When we arrived, there was actually a hail shower! Little small pieces of ice dropping onto my body is quite a nice experience (^^;) The picture below shows a scene from this ice rain... It only lasted for a few minutes (I did not even manage to get into the photo ToT)...
We went to Manchester's China Town after that. Anybody who needs Chinese groceries in Manchester need not worry... there are THREE Chinese supermarkets over there!
Then, we visited the Manchester Arndale Centre. It is claimed to be UK's largest shopping complex (in Wikipedia, without any proof). I was really interested to compare it with 1-Utama (still my favourite shopping centre! I am a self-professed 1U fanboy!).
This was taken from inside the shopping complex. You can see the "Manchester Eye" (ferris wheel) from here...
Here are some pictures from inside the shopping centre (I sure hope nobody was staring at me while thinking something about me looking stupid taking pictures of a shopping arcade (^^;))
As you can see, the shopping centres here tend to be more widely spaced: that is, more "open space" if you compare it with 1-Utama which is more "packed". Another thing to note is that the ang mohs recently prefer to use natural lighting by allowing sunlight to enter through the (transparent) roof. For someone who doesn't really like sunlight (me!), this is a minus. Oh, there's a market here too.
Size-wise, 1-Utama beats it by a mile! My observation proves it. In fact, Arndale Centre is 1.4 million square feet and 1-Utama is 5 million square feet according to Wikipedia.
Shopping-wise, sorry to say that they are so expensive: and it is currently sale-season too! I mean, everything is branded. And this is my first time looking at a 1400 pound watch! I will have already fainted if it's RM1400... but 1400 pounds??!! (O.o) I got bored after a while here actually, compared to when I was shopping in 1U (sorry about this 1U promotion thing (^^;)): still not bored after going there every week!!
Anyway, this is the "Manchester Eye". Nope, me has no money to enjoy this luxury (^^;)
This is just a war monument which I know nothing about.
For bird lovers (as pets or as food), these are how ang-moh pigeons (are they pigeons??) look like. They have red eyes! *stares* I swore that one of them even had the luxury of window shopping in the Arndale Centre!! (Ironically, in front of a shop which sells lots of chicken nuggets, sausages....) These birds are really not afraid of humans: they don't even fly away when we approach them!
Well, there really is nothing else to show about Manchester, so here's one of the plates from my 7.50pounds eat-all-you-want Chinese buffet here... Remember that this is only ONE of them (I had 4 plates of goodies, 2 bowls of soup, 1 plate of fruits and a small bowl of ice-cream). Oh, and a glass of lemonade for 1.20 pounds. I must be really getting old to be able to eat only this little (ToT)
So, what did I end up with on my (window) shopping trip here? 2 packets of preserved Mandarin Orange Peels, a box of chrysanthemum tea, and a 6-in-a-pack Yeo's Soya Bean drink. And an oversized stomach. All from Chinatown. Go figure.