I decided to do something silly today.

By silly, I mean walk to Old Trafford.

From my halls.

Yes. Manchester United’s Old Trafford.

Except that apparently Old Trafford is also a suburb. So my googling map skills brought me to Old Trafford, the suburb. Instead of Old Trafford, the stadium after a 30 minute walk.

Nice.

Oxfam, I Love.

One thing that I’m absolutely loving about my time here in Manchester is my volunteer job at the Oxfam shop.

Oxfam is a non-profit organisation that focuses on development and humanitarian work as well as advocacy. It strives to improve trade justice, human rights, the health and livelihoods of people and also works in the areas of conflict, HIV/AIDS, debt and aid, climate change and so on.

It really champions a lot of issues that I am passionate about and hence, I really enjoy my work there despite my busy schedule.

All throughout the UK, you will encounter many Oxfam shops which is essentially a second-hand shop. However, Oxfam also stocks new products that are fair trade or ethically produced.

How it is being run is that people donate their goods to the shops, us volunteers sieve our way through those goods, we price them and then *voila* they end up on the shelves to be resold again.

All profits go to Oxfam’s overall work as an organisation.

We sell clothes, books, cds, dvds and bric and brat that are donated. Our new products consist the likes of  fair trade and ethically-produced food, world music or environmental friendly washing detergents.

What I like about Oxfam is that we’re very particular about our goods that we re-sell. So we only would only put up clothes that are of good quality, clean and still trendy or vintage.

Another thing I ABSOLUTELY LOVE is Oxfam Originals, which is a collaboration by Oxfam and local designers. Old donated materials are used by the designer to remake a new outfit and they are gorgeous I must say!

So my job in Oxfam is basically sorting out donated goods (sometimes you find really eeky stuff so we always work with gloves on!), pricing them according to a system, restocking items in the store as well as manning the cashier. I love my job there and 5 hours always sweep by extremely fast!

The bad thing is that I always end up buying other people’s junk (as in literally). Like I’d be sorting out an old granny’s bag of stuff, and stumble upon lovely floral scarves that are now back in fashion! Or like how I’ve always been looking for the movie “One Fine Day” which has always been one of my all-time favourite romantic comedies but unfortunately isn’t too popular commercially. So I was SO UBER happy when I stumbled upon it in Oxfam while working and snapped it up immediately.

The worst was when someone brought in original Burberry wellies! I needed wellies and those Burberry ones were GORGEOUS! PERFECT! They MADE ME LOOK AMAZING!! I PROMISE!!! I mean how can wellies look amazing??? But I assure you, THIS ONE DID!!! But alas! Someone had them reserved and I was praying that she wouldn’t come back but she did! So the Burberry wellies and me were sadly not meant to be!

Oh, well. Thank God actually!

My dream really is to bring Oxfam shops back to Malaysia. Who knows? One day, maybe I would!

And I Don’t Know Why…

This is a picture of me in Dublin last November. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any bachelors as the sign implied.

And Tomorrow It Is…

There’s so many things I wanted to write about.

My christmas. My new year’s resolutions. Other things I’ve been doing around here in the UK.

But my one month after class ended has just been sucked by endless studying.

And yet, tomorrow I faced the exams feeling ill-prepared.

Last week I totally had a breakdown. Slept at 5 am tossing and turning in bed for hours. Panicked as without sleep, I couldn’t possibly study. I packed my bags and took the next train to Cheshire again.

When I left Cheshire the last time after Christmas, Dave’s parents said I could hop by any time I wanted and for however long. I’m just so thankful for them. And I love being at the countryside. Just being surrounded by woods, fields, hills and the likes.

Well, I honestly never expected this course to be as tough as it is. And the examination system is just so different from the Australian one, it took time for me to adjust my studying methods and style. I feel like I’m studying for SPM all over again.

Oh, well. We’ll see how it goes.

The BIG UK Freeze!

You know you’re in very unusual winter circumstances in the UK when:

1. Airports, train stations, YOUR UNIVERSITY close down due to “very severe weather conditions.” But you know this is horrible, really really horrible when even Indian convenient stores remain shut.
2. The newspaper reports that sales of thermal underwear in supermarkets have increased by 2000%.
3. Also, Brits have been wiping out the food stock from supermarkets of fear that transportation of food to supermarkets would be messed up due to the heavy snow.
4. When you were preparing to come to Manchester, you read on Wikipedia that the average winter temperature is 3-6 celsius. When you turned on your google weather report yesterday, temperatures read MINUS 12 celsius!!!!
5. Your father messages and emails you every 15 minutes with things like ,”CNN reported big freeze in UK. DO YOU HAVE ENOUGH WARM CLOTHINGS????” and “I read in the (malaysian) newspaper that it is getting very cold there!!!! MAKE SURE YOU KEEP WARM!”
6. The government fears that it would not have enough gas supply because British homes are turning up the heating like never before.

But you know, you really know that this really is a BIG UK FREEZE, when the most precious thing in the Brit world-football games- get cancelled due to concerns over the “safety of their supporters”.

Christmas Market @ Manchester

Apparently centuries and centuries ago, Christmas Markets in the UK were very popular. Until Oliver Cromwell ( a 17th century political leader who helped defeat the royalists in the English Civil War and after the execution of  King Charles the first in 1649, conquered Ireland and Scotland, and ruled as Lord Protector) thought it was a  jolly good idea to ban Christmas celebrations in the manner people were used to then and alas, this instantly saw the demise of Christmas markets!

It was not until 26 years ago that the first Christmas Market popped back up in Lincoln and now these festive markets are a norm everywhere in the UK the ride up before Christmas.

So it was after a very tiring week in uni that my coursemates and I decided to rock up at the one in Albert Square.

The Christmas Markets are more ‘Continental’ in style than they are British with many of the stalls being German or Dutch in theme.

What do all these stalls offer?  Christmas lollies, Dutch pancakes and waffles, hot chocolates with different liqueurs, burgers, waffles, a good old pint, spicy German sausages and mulled wine just amongst many other “Chrismassy” things.

Mulled wine, which is new to me, is warm wine mixed with spices. Apparently historically, wine often went bad. Hence, by adding spices or honey to the wine, it could make it drinkable again.

A German-themed stall.

With lovely roasted sausages!!!

And of course I just couldn’t resist!

I was pretty confused when I saw garlic sold like that. Apparently, they are for Christmas decorations.

That’s Nyasha. My best friend here from Trinidad. Love my chica!

And those are my coursemates and I! I had hot chocolate with Baileys which was YUM! On my right is Tunga from Mongolia. Apparently when Tunga and her other Mongolian friend first saw me, they thought I was Mongolian! And so did my other male Mongolian Environmental Economics coursemate!!!!

Well, everyone back in Malaysia always claim I don’t look Chinese!! So at least I look Mongolian!!! Yay!

Merry Christmas MANCHESTER!!!

Christmas in Cheshire!

So my coursemate invited me over for Christmas with his family in Cheshire! Where Michael Owen is from!!! I’m so excited! My first English Christmas!

It was so nice of him because otherwise I really wouldn’t have anyone to spend Christmas with as everyone’s away. EVERYONE!! Literally!!! I would have had to roast a turkey by myself or something miserable like that.

And he says we can explore the countryside! And there’s a farm at the back of his house. An English farm!!!

Leaving tomorrow! Am so excited!

I tried to look for pictures of Cuddington, where he lives. And this is the only picture I can find. Of the train station. But oh, well. It’ll do for now.

Let it snow!

So apparently a white Christmas is a rare treat in England. It doesn’t really snow in December let alone this much!!!

This has been my first winter with snow and its gorgeous albeit a little “mafan”. (I had to get new boots because my old ones in the picture got scraped and when that happens the water can sip in and water in your socks + 0 degress = icy feet= not a nice thing!!!!)

Well, I just love watching the little white flakes slowly float its way down to the ground. It is so tranquil watching it. Watching it take its time.

I am mesmerised.

Term’s Out!!!

So my first term is over!

Ok, not really because I still have my finals in mid-January.

But I do have a month off!

Which I am incidentally not using to travel and have fun. Going to be using this month to study (because I am SOOOO far behind as compared to my coursemates who pump in at least 8 hours a day in the library AND have already sent out multiple job applications and started attending interviews…and me nada!) and to send out job applications as well.

Honestly, I never expected this course to be as tough and demanding as it has been. And I’ve been stressing out really badly. Feeling as if I’m in a quicksand trying to kick as hard as I can but always being pulled back in. But I’m really thankful for my coursemates who have been so supportive in all kinds of manners.

So the last night the term ended we had a night out to celebrate and it was just nice to forget about equations, number crunching, interest rates, economic growth, utility functions and all that makes economists jazz somewhat.

P.S. That dress I’m wearing above is one of the 5 pound ( RM 30) dresses I bought from Retro Rehab, the vintage shop! The purple top is an old tank top that was sewn onto an old skirt!!! Love it!

Vintage in Manchester

A while back, I had to pick up my coat that I left at Sankys. And to do so, I had to walk through the Northern Quarter, which is Manchester city’s answer to bohemian culture. It hosts loads of funky cafes, record stores and cool vintage shops.

I stumbled upon Retro Rehab, a quaint little vintage store that attracted my attention.

I immediately FELL IN LOVE with their stuff!!!!

Mostly because majority of  their clothes are re-worked and revamped items from old unwanted pieces.

Therefore, each piece is unique and one-off. And its just so creative how they play around with the designs!

And the best part was, there was a WHOLE SALE section where they sold everything for one pound! Skirts, dresses, bags, tops…! All for one pound!

I found this red skirt for one quid and IMMEDIATELY fell in love with it. I had to resew the button to make it fit my waist but it wasn’t a hassle at all. (And oh, I left the white tag on to show it was ONE POUND! But can’t see it from here…)

And then I found this pair of vintage earrings for 3 quid!

Two weeks later, I went back and bought more stuff from their sale section! Gorgeous dresses for only 5 pounds and vintage blouses for only 1 pound each!

This is definitely my current favourite store in Manchester now!