Tea & croissant: Farewell, London

  After a rather enjoyable bus trip, I finally reached London in the nick of time. This is the common weather in London: cloudy and gloomy.

I was at the actual Victoria Station and not our Victoria Station.

To be honest, I was rather worried that the bus may be delayed and I would just miss my flight altogether. Throughout the journey, there were many things plaguing me. What if the bus was late or we got stuck in traffic? Would my luggage fit into the compartment? How much €/£ would be sufficient? The list goes on and on.

You'd think that I fare better once back home. That comes with its own set of worries. Never ending😟

 My outfit from Paris to London to KL. 24hours. No shower. It was actually quite bearable until I landed in KLIA.

 Took a loo break because I didn't know that there was a toilet on the bus. Not that I had to hold it in for long as we did make a stop halfway through for breakfast. While our toilets sell sanitary pad only, these comes with the basic package to get you laid. Sanitary pad if you are getting a different kind of action, painkillers if that headache is killing you, mints to freshen your breath and obviously, we want to practice safe sex.

 From the bus station, I had to get over to the train station. This was where it got complicated. As it was a Friday evening, the station was crowded and it took me awhile to buy the train tickets. After that, it took me longer to figure out which platform and what train. The only salvation was the train was quite punctual and didn't take that long.

However, it was really packed that there was just no room to stand, let alone sit. There was an Singh man who was reading his newspaper beside me, by the door. After he was done with it, he left it by the door handle. Then, the paper fell onto the floor. And he left it there. I was like, wtf, you just littered in the train. We are not talking about sweet wrapper but a newspaper.

  After checking in, I had a quick bite because there wasn't much time left before the boarding gate opens. If you are doing the same thing (bus-train), best to get a bus that arrives 1.5hours or even 2 before your check-in time. Heathrow is a very busy airport. Even if you've got priority check-in, it would still take you sometime to get to the gate. It was just that big and busy.

 While waiting for the boarding call, I walked around to see if there's any souvenir to get. What is your take on them? I used to like people buying stuff when they return from their holiday but after awhile, it loses its novelty.

 There is a section in the KonMari method when dealing with this (spoiler alert: discard). Which is why, I bought nothing of such thing.

 Not for myself. Not for anyone. What I took home where mostly memories.

Plus, someone already got me fridge magnets from Paris and London 😉

This time around, I didn't get to fly in business class. But at least it wasn't economy class either. So what's it? They call it World Traveller Plus or  premium economy. Smack between the business and economy class, I got the window seat at the last wrong. Think the air stewardess did me a favor during the check-in when she saw that I was traveling alone. It was quite the best seat due to its proximity to the loo and hey, it's a window seat.

 Although it has the word economy, it's still quite good and not that far off from its business class. For one, I  still do get the toiletry kit albeit downsized. The pillow was tempting but I resisted the temptation to act like typical old Asians, stealing things from airplanes. I'll ask my parents the next time they fly 😁

It was great that wine was still available with some snacks too. The mini pretzels were good in staving off the built up hunger. For that day, it was just snacks and drinks until I got onto the plane. Not the best idea but all the rushing just kept me occupied. It was only when I sat on the plane that my tummy went, "Eh, you know you haven't eaten anything substantial for the day, right? Maybe just 2 squashed croissants".

 As it was a red eye flight, the first meal was a dinner and I didn't skip on it this time as there was barely enough time for food in between all the mad dashing. Can you guess my choice?

 It couldn't be that hard.

 Asian-style slaw with soy dressing. The purple should be from beet root. It was a bit weird. There was nothing Asian about it.

 Seared fillet of British beef with chantenany carrots, Lyonnaise potatoes, buttered savoy cabbage and sherry peppercorn sauce.
I wish I could attribute the unappetizing appearance solely to my phone camera but the real thing was not that much better. The beef was overcooked that my fellow neighbor asked if I needed help to hack it apart. Everything else was quite mushy but the beef. Overall, the flavors were great. Only thing that spoiled the meal was the overcooked beef. Otherwise, fantastic.

 Chocolate pot. As its name suggest, it's like a chocolate mousse. Usually, I'd give this a pass because they look so boring. However, this one was almost like buttery smooth texture and not overly sweet. It has a hint of hazelnut (think: Nutella). Quite a perfect ending to my first and last meal of the day on this side of the hemisphere.

Although the seat doesn't open up to a full bed, you can recline and have more leg space. Since there was no one else behind, I could max it out but you would be wrong to think that after a long tiring day, sleep would come easy. It didn't. I barely slept through the night (the flight was at around 10pm). Napped few times but nothing lasted like my relationships that I gave up (again like my relationships) and watched movies instead.

Soon enough, it was time for breakfast. It was morning in some parts of the world. Just not necessarily where we were flying over at that point of time. I did manage to catch the sunrise and yes, it was beautiful.

 Milking in the last of my Western journey, I had the typical English breakfast. Devoured everything because it was warm and I was hungry/bored.