RodKris

Have decided its high time i get my lazy ass and do a full review on my one month stay in United kingdom back from June 23 2010 - July 21 2010. I shall say i had the most enjoyable trip ever.

Despite staying over at Newscastle for 30-days, i wont fully agree thati've pretty much covered most of the the little country. Newscastle is a small part of UK that is easily accessible via flight. I took a 28 hrs flight across the globe, with a stopover at Dubai Airport (2-hrs transition).

The flight was comfortable, if not the duration. The overnight flight gave me backache, i had struggle to stay within my seat, falling into light sleep every now and then. To sum up, i was seriuosly lacking sleep, and the stewardess didnt make life any easier, some of Emirates crew were pretty strict, even enquiries such as "if i need a overstay-card" was return with a "uh-huh" reaction from them.

The flight would have been pleasant if not for a slightly senile old Aussie man whose daughter couldnt care less if he was wetting his pant. Many times, he unlock the safety belt while landing and the air-stewardess had to usher him back to his seat. Near landing Newscastle, he suddenly unlock his belt and came over to my seat. Some other passenger decided to pin him to the seat and he got rather upset.

I coo-ed him down and ask him who he was visiting, the air-stewardess went over to his daughter and warn her to keep him in place, but all the daughter did was haul vulgarities at her dad, the senile old man cry aloud.

Amist all the drama, i finally landed at Newscatle airport, the weather was good (cold in my definition but towards the end of the stay i learn 17degree was all too comfortable for the locals there)

While queueing for the customs, i was warn that the customer officer will not be friendly towards us. They wanted to make sure if we are up to something nasty, it will show in our nervousness.

I had no idea where iw as staying in Newscastle so i had to be honest with the officer, after some talking, i realise stuff said about this officer were not true. They were the nicest people i could have met! Friendly and equally courteous, they told me it was sweet of me to come over and witness my bf's graduation. They also wish me a safe-journey and hope i enjoy the stay at this tiny countryside they call home.

i lug my very heavy luggage over to the sliding door where bbbbbb was waiting over the other side. Basically more after this door open was me crying after seeing him. It had been a good one year we have survive the LDR, he was hushing me to dry my tear and to give thanks to us finally being together, i had the strangest and most akwards moments here for my bbbbbb have suddenly talk to me in fluent english.

not that he use to speak broken english, just that his accent had certainly improve a lot and it was definitely a pleasant surprise.

*p/s: no he did not slang!

we continue lugging my luggage out of the airport, basically Newscastle has a small airport, almost equilvalent to that of our Jurong East Station + bus interchange. Nothing much was sold there, maybe coffee? (UK serves only starhub, i cannot find any coffeebean around) there was also COSTA coffee (likable to that of coffeebean)

We finally reach the metro station, one slope down the airport. The ride for each pax was about 3.5pounds (equivalent to about 7.2Sing dollar). The amount was good for a while day ride, they happen to have a good deal on wednesday call "day-rider" where one ticket is good to go anywhere in a day so we were luckyl

Yup you saw it right, i had on a pair of my favourite sneaker from Nike bbbbbb bought me, i love it cos its so comfy for a cold weather like UK.

bbbbbbbbbb wanted me to smile for the camera, i bought my first metro ticket!

On the Metro, there are no gate or shutter at ALL the metro in Newscastle, they work by "trust" over there. Which i really appreciate, of course there are bound to be one-or-two bloodsucker that broke this trust, but knowing how the government entrust this responsibility to the local certainly make me feel ashame of myself in Singapore.

All that you got to do was purcahse the ticket from the auto-machine and hop ride into a train. No one to sell tickets and certainly no one to check on your tickets! In addition, the driver seat in a tainted-window-cubicle so absolutely no communication happens between them and us.

More of me - stink! and dirty, i haven bath for about a day and a half! Not even brush my teeth!

Here's my bbbbbbbb and i, i like this picture, it was our first- reunion

We alight at Haymarket station which can be describe as the "orchard road of Newscastle" Here's where all the youth hang out and where most of the middle-end malls are located. you can easilt get Warehouse, DorothyPerkins, Topshop, RiverIsland, Newlook ... etc anywhere here! they have so many mall! Whats even better was that bbbbbbbbbb stay here! its where his hostel is located!

we went back to his hostel, i clean myself and off we were to check out this place he call home for the past 12-months.

The statue behind is well known to all local from Newscastle. The noble man on top was Charles Earl Grey, and very obviously, he was related to the earl-grey-tea we all love!

Right below the statues was the base where every locals just hang around. The weather at newscastle is cold yet the sun is blazing hot. The combination makes you wanna just sit there the whole day! bbbbbbbb and i had our fair share of just lazing on benches halfway through our shopping, holding on to cups of frappe and just muackxing each other. hahaha..

This was second day at newscastle where bbbbbb brought me to a discovery museum, we had to cross this millenium bridge on daily basis in order to head to the other side of the school~ They call this the millenium bridge and it is a hotspot for phototaking. Need i say more?

bbbb's dorm, we are staying at Lovaine Flat, Flat 24 Room 4. A tiny room enuff for a table. a bed and cupboard and thats all!

bbbbbbbb says "welcome to Northabrium University" read "nort-tom-bria"

Us just outside the School of Business, with him also reciting "if" i had fly over with him here's where i'll be studying.....

Ohhohh, did i mentioned? bbbbbbbbb surprise me with the Hollister jacket on the first day of my arrival, its grey and really pretty! here you see me in it all day long i totally forget about the rest of the sweatshirt i brought along.

bbbbb and i arriving at the discovery museum, again entry was free and you either contribute according to your preference. Work by trust!

Inside the museum i had turn into a little girl just enjoying myself with all the strange toy they had. Newscastle do not have air-con, this is because they had cooling weather almost all year round. Thus inside the museum the temperature went higher due to the enclose environment, you can still breath but certainly cant dress up like you are heading for the snow!

bbbbbbbbb and i posing at a machine! you turn the knob at the bottom of all four sides of the wall and the ball is transported from the truck to the hollow tube to the winding slots back to the truck!

me playing at the pin-ball machine

bbbbbbbbbb and i standing in front of part of a real train that used to function(by burning coal)

Us playing in a section full of mirrors! Did you notice him ?

Mirrors are fun shit! haha.. we took so much shots there!

Listen to a immediate conversation between the army and their crew!

Live-life figure there! i especially the garment section where we witness all english-dresses manufactured starting from the inner-camisole, the intricate-lace-details of every pompom dress they use to wear long time ago and not forgetting one era where every woman in UK worn a corset to suck up their tummy before putting on the dress!

bbbbbbbbbb had no idea why i force him to take a picture in front of this, but if you look carefully you can actually see the ambush army hiding behind!

Us relaxing by the sofa they provide, i so-want this aqua colour for my new home next time, ok bbbbbbbbbbbb?

me dressing up at a coal miner in the olden days, here's one section where we get to see occupation that use to be available in UK market but not anymore.

they had us write down our ambition since young and the different job we end up with when we grow up. And comically some kids wrote this -----------------------------------------------------------------------

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hahha.. kids!

We also learn how water filtration in UK. The tap water there are not drinkable, you had to boil them before drinking, you can actually see bits of while pulp floating on every buckle of water you fetch from the tap. bbbbbbbb explains it was due to the chemical they put inside to neutralize the water for other usage.

after leaving the museum, we walk around the street gawking for interesting stuff (to me of course! everythign is unusual there!) the weather was still 17 degree and you can see how bright it is at about 8pm at night. It was summer so sunlight last longer. bbbbbbb says in winter you had night time longer.... how funny. (RITUAL car plate actually made up of car plate number - RI-1-UAL, the digit 1 had a nail stuck on its left thus forming the

alphabet "T"

i wil also like to highlight how we had to fall asleep under the glaring sunlight at about 10pm at night.

Sorry there wasnt much to say about the first day in Newscastle, we head home after roaming around haymarket, then bbbbbbbb cook us both a good instant-noodle meal, to which i promptly fell into a deep sleep while he was feeding me, haha.. i had been so sleepy while on flight and having him besides me totally reassure i am safe now. the next morning i woke up to a shock that i had waste one good day in Newscastle and bbbbbbbbb was totally amuse at how i could just sleep like that!

Signify you are here with me now and nuttin can go wrong. And for a happy relationship we pledge to make it happen. Even if there are times we aint happy, i promise- i will make it happen, for us =)

Ending it with a picture of us taken at the lift of the newlook department that was so huge they need lift to bring us around!

and some private picture which i bet bbbbbbbbbbbbb will kill me when he sees this........ him posing like a gunman with his ------------------ tripod stand!

Thanks for sharing our joy, i'll be back with more updates!

~Sweet.Silly.Stinky.Sleepyhead~