Entry 1
Over the Christmas holidays, Tanzia and I had gotten permission to go on a road trip to England and
America. At first Tanzia was reluctant to go. Nevertheless, thankfully, I gradually wore her down. (I
assure you, no imaginary cats were harmed in the making of this travelogue.) I had high hopes for this
trip and it totally lived up to my expectations, although there were a few bumps along the way.
Sometimes literally…
“Come on Tanzia, We’re going to miss the flight!” I proclaimed to my friend who was currently sprinting
alongside me down the driveway to my house. The taxi was waiting at the end of the road. We had
called yesterday for it to take us to the airport and onto the first step of our journey. England. When we
finally reached the taxi, it took a while to Tanzia, me and the luggage into the back seat because,
surprise surprise, the boot would not open. Looking around the interior of the taxi, I quickly recoiled in
horror for everything was caked in dirt and the smell was a combination of a gym locker with unwashed
clothes and rotten eggs. I surreptitiously opened the window to allow some fresh air into the taxi.
“Ughh, now it’s time for us to finally leave Brunei and actually feel a change of seasons!” Tanzia said
with enthusiasm. I agreed and zoned out, leaning against the suitcase beside me and slowly fell asleep.
Entry 2
Tanzia and I walked out of the Heathrow airport in London, pulling our suitcases behind us, making a
thump sound on the tarmac as we dragged them down the stairs after us. “Well, that was… interesting.”
I said around a huge yawn.
“No kidding, I swear that baby is the spawn of the devil! It would not stop crying!” Tanzia snorted, her
face practically screaming “You don’t say!”
“Okay, okay jeeze! I’m going, I’m going!” putting my hands up in my defense. Trudging along, I looked up
to the grey, cloudy skies. Not the welcome to England that I was anticipating, I can tell you that! As we
stopped at the bus stop, waiting for the bus that would take us to our hotel, I puffed my breath out
repeatedly in front of my face, watching it turn into steam. We stood there, feeling the cold dampness
of the air seep into our bones. Suddenly, like an angel come down from heaven in a burst of light, the
bus H7 pulled over in front of us. Sighing in relief, we climbed onto the bus, pulling our suitcases behind
us and looked at the driver. I did a double take in surprise as Tanzia handed over our tickets. I had to
hold in a giggle at the navy blue wooly hat with snowmen on it. Topped with neon green earmuffs. He
seemed to be wearing three (dare I say) phsycadelic Christmas jumpers that I suspected his
grandmother knotted for him. Due to the enormous purple scarf wrapped around his neck, the only
clearly visible features were his luminescent blue eyes and the moderately long spikes of hazel brown
hair poking out from underneath his hat. Looking to Tanzia, I saw that she was also holding back
laughter, her eyes glittering with mirth. The driver looked at the tickets for a few seconds and gave us a
mitten clad, thumbs up. As he did this, I noticed his shining nametag boldly stating, “SAM”. As he turned
back to the steering wheel Tanzia and I caught a glimpse of three sock poking out of his bright yellow
converse/, each a different shade of pink. I guess that I could relate because it was real cold out there.
We barely made it to the back of the bus before we burst into laughter, hoping that he would not hear
us. It was unlikely due to the earmuffs that he was wearing, but still.
When we finally got over our craziness, we stared out of the window in awe of the white snow frosting
the landscape in a smothering blanket of cold. When the bus finally stopped outside of the hotel, we
stepped out into the cold, cold air, and I dramatically said… “I smell carrots.” Tanzia stared at me for five
long moments before boldly stating,
“You’re weird.”
“Thank you,” I shot back. We stared at each other for twenty seconds before simultaneously bursting
into laughter. Giggling, Tanzia and I entered the hotel, preparing to check into our room.
Entry 3
The alarm blared on the bedside table. Slowly, my eyes inched their way open to look at the stark white
ceiling if the hotel. Suddenly realizing that the alarm was still going off, I quickly slammed my hand down
on the alarm to frantically stop the blaring noise. Groaning, I slowly tried to roll off of the bed but failed
(surprise!) and tumbled down on to the floor. I looked down on frustration too see what had caused my
failure and discovered that my legs were still tangled in the crisp white sheets of the bed. Blearily, I
registered the way that Tanzia was half hanging off of the bed, still asleep. A wide grin slowly crossed my
face as a wicked idea crossed my mind. I opened my bag and drew out the black sharpie that I keep for
emergencies like boredom and what I was about to do. I slowly tip toed across the purple carpet to get
to Tanzia while trying not to wake her up. As I was trekking over the two suitcases strewn across the
floor, I had a thought of “Why didn’t we tidy this horrific mess up?” for there was clothes, shampoo and
other various items that are required for travelling in different positions across the floor. I did a little
victory dance when I finally reached her bed and knelt down in front of her face. I uncapped the sharpie
and drew a curly mustache, evil eyebrows and harry potter glasses on her face. My work done, I walked
over to the bathroom to get ready for the day.
… I walked out of the bathroom feeling refreshed. Gazing around the room properly for the first time, I
saw that the walls and ceiling were white washed, pristine even, the curtains and carpet consisting of a
fuzzy purple material that I have not yet identified. The beds had crisp white sheets and purple
comforters that were extremely soft. Taking a breath, I detected the faint smell of dust and fabric
softener. Looking out of the window, I saw that the room had a magnificent view of the car park. I
mean, look at the way those cars shine! I looked over to Tanzia to see that she was in the same position
that I had left her except her mouth was hanging open slightly. I grinned once again and knelt down in
front of her face for the second time that morning. I leant in right next to her ear and shouted, “GET
UP!” Her eyes snapped open and she roller off of the bed in her shock. She glared at me through the
mass of black curls that was her hair. “You are evil!” she exclaimed. I smirked and replied, “Sticks and
stones Tanzia, stick and stones.” Tanzia rolled her eyes and strutted to the bathroom, her clothes in her
hand. I counted down from three to one and… “ALEX! WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY FACE?” I dropped to
the floor laughing hysterically. When I finally regained my breath, I sat up and looked around the
trashed room trying to come up with a way to stuff the items back in the suit cases successfully.
… tanzia and I walked out into the crisp morning air. The ground was blanketed by a thin layer of ice
which was in turn, enveloped by a small frosting of icing sugar like snow. The air smelt of gasoline and
the cutting edge of ice. I took a deep breath and grinned at Tanzia once again, who despite her best
efforts, still sported the faint lines of the sharpie on her face. She looked at me warily and said, “What?
You’ve got that creepy look again…” A laughed and replied, “Hey, what creepy look? But, to answer your
question, today we are going to experience a key part of British culture… Doctor Who!” She looked at
me blankly and said in a monotonous voice, “Doctor what?” I looked at her in shock. “Tanzia, do you
know what date it is?” She shook her head. “It is November 23rd! It is the 50th anniversary of Doctor
Who! You know, the one that David Tennant and Billie Piper are coming back in.” Tanzia shrugged. I
stared. In a sudden burst of movement, I grabbed Tanzia’s elbow and led her across the street, empty
except for a couple of busses for it was right next to the airport, to the cinema.
… When we arrived at the gates of the cinema, We saw that the gates were blocked by a throng of
people all holding their tickets, waiting in anticipation for the next showing of doctor who. I took a deep
breath and shouted to the crowd, “MAKE WAY! THIS GIRL DOES NOT KNOW WHAT DOCTOR WHO IS!”
the crowd gasped in horror as one and slowly moved back to create a type of pathway to the ticket
booth. Tanzia and I walked slowly up the walkway and asked the lady at the ticket booth for two tickets
to the latest showing of Doctor Who. She said that we were lucky because we got the last two seats that
were together in the theater. We grinned at each other and said on perfect unison, like we had
rehearsed this one line over and over, “TO THE SNACK BOOTH!”
... Tanzia and I walked out of the cinema and into the practically freezing air. I hissed and drew closer to
Tanzia. After the wonderful warmth of the cinema, I was reluctant to go out outside where the cold
bitterly snatched away my meager warmth. When we finally got back to the hotel, I collapsed onto the
bed mumbling about Doctor Who while Tanzia turned the lights off. I slowly fell asleep, my dreams filled
with the wonders of Doctor Who.
Entry 4
Tanzia and I both rushed into gate eleven at Heathrow airport just as the attendant announced that the
gate was now closed. We plopped down into the two closest seats and I exclaimed, winded, “Whhooo!
Just in the nick of time eh, Tanzia? She nodded, too out of breath to reply, for we had just sprinted all
the way down from customs to the gate because somebody, *cough* Tanzia *cough* forgot to set the
alarm to wake us up so that we would not be in the situation that we are in now! Looking around the
room, I registered with dread that there seemed to be a lot of women with babies. Ugh, this flight was
so going to suck. Bad. “Okay Tanzia, do you have the tickets?” I asked, hoping, praying, that she had
them. Rifling through her bag, there was a few moments of tension filled silence until she finally
surfaced with two plane tickets. “Yep, two tickets to New York, America, seats 27A and 27B… Dibbs on
A!” I flopped back in the extremely uncomfortable red seats that seemed to be made specifically to
torture the unfortunate soul to dare sit in them. I put a hand over my heart in an over dramatic gesture
and whispered submission. She grinned and tossed her hair over her shoulder in a silent gesture of
victory.
I glanced around the room once again to have a better and longer look than before. The room seemed
to be uncannily small and cramped full of people. The chairs were threadbare and looked to be a single
touch away from falling apart. Two walls out of four were entirely made out of glass and there was a
total of maybe one hundred people in the room. I am sure that the room would have looked much
bigger if it were not for the masses of people taking up the space. I looked at the guy across from me.
He was wearing what seemed to be typical modern cowboy gear, a shirt, jeans, boots and a brown
Stetson. As he caught my gaze, he grinned at me and said, “So, why’re you goin’ to the land of freedom
an’ hope?” he said with a distinct Texas drawl. I smiled tentatively back and replied, “Just curious I
guess.” As I said this, I realized the huge difference between my accent and his, and I thought that this is
going to be an extremely strange trip. He grinned once again, showing his teeth and said, “Ah, you one
o’ those British folks then? Whoa, I jus’ realized, where my manners, my name’s Justin. ” I grinned back,
full force this time and replied once again, “Why yes, yes I am and my name is Alex.” We conversed like
this for about ten minutes. You know, just small talk. Things like why we are going to America and where
we were before we came here. I learnt that he was actually from Texas and came out to England to see
if he could find a possible job opening. He had dark brown hair and warm brown eyes. Through the
conversation, I noticed that he had a chipped tooth. I asked him about it and he laughed and said that
he fell out of a tree when he was little. He then demonstrated how he could whistle through the space
between them. I nudged Tanzia without looking to introduce her to Justin. When she did not respond, I
looked and discovered her to be asleep. That’s when the disembodied voice of the lady that you hear at
every airport announced that the flight would be boarding now. I managed to both wake Tanzia up and
snag one of the first places in the line. However, when I handed my ticket over to the lady behind the
counter, she scanned it and said, “sorry love, but you have been moved to seat 34B” she said
apologetically. I just waved her off and boarded the plane. Great. In the middle of two complete
strangers. I was sad to leave Justin because he was the first friend that I had made on this trip. However,
I just sighed, steeling myself, I sat down in my seat and an old lady sat down beside me next to the
window. She almost immediately dropped off and her head slid onto my shoulder. I groaned and tried to
push it up against the window so that it was not resting on me. After about five minutes of strait up
failing, a familiar voice said, “Want some help?” I looked up to see Justin standing next to my seat and
he managed to push her head up against the window and got it to stay there. I looked at him, my mouth
agape as he sat down next to me and snapped his seatbelt on. “H-how did you do that?” I asked with a
shaky voice. He just laughed and replied, “Lots o’ practice with my grandma;. Sleeping all over the place,
she is.” He grinned at me once again, mirth twinkling in his eyes. Maybe this flight would not be so bad
after all.
Entry 5
I woke up in the hotel room with a profound sense of déjà vu. I looked over at Tanzia and was
disappointed to see that she was in the exact opposite position of sleeping that she was before. She was
lying on her stomach, and to my surprise, completely on the bed. As I looked around the hotel room, I
saw that it was very much like my room at home, pretty mainstream with a desk and two beds. I
grinned to myself as I remembered that earlier in the day me and Tanzia had declared a prank war on
each other. Tanzia had put a whoopee cushion underneath my pillow and I recalled with perfect clarity,
the expression on her face. A look of triumph. I vowed a solemn oath to prank Tanzia to the best of my
efforts. She may have won the battle, but I will win the war. I jerked out of my state of mind by Tanzia
snorting and rolling over in her bed. With a look of mischief, I grabbed Tanzia’s clothes and sprinkled the
itching powder that I had purchased at the airport into Tanzia’s clothes. Sniggering in anticipation for
her reaction, I walked into the bathroom, looking forward to the rest of the day.
… Walking out of the bathroom and seeing that Tanzia was still asleep, I thought about what had
inspired us to go on this trip. So, Tanzia and I were lounging on the sofa in my house, watching an
American made film. To my and Tanzia’s utter confusion, the people in the film were making references
to things that Tanzia and I had never heard before, things like “peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.” I
mean, how do you even get the jelly into the sandwich In the first place? Wouldn’t it fall out? Anyway,
after a lengthy conversation and a Google search later, Tanzia and I merely looked at each other and
said in perfect unison, “Americans…” Snapping back to the present for the second time this morning by
Tanzia shifting, I quickly walked over to her bed and gently shook her awake.
… We walked out of the hotel, Tanzia scratching incessantly at herself. “You know, I think that I am
allergic to the soap that we used back in the hotel…” the said while itching her elbow. I snickered into
my fist as we walked down the street. Tanzia looked at me in disbelief and hissed, “You did this?” I burst
out laughing and the people in the street started to look at us strangely. I grabbed Tanzia by the elbow
after realizing this and walked down the street at a faster pace. Sniffing, Tanzia just ignored me and did
not listen to my sniggers. The effect was still ruined though, by the way she was trying to discreetly itch
herself. I took the time in the almost silence to look at the street we were walking down properly. The
footpaths were more or less packed with people rushing to get to work in the smart suits and ties they
were wearing, The roads themselves were full of cars, although, there were surprisingly no traffic jams,
most of them were the yellow taxis ferrying the new Yorkers to various places around the city. The
building on both sides on the street were while small by New York standards, were huge by Bruneian
standards, they were bigger that nearly every building in the country!
…After about ten minutes of silent treatment from Tanzia, I dared to ask what we might do this fine day.
After thinking for a minute, she replied, “I think that I would like to try one of New York’s infamous
coffee shops for a taste of their supposedly excellent coffee and pie.” I looked at her in disbelief and
shook my head, “You just want to rove for boys don’t you?” She blushed tomato red and looked away.
“ha ha! I knew it! But don’t worry Tanzia, go and sate your desires for attention from the opposite
gender! I shall support you all the way!” Walking for a surprisingly short amount of time, we came
across a decent looking coffee shop, we grinned at each other and walked in. While Tanzia went up to
the counter and ordered our stuff, I wondered away to sit at a perfectly situated table with a clear view
of the door for Tanzia to gawk at the people coming in. *cough*boys*cough* I sat down on one of the
chairs and looked around the shop. The walls were a soothing chocolate brown and beige, the floor the
same. All of the tables were round, even the booths and were made out of a nice looking type of wood.
Highlights of orange decorated the middle. When I finished looking around, I thought of what the other
people might have thought of us.
…The customers at the coffee shop were silent as they watched the new comers walk through the door.
One was dark haired with brown eyes and was dressed casually with a hint if a British accent. The other
was dark skinned with almost black eyes, she was dressed in a tudong and similar casual wear. They
whispered among themselves. Although they were careful not to let them see, they were still curious as
to what they are doing here in New York. But they stopped after some time, since it was not their
business to judge complete strangers.
… I jerked out of my mindscape when Tanzia set down our order on the table. I took my share of coffee
and cherry pie as Tanzia sat next to me. After about five minutes of meaningless chatter, the door
suddenly opened and a guy walked in. Tanzia stared at him while I took in his features. He was Korean,
with natural black hair and no contact lenses. He was dressed in a similar way to us, smart, but casual.
He also carried a laptop underneath his arm and guessed that he was a writer. I heard Tanzia mutter,
Korean…Smirking, I shoved her towards him and smiled sweetly as she glared back at me. I made “shoo”
gestures with my hands and sat back to watch the show as they started to talk in Korean. I never did get
how she learned it just by watching all of those dramas…
Entry 6
Walking out of the hotel doors, Tanzia and I had finally figured out what to do. When we reached the
edge of the footpath, we held our hands up to signal a taxi. A typical New York taxi, yellow with black
and white checkers down the side pulled up in front of us, just inches away from the curb. We climbed
in and told the driver to take us to green service rentals. (Please) for Green rental services was the
company that Tanzia and I were using to rent our car. As we were driving, I took the time to have a little
look around the taxi. The seats were worn brown leather and looked like they were on the verge of
falling apart, there were a few sweet wrappers littered across the interior of the taxi. The dark blue
carpet of the taxi was clumped together in places by an unidentifiable sticky substance. I surreptitiously
pulled my feet up to rest on the seats to avoid touching the floor as much as possible. I took a whiff of
the air and instantly regretted it. It smelled like stale popcorn with a side of snot. I breathed through my
mouth from that point in.
I stared out of the window as extremely tall buildings flashed by outside. When suddenly, I saw the
empire state building emerge from the obscuring grey mist of the clouds like an angel sent to deliver a
sacred prophesy vital to the virtue of man. (note the sarcasm used in this sentence) Quickly nudging
Tanzia and pointing out if the window, we both grinned at each other and pressed our faces against the
glass of the window, without a care of what other people thought as they saw us drive by. I noticed as
The carpets were all the same shade of forest green and the walls were white, but not a blinding white.
The second thing that Tanzia and I noticed was the receptionist sitting at her desk, right at the back of
the building. She seemed to perk up at the sight of potential customers. She was pretty with blond hair
and blue eyes and minimal make up. She wore the uniform of the company that consisted of a white
shirt, green tie and a green jacket and shirt that was the same shade of green as the floors. “Well hello,
how can I help you?” She said with a distinctive southern drawl. She pronounced I like “Ah”
So I replied, “Yeah, we are here to rent the car that we booked about a week ago…” She smiled and said
to hold on while she had a good long rummage beneath the desk. She finally surfaced after about three
minutes and said,
“Ah, here we go, Miss Cowlan and Ferdaus?” I grinned and replied to her question,
“Yep, that’s us!”She then looked at me strangely. I leaned backwards with an identical expression on my
face. She seemed to snap out of whatever trance she was in and grinned sheepishly.
“sorry, but I have never seen an English person before, I have only seen them on television.” I smiled
back at her and said,
It is quite alright… Caesey,” looking at her nametag, “I have gotten that a lot for the time that I have
been here.” She smiled back at me and handed us the keys to the car and said that it was the black shiny
one on row D7. We said our thanks and walked out into the crisp air.
“So, Tanzia said to me, where is D7?”
…Tanzia and I were cruising down the in our relatively new car. It was perfect, the seats were comfy,
there was enough legroom to stretch out properly, there was enough room to fit the luggage in the boot
without it hanging open. The only setback was that “New car smell” Some people love it, but I personally
think It smells bad. Forget the Ferrari, this car was perfect. Sitting in the front of the car, I looked at the
picture of a seal that Tanzia had put up on the dashboard. People like Bear Grills would say “Oh, I killed a
seal and used it’s blubber for my fire!” but seriously, it’s not much of an achievement! Think about it,
they lay on the ice, as prone as sitting ducks and are so fat that it takes tremendous effort to get twelve
feet into the water, kind of reminds me of my year two teacher on a swimming trip! I think that both of
them have about 7% of muscle and bone underneath all of that fat!
I snapped out of my daydream when Tanzia turned a corner in the car and looked at her. She looked
back and said, “Don’t worry Alex, the journey has only just begun…
Entry 7
The black car that Tanzia and I had rented the day before cruised down the road. I looked at the dense
nothingness of fields and bare landscape that stretched on for miles out of the window. I puffed a huge
breath out through my nostrils as I drove. I looked to the passenger seat to see that Tanzia had fallen
asleep. I grinned devilishly to myself and I poked a pen into her mouth and took a picture of her. Ugh,
now she is dribbling. Great. I turned the 1980’s rock music that was playing in the background up to the
maximum volume. I recognized the song playing as slow ride by Foghat. Tanzia jerked awake and spat
the pen out. The wiped a stray rivulet of dribble that was slowly running down her chin. There was stray
flecks of blue ink mixed in with the spittle on her lips. I laughed. She glared. “Oh, it is so on! I will get my
revenge…”
“I feel so loved Tanzia!” I snorted. She rolled her eyes and muttered,
“deal with it!” Puffing, I settled back into my seat and got into the routine of driving yet again. Out of the
corner of my eye, I saw a hand stray towards the stereo. I slapped her hand away.
“Ah, ah, ah, I booked this car so it is mine. So my car, my music!” Huffing in frustration, She slumped
back into her seat and questioned what we were going to do today “So, first of all, my totally gullible
friend, We must attempt the impossible. Use a map to navigate these treacherous lands. Then we
require sustenance or we shall wither away to soulless husks.” Tanzia scoffed at my “Antics” and looked
out to the seemingly never-ending road stretching out into the distance. Any second now, I expected
multiple tumbleweeds to roll past the window.
…The day went on like this for about half an hour until Tanzia suddenly burst out, “I’m hungry!” Looking
at her strangely I replied,
“You’re always hungry” Clutching her stomach, Tanzia pleaded to pull over to get some food. I finally
relented to her requests and pointed wordlessly at a sign that said that there was a motel about ten
miles from where we were at that moment in time. Sagging with relief, Tanzia thanked me profusely. I
fended her off until we stopped outside of the diner/motel. We walked through the door and the first
thing that I notice is that everything was coated in a fine layer of grease. It would be quite nice if it was
cleaned properly, it was themed like a 60’s diner with the checkered floor, the jukebox, the works. We
sat down at the table and ordered our burgers from the one waitress that seemed to work there. After
sitting in complete and utter silence, for the amount of time the food arrived to the table, we were
grateful when the food finally arrived. Digging into the burgers with relish, I savored the bacon and
cheese within, knowing that I will not get this when I get back to Brunei. I grinned smugly at Tanzia who
ripped into her veggie burger as if she had not eaten in days. After that extremely awkward meal, we
walked into the other building, the motel building. The man sitting at the counter was much like the
diner. Covered in a layer of grease and looked like he had not brushed his teeth since the 60’s. It looked
like he only had about seven left. His filthy brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. His dirty T-shirt did
not cover the whole expanse of his huge stomach. A roll of fat peeked out from underneath. As quickly
as we could, we booked a room and hurried into the room specified on the key. As soon as the door was
locked behind us, I sighed out in relief. I never in my life, wanted to see that man again. He reminded me
of a seal. The room looked much the same as the hotel room that we had stayed in at new York except it
looked a little worse for wear. It was dirtier and the walls had cracks in them. At least the colours were
not hideous… I merely sighed and flopped down on my bed, settling into read. I looked forward to
tomorrow when we could get out of here…