ONCE UPON A TYNE ....

Dear Diary,

The thing I heard in Red FM last week, got me laughed out loud all the way from Klebang to Sungai Udang - Sarimah Ibrahim said, if "cucur badak" is to be translated into English, it would be "pop hippo". Hahahaha... pop hippo??!! You're crazy Sarimah! It's a hilarious name to be given to Malaysia's most famous traditional delicacy, huh! I imagine those hippos popping up in hot oil, and I, would happily swallow them up seconds later ... yummy hippos! Actually, we do have another traditional delicacy with the word "badak" in - "badak berendam". And what would that be in English, Sarimah? The "bathing hippo"??? Hahaaha....

By the way,.... amongst her other hilarious morning stunts, Sarimah imitated some Scottish accent in her show. She said no one borthers the fact that her Scottish accent sounded like a mixture of Scottish, Irish and a bit of Newcastle. Haaaaah..... That word "NEWCASTLE"!! Ahaaa..... it rings a bell, doesn't it ?!

Sometime in December last year, I got the chance to go to Newcastle. Again, after so many years! Not alone like last time. I went with my whole family. It was almost an emotional day for me (obviously it's just me who was overly excited!). Hahahaha.... !

Northshield - Southshield ferry. The ride's a must! Teloq and I enjoyed it more than the kids for the obvious reason - memory lane ...

The main reason how I ended up choosing this city - NUFC! That's St. James Stadium, just opposite Leazes Terrace. There's that chanting by NUFC supporters I remembered "Newcastle...Newcastle...Newcastle... [repeat for another at least 9 times !]"

Leazes Terrace - Home sweet home!!! E110.

We played tennis here in summer. And I played snow here in winter too ..that's to avoid rolling around on dogs' poo scattered everywhere on the grounds of St. James Park, you see... Ahaa... I remember also, Gina lost her room key here after snow fight with Zafri and I. Kena tunggu snow cair baru dapat balik. And that's what...berapa hari kemudian???! Hahaha!

The graduation photos were taken here!

This was the surau. I'm not sure what it is now though. Amongst the thing which I remember distinctively about this place was when I was approached by a person here (a Dr. sekarang) "so you are ....  daughter ... from ..... come, join me .... ". And that was only my 2nd week arriving in Newcastle, I think. Ahaa..  Somebody knew me in this foreign land!!!! As best as I could, I tried avoiding him since!! Yeah... I was not particularly friendly, was I? hahaha...

For some stupid reason, no matter how I tried to paste this photo, it remains horizontal like this. I am just not good with computers! Bend your head a bit peeps (and any advise how I can remedy this ???)

Well ... I learnt about friendship in Convent, learnt about maturity and love in Maahad. I learnt about survival in MRSM. I learnt about adapting in Banting. And a bit about being bad and naughty too (wink..wink..!). I learnt to work hard and to shut my environment off just to concentrate with me, myself and I in PPP. At Newcastle upon Tyne, I learnt about ALL THAT, in one go, in one place.

Diary, with what I learnt there once upon a time, I wade my life through it all today.