23:59 (SG) --> 6:00 (UK)
The flight was looong. 13 hours in the air. Luckily with my small toddly size, I manage to lie flat comfortably on 3 seats to sleep.
6:00 --> 8:00
And finally the flight landed. The custom was slow as the queue was terribly long. One phenomenon was interesting. There were 3 queues:
(1) UK residents.. there was no queue, only a few whites went in.
(2) UK visa holders.. it was a long long queue with a variety of people - chinese, japanese, whites......
(3) All others... it was also a long long queue but with only blacks.
8:00 --> 9:00
After the long flight and long custom, I arrived at terminal 4 of Heathrow airport. Sadly, I still have to travel to terminal 3 to wait for my school coach. The journey to T3 is equally bad. With our super heavy luggage, we walked a long way to the train station at T4 to hop on the tube to travel to T3. And the train ride was long too.
9:00 --> 14:00
At T3, it was waiting, waiting and more waiting. First, we got to report to the school's personnel to take attendance, next we have to wait for the coach to arrive. The coach was supposed to leave at 11:00, but in the end, it was delayed till 14:00. Inefficient. It was annoying to witness the inefficiency and "taking their own sweet time" attitude when we had already waited so long and getting so so tired. Now I finally understand why are the ang mohs so patient and well-mannered. Because they have been trained to wait and tolerate this inefficiency and we in SG cannot stand!
14:00 --> 18:00
The coach ride was 2.5 hours. Along the way, we see nothing except for big patches of grassland, cows, sheeps and small cottages. I thought I was in UK, but it looks like NZ! Hahaa.. Anyway apart from the scenic view, the coach ride was a terrible experience. Somehow, I wonder how the ang mohs are thinking. The coach driver didn't seem to know where he should go to let us alight. No planning was done to the route the coach has to take. And it was stopping over and asking the school's personnel all the while. My hall was supposed to be the nearest and first to reach, but the coach can simply drive pass and stopped at the further halls and then U turn back in the end. The road was too small and the coach was too big to turn anywhere. Hence, we had many jams, many dead engines and more waiting to be done.
18:00 --> 21:00
We met the Hall warden and he was so tall! Oh my... He has to bend down while talking to me! That's pathetic. But nonetheless, we were shown to our temporary room which we had to lived for 3 days before shifting to our permanent room, which was occupied then. Unpacking was done minimally to avoid any hassle 3 days later.
21:00 --> 23:00
Realising that we had alot of necessities, eg. pillows, blanket cover... to buy, we rushed out to a 24hr hypermarket to do our shopping immediately. It takes half an hour to walk to the hypermarket and the road was dark and desserted. Feels the danger coming anytime... But it was just my paranoid over-skepticism. We had to buy alot of household items! Kettles, pillows, table lamp, pots, pans, washing powder, detergent, bath cream, blah blah blah... It's madness carrying them back at night on our two feets with the cold wind blowing at your face!
So this is my 24-hr (or more than that!) journey from leaving my SG house to settling down in my new hm in UK. TIRED x million times!
