Tawau, London and Manchester: Part 5

The Football Club

This time it's going to be a long update because there were a lot of things that I have done.  Firstly, I went together with mom and sis for my shopping, yes, shopping.  I wanted to get the new away jersey of Manchester United, but it was too expensive to buy from the Megastore, so I decided to get it from SportsDirect.  We went to Fort Retail Park where one of the SportsDirect shop is located.

After I bought my stuff, sis took us to Old Trafford for me to take some picture of the Manchester United football club stadium.  I've been here before in 2007 and have taken a tour too to see how it's like inside.

Old Trafford from car park view.

Old Trafford

Old Trafford with me inside the picture

Statue outside Old Trafford - George Best, Bobby Charlton and Denis Law

There were a lot of visitors outside the stadium itself busy taking pictures like me.  While mom and sis were waiting for me, I went to check out the Megastore to survey the cost of the jersey.  As I'd expected, the price has gone up compare to last time in 2007, where I got my MUFC home jersey with Larsson printed on the back.  Good thing that I got my jersey in SportsDirect.  Then again, if there isn't any discount and offer, the price of the jersey would costs a lot more in SportsDirect.


The Rich Man's Estate

Next, after Old Trafford, my sis took us to visit Dunham Massey.  At first sis gave me 1 sentence in Chinese to describe the place - the rich man house.  I have no idea on how big the place would be, until we reached the place.  It is indeed a big place with a big house and a big compound.

Sign board in Dunham Massey car park

Info board in Dunham Massey

Lake in Dunham Massey with a lot of wild life

Geese playing/hunting in the water

The entrance view from the lake

Artificial fountain (?)

The building view from the lake

The field, vast field

A sculpture outside the place

The main entrance

Now, this place used to be owned by the Earl of Stamford.  Since the 10th Earl of Stamford passed away in 1976, the place is under the care of the National Trust.  It is a good place to visit because it is here that I was able to learn more about the British culture, ranging from the history, the building architecture, and the lifestyle.

There are 2 places where visitors could visit in the place.  1 is the mansion, the other 1 is the park, where there will be a lot of wild life i.e. the deers walking in the park.  Due to the weather, my sis arranged for us to visit the mansion.

Lunch at the restaurant in Dunham Massey

After the entrance building

The mansion

The field/park

Now, after we had our lunch, sis went to buy the admission tickets for us to visit the mansion.  While waiting for her, I managed to take some photograph of the building and also the surrounding park.  Sis said that sometimes there will be deers wandering around the park in front of the mansion.

The mansion front view

The mansion front side view

The wording above the main door entrance

After we went inside to the mansion, we started to follow the guide given to us by the personnel of National Trust to explore the place.  I took quite a lot of pictures during the visit because it was truly fascinating to see how the old British life style was like.

The fire place

The blower

The first room after the entrance

The room

The old telephone

Storage room with all the old luggage.  Probably one of the luggage is the old LV?

Ping pong!!!

That pose in the book looks familiar (Titanic?)

Living room

Living room

The view outside the room

Another living room

The billiard room

Score record board in billiard room

The park view from inside the mansion

Bedroom

Courtyard (?)  This is where we will walk across to the kitchen

The clock, with the time that we ended our visit on that day

Picture taken with the black and white effect

Now I can't remember everything about the history of the Earl of Stamford, but apparently there were 2 families of the nobles stayed in this place.  The history of the Earl of Stamford can be found in the mansion itself.  The building and its articles are all well preserved until this day.  The personnel of the National Trust have done a good job as well, not only at taking good care of the place, but also giving helpful information of the place, and giving aids i.e. buggy service to transport people to and fro the car park.

The visit to this place is really an eye opener for me to get to know not only some brief history of the noble family, but it also exposes me to the British culture and lifestyle as well.  Plus, it also shows how this kind of historical building and its articles can be so well preserved for the future generation to get to know some part of their culture and certain key event in history.  When I told my sister that I love this place and would like to visit it again, she told me that if I love this place, I'd love to visit another similar place, which according to her the whole area is 3 times bigger than this one.


The Match

At night, I went to see a football match with my brother in law.  It was a pleasant surprised by my sister because I never thought that I'd be able to watch a football match live in UK.  The match was between Manchester City and Borussia Dortmund.  Yes, I was watching the match of my supporting club's rival because my sister couldn't get the ticket for me to watch Manchester United match.  She wanted me to experience watching live football match, which I'm very grateful for her for arranging this.

On the way to the stadium, we could see that we're near to the place because there were a crowd of people walking toward the same direction.  We went to park our car at a nearby car park, and then walked and jogged all the way to the stadium.  There were a lot of people in the stadium, and we were sitting 2 rows away from the field, where we could have a better view of the game.  It was interesting to see that the away fans were separated from the home fans in the seating.  This was done to avoid collision between fans should there any kind of dispute arises, which is something that could happen between supporting fans.

The cheering for the teams were loud and with a huge contrast.  The fans for the Dortmund team were cheering in unison and have not been stop cheering throughout the game; whereas the home fans were cheering intermittently.  Sadly however, there were some nasty comments been thrown to the players by the home fans, which I thought if it's a positive comment, it would give morale boost to the players.

After the game finished, we waited for most of the crowd to move out first.  While waiting, it was interesting to see that the opposing team's fans were told to stay back first to wait until the home fans have fully vacated the stadium.  This shows how serious hooliganism can be in football game.


The Thought Part IV (?)

It was a long day indeed.  First I got to do my shopping, then I got my visit to the MUFC Old Trafford stadium, a visit to an old noble family estate, and finally watching a football match.  How much more could I ask for?  Really have to thank my sister for such a wonderful & eyes opening trip.