manchester.
Whole lotta man, and he's named Chester.
So I skipped out on the final talks of the conference and checked out of my hotel to hop onto a train to Manchester to meet up with Yuni, who I had inconveniently forgotten was actually living here for the last two years. If I had known, I could have saved a night on my hotel, or planned an extra day. Anyway, I'm happy to have remembered (courtesy of my real memory, aka Christian's).
As a quick followup to my last food post, I was on the very crowded train pleasantly absorbed in my book, when I suddenly smelled something foul. "Is there a skunk on the train?" I thought. Nope, it turns out the woman next to me had just opened a container of guacamole. Seriously, those two smells should not be so easy to conflate.
I arrived with ease and Yuni was right there waiting, and she whisked me to an Indian restaurant where I finally got my fix of matar paneer. It's been at least two years since the last time I had it. Finally some good food in England.
Before we went to the restaurant, we bonded over complaints of England and it was nice. Yuni was happy that she wasn't crazy for thinking these same things of England. It's funny how we had independently come to many of the same conclusions.
We went out to Canal Street afterwards to some gay bars. Drinks are surprisingly cheap (at least compared to Lyon) and they actually know some cocktails (I had too many Long Island Iced Teas, because that's the only cocktail that didn't involve some super sweet fruit additive). Right as soon as we arrived, we settled into a booth and I pulled out my cell phone to turn it off to save battery. I dropped it as I tried to put it into my pocket, it hit the floor and the case flew off and scuttled under the booth. Luckily Yuni had a flashlight feature on her phone, so we could illuminate under the seat and find the two pieces of my phone. However, I also found a thin ring, so I pulled it out too. It had what seemed to be gems on it, yet it appeared to have been lost under that seat for ages. So we took it, with the intent to come home and test if the gems are glass by hammering them. Verdict: cheap jewelry with glass "gems". And that's about as good an analogy for England as we'll get.
So I skipped out on the final talks of the conference and checked out of my hotel to hop onto a train to Manchester to meet up with Yuni, who I had inconveniently forgotten was actually living here for the last two years. If I had known, I could have saved a night on my hotel, or planned an extra day. Anyway, I'm happy to have remembered (courtesy of my real memory, aka Christian's).
As a quick followup to my last food post, I was on the very crowded train pleasantly absorbed in my book, when I suddenly smelled something foul. "Is there a skunk on the train?" I thought. Nope, it turns out the woman next to me had just opened a container of guacamole. Seriously, those two smells should not be so easy to conflate.
I arrived with ease and Yuni was right there waiting, and she whisked me to an Indian restaurant where I finally got my fix of matar paneer. It's been at least two years since the last time I had it. Finally some good food in England.
Before we went to the restaurant, we bonded over complaints of England and it was nice. Yuni was happy that she wasn't crazy for thinking these same things of England. It's funny how we had independently come to many of the same conclusions.
We went out to Canal Street afterwards to some gay bars. Drinks are surprisingly cheap (at least compared to Lyon) and they actually know some cocktails (I had too many Long Island Iced Teas, because that's the only cocktail that didn't involve some super sweet fruit additive). Right as soon as we arrived, we settled into a booth and I pulled out my cell phone to turn it off to save battery. I dropped it as I tried to put it into my pocket, it hit the floor and the case flew off and scuttled under the booth. Luckily Yuni had a flashlight feature on her phone, so we could illuminate under the seat and find the two pieces of my phone. However, I also found a thin ring, so I pulled it out too. It had what seemed to be gems on it, yet it appeared to have been lost under that seat for ages. So we took it, with the intent to come home and test if the gems are glass by hammering them. Verdict: cheap jewelry with glass "gems". And that's about as good an analogy for England as we'll get.