Thursday 12 March 2009

Stadium Story


I moved to our new home last month. The house is fine, Ain do not need to travel too far to work now. But today I do not want to talk about house. I want to talk about what is near the house. My new house is in Simpang Ampat, and it is not that far from Stadium Batu Kawan, Seberang Perai,Penang.

When I think about it, it seems to me that my home, no matter if it is the current or the previous one, will usually located near to a football stadium. The first one, is Darul Aman Stadium in Alor Setar,Kedah. I was 11 when my family moved to Alor Setar. We lived in a nice neighbourhood. Not far away there is one big stadium where football matches will be held on weekends. Aaa.... the first taste of live football match. I still remember the first football match that I saw live at the stadium. It was FA Cup match between Kedah and Sabah. Sabah won 1-0. I still remember few girls kept screaming crazily during the match. That was the day that I got to know that women too have passion for football.

Then, in 1995 when my family moved to Penang(the island), my house was near to Bandaraya Stadium. During school holiday when I was around,I used to cycled to the stadium when Penang play in the weekend. The stadium was small and old. But the football matches never been bothered by it.It was always a hot game in a cold night.

The next one, Shah Alam Stadium.It was just a walking distance from where I used to live.The first one was in the year 1997 when my family moved to Shah Alam.The second one was in the year 2005, when I worked in Shah Alam, lived there alone at first and then got married and continued to live there.It was a nice neighbourhood as well, we (Ain and me)always like Shah Alam and probably will come back and live there one day, Insya Allah.

Strange enough, even when I went to overseas in 2007, I lived near a to football stadium as well. St. James Park, the home of Newcastle United FC in UK was just 15 minutes walk from my place.I managed to go to Man United game once, it was a precious memory especially because my honey and my daughter were there too.

Well I think this is an interesting trivia about my life. How many of you lived near to 5 different football stadiums in your lifetime?And I went to football matches held at all of those 5 stadiums.

Actually I never planned it to happen this way, although I am a football fan, house near to a stadium is not an item for my "Things/Places That Need to be Available in/near the House" checklist.It just happened and I only realise this now!