Hey there guys !
I’m real sorry bout not updating this blog for a couple of weeks. The chain of event just don’t stop just because a new year is here or there is previously 6 inch of snow here in Manchester.
I’ve been actually quite lazy to bring my semi-pro for outings because now I have a camera phone and I think the semi is a real nuisance in size ! But none the less I still adore it for the picture quality that it produces.
Well let’s just turn time around and go back to approximately 2 weeks ago when we had a road trip to Edinburgh with the gracious donation of time, method of transportation and of course insanity from Stephen.
Roadtrip ! Just like ol’ times!
As we hit the high roads headed for Edinburgh, our scenery changed from a sub-tropic to somewhat post-Siberia look-a-like. (I’m probably exaggerating but from the picture above, I have actually proved that Scotland is located on the North Pole and not just above England.)
~Scotland~
By the time we got into the city it was already dusk as our plans to leave at around 9am was shot down immediately by the girls who thinks that it is alright to make the WHOLE world wait for them to get dressed.
But anyhow, the city looked exactly as gorgeous as I left it and perhaps even a little bit more.The city was just buzzing with people and the atmosphere was further lighten up with a carnival right in the heart of the city ! How cool is that ?
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The main reason we went straight into town was because of this ! I know, I know. It looks like we’re holding a long stick of kebab/meat/some sorta meat in an elongated style but we’re not I assure you perverts out there. It’s actually a torch which is for a procession that is part of the Hogmanay tradition.
It was pretty awesome as 15 thousand people took to the streets to join this procession which lighted up the city’s main streets as the crowd marched through it headed for the end point which was Carlton Hill.
Us in front of Scotland’s parliament !
It really looked like we were some angry mob that are not too happy with the govt’s decisions…
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Being full-timed carefree university students that we are, we decided to pay a club so visits and get wasted while we were up in this sun-forsaken land. Hopefully to forget about the sub-zero winds that were merciless the moment we stepped out into the open.
It was a great night out as not only did I manage to meet up with some fellow ex-GRSP from Edinburgh and around, the club was barely full therefore the drinks were coming along quicker than you could drink it. Day 2 ended in a smash literarily as when we got back, Chelsey and I fell at the entrance of Stephen’s place because the pavement was glossed with a thick layer of ice. The cabbie thought we actually hurt ourselves pretty bad as well just lied there on the ice laughing our ass off.
Day 3 was New Year’s eve celebration and we did not do much besides wandering around Edinburgh without Stephen as he went off to CostCo to get a LOT of booze in which we found out later that evening !
We started the day’s celebration by meeting up with Stephen’s dad in Walkabout, an Aussie bar that was counting down to the new year of their motherland. (which was the same time as Malaysia as well !!!). Then we moved on to lunch/dinner (or rather an in-between) in an Italian restaurant which was paid for by the generous dad ! Couldn’t thank him more for such a lovely meal…
After that, we headed to a house party of one of Stephen’s mate (and we were utterly speechless with the amount of booze the bought for the evening !). Chilled there for a while before moving on to Jan’s apartment (a fellow ex-GRSP that was in the program 2 years before us.) Seeing the crowd below us were starting to make their way to the city center, we too headed there as we wanted to get a good view of the fireworks…
Chelsey and I.
James and I.
Brad, Chelsea and I
Finally ! Some fireworks.
Though we did not wait for last year’s moment to pass as long as what we did in New York, it was equally as cold. Thankful, I have learned from experience and got myself a couple of hand warmers which somewhat kept me slightly warmer than the people around me :)
As the crowd shouted the countdown, the castle shifted into an explosion of life with fireworks lighting it up as though it is back in it’s glorious days where it kept the citizens around it safe from war.
I have to say the fireworks is one of the best ones I have seen so far with a time frame of 10 minutes of continuous fireworks coupled up with screams and laughter of almost 100 thousand people. The atmosphere was amazing and it was a good decision to come up here to celebrate the comings of a new decade.
It was a long night but a good one. One that is to be remembered with full of gossips after that.
We did not do much after the countdown as that was what we were expecting hence not planning for anything after that. We just chilled in Stephen’s place till the girls left and on the 3rd of Jan, Gary, Stephen and I headed for a Hearts vs. Hibee game. The game was good but I did not really pay attention to the game as it was –5 deg C while we stood out there in the cold.
After that, my week’s luck started to hit the lows. Starting with missing the train on the following day as I saw the wrong time on the ticket, followed by getting on a train that got stuck in Carlisle the following day because it’s compressor was frozen solid thanks to the heavy snow and it’s arctic winds. Instead of a 3 hour journey back down south, I ended up taking a detour across England in hopes of getting back to Manchester which I did 6 hours later.
2 days later, some street punk broke into my place trying to steal anything that was valuable while I was asleep. Thankfully, I was a light sleeper thus hearing him disassemble the laptop. I manage to chase him out of the house but the price was losing my wallet. I had to go though those long-winded process of cancelling all my cards while trying to remember if I left anything important that need to be reported.
Everyone says that bad things come in a set of 3, hopefully it is true as all this misfortune is taking it’s toll on me and my financial status.
I hope this long ass entry has made up for all those time I left it unattended and hopefully the new year would bring more interesting and good news about for me so that I can share it with y’all !
But till there this is it !
Marcus
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