I had the best weekend in UK last week at Loughborough. It's a little town about 20 minutes train ride from Nottingham (roughly £10). It felt like going back to Ipoh, laid back and extremely relaxed. I stayed at Sek Hao's place where Sainsbury's is just a minute away and the town is just round the corner.
I attended Sunday mass at St Mary's in Loughborough. It is situated 5 minutes away from Sek Hao's place. The morning was perfect for a short walk. St Mary has a small congregation of mainly children and elderly members of the community. The church building has a modern design, a bit like SFX back home. I like!
The altar: It's interesting that they had the statue of Mother Mary beneath the Cross. Normally, there's only Jesus on the Cross in the altar.
The pillars outside St Mary's. Lovely spring sunshine~
I visited the town with Shuv, Sek Hao and Shu Yee (Shuv's sis). We strolled through a nearby park on the way. If I stay here, I promise to run in the park one round once a week. It's really pretty and because it's spring, the flower beds were blooming! Unfortunately, the wind was quite strong that day, else I'd like to spend some time rolling on the green green grass, Bollywood-style.
Everyone, meet Shu Yee!
We're suddenly in Japan!
We came across Coombs' bakery on the way. Chris, we NEED discounts!
*There's an accessories shop on the same row, which I really liked because it's so pretty and cheap, but I was too broke to buy anything*
One of the things in my "must-do" list is to visit this legendary tasty-yet-cheap-cheesecake-shop known as... The Cheesecake Shop (-____-"). They sell the BEST cheesecake for such a minimal price! Generally in UK, a normal cake costs somewhere around £30 (most of the time it's a lot more than that) but here, a whole cheesecake is around £10!
How can we not camwhore in THE Cheesecake Shop...
Ah, tastes of heaven~
We bought 2 different flavours: Mango and Mississippi cheesecake :q Their cheesecake was sooooo goooood! It'll be even better if they use fresh mangoes but ah well, this is UK after all~
On Sunday, Shuv and I spent sometime baking! We made Portuguese eggtarts and strawberry muffins (No pics for muffins because I was too busy eating to take pics). Although I used the word "we", it's more like "she" because I didn't do much. Baking is quite fun when done with friends :) The smell of freshly baked pastries is absolutely heavenly~
See, I helped press the dough on the tray. The dough is sold in Sainbury's, don't have to make it from scratch hah!
Shuv preparing the contents for the eggtarts
Accomplished!
Freshly baked Portuguese Eggtarts. We made 2 batches of them, I ate so much! :D
No, it's not the way it seems, I didn't finish the entire tray on my own. (I know what you're thinking!)
We spent hours playing Scrabble and one round of Cranium. Gosh, the Too-sisters are good at Scrabble! I didn't even come close to their scores. Oh, Shu Yee and I won for the game of Cranium :D Shuv and Sek Hao was on the lead but we overtook them halfway through, hehe...
That's Shaheer, Sek Hao's housemate, who is awesome~
Scratching my head trying to figure out how to draw "lie detector". I still don't know how. Any ideas?
A random shot. That's the couch I sleep on when I'm there. It's quite comfy and warm :) And Shu Yee's face is blue, hehehe...
Our dinners were prepared by Sek Hao. He's got excellent culinary skills okay~ *hint Bf* He made paella and roasted chicken with vegetables for the first night. And the second night we had pasta with Cajun chicken. So delicious I tell you! I helped him stir the paella. XP
The chicken before roasting.
Pasta and Cajun chicken. The chicken was so nice loh~ I want to buy that Cajun thingy.
Happy satisfied me
That night, we went out to Reiley's for pool. Oh, how I miss playing pool! I used to play pool with Bf before we got together. Brings me fond memories of the past :) It didn't feel like I was UK, I thought I was home when I was playing.
Pool centers are universal. Looks the same anywhere.
Camwhored with the Too-sisters :D
I think I'll go to Loughborough again very soon. I must visit Chris and Estelle at their new home and Digby, their lovely fat cat! Loughborough is such a peaceful place to be in. No wonder Shuv calls it a second home. This time, I'm going to bring my Young Persons Railcard with me, humph!
