A Course in Creepy Crawley

Wow, close to 2 months since I last blogged! My schedule is all over the place. Mundane on the boat, but once I got off, had so many things going that I couldn't find time to blog. Been away for two weeks: 4-day course in Crawley and then extended my stay to visit the Ireland and a couple others places in the UK!

 Of Euros & Pound Sterling. Customary photo :p

I can't thank the company enough, stepped into Europe for the first time ever courtesy of the company, lol. Same thing goes to the USA back in 2009. To be fair, course or not, I have always intended to visit Europe one day. My grand plan was a 1-month backpacking trip around Europe once I have collected enough money and enough vacation days!

13 hours direct flight from Singapore. Flew with SQ and got a very good seat, front row of a section so there's ample leg room :D. Also I didn't get any weird neighbour (surprise, surprise!) so it was a good, calm and nice flight. Arrived London Heathrow airport past noon on the day before my course starts. As my course is in Crawley, I had to take a 40-minute shuttle bus from the Heathrow airport towards Gatwick airport, then a taxi to hotel.

Got put up in a hotel called Ramada Plaza Gatwick Hotel. Not very impressive, but still I suppose it's one of the better ones in the area. Let me explain myself a little here. Crawley is a bit of a boring, dead town. According to a British colleague, it's a town where most people reside while working in London. Hence, during the weekdays, it's really a ghost town.

Got so tired that I couldn't be bothered to head down to the hotel restaurant for a meal - so I ordered room service instead. King scallops with sausage bits and bed of mashed peas.

Hotel is only some 10-minute walk from the training center. And it was such a pleasure to be able to walk to work on a beautiful day! I can't stress enough that the weather was excellent during my stay! Not a drop of rain during my 14 day stay in Europe! And no one is letting me forget how lucky I am with the weather too. It seems that everyone is very amazed! Bright sunny days with a nice cool breeze..... mmm...

First day after course and Will wanted to walk to the park, which is some 40mins from the training center!! All sorts of pictures taken on our walk in the park (please excuse the enthusiasm with wild flowers on the side of the road, they really are very pretty).

Quaint little cottage

End of Day 2 course and we had Pete who is driving to bring us to a bigger park! Tilgate Forest Park, very pretty. I could just sigh and lay back in content with this beautiful sky beaming at us.

Family duckies

What is this with beautiful summer days that make you squirm in contentment ?

Will was highly amused when I took photos of daisies. 

Then an old English pub on High Street. High Street is like the main town area, but it's still pretty creepy and empty... Okla, to be fair, the pub was more than half filled.

Course mates Peter and Will. Funny people. Well, everyone from the ship has a dodgy side anyways kekeke :)

And finally this shot is taken some time around 9:30pm! How great is it to have an extended day time... More exciting post coming up.... This one is pretty low key cos... the bloody course is robbing us of days out!