Saturday, 23 July 2011

Slept at 1am and woke up 4.20am for the long awaited Liverpool trip, can you imagine that? Prepared my breakfast and make some sandwiches to bring with me and head out to the rail station to catch the 6.20am train to Liverpool. The journey takes about 2 hours, passing by some interesting place such as Old Trafford, Manchester.

Onboard, and online!

The weather report says we should be expecting heavy rain at Liverpool, but thank God, we got a sunny day!! We arrived about 8.30am, the weather there was considerably colder than the weather in Sheffield, sort of the weather of Sheffield when I just got there, maybe it was just too early.

We headed straight to Albert Dock because the shops are still closed, thats about 20 minutes walk from the rail station.

Echo Wheel at Albert Dock

And taking some pictures by the sea with 2 Liverpool-twins

After that we went searching for the famous Super Lamb Banana, which took us long enough. I called my dear so many times to confirm the location, I thought it was at the Albert Dock area initially. After 30minutes of searching we found that it was relocated from somewhere else due to the opening of Museum of Liverpool, it is now surrounding the museum!

The first one we found

And a weird one

And some Super Lamb Banana souvenirs I bought, £3 each (ouch!) 

Still thinking either to give those to Suok Baos or Cell Group..hmm..
After that we did not visit any attraction points, and head straight to Liverpool One the shopping destination!

Liverpool One

It was not quite what I expected, I thought it will be like Manchester, like there are shopping streets surrounding an big indoor shopping mall. Liverpool One is more like a shopping area made from 2 shopping streets - South John Street and Paradise Street, no indoors. The place is quite small, like alot smaller than Meadowhall, which is a more traditional style of indoor shopping haven.


Fred Perry shot!

Last but not least, the spendings.

 
Zara, Blue Inc, Fred Perry, Primark

Zara "Glossy" Jeans, looks superb when wearing a shirt, £17

3 Zara formal shirts, 2 of them was £16, one of them £10

Winter coat from Blue Inc, a whopping £10 instead of the original price of £60

Shirt-Vest Fusion style from Blue Inc, I bought this because I know my dear will love it. £10

Fred Perry Cardigan, £33

Apart from those still bought a pack of boxer and a singlet style jersey from Primark for casual wear. £4 & £2 respectively. Total Spending: £142

Left for Sheffield at 6.50pm train.

P/S: Overall Liverpool is really a nice place to live (I always wanted to study LJMU before), but actually not really that entertaining for me as compared to Sheffield because I dont enjoy night clubs, and Sheffield has meadowhall also. But ouch, Sheffield's casino don't offer free drinks since last year.

But Liverpool is a good and enjoyable experience, the place where my dear live for 3 months, quite interesting to be there! Comparably fun but tired trip, maybe not as fun as Whitby and York, but Liverpool have shops!
Monday, 18 July 2011

Went to Bicester Outlet Village today. Similar to Cheshire Oaks, but not too similar. There is more than 150 outlets here, the arrangement of the shops is really in a 'village' style, like how you enter a village and walk until the end, just replace the houses with the outlets and you got the idea.

While not having major sports brand such as Nike, Adidas, Sportsdirect, however, there is a larger choice of branded outlets here, namely Gucci, Burberry, Fendi, Dior, D&G, Prada, and alot more expensive outlets.

It took 3 hours to travel there from Sheffield, its located near London, and its quite far. And again I walked all by myself to do a swift swipe on what shops are there and what I wanted to get over there. And the results:

Kipling, Lacoste and Fred Perry

Went into Ralph Lauren first and notice its a super crowded shop despite its large store with 2 storeys. Cant even walk properly in the crowd, saw some really nice shirts but did not have my size.

Recently I'm quite obsessed with bags, and I don't really know why. I loved Kipling's design style since some time ago when I saw people posted one of the bag on Lowyat forum, Kipling in Malaysia seems to sell quite expensive there. 4 of us went into Kipling and walked out with 6 bags.

Bag from Kipling, £61, the monkey's name is Willy

Went to Radley too, this time for woman bag. Saw a nice bag, thought to buy for my pretty dear.

Radley bag, £44

But I did not, at least not yet.

Then I went to Lacoste to get my brother a pair of his long wanted Lacoste shoes.

Lacoste shoes, £40.50

Then to enhance my sexiness I bought a semi transparent Fred!

Doesn't look anything special here

See it? Fred Perry polo, £37

I failed to resist the temptation, this is the 3rd black Fred polo I have bought. Need to stop buying the same thing again and again and again. Its actually not too "transparent", haha. I got it because the printed logo is special in this edition. This polo cost a fortune on the internet.

Total Spending: £61 + £40.50 + £37 = £138.50

Next stop: Liverpool !
Monday, 18 July 2011

Mail is here again, this time, its the bag I mentioned earlier, ordered from Ted Baker official webstore!

Beautifully packed

As said before the bag I saw was defective so I went to search for the bag, and saw it on the webstore, and its on sale too! Original RRP was £59, sales price was £35 plus another £5 for delivery, next day delivery - just one day to reach me!

The bag

Something funny that they emailed me after I make my payment. 

"Ted Baker
Confirmation of your order ref: 213270

We've got your order and you have impeccable taste.

Our team will now check your details and get your order ready. You'll receive another email to let you know when your order has been despatched. "

Apparently if you order from them, you have impeccable taste! They rub their customers' shoes too :D

The bag and a beautifully printed receipt
Wednesday, 13 July 2011

Took a train to MeadowHall today, everyone around has been there except us, took us long enough! One month plus here in the UK yet have not visit the nearest shopping center, its the 6th largest shopping centre in the UK with more than 250 stores.

Did not have much plans here, just want to get some clothes for Jason there. However I got sucked into Ted Baker as I reach and I saw a bag~ I'm in love with it. Its something similar with a Calvin Klein bag I saw few months ago which cost RM300++, and it cost that less because its defective ~_~. 

Ted Baker Bag

Its on sale now at £35, original at £59, however, this is the last of its kind in that store, and the most important thing is, its defective, once again :( the handle is worn off, and to compensate that the manager only offer a 10% discount on top of the sales price, how sad. 

Compared a few shops and finally got a pair of shoes for myself.

Fred Perry!

£35 for that pair, not too bad there. Walked in all sports stores to find a Lacoste for my brother, and a Nike/Adidas for Jason and end up failing miserably. Nice pair of Lacoste cost too much there, cheap ones are ugly, I did saw a pair of decent Lacoste before I left, its consider cheap at £48.

Went to put on a Ralph Lauren also to make sure I can fit in so that I confidently order online :D Nevertheless got some clothes for Jason at a few stores. Must treat him well because I love his sister! haha :P

Primark singlet + shirt set

Primark polo with hoodie

H&M junior tee

H&M junior tee

H&M junior tee

I found out that I can fit it those Junior tee's aged 10-12 years..LOL. okay the white one was abit tight. Makes me wonder why the same age from the same brand are different in sizes.

P/S: Can't help looking for bags when I came home, and I found the Ted Baker bag! Gonna order it soon! Shopping continues this weekend at Bicester Outlet Village!
Wednesday, 13 July 2011

After waiting for 2 weeks, finally my mail is here! The office staff nearly overlooked my mailbox, luckily he took one more peek and saw that's a parcel notice in it.

Tada! My Fred~


And the second parcel, my wallet and belt!


In the UK we deal with coins too much, can't use the wallet here, it will spoil it too fast..haha, its in my storage   now!
Saturday, 9 July 2011

This time, its not about getting good views and visit nice place, its very straight forward - ITS SHOPPING TIME!!

There is more than 150 fashion outlets in Cheshire Oaks, outlet price + summer sales = huge bargain! Lots of cheap (Okay, cheap as in cheaper than Malaysia, not "low price") stuff to hunt for :D How excited to spend money eh?

My original plan was to get a Fred Perry shoes, a pair of Lacoste for my brother, a pair of Nike for Jason and a bag for myself. Guess what, I did not get any of those in the end. Some shops I am interested are like Burberry, Ralph Lauren, Fred Perry, Gap, CK and..well really nothing much else.

Results:

Tada!

Tees from FCUK, 3 for £25

Polo-ish Tee from Ted Baker, £27

Levis! £20 each, super cheap

From GAP, Shirt £17 and Short £10

Last but not least, perfume for my dear, FCUK for Her £15

Total Spending: £125 (Approximately RM625)

Meet up with those who went to Blackpool after that back in Sheffield, went to a local Chinese restaurant for dinner, really great dinner there! About £6.30 per head after dividing, not much chance to eat outside anyways.

Next Stop: Bicester Shopping Village!
Saturday, 9 July 2011

Whitby is a small seaside town, peaceful yet crowded with tourist from all over the UK at the weekends. It was a sunny and windy day, and we were excited to visit Whitby!

However, we were greeted by an exploded tyre on our way there, took us near to 2 hours to get it replaced, had to wait for the tyre company and police to come.

Its not punctured, it exploded, seriously

This is a very different trip compared to the last few trips, there are not many places to visit really, Whitby is just a small town, and yet we have a whole day. Surprisingly this is the trip I enjoyed the most, the atmosphere, the view makes you so relax, such a nice place to live in!

Seaside!

Whitby Abbey 

Such a beautiful place


Whitby is famous for its Fish & Chips and also Ice Cream, I din't try the Ice Cream, but the Fish & Chips there are awesome! Tried 2 shops there, Mister Chips, and also arguably the best Fish & Chips in UK - Magpie Cafe.

Everyone is starving, the first shop - Mister Chips

 A closer look!

Huge crowd queuing for their Fish & Chips in front of Magpie Cafe

We spent our last few hours relaxing, walking around, enjoying the view of the sea, and of course to take photos! I doubt I'll enjoy any other trips in the UK as much as this, LOVE WHITBY!