Merry Xmas...!

My kennel, with my xmas exchange gift from I-will-never-know-which-colleague, and my new hairdo.I be bumping up to Kuala Lumpur this evening at 4.30pm, expected arrival time about say 9.30pm-10pm?
 
Will send up more photos of Stevie and I!
 

Merry Xmas to the Charltons!! Missing yas!
 

 

An old Photo

SIN - KUL (PASARAKYAT BUS TERMINAL) - 24th Dec 08, Wednesday, 430pm

> Dear xxxx,
>
> Please be informed that your transaction is successful as follows:
>
> Reference number : 3dfc3192
> Coach Code : KUL0081224F4P
> Purchase on : 2008/12/10 13:57:09.421hrs
> Depart from SINGAPORE to KUALA LUMPUR
> Departure Date : 24-12-2008 (Wed)
> Departure Time : 1630hrs (Singapore Time)
> 1 ticket(s) at SGD 69 per ticket
> Total Cost : SGD 71.07 Including Fuel & Insurance Surcharge
>
> Seat Number(s) : 9
> Check-in :
> 114 LAVENDER ST HOCK SENG BLDG at 1600 hrs
> Alight :
> PASARAKYAT BUS TERMINAL
>
> Passenger's Name : Ms HU Xxxxx
> Passenger's Contact : 9xxxxxx1
>
> PLEASE CHECK-IN WITH THE PRINTED CONFIRMATION AT THE
> ABOVE-MENTIONED CHECK-IN LOCATION HALF AND HOUR BEFORE DEPARTURE
>
> Please note that all bookings through the internet are confirmed bookings
> and no refunds, exchanges or cancellations will be made.
>
> The management reserves the right to change your alloted seatings
> or arrange for a coach transfer to the custom if the needs arise,
> without prior notice.
>
> Thank you for booking your coach tickets at Transtar Travel Pte Ltd
> www.transtar.com.sg
>
> We wish you a pleasant trip.
>
> *** THIS IS AN AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED EMAIL. ***
>

KUL - SIN : 29th Dec Mon 4.30pm

> AEROLINE First Class Shuttle
> Service Centre at Bus Terminal, 1 Utama, Bandar Utama Tel. No : +603 7726 1212 Fax No : +603 7726 6262
> Service Centre at Bus Terminal, Sungai Nibong, Penang Tel. No : +604 657 2122 Fax No : +604 658 2822
> Call Center Hotline No : +603 6258 8800 Fax No : +603 6252 0088
> Service Centre at Corus Hotel, Kuala Lumpur Tel. No : +603 2164 9611 / 22 Fax No : +603 2168 8633
> Service Centre at HarbourFront Centre, Singapore Tel. No : +65 6341 9338 Fax No : +65 6278 1239
> Service Centre at Menara Axis, Petaling Jaya Tel. No : +603 7955 2860 / 61 Fax No : +603 2166 9122
> Service Centre at Sunway Pyramid, Bandar Sunway Tel. No : +603 5631 1313 Fax No : +603 5636 7888
> TICKET CONFIRMATION SLIP
> ---------------------------
>
> Dear HU Xxxxx,
>
> Thank you for choosing to travel with AEROLINE.
> This is your confirmation slip, which you need to exchange for the Aeroline boarding pass.
>
> Kindly print this slip containing the pin number, and bring it to our service center at >>> CORUS HOTEL <<<
> at least 30 minutes before departure time to exchange for your ticket(s).
>
> Please note that you will need to present your credit card for verification purposes. If the traveller is not the credit card holder, then identification needs to be shown instead.
>
> Please be reminded that any changes made must be made at least two (2) days before departure with an administrative charge.
> Only the date and travel time may be changed. The route(s) cannot be changed ie KL-SIN cannot be changed to SIN-KL and vice versa.
>
> You are required to re-purchase a new ticket for the same trip if you fail to present your pin number.
>
> Your Ref No : PB167204
>
> Your Pin Number : FNX55333
>
> Total amount paid : RM 92.70
>
> Your travel details are as follows:-
>
> Departure Date/Time : 29/12/2008 Monday 04:30 PM
>
> Destination : KL-SIN
>
> No of Ticket(s) : 1(Adult)
>
> Vegetarian meal : 0
>
>
>
> The estimated arrival time is about 5 hours after the time of departure.
>
> We wish you a pleasant journey.
>
> Thank you for your attention.
>
> AEROLINE First Class Shuttle
> The Convenient Way To FLY
>
>

KUL - SIN: 8th Dec 10.30am

---

From: enquiries@luxury.com.sg
To: XXXXXXXX@hotmail.com
Subject: Your Order Summary
Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:20:38 +0800

E-Confirmation

Purchase Date : 26 Nov 2008 12:20 PM

Invoice Number : INV-162607

Order Total : SGD 47.50

Order Detail

Dear HU

Thank you for ordering from Luxury Tours & Travel Pte Ltd. Please reach the pick-up point 30 min before departure.

Here is the detail of your order :

Ticket ID Route Departure Time Company Coach Code Seat Number Passenger Name NRIC Passport 388024 Kuala Lumpur, Hotel Istana, (73, Jalan Raja Chulan, 50200, Kuala Lumpur) => Singapore, Concorde (f.k.a. Le Meridien) Hotel, (100 Orchard Road #02-44/45, Concorde Hotel Shopping Mall, Singapore 238840) 08 Dec 2008 10:30 AM Luxury Tours & Travel ExcSgl26 KUL-SIN 1030 13 HU Xxxxxxx SxxxxxxG SxxxxxxG

NONREFUNDABLE - NO REFUND WOULD BE GRANTED. Please check the selected schedule information carefully before check out, ticket purchases are final and are not refundable or changeable. Duplicate transactions are also not refundable because duplicate transactions block other customers from purchasing tickets. There will be no refund for any unused or partly used services.

CONDITION OF USE - This Order Details need not be printed. On departure date, customer just has to bring a valid ID (IC/Passport that was entered into the system while buying the ticket) to the counter. Upon validation of your ID number in the system. A ticket/boarding pass will be issued to you to board the coach. Any issue please contact Luxury at +65 6733 2808

SIN - KUL : 5th Dec 08 03:30pm

> Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:40:48 +0800
> To: xxxxxxxxxx@hotmail.com
> Subject: Your approval code from Aeroline PS66228
> From: support@aeroline.com.my
>
>
> AEROLINE First Class Shuttle
> Service Centre at Bus Terminal, 1 Utama, Bandar Utama Tel. No : +603 7726 1212 Fax No : +603 7726 6262
> Service Centre at Bus Terminal, Sungai Nibong, Penang Tel. No : +604 657 2122 Fax No : +604 658 2822
> Call Center Hotline No : +603 6258 8800 Fax No : +603 6252 0088
> Service Centre at Corus Hotel, Kuala Lumpur Tel. No : +603 2164 9611 / 22 Fax No : +603 2168 8633
> Service Centre at HarbourFront Centre, Singapore Tel. No : +65 6341 9338 Fax No : +65 6278 1239
> Service Centre at Menara Axis, Petaling Jaya Tel. No : +603 7955 2860 / 61 Fax No : +603 2166 9122
> Service Centre at Sunway Pyramid, Bandar Sunway Tel. No : +603 5631 1313 Fax No : +603 5636 7888
> TICKET CONFIRMATION SLIP
> ---------------------------
>
> Dear HU Xxxxx,
>
> Thank you for choosing to travel with AEROLINE.
> This is your confirmation slip, which you need to exchange for the Aeroline boarding pass.
>
> Kindly print this slip containing the pin number, and bring it to our service center at >>> HARBOURFRONT CENTRE <<<
> at least 30 minutes before departure time to exchange for your ticket(s).
>
> Please note that you will need to present your credit card for verification purposes. If the traveller is not the credit card holder, then identification needs to be shown instead.
>
> Please be reminded that any changes made must be made at least two (2) days before departure with an administrative charge.
> Only the date and travel time may be changed. The route(s) cannot be changed ie KL-SIN cannot be changed to SIN-KL and vice versa.
>
> You are required to re-purchase a new ticket for the same trip if you fail to present your pin number.
>
> Your Ref No : PS66228
>
> Your Pin Number : 41YM6367
>
> Total amount paid : RM 118.10
>
> Your travel details are as follows:-
>
> Departure Date/Time : 05/12/2008 Friday 03:30 PM
>
> Destination : SIN-KL
>
> No of Ticket(s) : 1(Adult)
>
> Vegetarian meal : 0
>
>
>
> The estimated arrival time is about 5 hours after the time of departure.
>
> We wish you a pleasant journey.
>
> Thank you for your attention.
>
> AEROLINE First Class Shuttle
> The Convenient Way To FLY
>
>

James Bond's Quantam of Solace Music - Another Way to Die

Leopard attacking and killing Crocodile by Hal Brindley

Prague - Gotham Town - 23rd ~ 25th Oct

Wed.22nd Oct:

We hopped onto a bus with our 20inch luggage and bumped our way to the Gateshead interchange to catch the metro, my very 1st time on the Newcastle `MRT`(Singapore term for Mertro.) The train to the airport got delayed for some reason and while hanging around to wait for train arrival, it was also that time I had my 1st brush with a Chava (UK's term to coin a hooligan, Singapore Hokkien way means Paikia ) who said something about `from China?` before he quickly walked away, I reckon Steve BB standing by my side must have scared him away.

Anyway, 1/2 hr train journey to the Newcastle airport and 2hrs flights and by 9pm, we were at the Prague Airport.

Prague Airport Horror:
======================
This was when our horror nightmare begun; There was no sight of botak 'Bald' Dan, Steve's good buddy who had promised to meet up and take us to our Mustek Hotel in Old Town. Time went ticking away and an hour later, Steve went bersek and thought of all the possible reasons that Dan didnt turn up. We gave up waiting and went to a taxi booth in the airport to book for a cab to bring us to our hotel as it was pretty late by then to spend any time to figure our way to our destination. As we stood outside the airport waiting for the taxi lady to wave us the cab, I noticed a bald guy from far running towards our direction. 'Is that Dan?' I pointed out, and before we knew it, we were hugging Dan and David and together on the cab.

Andy's Surprise:
================
What awaited us was a further surprise at the hotel when Steve went screaming away. Andy Heslop had popped out right in front of him unexpectedly, a huge surprise. Dan, Steve and Andy were exhilatered. Imagine 3 guys hugging non-stop in the middle of a busy touristy street, hmm, haha. So we all check into our own place for abit before meeting up later.

Mustek Hotel:
=============
Mustek hotel was pretty much a decent hotel, with a decent room. We paid 187 Euros for 3 nights (59 euros for weekday and 69 for weekend). Pretty spot-on as it's situated right in the middle of Prague City for that kind of price, except that we have got a shared public bathroom and shower , which didn't cause us any convenience at all.

M1 Lounge:
==========
By 11pm, Steve, I, Dan, David, Andy and his girlfriend, Sara were in Dan's Club, M1 lounge. Music was pretty much to my taste, R n B, think of Alicia Keys and all the black's rap songs, no surprise the club was almost half 'bleak'-full 2 hours later. I was well impressed with the huge Mojito that I had never seen anything like that in my years of clubbing. The night was a rave and we got all the silly pics and shots. We hit Andy Sara's where it was a really nice huge apartment and chilled for abit whereby Steve and Dan acted out the scene how Dan got the huge scare on his right ankle, thanks to Steve years ago. We ended the night with SAD Fully Monty in the middle of freezing cold Quiet Prague street at 6am. (SAD - Steve, Andy, Dan).


Thurs.23rd oct - 9am Zombie Breakfast:

3 hours later, Steve was trying his hardest to wake me up after Sara's phone alarm went off.(she kindly lent it to us yesterday night as we haven't got any basic form of alarm). 15 minutes later, we hit the restaurant table. Laid infront of us were different sorts of ham and pork, cereals, and milk, all cold, only thing hot was boiled eggs. Half hour later, we went back to bed and by noon, we were hitting the street to meet up and Andy and Sara a few streets away.

What followed after was a nice lunch to perk the 4 zombies who were trying to recover from yesterday's rave, and then touristy bits and photos. Dan went uncontactable even towards the end of day.

We ended the day with a late nice dinner at an italian restuarant where they could crudely mistook steve soup order as minestrone instead of tomato and not bothered to replace it just because kitchen was closed? Zero effort of apology.

Typical barbarian stupid Czechs.

End of an early night to be ready for the next full day of TOURISTY BITS!!

Fri.24th Oct:

We woke up afresh to have our breakfast and start our day! Boat trip, then lunch at pheonix, then me and steve, 2 kebahs, went to find dan and david, then few booz, then black theatre, cats in prague. and boogie the night away with way too smoky bars that I was surprised that I survived at the end of the night.

Night ended at around 4am plus, all of us promised to meet at the random cafe few hours later for breakfast.

Sat.25th Oct - Goodbye Prague:

We skipped our hotel breakfast so we could catch up on more sleep.

No 1 turned up at the restaurant for a meal as arranged the night before. Steve and I left after hanging around for 10minutes, and went toddled around to look elsewhere for food. Steve was craving for pizza and I with my no other italian but penne.

Finally, we came across this restaurant in a random shopping mall, with the price list half the $$ as compared to the alfresco for the same food on a busy street. Food was exceptionally nice and great view looking out from the 2nd level.

I dragged Steve to the New Yorker shopping mall as he always wanted to have a browse, but typical him always like to procrastinate things-to-do until the last minute. Another random shopping mall that provides a strong contrast to the gothic Prague filled with centuries old buildings everywhere.

We hopped on to the 6pm easyjet flight back to Newcastle.


Goodbye Gotham Town.

A Long Hard Night/Day 18th Oct - FREEzy NCL 21st Oct

So it was to begin, a journey of many up's & down's!

For me, it started with emergency washing & drying of my clothes!

Shirts hanging from my fan, windows opened fully & aircon on max. A day which was filled with excitment.

By 1pm I had sucsessfully complete my packing & had all Michelle's folded ready to be dropped into her case, so i headed to the pool for an hour to catch and admire the last bit's of sun i will have for the next 3 weeks.

I headed out to meet Michelle at 3 and to pick up the last bit's & peices we needed before the off. Unfortunatley the Zara coat was weird and so we decided not to buy an there left Michelle coatless for her holiday! But we did manage to grab some lunch, and to pick up the Coffee Bean Bear as a gift for my Mam.

Termanil 3 was impressive, we arrived very early by cab to try & secure seats with extra leg room for me! Amazingly we managed to get for both flights, wow, how i needed these. We had quickly a pint & wedges at the local Harrys within the airport, awaiting our turn to go through to Duty Free.

Once inside we were impressed, i think it's only 1yr old, but still looks and feels brand new. We shopped abit with me picking up some cool water & shits and kept a lookout for the much talked about post bar. After asking 2 information desks we finally found the bar, but by this time we had to make our way down to our Gate.

Still filled with excitment we boarded our flight to Shanghai, emergency seats we had, so the crew insisted we had to read through the emergency procedures.

Once in the air, we got served our first plane food of the journey, unfortunatley this trip there was no alcohol, very strange for a 6hr flight, we were not impressed, we slept most of the way to Shanghai.

Now at Pudong Airport in Shahai, the transfer process was long and painfull, a que of people transferring to different flights all standing in one que, with one girl taking her sweet time. Somewhat agrovating me, but 30mins later we were toddling through the airport, not to sure if we had to collect our bags or not we asked a few people for clarification. Then suddenly, we were outside, quite funny as i did not have a china visa, but we took the time for a quick picture the darted back inside for some refreshing and some rest.

Once checked in, we quickly reliesed that the airport had little to offer compared to T3 of Singapore, Michelle sat with me lying down and we slept for 2-3hrs. Upon waking up, we hit a little cafe inside and had steamed dumplings and french fries with a coffee, wow so nice. haha

Then it was time for our 2nd plane, and i'm happy to say, they served alcohol. Sitting in exactley as the first flights, we once again had to read the emergency procedures sheet.

This flight was abt 12hrs, we on & off slept and ate, starting the full journey with few beers to relax us.

We arrived at Heathrow bang on time(Michelle: arrived at 7pm, in the custom queue at 715pm, out of airport in like 30minutes-( idiot custom officer asked me lotsa craps, and pretty unfriendly and harsh. Who the hell knew I need to carry my leaving boarding pass with me when I only just arrived? Didn't let her get in my way. She and her Muthu's ass. Cockney shit¬...) Anyway, out of airport, called for assistance with the telephone found on the unattended hertz booth, called for the hire van, got to hertz hire car company at T1 at 8pm, and we hit the road with the fiat car at 8.15pm!xx), and to our amazment it was quiet, think we were at T2, i quickly dashed through passport control and collected the bags, Michelle followed abt 10mins later and within 30mins we had been collected by a Hertz minbus on the way to collect our car.

The car was a little new Fiat Punto, a silver/blue colour and this would be the first manual car i would drive since my last holiday in the uk, excited for the journey, we bumped straight out, and flew up the M25 and M1.

First service station we stocked up on chocolate and redbull, we tried to call Bob to see if he could help us out with our suprise arrival, but knowone was in! Hmmm... We were a little worried incase they had left for the weekend, but we carried on, Michelle snoozing and me trancing at the cats eyes. Second service station i grabbed a coffee to perk me up slightly, but within minutes of leaving a needed a pee, so the third service station came quickly after. By this time it was 20+hrs of traveling and was 12 midnight, i was sleepy, s we pulled over for a couple of hors kip. Waking up, we jumped straight back on tho the A1 and were away again.

The arrival to Aston Way was at 4am, knocking on the door was pointless, so i phoned, my Mam thought i was joking at first, but within a second was at the door welcoming us, a second behind her was a very sleepy Abbie, then a moment later a Bob! haha...

It was a nice arrival and we caught up for a while drinking hot chocolate, and giving Ab's her 100 Hello Kitty presents we had shipped over with us.

Her face was a sheer delight, even at this time in the morning. We departed off to bed at around 6am, and bless, Abbie was just to excited with her gifts to sleep.

The first day, i flew up to the airport early to drop off the hire car, with Bob on my tail for the return journey. We grabbed Rich on the way back then headed straight out to find Michelle a winter Jacket to help her in this extrweme cold weather. TK Max, just as i remember is a wkd shop, here we got the jacket and we quickly dashed to town to browse for a while and had a drink at the Bridge before heading home. A lazy evening watching movies and a early night as we were all pooped.

Monday was also a lazy day for us, we dashed off with our Gran & Mam to Tesco's which is a beast of a super market. I pushed Gran round in a wheelchair while we got a big shop in.

Michelle & I picked up Ab's from school and had a nice Chicken & Chips dinner. Later part of the evening we went to Fonz's house with Jig, chilled in & caught up with old times. Michelle snoozed on the sofa. haha

Tuesday was a busier day, we walked Abbie to school, then hopped onto the bus to town. I picked up a couple of pairs of jeans and we got 2 England shirts for a complete bargin. Couple shirts we now have! :) In the evening, i spoke to Andy in Paris and curled up on the sofa. We all ended up asleep.

Now it's Wednesday, and we are about to pack for the trip to Prague. Wooo Hooo

See Ya

x

(Michelle: My turn next to write for the following few days! In Prague from 22th to 25th Oct, to party like a rock star! haha. Stay Tuned...)