So my exams are finally over and I finally found the time to update my blog. I've been wanting to update it so badly but I just couldn't find the time to :-( but hey I'm finally getting down to it!!!!
and I think once i start the updating it'll keep me going so yes hehe. I'll try my best to recall everything from the start because it's been about... almost 2 months+ that I've been here HAHAHAHA (procrastination kills). Btw I may mention some prices here and there.. if you're interested I'm using 1 GBP : 2-2.1 SGD which can be convenient for comparison :-)
This post may or may not be in order (it should be) sorry if it isn't!!!!! Quite a lot of visuals up ahead, a picture is worth a thousand words yeah?
HAHAH Sorry for being MIA for quite awhile, hopefully this long ass post makes up for it :-)
Friday, 20th March 2015
Left SG for Manchester :-) I took Qantas! Opted for a flight with only one stop because I was travelling alone so I didn't want to have to keep transiting hahah. Transited at Doha for only 2hrs :-)
Finally arrived at Manch!!!! Before I left SG I checked Manch's weather and apparently it was 12-15 deg. But after arriving apparently it was 7-9 deg wtf obviously wasn't ready for it HAHAHA
After staying here for 2-3 months+... I can safely say that in UK (or at least in the northern parts) it's generally cold all year round, summer is a LIE HAHAHA
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| After 16 hours of flight x.x |
My mum and I took separate flights, hers came 40 mins later so that wasn't too bad!!! Thank God it was the same terminal I arrived at so I didn't have to lug my shit ard hahaha. Had to pay £1 for the trolley lol?!??! Quite ridiculous I feel, but maybe because I'm too used to free trolleys at SG's airport hahaha.
Learnt that I should just book an Uber to fetch me from the airport to my accommodation :-( Because when my agent arranged for me to have an airport pickup, it cost £40.
Whereas if I just got an Uber it would've only cost me ard £20. >:
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| Waiting at my accommodation's reception for my keys!! |
I was brought to my room and settled down with a care package of all the info I needed (emergency contact, IT contact etc) and also opened my bedding pack (of which I had no choice for color HAHA, but that's sokay for me), so I went straight to unpacking hehe.
I'm quite used to using an electronic toothbrush back home so I bought the cheapest kiddy one in SG to bring over here. It's a ridiculous barbie doll one HAHAH but yeah it's damn useless for adults :-( too soft and small and slow lol. So right now I'm just using the conventional plastic kind, a pack of.. 4/5 toothbrushes for £0.85, which I bought from Sainsburys haha.
My wardrobe!!!! was quite shocked for a bit because it suddenly hit me how I am living in a relatively cold country and my wardrobe is changed drastically and filled with knits and shit HAHAH. But okay kinda like the look of it heh. It's obviously WAY more messy now and with more clothes, sadly sigh haha. I also bought black velvet hangers, a pack of 10 for £1, from Primark. :-)
Study table! Which also is way more messy and packed now that it's been 2 months HAHA. And yay the wall is painted purple, my fav color heh.
The photo boards thingy on my table is a surprise my dad had prepared for me :') the first two is a compilation of family pics from when I was young till now and my family wrote messages for me along the spaces! The third board is filled with Leon & I. Basically he whatsapped me one day to ask me for 15 favorite pics of Leon and I, and I had no idea why he wanted it HAHAHA now I know :')
My dad is the sweetest.
My room is an ensuite, which means I get my own toilet and bath area YAASSSS. Having an ensuite room is SO important to me, like I don't think I can get used to a shared/communal bath area now :-(
The layout of my accommodation is basically on each level there are 4 flats.
In each flat there are 4-5 rooms and 1 kitchen :-)
I'm quite satisfied with my room's layout, it's just the right size and I'm really happy about that!!!
Plus I live on the 12th Floor which is really nice too because I have quite a nice view hehe.
After settling down with my room and all, I had to head to school to settle admin and do some tests sigh haha. I decided to change out into a thicker knit because Mid March is when winter is coming to an end before transition into spring, so technically it was still kinda winter T.T (or a least the weather felt like).
LOL FOUND ZOUK just below my accomm, was so amused about that.
It turns out to be a shisha, tea, bar and grill place hahah.
While I was settling my shit at school my mum went around to look for places to eat HAHAH. We decided to settle for buffet lunch at Buffet City! That was £7.50 per pax (didn't realise they gave 10% student disc oh well hahah).
colours in my trimmed hair which have well faded hahaha.
Headed to Primark after lunch!!!! Omg I went mad in there. Everything was SO cheap!!!! ahhaa.
My mum's friend was heading by to Manch so we decided to meet up with him! They brought us to north wales to see the Conwy castle and look around the town :-)
Looks are deceiving, it was sunny but still v v v cold HAHAH
The castle is really pretty *___* like damn, all them victorian feels HAHAHA.
Don't know what got into me lol I could've fallen off the ledge and die HAHAH shit.
#doitforthepictures
My mumsy so pretty hehe.
Saw a condom vending machine in the toilet LOL but later realised it was super common.
like common until even my school toilets have them HAHAH
The one in school HAHAH
Her friend dropped us off at Liverpool, where we hanged around for about 2-3 hours before taking a train back! It's really near to Manch, like 30 mins by train hehe.
Decided to meet vlow and her parents for service at this cathedral!
My mum and I was late LOL HAHA
Traditional english brekkie hehe
Went into Urban Outfitters, fell in love with this vagabond boots but it was waaaay too ex :-(
Shoe heaven
LOL MORE PRIMARK GOODNESS
Saw this statue... which turned out to be this mad good street performer HAHAHAH hats off to him man, the weather was freezing. Dropped him some change :-)
Hair dryer, diffuser, pillow cases, matching cup and bowl, bathroom slippers and pot lol.
New kinda haul T.T
This was the first (of many) meal my classmates and I had at Paramount! The hotdog was MASSIVE lol. After this meal we have like 78% of our lunches there HAHA. The atmosphere there is really classy and nice, and they have deli deals! Like A wrap/baguette + chips(fries) + drink for £4.49.
Very filling :-)
I really didn't like my kitchen (which is cleaned up now though). When I first came the kitchen reeked of smoke (now not anymore), and yah I just couldn't see myself cooking there in peace HAHAHA. Navin (one of my classmates) and I decided to start sharing dinner! Which is undoubtedly one of the best decisions I've made in Manch :-) I cook and he washes up HAHAHAHA. We both are on a relatively small budget, so our groceries are kept really low too which is great :-)
The quality of our meals aren't really compromised + we get to save money. He is also one of the nicest people to hang with :')
This is his kitchen, which I spend like 40% of my time at, considering I spend the most time in my room that is quite a lot haha. His flat has a really cosy kitchen, like they decorate it SO well! His flat mates go to the same school and are really close, so I guess thats why :-)
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| Uni Year 1 bucket list HAHHA |
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| Collection of bottles wew |
Freaking DJ list on the wall, how cool?!??!?!?!
Anyway just to add, clubbing here is really nothing. Like, it's literally part of their culture. I think it's also because there's nothing else to do at night but club/shisha/go to a bar. It's also like a form of socialising and it's not that big of a deal at all compared to SG.
In SG we have Wed, Fri and Sat. Over here there's Mon-Fri HAHAHAH.
Entry fee is £0.99-£5 for students and shots are like £1-£3 hahaha so yeah :-)
Took time to rearrange my shoes :-) aka my babies. I brought.. 18 pairs of shoes lol.
Sadly, the number has gone up by now T.T
Got down to getting a laundry basket cuz I gotta wash my clothes and shit HAHAH
£1.99 from poundworld :-)
Random meal pic at Paramount! Half a roasted Peri-Peri chicken for £6.79.
There's a fast food store below my accomm! They sell affordable food and most importantly they open from like 4pm-4am YAAAASSS HAHAH.
My 1 piece chicken + chips meal, as seen below, £2.20 :-)
This saved me, all the nights I "nap" and wake up at 2/3am HAHAH I know I have somewhere to go to for food hahaha
Skyping Leon during his RnR :') Night time for me, Afternoon for him.
Didn't have morning class so decided to try and curl my hair LOL
English brekkie £2.99 at Paramount ^__^
Had quite a long break in between class so I headed to Arndale to walk around.
Found these Black Suede Booties *__* I bought them. I HAVE SINNED T.T
But I really like them and my newlook ones broke on me so no regrets hehe. Only thing is that I can't seem to break into them.. worn them like twice/thrice and they still give me a bit of blisters :-(
HOWWWWWWW guess I gotta just keep trying
First night we went clubbing as a class!! Or at least tried to because half of them died at predrinking in the kitchen HAHAHAHAH
More skyping with Leon hehe
Random lift selfie. And yeah I cut off quite a bit of hair before leaving for Manch because I don't plan on getting a hair cut hair hahhaha
Saw these fresh pak choy veggies at Chinatown!!!! I love them :')
Didn't realise there's an asian store below my accomm HAHAH, great blessing cuz they have everything I need in there (not even kidding)
Bought a kettle!! £5 from Wilko
Felt quite homesick and decided to take out a letter to read. This sincere and sweet letter brought tears to my eyes, not kidding TT__TT
Suddenly felt this huge wave of homesickness, so I got down to putting up these pictures on the board in front of my bed! Got them developed in SG :-)
Me tryna figure laundry out haha
Random OOTD again, wore like this for about 2 weeks. Then after that I started to be more acclimatised to the weather so I could afford to wear less hehe
Southern fried chicken + chips at Paramount! £5.85
One of the best discoveries!!!! Oven baked pizza, at only £0.85 ^__^ it tastes SO amazing
The thing about Manchester is that, it is either raining, windy, or both T.T HAHAHA.
when it's sunny and nice HALLELUJAH
But yeah here's me being blown away LITERALLY. By the freaking wind.
Walking ard with Denzel, my class mate from Zimbabwe :-)
One of my good friends here too! He LOVES char siew bao HAHAHA
#asianfoodcandonowrong
Deli deal at Paramount! Southern fried chicken wrap £4.49
(YES, everything comes with chips hahaha)
Saw this dog in a parked car, waiting for it's owner I suppose. Super cute ^__^
This coat is waaay to big for me, UK12 if I'm not wrong?
But it was £10 and I needed a coat badly so I just got it anyway LOL
Baked salmon for dinner!!! Lol laze way of defrosting hahah don't judge
Super yummy holy shit *___*
craving for some now as I type
Glad I invested in these oriental looking flatforms before I left SG!!!!
Loving how they look and they are OH SO COMFY heh.
One of the nights out :-) Can I just say if you can survive getting to the club by walking at night here you can do anything?!?! We don't bring our coats because not every club has a coat room.....
and even if there is it's always crowded + £2 charge LOL
Walking in heels and a dress in this 5-7 deg weather at night with the strong wind and sometimes even rain is NO JOKE T.T Nowadays we usually just borrow our guy friends' jackets haha
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| B A E |
Denzel cooked Navin & I lunch!!!!
yummy drumsticks with pizza and broccoli hahah
Studying & prepping dinner w nav
Super funny. He was cutting the chicken halfway and the knife just broke HAHAH
had a superb view while having dinz :-) The sun sets at 9pm and rises at 4am here LOL
kinda like the look of berry dark lipsticks :-)
Got this at a froyo shop near my place called FRURT :-) I had a coupon for a free topping but it ended up being £3 because I added an additional topping (+£0.50)
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| me too love, me too. |
More skype
Me struggling in class, probably politics LOLOL
One of those days I could wear shorts out...
actually just to the common room downstairs HAHAHA
Common room opening!! Not that big a thing, except for the fact that they gave out free drinks and food HAHAH. The common room has a tv screen (can connect FIFA/PlayStation/XBOX/Movie), study corner, pool table, table tennis and table football (?).
OH AND ALSO a Ben&Jerry's vending machine HAHAH
Blown up giraffe that I was really tempted to bring back to my room
Chilling in school in between breaks on bean bags
Got down to cooking Laksa!!!! And holy shit this one is 100% legit, like I can't even begin to describe how true to the actual thing it is. Thank you Weixiang!!! :')
More skype with Leon
Contemplating my life or smth idek HAHA
Chef me strikes again!!!! hahahajk these drumsticks were rlly yummy tho ^__^
!!!!!!!!!!!!yknow the weather is looking up when the trees and grass are green again!!!!!!!!!!!
Impromptu night to head out and chill because the weather that night happened to be pretty amazing, like able to wear shorts kinda weather (which rarely ever comes by HAHA)
Four cheese pizza which taste as amazing as it looks *__*
I love my drinks to be cold, so I decided to invest in reusable ice cubes!! They are super useful and easier to manage compared to using an ice cube tray. They take quite fast to freeze, and keep drinks cold without diluting them! The only bad part is that I guess if they start leaking or have holes you must throw them away cuz I think the liquid inside isn't water? Well maybe it is who knows but I don't wanna take my chances. So far they prove to be very durable and are so convenient!
They come in a pack of 20 for £1, from poundworld :-)
Letting my hair down literally HAHAH
Celebrated Navin's 21st hehe. We surprised him SO well he didn't even suspect anything BAHAHAHAH. So basically on his birthday we just kept it casual and just wished him happy bbirthday, didn't mention any night plans or whatsoever. Then we went to buy groceries as usual and had dinner. While having dinner I was chilling around and texting my friends that we were done and they could come over, and so they did hehe. I told him I forgot to take smth from my room that I wanted to pass to him, so I took his key card. He was so unaware he even asked me to watch some funny soccer vid with him before I left HAHAH. So after that I headed to my room, changed and met the rest downstairs. Then we headed up and BAM SURPRISE MOFO HAHAHAH
Sums up our friendship quite perfectly HAHAH
Loser got pissed drunk and kicked out of the club HAHAH love you Navin!!!!
Happy 21st again :-)
Tried Shisha for the first time at Zouk!!! Was quite an interesting experience :-) Shisha here is £12-£15 depending on the flavor, but I know it's slightly cheaper at other places :-)
Clubbing after!!!!! The music wasn't that great but the company made up for it :-)
Post gym selfie before we went to Odeon to catch Fast and Furious 7. The ticket was like.. £5.25 after a 20% disc haha. For students its £5.10 without disc if I rmb correctly. The movie was really good, especially since I grew up watching the series! sigh, RIP Paul Walker :-(
Tried on the Nike Air Force 1 in high cut, this was £39.99 (because I can fit into the kids size hahaha). Am so tempted to get the low cut ones, £49.99 adult size :-(
DECISIONS DECISIONS DECISIONS
Bought this pair of chelsea boots online but they were to big for me so I sent them back and got a refund :-( such a pity, they were gorgeous. But hey I think this is a BIG plus point of shopping in the UK, you can get a refund on virtually all your purchases within like 14-28 days of purchasing if you decide to change your mind of whatever :-D
Mini asian food haul (was so sick of chips and pizza) from the asian store below!!!
When you tryna study but you lost af
Vanessa's cousin, Gareth, came down from Scotland for the weekend!!
One fine day I saw this pair of ducks waddling in the puddles by the pavement outside my accomm... THEY ARE SO CUTE OMG *___* i love ducks
saw them for 2 days and I never saw them again wtf ::::(
I think they realised I was taking pics because they proceeded to position themselves beside each other, facing the camera, instead of facing each other HAHAHAH
Red velvet cake £2.50-3 i think.. wasn't THAT great tho :/
Cooking steak for Denzel and I!!! it turned out quite well (see pic below)
Paramount has Curry Club on tuesdays! Meaning they serve curry related food for a discounted price hehe. I ordered the flaming dragon (£7.49) which had naan, briyani and curry! It's quite good because the spice level is up there (which is lacking in most dishes here) hehe.
BTW did you know that Chicken Tikka Massala is Britain's National Dish?????
I did not know that HAHAH
bought the Shin cup noodles from the asian store for £0.69. Finally figured out how to cook it to perfection.... JUST LOOK AT DAT EGG
Surprised Leon for his 20th birthday! He was in Indonesia for army but I managed to pull it off anyway :') Happy birthday love, we'll celebrate when I'm back
Went for a street dance class with Denzel! It was a walk in/one off thing so we just had to pay £5 at the end of the class :-) we went for the beginners one haha. It was fun and refreshing, we danced to Uptown Funk HAHAHA.
Discovered this amazing dessert, the Oreo Ice Cream Sandwich.
HOLY SHIZZLE this is truly thebomb.com
Going for lunch one sunny day
Spaghetti with Bolognese + oven baked breaded chicken fillet cooked by yours truly
After dinner we had movie night!! LOLOL.
Helped that his flat mate has the mac adaptor heh.
Celebrated Yamuna's birthday :-)
but this is basically the cake we use for ALL our birthday celebrations LOL it's like £2.38? but freaking yummy!!!
not relevant but I'm an oreo addict
Muna persuaded me to go to a spanish club with the rest, how could I say no to the birthday girl right!! hahaha. So I got ready in like 15 mins and headed out
Muna freezing her ass off because it was COLD T>T
Swagging it up with my Peru friend
Fish fillet with baked potato for dinner hehe
YOLO decision to get the double helix piercing (£20)!
Very happy with it, love the way they look :-)
Day I went to school with a fish braid
The day I could go to school with a spag top and a kimono (which only happened like once)
love the colors in these selfies!!! idk they look so.. vintagey(?)
idk how to say but yeah I just like the look of them heheh
Skyped my babies, em + stelz!!! ^___^
LDR going stronk HAHAHAHA
Chatime opened in Manchester!!!
and they were having a 1 for 1 promotion as part of their opening and of cos I had to go and get my bubble teas?!??! I was quite excited because I heard of them in sg before and know that they are pretty legit heheh. I do not trust shops that call bubble tea, "bobba tea" HAHAH no just no.
Couldn't stop smiling like a retard after I bought them!! I bought milk tea and mango green tea :-)
Usual price would be £2.95 (w/o pearl) & +£0.50 for pearl. But I got 2 for £3.45 HEHE
Told ya i'm an oreo addict T.T
(2 boxes left in my fridge I alr finished 2)
Now that exams are over, I'm looking forward to redyeing my faded hair, maybe get more piercings and just relax for a bit. Only a bit cuz my final exams are in aug :-(
ok abrupt ending hahahahah.
So yes, I basically covered almost everything since I reached as concise as I can. Or at least up till going to Liverpool with Navin... because I feel like this post is long enough and I don't wanna bore anyone to death HAHAHA. If you read till the end, thank you I appreciate it :') If you're even on my blog reading, thank you too because I doubt anyone comes and read anymore hahahaha.
Call me beep me if you needa reach me!!!!!! jk haha you can:
Follow me on instagram @bellojelloz
Add me on snapchat @bellojelloz
Drop me a note/question on ask.fm @annabelannabelz
if you haven't already :-)
Manchester has been good to me and I hope everyone is doing well :-)
till then x
