<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<rss version="2.0"
 xmlns:blogChannel="http://backend.userland.com/blogChannelModule"
>

<channel>
<title><![CDATA[Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! - Reja Vu - The feeling that I will be here again - Fotopages.com]]></title>
<link>http://fizzy-fizah.fotopages.com/</link>
<description><![CDATA[I make odd noises that reflect my emotions. I am a contradictory skeptic optimist. Simple things amuse me. And these photos help me remember. Which is why I have another! :D http://mufizah.fotopages.com]]></description>
<pubDate>Mon, 21 May 2012 20:13:54 GMT</pubDate>
<lastBuildDate>Mon, 21 May 2012 20:13:54 GMT</lastBuildDate>

<image>
<title><![CDATA[]]></title>
<url>http://www.fotopages.com/images/rss_logo.gif</url>
<link>http://www.fotopages.com/</link>
<width>40</width>
<height>60</height>
</image>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[London HP Fan Trip Day 4]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[The second day on the fantrip was spent riding on the one and only Hogwarts Express! Yep... the actual train used in the movies! :satisfied_nod:

After breakfast, buses came to pick all of us up from our hotels and took us to the local train station. Nope, we didn't go aboard the Hogwarts Express via Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station. We didn't want the Muggles to know our little secret, see... so we had to pretend that we're getting on a normal train, which later magically transformed into the Hogwarts Express once we were out of Muggles' sights! Hehe.

The train ride was 6 hours long, and it took us right up to Carlisle. During the ride the groups of people all had their turn at sitting in the carriages which had the compartments used in the filming of HP movies (only two carriages were fitted with these compartments, the rest of the carriages had normal seats and tables, aside from the First Class carriage which was used for serving of refreshments and conducting classes). We had oodles of fun on the train, what with all us HP fans acting out scenes and lines from the movies! There were also fun activities conducted, such as Divination class (conducted by Professors 'Treloopy' and 'Treloony'! LOL), Dragon Hunting class... they also sold first-day covers on board, commemorating the train ride itself. The entire ride was a blast! 

The actual Hogwarts Express head is a steam engine, so it was only affixed when the train had entered the countryside (because it was noisier, as well as it goes at a slower speed as compared to normal engine). Everytime we passed by some quaint old train station, or some of the houses out in the country, the train would blow its whistle and all the folks and kids outside would wave at us passing by! I think the journey of the train was publicized, because at all the stations we passed by there were families with little children standing and waiting around to see the train and take pictures! So all of us on board felt so special, like we were indeed wizards and witches being carried off to another school term at Hogwarts and these Muggles were there to see us off!! :D

We stopped at Carlisle for about an hour, where everyone got off to stretch our legs, take more pictures, and get lunch. Then we boarded the train again for the ride back to Oxford. On the way back we had more games and classes, and Weird and I both won a lucky draw prize!! Can you imagine? I've never been lucky AT ALL at winning lucky draws... and suddenly, both our names got called for the two prizes our team was handing out. Hehe.. must be some kind of magical luck going around us. I won myself a fantastic book (The Plot Thickens... Harry Potter Investigated), and Weird won this special magic card set. Yeay us! :horay:

We reached Oxford at dusk, and everyone was pooped once back at the hotel. Weird and I chucked our stuff in our room and decided to talk a walk around the corner, to the other end of the Oxford Kassam Stadium where there was a small shopping mall (it had several restaurants and a cinema) for dinner. Weird totally freezed her ass off during the walk, but I was happily walking along in my tshirt and skirt.. so I guess all my fats and flubber are working to full use. Heheh. We decided to eat at Frankie &  Benny's, an American-style restaurant. Both of us were actually still quite full from our heavy lunch and tea on board the train, but we just wanted to munch on something, so we just had loaded potato skins and caesar salad. Once done we trudged back to the hotel, where Weird caught up with Jeff and Jeannie for a short interview session. 

And that was the end of yet another superbly magical day, on board the Hogwarts Express!













]]></description>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://fizzy-fizah.fotopages.com/?entry=588382</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 01 Aug 2005 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[London HP Fan Trip Day 3]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[
Woke up bright and early, re-packed our bags, had yummy, very Malay breakfast of mee goreng which Aunty cooked, and maintained huge grins on our faces throughout the day because it was the day when our HP Fantrip actually begins! :horay:

We took a cab back to Paddington train station, and took the Heathrow Express back to the airport where we would meet up with the rest of the Potheads going on the HP tour. And despite the fact that Heathrow is hardly a good place to set as a meeting point (constant movement of LARGE masses of people... even trying to find Hagrid in there would be like searching for a needle in ten haystacks!), we managed to spot our fellow HP trippers nonetheless. It wasn't hard when everyone in the group wore some form of Harry Potter merchandise (official or otherwise) - tshirts, caps, buttons, scarves, sweaters... right down to self-made, customized Slytherin luggage set!!

And so we made friends, went in a big round of introductions (not that anyone particularly remembered everyone's names at that point!), and immediately delved into the magic that is our common interest on Harry Potter.

Once everyone was accounted for, we were taken onto a bus that would take us all on the hour-long drive to Oxford. And not 3 minutes out of the Heathrow compound, a bunch of us were already laughing and joking away as if we'd been best friends for ages. Some of them had actually just arrived on the plane and are mostly tired from the flight, but none of us slept or were even close to quiet on the bus. We were loud, we laughed the entire way, we were so eager for everything that lay ahead.

I did, however, shut up a little once we entered the streets of Oxford. Why? Because I had my eyes glued out the window, watching out for hunky college kids!!! Aahahahahah... but it was summer, and most of the students were away on holiday, so there wasn't really enough eye candy going around (although that doesn't mean we didn't spot any! :->). Ok and since I'm not entirely shallow, I was also admiring the beauty and serenity of Oxford. Honestly, I WAS! :-p

We checked into the Holiday Inn Express hotel, located next to the Oxford Kassam stadium (home of Oxford FC <- No, 'not fried chicken'. 'Football club'), where me and Weird settled into our room, got a bit of rest, freshened up, and later started dressing up in our Hogwarts uniforms and robes. It was almost dinnertime, and everyone was going to be treated to a lavish Hogwarts Banquet! The banquet was held in one of the colleges in Oxford, and the architecture and room decoration closely reflected that of Hogwarts. A majority of the others on the trip were also garbed in HP-themed costumes, so it really felt like we were amongst witches and wizards in Hogwarts! One of the adult men who came, dressed in a wizard's robe, also handed out school identity passes to all of us! I ain't kidding you! He made identity cards in the four Hogwarts colours and handed them out to us according to our houses! It was so much fun :D (Oh not to mention.. one of the waiters --no, due to today's movements for equality and anti-slavery, they had to employ actual waiters and waitresses to serve us instead of the normal routine of having house-elves do the task instead-- was uberly cuuuuute. So cute, I couldn't resist going up to him on the pretense of inquiring and confirming for Weird and my special Halal food, even though he wasn't even waiting on our table at that time! But he smiled... oh he smiiiiiiiiiiileeeeeeeeed.... and I melted.. and he came over and sent our plates of food.. and in my melted form I smiled, and he smiiiiiiiiiileeeeeeeeeeed.. and I turned back into solid form just so that I could re-melt again.. and then Weird and I went totally ga-ga when he maintained waiting on our table throughout the night from then on. Squeeee... and so out comes my camera, on the pretense of snapping pictures of the hall and other people, when actually I was zooming in on him. Lahteetah :cloud9:)

After the speeches, and everyone finished with dinner, we all stood up and grouped and sang the birthday song for Harry Potter! Because eyyup... 31st of July is Harry Potter's birthday!! (He would've turned 25... oh how handsome he would've looked at 25, if he'd actually been there at the banquet! Hehe). So we sang the birthday song, we blew out candles, and everyone was served with a huuuuge helping of one of the most yummylicious moist chocolate cakes I have ever tasted!!! *burp*

Dinner soon ended, and it was time to leave and head back to the Muggle world and the hotel. We took loads of pics (imagine posing for one picture but having ten cameras clicking away!) and then headed back to our rooms. Imagine our surprise when, upon stepping in, we saw gifts awaiting us on our beds (delivered by them trusty owls, of course!). We each received a HP Fantrip tshirt, and... this is the best part.. A HANDCRAFTED MAGIC WAND! Courtesy of master wand maker, http://www.alivans.com(Alivan's)! It came in a lovely blue box and a red velvet bag, and it's just perfect! I now have my own magic wand! Squee-bounce! I now have my own magic wand! Squee squee-bounce! (Yes, now you may die of envy 8-))















]]></description>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://fizzy-fizah.fotopages.com/?entry=542961</guid>
<pubDate>Sun, 31 Jul 2005 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[London HP Fan Trip Day 2]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[
*sings* Toniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight we're gonna have ourselveeeeeeeessss a real goood tiiimeee... weeee feeel alive-aaah-aaah-aaaaaaaaaaaaaah..." :D

Second day of our trip.. the first official day in London. Can I get a w00t w00t!

We woke up bright and early, happy grins on our faces, got ready, had breakfast, and was all-prepared for the day ahead! We were uber excited...why? Because it was the day when we were going to get to watch Queen's musical, We Will Rock You! *squeeeeeeeeeeeeenessssssssssss*

Even thinking back about it now is making me all bouncy and happy in my seat right here. Heheh. Ever since we confirmed our London trip, we got super-excited that we'd finally be able to catch the WWRY musical! So we got Weird's mom to book the tickets for us... and it arrived by mail to Weird's doorstep about just a week before we left for London.. and from that day onwards we held those tickets in our hands with a dreamy look upon our faces. It was like.. finally! We have a purpose! A dream to be fulfilled!  Hehe.

And so.. after breakfast, we took a short walk around the block with Uncle Abdullah who showed us where the tube station was.. bought ourselves the day travel pass..and me and Weird hopped on a bus and headed towards Oxford Circus. Our musical was at 2.30pm, but we'd decided to go early and do a bit of surveying and window shopping... go there early, locate the Dominion Theatre, grab us some lunch, and then watch the show. So jalan-jalan we did.. Walked up the entire length of the street... and then we came to the end at Tottenham Court Road.. and there was the beautiful Dominion Theatre... with a huge statue of Freddie Mercury looming over the heads of passers-by below! Weird and I each let out an excited squeak, and then went trigger-happy with our cameras. Lahteetah!!!

We found a nice little shop nearby to eat lunch (Weird had chinese, whilst I went all mat-salleh-like konon and had sandwhiches and crisps), hang out for a while, before heading back to the theatre in time for the show. And OH. MEIN. GOTT!!!! (ok sorry.. excited sangat sampai terkeluar ayat German...) The musical was FANTABULASTICEXPIALLIDOCIOUS! Weird and I enjoyed ourselves to no end... I mean come on. A musical, filled with Queen songs? That in itself makes it super enjoyable. Add to that the storyline was funny... it was sorta corny in a way, heheh.. but it fit really well with the songs and I thought that they did really well with the overall flow and feel of the musical. I won't go into details 'cuz it'll spoil everything.. and to enjoy it you gotta watch it for yourself! A gazillion standing ovations from me! I couldn't stop bopping about on my seat... had to refrain myself from singing aloud at the top of my lungs during every single song, and definitely could NOT keep my hands and arms from doing all the dance moves and clap-a-longs LOL. It was FUN! Well worth it... if we'd had the time and money, we'd have watched in again and again and again and again. Dang... I wonder if there's hope of the musical being brought to Istana Budaya.

Oh.. and many times during and after the show, I kept thinking "Mig Ayesa was here... Mig Ayesa used to act in that role... Mig Ayesa used to stand on that stage... MIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!" *goes all fangirly*. Ooohhweee that brought me goosebumps!!! If only we'd managed to catch the show with Mig acting in it! WOAHHHHHH!!!! :bounce:

After the show we walked back along Oxford Street... and after a while, as we were walking... IT RAINED! Haha... and although London doesn't really get the rainstorms we get here, the rain did get pretty heavy.. working up from a slight drizzle to actual raindrops. We were walking down Regent Street then... so when it first started drizzling we took cover under the slight bit of roof jutting out from the buildings... but then it got heavier, and we started getting wet, and we didn't have an umbrella on us, and my main concern was not to get my We Will Rock You program book wet.. so we ran and laughed and ran and laughed until we reached Hamleys!! (Yes indeed... we could've chosen any of the nearer stores to run into for shelter from the rain.. but nope! Of course we had to go for the huge toystore!! :satisfied_nod:) Once inside Hamleys we dried off, and were more than glad to wait out the rain by going through their entire 6 floors of toys galore! Weird ended up buying herself a magic 8-ball (and we spent the remainder of the trip tirelessly asking the ball questions), and I bought one of those.. err... I dunno what do you call 'em... those plastic construction-type-hats that's got can/cup holders attached to the sides and a tube running down to put into your mouth and drink! Hahahhaa... those are cool. So I bought one. Next time pegi gig ke concert ke boleh pakai utk togak sirap campur cincau :lol_crash:

Aaaaaaaanyways. After the rain subsided it was already pretty late, and the stores were closing, so we headed back up and took a bus back home. Only the second day and already we were having oodles of fun :horay:














]]></description>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://fizzy-fizah.fotopages.com/?entry=542777</guid>
<pubDate>Sat, 30 Jul 2005 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[London HP Fan Trip DAY 1]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[
As you might all already know by now, a month ago my cousin Weird and I went on a trip to London. Well, I guess I should start off with the 'How' and 'Why' we ended up going on this trip.

Last year, Weird and another cousin of ours, Aishah, went on a http://www.hpfantrips.com(Harry Potter Fan Trip), a themed tour organized by American company, Beyond Boundaries (I desperately wanted to go along, but I was in the middle of my industrial training and working my ass off in order to graduate university, plus I didn't have the moolah --most important, this!-- to pay for the trip, and so I missed out. Geh). They had loads of fun, and when they returned, Weird wrote up an article about their trip and it got featured in a weekend pullout of The Star. The article was sent to the organizers, and they were so pleased about it that they said they'd be more than happy to sponsor two people for the next trip, which happens to be the HP Fan Trip 2005, if we would write about it and get it published and promoted. So well waddya know... of course Weird, being the writer of the article, is going (she practically had her bags packed the minute the email regarding the sponsorship came thru!). Then she, knowing that I badly wanted to go the previous year, asked me if I wanted to come along for this one. I'm trigger happy with my camera, so aside from fulfilling one of my ultimate wishes, I could also act as the photographer. So there you have it, it was decided... we made the perfect pair of travel journalists... a more-than-enthusiastic writer and an ultimately-trigger-happy photographer :-D. So the deal with Beyond Boundaries was that they'd sponsor the entire fan trip package for the two of us, but we'd have to purchase and arrange our own air travel from Malaysia to the UK. 

And then the MATA fair came about, so we bought our tickets in March, and I gathered up my leave at work, and it was settled; the HP Fan Trip was on the 31st July 'till 7th August.. and we decided to take a few days' extra in London on our own, so our trip started on the 29th of July and we came back on the 10th of August. Hoooraaaaaaaaaaay :horay:

So it was sorta a freelance-work-cum-holiday sorta trip. But we had so much fun on it, it barely felt like we were working! Hehe.

And thus behold, the first batch of pictures. Our flight from KLIA was on Friday, 29th July, at noon. Mak Ngah and Weird came to pick me up from the house and we made our way to the airport. Both Weird and I could barely contain our excitement... ahahaha.. we kept squeeing the entire way, and we had big huuuuuge grins on our faces despite the fact that neither of us hardly slept the night before, doing our last minute packing and calling each other up every half hour or so and freaking out when we couldn't find space to stuff more things into our suitcases! ("Baaaaaabe you bawak brape pasang kasut babe? I tak muat my shoes!!!!" and "Duuuuuuudeeee camane nih! Ok ok.. second day you nak pakai ape? Third? I bawak these two jackets.. satu stylo satu hoodie.. but then there's this third one yang I MIGHT want to wear... camane ni babe? Tak muat ni!!" and "Oh yeahh shit... we need to leave space for stuff we buy there! How laaa?!?!") LOL

Anyway.. we got on our flight... I couldn't stop letting out an excited squeak or two every few minutes.. and getting Weird to pinch me to make sure I wasn't dreaming the entire thing.. heheh. The flight had some pretty rough turbulent patches... but it might not have been the weather.. as I think my constant bouncing in my seat could've caused the plane to go all wobbly. Ahahahah. Not only was I excited about getting to go on the HP Fan Trip, but I was more giddy about the thought of getting to go back to London after all this time! It was my fourth trip to London, but the last time I was there was TEN YEARS ago... when our family lived in Uxbridge for a year or so... returning to Malaysia when I was thirteen years old, and I've never been back since. Mummy and Izhar dah gi sane balik recently.. and I've been wanting and wishing to go but you know how the UK is just so expensive. So yeah.. this chance was like.. one heckuva exciting one for me! ;-) 

Oh.. my project manager from work, Rohan Crawford, was also heading back to the UK on Friday, and initially his flight was supposed to be the night one, but he needed to get back earlier so got it changed to the same afternoon flight as mine too. So a waaay into the flight he came down looking for where I was seated (he sat in Biz class, since he was on work travel... unlike me who only has an economy ticket :p). There was an empty seat in our row anyway so joined us... introduced him to Weird, and the three of us had fun chatting away the boring hours of the flight, right up to about an hour before landing. He asked us to make it a point to call him if ever we ran into any problems or trouble whilst in London... and we promised to call him if we happened to run out of cash and needed money for our shopping and clubbing sprees LOL. Oh and he was kind enough to smuggle us cheese and chocolates from Biz class... ahahaha.. it was muchly appreciated, Rohan!

Upon arriving at Heathrow, we got thru immigrations surprisingly easily. We were pretty weary 'cuz a lot of the other foreigners were questioned somewhat thoroughly and the immigrations people seemed stricter than ever due to the recent bombings and all....but when our turn came it was a breeze.. probably because both of us seemed too cheesy and happy and grinny to be considered a threat. Haha

We took the Heathrow Express train to Paddington station (it was prompt, it was efficient, it was a smooth ride, and it only took 15 minutes! Ok laar fine... KL pun ade KLIA Express.. heheh.. but still.. I like to be impressed by these things ;-)). Once at Paddington we were met by 'Uncle' Abdullah (should be 'Abang' really.. seeing as he turned out to be still so young! Heheh). 

Uncle Abdullah's a friend of Mak Ngah, both working for PLUS, and since Weird and I had wanted to have some extra days in London before and after the HP Fan Trip tour itself, he had kindly offered his appartment for us to stay at, so we didn't need to book into a hotel or anything. How nice is that, eh! Coincidentally enough, his wife works with Shell too.. and she's now based in Shell London, so he (who's there for his masters), his wife, and three oh-so-chomel little children are now living in an appartment in St John's Wood, a little to the north of Central London. They said they had ample space in the appartment and we coud stay in one of the rooms... so of course we took up on the offer! Hehe. He picked us up from Paddington, and we took a cab back to their appartment... and it was a mere few meters away from Abbey Road!!!! YES! The actual pedestrian crossing where THE BEATLES set foot and crossed and posed for the oh-so-famous cover of their album! *goes all manic and excited*

The appartment is soooooooooo beautiful too.... it's in this lovely building complex, and it's very spacious and big. It's in a very lovely, quiet, beautiful neighbourhood (and convenient too... only about 15 minutes away by bus from Oxford Circus). The minute we had a glimpse of the appartment, stepped into our room and looked out the window, Weird and I were like "We SO don't wanna go home! That is IT! We're staying here for good baybeh!" Hehehe...

And then we unpacked, freshened up, and had dinner and chit-chatted, getting to know the family. The kids are adorable, but biasa lah kan... they were pretty shy and apprehensive with me and Weird at first. But that'll soon change in the few days to come... :satisfied_nod:

Needless to say.. right after dinner we both just CRASHED into bed. I especially, very rarely get jet-lagged.. I tend to be able to sleep and wake up and adjust to any time zones very easily... so it was a very fitful night for me :-D. Plus.. we had the second day to look forward to! Squee squee!
]]></description>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://fizzy-fizah.fotopages.com/?entry=542289</guid>
<pubDate>Fri, 29 Jul 2005 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
</item>

</channel>
</rss>
