I woke up early today at 7:30 am as I had a breakfast rendez-vous with Michael at 8:30 in Victoria Coach Station before my bus took me to Manchester at 10:30. He just came back yesterday from his holiday in Austria so we could not meet up earlier.
When he still did not turn up at 9am, I knew that he had probably overslept so I dropped him a msg. 15 minutes later, I received a reply “Shit, will be there soon”. It took another 20 minutes before he finally arrived at the coach station. It was nice seeing an old buddy again after 4 long years. The last time I saw Michael was in JC1 when he came back to visit Singapore (he had left after O Levels). Obviously 40 minutes whizzed past really fast and without realizing, I had to leave for Manchester. It was nonetheless fun catching up and I was really appreciative of his efforts to wake up early to find me, especially since he only reached his house from the airport at 3am. Thanks buddy!
old buddy
I met up with Jeremy in Manchester who was previously touring Scotland. In fact, there was nothing much to do in Manchester in terms of sight-seeing. Quite a boring city in general. Jeremy who was hungry as usual wanted to have some food so we headed to Moon Under Water restaurant to have some light snacks and beer. Oh man, throughout the trip I haven’t drunk beer until I met him. He would turn me into an alcoholic really soon. Haha.
random photos in Manchester
After the quick meal, we went back to our hostel. Earlier on we received our Old Trafford tickets and we were furious to learn that our seats have been downgraded without prior notice. We had paid 119 pounds for a longside seat, but we got a seat behind the goal which was the cheapest ticket originally priced at only 25 pounds. This is a warning to anyone thinking of purchasing a match ticket from Top Ticket Shop online. Think twice. When we purchased the tickets, an email was sent to us mentioning that the tickets have been purchased. No matter what the reason was, it would only be a basic courtesy to inform the customers that they had been downgraded. It was still not acceptable even if it was written in the terms and conditions that they reserved the rights to downgrade the customers. It was as if they were ready for the “scam”. And another stupid point in the terms and conditions was that the refund for the difference in price between the original and downgraded ticket can only be used for the next purchase at the shop. Ridiculous clause.
After Jeremy sent a complaint email, we set out again at about 9:30 pm to have a proper dinner. We wanted to eat KFC quite badly but the nearest and only outlet we knew was closed. After further walking, we found a KFC replica called “Allen’s Fried Chicken”. Apparently, Allen was a friend of Colonel Sanders as reflected on the box containing our chickens. This Allen fried chicken, supposedly, could only be found in Manchester as well.
We walked around after dinner in search of a place for New Year’s countdown. The more I walked, the more I was convinced that I was under-dressed to go into any clubs. Most men were at least on long-sleeved shirts and the girls were dressed to the minimum. Many were donning skimpy dresses and they were sizzling hot. I wondered how they survived the temperature with such an outfit though.
In the end we settled for Yates, apparently one of the more well-known pubs/restaurants (during daytime) and also a competitor of Weatherspoon. I never knew of the existence of these two pubs until Jeremy told me about them. So, another glass of beer till the countdown while soaking in the loud music. Doing this once in a while could be an enjoyable affair, but I doubt that this would ever be one of my favourite pastimes though.
After Jeremy sent a complaint email, we set out again at about 9:30 pm to have a proper dinner. We wanted to eat KFC quite badly but the nearest and only outlet we knew was closed. After further walking, we found a KFC replica called “Allen’s Fried Chicken”. Apparently, Allen was a friend of Colonel Sanders as reflected on the box containing our chickens. This Allen fried chicken, supposedly, could only be found in Manchester as well.
We walked around after dinner in search of a place for New Year’s countdown. The more I walked, the more I was convinced that I was under-dressed to go into any clubs. Most men were at least on long-sleeved shirts and the girls were dressed to the minimum. Many were donning skimpy dresses and they were sizzling hot. I wondered how they survived the temperature with such an outfit though.
In the end we settled for Yates, apparently one of the more well-known pubs/restaurants (during daytime) and also a competitor of Weatherspoon. I never knew of the existence of these two pubs until Jeremy told me about them. So, another glass of beer till the countdown while soaking in the loud music. Doing this once in a while could be an enjoyable affair, but I doubt that this would ever be one of my favourite pastimes though.
Happy New Year to everyone.
in Yates for New Year's countdown
atmosphere in Yates
1 comment:
who dat handsome guy on the left, first pic...
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