The Daisy Bank Hall, Dormitory.

Daisy bank hall (7/7/10)
at the main entrance


With me are parents of housemate attending the Convocation

This apartment was shared by 4 students. Each room has got an attached bathroom and toilet and overall estimated size per room is 14 ft by 8ft. Well, very comfortable for a student with internet ready. The boarding fee included electricity, internet, kitchen furnished and dining tools. The only utensils they purchased were cooking pans , bowls, plates and not to forget all the cooking ingredients.



XY cooking in the kitchen and with housemate before meal


XY resting in the early morning




Kitchen area


Dining area

What should we bring for a trip

Traveling in Europe and around UK

During our trip to Paris , we were advised to bring along our confirmed E ticket for when we return back to UK, the Immigration would want to see the proof that we have our return ticket to Malaysia . The reason for this strict checking was because there were so many illegal immigrants coming into UK. Well, my son has shown proof of my visit and also he being genuine UK student.

Well, every items that you get at the store are the same price as Malaysia except for the exchange rate. for example a box of plaster would be 2.25 pound over here and back in Malaysia it is also around MYR 2.00.. but if you consider after the exchange rate the plaster would be MYR 10.75 ( 2.25 x 5 ) . So you cannot visit UK and any Europe countries if you consider the exchange rate.

Medicine

My advise for Malaysia travellers are to bring all medical supply with them. You cannot buy medicine off the counter for every medicine needs a doctor prescription .The doctor consultant fee would likely be expensive excluding medicine

In my case , I took along this items for my trip but still forget to bring a few too

1) Panadol

2) Ducolax. Whenever we arrive at a new place after several hours of flight, we have to within 24 hrs discharge everything from our bowel. This will eventually help our body to adopt to a new environment. If you forget to bring this medicine, buy several oranges and eat them with the pulp might help.

3) Antiseptic cream for cuts etc

4) skin medical cream for rashes

5) Muscular pain cream. Most area to be visit need a lot of walking

6) Gastric tablet. even if you do not have gastric problem, the irregular meals time would cost alot of air in the stomach

7) Full medical check by our local doctor ( cheaper in Malaysia) and PLEASE tell him/her that

you are going for a journey.

Items that I have forgotten

1) Anti fungal cream

2) Callous cream

Foods

1. Coffee :3 in 1

2. Tea : 3 in 1

3. Instant noodle : in case you miss home or get scare of eating bread and maybe the cost of eating fast food like KFC , Mcdonald. The cheapest burgermeal is 4.75 pound ( MYR 22.75 )per set

4. Sweet : since each meals time will be different, advisable to eat something to avoid gastric

Toiletries

1. Tooth brush

2. Tooth paste

3. Shampoo: Like me , I have a very sensitive hair and dandruff will occur in case using the wrong type of .. I forget to bring mine and luckily, my son has it

4. Empty plastic bags : To keep all soil clothing for we might relocating to a new hotel everyday

. For me, we planned to have enough clothing until a certain destination, dropping by a closed friend place and to carry out the laundry work. as recommended by my son, if do not enough clothing ,we could drop by Primark and purchase extra T shirt of 1 pound!!!!. very good idea.

5. Extra bag: This bag must be collapsible. Well as you go through each country once might drop but souvenirs. Overall, you might ending up with a few extra kilos

UK, here I come

Why this trip?

For XY 's graduation. Finally he got it. I am in Manchester now. Yesterday spoken to my son on the University and what was his opinion on his final year .

"Dad, studying in UK is totally different for we have to carry out a lot of research on any topic assigned and that means more library time etc , No spoon feed!".

Costly if you start to converse the currency but the living over here in Manchester is quite ok if you cook at home.

Being here for the last 2 days, I have found out that he would prefer to cook . He would cook big bowl of dishes for dinner and the balance put in the fridge for breakfast!! This means that we were taking 2 meals a day at home and sometime skip lunch for when it was nearly lunch time when we woke up in the morning. Worse scenario, lunch outside during to our trip.

One word, he loves to cook. The weather here is very good, like Genting Highland in Malaysia and better still, it is dry and so not humid as in Malaysia so you do not sweat.

My Journey back to Manchester with him

On 6th July, XY took a flight from KL and waited for me in the airport for an extra 2 hours for he has booked his Penang to KL flight local ly and that was a great saving to him as compare to booking direct to Penang from Manchester both way. My flight was around 5.30pm. W hen I arrived at the airport, I could get out, applicable to Malaysian only, to meet him after getting my both boarding pass for Abu Dha bi and to Manchester from the transit counter.

He was waiting for me at the arrival hall and both of us went straight to departure hall so that he could check in at the Etihad counter. After checking in, we went to KFC to take our dinner for he wanted to try the spicy chicken for he has missed it for so long.

Inside KLIA rainforest

Our Flight

Etihad provided Boeing 777 for the whole journey to Manchester with 2 hours transiting in Abu Dhabi. While we were at the gate waiting for boarding, we were surprised to meet his housemate mum and sister who were also on their way to UK to attend the convocation. Our flight journey took 14 hours with additional 2 hours for transiting in Abu Dhabi from KL to reach Manchester.
Total traveling time : 14 hours


In KLIA, with Janet Mum and sister

Manchester on 7/7/10

The weather was fantastic and XY 's housemate was there waiting for her mum in the airport. XY planned that I should take the local bus. He bought for me a weekly bus ticket and the expiry date would be the day we left for Paris .Well, th e timing was perfect. XY told me that I could see more local livelihood by taking the bus from Airport to his dorm that includes the scenery of Manchester.

Inside the bus terminal, beside Manchester Airport

Janet and mum, me with Xing Yi at the bus terminal

Janet with mum,sister and XY


Walking to the Dorm

The double deck bus that we took to the Dormitory



Janet and family along Daisy Bank road

"Dad, this is the route we will walk to take our bus to class everyday and also to purchase our grocery at the Arab store, the cheapest grocery store so far."
For your info, during our first month in Manchester, we walk to our college almost everyday and eventually I bought a yearly bus ticket for the weather was getting very cold
.