mi-ra-cu-lous

The picture up there is me testing the spaghetti =_=

Week 2 is quite an improved method, we don't go out to get our ingredients everyday..haha, we discussed the menu for the whole week and try to do all the shopping on Monday.



Friday:


Went for Manchester trip, so prepared something simple, just throw everything in and ta-da!

 

Same as the week before, same old crowded place at the meet up spot. However we manage to grab a minibus this time. Arrived in Manchester City about 1 and a half hours after departure, that is when nightmare starts.

We arrived at about 10.30am, we are required to leave at 1.40pm. We thought we would've gone to Old Trafford before going to the city centre, turns out that 3 coaches went to the city first while the others went to Old Trafford, the main point is, we only have 3 hours, they recommended 6 spots. WTH.

We walked right to the town hall, wasn't too interested, just a beautiful building. But its not even close to York Minster. We saw something quite interesting though on our way there!

 

Then we went to John Rylands Library. The guide told us that its similar to Hogwarts, I was then abit excited about that when I heard that, and as I went in the library, I see nothing but disappointment. Well..it is a beautiful library with beautiful books and art, they even have the pieces of the first Bible. However, the interior is incomparable with Hogwarts.

 

Knowing that we don't have enough time, we decided to skip the other spots and head to the main point, SHOPPING! Went in to quite a few shops like Burberry, LV, Gucci, Sports Direct, Esprit, Fred Perry, too bad that either theres nothing special or its too expensive or I don't have enough time to get what I want.

After a rush evening, we continued on to Old Trafford, the home of MUFC. I'm not a football fan, I don't even like Manchester United, but still, it feels special to be there.

P/S: Still, I did not spend a single penny, I thought I would spend quite abit in Manchester so I brought alot of money (Ok, not alot, like £120). This is a really poorly organised trip, we don't have enough time to enjoy Manchester, even the York trip was way better than this, sigh. Might visit Manchester again one day, maybe just me myself :D

I'm going to be really honest. I didn't plan to join this trip. I joined it because it was the first trip organised. It feels boring as a city itself, yet their own citizens are really proud of York city, and I know why after I went there. I've been to a few cities in the UK now (Ok, just three - Manchester, Sheffield and York), and York is like 3 times more beautiful than Manchester & Sheffield.

Its a historical city by itself, quite interesting that it is once ruled by the vikings, and was their capital city named Jorvik (pronounced "Yorvik"), don't ask me why. It is quite crowded at the assembly point, before 8am the Hubs were packed with students, there were 9 coaches, each filling about 45 of us, do the math. Feels like York will be flooded with Msians.


At arrival after 1 hour+, we were greeted by the Clifford's Tower. Nothing much, basically a tower approximately 3 storey tall, and its really really small, its a shame that they charge entrance fee to enter the really small space and to climb up the tower, and we as poor Malaysians that are very very good in maths, especially money did not pay any shit. Some of them climbed all the way up from the cliff bank so that they can take picture up high without paying.


Then we entered the shopping streets, the shops are nothing too special, road are very pack during the weekends, luckily no vehicles are allowed to enter the inner city during morning and noon, making York a perfect tourist spot. One thing that bothered me is my temptation for coffee. Everytime I pass by Costa and Starbucks my hands feel like grabbing my wallet out and get a coffee. Self-Control won though!


Something that is worth paying attention in York is the York Minster. It is a really really old and beautiful church (and also one of the largest in Europe), or more like a cathedral, beautifully constructed with awesome architecture, however they too, charge a fee of £8 to enter the inner part, but nevermind, the exterior itself is so beautiful that we don't actually need to go in. Let the picture do the talking:


Dean Park, located right next to the York Minster, nothing special itself, however, it is really special on that really special day. There's a couple getting married! They are Chinese couple from HK/China, beautifully dressed.


Before we left York, we went for a 3.5miles walk on the city wall, basically its a mini version of the great wall of China, dubbed the not-so-great wall of York.

Accomodation however is uncomparable. Hotels and rentals are really expensive here in the UK, again, if you earn British pound here, you wouldn't give  a damn anyway (because everything is cheap to you if you earn here). Same case to transportation.

What a dream place to live in eh? I actually enjoy the weather here alot more than the sunny and hot weather back in Malaysia, if only my dear is with me here, I would've wish that I can live here forever. Who knows, maybe I can have such a chance in the future. I recall once my father told me, if I have any chance to work overseas, especially western countries e.g. UK, I can then pick my parents over and enjoy life. What a nice dream.

P/S: To Malaysians working in the UK, I envy you!

Things are not always like people always dreamed, we don't really pay our attention on enjoying in the UK, yet. The first task to achieve in the UK is, to survive e.g. eat. Eating at the cafes and restaurants outside is so pricey here that it is practically impossible for us Malaysian students to eat outside everyday, so we had to cook.

Surprisingly most of my friends don't really know how to cook, and most of them are girls..haha, how to find husband har? Nevermind, I'm an expert chef! Long word short say, stuff that we actually cooked!

Day 1:

Already missing Malaysian food?


Day 2:

Day 3:



Day 6:

Went to the Market, something like the pasar we see in Malaysia, bought some marinated chicken drumsticks to be cooked in the oven. It wasn't too successful though, we took it out and in out and in and in the end its still not fully cooked.

Relatively cheap in the UK, this large meal cost about £2.50. Not too great if you ask me, but its a good choice if there is no choice but to eat outside, kebab won't fail in keeping your stomach full for an affordable price!

After the flight, we made our first step on the land of United Kingdom entering the Manchester International Airport. And we were greeted with...a loooooooooooooooooooooong queue to proceed through the custom. Took us about 1 hour plus just to wait for our turn, to my surprise the officer just checked my offer letter and passport, nothing else. I was worried that they might check my laptop or phone.

We then met the university staff and brought to the coach after reclaiming our luggage. We waiting for more than 1 hour on the bus before it started moving. The bus is so packed and the seats are so small compared to the buses in Malaysia, when it is filled with people and the air con is not on, I can barely breath.

Basically the room is quite spacious, more than enough for a single room, feels like a master room back in Malaysian condo. Did some shopping in the first two days, of course mainly food and also some living essentials.

After a rush preparation and a not-so-wonderful flight journey, im now sitting in my own room in Sheffield, United Kingdom. Summer has never been so different in my life, afterall we never had any seasons other than summer in Malaysia.

Lets talk about the not-so-wonderful flight. It was separated into 2 parts. My journey started from KLIA to Abu Dhabi, then from Abu Dhabi to Manchester. People are excited boarding the plane, well, I was greeting by a cacat-ed monitor and I was thinking "How am I going to survive 7 hours flight without the monitor?", come on I need movies!! Somehow it became normal again after the flight took off, I watched some movies, namely I am Number Four, Rango, and I Love Hong Kong. Yes, I Love Hong Kong, I watched it before but the movie list is so boring that I had to watch it again, and the worst thing is I am still flying with the same airway on the next flight, so still same shit.

Flight meals, nothing much to expect. Thats exactly what you should be expecting. When you expect nothing, things will somehow turn out to be great, and my first flight meal was quite good. And when you start expecting more because of a good first meal, your nightmare comes after. Heard anything about Hardrock Cafe? I suppose they dont serve Hardrock breads, because the Hardrock breads are on the flights, they can easily kill someone if the bread hit their head from a distance.

After the first part, we basically sat down and wait for about 3 hours before we board our next flight to Manchester, it is so tiring and boring to wait for transit. The second part of the flight is kinda straight forward, I did not get any sleep during the first flight so I kinda slept.

The good thing was however, many people came to sent me off at KLIA, felt pretty good, ahem. Miss my dear, and hopefully she will be able to survive without me, hopefully she don't get any food poisoning from my mum's cooking.