"Hoo Man!"

that was a familiar voice calling from my back while I was walking swiftly toward to the exit at around quater past midnite last friday, yeah, friday the 13th july 2007. As I turned around I tot I saw a creepy old man there smilling and waving at me, if I was not mistaken, the last time I saw him was almost a year ago but it was sure good to see Gilbert again. After some warmth greetings We walked together to the car park to get his car. as I approached to his car, a Chrysler PT Cruiser, I realised something was wrong, the driver's seat is on the right hand side. ah~ of course, we were at john lennon liverpool airport (England). oh yeaa.

the journey from the airport to his house took around 45 mins, it was drizzling all the way, which again reminded me how england was - cold, rainny and miserable. we didn't talk much in the car, just catch up a bit as i didn't really want to distract his driving, also, we have known each other quite well for quite some time, didn't think political polite was necessary, he's a brits. ha!

Gilbert is a good man. i have known him since i first joined shell 3 years ago, he was in malaysia for some coaching and knowledge transfer for a couple of times before he moved to another department last year. i try not to sound gay but we do get along pretty well.

simple brick terrace houses with chimney, narrow driveways, trees... a typical english town - Chorley, located somewhere in manchester near liverpool. M61, M62, M6, M60 ... those who watched top gear or any english channel should be familiar with these expressways =).

we arrived to his house at around 1am ish, the weather was ok, around 16 degree, not too warm as Gilbert claimed, yeah right. i had to keep my socks and jacket on the whole nite(i did feel a lot better after a hot shower). it was late, didn't really do much that nite apart from chatting with Gilbert, flipping some channels, had some milk and cookies, and tested some dutch gin i bought to him requested by Ton (my boss). [i will bring back malaysia one bottle and some of you guys can enjoy it at debbie's place for my return. finish the gin as you wish, the bottle is mine!] slept around 2 am that nite after a splash of gin and i slept like a baby.

picture of his house taken the next morning.


received a call at around 8am, it was julie, one of debbie's best friends and my family closed friends. i have informed her about my visit before i came over. after some discussion while i was half awake we decided to meet up at a chinese dim sum restaurant named thai-wu at manchester down town. Julie and her family live in Telford, approx 100km away from manchester. i was so touch that they came all the way. Gilbert had also reminded a couple of times that I should be. went back to sleep for a while and read some book while waiting for Gilbert to wake up. we got up around 9.30 and Gilbert fixed some english breakfast. i told him that we shouldn't have heavy breakfast as we were meeting Julie for lunch, so he got me just sausage, becons, baked bean, fried egg, toast, orange juice and tea. somehow i wonder if that can be heavier. burp.



big screen and fire place on Gil's living room, what else you need i wonder.


we hit the road around 11am, nice sunny day, awesome! the whole week was pouring according to Gilbert. we arrived at oxford street around 11.50am and found the restaurant Thai Wu, made a few turns and got the parking. met Julie, Carl and their lovely kids, had dim sum for lunch, chat bla bla bla ...



did some walking down town manchester ...


just a nice looking building


wheel of manchester


china town


the old monkey, not sure what it is ..


apparently there was some international fair going on ...



back home, since the weather was good ... ah~~~



all you need for a nice afternoon...



Gilbert gave some options for dinner, take out some chinese food, italian or curry ... i had a crave for curry so ..



took a slow walk back, weather was still good ...



slept around 11pm that nite coz was too tired esp after a few beers.

woke up 9ish on sunday and had a heavier english breakfast, yes, extra sausage and toast. burp~! we were supposed to accompany Kelly(Gil's daughter) and Paige(Gil's daughter daughter) on that day to have some flying thingy at York, approx 100 miles away, yeh, a road trip, unfortunately we had to turn back halfway as the plan cancelled due to heavy rain. after sending Kelly and Paige back we visited a barn on a moor near blackburn and darwin, had some coffee there and drove around ...





on the way back we drove by a motorshop and did some window shopping ... well, Gilbert was sort of interested in getting a bike, just tot of accompanying him ... and so happened i spotted a nice helmet and rushed home to compare the price in holland from the internet, it was a good buy but too bad the airport security will not allow me to carry a helmet onboard and noway i'm gonna checkin a helmet, said tata to my caberg rhyno. did nothing much but surfing internet that afternoon before heading out for dinner. italian was on the top list. it was a bit early so we walked around Chorley town and headed to a pub for beer.



risotto, pasta and pizza ...


Got home, stayed online for a while, packed and crashed around 11ish ... next thing i heard was Gilbert's foot step to the shower room at 3am. oh yeah, had to take the earliest flight on monday. Gilbert was too kind to send me to the airport 4am on monday morning, really really grateful.

Got to amsterdam around 9 and reached office 10.30am ... began hallucinating around 2pm.