Manchester & Blackpool

These Manchester/Blackpool pictures has been long overdue!

Anyway, sometime in mid-Oct, I was schedule to attend a Congress in Manchester because the company was organizing an event for its members. Des managed to adjust his schedule and he made his way up to Manchester to meet me once I'm done with the event.

We stayed in this place for a night once he arrived. We didnt spend much time in Manchester as we planned to head up to Blackpool the day after.

We did managed to walk around Manchester city area for a while for the night though.

Also, we managed to catch up with Ivy and Cherrie, ex-colleagues from the hill. To imagine that it took us almost half the world trip to meet up after we all left the hill :)

After spending a night at Manchester, we then took a late train to Blackpool where we spend the next two nights. This was our first trip that involves train rides as we previously only travelled in bus as it was way cheaper. This time around, we decide to pamper ourselves a bit (and treat our bums better) and travelled quite a bit via trains.

Blackpool was a tourist area that was famous for its long seaside walkway and also a huge theme park. Think Sunway Lagoon in Port Dickson, only in a bigger scale.

Unfortunately, it was superbly windy and cold during the days that we were there. In fact, it rained a bit at night while we were taking a walk by the sea.

This was the place that we stayed for two nights. This trip was especially 'special' because Des took the liberty to organize everything, from the transport to accommodations to tickets. Usually I would be the one who checks on these things, but I wasnt particularly in the right mind to plan anything, so Des took over. And yes, it was very nice to just relax and follow him around. Haha

It was a small inn run by a family. The room (forgot to take a decent picture of it!) was nice, cozy with TV and ensuite. And that was all I asked for, ensuite and tv :) Oh yea, with breakfast too!

The next day we went to the place we had planned our trip around. Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

It was a HUGE place with numerous roller coasters. And it being autumn and weekdays, the queue was relatively quick and it was great to be able to enjoy the place without wasting time queing.

The one thing is that it was very cloudy and extremely windy. If you wanna imagine it, think Gentingx10 plus the wind and coldness minus the mist.

Because there werent loads of people, we managed to get on the rides and even ride it on the first carriage. Now, while it was fun to ride on the rides on the front, I was getting a bit woozy after my 8th or 9th rides. No joke ok.

This was one of best rides that we went. And truth be told, the only way to tell whether I am scared during rides is when I laugh my heads off. Yes, I laugh when I'm scared.

Presenting the Blackpool version of our Solero Shot. The view above was spectacular, and we ended up riding more than 5 times just to enjoy the view!

Bird's eye view of Blackpool in one of the monorail rides.

A bit woozy after the rides.

The beach was just right next to the park but the sea was too choppy to get near to.

Forgot its name but this one goes forward and backward. One of the rides that you should not under estimate.

The park was entangeld in many roller coaster rides. One thing though, most of the rides doesnt look new, in fact, there was one that is similar to our Twister in Genting, old and small. But it was one of the rides that scares the hell out of me, mostly because of fear from falling out from it! It was small, wonky and looks like its gonna fall apart anytime soon. Needless to say, I laughed my heads off.

It was windy, and I tried my mightly hardest to persuade (more like nag) Des to wear a beanie to cover his head and ears. And he did!
The park has its own mini golf area too!

And just like Genting's concept, it comes with its own in house show too. Very burlesque like, very sexy dances. And way better :P


And for the life of me, I didnt know that we were only supposed to go one way in bumper car rides. And also we are not allowed to bang each other. !?!

Unfortunately, due to the wind, they closed their biggest and longest roller coaster ever.

Not funny ok? Considering the miles we travelled for it.

Oh well, food is the way to soothe us. The evening show was in the later part of the evening, so we hopped over to a restaurant and feed ourselves full (since we hardly had anything during the day to avoid throwing up).

Oh yea, did I mentioned that we contributed about 50 pounds towards the gaming industry?

Des has steak while I had baby back ribs.

Des's starter of Nachos was a killer. Almost a main meal by itself!

I have strips of deep fried mushroom.

And rounding up the trip was a quick trip of shopping in Blackpool before making our way back to London via Manchester. It was a good trip, 4D3N, our longest trip to date!

Update from London

London weather has been screwed up for the past few days now. Two days ago it was snowing overnight. It wasnt a blanket of snow like the the previous times, but the next day we heard that it was worst in the city.

Today was chilly too, and Des managed to captured a video when he noticed that the 'rain' he thought was not really 'rain' afterall when he saw bits of stuff bouncing off the roof.



We still have two trips of pictures yet to be posted, London Eye and Manchester/Blackpool. Hope to do that over the weekend. Been trying to pester Des to help post too. So, if you like what he wrote the last time around, do tell him!

Until then, this is us signing off from a cold London!

Its autumn now.

This is how it is at 5pm. Pretty soon its gonna get darker and colder. We just came back from Manchester last week and made Ratatouille for dinner over the weekend. Pictures will be up soon! Love, DNA

Apple Pie

After a few dismissal attempts at baking, we've decided to give the oven another chance to prove itself worthy.

Having returned from grocery shopping over the weekend with a packet of apples for less than a pound only to realize we still have another half packet in the fridge, Des suggested we do something with the apples before they died on us.

And so, after a few searches through google, here is our first attempt at Apple Pie.

I've managed to find a very simple and fuss free recipe. Just 200g of flour, 100g of butter, 100g of sugar and apples. Of course, there were more canggih versions that includes cinammon, but we dont have any and the weather suddenly turned hot over the weekend, so lazy to buy.

Then campur the flour and butter together with some cold water. Apparently its important to chill the dough in the fridge for about half an hour before rolling it into the crust. We didnt have the rolling pin, so we improvise and roll it flat with a glass container of our favourite Nasi Goreng paste. And then, layer with slices of apples and sugar and masuk oven for about half an hour. Recipe says 45 minutes, but as experience tells it, we need to shorten the time as the oven tends to burn everything we make :(

Tah-dah! First attempt at apple pie. Ok, need to confess, we didnt have enough dough to cover the pie, so I steal some ideas from a supposedly 'American Pie Recipe' and place strips of the dough across the pie. It was supposed to be criss cross, but not enough!

As we use a normal cake pan, so there were some apple juice/sugary water that seep through the pan and dripped down into the pan. So loss some previous liquid for the gooey apple pie effect!

Okay lah, you must excuse the burnt effect. But very proud that the apple pie still stands in one piece instead of collapsing into one gooey mess after we remove the containter. Remember, neither of us have much experience in baking!

As usual, we wallop the whole cake by the end of the day. The water from the picture is i think the apple juice gua. Looks like apple pie banjir here, but it is not as watery as it looks (after of course absorbing the excess water away).

The crust is slightly biscuit-y, not sure it is because I burnt it or it is meant to be like that. The apples still looks and taste like apples, again not too sure whether its not cooked properly enough or its supposed to be like that (remember the rumour about the apple-flavoured-turnip-pie at McD?) Would do good with some cinammon and also ice cream to eat with though.

Oh well, so much for our first attempt then. Next attempt? Ratatouille!

UPDATE: Actually, before the apple pie attempt, we did try a cheese cake a couple of weeks ago. Lets just say the picture looks nicer than it taste :( Not burnt, just not cheesy enough.

The lenghening of hair and hopefully the face lah....

Ok.... this is my FIRST POST EVER! So if you don't like it....... I can't do anything lor....

Arrived London with this round face and short Ah Beng hair.....

With that tummy also... sigh.....
Hair getting longer, but face still round.. think can hide a few refugees in the folds of my neck :-)

Hair much longer, tummy still there... but what you want? Its so cold here, I NEED the fat to keep me warm leh....

Folds in the neck GONE!! Hair past collar.. YESSSS!!!!
More egg shaped face, and I simply love the length of my hair....
( let me perasan abit can or not? )

The LONGEST my hair has been EVER!

So.... From this... To this...
In about 7 months.. OK what....

(Desmond)

Manchester, here we come!

We're ready for our next trip! We will be heading up to Manchester and Blackpool for a few days in two weeks time. After an unforseen incident that left us cold and depressed, we've decided to splurge on the trip to help take our mind off the matter. This experience has its share of ups and down so far. One of the ups is that Des has managed to grow his hair the longest in his life so far...

Southfields

We are in Southfields today. A small residential area. It is noon, and the weather is getting chilly now. And we stopped at a pub to lepak a bit. Des is having his stout, while i had coffee (the cold is getting into me). Sitting by the road looking at the world passing by. Happy belated Mooncake Festival everyone! Love, DNA