Final Nite Out with Classmates

I went out with my classmates last night for a nice dinner at al-Nawaz in Rusholme. Since some of us will be going home for the next few days, this will be our last chance to get together. Unfortunately, none of our Chinese classmates turned up at the dinner.

At first, I wanted to write a long post. However, my mood is severely affected by the fact that the "shipping people" are playing hide and seek with me. They were supposed to come and collect my boxes yesterday, but due to unforeseen circumstances (read: their terrible coordination & time management), it was last minute postponed (they don't even have the courtesy to ring me!) to today. They promised to come in between 1700 to 1900, but now it's already 2140! Oh, my...

So, I guess I better stop before I become too emotional. Let me leave you with some pictures that I snapped at last nite dinner. Oh, yeah... we also celebrated Aisha's birthday. Once again, happy 23rd birthday Aisha!

After dinner, we took cabs to a club in Hulme to continue our "merdeka" celebration. I didn't stay long because need to go to bed early so that I could wake up for my early breakfast at 4 am. At about 11.30, I joined Takashi-san and his two female friends walked our way to Oxford Road. From there, we all took our separate ways home.

I has been awake since 0400 on 5 September and by the time I reached my flat its almost midnight. Meaning, I have less that 4 hours of sleep before continuing my last third last day in Manchester.

I miss my mum, I want my mum!!!

London... here I come again!

Guys... I'm about to depart for my final trip to London to visit my aunt and her family before going home to Malaysia. I'm taking the coach because (1) I want to save money so that I could spend more on souvenirs and (2) I want ample time to finish reading one of the novels that I bought from carboot sales in Loughborough.

In London, I will be helping, insya-Allah, my uncle with his stall at the Merdeka Bazaar, which will be held this Saturday. And I plan to do a photo shooting on Sunday, hopefully with Izza.

Izza is from my uncle's side (in other words, not from my side) and, surprise... surprise... her father and I used to involve in a project or two a few years back. What a small world!

My bus is on 5pm and my stomach is screaming for food. Since there is nothing in my fridge, I guess I need to go now to have a nice chicken briyani at the Aghan Cuisine in Rusholme.

Adios!

Manchester PRIDE 2008

I went to the city centre with my classmates last weekend. Yeap, to spend quality time together before each one of us return to our home countries.

It was so packed with people. Do you know why? There was a parade called Manchester PRIDE 2008. According to S, it's a celebration for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender life. She quickly turned to me and say, "Could we stay for awhile, Mr. Religious?" (Mr Religious, katanya! Agaknya S belum pernah dengar peribahasa alim-alim kucing kot!)

From my limited observation, the event was attended and participated by all walks of life. Whites, non-whites, children as well as grandparents. It seems like a family outing to me.

"I think they shouldn't have brought their kids to this event because it just corrupted their minds," said A, my mate from India.

H from China and S from France, quickly shook their head. According to them, it was a good exposure for them to learn to respect others.

Once again, S tried to drag me into this debate, "What do you think, Hashmyron? (I love the way she pronounced my name. Kedengaran seksi!) Come on... say something. Give us your oriental wisdom!"

"I don't want to sound judgemental, but I can't help to agree with A. There are other more effective ways to educate love and respect to younger generation. Unfortunately, bringing them to witness some of the sex-related acts, like those guys in leather clothes pretending to make love (What do we call this fetish? Lupalah...), to me is not appropriate at all."

From the look on her face, I know I got H on my side now. But, not S.

Or is itbecause the way I was raised that somehow made us, Asians/Malaysians to have less confidence in the true potential of our children. Are we worrying too much or are we not? May be I should post this question to Mush instead.

Anyhow, it was a good first-time experience to witness for myself what a mardi gras is. And I did take a couple of pictures to be shared with my dearest readers out there.



















p/s: I talked to an Englishman yesterday at a bus stop. He said that I have a Chinese accent. Sudahlah sebelum ini, beberapa rakan sekelas panggil "Oriental Man". I'm quite surprised that none have ever said that I'm an Indian. Tak cukup hitam ke?

Goodbye Fendy, SMAP!

The day has come for me to bid farewell to two of my adiks, Fendy and SMAP, who will be returning to Malaysia for good. Both will be bringing home with them Master of Engineering with Honours. And if I'm not mistaken, Fendy will be reporting to duty with one of Malaysia's leading MNCs, PETRONAS.

Anyhow, have a safe journey home, guys. All the best and may Allah bless you with more rahmat, berkat and joy. Aamin.

Please forgive me for any of my wrongdoings. Dan minta halal makan dan minum.

The following pictures were taken @Aghan Restaurant, our very last chance to spend time with Fendy and SMAP.





And this picture was taken @my adik-adik's house yesterday. We were supposed to have a small picnic at Platt Field Park, but unfortunately, our cooks took too much of time to prepare the dishes. And by the time the food were ready, we were too tired (read: lazy) to go out for a picnic. I didn't cook, but I brought a cheese cake and seedless red grapes. Fendy cooked us nasi minyak, our imported chef from Malaysia, Amelia made us ayam masak merah and Ayap fried vegetables with shrimp. Dini made us a tasty lasagna. But the best of all was the gorgeous watermelon bought by Fir. Thanks, guys.

BBQ, Strawberry Picking & Picnic

When I was in London last week, my aunt said something about fruit picking. Oh, my... I can't remember when was the last time I did fruit picking. It was so, so long time ago. About nine or ten years ago and it was an apple farm.


This morning, I was taken to a strawberry farm by Anne, my friend from my MARA College Banting days, who is also a superb cook. With us, there was a group of lecturers from Malaysia who are currently reading their postgraduate degrees in Loughborough and Nottingham. I'm the only one, which is NOT an academician.

After an hour in the strawberry farm, we went to a carboot sale in Gotham. As usual, I bought myself two novels, namely, The Da Vince Code (yeap, I've read this book, but at 10 pence each, I'm so tempted to read it... baby, one more time!) and No Safe Place by Richard North Patterson. This is my first time reading his.

We didn't stay long there, not because there's nothing to buy, but one of our friends, Fit, was so "carried away" to the extent, he even bought a candle holder! But it's a nice one, very huge and I personally think it's meant for a private garden or in a gazebo.

On our way to send Fit home, we stopped @Nottingham Uni for a casual picnic (ada ke picnic yang tak casual???). Oh, my... Anne made me one of my favourites i.e. lempeng with sambal sardin. She also cooked fried meehoon. Ad and the gang brought along karipap special and burgers while Nurul and Zai cooked for us nasi goreng.

While waiting for my coach, Harris has been so sweet and kind to bring me to his Uni for a brief tour and photo session. If I'm not mistaken, this is where Danny was supposed to go for his Master degree. Unfortunately... tak ada rezeki kot.






Millions thank you to Anne, Harris, Ad and the gang for your generous hospitality. And special thanks to Kak Pari and her friends for a lovely barbeque yesterday. Also, Anne, Ad, Fit and the gang for a wonderful dinner last night. Terima kasih daun keladi, jemputlah lagi...

And please do invite me for your next karaoke session. Fit (budak in the middle in the picture below), you really have a nice tone!