Adieu 2010!

I wrote last year that I wanted 2010 to be a fruitful year and indeed it has been. I'll spend some time recollecting some memorable times throughout the months starting from January:

January - It's the start of the final semester at INTI. The beginning of the end. My trusty old BenQ lappie broke down at the worst possible moment when I'm rushing to complete my thesis and settling committee stuff. In any case, I'm happy to get my new lappie by the end of the month

February - Chinese New Year with Reuben in JB with Kylie. And then on the way back, we had five in the car stopping by at Kluang and making fun of Kluang Mall at the same time, thanks to the RM1 ticket tagline - shop like a city..lol

March - ICF Rally, the ultimate objective of Lerdie's committee has been fulfilled. My law magazine is finally published, after a year's worth of agonising work. I had a China guy colliding into my car and had him pay compensation. At the end of the month, it signified the end of my secretary term in ICF

April - Final exams for second year looms and I had a surprise 21st birthday celebration in Seremban coupled with an Easter drama show at Lynne's church. It was time to say goodbye to INTI for good.

May - It was the beginning of a 5 month vacation. CF camp at the start of the month, followed by Camp Cameron for 3 weeks.

June - Had my first trip of exploring Ipoh for the Psalmist Generation conference. This is followed by a crazy month of football craziness with the World Cup tournament.

July - A week of hanging out at INTI with the JPAs who are back for their briefing. Singapore and KL roadtrip with Eden, Karen and Charmaine.

August - Visa application as preparations are made for the coming crossover in Europe. Had one last outing and gathering with Maddie, Lerdie and Emily before they fly off one by one to Amerika.

September - The hour of reckoning is here. I crossed the gateway to Europe and Brittania for the 1st time in my life. Started uni at the end of the month

October - Exploring Leeds and the university inch by inch. Had my first experience at the Uni rugby game. Slowly adapting to the English life

November - The most eventful month during my stay in the UK. Attended the CU Weekend away at Shropshire and also the Encounter weekend with the Chinese Church. 3 Rock concerts (Linkin Park, Anberlin and Paramore). Malaysian Nottingham games

December - Winter break! My first experience of Old Trafford. Exploration of York and Manchester with various people. And of course, the most recent one - Christmas with the Tuckers.

Well, it has been an eventful year and I'm quite happy at how it has turn out although the latter part of the year is filled with farewells and realisation that I had to restart yet again my networking circle. As always, there are things to thank God for how the year has been. Firstly, on the good closure of my time at INTI and getting through 2nd year of law safely despite some last minute studying. And then also the visa application, friends' company and moments to serve in the worship ministry in many ways. Finally, in the UK where I had to opportunity to catch United in action and also some of favourite rock bands live in action. Here's a toast for a good 2010 and for new things to come in 2011!

A memorable experience

I've just arrived back at Leeds. The train ride back was very relaxing although hectic at the start. I had the misfortune of having my train from Chepstow to Cheltenham Spa cancelled due to an industrial strike action by Welsh rail workers. Seriously, of all times they can mount a strike, they had to do it on a Monday when I needed to go back. Nevertheless, it was fortunate that there's plan B, in that Tim will fetch me to the Bristol Park station, just as what he did when I arrived a few days ago. The plan was to intercept the same train going to Leeds which I would have boarded at Cheltenham. On the way however, he accidentally took a wrong turn and for a short moment, it was a race against time. I was thankful in that I did not need to negotiate long with the ticket gatekeeper to let me through because of my cancelled train in Chepstow. The minute I walked down the platform, the train arrived promptly. I took a breath of relief when I was safely seated in the train. It was quiet ride back with lots of space too because the seat beside me was empty. I took the opportunity to finish up some reading for my criminology essay.

Here's a summary on what I did on Boxing Day. Tim and I were thinking of going out to one of the local pubs in Chepstow to watch football but unfortunately, the pub only showcased rugby matches. So Tim drove me to Tintern for a short visit instead. Tintern is an even smaller Welsh village than Chepstow. One of the famed landmarks of Tintern is the Tintern Abbey. It is a a very obvious looming structure which comes into view the moment I entered into the village. The peculiar and unusual thing about this abbey is that it is almost 700 years old, with its roof and glass windows missing but the stone structure remained intact throughout the test of time. I would love to explore the ruins but the entrance is closed since its the holidays. We made one round to have a look around the River Wye and the scenery is just gorgeous and looks particularly different with all the snow filled fields.
We spent the night watching DMC and we played some family games too. On the next day, we have some guests in the house as Tim's uncle and aunty with his cousins came by for a visit in the afternoon. We had another family walk through another batch of whit fields. We had an afternoon feast in the house and then in the evening, the Tuckers' family friends came over for a visit. And to end off my time at Chepstow, the Tuckers and their friends took the opportunity to use the sticky snow to make a gigantic snowman. It's surprising for me to see how easily the show rolled off the grass into a giant ball. Anyways, Tim's parents were nice to provide me with a dinner too before I'm off to the train station.

Overall, I did have a great experience with the Tuckers. I'm feeling very blessed already to be invited to such a lovely home and family in Christ. Before I went off, Tim's mother generously told me that if I ever needed an English mother or a place to stay, I can find them at Chepstow..haha. From my few days stay here, I can see that they are a very musical family although Tim and his father are engineers. All of the 5 siblings can play the piano and they regularly practice on the piano with their father. Personally, I've always wanted to have a feel on what it's like to have many siblings, since I've only 1 younger brother. I discovered also that the Tuckers have actually been hosting one international student on every Christmas and it has been their tradition. In previous years before their children went to Uni, their international guests come from Bristol. When I reached back at Leeds, it felt like some sort of fairy tale coming to an end. One, it's because I have to get back to my assignments and secondly, because it's the first instance where I get to really know a British person more in depth rather than just the usual on the surface hi and bye. I'm really thanking God for giving me this rare opportunity. Somehow, He always leads the right people into my circle of network or me to somebody else's network. And for this Christmas season, I've felt the warmth of a family life on the other side of the globe. God bless the Tuckers for their kind hospitality :)

A White and British Christmas!

Currently I'm at Tim's house in Chepstow and the two days at his house has been a blast so far. On Thursday night, I took a night train from Leeds. It was supposed to be an 8.11pm train but somehow it got delayed by an hour until 9.11pm. Ah, that would mean that I would miss the connecting train at Cheltenham Spa. I met Tim instead at the Bristol Park station instead to prevent myself from being stranded. The train had another unexpected switchover at Birmingham but I reached the Bristol station earlier than expected. I waited for quite some time before Tim drove over to pick me up from the empty station. The bed was freezing by the time I'm trying to sleep at night.

Tim has a big family with 4 siblings (1 older bro, 2 younger bro and 1 younger sis). Their house is very spacious too with 2 living rooms and the guest room that I'm staying at is quite sizeable too. In the day time of Christmas eve we spend time chilling out in the living room. I also accompanied Tim to the supermarket to shop for some groceries and have a short tour of Chepstow town in the process. It's interesting to note that Chepstow is actually the town where J.K. Rowling grows up in and she goes to the same secondary school as Tim too. I had the opportunity to have a look at her house too as she stays in the same village as Tim. There's also Chepstow castle, a really old monument that is there since 1067 and it looks amazing beside the river. After dinner on Christmas eve, we went to one of the houses of Tim's family friends. They have a big gathering at the house there as everyone gathers at the fireplace to chat. At about 11pm+ or so, the whole bunch of us in the house headed off to St. Luke's Church for a midnight Anglican mass. Before we knew it, it was already Christmas early morning.

On Christmas morning, I awoke with the sound of the Tuckers unwrapping their presents and looking into their stockings. It's quite a funny experience as all of us got laughs looking at what each of us got for Christmas. For Christmas service, we went to one of the churches in the nearby forest. It was around a 30 minutes drive past the forest. And yes, it's a White Christmas for sure now! The snow in Chepstow is quite thick and most parts remained untouched unlike Leeds because of lthe ow pedestrian traffic. So, in the evening we actually went out to have a morning walk and the family brought along two sledges. We walked into the white fields of snow and then we took the sledges up on a slope and slid down it! That was superb, as it felt like skiing down at a super speed time with adrenaline gushing through. We visited another family and then went back to the house to wait for the ultimate Christmas dinner.

Christmas dinner was great as we tuck into traditional English food like Turkey, potatoes and stuffings alongside with wine to go with it. The ambience was fantastic and all of us were full to the max. As a result, I felt quite sleepy throughout the night and had an early night's rest. Today's Boxing day and it's a chill out time over at the house! :)

Short trips within Britain

I made two trips around Britain last week. On Thursday, I went to York for a one-day trip with my American friend Megan. We departed at Leeds at about 10am-ish. This would be my second time going to York, the first being with Kington and his friends. But I didn't get to explore much around the first time since it was going to be dark. So this second trip is to compensate what I've missed out. However, for both times, I was unfortunate to be sieged by rainfalls. I was hoping that I could at least have a sunny day in York! Upon reaching there, I realised that it was not raining raindrop but ice pellets! I should be glad that it's not hailstones..lol

We started off by heading towards the direction of Clifford Tower and since I've gotten some knowledge from the first trip, I'm pretty much able to know which direction I'm going. We didn't venture up Clifford Tower in the end since it was too cold and the ice pellets were raining quite heavily so we ended up going into the adjacent building which is the York Castle Museum. It's 7.50 pounds for student rate to go into the Museum but the good thing is that the entry fees can be valid for 1 whole year! Ahhh, this would be good if I decide to bring Mama to visit there in the future. The York Castle Museum is an interesting place to visit as it showcase equipments and items from everyday life in Britain. This included fashion clothing, household items and certain traditions from the past. There's even a section dedicated to the Chinese in York. There's lots to explore at the Museum and by the time we finished, we were hungry for lunch. We headed to one of the local pubs where I had bangers and mash. It's a good lunch especially in a privately owned pub, a rare thing considering that most pubs are either Yates or Wetherspoons. After lunch we headed towards the York Minster to take some photos and also check out another ruined abbey within the vicinity of the York Minster. The York Minster is truly a magnificent sight with its architecture. We headed to Bettys (the smaller branch) to enjoy some warm tea in the freezing weather. At around 5.30pm, we were back at the York Minster for the traditional Anglican hymn evening prayer service. We were back at Leeds by 7.15pm or so.

Then on the weekend, it's an even earlier train in the morning as we departed from Leeds to Manchester at 8am. The whole bunch of us checked in to the hostel first but we weren't allowed to go into our rooms yet. So we placed our bags at the reception first and then headed out to eat dim sum at one of the restaurants there. This is followed by exploring the art museum which can be done for free! We returned back to the hostel to put our things in the room and then headed out to a shopping mall in the city center. For the first time in Britain, I've actually encountered a proper shopping mall. No doubt there's Merrion Center and St. John's in Leeds, but they do not qualify at all, in my opinion as proper shopping malls! We had British KFC for dinner there but it tasted like Singapore's KFC. Once again, Malaysia's KFC still wins in terms of taste. There isn't much to do outside at night so we went back to hostel to play some card games and then head off to bed. On the next day, we had some Jap food for lunch but the stuff over there are quite pricey even at half-price sushi. Our final destination is at Old Trafford where we did a museum visit and a stadium tour. I had the opportunity to go into the players changing room and also come out of the tunnel. I did learn a few interesting facts or two about OT which I didn't know previously, like the existence of the old tunnel, which is supposed to be the traditional way in which the English position their player's tunnels. Not to mention, United's scoreboards are never changed since 94 and it did remind myself that there's no replay screen at OT too unlike the Emirates stadium. Looks like United wants to keep certain aspects of it traditional ehh. In the end, we took a 5.40pm plus train back to Leeds since we missed the 5.10pm one. I had to rush back to my place as quickly as possibly because I was due to help out at church for the Candlelights carol. Ahhh, with all the mini trips settled and only a Christmas one to go to, it looks set that I should be spending the remaining days settling my assignment essays..lol.

A childhood dream fulfilled

Lots of planning and scouting out has been done in preparation for this day when I would step onto Old Trafford personally. It couldn't have been a better way than to announce my arrival at the Theatre of Dreams by attending a massive top of the table clash with Arsenal. I made sure that my Monday on 13th December is not filled with anything and prepared myself thoroughly in the morning by going through equipment check and making sure that I cover all routes going there back and forth. Afterall, I'll be travelling there alone and I have little leeway to make mistakes in charting my routes since it's a night match and one mistake may mean I would have a terrible hard time in getting back to Leeds.

The match kick-off time is at 8 pm but I've arranged to go for a 3.40pm train to reach there early to explore Old Trafford and maybe to get a close shot of the players if there is an opportunity. At first I was in a dilemma on whether to take a train straight to the United stadium or rely on a Manchester Piccadily/Tram option. But after deliberating, I decided to go for the latter choice because the Picaddily route allows me to go there earlier and I figured that with more than 72000 people in the stadium and only 2 trains available would be quite risky whereas the tram is more frequent although it's a 5 minutes walk away from google map. I did do a little scouting on google map too, to see what the surrounding areas to Old Trafford would be like. Anyways, I reached Man Piccadily at about 4.40pm plus and it was quiet train ride with very little people on board. I had little trouble transitting from the train station to the tram platform as they are located within the same building. When I finally reached Old Trafford station, I realised that I'm not the earliest after all with tons of others heading the same direction. The moment I stepped out onto the station, I'm already greeted by vendors who are trying to sell scarfs, particularly the anti-Glazer ones in green and yellow, which I bought later at 5 pounds each. That anti-Glazer scarf is probably a uniquely Manchester matchday thing..lol.

The road to Old Trafford from the Tram Station is an easy one. It's just a 5 minutes straight walk without the need to turn anywhere else. The top of the stadium stand can actually be seen from the tram station because the stadium is something like an imposing building overlooking the rest of the other buildings. On my way there, I saw more stalls selling scarfs and souvenirs and there's a whole row of shops selling takeways and fish&chips. Towards the end of the 5 minute walk, my eyes finally gazed upon the magnificent structure of Old Trafford. I've finally reached the steps of my dream destination. The first thing I did was to encircle around the stadium to see how big it is. I stumbled upon a small crowd waiting to intercept the players as they arrive from the buses to the players changing rooms. I got myself the matchday programme, which is also another valuable souvenir available only once and specifically for each match. At around 7pm or so, I checked into the ticket gate and I was hoping that I could sneak into a tier 2 or 3 level entrance so that I can take a shot of the players upclose. Unfortunately, the entrance I am in takes me straight up to the Tier 4 seats but since my ticket is from viagogo, I managed to choose a seat that is at the first row without anyone disrupting me taking pictures..lol. The flight of stairs upwards to Tier 4 is torturous as I need to climb 8 levels of stairs to reach to the top.

Other than being a significant clash of the top two in the table, this Man Utd v Arsenal match also sees the appearance of the freed Chilean miners who were given a VIP seat treatment by United and Sir Bobby Charlton. There's also a tribute presentation to 20 Legend Ole Gunnar Solskjaer for his services to the club as player and coach as he returns back to his native Norway to take up a managerial position. The match kicked off on time to much fanfare. As expected, watching football from the stands as opposed to watching them from TV is very different indeed. The overall atmosphere plus the chants are just priceless. My favourite one for the match is "Same old Arsenal, always cheating!". United made the big break in 40th minute when super Korean Park Ji Sung scores yet another time against the Gooners (3 times in a row to be exact) and his goal would be the only killer goal in the match. Many did not expect it to go in at first because it was originally a Nani shot that had rebound. But at the critical moment, I saw the ball just floated over the Gooners keeper's head, rebound and into the back of the net and the whole Old Trafford crowd just went ballistic! I've got to say that I'm feeling proud to be Asian at that point of time..haha. In any case, Arsenal did not look like they were going to make a comeback at all with the attempts they were trying and I would say the United defence looked solid throughout the night. Vidic made a couple of brave dives to stop shots and Rafael was quite impressive on the right with visible improvements in the defensive portion of his game. Anderson was another outstanding performer as his presence in the midfield was composed. Park as usual, delivered performance with his high amount of energy and Nani's constant bursting speed caused massive problems for the Gooners back four. The last few minutes were filled with tensions of course, with the score at 1-0 but with the final whistle blown, we knew 3 points were in the bag.

I had to hastily make my way down and it was a mad rush at the bottom of the stadium of the match. Basically people were squashed up among each other like sardines as everyone tries to inch out bit by bit to the open air. The Manchester police were also there for crowd control with their giant horses. After the match, the streets belonged to the crowd as cars need to wait longer for them to past. As I approached the tram station, there was already a long queue waiting down there already and the queue actually spilled onto the streets. It took about 30 minutes for it to clear to my turn to board the tram and I was on time for the 11.20pm train which I had booked a seat too (convenient especially when there's a big crowd rushing to board the train too). My first dream experience of Old Trafford is surely one that I'll remember for years to come. And I'm delighted that I'll be making another trip down on 9th January to watch United take on Liverpool in the FA Cup after getting a ticket from the ballots!

Early winter break

Looks like my holidays just got to an early start. With the end of my dissertation business yesterday and today being the last lecture for EU Law unexpectedly (tomorrow's lecture is reserved for Masters student), the first half of my semester in the University of Leeds comes to an end. How time flies. Before I realised it, 11 weeks have already passed by..lol. Anyways, last Sunday was a Captain Ball session with the Massoc people at the Uni's sports center and it was a great work out with lots of fun. It certainly remind me of the good old days of Captain Ball with ICF at Inti but the only difference is that I'm playing with a lot of strangers instead of people that I know. Well, I have loads of plans coming up in the holidays but they seemed to be squashed up all in 1 week, leaving the other 3 weeks to be quite free for me.

The nearest massive event coming up personally for me is something which I looked forward to excitingly. I've been checking my postbox faithfully everyday and I'm delighted to receive my tickets by post yesterday! Old Trafford awaits with Wenger's boys visiting! Now all that's left is to find out which station I should stop. I'm thinking of going earlier to catch the players in training and hopefully, get some close-up shots of them. I may have a little trip up to York too, if planning goes well. And then a Manchester trip on the weekend with some of the Inti folks. I'm thanking God too for a wonderful upcoming opportunity to spend Christmas in a British home. My Christian Union president, Tim invited me to spend a few days with his family in his home during the Christmas period. It came as a surprise really but a good one nonetheless.

There's so much to do and ahh, I'm hoping that I'm able to complete my assignments on time. Meanwhile, I'll have myself some entertainment in Starcraft 2 to chill out xD

When it snows

It's another round of delayed blogging again on my personal life! The last busiest round of week for this term has finally come to an end and this means that there'll be no more hectic seminars until next year. Meanwhile, I'll utilise this free time to recollect on the things that had happened since last week. Well on last Tuesday was the first social for my St. George's CG and it was held in one of my CG leader leader's(Sam) house. It was a pleasant change from a student oriented area because Sam's house is actually his family home too. He's a Leeds local but studies in the University of Bradford..haha. We had a fantastic evening with his lasagne and playing pictionary at the hall too after the meal.

On Friday when I was having my meal at Tong Palace after the Chinese CG session, a natural phenomena occurred outside the restaurant which transformed Leeds into the landscape of.....a WINTER WONDERLAND! After paying the bills and wearing all the winter jacket and gloves, I stepped outside excitedly into the open with snowflakes falling on my face. It's another historic moment for Stan. Father Frost has finally arrived in Leeds and I'm there to witness it and experience it. And with all the ice around, everyone's just tempted to roll up a snowball and get into random fights with any stranger. For some weird reason or so, I noticed that as I was walking back, police presence seems to have increased in the city center, as if snowfights are signs of anarchism.

On the next day was MASSoc's trip to Castleford for the laser tag game event. Laser tag is like paintball but better in the sense that there is no limited ammunation and there are less mess too. I tried to recall back some of the training that I got from my cadet high school years and also the first person shooter games that I have been playing. I employed a few of that tactics successfully, and my favourite one was to creep up behind unsuspecting shooters who are engrossed in shooting at their front and not looking at my gun targeting their backs. After all the fun in playing, we went to eat at Nandos. Woah, if you think that Nandos in Malaysia is expensive, wait till you see Nandos UK. A quarter chicken meal costs at least RM30! Ayee, fortunately, I managed to find people to share a jumbo meal with and the unlimited iced plain water is free fortunately. Everyone sort of dispersed after eating lunch and a group of us decided to venture to a bridge in Castleford which is a famous tourist spot according to Edele. It's a 30 minute walk from the place we were at but I think it's a walk that's worth it with all the snow around although the temperature is freezing. Btw, on that Saturday, it seemed that Castleford is covered with a heavier volume of snow than Leeds. When we reached the bridge, we were at first puzzled because it didn't look anything extraordinary. It was only when we looked across that we realised that there is a second bridge across with a mini-waterfall. We crossed over, had a bit of photo fun, enjoyed the sunset and then head to the train station.

On Sunday was St. George's contemporary carols. It's a special sunday where the church puts on a public performance by its worship team. The surprising thing I got during the service was that the band was covering modern contemporary music like We Are The Kings by 30 seconds to mars and The Scientist by Coldplay. And they did a good job of it.

There are things to learn as well in these wintery season and here they are:

1. The locals told me that White Christmas is a myth and that snow doesn't come until around Jan/February. I guess they were wrong this year with the freaky weather.

2. The Brits have Mulled Wine and Mince Pies as the traditional food for Christmas. Mulled wine is an interesting blend of warm wind with sweet spices. Mince Pies do not contain minced meat. It's just sweet raisin paste or something like that minced together.

3. While the white fluffy snow is nice to play with, a snowy winter brings about lots of other problems when the snow melts and mixes with dust and dirt. The result is dirty mud in areas with heavy pedestrian traffic. It's sliperry and very inconvenient if you are rushing to somewhere. Usually, I'll try to step onto the white and clean crunchy areas wherever possible. Btw, it's interesting to see the fluffy white ones cleaning my shoe soles.

4. It's challenging to drive in the snow. You gotta have special tires for it or the wheels will just keep spinning on the spot. That's the reason why cars move so slowly after a heavy snow shower, causing a massive jam in town during winter.

5. Shake off the snowflakes in your clothing or hat before entering into a heated building. Failure to do so will result in a sudden drench of water.

6. Black Ice are frozen water formation found on pavements and roads which are transparent. By far, this is the most annoying hazard during the snowy days. Lots of people slip and fall from that, and skill is needed to balance oneself from falling when one is speed walking through.

7. The Skies are strangely bright and clear during the day although it has been snowing nowadays. A pleasant change from the cloudy rainy clouds during autumn but the winds still continue blowing. The sun however, is a lie because although it shines for prolonged hours, the snow doesn't melt at all. I shudder to think the conditions of the roads when the snow starts melting when spring comes.

Holidays are coming in about a week or so and I'm looking forward to the winter break!