Birthweek: Next Stop, London!

November 6, 2011

For the closure of my Birthweek, I went to London with Mr. Nottingham. Yup, you heard me right.

After some times planning this trip, I finally went to London by bus. I admit that I was a bit late, because if only I booked the bus ticket earlier, I was probably able to get better deal. But that’s fine, I don’t want to spoil the fun because of the ticket price.

I arrived at about 10 a.m. at Victoria Coach Station. I know it wasn’t so far from Westminster Abbey because I saw the route from my window. Actually, I know that if I wanted to make it easier, I would just need to go and get a taxi there. But then I thought, where’s the adventure? So I walked from the coach station to Westminster Abbey, which Mr. Nottingham and I has decided as our meeting point.

After I met Mr. Nottingham (a little bit awkward because it was the first time we met, after the first time we met two months ago), we walked to Buckingham Palace. Yes we walked. And, actually, we walked a lot there. As the engineer in our group of two, he has calculated that we walked more than 10 km for our two days trip! I believe I lost some weight after that!

Actually, this was a budget trip! We don’t spend a lot of money to have fun. We skipped some place which we knew would cost us a lot of money and time, like London Eye, and instead buying some food, sit and had dinner together at the Thames Riverside. It could be romantic, but for us, it was all fun!

We also had a late night walk, from Earl’s Court where we spend the night, up to High Kensington where we can see nice restaurants and cafes, and beautiful houses. We decided to have a drink and shisha on one of the cafe there, and talked. Yes we talked a lot, and it was really a pleasant way to end a day.

In the morning of the second day, we starved! So, we walked to one of a small restaurant who sells Classing English Breakfast.

Some of us knew English Breakfast Tea… What I had wasn’t the tea. It was a real breakfast. I’ll give you the image so you can imagine how full I was after the breakfast.

Not so many people know that there is Sherlock Holmes Museum in London. even one of my teacher admitted that he never heard of this museum. The museum is located at 221B Baker Street (the actual address of the well-known detective). It was so much fun. Please guys remind me that I will buy Mr. Atheist the Sherlock Holmes’ hat later before I go back to Indonesia :D

Unfortunately, I lost my watch. Yes, you right. I lost so many things lately, and I hope the watch would be the last thing I lose (at least this year). But, would that make me less happy then? Of course not! I was so happy when I went back to Norwich, although I know this London trip is the end of my Birthweek. I can’t wait until my next birthday again…

Birthweek: Coldplay

November 5, 2011

Like what I have told you before on my previous entries, I finally got my Coldplay ticket.

Have I told you, I hate people being late and give no confirmation about anything. Unfortunately, my friend was somehow someone who doesn’t really care about time. She’s like being late almost all the time at class, and I didn’t understand what’s going on in her mind… She wanted to be late for the concert to? Hell fuckin’ no!

The main entrance opened at about 7 p.m., and when I got there, at 6 p.m., there were like hundreds of people who have already queued. Everyone wanted to get in early and stand as close as they could to the stage. I wanted that too! Too bad, my friend wasn’t thinking the same (and she got our tickets!!)

Luckily, inside the venue, we was able to find a good spot, where we can still manage to watch the whole show clearly. Okay, I admit that sometimes I wanted to smack some heads so I can see the band clearer, but so overall, I got one of the best view.

I like the opening DJ. He was able to keep the crowd steamed even Coldplay came a bit late. But, that wasn’t my main reason why I love Zane Lowe, the DJ. I love him because he played songs from my favorite bands. He opened his show with “We Will Rock You”, and he also played “Wonderwall” by the legendary OASIS. He even played “Smells Like Teen Spirit”! How cool was that?

I am glad that it was a pretty small gig, because there were not so many people there. Only some people who really wanted to be there came, and had fun. It was a really good crowd. Usually I hate crowd, but for that particular moment, I love them.

Trying to capture the whole concert was next to impossible. Not only that I don’t have a sufficient equipment to record it, but I dropped my camera and broke it in the beginning of the concert. Don’t worry the file is safe, but I could only record the rest of the event with my phone. Of course the picture quality is horrible, but it’s better than nothing. Even, I have something to show you :D

Yap… I hold the copyright of this video :) Enjoy!

Birthweek: 24 (2)

November 3, 2011

H+9

I talked to Chi, a Japanese friend in one of my class. She greeted me happy birthday, and she asked me if I was going to watch the Coldplay gigs or not. I told her that I couldn’t because I didn’t have the ticket. She told me, that one of her friends had an extra ticket. What as small world, the friend she was talking about was one of my friends too… So I just made a call, and got the breaking news. The ticket was still available.

H+12

After lunch, I went to the box office with Chu, hoping that we could changed the name on the ticket so I could buy the ticket from her. Actually, we knew that the ticket is fixed, and you can’t rename the ticket, but I don’t know how we did it, but we assure the lady in the box office to do it for us. I GOT THE COLDPLAY TICKET!!

H+15

I GOT MY NEW PHONE…. The salesperson was really nice, knowing that it was my birthday. He was really helpful, and to be honest he was good looking too. But, no… I didn’t flirt with him. That was my day, and if there’s anyone should got flirted it should be me :D

The Salesperson showed me the way I should take if I wanted to go to the beer festival. What a nice day!

H+17

A birthday dinner with Denise, and my other flatmates. I was home late so Shan couldn’t have dinner with us. But Denise spent her time at my flat and it was a really fun talk with her. We also distribute the noodles to our Chinese friends, because the Chinese believes in birthday noodles. The noodles Denise made was really delicious.

We also made banana fritters, and ate some cake (or pie). She brought me Pringles too… I really forgot about diet whatsoever that day.

H+20

Cher and I went to the city to the Beer Festival. It rocks!!

I mean, even if it wasn’t my birthday, it still rocks. The fun is doubled because it was my birthday. I knew my birthday is almost over… SO… I took what I could take:)

We drank different kind of beer and cider, and it was really an interesting experience. The local beer, was the best for me. And of course the cider. I don’t really like the beer from other counties. So I think if it’s possible, I will get a job in Norwich, live here, and enjoy the local beer for the rest of my life….

D+1

I just got home and felt really happy. My birthday is over, but I decided, this year, it is going to be Birthweek for me!

 

Birthweek: The Beginning

October 31, 2011

I believe I have told you before in the previous entry that suddenly I started to think a lot about my birthday here in Norwich. Not that I wanted to make a festive birthday celebration, but I was thinking of being kind to myself because of what I have been doing so far. I really needed to appreciate myself. A lot.

So, when I heard that Coldplay was going to have a small gig in my campus, I decided that the gig was going to be a birthday gift from me for myself. But, unfortunately, in that fateful morning, I couldn’t get the ticket. Like what I said before, it was a small gig, so there were only few could get the ticket, and according to the rumors, the ticket sold out only in several hours.

Lots of student who queued got really angry, because there were many outsider came and bought the ticket. But that wasn’t what made me angry… it was because I couldn’t even give myself something good for my own birthday. I started to feel sorry for myself, and drowned to the most pitiful state, which I didn’t need to do. Little did I know it was the beginning of all troubles for the next days.

First of all, I really got drunk. And, there were so few I could remember about what happened that night. I am pretty sure I did something stupid, I don’t need to explain here in the public area, but you know how stupid anyone when they got really drunk. And, when I am thinking about it now… I feel so silly that I have done that, because it was not supposed to be like that.

And then, I lost my glasses. That was the second hit, because I really love that glasses. No, I don’t have any emotional attachment to that glasses, but it was my favorite glasses, and it was the cheapest glasses I have ever bought. So it meant a lot to me. But I couldn’t find it anywhere in one morning… Like what I have said, I just couldn’t remember anything. Even until now.

Desperation struck me, and I lost my mood to celebrate my birthday. I didn’t talk about to anyone. I just wanted to sleep my birthday away… But this is still the beginning…

Challenge 25

October 8, 2011

Berbeda dengan di Indonesia, di sini minuman beralkohol dijual bebas, dan harganya pun tidak terlalu mahal. Jadi, pada dasarnya siapa saja yang berusia di atas 18 tahun bisa mengkonsumsinya. Yap! Di sini, 18 tahun adalah usia legal meminum minuman beralkohol, bukan 21 seperti di Indonesia.

Akan tetapi, banyak supermarket menggunakan istilah Challenge 25. Maksudnya Challenge 25 adalah, kalau kamu tidak terlihat seperti berusia 25 tahun ke atas, maka untuk membeli minuman beralkohol itu kamu akan diminta mengeluarkan kartu identitas yang membuktikan kalau kamu sudah cukup umur. Bukan apa-apa… mungkin karena banyak anak-anak muda berwajah tua di sana, jadi mereka merasa bisa membeli asalkan tampangnya tuwir.

“Can I have your ID for the smirnoff please?”, kasir supermarket itu bertanya kepada saya.

Maklum, ternyata tampang saya masih dianggap dibawah 25 oleh mereka. Padahal… padahal… padahal kan… >_<’

Bukannya nyombong yah… tapi memang tampang saya ga keliatan seperti mau ambil Post Graduate di sini :p Nyombong deng… tapi ga papa kan? Selama ada yang masih bisa disombongin, boleh lah nyombong sesekali. Bukan cuma orang barat aja yang mengira saya masih kecil, bahkan orang asia sekali pun nggak tau kalau saya lebih tua dari kebanyakan dari mereka. Mr Nottingham aja ga percaya waktu saya kasih tahu umur asli saya (yang lebih tua 2-3 tahun di atas dia :p)

Malah, kemaren Mr Atheist bilang kalau muka saya waktu umur 21 sama muka saya sekarang nggak ada bedanya. Sedangkan waktu saya umur 21 teman saya bilang muka saya sejak SMA sampe umur 21 tidak berubah. Saya menyimpulkan, muka saya belom berubah sejak SMA. Enak yah? Apa gara-gara selama ini saya dengan si Onyed yang lebih muda dari saya 5 tahun itu ya makanya saya mukanya muda terus?

Tapi keawet mudaan saya ini tidak ada apa-apanya kalau dibandingkan dengan adik saya si Lala itu. Kalau liat dia, yang terbayang bukan anak SMA atau perempuan berusia 20 an. Tapi… tapi… tapi… Anak SMP!! Iri ga sih iri ga sih?

Nggak juga…