back in london town

one wk has come and gone! arrived in london last mon for meeting (lasted for a wk) and will be starting an audit this wk.

weather's been great! not too hot and not too cold. surprisingly i was taken to various new places in london for dinner (part of the meeting) and even went on a wine tasting tour in the city by the river thames.

then on friday nite, i took the train up to liverpool and spent the weekend with my younger sis (jas), who's working there now. it just occured to me we have been living apart since I went to oz for studies. That's like 9 yrs ago! Initially I only see her once a year (when I was studying in Oz) and that suddenly it changed when she started coming home twice a year (from UK) and when I joined BAT (this is my third trip to london this yr!).

Jas is living alone in a one bedroom apartment in the city centre (literally, 10 mins walk to town centre) AND she has a car. She seldom uses it cos she walks to work. Her new apartment is very comfy and nice except that it has ALOT of things. Literally ALOT. Even her store room is full! Imagine this:

• there is no space to put my toiletries in the bathroom. Jas has conquer the bathroom with 3 types of shampoo, 2 types of body wash, various face cleanser and various toothbrushes.
• there is no space to keep her own clothes. her wardrobe is tooo small. so she has clothes kept in several boxes which is currently stored in her bedroom AND her living room.
• there is no space to keep her shoes. she has a shoe rack the height of about 2 1/2 ft in the store room which is already fully stored with her shoeS. Thus, some shoes are kept on the floor by the main door.
• half the floor of her bedroom is occupied by soft toys.

The question is, how can one person accumulate so MUCH things? AMAZING.. hahahaha

So I arrived on Friday nite, 9pm and my sis is already TIRED. she has only started work in July. For those who knows my family, can u imagine, Jas being tired on a friday nite at 9pm?!? she complains that her work is very tiring and needs alot of concentration (okla, i agree. she dispenses med to ppl, of course she has to concentrate. i wouldnt want to receive wrong prescribtion!). When she's at home (in Msia), she normally would be out till 4am!!! What a change.. hahahah Anyway, we went to Chinatown (very quiet place) and had 'not-so-nice' porridge and fried udon and called it a day by watching 24 and s2 desperate housewives at home. Yes, she has the whole collection! and yes, I managed to finish watchin desperate housewives by sunday afternoon.. hahaha

Sat morning, woke up and JAS MAKES ME BREAKFAST! I even took pictures to proof it. What's the breakfast?

• Egg
• Bacon
• Sausages
• Beans
• Potato cake
• Orange juice

Ahh... what a nice sister.... i mean come one.. this is the first time I tasted my sis own cooking! hahahaha I was amazed how determined she was at cooking. I didnt even asked her. I assume we would go out get Macca's breakfast (which we always do when she comes to London). I will post the pic once I get my bum ard to attaching the wires from my camera to my laptop. And the best thing was I didnt even have to clean up after.... hahahaa (DOUBLE BONUS). I offered to clean up, but she claims that she likes to clean things up her way... so I hv cleaned up she wont be satisfied with my cleaning... fair enough... Its nice to be treated like a guest eventhough I'm family! hahahaha

So after a HUGE breakfast, we just laze ard the apartment until it was time to drive to manchester to meet up with her friends for lunch. her friends like herself are pharmacists. So conversation topic revolves around work, work and more work. Then after lunch we went apartment hunting by visiting show room. Her friend wanted to buy a place of her own, and of course my sis is thinking about it too... I have to say the apartment size is generally quite small for a hefty price. but apparently its normal according to my sis.

Next destination was Trafford Centre. A huge shopping complex in Manchester, the size of mid valley but with one floor only and much longer in length. only bought a sweater from MNG. then it was back to liverpool where we had take-away macca and i cooked instant noodle. Funny how i crave for instant noodle. and the nite ended with more desperate housewives DVDs...

Sunday morning.. breakfast was egg tart bought from Manchester Chinatown on Sat. Then we got ready to visit Liverpool Museum... which is 'not very good' compare to British Museum in London. But it was still very educational for the kids. Jas & I was quite impressed with the BUGS exhibition as they were very creative in displaying and educating the visitors. You'll have to see it yourself to understand. Then we were off to hv lunch after which it was time to head back to London. The train ride was JAM PACKED. Luckily jas managed to reserve a seat for me, if not I'll hv to stand for 4 1/2 hrs!

All in all, I had a great time (minus the train ride). Was good to see Jas and her new place.