UK - Live Football Match @ Old Trafford, Manchester

I don't really follow football matches but I do get excited watching football games. And by football, I mean what North Americans would call 'soccer'. 

Since my brother is a big fan of Man United, I therefore automatically become a Man United supporter, and there is no better place to watch the match other than the Old Trafford.

My first live match was actually a big one: Man United v.s. Arsenal. We were standing (yes, not sitting) on the West Block 3102. That's directly behind the goal post of Man United on the first half of the match. Which means... there were no one else around us other than the hardcore fans of Man United. We pretty much did not sit down at all throughout the entire match. It's a 'standing seat'.

If you come about 15 minutes before the kick off, you can also see the Red Devil mascot wandering around the VIP area.

Soon after some warm up exercises, the players entered the field. 

And ready for the kick off!

Now, unlike watching the match live behind the TV, you don't hear any commentators at all throughout the match. There is no replays, too, so if you missed something... you just miss it. That's why it's much more engaging than watching American football where there are plenty of advertisement moments in between the match and that people are easily distracted with beers and cell phones. There is no time for you to lose focus on the match. Unless it's a really boring one, I guess.

So, you came to the stadium, watch the game, and... that's it?

NOPE!

One crucial part of enjoying a live football match is the singing and the chanting, which was annoyingly replaced by the buzz of vuvuzela in World Cup 2010, South Africa. You should also prepare to memorize the songs and chants before you go to a game, especially if you sit in the 'hardcore fans' area. For Man United's chants, you can check them out in websites like here and here. The most commonly chanted one was 20 Times!, and I even memorized the gestures now :)

And have you ever heard pounding sounds of drums throughout the match? Ever wonder where the drums are located? Well, here are the 'drummers':

See the men standing at the corner? They're the 'drum' bangers. They bang the aluminium structure they were leaning against throughout the game. 

The nicest part of watching a live game on site? When the team you support won the match!

Your first time watching a live match on site? Here's a few of my tips:

1. If you're watching the game in winter, make sure to dress warm enough. Chanting makes you feel warm, but when the game is not very exciting, sometimes people don't cheer that much and you'll feel cold. But if you forgot to bring your scarf or hat, you can always buy their official merchandise from the mega store just outside the stadium. Or if you prefer to save money, you can buy scarfs with Man United logo or faces of the players for 10 pounds.

2. Get some food before the game.

 There are hot dogs and burgers, and if you are the curious type, you can also try roasted pork with stuffings and gravy in Yorkshire pudding. I don't know if this is also available in other areas, but at least they are available in Old Trafford.

To be honest, I don't like Yorkshire pudding that much. It's spongy, it tastes unusual, it's rubbery, it's chewy... well, it just doesn't suit my taste. But hey, I tried it! :)

3. You can't bring drinks from outside, although you can buy it once you're inside. Of course, the drinks are more expensive than if you buy them at the supermarket, but I think the prices are not too bad.

By the way, because of my curiosity and because I trust my brother too much, I was led into buying Bovril because... I haven't heard of it and my brother pretended to know what it is. Chocolate drink, he said. Bah.

I feel like drinking a cup of beef bouillon from a coffee cup. Not the best drink to have in a football match.

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Turkey - Testi Kebab (Pottery Kebab)

I became familiarized with Turkish food ever since I started living in the Netherlands. I love kebab, although I don't know if it should taste like it does because I think although Indonesian food is common in the Netherlands, there are still some differences in taste and appearance from the ones I have in Indonesia.

My motto is always "when travelling, try eating what the locals eat". I was tempted to order a normal kebab in a restaurant in Cappadocia, Turkey, but something else caught my attention on the menu card: testi kebab.

I've always thought that kebab is just cut meat from skewers, but apparently you can also have the meat in a pot with flame burning around it. The white powder below the pot seemed to be salt, but I didn't taste it. After further research, it seems that testi kebab is typical from Central Anatolia. That means I was in the right place to try it!

Testi kebab is more like a stew, and it's served with rice. It's very tasty. I wouldn't say that it's spicy, but that could be because I have high tolerance for spiciness.

The price? Not too bad for a restaurant near a touristic site. 22 Turkish Lira is equivalent to about 10 USD, or 7.5 Euros. In the Netherlands, nasi goreng (Indonesian fried rice) probably cost that much.

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Stress Management 101 - My Style

This is the time of the year where I get stressed a lot. There's my thesis, my experiments, my team project, a competition, Dutch lessons... and then sometimes stress comes just from handling relationships with certain people. Or from the bipolar Dutch weather. Stress can annoying, and it's even more annoying when you can't do anything about it or talk to someone about it. But hey, at the very least, you can try to reduce it by doing something you like.

Here are my top 10 list of stress relieving methods:

1. Eat instant noodle

Oh dang, it's unhealthy, loaded with salt, MSG and fats. Are you suicidal!? Well, no, basically I run for my comfort food. Instant noodle gets ready in 3 minutes, yummy and warm. There's never any moment of "I don't have an appetite" when it comes to instant noodles. Unless I just went for a binge eating session at some buffet restaurant. That being said...


2. Binge eating

source: blog.timesunion.com

At times I would splurge anything available in my fridge or cabinet. That's why sometimes it's good for me not to keep too much food in stock. But nevertheless, keeping food stock at home has already become a habit. Prepare an umbrella before it rains, so an Indonesian idiom says. Luckily, I rarely go binge eating these days. And by the way, sometimes the unhealthier it is, the greater the 'healing' effect is. And I don't know why.


3. Cook

Cooking is a great distraction because I typically don't think when I cook. Just put ingredients and seasonings together according to instinct and see if anything good comes out of it. Luckily, I only have to feed myself. If it doesn't turn out well, it's a good reminder to stop doing stupid things and move on. If it turns out good... my tongue is happy, my tummy is happy. In the end, it's a win-win situation.

And I especially like to decorate my food. Pretty food makes me happier, even if it's just omelette, sausages, broccoli and ketchup (yep, I made that omelette 'flower' in the picture).


4. Post something on my blog

source: cakechooser.com

One of the greatest reason why I'm keeping my blog is because I write something not relevant to my problems. In a sense, it's a type of avoidance. It doesn't really solve the problem, but writing helps to let out my thoughts and sort them out nicely. Like what I'm doing right now.


5. Write a song

source: haru-otaku.blogspot.com

When things get extremely annoying, I tend to channel all my negative thoughts into a song. I mean, why bother getting wrinkles when you can produce something productive that also entertains other people? I love it when YouTubers leave comments like "this is so me!", because... hey, I know I'm not the only one in the world who feels that way. For sure.

This is a song I made to dedicate my love for Wikipedia. Every academic researcher knows that all professors don't allow you to cite Wikipedia, but nevertheless, I still find it very useful and informative. Sorry it's in Indonesian, no English translation.

WIKIPEDIA, I LOVE YOU!!


6. Karaoke

source: madlyjuicy.com

One of the things I most from Asia is a karaoke box where I can sing alone as loudly and as off-tunely (is there such a word?) as possible. Let it go out loud. Especially when I was in Japan, where I could book a room like the one in the picture above just for myself. All for around 600 yen (~US$6).

When I was in the US, I did a karaoke session in my apartment once, and I got a warning note from my neighbor. I guess the walls were too thin, or... I just don't sing that well (sorry!).


7. Drawing/sketching

Sometimes all I need is to vent up some excess energy that is not supposed to be there. I'm not particularly good at drawing or sketching things, but it gets my brain away from the problem. Again, it doesn't solve the problem, but it helps me to calm down and think clearly.


8. Surfing the Internet

Images of cute animals just make my heart goes... full of love <3

And sometimes you just find something so stupid it makes you laugh so much because it doesn't make sense at all. Watch this morning exercise song:

And you'll think "Thank God I'm not the stupidest person in the world".


9. Rolling on the bed
My bed isn't large enough, but at least it's enough to lie down and roll back and forth. And then I imagine myself as this:

source: paintingsbygretsky.blogspot.com

source: www.knaria.com

source: kidztrainer.com

And then I go back being happy again :)

10. Playing games

One thing that you cannot take out of my life is gaming. I'm not as hardcore as I used to be, but I always like the challenges I get from playing a game. I'm typically not satisfied with low-standard results, and when I can't perform so in real life, it helps to know that I have good acuity and motor skills. And problem solving skills, too, because I can - most of the time - handle games that have no instructions.

I was told once that playing games is apparently quite... an antisocial behavior. But I think I just have to be in the right pool of people when I play games, because sometimes conversations can start from talking about games. Like when my brother sent me a screenshot of his Flappy Bird score.

How do you vent your stress?

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Turkey - Hot Air Balloon @ Cappadocia

We went on a hot air balloon trip last November. I was torn between going to Koln, Germany, for a Christmas Market trip, and this one. I haven't been to the city centre of Koln, but on the other hand, I don't think I can find anyone who is interested in riding hot air balloon in 10 years. Or even in my life time. I'm glad I chose the hot air balloon ;)

We headed to the site before dawn to get some complementary breakfast (just a cup of coffee and a slice of cake, nothing fancy). It was rather cold because it's almost the beginning of winter. Or perhaps winter had already come.

The ascent began when it was still partially dark, and the scene began with the silhouette of Cappadocia landscape.

While our balloon had risen up to quite some height, there were still other balloons nearby that had not been fully inflated. Maybe the balloons are not allowed to fly at the same time to prevent crash.

The ride was slightly shaky, but on overall, stable.  The staff who handled the burners was very professional, and he had been doing this for 10 years. 

It was -2C on the ground according to the weather forecast, but it was definitely much colder up in the air. Thankfully, the occasional burst of flame could warm you enough. Still, I don't think you can survive without a glove, especially if you want to take lots of pictures up there.

I don't know how many balloons fly every day, but you definitely can't count them by fingers.

The balloons don't really vary by size, but since they represent a company, the balloons have different designs and that makes the sky look really beautiful.

We stayed up in the air to watch the sun rise. It was really beautiful, but my camera was just not good enough to capture the best of the moments.

Aside from the sunrise, we also saw the best of Cappadocia landscape.

The landing was very smooth. We sort of had to cooperate by squatting down at the right moment to control the balance of the basket we were in. 

When we reached the ground, the balloon slowly deflated. They had to be careful not to get the balloon stuck on any tree branches nearby, and sometimes the wind could be a bitch. Ours was almost stuck to a tree nearby, but they managed to pull the balloon away from the tree :)

The whole experience was closed by a complementary champagne, and of course, this was the time to give tips to the staff for the awesome experience on the hot air balloon. 

I'm definitely recommending this company (Discovery Balloons) if you ever want to go for a hot air balloon ride in Cappadocia!

A big thanks to my brother and his friend for arranging this memorable trip :)

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