Manchester Day 2: Had a little Paiseh for dinner

Firstly, zomg I can't believe I'm still on Day 2 =.=

Anyway, after a very informative afternoon

down at the Museum of Science and Industry,

we wandered around looking for some place to eat.

And boy, did we wander.

We wandered all the way from Liverpool St

to Deansgate,

back to St Peter's Square,

back to Deansgate...

while Gel was complaining of holding her bladder :p

... and then we decided to have Korean food.

Based on GPS and Google,

we found that there was a Korean restaurant

on King Street

and so we headed on there

(all the while Gel was holding in her pee)

on the way passing a restaurant,

that had a big SEAFOOD ad at its entrance

(and of course, seafood-crazy Gel stopped to

browse at their menu).

We arrived at the Korean restaurant only to find

that it only opened later in the evening at 6:30pm!

At this point, Gel declared her bladder bursting

and so we decided to settle for the restaurant

that we passed by earlier.

Presenting, San Carlo's Manchester...

The moment the 6 of us strutted in,

we knew we had made a huge mistake.

All the men were in SMART WEAR,

and the women were in DINNER DRESSES.

Us? 

In jeans and tees.

DAMNNN.

The host asked for the name we used for reservation

Ji Hang sheepishly replied that we didn't have one

(and I was so prepared at this point to be turned away)

but lo and behold!

The staff went off to look for a table for us!

As we were shown to our table,

I glanced around the place

and was ABSOLUTELY SURE

every pair of eyes were staring at us.

like wth are these kids doing here?!

so paiseh.

As I was thinking

"Oh shoot, don't tell me we misunderstood the prices on the menu

was it... £8.49 hundred for a pizza?"

we sat down and got ourselves comfortable...

as I lifted up the menu,

Ji Hang (who was already looking at the menu)

nearly gave me a heart attack when he exclaimed

"oh dear, what have we got ourselves into?"

Panic. Panic. PANIC.

I was like, "what...?"

while my mind was screaming

"OH DAMN don't tell me the prices are through the roof!"

Turns out the prices were as the menu outside...

and Hang was exclaiming at the Wine List =.=

(which were about £50 a bottle.)

Damn, Hang, I nearly fainted lah!

Feeling much more relieved,

we intently studied the menu :)

See, I wasn't joking about the "intently".

After the captain took our orders

I glanced around the restaurant

enjoying the atmosphere...

It was a very nice place,

and everyone was happy :)

Then... appetizers were served

Yeah babeh!

This was 

The Great San Carlo Antipasti 

(£8.95 per head but this was only for 3 pax)

The lighting wasn't fantastic for photos, but... I tried.

Doesn't do the dish any justice though. 

Looked much better in reality! :)

See lah, the forks all attacking already =.=

Then the mains came...

Abel's Spaghetti Gamberoni (£11.50)

According to Abel, it's only a bit fancier than the usual.

but then again, don't take his word for it.

Abel has the weirdest tastebuds :p

My Ravioli Salmone (£9.95)

It was super stuffed with salmon

in a sauce that was an explosion of flavours...

AWESOME.

Gel's Pizza Pollo Parmi (£9.20)

This was super tasty as well...

The pizza base was fluffy and light,

crispy on the crusts from the stonebaking...

and it was so sinfully cheesy.

Mmmmmmm......

Gok Hau's Lasagne Emiliane (£8.50)

No feedback on how it tasted, so no idea.

Then, Ji Hang's Fillet Steak (£17.95)

I didn't try this either, but Hang says its good :)

Lastly, Philip's Saltimbocca Roman (£14.95)

I *think* it was veal,

and he seemed to enjoy it a lot,

so I take it that it was good :)

Although we were absolutely stuffed,

we decided to seal the meal with some shared desserts,

so we ordered a Tiramisu (£5.25) and a Crème brûlée (£5.25)

 

 

Both of which looked so good,

we gobbled half of it up

before I had the chance to take photos, lol :)

The bill came up to a whopping £114.20

but everyone paid for their respective portions

and considering I only paid £15,

I'd say that was a pretty good meal! :)

I would SO DEFINITELY go there again,

or visit their other branches! :)

Ahhhhh, this is the life :)

Dinner with the BFFs ;)

Billy's leaving tmr back for Hong Kong

for Chinese New Year (so lucky =.=)

so we decided to have a pre-CNY dinner,

just between us Best Flatmates Forever! :D

The usual four of us,

plus Chris...

and Billy!

So of course everyone was uber busy

towards the late part of the afternoon

six of us crammed in the kitchen 

getting in each other's way :D

By the time I started taking photos,

Billy was busy with his pasta salad...

Abel was helping me finish up with the tang yuan...

Obviously quite proud of his tang yuan ;)

While Chris was just walking around

pretending to be busy :p

Haha.

Kidding la, he had proudly finished making his spring rolls :)

Abel was also doing some "backseat cooking"

where he conned the other two into cooking for him

while he conveniently barked instructions at them, tsk tsk :D

And then he pretended he did something...

LIAR. :p

When everyone was settled for dinner...

The array of food looked pretty good! :)

We had spring rolls and pasta salad for starters...

For the mains we had...

Siu yuk...

Sweet and sour pork...

Mun chu yuk...

and vegetables with braised mushrooms...

and for dessert, tang yuan and green bean soup :)

 

 

Sorry lah, I forgot to take pics of the tang yuan alone :(

Dig in!

After the meal,

we had plenty of leftovers,

and lotsa washing up to do!

Fantastic meal with fantastic people :)

Love you all to bits <3

Manchester Day 2: MOSI and everything in between :)

Note: Please brace yourself for photo diarrhoea :p

So that day, after a not-so-satisfying meal of dimsum

we decided to head down to the

Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI)

on Liverpool St :)

Although it was quite far from where we stayed

we just walked la, and took in the sights and sounds :)

We passed by St Peters Square,

and took random photos on the street :)

On the way, we passed by a really

physically-challenged building.

And by physically-challenged,

I mean it challenges the laws of Physics.

That, is the Hilton Hotel, Manchester.

Our opinion is that the architect's quite noob.

Whoever heard of the top being larger than the bottom?

How to be stable like that?!

The boys were in awe...

Well, not all of them.

A certain someone was preoccupied

with his orgasmic yau char kway.

I pulak was busy camwhoring with the postbox :p

Anyway, we finally reached the place :D

 

 

Evidently, someone is still preoccupied with his yau char kway =.=

We first entered the Power Hall...

The Power Hall's basically about... energy.

It's detailing the methods of generation of energy

all the way back in history til now

much focus on engines and trains and stuff.

 

  

  

  

and oh oh OH we got Abel to smile for the camera! :) :) :) *finally*

But it didn't last very long :(

Oh wells, was fun while it lasted :)

Then we moved on to Underground Manchester...

It's basically about the sanitation 

and water supplies of Manchester.

Not exactly the most appetite-whetting topic,

but it was *quite* interesting nonetheless.

 

  

Lotsa reading >.<

 

Everyone got a little play with the water pumps :p

 

  

 

Somehow the both of them were 

very curious what was coming out...

 

I'd rather not know, actually. Haha :p

Moving on...

 

  

  

  

Anyway, fast forward to the Xperiment area

now THIS was fun :)

we got to play with the exhibits and stuff,

much like Petrosains in KLCC. Wheeee!

 

 

Hehe that was so fun :)

 

Then we made our way to the Main Building,

where they had a textile exhibit...

Yay, got to play summore!

This was to test which materials had more friction...

and this was to demonstrate how weaving machines work

 

  

 

 

Lastly, was the Air and Space Hall...

actually there were more la, but they were closing :(

 

Wheee! :)

copycat =.=

Guess what I found in one of the planes :D

sho cute :) :)

That mannequin nearly gave me a heart attack

I thought it was a real person standing there =.=

Yeap, after that we kena halau already :(

So that was our trip to MOSI :)

Plenty of fun and laughs,

and of course we learnt quite a lot too!

Toxicology Lesson 2: Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)

Ah, the famed MSG,

or Ajinomoto, as many people would know it

(although that is the brand, and so is technically incorrect).

It is widely used as a flavour-enhancer,

believed to act on glutamate receptors in the tongue

a taste known as umami, as the Ajinomoto ads will tell you.

So the question, is MSG bad for you?

The "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome"

manifested as thirst, flushing, tightness of chest,

difficulty breathing, headaches, etc.

Facts:

- Humans (including babies) can handle large doses of MSG

blood only shows small amounts after consumption of MSG

unless very large doses are  

directly inserted by a tube into the stomach.

The largest dose that humans can take is 60mg/kg

any more than that, you'll experience nausea.

i.e. if you're 70kgs (weight of average person)

that's about 420mg of MSG!

In addition to the fact that it's highly unlikely

you would consume half a gram of MSG in any one sitting,

higher doses than this would also cause nausea

and force you to vomit everything out.

Thus, all the MSG will be out of your system

before it even gets a chance to hit your blood

and cause toxic effects!

If that was not enough proof,

studies have been done on people who claim they are

"sensitive" to Chinese meals due to the MSG being used

It was found that there was NO RELATIONSHIP

between Chinese Restaurant Syndrome and intake of MSG

Conclusion: In the way that we are currently using MSG,

there poses no risk of any toxicity. 

If you feel any effects after a heavy Chinese meal,

it's either psychological, or the thirst is from the salt content!

Yes, high salt content WOULD make you thirsty.

So go ahead, listen to your grandmother,

and have a few extra taps on that Ajinomoto bottle! :)

The stalker has become the stalkee :O

I have a stalker.

From Kuching, Sarawak.

How do I know?

Because I have anti-stalker tools.

Muahahahaha :D

Kidding la.

I saw it from my traffic feed :D

But but but,

this is no ordinary person from Kuching.

When I followed the link on where they came from,

WTH?!

they googled my name and location!

how freaky is that?!

who are you....?

REVEAL YOURSELF!

:p don't think I dunno you naughty-naughty ar..... :D

Manchester Day 2: Dimsums and Disappointments

A million apologies I didn't post yesterday.

Too many things to rush about :p

So anyway on the morning of Day 2,

we decided to have dimsum for lunch...

Supposedly, this place had good dimsum.

Supposedly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

oooookayyyy only lah, the food.

Ah Yat in  PJ and Grand Imperial in Bangsar confirm got better dimsum.

I'll give this... a 2/5?

Definitely not the best dimsum I've had. Not even close.

Some enjoyed it though :)

Others didn't really care as long as they were fed :p

Anyway,

we walked around Chinatown and found a chinese bakery!

YESSSSSS egg tartsssss :) :)

Yay! :) :) :)

yummeh :)

Coincidentally, Les Miserables just arrived in Manchester

and it was showing in the Palace Theatre

we tried in vain to get tickets...

it was fully booked that ENTIRE WEEKEND for EVERY SHOW.

:( :( :(

nevermind lah,

some other time sure got chance to watch :p

okay, that's the end of this post,

but not the end of Day 2! :)

I won't give my word I'll post tmr lah,

later I don't have the time or energy to post then paiseh :p

Whenever I get the chance to, okay? :)

ZOMG I AM SHRINKING!

Earlier today, I came across an old photo of myself

Well actually, it's not that old.

Maybe just three years back?

and I was like WHOAAAAA

who's that fugly chick?!

I seriously could not believe my eyes.

I was MASSIVE!

beh tahan.

So anyway, in shock,

I decided to look back through my pictures

and see how I've changed, physically.

This is what it has come down to.

FREAK!

Do you even recognise who's on the far left?

I couldn't! I looked twice!

I mean, I knew I was on the big side

but this...? wth?!

Anyway, tried as I might to find a current full-length photo,

I couldn't.

Probably because I'm never photographed without my coat

coz it's cold outside! :p

But you can imagine,

my coat's a size 10 -and it's a really bulky ducky coat

and most of my shirts are now a size 8 or 10.

I bought one that day that was a 12

(which was the size I used to wear in M'sia)

and I had to exchange it for a smaller size

coz it was too big and fell all over the place.

Anyway, the point is not to gloat.

There's actually a pressing question.

I haven't been eating any less,

nor doing anymore exercise

nor going on crazy diets or eating much more healthily

(frozen foods, pizzas and fries are a staple).

Yet, I'm still shrinking.

When the time comes when I've shrunk enough,

what do I do to stop it?

Will I shrink into nothingness? :S

I don't want to be skin and bones! :(

 --------------------------- EDIT

oh oh oh I found one without my coat! :)

compare that with this:

I used to be bigger than MEN, wth!

Toxicology Lesson 1: Aspartame

Okay, just to share a little snippet

of what I learnt today in my toxicology module.

It's about food additives.

The reasons I want to share this are many,

but mainly it's to rectify any misconceptions

that the public, and you, may have about them.

Overall, the info may be overwhelming

so I'll split them into several parts over a couple of days!

(Just to make your learning that much easier)

Any questions, comments, whatever -feel free to comment! :)

Okay, here we go!

Number one on the list is aspartame.

We all know of this one -the famous low-calorie sweetener.

Found in your local coffee bar, in diet drinks, even in candy and gum.

Aspartame is about 200 times sweeter than sucrose (i.e. sugar)

but is low-calorie, and does not affect blood glucose levels.

Hence, even diabetics can take foods/ drinks with aspartame.

There is no "aspartame" in our blood, because

aspartame is broken down into 3 components in our intestines:

aspartate, methanol and phenylalanine.

(Hence people with phenylketonuria, a genetic condition

making them unable to handle phenylalanine, should avoid it.)

Aspartate and phenylalanine are amino acids.

They are part of proteins, and are part of many foods we eat.

Our body does not handle them any differently,

and is perfectly capable of getting them through our system.

How about methanol?

Yes, methanol is damaging, but only at very high doses.

In order to experience such damage,

one would have to drink about 
41 litres of diet soft drinks in one sitting.

Highly unlikely, won't you agree?

and get this:

compared to a glass of soft drink sweetened 100% with aspartame,

1) a glass of milk has 6 times more phenylalanine and 13 times more aspartic acid

2) a glass of tomato juice has about 6 times more methanol.

but why are we not worried about these?

because they are found from natural sources,

and aspartame is synthetic (i.e. man-made).

so regrettably, these are often disliked by some paranoid individuals

added to hype from the media = synthetics cast in a bad light.

but does our body discriminate between them

after they are broken down? NO.

Conclusion: Aspartame is completely safe at the current level of consumption.

So put your feet up and ignore your nagging mum

go ahead, have that bottle of diet cola :)

Manchester Day 1: Arts and Farts

Just before heading back to our hostel,

we decided to pop by the Manchester Art Gallery

and have a look-see since we had nothing to do

 

 

 

 

 

... and then they halau us because they were closing :(

So nevermind loh,

we jalan-jalan, then brought a new friend home.

Lemme introduce you to Jack,

I likey Jack :)

He's very yummy.

Jack was introduced to the rest of the gang...

and we all had a little taste of him :D

 

 

 

Yeap. We decided we liked Jack,

so we drank somemore...

We started alright,

But soon, 

playing drinking games made us

drink hard and fast and pushed all of us a little off :p

But still, we persevered,

and we continued...

 

 

Towards the end, 

some of us couldn't even sit straight, lol.

and that was only one bottle :p

LOUSY lar you all!

Gel went so red, haha.

This was us before,

and this was us after...

Me? just a bit rosy.

Her? totally off, lol. Couldn't even sit straight.

She again, relentlessly,

tries to get Abel to camwhore with her.

Remember when she tried to do that before?

 

 

Jadi-jadi sikit la,

but I'm not even sure if that's considered camwhoring.

Does it count if you pout? lol.

Then it was Philip's turn to camwhore.

Such a provocative look... sexy?

Happy Philip :)

Posing anime style...

Preparing to go to sleep :p

"don't kacau me!"

:D

Okay that's the end of Day 1.

On with Day 2 tomorrow! :)

Manchester Day 1: Getting settled

Phew! today was exhausting :(

They don't even let us off on the first day of term :(

Oh wells, I shall not digress

This is a post about our invasion of Manchester! :)

Yeap so the crazy bunch of us arrived there

towards the early part of the afternoon

We then proceeded to

wander around hoping to find our accommodation

navigate ourselves using our hi-tech GPS systems

and found our hostel in no time! :)

So while Philip was settling all the boring stuff,

the rest of us did some snooping :)

Scary-looking ancient lift :p

The dining areas...

 

The recreation areas...

 

then finally we get to go up to our rooms

and put our stuff down! :)

I would say its altogether quite worth it :)

For £56 for 3 nights,

we get comfortable beds with duvets,

a heater, hot water showers,

all-day unlimited coffee, tea and toast

and free wifi (although there's only signal on the first 2 levels).

OKAY la, considered quite good already for that price :)

Then we went out jalan-jalan cari makan

 

 

We found Chinatown,

which wasn't very far from where we were staying.

Actually, we kinda live in the middle of the city,

so we walked everywhere and never took the bus :p

(hah, all that practice walking to and fro between QMC and BGP pays off)

 

We decided to eat at this place called Wasabi

which, according to Ju's friend,

has really good Japanese food.

 

 

 

Well, for a start,

the food was pretty good and the price was reasonable,

so no complaints at all :)

 

Then it was getting pretty dark outside

so we didn't hang around outdoors for long

before heading back to the hostel.

Okay, so that's the end of the beginning :)

More tomorrow, I promise.

Today's just been crazy and I'm dead tired.

Bleargh :p