UK Family Trip: The REAL Unfortunate Event

Hi everyone. Assalamualaikum.

This is Nik, coming in

I posted about a funny unfortunate event that happened during our trip
but this post will be about the real unfortunate event that happened to US during our trip.

Since we know that we are going to the UK in October. We have been prepping ourselves, a few months before.

During ramadhan, the holy month, we prayed hard to make sure that we will be just fine for our trip.

I asked Allah to
i. not making any of us SICK, . Thank You Allah
ii. protect us from people who wanna do wrong or bad towards us, inc our house in Malaysia.
iii. may Allah protect our journey, hoping that we can go there safely and come back safely.
iv. and many more.

Now that I am back I can say I got most of the thing I asked for. Thank You Allah.

nevertheless, I expected we will confront with some problem.
Maybe broken handphone, lost in the middle of nowhere or got scammed. Coz I got scammed last year.

The unfortunate event happen twice in the same day.
First, we were on a bus from Harrods to Oxford Street.
Kak Yana, my sis, decided to loosen up his shoulder muscle so she placed her handbag at the seat in front of her. She was seating at the 4-seat-looking-at-each-other-seat.
Kak Yana and I got off to the Selfridges station while others went to musolla which was a few stations more.
We went inside Selfridges. She went to LV section and I went to Charlotte Tilbury section.
Both of the section was close-by.

I swatch one lipstick and asked one question at the salesgirl, suddenly I got a phone call from Kak Yana. It was weird because supposedly she can see me, Im not that far.

Before I got the chance to pick up the call, she saw me and said "beg kak yana takde"

She already called our family members who were on the bus, just in case they took the handbag with them. BUT THEY DIDNT.

so thats the first one.

the second unfortunate happen  a few hours later.
Everyone were busy shopping and when its time to go back, we gather at a bus station nearby Primark.
The bus that we need to take, delayed for about 15minutes.

So there are lots of people waiting for the same bus.
As it arrives, it was flooded by almost all the people that are waiting at the bus station.
p.s: not everyone takes the same bus even they are waiting at the same bus station.

Then we got off as how it should be.
I realized my dad did not get out of the bus, he was still on the bus as the bus moved to the next station.

Aiman said, papa went back inside coz he thought he left his phone.

At our home, I am getting ready to go to sleep. I decided to have a glass of water so I went downstairs.
There I saw my dad sitting on the floor with frowned face.
I can see his holding his phone. weird. then whats the problem.

Papa lost his wallet. He was pick-pocketed.

hmmmmm
This is Nik Camelia Al Haded, I believe everything that happen, happened for a reason.
over and out.
Assalamualaikum.

p.s: the next post will be about how the issues got resolved.

UK Family Trip - Perform Your Prayer

Hi,

This is Nik, coming in
Assalamualaikum everyone.

This post will be about how we perform our prayer throughout our stay in the UK and at the same time sharing the places that we went to pray.

For first timers to London/UK, you may be surprised at how many mosques/musolla & prayer room that you can easily find in London. When you go outside of London, the possibility to find it as easy as in london may be low unless you are going to a tourist attraction venue.

In London,
There is Central London Mosque which is the biggest mosque in London. It is nearby Reagent's park.
I have visited this place once but havent got the chance to perform my prayer inside.

No question need to be asked. If you are nearby the Central London Mosque just go there to perform your prayer.

but,
there are not much things to see around unless you having a picnic at the park or you went to London Zoo.

If you are in Central London as in footsteps away from London famous attractions such as, Oxford Street, Buckingham Palace, Westminster, Big Ben and many more, then there are several other options of places that you can go to perform your prayer.

You just have to google it. hehehehe

OK.

Lets start

First of all, not every place will provide a Muslim prayer room. As in only muslim can use it. Majority of tourist attraction places will be using a general name in which the room can be use by all religion and not only muslims.

Trust me hunny, You will see only muslim at this prayer room.

Other than "prayer room", the places for you to pray can also be named as
Multifaith room,
Meditation room,
Quiet room and
Contemplation room.

So this mean,
If you want to Google a place to pray you should type in
"Place to pray nearby"
instead of
"Mosque & Musolla nearby"

 You get me?

Next, get ready with bottle because the "rooms" that I said above do not provide any ablution/wudhu area, so you have to go to the toilet.

It will be embarrassing if you have to put your leg up on the sink in a crowded toilets thus the bottle.
You can fill it in first then go inside a toilet to take ablution peacefully.

When I was in Selfridges Oxford Street, we want to perform our prayer at their multifaith room. As soon as I arrive at the place, I saw there is no ablution place and no sink as well, I know I have to go to the toilet. Then when I got out, there are lots of girls queuing to go into the toilet.

As I said, it will be embarrassing for me to take my ablution in a crowded toilet. I didnt have any extra bottle with me at that time, so what I did was, I used the sink in the baby room. Smart? I know.

Selfridges prayer room. Nearby customer service level 4.

Bicester Village is one of the torist must-go shopping place. This place provide a very comfortable contemplation room for you to pray. Praying mat is provided and they even have the Holy Quran.
You just have to take your ablution at the toilet which is just right next to it. They even have seperate room for male and female. So, nothing to complaint.

We went to Oxford city before going to Bicester Village. We visited the Pitts' River Musuem that has all the dinosaurs bones. The best part of it is that the prayer room is just right next to museum.

As for quiet room, we used this room in Cheshire Oak, Chester. My sister said that the prayer room will be nearby Mark and Spencer, so we went looking around the place and it took us awhile for us the find the room. That was our very first time seeing a prayer place labelled as quiet room. The room is a very small room. Only two people can pray at a time, but there is a sink provided and also praying mat.

When we went to Manchester, after we have done with our museum tour, we went to Trafford Centre which was just 10-15 mins away.It is a mall, and it provide a multi-faith room. The mall is a very nice place to go. We had our lunch there at Nandos. There are lots more halal options in there.

As for Heathrow airport terminal 4, there is a mutlifaith room at the departure hall, and also at the mezzanine level. If you are taking Malaysia airline, the mutilfaith room is not far from where MAS gate usually be. So now worried.

Nearby Oxford Street; the famous shopping place, you can find two mosque nearby. They are Soho Mosque, which is called Soho Islamic Centre

This is the best picture I can get from google map

and also Muslim World League Mosque

The mosque is just behind the tree. I cannot get a better picture of this place due to that white truck.

If you are at Oxford Street you can go to both of this of places unless you are a girl, you can only go to Muslim World Mosque because the Soho mosque does not provide female prayer room.

We went to the Muslim World League Mosque, it is A-ok.

Lastly, you definitely find prayer place if you go to any hospitals. Usually hospital will provide multi-faith room. Why am I so confident? Ask yourself again.
For example, you can go to St Mary Hospital @ Paddington.

If you want to see the places that we went to pray visually, you can go to my youtube channel and watch all of my UK Vlog that have "pray" in the title.
You can see the prayer room at bicester village, manchester, oxford and once we prayed at London School of Economics (LSE) because my sisters graduation ceromony was nearby. Easy peasy.

When we were in Edinburgh, most of the time we prayed at our home. We planned our trip according to prayer time. Meaning we will start the daily activities after performing our prayer. Once, we went out before zohor, we still go back to our home and perform jamak takhir.

Edinburgh also has a mosque.

This is Nik Camelia Al Haded, now you tell me the reasons why you dont perform your prayer?
over and out
Assalamualaikum.

UK Trip 2016: The Unfortunate Event $$$

Assalamualaikum,

This is Nik, coming in.

Thank you for being here and reading my blog.

You may wonder what is it about the "unfortunate event" .
Did something bad happen when we were in the UK.
Did something happen not according to plan.

Well YES for both

First of all, my two sisters and I went to watch the LION KING show at Lyceum theater.
It was one of the most exciting thing that we want to do.
We FREAKING paid Rm400++ for the seat we sat.

hmmmm
so what happen.

We arrive on Wednesday, and we watched the theater on Thursday at night.
the show start at 7.30pm
since we have only been there for about 24 hours, our body was still jetlag
so guess what happen.

We were tired and sleepy.
We have been going around since early in the morning and and and and and, me and Kak yana woke up at 4am in the morning.

Before the show start, I was so excited, literally I was jumpy and smiling like a weirdo,
But both of my sisters said there are getting sleepy so they need coffee but we couldn't find any coffee nearby the theater. We saw there's a bar inside the lyceum theater so we taught they have it but they dont.

So no coffee.

We watched the starting of the show. The intro was so awesome, then the moment they start to talk, we dozed off.

like zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
and more zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I thought I dont need coffee.
But I needed one.

The show was amazing
It really is.
I said IS
coz the show is still available and running.

We chose LION KING instead of the others such as Aladdinor Wicked because it has a better review.

and people reviewed it differently.

All the other theater shows are great as well, but the one that made LION KING show so great is because of the graphic.

Even though I slept 40% of the showtime, there were moments where I got to see the best grahpic moments.

It is so great that people were focusing on that more than the actors.

When I said graphic it means the background,
They made the stage into ALMOST exactly like the movie scene.
I cant share the amazing part. It will be a spoiler and spoiler SUCKS.

So yeah.
That is ONE of the unfortunate event that happened to US.
and we find it very funny now.
Well, Im kind of pissed coz that thing cost me RM400++
huwaaaaaa
iCry
but I still enjoy my quick nap. hehe

This is Nik Camelia Al Haded, still look forward to experience other live show .
over and out

Assalamualaikum.

p.s: I have made my London vlog, which include the part that I went to watch Lyceum theater. Yup, a few moments before we zzzzzzz.

UK Family Trip 2016-What happen.

Hiiiii.
This is Nik coming in.

This post will not be about tips and me putting all the infos that I want to share about my trip but it will be more about story telling time.

At the beginning of this year, my sister said that she will be having a graduation ceremony in London and hoping that all of us can attend and also at the same time have our family trip.

Seriously, we start talking about this since January or last year. Im not sure.

We sort out everything and came up with a rough budget on how much will it cost each person.
I was the one who calculated every single thing.

How much will it cost if there's 13 people (this is all of us) then
how much will it cost if there only 9 people, 8 people and finally 7 people.

Only 7 of us end up going.
due to budget.

eventhough it will be merrier if all us went but some other things are way more important than travelling 10 000km away from home.

After finalizing on how many people are going, we bought the flight ticket and then we start to plan our route from there.

IT IS NOT EASY.

It is not easy NOT because it is hard to go around in the UK ,
it is more to making sure that we have proper place to pray, enough time to rest and my parents will not get tired.

Ouh yeah. The people who went to the UK are my parents, my sisters, two of my teenagers cousin and I.

Whenever we move, or where ever went, we always think about.
What if mama gets tired. What if papa got sick. Where can we perform our prayer comfortably and so on.

I will be sharing my schedule later in another post.
For now, lets look on the bright and fun side.

We went to the UK to attend my sisters' graduation and went to the cities other than London because we never done that before.
Many have said that, going outside of London is better than staying inside London.

I personally still thinks that I like London, I dont why. But I have to admit it is much calmer going outside of London. Less traffic, less crowded.

In 2014, I went to London, when I got back, I had a chit chat with my lecturer who has British citizenship. I said to him.
"I dont understand why my parents like taking the bus than the train"
then he replied
" It is better!"
and I said, "No, its not. Its so slow"

Now, its 2016. I am two years older and matured. hahaha
I have to say taking the bus is better than the train.

If you really just wanna relax the bus is the best.
You dont actually have to change bus unlike train where you have change according to the "line" that you have to take if necessary.

It takes us 45 min to arrive to my sister's graduation hall by bus but only 18 mins if we took the train. but we have to change it.
We dont feel like the bus ride was 45mins at all. because we are busy looking around. Rest and relax.

So if you are tourist and you wanna relax OR you have older people that cannot run here and there as much as a young person can, I SUGGEST YOU TAKE THE BUS.

I have changed so many of my perception towards UK. The people and the place. You cannot judge UK just by ONE visit. It changes every time you go.

At the end of the day, I still love Malaysia but still wanna go to UK. Insya Allah. I can and I will.
Well, sapa je taknak travel kan.

This is Nik Camelia Al Haded , I am not done shopping.
Over and out.

 

p.s I make UK vlog. If you want to have a look at it, you can search for my name "Nik Camelia Al Haded" at Youtube.