The night that Becks played in Ibrox!

On the night of 4th Feb 2009, arguably the world's most popular footballer ever to lived, in the form of David Beckham played in Ibrox Stadium, the home of Scottish powerhouse, Glasgow Rangers. Don't agree he is the world's most popular footballer? Even my mum knows who is David Beckham la. Haha.. Although mum doesn't watch football, I think she knows at least 3 players.. Beckham, Ronaldo(the no.9 one) and Michael Owen. Shyt Keong, you better buckle up ur football knowledge soon, else u suck. Hahaha..

Anyways, I was lucky enough to see him play in the very stadium that he was playing in, and breathe the same air as he was breathing. LOL.. Im not the only one who's ecstatic that Beckham was playing. The other 47000++ ppl who attended were too. That was proved when the announcer announced his name, and he got the biggest cheer. Not only that, these 47000 ppl were the ones who braved the crazily freezing temperatures in order to watch him play. Tiny bits of crushed ice were falling from the skies at the time of the match. Well, I wore 4 layers of clothes and 3 layers for the legs plus 2 socks. Pavements and walkways were lathered with ice all over. Not only that, tickets cost 25 pounds, equivalent to 60++ BND! Anyways, not as exp when compared to the Old Trafford one.

Well on arrival at entrance, I was told by the security guard to throw my water bottle away. LOL! Walao.. Uncle, mafan la lu punya Ibrox! Even Old Trafford allowed me to bring my bottles and bags in leh! Oh well, I sat near one of the corner kick spots. Well close but not that close. Seat was in the last row actually, thus couldn't see the other end clearly when the action is over there. Oh well, but not bad actually. Last row means you can exit anytime you want, plus, there was a roof over the last few rows thus, much warmer I guess. Well, honestly it was still cold. My strategy against the cold worked for my body n legs, but not my feet. My feet went numb! I remember the not-very-pleasant-walking back to the subway, how comfortable I felt.

We arrived around 20+ mins before the match started I guess. I remembered "Beckham Beckham" shouts at that time. And there I see, the man in action. Hitting balls around with Ronaldinho. It was warmup time, accompanied by very loud music to pump up the players I guess..

Becks in warmup

Welcome to Ibrox!

View from my sitting area, notice the lowered roof/ceiling..

Not long after, the players disappear into the locker rooms. Suddenly, the chorus of the popular Tina Turner "Simply the best" song was played and the crowd erupted. Thought what happened, well, it was the cue for the players to come out!

Players lineup

The home team's starting 11 -- I onlyrecognize 2 players! HAHAHA

The away team's starting 11 -- Here, loudest cheer went to who else?

Ready?

The players went to their own halves. Ball in the middle, whistle blew, music stopped. Start of match..

More Becks in action..

To be honest, the first half was disappointing. I was certainly expecting more from a side like AC Milan. Their starting 11 was very strong somemore.

Ronaldinho tried to entertain the crowd with a bit of his trademark 'Make-the-defender-look-silly' passes and flicks to partial success at most. Its a bit sad to be honest. I am sensing the downfall of the once-very-awesome Ronaldinho. He seemed to make his passes a bit more slowly then ideal, from what I see. What happens is, defenders regroup, and then its back to square one, i.e. Reset play or defend. He played for around nearly 70 minutes before being substituted by Seedorf. He had some bright spots from the game thou which included a on-target freekick and a wonderful pass which set up Inzaghi in the first half (He missed thou)

Beckham, whoa.. performed okay at most. He did do some of his trademark pinpoint long passes to the oos and aahhs of the crowd (me included). But I thought he looked a bit tired. You could see him panting, hands on his waist and not running as much. But of course, once again, he got the loudest cheer, I remember when he took the first corner for AC Milan. The Rangers supporters certainly loved him. But, he was substituted abruptly during halftime. I was a bit disappointed to not see him in the starting 11 during the 2nd half.

Sheva was very mediocre. Ever since he went to Chelsea, I think he went downhill from there on. Tonight was no different. Inzaghi, the Italian legend, was mediocre too. There were a no. of passes threaded to him from Becks and the others, setting him up in front of goal, but he either missed the ball completely or had a poor first touch. 2 of the Ex-Gooners featured too.. Senderos was not bad. Another ex-Gooner, Flamini, was not bad too.. Had a couple of good tackles. Pirlo the captain of the night, was kinda mediocre too. In all, Milan weren't playing up to their potential in the first half.

Rangers kept counter-attacking in the first half. Edu was playing well, and so was Mendes. Rangers were actually missing some of their regulars in the starting 11 , in Ferguson and Boyd..

The Rangers Mascot dancing and posing for the cams during halftime..

The second half started with the coming on of Seedorf, Jantuslovki(I dunno how to spell his name) and also Ferguson(the Scottish legend for Rangers).. Seedorf certainly looked bright. He did a couple of good tricks, n damn does he has super fast reaction. He's quick! But that ain't all the substitutions. The night was not over yet. The whole place was still anticipating for that one man to come on. That one man who is rated to be over 100-million pounds in transfer value. None other than..

A lil hard to spot eh.. Kaka! The Rangers fans were
shouting his name, wanting him to come on..

Around 70 mins( if I ain't wrong) Kaka and Pato came on. Oh Oh..
The whole complexion of the game changed from there on.. Sheva and Ronaldinho out.. An influx of pace now.

But suddenly, after a minor mixup from the Milan defenders...

Rangers scored!!
As expected, the fans went nuts!

I was really wondering whether a major major MAJOR upset was in the balance with over 20++ mins left on the clock. Milan weren't doing well so far somemore.. How how?

No worries, a few mins later.. A through pass from a Milan player set no.22 aka Kaka free. Kaka slashes into the box, does a quick pass. After some deflection, Pato strikes n ball ends up in the back of the net. I actually let out a small shout, when they scored! LOL.. I have certainly forgotten where was I sitting at. The home crowd area! My gawd! If I was in the middle rows, I might certainly have been bashed by em already. LOL.. Phew.. hahhaa.. It was sad actually. Milan's support was so lil! When the goal was scored, the whole stadium stayed quiet. No shouting or whatever. Walao..

Action begins..

Now Milan seems to have step up a gear or two. Better passes and movement. But then, ball finds itself on the feet of Kaka.. Hoho.. What else, he runs, holds off the challenge of a defender, strike from the edge of the box. GOAL.. LOL.. Its amazing how he did it. The Rangers defenders were certainly no match for him. Now I know why ppl rate him so highly. He single-handedly changed the course of the game that night!

Milan up!

Kaka taking a corner..

Well, since there was around 10 mins left on the clock. I thought nah, it is over! Rangers gonna lose this one. Suddenly, the crowd seemed to get excited over something. Everyone was looking over at the players bench area. LOL.. What is happening oh? I wondered.. LOL.. I looked properly, ah.. a player coming on. So what? I see the No.9. Oh.. Kris Boyd. Rangers top scorer! Should be an utterly popular player for the club. The support of the crowd for him was whoa! Everyone was standing cheering.. Lol..

Something is bound to happen, I feel. Then from a Rangers attack, after some nice technique by one of the Rangers players, a through ball threaded, a beautiful sidefoot shot by a Rangers player, GOAL! Crowd erupted! However it wasnt their hero, Kris Boyd thou'. It was a leftback if I aint wrong in the form of Sasa Papac..

That was the last goal of the match, thus the match ended at 2 -2..

The final result

The long queue to the subway station. Its nuts!
We ended up walking to the next nearby subway station

Rangers Megastore located outside the stadium

Overall, it was just an average match, in terms of entertainment. The atmosphere was kinda lacking to be honest. Definitely, cannot be compared to Old Trafford one. The fans there sing nearly every club song throughout the match plus there is no needfor speakers to initiate them to sing, like this one. They know when to start singing and all that. But, of course, Old Trafford is nearly twice as big as this place, so certainly understood. Btw, I am still an Arsenal fan. I am just talking about the wonderful atmosphere that Old Trafford has. It was a good experience nonetheless.. =)

A taste of home!

Yeap! What is it??

Easyway's PMT! Pearl Milk Tea..

Yippie!

Glasgow's Easyway Menu
[Notice the PMT is double the cost of Brunei's!]

Well, before that, lunch in a Chinese restaurant called SeeWoo Restaurant before seriously exploring See Woo. See Woo is describes themselves as the largest superstore in Glasgow. What's even better? It sells oriental products/food. GOOoodd.. Well, we actually wanted to go there last week, however, we were sort of lost halfway and decided to turn back. Not today thou'. Walking time is around 20 -25 mins from Buchanan SPT Station. The place is as big as Brunei's Jaya Hypermart. Lots of oriental products (But no ba gua that I was hoping to buy =( ). However, I find that the prices there a wee bit higher compared to Chung Ying's [Another store selling oriental products, which is only maybe 10 mins walk from Buchanan]. In terms of stores selling oriental stuff, Glasgow doesn't fare that bad actually. As far as I know there are 4 of these kinds here. Only problem is, they are located quite a distance away.

This was what I had.
To be exact:

-Vegetarian soup for starter
- Roast Duck, BBQ Pork and Crispy Belly Pork

A glimpse of the inside

So-called 'House Special Cheong Fun

The main dish

Co-incidently my date had the same dish as me as well.
Wow, what chemistry huh? Rare find ^^

My verdict of the place:
- Large large Chinese restaurant. Maybe the largest in Glasgow. There's even a stage and VIP rooms
- Not-very-friendly waitresses. Damn they should learn how to smile =)
-Slow service.
- My so-called 'House Special' cheong fun, came after the main dish arrived, which was around 20 mins after we ordered. And what's inside the 'House Special' cheong fun? Abalone? Man man deng. NOTHING!! It was just plain cheong fun. Ni nao hia. Took so long, n no meat. I think they regard the 2 sauces(Plum n peanut sauce!) that accompanied the dish to be the uniqueness of that dish. MY GAWD!
- The vegetable soup should be renamed Ajinomoto soup.
- The main dish, was eww.. Super oily. I was literally forcing em in. I was given lots of duck skin, lil meat. The char siew was hard, not very nice. The crispy pork belly, haha. I thought it was smth special. Yenlai, its what we call Sau Rou back home. Smth that I do not enjoy eating, whether here or back home.
- Dessert? After finishing the main meal, we decided to ask for the dessert. You know what the waitress answered? Dessert available only for night dining. WAT! The brochure clearly says 'LUNCH'. Walao.. Anyways we were too full to continue eating anything at that instance, thus, not much of a big deal.
- Oh, the fried rice did not taste like fried rice at all. My lousy cooking skills can produce something miles better. It was just like eating brown coloured boiled rice. LOL
- The chinese tea sucked too. For me it tasted like tea dipped with a mothball! HAHHAHA

Oh, I went to the so-called CNY celebrations in Kelvingrove museum, which I mentioned in a previous post. LOL. Seriously disappointed la. There were no lion dances or whatever. Just 2 stalls! Face painting + calligraphy stall. Another stall just consisted of a table with lion-dance equipment. Heh.. Oh well..

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And for bball fans.. Watch this..

F*king insane! video

There are seriously a few out-of-this-world dunks already this season. This one's one of the best so far. How often do you see Jermaine O'Neal floored like that? OMG.. Tyrus's definitely a BEAST.

Snow in GlasgoW!!!

I came home from class today, n was juz about to start doing work, when I suddenly glanced out the window. Something falling. Definitely not rain. Its more opaque than water, it is white. SNOW!!!!

LOL.. I quickly wore my 3 layers of clothes back up, grab my cam, n sprinted down 3 flight of stairs...

The speed of sprinting down was roughly the same as the speed I used yesterday when I saw snow falling while I was in my 7th floor lab. Hahahhaa...

Thus, the pictures ..

View from the toilet window

View from my room's window

Let's go outside!


Check out the iced out BMW right in front

Look what I've found? 2 uncles turtling their way home.
'Turtling' is used, coz the floor is super slippery

Some vids:

Molested!

No kidding! I was MOLESTED!

HAHAHA..

No, Im not drunk. Yes, I might be a exaggerating a bit..

So what happened?

It all started out as a normal night, except the fact that ahh.. We had dinner in a Chinese restaurant in Glasgow for the 1st time ever! For the 1st time ever, we decided to ignore those prices n just go makan!

Hoho... Guess how much was it? 39.70 pounds! After conversion, 87 BND ?! And what did that include? Shark fins? Abalones? NO.. Maybe scallop? No too! Hahaha

We had emm a duck in plum sauce dish, that had about 9 small sliced pieces(I think 3 were just mere duck skin) that cost 9.20 pounds! Phew...

Well what to do, that's life in the other countries. Plus its food! Emm.. It is under the 'wants' categories, like you learnt from 3 yrs of Commerce from F1 to F3. Thus, penting lar! Besides, one of Bernard's theories is that he does not save very much on food. Well that does not mean its right to go into a posh restaurant for dinner every night. Once-in-a-while pampering does no harm.

Oh, back to the molesting thing. Haha.. It happened after dinner when we decided to do some grocery shopping. Well, what do you get when you live in a place where alcohol is legal and where alcohol/liquour whatever you call it, is the MUST drink thing for em? You get drunked ppl all over the streets, everywhere!

When you mix around drunks who can roam freely along the streets with the innocents, something is bound to happen. Well, I was at the till when suddenly this 2 lao ang mo zhar bor just barge in. Walao.. Scary la. Those 2 singing so loud somemore. What the hell? LOL.. They paid for their stuffs when the casheir was halfway working on our stuff. Wow.. this is the first time I saw such a thing. Thought that was the end but NO!

Before leaving, one of em, just went "Wow, gorgeous hair" and sort of played around with the back of my hair. Walao, eww gali la.. Cilaka, si beh soi. Its a fact already. The first chabos that touched me in Glasgow are drunk lao char bos! AHHH! Hahahaha

Anyways decided to seek console from a good buddy of mine who happened to be on MSN. Here's what he said:


Oh noes!! Huatz might have a fetish for old women!! AHH! Beware ppL!

Nites..

Make a vote!

Ever since I've been here, there is this new hobby or emm habit that have sort of emerged in me. Ohh what is it? Trying my best to learn the Scottish accent? Hahah.. No, oh, nah.. partly yeah. I love impersonating different accents! Hahaha.. Ok ok that new habit I meant was photography/-ing. Those who know me know I am not a fan of taking pictures. Oh well partly it was because I hadn't had a proper camera back then. Nah, the damn main reason would simply be because I was too shy to pics in public! LOL.. Yes, Im a hopelessly shy person..

Anyways I guess that is sort of overlooked ever since Im here. Nowadays, Ill just snap at anything that is new and different. Well, I received this e-mail from my advisor a few days ago, that there is this photo competition that I am eligible for. All I've gotta do is to submit a photograph taken whilst I am here...Prize is an Amazon.com 50 pounds voucher.. oo.. Why not?

Thus, I figured I could use some help here. These are the selected pics that I think are "better" looking as compared to the tons that I have taken. Better, as when compared to my own standards of course. I find it always dissapointing when reviewing the photos I have taken. So many beh sui eh! Haha .. Thus, anyways yeah.. question now is which one should I submit? I don't much about photography thus here comes ur part, vote for the one that I should submit. Help Bernard win the 50 pounds voucher! Hahahaha

Pic 1

Pic 2
Glasgow Fireworks with Nelson's Monument

Pic 3
Evening by River Clyde with Glasgow Tower and Science center in backdrop

Pic 4
Taken from the base of the Glasgow Tower

Pic 5.
A random tunnel-on-an-overhead-bridge

Time flies~

Today can easily be considered the coldest day ever since I arrived in Glasgow about 2 months ago. The fog was super thick,and not to say, the cold was certainly merciless, it just ate right through me. I guess every part of my body was more or less covered from the cold except the face, thus my cheeks felt like someone was pressing ice on it! hahaha... Not even the cars were spared, there were thin ice layers on car tops and windscreens! Its only November though, which means more weather nastiness certainly to come.

It seems like everything out there suffer from the cold, except 1 thing, the 1 thing that amazes me, the dogs! They don't seem cold at all. Dogs do not have thick jackets and hoods. How can they withstand the cold? Yeah, they have fur and such. If their furs were thick enough to shield them from the cold, then Im sure there wouldn't be any dogs left in the tropical countries such as Brunei la LOL. Ohh, if you haven't know yet, its very normal for people to walk their dogs in the streets, in the city, whereever it is here. Dogs along the street?! No, it is not how you are envisioning it to be. My guess is that you will be thinking, dogs barking at random strangers, digging on leftovers on the floor or possibly being thrown stones at. Nopzz.. It ain't the case here. Amidst the large no. of dogs I've seen roaming around, I have yet to hear a bark or seen a dog chasing someone! I guess there is possibly a rule that dogs here must be well-trained or smth..

Hmm... Anyways, tomorrow will be start of the last week of my semester already! Super fast ain't it? It is just like I just came, and whoosh... the first sem is gone. Oi boss up there in the heavens, please please slow down the time a wee bit for dear Bernard down here whose yet to seriously explore this place. hahaha..

Ohh, so what are the places that you are longing to visit during your time here Bern? Those who really know me would get this right I suppose. It'll be the football stadiums! Those that you watch week in and out on ESPN every Sat night back home. Celtic Park, Ibrox in Glasgow, then down South, Old Trafford, Emirates, Stamford Bridge, and across the seas, Nou Camp!! So far, I have yet to step foot onto any of these places yet thou'. Sheesh, Celtic recently got knocked out of the Champions League, which means no more Champions League match to watch. One of my biggest regrets will be missing out on the recent Celtic-Man U match here. DAMN.. The tix were sold out even before I knew it. My next target would possibly be the Glasgow derby match between Rangers and Celtics. Oh, may God bless me on this quest. Ticket sales have yet to begin. Thus hopefully, luck will be on my side this time around =)

Hmm.. I'll just share a few random pics from around campus before ending this post ..

Main entrance.
My dept. ain't inside, thus I don't go through here often though.

Cloisters, I guess this is one of the must-take pics in this uni

I don't know why, but I like this pic.
I think has a "the Lord has arrived" feel due to the light?

The Bell Tower - The pinnacle(highest point) of the uni
which I guess is another must-take pic in the campus.
Should be the most photographed structure in this uni

Friend .. sudah update!

Ahh, hello ppls, I've didn't realised that the last post was around 9 to 10 days ago until last night?! Even sampai ada orang bising arah CBox sudah *ahem siapa yang bising2 atu huh? I've wanted to do one last night, but got lazy and went to sleep. HAhaha... Anyways, don't worry here goes a break down of what happened from the last post:

A lil smth significant 2 Sundays ago:

I dumbly thought that something was going wrong with my laptop as it wasn't showing the right time. The kitchen's clock was showing 3.30 pm whereas my laptop is only 2.30 pm. I dumbly adjusted my laptop's clock, and tried to figure out what went wrong! HAHAHA.. If you don't know it yet, you should after reading this para. It is the Daylight Savings Time aka DST. You can read how Mr Ang went ecstatic about that! Oops... ;)

What happens is our time gets turned back 1 hr starting from 2 a.m of that particular day(The day that DST starts). Our computers also changes its time automatically btw, which thus explains my laptop's actions. Napa Brunei nada? Hmm.. Not sure bout that, but I remember reading that only industrialized nations do practice that. Or maybe only places which have 4 seasons? Time will return back to their original state once winter officially ends I suppose..

As we get closer to winter, the sun's presence will get shorter and shorter. Thus this fact combined with the fact that time gets 1 hr slower = 5pm sky that looks just like 7 pm sky!!

The sight of the moon and uni's Bell Tower

A lil smth significant last week:

Around Tuesday and Wednesday last week, according to the weather forecast, Glasgow's temperature went below 0 degrees for the first time since I was here! No joke! Of course I was excited, 0 degrees meant possibly snow flakes!! The news even reported that the north of Scotland was already snowing. So is parts of England. But unfortunately, all the anticipation dampened as there seem to be none in Glasgow.. =( Hahaha.. According to the seniors, Glasgow is a place that is not a snow-prone area. I guess that explains it. However, I hope this would change once the real winter comes.. lol.. I want snow!!

A smth lil significant last Friday night:

Halloween!

The Brunei society in Scotland aka BruScot organised a Halloween party for us all. As expected of course, we would have to dress up! So here was the 'ghosts' and 'monsters' of the night:

Wasssssuuppp??

Why so serious?

Shh..

The supposedly 'dark'(blame the cam's flash) house littered
with cobwebs and a thing hanging in the middle..

And more 'ghosts' :

[PS>> Which of the following of all the pics am I in??]

And of course, enough of them for now, as uploading pictures here is such a pain(when you have 2 housemates who are download freaks I suppose.. Oops.. LOL). Just so you know, more pics are on my Facebook acct. =)

Anyways, the so-called Halloween's party, wasn't exactly a party, as it even involved electing who the next BruScot admins were! Who does that on Halloween's night huh? Haha.. But of course ,we did have some fun! There were games played and of course had food, of which the best was definitely the Brunei-styled Mee Goreng.. How great was it? Bernard had 6 PLATES!!! Hahaha.. Small small plates of course, those 10 cm in diameter super-thin plates.. Ohh, that was done around 2 instances of the night lah.. No social manners I suppose, if you eat freaking much at a place where you aren't the only guests. LOL..

Anyways, we planned to leave the place at around 11pm as the last trains were finishing at around half-past 11 if I ain't wrong. However, we sort of lost track of time, and there you go, missed it! Nah, not to worry lah, in such a modern city as Glasgow, there'll definitely be great public transports!! NOT!

I ain't kidding! NO! Its not because the taxi standard is as 'great' as in Brunei's. LOL.. Its because the taxis are fully booked on Friday nights! Taxi business is brisk on this night. Our seniors told us the taxis will only be available at 3 am. WALAO! Of course, I tried to call the taxis in the hope that there will be 1 available for us. Nah, instead, I was shouted at!! Yeah.. I think the telephone operators suck! In my opinion, tel. operators here ain't very customer-friendly. Their brains left out the simple fact that "Not all people are used to hearing the Scottish accent". LOL.. Thus ask for repeats, and risk being shouted at.

Well, we then decided to not call anymore, and thus waste our time lazing around playing board games, and some were 'scaring' themselves by treating themselves to a horror movie. The first train of the day will begin operations at around 6+ am, thus, yeah we decided to go for that.

On the way home, a few pics around St.Enoch's..

Deserted as it seems, but this wasn't the case just a few hours ago! The whole place was even more livelier than Gadong!! You can get to see all sorts of stuff, from "Hollywood characters", to half-naked ladies, drunk people, people smooching, etc etc.. LOL.. Well that's the way life is in big cities I guess..

A smth lil significant today:

A new assignment!! My brain just can't keep complaining enough! There is just so much work!! I've got 3 assignments, which weighs around 20% of total course marks. I've 3 team projects (no joke!) going on concurrently. Today, lecturer presented us with a new assignment. Nasty eh.. I suppose it is now really time to pull my socks up and start working.

Okie dokie, guess that's about it for now. There you go.. an UPDATE! =)