Mama in England

Mama is finally in England! Initially, I told her not to come because it’s quite expensive to fly back and forth Europe. However, she insisted on coming because it’s a once in a lifetime experience and she wants to be there. She has even taken a weeks worth of leave in order to fly over to England. So, on the 16th of July, she landed in Manchester Airport in the night, her first experience on European soil. I had arranged to meet her at the Leeds Rail Station since she’ll be taking the connecting train from the airport. On her way to Leeds, she happened to come across Steph Chai and her parents. It seems that Steph’s parents were actually on the same flight with her! I’ve only discovered about it quite late before that and told Steph to keep a lookout for Mama in case she sees her at the airport. There were more surprising revelations that I discovered about Steph too­-­­­ her primary school was SKSJ and since she’s from the 89 batch, this meant that we would have shared the same canteen for at least 4 years and to think that of all places to get to know each other, it would be Leeds! Haha, small world indeed. At the Leeds station, I bought a 20p platform ticket to enter the train area so that I can pick Mama straight off from the train. I did not need to wait long at the cold platform for her train to arrive and I was naturally glad to see her in person after almost 9 months abroad.

I saw Steph and her parents too and her parents claim that they recognise me from my Subang Jaya days. It seems that they also knew about the tuition centre and mama as a chem teacher. Hmmm..I didn’t know we were that famous in Subang in the past..lol. Since it is already so late at night, both Steph and I shared the cost for a taxi to bring everyone back to the houses. There isn’t much to be done at night apart from asking Mama to rest and get ready to get up early the next day since we have an early morning bus to London to catch.

Our bus was 8.15am in the morning and by the time we reached London it was 12pm+. I had already booked accommodation at Premier Inn Euston Road, which is probably the cheapest decent hotel that I can get from London for a visiting guest. Bed and breakfast, although would be cheaper, is a nono since it’s gonna be squeezy for two people. When we checked into Premier Inn, I was quite impressed with the layout. It’s very cosy, spacious and clean. I got to know about the quality of PI after previewing it earlier in January when I pay a visit to Mike and Grace’s room while they were staying in Manchester. With the accommodation settled, it’s time to get to the next order of business. I had actually wanted to bring Mama to visit Hillsong London but seeing that she was supposed to meet her long-lost school friend in the late afternoon, I decided it’s better to stay focused at it. To kill time, we walked around seeing some sights around Euston Road while walking on the way to King’s Cross Station. London was having some random short burst spells of rains, so we had a short stop at Burger King before taking the tube to Liverpool Street station. We waited there for quite some time because Mama’s friend had several train delays before she could reach. When she finally arrived, we moved to one of the cafes to have food while the two women had a chat with each other. Mama’s friend departed at about 7pm and afterthat, I thought of bringing Mama to eat at the place where Miss Kwok brought me to eat last month. However, alas, none of the shops at the market were open. Since daylight is still on but not for long, I told Mama that we should go to the various sites to take photos first before nightfall. So off we went to the London Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and Trafalgar Square. There was a slight drizzle when we were taking photos with the Westminster Parliament. At the end of it all, we were really tired and we just settled with takeaway Burger King and sandwiches for dinner.

It was early checkout the next morning as we needed to catch the 7.08am train to York. I am rather impressed with York for my two previous visits so I thought that it was vital that Mama should have a look at the capital of the Northern England. We reached at around 9am and once again, for the third time charming lucky, it was raining in York. One of the first destinations that I brought Mama too was the ruins of the abbey near the museum. We proceeded next to the York Castle Museum. Since I’ve bought a ticket last year when I went in with Megan, I get to enter it for free this time while Mama had to pay for her ticket. We spent some time there before getting some souvenirs. Next up is the Clifford which is located just opposite the museum. I didn’t enter in there for my two previous visits but I was thinking of going in this time since I won’t be in Europe anymore. I myself am pretty curious what this old Norman castle on top of mound contains inside. When I went in, there wasn’t much to see apart from admiring the old walls within and the stairs. However, one could get a small overview of York city, although Clifford Tower exactly that high enough to see very far. On the way down from Clifford Tower, I bumped onto Qing Wei and his whole family. Woahhh, he literally brought his extended family along with him too cos it was such a big group! We proceeded on to York Minster for photos. By then I was feeling kinda hungry already. One of the things not to be missed was to head to Bettys for some posh expensive English teatime. The thing which intrigues me in Bettys was the assorted cakes and pastries on the tea tray. We had to queue for a short while before we were ushered to the lower levels. I ordered Moroccan Mint tea for my drink and Mama ordered the ordinary English tea. This entire experience is costly, so every sip of the tea definitely must be enjoyed. After savouring the tea session, we popped into a shoe shop to get a new shoe for Mama since she has difficulty walking with her current one. Our last activity for the day in York was to attend the evening prayer service in York Minster, the only chance during the day to enter into the Minster for free. Ahhh, apparently Mama is not used to the Anglican rituals, so she ended up dozing in between..lol. We took a slow walk back to the York rail station and waited for our 8.11pm train. We reached Leeds at around 9pm or so. Oh well, time to get some rest now. Tomorrow is the long awaited graduation ceremony where I’ll be ‘crowned’ as a graduate! =D