Bye Bracknell

One more night, one more sleep. I almost finish packing, only need to add few more things tomorrow morning. Now that it's almost time to go, I want to freeze the memories of these last three weeks. A few points of high and low as my sweet reminder.

The High
- Love the hotel, the room was fantastic. Well, not really a room actually, it's more like a mini studio apartment. A luxury compared to all my previous courses. The hotel is also well located. Right in the middle of the town centre and only 15min walking from the office.
- Love my morning walk to the office. Love the feel of cold, fresh air against my face. Love the colour of autumn everywhere, lighting up even the greyest day.
- Love the tunnels that they used as street crossing here. They're all decorated with gorgeous wall painting.
- Love London. I always love London. The architecture, the history, even the greyness of it. If I imagine London as a man, I think of it like an old man with infinite wisdom, full of wrinkle, a bit grumpy but with lots of dry humour. A friendly grandpa. I don't know why I think of London that way. I just do.
- Love all those old pub. The low ceiling. The wobbly wooden tables & chair.
- Speaking of pub, would definitely remember the three guys I've been hanging out in these course. 1 Venezuelan, 1 Colombian, 1 Brazilian. I'm very grateful that they make an effort of not speaking in Spanish whenever I'm around, even if I happen not to be involve with that conversation. I love it that we could have fun drinking together regardless of the age, cultural and technical knowledge difference. I found it hilarious that it only took 2 beers for those guys to start talking about finite elements and geomathematical modelling. Crazy people :D I can't even imagine talking about it sober.

The Low
- Three weeks are just too long. Since I have the additional 1 week in KL, it's even worst. I miss home, miss my hubby, miss my crazy cats.
- Sandwich, sandwich, sandwich... Aaargh... having sandwich for lunch every single weekday is just too much for my Asian tummy.
- Wish the course was better structured with better time management.

My lifeline

Books. My one constant never-fail-to-be-there companion. My teacher, my best friend, my lifeline. During one of my darkest hour, when human contact pained me more than it consoled me, books were my lifeline. The story distracted me from my own misery, mummed my screaming brain. It's the lifeline that kept me for not drowning.

I grew up as an avid reader. I was lucky, we lived nearby a good local library. It was a favourite hang-out place for me and my friends. And no, we were not geeks. In those days, being seen in library was not consider a capital sin. I read anything, anywhere, anytime possible.

My reading frequency reduced drastically once I started working. I found it hard to muster the energy to read book after a long hectic day of working. With book, you need concentration to digest the language, devour the words, respect the message that the author trying to pass. It was much easier to turn on the TV instead and watch mindless show. Reading book become a side activity just before I go to sleep. Sometime I can't even finish reading 1 page. It's no wonder that lately it could take me anywhere between 2 to 8 weeks to finish one book.

But these last 3.5 weeks have been an exception. The course I'm taking is not demanding. I come back every night to an empty hotel room. No husband and crazy cats that distract me. TV bored me. I couldn't stand going to the pub with my course mates every single night. So I end up finding myself with lots of time in my hand. And as usual, books never fail to save me. Even tho I was alone most of the time, I was never really lonely. Not when I'm eating my dinner, not when I was sitting in the train for 1 hour on the way to London, not when I'm stuck in those long transit hours in the airport and not (so much) when I'm trying to sleep in my vacant hotel bed.

I've read 4 novels so far and all were pretty good. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (A), I know this Much is True by Wally Lamb (A-), Water for Elephant by Sara Gruen (B) and The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (B-). I started The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, but for some reason i couldn't really grab me. So I abandon it for now.

And thanks to my Sony PRS600 Reader Touch, storing and buying books during travel have been made easy. Being a light traveler, books used to give me logistical problem. I could never seem to get the right balance between carrying too much or too little books. More often than not, I end up having to leave books behind. But problem no more! E-book store is available 24-7 online and if I want to, I could carry 1000+ books with me inside a small 2GB memory card.

I just bought two more new books for my 21 hours travel home. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie by Marry Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows and The House of Riverton by Kate Morton. Only two more nights. I think I'm ready to go :)

Up 3D

Today was a sunny sunday. A luxury after a week of grey weather. I was so looking forward to go to London to spend my last weekend there, taking a long walk by the river Thames, pass London Eye, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey... Only to found out that the train from Bracknell to London wouldn't operate due to rail work.

Bugger!!!

But it's such a georgeous day. Beautiful clear blue sky. How could I be upset for long. So instead of mopping in my hotel room, I took a long walk around the town centre. Enjoying the quite charm of a small town. And than I decide to check out the cinema.

I choosed to watch Up, a Disney/Pixar animated movie. Surely a person choice of movie could be an indication of one maturity? :) In my defence, it's in 3D format, and I haven't watched a 3D movie for a long time.

It's a good movie, not too childish for an animated movie. It's adventure, it's comedy, it's romance. The love story of Carl and his (late) wife Ellie brought tears to my eyes. It may only be a sub-plot, but it's the part that touched me the most.

And now the day has come near the end. I might not went to London and see all the monuments and shops it host, I stayed in Bracknell instead and see Paradise Falls. And the day turned out to be just as nice as I could have hope.

Bracknell

I don't know what make me visit this blog after abandoning it almost a year ago. Maybe being alone in a hotel room makes you want to connect. Anything. To anyone. Any virtual invisible soul (read: none) that ever read this blog beside me.

So much have change since I last wrote. Year has changed. Months have passed. I have graduated. Back to work again to the same company and fortunately they let me do something completly different than what I used to do.

Which lead to the why I'm in Bracknell.

Training, training and more training. 1 week in KL followed by 3 weeks in Bracknell. All for the purpose of making my grey matter fatter. Anything to make me a better commodity for the company to sell.

I've been enjoying the trip so far. The last time I was in KL was in 2003. The place change soooo much. I wished that hubby was there, it would be good if we could reminiscing the old time together. It is afterall, the city that brought us together. It's somewhat weird, although I was alone most of the time there, I never felt alone. The old shadows of the past kept me company during my long walks through those places I used to frequent. It was good to met my one of best friend there, seeing her daughter for the first time. It was amazing to see that WN, the crazy fruity girl that used to dragged me from one night club to another, being so motherly and authorative to her baby girl.

And now here I am, in Bracknell. It's a quite little town about 1 hr train away from London. The hotel i'm staying is right in the middle of the town centre. I spent last weekend to visit London. Last time I was there, it was 2002. Took the hop-on-hop-off buss. I don't think I ever could get tired of that big red open roof top bus. I think tomorrow I'll go there again, this time for shopping. Yey!!!

One more week to go. I miss my husband. I miss my smelly cats. I miss home. Eventhough I'm enjoying the trip, I can't wait to go home.