Photo taken at St.James Park near Buckhingham Palace with Suleiman (left) and Aziz (right).
08 September 1986
The English classes continued. We had Mr.Stand Hussey and Mrs. Ackyed (our English lecturers) in the afternoon session. We were divided into few classes as to accommodate 40 of us. In the morning, i had the chance to go nearby laundrette to clean all my clothes since we arrived. All this while, until we found the laundrette, we washed ourselves at the bathroom. Consider just like when we were in boarding school (to some of us back in Malaysia.note:to me, i do not go to boarding school..only joined the group when we were in Shah Alam where for the first time i learnt about living on your own..away from parents).
Days after days, class after class with different things to learn we have to go and prepare for the real university lectures!!!
Kind of get used to the way English speaks and understand their cultures at the same time. For example, we get to know that there are so many English newspaper were printed in London. We only thought they have only The Times (equivalent to our New Straits Times), The Daily Mail (perhaps same version as our Malay Mail) but in reality, there are more than 6 publications.
Perhaps, the fastest to read (or rather read through) and the best to view would be the tabloid one!! The Sun, Daily Mirror.(Opps…the guy would love to see Page 3 girl..of course..half-sensored photo of the chosen model of the day . In the late afternoon, they have Evenings Standard with the hot and latest news..at all tube/train stations.One thing i like most is the British likes reading and will read everywhere they are..waiting for a bus, standing in the train, sit in the tube. They will leave the paper in train or bus so that someone can continue enjoying read it..They also like doing crosswords (or now sudoku) while they are in the train, bus or tube. This is something which i admire about their habits. Reading habits and also like to recycle buy sharing the papers with others after they completed reading. They also doesnot want to waste time in train,tube or bus.
12September 1986.
It’s Friday again. We took the ride to Central again. Friday Prayers and see the rest of Central London. We went to the palace again. Of course, we had our lunch at Malaysia Hall (we missed our mum’s cook!).I aslo posted some mails to Malaysia. This was my favourite pastime as i had almost 50 penpals around that time. But this time, i wrote letters to my aunties (Mak Tua -my mum’s eldest sister and Mak Ngah – my mum’s sister: second in the family). The best
part of the writing was that i had to write to them in Jawi (our Malay version of writing similar to Arabic) as they will be read easily in Jawi rather than in Malay language (old folks). I also wrote to my close friends in my hometown, Johor Bahru to express my thanks to their encouragement during our studies in schools, also to say how miss i am the time that we spent together playing football and what not during the kids time like swimming in the nearby river, climbing tree to pick fruits.
The next day, we went to a small town known as Illford. We met some seniors (Malaysian students who stayed there for some time). We tried to find a suitable house to rent but not available. This was the time to get to know the place where we can get Halal food like chicken,beef and mutton. I was shocked to see so many muslim butchers around this small town which majority of the people are Indians and Pakistanis. Most of them are muslim. We also found a small mosque which previously was a church. It was bought over by the muslim community and coverted into a mosque later.
We went to another place the next day. It was Dagenham. To the fans of English football league, Dagenham is not a popular name like West Ham, Chelsea as the local football team in Dagenham was not in the premier league. I remembered the Dagenham football team was in the Vauxhall Conference league (note: just before they qualified to the 4th Division of English football league. Mind you, there were a total of 92 football teams in the whole of four divisions leagues in England where was i student there ).
What a day?
Morning: I had the chance to go the library near our temporary accommodation, Southwood Library. a public library for the small town.
For the first time, i received letter from Malaysia. My dad wrote to me. As expected, he hoped that i will be able to complete the study within the time given. He is always worried if i failed as he has to pay back to the government. He is one of my guarantors for the bond that i signed with the Public Services Department of Malaysia before i accept the offer to further studies abroad. The second guarantor was my father’s superior at his office in Sultan Ismail Library in Johor Bahru (Note: talking about library, there were only 2 public libraries in Johor Bahru when i left my hometown in 1986 as compared to 7 public libraries within the borough of the place,known as Newham in East London
when i was there). My father’s superior was willingly to offer to be my other guarantor and they (she and her husband, one of the popular lawyer and even today still handling big court case) adopted me as their son (at that time their kids were very young -ranged from 2 to 4 years old). She treated my father just like her uncle. Mind you, it is
not an easy task at that time to get a guarantor of the bond who is not your family members or relatives especially the education grant for overseas studies as the guarantor has to pay the penalties of about RM70,000 or more should i failed to complete the study at that time.
In the same evening, my friends and I were offerred accommodation from the college.
16 September 1986
The classes continued the whole day.
Over the lunch time, we went to the bank, National Westminster Bank (in short, they called Natwest). This is one of the 4 major banks in England apart from Barclays, Lloyds and Midland Bank. We were asked to collect a cheque book. For the first time in my life, to have a cheque book at the age of 20. When we learnt Accounts (or Commerce studies) in secondary school, we knew that to open a cheque account (back in 1986), you may need certain of money to be deposited (as little as RM1000) and an introducer (those who had already a cheque account and with credibility). In England, it is a common scenario. We were given the service card to withdraw money from the money kiosk (we called ATM card in Malaysia) and cheque book with a plastic card known as Cheque card valued at 50 pound sterling. The cheque card allows us to pay at the shop with a cheque up to value of 50 pound sterling. The card gave an assurance for the bank to honour the payment to the recepient. It was something new for us at that time.
We were also kept some money in the deposit account (like a FD-fixed deposit) for rainy days. We were rather “rich” when we reached London as were given an advanced of 3 months living allowance as well the first year book allowance. The only problem to some of us is when they become the big spenders- buying unneccessary items like television, hi-fi audio systems. Just before they get the 1st monthly allowance in the 4th month, some of us already broke. This was the first test to us in managing money, This is what i called Freedom of spending your own money without control.
18September 1986
We officially received the admission letter to college from Mr.Mishaw.
My college was at West Ham Precinct where there were only 2 Malaysian students in the whole college (in the main campus, Barking Precinct, there were a total of 40 Malaysian Students in 1986). Myself n Norazan, a girl who was in the same group from my last college in Malaysia. Both of us took the same course- Mathematics,Statistics and Computing.
19 September 1986
A group of us (mainly my friends who studied at School of Architecture-
5 of them: Khalizan,Khalid,Suleiman,Jojo and Majid) went to West Ham Precinct to meet the College Accomodation Offiecr (also acted as Chaplain for the college), Mr.Norman. We were offerred a house nearby the college. Actually, my college at West Ham Precinct and my friends’ college (Holbrook Precinct – School of Architecture) are quite close to each other and hence, we tried to find a suitable accommodation for all of us. I had no choice initially as i am the only one (male Malaysian student) at my college and living alone would be more expensive for me to survive. I was offered too (if i wish) to stay with English family but i rejected as i am not convincing at that time to stay alone.
11am- We went to the house by walking from college. We met the landlady named Nadine. Actually, the house was meant for only 5 people as the other 3 (3 rooms) already booked by English students who studied at my college too. If left us with 3 rooms (two double bedrooms -one located at the basement of the house, one on the first floor whilst the small room at the attic of the house). I had no choice but to beg the landlady to accept me in the small room at the attic. She had initially rejected my proposal but subsequently accepted my offer even at some price for the rent. She promised to buy a new bed, mattress,blanket and pillow for me. She also agreed to allocate pot and pans, plates dedicated for us and placed in a separate cupboard for our usage and not to be shared by other 3 British students who are tottaly stranger to us. It was made known to her about certain things that are prohibited for our religion.
Each of us paid GBP 50 for the deposit of renting. Our rent was charged at GBP 25 per week (including GBP 5 for heating facilities). We left the house happily as our problem to find an accommodation is resolved.
Our first home address in London:
139,Boleyn Road,
Forest Gate
London E7 9QF
to be continued.
