of sports and shopping

One of the many things I love about England is how easy it is to get from one place to another. Can't drive? No problem! Just hop on a train or a bus. I honestly do think the transport system here is awesome.

Last weekend I attended the Nottingham Malaysian Games which was held in — surprise surprise — NOTTINGHAM. I contemplated real hard between going or not the night before but in the end I just went with it. 

A little intro: It's an annual sports event that's been taking place every year since the 80s! Every year, Malaysian societies from nearly every uni throughout UK meet up at the University of Nottingham to compete in football, basketball, netball — you name it! 

When I told my lecturer and my English friends about it, they were all befuddled. I think they thought I was making up this magical event, but no, this is all very real. :p

Nottingham is nearly 3 hours away from Kent and the event started around 9am, so by 6am I was frantically getting ready to head up north. 

With my earphones plugged in and a book in my hand, time went by super fast and soon I found myself surrounded by hundreds of Malaysians. Say whaa-at? Now it's MY turn to be befuddled. Where was I again??

My biggest incentive to attend the event was  actually not sports

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to be reunited with my best friend!

I haven't seen her for MONTHS. And usually the reason was because she's studying in Malaysia but now that she's studying in England, seeing each other should be easier. I blame my tight schedule and uni workload. 

That aside, I got to be with many of my other ex-KTJ and GIS friends. I met friends that I've not seen for YEARS. Weird? Hell yeah, but it was strangely not awkward at all.

Cousin Rafi was there too!! YAAY!!! :D

Nottingham University is absolutely gorgeous btw. Not only is it gorgeous; it's MASSIVE.

The presence of my friends wasn't the only thing that made me happy. My late maternal grandmother read her degree here so it felt really nice being where she once was. I tried picturing my grandma as an undergraduate back in the day, walking through the beautiful campus with books in her arms. It was nice. 

On top of that, the weather was perfect — the sun decided to shine on us! I was happy.

But it was a looong day. We were there until the evening so some of us passed out even before it was time to leave. 

SS burnt a hole in her purse to be on a train with me. Yes, that's love. 

Where was the train headed you ask? Why, London of course! I can always rely on London to give me a good time. After a 12 hour sleep (I'm not joking), we made our way to Selfridges for lunch.

I loove Chinese food; I just love non-Western food in general. 

Ok, perhaps lunch wasn't our only objective. In my defense, if we had a competition on who shopped the most that day, it would be SS. HI BESTIE! 

We had frozen yoghurt as well. Oh God, it was beautiful. 

Tsk tsk... 

Hehe. Soooo that was how last weekend went. I miss my bestie already.