Wednesday was a hectic day, I had to finish a lot of work and I was handing over some projects to some people I work with. I was running around all day, plus I had to go to the bank, and I got a quick shave and cut. Checking on some maintenance for the house as well. Then I was with family for a little while. I didn’t even start packing at that point but I knew I had a lot to do. I was bouncing from one end to the other just finishing up last minute details.
I was heading home to finish up packing, and since it was Wednesday and most of my friends didn’t have anything to do I asked them to take me to the airport once we finished up our usual night. I was running back and forth between the basement and my room since I was hanging out with them and still packing. I left them for a bit and went to my brothers house to say goodbye to him and his family. As soon as I saw my nephew he shouted Agoog Agoog! I was happy to see him, its been a week but it feels like ages! And I saw my niece, she was adorable but she was tired! I was only there for five minutes but my nephew kept saying baara baara becase I was going out. And he was saying bye bye Agoog bye! I thought that this was the first long vacation I have taken in over a year, and my nephew got me all choked up. The little bugger got to me, and I really will miss him! Then I went back home to find the guys still chilling watching the movie while I went upstairs to finish packing.
Four of the guys were going to take me to the airport and the rest were too tired. It was going to be a funny ride to the airport! We got the bags down, and we took off. We were all squeezed up in a Dodge Durango. It was funny as we were going along and music was blaring, when we go to the airport it was totally packed. There were a lot of flights coming in and going out so we had to find parking. We parked really far away and walked, checked in the bags and stood outside the security check for a little while. After that I went in to the Pearl Lounge to relax for a bit before getting on the plane. As soon as I boarded the plane I passed out, there were a few people I knew on the plane but I only chatted with them at the gate. As soon as the plane was taking off I flatten the seat and go to sleep.
At this point the time is coming close when I will be going on my first vacation for a while now. I leaving on Wednesday night to the states for some time off. I have a lot of things planned out and its all with friends.
I’m going to visit a lot of friends on the West Coast and that is where I will be for about 2 and a half weeks. I have gotten the time off from work, but I think I will still be in the loop for all the work and other tasks. I’m trying to remember all that I have to do before I travel, and hopefully this time I remember everything since this is going to be a longer trip.
I will be landing in LA staying there only for a day before driving up to San Francisco with a friend and staying there for the rest of the trip. We might be planning to go somewhere for labor day weekend. Whats great is that everyone is going to be there and I am just going to enjoy the time off. I got a few surprises though for everyone and a few things to look forward to while I’m there.
While in London I managed to go to a few places in only two days. What I do like is that there is always something to do or somewhere to go to in London. There isn’t something new every time you go but you can always find your usual places. I remember when I was there I loved going in the cabs and I also loved walking around with my mp3 player just blasting. I would stop at any store I found interesting. I remember walking all the way down Piccadilly to Piccadilly Circus, then back and entering Bond Street then taking a Cab to Harrods then walking around there for hours, then Sloane Street for a bit and all back around. The first day I was just cruising for things I had in mind and there were days where I was just in one place for a long time, there were times early in the morning where I would go through the park to get from point a to point b. Its s nice change and some people really like it and some don’t. The weather was nothing but perfect during the time I was there, slightly warm during the day and cool during the night, I could see a lot of riders out enjoying and the normal deliver guys. I wanted to be riding since it felt like I haven’t ridden for ages. Everyone was outside doing something in Londons’ streets during this time. I’m one of the people that do enjoy walking around London.
Be warned there are many pictures!
I was out walking with my friend the second day in London and we were hungry. I decided to take him to Automat since they have good burgers and amazing Mac&Cheese! When we went there were a few people and we were damn hungry, usually around lunch time this place is packed but we went a little later. Its two streets down from Bond Street and we were munching at each plate they placed in front of us. It was a good meal after the long day we had, but after that meal we had to walk a lot to offset the amount of food we ate so we walked all the way down to Piccadilly Circus and back, which isn’t too much but just enough.
Whenever I am in London I can’t help but to pass by the bookstore, and I usually go there a couple of times. The first time is to give it a quick glance and to make notes, the next time I come in to the Book store is go through all the sections I want to check out. I made went to two bookstores and I picked up different books from each one!
Bookstores I spent parts of the day in:
- Hatchards Piccadilly
- Waterstones Piccadilly
I managed to find a nice variety of books and a few books I was looking for!
Waterstones Books:
- Brother Odd – Dean Koontz
- The Black Tattoo – Sam Enthoven
- The Dreaming Void – Peter F. Hamilton
Hatchards Books:
- Race to Dakar – Charley Boorman
- Voice of the Gods – Trudi Canavan (3rd book of the Trilogy)
- Richistan – Robert Frank
I managed to find a nice variety of books this time but its not as if I don’t have books that I haven’t read, but I can’t help get a book that seems really interesting and I know I will enjoy. One other thing I noticed while in London, an hour wouldn’t go by without somebody reading the new Harry Potter Book, a taxi cab, ice cream man, a bell boy, a waiter, random person walking, on a bus, at the airport, in restaurants, everywhere!
I stayed at home with the family for this trip, its nice staying in my room since I made a few changes a couple of years back to suit my needs.
One of the things I made sure of was that our internet account was active and paid for with BT (British Telecom), and it was since I knew how much English companies love paperwork and going through a system. Once I got home and tried the internet it wasn’t working so I checked the router, I restarted it, reset it, and did everything else I knew to do, even though I knew the problem wasn’t from my side.
I called BT Support and to my pleasant surprise there are two different support, one for the connection and one for the hardware. They couldn’t find anyone who could understand both so they had to make two. Then I find out there is a technical fault support that could only be reach through the first line support who have to note everything down about the whole problem and everything I did. I was being very patient since I knew how these companies work, and I wanted to get some results. I asked them if there was a way to expedite the process they said no. So after the person spent 20 minutes writing down everything I did and everything he said I was told that I would be contacted the next day by the Technical Fault Support since I can’t call them directly and they decide if an engineer should come out.
The next day they call and I tell them everything again, and went through all the hoops. Then they tell me since its a Friday and at 10:00am its too late to send an engineer out, and they are already all scheduled for Saturday morning I will be contacted Monday to get an appointment as to when the engineer will come out.
Safe to say I didn’t have internet connectivity, and I found it funny the whole process went that way. And to my surprise as I was walking outside my home I found three BT vans and two were for Internet Connectivity support and nobody could come 20 meters down to figure out the problem. Really funny, you have to love the English system and their love of paperwork.
Apollo Cinemas is located on Little Regent Street really close to Piccadilly Circus. It is probably my favorite cinema to go watch movies in. The theaters have very comfortable seats and they usually have a variety of movies from main blockbusters to some indie sci-fi and other types of movies. They usually have some very interesting premieres and they have really good service. The seating is really comfortable, the sound is fantastic, and the screen quality is fantastic. They have a total of 5 screens, and you can rent out a theater for 400 pounds to do private screenings of movies in the theater or you can screen your own DVD which is great, and they have other services. Its even nice to lounge around there before the theater, and its rarely full except for blockbuster movies. To get all this service the tickets are not cheap so not everyone goes there, but if you want quality and your movie is playing there then this is the cinema to go to. I usually try to watch all the movies I want at this theater when I am in London.
That was really a short trip, but a change of scenery was really needed. This really was one hell of a trip, I didn’t have time to sit down. I didn’t sleep much since I had a few early morning meetings on Friday, but I did get to sleep in a bit on Saturday. It was nice hanging out with family really late at night just chatting and watching some tv. When your in a different place you complete forget all the things you have to do at work or else where. I can remember all the things that I have to do at work now that I’m back, but while I was there I didn’t feel like thinking about it.
The plane ride back was decent, and I managed to watch some anime before taking a 3.5 hour nap which is just enough to get me through this work day. This trip wasn’t enough, I wanted to stay longer since the weather is amazing in London but it did me good. I did manage to get a lot of things done, but it was funny I was going to lunches and dinner with family everyday except for Friday I went out with a friend and his wife to the movies and then we went for a late night bite. We had a really good time at the movies and going out for the day, London is really fun to walk around in, and we managed to spend some time at the bookstores before going to the movies. All that done, and packing to take-off Saturday night and get into work by Sunday morning. This is going to be an interesting morning, I wonder when the sleep deprivation will kick in.
I got up early morning and went straight to the Airport on Thursday! I thought I was on time but I thought take off was at 8:30 am not 8:10 am so I was cutting it a bit close. As soon as I got the airport I was fast walking to the counter then I saw my friend who was also going to London which surprised me. After checking in I saw my cousin and his wife at the immigrations gate which was another surprise and he was going to LA through London, I thought he might be stopping over but it turned out he was going on vacation with his wife. After going through we went straight to the plane since it was already boarding, and as soon as I was on the plane I wanted to pass out.
This turned out to be a full flight and I was talking to my friend for a while before take off. As people were walking by I kept saying hello since I knew so many people on the plane. I said hello to about 5 people on the way back to my seat, and I even chatted with another friend. I thought I wouldn’t be able to go to sleep without saying hello to people! As soon as the plane took off I was asleep within 10 minutes, and I told them not to wake me up for breakfast or lunch since I already had a good sandwich before leaving home. I didn’t even get a chance to watch anything on TV since I was so tired.
I woke up about 5 hours later feeling a little refreshed and I filled out my landing card since I didn’t want to do that at the last minute. Then I popped out my laptop and started working on some spread sheets and listening to music. We started descending and so I packed up my laptop, and just kept the music going. The pilot had a few strong tilts to the left and right to adjust the plane decent, and his landing was a little rough but I was happy to have arrived in London. I left with my friend and we headed to immigrations, its funny how immigrations fast track is only open from 5:00am until 12:00pm and a lot of flights arrive after 12:00pm, I have never used Fast Track because its always closed when I arrive. That wasn’t really an issue since they are usually fast at immigrations.
We got to baggage claim and took a guess at which outlet the bags are going to come out of, and it was one lucky guess! We got our bags within minutes, and we headed out to go into London. We took the same car since it was only a 10 minute detour to drop him off. And the weather is just amazing in London.
This is a really short trip just to visit some family and finish a few things up.
I haven’t really packed much but I do the have the usual essentials:
- Cash
- Passport
- Tickets
- Laptop
- Mp3 player
- Camera
- Random Chargers
I don’t think I will be there long enough to remember if I forgot anything. I’m just going to enjoy the quick break but I know I have a lot of work to do so I’m going to keep checking my work email at the same time.
I honestly do enjoy longer flights then short flights because you have enough time to do a few things between take-off and landing, but in the short flights you don’t have enough time to do anything really.