It’s been only a week since Sweetie left for Malaysia, but her absence is so strongly felt that it feels that the time that has passed has been so painstakingly slow and long. I guess whoever said that it’s always brightest after dark missed the flipside of that phrase, i.e. it’s always darkest after light. If that makes any sense.
But as Radzi pointed out to me, I should at least be grateful that we managed to spend a week together, a week that wasn’t planned for initially. And what an amazing week it was (I’m biased, but that’s only to be expected, no?). It was great walking down a street with your fingers intertwined with your loved one’s, seeing her eyes brighten up as we explored new places, feeling a sense of completeness as she tied my necktie before I went off to work, inhaling her sweet scent as we lay in each other’s arms trying to keep warm – the list is endless, and I won’t bother trying to jot down every happy memory that I’ve had over the past few weeks.
There wasn’t much to show Sweetie in Carlisle when she arrived. Her trip here was pretty much summed up by the visit to the train station, a wander around Debenhams to get a scarf to cover her nose, and a walk around Carlisle which lasted less than a hour (a mixture of extreme coldness and lack of things to do). Ended up taking her to lunch at a Spanish restaurant, where I devoured a few really large crab claws, and it was unfortunate that my fav Italian place was closed and it was more unfortunate that it wasn’t spring/summer, ‘cause a visit to the Lakes would have been nice.
But staying indoors had its merits. We exchanged gifts, and I received a belated b’day set of goodies ranging from a shirt and tie, to a tin of
Julie’s loveletters and
Famous Amos cookies (which I promptly finished in a couple of days), to a
Bone lunch box with cutesy stuff in it. We also caught up (although we do talk to each other everyday, there’s nothing quite like being in the presence of each other), allowed her to catch some shuteye and watch
Crash whilst I was at work and the poor dear was also suffering from the sudden exposure to the cold, catching a fever and sneezing and sniffling half the time with me powerless to do much except offer hot drinks or paracetamol and a hug. We did go out for dinner to an Italian place called
Vivaldi’s though, and I was pleasantly surprised that my lil group of friends here (namely Priya, Karin and Omar) took the effort to take us out and make Sweetie feel welcomed.
The trip through Newcastle was a run-through as well. Met up with Reem, Jo, Nav and a new guy called Carlos, as I had wanted Sweetie to meet up with some friends of mine, and she came away thinking that Jo is the female version of me (albeit Caucasian, with long hair and a whole lot better looking). It was fun watching the interaction between Reem and Nav as well although Sweetie started getting a lil tired when we were at the nearby pub. We went back to the girls’ place, where she met up with the rest (and with Shanti for the first time) and as per usual, I was quite happy being able to have all my close friends getting to know each other.
The next day saw us going down to Doncaster, where we caught up with Anis and Azie, who was probably the only one walking around with a jumper and nothing much else. Having just arrived from temperatures of -30C, she was feeling quite comfortable as we grumbled and cursed the zero-degree weather.
Drove straight through to Oxford in Anis’ new Clio, where Jaja’s eyes went wide with surprised when she caught sight of Reiny, and she proceeded to whack me a few times. Once again, it was a case of everyone catching up, which we did over some lovely, spicy Siamese food at a place called
Bangkok House. The perfect prescription for blocked sinuses. The manager was happily described symptoms of angina when he found out I was a doc, and I rather urgently urged him to seek appropriate treatment ASAP.
We tried exploring Oxford on our first full day there, but the cold really did put us off. We did manage to explore
Christchurch College though, which involved attempting to figure out the bits that were in Harry Potter, admiring the dining hall and the little cathedral, trying not to smirk at the ‘guardians’ that were staring at us down their long noses and sneezing every other minute.
After having coffee and snacks at what’s claimed to be Europe’s
oldest coffee house, we headed off to Bicester for a bit of shopping. Azie was especially keen, as she was on a tour of various shopping outlets. Reiny and I ended up spending more, although it was on various little things e.g. another one of my fav striped Polo t-shirts, trousers. The best buy was a pair of
Bally shoes I spotted that were rather beautiful and were the exact size for Sweetie. It was going for 30 quid, as part of the stitching had come unstuck, a defect that’s easily mended by any cobbler for 10 ringgit. Also finally caught sight of
Jimmy Choo’s boutique, where I was taught the finer points of footwear. I can now say that I understand the hoo-haa over
Jimmy Choo’s. Won’t be buying any anytime soon though (sorry Sweetie!).
Nads joined us the next day, and we started off by catching
‘The Oxford Story’, a little motion ride that is, well, the story of Oxford’s rise into prominence. Rather interesting, especially if you’re into history or if you’re just curious. Made me wonder yet again if I should’ve tried getting into Oxford, but 2 minutes later I had assured myself that it would’ve been for all the wrong reasons.
After dragging Sweetie and Nads to a comic store and a lunch of scallops, deep friend calamari, lemon sole and sea bass, we caught Brokeback Mountain. After all the hype, I was sorely disappointed as the story was pretty crap, despite a good performance by Heath Ledge. Sweetie actually fell asleep at one point. For all the talk about judging this movie as a ‘love story ‘and not a ‘gay love story’, the only thing that makes it stand out (imho) is the fact that it’s a story of love between 2 men.
Dinner consisted of dishes bought from a Malaysian-run restaurant that’s aptly called Yummy, along with leftovers from Jaja’s tour-de-force from the night before, showcasing her famous lemak cili api.
By this time, Sweetie was feeling pretty ill – in fact, most of us seem to have caught some sort of bug. Things were more or less contained with the usual paracetamol and ibuprofen, although my poor dear was coughing rather consistently. There’s nothing more depressing than knowing that there’s nothing you can do but wait in such situations, despite all the education you’ve received in medicine.
We were in London by the weekend. The hotel that we booked in at Cromwell Road was disappointing to say the least, which I lay blame on false advertising! Nad, Sweetie and myself went on to pay the Natural History Museum a visit (you can guess whose idea that was), which was followed immediately by a visit to the Harrod’s food store (purchases of souvenirs, cookies and Krispy Kreme doughnuts followed suit).
Ended the night with Jaja buying us dinner at
C&R, a chinese restaurant in Bayswater. Rather unsurprisingly, we bumped into Amir, whose house was about a 5-min walk from the place. Having not seen the guy in ages, it was good catching up and having a quick chat about random topics. After saying goodbye to him, and then Jaja, we proceeded to visit Sweetie’s friend in central London, where goodbyes were said to Anis and Azie as well (by this time, Anis was more or less bedbound and wasn’t too keen on leaving the flat!).
Sunday was a day that we were looking forward to (well, one of the days) as I had booked a couple of seats for a coach tour to the World Heritage sites of Stonehenge and Bath, along with Salisbury. Neither one of us had ever been on a guided tour before, but since Sweetie wasn’t gonna be around for that long during this trip, and we had both not been to these places (except for Bath in my case), I thought why the heck not.
Started the trip by being told we’d be going to Windsor instead of Salisbury, as there was a funeral taking place in the cathedral. Didn’t really mind, and the trip to Windsor was entertaining and rather poignant, since my mum did her nursing over there and has fond memories of the place.
Windsor’s a rather posh place, which is unsurprising since it’s home to the queen and to Eton college. I won’t write a long essay on my thoughts of England and Malaysia being infinitely better as republics, but suffice to say, a lot of money could be put to better use. It was worth the visit for the castle though, and the various treasures inside e.g. Queen Mary's Doll House that’s an exact replica of the royalty’s accommodation and features a miniature piano that actually plays and miniature taps that work, interesting drawings by Da Vinci which also highlighted his unique writing style of writing backwards and an amazing arms gallery.
Stonehenge was a lot smaller than we had expected it to be. It was fun walking around it and listening to the various mysteries surrounding the area (kinda romantic too actually). We were blessed with good weather, and loads of pics were taken, of which some will find their way to Zareen, who’s always professed a desire to visit the fabled stones.
The visit to
Bath was rather short in comparison, but the main attraction was a place that was easily covered in half an hour. We managed to sneak a peak at the glorious architecture of the little city, as well as wander for a quick walk and grab ourselves a Belgian chocolate fudge which was utterly sinful. The cathedral was nice and all, but we were too cathedral-fatigued by our previous travels. All in all, our first guided tour wasn’t bad at all (the guide was quite a funny fella whom I’d love to have had an argument with but I had decided – rather wisely I might add – to keep my mouth shut) but the best bit of it was being able to share it with a loved one that is able to appreciate it as well.
The day ended with a wonderful, early Valentine’s dinner at a seafood restaurant called
One-O-One which is at the Sheraton Park Tower’s ground floor right next to Harvey Nics. We were a little under-dressed for the place, as I was the only one without a collar and wearing jeans, but they were nice enough to let us in! We spent a good period of time admiring the décor and the cutlery, as well as the efficiency of the staff who consisted of French guys and gals who were all in their mid-20s. Even the maitre d’ and sommelier were no older than 30.
The food was wonderful to the taste – my sea bass almost had the texture of chicken - and a sight to behold. The service was prompt and friendly, and we were quite impressed listening to our food being described to us in French accents. All in all, it might be a little on the pricey side, but it’s highly recommended for a special occasion.
Sweetie’s penultimate day in England was spent waking up late and wondering the streets of London – from Knightsbridge, where we finally had lunch at
Wagamama, to Covent Garden, where Sweetie purchased a rather nice handbag, to Carnaby Street, where I got myself a t-shirt for 5 quid after spending the entire day looking for one (I had run out of clothes to wear for the next day).
At night, we went over to Her Majesty’s Theatre and caught Sweetie’s first viewing of
Phantom of the Opera. The prices I paid for the seats were worth it, as we had an excellent view of pretty much everything but the orchestra. The musical was brilliant as always, with me probably being annoying as always too by humming along to the more popular tunes. And the guy who played the Phantom seemed to have done particularly well with an amazingly rich dissonance to his voice.
By supper (kebab eaten on the bed), we were both feeling quite elated and depressed at the same time. Sweetie packed up her stuff and we dozed off to The Dreaming. Morning came all too soon and amid scenes of teary eyes, we got ourselves ready for the airport. Checking in wasn’t too bad, and we made way thereafter to grab a cup of coffee at Starbucks, where we coincidentally bumped into Amir and Ninie, as the former was off to M’sia too.
We shared some drinks and chatted awhile before separating to say our goodbyes. Was I sad? Does a hibiscus have 5 petals? Saying goodbye is never easy, especially after you’ve had the best time of the year so far, time spent that won’t ever be replicated until we gaze into each other’s eyes and lock hands again. It was a good thing that Ninie and I shared the tube ride back to Euston, as we prevented each other from dwelling on our emotions for too long. Even then, the trip back to Carlisle wasn’t exactly the most cheerful of experiences and I spent the next few days drowning my sorrows by munching on an obscene amount of cookies.
