after more than a year... finally came back to my beloved city of manchester... not helped by the fact that there was a colleague whom i absolutely dislike... nvm.. i was ready for war should anything start...
i got some really nice people to work with, minus him of course... i couldnt care less, as long as he doesnt step on my toes.. i wun be firing any missiles... im more looking forward to what i can do there in manchester... should i go Edinburgh or Lake District.. or I can catch the league cup game against wolves??
i brought the girls to the cottage restaurant which i like a lot on the day we touchdown... Man U vs wolves is that evening... was contemplating if i should go... in the end, the tram system was down.. and i figured that it would be pretty hard to get back, so i skipped the idea and watched in the room instead since there is a live telecast and next day early morning we are setting off to Edinburgh. I would say lucky i din spend the money to watch cos the game didnt cause much stir... and its rather slow pace... Man U won 1-0 thou :)
early morning, next day, we set off to Edinburgh, met a fellow singaporean on the train ride and she has been in manchester for the past 12 years cos she was studying there and decide to get a job there and got married there as well... quite a nice lady but deprived me from my sleep thou.. haha... Scotland is really cold as compared to Manchester, cos its more up north and there is a huge lake right next to Edinburgh so there is a constant supply of cold wind, which is not helping cos i only brought a thin jacket... never mind, we are not about to give up, carmen and catherine included since we already paid so much to come so far... we picked the major spots that we can cover in 1 day and set off first to the famous Edinburgh Castle... my first time visiting an actual castle... cos its pretty beautiful and amazing.. they actually have scottish guards blowing the bag pipe in old scottish kilt and uniform... we manage to take a few photos with him... very nice fella... :)
next up was the walk up to the other end of the city to the Palace of Holyroodhouse... I was all wondering how come there is a palace and castle in the same place... so it later dawned to me that castle was during medieval times while the palace was actually built for the Queen's usage... tt pretty much solved the riddle rite? after the Palace, we took a bus to Lenith, where Britannia was finally decommissioned and parked at... Britannia was the Royal Family's mode of transport and was on many missionary sails around the world and hosted many world leaders in her time... Britannia sailed to Singapore twice before... then, i was too young to know all these... It was an eye opener to see how the royalties lived on board... it wasnt a fantastically big ship like star cruise.. but its comfortable to house the British Royal family comfortably...
after Britannia was dinner at this restaurant pub called newsroom before we did a bit of shopping and headed back to manchester, reaching the room at only past midnite...
next day was OLD TRAFFORD!!! been there before, just wanted to revisit the place again.. it was a toss up between old trafford and lake district... i decide to save lake district for the next trip cos im still tired from all the trekking in Edinburgh...
next visit to Manchester... Lake district is top priority... :) hopefully with my DSLR...