The Young & Restless

Went for a day trip to Manchester with SC, Kei & his parents yesterday. I must say, among the largest city in England, Manchester had the most beautiful sight of modern glass concept buildings. Even London doesn’t stood in the way being the capital city. Felt really fascinated with most structures, looked way very much more advance compared to London & Liverpool. Given the chance to live in UK, I’d pick Manchester anytime. They had free shuttle bus services which drives you around the entire city. I mean honestly, where do you encounter any other places that offered free bus services around town area?? What’s another unique about UK’s 3rd biggest city (behind London and Birmingham) is their roads are built such in a way that land vehicles shared the same tracks as their railway tracks (LRT as we call it). You can also find them in parts of US as seen on tv. Too bad didn’t have time to drop by the MU stadium. Would have been awesome checking out all the famous footballer stars’ potrait team inside it. Food here wasn’t exactly cheap relatively to Liverpool though. Had dinner at Chinatown in resturant called Happy Season. Their Chinatown aren’t as big as Liverpool’s though.

Check out all the photos here; http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/stephenmahsw/my_photos

It may be pretty tiring but totally worth the 3 days trip to London. One thing’s for sure, it was scorching hot here even on the 1st day. We checked into a hostel called St. Christopher’s Inn in Shepherd’s Bush. Breakfast is provided from 8-9am. Happened to share rooms with a beautiful and friendly girl named Hester from Holland. Had a little chat with her. Like us, she came down for 3 days to London to meet up a friend. Awkwardly, she resembled Kirsten Dunst who played Mary Jane Watson in the Spiderman movie. Could it be her? Check it for yourself hehe..;-)

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Left to visit Big Ben, London Eye & the famous ‘London’ Bridge…oops, wrong info, I didn’t really go to London Bridge. We went to Tower Bridge instead hehe.. though both are located closely over the River Thames. If you don’t know what Big Ben and London Eye are all about, let me give a brief explanation here. Big Ben is a huge grandfather clock alike tower while the London Eye is an enormous ferris wheel, so tall that the highest point, anybody sitting at that position is able to view the entire city of London. The Tube/Underground (or as we call it LRT) was unique in a way that they have many stations that are interchangeable to different types of line (we only had Putra, Star & KTM which practically travel in a straight line). There is a lot of ways to link to 1 station using different routes.

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http://z.about.com/d/goeurope/1/0/V/6/london_eye_1.jpg

Didn’t ride the Eye as we didn’t think it’s affordable having to pay 15 pounds per person. Took tonnes of pictures, will be uploading them to my yahoo photos since friendster had really taken up almost the entire capacity.

Next day, we paid Madame Tussauds a visit in Baker Street. Street sounded familiar? It’s where the most significant detective of all time, Sherlock Holmes hailed from. A house full of wax with celebrity figurines here and there. They all looked so real you couldn’t tell if it’s really them I took pics with hehe.. From Tom Cruise to Brad Pitt, with Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts, Robbie Williams etc. We snapped pics on every ‘celebrity’ we could meet. Unfortunately there were many that I didn’t spot visible..namely Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Aniston..even Simon Cowell & Will Young weren’t displayed! Surprising. On another section were the figurines of superheros; Superman, Hulk, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park. Some reknown ppl such as Steven Spielberg (he’s pretty short in real), legendary Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley all were present. Next section came the famous politicians (yeah Bush & Blair here) around the world. Of course, even Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, Williams & Harry and princess Diana were all displayed. Further down, there’s even a few famous footballers; David B., Wayne R, Michael O and even their coach Errikson was built such a way on a spectator bench where 3 ppl can sit next to him for picture shots.

Next section was the Haunted Chamber-Live played by real actors. Similar to the one in Genting, you entered with a small group of people in a dark and gloomy area where people would suddenly pop their heads out or tapped on your shoulders behind you, scaring the shit out of ya LOL.

At night, went to meet an old friend of ours from TARC at Chinatown in Leicester Square. Slightly earlier on, we strolled along Piccaddily Circus, one of the busiest streets in London and nicknamely the Time Square of London. Got back almost 2am. 

The heat was really coming to a toll within these few days. We didn’t expect the weather to be this hot prior to our arrivals. Well, 1 litre of water bottle comes in handy whenever we went. Buckingham Palace was fascinating. It used to be the official London residence of the British monarch Smart horses and men with shining armour marched across the streets proudly. Heard from one of the local tour guides that it is not accessable to outsiders till in August. 4 hours before our coach leaves for Liverpool. Decided to do a little walking and window shopping around Leceister Square and Covent Garden. Couldn’t get anyting decent here. Prices for the souvenirs here at least cost 20 pounds..siao. While Kei stayed back awaiting for his parents’ arrival, we boarded the coach back to Liverpool about 11pm.

Ahhh..relief…after 4 days and 4 nights my throbbing head and eyes, having to face the laptop to  almost 24 7 finishing off my A.I. assignment. So glad to say it’s finally done now and I’m having a few hours off before heading to London with Kei, SC and Ting for 3 days. Time is now 1am and our coach leaves at 6.45am. Not sleeping yet? LOL, don’t think I will be able to in this 5 hours anyway. Probably will be sleeping on the way to London which takes 4 hours to arrive. We managed to book a hostel cheap enough at a student rate for 5 of us. Oops, did I say 5? Yeah, Yen backed out a few days ago as he wanted to join another group of friends to Scotland for 5 days. Fortunately though, he’d still be paying the amount of deposit we’ve agreed earlier on as we couldn’t find any last minute substitution. A waste in a way but we’ve tried doing all we could.

I’m hoping to visit the famous Madamme Tussaud’s house of wax. Imagine taking pictures with ‘real’ celebrities hehe. Heard they totally sealed Michael Jackson’s figurine. Reason? People were all busy touching his infamous ‘nose’ till enough is enough LOL.  London Bridge, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, London Eye…here I come!

Just finished Artificial Intelligence test today, at least 2-3 days of rest before consuming to extricate my brain power thinking how to write up my assignment as half of the 100% marks are located here. A blink of an eye, a month has passed since I set both feet in UK. Time flies.. but then again, I can’t wait for another 2 months. Can’t wait for the europe tour. Still haven’t decided which package I’m gonna take. More choices are coming in this and next month. Hopefully I do pick the appropriate one as I want to return before 22 Sept for the OIAM finale. LOL still being a fanatic even though I’m overseas. Talking about OIAM, pray Suki who lost in the knock-round last week will get the judges’ votes, if not the viewers to fill in the Top 12. Never did notice her in the beginning but later, I felt she had the x-factor aura developing within.

Oh yes, will be going to London for 3 days on the 16th, both vacation and also sort of pick up Kei’s parents who’ll be arriving on the 19th…LOL..but then we’d have to return back to Liverpool cos new class begins on the 19th itself.

Yesterday was Kei’s bday. Treated him buffet at a restaurant called Buffet Star. It’s 6 pounds per person. It’s our first time having since arriving in UK. Pretty much the same price you get back in Msia. This restaurant has a variety of both western & chinese cuisine which is why we picked it as it’s cheap and tastes good. Obviously we’d savour as many food as possible and every moment of it LOL.

Went to Albert Dock the next day. Here we get to see ships stopping by at bay for tourists to embark onboard to have pics taken. After that, went to stroll along the dock before entering into an art gallery. Many paintings that I definitely couldn’t decipher as some were pretty deep. Spotted 1 famous painting by Picasso displayed in 1 part of room and I seriously don’t understand why were his drawings masterpieces. LOL..guess you need a real artistic person to understand the meaning behind his works.

Then went to the most famous Beatles Story shop in Liverpool. If you didn’t know, one of the most popular band in history’s hometown is right here. So many items bearing their names were proudly displayed in the shop. There was even a machine where you can specially carve a 1 pence coin into a memorable souvenir with the words Albert Dock The Beatles Story Liverpool. Each penny carved costed 50 pence. Made 3 myself.