english-literature united kingdon trip

2007-08-25T22:27:00.000-07:00

Finally, I'm going to update about my ENGLISH-LITERATURE UNITED KINGDOM TRIP!! Yes!! That awesome trip I had from 31may-10june2007. It's going to be one long entry with lots of pictures. That's why it takes me forever to publish this post! So be prepared! And have fun reading! :)

31 May 2007
Bid goodbye to our family, friends and Singapore! haha. its been like ages since i last went overseas. not even malaysia! hah. Check-in and off for the plane. Boarded the plane feeling excited! I get to sit with Felina by the window! Hahaha. it was madness when two girls get excited about taking off! Hahaha. Royal Brunei Airlines was great! We had our own TV and the food was delicious! Hahaha.

my family + my primary sch teacher aka Syaza's mum

introducing Syaza, Felina and Aishah!

we manage to get hold of the computer to check our blogs!

friends and teachers

Royal Brunei Airlines

my pasta with cheese!

Reached Brunei for transit after about 2hours flight there. Had a city tour of Bandar Seri Begawan with our tour guide, Samuel. Went to Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah mosque. That mosque was indeed big and gorgeous. They use real gold for the dome. Had a glimpse of both water village and Brunei's mini Taj Mahal. Had our own free time there. went around the shopping center got bored later. heh.

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah mosque

the escalator is only for the sultan.

the inside

the huge gate

Brunei's very own mini Taj Mahal

their very popular Water Village

we just have to snap a picture

FYI, this is a charity shopping center. meaning the money will go to charity.

Headed back to the airport and took a flight to Dubai for transit yet again. By then everyone was feeling very tired! The flight from Brunei to Dubai was about 8hours! So just imagine how tired we were because we can't even have a proper sleep. It's very uncomfortable! Some didn't even sleep! They were most probably watching movies, listening to music, read or write a journal! Oh! I watched Music and Lyrics like a lot of time to and fro and listen to Westlife's songs again and again! Haha. We didn't had a tour at Dubai tho but their airport was pack with people! So waited for the plane again and after awhile depart on our flight to London! Like finally! And again the flight was about 8hours long! So this time, I slept. And oh! The breakfast was great! I told you the food was really good! :)

snacks!

dinner!

refreshment!

at Dubai airport. time check was about 3am if im not mistaken

breakfast!

the view was awesome!:)

1 June 2007
HELLO LONDON!!!! we finally arrived at Heathrow Airport, London! In the plane, we were told that the temperature was 10dc! That was cold enough! Met our tour manager for the trip, Ms Aruna Johnson! It was urber cold outside! And yea, we got excited when we saw mist coming out of our mouth! Haha. while waiting for our coach, we took photos and just enjoy the coldness! Haha. our coach, Westbus, came later and we were introduce to our coach driver for the trip, Mr. Clive Edwards! Had a long coach ride to our first stop, BATH!

4e1 with mrs danial

Proceed to Jane Austen's house to learn more about her life and novels! Had some free time after that. Most of us had fish and chips for lunch. Did some shopping and then visited the Roman Bath Museum for a tour. Was a nice and very historical place. I had fun finding out new stuff there! Haha. That's it for the day! Our tour guide was being very understanding I guess after all those flight. Headed to Stratford Youth Hostel for our dinner and night rest!

Roman Cathedral

Jane Austen Centre

the display inside.

Roman Bath Museum

some of the display inside

:)

some random buildings there

this bird is everywhere

my tour manager was saying that if this lands were given to the Singapore government, they will surely build something out of it. haha.

our first hostel. it might not look nice outside. but this was definitely one of the best hostels we stayed in.

my room + roommates

our early dinner

they have a pool table, connect four; felina loss to me!, that soccer tingy and also tv at the lounge. and another alternative is just to sit outside and enjoy the cool breeze while snapping pictures like what we did.

and so we ate maggie to remind us of home before we went off to bed.:)

2 June 2007
Start the morning with a visit to Shakespeare Birthplace! It was a very humble house. Had a guided walking tour of Stratford which was made famous by William Shakespeare. Visited his grave and then had our free time! So we went to souvenir shops and took photos everywhere!

all excited for a brand new day!

William Shakespear's Birthplace

if im not mistaken, thats the oldest building at Stratford(the one with the flag)

Shakespear's and his descendants grave. FYI, there's a curse to whoever digs Shakespear's grave.

Swan Lake Theater

the popular telephone booth and post box

they are the shopkeepers from The Creaky Cauldron. it's sort of a magic/Halloween shop. cool isnt it??

After that, had a long coach ride to Warwick! Spend the rest of the day at Warwick Castle going through the various parts of the castle. They had the Royal Weekend Party display and a Medieval Festival at the castle ground. Me, Aishah, Felina and Syaza got to one of the top and boy it feels great to be up there. It was so breezy and cool! But tiring tho. Bought some souvenirs at the shop and then headed back to Stratford for a pub dinner. And guess what we had. Fish and chips again! Haha. proceed to Royal Shakespeare Theatre to watch Macbeth where most of us fell asleep because it was a tiring day! Haha. But I must say the play was great and the effects were superb. really! Headed to Birmingham Travel Lodge for a night stay! Travel lodge are awesome!

Warwick Castle.. I've always wanted to go to a castle you know..:)

i was at the topppp...

some out of the many wax figures at the Royal Weekend Party

check out the crowd

a Medieval Festival man

rose garden.. i swear UK have pretty awesome gardens everywhere.. and the grass are just so clean.

even we sit on the grass without hesitation!

the pub where we had our pub meal

there you go.. fish and chips..

and yes! we couldnt finish the meal.. so we did this!:)

the stage and seats where we watched Macbeth..

3 June 2007

the travelodge that we stayed in

Mr Clive Edwards, our coach driver and the coach itself

Had sandwich from Mark & Spencer for breakfast and then headed to Manchester!!! Visited Old Trafford Stadium-home to the Red Devils! It was madness!! Hahaha... Check out the pictures!

say hello to MANCHESTER!!!:)

according to Jonas, this is the best quality ticket ever! haha.

i sure did! full batt! haha.

score board

thats our Manchester tour guide. the walkway leading to the stadium

i took the picture of the stadium from different angles. haha.

teehee!

at the conference room.

sec 4s with our lit teacher. this is where the important people sit.

players changing room

TADAA!!:)

the 'tunnel' where the players came out from at the start of the game

After this exciting visit, we proceed to The Bronte Parsonage-home of the Bronte sisters. Had some time exploring their house and the surrounding small town. Headed to Hawkesheas Youth Hostel for dinner and overnight! A short but exciting day indeed!

The Bronte Pasonage

the surroundings influence the way The Bronte Sisters wrote their books. go read!!

sweet shop!! just like in Roald Dahl.

our hostel for the day. the breakfast we had here was good.

beautiful scenery behind the hostel. the guys were playing soccer with two other kids.

meet my new friend, Laura! she's pretty and her grandfather, who me and my friends chatted with the next day, can actually speak Malay because he use to work at Malaysia. cool huh!

weeeee!! i love the grass!!:)

4 June 2007

cam-whoaing before we start the day

Start the day with a visit to Rydal Mount-home to William Wordsworth. I swear the place was extremely gorgeous! The garden was so pretty and big and there's a lake nearby!

William Wordsworth house

the beautiful and huge garden which belongs to the poet

the summer house. this is where the poet sit to get inspiration while writing his poems. its facing the garden btw.

Drived down to Grasmere, a little village where William Wordsworth and his descendants grave lies at one of the church. Me, Felina, Syaza and Aishah explored them ourselves! Haha. we also tried Sarah Nelson's Gingerbread which our tour guide said was delicious! you can smell it from far. really! unfortunately, im not a fan of gingerbread.:(

Sarah Nelson's gingerbread!

the graves to William Wordsworth and his descendants

this are the names of ppl who donated to the church to bring up the garden

headed to Lake District and took a cruise. The cruise was awesome! And when the wind blow through your hair, it feels so good! Hahahaha.

all excited for the cruise

bid goodbye to this beautiful place and headed to England's most haunted city, York. The place was very empty and quiet. Had dinner on our own first. we had Tortilla with Potato Curry and Chick Peas. Then we had our Ghost Trail. Proceed to Doncaster Travel Lodge for a night rest.

welcome to YORK! BWAHAHAHA!

the ghost storyteller, Mr Ian. cool right? hah.

5 June 2007

our breakfast at Little Chef. luckily the food tasted good cos the service was really bad! not a good start for a brand new day!:(

Start the morning with a visit to the famous Cadbury Factory!! I spent 29pounds there!! Haha. I swear I was over budget and went crazy there! I couldn't resist it! The tour was so fun! And every now and then, you can smell the chocolates!! heaven isn’t it? We got free chocolates at some places! And shopping for chocolates was just so fun! Furthermore, we had sufficient time to shop! Haha. had lunch. and guess what we had. yea yea. fish and chips again but this time we bought only one plate and shared among four of us! And yes. we did finish it this time!

cadbury!!!

display inside

our lunch, fish and chips. and this..

muahahaha.. hot cadbury chocolate!!

we shop till we drop! haha

Then proceed on to Oxford for a guided walk and get an insight to tertiary education in Britain. Oxford University is like so big okay! And the university itself is everywhere... It’s broken up to different places that is. Oh! The exciting part! We went to places where they shoot for Harry Potter's movie! after the trip to these places, we won’t have to load our luggage around because we're heading for LONDON for our last five days! So off to our inn, Globetrotter Inns, for dinner and overnight! And guess what we had. Fish and chips again! Cool! very the 'jelak'.

we came across a shop selling uber cute Fathers' Day cakes.

now presenting.. OXFORD UNIVERSITY!!

and now presenting.. the places where they shoot for Harry Potter movies...

the staircase

the different angles of the dining hall.

where harry leant to fly...

uni students. they had just finish their exams

on the way to LONDONNNNNNN!!!:)

our inn.. we're stayed there for five days. picture taken from Yahoo.

my room!!!!!:)

6 June 2007
Start the day with a panoramic tour of London! We did saw the Big Ben, London Eye, the British Museum(world famous museum!), drive across the Tower Bridge and the London Bridge itself while singing to the nursery rhymes song! Haha. did a few stops at the Buckingham Palace & Royal Albert Hall for some photo taking session. In the late afternoon, we had some free time to walk about the street! This is where you can find Topshop, Zara and stuff like that. Took the London Underground(TUBE) back to our inn.

see that McDonald.. thats where Princess Diana always bring her two prince, William and Harry, when they we still young.

a landmark infront of Royal Albert hall

Royal Albery Hall. yes! thats where Siti Nurhaliza held her concert.

with Mrs Danial

Buckingham Palace

guard at work

another landmark infront of the palace

hotstuff!! hahahahaha.. for once, thought that was the prince. haha.

Buckingham Palace shop. chet. we didnt get to shop there.

Big Ben. picture taken in the couch. thats why the picture looks ugly!

we witness the changing of guard!!

yet another landmark which looks like a candle.

Tower Bridge

and now, we're on the Tower Bridge itself!!

we alight from the couch for our free time around London. and we had to say goodbye to Clive bcos he will be on leave the next day. and we will have to take the TUBE back to our inn.

the underground tunnel

back at our inn, we wrote a card for Clive.

and the sec 4s had some quality time spent with Mrs Danial.:)

7 June 2007
Had a backstage tour of the National Theatre. Visited the Globe Theatre and had a guided tour to learn more about the play during Elizabethan times.

i didnt get to take a picture of this famous icon the other day. so there you go, London Eye!

Globe Theatre

walking to i forget where on the Millennium Bridge

Next stop was the visit to BBC! For an insight into television and radio broadcasting. This was fun! Felina was given the chance to read the news; Fariq, Rachel and Joseph were given the chance to have a feel of being in a 'real' game show, Weakest Link; Vivien and Clarence were given the chance to take charge of the control room and 'play' with all the sound and such! Eugene was chosen to be the weather broadcaster! Haha. here comes the exciting part which you won’t believe (I think). We were like moving from one place to another when somebody caught our eyes... a singer!!! YES! YES!! YES!!!! we bump into My Chemical Romance lead singer, Gerard Way!!! *faint* we(especially the girls and some of the boys!) got so excited! Unfortunately, he was busy! He was having some recording at the studio which we later took a glimpse of. Enough of this. heh.

BBC

YESSS!! Gerard Way! and that super tall guy in suit is our tour guide for BBC, Ben! he's 198cm tall!! hah.

Eugene, the weather broadcaster.

Felina, reading the news

Ben in the control room with Vivien and Clarence

Rachel, Joseph and Fariq in the Weakest Link.

:)

Had vegetarian burger at Planet Hollywood for dinner and after that we had to rush off to watch a play. I manage to buy a t-shirt from Planet Hollywood eventhough it cost me 16.95pounds! i just have to get something everywhere. hah. So we walked very quickly! I really mean it ok! Because we were late for a play called The Woman in Black. That play was scary but it was awesome!! I was sitted beside Felina and Vivien right in front of the stage and every time there's something scary, me and Felina will hold on to each other. Haha. It was scary! From what I know, it was the current popular play at London! by the time the play ended, it was almost midnight. At first we had to take the TUBE back to our inn but luckily we had a different coach to send us back cos Clive was having his off day.

Planet Hollywood. the place is like sooo hippppp!!:)

anxiously waiting for our meal.

TADA! let me remind you ppl again, its vegetarian burger! and it tasted good!

8 June 2007
Took the TUBE to Convent Garden for a day of theatre workshop. Start with an introduction to the Theatre Museum. They taught us about make-ups and costume. Had lunch and a lil bit of free time before our next workshop. Had pizza and jumbo hotdog for lunch! At last! halal MEAT! Followed a session about story-telling based on The Woman in Black. So my group was great! Haha. Consist of me, Aishah, Syaza, Aryani and Syahrin! i think we did well enough! Haha. and I think I laughed through out the whole discussion! Haha. it was madness with them!

TADAA!! our very own Felina the Ginger Cat.

Fariq, Hanis and Vivien

Mrs Danial!!!

Mrs Shankar

Jonas

Eugene and Clarence

Joseph in Shakespeare's costume

my lunch

oh! the toilet at museum. nice right?!

After the workshop, we headed back to our inn to rest cos we will be watching a play at Globe Theatre and we will have to stand for about 3hours or so! At our inn, we packed our luggage cos we will be leaving the next day. Shared stories and just slacked for awhile! Later, watched an evening play called The Merchant of Venice. The play was great. After the play, had a lil bit of photo taking session while waiting for a different coach to take us back to our inn. So transfer back to our inn for packing and our last night there!

taken during the interval break

9 June 2007
So it was the last day of our trip! Boohoo! Check-out of the inn as we prepare to make our last stop before going to the airport. Oh! You guys should have seen us bringing down our luggage! The lift was out of order! pfft. How ironic! Visited the Natural History Museum. Last stop in London will have to be the famous Harrods! God! The things there are really expensive! So that’s it! Transfer to the airport for our flight back to Singapore! I was almost in tears when we had to say goodbye to our coach driver, Clive!! YES!! And I was telling Felina again and again not to cry cos if she were to cry, I will definitely cry! Furthermore, in the coach, Clive was telling us things like 'he really had fun driving us to places' and that 'we're special!' I was so touched! Nobody knows when would be the next time we’re meeting him again! We gave him a card of appreciation with his tips inside. And we also manage to take a group photo with him and the school banner! I’ll make sure that picture appear in the school magazine! Haha. I kept waving at him while we were walking towards the airport. I'm so gonna miss him for sure! In fact, everybody miss him already! Do the check-in stuff again before saying goodbye to Ms Johnson, the person who had been with us the whole trip and making it possible! We said a loud 'Thank You Ms Johnson' to her as a group. Like the one students do after each lesson. Haha. She will be missed too! So off we go for the security check. Waited for the plane which took forever to arrive! Boarded the plane and so it was GOODBYE TO UNITED KINGDOM!

the card for Clive

our lodge. all clean.:)

waiting for instructions

Natural History Museum

not only did we learn English and Literature, we also learn something on Biology!! haha.

the popular Harrods!

heros in action:)

my plane meal

10 June 2007
Transit at Dubai and then Brunei where the flight was delayed for an hour! pfft.. Boarded the plane which took 2hours to reach Singapore. The plane we took from Brunei was different this time. We don’t have our own TV. Which means we have to share but it wasnt that bad afterall. Haha. Had our last plane meal. And without me realizing, I actually dozed off to sleep while listening to the radio! Haha. tired mah. everybody was getting really excited when the plane was about to touch down. Jonas was being a clown by saying that he saw Big Ben and stuff upon reaching Singapore! Hahahahaha. so we reached Singapore airport at about 10.30pm. Had a group hug and Mrs. Shankar declares the trip a successful one! That’s how fast time flies! This also marks the last day Mrs. Danial will be with us! We had a group hug again and some of my classmate cried. I tried not to cry tho! heh. So Mrs. Danial was telling us to work hard and must do well for English! God! There was like so many 'goodbyes' in just a few days! However, I was glad to see my family and yea, we're safely back home with fond memories of our English Literature United Kingdom trip! :)

in the plane from Brunei

my last meal

touch down at Singapore airport!

THANK YOU to all this people plus Mrs Shankar and Miss Hidayah also Miss Aruna Johnson(not in picture) for the wonderful time spent at UK!:)

united kingdom

english-literature united kingdon trip