Scribe by Website Kang
We were supposed to have lunch at Greenwich, but at noon time we were at Edgeware Road, so we decided to have lunch at the Mc'
Donald restaurant. We had selected a nice table for four. Drug Buster was sitting facing to me, and I was sitting next to Sing
Sung who faced Garfield. Both Sing Sung and me were facing the front door. Garfied was a good story teller who talked about his Interhash experience and boasted that he
never missed any interhash event. He was also a bit homesick and talked about his grandchildren. He said he was so good to the
grandchildren, and he used to teach them camping and other outdoor life. When he was asleep at home, one of the grandchildren
would come and open his eyelid, and said " Grandpa wake up! " and so on. The story was so touching that everbody was so immersed
in it. Suddenly, Sing Sung jumped up. " My bag, my bag, where is my bag? " he shouted. " Your bag? underneath the table near your
legs!" I said. Both bags of Garfield and Sing Sung were of the same blue colour with red linings."No, No! That is Cinatambi's, where is my bag? ". Everybody panicked, and I suddenly felt my legs were laxing and
did not have the feeling of my bag too. Luckily, my bag was underneath the table. " Vincent, you could have left yours at the roadside as
just now, I saw you took out your camera from your bag! No way you could lose your bag here!" Garfield said.
" No, I can witness this. Just now, I saw Vincent carefully putting his bag underneath the table and pressing his leg towards the
bag against the transparent polycabonate partition, and he called me:' T T Kang come and sit next to me ' , likewise, I also
sat down and used my two legs to grip my bag underneath the table. We were very careful! ". everybody started to scratch his head,
there was no way that the bag would disappear. We were sitting on a raised floor and Sing Sung was sitting next to the partition,
and the gap between the partition and the floor was only two inches. No way that the bag could slip through and there were not
many customers in the restaurant either. The supervisor of the Indian
origin was called in and he was also puzzled. By his professional expertise, ex DSP Drug Buster who saw the cctv gadgets attached to the ceiling
suggested to watch the video reply. A police report must be made before they could allow us to see the video replay and that had
to be next morning 8.30am by their policy. So Sing Sung and Drug Buster went to Paddington Police Station to make a report and Garfield
and I guarded at the Mc'Donald restaurant. The idea was that we could do something if the thief was
to carry the bag out as at that point of time we believed the bag was still inside the restaurant.
After making the police report, we went to the Westminster pier where we boarded a ferryboat to cruise on the River Thames and
headed to Greenwich per our earlier plan.
Along the river, we could have a better view of Parliament house, the Westminster Abbey, the London Bridge, the Tower Bridge and the time was diminishing as we approached
Greenwich. Greenwich mean time is the basis of standard time throughout most of the world, and Greenwich has been the zero point
used in the reckoning of terrestrial longitudes since 1884. It took about 45min to reach the pier of Greenwich. It was interesting
to walk through the Greenwich town and pass by the Greenwich University. We had to walk up the hill to reach the Old Royal Observatory. We were late and unfortunately
the Observatory was closed and we just took a few pictures here and there for remembrance. On top of that, we were reminded that the last ferryboat
would leave at six and we had to make sure that we won't miss the boat.
The next morning, everybody was so eager to know what happened. At 8.30pm, we were there except Garfield who had a long hour
chat with his good friend Eddy, the previous night after the dinner.He could not wake up on time, so we left him in the hostel.
The manager( from Cyprus) of the restaurant was very friendly and apologetic, and he could allow only one person to watch the video.
But we insisted that Drug Buster should be included since he would be more experienced in judging the video replay.
Congratulations to the Mc'Donald's management, the video replay worked. The story was finally revealed.
In Malaysia the snatch thieves are not uncommon and brutal, they come in a motorbike and " Zoom! " snatch your hand
bag, either breaking your blade bone, or dragging the victim to cause from minor injury to death. This gives the tourism industry
and police a lot of headache. It was reported only recently that the police had nabbed a millionaire ( in ringgit ) snatch
thief who somehow could operate comfortably for four years.
The snatch thief in London was more sophisticated. According to the video replay, he followed us in quietly and sat back to back
to me and used his leg to hook sing sung's bag bit by bit at a time. We were so immersed in Garfield's story such that
Sing Sung's leg muscles were relaxed and he did not feel anything when the guy pulled the bag to him. He grabbed the bag abreast and
walked right in front of us. " Was he a black or a white ? " I asked curiously. " He was a white! " answered Sing Sung. " Oh---- I see! "
" But, he could be a middle East white, I am not too sure! " added Sing Sung. So, whether he was an European white or Middle
East white remains a mystery, only the thief himself will know! We left the matter to the hands of Paddington Police. The loss
in terms of value was mild but the inconvenience like personal medicines, travel books and notes was a nuisance.
Please view " thought of the week " on 20-08-04.
We returned to the hostel and picked up Garfield who just finished shifting his belongings
to our room. We had the chance to change to a 4 bed dormitory which was at the 4th floor. There were 65 steps to climb up the staircase,
and Garfield could not find the room and had to climb twice with his 25 kg backpack. Poor Garfield! As we were scheduled to go to Cambridge, We took a bus, National Express, at
the Victoria Bus Station at 12.30pm. The bus was new, well maintained, comfortable and safe.( all buses are of world
class standard and you get a 50% discount if you are over 60 ).
The journey to Cambridge was very pleasant, and this was the first time we got to the countryside of UK. The scenery was beautiful.
majority of the land is still farmland in Uk, and every tree seems to have its place, no more no less. The cattle farm, the sheep farm,
wheat, barly farms and the vegetation were spectacular. I was told by an agriculture economist that the food, diary production in UK was self sufficient.
Cambridge is a University town and the colleges are built here and there within the town. There was an open market like our
Pasar Malam, and we roamed around there for a while. Sing Sung bought himself a new bag and I picked up a piece of bronze
souvenir. There was a bicycle repair store which said they had operated the business for more than 10 years. The interesting part
was that there were two people working, and one was wearing a T shirt bearing a name " Manager " at the back and the other
one " Mechanic ". The business was quite busy.
That was half a day of expedition, and we came back to London at about 7.30pm. On the way back, it crossed my mind that with
the vast countryside we passed by, the majority of the people, the simple peasants and warriors of Anglo Saxon could at one time be the driving force behind
the British Empire; the East India Company, the Opium War, and the cannons reaching the Forbidden city of China.The English
language and culture flourish throughout the world. This is really
amazing!
Is this due to the Westminster Adminstration which could be routed to Roman Empire Administration?.
The next destination, Bath. - The Roman Bath, historical remain of Roman Empire - to be continued next update
Date: 16-08-2004