All thanks to Weng Fai for giving me the opportunity to work as a ticket checker for Saturday's match between Manchester United and Malaysia. Joshua Leong also joined in, which is great cause both of us are loyal Manchester United fans. I wanted to go for this event so badly, cuz not only I get to watch the match and gain access to places you people can't, I also get to experience being a ticket checker for Ticketpro too. How cool is that!!! I am truly blessed man!!
Woke up excited, oh yeah....I was surprised when dad asked me to drive to the nearby parking area to go for breakfast. Yeah, still need to work on the breaks. I got used to the manual transmission, that I'm using both legs while driving an auto car. Dad was surprised. So from now on, I have to adjust myself. Left legs rest, right legs do the work.
Parents then went to church's gotong royong. Was left alone at home in the morning waiting for Ah Joe to fetch me to the meeting place for breakfast again. Dress code was all black.
We meet up with Khai Liang, Yik Yau, Wei Jian, Ah Foo, Weng Fai, Du Hou, Ah Hooi and Joshie at Foo's place. They went Aladdin for gaming early in the morning like 12 a.m plus.
So we walked to the nearby coffee shop at Taman Connaught. Had our breakfast, and meet my seniors too. Honestly, they were all friendly and funny too. One of them is Uncle Heng, who loves to crack alot of funny and dirty jokes too.
"Do you believe, Uncle Heng drives a Ferrari?"
Yeah......right, it was a Datsun with an aging red colour with the prancing horse logo on the hood.
Li Chuan's bro fetched Yik Yau, Khai Liang, Wei Jian and me to Bukit Jalil Stadium. I soon realized that he was Li Chuan's bro cause they both look alike.
Reached at the stadium like about 11 a.m+. To kill boredom, we all crack alot of jokes. Everyone was picking on Wei Jian and Ah Foo.
'Ah.......went gaming early in the morning rite? RM 10 off from your salary."
All blame on Ah Foo. Gosh, it was so funny.
We, dressed in black, meet up with other security people for briefing. Then, there was 2 hours left to kill, we went to sit down at the stadiums seats. The pitch condition was ok. Well, you know Bolehland's standard lah.
Then, Uncle Heng brought me, Wei Jian, Ah Hooi, Joshua, Du Hou and the other 4 people to go see the person in charg of ticket checking. Changed our black shirt to the white TicketPro shirt that they prepared for us. Joshua and I and the 4 unknown people we meet were assigned to the green gate, where Billy, our new friend is our leader. Wei Jian and Ah Hooi was stationed at the yellow gate if I'm not mistaken.
Had lunch, it was terrible, but have to at least eat to gain energy. I went to buy Ramly burger, but it was so dry.
And I regretted not bringing enough money to buy a Manchester United black polo tee. Arrrghhhh, why am I so smart? Bring RM 10 only on that day?!
Work will begin at 2:30 p.m. And fans were starting to line up, unpatiently wanted to go into the stadium already. Some of them begging us to let them in right away. Josh and I made friends while having the final briefing for us, making sure we know our duty.
3........2........1.....work start. 3 hours of tearing tickets begins. I was so nervous, I was worried I screwed up anytime.
That time, everyone was pushing to get in. I was so frustrated, I yelled "ONE BY ONE PLEASE THANK YOU!!!"
Now, as a ticket checker, my job is to check the tickets, and tear the left side of the ticket. I was so blur, I tore the left side, noticed my mistake and then tore the right side of the ticket. The ticket holder's reaction was like...
'Oh shit....there goes my ticket."
Gosh, I'm so sorry dude.
While doing my job, since I'm being well brought up by my parents, I did say "Enjoy your match" before I pass back the ticket. And surprisingly, the ticket holders were kind enough to reply me. Not to be racist, but I find the Malays were so kind to respond in a cheerful and friendly manner like..
"Ok boss, will do."
"Thank you wei."
'Terima Kasih bang."
"Oh thank you thank you!!"
"Thank You very much!!!"
I was surprised. And to think that some of my friends said that Malays are lazy and arrogant, all were gone in my mind. We shouldnt' just straight away judge each race based on the type of people we meet daily. C'mon, I mean not all Malays are lazy and greedy. Trust me.
Now..........every job sure bound to have problems. Now, one of the rules is that bottled drinks are disallowed into the stadium. One ticket holder didn't like the rule, drank his Coke bottle halfway and threw it just a few inches from me to the floor. Great, my school shoe now has coke stains on it. Nevermind about that, some thought that food are not allowed in, they threw it too. My shoe was so dirty, I don't think so I can wear it to school. My skinny jeans wasn't let go too.
Too many people rushing in at a time, the situation was so bad, marshalls can't handle it. I argued with one of the ticket holders, 4 were Indians. It started out like this...
4 friends had violet zone tickets, first one came to me. I didn't noticed the violet zone stated on the ticket, I let him in. Then the rest of the 3 came to me. I then only noticed their tickets, then I denied them access to the green zone. They start to yell and scold me just because one of their friend managed to get in and now they are denied access. So fine, it was my bad. But please lah, if you wanna curse, curse IN A LANGUAGE THAT I UNDERSTAND, not Tamil lah. And don't get my mum involved, she's innocent alright?
Another incident is that one of the marshalls at the next green gate had to confront with a bunch of Indians cuz they were told that drinks were not allowed to bring in.
'WEI, MENGAPA TAK BOLEH? INI LU PUNYA BAPA PUNYA STADIUM AH? MENGAPA TAK BOLEH?!! *curse in Indian language*
That time, I felt like telling that fella this...."Eh, tak faham Bahasa Melayu ke? Kan dia dah cakap tak boleh means tak boleh lah. Next time suruh you punya father build another stadium and set whatever rules you want!!"
But nah, since I so good, I don't want to confront idiots like these people.
At times we were forced to close some of the gates. The person in charge told me and my marshall that my gate will be closed because it was too packed. We both ended up being scolded by ticket holders.
Then, when gate was reopened again, they all rush in. I had to yell at them to remind them to line up and one by one.
Oh yeah, I bumped into KYSPEAKS.COM. He and his girlfriend bought tickets for green zone. KY was wearing the Malaysian football jersey while his chick was wearing a Manchester United jersey. Tore their tickets too, but don't know why KY's face macam emo je.
Then, as my gate is closed, I finally had room to relax for a moment. I went in to go to the bathroom and then decided to take a peak of the match.
Damn, this is as close as you can get to feel like you're at Old Trafford.
I only get to watch the match at the 17th minute.
After that I went out again to resume my work. Joshua and I took turns to go in and watch the match. As soon as I got out, Rooney scored. DO'H!!!!
Billy told us that we can only go in after first half. Work as a team, go in to watch football as a team. Good one. One of our co-workers slacking. 5 45 p.m went to buy drinks, 3 minutes before halftime only come back. He told Billy that he went to toilet. Right......slacker.
Josh was funny. You see, some of the ticket holders, they left their food and motorcycle helmets on the gate. So Josh went to see whether got any nice junk food for us to eat. He took Cheesos for us. Billy advised us next time don't simply take people's food and eat, nanti kena diu by boss. Drinks can, but food cannot. I saw some ticket checkers taking Ramly burgers from the floor and eating it. I was quite disgusted, so was Josh.
We only managed to watch the match on the 75th minute of the second half. It was so pack, standing up to watch the match was a problem for all of us.
I was surprised by the score line, 2-2. Cuz while we were outside working, we heard 4 cheers. We thought Man United scored 4 but each side ended up scoring 2 goals each. Rooney and Nani scored for the Red Devils, while for Malaysia, we have our very own hero named Mohamad Amri Yahyah who scored both of Malaysia's goal. I heard the first one was the best goal that a Malaysia has scored against a international club. Somemore against van Der Sar!!! His second was against Ben Foster, who made a huge mistake by miskicking the ball.
So here's some pics...
See how crowded it is in the stadium?
The fans.
Have to say that 98% of the stadium is filled with Manchester United supporters. Only a small group waving the Malaysian flag high and proud.
Giggs then came in. He received a good welcome from the fans. Those who supported Manchester United for many years will know that Ryan Giggs is the most celebrated footballer in the British Premier League. Having the EPL medal, FA Cup winner's medal, Carling cup medal, FIFA World Club Cup medal, and 2 Champions League winner's medal too.
Then....the moment we all been waiting for, Michael Owen's debut. "OWEN!! OWEN!! OWEN!!" Chanted by the crowd.
And what a way to silence critics by scoring a goal on your first day as a Manchester United player. It made me to rethink that maybe Sir Alex Ferguson didn't gamble at all, he invested instead.
Malaysian goal keeper collided with a Manchester United player in the penalty box. Owen took chance, dribbled past keeper, with one last Malaysian defender standing on goal, he shoot. Ball past last defender, goal!!!
3-2, on the 85th minute. Finally, I witnessed a Manchester United goal, and what better way than it is to watch it live.
Malaysia could have got the 3rd goal, but they kinda ran out of stamina. And they players were quite selfish, trying to dribble past Ferdinand, Carrick, O'Shea and so. And they tried far shots but ended up shooting wide. Was boo-ed by both sides of fans.
After the match, met up with the rest at meeting spot. Then helped out at moving the barricades. Had debriefing and feedback session. That time we were told that Monday there will be a rematch again, but we all can't go because of school.Went dinner after that. Dinner was full. Reach home at 10:50 p.m.
Had a great day.
1 comment:
hahaha my face emo? mana ada! :P
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