Azlan Abn

Al-kisah… Setelah setel urusan check-in maka aku dan Wei pun cari jalan ke train station sambil diikuti Joss berpandukan peta yang diberikan oleh staff Exeter Uni kat kaunter check-in tadi. Di satu persimpangan dengan yakinnya, Wei menganbil simpang yang kiri. apabila melihat jalan agak sunyi semacam aje, aku mula suspicious. Macam salah ajer.Tengok peta pun macam tak betul. Tapi sebab tak tahu jalan, maka ikut sahajalah. Setelah 7 minit berjalan. Kami pun bertanya kepada a rondom guy on the street. He told us, the train station is the other way round. Maka kitorang kena patah balik. Dengan baik hatinya this guy membawa kami ke train station tersebut. Dia juga tolong angkat beg alatan memanah Joss. Baik gila mamat ni. Dah la tak kenal, sanggup pula bawak kat kitorang jalan ke train station yang jauh tu.Siap angkat beg lagi tu… Kalau kat Malaysia jangan harap la. Or maybe because I’m lucky?? Dalam perjalanan, jam tangan menunjukkan pukul 8.33. Terdetik dlm hatiku,’terlepas dah ni, tapi nak buat camner lari pun tak sempat’. Aku cuma berharap train delay atau ada satu lagi trip. Setibanya di suatu tempat yang mana kami boleh nampak stesen ketapi dari situ, mamat tu pun meninggalkan kami dan mengucapkan selamat. Joss pula berkata ‘ Azlan, maybe you should run. Sorry about that. Good luck, mate.’

Setibanya di stesen, aku melihat skrin jadual train berlepas. Tiada satu pun yang menuju ke London. Hatiku sudah yakin bahawa aku terlepas train. Tanya pula officer kat situ, dia kata esok pagi baru ada train. Ahhh… Jadual train kat papan di tepi stesen pun kata 8.30 mlm last train. Aku pasrah. Tiada apa yang boleh aku lakukan. Aku hanya ada satu option iaitu call diorang balik dan lepak kat hotel diorang buat sementara.

Dipendekkan cerita, setelah bersusah payah contact kawan2 Melayu yang aku kenal, akhirnya aku berjaya mendapat contact seorang Melayu yang study kat sini. Alhamdulillah, dia sanggup menumpangkan aku dirumahnya pada malam itu.

Esoknya, sebelum pulang ke London, dia bawak aku jalan2 ke melihat bandar Exeter. Bandar Exeter ni tak la besar sangat. Lebih kurang bayswater je kot. Adelah beberapa bangunan yang cantik. Secara amnya ok juga la lepak disini, dapat melepaskan tensen seketika walaupun habis duit.

Lebih kurang pukul 3.40 aku bertolak pulang ke london dengan train juga. Malas nak naik bas 4 jam. Beza harga 10 pound. Bantai la. Terima kasih kepada rakan2 yag membantuku pada tempoh hari.

Nota: Lebih kurang 2 hari lepas tu baru hilang letih memanah dan jalan2 kat Exeter.

Dear friends…
Apology for not updating my blog. Well as you all know, 2nd year is a though time. So I am not able to update as frequent as i used to do in 1st year.

I was planning to write about interesting experience last Saturday and Sunday, but due to exhaustion and busy finishin assignment, Im only able to write about it today. All right mate, lets get straight to the point.

Saturday 4 March- I went to Exeter to join an archery competition at the national level BUSA Inddors at Exeter University (anyone can enter the competition)as a member of University of London Archery Club.

11.05 a.m., alhamdulillah (all praise to Allah), I was lucky enough to get on the same train as my team mate to Exeter eventhough I was late. About two hours later we arrived at Exeter St. Davis Station.While waiting for Joss and Wei check-in their hotel at the train station, I took this picture.

And this is before we took a taxi to the event venue.

Upon arriving at Exeter Uni Sports Hall, we went to the registration booth to register and then went to a room to wait for our turn to shoot. While waiting, I went out to perform Zuhr and Asr prayer, combined (combining prayer time is allowed for travellers and in a few circumstances).

About 3.40- after very long delay, at last it is my turn to shoot. My target no was 7B. I started quite well with 2 arrows hit 10 and the other one 9. Towards the end, I was quite tired and a bit stress, so my performance dropped a bit. After about 2 and half hours shooting and waiting, I managed to finish shooting 60 arrows. Alhamdulillah I got 505 points out of 600. It was a record for me.

Change Mode: Malay.

Lebih kurang kul 7, aku pun bersiap2 nak balik. Tapi si Wei suruh tunggu dulu sebab dia kata dia nak jalan sama2 balik ke train station. So aku pun tunggu. Sebelum pergi ke train station, Wei dan Joss ajak ke Cornwall House dulu sebab nak hantar budak perempuan check-in . Dalam perjalanan ke Cornwall House aku pun call umah, mintak tolong Hassan check last train dari exeter kul bape takut2 terlepas. Hassan cakap 8.30. Memandangkan masa dah pukul 7.50, aku pun cakap kat Wei dan Joss kena cepat. So diorang suruh call teksi. Nak jadi cite, aku call company teksi kata tak der teksi masa tu. Call lagi satu company pun tak de. Last sekali call company A1, dia kata quarter to nine baru ada teksi. Alamak kalau 8.45 train dah lepas. Camner nak buat….

To be continued…