the biggest lie
A year ago, I made the biggest lie of my life and actually got away with it. Around 4pm in the afternoon of August 3, 2003, I boarded a plane on its way to Newcastle, United Kingdom. I told my folks my company was sending me there for training. What they didn't know was that it was an all-expense-paid pleasure trip.
Although I have to admit thewhole trip turned out to be a disaster, the purpose of this post is to share with you the things I loved and enjoyed about the trip.
1. Sovereign Court, Newcastle, England: The Apartment. If I were to have a place of my own, it would be something like that. The place was great and had a lot of funny memories. It was the first place I cooked at (lacking in seasoning), shrinked a shirt in the laundry, and short-circuited the electronic fire place. There was no place I could hang the clothes in to dry, so I made do with fire place. I ended up heating up the whole house and perspiring since it was without electric fan. Only to wakeup in the morning, shivering in the cold cause the window was left open! I was lucky I didn't get sick at all! Btw, the place came in with a cool Ferrari -- not that I drove it. I don't think I even touched it even though it was just parked on the streets.
2. Edinburgh, Scotland: Fringe Festival, The Castle, and Calton Hill. The time we went to Edinburgh it was the Fringe Festival. Events were happening all over the streets, from chorus singing, mimes performing, Scotsmen in their kilts playing their bagpipes, and people in costumes inviting us to watch their own shows. It was my first visit to a castle and I ended up taking loads of pictures. Then we watched Slaves of Starbucks at Hill St. Quite frankly, I don't remember anything about the play anymore. At that time, it sounded funny. Afterwhich, we got lost in going to the inn we're supposed to stay at. It was a scary ride, too (by scary I mean mumu or ghosts). I was with three guys who couldn't read maps and a driver who was irritable as hell. Luckily, we made a U-turn after a very long (but cool, according to Alvin) bridge. Had we continued on that road, God knows where we could have ended up in. Glasgow, perhaps. Hehehe :)
3. Harry Potter's Alnwick Castle, Northumbria, England. Believe you me, I was so excited to go there even if we just stayed at the castle grounds. After all, it was in those grounds that they filmed the first Harry Potter movie. I was with three of thekulitest coolest guys a girl could ever ask for. My greatest thanks to Alvin, Jeff, and Mark for being with me at that visit and sending me the pictures afterwards.
4. VFestival in Weston Park, Staffordshire, England. I mentioned this several times in my post, so I don't have to keep on harping about Red Hot Chili Peppers, Coldplay, Foo Fighters, et al. The best memory I have of this one is buying a pack of Marlboro Menthols for five pounds (GBP5) which translates to P500! Shoots, I could buy myself 20packs of the that cig for the same price! Oh yeah, that, the public urinals, and stories of couples doing the deed in unexpected places.
5. Shopping in Newcastle. True, shopping is costly in the United Kingdowm. Fortunately for me, I love walking and going around places to find myself the best bargain in town. I remember walking from Newcastle to Gateshead crossing a very big bridge and not knowing where to properly cross the road. Top three things I bought: Marks and Spencer knickers, contemporary novels (books), and my Starbucks United Kingdom mug. It was cheaper than a Starbucks Manila Mug.
6. Tynemouth, Newcastle. I sent the picture to a friend of mine here in the Philippines and this is what he wrote back: "Cecil, you've been duped. That's not Newcastle! It looks like an old castle!" Harharhar. :) There was also this lighthouse that you could actually cross when it's low tide. Unlucky me, the tide was a bit so I didn't get to cross. On my last night there, I got the chance to go to the seashore and feel the freezing water. It was around 8:30pm already and the sun was just about to set. I took the best sunset pictures I have taken in my entire life that night.
7. Durham, England: The Cathedral, the Castle, and the Cobblestones. There was nothing extraordinary about the place, except maybe the company at that time, but it was the time that I mistook a sign for a comfort room. The sign said "To Let" which roughly means "for rent". At first glance, I thought it was a toilet on the street. Oh yeah, I love the cobblestones on the streets -- It made me feel like I was in the medieval ages.
Sometimes I wonder if it really happend to me. It feels like a dream that I was once in a faraway land and I got the chance to experience a whole new world. Whenever I look at the pictures, I feel they are someone else's postcard or a cover for some cd, but then I see myself in some of them and I remember...
That thanks to one person, I was once there.
Although I have to admit the
1. Sovereign Court, Newcastle, England: The Apartment. If I were to have a place of my own, it would be something like that. The place was great and had a lot of funny memories. It was the first place I cooked at (lacking in seasoning), shrinked a shirt in the laundry, and short-circuited the electronic fire place. There was no place I could hang the clothes in to dry, so I made do with fire place. I ended up heating up the whole house and perspiring since it was without electric fan. Only to wakeup in the morning, shivering in the cold cause the window was left open! I was lucky I didn't get sick at all! Btw, the place came in with a cool Ferrari -- not that I drove it. I don't think I even touched it even though it was just parked on the streets.
2. Edinburgh, Scotland: Fringe Festival, The Castle, and Calton Hill. The time we went to Edinburgh it was the Fringe Festival. Events were happening all over the streets, from chorus singing, mimes performing, Scotsmen in their kilts playing their bagpipes, and people in costumes inviting us to watch their own shows. It was my first visit to a castle and I ended up taking loads of pictures. Then we watched Slaves of Starbucks at Hill St. Quite frankly, I don't remember anything about the play anymore. At that time, it sounded funny. Afterwhich, we got lost in going to the inn we're supposed to stay at. It was a scary ride, too (by scary I mean mumu or ghosts). I was with three guys who couldn't read maps and a driver who was irritable as hell. Luckily, we made a U-turn after a very long (but cool, according to Alvin) bridge. Had we continued on that road, God knows where we could have ended up in. Glasgow, perhaps. Hehehe :)
3. Harry Potter's Alnwick Castle, Northumbria, England. Believe you me, I was so excited to go there even if we just stayed at the castle grounds. After all, it was in those grounds that they filmed the first Harry Potter movie. I was with three of the
4. VFestival in Weston Park, Staffordshire, England. I mentioned this several times in my post, so I don't have to keep on harping about Red Hot Chili Peppers, Coldplay, Foo Fighters, et al. The best memory I have of this one is buying a pack of Marlboro Menthols for five pounds (GBP5) which translates to P500! Shoots, I could buy myself 20packs of the that cig for the same price! Oh yeah, that, the public urinals, and stories of couples doing the deed in unexpected places.
5. Shopping in Newcastle. True, shopping is costly in the United Kingdowm. Fortunately for me, I love walking and going around places to find myself the best bargain in town. I remember walking from Newcastle to Gateshead crossing a very big bridge and not knowing where to properly cross the road. Top three things I bought: Marks and Spencer knickers, contemporary novels (books), and my Starbucks United Kingdom mug. It was cheaper than a Starbucks Manila Mug.
6. Tynemouth, Newcastle. I sent the picture to a friend of mine here in the Philippines and this is what he wrote back: "Cecil, you've been duped. That's not Newcastle! It looks like an old castle!" Harharhar. :) There was also this lighthouse that you could actually cross when it's low tide. Unlucky me, the tide was a bit so I didn't get to cross. On my last night there, I got the chance to go to the seashore and feel the freezing water. It was around 8:30pm already and the sun was just about to set. I took the best sunset pictures I have taken in my entire life that night.
7. Durham, England: The Cathedral, the Castle, and the Cobblestones. There was nothing extraordinary about the place, except maybe the company at that time, but it was the time that I mistook a sign for a comfort room. The sign said "To Let" which roughly means "for rent". At first glance, I thought it was a toilet on the street. Oh yeah, I love the cobblestones on the streets -- It made me feel like I was in the medieval ages.
Sometimes I wonder if it really happend to me. It feels like a dream that I was once in a faraway land and I got the chance to experience a whole new world. Whenever I look at the pictures, I feel they are someone else's postcard or a cover for some cd, but then I see myself in some of them and I remember...
That thanks to one person, I was once there.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home