So Good...

Penfold's Private Release.. Exquisite

Rooney's Goal.. Glorious!

Park Ji Sung's Winner.. Song Boh!?

ManUtd 4 - 3 ManCity

My goodness, that was simply the most exciting Manchester United match I've watched since the Champions League triumph a few years back.

This will go down in history as a classic United match and fans will remember Michael Owen scoring in the 96th minute to seal a memorable victory in this fiercely contested Manchester derby.

Watched the match with Minh, Daniel and Clare. Now, sore throat liao haha!

A New Red.. United We Stand!

It's over at White Hart Lane for the match against an in form Totenham. Tough fixture here but if anyone can beat them, Manchester United can.

United Vs Spurs have traditionally been goal fests, so I'm hoping tonight will be no different. Totenham 0-3 ManUtd with Michael Owen on the score sheet!

UK & Europe Honeymoon - A Picture A Day

This is a quick summary of our trip to the UK and Europe in August. A picture a day, plus a few words.

Day 0 - [13 Aug 09]

Singapore

With much eagerness, we said goodbye to Singapore and get our hectic work lives out of our systems for a good two weeks.

We took a midnight flight out of Changi. The timing was great as we were scheduled to arrive at Heathrow early the next morning, giving us one full day in London.

Day 1 - [14 Aug 09]

London & Manchester

We reached London early in the morning at met Fu Onn at his house. We then went for our first meal in Europe; Ponti's Full English Breakfast at Liverpool Street tube station.

When Fiona did get to knock off that evening, we hopped on the train to Manchester. Woohoo!

Day 2 - [15 Aug 09]

Manchester

We spent the morning walking around Manchester city centre. We could see a mix of Reds and SkyBlues in town.

After checking out of our apartment, Daisy and myself checked into a hotel room at Salford Quays, which was within the vicinity of Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium. We spent the afternoon immersing ourselves in the scenic Salford Quays area and checking out the MUFC Megastore. Fu Onn and Fiona left for York that evening.

Day 3 - [16 Aug 09]

Manchester & Edinburgh

When we woke up on Sunday morning, we could feel that the atmosphere to be distinctly different from the day before. There was more buzz and the you could see more people on the streets. Almost every other person in that part of town wore a red top!

As we made our way to the stadium, we soon became part of a massive procession of football fans heading to the Promised Land of Soccerdom. For the two of us; we finally fulfilled our own soccer pilgrimage by watching Manchester United play a Premiership match at Old Trafford. After the match, we took a flight out to Scotland.

Day 4 - [17 Aug 09]

Edinburgh & London

We had initially wanted to stay in the B&Bs of the Scottish Highlands; with a scenic loch in front of the guesthouse and a cloudy mountain at the back. But a rescheduling of Manchester United's season opening match meant we could only spend one night in Edinburgh. A single malt whiskey fueled night no less!

We even went off the beaten tourist track and ventured into the countryside to visit a whiskey distillery. In fact, that distillery turned out to be the one producing Glenkinchie, which we had just tasted the night before. The most memorable part of our trip to Edinburgh has to be our ascend to Arthur's Seat, a peak in Holyrood Park. That evening, we flew back to London.

Day 5 - [18 Aug 09]

London & Amsterdam

As Fiona had to work, Daisy, Fu Onn and myself flew off the next day to Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is a beautiful city and the people were very friendly. I must also mention that our hotel in Amsterdam was the nicest one we've stayed in during the course of the two weeks. I was banned from trying to smoke weed but we did have watch a live 'adult' show in the famous red light district.

Day 6 - [19 Aug 09]

Amsterdam & Bruges

From the land of Grolsch, we took a train to the land of Duvel!

After a quick transit at Antwerp, we arrived at the medieval city of Bruges. Now this is a city lost in time! From the narrow stone paved roads to the architecture of all the buildings around the city, you will definitely feel transported back to a time of knights on horses and maidens walking by with their laundry buckets. OK, so maybe it's just me.

Day 7 - [20 Aug 09]

Bruges

Initially, we imagined this place to be less known and hence less touristy. That proved to be wrong and you could tell that the city survives entirely on tourist money; with its many romantic canals, windmills, churches, chocolatiers and restaurants.

For a tiny city, it has numerous Michelin starred restaurants. There are also downsides to this place. The hotels are of very inferior quality, shops close very early and food is very expensive. That said, we still had a lot of chocolate, beer and mussels!

Day 8 [21 Aug 09]

Bruges, Brussels & Barcelona

We left Bruges early to spend a few hours in Brussels, for more chocolate, beer and mussels! Haha!

In the evening, we took a flight to Spain where Fiona rejoined us, and what a (heat) shock Spain turned out to be. Barcelona was hot! The greatest shock came when we found out that our apartment did not have air conditioning!

Day 9 - [22 Aug 09]

Barcelona

As hot as it was, we still managed to pack our few days with activities. Walking down La Ramblas, touring the Nou Camp, visiting Segadra Familia, enjoying the vista atop Montjuic, etc..

It's a pity really that we stayed in a place without air conditioning. That taught us a very valuable lesson in booking for hotels in the future. Overall, it was still a good trip. We also had our best meal over the two weeks in a chic local restaurant called La Botiga. Highly recommended. It was a gem of a find for us, really. I'll probably blog about that story in another post.

Day 10 - [23 Aug 09]

Barcelona & Paris

Barcelona may be a beautiful city but the heat was really too much for us.

So, after saying goodbye to Fu Onn and Fiona, both going back to London to work, we continued on our way to Paris! Ah! The cool French weather was so welcoming. I can't understand why Cristiano Ronaldo would ever want a move to Spain so much!

Day 11 - [24 Aug 09]

Paris

Paris was amazing! All that talk about it being the most romantic city on Earth, well, it's probably mostly true.

The very simple act of strolling down Avenue des Champs-Élysées already feels so romantic. This is easily my favourite city during the course of the two weeks that we were in Europe.

Day 12 - [25 Aug 09]

Paris & London

With heavy heart, we said goodbye to Paris and took the Eurostar back to London.

That night, our hosts (Fu Onn and Fiona) brought us to a Szechuan restaurant near Liverpool Street. As a matter of fact, we had Chinese food every single night that we were in London!

Day 13 - [26 Aug 09]

London

While our hosts went to work, we took the time to do the usual touristy stuffs.

While we did not see the Queen in person, we did see her palace and a host of other London landmarks. We also watched a West End play (Les Misérables) and did some shopping over at Chinatown.

Day 14 - [27 Aug 09]

London

The whole Chinatown shopping trip was to help prepare for a steamboat dinner on our last night in London.

It will be an evening that all 4 of us will remember for a long time. We had a yin-yang steamboat of chicken soup and mala soup on the verandah of Fu Onn's apartment. The winds were strong and super cold. As dinner progressed, we started pulling on more clothes to counter the cold. After dinner, Fu Onn and myself went out to a nearby bar for drinks and got caught up in a karaoke mood. After 5 beers each, we went home to find Daisy and Fiona still awake and started setting up for a home karaoke session, projecting Youtube MTV on his TV. The video recording of that session will make for many a good laugh in the years to come.




Day 15 - [28 Aug 09]
London



After doing some last minute shopping and taking a final good look around London, it was finally time to head home to Singapore.



We had wanted to have a good dinner at Heathrow before the flight but a mess-up of tax rebate issues meant that there wasn't any time at all for dinner.


Day 16 - [29 Aug 09]
Singapore


After what seemed like a never ending flight, we finally touched down back in Singapore on a fine Saturday evening.

It was a most memorable 2 weeks of our lives together. What made it even more memorable was the fact that we also spent most of that time in the company of good friends.

We would definitely love to go back and spend more time in Scotland and France. Not to forget, we have yet to visit Italy, and the Vatical City in particular. Till then, there is the (very important) issue of working hard and saving up to take care of. Haha!

Thanks for reading! :-)

Manchester United - 08/09

Been a great season. Would have been greater had we also won both the FA Cup and the UEFA Champions League. But a haul of FIFA Club World Cup, Carling Cup and Premier League champions is amazing by any measure.

So we've finally sold Christiano Ronaldo. I remember being in NUS and wondering "why the heck did we pay £12.2 million for boy from Portugal who's barely 18 years old?". All that cross-overs that achieved nothing in his first season only served to compound fears of Manchester United going down the drain in those years. But the boy wonder grew into a monster of a football player and the rest is history. £80 million is good business deal for someone who wants out anyways. Looking forward to exciting new players.

I dislike the fact that next season's kit might be used for 2 years but the with the sponsor's logo changing after only one year. This authentic looking poster was supposedly leaked by Nike. Poster itself is nice, but difficult to make a judgement call on the stripe.

Especially with this photo also appearing online. Hmmm...

United Champions League Winners Again?

I believe ManUtd have the more balanced team for this match up. Barca of course are superb but I believe we can triumph here. Would dearly love for Park Ji Sung to start and for Ronaldo and Rooney to score.

Oh and I suddenly remembered, I have a couple of "ManUtd-to-win-EPL" SingaporePools tickets! Woohoo.. double happiness!!!

Champions For Sure!

It's tonight, for sure. One more point is all that's required for Manchester United to win the Premiership title. We'll get all 3 points is my bet.

Too bad for Liverpool though. Best chance they've had in a while. After tonight, I think FuOnn owes me at least 4 Kenny Rogers meal (ongoing bet, renewed every year, unpaid for a few years already).

Spent the evening whipping a laksa meal (Yes! Just got new stock today) and I'm so gonna enjoy the night! Watching at home right now with Daisy, Andrew and Tommy.

Macau Dec 08

I had 2 weeks of free time in December last year as I was in the midst of a career switch. Daisy took a couple of days off too and we headed for a short trip to Macau and Hong Kong. Always wanted to see what Macau had to offer; and I dare say, it does offer a fair bit in terms of tourism appeal. We stayed in the Venetian and that in itself is a unique experience.

We had a big room. It comes with a decent view.

And trust me, you'll love the bathroom!

You may also have heard of the nicely done false sky and canals.

Makes you think it's bright and sunny and perfect for shopping no matter what the weather is like outside. In the 4 days that we were there, we covered less than 20% of the shops at the Venetian. In fact, the only shop that we really dropped by at is the 16,000 sqft Manchester United Megastore. After Old Trafford and the Carrington training facility, this is ManUtd central for the Asia Pacific region.

Until the Cotai Strip is completed (if it ever will be), I'ld definitely wanna stay at the Venetian again. That or one of the many nice boutique hotels.

This is the first trip that we went on without any planning in terms of itenary. So we're essentially blur tourist. And like any other tourists, we did the usual touristy stuffs. Like heading straight for the Ruins of St Paul's.

It's crowded even on a weekday. Somehow I doubt it'll be so popular if was never burnt down and the original cathedral still stood on that hill. Next to the Ruins, on an higher hill stood Monte Forte; or more specifically, Fortress of Our Lady of the Mount of St. Paul. Like the cathedral, it is built and run by Catholic Jesuit monks. Here you'll find big guns the Jesuits used to protect Macau.

Trust me, if the Jesuits still had a say in running the fort, they would have blown the monstrosity that is the Grand Lisboa out of the sky.

I can't believe that I've not heard of the building before arriving at Macau. It doesn't look like a hotel cum casino at all. In fact it looked to me like a gigantic shrine to the devil where Stanley Ho and gang conduct satanic virgin sacrifices every night.

Maybe it's just me but I found the building disturbing. This is one of 3 things in Macau that disturbed me. I'll elaborate later.

Anyways, Forte Monte was a nice place to take pictures.

In face, the whole of Macau is rather picturesque.

We visited quite a number of churches and temples.

We also took long romantic walks. *shy*

We also ate a lot of 'instant noodles' and Portuguese baked rice/pasta but to prevent this blog from becoming a food blog, I shall not be posting pictures of food. That, and the fact that I'm still trying to get myself into diet mode! Haha! Oh, if you guys do visit Macau, do make your way to Lord Stow's Bakery for their version of the egg tart. Yummy! They are so good (sweet), the egg tarts brought out the dragon in me!

But my supposed bravado did not prepare me to face the statue of A-Ma. To get to the statue, you have to scale a rather steep and tall hill in the country-side island of Coloane. As you reach the peak, you emerge from a boulevard of trees and come face to face with a very imposing statue. I felt like I was caught in a scene from Jason And The Argonauts.

It strikes a certain fear in me as I looked up at it. It's a weird feeling, standing on the top of a hill only to have a gigantic statue towering over you. Standing there at the foot of the statue, I could see the entire island of Coloane as well as the island of Taipa and Macau. I just can't stop imagining Godzilla emerging out of the sea around us and start battling A-Ma.

To think that the average height of people in Macau/Hong Kong isn't all that tall. And I thought that the Japanese were supposed to be the short ones.

Yao Ming ma man, I feel ya dawg!

The 3rd thing that disturbed me was Macau Tower. It took me at least one minute before I could psyche myself up to step onto the see-through glass floor. One day, I'll go back there to do the bungee.

Oh and I met some of my regional colleeagues at giving out free almond cookies at Senado Square. I did not tell them I worked for the same company though haha! At the center of Senado Square was St Dominic's Church. On our last night in Macau, we actually queued for more than an hour to get tickets to a concert at St Dominic's by the Macau Orchestra. For a small population, they really did have a decent orchestra. So good that I fell asleep halfway through the first piece.

But hey, being a tourist can be tiring OK? Especially with having to contend with Monster Lisboa, Monster A-Ma and the floorless Macau Tower. Luckily we had a great hotel to return to and rest our weary bodies and souls.

Ahh... the bliss. Makes you never wanna leave the bath. Alas, after 4 days and 3 nights, we had to leave Macau. And guess what? The Venetian has their own fleet of high speed ferries that leave for Hong Kong every hour!

I'll write a bit about Hong Kong; when I have the time haha!

Can Manchester United...

... Top the table?

Those of us who followed Manchester United love the club for so many reasons. From near relegation when Sir Alex arrived in 1986 to undoubtedly the best club in the short history of the Premier League.

I started following United in 1995 and have never looked back. This season, we started the season horribly but nary a ManUtd fan was worried. The reason being, ManUtd usually play their best game only after Christmas. We proved it against Chelsea and are now poised to overtake an undeserving Liverpool team despite losing almost the whole of our defensive line up.

So, will we really top the table tonight? We'll find out soon enough, wont we?

Greetings from the SARs!

Yo everyone. Here's saying Hi! from the Far East. We had a great time exploring the very charming Macau.

Now, we're at Hong Kong to usher in 2009. Missing the parties going on back in Singapore. Save some for us k! We're coming back soon!

As they say it here;

Sing Dan Fai Lok!