Suddenly, this gloomy and rainy afternoon reminded me of my early days being in UK, about more than half a decade ago.

At a train station after that trip to Birmingham City,

"54, Wyley Road please"

"Whooaak? Say where is that again luuurve" *glimpsing at the rear mirror*

"54, Wy-ley Road"

"Where is that luurve? Nah, afraid do not know any road by that name" ...by this time, was scratching his shiny bald head which I presumed not that itchy anyway.

Gosh. You are the taxi driver! I'm not.

"Err..off the ** Avenue, near Safeway. You'll pass the city library, well depending which route you'll take"

"Ohhh.. That! That, Woi-Lei Rowd! "

"Yes, uh-huh...Woi-Lei Rowd! Woi-Lei Rowd it is !!!" accentuating the pronounciation 'Wyley' as much as a real Brit would.

From that day on, I sticked to Woi-Lei instead of plain Wai-li.

Pronounciation can sometimes be painstakingly fastidious especially when locals around you speak heavily accented speech.

Much later I learnt that letter A is to be pronounced as 'Aey' instead of plain 'A' (plain A - you know, as you would normally say in ABC song). Otherwise, the plainly narrated letter 'A' would be written down as letter E.

For example if your name is Anita and were to spell out 'Anita' to some kind of a telephone operator, 7 days later you'd be receiving your statement or requested brochure with the adresse spelt as

ENITE

and not

ANITA

True.

I have learnt my lesson well.

I looked at my letter earlier today. And spotted an alien alphabetical letter within the row of those spelling my name which has obviously been wrongly spelt. It seemed bold to my eyes.

Since when does R sound like an A ('Aey')?

OH gosh... maybe next time I should be sounding like a tiger to say letter R. AAAARRRrrrrrr

Or perhaps it is only normal to understand that with all that phone-talking qoutidian routine, telephone advisors eventually have impaired hearing.