Of trains and getaways

You gotta love travelling in London. The rush hour, the sardine-packed tubes, delays, bad breaths - they certainly make the 9-to-5 routine much more appealing.

As much as I hate the very nature of it all, I have become quite reliant on the public transports here. And despite a lot of things, I have grown to appreciate it lately. Simply because I feel that that's the only time when I can really.... escape.

These days I take the train a lot. Funny, but everytime I'm on it, I have to sit facing the direction of the motion of the train. One, because I get easily sick when I travel against motion. And two, I do believe that it gives me a sense of looking ahead. A silly way of leaving trails of the past behind, but whatever works, ey?

When everyone else is either engrossed in a book to kill time on the train, or bobbing their heads to the tunes on their iPod, I on the other hand just let the little wheels and machines in my head do what they do best. I look out the window and it is within these 30 minutes that I paint the greatest picture of my future. I'm either a CEO, an event planner for a big charity event or a guest on a prime-time TV's greatest talk show. I give my parents the best lives they've ever dreamed of. My beautiful daughter is a heart-breaker and my son sings like John Legend.

I become a best-friend to many and become their favorite listener. I enter a room and people turn their heads towards me - probably because they just saw me on the cover of Fortune or okay, Tatler. When I walk, I walk with pride - even for the simplest fact that my son won 3rd in 'lari dalam guni'. I make changes to the Malaysian corporate culture, and who knows, a key investor in Jhabudd's. I touch lives, I make a change to the world.

But as soon as I reach my stop, that is when those dreams just wither away. I put on my scarf, get off the train and within seconds I see before me a life, remotely connected to what it could possibly be. But yet, hesitantly, I live it anyway.

McGifferts in London baby!

Abe and Marien left London yesterday. I wish they could stay longer but life must go on ey? To say I’m upset is an understatement. To say that I’m in a state of shock may lead to you asking me why? Well, let’s just say I was brought back on track when they were around. All work issues, relationship issues and issues in general were cast aside. I was able to laugh again, think again and speak again. But now that they’re gone home, I am set full-gear into reverting to the mundane life. Tomorrow I will be leaving for Essex, for an away-job for a week. How’s that for a shock?

I must say that our holiday was incredibly chillaxin’ and drama-free (aside from Abe’s love debacle but that’s a different story ;) ). On a typical day, Marien is first to rise and she then heads for the shower, and starts singing. And when she reaches for the high notes, that's when the rest of us are woken up definitely :)

And as soon as we step out into the streets, that’s when chaos is created and highlights made. From Mary’s huge purchase on make-up at Selfridges to Abe’s ‘Where the hot chicks at? Where the hot chicks at?’ From 'The Producers' the musical to checking out hot Lebanese-kebab-shop waiters. From a little sight-seeing to treating our taste buds to Chinese, Korean, Indian, Japanese, Indonesian, Malaysian, Lebanese, Malaysian, Lebanese, Malaysian, Malaysian. From dressing up for no reason to our own version of Battle of Waterloo stage-play. From charades in the middle of the street, to making new friends. From 'Redef' to video-recording every single freaking moment possible. From rounds of shisha, to rounds of Nahar's awesome Milo, to many more rounds of "Hey, you ok? Wanna talk about it?"

One of the many highlights was when Mimi and Raf came all the way from Milan to pay a visit. Yup, they too bunked at my place that for some nights we were all packed like sardines in my teeny-weeny studio. But it was all good fun. We spent New Year’s Eve at the London Eye and we had a fantastic view of the fireworks I must say. While some of us may have wallowed a little in the new years blues (yours truly included), one of us (Abe) simply chose to be in denial, which came off quite clearly from his incessant singing of ‘London Bridge is Falling Down’ in a Texan accent, all the way from London Eye to Bayswater. Annoying jugak laaa hehe. At one point, Hadi, David and Terry were around too. It was almost like a mini-RPI reunion here in London.

For a little winding down on a typical night, it’s always us, some Marks & Sparks dessert and DVDs that do the trick. Sometimes, it’s Russell Peters’ very racist but very funny comedy show. Sometimes a mini-karaoke. And sometimes it's just us ranting on world issues that we wish to change but can't, weaving dreams, making guilty confessions and witnessing each other's good times and bad times. By 4, Mary and I are sprawled on the bed, while Abe does it Japanese-style, where he sleeps on the wooden floor. All of us ‘lulled’ by his incessant snoring. That usually marks the end of the day. Maybe very uneventful to some, but certainly not for me.

Thank you guys for coming. Thank you for being there. More trips in the future? This time hopefully with the rest of the McGifferts yeah?