Angus@London: Day 186 Goodbye London

London did not feel like London, portobello market looks different, the streets start to look unfamiliar once again for some reason, but yes it's London, I could recognise the sky, the London sky, that somehow remain unchanged.

In a few hours time, i'll be leaving this little 'paradise' that I have been in, for the past 6 months. In actual fact, I have already 'left' ever since I was 'displaced' from my hall and when the school term came to an end. My normal day to day routine has ever since been 'disrupted.' And to a certain extent, that sense of place (that is rooted to Oxford street- Goldsmid house) has been contested. That's perhaps how normads feel? A wandering fella in a place where he doesn't own anything, but one thing i own- the memories.

After 'dumping' our 'barang barang' (trying to socialise back to Singlish here) at Summer's place in the morning, Meng Kiat went to visit the London zoo at Camden (He wants to see gorillas from different parts of the world) while I stayed behind at Summer's place to just spend my last few hours chilling out instead.

Summer cooked me lunch, and boy was it as good as her Mum's cooking! I remember I used to devour her mum's cooking back when I was that little fat boy (Now still fat la!)

The last 'supper' ??

I decided to walk down Portobello market (which is only a few metres away) after lunch to do some last minute 'walk walk.'

Bought this street sign which I will not only hang on my wall in Singapore, but i'll engrave them in my brain and heart too!

The clock strikes 1pm, and the time has come for the final good-bye

Summer sent us to the tube station, this picture of her carrying my guitar makes her look like a Indie rocker babe man!

Good-bye Summer, I'm going home to embrace a hotter, wetter and more humind summer

My luggage exceeded by far more than the given weightage. The girl at the counter insisted that I need to pay £120 worth of fine to get my baggage up on board.. for a moment, I was devastated! I was about to reach out for my barclays card to accept the fine, but MengKiat suggested that I try appealing through the customs officer from SQ. The counter girl heard our conversation and said 'There's no point in appealing, you have exceeded our baggage allowance and you have to pay no matter what..' My heart has sanked to the bottom of the sea on hearing that...

'But thanks be to God who always lead us into victory....'

Despite the circumstance, I walked to the customs office and approached the first officer I saw.

Her name I remember was 'Joe Chan,' probably a HongKong national. I explained to her my problem and the next thing she did, she walked to my check in counter and told the counter girl 'Let him pass...' and that was it... the £120 remained in my wallet. Thank God!

13 hours later......... (The first time I set foot on Terminal 3 Changi Airport)