It's mid-term break at last! Not very relaxing since I've got essays to submit. Had a relaxed saturday and a hectic sunday doing a hellrun... a long distance cross-country run in UK involving alot of mud trails... thigh-level mud pitches... hills... and rough terrain. Did a 11mile(approx. 18km) which felt worse than a marathon! Luckily Daniel and me both survived this test and became Hellrunners! Gonna go back home with my hellrunner T-shirt! Dare to take up this challenge? Come for salomon's Hellruns organised every year in the Autumn/Winter period!

Monday (30th Oct 2006)
It was our plan to conquer North wales during this term-break.. and so we did. It was approximately 2hrs' drive from Manchester to North Wales. The drive this time was a little more challenging... we were driving without the aid of the navigation system. So there's noone telling us where we are and where to go in this foreign land! Thank god Mr Google invented Google Maps... the directions given on the site really helped us find our way quite a lot.



It was basically a journey to the West... passing Liverpool... Chester (Western edge of England).. into Wales. Northern Wales has this Isle on its North West called the Isle of Anglesey. We set off early in the morning trying to reach Wales by noon so as to visit Beaumaris Castle (a castle that was never completed). beaumaris is a town on the Isle of Anglesey which is situated by the seas... so looking across from Beaumaris, you'll get to see the sun, the sand, the sea plus the mountains of Mainland Wales. Wales is quite popular for its mountains and castles... quite a lot of castles remain in Wales... 

We meant to head for the hostel we booked before we set off for Beaumaris... but somehow.. we 'hollanded' and ended up at the bridge to Anglesey... so I just followed the way on to Beaumaris... the beautiful town by the sea. I couldn't resist the view and stopped beside the road to walk down the beach for some photo-taking...




The winds were pretty harsh at the beach... we had difficulty walking against the wind as we approached the beach! Really a beautiful sight here... you really gotta be there to feel the magnificence of the mountains across the sea and enjoy the winds and calmness at the beach.

After some struggling with the wind back into the car, we continued on for beaumaris castle, which wasn't that difficult to find. It was just at the corner of Anglesey... surrounded by sea at 2 ends. Water from the sea was channeled in to surround the castle... making it look like a floating castle. The castle was in quite an original state... without much modifications.. so if you are expecting a lot... its nothing much... just the view from the top of the incomplete castle.









The castle was really in quite an original state... they didn't even bother to install lights in the channels linking the buildings together... that's why you see some dark tunnels in the pictures above... kind of creepy walking them alone. Not very helpful to have 3 other gals around either... poor me... the only guy around since Robert and Daniel are having their study breaks one week later...

There were quite a few geese and ducks within the castle compounds... really made me miss Peking Duck manz... 

After the castle, we set off back to mainland Wales in search of our hostel. Our navigator for this trip was Stella... (god bless us...) Sort of realised we 'hollanded' big time when I saw mountains and mountains.. we were on some mountain track! Why the hell would a youth hostel be situated on a mountain??? In the end, I had to take on the role as the navigator cum driver... 

Anyway, the mountain and valleys along the 'hollanded' route looked cool.. so I took some shots of them.. while driving! (and navigating?)




That's the car we rented... Renault Megane (Hatched-back) with sunroof. Youth Hostel Bangor, situated in an ulu corner of Bangor was quite a cosy and cheap place to stay, with friendly staff and free parking. As the daylight savings period was over... sunset was around 3plus to 4pm over in UK. Soon after we arrived... we set off for dinner and recce for our destination for the next day... Snowdon Mountain. As it was dark early, we didn't hang around outside much but stayed in hostel to play a game of Monopoly (Wales edition). Guess what? The millionaire was our lousy navigator, Stella! 

The next day(Tuesday), we woke up and set off after checking out of the hostel. It was a pleasant stay... except for that uncle who slept in the same men's dormitory as me... and snored from his diaphragm! ... snoring was bad enough... the amplified snoring almost made me wana sleep in the lobby! 

Snowdon Mountain is the highest mountain in England & Wales and has great views from the peak... unfortunately, our trip was sort of spoiled by the bad weather... the rain and winds prevented the mountain rail from reaching the peak... we stopped midway and couldn't leave the train due to strong winds at 15mph... without much sun... we didn't get much of the sights we expected... for those of you who intend to witness the magnificence of Snowdon, please try to come during summer... It would be too cold and windy to ascend to the peak during autumn. The rail service terminates after the first week of November due to extreme weather and re-opens in late february. 




After the Snowdon Mountain.. we set off back to Manchester.. targetting to go IKEA Warrington along the way back... miss those swedish meatballs and hotdogs! The scenary along the highway made me stop by the road shoulder for the photos too!




On the whole, this short trip to Northern Wales was quite a scenic getaway... even the drive there was enjoyable... seeing the trees and leaves in Autumn, mountains... castles.. ruins left behind on the mountains... sea... and sun! Next entry... Birmingham and the Cadbury Chocolate Factory!

It's week end again! And we've finally decided to join the International Society for a trip. International Society is an organisation in Manchester who acts like the National Union for Students but catering more for International students within Manchester. They have language classes, trips and interaction sessions for international students.

The coach ride takes around 4-5 hours from Manchester to Edinburgh. For those of you who do not have a clue about where Edinburgh is... It's in Scotland i.e. North of England. Since it's in Scotland... that's the place where guys wear skirts! Ya... and the bagpipes... The famous Lochness monster was also spotted in Scotland.

We arrived in Edinburgh in the late afternoon.. just in time for sunset along Princes Street(their version of Orchard Rd).








Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, is home to many talents. Sherlock Holmes was born here... Penicillin and many other vaccines were invented here.. and the famous animal clone 'Dolly' was created here as well!

After a nice dinner(roast duck fried rice!) and a sunset stroll down Princes St, we started our mini venture to look for haunted sites in Edinburgh. Our first station after a flight of steps around the height of hall 10's was Mary King's Close. A street that was forgotten for some time after it was covered up and sealed from the rest of the civilization to isolate the spread of a plague which took away 40% of the population in Edinburgh.

Mary King's close was rediscovered and to the ppl's shock... still very much intact! With the streets, alleys and houses still in place... just that they never get to see sunlight anymore. Corpses were probably discovered and some say they still hear the grievances and cries of those sealed away and not given the chance to live on. Really respect those people who opened up this place again and cleared up the mess... imagine the things they found when they first reopened Mary King's Close. There's a room with quite a lot of soft toys and play stuff stacked on a pile. It's said that a Japanese researcher of supernatural stuff once visited this site and encountered the ghost of a child who refused to let him go. The child said she was lonely and scared... so the researcher brought toys and dolls along for her to play with... visitors then left behind toys whenever they visited this room in Mary King's close.

The next haunted site we visited was the City of the Dead tour.. a graveyard trip...



Over the 7 years... this tour has witnessed more than 700 casualties from poltergiest attacks. Some with scratches the next day morning... some with grip marks on their shoulders or neck... some experienced weird conditions during the tour. The tour itinery eventually mellowed down quite alot... and we basically walked the graves with the guide telling us stories... and din get the chance to enter the buildings.

The grave of Edinburgh's famous dog, Bobby, lies in this graveyard. Bobby became famous after people learned about his loyalty and devotion for its master. It stayed beside his grave after his death and was reduced to skin and bones when it refused to move away to get food for itself. The villagers were touched and fed him everyday... till he died by his master's grave 14 years later. The story of Bobby lives on... and you'll notice the area outside the cemetery has pubs and shops with the name 'bobby' or 'grey friars'.

Not many pics were taken at this trip... some had to be censored for readers' safety... not meant for the weak hearted. One of the weird pics that came out...

The source of this picture is unknown.. it just appeared in  my camera together with the series of pics I took for the graveyard visit... hmmm...

Dun think you wana see the rest. Msg me on msn if you wana know more. Think I've got quite alot of inspirations for the next fright night if I get to plan it again! haha... game for it?

After the tour... we walked back to Edinburgh Central Youth Hostel.. A 1-month old hostel in Edinburgh... very new and nice place to stay in. Cheap too. 

Sunday morning was spent on a coach tour around Edinburgh where we saw the medical school... where penicillin and listerine was invented... the school of the deaf.. where telephone was invented by you know who... visited the twin bridges... and top of this hill which overlooked the whole of Edinburgh(most of it)... and the Edinburgh Castle.







The highlight of the castle was probably the crown jewels... which returned to this castle after a long story... not gonna bore you with the details... check it out yourself. Met Raven in the castle... haha... those air force people should know RaVeN's my callsign... the rest thought its a big crow. Ravens were used by prison gatekeepers in the past as a companion and as a buddy to guard the gates. Ravens are capable of fast and furious attacks... better watch out!

If you've watched Braveheart... this is the place! Scotland.. and the capital Edinburgh! The warrior you see in the pic above is wearing the traditional scottish battle dress you see in Braveheart. This guy is posing for pictures to raise funds for cancer patients. His wife passed away due to cancer.

Before ending off... what's a tour of Scotland without a pic of a man in traditional kilts? There he is!

After more than one month in England... we finally set off for London(where the bridge is falling), Stonehenge(the mysterious arrangement of huge stones) and the famous Bath(it's a town named after the famous Roman Bath discovered in 1800s). Due to the shortage of time and inconvenient timeslots of the coaches... we decided to rent a car(much cheaper option since there are 5 of us). It's a long drive from Manchester to Bath(our furthest destination for this trip)... supposed to take 6 hours by coach... but we managed to reach there in around 3 hours. The fastest I have driven so far... 180km/h. Couldn't find the speed limit sign on the expressway(they call it motorway here)... and the meter goes in mph and not km/h... thought I was driving at 90km/h.. but I was actually driving at 90mph i.e. 140km/h!

Just a note that the speed limit on motorways is actually 70mph... though everyone's driving like 100++mph... dun ever get caught driving at 100mph or more... the traffic police will confiscate your vehicle on the spot... yes... leave you in the middle of the motorway... to die.

We decided to head furthest first i.e. Bath.. then stonehenge on our way to London. Initially calculated that we should arrive at Bath about time for sunrise... so we dun really need an accomodation for the first night(saves £££)... ended up driving too fast and arriving around 1am!! We spent most of the night in the University of Bath. Quite a nice place, really look more like a university... rather than the city campus we have in Manchester.



After lazing in the University's library for some time(since they had nice sofa seats for us)... we moved over to this bridge... forgot the name... but its quite a nice spot. Took a picture of the Ford I was driving... you can see Robert and the rest 'dead' in the car... wonder who was the one who drove for hours??

Bath is a small and quiet town brought to fame by the discovery of a Roman Bath in the 1800s when residents complained to the city council of hot water seeping out from their basements' ground. It led to the discovery of the Bath which harnessed natural hot spring water underground for rituals and hygiene purposes during the Roman times. It's really a magnificent architecture... unfortunately... only the main Bath and some of the construction remained intact. The roof collapsed long time ago... 

The british added the statues of the Roman generals around the Bath to overlook it when they reopened the Bath as a tourist attraction in the early 1900s.






After our 80min tour in the bathe... the town seemed more alive. Kind of nice watching the town asleep when we arrived... watched the sunrise at the bridge... and slowly... the people came into town centre... the streets came alive with performers and artists.

After lunch, we went over to the costumes museum, part of the package we took up at the Bath museum. WARNING: If you ever go to bath, DO NOT waste money by getting the package! Just get the entry to the Bath museum. The costume museum is a total waste of time!

After some driving around the town... we left Bath for stonehenge at around 2pm. The ride to Stonehenge took around 2 hours... when we finally see it on top of the high ground... in the middle of a huge grass field as we drove into the carpark, I really felt the power of the Stonehenge!!! Few big stones on a field that can attract so many people from all over the world.




Well.. I can't describe the magnificence of this 'wonder of the world'... you gotta be there to feel it yourself. Walk through with the portable tour guide and learn the story behind these stones. Apparently, some of the missing stones were taken away by some idiots in the past to build houses.. farms... etc... they didn't know what and why these stones are arranged in this way!!! You can still see the 2 layers of the stones and there were some works done to restore these stones when they decided to make it one of the wonders of the world. It was just a pile of collapsed stones when it first started off.

After 'stoning', we set off for London. The drive there was easy... till we entered the city... jams!!! Horrible traffic... and the roads were quite confusing at times... even the Navigator system we were using screwed up. Moral of the story: If you drive to London... park your car somewhere cheap or free... and take public transport.

We checked in to the hotel after some unhappiness over the hotel we originally booked online which became full when we reached... and we got diverted to another hotel. Fortunately... the front desk guy was friendly and made our stay quite pleasant by offering us a free parking lot at their front yard... had to drive up the kerb to park the car... everyone does it here... illegal parking. 

After a nice dinner at 'Mawar', a Malay restaurant in London(Edgware Road), we headed back to the hotel to rest. Really needed the rest after driving for so long and not having quality rest.

The quality sleep recharged us and we met Zhifeng (my army friend studying in Imperial College) for lunch at the Tube Station. Tube is actually London's MRT system... there are trains running across towns... Tube runs within London only. Quite a confusing thing I think... there's subway too... now, who's who? What's what?

Due to shortage of time, we didn't tour London city alot, but took pictures of the Famous bridge called 'Tower Bridge' which many people refer to as 'London Bridge'. There are really quite a number of bridges across River Thames... there really is a London Bridge... but it's not anything spectacular... after collapsing so many times due to architectural problems... that's where we got our 'London bridge is falling down' song!




Other than the Tower Bridge, we visited the London Eye and Harrods(Famous shopping mall in London) and drove past Big Ben a few times. Will be revisiting London again in December when my gal comes over. Will be having more time to tour London then... compared to the few hours we had this time.




That's all for this packed trip... conquered 3 places in one weekend... and really damn tired after driving for so long... Finally... I can rest in peace...

Finally found some time to add in this entry before I embark on my London/Bath/Stonehenge trip tonight.

Our team conquered Liverpool last saturday, with the help of a special character... my 'sis' in Liverpool, Melody. Gotta specially mention her name cos we've been friends for so long, but have never met... 2 years? Or more?

Liverpool isn't as big as we expected... we arrived around noon time and were famished... waiting for our beloved host to meet us for lunch, we wandered around the town area... the first building that greeted us was...

 


This courthouse-like thing was one the first buildings that greeted us, and we decided to start taking pics around this area while we wait. We went into the 5-storey museum(nothing much though) and eventually met our Mel somewhere near the Liverpool FC store.





Soon after, we met Melody and her bf, Anthony, and went over to some Cantonese cafe for chinese lunch. The lunch was not bad.. but costs us around £5 each.

After lunch, we walked around the area and passed by Chinatown... it seems like a ghost town at chinatown area, except for a supermarket and the biggest Arch...



It was another 15mins' walk till we finally arrive at Albert Dock, one of the key attractions in Liverpool. The view was nice, with the concrete and the water blending into a beautiful scene. The highlight of the trip however, was the museum set up to commemorate the Liverpool heroes... the men who made liverpool famous, not Liverpool FC of cos, but The Beatles.

If you've heard about them before... u'd know that they were the boy band of the 70s who rocked the world and made our parents crazy. I din know that much about them till I visited this museum. Defintely worth the money and time to tour this site... 





The museum, named 'The Beatles Story' is a place you shouldn't miss if you ever travel to Liverpool. These men changed the pop history in the world, and created a whole new era in the music industry. It's really worth the £8 entry!

After the walk into history, we walked along Albert Dock back to city centre for dinner... the sun was setting as we walked, and it was cold and windy... really a nice sight that you would wana enjoy with your dearest.





To end off this entry, I've gotta specially thank our wonderful guides, Anthony and Melody. Though Melody will still remain as a lousy 'sis' no matter what she does. (That's Melody, Anthony and me in the last 2 pics)

It's finally saturday! We had a great sweat out last night playing soccer in 9 degrees celsius... I ran so much and got so hot that I'm running around in just T-shirt and berms... now we know how its like to play games in winter... its cold on the outside and hot on the inside... and there's condensation everytime we breathe... cool manz.

People travelling within UK or even to certain parts of Europe normally take the National Express coaches... they are cheap and comfortable... though not really as fast as jets. Good for backpackers who wana save on travelling between towns. If you book your trips in advance, say... 3weeks? You can get it as cheap as 1pound per trip! But trips normally cost 3pounds or more depending on how far you are travelling.

We set off from hall at 9.15am to catch the coach at the coach station...


That's me taking a pic of the gang as we leave our hall... and boarding the coach at the station... Robert & me on the coach... and finally arrive at Chester's Visitor Centre! 

Chester, like many parts of England, was under Roman control in the early days, but the unique point about it is that many of these Roman architecture still remain in the city, especially the walls built around it.

Apparently, one of the major attractions around Chester is this amphitheatre that they are still excavating... only half of it has been exposed after a chance discovery in 1920s... The other half's still under some old buildings... So its not that impressive looking at half a amphitheatre that's not fully excavated anyway. The amphitheatre is outside the boundaries of the Chester wall and used to hold up to 6000 spectators(so say the historians).


The amphitheatre... what's dug out of it and artist's impression of the site

Then we came to this Roman garden as we approached the city walls...



Some of the pics we took on and along the wall... there was this gate which I walked past first... so I decided to lock the rest behind the gate for awhile...









After a stopover for the cathedral at the Northgate, followed by lunch at MacDonalds, we shopped for awhile at the shops and market area at the Northgate section before we climbed back onto the wall and proceeded Westwards and South... Chester is not a very big town, so you can just allocate a day trip for this venue... If you are interested in historical stuff... this place is quite the place you are looking for... with a few museums... roman churches... castles around. We finally came to the South western area of the city after a walk around the 'Great Wall of Chester'. Robert and I ran across the road to take a pic with this knight that was placed in the middle of the road... in front of this townhall-liked building and the remains of a castle...




As you can see from the drawing above, the Chester castle was quite well-planned... unfortunately, we couldn't access the flag tower as it was blocked off and climbing in didn't help much too... 

But we managed to go up another tower... quite creepy though... the dim-lit spiral stairs up the chapel tower... the dark end and the caged chapel... when we walked up, we could hear our own echoes... quite cool though


After exploring the castle, we went on to the museum where we watched a video on Chester's rich history and some of the artefacts(mostly tombstones and armors) they found as they excavated the amphitheatre or as they were building new buildings in town. We then went in to The Mall... which is the biggest shopping centre in Chester city area... not very big but sufficient for the people here...

All in all, Chester is a quiet and nice place to spend the weekend with a group of friends or your loved ones... There are a few visitor centres around, so you can get the information you need quite conveniently. 

To end off, for the RPGs and First-Player game enthusiasts... you might be excited when you get a new armour piece in the games... now, here's the real stuff from the past!




Anti-clockwise from top-right,
- A high-end priced chainmail(we see that in Diablo^TM)
- A medium-ranged steel armor
- A gaunlet to protect the knight's tender fingers
...and the bearbear snowcap to protect the ears from freezing in winter

It's Friday at last! Robert and I ended class around 11am... so we decided to meet up and do some exploring. 

If I missed out earlier, University of Manchester is actually built within the city centre itself... there are no clear boundaries or fences in school to demarcate our territory. You can find parks, high schools, shops, residence, hospitals, shopping malls and even museums within the vicinity! And like I mentioned earlier the whole school is around the size of Jurong.. thats Jurong East & West combined!

The only way to know if it's a school building is when we see the purple signboard that bears the name 'University of Manchester' on it. So it's not new to see ppl losing their way in school even when they are like year3?

It's pretty cold today and the rain made it worse... Robert and I came out from the student services centre(within the admin building which looks like a castle) but took shelter at the Manchester Museum... which was sort of connected within the admin building.

Since we were waiting for the rain to stop before we commence our short exploration... we decided to explore the museum... its free admission anyway(hard to find free stuff in UK!)

The first level that we went to showed some ancient artifacts like samurai's armor, knights' weapons... crossbows... all sorts of bows...

Then we came to this section on another level which says "Ancient Egypt"... then we saw some mummy covers(is that what u call them?)... and of cos, some mummies... they looked damn real(from what we saw in the movies... not as if we know how they looked exactly)...



Then... Robert became curious and read one of the artefact descriptions outside the display glass... 


Shit! They are real! Maybe we were swakoos... but it didn't really occur to us that they'll put real mummies in our University! Those mummies that we were saw in Sentosa or Singapore Museum were all fakes... can't blame us... we were still discussing about the artists' craftsmanship... how they managed to make a preserved feet reveal out from the covers... and look as if it's real... so it's all REAL.

Kind of eerie looking at them... cos this section was very dark and they played some soft egyptian music(I guess... who knows what egyptian music sounds like?) If only I can stun one of these for frightnight siaz... drop down from the doorway when the freshies enter the 'haunted house'... damn wicked ya? ('wicked' is commonly used by the British youngster the same way we Singaporean chinese like to use 'jianz' which describes something or someone looks evil)

We wasted no time and began taking pictures with the mummies... 

This mummy here has its toes revealed... still in quite good shape... maybe pedicure originated from ancient Egypt?

Then we came to this dark corner where there lay 2 huge mummy coffins on the side(some kind of guards) and a mummy in the centre...

From the artefact description, this mummy was found in 1825 and was one of the Museum's earliest item in the Egyptology Collection. The name of the lady mummy is Asru and she was unwrapped before her arrival at the museum. It is said that it was accompanied by a package of mummified viscera(large abdominal organs) during its delivery. From the inscriptions on the coffin, Asru was a songstress at a prestigious religious centre in Egypt at around 700BC.

Then we came to wildlife section. There's this huge skeletal structure suspending in the middle of the hall... we couldn't find any descriptions for it... and couldn't really decipher what it was... I guess its some kind of flying dinosaur...


Faces in this photo have been been deliberately masked for confidentiality.

Remember Harry Potter? There's this white owl which delivers the mails?? Its called snowy owl... and they really exist.

After the wildlife section, we went on down to the main hall on ground level... and was greeted by a huge 'thing'...

The T-Rex! Can't make a comparison of how big it is... cos my cam couldn't capture the whole of it with myself in it...

We've entered the dinosaur section... and there are quite a number of fossils around... nothing beats this giant T-rex in the centre of the hall though...

After our discoveries in the musuem... the rain kind of became light enough for us to continue our mini-exploration...

The Lowry Outlet Mall

We've all seen the travel brochures mentioning the Lowry outlet mall as one of the cheapest malls around Manchester to shop in... so we decided to head for it... not very convenient though... it was 'walking distance' from Old Trafford Stadium... but it took us 20min to walk there... through some industrial park that looked like Jurong Industrial Area.

We were first greeted by this magnificent structure...

The Imperial War Musuem. Ok... My shots weren't that Impressive... you gotta be here to see it!

Then we finally found The Lowry... hidden behind the museum... across the river.

There's this bridge which brings us across the river towards The Lowry.. it seems to be a theatre similar to our esplanade... less the durian spikes. Beside it is the Lowry outlet mall... which sells stuff from factory outlets... so you get stuffs cheaper than they normally would cost... we bought a soccer ball here for 2pounds... and headed back after about 2hours of walking around. Not a very impressive mall... but good for cheap thrills.

Alright! Next update would be Chester trip! Stay tuned!

Finally... I dedication to my frens who are Man U fans! Especially my talk kok buddy in hall, Liwei and of cos my roomie, Jianping.

Lets start with the location map:



Actually, you can take a virtual tour of old trafford stadium at http://www.manutd.com/default.sps?pagegid={3D311A73-611A-43C9-9852-82DF97917873}&section=welcome
But your friendly reporter here(me lar...) is gonna walk the ground and tell u the story in Singaporean style.

Its just a 25min bus ride from our hall to Old Trafford stadium... We've tried the traffic when there are matches at Old Trafford... think walking's faster. We were stucked in a jam during our first week here... think it was Man U VS Chelsea or Arsenal match. Some guy along the streets wanted to sell me 2 tickets... 50pounds each! Heng I din buy... damn ex... a match tix would cost around 25-38pounds and season ticket costs 400plus pounds(thats S$1200+++!).

Old Trafford is the ultimate football stadium. Given the nickname ‘The Theatre of Dreams’ by Sir Bobby Charlton, it has played host to some of the best players, teams and football contests for almost 100 years.

It became Manchester United’s home in 1910, but suffered extensive damage when it was bombed during World War II in 1941. The Reds relocated to Manchester City’s Maine Road stadium until the rebuilding of Old Trafford was completed in 1949


We signed up for a museum and stadium tour package... and had a student deal, 6.5pounds each. The museum was impressive but I think it cant beat the feeling of walking the stadium and places where famous players have walked before. 


Thats the tour desk and the entrance to the museum tour. The tour begins with a walk through of the museum at level 3 to the stadium tour entrance at level 2.

Our tour guide's an ang-moh uncle who spoke with a heavy accent... lucky I could catch most of it... think I saw some question marks popping above Aunty Stella and Isabel's heads... and those international visitors in our group had the 'what the f***?'-look on their faces too.

We began with the North stand... sat on the Stadium Seats and listened to the guide introducing us to the stadium... I was seating on a white seat and Robert on a red seat... Looks like some National Day display of reds and whites... when we went over to the south stand... we finally saw the words 'Manchester United' formed by the seats on the North Stand.




The pitch was very thick and soft... too bad they din allow us to run onto the fields. Haha... bet the ang-mohs will just start sitting on the grass for some picnic... or lie on the grass to read a book if they were allowed to... dun laugh! It's really happening here! We see students lying on grass and families sitting on grass for picnics here... wherever there's a grass patch. Check this pic we took during our first week here

Dun you just wana lie on the grass too? The grass is really greener and softer here... and not many earthworms as ours.

Back to the stadium!

From the south stand, the guide brought us to the dug out.

This dugout has Man U logos on both sides of the wall... the left one says 'Home Team', the right one 'Away Team'. 

Apparently, this tunnel has been phased out since 1993. But this tunnel is the only surviving part from the bomb blasts of the cock-pilots during the WWII... they were supposed to bomb the harbour... but they missed and wiped up the stadium... leaving just this concrete tunnel. This tunnel holds the footsteps on many famous players from the past till 1993. 

We then visited the press lounge and the players' changing rooms... bet the female Man U fans would go crazy... hoping to pick up some undergarments left behind by the players... gross...





The new dressing rooms were opened in 1993 to replace those underneath the South Stand. Able to accommodate 22 players, the home dressing room contains a spa pool, two small baths, six showers and video facilities.

Opposite the dressing room is the Players’ Lounge, a room the players visit after their pre-match meal and again after the match. Here they can relax before the game. One wall features an impressive honours board showing every player to have won an international cap while playing for United. Photos of previous United captains also adorn the walls.

After the dressing rooms, we walked the same route the players would walk towards the new tunnel where they will run into the pitch. The new tunnel's higher and bigger so as to accomodate the fire engines in case of fire... the British are very 'safe' ppl.. there are always fire safety briefings whenever we attend talks or lectures. The seats above the new tunnel can be elevated by hydralics so as to accomodate the fire engines. Man U fans should be familiar with this red tunnel... we were made to line up ourselves into 2 teams and the guide played some 'cheering sound'... as if we were real players running into the pitch(good try). 

After running out from the tunnel... the stadium tour ended... took about an hour. We then went on to the museum and the gift shop before we left the Theatre of Dreams.

A great experience not to be missed if you ever travel to Manchester. Bus service 250 stops just beside the stadium... Autumn is a good time to visit the stadium cos there's bright sun but still yet cooling at around 17 degrees.

Stay tuned for future entries... coming up next in our itinery...
- Liverpool trip
- Stonehenge and Bath trip
- Chester
- London bridge! and Big Ben
- snowdon mountains, highest peaks in Wales & England
- Scotland/ Ireland Trip
- Cadbury Chocolate Tour

The freshers' week here is pretty different from what we have back in Singapore... no FOCs... no frightnitez... no SPs... just full of boring talks which we din really attend. We did went around looking at the CCA fest here... damn happening CCAs they have here. Daniel and I got separated from the rest(as usual)... and we squeezing with the rest of the students in the packed hall to see what clubs are there in school. Came across this board which says "Are you tired of your boring love-making techniques? Join the love-making club!"...there were some ang-moh gals gathering around the booth listening to the senior telling them about the love-making club... we din have that in NTU ya???

Then we came to a row of nonsense clubs... 'Transexual society'.... 'Lesbians club'...'Gay society'... I was just looking for some normal clubs like... 'flower arrangement', 'gardening', 'community service' and 'green society' that I usually get involved in(ya rite). 


Pic taken from the platform of CCA fest.

After settling our academic stuff(or attempting to settle), we finally came to the weekends! Before I begin the weekends, I would like to comment that the student selfservice system here(wat we call Student Link in NTU) sux big time. Now I miss our NTU system damn well... we should export one of IT experts here... he'll definitely make it big... in pounds somemore!

We celebrated Robert's 21st birthday on Friday... Daniel and me braved the rain to get a Cake from Sainsbury and found some candles too.. of cos not forgetting 2 cartons of beer... to drown the new man on the block... hoping to make Robert a true man. It seems that all the NTU students on this exchange are turning 21 here... damn... my wallet...

We managed to plan and sneaked a surprise bday celebration for Robert... and he faked drunk to escape the torture. Think Stella and Robert had some part 2 after that... din really bother. (fictional)

Saturday 23rd Sept

We went for an international buffet at Chinatown... quite a good deal which costs 5pounds per pax. Then we had a round the city trek... think we walked around 3km... just bcos we wanted to see the river on the map... turned out to be a stupid long-kang(drain) smaller than Singapore River. Here's the map of our journey...



We began our journey from Chinatown on the southern part of the map... circled the key areas we visited. From Chinatown, we went on to the Picadilly bus station, which is the bus interchange in the city centre. You can get on coaches or train to other parts of UK from here. The Picadilly Gardens had this fountain thingy that the kids like to play with... something like what we have outside Bugis Junction. I really wonder why parents like to bring their kids to this fountain... change them into their swimming trunks... and let them play in the fountains... amusing the public.



Some of the pics we took at picadilly gardens... Dunno y Robert wasn't captured at all. 

Then we wanted to walk to 'the river'... along the way, we chanced upon a street market(aiya... u call it pasar malam larz)... but this one is ang-moh styled... no tapioca cakes... tea-leaf eggs... taiwan sausages or ramly burgers. They sell potted plants, bonsais, cheap bags(that Stella & Mars took damn long to browse... these cheapos) and some home-made chocolates. Then along our way, we saw this shop that sells headdresses and bags... for around 5pounds per piece. Robert and I were just playing a fool around when the gals were looking at the bags(Stella nd Mars bought a bag each)





Then we moved on to search for 'the river'... think we holland-ed abit and ended up at Victoria Train Station. After a short water break at the train station... we moved on in search of 'the river'... we then came across this Cathedral(circled on the map... too many churches and cathedrals around)... and we decided to take some pictures...





After the photo taking session at the Cathedral... we finally found 'the river'... just a big long-kang... 



We then went on the Arndale, and Primark... almost everyone bought something from Primark... even Isabel! She's usually a scrooge... not really very girly type... and is damn violent!

We cooked our own dinner... sharing food only cost us around 68p each... around S$2! First time I cooked with 5 assistants! Cooked curry chicken, sausage omelette and tau-gays...

The 'thing' at the bottom are the extra potatoes that I deep-fried... the potato here's damn big... so we topped it with some cheese and let it melt onto the hot potatoes... turned out quite good! Thanks to Mars' suggestion.

Thats all for now... stay tuned for the next entry... especially the Man U fans! Visit to the theatre of dreams...Old Trafford Stadium, Home of the Manchester United!

This is the place man! (What Robert would have said)

Robert's a new member in our group... feels as if I'm playing some kind of RPG. We have new members in our team and occasionally some special characters(the NUS ppl and other Singaporeans we meet in Manchester) appear to help us in our journey.

Robert's actually from NTU too! An exchange student we never knew... he came direct from an attachment in Florida... cool ya? And he's an Indonesian student studying in NTU... making him like a global student kind of thing... his favourite phrase is "really ar?" He can say that like 20 times in 30min? Dunno if thats really what he's used to saying or is he always doubting what we say siaz.

That's Robert & Stella. Taken on our 6th day here.

On the 3rd day of our trip, we met Robert and Daniel. Daniel is a Malaysian on scholarship to study 4 years in Manchester. I saw him alone outside the dining hall and approached him since he's a Chinese. Minorities really clique together... no wonder all the ah tiongs and ah-nehs in NTU like to gather in hall. The ah-nehs gather to cook curry... the ah-tiongs gather to surf porn. Singaporeans & Malaysians are different from ah-nehs and ah-tiongs... we gather to... play mahjong! And tai-ti. And I'm proud to have passed the 'asshole tai-ti' culture to Daniel... so he's gonna bring it back to Malaysia.

That's Daniel & Me.

With the new configuration, I'm not the only guy anymore! 1 guy taking care of 3 gals is no joke siaz... somemore these gals are shopaholic! Worse than my mum...

We've conquered a few places in this configuration, and I think we'll be going for more.

The newest shopping mall in Manchester, Arndale was conquered by us and the things here really aint that cheap. 1pound = S$3... you do the conversions yourself from now on. We wanted to get some groceries from Chinatown, since Mars & Daniel are not staying in catered accomodation, and our wk ends ae not catered for too. We bought a bottle of sesame oil... think it sells for 2 bucks back at home... it sells for 2 pounds here too! 

Kind of regret not bringing some Maggi mee... the bloody maggi mee we found in Chinatown sells for 1.5 pounds! Can of coke for 60pence in school... and 90pence elsewhere.

However, there are some cheap stuff around... found this departmental store in City centre that sells clothes really cheap... I bought a few tops and a jacket which all sell for around 4pounds each. Stella... bought a top for 10pence!!! Thats like 30cents in Singapore!!! And its not those garang-guni rag... its a decent top... 

A bottle of mineral water here sells for around 1pound... and I found this....

A carton of 8 carlsberg sells for 5 pounds... means 1 can(the long type) costs around 60plus pence siaz... cheaper than the mineral water!

No wonder the people here drink like nobody's business. I have 3 pubs within my hall... and a few rows opposite our hall... can't be bothered to count the number of pubs... everywhere's like MS here. And the students club everynight! If you like it happening... its damn happening here everynight... try walking around the corridor around 1plus at night... u'll hear guy's voice in gal's room... and vice versa... and I get knocks on my walls late at night some time... no wonder they call it 'bang a girl'... when the bed's by the wall... it becomes... 'bang the wall'.