Oh what a day it had been…I am dead tired and I will be boarding my plane to Hong Kong in 1.5 hours. It had been a long time I have blogged, and since I am so far ahead of time, I am just sitting here in Heathrow T3 blogging away. Perhaps instead of coming straight through Customs, I should have paid a visit to Terminal 5 and look at its grandness or not-so-grandness. Before I come into explaining why I have so much time ahead of me, I want to tour this world-wide notorious terminal. After queuing to go through immigration (which surprisingly went ahead pretty fast), I saw this big sign saying IRIS REGISTRATION. If you were wondering what this is about, IRIS stands for Iris Recognition Immigration System – I suppose another propaganda for the government to get data of people. It is however not compulsory. I was a bit ‘tam-duk-yi’ to try it out. They look a picture of my eyes and a picture of me, and my passport details, and I was told that I could use the IRIS channel when I enter the UK. I will try it out when I return – apparently its not just for brits but for anyone who wish to enter and exit UK for than once. Perhaps its more useful for those who needs to line up. What is more interesting, in my opinion is the chat I had with the person running this. I asked her about T5 and that “shambolic terminal” (a term which BBC used). She just said “We don’t talk about that here.” I then asked her about whether this IRIS scheme is popular, then she said, “there are about 100,000 who signed up over the past 2 years, its not that much if you think about it!”
Sitting here in outside my gates, I am still wondering whether or not I should pay 4.5 pounds for internet access. I am quite hungry, since I haven’t eaten since this afternoon in Asda. No, it wasn’t because I was doing this Wal-mart project (which btw, we didn’t get, despite the CEO saying that our idea was good and “good job” - maybe its just not good enough a job), but because Terry had kindly paid for me and Vincent to have lunch. I drove the biggest vehicle I have ever driven in my life. Consuming 50 pounds of fuel, we drove from London to Poole to Oxford and back to Heathrow. Sharing the wheel between us, Vincent and I helped Terry move his stuff from Poole to Oxford, where his new job starts on Tuesday. I am pretty sure I am not allowed to drive that vehicle with my license in Hong Kong, but because I was in UK, and I held my license for more than 3 years and above 21, I am allowed to rent a van. It was a MASSIVE van. There is a seated version of the van, aka, minibus. For a van of that size, if seats are installed, I think the van could seat 9 people comfortably. The drive was quite smooth. We had a fun day. Last night I drove Andy and Kelly back home at midnight.
Oh yeah, lets talk about how I celebrated my birthday. It was brilliant. I wore a suit, and walked across Hyde Park in the rain. Then Anna and I practiced our presentation a few times, Sun and Miho preped us for the questions. Then of course, we did the presentation to the Wal-mart people. Afterwards I went home, packed my bags (which are still very empty), and went to pick up the car in Victoria with Heily. I drove that massive van across London back to Lancaster Gate, and just as I turned into the carpark outside our house, I hit the pole -_-!! It wasn’t anything massive, but it shows how big this van is. I think throughout today, Vincent and I both have our share of “gosh, this is a monstrous vehicle – why is it so big??!” I hit the back of the van when I was reversing into Terry’s new house, not because I couldn’t tell the distance to the back of the van, but because there is a big sticking out of the house which was too low! The 2nd time in 2 days!! Then when Vincent sent me to Heathrow, he went into a lane which says “maximum height 7′9”.” So we ended up next to the SOS phone. I left in Heathrow 3.5 hours before my plane left and they went back to Victoria. The good thing is I am early for once for my flight, and the bad thing is I am WAY TOO EARLY for my flight, and I am hungry – well, that is my problem because I really didn’t feel like eating sandwich, and I went through the security too soon. Blah, I never feel right eating by myself in a restaurant anyway.
So, 2 terms have past, I am 23, I am flying back to HK after ½ year. I still have so much revision to do, and no job lined up for me next year…what will I do??
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* Thank you to Vincent for the photo.
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