NICK CHAN DOT NET

Blog

  • Durham Lumiere Festival 2013

    Durham Lumiere Festival 2013

    Durham Lumiere Festival 2013 – I find that I am quite lucky to visit the Durham Lumiere Festival last week because this beautiful light festival happens only once every two years. I am here in the UK for only a year, so I shall not skip this festival in Durham which is just so nearby to Newcastle.
    On the second week of arrival in Newcastle, I went to visit Durham and the Angel of the North, it was during the day time; visiting Durham after sun goes does gives a different feeling. The small little town with beautiful old cathedrals glows at night at this Durham Lumiere Festival. Instead of getting on the bus, we took the train to Durham and it takes about 15 minutes only! Train ticket was just £6.70 return (£4.45 with Rail Card), so that’s cheaper than the bus!
    Arriving at Durham at a different place (the train station) actually tried to test my way-finding skill, but luckily we met a friend who lives in Durham at the railway station who then brought us into town. A huge swamp of people was heading toward the town too, where the main venue for the light festival was. The light installations spread across various part of the town, first thing first we went to the information counter to get ourselves a guide-map.
    Best green curry I had in the UK
    We couldn’t really start the exploration then because we were hungry and we went to an Asian restaurant for dinner – Fat Buddha. Well, I guess that’s the best Asian food I’ve ever had since I came to the UK. Awesome green curry and awesome salad wasabi prawn. Energy recharged and we started following the guide map to the light installation.
    Music visualizer on a building!
    Water + Bleach = Light. Interesting.
    Desserted circus.
    The aquarium in a phone booth.
    The feeling of wandering the Durham town at night was pretty interesting. Light installation was somehow not as surprising as I thought, they were somehow smaller in scale, or simpler than I thought. However the image projection on Durham Cathedral was just uber cool, as well as the huge elephant projected at the castle gate. I like the light installation of plastic bag lanterns along the alley which is so colourful. The British-signature red telephone booth which turned into fish tank was interesting too!
    We didn’t really get to check out all the light installation as the time passes quite quickly, moreover we were like chit chatting and walking slowly. Haha. Nevertheless, it was a great night, not a large scale light festival, but I just enjoyed the evening with crowds and Durham. Lastly, we spent an hour at the rail at 3 degree celcius waiting for the next train! Oh my.
  • Sunset: Quayside, Newcastle Upon Tyne

    Sunset: Quayside, Newcastle Upon Tyne

    Sunset: Quayside, Newcastle Upon Tyne – Because the Quayside is rather far from where I stay, about 15 minutes walk, or shall say I am lazy to go there most of the time, so I hardly get my chance to shoot the sunset, or sunrise. Few weeks back, on a Sunday evening, I finally got my lazy ass off my room and head over to Quayside. It was late, about 3 something in the afternoon where the sun was starting to go low. Winter is coming yo, and my daylight is getting short. I see that it was a good clear sky there, I quickly walked to Quayside to chase the sun!
    It was almost there at the horizon, I couldn’t really get a glimpse of the beautiful egg yolk. Without any hesitation, I tried to head to the highest point that I can get to and that’s the Tyne’s Bridge. I ran and I walked fast and I reached Tyne’s Bridge. The sad thing was I was at the other side of the bridge, as in a wrong view. I couldn’t cross the road because the road is quite wide and many vehicles passing by.
    I guess, even if I get to cross the road, I couldn’t get a good view of it too because there’s the other bridge at far end blocking the view. Not really disappointed, at least, I had a good moment chasing the sun and I found a good spot for sunrise, that’s from Tyne’s Bridge! 😀
  • A Night Out At Habita – The Bar In Northumbria University

    A Night Out At Habita – The Bar In Northumbria University

    A Night Out At Habita – The Bar In Northumbria University – Perhaps Malaysia is an Islamic country where alcohol is a sensitive thing to the local Muslim, that why you will not see a bar or pub in a university. It’s not surprised to the Westerners that you can buy alcoholic drinks in campus. This is interesting to me, there’s 2 bars in Northumbria University, one is Habita, another is Red; one more is located at Domain, but only opens during event night, so no surprise that you can club in campus (But entrance is rather expensive, went in once at £10 per entry).
    All house in the Student Union building, something you normally see in Malaysia, the Habita sells food for lunch, and dinner, and later at night it’s just drinks. It gets more happenings during football match day where students will gather around in there to catch the match on the big screens. Some times, it’s also used as an event place too!
    My favourite drinks in Habita would either be a pint of Carling lager, or Strongbow cider (I know it’s girlish, but still great), because they are the cheapest @ £1.75/pint. 😀
  • Jonathan & Samuel’s Birthday At Moji Karaoke In Newcastle

    Jonathan & Samuel’s Birthday At Moji Karaoke In Newcastle

    Jonathan & Samuel’s Birthday At Moji Karaoke In Newcastle – A birthday celebration in Newcastle, a good Chinese food dinner at Moji’s Karaoke and Restaurant, the first KTV in UK and it was a good night. Happy birthday Jon & Sam!
    Just to let you know, KTV at here is not cheap at all. It’s not charged according to head like in Red Box or Loudspeaker. It’s charged by hours and the size of room and we picked a package of £168 which allows us to eat and drink up to £168 and includes 2 hours of KTV, additional hour costs another £25. So what do you think? But it was a fun night after all, I miss KTV with my girlfriend and friends back in Kuala Lumpur!
  • Newcastle United vs Manchester City At St. James Park

    Newcastle United vs Manchester City At St. James Park

    Newcastle United vs Manchester City At St. James Park – I am not a football fans, I do not know much about the football scene, but football, or soccer being the most popular sports in England, how can I not go to the stadium to catch a football match? I guess at the same time, I should brush up my football knowledge too!
    I don’t know what’s my favourite football team, I only knew that I select Manchester United most of the time when playing Fifa 2000 on the PlayStation. Haha. Very luckily, there’s happened to be a football match few weeks back at St. James’ Park Stadium, home stadium to the Newcastle United and it was a match under the Capital One Cup. The away team was Manchester City. Best part of all, the ticket to the match costed only £15! Premiere League’s ticket is about £40 on average.
    Without a Newcastle United jersey on, I wandered into the stadium with a bunch of newbie Asian, and sat ourselves among a whole gang of Newcastle United fans. Woah! The stadium is not as huge as I thought but the field was like so close to me! Now I know it’s cool to watch a match at the stadium than on ESPN, it’s just a bit weird where you can’t hear the commentary. Atmosphere was just brilliant with fans chanting and singing the football’s club anthem. It’s just feels great, and cold of course.
    Not a beautiful stadium for St. James Park, but the experience was worthwhile. I just shout and cheer as the person in front does. I’ve to say Newcastle United fans are diehard fans, without them the match would be different. They even applause when there’s no goal, it’s just a way to support the player, “Good shot”.
    Unfortunately, the 90 minutes ended with a tie of 0-0. Extra time added and Manchester City won the game with 2 goals. I would say my £15 was well spent as I got 120 minutes of football match. Haha. Good experience after all.
  • JJ’s Cafe – Malaysian Food In Newcastle

    JJ’s Cafe – Malaysian Food In Newcastle

    JJ’s Cafe – Malaysian Food In Newcastle – Malaysian are now spread all over the world, although not as huge group as the Chinese are, but there is a lot of Malaysians residing in the UK, or other western country. Thus, looking for a Malaysian cuisine to cure homesickness is rather easy, same goes to Newcastle Upon Tyne, where I am right now. This little city in the North East of England has as many as 3 restaurants selling Malaysian’s cuisine. One being JJ’s Cafe, another one is Mamak Corner and the last one is Rasa Nusantara.
    JJ’s Cafe is located on Heaton Road, somewhere about 25 minutes away from City Campus, somewhere near Morrisons, you will know if you resides in Newcastle.
    Speaking about JJ’s Cafe, their menu is pretty much Malaysian food, you can find most of the mainstream Malaysian food like Nasi Lemak, Nasi Goreng, Chicken Curry, Curry Laksa, Wantan Mee (dry), Maggi Goreng, Roti Canai, as well as Char Koay Teow and more. One thing about eating Malaysian food abroad is with an open mind, do not expect much and don’t compare with home. The taste is may not come close, but they are good somehow. Other than Malaysian food, they do English breakfast and tea too, but they never caught my craving till now.
    Wayne with his cute finger.
    Anchyi with her Nasi Briyani. Looks good!
    Alvin & me.
    Jon and Ivan of HK!
    Curry chicken rice, I was not attracted to this because I can cook my own curry at home. XD
    Hainanese Chicken Rice which doesn’t feels hainanese to me, but then it’s good!
    Char Koay Teow, not Penang-style, I’ll just call it a general Malaysian style, spicy and sweet. I find it good.
    Food choices are pretty awesome, so do the price, most of the food at less than or around £5 which I would say reasonable because you can hardly find this price of Malaysian food in the UK. One funny thing that my friend told me that, if you see Malaysian food selling more than £6/7, the owner must be a Malaysian Chinese, Malaysian Indian/Malay would be selling them cheaper. =D LOL.
    JJ’s Cafe
    16 Heaton Road,
    Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE6 1SD
    Telephone: +44 1912657766
  • First Steamboat At Lovaine Hall

    First Steamboat At Lovaine Hall

    First Steamboat At Lovaine Hall – I believe there’s more steamboat to come, since it’s so easy to prepare by just buying the ingredients from Chinatown, divide the money, invite people and eat. So, this is my first steamboat at Lovaine Hall, 4th floor’s AA5 kitchen to be specific which happened a month ago.
    At just about £6 per person, I had a awesome dinner that give me a feeling of home. Happy, fun, bloated, and shiokness.
    Muahahahahahahahahahahaha.

  • When Malaysian Meets Malaysian Car

    When Malaysian Meets Malaysian Car

    When Malaysian Meets Malaysian Car – Just like people coming from the village to the city; when Malaysian meets a Malaysian’s Proton Gen 2 in a foreign land, United Kingdom to be specific, surprised, not ‘wow, walaoeh, wah piang’ but most importantly, a photo with it is a must!
    Chinatown, Newcastle Upon Tyne.
  • Laing Art Gallery & High Bridge Quarter Festival

    Laing Art Gallery & High Bridge Quarter Festival

    Laing Art Gallery & High Bridge Quarter Festival – I am now spamming my blog with all the lovely blue sky days that I had on last month in Newcastle. Feeling bad not updating my blog occasionally, which causes me to spam it all out. Haha. Nevertheless, I don’t care, I just like to share, and post, that’s it.
    This is Mr Laing.
    Forgotten on which day of last month, I went to the Laing Art Gallery in the city just for fun with a bunch of friends from my hometown, Penang! Great! Although I am an interior design student, art gallery with paintings still feels very boring to me. I prefer contemporary, modern, installation art. Full stop. The only thing that interests me is that all of the painting collections are dated back many years ago. That’s a wow, which the place is more like a museum for painting. Yawned all the way out and it’s time to walk around the city.
    KFC is better back in Malaysia in my opinion. There’s no Thai Chilli Sauce and you have to pay for ketchup. Sad.
    So relaxing ah!
    Hi Penang-lang.
    A friend brought us to High Bridge at Grainger Town where there was a festival going on – High Bridge Quarter Festival. Happily, it was happenings, filled with music and laughter, but sadly, it was almost the end of festival at 5pm where the stalls were starting to pack up. Too bad, but then I enjoyed the day with a good weather and a good time with people of Penang. It just feels home.
  • Beautiful Sunday At Tynemouth Beach

    Beautiful Sunday At Tynemouth Beach

    Beautiful Sunday At Tynemouth Beach – Throwing back some old stuff that happened a month ago where there was still plenty of beautiful sunny day, one of which, a good day out to the beach! Well, previously I talked about wandering around the weekend market at Tynemouth Station, this actually continues from there.
    Located on the far east end of Newcastle is the Tynemouth Longsands beach and shore. It was still early Autumn where the weather was still not at a freezing temperature, though it’s still chilly and cold at times, a day out to the beach was ideal. Tynemouth is a small little town by the sea, the main attraction of course is not the town, but the beach and the Tynemouth Priory and Castle. We didn’t go to the castle because we need to pay for it, so we spent most of the time by the shore, enjoying the chilly breeze, as well as fish & chips!
    You know, I just love sitting by the seaside, listening to the sound of wave hitting the shore. The beautiful sound just calms the mind a lot. Moreover it was a good blue sky day. At Tynemouth Longsands, I was surprised that there’s people playing in the water, and surfing too! I wonder what’s the coldness of the water and I took of my shoes, then went to put my feet into the North Sea. It’s cold! I just wonder how could they stand the cold in the water. Perhaps I’ve been living in the tropical country where the sea water is always warm.
    It was a good day. I want to come back here for a sunrise, but it’s super cold in the morning and I am not sure whether I can wake up or not. Ha.
WP2Social Auto Publish Powered By : XYZScripts.com