Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Manchester Premium Inn Hotel and Food

Before starting on all the tourist attractions in Manchester, I thought I'll just get the logistic post over with first. After landing at the airport, the immigration was a breeze for me, I was the only one in the manual queue due to my Malaysian Passport. Everyone else went to the autogate, lol. The officer just asked me how long was I in OK and when was I leaving and that was it. We collected our bags and took a bus directly to our hotel in the City Center for only 2Euro! Sometimes I think transportation is so much more affordable and easier in expensive cities than it is in South East Asia.  In SEA, usually the airport transfer is a killer! Above is our super big room in Premium Inn Manchester at Portland Street. It has no aircondition, but there was a fan provided, and we could open the window. It even have a long bath in the bathroom! Premium Inn was recommended to us my our friend Trish after I complained that I couldn't find an affordable hotel in the UK. So happy I found this. I've also learned that Hotel.com tend to list only higher end hotels in the West, although they are fine in the East. Hotel.com is also awful for China's hotel listing. I started using Agoda for hotel bookings since their price is usually better, but there are always hidden scammy charges when you finally get your final bills..... So yeah..... live and learn!

For all hotels I booked, I always google the nearby grocery shops, especially in expensive western countries. So near our hotel was a Tesco Express, as well as a Salisbury some distance away. This was crucial cause I also travel to eat, and I needed to eat cheap since I am on a budget. I can't bring perishable goods home, so I usually eat them there! Spanish strawberries! So big and juicy and sweet too!

Only 2.5Euro, which is a lot cheaper than in my homeland! I lost count how many boxes I ate. Probably 3 during our whole trip? But my main target was blackberries, also in the same price range. I think I ate at least 2, and that was only because they ran out of stocks in some shops when I was there! I will make sure I eat more in my upcoming trip! For dinner, sometimes I just eat these and a glass of milk. Live and learn lesson, milk in the UK are not all the same! Milk in Scotland is 100% better than in England. In England, the milk has a funny pipe metallic taste to it. 

Having some sandwiches and strawberries for a light breakfast/brunch at the hotel. 

We also got our dinner from Tesco. They have this meal plan offer where it's like a value meal. You pay a flat price for a main, a drink, and a dessert. This was probably the first time I would pick a Starbuck coffee since they are always so expensive in the store! I also realised that the cheap pastry in Tesco are just so lovely to eat! I try to get one whenever I am in the store. They taste so different from the ones at home, probably due to the humid weather at home. 

Yeah, I could eat our of Tesco and Mark and Spenser everyday. It was friendly to my wallet, and the food tasted pretty healthy. So we're gonna do that all over again in the coming trip too. We actually enjoy it cause the food quality was really good, especially in Mark & Spenser. We ate a lot of seafood and tapas from there, even hummus and cheese tray! So looking forward to it!

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Flight to Manchester transiting at Munich Germany

Welcome back to another travel blog post! It's now 2026, and I am blogging about my trip to Manchester/Scotland in 2025. This entry was chosen as a motivation to me for planning my upcoming Manchester/Scotland trip for 2026! But seriously, I think blogging is a lot more work than planning a trip, cause planning a trip is always fun and exciting! Still, I needed a way to motivate myself to complete my backlog somehow! So let's start!And hopefully I'll complete it before my actual 2026 trip. For the 2025 trip, there was Miffy at Changi Airport to see me off! Weeeee. Instantly a European feel to it all! Lol. 

It was a red eye flight, so we arrived early at Changi Airport and had time to admire all the beauty it has to offer. We were flying Lufthansa because it was the cheapest ticket we could get without doing multiple transit and budget airlines. Even still, it involves a transit in Munich which I didn't minded for the price. From this blog onwards, I've decided to also document my excel cost overview in each travel blog. I run every travel trip I have like a mini project, with standardised folders and file etc, so everything is always easy to find and reference even after the trip, even after ten years :)

One thing I kinda hate about a red eye flight is, the airline still insisted that you eat before they off the lights for you to sleep. I guess they had to, since not every passenger might be in the same time zone as you. But I can never say no to free food (technically it's costed in the flight ticket....), so we ate our share. Above is the chicken rice my husband selected for his dinner.

I pick a vegetarian pasta meal set instead cause I wanted something lighter for my journey. I'm not really a big eater on flights. Most of the time, I hate the meat dishes they serve on flights anyway, unless it's asian food.... It was a nice sufficient portion of before bed dinner for me :)

And just before we landed, we were also served breakfast. Again, I think I pass any sausages to my husband. I can't stand airline sausages or meat patty. I'm not being fussy here, I just can't stand the over powering pepper and dry meat inside. Eggs and vegetables were fine for me, and I really appreciate all the cheese that any airline has ever served me before! 

In the early next morning, we had a short transit in Munich, Germany. I feel pretty much at home in Germany. I think I kinda like Germans, often quiet and no small talks. I felt pretty comfortable working in a German Company before, and that was before I even know what the German culture was like. Thanks to social media, I now know the German stereotypes and understand why I was comfortable working in a German, and Japanese company. My character just fits into both those culture naturally :)

It was super cold outside. And we even got the chance to walk on the airfield while getting on our transit flight to Manchester. It was a small airplane, and only Lindt Chocolate was served on it. Everything else you have to pay extra. It was only a one hour flight or so, so not an issue. The only issue I had was, I wasn't dressed for winder weather! It was supposed to be spring time in Europe! But the cold was fun for me, it made me felt like I was really in a different country as compared to hot and humid Asia. 

Sun rising at Munich Airport while we were waiting for our connecting flight. Funny story, did you know you can't donate blood in Singapore if you've transited in Germany? You have to wait 4 weeks before they allowed you to do so. I didn't even know you had to report transiting country during blood donation interview. Boy was the doctor sharped that day! 

Saw some interesting sleeping pod in Munich Airport and thought I'll share it here too.

Our flight approaching Manchester Airport. Love the green landscape, and was surprised by the beautiful blue skies too. Why were we landing in Manchester? Well, since we were visiting Scotland, Manchester was just a train ride away, so we thought we'll land here first to visit our friends Tom And Trish who said they were from Manchester. Well guess what, they didn't mean the city! They meant like 1.5hrs train ride away that involves a train transit. And even then, we would have only reached the nearest station, their home is a still some few minutes drive away! And we are also going to visit them again in 2026 cause, well, our UK Visa is valid for 2 years, so why not. There is so much to see in Scotland anyway that even 2026 might not be the last time I visit that place!

Thought I'll start sharing my planning excel moving forward. This is planning, not actual, although the green expense cell is the actual amount. I don't keep the planning amount aside from the total amount budgeted. So for this trip, we were visiting Manchester, Chapeltown Sheffield, Edinburgh, and Isle of Skye. And my favourite place of all, has got to be Isle of Skye and the Scottish Highlands. That is one of the reason I am headed back there again this year! It is just such a magical place!

2025 Recap. People In My Life

Following the traditional that was started last year here, since 2025 is coming to an end, here are the 2025 'people in my life' post. Thanks for making my life so interesting in 2025! This is the 2nd full year of me not working, and I ain't looking back anytime soon! Full speed ahead Cordy! There is so much more things to do, so many more places to go. I might do a recap of my 2025 year event too if I have the time. For each year that I live my life on my own terms, I discover more and more wonderful things to do in life.

Here's wishing happiness and health, and may you also find the courage to live the life you want in your own terms :)  Happy New Year 2026!

Following tradition, the list is in reverse order.....

Dec 2025: 

Early Christmas and Birthday celebration for the two January Baby (Girls' only this time). Big Cousin drove us all the way to Icon City in Bukit Mertajam for this pretty looking Santa's Tea Party tea set. We had it for lunch at noon time. The set looked smaller than the poster we saw, but thankfully the food was delicious. I especially like their kerabu spagetti. Didn't know that was even a thing. Big Cousin also got us matching dragon t-shirt that says we are not book worm, but book dragon!

Nov 2025:

Year end gathering of the Big Cousin, Middle Cousin and Baby Cousin, at Wonkie Ice Cream. The Chocolate Whiskey ice cream there is divine! This is only the 2nd year the three of us have hung out together. Prior to that, I don't really know my Middle Cousin at all. 

I was also back to keep a promise to watch Wicked Part 2 together with the Middle Cousin. We've watched the first one together a year ago, and have also watched the musical together in Singapore. A promise made, a promise kept. We even bought our matching key charm to the movie with us. I especially made an Azuma bag to hang the charm on. 

Oct 2025:

The last of our Coast-to-Coast walk! We walked so much in 2025 because someone was always depressed -______-  The last walk ended at Jurong Lakeside Park, and it so happened to be Mid-Autumn Festival and there was a festival there. We spend the night watching a local rock concert at the park. It was a rather enjoyable night if only it wasn't so far from my home! I stay at the other end of the island! For 2026, my friends have promised that it will be a East Side walk. I told them I don't want to see them again until 2026 :P

Was briefly back in Penang and meetup with Middle Cousin at Norm. Thought it would be nice to catch up before our epic trip together to the Balkans! I don't even know if I can stand her for two whole solid week together!

Our epic Balkan Trip! Above is the group photo we had in Romania when we first landed. Our trip took us to Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, and Slovenia! All together 30 of us, plus one tour guide and one driver. Below are some of the people I actually clicked with that made my trip memorable. 

Our bus driver Adrian. Even before our tour started, we got to know him on our 2nd day in the Balkans when he started his job as our permanent bus driver. Before our bus was supposed to take off for the day, we were early and was playing a game of pool at the hotel lobby and we asked him to join us. Through out the trip we also helped him with his luggage as he dropped us off nightly at our hotel. I also spend some time with him at the pool spa in Dubrovnik when he was off duty :P

For some reason, we also ended up with some 'adopted' relatives in this trip. Above is Jeannie our 'grandma' from Sarawak. I didn't have a photo of Kong our 'grandpa' cause he was always too social and talking to everyone. But it was always nice chatting with Jeannie through out our trip. 

We also got ourselves an 'adopted parent', lol. Above is Cyrus and Melanie from KL. We decided to take a 'family' photo together on our last lunch together. It was fun knowing them and their 'cold' jokes. I thought they were the most loving couple in the trip, and Melanie is always young and beautiful forever! Lol.

Of course the whole trip was just us two arguing daily, and taking epic photos in every spot we visited. Thanks for inviting me along on this amazing bus-torturing trip across the Balkans with you! 

Our goodbye photo on the plane back. After which, we also had an epic time at KLIA where I took her on the wrong KL Express and ended up in KL Sentral. We both almost missed our flight back to our respective home! Never have I seen her run that fast before! I wanted to take a photo, but that would mean I would have missed my train back to KLIA! Hahahaha. The mistake cost me almost 200rm, but luckily I'm really good at earning back money :P

Sep 2025:

September saw me meeting up with my ex-colleagues from two different company in Shanghai! Ms Gold actually have visited me in Penang in April (see below) earlier, and I was returning the courtesy of visiting her in Shanghai. She also took me on a weekend trip to Suzhou, before I went off on my own to Hangzhou. Thanks for spending time showing us around Shanghai and bringing us to a hotpot dinner which was so amazing! (half a dozen fresh oysters for only 2sgd each oyster!)

The other ex-colleague was AQ who just wanted to get away but didn't know where to go. So he ended up in Shanghai with me. Above was us at the banquet lunch which was sooooo over the top that I went again on my own in Hangzhou too. Weirdly we've travelled together 3 times in 2025 (Johor, Shanghai, Penang/Ipoh). Yet we hardly spoke to each other when we were in the same company :P

Aug 2025:

3rd Coast-to-Coast walk, from Adam Road to Jurong. We forgot to take a photo of our 2nd Coast-to-Coast walk from Ang Moh Kio to Botanical Garden. It's amazing how much we walked in 2025. My husband also joint our walk, but for some reason he is always missing during our final walk.....

Jul 2025:

Day out road trip with Cousin and 3rd aunty when I was back in Penang. We drove to Butterworth for Dim Sum brunch, and then somehow ended up in Sungai Petani for tea and some shopping. I bought some nice wooden items at the 2dollar shop there. They were cheap and flimsy, yet after using them for half a year, they turned our pretty solid so far!

Jun 2025:

June was also another interesting month. Hanging out with the shy owner of Kopi and Milo at Garden by the Bay. These two cuties were also featured in my 2024 post. And although you hardly see any of me and their owner together, we actually hang up a few times a year, or whenever I have a Starbuck 1-4-1 voucher .... She would have been my youngest friend, if it weren't for my Daimler bestie :P

I also went on a Vietnam trip with Dearest KC. We were supposed to go Danang and Hoi An, but I added Hue last minute and what an awesome trip that turned out to be. We spend around 10 days in Central Vietnam, and above photo was taken outside the Imperial City Palace of Hue. 

While we were in Hoi An, Cassandra also happened to be there so of course we made plans to meet up. Above is us taking the cheesy Hoi An boat at the river side. This was the 3rd time we met up, and we went for a beer and an Anthony Bourdain Banh Mi before she convinced me to go on that cheesy boat ride. We actually met again in December when she dropped by Penang with Shannon her partner. 

May 2025:

We finally managed to finish walking the Rail Corridor! My legs felt like breaking! But what a rush! My husband abandon us at Buena Vista due to exhaustion, but the three of us pushes on! We felt so high after finishing that we treated ourselves to a nice dinner at Poulet Jurong, and before you know it.... the next photo!

We started on another walk, this time the Coast-to-Coast walk which Dearest KC has been wanting to do since it was first opened. We started at Punggol Waterway and walked all the way to Ang Moh Kio. That was the first time I walked around Punggol and Sengkang area and didn't know how lovely it was. 

I also met up with some of my ex-colleagues at a Tea House in Chinatown. I always enjoy going to a tea house, but I think most of them were struggling with the floor sitting arrangement :P We have been meeting less and less these days as most of them are busy with family and work. I think I ran off to drink kopi and eat Oyster Cake with AQ after this meeting, and for some reason I enjoyed that meetup better :P

AQ also took us on a 2D1N trip to Jaybeeeee where he arranged all the places we were to eat at. Eye opening trip. Above was taken at Nims bakery cafe, an over priced cafe after having a better version of crombolina at Chloe at Ipoh in November together. 

Apr 2025:

April was another interesting month! So much happened! First Middle Cousin came down to Singapore to catch Wicked the musical together! We got the cheapest seat at Marina Bay Sand. I've never been a fan of Wicked before until I watched the movie. I ended up really enjoying the musical too!

I took my Miffy bag to the show with me and really like this photo of us outside the theatre before the show. Luckily we took the photos before the show as there was a long line of people queueing after the show!

After the show, on our way to Arab Street to meet more of her relatives, we stumble upon this poster at the Bayfront MRT and decided to top by to take a photo together we were going to Universal Studio Singapore the next day! So glad we did as it turned out to be such a nice photo, and there wasn't a similar one at USS.

Spend the day at USS together and made her take some of the ride twice :P Particularly the Mummy ride and the Transformer ride which are my favourite. 

I think above is also one of my favourite photo of us. The USS staff who was helping us take photo was really fun and we were both a bit loony too, so we gamely post for all the shots. But as expected, all the nicer photos were taken by the USS Staff's camera which we had to pay for (which we didn't). But we managed to get some nice photos on our phones too :)

Another epic trip of 2025 was our visit to Manchester to visit Tom and Trish in ChapelTown. We were on our way to Scotland and dropped by to visit them as they have always invited us. We had a lovely pub lunch, and then an amazing proper British High Tea at their beautiful home. Hope to see them again in 2026 as we make another trip to Scotland. I've probably fallen in love with Scotland after visiting Isle of Skye. Hoping to visit the Northern Islands of Orkney next! 

While I was in Scotland, my weird cousin passed away and I didn't manage to say GoodBye to him. Perhaps it was for the best as the last time I saw him was in January at his home when I went to deliver some food to him before I left for Singapore. Above was a meetup with my cousin and aunt after helping to clear up some of his things in his apartment. We went to Zus Coffee at Tree Square for tea and to gossip about the event of his passing :P  It's now end of 2025 and we are still gossiping! 

Ms Gold dropped by Penang on her way back to Singapore to renew her PR :P  We spend a few days sight seeing in Penang. It was super chill as I think she just needed some downtime to rest from her hectic work. It was the same when we went to Suzhou together, I allowed her to rest more since I had all the time on my hand these days :P

After visiting the Peranakan Museum, I actually lend her some of my clothes the next day when I went to pick her up from her hotel. We played dress up in her hotel room, and I really like the result of the photos we took. Above was one of them.  Got some feedback from NES that I should consider accessorising my models next time. Point noted! Thanks for your review!

I followed Ms Gold back to Singapore, and on the first weekend we met up with our old walking buddies in a vegetarian buffet restaurant in Orchard. Without her in Singapore, we hardly meet up for walks any more, lol. She is the glue for our group.

We also had early tea with NES at CBTL Bugis. NES wanted to take before/after photos of us from the past. So here are some of the results. The bottom photo above was taken at CBTL Republic Plaza when we were all working at different companies but somehow was in town at the same time.

The top photo above was taken at Bedok Point Hoshino Coffee, perhaps before Ms Gold was about to leave Singapore?  Bedok Point don't even exist anymore and has been tore down a few years back. Ms Gold was away for around 7 years!

And the most merry meetup was with our ex-G3 colleagues for dinner, also at Bugis. I meet up with my 'twin' brother CoCo again who shares the same Birth Day and Month with me, but not year. For some reason after the meetup, we have been exchanging meme non-stop because we are both lame.... It was hard to explain, but we are both so lame that it was hard to expose lame-ness to others, so we find comfort in being lame with each other.... does that make sense?  :P

Mar 2025:

Was back in Penang in March to celebrate 3rd Aunty's birthday. Took her on another staycation. She picked town area, so we ended up in Neo+ opposite Gama. Her wish was to visit her old home at Kajang Road, so we walked here there to take a photo of what used to be her childhood home. I haven't planned what to do for her 2026 birthday yet. Wondering where else to take her for staycation in Penang.....

Feb 2025:

The year started out pretty gloomy, as my Myanmar brother Bo was leaving Singapore for good. He was migrating to Japan. So just a few days before he left, my Indonesian brother Gerry, NES and I meet up with Bo for a farewell dinner together at Chime. You always have a bond with people you suffer together with, and boy did we suffer together :P  All the best Bo! See you in Japan! (maybe not so soon cause I don't like going to Tokyo hehe). 

Jan 2025:  

Nothing much happened. I moved back permanently to Singapore and have been living here since :P

Looking forward to more interesting events and gathering in 2026!