Goals.

Watched two football games yesterday and saw a total of 12 goals, of which 8 were great and 4 of them were not-so-great. Well, at least I still had some fun winding up the Pegasus team yesterday at the stadium, and after winding up Kitchee a few weeks back, it was great to be able to dish out the same dirt on another title challenger whose fight for the league title suddenly went so pear-shaped. And since South China probably aren’t in the title race any more (mathematically it’s still possible, but I’m not betting on it), the best bit of entertainment we can have ourselves is probably to wind up the two teams who are in it but can’t seem to do enough to secure the title! But again, some righteous “fans” are again slagging us off, but I don’t have time for them. If they can’t understand the culture in football, I can’t really help them. As I’ve said a million times, winding up the opposition is part of supporting a team, and if these lot still remains in their 70s mentality, I think they should continue staying in their caves and not let people know how ignorant they are.

As for Manchester United… let’s say that I’m still gutted by how they shipped 2 goals in 3 minutes. I sure wouldn’t want to be in the United dressing room after the game yesterday. I won’t complain – after all these years rooting for United, I’m getting used to such bumpy rides. That said, even if City were to win the league, I wouldn’t say that they deserve it anyway because when you are spending that kind of money, buying all kinds of players, you shouldn’t be just winning the league. As I always said, if it’s Sir Alex managing that bunch of idiots at Manchester City, they would have wrapped up the title in February. Of course, Sir Alex would never have gotten Mario Balotelli in the first place.

Ever since coming back to Hong Kong from Manchester, I think I’m having quite a bad time trying to sleep well. Last week has been hectic (which is an understatement), and hopefully I could get to have a good few hours of sleep in the train when I’m heading over to Beijing this weekend.

And yes, the Manchester travelogue is still nowhere in sight yet. Patience is a virtue, my friend.

MCFC Fact of the Day: If Manchester City wins the Premiership on 13 May, they will finally be able to justify having the 3 stars on their crest, one star for each of their league title win (the other two being 1937 and 1968).

Mark Twain.

I don’t normally do two posts a day, but in the light of some childish and idiotic people, I’ve decided to post some wisdom from Mark Twain to remind myself (and everyone) that we shouldn’t take these people too seriously:

1. Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.

2. Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.

3. Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

4. Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

5. Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she laid an asteroid.

Source: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mark_twain.html

And some little information about Mark Twain if you are interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain

And one more quote – may not be from Mark Twain, but makes just as much sense: 

Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.

Isn’t that lovely?

Fact.

Now picture this:

There’s a kid who’s dishing out nonsense in the room, making all sorts of crazy noises and basically hurling abuse at anyone and everyone in the vicinity. You try to calm him down, yet he calls these abuse as “constructive criticism” (my English teacher once told me that all criticisms are constructive in nature so there’s no such thing as constructive or destructive criticism, but that’s besides the point). So what are you going to do?

Shut him up, of course!

There’s a general problem with kids nowadays – they make so much noise sometimes that they don’t even know what they are talking about. They hurl abuse at people, but aren’t prepared to take them. They think that it’s their divine right to use all kinds of derogatory terms at others, but when they are being given the same, they cry foul and say they are being oppressed. Hello?! Freedom of speech doesn’t equal to freedom to vocally abuse – get that into your heads, kids! If you lot think that freedom means you can do whatever you want, I would say you are missing the point!

Alright, nuff of my rumblings.

It’s been two days since I came back from Manchester and to be honest, I’m still feeling the jet-lag. It’s not like I’m yawning away at work, it’s just that I don’t think I’m sleeping well. It really isn’t fun to be crossing between time zones at such a short period – I started from GMT+8 last Wednesday night, arrive at GMT+1 on Thursday, and returning to GMT+8 on Monday. I think my body clock is all messed up, and it looks like for future trips to Europe or US, I might actually stay longer to at least give my body some time to adjust.

United lost 1-0 at Wigan last night and honestly while that doesn’t make for pretty reading, I’m not too upset about it. I guess I’ve somehow reached that stage where results on the field hardly gets me too upset. I mean, I definitely wasn’t pleased, but I’m not overly upset. I don’t think I’m like those spoilt brats as mentioned earlier who would basically screw the hell out of the manager, the players, the physio, the kitmen, and the tea lady – and when people try to shut them up, they would say “I’m providing constructive criticisms only, why are you abusing me?”

Another half a day to go before I call it a day – would be working this weekend so there’s nothing to look forward to!

10 Things of Manchester.

As I arrived back in Hong Kong after a 4-and-a-half days in Manchester, there are many thoughts going up in my head and I think it might be a while before I could really put my travelogue together – after all, I still have to sort out my photos! Before the travelogue comes up, I’d just want to share some things I observed/experienced while in Manchester.

1. People in the Manchester are generally friendly. Or maybe it’s a western thing to be friendly.

2. The Manchester Metrolink breaks down at no warning, and when it breaks down, it doesn’t really care how you would carry on your journey.

3. Meat pies at Old Trafford actually aren’t that nice

4. I like Salford, because it’s quiet, comfortable, and most importantly, red.

5. I didn’t get any ticket checks on all the Metrolink rides that I was on.

6. Seems to me that the shops in the city opens only at 10 and shuts down at 6.

7. Out of my four-and-a-half days in Manchester, I experienced good weather (i.e. no rain) for a grand total of one day. I think that’s a good return.

8. Things in Manchester are actually not that expensive. It’s only expensive when you keep comparing it in Hong Kong Dollars terms. Many things are actually very good value for money.

9. Non-league football in Manchester has more passion and bigger crowds than football in Hong Kong.

10. We should be glad that we don’t have Value Added Tax in Hong Kong – the VAT rate in UK is a whooping 20%!

I’m quite sure I’ll visit Manchester again.

One reason to make a second trip to Manchester for...

Amsterdam.

Thought I’d nick a quick one in before I get on my plane from Amsterdam to Hong Kong. After four and a half days in Manchester, I am flying back to Hong Kong and ready to get back into reality. The past couple of days in Manchester have been really wonderful and it has given me a lot of great memories – at the same time made me realize how ignorant I am sometimes! Going for trips always give me an opportunity to see how the outside world is like, and I can say that these few days in the UK have been really eye-opening. Of course, Old Trafford and Manchester United were always my top priorities in the trip, but everything else that came along with them weren’t too bad either.

I’d probably take some time to organize the photos and my travelogue, so it may be a while before you guys could see what I have been doing in the past few days. Hopefully procrastionation isn’t going to get me (again) this time round.

Boarding in 20 minutes, so I’ll see everyone back in Hong Kong. And like they say in England… Cheers mate!