.: ShaolinTiger - Kung-Fu Geekery :.

I chose to fly Emirates back to UK as it's the only airline that flies to Birmingham International Airport (BHX). The rest fly to Manchester or London, London is a real hassle to get out of (and expensive). Manchester isn't too bad but it's still a couple of hours drive up the M6.

BHX is just about 25 minutes from my house as it's not far off the M5 motorway, and so is my house! It was a fairly uneventful journey, the planes were on time, I slept a bit in Dubai airport during the transit, we got exit seats for both legs of the journey (yay!).

Weather was actually pretty nice when we landed in UK (it was mid afternoon) and it wasn't too cold.

Then a short trek back to Worcester down the motorway, it was such a pleasure to be back in UK with no-one hogging the outside lane, everyone in the inside or middle lane. It's so relaxing to drive in UK compared to KL.

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So my trip is almost coming to an end, 3 weeks seems like an awfully short time when you are having fun!

I thought it'd seem like a longgggg break, I guess life in KL is too hectic sometimes - it's a good feeling to have nothing to do, to be away from the Internet and have nowhere to rush to.

It's so much more relaxing driving here as everyone is so civilized, thankfully the weather has been pretty nice too.

Been down to Minehead in Somerset for some seaside and awesome food cooked by my aunt, been up Malvern Hills, been up to Birmingham a couple of times (not my favourite place), been up to Liverpool and even further up to Blackpool!

Had a pretty varied trip really, seen a good portion of UK.

I'm not looking forwards to the 20 odd hour flight back...leaving here on 26th afternoon and reaching back on 27th afternoon!

Emirates service has definitely gone down, the movies are on demand though and you still have a personal screen which is bigger, the food is still pretty good but the service is gone, they hardly bring drinks around, the stewardesses seem to not want to serve you, you can press the service bell and get no response.

Will pop down to Worcester town to get some stuff this afternoon, it's weird getting used to the fact that the shops close at 5.30pm - can't imagine how I managed with that when I lived here.

Sometimes England seems so backwards.

I've had a great time though, wish I had another couple of weeks to catch a premiership match, head to the lake district, maybe over to Dublin too.

So many things I want to see still, lots of Europe I haven't seen either. Oh well plenty more years to go, just have to save up the moolah.

Back to KL soon though, back to work, back to Starbucks, back to parties, back to lots of sweating.

You can find all the posts on my UK trip:

UK Trip - August 2008

So tonight I'm flying off to UK for 3 weeks! Finally a well deserved quiet time, some time to do nothing, take some pictures of flowers and insects and nature (ok maybe some hot white chicks too if I find any..).

Time to relax, read some books, walk in the countryside, eat some cream cakes, pork pies, scotch eggs, mushy peas, fish and chips, full english breakfast, sunday roast, bangers and mash, bubble and squeak, toad in the hole, chicken cordon bleu, gammon steak, chicken tikka masala, crispy aromatic duck, strawberries and cream, apple and blackberry crumble, meringue...and the list goes on! I'm salivating already.

Bacon and Egg sarnies of course.

Fish and Chips and Mushy Peas with a nice cold BEER!

3 weeks with no parties, no events, no forced late nights, no meetings, no nonsense, no nothing except what I want to do!

I'm taking Emirates, my favourite long haul airline. The service is good, they've never been delayed so far, the planes are in good condition, the crew are very professional and polite and quite chatty, the food is decent, the movies on the plane are excellent, Dubai is a pretty nice airport to spend a few hours in and the prices are reasonable too!

Qatar Airways was slightly cheaper, but they only fly to Manchester, which is a few hundred miles further from my places than Birmingham airport.

The worst so far is still KLM, bad food, HORRIBLE staff and can be quite often delayed...the upside is you do get to transit in Amsterdam with all the PORN!

The last time I was back in UK was in 2006, I didn't manage to get back last year...so this trip is going to be awesome! The fact my photography has improved a little is a bonus.

I've persuaded my Mom to get a new computer too so no more Pentium II 333mhz for me! Hopefully will be able to upload some better stuff this time.

I'm hoping the weather is more like this.

And less like this.

Updates may be a little infrequent until I'm back on August 27th, but I'll do the best I can and I've drafted up a few things just in case.

I'll probably check back in when I'm in Dubai in the middle of the night and I'll reach UK around midday tomorrow (about 8pm tomorrow night).

You can find all the posts on my UK trip:

UK Trip - August 2008