coming to sheffield?

i'll be waiting for u here, then.

advice what?

not much to advice ler... really. if u come here sehelai sepinggang also can survive. waaaayyy too many malaysians in sheffield. about 600+ registered this year, and that does not include their families. add a few more for sheffield hallam. generally u cant walk around the city without bumping into a msian (exaggerate! exaggerate!).

mental preparation is most important.

well, for food related stuff, it's quite easy to get asian food in sheffield.

a couple of chinese, indian, thai restaurants near the university. havent found any malaysian restaurants yet, surprisingly. there are lots of malaysian restaurants in other places, but in sheffield, i couldnt find one!

asian grocery stores are also strewn about in sheffield. u can get from mee maggi to kicap habhal to belacan. what more do u want? all made in msia one! hahahaha.

u dont really need to bring dry food. just enough to survive for about a month or so, until u can familiarize urself around sheffield. for muslim it'll be a little harder to find halal butchers, but all the kebab stores serve halal food, so not a big deal.

and meadowhall... aiihh... the current attraction to sheffield. one of the biggest shopping complex in the midlands.

yes... tai sun. but i usually get distracted by forbidden planet just opposite the street. hahaha



hah! i just live upstairs a few lots away on monmouth street.

not forgetting the occasional riot when the local team loses. or ENGLAND. yesterday was pretty scary. lotsa drunks on the streets. anti riot police with dogs, police car/van everywhere. and the best part, a helicopter hovering over sheffield watching the streets like big brother.

just remembered another thing:

there'll be a time when u find urself holding a patched up british pound note using selotape, or notes with scribblings on it. those are still valid money. dont throw it away. in malaysia, conteng sikit terus kedai tak terima. here, even if it's torn in two, just patch it up, and u can use it.

if u're not confident, u can exchange it at any banks.

it's not that their notes are high-quality. it's the mentality. ringgit note is high-quality also. but kedai would only accept "mint" condition notes

talking about gaming, in london, there's this shop in tottenham court road where i used to buy pre-owned games. after i'm done, i sell it back to them. but they dont have that kinda shop here in sheffield (either that, or i havent found one). kinda like rent-a-book principle.

here's something msia still doesnt have: good phone deals. here in the UK, u dont buy phones. u buy the package. every now and then, mobile companies will offer u excellent packages which includes hundreds of free minutes, text & video messages and FREE mobile phone for about GBP 15++ a month.

free mobile phone.

u dont buy em. the contract is a year. u just pay for the free minutes/messages. and after a year, they'll offer a better package with newer phone, and u keep the old phone. sell it if u want. i gave it to my sister back in msia.

it's a good wedding present/hantaran too! just spend GBP15 a month, and u'll get a RM2500 worth of mobile phone to show off to ur wife-to-be's families. that's what i'm doing right now

ahhh... printing.

here's a tip on bringing ur own stuff to the UK. u must have a study visa of over a year to do this. pack all ur stuff (printer, ink, PC whatever) into one of fedex's package-box. ask someone to send it after u've settled down in the UK.

UK customs will hold ur package in gatwick. make sure to have ur contact number and email when u send the package. they will contact u in order to release ur package. they will say they're going to impose tax charges on the imported goods.

however, u tell them that u're a student, and just moved to this country, and those are ur personal stuff for studying. they will then send u a form which u'll need to fill. declare everything as personal/private USED stuff. then u'll need to go to ur university's help desk and request a letter proving that u've just registered to that university. send the completed form and the letter back to fedex in gatwick.

after a few hours of processing, the package will be in ur hands probably the next day.



inks are expensive. printers are fairly cheap. and there are virtually no immitatiions here. u buy everything original. what i did was i packed RM200 worth of inks (do check the expiry date!) when i sent my package here. they didnt even bothered to open/check the package, so all my ikan bilis and belacan was safe as well

google, emerald or proquest is not enough for my phd thesis. believe me

undergraduate ok kot.

i've been through customs in heathrow back in 2003. they just picked me at random, and asked what's in my luggage. i told them "clothings, toiletries, some instant food, PC..."

"u mean a laptop?" the customs officer asked.

"no. a PC."

"please open up."

so i opened and showed her the content of my bag. a full PC with everything included. with 15" lcd monitor. she was like "riiight...". and then she asked again "dont seem like u packed enough clothing."

so i had to take off the casing of my PC and revealed the insides packed with neatly folded and rolled shirts, undies and whatnot. loved the expression on her face.

no big deal actually. they know u're a student, u'll be in the country for quite awhile. usually they tend to be very helpful and polite. especially at 6am in the morning.

well, as u know, a PC is virtually just a casing with lots of empty spaces. fold or roll all the clothes as small as possible, and jam it into every possible orifice... err... space inside it. notice that u can put in more stuff into it if u roll ur clothes rather than folding it.

it kinda looked like stuffed crab.

if i do that again, i'll take a picture.

coz i dont believe in laptops!

hahaha...

actually i'm a CAD/3D freak. i usually find laptops are too constraining; u cant expand ur harddrive, upgrade ur displays etc. and PCs give more processing power vs cost.

no, there's virtually no 'legal' way of watching TV without license. even with tv tuner cards, coz they have this defined in the tv licensing rules. unless u do it virtually, ofcourse (via the internet, using ur PC). it's about GBP110+ a year.

nope.

TV licensing is basically paying for receiving any sort of programmes, regardless of free digital tv or whatever. basically, if u CAN receive programmes, u'll need a TV license.

i'm using natwest. opened a step account in less than an hour. got card in less than a week, and the pin about 2 days later. so within 10 days in UK, i've got my financial line secured. my girlfriend did the same thing. but since she has HSBC account back home, she setup the account here. didnt have much of a problem, but application is a little hassle though. but nothing that couldnt be settled in a day.


about the TV thing, i'm a TV junkie too. so what i did was to setup a paypal account, and later a rapidshare account. i dont have to tell u the rest ler...

if u're a student, u dont have to pay for council tax. u'll need to provide ur landlord with the details (proof of study bla bla bla), and they'll settle it for u. landlords sometimes prefer students coz it'll take a huge chunk of the total council tax, so it'll actually benefit them.

on accommodations, usually u have 1 year contract the first year u stay here. but do mention this to ur accommodations office. they can provide/change u into a spouse room, which is within ur contract. breaking off the 1 year contract, however, is a little harder. u need to check with the accom. office.

another thing:

in london virtually all rents are calculated by week, not monthly. there're 12 months a year, or 52 weeks a year. dont just convert a GBP100 per week into GBP400 a month. here's why:

400 a month = 4800 a year
100 per week = 5200 a year

i made this mistake when i first came here. i thought i misplaced some of my money. then my flatmate told me to recalculate this. easy money for the landlords!

oh yeah, quid is another term for pound. so people can go around and say "that's ten quid, luv", which means 10 pounds

if u're staying outside university halls, there are other things u'd have to worry about like phone/internet bills, electricity, heating, water bla bla bla. yeah, p2p comes with a price. broadband is everywhere, but they dont come cheap. there are cheap ones, but they come with a catch.

2mb broadband is very common now. many have shifted to 4mb, and i myself am using 8mb, and if i'm not mistaken 16mb is just around the corner. broadband costs about GBP14-25 a month (4-8mb), and the cheaper ones come with 1 or 2 gb bandwith limit per month. shitty aint it?

that price is not inclusive BT landline (telephone line) or cable costs. there are offer packages though. u might wanna keep an eye on that.

yes, it is more affordable to actually send parcels than to bring it with u. when u first come to the UK, there's a clause in the customs ruling that allow u to bring in ur personal stuffs without being taxed. well, it must be pre-owned items, but they dont really check.

so when i came here, i brought about 25kg of baggage (pc, clothings, toilettries and other important stuff to survive for 3-4 weeks). i sent the rest of my stuff via fedex (speakers, books, printer, rice cooker, extra shoes, clothings etc, 20kg max) and it costs about RM450 for 4-5 days delivery.

last time i sent an 8kg excess baggage from LHR to KUL and it costed me 75quid (RM500++).