First and foremost I would like to say salam to all my ex housemates and al fatihah to our beloved Allahyarham Kim.

Yeah, I believe all of us remember those time. The memories we have shared will never leave us, we appreciate all whom involved in our lives.

September 26th, 1995 was a day that changed our life. We said goodbye to our family at KLIA airport to go towards the greatest adventure and the biggest challenge of our life. We left the familiar, the routines, the predictable, the stillness and we went towards the unknown, the unpredictable, the unimaginable.

Since the first day, I had that wonderful feeling that I’m gonna remember this for all my life.

We found ourself there, thousands of kilometers far from home, in an unknown country… Newcastle Upon Tyne didn’t mean anything to us before. But from the very beginning we got to know how to appreciate it and then love it… we got to know the history, people’s habits, culture etc.

Life cannot be perfect though! One of the biggest challenge was the language barrier! After arriving in the UK we went through a linguistic shock! A language blockade! We did understand what people were saying to us, but was nowhere near to be able to answer in a decent way! We have landed on Geordieland!

whorrama ganna dee ? - what am i going to do ?
fuk ya man -
fuk off -
weor are yee gannin ? - where are you going?

Yeah.. a unique experience of living in another country, a way to meet people and to see our life from a different point of view. Since this day we experienced things we had never experienced before and things we would never have experienced in our whole life if we hadn’t gone to. We lived what everyone should live. We grew up. We changed. We found true happiness, we found friends, we found love, we found a life that we will miss forever.

In Newcastle Upon Tyne, we all are the same. We all have difficulties to adjust to this new culture, new place, new slang. We all miss home. At the end of the month we all counted our last penny to buy that fish and chip for dinner from Paki’s stall. Most of us were Mara / JPA sponsored student, still remember £291.00 we got every month?

There are so many moments, so many stories, so many pictures, that words are never enough.

The dinners, the lunches with local people, the breakfasts, going to the supermarket, car boot sales, the evenings on the street, the trips to Aberdeen, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Disneyland Paris, backpacking tour Europe, the football matches, the days at the lab, the mirc, the days at the beach, the sea, the walks to school, the usrah.

The lectures, the classes, the snow, the Geordie people, the boxing day, the blonde chick, the pretty girls, the Metallica concert at The Newcastle Arena, the Metro station, amazing Baltic Gallery on Newcastle Quayside, and all the other things that can’t be written. We will never forget it. We will never forget them.

Remember that the temperature has gone up and down; snow has fallen, melted away, and fallen again. Did you remember the days being short when the sun came up around 8:00am and went down around 3:30pm. We left home in the dark and returned home in the dark.

We’ve learnt a lot, we met wonderful people and it helped us to be more open-minded. There are no difficulties impossible to overcome!

Oh yeah.. night life in Newcastle is rather interesting with pubs and discos. You drunk and I brought you home.. fuk ya man.

Summer was even more fun. Renting a car and driving across the Great Britain is time of our life.

Yeah we have been at Land’s End, the cute monster Nessie at Loch Ness in Scotland, Lake District etc.

Though almost 11 years have passed since we left UK, there is hardly a day on which I do not think about our stay there. I miss my good friends then. I wish I could see them all again. There are some I still contact with every now and then. To all of my friends, the best luck to you and your future.

August 1997, we gathered at Newcastle Airport, not knowing how long until we would be able to see each other again. It was painful. We left for the airport, thinking back about our experience..

They are all beautiful memories, but sometimes it hurts when you look back.

Newcastle Upon Tyne
Abdul Rahim Hamat - Along
Abu Bakar Sidek - Burn
Ahmad Feisal Mat Saad
Allahyarham Zaikimri - Kim
Aishah Ayub
Ambrose Jarat
Arif Faizal
Asru Nawi
Azizul Ahmad Termizi - Chun
Aznor Shahril
Daisy Laurentia
EDDYRA
Eni Ason
Ezam Arif
Hamdan Abd Aziz
Hanafiah Shamsudin - Uncle
Hanom Shaari
Hisham Rizal
Hezrin Abd Ghani - Ayin
Imran Abdul Manaf
Ismariwan Shamsudin
Jacinta Joseph - Jacy
Josphine Kong - Joe
Kamarul Azhar - A-are
Kuriah Hanim - Hanim
Lailatul Akmal - Akmal
Mohd Sharifizal - Mele
Meor Shariman Abd Ghafar
Mohammad Nazim
Mohammad Radzi
Mohammad Shukri
Mohd Emry
Mohd Fadil - Dodil
Mohd Nasir - Jagat
Mohd Amizi - MiG
Mohd Najib Nawi
Mohammad Yusri Yunus
Nik Noorhanan - Hanan
Noel Parera
Nordianah - Yana
Nordin Shafie - Dino
Norisham - Wak
Nurul Husna - Nona
Omar Jamaludin
Reza
Sahleyney Musa - Lynn
Sakinah Nong
Syarifah Nor Azuwa - Wawa
Syed Akil - Syed
Syed Hafiz
Suaimi Harun
Tuah Mohamad
Tajul Ariffin Kassim
Wan Mohd Faizal - Myden
Zahari Abdullah - Mat Ndut
Zulaiha - Zu