A weekend in Preston

Y2 was so nice to invite me to Preston for the weekend as her house mates organized a BBQ on Sunday. I haven't seen Y2 since the ski trip and was really excited to see her again.

I went down on a Friday evening after apologising to my convenor for not being able to finish my first draft of the essay in time. Hehe.....will continue writing it this week.

Friday evening was buying grocery at Sainsbury, cooking dinner and catching up with gossips day. It's a really different experience shopping for groceries with your friend as you get to appreciate the types of food they buy and also, experience their usual diet which is always different from my own.

What I can say after 2.5 days of care provided by Y2 is that, she is a really good hostess. Feeds me really well. Meals start with a really good dishes with chicken cooked with black fungus, grilled salmon, veg, and for dessert, 2 slices of strawberry cheesecake each.

Saturday's programme was the tour of Preston town. It is a very peaceful and quiet town. Most of the buildings were quite ancient looking. Y2 told me that her neighbourhood was made up mostly of old people. In other words, this place might be lacking of entertainment for students.

Buildings from town halls, monuments of unknown names cause my guide doesn't know them as well, train stations and a county hall which looked like a castle from far but the outline was actually the chimneys instead of the stone bricks of a castle.

The lamp post near the town hall was eye-catching. Y2 even held it like she was hugging someone...I don't know who

We had hot jacket potato from this roadside stall. Somebody must have paid Y2 to advertise for them. We ordered cheese and coleslaw which came up to 1.75 pounds and enough to be shared between the 2 of us. We were served 2 types of cheese on top of the coleslaw - Cheddar and Red Leicester. Surprisingly, it was delicious.

Preston has 2 big shopping complex close to each other and connected by rows of shops. It is a great place for shopping. Shopaholics can consider settling down here.

We went into New Look and decided to do a make-over on each other but ended up trying selections which we've chosen for the other on ourselves as well.


By the time we finished shopping, it was already late in the evening and I didn't even tour all of the town even thought there wasn't much to tour. Window shopping and of course the company of Y2 are sufficient to keep me occupied I guess.

Even the vending machines at the shopping centre was so high class. Usually it's always the Coke vending machine.

Sunday was BBQ day! Rain or shine, nothing could stop us. Of course, there's always the oven if it was really pouring on that day.

The umbrellas were supposed to be used for covering the food but in the end, humans were more important. Met 2 of Y2's friends twinning from IMU, E and SS.

Y2 was so nice to all of us. She made the effort to cut the burger which were cooked into smaller pieces so that it was easier for us to BBQ and eat at the same time.

Food was delicious and plentiful. We did put some of the chicken into the oven as well. Comparatively, the oven baked ones tasted healthier but the BBQed ones was juicier and of course, more delicious. Desserts were always the most satisfying part of every meal.

I really liked the waffles. They were so delicious!

Steps to making the ultimate waffle. Toast the waffle in the toaster. It's soft when it is still hot but turns crunchy when it cools. Add 2 scopes of Haagen-dazs ice cream topped with strawberry syrup. Finally, dig in!
Golden rule: never think of the number of calories that you're consuming while eating desserts.

Thanks Y2 and house mates for making my weekend. I felt so fortunate for being fed and taken care of so well. Will always remember this image of Y2 happily eating her chicken. I'll come visit again in future.

One of Y2's house mate bought the perfume by Sarah Jessica Parker and she said that she didn't like the smell at all.
The moment Y2 sprayed some on my hand, I was greeted by the strong smell of 'Fab Sabun Buku' (A Malaysian brand bar of detergent) which I used to hand wash my clothes when I was younger. I guess any type of smell can be sold as a perfume as long as someone famous advertises it. Maybe if we used a famous name to promote the smell of some dish washing liquid, it can be marketed as an expensive perfume as well.