Sunday, January 28, 2007

Manchester trip

Last weekend, I was in Manchester.



Sheena, my high school classmate who is 1st year chemical engineering student in Manchester uni was very kind and nice to accommodate Lynda and I for one night.


our hospitable host and tour guide!


It's really blessed and glad to meet Sheena again. Just by observing her indirectly taught me some invaluable skills. I realised that, putting aside the 'Chung-Hua-competitiveness' all A class students have, Sheena is very nice and friendly and someone who has the passion for God. Really glad to have known her.

Visiting Manchester made me go 'wow' almost every second. It's so much better than Leeds! The Chinatown is bigger than Leeds, they have Tesco which is easily accessible by walking, they have bigger shopping complexes and there's a tram which moves about in the city.

Manchester Chinatown!


Even the place Sheena is staying in is nice! There's internet connection and a sink in her room and she only paid 63 pounds for it! Damn envy.
This is the only picture which I took of her room. Aiks


But anyways, I should be happy with what I have in Leeds already. In Leeds, everything is also easily accessible but there are less choices here.

We met up with our new-found S'porean friend, Edmond (notice his name is spelt with an 'o' instead of the usual 'u').

Edmond - he used to work as a part-time model and actor


He and his group (all M'sians) were visiting Manchester too. We ate dim sum at the famous 'Tai Wu' restaurant and we met another church friend there! Such a small world!

Tai Wu restaurant


His M'sians friends from Leeds



group photo outside 'Tai Wu', the guy (he looks so much like Yee Jun, one of my college friends) and the girl standing on my right are both 3rd year medics (IMU twinning students)



another group photo but this time without Edmond coz he was the photographer



While walking in town, we met Stephanie's course mates who also happened to visit Manchester! Wow...seems like a lot of people like to visit Manchester. Maybe it's because it's near Leeds.

That night, we went to the South part of Manchester uni to eat some Indian food. There are lots of Persian people staying in Manchester. The whole stretch of road consist of shops and restaurants all opened by Indians. The competition is really great there as shop owners and managers of restaurants were trying to grab every customer they can by offering the best price.

As students, we have to look for the cheapest food available and we scrutinized the price of every food on the menu at each restaurant. Then as we looking at one menu at one of the restaurants, the manager of the restaurant immediately rushed out and quickly recommend us to come in and eat.

Sheena asked how much it cost to eat an average meal. The man answered 8 pounds. Then quickly added that there's free drinks and a starter. But when he saw our reluctant faces to go eat there, he asked how much was our budget.

'5-6 pounds', Lynda said.

Then manager did some mental calculation in his head then he said, 'ok, I give u 6 pounds'

whoa man...I didn't know we could negotiate the price on restaurant food! They must be desperate to look for customers!

Well, we ate a starter dish (dunno what it's called), lamb tikka (marinated lamb) and white rice. Each of us ordered some Indian curry sauce. Lynda's sauce was very nice. But I forgot what it's called again ^.^" Very hard to remember Indian food names la

the food which we ate in the Indian restaurant


We went home after that and watched a movie online called 'The Pursuit of Happiness'. The movie was ok la..except that I pity the guy inside but in the end it had a happy ending :)

Went to church on Sunday. the worship was damn awesome. Pity we couldn't stay long coz Lynda had to catch her bus back at 11am.

On the way to the coach station, we took pictures.

Poor statue was being harassed by us... (din mean to insult the statue...my due respect to him man!)





Lynda got a bit extreme by sitting behind the statue's back..haha




But












I was even worse...haha




****

2 comments:

William said...

haha... very nice shots! I think Manchester has the 2nd largest China Town outside London. So, a lot more choices. The Indian shops and the resturant are normally very competitive. That is where I usually bought rice/spices.

The MCCF is very well established. 30 years ago, they are already very large. So, it is not surprising that they are doing very well.

Janice ♥ said...

haha...yea...the chinatown is huge in Manchester. wana go back there next time