2023 April-May - Rye, UK (Day 9)

Okay. As of writing this, I'm already back home in Macau. But I am going to finish this! Last 2 days!

Right, so on this day, it was supposed to be a free day with no itinerary. Friend suddenly said "let's go to that town I mentioned before!" I was like "?" what town? "I told you about it before, it's called Rye!" And I was like, "is it the land of Rye bread?" and she got annoyed, "you said we'd go!" I had totally no idea what she was talking about.

After she sent some links, then I remembered. She talked about this many, many, many years ago, I think we were still in our Uni days (this is like over 15+ years ago). She did not tell me this during the planning stage of this trip (which was back in September/October). I was flabbergasted. And annoyed as F as well. It's near Hastings. If this had been mentioned before, I could have made an overnight trip of like, you know, Hastings, spend the night there then go to Rye or that sort of thing. But noooooo. And then she had the gall to say "we can spend 2 hours here." And I was like, I'm not going to go somewhere that's roughly 1.5 hours one-way trip to spend only 2 hours there.

Anyway.

Welcome to Rye.



Not having a clue of what to do, I relied on the town map at the front of the station. Saw it saying something about the Ypres Museum, so walked there. Then the "shop" location was closed with a sign indicating going further up hill. So there's a Ypres Castle and we went for it.



That's nasty!





Very interesting! Booklet was for sale but I didn't buy it.



I'm a bit in awe that people actually respect the signage.





It was dark, looking in from outside, and when I stepped in, must have activated some motion-detection thing and a video and audio clip started playing. Gave me the creeps, also because of that doll standing in the corner.



Cannon garden or gun garden.



Looked down and saw this beer garden, so down we went.



This is a lesson for me that, I don't like cider. I like apple cider, yes, it's a bit sweet, but not regular cider.



Then up to... I think this is the St Mary's Church.



Seems like I missed a photo of the huge pendulum. So when you go in, there's this huge pendulum (attached to the clock tower) swinging in the middle of the atrium, and gave a soft tick-tock-tick-tock that's classic to pendulum clocks. I liked the whole thing!



Some interesting exhibits.



Love these old keys!



Nice glass windows.



Then we saw a sign that said we can go up the clock tower but at your own risk. Hm... ok?



OK, I get it. If you are a little fat or wider then you won't be able to squeeze past.



Then there was a room with a lot of stuff... how did they get up there then?



Another set of rickety stairs.



And another!



So then I was in an... atrium of sorts? It's where the bells of the church are kept. Then BONG BONG BONG! It started ringing right when I was in this room. I got the fright of my life and maybe got deaf in one ear LOL. I looked at my watch.... 14:54... IT'S NOT ACCURATE!!!!



A pidgeon was trapped in there, or in there by choice. I guess the pidgeon can find a way out if it inclines to do so.



Again, going out at your own risk. My friend was scared shitless by all that signage of doom.



But it was AMAZING!



It was hardly scary at all, the railings were high enough that I don't feel like I'd fall. You'd only fall if you actually tried to climb over something to fall.



Panoramic shot.



I actually went 2 times around to admire the view. My friend had long gone back down. Talking about going back down... 上山容日竹心心落山難... easy to go uphill, difficult to go down. Yes. I initially had some trouble going down. But it was simply putting everything fallable (mobile phone, hat, etc) into my backpack, then climbing down backwards.



Back in the mechanical room.



Then we went down High Street and saw some cute stuff. But things have closed by then... typical towns.



As I had a cider, it has sped up my need of the toilet, so we had to go somewhere anywhere!



Cakes and tea!



Continue with the walk around town.



This is Mermaid Street.



Antiques shop that was... closed.



Since I had a cake I didn't feel like ice cream anymore.



Beautiful plants!



If I had seen this sign earlier I might have loaded this up, but by this time we had a time limit.



Walking the other way. Oh. And cemetery/graveyards also scare my friend shitless. I tried to convince her, a Western Cemetery is not like a Chinese Cemetery. A Western Cemetery is a place of rest; meanwhile a Chinese Cemetery is a place of haunting, but there was no convincing to be succeeded.



Awe, this tugged my heartstrings. I was baptized in a St. Anthony's (of Padua) Church. So I sat for a while.



Added bonus, my Secondary School (High School) was under the Franciscan Missionary of Mary as well.



Cute signs from a shop that's closed.



When we got back to London, then it reminded me, oh yeah.



For dinner we decided to try Five Guys (in Europe). It was OK. Back in Macau and Hong Kong, such fast food are treated like luxury restaurants and you pay an arm and a leg for them.

2023 April-May - London, UK (Day 10)

Last day in London... Well. My Boss also went to London while I was there. He set up a meeting for some other side project that I'm normally not involved (it's part of another company he handles) but he asked if I had time to join him. I figured..... I was sick and tired of my friend already, so I said yes, as long as I get to leave in time for the airport (I had booked a 14.30 taxi ride to the airport because my friend complained "her bag is very heavy and she's not lugging the bag from station to station for interchange and such"). I didn't have formal wear though, he said it's fine, that he's going to show up in a cap anyway. okayyyyy.....????

So my friend said she didn't have enough time to explore The British Museum? Fine. I walked her to the door of the Museum, then I made my way to find my Boss.



Tried to find a post office along the way. Geez. It's so expensive! If I send a postcard from Macau to the UK, it would cost me like, MOP $5, that's like... just under 50p (GBP 0.49) but gawdammit, sending a postcard from the UK to Macau was GBP 2.2????? MOP$23? I wonder if it's because I didn't go to a proper post-office-post-office. The lady said anywhere in the world as long as it's outside of the UK then it's 2.2. I wonder if this is a standard international postage so people don't have to think about where and where, like, the maximum amount someone has to pay to send anywhere. But anyway. Postcards are coming!



So, he asked me to ring the bell, so I did. He said the bell is very loud and it will wake him up. (Yes, he wanted me there to wake him up for the meeting haha). Meanwhile, as I was waiting, the building caretaker came over and asked "how can i help you?" and I was like, I wasn't sure if this was indeed a private apartment, or a timeshare kind of deal, that one had to inform the management that you're going there, and I knew that this wasn't my boss' own apartment (I think it was a friend's), so I didn't want to divulge too much. He asked a few questions, started thinking about who lives in which flat, and all that, and asked me if it's Mr. XXXXXX (i have no idea what his friend's dad's name is) so, I just nodded LOL. He then asks "from Hong Kong right?" and yeah, that saved me. Yesssssssss..... then "But I didn't know he was coming?" and I was like oh shit (i thought again, time share deal, not his turn yet shit shit shit)



Turns out the caretaker was only thinking out loud. He wanted to let me in, but I said "it's better I stay out, I don't have a key to go in the apartment anyway. I'll just wait for him to buzz me in. Better this way, both for you and me." Coz, I don't know if there are visitor rules or whatnot with regards to security. Soon enough he awakens! And buzzes me in. I walked up, not knowing there was an elevator LOL. Saw him in his jammies. Wanted to say there are holes in his jammies. But. yeah. I dunno. Not my place, I suppose. He gets dressed and off we go!



Ah, the difference of walking with someone who doesn't walk behind you! I just needed him to show me which way to go and we went our merry way. I also wasn't sure what he really wanted me to do with the meeting, so I jotted down notes and such. Lucky I had some spare business cards in my card case, as he requested the other party to send some reports to me as well. (Feelin' so prepared with my cards on me LOL) I think after the meeting he wanted to invite me for lunch, but I said I had to go fetch a severely directionally challenged friend from the British Museum, so we walked togther towards Holborn. Then he went on his way, and I went on mine. Bye Boss! Safe trip back! I'm going home first!



Got my friend, then we went back to our area.



Was still early so we hunted for lunch. Then I thought to walk through Selfridges for some last minute souvenirs, got some Coronation chocolate (yes, I know, it's just a packaging gimmick) and then received a call from the ride at 13.30. I asked, "but I booked for 14:30?" and he said, yeah but coronation so lots of roads closed. Okay. So we headed back.



I didn't notice any major disruption from the coronation, but there were a lot of works in the streets. In fact, most of the places we visited throughout the trip had part of the facade or building under works! We arrived 3 hours early, but lucky because the bag drop counter was open right at 3 hours before the flight. Dropped the bags, went through immigration, and had too much time. Friend continued to go shopping, so I used my card to go into the Lounge (my credit card gives me 10 visits per calendar year to visit the lounge). Isn't really all that exciting, as it seems everyone and their moms have the card too, but I got myself a small reading nook, and had some cake and water. Soon we boarded. I watched a movie, Violent Night. But, there should be so much more! I mean, I was rather appalled by the casual and blase-ness of people dying, but there should be more backstory. How did he become Santa Clause?



After the movie, I took out my laptop and typed up the notes from that meeting I had earlier. Then I slept. Actually managed to sleep most of the flight. When I woke up properly, it was just time for breakfast. But service was abysmal this time. We got served our food, then when it was drinks, either they ran out of stuff, and said to the row in front of us "I'll be back with your drinks," drinks never came. Then when almost landing, the pilot announced "If you have any trash, the crew is collecting them now," crew came to give our the immigration papers, but nobody came to collect the trash.



And this concludes my trip to London. Ah. Next planned holiday is end of October. Hm... can't wait :-)