Manchester/Scotland 2025 - My Favourite Souvenirs

 

This post is about all my favourite souvenirs I got from my first trip to Scotland. I think all of them were bought on my last day there! Above is a pretty nice tea set that was an accidental buy. In fact, it was the last thing I bought, and it was an impulsive buy. It cost me 8pounds for the whole set, and I hand carried it all the way back. I bought it in a little tea shop on Victoria Street. It was such an impulsive buy that I might have not checked it properly and discovered that there is a crack on the tea cup itself. I was scared it would break, so I try to use it only on cold tea instead of hot tea. It was been more than a year now, and it's still held up pretty well! I love the colour and the design of the set, cause it reminded me of Scotland every time I use it. For sure I've used it more than 8 times now, so it has now become a value buy for me :)

Here are some of the ways I use it for my afternoon tea. I don't know why, but ever since I got my two tier cake plate, I've been having a lot of afternoon tea lately. It has become like a ritual, or a relaxing way to enjoy my tea and something sweet :) The two tier cake plate cost me only 10sgd from Daiso Plaza Singapura. I remember it very well cause I bought it after being frustrated when I found out afternoon at the Edinburgh Castle cost around 80pounds a set. With such ridiculous pricing, I might as well make my own afternoon tea! And I've been doing just that for a lovely year now :)  One day I'll consolidate all the tea sets on this blog to remember them by :)

Next we come to probably my most expensive souvenir, a book on the Occult, Witchcraft and Magic! How cool is that. I got this from the Museum of Context on Victoria Street too, and it cost me 30pounds! And the weird thing is, after one year, I think I've only read a few pages of it! It sits next to my bed, and I really love seeing it there. It was madness for me to buy this book, but I love it so much! It's not just a fancy book too, it detailed all the history of the said subject as well as from different counties. And there was only one book on display there, and I just decided to carry it all the way home :)

Let me show you the some sample of the inside of the book. Above some of the text and picture. It was so detailed! So much words! And so much ancient information too. Who ever compiled this book seriously have an interest on it as a historian or scholar. It wasn't one of those wishy washy witch book for teenage girls. And I am as surprised as you how such a wonderful book was found in the corny Museum of Context for Harry Potter fans..... :X  Actually I did researched on a few books before I decided on this one, cause it has the best review too. I was stunned at the price, but I had some leftover souvenir money to spend, and I didn't know if I would come across such a book again. Besides, I don't really spend much of my money buying stuff anyway. So why be so frugal if I don't treat myself from time to time?

The inside of the page after the Cover. Bright red is so striking!

Lots of these medieval looking pictures in the book too! It's almost like I bought a whole museum back. I guess 5 pounds of the cost of the book came from my savings from not visiting the Museum of Magic and Witchcraft which well, didn't look too 'dedicated' to the craft when I tried to visit it....

And lastly, one of the things I wanted was a Celtic designed pendent. I actually have one before, I think I got it from my first trip to England long time back. It was the trinity knot. I wanted something with a black stone this time, and I got the above pendent from a shop on Royal Mile. My husband actually bought it for me, and I was surprised that it was pretty reasonable priced. For my 2nd trip, I am thinking of getting a Celtic ring, something Outlander style that some ladies have recommended on social media. Let's see if I am successful in my quest :)

And so we end here for our Manchester/Scotland 2025 blog posting. I wonder which travel blog should I do next. I have so much backlog to clear! I am surprised I managed to finish this one rather efficiently and before the deadline I gave myself. I even had 1 week to spare! With being stuck at home cause transport is so darn expensive in Singapore, updating this blog has become my sideline to spend part of my days. I love going back to re-live all the memories of a trip, and I know that once I upload them here, I would constantly be able to come back and recall those wonderful trip I had :)  So it's not a wasted effort at all for me. Even if blogs don't last forever, as long as they are still here, they bring me great joy writing and re-reading them :)

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Isle of Skye Tour Fairy Glen (2/2)

Still exploring the Fairy Glen, we walked on and came to a path between two miniature hills. Doesn't it looked like a portal into another world? Just beyond there! A magical fairy world exist! 

My husband standing there observing the portal :D

But soon, it was time to turn back again, and we quickly made our way back from were we came from. 

I just love the land here. It felt so free just to run around a varse land like this. It felt like you could touch the sky too! And the whole world seems to be just below you. What a place! 

And then we came to maybe the most mysterious place of all. We walked past a ground of trees that looked just like branches. 

I can't remember what time it was, but the sun was shining through those branches, and everything just illuminate up. The shadows of the branches on the green glass were so beautiful, as those against the blue skies. 

Here is a portrait photo. I felt so happy at this spot, but I don't really know why. 

And so I just kept taking photos, of basically nothing but a bunch of branchy trees by the path :)

My Selfie :)

And this beautiful one my husband took of me  :)

This was my favourite photo here, 2nd only to the circle glass inside the glen :)

Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Edinburgh Stockbridge Circus Lane

As mentioned in earlier post, we did managed a 15minutes detour to visit Circus Lane which was just down the main street.  It was one of those hidden gem places of Edinburgh for it's charming small alley and building charm. But I was here for a different reason. You see, Circus Lane was a location featured in the series Good Omen, which was based on one of my favourite book by one of my favourite Terry Pratchett. And I really really like the two main characters inside the story. So I just wanted to stand there and absorb the vibe of the story :P

 

This is the famous view of the lane. It is actually just a short alley, but I guess it hold it's own charm. There weren't many people there that day, so I could managed to get some shot of the empty street with the church at the end of it. I can't remember if it drizzled a bit that day, but the shine on those cobbler looking street was lovely. 

There are residential buildings on both sides of the lane. In the series, Crowley actually has his Bentley parked at the side of one of the houses here in Season 2.  I'm looking forward to Season 3 coming up in May as I'll be visiting one of the bookstore that is rumoured to be featured in the series. I hope the rumours are true. Then again, I doubt I'll ever regret visiting a bookstore :)

View of just the houses on the lane.

They kinda looked like warehouses at certain section really. 

Some were more residential looking than others, with gardens and roses planted in the front of their house.

Above is the church at the end of the lane. Again, we didn't went inside. We just walked there and walked back again. 

I did managed to take a few notable nice doors found along the lane. Here is house #49. Love that the number is in black and white mosaic and on the floor itself as the first step into the house. I love the black door too, and the bird knocker at the top. I want to think that it' a crow, cause Sandman the series was also recently a thing in the book/fantasy world :P

The house with the pink flowers in front was #14. I'm gonna imagine that this is my little house in Scotland :)  cause my birthday is on the 14th :P

Nearer to the end where it met the main street, there were also some buildings that looked more like office buildings. This was where I found the above sign. I just thought it looked cool. 

Signing off with a selfie of myself on Circus Lane. I guess I should have taken it with the view of the church instead. Agh! Oh well, we settle for what we can get in our life. I doubt I will walk there again, unless it's on one of my any trips to Scotland where I would get the time to walk the whole length of the waterway! Then for sure I will stop by here for brunch or lunch, and wander into this lane again to take a better picture :P

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!