UK SUMMER 2017

 

UK Summer trip
24th - 30th June 2017

Assalamualaikum Guys,

We planned for this trip as early as Jan 2017. It was the most difficult of tasks since it involves match-making available holidays between scholastic, lectures and working life of 2 boarding college kids, a university undergraduate and 2 working parents. Finally the evil plan was hatched; UK Trip in Summer and during Eid Holiday!!! The date was chosen 23 - 30 June.

Only in April we finally had the courage to buy flight tickets and a month before we booked all accommodation and other stuff.

24th June 2017

Our flight arrangements;

MH 002 - Depart 23.55 - Arr 6.25 (24th June)

Aircraft : Airbus 380

Flight dur. :13 hours

Time difference : 7 hours (Mal.-7)

Currencies Exc : 1BP to MYR 5.5

Arrival at Heathrow Terminal 4 was smooth, the weather was clear with 17 Celcius. The immigration line was long but fast clearing. within 15 minutes we are already at the baggage conveyor, no luggage were lost so thats a good start.

Next is to collect our mobile wifi devices that Abah pre-ordered online, the instruction was to collect it at Excess Baggage counter at far left of Arrival area. We consult the staff but were informed that our devices were at Terminal 5. So we took a shuttle bus to Term. 5 about 7 minutes ride.

in shuttle bus to Term. 5

These are 2 devices called TEP, a mobile wifi

Then in Term. 5 we have to decide which mode of transport to Oxfordshire. The options are;

1- ride underground tube to London Paddington station, then take train to Oxford 

     (6p x 5 + 16x 5= 110p) duration = 2h15 m

2-ride Oxford Express bus directly to oxford 

     (23p x 4 + 11p = 103p) duration 1h30m

So we took 2nd option. The Bus no. 10. depart at 9.30 am

Bus pick-up point just across the Term. 5

at train ticket counter

Along the road to Oxford

Thornhill Park & Ride area

The University of Oxford (informally Oxford University or simply Oxford) is a collegiate research university located in Oxford, England. It has no known date of foundation, but there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in continuous operation. It grew rapidly from 1167 when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris.

Hi there Oxford!!

After 1h 40 m we arrived at Oxford bus station

We got off the bus at Oxford Bus station in Central Oxford, we asked around for bus to Percy Street off Ifley road.

Passed through a small market place

Martyr's memorial at Magdalen St.

Strolled along busy Magdalen Street

Finally we catched bus no. 3 to Magdalen Road, we paid 1.80 p and 0.90 p for Zeti. About 5 min walking from the bus stop and there it is, our home for the next 3 nights.

Some details of the home rental under AIRBNB;

3 nights in Oxford - RM 1,693

cleaning fee - RM 167

Service fee - RM 224

Total : RM 2,084

What a lovely entrance... the kids were thrilled already

living room

Dining

kitchen

Backyard

Kids bedroom for Zeti - 1st floor

Only Bathroom - 1st floor

Parents room - 1st floor

Syahid and Afiq room - 2nd floor

Thanks to our Host for the fine Wine - We couldn't drink it anyway

Ready to venture out, looking for groceries

Found this Halal shop just 6 min walks from our home

We bought enough provision for our Dinner and meal for tomorrow

found our Eid prayer's place at the local mosque (just 5 min walks from our house)

We all help up to cook simple dinner....it was about 6 pm and the breakfasting time is still 3 hrs away.

There were chicken curry, meat rendang, nasi himpit and lemang on the table

The funny thing was after the cooking we all head up to each rooms and dozed off...at about 22h15 abah woke up and realized we overslept beyond the maghrib time which was around 9.30 pm!! we have slept for 4 hours. So abah quickly wake up everybody and race down to prepare the dinner table and we finally end our longest ever Ramadhan fasting of 24 hours...Alhamdulillah praise Allah for his blessing!!

Look at those happy faces!

A nice anecdote happening before midnight, Abah and Ibu realized that 

we were running out of food for breakfast because we

had eaten most of the food. So we were obliged to

go out even though it was already 11.45 pm.

Now common sense says there were all closed, but we were looking for miracles.

Just on Ifley Road we found a fish & chips shop

and we had such a good talks that the Afghanistan 

kind man ended up giving us the whole order for FREE...that was about

12 pounds...and he was supposed to close shop at that time.

We also miraculously halted a couple from closing its shop door

just to fetch us some eggs. SubhanAllah. 

END OF DAY 1

25th June 2017

EID MUBARAK!!!  

ALLAHU AKBAR..ALLAHU AKBAR..ALLAHU AKBAR..

WA LILLAH ILHAMD


We decided to take the breakfast in the backyard...but really we all had to wear socks
because it was quite chill at around 5.30 am

Freestyling while waiting for Abah to get ready

This is an important tradition of Malaysian muslim folks, thats when the younger ask for forgiveness from the elder and the elder reciprocately asked for same forgiveness. We often shed tears for during this intense but gracious session.

A beautiful family photo

Dont be misled by this photo...a second after this shot we were all running loose because it was 8.31 am which means the congregation has just started the Eid sunnah prayer @8.30. As soon as we arrived the 1st rakaat was almost over...a good samaritan came and spread his prayer mat and right at the pedestrian pavement and we immediately started our prayer. Ibu and Zeti were luckier because they got a cool place to pray. In short Abah was moonlighting in the bathroom and that caused the excruciating delay.

relieved faces after the prayer

listening to khutbah

Imam preaching khutbah in Arabic...I guess

Ibu and Zeti in the womans area

a small snack after the khutabah

With a pakistani family

We didnt see any malaysian student though

Family photo in front of the home

at backyard

Hop on into bus no. 3 for city centre

Ifley road in a normal day

Time to explore Oxford

Jesus college - closed

Hertford Bridge, often called "the Bridge of Sighs", is a skyway joining two parts of Hertford College over New College Lane. Its distinctive design makes it a city landmark.

William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke KG, PC (8 April 1580 – 10 April 1630) was an English nobleman, politician, and courtier. He was the son of Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke and his third wife Mary Sidney. Chancellor of the University of Oxford, he foundedPembroke College, Oxford with King James.

Famous Bodlean library entrance

The Radcliffe Camera (Camera, meaning "room" in Latin; colloquially, "Rad Cam" or "The Camera") is a building of Oxford University, England, designed by James Gibbs in neo-classical style and built in 1737–49 to house the Radcliffe Science Library. It is sited to the south of the Old Bodleian, north of St. Mary's Church, and between Brasenose College to the west and All Souls College to the east.

The Library's construction and maintenance was funded from the estate of John Radcliffe, a notable doctor, who left £40,000 upon his death in 1714. According to the terms of his will, construction only began in 1737, although the intervening period saw the complex purchase of the site. The exterior was complete in 1747 and the interior finished by 1748, although the Library's opening was delayed until 13 April 1749.

The Radcliffe Camera....a comparison

On the background is The Church of St Mary the Virgin

MOrning tea break at The University Church cafe

Where we had scones,  smoke salmon platter, pistachio bread and english tea

What an eclectic ambiance

The cafe open-air area

Diggin Oxford ice cream

Enter Oxford Donkey Republic bike rental

for 12 pounds you can use it for a day, we use it for 6 hours thats 6 Pounds

You unlock the bike using the App thru blutooth, thank you Zeti for maneuvering the App.

First we secured Syahid's bike and Abah's

                                           Then we Zeti's, Ibu's and last one Afiq's

stop by at castle mill stream

biking at Broad St.

The most famous bookshops in Oxford

Simply the biggest bookshops we've ever seen

All the kids buys at least one book each here

Multistages and endless racks of books

Museum of The History of Science

Original scribbles of Einstein

Off the bike at cornmarket street

Afiq, on the background is The Randoph Hotel

ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM

Ancient and modern art and antiquities covering world civilisations, plus fine and applied arts

We surrendered all the bikes and reunited at the Broadstreet again 

Did a little bit of shopping...at Tesco for evening dinner

By this time all of us already crave for lunch....wait at 6 pm!!?

A mix of japanese takeaway food and salads

Afiq..as usual big in Orders and small in appetites

A diminutive lady kindly spare some food with a homeless old man...

At this point, the boys make their way home and the rest stopped by for window shopping

Abah, Ibu and Zeti went for some grocery shopping

The famous Black Swan pub

When we arrived at Cowley Road area we found all the halal butcher shop were closed.

But because we had walked about 30 min we insisted to go further.

With Allah's grace we found the butcher above were opened. We were told by the butcher that he had closed the shop in the afternoon but because he had forgotten something he returned back to the shop. That was when we arrived and convenietly procured our goods. Another miracle from Allah...Alhamdulillah.

Getting ready for dinner

In the menu; fried rice, chicken soup and remaining meat rendang

END OF DAY 2