"Thank you for taking care of me and being by my side for the past few years. I might not say it much but I loved each of you to the moon and back and that would never change I promised. =) "
After we got back to Nottingham, I decided to bring my family to Georges Fish and Chips because I really wanted to go back there myself for all the food I wanted them to experience good authentic British food.
We had a nice evening meal in the restaurant and I was glad that my grandparents loved all the seafood very much as I was a bit worried that they might not be used to eating western food.
Mouth-watering~
The tempura prawn cocktail was my favourite starter of the night!
Good old classic and Inka grill.
Doughnuts with chocolate and raspberry dipping sauce.
After all the rushing and endless walking in London, my grandparents spent the rest of their time here in the UK in a much more relaxed pace. We went shopping in Birmingham, cooked our meals at home, walked around the city of Nottingham and visited Wollaton Hall.
Birmingham!
With Wollaton Hall.
On the night before our graduation, all Smurfies gathered once again to exchange our graduation gifts and my graduation angel was Jessie! I loved my graduation presents - the pikachu and the balloons - so much. A lot of secret angels would probably want to kill me if they heard this but I must say that I always received the best gifts among everyone in all occasions.
It was the last time that everyone of us gathered together and I would surely miss this very special night for as long as I lived. My University life was a complete one all because of them. It was no doubt a very fun and memorable ride all the way thanks to these awesome human beings who forced themselves into my otherwise boring life.
On the morning of eighth of July, we all finally graduated. I reckoned that at least one of our birthday wishes came true after all as every Smurfy's first wish would always be that all of us could graduate smoothly together. For me, it was a day of mixed feelings because I knew that it meant the beginning of goodbye for all of us. =(
All the people that I loved so much.
Graduation day with my grandparents.
The graduation cake.
And the ceremony began.
He did wear it a lot better than me, didn't he?
With Strawberry.
With Carmoon and Aunty.
Phey and I!
My secret graduation angel.
With Chiechie~
With Ethan.
My fake Twinsie.
After sending my grandparents off at Heathrow, I encountered the awful tube strike and it was one of the worst days of my life. I spent hours waiting for the bus that never came, got caught in the mother of all traffic jams, ran into St. Pancras station like a mad person with everyone looking at me and even tripped over a luggage sending all my documents flying around. However, it was probably my lucky day as well. I was absolutely thankful that I managed to get onto the train two minutes before it departed back to Nottingham or else I would be stuck in London for the day. For the next few days, I had no choice but to spend most of my waking hours dealing with everything in life that I needed to while trying to squeeze out some quality time for myself and Smurfies.
Lazy pig like me woke up at the crack of dawn for these.
Back to Hungry Pumpkin again!
Afternoon Costa time!
Seafood time~
Victoria Centre after K session. Gonna miss this shopping mall so much.
Adored them truly.
Before Smurfies left Nottingham for good, we finally had the chance to take the so-called must take photo in the campus after talking about it for forever. I guessed that two years in the UK were simply not long enough to finish every single thing that we always said that we wanted to do or accomplish. But still, I had no regret or complain as these people who I picked as my family on my own turned out to be the best and most beautiful people inside out.
The School of Pharmacy.
Our last few moments with one another.
My everything.
I would always remember the day that Smurfies left Nottingham. It was early in the morning at the junction that we walked past almost every day. Reluctantly, we exchanged hugs and bid farewell to one another before they got onto the cab one by one. As the cabs drove away leaving the three of us behind, I felt a big part of my world left as well.
I knew that we had been talking about this day for months and I had been mentally prepared for it for a long time. But still it felt too soon. And the heartbreak was too real.
