My Temporary Apartment at Derby

I’ve finally arrived in the UK on Friday, 11pm (UK-time) and I got into my apartment (SACO), which is located at Brook Street in Derby. Anyway, I’m living alone for a while, until I get to move into a “permanent” location, which will be my base in Derby.

I took a direct flight from S’pore to London Heathrow, so I took a shuttle from KLIA to Changi. Anyway, the following picture is of the plane at the KLIA.

I reached Changi airport just about 20minutes before the London flight was to start boarding. There was quite a bit of tight security at the gate. I had to remove my laptop to be scanned before being allowed to get to the gate.

On the flight, it was pretty empty but certainly, there were a lot of Europeans, not many Asian faces and immediately, I started to feel a bit out of place. There were a few Asian faces but then, not many. *sigh*… I started to feel very homesick at that time, thinking about my parents, sister and Snoopy.

I arrived at London in the evening, 6:30pm (UK-time) but then, because I was coming on my work permit, I had to be submitted for a medical check-up, i.e. a chest x-ray. There were a number of Indians who were there for work/study. I met another M’sian who came from Penang, who is working in London. Her friends would pick her up at the airport. At least she’s got a support network there. I was looking forward to seeing the guys.

After a 3hr drive from London to Derby, I arrived at the apartment and waited for the Project Manager to arrive to see if I’m ok, I had a good chat with the driver, who is of Pakistani descent.

Anyway, the following pictures show the apartment… J The apartment is located on the ground floor.

This is the hallway from the door to the living room. On the left, there is a bathroom and on the right, there are two rooms, one is the bedroom and the other is a study.

This apartment is big and kind of drafty because of its size. However, I find it to be kind of warm. J I like the place just that I don’t like to live alone here in a foreign country for now.

This is the kitchen area where, it comes with a dishwasher, microwave, oven and washing machine. The fridge is on the left of the picture (not shown).

This is the couch, where there is a TV, Sky (limited channels) and a DVD Player. I turned on my notebook to write my journal. I wasn’t connected to a broadband as it wasn’t available and it is rather expensive, about 15GBP per week. L I use the DVD Player to watch some shows and also do my daily exercise.

This is the double bed. Sorry that it’s a little messy. The room came with and ensuite bathroom. :)

A shower with a toilet… Quite nice. There is a towel rack which warms up the towel. Very useful especially during the cold weather now.

This is the study room where there is another phone as well as a broadband outlet. There is a network cable made available but since broadband is expensive; I didn’t request to get connected. :(

So, this is it! I would take more photos around Derby whenever I can. So far, my colleagues are not very keen to take me around, so, I’ve got to move around on my own. I hope to drag my colleague to bring me around town again. Hope that would cheer him up. He seems to be a little down lately.

Oh well, this is it for now. I’ve got to do my exercise now. I’m still kind of homesick but hope that the feeling will pass. I’ll be away for about 84 days, and hope to come back before CNY. After that, I may have to consider my options about travelling away from family so much.