Farewell Pencil Case :(

I shall write an obituary for my lost pencil case which has served me faithfully for 7 years. I still can't believe that I could be so careless to leave that in Conference Auditorium 2 after my trial exam! Why didn't I check my bag before I leave the area? I only realised my missing pencil case at 10pm on Wednesday when I was searching for a pen to jot down some cases. That's way after classes have ended. So I checked the auditorium scheduled and apparently there's only 1 class after mine and some long stretch of open day event, possibly for the public. I went to class early the next morning to check CA2 before the first class commences at 9am. It's not there! I was thinking that the cleaners might have passed it to the security guard so I asked the security guard and he pointed me to search in this cupboard filled with left belongings but my pencil case is not among them. So I went back after class, and searched my room once again just in case I might have misplaced it. Not present at all. The last option was to ask the security office today and they too gave a negative reply. I don't have anything particularly valuable inside because I so happened to take out my regular G2 pen and two functioning highlighters outside before it went missing. But the most dear item was the one attached to the pencil case, which is a wooden carved keychain with my name on it and it's similarly 7 years old. I do not know where I can get it again.

I'm really hoping that someone wold return it instead of keeping it because there's nothing worth to keep inside a pencil case filled with loads of used highlighters unless the person who took it is Stanley or knows somebody by the name of Stanley. Ahhhh..I will try from time to time to look at the cupboard again but it seems to be quite futile. Looks like the buck stops here as my pencil case meets its demise in England :(

Liberty Building

The Liberty Building

The first week term of semester goes underway and the first class up is my first jurisprudence elective which is law and religion. I picked that option since I thought that with some knowledge on the syariah law and also info on separation of church and state, it would be an interesting topic. But I forgot that it may also come with a heap load of cases to memorise and apply. On the night before, I realised in horror that I had just made one of my juris exam questions into a case-based problem. It's as though as I didn't have enough of burden with the cases in evidence and EU Law! A part of me was just wondering what in the world made me chose that option in November when I could just get away with Liberal Theories of Justice. When I looked through the exam questions of liberal theories, it's literally a freestyle question compared to law and religion which required me to do some substantial heavy reading. Argghhhh..I just shot myself in the foot even before exam begins. And when I attended class in the morning, I only saw 1 other Malaysian. It looks like Stan has yet again ended up in an isolated choice which only ang mohs would pick and no Malaysian would consider. Too late to turn back, just gotta make do with what I have.

I had my first look of the new law school building when I went there for my first EU seminar of the semester. It's a very impressive structure with a catchy name (Liberty Building) and I would say a worthy home for law students after being holed up in the old grizzly Victorian cottages at Lyddon Row. The engineers have their own building. The medics have their own building (and multi storeyed too with lifts!). The Business School building is a refurbished modern center. Law students in Leeds have to be contented instead with a cramped undergraduate room and musty old Victorian smell for years. It's like Arsenal shifting form Highbury to the Emirates. I'm indeed fortunate to come at the right time. One of the first noticeable change is we have a super enlarged undergrduate room with glass walls. The reception area looks very welcoming and the roof is also glass panelled to allow natural sunlight to come in. All of my lectures are still all over the place, so the only classes that I have in the Liberty building is on every Tuesday, which is either my EU Law seminar or Criminology Seminar. Oh well, at least better than nothing..haha. Meanwhile, enjoy a few snippets of photo that I've taken from the Liberty Building on my first visit there.

The entrance: Check out the revolving doors..lol

Decoration at the reception

Interior main hallway

Salty Saltaire

View from the river

I had a half-day trip with Kington, Van and Wai Yi to a small village called Saltaire. My first thoughts when I reached there is that it reminded me of some random small Perak town that you would stop over for a short meal along the highway. Although it's peaceful and seem to be kid-friendly place, I can imagine myself dying of boredom there as a resident. Apparently that village is founded by the wealthy Salt family and they run a textile industry during the olden days. (It has nothing to do with cooking salt..lol) The large textile mill stood looming over the small village and it has since being converted into an art gallery, bookshop and various other shops after some refurbishment following years of abandonment. Saltaire is listed under as one of the Unesco Heritage Site and that explains the crazy long periods that we took to find decently priced food in the village. There's less than 5 eateries available in the village that is fit for lunch consumption. We wanted to go to the riverside pub at first but the fish and chips there are priced at an astounding 10 quid! We finally settled for an underground Victorian tea house and I literally had veggies stuffed up my mouth with my turkey ham sandwich which had more veggie than meat. We went to explore the mill after our meal. It was around 5pm when we decided that we have explored all we wanted at Saltaire and we went back to Leeds to have dinner.

The textile mill

Last few moments of winter break

This week's Monday and Tuesday were the datelines for my Criminology and Jurisprudence assignments. I've actually hit the panic button right after the Christmas period. I figured out that I shouldn't be maintaining my last minute habits at Inti considering that this is my final year already. With some torturous pushing and discipline, I got my Criminology assignment done with before 9th of January. And I continued slogging through to complete my Jurisprudence, bearing in mind of the 18th Jan dateline. Thank God that I've completed it by around the 16th and tidied up the referencing etc on the 17th. So while people are rushing to complete it in the early morning of 18th Jan, I was busy busting and zapping Zerg on the Planet Char with Jim Raynor. A massive change compared to my old days at Inti..ahahaha.

I'm quite amazed really at how I've managed to complete the two assignments way before time considering that I did not write anything substantial for either papers before the Christmas period at all. In fact, I would term it as something like lazing towards the finishing line. I was attending church and activities as usual, and even spent the whole day at Manchester watching a match and walking around in the city. I took some time off completing my BPTC application and spent time uploading photos and editing videos on Facebook and game for a couple of hours. There are days when I wrote only 100 words and I feel asleep, without doing anything productive for the day and yet I could still come up with the goods at the end of the day. Where did all the time come from? Well, I really thank God for guiding me through and this proves that putting Him first in my life will never put me at a disadvantage. Somehow, there's this deep desire to really want to show some of my peers that I do the same thing as them and get the same amount of busy schedule as them and yet, God is never out of the picture for me. In other words, to put it bluntly, there's really no excuse to skip church. I think it boils down to a question of committment and a little discipline personally in dedicating time for God. I'm quite slackish when it comes to studying and my motto is to study only when I'm called upon or when the war drums of exams are near. Any time other than that, the notes get cobwebs. The result is often I ended up doing some last-minute cramming but still, no such thing as skipping church. In fact, I think church gave me the sense of calmness to study better. So, I really don't understand how some of my peers have difficulty giving a minimum committment in going to church every week, citing busy-ness as an excuse or having something on. What if Jesus comes tomorrow and ask them 'What have you done with the talents I've given you"? Will they tell him that they're too busy to bother? I think there's only a certain amount of guiding and encouragement that can be given. The rest is up to personal willpower. Quite difficult if he/she does not want to change in the first place :(

Ahhhhh..enough of the rantings. Anyways, on Tuesday, I had dinner with Kington and Van at Las Iguanas, courtesy of Kington's 50% discount off from the bill. It's certainly worth to call the expensive dishes with the price the cut and I went with the beef steak fajitas. We also ended up having double cocktails each because of the mis-interpretation of the 2 for 1 offer..haha, but the deal's still good. It's great way to chill out after all the essay assignments and it's kinda like a little celebratory meal time. And then on Wednesday, I went to catch a movie (127 hours) at The Light with them and Wai Yi and the price of the tickets are at 3.30pounds each with the Orange discount. Kington and I could have gotten it for a further reduction at 2.80 pounds student price if I had arrived earlier..lol but still, it's still cheaper than Singapore cinemas at this rate. I thought it was 5 pounds per person originally. At 2.80 pounds for Wednesday movie nights, that's about the same price as our dear cinemas at Mid-Valley or One-Utama on the weekends! Time to start paying attention to more upcoming movie titles at The Light! xD

You're getting sacked in the morning!

Best moment in the game in my opinion :)

This is pretty much delayed reporting due to higher priorities of finishing up my assignment. Anyways, I managed to get a ticket through the ballots to watch the much anticipated FA Cup clash between Man Utd v Liverpool on 9th January. It's a Sunday afternoon kick-off but once again, I plan to go earlier to get my new jersey for the season and possibly some printing if there's time. There's also another reason to look forward for this matchday trip too as Mike and Grace will be there over at the stadium as part of their honeymoon plans! It's fantastic to meet up with some old friends whom I've not seen for months. By the time I reached the stadium grounds, it was already streaming with lots of people already. Two Liverpool buses came through the crowd and it stirred a hornet's nest within them. The United crowd were screaming "murderers!" in reference to the Heysel stadium disaster while the Liverpool fans in the bus were getting mad as they pounded repeatedly on the bus windows. I was not planning to meet up with Grace and Mike until after the match. However, by some sheer divine coincidence, Mike spotted me while I was walking around in the North West quadrant lounge. And it seemed that both of them are sitting at the section which is just right beside mine! Wow, what are the chances of that? Lol..I had time to get comfortable at my seat while waiting for the match to start. I was actually quite fortunate to get a place near the Stretford End, where the most hardcore and vocal supporters gather together. This would also be my first daytime match visit at Old Trafford.

Barely one minute of the game has gone by when the referee blew his whistle. It's a PENALTY! 32 Seconds only! It's interesting to note that Howard Webb was the official for both United games that I went and I've seen two penalty calls from him in these two games. I have a feeling that it's a dubious decision, but United will take it anyways. Rooney had missed the first previous one so I was hoping that Giggs would put this one away easily. And he did smash it in well although Pepe Reina guessed it in the correct direction. More trouble for Liverpool as Gerrard gets the red card for his two legged challenge on Carrick at the 38th minute. It looks like Liverpool's not going to get out of it and even the return of King Kenny Daglish has obviously not solved the problem. Old Trafford, sensing blood especially from the Stretford End went on a rampage of Liverpool bashing chants. Schadenfreude was the word of the day as chants of "Going Down" were aimed the Liverpool players and supporters. Dalglish was not spared as Old Trafford cheekily shouted at him "You're getting sacked in the morning!". Steve Gerrard's chant was funny and Old Trafford also did their own rendition of Liverpool's YNWA called You'll Never Get A Job..haha. United came close to scoring plenty of times but never got the better of Liverpool. Credit has to be given to Pepe Reina for several of the saves too. In the end, it could be said that Man United did just enough to secure the win.

Overall, the atmosphere in the stadium was superb and it was what I had expected from the intense rivalry between United and Liverpool. I'm glad to have the chance too to witness at least 1 FA Cup game and I shall aim to watch at least one Champions League match involving one of the European giants in the future. I enjoyed myself in this match much more considering my proximity to Stretford End. For every time United gets close to a scoring opportunity, everybody around me would jump out from their seat to anticipate a goal. That's match experience you'll never be able to replicate anywhere else!

After the match, I headed out planning to meet Mike and Grace. I had actually planned to join them in Red Cafe but it seems that Red Cafe on matchdays are only open to hospitality ticket holders and not to the public. I ended up walking around the stadium for fun when I suddenly bumped onto a crowd that is gathering just outside the players tunnel near the south stand. It seems that they are there to boo the Liverpool players getting onto the bus and possibly Unitedp players coming out. I quickly rushed there before the crowd thickens and my initial plan was just to take close up photographs of any player that walks out. As we were waiting, the stewards begin to drive various posh cars into the tunnel entrance and the first one was a cool looking Mercedes sports car, which I got to know later that it belonged to Anderson. There was also Nani's Lamboghini which drew gasps of wow from the crowd and Ferdinand's Jaguar. The first players to come out were the twins Rafael and Fabio who were accompanied by their parents. Giggsy came out next and instead of just walking away, he actually took time off to sign some autographs. Unfortunately, he did not come to my side so I didn't hope much for a player's autograph. Michael Owen came out with his two kids and went off without interacting with the fans. And then there was Chicarito Javier Hernandez! The Mexican actually came to my side to sign autographs and I missed him at the first try. But then I was determined so I ran to another side and tried a second time and succeeded! I was pleased with getting one already but with opportunities to get more, it doesn't hurt to try more right? Anderson came over but I failed to get his. Next was Patrice Evra and I succeeded in getting his autograph! Some funny Malaysian dude in front of me asked Evra when he's coming back to Malaysia..lol. The other two players that I managed to get are Darren Fletcher and Jonny Evans and I managed to steal a close up shot at Fletcher too. I feel so blessed! And it's a good day of harvest of not one but FOUR different players! Another high point and fulfilled dream of a United hardcore fan! =D

All the commotion outside the player's tunnel stretched the time well enough for Mike and Grace to finish their food at Red Cafe. Since there was no more guards anymore at the entrance, I sneaked up into the Red Cafe to find them. We then went back to their hotel to collect my box of Tau Sar Pieh, delivered all the way from KL courtesy of my Godma..haha. I took Mike and Grace around Manchester City Center since I roughly remembered some of the places from the weekend that I've stayed there. We wanted to have a walk around the shopping mall but it seems that the Brits close their shops so early on Sunday evenings. By 6pm, all shops are closed shut. This is boring boring Britain! In Malaysia, Saturdays and Sundays are the best times where the shopping malls close late at night. We had to make do instead in going to Chinatown where we had our dinner and evening dim sum at Little Yang Sing. As it was getting late already, I bid adieu to Mike and Grace as I make my way back to the train station. Ahh, I do not know when I'll meet them again because I'm positive that when I return back to Malaysia after my studies, both of them will be in the US. But still, if God willing, I'll certainly pay them a visit in the US when I have the money :)

The Final Score

There's Patrice Evra

Getting as close as possible to Fletcher!

2011 dilemma

It's the start of the new year and there's alot to think about many major decisions that are needed to be made. I don't usually fancy making resolutions, so I'll make do with putting downin words on the web of decisions that I have to make in my mind. Of course, the ultimate aim which is to be fulfilled at least by the mid of 2011 is that I get a good classification for my degree.It's only halfway through but I'm required to start deciding whether I'm going to do the BPTC (Bar Course) in England or return back to Malaysia to do CLP instead.

I would love to renew another year to stay in England but the financial situation is preventing from doing so. Another year abroad will be crippling unless I can work to keep expenses down or the payment of tuition fees is in installments instead of one lump sum. In any case, I won't mind going back to Malaysia to complete CLP but on the other hand, a part of me will keep nagging at me for the lost opportunity or potential because of the finances. It gets me frustrated thinking that whatever potential that I have in me is of no use because I simply do not have the finances to enable to fulfill it while somebody else who has less is able to do it because of his better financial position. There are pros and cons on both sides. Going back to Malaysia for CLP will see a reestablishment of the things that I'm used to in the past - driving, eating rice, mamak, serving in the worship team and expanding my Malaysian network base to a bigger one since I'll be meeting a lot of other similar Malaysians going down the same path. This expansion will be important to lead me to know more people in the surrounding legal circle. The amount of money that I save will be tremendous, with the CLP costing only a fifth of the BPTC. The extra money saved could so easily be channeled for something else, like getting a house or a new car. But, the cons for CLP is that it is examination based and as such, practical advocacy skills are not learnt properly until the pupilage/chambering period.

The BPTC on the other hand provides better practical training and in my opinion, a harder course to go through. If I were to do the BPTC, then I would most probably do it at Leeds, to maintain contact the base of friends that I already have. I don't want to have to restart again like so many times in my life. Another year in England would be another year of great learning opportunities and more places in Europe to explore. If I do somehow manage to get sponsors or get the finances for BPTC, I have to be aware that it'll cost me at least another year of not driving regularly and not playing drums regularly. I'm not sure if PEE can last for another year without me being there. The first obstacle that I go through if I want to do BPTC is my passport which has less than a year left by the time I finish my Leeds degree.

My decision on whether to do BPTC would also affect when I will go back to Malaysia. If I'm going to do BPTC, then I'll go back early in July to settle Visa and passport renewal and there is no need to rush any Eurotrip. However, if I'm not going to do it, then I better utilise the Visa to the maximum and go back only around in the last days of August, rampaging through the different European states as fast as possible because I do not know when I'll have the funds to return back again. And there is also housing to settle if I decide to stay another year and definitely would want to bunk in with somebody I know. The situation I'm in however does not give me the luxury of time to decide which path I want to go. I could apply for fun now to see if I can get a place on the BPTC but I am required to confirm my place by March. That is way before I complete my degree and I can't prove to any sponsors of my results to induce them to help me. I'm literally forced to make a decision where I have to shoot first, and then possibly regret later for giving up the alternate choice. I'm torn in this divergence of path - I yearn to return back to do the things that I love in Malaysia but at the same time, I want to realise my full potential and gain more knowledge and skills in England. I could only pray now that God will lead me to the path that He wants me to and close the doors that He doesn't want me to go to. That would really help me to know which decision is wise to pursue and done according to His plans. He has led me through some seemingly impossible paths and I'm sure He'll continue to guide me :)