Gelabah

For the past few days, I of the things that crossed my mind was that I haven’t been exercising much recently. Normally, there would be the daily 15 minutes trip to CBS & back (another 15 minutes). With lectures over, there’s only the trip to Main Campus for Solat Jumaat on Fridays & then onwards to Angel for weekly restock of food stuff (at the street market for vegetables & at Sainsbury’s for everything else).

Today, I made 2 return trips to Angel area. Why? It ain’t coz I wanna catch up on my exercise. Read on.

It only dawned upon me towards the end of this morning (after a slow start to the day) that Easter is a big event here in the UK & there are public holidays. After asking both RLS & MOKL (my other 2 flatmates, TA & PG balik kampung or went back to their home states), I was made to understand that shops will start to close tomorrow. Hence, I went to Angel for my weekly restock at around 1230, instead of tomorrow (not wanting to risk finding a deserted Angel tomorrow).

Made brief stops at GAP, NEXT, Borders & M&S before proceeding to undertaking my restock mission. Did a quick run through Sainsbury's for stuff I wanted, paid & left. I guess due to tomorrow being Good Friday, the huge crowd was not unexpected. As I somewhat wanted to rush home, I didn't scrutinise the receipt like I normally do to realise that the pesto sauce & 'stir through' sauce I bought didn't fit the 2 for £2 combo offer (each is like £1.77). I paid like £3.85 for both bottles. I know it does not add up as I took 1 of those bottles plus 1 that was not part of the promotion (& of higher price, but were with the same brand & grouped along with the sauces on promotion). Only noticed when I was unpacking stuff at home. Thankfully, here in the UK, we can actually exchange or even return items for refunds, unlike many outlets in home country.

As I stopped at Main Campus surau for Zohor on the way home, I found out that there’s no Solat Jumaat being conducted there tomorrow due to uni closing after today (Easter holidays again, which slipped my mind!), I still needed to print some past exam papers for revision but haven’t firmed up which. Once confirmed what I needed to print, off I went again to Main Campus (2nd trip of the day). I didn't go to CBS, since I had to also return to Sainsbury's Angel to exchange items.

This is when things get a little funny. When printing notes/handouts/exercise/exam papers, I normally print duplex (both sides of paper) to save cost. Hence, as usual, I’d choose the printer with the ‘duplex’ suffix. After waiting for a minute, the lone computer lab printer behind me didn’t churn out anything. Checking the printer name, I asked MOKL (via MSN Web Messenger) who was at CBS finishing her assignment in the only computer lab I frequent there to check the duplex printer. True enough, it got printed out there! Believe me, I was amused (due to the distance between Main Campus & CBS) but not all that surprised. The best I’ve ever did was sending a documents to a printer 3 floors down, at a request of a colleague, at work. Asked MOKL to bring the printouts home for me. Yeah, I printed all my stuff from CBS printer as the printer at the Main Campus computer lab I was in can’t do duplex printing In return I help her buy some fried chicken that she likes from Dixy's (Halal fast food outlet at Angel). The things I went through today!

Exchanging the bottles of sauces was easy, after producing the goods, receipt & a brief explanation. Heck, they even refunded me the difference in cash; although I initially paid via SOLO (floor manager said they had no issues on it). Wow, I was suitably impressed, as in home country, I either had to get things of equal value or something of higher value & pay the difference. Buying the meal for MOKL also yielded me the good fortune of finding out there's a masjid near King's Cross station that I can go to tomorrow, which is much closer than East London Mosque. The Dixy’s staff were playing Quran recital instead of music, which I normally observe them to. That prompted me to ask about nearest masjid during the small talk I engaged them in while waiting for the takeaway meal.

To end the little afternoon of exercise, I received in the mailbox the EA form (for income tax returns) sent by the Office. They actually sent it via UPS overnight courier. Again, I am impressed today. Had a big plate of spaghetti for dinner, as I was famished after the 2 trips.

Till later, live long & prosper.