England Trip November 2015

After more than 9 years in Kuantan, we went back to England in November 2015. It was a double family holiday as we spent part of our time with my English family in Leicester and Nottingham, and part of our time with Fie's Malaysian family (who also flew over) in London.

I prepared for our England trip by fearing the worst regarding the 'weather' and 'food' - my imagination about them was 'dismal' and 'bland' respectively. As it turned out, we all loved the freezing cold weather as it was such a welcome contrast to the incessant heat we are accustomed to in Malaysia. There were times in England where I was outside and shivering, yet I learned to savour the experience. We also enjoyed the food, particularly the famous fish and chips, as well as the chocolate! Yes, the supermarkets were full of amazing chocolate at incredible prices!

We visited Leicester, Nottingham, Manchester, Bolton, Dagenham and London and met family, old friends and church friends. I went to Wembley, Old Trafford and the O2 Arena where I watched Rafael Nadal and Stan Wawrinka play tennis. I entered the Mormon temple in London and twice travelled on an Airbus A380 - the first such experience in my life.

Our Malaysia Airlines Airbus A380 - the largest commercial aircraft in the world. It is an absolute beauty and an absolute beast! We enjoyed two beautifully smooth 13-hour flights on the A380 and would definitely fly on it again.

On board Malaysia Airlines' Airbus A380

Boarding the Airbus A380 at KLIA:

Takeoff on the Airbus A380!

Landing at London Heathrow:

Here I am back at my childhood home in Leicester, England

Met up with some of my old Leicester friends

Autumn at the park

A cold morning in Glenfield, Leicester:

Got together with my brother and sister and did some photo re-enactments. That was really fun!

It was great spending time with my English family after so long being away

No trip to England is complete without real fish and chips! It was so filling and was easily enough for two people

I was thrilled to return to the Ellis Park astroturf pitches to have a kick around with my brother. I spent countless hours in my childhood playing football here. It's a very nostalgic place for me!

And here's Gaz retrieving the football after one of my awful attempts at goal:

Photo at Bradgate Park in Leicester

Sitting on the rocks at Bradgate Park with my Leah

At Wollaton Hall, the residence that featured as Batman's house in the movie

Perhaps the highlight of the trip was going to the O2 Arena for the World Tour Finals. We got tickets to watch Rafael Nadal vs Stan Wawrinka and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Before we entered the stadium we bumped into the leading tennis umpire, Mohamed Lahyani by chance, and he was kind enough to pose for a photo with us!

A true photograph to treasure! Here we are with leading tennis umpire, Mohamed Lahyani, outside the O2 Arena in London

My wife and I hold the Malaysia flag at Old Trafford, home of Manchester United FC

The second portion of our trip was spent in Dagenham where we visited some of the main sights around London.

Seeing the sights in London

Visited Buckingham Palace

Stopped for a photo with two policemen in London. They were very happy to indulge us!

Visiting Westminster Abbey with Fie's family

Resting in St. James' Park with my wife and sisters

Another special moment was seeing Jae Jae the tiger at ZSL London Zoo

It was a great holiday and we did so many things and visited lots of places. We flew back on the Airbus A380 once more, a long 13-hour flight, followed by a quick 30-minute hop form KLIA to Kuantan.

Look at the size of those Airbus A380 engines!

Watching the beautiful sunset over Egypt on the Airbus A380 while flying back to Kuala Lumpur from London Heathrow

My Journey to Kuantan - Part 1 - Raised in England

Over the course of this week I'll be taking you on my journey to Kuantan.

• How did I, an Englishman, end up in Malaysia?
• What made me choose to come to this part of the world?
• How did I discover this little town called Kuantan?
• Learn of the events that fixed my destination to Kuantan

Today I'll be sharing Part 1 - Raised in England.

I was born in Leicester, England almost 30 years ago. We are as normal an English family as you're likely to meet. Mum and dad both working, earning an average salary, and live in a quite satisfactory semi-detached house in a quiet village called Glenfield.

Here I am at 18 months old. (Credit Joanna Horne)

(Credit Joanna Horne)

The first major event that happened in my life was in 1985 when I was only 3 years old. I don't remember anything about it, but it has determined the life I have lived ever after.

Two sister missionaries representing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) knocked on my mum's front door, and not long afterwards my mum decided to join the church.

In later posts I'll explain just how vital this was in my journey to Kuantan.

Living in England, we always looked forward to the snow in the winter months. For two reasons - to go out, build a snowman, throw snowballs, and secondly, because if it was a particularly heavy snowfall, there would be no school!

However, as I grew older, I hated the snow, ice, slush, cold and wind - another factor in my journey to Kuantan.

This is my street in England. (Credit Joanna Horne for this image)

Glenfield village Square. (Credit Joanna Horne)

In the distance is my dad. (Credit Joanna Horne)

I lived a real good childhood in England. Got a formal education, had lots of great friends and got up to lots of mischief. Also played lots and lots of sports!

Here I am hitting a serve at the tennis court

And here I'm hanging out with my mates on New Years Eve. (My friends will probably never forgive me for posting up this picture!)

This is me standing outside our home in England

Look out for Part 2 tomorrow!

Blog Hopping

During a spare hour this afternoon while my oldest daughter was colouring, my youngest daughter was sleeping, and my wife chatting with her sisters on Whatsapp, I had a hop around the blog world, to check in on what my friends are up to today. I enjoyed seeing the variety of different friends I have and posts they displayed. Here's a run-down of what people are up to today:

FOOD

First up is Mary's food. Mary has a plethora of tasty recipes just waiting to be discovered!

PHOTOGRAPHY

My friend Doug takes some wonderful photos with well-explained captions, like this one:

TRAVEL

Follow Travelling Hawk as she takes you on a journey of Japan

EXPAT LIFE

My fellow-countryman, John, and I, really enjoy the Malaysian sun. Here he is in Johor Bharu:

PHOTOGRAPHY

Lotta from Sweden takes lovely photographs of the Swedish countryside

WRITING

Rosalind and I are both from Leicester, England. She's a really good writer. Today she wrote a reminiscing piece about a teddy bear and her grown-up daughter

HEALTH & LIVING

Andrea is busy tending her garden:

ABSTRACT PHOTOGRAPHY

Leovi is sharing more of his mouthwatering images

Hope you enjoyed that little blog hop around America, Europe and Asia. If you have a few minutes, go and pay a visit to any of these people who catch your interest. I'm sure they'd appreciate your visit!

Have a great day!