Monday, April 09, 2007
Manchester United 4 Europe 3
Some fairly quick highlights from the March 13, 2007 match. A wide open friendly with some goals worth viewing.
I went through several negative experiences while living in Manchester, England from September 1999 to July 2001. These included being bottled, burgled twice, and losing my appointment at a University due to my temporary advisor's insistence that I write from a secular and not Christian world-view. I quit the department. I also had serious untreated allergies and serious undiagnosed sleep apnea. On the positive side, I gained some Christian friends, experienced the English lifestyle, ate very good food and had home membership to Manchester United and away membership to Arsenal. I saw matches at Manchester for both United and City, and viewed matches in London, Liverpool, Leeds, and Birmingham. I truly miss attending matches with a friend from church. Manchester is not the tourist centre that London is and so if you have never visited the United Kingdom I would of course suggest visiting London for the sites and perhaps visiting Manchester. Manchester is worth seeing even if just to view Old Trafford and Manchester United. There are also a lot of University students and clubs in Manchester, but I have never been interested in clubbing much. All in all I am glad I lived in England and pleased I have my British citizenship through my Dad which makes living there again quite possible. It is difficult to completely understand life lessons from experiences but although I do not consider myself overly proud of overly egotistical, I reason the Lord reaffirmed in my mind that success or failure is largely due to his guidance. Some things are somewhat under my control, but all things are under his control. I was fortunate to become involved with the University of Wales and look forward to completing my PhD dissertation with them.
Russ
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According to:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_United_F.C.
Manchester United
Full name Manchester United Football Club
Nickname(s) The Red Devils, United
Founded 1878, as Newton Heath LYR FC
Ground Old Trafford
Capacity 76,312
Chairman Joel & Avram Glazer
Manager Sir Alex Ferguson
League Premier League
2005-06 Premier League, 2nd
Russ, thank you for linking me...much appreciated. I liked your comments on Divine guidance...
ReplyDeleteThanks.
ReplyDeleteI have found that my life experience relates well to my academic study.
Russ
I'm sorry to hear that you endured so much difficulty overseas. But it sounds like you were able to grow from it and make good friends... do you ever want to return?
ReplyDeleteI wonder why soccer (football?) never caught on in the U.S. the way it did practically everywhere else?
Incidentally, I've been hoping to study in England this summer. We'll see if it pans out.
Cheers, Ruthie.:)
ReplyDeleteA return interests me, but that would be conditional on it being affordable and me working at an educational institution that allows me significant academic freedom.
It seems to me that North American attitudes, perhaps more so in the past have been interested in developing American or Canadian culture separate from European culture. Canada has developed two sports where it is regularly the best, hockey and curling, and the United States dominates football, baseball, and basketball. Even with the American population of 300 million I cannot see enough of the top American athletes becoming soccer players to ever dominate the sport. The USA in my view like countries such as Sweden, Norway, and Scotland and others are good at home and able to beat any team on a given day, but are not good enough to win the FIFA World Cup. In other words not consistently skilled or good enough to be World Champions. I am doubtful that the USA will ever win the FIFA World Cup and I doubt soccer will ever by as popular as football, baseball or basketball in America.
On the positive side our local United Soccer Leagues team, the Vancouver Whitecaps has North Americans playing for it and North American soccer is entertaining because of the attacking style and this allows for some potential upsets of better and more technical clubs. Canadian soccer should improve now that Toronto FC is part of Major League Soccer, but Canadian soccer is behind its American counterpart.
Ruthie, if you go to England please be careful. As you may have read in a couple of my articles there is a fair bit of crime. This crime is prevalent in areas where students live. Muggings were common in Manchester and as noted on another blog one of my neighours was murdered. He was tied to a chair and beaten to death. Now if you go to Cambridge or Oxford things may be better, but Northern England has a rough reputation. I should state that it is generally a great experience to walk the streets and parks of England. The history of the place in fascinating.
Another email:
ReplyDeleteI do not have a TD account and this email has come several times.
Dear Valued Customer,
During our routine check, our online security team observed multiple
logons on your account, because the number of attempts to sign in
exceeded the number allowed.For your security, we have issued this
warning. You are required to RE-VERIFY your online access.
We ask that you take 5-10 minutes to update your online access. We have
placed an extra verification processes to ensure your identity and your
account security. Sign in to begin the verification process.
Thank you.
Online Banking Security Team
© TD Customer Service
2001 - 2007
I wrote on this issue here:
http://satireandtheology.blogspot.com/2006/12/bank-scam.html
More email fun:
ReplyDeleteSEALORD GROUP LIMITED
P O .BOX 20 Nelson, New Zealand.
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Due to the vast spread of our goods to other countries,we decided to look
for someone who can serve as an in-country distributor who will be
serveing as a link between us and our customers within that province.
It is upon this note that we are writing you this mail to seek your
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distributor. Note that as a distributor of our company,You will be
entitled to a basic salary of 36,000USD a year.That is 3,000 dollars
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5.Scanned copy of Identification
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Executive
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Email: dougmckayofficial@gmail.com
kindly convey your email to : dougmckayofficial@gmail.com
Hey Russ,
ReplyDeleteYour post has raised both an interest, and a fear!, in visiting the UK someday.
Before I go, I suppose I'd better find out exactly what "being bottled" is. I have some ideas, but I'd like to know for sure.
Peace!
Tom
Hi Tom, and thanks for the comments.
ReplyDeleteIn 2000 a friend and I were attacked by a group in downtown Manchester (by the McDonalds and old Arndale Centre for those who know the area). I was fighting three guys and they became frustrated that they were losing and one of them threw a bottle at me as two others were punching me.
A local GP later tried to straighten my nose by hand twice, which was bloody and painful without anesthetic. In 2006, I had nasal reconstruction done here in BC and my surgeon joked that they had made such a mess of it in the UK that my nose was over at my ear. He was English.