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Wednesday, June 10, 2009 - 10:18 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

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Pilgrims Progress

"A friend asks you how the kids are.
You tell them Welbeck and Macheda are doing really well."
- One United poster in Old Trafford


9 June



Breakfast at eight keeping to one type of flakes this time, then filled out two postcards [1] to two lucky recepients (to be revealed). Couldn't manage to find sufficient time to locate the Post Office as sel and I rushed to catch the 11:28 to Piccadilly, Manchester, so their sending will have to wait. Arrived just before one, waited for alvin to rendezvous after he slept around for a couple of nights, and polished off a communal 10-piece chicken bucket with four servings of fries [2] from KFC for ten pounds - can't go far wrong with that.

Throughout human history, men have held many places as sacred, and expended much time and effort into visiting those grounds; spots where guys were said to rise bodily into heaven (or perform other equivalent miracles), big black boxes, stone circles and remote mountain tops are just some common choices. While a man's faith is a private thing, I feel compelled to say that for me, there are few holier areas on this planet than Old Trafford [3].

The employee at the tour counter suggested a student discount to us though we had not known it existed, proving that my faith in the club was not misplaced. We were adorned with a lanyard holding our hard-won tickets (seven-odd pounds a head), and joined the 3 p.m. tour group. Our guide Ian, a manager of match stewarts on matchdays, then revealed to us the mythical pitch. There was no need to avert our eyes lest we be blinded, though, as the ground was being returfed [4].

Snapped our photos with the stands as a backdrop (while being part of the background on MUTV, so said Ian), and walked through the Munich Tunnel memorial with a squalling infant practising his cheers early. The guide was likely an old hand with such cases, and tamed the baby with a rattling of his keys. Pity the parents didn't pick up on the idea.


The High Seat (photo credit: selwyn)


The Players' Lounge and dressing room were up next, and they were a bit less luxurious and a fair bit smaller than I had imagined. The order of the players' seats was, by the way, roughly from defence to attack in a clockwise direction, but the far corner had Ronaldo - Rooney - (Corner) - Giggs - Scholes - Tevez, and was easily the most popular for photographs. To my surprise, Scholes seemed more in demand than Ronaldo! This batch of worshippers do know their stuff. Incredibly, the dressing room was once even smaller, back when Cantona demanded (and got) his own private warm-up space.


This was once a one penny coin


The Players' Tunnel, and the top tiers were out of bounds due to renovations, so we skipped to the Museum (again a bit smaller than expected). It closed at five p.m. and we were forced to leave, but not before availing ourselves of a machine that, for the donation of a single pound, flattened a penny into a cool souvenir on the turning of a wheel. The Megastore was open till six, but I didn't nearly need quite that much time as I went on my biggest spending spree of my holidays so far. A Man Utd necktie, anyone? I even kept one of the United clothes hangars that was offered - that's apparently the practice when purchasing clothes in England...


Best, Law, Charlton - Three are One and One is Three


Left after a last photo with the United Trinity, taking the bus back to Piccadilly where another of alvin's friends (studying at the University of Manchester) awaited us. She took us on a short tour through the surrounding area, which was chockful of shopping malls such as the Arndale [5, with the Wheel of Manchester in the background], and later into the Manchester Chinatown [6]. The city (at least the part we walked in) is modern, and the overall feel resembles Singapore more than about any other place we have visited thus far.

No suitable buffet opportunities presented themselves, so we took another bus ride on our daily pass to the Rusholme Curry Mile. We were soon persuaded by a free snack-and-beverages-and-15%-student-discount offer by the Shahenshah Restaurant [7 (with [8] being alvin taking the photo in [7])], and I ordered Kastari [9, no relation to Mas Selamat, it's sweet and sour chicken with orange flavouring]. alvin bravely asked for, and got, more free tea - given the thickness of his epidermis, it's a wonder that he seems to dislike the cold most (just joking, lah). Free Chupa Chups on settling the bill.

Bid farewell to alvin's pal at nine-plus, and rode in a bus crowded with young organized pub crawlers (wearing T-shirts with checkboxes to record visits), and played Big Two on the 10:48 back to York, reaching our hostel just after midnight. Will have to share the bed with alvin (AHHHHHHHHHHHH).



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