Just got back from Notts!
The trip was harrowing to say the least.. I stayed over at N's place at Wessex Lane with D and M the night before we set out to Notts because the buses' pickup points were only at Glen Eyre and Wessex Lane which are both more than a mile away from our place :P
Then at 2am, we woke up and got ourselves ready for the bus trip.. At 2.30am, we were told that the meet-up time had been postponed to 3.15am.. So we waited.. We took off from Soton at around 3.30am.. Stopped over at the services (UK's highway R&R) in Oxford at around 6am.. Did our Subuh prayers in the wide open space right next to the building.. It was FREEZING COLD.. Our hands felt numb even before we finished the first rakaat.. Afterwards, we continued the journey and arrived in Nottingham at around 8am..
Their campus is MASSIVE! You had to take buses just to move from one building to the other.. Lots of greenery and wide open fields of grass.. It's definitely quiet and peaceful there - maybe too much - which probably doesn't suit me too well.. LOL :P
Lightning chess was held in the Portland Building.. Met some old friends there, namely A and W from UCL.. I also met another Malay guy from Warwick but it wasn't until he left that I finally remembered who he was! LOL :D
We played in 8 groups, with the top 2 players per group advancing to the top 16 knockout matches.. I got second place in my group (lost to the Warwick guy due to time trouble) and played the first knockout match, which I also lost because I stupidly made a huge blunder.. But in a way, it's a blessing in disguise, because if I had won, I would've met with A in the next match.. A went on to win the tournament, beating my fellow teammate, SJ in the final :P
Then, I met up with my ex-collegemates, M, T and Z.. It's been a really long time since we got together and I really missed hanging out with them.. So after M's badminton match, we went to town.. Unfortunately it didn't go so well because we wasted time waiting for the bus at the wrong side of the road.. Then, we took some time to find a halal eatery and when we did, it didn't even have any tables or chairs to properly have our food :/
Since I had to go back to meet my uni mates at 6pm, we took a cab back, only to find nobody there.. I felt really bad for making all 4 of us stop at the Trent building where I was told to go because apparently it's been changed to the Sports Centre and all 3 of them had to go there anyway.. But since we stopped at Trent, we had to walk for a good 15 minutes in the middle of the night to get there.. Sorry guys! :(
My battery went dead right when I was in town so I had no way of communicating with anyone.. So imagine my anxiety when I found out that nobody was in Trent when I got there.. Thank God Z was there.. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have known what to do.. I felt so lost I would've cried if it weren't for her.. She lent me her phone and battery so that I could call someone.. That was when I knew about the change of venue.. And even when we got to the Sports Centre, I had to borrow her battery again to make another call.. And she also showed me that I had the battery alignment wrong which is why I couldn't turn my phone on with her battery in it :P I was so darned flustered last night I couldn't even think straight.. I can't begin to express how relieved I am that Z was there to help me..
Before 8pm, we left for Southampton.. We arrived at 11.30pm which was really quick.. I kind of like the bus driver we had.. He was very friendly in spite of the delays we all made due to our classic "Malaysian time" syndrome.. And I think he must've been hitting on our senior, Kak A, throughout the journey.. LOL :P
The bus dropped us off at Wessex Lane so I stayed over at Kak G's place this time.. Although I was dead tired, we had a good girl talk before I dozed off at probably 1am.. Then at 6.30am this morning, I woke up for my prayers before M called to tell us that she and D's leaving for our respective halls in an hour's time.. So I fought the urge to go back to sleep again and packed my stuff, said goodbye to Kak G before heading off..
So here I am, sitting in my room, writing this post.. I haven't exactly had breakfast yet so I think I'm gonna make some eggs and baked beans.. Ahh, thank God for Asda's 13p baked beans :)
By the way, I've just got myself a new digital camera.. Got it off eBay.. Yup, I've started the spending spree.. God help me (and Petronas's money).. The camera's very cheap so the quality isn't so good.. But nonetheless, I have a grand total of five pictures up in my new photo page so if you're interested, please do have a look :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/coolster1/
Next week's itinerary : Leicester! My aim is to cover as much of UK as possible within my first year so I'm taking it one weekend at a time ;)
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NHA at 10:24 AM ::
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