Spent the most part of this weekend in Manchester. It’s less than an hour away from Sheffield and I’ve to say I’ve been doing pretty much most of my shopping in this city. Yes, I have forsaken the shops of Meadowhall for the brighter lights of Mancunia.

I was in town to meet up with some people that I’ve had the pleasure to converse with, but not met face to face. As with most bloggers, I’ve met a few new acquaintances (apart from the bloggers who are my friends in the first place). Where was I meeting them? If not Nando’s, the halal peri-peri chicken centre of the English north-west, where else (surprisingly we were the only melayu there that lunchtime)? Despite the fact that we’ve never met, the atmosphere was pretty convivial as we shared stories of our days of yore in boarding school, sordid (11pm will always be a time of the day that one of us will be wary of!) or otherwise, among others.

Made a dash to the city centre to catch Mike Nichol’s Closer at the Printworks. It’s an engaging film, about relationships and how messed up it can get. The depiction of relationships in this film is quite raw and it looks like something you’d read about in Dina Zaman’s Gongkapas Times. Romantic drama? The film possibly has a touch of Eastenders and those of the Minggu Ini variety, without the romance in the conventional sense. That aside, occasional moments like the internet sex chat was absolutely priceless. The film also shows Natalie Portman in a new light. If you think Carrie Fisher’s 80’s post-Jedi slave girl was the epitome of a Star Wars geek’s wet dream, prepare to come undone in this one.

Had a little makan at Jati, a nice little Malaysian eaterie downtown. Well, i did (explains my physique). Most of us felt the portions at Nando’s earlier today was enough to last us the whole weekend. I quite like the place. Not too expensive, and the food’s of the Malaysian/Thai variety and, in my opinion, is pretty good. I had my usual fare of nasi ayam, whilst our friend from España went for Thai fried chicken and… get this, chips. Aiyo, kawan, I thought you’d want to have some nasi since we’re in a Malaysian place. Hehe. Teh tarik was the order of the evening and conversations went on until it was almost time for the owners to lock up. I had a great time and I look forward to see ya guys again soon!

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This morning, had an excellent fry-up at this quaint place called Saints & Scholars in Didsbury. Later, the afternoon was spent meandering around Trafford Centre. Saw some ridiculous price tags (despite the sale) at Selfridges today, like this Helmut Lang short-sleeved black shirt which looked exactly like my cheapo from GAP. Moral of the story: buy cheap, cos someday it’ll turn into something expensive and trendy. Zara had the goods but nothing in my size. Reiss had the size but nothing that fits my budget. And i ended up buying a non-sale item at Muji. Sod’s law never fails every time in my case. Got some Spidey graphic novels and the latest Arena before gastronomically filling up at Jati (again).

And what did i have?