Where will we go after September?

Last night Man Utd won their QF tie with AS Roma with 3-0 aggregate. They will meet Barcelona in the semi-final tie, 2 weeks from now.Well, enough about football for a moment.(although I highly doubt it that I can stop speaking about football)

I will finished my master study here in Newcastle this September and probably will going back to Malaysia for a while around the end of September. From there, the journey to the next stage will start. But first, I need to answer the question of " where should I pursue my PhD degree".

I have been searching/researching for the best supervisor suitable for my PhD course since my current supervisor here in Newcastle said he do not want to do research in my fields of interest back in October last year. After many many months of searching,I think my search is over now.My wife and I agreed that I should go to Okayama University in Japan and my Dean back in USM also agreed. I already send the application form and fee to the university.But it is not as easy as we hope because we have so many obstacles to past through first before I can start my PhD study there.

First, I need to enrolled as a Research Student Course for 6 months. This course will not give me any degree/certificate/acknowledgement when it was completed because it is a preparation course for me before I embark for PhD course. But , after I finished the 6 months course, I am still not guarantee a place for the PhD course there,because I need to sit for the PhD course entrance examination first. So, after passing the exam,then I will be guaranteed the place there.
It is not that straight forward.To add up more obstacles, my sponsors (USM and KPT) will not sponsor my first 6months research student course fee. They will only starts to sponsor when the PhD course starts.So for the first 6months there, I need to pay my admission and tuition fee and all the living cost there by my own expenses and back in Malaysia we will not have other income as well because my fellowship allowance only starts when my PhD course starts.First, we decide that I will travel to Japan alone for the first 6months so that the cost will be lesser,and my wife and daughter will stay in Malaysia for a while.But in my heart, I feel such a strong urge not to left my family in Malaysia.
Yes, in life sometimes we must sacrifice something to gain something better. When it comes to choose whether to sacrifice money, or sacrifice time with family...in the end we choose we will sacrifice money.So we will use all our savings to support our life for that 6months period.
Our hard-earn money that we safe for the last few years for our future. Well, this is future.

It is not easy,people will ask why would you want to trouble yourself with all those things?
There are many other paths that you can choose, so why choose the difficult one?
You can do your PhD in UK, because you are already there and you can easily apply and if accepted you can straight away go there and register as a PhD student with lesser fuss compared to a japan university.After all there might be other suitable supervisor for you if you search more carefully.You can even do it in Malaysia.Or you can choose other convenient way of pursuing your PhD,that do not require you to spend all your money or be apart from your family at all.

Well, that might be true. But in life, not everything that is easy will be the right answer. I have my own reason why I want to do my PhD in Okayama University under my prospective supervisor.We will choose what is the best for ourselves with Allah S.W.T guidance.Life is easy and happy sometimes,but other times it will also be very hard.We choose and "redha" with our choices, and work hard in making our chosen path as the best path for us.*****

When in Rome.....

Like last year, once again Man Utd faced AS Roma in CL Quarter-final. But this time, they done better.Beating the Roman at their ground is not such an easy task. Honestly I think Man Utd player do not played that good, but the fact that Roma player had an off-day made it easier for Utd players.Let's hope they will do well for the 2nd leg next week.

Many people think that Man Utd will go through after their 2st leg triumph but in football matches,anything is possible.If Roma is having a good game while Utd is having a poor game,the final result could easily favourable to Roma.Just imagine, somehow VD Sar miss-kick Rio Ferdinand back-pass,or Wes Brown accidentally head the ball into his own net, and at the same time Rooney,Ronaldo and Tevez all miss-firing in front of Roma goal...enough said, the tie is still an open game.So Utd player should remember that, and I believe they do.

Another thing, I think Rooney is not at is best now. Don't get me wrong, I do think he did the job well, but not to his usual standard.We must remember Rooney is a player with fast pace, deadly shooting from outside the penalty area, have wonderful skills in chipping the ball way past the goalkeeper and also have a very good one-two passing sense. His work rate is 1st class, but he do seems like a little bit rusty when in front of the goal. Somehow he always looks like being too near to the goalkeeper when he shoot the ball. I think he is not as fast as he usually does during the past few years.But I am sure he will turn out to be one of the main player for this remaining 6 games of the EPL and also in the CL.

Also,recently I think Anderson is not having such a great game,well at least not in every game. He always miss-kick the ball when in front of goal.He need loads of shooting practice.But at the same time fair to say that his passing accuracy seems like improving.His strength of holding the ball seems consistent.But lately he rarely burst to the front from deep like he usually do.I wonder if the gaffer do not permit him to do that,but I don't see any reason why he should.

Well, I hope he will improve next year,especially with the shooting because if he will be replacing Scholes,he sure need to level up his shooting accuracy because with Scholes, we always get few spectacular goals every season and we also hope Anderson could provide some in the future, if not now.

So bring it on 2nd leg...(and by the way,Vidic will be out for at least 3 weeks, which is not a good news at all)