Day 83: Pink + Baa Bar~

3 days before the 'final' final exam~ Went out for steamboat at Mr Chilli in the chilly weather :) Took a cab there, hehehe... Most expensive steamboat i've ever had in my life.. and there wasnt even any abalone~

Mr Chilli near Tesco Express and John Foster Building~~

Inside the restaurant~

Our 2 in 1 steamboat..

Us, with our 5 dishes of meat and 5 dishes of vege :)

oh, i miss these girls...

After dinner, we proceeded to brave the cold night air to explore the weekend nightlife~ First stop was Pink, which is special cos its popular with a special group of people--homosexuals @.@~

Outside Pink~

I dunno when these guys came into the picture >.<

Lots of weirdly dressed people out and about that night... :)
there were more scary-looking ones but didnt get to take pictures..

Left Pink after awhile.. The atmosphere was too weird to stay for long.. Did see some guy on guy action tho, so my motive for going there can be considered met lah.. :) After that we wandered round Mathew Street for a bit, surveying the pubs and clubs.. There was this place called Heaven that had zero people inside eventhough it was Friday night, looks like people prefer to go to hell rather than heaven then.. O.o..

Taking a picture with Lennon on Mathew Street~

Finally decided to stop by Baa Bar to spend the rest of the night.. I can't believe we did this just so few days before finals.. hahahahaha.. Life in UK was really crazy~

Baa Bar~ not too crowded but not too empty, perfect!

I cant remember what time we left, but it was quite early (in the morning~) Oh well, last few days in Liverpool.. had to spend the remaining time properly instead of sleeping it away lah..

Saw these beauties in the city that night.. Looks like they were there to control the rowdy crowd... :)

Souvenirs from tat night.. Condiments?? NOT! :D:D:D:D

Day 82: Last day of class.. Sobs..

Last lecture ever.. no chance to feel sleepy in class again.. Got to take a photo with my favourite lecturer :)

The most funny lecturer ever- Dr Alex Douglas~
who incidentally hates Liverpool FC, so we were kind of defying him by all wearing Liverpool jerseys.. haha

after the lecture~

no chance to sit in room G01 ever again.. sobs~~

What we did in tutorial class, hahaha... this is actually International Operations Management by the way~ I will miss Dr Alex's interesting classes... sigh...

Day 81: Wan Tan Party~~

Adelynne and I tried our hand at organising our own party last Thursday and this was no ordinary party, but a 云吞面 or wan tan mee party... :D Total number of guests: 13 Total number of dumplings:120 Total amount of minced pork used: 2lbs!! Glad to say that we had great fun preparing the meal and luckily everything came out edible, and tasted quite good too~

We marinated the meat the previous night.. Looks like a lot right!

Seasoning~ cos pork in UK has a very distinct smell >.<

Our secret ingredient.. hehehe...

I was official garlic chopper..

and spring onion chopper.. stupid spring onions made me cry like mad.. :*

Sample of our final product! :)

Only 11 people in this photo, Jason was the photographer and someone else came late :*

Some of the food for 13 people.. We had vege with minced meat and meatballs
(hahahaha.. cos more meat than wantan wrappers..)

Another group pic~

Cheers!!!
I like Peach Schnapps and Lemonade~~

After dinner, we had a very crazy event- a mock birthday celebration.. hahaha @.@~ we'd actually had this idea since a long time ago, cos we were kind of jealous of the people who got to celebrate their birthdays in UK, and have 31 hours instead of 24 to celebrate.. Just that our idea grew a little bigger and we decided to include everyone :D

We got 2 cheesecakes from Tesco and went hunting round Liverpool before we found some birthday candles~ searched high and low for them (i just realised there aren't any bakeries selling birthday cakes here, maybe everyone bakes their own??) but 有志者事竞成 :)

only so few end of the year babies :(

Hope everybody had fun and didnt think we were crazy lah :) dunno when we will ever get to do something crazy like this ever again~~

Day 80: La Tasca Spanish cuisine~

Last Tuesday, finally got to try Spanish food for the first time.. Went to La Tasca, a restaurant which we have been targeting for a long time already cos it always smells tasty whenever we pass by.. haha.. however, we never dared to try before this cos judging from the menu displayed outside, its quite pricey.. Luckily in the month of August, they had a promotion where we could download a 50% discount voucher from their website.. Definitely a chance to be grabbed right?!

The bar

Part of the interior.. The toilets were very nice as well, too bad didnt take a photo of it :S

We braved the rain to dine there :)

Packed even at 3pm+

Place settings~

Ordered 'Tapas to share'--5 tapas (small dishes) for 10 pounds and a seafood paella.. Yep, finally got to try some paella after 21 years on earth.. :) Total cost 14.97 pounds after discount, only 5 pounds per person.. Super happy, cos we were expecting it to be much much more expensive, cos our classmates had just been there the previous day and ended up spending abt 10 pounds per person.. yippee yay yay~~~ got another bargain~

Clockwise from left:

Berenjenas Gratinadas-
Fresh aubergine, baked in a tomato, garlic & wine sauce, topped with cheese.

Chorizo Frito Al Vino-
Spicy Spanish sausage, produced in El Bierzo, in the area of León, sautéed in red wine.

Pescado Blanco Frito-
Deep-fried white fish, in a light and crispy batter, served with roasted garlic mayonnaise and fresh lemon.

Albondigas A La Jardinera-
Spanish-style beef meatballs, served in a tomato sauce.

Croquetas De Pollo-
Chicken croquettes, with roasted garlic mayonnaise. (super yummy!)

I swear, everything on the menu sounds good >.<

The main dish-seafood paella, which needed a 45 minute wait..

and all three of us were super duper stuffed after that meal.. very very well spent 5 pounds :)

Glad that I had the chance to try something new again.. Plus I now know that we have the right to ask for free plain water even if you have to ask repeatedly, it even comes with lemon slices :):):)

Much more new experiences coming my way I hope~

Day 78: Happy Days are here again~

This came out on Monday~ I know its not that good compared to some other people I know, but its no mean feat passing all 4 subjects the at the first attempt, especially when I really truly thought that my Finance paper was a sure goner.. Plus I really led a very miserable life during that exam week.. not being in my own home and all.. So i welcomed some tears of joy and relief that morning.. I just went 'omg, omg,omg...' and literally bounced around my room when the page came up... I think i scared my housemates :S

Anyways, since the gang was not around that day (the final day of being a hermit in Liverpool), i had to call back to Malaysia to find people to share my happiness with.. I think i made at least 5 calls to Malaysia that day.. even going to class at the wrong time did not dampen my mood.. Only found out that my tutorial was actually at 3pm after i was already halfway to campus ard 12pm, my lecturer had made a mistake.. So, wats a girl to do for 3 whole hours alone??

Some celebratory shopping of course.. made a trip to the post office as well to send some postcards.. I spent a grand total of 17pounds on 7 items.. :D I think tats the biggest whole amount i've spent on shopping so far.. boh bian lah, not much budget for shopping..

2 pairs of shoes from Primark~ 4.89pounds+2pounds :)

pants 4pounds, cardi 2.50pounds from vero moda and boyshorts for 1 pound each from Primark~

Its unbelievable how some of the stuff here can be.. I bet it'd be quite hard to find a good quality cardigan at RM15 after conversion in a proper outlet with fancy paperbags and stuff in Malaysia.. Pasar malam maybe got lah.. Hee~ The main point is that they gave me such a huge paper bag when I only bought 2 items of clothing that I felt quite sheepish carrying it to class.. Made it seem like i'd bought half the shop.. haha...

Anyways, im thankful that i'm not the sort who would feel all lost and fearful when left alone, if not i would never have made it through the day.. Proud of myself :D

Edinburgh Part 2~

Second half of my day spent in Edinburgh~

Superb weather :) This was taken outside Edinburgh castle before we set off for Calton Hill~

Must-see stuff in Scotland.. Kilts and Tartan~

This pic is for you litte bro- Thistle Hotel in Edinburgh.. :)

We had a little delay while going to Calton Hill, cos one of the cars went missing in the ridiculously complicated streets of Edinburgh and we had to look for them but we still got there in the end and eventhough we had to climb up a super super super steep hill to get to the top (worst part was we found that there were no toilets at the top, so we climbed back down to go find one and then climbed back up again >.<), but the view was worth it all~ :)

The most fake looking picture I have taken so far.. Looks like a studio backdrop if not for the people sitting there.. haha..

Very happy that I got to climb up there.. Needed some help of course..
I have short legs.. sobsob..

Just wikied Calton Hill and that giant thing we climbed up is actually the Scottish National Monument~

Standing at the edge overlooking the city :)

View of Edinburgh Castle from atop the hill~

With our crazy (trying hard to act cool) driver~

This is not a random picture, that slab there is known as Arthur's Seat, a formation caused by an old volcano..

Proof that i'm not lying.. :)

Sigh.. and i spoil the view once again.. hahaha..

Next destination was to see look at a pretty bridge called The Forth Rail Bridge~

Its actually a bridge for trains, hence the name..

See the train? See the train??!
We were super excited when we first saw one, but then after seeing one passing by every 5 minutes, the novelty kind of wore off.. >.<

This other bridge is for motor vehicles~

Obviously, 'The Two Bridges' is situated in between both bridges.. @.@~

Since it was raining very very heavily then, we just sat outside a cafe and did lots of random stuff to occupy our time while the others went exploring round the area..

Things we did:
-Watched our breaths come out foggy, first time i've experienced this, quite fun :)
-Took self-taken pics

-Watched some drama unfolding on the bridge.. hehehehehe

People here love kissing on bridges.. more romantic is it??

After that we were on our way to Inverness to pass the night.. Loch Ness is up next! :)
PS:I still cant get over how fun Scotland was... :)