I had been asked, more than once...why Leeds?
I applied to and was offered places at three universities in the UK: Edinburg, Nottingham, and Leeds. Initially, I had my heart set on going to Edinburg, on advice from a close friend who had studied in the UK that Edinburg is a beautiful city, and a highly reputable university to boot.
However, having been offered a place and given access to the detailed course content, I realised the MSc (Inclusive and Special Education) course offered by Edinburg had a fair number of modules pertaining to the education of pupils with Visual Impairment. Also, only certain modules will be offered in particular academic year. As my area of interest, and work, lies with education for children with cognitive learning difficulties rather than physical ones, going to Edinburg ran the risk me having to select modules of study unrelated to my interest or work.
So, that was that...leaving me with Nottingham and Leeds.
Both Nottingham and Leeds offer modules that are aligned to my requirements. Both Nottingham and Leeds are fairly large cities with the usual ammenities and convienience that come with city living. Both are ranked within the 50th-100th bracket of the QS World University Rankings (Nottingham being higher up than Leeds).
So, as far as I'm concern, very little seperated the two...until...I found out that Leeds was merely an hour away from the city of Manchester, compared to about two hours for Nottingham.
That was the clincher!
Apart from academic and professional considerations, my experience in the UK would definitely involve going to watch Manchester United play at Old Trafford.
I would not say that I'm a 'true blue' MU fan. I do not emblazon my vehicle with flashy MU decals. I would not have named my children, if they were boys, 'Beckham' or 'Giggs'. I do not even own any MU jerseys, original replica or replica replica.
It's just that I have been following them for the longest time...since 1982, when I was a 11-year-old kid in Primary five. Coming from an all-boy school, football was the de facto game of choice before school, during recess and sometimes, after school, while waiting for the school bus to pick us up. Every boy in my class picked an English first-division (what the premier league was known as back then) team to support. Actually, there were only two teams...everyone either chose Liverpool or MU.
As I was pretty ignorant back then, and had no idea that Manchester and Liverpool were actually cities in England, I thought a name with 'Liver' in it sounded awful (hated pig's liver as a child)...so I picked the other team.
So, I had been following the ups and downs of Manchester United since...
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| Old Trafford: Mecca to MU fans all around the world. |
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| Glory, glory Man United...! |
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| Theatre of Dreams... |
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| Kick-about before kick-off. |
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| Scholes: soon to be one of the 'Legends of United's Past'. |
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| Rooney: definitely a 'Legends of United's Present'...on track to becoming United's ALL-TIME top scorer. |
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| Hernandez: 'Chicharito' or little pea, his preferred moniker...surely 'Legends of United's Future'. He so much reminds me of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer...the 'baby-faced assassin'. |
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| Van Persie: goalscorer extraordinaire. |
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| Welbeck. |
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| In action. |
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| Dare I say..."possibly the 3 best strikers in the world at the moment". |
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| The bench. |
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| Giggs: Another soon-to-be 'Legends of United's Past'. Actually, he's second on my list of "All-time Favourite United Players'...after King Cantona of course. My top five: 1.Eric Cantona 2.Ryan Giggs 3.Ole Gunnar Solskjaer 4.David Beckham 5.Mark Hughes. There were of course other 'Legends'...Sir Bobby Charlton, George Best etc. but the five on my list were United players after I started following them. |
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| Crouch: a player who is awkward to watch...but gets the ball in the back of the net. He scored a FANTASTIC goal last season. You can catch it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVIgTii_w2s |
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| Owen: Liverpool - Real Madrid - Newcastle - Manchester United - Stoke City. |
Watching United play at Old Trafford has been on the DDMD list at the back of my mind...my 'Die Die Must Do' list...checked.
It is the closest I got to re-capturing the 'football high' experienced at the National Stadium in Kallang during those keenly contested, adrenalin charged, expletive laced, Malaysia Semi-Pro League days in the early 90s.
It is all very addictive...more games to come.
By the way, United won 4-2...naturally.
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