Sedar-sedar dah dekat jam 11 pagi.. my joints were so stiff.. ni semua akibat tak warming down betul-betul lepas training hari Selasa hari tu.. nak bangun dari kerusi pun slowlah yang amat nya.. terus aku mandi and bersiap untuk Zuhur.. sekarang ni amalan aku.. kalau nak keluar bilik.. aku Zuhur dulu.. senang. Zuhur pun awal.. jam 12 dah masuk.

Petang tu pulak ada tutorials - 3 x 1 hour sessions.. imagine 3 jam berturut-turut discuss menda sama.. berbuka pun dalam lab. Since lab takleh nak bawak food, gula-gula la jawapannya. Lepas tutorial, balik tu dah nak masuk Isya'.. aku solat Maghrib sambil tunggu Isya', pastu nak masuk dapur.. lapar dah time tu.. padahal kat Malaysia, ikutkan jam, belum masuk time berbuka pun kalau jam 6 petang tu..

Ingatkan nak masak nasi goreng.. ada perencah sepaket dua aku bawak dari malaysia, tapi flatmate aku duorang budak MBA tengah berdiscussion. Sorang tu Singaporean, so aku tahu dia tak kisah nyer pasal belacan dalam perencah tu, tapi aku tak sampai hati nak dera mamat German lagi sorang tu.. last-last aku buat kuah ayam masak merah, lepas tu letak Quorn pieces dalam tu.. bolehlah.. tapi hambar yang amat la kuah ayam masak merah aku tu.. sayur kebenda semua takde.. sebab tak plan nak buat.

Balik ke bilik dan makan.. ingatkan nak tengok tv kejap lepas tu sambung bertafakur depan PC buat notes.. tapi ada game pulak dah.. Blackburn Rovers lawan Celtic UEFA Cup.. melekat aku kat tv.. terus terlelap! Dengan badan sakit-sakit tu.. enak sungguh tidur awal.. sahur pun ala-ala kadar.. takat bangun, capai air dalam botol tepi katil.. teguk dalam setengah botol.. tidur balik.

So nak tak nak, hari ni kena kerja keras sikit. Which is why I am sitting here right now, trying to decipher a paper called "Measuring Organization Cultures: A Qualitative and Quantitative Study across Twenty Cases" by Geert Hofstede and a few other people. Kalau sesiapa yang biasa dalam bidang accounting / business ni - dia akan familiar dengan nama Hofstede sebab mamat ni macam pioneer gak lah bab measuring culture.

Culture ni essential to business everywhere, but there is still a great struggle to measure culture.. yelah.. menda abstract, camne nak ukur? So Hofstede ni ada la cuba buat. Aku kena present papet nie.. lagi 2 minggu.. tapi once overview pun belum buat!

Kaezrin : Aku kenal Fad, aku dengar citer gak dia nak kahwin. Sebab masa aku buat MA dulu, dia ada 3rd year kat Notts, so masa aku gi Notts Games aku jumpa dia.

Arien: Lepas ni kita buat rombongan sambil belajar gi tengok bola ye.. hehehhe. Kita gi pun sebab Ana & Khalid ada spare ticket.

Cik Kieli: Kalau datang Lancaster, tak kena kalau saya bawak Cik Kieli ke Old Trafford.. kita gi tengok Morecambe main kat Christie Park baru kena... heheheh..

UK Geng Jurnal Gathering: Apa kata orang London tolong organise? Bukan apa.. sebab a) London lagi ramai nampaknya Geng Jurnal, and b) London lagi banyak choice of places to eat and go.. aku tak kisah nak turun London day trip kalau weekend.. selalu gak buat!

Nadhra: I'm back in Lancaster for my PhD.. sort of an escape from Muadzam routine ..hehehe

Got back at about 12.30am last night.. sebab lepas balik dari Old Trafford, kami ke Asda sekejap.. untuk beli groceries alang-alang dah ada kereta tu kan.. kalau tak haru gak nak memunggah.. nasib baik Asda memang bukak 24 jam.

What can I say about the game? An excellent result for United: 2-0 on the night, but Leverkusen were very much a second rate side last night - none of the agression, speed and flair that took them to the Champion's League finals last season, except for some very random glimpses.

What I can say a lot about was the seats we got - I knew it was a Tier 1 seat, so that in itself is a good seat already.. tup tup tengok.. nak tahu kitorang duduk kat mana? 3 rows from tepi padang, betul-betul belakang corner flag. So kiranya.. every time ada corner kick.. memang close up yang amat lah kami semua :) I don't know how Ana did it, but they were excellent seats! Well wicked, as some of my students might say. I'll put up some pictures after they are processed - macam tak nak abis ajer filem aku tu..

Nak jadikan cerita.. as of yesterday morning, aku takde camera pun.. memang tak bawak dari Malaysia hari tu.. debating as to whether I should or should not.. last-last tinggal ajer SLR camera aku tu.. sebab it's a bit bulky to lug around for sightseeing.. so aku budget nanti dekat dekat nak raya.. aku akan beli a 35mm camera with zoom lens.. so tak jauh la quality gambar compare dengan nyer SLR, insyaAllah..

Sekali tu dapat gi tengok game ni.. tergerak nak beli camera.. sebab last time masa tengok Sturm Graz tak amik gambar.. Masa tu gi ngan member aku Ben, dapat seat pun Tier 3.. so just before seminar semalam, terkocoh-kocoh ke Argos beli camera.. ada yang on offer so terus angkat.. and what an EXCELLENT decision that was!

vs

So about the game itself: United started well, attacking from almost the beginning, but Leverkusen also wanted a piece of the pie, so it was quite even for the first quarter of an hour or so. Masa ni Leverkusen attack goal that was nearest to us. United fielded quite a full strength side, Ruud Van Nistlerooy as the striker, Paul Scholes playing just behind him, then David Beckham, Quinton Fortune, Juan Seba Veron and Ryan Giggs in midfield. The back four consisted of Silvestre, Blanc, O'Shea and Ferdinand, and Ricardo played in goal.

It was Leverkusen who had the first real chance to draw some blood, having been awarded a penalty in the few opening minutes. Jan Simak of Bayer Leverkusen, however, would be better off kicking balls in a rugby game as his penalty kick sailed way above the bar into the Stretford End - not too far from where we were sitting! The failure of the penalty attempt seemed to rev up goalie Ricardo, who was in outstanding form all night. He does, worryingly, however, have a love of wandering up the field, ala Barthez. Barthez is fun to watch, but sometimes I just wish he was a solid, dependable keeper who had no goalscroing aspirations.

It was sort of even play after that, with United getting quite a few chances. Up until the point he scored the first goal, Veron was mostly ineffective, passing the ball astray, losing the ball in tackles and generally being a pain in the United midfield. After he scored the first goal it was marginally a better showing from him, but he did improve as the game went on. The first half ended with a 1-0 scoreline in favour of the home side.

The second half was what we were looking forward to, because United were attacking our goal, and surely, but surely, there had to be a couple of corners that either Messrs Beckham or Giggs would be obliged to take. And indeed there was. Our David came up to the corner post twice, within full view of my camera, of course. I don't really fancy him, but snapped the pictures anyway so that I could show off later :) Niat pun dah nak riak.. apa la jadi dengan puasa aku hari ni! Ruud van Nistelrooy scored the second goal as he succesfully beat the offside trap - to me it actually was offside, but oh who cares? The best part was that he came up to our corner to celebrate.. woohoooooo!!

As United were going from strength to strength, a few substitutions were made. Gary Neville came in for Laurent Blanc.. to the chants of 'Gary Neville is a red' - to the tune of London Bridge is falling down, and Ole Gunnar Solksjaer came in for Beckham - to the chants of 'Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole' which soon turned into 'You are My Solksjaer..' to the tune of You are My Sunshine. 5 minutes later Ryan Giggs came off for young Luke Chadwick.

It wasn't long, however, before Rio Ferdinand started limping and had to leave the pitch - to a rousing standing ovation, mind you - and United battled on in the dying minutes with just 10 men because all three subs had been made. No dent in the armour, though, as United held on to a well deserved 2-0 victory.

Star of the night: Young defender John O' Shea. He was fast, he was precise, he was brilliant!

My General Comments: Being so close to the pitch was a tremendous boost.. I got to see my two fave players - Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes - really up close, although Giggsy never came up for a corner kick, so no direct close-ups of him! The game was very enjoyable - all games that we win are enjoyable, hehehe.. and sitting in the North West quadrant just below the singing Stretford End was brilliant. We joined in when we could - it was excellent!

Pertama, masa aku nak beli jacket potatoes kat makcik depan Thomas Cook.. (ni masa before puasa la nie).. dia amik satu potato tu.. tak cukup soft tengah dia.. dia buang.. dia amik lagi satu.. pun tak cukup soft.. dia buang.. dah masuk 4 potato baru dia puas hati and dia bagi kat aku.. aku dok sengih kat situ.. pastu dia kata kat aku.. "If I wouldn't eat it myself, I wouldn't give it to you." Terdetik kat kepala aku berapa ramai peniaga sebangsa dan seagama dengan aku yang serve makanan semalam atau yang mereka sendiri dah tak sanggup makan.. hanya untuk mengaut keuntungan.

Keduanya.. masa aku naik bas... seorang akak ni terkurang bagi duit..dia dah duduk dah.. dengan baiknya drebar bas tu cakap.. 'You're short, luv" - orang kat sini panggil semua orang 'luv' - maksud statement drebar tu.. tak cukup duit yang akak tadi tu bayar.. Akak tu pun terus bangun.. cakap.. 'I'm so sorry.. how much am I short?' Drebar tu jawab.. '40 pence'.. so akak tu bayar.. Teringat la aku kat gaya-gaya drebar dan konduktor bas kat Malaysia.. yang kononnya lebih terdidik dengan adat ketimuran dan ciri-ciri keIslaman (bagi yang Muslim).. tapi tingkah laku sungguh kasar..

So bila nak keluar berouting camtu.. kena tanya mak dulu.. Like I said before, aku kalau mak kata jangan.. memang aku tak buat.. lebih lebih lagi dalam era terrorist dan sebagainya nie.. tapi mak aku kata.. pergilah .. hehehhe.. Abah pun green light ajer.. siap lagi dia cekau email address aku sebab nak mintak tolong aku translatekan something untuk dia. Rasa best bila camnie.. walaupun kita jauh, masih rasa diperlukan oleh keluarga.

Ni bukanlah first time aku gi tengok Man Utd main.. masa dulu pernah gi sekali.. tengok United lawan Sturm Graz. Tapi apa kelas Sturm Graz? Bayer Leverkusen, walaupun sans Ballack and Ze Roberto (sure depa ni nyesal blah.. Bayern Munich dah masuk gaung.. UEFA pun takde place).. tetap mantap.. they are currently second in the Bundesliga. Jadi aku looking forward la jugak.. kalau2 ada transport aku pergilah.

Aku dah jumpa one radio station kat sini yang tak totally obsessed dengan British / dance / techno music. Itulah satu-satunya benda yang aku paling tak tahan dengan music kat UK.. they are obsessed with dance / rave etc. Maklumlah, gaya hidup depa memang camtu.. suka keluar, clubbing, minum.. camne tak obsessed dengan music-music camtu. Anyway, station tersebut ialah RockFM 97.4 based kat Preston. Ada live online lagi, so dapatlah aku drownkan bunyi kipas bising PC aku dengan lagu.

I was going to sleep in this morning, with it being a Sunday and all. Bak kata pepatah SugarHouse, Sunday is for Sleeping. Tapi jam 6 pagi adik aku call dari Malaysia mintak no a/c credit card aku. Nak tak nak kena bangun.. dah jaga tu.. payahlah nak tidur balik.

Memang sepatutnya aku buat final preparation for esok nyer lectures pagi nie. Tapi Ya Allah, malas yang amat. Pagi-pagi lagi dah jadi pomen computer.. Kat bilik aku ni ada dua PC.. satu AMD K6-266Mhz, lagi satu Athlon Thunderbird 1000Mhz. How I came about to have 2 PCs when some people have none is a very long, twisted tale of money, memory breakdown and plain old lying. But case tu dah settle so aku tak nak citer banyak.

Anyway, PC aku yang 1Ghz nie bagus dan laju, tapi bising kipasnya. Pakar-pakar IT : ada cara untuk mensilentkan kipas ni tanpa terpaksa aku menggantikan apa-apa parts dalam CPU tu? Lagi satu slack dia is CD-ROM dia a bit wonky.. tak selalu bekerjasama dengan Cik Idlan kita nie.

Jadi pagi-pagi lagi aku bukak dua-dua PC ... and gantikan CD-ROM drive Athlon dengan CD-ROM drive AMD. Sebab aku lebih banyak guna Athlon. Lepas tu alang-alang dah korek isi perut PC tu.. aku pun start la tambah tambah RAM :) Ini pun temporary measure. Insyaallah aku akan jual one of the PCs.. most probably the AMD.. tak mahal lah.. dalam £150 ajer kot.. since dah lengkap dengan network card etc.

Most probably dalam masa terdekat ni aku nak beli CD-RW satu.. letak kat dalam Athlon, so AMD boleh amik balik dia nyer CD-ROM drive tu. Dalam masa 6-9 months nie, aku most probably akan beli PC lain.. tak sure sama ada nak beli laptop bila balik Malaysia August depan.. atau beli desktop. Aku tak berapa suka laptop sebab keyboard dia and pointing device dia.. tapi kalau boleh aku letak external USB keyboard and mouse ke apa.. then it's not so much of a problem, kan? Sebab PhD student nie rupanya byk presentation.. orang semua ada laptop.. takkan aku nak heret desktop ke semua tempat kot?