Boxing day

It was Boxing day year 1996. We were in Marks and Sparks. Mom was going crazy over the suits on sale. Dad and brother was at the biscuits counter. My sister and I was at the bras and knickers section.
The alarm went off. Everyone stopped browsing and people at the counter was trying to tell the cashiers to hurry up.
There was a PA System announcement. It said "Dear customers. Please evacuate the building immediately. Please follow the instructions of the sales assistance and head towards the exit immediately"
Almost everyone panicked. I then heard someone said "Its a bomb scare...lets get out"

I grabbed my sister's hand and we rushed to the closest exit. I met my mom, dad and brother outside. My dad had a basket full of biscuits and chocolates. My mom had a basket full of clothing, and a handful of suits.
She said "Darn, how am I going to buy this now?"

We waited for almost a good hour. There were people walking out with their unpaid items. The sales assistance were trying very hard to let them wait for the "safe" announcement.
There was a few who simply walked out chucking their items into their shopping bags. I'm sure some didn't even pay for the items. Oxford Street was busy at this time of the year. No one took any notice of the alarms setting off in almost all the shops surrounding Marks and Sparks.

The police, ambulance and fire brigade came almost the next minute. They rushed in, told everyone to stand back. And 30 minutes later, they came out and said Coast is clear...

After all that wait, it suddenly hit my mom that there could actually be real threat in Oxford Street. So we headed to Bond Street instead, leaving all the unpaid items at the entrance and hope that someone else picks it up to return it back on the racks.
When I mentioned this to my uni mates they simply said "clueless person you people. Should have just did what everyone else did. Could have saved yer mum a few quids there"

Well, what can I say... We're just honest. Not clueless.... hahahaha

I remember when...

1) I was heading to Tesco and know that I only have ₤5 to spare
2) I was at Tesco asking for cash back of ₤20 when I know its my last ₤20
3) As I stepped in Top Shop I alrady knew I could not buy anything
4) Spending ₤60 on Acupuncture shoes when I received some money for the week from my wages
5) Wishing that I am no longer in University so I don't have any "issues" with money
6) Going into town for the weekend before Christmas
7) Asking for a Ted Baker jacket as a Christmas Present
8) When he walked in and passed me the bronzing cream from Boots after 2 days of arguing about whether I needed it
9) Millennium party with his family
10) Christmas morning before the roast chicken and potato's

Summer Festivals

When I first heard about Reading Festival, I thought it was a festival where you read books. And what's the fun in that? Don't get me wrong, Ive always been into books, but not until i would want to attend a festival for!
So anyway, C (my then bf) said we should get tickets and join the rest of our friends for the festival. After reading about Reading Festival, i thought, why not? i mean, 3 days of music, friends, eating junks and not worrying about studying would be fun. Wouldn't it?

So, we bought tickets.



It was very last minute. The festival or shows starts on the Friday. But most people would already have their tents set up on Thursday. We basically could not drive down with our other friends as they have left on Thursday, we had to rent a car on Thursday night to leave on Friday morning. But guess what?
It was not until Friday morning we got the car in the end. (due to unavailable cars). So we ended up arriving at Reading quite late. By the time we got there (around 6ish), there was still people that just arrived (probably after work crowd). I was amazed seeing car of a bed design, toilet designed motorbike an a few others I cannot remember now.
After parking at seem like too far away from the camp site (secured, apparently), we took out our gears and headed to where we were told to meet our friend. (Thankfully, Mobile fones were already invented then).
On the way to where our friends camped, I saw a naked (yes, complete with hs bits hanging out) naked men dancing around a camp fire. 2 police men was at the side waiting just to take him away for indecent exposure, but I guess they wanted him to "calm down" from what ever he was on at the moment.


That was a shocker for me. C was smiling when he saw my reaction. All I could say to him was "I don't normally see naked men running around in the open back home"

We finally managed to set up our tents (when i said "we" I meant C) :) at about 8 ish. Lucky the tents were only small. The show already started, so we had to basically rush to get ready (by getting ready I meant taking all our valuables into our small pack) zip our tents up and head towards the inside of the festival...


All on all, I really enjoyed my time there. The experience was exhilarating. When we didn't feel like watching the show, the dance tent was a blast to be in.

We had to Que up (for hours, depending what time you get up) for the showers (its a common shower place, where there's about 40 shower heads and thousands of people- so do the maths).

The portable loos:-



Over the 2 years of going to festivals, I learned that one should never go in the loo on the last day of the festival, as there's always people who' waiting for you to get in, and then push the very last portable loo so that the portable toilet will tip and there goes all the wee/sh^%e on you, and I guess you'll end up smelling like the portable loo for your journey home.

Overdraft

One morning, I went to the bank. I knew I only had ₤5.49 left in my bank account. I know that the cheque I banked in yesterday have not cleared. But it as worth a try. I keyed in ₤20. And to my surprise, it the machine spit out ₤20. I took the money and my card and requested for a receipt. I checked the receipt, I had a balance of ₤11,135.49 in overdraft.
I immediately put my card back in the machine to check my balance again. What was stated really made my eyes popped.

Overdraft - ₤11,150.00
Balance Overdraft - ₤11,135.49
Last withdrawal- ₤20.00

Hmm, so it means that I have an overdraft of ₤11,000.00???!!! I didn't inform the bank, instead I went home to discuss with my housemates. They told me they have an overdraft of ₤1,150.00 We're all in our 3rd year of studies, which meant, someone in the bank did a mistake by adding an extra 0 in my overdraft facility.

I contemplated on whether to inform the bank. Thinking back, I knew I should have done it immediately, as at the end of the day, te overdraft has to be paid off upon starting work. And paid off 3 years after I graduate.

Instead, I bought a futon, a telly, festival and concert tickets, partied with my house mates and obviously some new clothes nd accessories....

After a month, I got scared. Ignoring my housemates advice, I went into the bank. Told them their mistake. Sat down (with a cup of tea- the bank manager was that nice), informed them that I should not have that much overdraft, and yes, I should not have spent unnecessarily. They were very calm and admitted their mistake. They made a deal with me. (At this point, I spent about ₤1500.00 from the overdraft), which is ₤350 more than the actual overdraft. Instead of asking back the ₤350 (which I obviously didnt have) immediately, they agreed to give me ₤1500.00 overdraft instead of the normal ₤1,150.00.

Luckily, I managed to sell off the futon and the telly, and after I graduated, I managed to get some money from the extra hours I put in for my part time work. Paid off the whole overdraft before I even started my career.

I was living on the edge for the last few months just to pay off the unnecessary purchase I did when I realised the bank made a mistake. My advice is, when you know the bank made a mistake, be sure to tell them earlier, and not use the money which you have to pay back in the end anyway. And if you think about it, I actually spent the whole of my "actual" overdraft facility within a month! How scary is that?!!!

Anti depressants

Yes, I was diagnosed a little bit crazy. Okay, not really, but nearly, anyway. It was during my placement year in industry. When the saying goes "bad things comes in three's", they were not wrong. Firstly, I was attacked (well, not quite attacked, but it was full on police case and it affected me real bad at that time), and then I received a news that my grandad died, they informed me 4 days after the funeral. Finally, my cat fish jumped out of the tank and when I found him, he was already dried up dead.
When I got the news about my grandad, I was still strong about it. Don't get me wrong, I loved him very much, but I was being an adult about it. People have to go sometime, so I cried, and got on with my life. I guess I was wrong about being "adult" and strong about it. 3 days after the news, I got home from work and found that my fish had committed suicide, I broke down and cried and if I remember correctly, I didn't stop crying for days...My then bf was getting worried, he and a few of my friends tried to cheer me up. My boss even gave me a week off to get myself settled. That week, I decided to see a psychologist. I was already throwing whatever food I eat back out- near enough bulemic. (or a hyperchondriac)
The first meeting was a drop by at the office (in the University I was still in). She asked me a few question about work, about my finals the next year etc, thought I could be stress. But her initial comments then was that I was fine. I seemed fine to her,just a little sad about my grandad and my fish.
So, she gave me a questionare to fill up, and was hoping that she wont have to schedule a weekly/daily time for me. Not that she was busy, infact she was, but she mentioned that if in th records shows that I'd have to see her on a weekly/daily basis, that means I would be in "that" (crazy- though she didnt use the exact word,but thats what came to my mind when she tried to explain it) category.

A few das after the filling in the questionare, I receive a call from the nurse asking me to come in for a doctor's appoinment. And when I saw the psychologist, she old me that I needed to see her on weekly basis, and that I needed to be on medications to calm me down. The whole process would last 6 months. The meds and the "therapy".

That was how I was frequently visiting Boots to get my monthly pack of Fluoxetine.

Frightening weekend...

So I was in London. I stayed over at Leez's place. She arranged for her then bf and his friends to go out to then most happening club in London called Hanover Grand. They were regulars there, but that didn't mean we didn't have to Que up to get it like if we wre back home. No one is treated "specially" here even if you flash your pound notes....
Anyway, after an hour or so freezing our a^&e off, we finally managed to get in. Leez and I went straight to the ladies room to obviously empty our bladder, the lads bought a couple of drinks and unfortunately, we didn't get a table, so we had to hang out at the bar.
Finally, we met some other people from home (our own country) and they agreed to let us join them. And the thing I could remember one girl said to me "hey, I remember Ive met you before today back home. But you were skinnier then"

wow. thanks for being the typical Malaysian who has to point out every single kilo's you've gained (or lost).

Anyway, about an hour later, I was trying to talk to Leez, she was stood at the bar, and the next minute, she was on the floor. She collapse and fainted.
Shit...

Her bf then called for help, the bouncers came within 2 seconds, took her outside to get fresh air and rang the ambulance. The questions came gushing out towards me.

Was she taking anything? What drugs was she on? How old is she? Does she have any allergies..?

I was quite scared. Luckily, it was purely alcohol, it wasn't drugs. They made me unbutton her top, they wouldn't let her boyfriend near her (security reasons) and there was no lady present except me.
They then found her fake ID card (we had to be 21 to enter the club) obviously, she was only 18 then.
And that was when I thought it was the end of my world.

They told me off, they asked me for my ID, the said we could have been sent to the police lad di dah....

And then the ambulance came.

I got in the ambulance with her as they wouldn't let her boyfriend through for some reason. When we got to the hospital, she had to get her stomach pumped.

So why did she faint? Well, it was because she didn't eat before she consumed alcohol. and yes, I see that she was very skinny then, so I don't think she eats anything, not breakfast, lunch or dinner.

OUCH

And guess what? we heard, starting from then on, NO MALAYSIANS were allowed to enter Hanover Grand unless they carry their passport, and not just the student ID.

ooops.....

Christmas

Chirstmas

Christmas back home is normally just a day off watching telly the whole day. Nothing really changes back home. Its just like any other Sunday’s except there are a lot of Christmassy movies with all this little “moral of the story is….” type of movie..
Anyway, the first Christmas in England was pretty much the same as back home. Except, it was with snow…My whole family came over to visit, and we had a hectic Shopping scene for Christmas. There was even a bomb scare in Marks and Spencer on Boxing day, and I will never forget the look on my mom’s face when we all walked out of the shopping arcade with our shopping baskets. Everyone else started to put their “shopping” in their handbags/ other shopping bags, but mom insisted we wait for the alarm to stop and the security to let us back in to pay for the shopping stuffs. I shall leave it at that…

Anyway, the consequent years, was not so similar. I started celebrating Christmas like any other Englishman (or women) would. (I actually meant: how any English students would celebrate Christmas) coz most of their mom’s would be in the kitchen cooking Christmas Roast. Anyway, I was invited to stay over at LD’s house, since I was his gf at that time, and his mom and dad really wanted him home for Christmas.
And Ive never received so many presents in my life. I woke up the next morning (I was sleeping in his sister’s room, she was on the bed, I was on the extra mattress) and there was 2 sacks- and it was huge, next to the door. It was as though Santa came and left a sack for each of us. I was quite confused; I mean why would I have so many presents? It must have been for LD instead, and they (his parents) accidentally put it in the room Im staying in instead.
But there was a card with my name on it.
I didn’t want to be rude, so I opened the card first. And it was for me. I let out a squeal, and I guess that woke Kerry up. She then screamed when she saw her sack of pressies. 
Anyway, before I share what my presents were for that year, let me go back one night before Christmas morning….
What they (the English) normally does is they would meet their friends in the pub for a few (not overly drunken stage) drinks. They would chit chat, be merry, talk about what they think they’d get from their parents etc and what they got for their parents, gf’s. bf’s etc. And when they get home, most of them will have a glass of wine with their families, to share the story of what they talked about in the pub.
Anyway, the next morning, after opening presents, after breakfast (a light one, ie cup of tea and a piece of toast) again, they would go to the pub, but this time with their dad’s/uncle’s etc. The mom’s would stay at home to complete Christmas roast.
(drinking in the pub at 11 am, can you imagine that?) Anyway, they would then head home for lunch, ie Christmas roast lunch- yummy!, drink wine (or sometimes champagne) and then watch some telly. And probably a visit to the pub, to discuss their pressies. Fun eigh? Oh, you have to wear the red Santa hat to the pub during Christmas eve and Christmas Day... :)
So what did I get that year? Socks, Gloves, Scarfs, tops, knickers, choclates, wallet, perfume and Im sure there was more, but I cant remember now…Basically, it was the complete Christmas gift one could ever asked for as presents.

Anyway, the year after that, I was no longer with LD, I was with CJ. And CJ’s parents were the sweetest Parents In Law (if they ended up as my inlaws that is) a girl could ever have. They didn’t give me expensive presents, nor did I to them, but they always gave me meaningful ones. And until today, I will always get his mom a present for her birthday, and some small gifts for them for Christmas.

Well, what was the best Christmas present I got when I was there? It would have to be perfumes. Every year, it was either, Moshino or JPG, or CK….And they always come with nice Christmas boxes and with extra gifts…. How lovely!


Where did I celebrate Christmas? London in 1996, Malvern (Worcestershire) in 1997, Liverpool in 1998, 1999 and 2000.