food shopping & eating - the most enjoyable things to do on weekends!

The most relaxing day of the week. Gym, food shopping, dining out...

It had been a week since I last went to gym. I started getting a bit lazy about doing gym. It does feel good when you get your sweat out and feel energetic and refreshed after gym followed by a shower. But the hassle of having to go and get changed and spend 30 minutes working on a machine makes me hesitate - does it sound like an excuse of those people not wanting to go to gym? :p Anyway, I have to remind myself of the benefits of doing exercises in order to keep me going...

After gym, I did food shopping for the coming week. I didn't buy all I needed in one go. Either because the supermarkets at city centre didn't have what I wanted or their prices were too high. I actually don't enjoy food shopping at the city centre since there are usually too many shoppers and I can't get any good bargains. Fortunately someone took me to Morrisons for food shopping in the evening - we got 9 bread for 9p in total (1p each!), pies/pastries and sandwiches at a reduced price, plus yoghurt, drinks, chicken pieces at a lower price than at other supermarkets! :) It was also relaxing to do food shopping in the evening when there were not many shoppers competing for bargains with us.

Someone's reminded me that I should have started doing networking earlier in order to find a job to stay here...

 Lunch: very simple - just chicken in home-made black pepper sauce & broccoli

Dinner at Morrisons: very filling - 1) cheese & bacon omelette (yummy!) 

Dinner at Morrisons: 2) hunter's chicken  - yummy but the sauce was a bit too salty!

Gutsy junior was born! He took a photo with his twin brother! :)  

Inspirations on future career

In class today but in a relaxing mood (though still have various things at the back of my mind..)!

Class on Corporate & Business Law today. Perhaps because I'm interested in law more than those calculations and also because the tutor was not as strict as another tutor, I felt more relaxed in class today. We were taught employment law, agency law and law about partnership. The fact that I got some personal experience and heard of friends' experience helped me understand those legislation and cases (e.g. dismissal, redundancy, duties of employers & employees). Learning those legal stuff makes me feel it's still useful (personally) to study accounting. :p

Finally we have a new hoover! The agent called today to ask me to collect it from their office. Hopefully the extractor fan thing will be sorted out soon.

I had a drink with a former chairman of Manchester Cantonese Society who I had worked with before, and two of my friends. That former chairman is going down to London for his masters in Applied Mathematics! Now I've got more excuses to go down to London as I already have a few friends who have moved to London for their studies. He told me his plan of getting status in the UK. Maybe I should work much harder on getting a job or something. He asked me what kind of jobs I'm looking for, which made me think again about what I should really do here if I want to stay and get a status. Maybe getting a job in the third sector (organizations/community work) is not a priority since it's much more difficult to get a job, not to mention a work permit, in the third sector which has a lot of funding cuts. I should think about other options...

I have stomach ache since I went back home. It's probably because I drank cappuccino on empty stomach.(I didn't eat any rice but bread from Wong Wong and potato & meat pastry from Greggs for lunch only)  I should know that before. :(

 Lunch: potato & meat pastry from Greggs

(it's been a long time since I last bought pastries from Greggs!)

Lunch: 雞尾包 from Wong Wong :) 

Dinner: 梅菜蒸肉餅&broccoli & sweet potato..  

My new passport & VIP day

An unproductive relaxing day.

The first thing I did today when I had no class was to go to the GP clinic for blood test. I think this was the 6th time I had a blood test this year! :S I was still a bit frightened about that little pain when the nurse put the needle into my arm! I'll know by tomorrow afternoon or Monday morning about the results...

Finally I got my new passport! Having missed the phone calls from the Chinese Embassy three times while I couldn't reach them by phone, I still decided to go there as I was 90% sure the passport should be ready! The new passport looks quite 'modern' to me - in terms of the technology used in it. When I compared the photo in my previous passport and the one in my new passport, I can tell I've got much older! But I did look happier in my recent photo.. To go to the Chinese Embassy, I took a campus bus which was cheaper but required me to walk for about 10 minutes after getting off at Royal Infirmary. I had a bit of feeling of insecurity when I walked in Rusholme! I don't know if it was the air/environment or my fear that caused me a bit of discomfort (itching) when I was in Rusholme. Hmm.

I bought some rice & noodles from the Chinatown and broccoli & pork from supermarkets (those supermarkets in the city centre was so small that I always can't find what I want and I don't have many choices) before going back home. Then I met with my VIP and his VIP for a happy afternoon. :p

Back to class tomorrow. :( But then there'll be classes next Thursday and Friday only!

Lunch: Uncle Mcdonalds! 

Dinner: noodles (蝦子麵) with minced pork & broccoli

Too lazy to do cooking..  

Finally we got broadband!

Finally home broadband is available in my flat!

Another school day. I started getting tired of preparing lunchbox in the morning before class. Also I was short of ideas for lunchbox. =_=' Maybe I found it stressful when I have to prepare lunchbox within an hour while having to rush to class. Today's class was F6 - Taxation and the tutor taught us the chapters on self-employment income. It's much more difficult than I thought of. Too many formats and rules and terms to remember. I even couldn't help falling asleep in the afternoon after lunch! :p I'm afraid I have to work hard at home for self-study.

I'm still worried about my health. I kept thinking about why I have itchy, rash skin frequently. :(  The more I think about it, the more worried I am as I'm wondering if I have got some serious illness. *sigh* no wonder my health is not good, as I'm sometimes too worried about different things!

Finally the home broadband is available in my flat! It's been exactly two months since I started trying to apply for broadband (through o2 at the beginning). As I mentioned before in my blog, I should have applied for plusnet at the very beginning; but at that time I thought o2 was a big company and their broadband, which I had used for nearly two years, was good, while I wasn't sure about plusnet. It's a good lesson to me - don't trust big companies!

I have a day off tomorrow!! It's like having 'freedom' again and having gone to class almost every weekday makes me feel like it's been ages since I last had my days off. I need time to relax, rest and do my own things...

Lunch: pork minute steak with broccoli & courgette

Dinner: noodles + pasta with pork minute steak, eggs, courgette, carrots & broccoli

What a big mix of food! :p  

Koala likes his smurf babies so much!  

Not taking simple things for granted

Another school day.

I didn't wake up till 8 a.m. this morning, though I had to make lunchbox later. I guess I was too tired yesterday after sleeping for less than 6 hours? And I seemed to have fever last night while sleeping as I could feel my face and neck were 'hot' compared with my arms.. :S  Today's class was Corporate & Business Law again. Those laws and cases are interesting (& controversial) - maybe I'm more interested in society/human being things (that's why I did sociolinguistics in the past!) - but there're really too many things to remember! But compared with calculations as in F5 & F6 classes, F4 is more interesting, though all of them are equally more difficult than the 3 classes (F1 to F3) of the last semester!

I had lunch at Uncle McDonalds and was hoping that I could get another smurf toy with Happy Meal! But they no longer had smurf toys as they were preparing new Happy Meal toys. :(  But I'm happy with the four smurf toys I've got - haha, can't believe I still enjoy playing with toys! I guess those toys help me get away from the reality for a moment - my smurf family...

My health scare/worry came back. I was worried about my back pain and skin problems so much that I went to see my gp after class. Surprisingly there was a locum at the clinic, even though my useless gp was still seeing patients as well. Maybe there were too many patients at the start of the school term? Anyway, I was arranged to see the locum instead of gp - not sure if it's a good thing or not. The locum was the same lady who saw me in Februrary at the clinic and prescribed me iron tablets. I like her for being patient enough to listen to my concerns. I'm not sure if doctors usually try to comfort/make their patients less worried by saying they're doing ok. The locum said there was nothing I had to worry about - she thought my back pain was due to muscle strain and it was reassuring when she said she had the same problem as well. As for my itching problem and 'blood dot' skin problem, she just said maybe my body doesn't like something by reacting through itchy and rash skin. I asked for a blood test and she was ok with it! Hopefully my worry is unnecessary. I have enough problems to worry about!


All I want is good health and simple life with support from the beloved one but sometimes these things can't be taken for granted...

Lunch: my dearest Uncle McDonalds!

Dinner at 'Giraffe':  'Soya Cappaciunno' - it tasted good!

Superfruit tea :)  

£5.50 burger deal - burger with skin on fries :)

'The Giraffe' (I like fries with mayo)

 Rodeo chicken burger - yummy yummy! As good as beef burger!

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!! Mine was a plain one without any mooncake or fruit for the festival.. Actually I almost forgot this festival!

A busy morning before going to school. I woke up to have a shower, then started working on a job application that was due at noon, and had to prepare my lunchbox. I had to set off by 9:15 a.m. or I'd be late for class as the tutor of today's class stated clearly last week that anyone later than 9:40 a.m. wouldn't be allowed into the class till the break at 11 a.m. During the break in the morning, I made use of the time by giving a call to mum to say 'Happy Mid-Autumn Festival' to her. She kept asking me what I'd like her to buy for me (so that my aunt and cousin who are travelling to the UK in December can bring them for me); I guess it's something that she's happy to do for me!? During the second break in the afternoon, I tried to make a call to the Chinese Embassy to find out if my new passport is ready for collection but no one answered the phone...

Today's class was about taxes on property income and employment income. Oh there're too many rules to remember!! :S And I had physical headache when I finished the class. It's not fun at all.

I've been thinking about my last week's job interview the whole day. I haven't heard any news about the results, but I assumed they offered the job to someone else since they said they'd make the decision today. It's not surprising that they didn't give me the job (considering my poor performance in the interview, my need for job share and visa problem) but still I couldn't help feeling disappointed (after all, the job fits what I want to do). I'd like to know why they didn't offer me the job so that I can improve myself for the future interviews. Anyway, that was my first job interview since I finished my last job and so not getting the job from the first interview is not uncommon. There should be other opportunities..

I met a little English girl, who looks like being at the age of 2 or 3, and was with her dad when I was waiting for a free shuttle bus back home. She looked at me, curious, and asked her dad 'Who is this?' haha! Her dad can't help laughing. When they got off the bus, she waved goodbye to me! Oh she was so cute! :) Maybe I should think about working with children as adolescents and adults are too complicated to deal with?!

Snack in class: mini moo moo chocolate chip cookies! :) 

It helped to cheer or wake me up! 

 Dinner: salmon with courgette & broccoli + scotch egg!

Lunch: salmon with courgette & broccoli

Simple and healthy  

Is cleaning an enjoyable activity?

A household Sunday with good rest. :)

Did laundry and cleaned the kitchen & bathroom as usual. I tried to clean the grease filter for the cooker hood but the sink was not big enough for the filter and so it made it difficult to get the filter cleaned by soaking it. I only cleaned half of a filter and I already saw how greasy it was! Not surprising, as it had been accumulating grease for at least two years (since I moved in). I'm thinking of whether to buy a big 'bowl' for cleaning it.. It's not easy to be a housewife! Just the cleaning work can take up a lot of time! And we can't be lazy in terms of keeping the flat, especially kitchen & bathroom, clean. It's hard work but somehow I enjoy it...

Classes again tomorrow, and on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Better than last week. One day off on Thursday...

Lunch: scotch egg and egg! (I forgot the scotch egg had an egg inside when I fried that egg!)

The scotch egg was not bad and I quite like it! :) 

Dinner: Hello kitty pasta again! But the soup base (with tomato & carrots) was not good. 

The pork minute steak was quite tasty - I bought it from Aldi (5 pork minute steak for £1.99 only!)! 

Being 'hea' after 5 days' classes

A 'hea' day.

Got up early to go to gym before breakfast. Felt good having done some exercises. I haven't gone to gym for a week as I have been busy going to classes! Next week will be the same - 4 days' classes and hopefully I can have a bit more time to do gym later. As usual, I did food shopping today. Can't believe I got so much food to buy for just myself - soya milk, fruit (banana, blueberry), vegetables (broccoli, courgette, sweet potato), meat (pork & chicken), cereals, etc. It sounds like I'm a big eater!

I got lazy after lunch. I had headache and so decided to have a nap, which however didn't help much. A friend called to have dinner together but I didn't feel like going out again. Felt a bit anti-social. At the end I did go and have dinner with ex-colleagues. Maybe having had classes for so many days in a week, all I want is a good rest at home?!

Lunch: my favourite pasta in tomato soup base

so many different ingredients! :)

Dinner at Fu's of Chinatown: 時菜肉絲飯 (rice with shredded pork and vegetables) 

6.5 out of 10 marks - those thin pieces were vegetables?! :(  the sauce was so-so..  

紅燒斑腩豆腐煲 (fried fish, pork belly meat and tofu pot) 

7 out of 10 marks - it got higher marks because it had my favourite tofu! 

other than that, the sauce was salty and the fried fish was too 'starchy' 

乾炒牛河(fried ho fan with beef) 

6.5 out of 10 marks - it was too oily while it didn't taste much. 

The beef was ok though. It's not easy to make a good dish like this.  

四寶飯 (four treasures rice)

7.5 out of 10 marks - usually 燒味飯 can score high marks if the meat is good. A simple dish. 

It got my favourite - cha siu. The cha siu was ok but still not very good. :p  

'free' dessert: too oily...  

In general, the food in that restaurant was not as good as before and the size of the dishes has become smaller. It seems most of the restaurants nowadays are trying to reduce the size of their dishes in order to cut costs...

1st job interview after last job

Finally I did the job interview and finished this week's class!

I woke up early as usual - checked email, washed up and then went out! I didn't do much preparation then though. When I got to the interview venue, I started getting nervous. I was the first interviewee getting there. The first interviewee before me wasn't there then yet and so one of the interviewers asked me to do the interview earlier than as scheduled (10:30 a.m.). I thought there were only 3 people on the interview panel as stated in their letter but it turned out there were 4 of them! =_=' Each one of them took turns to ask me questions. There were actually not many questions, probably about 6 questions that I had to answer. Maybe I didn't answer well and long enough that the interview looked a bit short?! I did ask them questions as well. When I came out of the interview room, there were already two other interviewees waiting! Generally speaking, I don't think I performed well - poor English, being too nervous, not answering well. Plus the fact that I can only work park time (need job share). All these sound like my chance of getting the job is very slim. :( Anyway, it's a good experience though. My first job interview since I finished my last job. When I answered the questions in the interview, I did feel that actually I had some good knowledge, experience and skills; it's just that I haven't got enough self-confidence, having been unemployed for a while (and confidence undermined by ex-employer)...

Actually I tried not to think about the job interview when I got back to kaplan for today's class. I went to the classroom just minutes before they started the break. I missed the chance to talk to the tutor about the register. Later when I asked the reception about the register, the lady said I couldn't sign it for the morning session because I went to the class later than 11 a.m. :(  Nevermind, just one absence should be ok...

To reward/cheer up myself after the interview, I went to Uncle Mcdonalds for lunch. I got a happy meal as I wanted to get a smurf :) The smurf I got doesn't have a happy face, which matched my mood today. =_=' Anyway, I was happy to get one more smurf for 'san san ma faan' family!

When the class finished, I felt a bit relieved. It's been a long week - 5 consecutive days of classes!! A lot to take in. It's no different from going to work for 5 days. I feel like I haven't got much time to do my own things this week and I was so tired to do anything after school every evening. Good that I can have a weekend to relax but I have to do food shopping (yeah!), do revision for the classes, do a job application, work on the anthology...

Lunch: happy to have happy meal! :)

Dinner: a mix of different things - mushroom omelette, mushroom chicken & 'pak choi'

New smurf was born! 

They are good friends! 

Koala is happy with smurfs! 

Continuing tiring and long schoolday

4th day in class of the week. Tired.

I was a bit more relaxed this morning when I didn't need to prepare the lunchbox. Still I was a bit late for the class. :p  Today was the first day of F6 class. The tutor was the one for F3 class of last semester. She's a very strict tutor and this semester she set stricter rules - going to class after 9:40 a.m. will be classified as 'late' (3 'lates' count as absence!), no early finish, no sound or even vibration from mobile phones, no going in and out of the classroom during class... She's a good tutor though. This class has around 30 students! Some new faces, some familiar ones. I'd prefer a smaller class. The topics include various types of taxes, such as income tax, VATs, National Insurance Contributions, of which I already know a bit. It'd be useful to have some knowledge of those things personally.  But there're lots of calculations, which I don't like! >_< I haven't made new friends in the classes so far - like last semester, I just don't feel like making new friends; not sure if it's because I don't want people to ask me things like what you did before, why study accounting, etc.?

Do some people/compaines/things keep bothering one? Like the anthology, which I still haven't finished (it's like a phd thesis, though much easier and shorter than the latter!!) and there's been a lot of email correspondence between the funding body and MMU to clarify issues about it, e.g. length, format, copyright. Then there's o2, which (after the credit check, Mac code and tag problems) still bothers me with their dongle for mobile broadband that hasn't been delivered to me yet. =_='

Tomorrow I have to go to the job interview! Really nervous and worried. Maybe I need to be the counsellor for myself and try to relax myself. Whatever the results will be, I gain experience of doing an interview, right?

Lunch: Subway - meatball & BLT! Yummy, but not seem to be enough though... 

Maybe dinner (£5 deal) is more value for money?

Dinner: McDonalds!! 

Was planning to get one more smurf for my 'ma faan' san san family

But the McDonalds we went to didn't have smurf toys any more! :(  

Interested in law instead of accounting!?

3rd day of the new semester. Still in busy mode.

Corporate & Business law today again. Though the law is much more complicated and sometimes even confusing to me, I've been enjoying this class as I found some cases/legislation interesting and the tutor has done a good job (though I felt a bit scared about being asked questions by him suddenly!). Maybe I should consider being a lawyer/solicitor instead of accountant?! :p

A long day today but I have some 'tasks' done. Still a rush in the morning - having to give a call to the plusnet for updates while trying to prepare my lunchbox. I failed to catch a free shuttle bus and so had to walk to school. Walking is nice only when you're carrying a heavy backpack (while you have problems with your back!). Finally plusnet has put my order further and hopefully I can get broadband next week! Also I have done the acca exam entry for December exams - thanks to someone's help! :) And the Chinese Embassy tried to call me today while I was in class!? Is my new passport ready? I plucked my courage to ask professor by email if I could skip the media training. She's ok with me not going! :)

I was so desperate for a (Christmas) job that I kept an eye on royalmail website about their X'mas vacancies for Manchester/North West area. I found the vacancies and applied online! Fingers crossed I can get this casual job for a bit of money. I guess it's not just about earning money but to get my confidence back. Being jobless somehow 'erodes' one's confidence & self-esteem. Of course sometimes it's us ourselves who care so much about being jobless or not...

btopenzone seems not as easily accessible as before!? I bought an add-on internet access for 50p a day. At least I don't need to worry about using too much data allowance (120mb should be enough for one day!).

a 'cracked' mini moo moo...

Lunch: egg with tomato, chicken pieces with 'pak choi' & carrots! 

Dinner: subway!!  

already a bit tired on the 2nd day of new semester!

2^nd day of the new semester. Already felt a bit tired.

Having learnt from yesterday’s experience, I tried to wake up a bit earlier this morning and didn’t need to rush to school. Today was a class for F4 paper. The tutor was also new to me. He was an old English guy who claimed to like Manchester City! He’s a nice guy too. I like to hear him telling us those legal cases or examples. I’m actually interested in law but I still couldn’t help falling asleep when sitting at all times listening to him talking about those things like legislation, civil and criminal law, etc. =_=’ Same as the F5 tutor, he also suggested us starting studying from this week. Does that mean I should have a study plan for it? There were not as many classmates as yesterday’s class but there were still some classmates I had seen before.

I started getting worried about my Friday’s job interview. L Some negative thoughts were in my mind already. What can I do to make myself more confident? The visa issue always comes back to upset me every now and then. Sigh…

It’s getting cooler again today. I usually got ill around October in recent years. Hopefully this year I’ll be strong enough! But today when I was walking on the street carrying that big backpack, I felt a bit weak! Hmm…

Still no response from plusnet. No free internet from btopenzone. Looks like I may need to buy ‘add-on’ from ‘3’ for internet access…

 My healthy lunchbox!

 oh mini moo wants to...

hello piggyyyyyyy!!  

Dinner at GBK: the portion of chunky fries was not as big as in Edinburgh...  

Even the size of burgers was smaller! 

Is the economy so bad that they have to cut the cost by downsizing the burgers? :( 

Back to class!

Back to class!! Quite a lot of things to take in on the first day of the course for the new semester and on a Monday. 

Time flies. This summer holiday has become a thing of the past. While I’m still missing it, the ACCA classes for the new semester have started! First day back to school today. Some new faces. Some familiar ones. Same environment. Same schedule – 9:30 a.m. start, 11 a.m. break, 1 p.m. lunch, 3 p.m. break and 4:30 p.m. (or earlier) finish!

I think I’m better equipped and more ready (psychologically) than last semester. At least I now know what to prepare (e.g. stationery, food, clothes) for the classes. Still it was such a rush this morning – having to check email, have breakfast, prepare lunchbox, and wash up in less than 1.5 hours. No time for ‘toilet’ (under pressure as well!)! L

The tutor was new to me. He’s teaching us F5 paper this semester. He seems quite nice, even he himself claimed so! :p His teaching was ok. He said this F5 paper would be based on our knowledge on F2, but I already forgot what I had learnt in F2! The first and only classmate who talked to me today was the Chinese girl (actually she’s a mother!) whom I met in June when I took my first ACCA exam. She spoke to me in Mandarin at the beginning and then asked me where I was from as she found my Mandarin was ‘strange’ (I guess it was because I mixed both Mandarin and English in my conversation!). Having found out I’m from HK, she started talking to me in Cantonese! =_=’ Does that mean my Mandarin is getting worse as well (besides English)? By the way, another good thing about going to classes is I can practise my English…  

Though I still don’t think I’ll be interested to be an accountant in future and I haven’t changed my view that accounting is a boring subject, my attitude toward the course may have changed a little bit. Maybe I’m not so negative about it? And I want to make better use of my time outside classes to make sure I don’t lose touch with other things (by volunteering, part-time work, etc.).

Disappointed that Boots replied to say I had missed out on their Christmas customer assistant jobs, after I had sent out my application this morning. Hopefully I can at least find a kind of Christmas job; I’m desperate for money… :p

Still no news from Plusnet. BTopenzone is still unstable and I can’t get access to the Internet at all since yesterday! I have to use the free 150mb internet of the ‘3’ sim card for my mobile. If BTopenzone is still not working while I’m waiting for plusnet, I guess I may have to top up my sim card again?! =_=’

Another busy evening – anthology, email, preparation for Friday’s interview, revision of today’s class…

*****

 Lunch: my princess lunchbox - 梅菜蒸肉餅 + broccoli + carrots

Capri Sun orange juice & banana! :)  

Dinner: pasta in tomato soup with minced pork & chicken pieces & broccoli! :)