soon was very comfortable and insisted that she sat next to me at the dinner table and the breakfast table She played doll house with me, and showed off the gifts she had earlier gotten at Lucy’s birthday party. Both have been in England since birth I think and speak with a stiff upper lip ;P Its soo cute when they call me “Uncle Nicky”. As I left, the younger insisted that I come back her after I get home. I will definately visit them again soon.

Early Saturday morning I drove down to Subang, picked up two Aunties and one Uncle of Sara’s and off we went down to Kota Tinggi in Sara’s kenari. It was a bumpy ride, as with a full load, and the Myvi tires on a kenari, every small bump and the rear tyre would scrape the mud guard, but we had a smoot journey. We stopped twice and then before we knew it, we were in Johor Jaya to pick up Sara who came over from Singapore early that morning.  Got down to Kota Tinggi, the first thing I did was eat the wonderfully sweet Rambutans that were at Sara’s dad’s place.

The rest of the family was more interested in the Durians, but me, not so. Sara’s aunt who has been in China for a while was happy to have durians, and even Julia, Sara’s dog ate them. Hehe. I guess Sara and I are the only 2 in the family that don’t eat durians.

In the afternoon while everybody took a nap, I was kinda bored, and so I went roaming in Kota Tinggi, the town of my childhood to see which shops were still around. I saw the Indian Barber who used to cut my hair when I was but a wea lad of 6-8 years old, and he kept looking at me, as if he knew me. I didn’t wanna tell me who I was, so just walked on by, trying not to be noticed. I realized that Watson, a fast food and Ice Cream parlor next to my Dad’s old clinic had gone out of business. How sad. I really wanted to eat some Ice cream there, but I settled for an ice Kacang at a stall not far from my dad’s clinic. Used to eat there when were younger too.

That night, we slept at Sara’s sister’s place in Johor Jaya, and drove back to Kota Tinggi in the morning, where Sara’s dad brought us to eat the best Bak Kut Teh in Johor, some say Singapore too. In fact, I heard that people from JB drive all the way down to eat there. Saw many singaporean license plates as well. Its about 8 miles from Kota Tinggi, along Jalan Mawai, you can’t miss it. Tons of cars parked along the road side. Yum.

After breakfast and spending alittle more time in Kota Tinggi, the 5 of us headed back up to kl. Sara, the two aunts and one uncle and myself, slowly drove back up the Highway, stopping twice, once for a toilet break and another for KFC Lunch at Restaurant Jejantas. A good weekend