Off days

Bonda Cafe's Menu - quite impressive. Tapi kena cakap Chef Det - kurang masin kit ye.

The cosy insides of Bonda Cafe.

Si Hizz, part-timer kat Bonda giving me the fingers (heheh..kidding). You can only find him during weekends coz on other days, he's still doing his Master's Degree in Actuarial Science (betul ke eja ni Hizz?)

I snapped this before I caught the bus to Oxford Street

A park near our apartment.

Gorgeous colors

My take on London so far

The weather :

It's a really cold summer. Which is a bit odd, coz it is summer, and summer is suppose to scorching hot. But I'm glad it's cold. I like it cold than hot. It's a welcome change from the weather at home and the electricity bills we have to pay to stay cool. Anyways, I still hear people complain about the weather, everyday. They complain it's cold when it's 15C and they complain that it's hot when it's 23C. Please stop complaining. Just be grateful.

Took a walk to enjoy the weather.

The road from where I'm staying.
Restoran Bonda. Food is nice. Staff is great. Atmosphere fantastic.
But it ain't cheap. Thanks for the discounts though. (ooppsss..this pix should be up there but I cant move it, so biar je la kat sini)

Kak Yok or Mariani.

And her friend K. Ton. Nice ladies. They even treated me to breakfast and we chatted away. Few of the nice Msians I met here. There are a lot worse out there. Stucked up Msians who wouldn't even smile back at you or pass a kind look at you.
I love the flowers here.

If you ever need to stay here. Ehh..Salahudin Sir, commission please ye. Free advert ni!

Alan Dunn's previous work.

I like it here this time of year. The last time I was here wih Hubbs, was also during spring time. It's wonderful...the weather..I loike!! Alhamdulillah...

Apa2 pun, Malaysia still the best. There's nothing like home.

The phone call:

I'm missing my family like mad. I like Lycamobile. I call Hubbs n son everyday, many times for 1/2 hour at least. It only cost me the most 1 pound/call for about 40 mins. It's cheap!!

So far I've only used about 9 pounds kot. Call 3 times a day, !/2 hour. Kalau tengah boring lagi bnyk kali call. Next time you come here, use Lycamobile prepaid card. Highly recommended. And for local calls, it's free. They give you like 200 minutes free calls for every 5 pounds prepaid.

The people : Msians' abroad

I have to say, from personal experience that is, maybe 30% are nice and friendly, the rest is way below par where friendliness is concerned. I can't really understand why. I guess it's what London Malays are all about. I mean it's not like if you ever return my smile or my salam, you'd immediately have a lodger following you home. Puhleeez la...We're not that hard up for a conversation with you, just a smile back would be rather nice. They normally just shot a look back at you before turning away, or they just look thru you, as if you're never there. My smile usually hang about halfway, because of the speed that they turn they head around.

Had that bit of experience at Malaysian Hall and on the streets sometimes. I never return to Msian Hall again, and the food there is horrible.

But I'm staying positive. So far, the ones that I've met here at Paddington, they are quite nice people.

The people : Londoners

Well, I first half expected them to be a bit racist, especially after 9-11. And also I had this rather bad experience when we were in Gold Coast last year. They tend to look at you rather menacingly, they don't really serve you well at counters especially if they're kind is waiting behind us. So, I was rather afraid the same kind of treatment would be waiting for me here. I did enquire bout that from those who've lived here, but their answers seemed positive.

And so far, well they are as polite as they need to be. I'm not complaining though. It's totally not my lost if you decide to be indifferent to other races. But I had some wonderful experience though. I met this guy on the train to Farnham and it turned out he could speak Malay. So we chatted a bit on the bus and he was saying nice things about Msia and of course we talked about the weather...that's what they do quite often here apparently, talked about the weather.

My PME course mates were nice. One lady from Holland, she kept staring at me, and I could see she'd wanted to say something. So being me (I cant shut up!)..I asked her" Do you have anything you want to ask me?" Yes, she said. Is it about this? I pointed to my headscarf. Yes, she said...so we got on to talking about my headscarf and swimming suits while we waiting for our turns in the toilet. How is that?

And there was this English guy who said salam to me and went to say that his wife is a Turkish Muslim. So, of course, again being me, I asked him. You said your wife is a muslim, so you're not a muslim? Nope, I'm a strict Chatholic he said. So I went on asking all sorts of questions, till I felt it was getting personal and I stopped. (My husband always compares me to Susan of Desperate Housewives, you know, always gets into troubles with curiosity).

What I meant to say is that, if the non-muslim can be rather nice and friendly to me, why can't the Muslims be nicer to me. I mean, even the other muslims like Arabs or whatever, they cant be bother to answer my salam or smile back. Sheeessh..how are we suppose to be strong when we can't even do the simplest thing to our fellow muslims.. it's not a wonder why we are being pushed over.

But am not letting the few bad apples to dampen my positive views on the world. Perhaps, there's still hope. I'm hoping that when you read this, and you meet other people out there, regardless of races and religion, just be kind and smile first, or back. Let's make this world, which we only have one, a kinder gentler place to live in.

I agree with Maxi Priest - it's hard to get by just on smile now.

The transport : Tubes and buses

Well, what can I say? This is London and they're waaayy famous and proud of their underground trains and buses. But there's a lot of engineering works going on right now and on weekends especially, most of the lines are shut down and you'd have to take the buses to get to where you want to go. I have no complains, except maybe 1, but in general, the transport systems here is excellent, albeit a bit expensive.

I'm using the Oyster Card, where you load prepaid into. It can be used up to Zone 5 and you can use for tubes and buses. I usually take the weekly prepaids that covers zone 1-2 and it's cheaper than buying daily tickets. You can use it any time of day, unlimited for a week. It cost you bout BP28 i I think. I forgot. Anyways, it's cheaper and easier for me.

Food:

Well, you can find Msian food anywhere now, especially near the Paddington Area. There's Bonda Cafe, Delima Restaurant, Tok Din, Satay House etc. And about 3/4 km away to Edgware Road, there's plenty of halal middle eastern restaurant. There's also a halal Subway restaurant near Paddington (Bakerloo line) Station. It's quite easy nowadays. Per person's simple lunch with drinks will set you back about BP7-10. So be ready with loads of cash if you come with your family.

The weather : It's really nice and cool (sometimes very cold) summer which I thought is a bit odd. Summer days should be hot but it's not. So, if you have arthritis, I would say it's not a good time to be here during this time of year then....

But no matter how nice it is herSave Nowe, it's nothing like home. Hot and sticky home. I'm missing my family and my comforts..and my car and convenients...