Hallo-weekend

Pumpkin Party

Ah! Had another eventful weekend, full of food and laughs.

Saturday I went to the Car Care Centre to get an estimate for work to fix the bump, scratches and tipp-ex marks on my current car. Over a year ago the local Ford garage, Reg Vardy, had quoted me around £1100 to get the work done, minus the tipp-ex marks. I took the estimated costs sheet and said I'd call to book the car in for the job when I want it done. I ran away and never ever went back. I just continued using the car as it was. And though it was not aesthetically pleasing, it was a very healthy car, with less than 28,000 miles on the clock to date. Being an -03 registered vehicle, it is a very low mileage car, with an average of only 4666 miles a year. With the date of me getting my tuition car drawing closer (19th November!!), I thought it was about time to get the car fixed up and looking pretty so I can sell it once I get my instructor business running. There would be no point in keeping, insuring, taxing and fuelling two vehicles. What's more, there are limited parking spaces spaces outside my flat, so why add to it? =P

After leaving the Car Care Centre with an agreed three-figure cost, I went to get my hair cut at See Woo. Then I drove around the southside of Glasgow, leaving from Shieldhall test centre and visited the nearby surrounding areas, taking in the different roads that I may be teaching in and having a better idea of where I would be teaching particular manoeuvres etc. Only saw three other driving instruction vehicles in my 2+ hours drive. South side is just huge! Decided to pack it in after 3pm and head to Tesco for a pumpkin. Pumpkins were sold out!! =O Since this was my first time going to a pumpkin party and potentially carving pumpkins, I had no idea they were so popular or that they would be sold out. Morrison's had none. ASDA also had none! Booo! I guess it is like looking for a chocolate selection pack on Christmas Eve, or even Christmas Day itself. NO CHANCE! Ah well!

The Pumpkin Party took place at Roxane and Yin Ru's flat. Though guises where not the main point of our gathering, where two or three Chinese people meet together, there will be food!! We had a wide variety of food to enjoy: crackers, cheese, pasta, salmon, Jaffa cakes, chicken, ribs, rice, pumpkin soup and dessert was toffee cake, toffee and chocolate apples, pies and ice cream! [No, this time I did not have a taste of everything! Haha! Back to more healthy eating approach now.] Had a good time meeting new people as well as catching up with older faces from Edinburgh (William and Alan came to visit). Played "seven level pig" card game which was fun as well as 'challenging' in the fact that you have watch who you speak to. Haha! As for pumpkin carving? Gordon Li carved the big pumpkin with only small cutting knifes. The pumpkin was alight with a tealight candle and burnt throughout the night. Wilson Siu later carved the smaller pumpkin which arrived later on in the night when some visitors popped by. Here is the picture of the father and son pumpkins. Haha!



James' birthday

Yesterday was James' 26th birthday and he was wanting dinner at Nando's restaurant at The Quay. Dinner was at six, so we hung out at Ming's place first before making our way to the restaurant. I dropped my car off at the Car Care Centre on my way to Ming's place. Cat gave me a lift which was cool, cos the persistent rain was not stopping. There was an estimated 45 minutes wait for a big table in Nando's, so the seventeen of us went over to the bowling and arcades part of the leisure park. Few people played bowling, DDR, shooting games, basketball as well as those robotic arm machines where you win prizes. And I managed to win a HUGE Chupa Chup lollipop! =D The wait for our table didn't seem so long whilst we played our games and before long the seventeen of us were squeezed on our extra long table with our lovely HOT HOT food! Extra Hot chicken for me! Ooh la la! After the half chicken I was still hungry, so ordered another half chicken. This time Mango and Lime to give my tastebuds a rest. Haha!

I didn't take that many pictures through the night cos was busy stuffing my face and hands were a bit dirtier than usual. However, Henry and Ming quite a lot, so you can see them through their Facebook. We got James surprise cakes for his birthday and it felt like the whole restaurant was singing Happy Birthday to James as there was long another table nearby who were celebrating a girl's birthday. We were so noisy at one point cheering and shouting etc the manager went up to the other table and said they were to keep the noise down as there were other customers. Lol! I could see the manager stressed from the extremely busy day. =P

Had a great laugh and was good to hangout again after church =)

This week

So this week I will be car-less for a few days and will rely on public transport. In fact, I have bought myself a one week bus pass for £10.25 which will last till next Saturday. With a single bus journey at £1.15 a shot, I will have to take nine journeys to break even and start to really get my money's worth. That will come in handy as I plan to continue going out to Starbucks to read after dinner on week days. And I'll have a Core Team meeting at church tomorrow as well. As for the gym... well maybe a visit on Wednesday. Will be inconvenient to get to the west end on buses, so may arrange a ride from Cat, or just go back to Starbucks to read instead. Hope to finish reading the Highway Code tonight and continue reading Instructor Techniques and Practice on Wednesday or Thursday. Gonna be a busy week this week. Looking forward to a less eventful or at least less costly weekend next weekend. Will need start saving my pennies again, especially after the car repairs =)

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