Azlin - experimenting life: November 2008

28 November 2008

It winter time. The ice rink is back in Cambridge this year. Not wanting to be left behind, we planned for our lab outdoor activity - Ice skating!

Before our ice-skating session started :

Ms. Chih, me and Mdm Silvia

Mr. Anthony, me, Mdm Silvia and Mr James

Mr. Chris, Mr. Matt, Mr. James, Mr. Anthony (visiting scholar from California), Mdm Silvia (our postdoc), Ms Chih, Ms Irene and her friend, and me bought the 14.00 hour tickets. We paid GBP7.50 each at students' rate.

I was a bit nervous as this would be my second year (and my third attempt) in trying to skate. I was not good last year and probably would be the same "bad" this time.

As before, Mr Matt helped me to tighten up my skating shoes, not letting me endanger myself by having lose ones. So kind and nice of him...

Having my proper skating shoes on-all set up for skating!

It was a first time for Mr. Anthony, a second for Ms Chih and a third for me. I started with holding the rail in the corner and move slowly until I was confident enough to let go of my grip. Then, I skate slowly and tried to move both my legs. It was not easy as I kept on losing my focus! Once my focus was gone, I lost my balance and had to hold the rail again...

The guys were very good to me, Chih and Anthony. Mr. Chris and Ms Irene help Ms Chih by holding both her hands and led her for a spin around the ice rink. Matt and Silvia helped me for a while. Then Chris and Irene held my hands and dragged me with them for a round. At least that made my money worth for skating!

Matt skate beside me most of the time, giving me advice and injected more confident in me. Before the skating session ended, I managed to skate on my own and surprisingly at a faster rate than last year. I believed my performance was not really that bad this year and I am proud of myself!! Hehe...

Even Ms Chih managed to skate on her own today! Good work Chih..

Matt, me, Silvia and Chris

Ms Chih, Mr Chris, me, Mr James and Mdm Silvia on the ice...

The guys stopped at the Castle for a few round of boost. Silvia and I walked back to our lab to collect our belonging and did some more work before we headed home. I felt tired and hungry. Hemm...probably I lost at least 1/2 kg by skating!

What a nice activity to be involved with. Very tiring but fun....

8-9 November 2008

Finally, I managed to go somewhere outside Cambridge for short pleasure trip. Ain-ain came to visit me in Cambridge last two saturday. She invited me to visit her in Sheffiled to return favors.

I totally forgot to get myself a railcard until Mr. T pointed in out and nagged me for not having everything in order. Thanks Mr. T, I really needed that!

At Cambridge train station-very excited and high in spirit to start the trip!

We left St Ed's around 6.15 am and got ourselves on 6.55 am train to Sheffiled via Leicester. The scenery along the way was not really that interesting as everything look similar. The train moved quite slow to Leicester. It took us two hours to reach Leicester.

Then, we caught the train to Sheffield after asking the train staff as both Mr. T and I (especially me) were not sure which train to take. We reached Sheffield about 11 am. Ain-ain was already there at the station, waiting for us. Wahhh! Finally, we were in Sheffield!

Me and Ain-ain - in front of Sheffield train station

Sheffield Hallam University

At the market area....

We were quite hungry. We walked (after looking for the direction in the city map) to Oxford Road to get some halal food. The road was not reallt that far from the train station. Mr. T and I used to a lot of walking but Sheffield is a bit of a hill. We found out that we were a bit exhausted!

Oxford Road- the best place to find Halal food here...

One of the most famous Halal restaurant in Sheffield-Kebabish

Another famous restaurant to dine in- Noodle Inn which serves big plates of food! And the prices were not that expensive. And we could order in Malay as the waitresses are mostly Chinese Malaysian students....

Our starter-mixed plater. The portion for three people was so huge! Less than GBP6..

Me and Ain-ain were enjoying our mixed plater!

Seafood fried rice-less than GBP 6

Chicken in black pepper and black soy bean with fried rice. So huge but cost less than GBP6!

Free desserts accompanied the food. The choice between hot sago in cream or vanilla ice-cream...

Mr. T was enjoying the food, especially the free ice-cream!

Sadly said, nothing much is going on in Sheffield at this time of the year. Ain-ain is still alien to Sheffield and we just made our tour based on some of her and Mr. T's experience. Luckily, the weather was not that bad. We were expecting rain all day but it was only a bit of shower from now and then. God must be on our side!

The 'mosque-shape' Sainsbury!

Mr. T and Ain-ain were looking at the map and trying to figure the way around!

Couldn't help myself from capturing the colors of the autumn!

Students accomodation. So modern compared to Cambridge

Welcome to my humble place said Ain-ain...

Ain-ain took us to her one room flat. The flat even though with only one room, still look comfy and nice with a nice kitchen and bathroom.

Ain-ain and me inside her one room flat

We visited several buildings in Sheffield Uni.

The landmark of Sheffiled Uni

The tallest building in Sheffield Uni - Firth Court (the fact that this building is on the hill makes it the tallest!!)

Student community center. They have almost everything here, from cinema, eating outlets and others...

Ain-ain didn't forget to show us her department, Animal and Plant Sciences.

I was amazed to find Perak Lab here! The lab was sponsored by Perak Sultan. God bless our Sultan!

Sheffield City Center

City Council building - Lovely building which houses wedding and other interesting activities, other than the normal admin thingy..

We took the tram to go to the train station. Other than buses, tram provides efficient transportation service here in Sheffiled.

My first time in taking tram but apparently not for Mr. T who had been here before....

We left Sheffield around five and managed to catch the 5. 25 train to Loughborough, our next destination. We promised Ms Ct Ann a visit since december last year. Ann and two others from Leicester came to Cambridge in December last year to visit Mt. T. That was how I came to know them and we became friends. It was about time that we reciprocated their visit!

It took us an hour from Sheffield to Loughborough. Mr Haris was waiting for us at the Loughborough station with his friend, Mr. Faiz (I think!). He drove us to Ct Ann's house. Ct Ann was busy preparing our dinner, her special nasi briyani. Yummy!! She's a terrific cook and I really enjoyed the food!

We ate quite fast as we planned to go and see the fireworks schedule at 8 pm. Ct Ann drove us there and we saw so many people walking towards the fireworks place. But the weather was not on our side here. It rained heavily. Luckily, I'd my umbrella with me. So did Ct Ann. I shared my umbrella with Mr. T.

The fireworks started quite late, at almost nine due to the heavy rain. But at least, the fireworks was much better than the one played in Cambridge, much bigger in size!

There were quite a number of Malaysian that I met here. Hemm...the Malays community here is bigger than Cambridge. I learnt that they tend to live quite close to each other.....

We went back to Ct Ann place and rest for a while. Then, Ct Ann brought us to one of Malaysian family house who hosted another small makan-makan. Abg Adam and his wife, Kak Maria (I believe that is her name. Mr. T please correct me if I'm wrong) prepared some TomYam noodles and spring rolls. Another makan time, I was so full and couldn't take anymore food......

We went back almost midnight. So tired and sleepy. Could hardly kept my eyes open for long. ZZzzzzz.....

The next morning, Ct Ann prepared some roti canai and dal. She invited Lina and her husband Hisham to join us for breakfast. We left the house around 9.30 as Ct Ann took us to the Burleigh carboot sale first, not very far from her place.

Outdoor carboot... Ct Ann, me, Lina and hubby, Hisham

Indoor carboot-my first time ever been to an indoor one...

Then, she brought us to East Midlands, the factory outlet, which is situated about less than an hour from her house. Shopping time!! My favourite hobby other than makan and site seeing.

I bought myself my first white gold ring (as all my gold rings are yellow gold). Also bought myself a new pair of black long boots and two new pair of shoes from Clark. Hemm...this was really a treat for me.

Then, eating time after shopping! Ct Ann brought us to their regular restaurant. Kebab kind of food. The food was not only nice but also very cheap. Just imagine, a dish of meat curry plus briyani rice only cost us less that GBP4. So amazingly cheap!!