Breaking Fast @Jati Restaurant

I first heard about this restaurant from Fendy, after a week in Manchester, because I was complaining to him that I haven't take rice for quite some time now. He mentioned to me a couple of restaurants which served rice and these include Jati and Rezki.

"Wah... they have Malay restaurants here? Hmmm... I'm impressed!"

A week later, I received a message from newly found Internet friend (thanks to blogging, I guess) saying that he will be coming to Manchester with a friend of him on business purposes. When he said he will be breaking fast at the Jati Restaurant, I quickly responded to his blog to ask whether or not, I could join them dining there.

In short, we agreed to meet at about 6.30pm.

I arrived quite early, at about 6.00pm and thank God I managed to find the restaurant with clear direction given by Fendy (well, it's not that difficult to locate it because I remember passing this route on my way back to Old Trafford 7 or 8 years ago) . To kill time, I decided to walk along the Oxford Road because it's busier, which means safer. I walked and walked until I spotted one of my favourite spots in Manchester i.e. the Cornerhouse, where I used to entertain myself with art films from all over the world.

As usual, it was full and I quickly grabbed the latest October 07 listings and ran into its bookshop. In one glance, I've identified a couple of books which I would like to bring home to add into my collection of film studies books.

My alarm (one of my favourite functions on my Sony Ericsson Walkman) went off at exactly 6.30 pm. I grabbed and paid for the latest edition of Sight & Sound and quickly walked back to the restaurant.

By the time I was there, there was a group of four Malaysian Chinese, an English couple and a Malay lady with a British husband inside the restaurant, having their meals. It totally reminds me of the Malaysian Hall canteen in London, only that it's a lot smaller.

While the waitress helping me with the menu, Lee and Martin popped in with big smiles on their faces. We meet each other at last! I ordered the set meal (rice with salad and chicken tomato), Malaysian teh tarik (they used milk powder instead of condensed milk - I guess for health reasons!) and a bottle of apple juice. Lee had a similar dishes except that he took chicken kurma and a big glass of teh tarik. If I'm not mistaken, Martin opted for fried noodles and also a big glass of teh tarik. The waitress came back to us with a plate of dates. How sweet!

I hope I did not bore this two gentlemen with my uninspiring life. And surprise, surprise... Lee is also a big fan of Ramlah Ram. Oh my God! I don't know how to describe it but I feel so wonderful to meet someone in these days who enjoys listening to Ramlah Ram. He also enjoyed Kuching as much as I do. That's great! If the time permits, may be we could go for a vacation in Kuching in a group in the near future.

I took the opportunity to ask Lee and Martin for some useful travel tips especially for my next trips to Edinburg and Germany. Martin advised me to go to Hamburg during Spring because it will be awesome (Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany) and cost effective (the most important factor for poor students like me!). Insya-Allah will try to google Hamburg after this and soon will disturb them with my queries.

Lee also suggested to me to go to Edinburg on New Year holidays because there will be some kind of celebration or special event or something (I forget its name) to do with gorgeous firework displays. Hmmm... maybe I need to start finding a friend in Edinburg soon to realise this trip. Hehehe.

It was nice to meet the two of them - both are equally friendly. We exchanged numbers (although Lee was a bit struggling to save my number, hehehe) and promised to stay in touch. I informed both of them that I will be going down to London on this coming Raya and insya-Allah, if time permits, will try to arrange for another get together in London or in Cambridge.

We said goodbye to each other at about 8.00 p.m. To some the food might be pricey but to me, it's quite reasonable and definitely will come back again.


p/s: My only regret is I totally forgot to bring along my camera! Hopefully, Lee will find some time to email me (arenaKu@yahoo.com) the one and only picture we took last night and will upload it a.s.a.p.

My growing appetite!

Another 20 minutes before we break fast in Manchester and see what I've bought for my buka puasa! And I still have tuna and sweet corn pasta inside the fridge.

At first, I was planning to break my fast at the Victoria Mosque but unfortunately, it's raining outside and I don't feel like getting wet tonight. So, I just made my way to Tesco Express to get sandwiches, fresh grapes, dates, instant pasta and doritos (hehehe). Then, I walked to Raj Take Away for chicken briyani. This is my first rice in Manchester after so many years.

Okay, guys... selamat buka puasa to all Muslims here and selamat bersahur to all Muslims in Malaysia. Adios!

What a long day yesterday was!

I started the day as early as 4.00 am for my sahur and guess what I had? Fried chicken (bought from SFC - Southern Fried Chicken) fries, apple, a couple of dates and orange juice. While waiting for my Fajr prayer, I switched on my SufianSharis and once again "testing" the speed of the 10Mbs broadband connection. Oh, thank God... I can straight away watched Dina and Ning Baizura on Youtube without having to wait any longer for those clips to be uploaded (sorry, I can't find the exact word and I know it's not uploading).

I also spotted a couple of close friends on my Gmail account and thank God for whoever created the IM - I'm so glad that I can have a chat with them through Google Chat! Anyone fany a chat with me (hehehe), kindly forward me your Gmail address and Insya-Allah, will buzz you next time when I spot you online.

Since the hall of residence that I live in is not on city campus, but in the Fallowfiled campus, I have to go out early (well, not that early anyway) to catch a bus to my first day with the Faculty. My housemate said the other day that I can walk to the University and it only takes about 20 minutes to get there. But maybe I save it for next summer because now it's quite windy up here.

The first agenda of the day was an informative briefing by Prof. Jeffrey Henderson on Manchester in the Making of the Modern World. Well, I don't want to bore you guys with the details but just to share some interesting points that I picked up from the talk:

1. The University of Manchester as one of the so-called civic universities, was set up by an engineering entrepreneur because the Oxbridge universities (plus University College of London, Durham, etc - I can't remember what they call this group of universities) "ignored" engineering and related subjects and these universities only started to offer engineering degrees slightly after the World War.
2. Civic universities like the University of Manchester was among the first to allow females to study and graduate.
3. University of Liverpool, Leeds and Sheffields used to part of the University of Manchester.

My day continued with a couple more of knowledge sharing sessions which include briefing on course units, coursework, a dedicated session on plagiarism and not forget to mention ice-breaking activity. And it only stopped at 10 past 5.

Since the bank already closed by now (I still have not open a bank account!), I quickly went home to prepare for buka puasa. I got myself strawberry doughnuts, apple, banana, orange juice & cholocate milk shake. After Maghrib, I joined Ana & Christina in another series of talk on fire and safety at the Conference Hall, Owens Park. We straight away raced back to our place after it finished and I give myself an hour for another testing of the broadband before I jumped in my bed.

Wow, what a day!