Reading Week

It's Reading Week for those of us who do humanities courses, which is basically a glorified mid-term break. Of course, as we don't have exams to study for, we are supposed to work on assignments, and I'm doing just that. I've got some of my sociology essay done, a couple of group presentations on the go and my authoring project finished. I also handed in my photography assignment last week. So, overall, my stress levels are really not bad at the moment. Apart from anything else, it's so nice to be home! And to be cooked for again, hehe. With all that's been happening, I felt as though I hadn't been home in months. There was Alice Cooper, which I've already written about, and last weekend I was in Manchester for the football, which I'm going to talk about now.

I went over to Holyhead on the ferry on Friday morning with my cousin, my uncle, his wife and some of her family. We're all huge Manchester United fans except for my cousin, who until last weekend wasn't very knowledgeable on football! Once we got there, we had a two-hour coach trip to Altrincham, just outside Manchester, where our hotel was. Manchester city centre is only a short tram ride away, and we went around the Arndale shopping centre and had dinner in Pizza Hut. On Saturday morning we made the trip to Old Trafford on the coach.

There's nothing quite like the atmosphere around the ground on matchday. It's such an incredible buzz. We were sitting just behind the goal in the East Stand, and when Robin van Persie scored early in the first half, we went absolutely mental! It was a brilliant moment. The Arsenal fans were of course extremely hostile towards their former striker, so for RVP to score and shut them up for a short while was priceless!

People say it wasn't a great game, and certainly it didn't have quite the same intensity as previous matches between the two sides, partly because Arsenal were dire and barely showed up at all, allowing United to completely dictate the game. But it was still hugely exciting for me, especially as Patrice Evra's goal in the second half meant we ran out winners, albeit by a 2-1 scoreline rather than 2-0 - the only time Arsenal really threatened the United goal was towards the end, and Santi Cazorla scored for them in stoppage time. David de Gea wasn't happy about losing his clean sheet, but still, a win is a win, and we're now top of the league. The fact that City, Chelsea and Liverpool all drew their games was the icing on the cake and made for a perfect weekend!

We spent the rest of Saturday back in Manchester city centre, shopping at the Arndale again and eating at Nando's. We got the ferry back from Holyhead the next day, and on the way through Wales we stopped off briefly in a town with the longest name in Europe:

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch!

Or simply Llanfair PG...