Sunday 4 December 2016

globetrotting - london (in and around the city) and manchester (including old trafford)



8.00 pm

well howdy doody peeps. yes, yes, i know i've been lazy and super slacking these past several months but i do have a very valid excuse for that. the reason was that we were going through some pretty tough times especially late july till early september. 

my mother in law was hospitalised and wasnt doing so well then finally she passed away. there were a million and one things to do but i will not get into details as its still kinda fresh in my mind. 

nevertheless, life had to go on and the world turns, right? anyways, before my late mother in law was taken gravely ill, my husband and i had booked our tickets for europe. we planned to set up our "base" in london at my aunt's place and then make our way to paris, amsterdam and then up to manchester. 

now in this blog today, im just gonna be showing you some random photos taken in london and in manchester. you'll have to stay tuned for paris and amsterdam in my next blog, which will be sometime next year.

it all happened so fast, like as if we were in a dream, surreal. just after my mom in law died and one week after we had to fly off for our trip. we almost cancelled the trip because we didnt know how long she was going to be ill or if she would recover although we were all hoping that she would have pulled thru, unfortunately she didnt. 

anyways, ok im going to snap out of it and tell you a bit of my trip. best part about the trip was that even though we went early september, the weather was perfect! cold yes but bearable and there was sunshine and clear blue skies. it only rained(well heavy drizzle) one/two days throughout the entire holiday! guess mom in law was looking out for us and making sure we had a good time. 

it was my husband's first visit to these places but not for me. i've been to london numerous times but my second time to paris, amsterdam and manchester. most enjoyable city i should say was probably amsterdam and london. having said that, all these cities are very vibrant with so much to do and see. 

if im not mistaken, some of the galleries/museums in london are free and generally you dont have to pay unless its stated. so yeah, you can just roam about and just get "lost" in these cities, absorbing their culture, their way of life...  like what my husband and i did was to park ourselves at some random cafe, have a steaming mug of hot coffee/snack and people watch. we enjoy doing that. literally watching the world go by. 

ive realized that sometimes, people when on holiday or hey even during normal days, they are so absorbed in their own little world, busy making money and doing what they are supposed to be doing, that they dont realizethat they are missing out on their surroundings and what is going on. they are like blindsided. to me, every now and then, we all should stop and take a break to smell the roses coz blink of an eye, time will just fly by and then one fine day you wake up to ask yourself - "where the hell did time go? how come i missed out on so many things? what the hell happened?" - you know what i mean???

anyway before i forget, just to give you a quick suggestion, if you guys ever want to go to these places and want a quick tour, just check out - Viator - coz they have plenty of options to choose from, from day tours to a few days. we chose - skip the line - option (for paris, amsterdam and manchester) which was good enough for us as it was a few hours tour and we got the express line therefore didnt have to queue with the rest of the people which saved us alot of time.



here we are just landed early in the morning at heathrow airport. we flew by malaysian airlines on the A380 (and we got the upper deck). 



tower castle, london. in the far background its the view of the shard ( there's offices, restaurants, shangri-la hotel and residence).



ah, a slightly better view of the shard from the river thames. so beautiful even on a gloomy wet day. 



the ever famous london double decker bus.



london tower bridge 




 london underground tube station



we were going for a cruise along the river thames and there's big ben clock tower at westminster abbey. 



london eye in the early evening



at camden market. a very popular place for tourists and locals to hang out with lots of shopping, flea markets and food/bars all around. love this place!







see i told you so. lots of people around especially on a weekend. its very vibrant and lively and its unique in its own way. 



foodstalls galore! i've only taken a small portion of the area. theres tons of food stalls from all over the world and really, you're spoilt for choices.



downtown london, piccadilly circus. 




one of the popular high street brand known all over the world is H&M which also happens to be one of my fav places to shop.



oxford circus shopping area. its all connected from piccadilly circus all the way down the street. its a very long one indeed. literally, shop till you drop!!



heard of the black cabs in london? its pretty expensive once you step into one of them. well unless of course, you're on a business trip and can claim or some rich bugger, then hey by all means, go ahead and give it a go!



here we have sotheby's (famous auctioning house) located at new bond street. 



after passing by new bond street, we walked toward savile row, along mayfair, a high end area of course. savile row is known for their bespoke tailoring especially for men. here i took a picture outside alexander mcqueen's shop(which is on the top floor, not in photo unfortunately) and downstairs is where the magic happens - the workshop! better fill your pockets with lots of cash or even use your black credit card, coz savile row is expensive where you get the best tailoring and fit!



after savile row, we continued to walk to carnaby street. yet another shopping street away from the main road(where oxford and piccadilly circus is located). 



carnaby street in one of the lanes.




this is the london palladium theatre located near oxford circus in town. this is not a cinema. the people come here to watch live performances or plays (no im not talking about strip shows!). lots of famous folks have stepped through these doors as it dates back to 1910 when it first opened. 



ah, here we have liberty departmental store on great marlborough street in the west end of london, selling luxury goods for both men and women, household items, kids wear, cosmetics, fragrances, jewellery, furniture and then some. hubby wanted to buy a pair of comme de garcons sport shoes but unfortunately, they didnt have it in his size. oh well. 



the victoria memorial (sculpted by sir thomas brock) is a monument dedicated to queen victoria located at the end of the mall in london. its actually just outside of buckingham palace. 



the ever famous landmark, buckingham palace, where plenty of royal weddings took place from princess diana's to kate and wills. 



here we are at knightsbridge, where an upmarket departmental store harrods is located. its britain's most famous store and possibly in the world.



underground tube station nearby at knightsbridge. i suggest that you guys should come at night or in the evening to see the lights! its amazing, especially around christmas time.



inside one of the foodhalls in harrods. omg you are spoilt for choices! the food is fantastic and so fresh!! i love it!


top of the egyptian escalator inside harrods. its pretty amazing. 





thats the natural history museum in south kensington which we passed by.



walking along kensington gardens. 



kensington palace, residence of the british royal family since the 17th century. i think that there was some sort of function going on, that evening. 



moving on to our trip to manchester for one night only. hubby is a huge fan of manchester united and we had to make a trip there since we're already in london. we took the virgin trains(owned by sir richard branson) up and it only took us a couple of hours and the trip was lovely and smooth. ya, so thats the manchester central library view taken from st peter's square. 






market street and where the humongous shopping centre arndale shopping centre is located. lots of high street fashion stores are located along the street as well as inside the mall. i heard some of my friends telling me that shopping in manchester (or as long as its not in london) is relatively cheaper than shopping in london as the cost of living there is pretty expensive therefore things are more pricier. geez, now they tell me after i've done my shopping in london itself! this was the tail end of our trip and we'd already bought what we wanted. sigh. having said that, we still bought some stuff hahahahaha



sorry this is a blurry shot of chinatown in manchester. we just happened to chance upon it and we had dinner there. food was scrumptious! 





i highly recommend this chinese restaurant (voted 4 stars by trip advisor in 2015) if ever you guys are in manchester! 



our day tour begins at old trafford. wasnt my idea to begin with. my husband's a huge fan of this team from when he was a kid and till today he still supports the red devils. thats why its his dream to come here and get a full detailed tour of the grounds. this one is definitely ticked off his bucket list (oh its my second time coming here).



inside the flagship store of manchester united. need i say more, huh!





so our tour begins. 



the famous football pitch at old trafford








more of the grounds. 






inside the dressing room. you know, i think these 2 guys will always be my 2 favourite players in the world. ok so im a sucker for cute blokes, dont mind me. david beckham and cristiano ronaldo. hubba hubba






this is where the players all come out from this tunnel. loud cheers, clapping and singing going on, i can only imagine! you know, i actually had goosebumps as we were walking out thru this tunnel.





le football pitch. its kinda slanted at all the 4 corners of the field. go figure or google. hey gimme a break, im a woman ok, all these aint my thing hehe




front view of the tunnel, after coming out from it.




a time capsule is buried where im standing, containing a variety of club memorabilia.




sir alex ferguson entrance.



o hail the king of football hehehe but jokes aside, i think he's a pretty brilliant coach, just too bad he retired.



trophies anybody? the entire area is filled with them!




old newspaper article about the air plane tragedy that happened many years ago where they lost alot of the players. so sad and tragic.





golly gosh, look at these guys! sooooo younnggggg and fressssshhhh. hubba hubba again





im clapping and cheering at this man. he's done some amazing shit with his team. bravo and kudos to sir alex ferguson.




all good things must come to an end and so does our tour of old trafford. it has been nice seeing you again.




our ride back to london from manchester piccadilly train station.




inside our train/cabin. we were travelling by virgin trains.



ok so we're back in london and this turkish restaurant serves up damn good kebabs! sooo yummmy is all i can say. these dudes are super friendly and smiley and they even wanted me to take a photo of them. see!! but blimey, i forgot the name of the restaurant but i know for sure its somewhere around north finchley area. 





see, thats an award given to them/restaurant. they do deserve it.





our second last day in london before heading back home, we decided to pop down to the tobacco docks for the london tattoo convention and let me tell you, it was packed. this convention was held for 3 days.




we had to queue up. see, told ya there were lots of people coming for this. just so you know we came on the first day as we were flying back the next day. lucky we made it just in the nick of time. 



a map/guide in getting around this maze. i'll just give you some samples of what i saw, i cant be plonking everything that i took. i will let the photos do the talking. 





 


























ok so thats some samples for you of what i've seen at the tattoo convention. do look out for it and try to go for one. it is an eye opener, trust me. 





had to take a shot of this! its harry potter's platform 9 3/4 which was located at kings cross station. there was a long queue to take a picture pushing the trolley but i didnt have much time left nor patience to stand in line. so just before the next person came up to the trolley to get their photo taken, i quickly took a shot. 




ya so thats the merchandise shop. flagship i think and probably one and only one in london, if i aint mistaken (please dont quote me on this ya!)






this is st pancras and its a huge old red looking building with the renaissance hotel there. 





so one our last day, my aunt took us to portobello market down at portobello road which is i think next to notting hill (a very upscale neighborhood). this market has a variety of things to see, from antiques to fresh produce, food, flowers etc its like an open air flea market, kinda sorta and its usually opened on weekends. heaps of people will flock to this famous market as you will see from my photos.




















well thats the end of our london and manchester trip for you. now im tired. i sprained my hand and im typing this really slowly. oh just to let you know this will be my last blog for 2016. 


so god bless everyone, stay healthy, be kind to one another, make love not war and here's to an awesome 2017!! 

ttfn

10.30pm