Hello London

Preparation

I did not prepare as much as I could before arriving London. I would usually do as much research as possible and chose where to stay, what activities to do every day, every week, every month. It was not the case of this time, the year 2016.

It was not a great idea but it was good in terms of testing how well I handle unexpected things. And the reason because I intensively worked on planning in the last 5 months so my brain still felt to be in the freedom mode of not planning.

There were only 3 things I planned and absolutely sure that it would happen:

- Firstly, I am going to arrive in London on 9 Sept 2016. I then will stay 2 days there to attend a lifecoaching course in Derve West One (in front of BBC head office and next to the world famous hotel).

- Secondly, I am going to Bristol on 12 Sept 2016.

- Thirdly, the deadline of registering my course is on 10 Oct 2016

Outputs of poor planning

Luggage

I didn’t even bother to think about how much luggage I had. I packed most of things I had to the UK. It was not because I thought I would use all of those things but it was because I had only 3 hours of packing and cleaning my room to move to the UK.

I had never been in the situation like this. However, I trusted my intuition that everything would be ok. I estimated my luggage would be around 45 kg for check-in (my maximum is 40kg) and my handbag would be 12kg. And I was almost right. My check-in luggage was 42,3kg and handbag was 13 kg (excluding my 2 laptops so in total I would be 17kg).

I was anyway thankful that the lady in the airport who let me check in with over weight luggage after I shared with her that I went for studying 1 year in the UK with a big grin. She then asked me to go to divided the bag into 2 smaller bags because no planes allow bags weighted more than 32kg. And she issued the tickets for me and said I would come back to meet anyone in the counter.

I went to buy a box to put 12 kg out of the big bag and then I put one pair of shoes, a notebook from my handbag into it. I went back  the counter and tried to wait for the lady even though lots of other counters were available. After 7minutes, I decided to go to the counter next to the nice lady as other staffs pushed me so many time to do it.

I had a bad feeling and yes I was right. The new lady didn’t let me check in because my luggage overweighed. The nice lady explained but the new lady didn’t accept. The new lady requested me to go to take out 3 kg. I tried to convince her with a big grin but it didn’t work.

I was exhausted to even bother doing it. I just went out and came back to the nice lady and she let my luggage go through.

I felt released. I now just needed to fight with my 17kg handbag luggage all the way to London. I manage to pick up the check-in luggage in London and re-packing it.

The airport has services for storing the luggage or delivering the luggage even though it was quite expensive: 26 Pounds for 3 days; 9 Pounds for delivering from London airport to City centre.

It was a challenge for carrying all the luggage so I decided to take Uber.

Finally, done.

Transportation

Uber driver

I stayed in the airport to struggle with my luagge for 2 hours so I decided to spend money on Uber. It was interesting when I didn’t have my UK number at that time but I managed to book an Uber driver. HOW?

I went to a Simcard shop at the airport to buy a Simcard. I decided to buy a package of 25GB which I could be able to use 4GB internet each month, 3000messages and 30minutes call. It was not possible to activate the Simcard. I checked whether the SIM working or not buy asking the shop owner to call me. I got her number and when I tried to book Uber taxies I just tried with both my number and her number. Eventually, the operator sent a message to her number.

The uber driver called to her number to clarify where we should meet. I felt thankful and guilty because of using her number for testing. I actually put a credit card without knowing whether there was enough money to pay for the drive with Uber or not.

Anyway, I made it to the Hostel.

I got Blar blar car to go to Bristol from London with a great price -16 Pounds.

I paid 5more Pounds so that the guy would take me from my hostel in London to the hostel in Bristol.

Accommodation

Accommodation in London

(I was not sure where would I stay in London until 9 Sept. I contacted some homestay owners but I couldn’t give deposit so nobody was sure to welcome me in London. On 8 Sept I gave deposit to one of the home stay owners who was really kind to contact me at the first place and waited me for 7 days till I could send the deposit. The lady had great reviews on homestay and the way she texted me I could tell how kind and trustful she was.

However, unexpected thing happened when her dad got sick and she had to cancel my booking. I changed to stay in a hostel nearby where my course takes place. it turn out to be