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.

Tawau, London and Manchester: Part 4

The 4th Day

There wasn't much activities on the 4th day, which was a Monday because sis have some works that she needs to finish.  We did however went out to a nearby supermarket called Sainsbury's for lunch and groceries shopping.  The whole setup of the place reminds me of Gilroy Outlet Mall in California, USA

Sainsbury's Supermarket

Around Sainsbury's Supermarket

Other shops opposite Sainsbury's building

While mom and sis were doing the groceries shopping, I went over to the check out the SportDirect shop to see if there's any good buy esp. football jersey.  Some items are offered at very attractive price.  If comparing a dollar to a dollar and if my salary figure is in GBP, I'd patronize the place very often.  Still, some of the items in the shop could still be considered as expensive to the British.  I.e. a Manchester United jersey that costs GBP 70 is considered as expensive because you could buy a lot of groceries with that amount of money.


The 5th Day - Random Exploration

Now, I called the 5th day a random exploration is because I'd expect that I may be lost or may ended up stranded at a location until I could figure out how to get back home.  Did that happen?  Yes it did.

The surrounding neighbourhood, taken while I was walking to the bust stop.

The bus stop.

The bus stop name.

Before I go out, I have decided that I'm going to visit Trafford Centre again to visit the sport shop where my sister got the football gear for her son to buy the jersey of the football club that I support.  I did a check on the Internet to find out how to get there by bus and wrote down the instruction for reference.  Eventually I did managed to get to Trafford Centre.  It cost GBP 5 just to reach Trafford Centre.

Outside Salford Shopping Centre.

View from the upper deck of the double decker bus.

View from the upper deck of the double decker bus while still waiting in Salford Shopping Centre.

Along the ride...

Passed by some neighbourhood...

Trafford Centre from the opposite road.

There are no direct bus that could reach Trafford Centre from where I was staying, so I have to change to another bus at a place call Salford Shopping Centre.  The whole journey took me about 1 hour just to reach my destination.  It was drizzling that day, so I didn't snap much outdoor pictures.

After I reached Trafford Centre, I went to check out the sport shop, JJB Sports, only to find that it was closed for good.  I thought that it probably was closing for that day, but found out later that this JJB Sports retail shop will be closed for good because they have been bought over by SportsDirect, and the result of this takeover is the closure of a few retail shops.  So, my trip there is considered as a bummer.

Then, I tried to find my way back home by taking the bus.  This time however I was not able to fully follow the instruction and as a result, I went back to Salford Shopping Centre again.  I tried to figure out if I could take the same bus that I took that morning to go back home, but thank God before I do that, my sister came to pick me up instead.

As my sister picked me up from Salford Shopping Centre, she told me the place is not really that safe esp. later into the day.  It was here where the riot in 2011 in Manchester took place.  This is quite interesting though considering that I only saw senior citizens being the majority there, so it never came to my mind that the place is a danger zone.  So after knowing this, I'll try to avoid visiting that place esp. late afternoon.

Tawau, London and Manchester: Part 3

Friday, 28th September, The 3rd Day in London

It was our last day in London, and we'll be leaving for Manchester by train in the afternoon.  Since there were still time, we've decided to have a walk in the nearby park, which is the Kensington Garden.

Shamefully however, I pointed the wrong way so we ended up taking another route to reach the garden.  Sister has her iPhone turned on to use the map to find the way to the garden.  As mom can't really walk for too long, we decided to only stay and relax at the Italian Garden.  We had coffee and cake/muffin at the nearby stall as well, and it's the first time I had an ice-cream in such a cold weather, which was an interesting experience.

Italina Garden

Italian Garden

Italian Garden

Italian Garden

As it's about time to leave, sister would like to check out a Malaysian cuisine restaurant in Paddington.  The restaurant name is Bonda Cafe, and it is a restaurant certified by the Malaysia government that it served authentic Malaysia heritage food.  We packed a Char Kuey Tiaw, Roti Canai, Sate, and Nasi Briyani with dishes to have for lunch while waiting for the train later at the train station.  The food was not too bad, but of course don't be expecting it to be 100% similar taste with what we have in Malaysia.


The Station - London Euston Train Station

Sadly I didn't take any pictures at the station, otherwise would be able to show how it looks like.  It is a very busy place, hardly able to find any space at all because people will be walking and rushing to their designated platform to catch the train.

We managed to find a place inside the food eating place (a food court) to sit down and have our lunch.  Skeptical of what could be said by the personnel of the eating place, i.e. no outside food is allowed, I bought drinks just in case to use it as an excuse that I did buy something from the stall there (thinking too much probably...).  It was here that a guy asked us where do we get our food from because the whole place is serving western food (yup, fish & chip again).  It stirred me to think that Asian food must be quite popular in London, of which I always have a perception that majority of people in London would not fancy Asian food (reference: Richard Hammond of Top Gear).

So after our lunch, we just sit and waited for the announcement of which platform we should go to board our train.  Everyone was rushing to the platform once the announcement was made.  My seatt was in the first class coach, whereas mom and sister were in the normal coach.  Sister bought the 1st class seat for me because the price was cheap at that time.

Single first class seat

First class coach

First class seats

My table in 1st class coach

Outside view

Outside view while train is moving fast

It was my first time traveling on a train to go from a city to another city.  It was an interesting experience for me, where I was able to see the different landscapes, experiencing the motion sickness (not really pleasant), and also having difficulty to choose a snack that they provide because I have no idea what the name stands for.  During the ride, I drank 2 cups of tea, 1 bottle of Pepsi and ate 1 snack, which was a cheese and vegie roll (it looks like a bun to me...).

The whole journey took 2 hours plus to reach Machester Picaddilly Station.  After we reached there, we took a taxi to go to my sister's home, and rested.


The Next D and Next Next D in Manchester

Now on the next day, again I didn't took any pictures at all, so nothing to show on the places that I've visited.  The first thing we did in the morning was taking my nephew to his tennis lesson in a sports club.  While my nephew was having his lesson, we sat at the cafe to have coffee.

I must say that I'm very impressed with the facilities of the club, and the dedication of the coaches (some, not all) to teach the young children on how to play sports.  The parents must be credited as well for making the effort to bring their children there for the sports.

After the tennis lesson, we went to The Trafford Centre, which is a shopping complex to buy groceries and also to walk around.  We had our lunch there as well, at a sushi bar called Yo Sushi (which can be found in Malaysia too) because the little one wanted to eat sushi.

Then the next day, after church service, we went to have Dim Sum in a Chinese restaurant in China Town, inside the city of Manchester, together with a friend of mine whom I've not met for nearly 5 years.  This friend purposely made the effort to come to Manchester from Leeds to meet up with me, which is very nice of him.

After dinner, my friend and I went to the Football Museum to check out the place.  Inside the museum there are a lot of items on display that are related to football (of course...), i.e. clothing, shoe, arts, trophies, and also information on certain topics.

Early years of football & the rules

Football related items

Quotes made by a famous manager

More items

The trophies

Football related art

Football related art exhibition

Football related art

After the visit to the Football Museum, I said my farewell to my friend and went to explore the city.  As my friend told me, most of the shops would close at 5pm on Sunday, so there weren't much for me to look at because it was almost 5pm.  I thought maybe I could get a bus to go back home, but I have no idea where to wait for the bus even though sister has told me about it.

I do noticed as well that unlike London, it was very hard to walk around the city of Manchester because there aren't any comprehensive self-guide map that can be referred to, not even the one at the bus stop.  The tourist information center was closed as well, so in the end I have to ask my sister to pick me up.

Manchester - city center

Manchester - city center

Manchester - city center

Manchester - city center

Manchester - city center

The weather in UK in general is freezing cold, windy, cloudy, and rainy.  I took the above pictures while waiting for me sister to pick me up.  It was drizzling at that time, and my hand was really freezing.  Even though under such condition, people would still walk around the city and continue their agenda for the day.


The Thougt - Part III

Alright, I must say that I do have a hard time to explore Manchester because there aren't much information and map being provided along the streets as compare to London.  The city of Manchester itself does have a lot of places to visit, and the information can be found from the Manchester Information Centre, but only if you know how to get there first (this is where the i- and the -droid come in handy...).