Sandy's diary in Manchester (Nov, 2001)

Just click on any of the following underlined dates and you can get to know what's going on with me that day.

1st Nov, 01 (Thur)

The greatest surprise and prize I've ever received!

What's the greatest prize you've got so far? The first prize in the National Lottery with millions of dollars/pounds? (Congratulations if you've become a millionaire... but I don't think any millionaire would be interested to read my homepage, right?) An outdated version of mobile phone in your company's annual ball? A pair of air-tickets for Disneyland or Hawaii in a competition held by some sort of companies to promote their new products? (It's what I want to get) Cash of a certain amount given by TV company after answering their easy question of different kinds on the phone? The present bought by one of your classmates for an exchange during school's X'mas party? Harry Potter's character toys as X'mas present?

And, do you believe in luck?  I always think luck plays a certain role in every aspect of our life but I don't think I've always got any luck, especially in any competitions. So, I seldom buy a lottery ticket. Of course I may still enter any of those competitions involving prizes like air tickets or free DVD players by just answering one or two questions but I won't expect much; neither did I when entering the competition for a signed book about Michael Owen, my most favourite footballer. Maybe the less you expect, the more surprised you'll be if you get it (and the level of disappointment can be at minimum if not). I opened the mailbox and had no idea what a parcel I received was about until I opened it. OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! It's Michael Owen's signed book!!!!!!! (Well, I didn't scream at that moment or anyone around me would be deafened!) I couldn't believe it. What's going on? Am I in a dream? No. The touch on the book told me I was not in a dream. 

3rd Nov, 01 (Sat)

A poor cat

What'd you make of when you saw a cat lying on the ground without any reaction? It's sleeping? That's what I thought when I was walking past by a bus stop and saw a cat there. A black cat. Lying with a posture as if it was sleeping. I paid not much attention to it at first. But then day after day I still found it on the same location in the same posture. Was it dead??? A question mark was in my mind and after one week I could say for sure, though no one told me nor did I have a closer inspection of it (I was afraid to see it when I started wondering if it's still alive), that it was dead. Finally it was moved by someone. I don't know who but just found its 'corpus' disappeared. Its death is still a mystery to me.

5th Nov, 01 (Mon)

Greatest and noisiest fireworks

Today was Guy Fawkes' Day, on which people have fireworks as a memorial of what happened hundreds of years ago when he plotted to overturn the government (but it's rumoured that he's not the main leader for the plot). Last year I got no chance to see but hear the fireworks when I was living in my old accommodation which was on the ground floor with trees outside. But moving in to the top of the building allowed me to see how beautiful those fireworks were. In fact many of them were in a small scale and not considered beautiful at all. And they were noisy. Almost every minute from the sunset up till late in the evening I could hear 'bang, bang' outside. More exaggeratingly, a month before today people had already started playing fireworks. Maybe it's just an excuse for the boring people to have fun. 

By the way, it was reported the following day that a hundred reports on injuries (to children in most cases) due to the fireworks were made.

7th Nov, 01 (Wed)

Lost stuff... again!?

Have you ever counted the number of items you lost in a year? What did you often lose? (money? your friends' or mom's gift? or luck?!) I think I can make a list of lost items after having been so absent-minded for many times. Wristlets, organiser, pens, umbrella, key rings... Today's victim is a pair of gloves which I bought one year ago here. I'm so sad that how they were lost I don't wanna mention (oh!). It's not just a loss in physical but also mental terms. Or maybe I should get used to losing stuff? Will I lose the direction of my life as well?...

12th Nov, 01 (Mon)

Winter has arrived?!

It's been reported that October might be one of the warmest months over the years. There's also less rainfall than last year, which is a good thing cos when it rains, it'd be very terrible with such strong wind. However a cold freeze has arrived and the temperature has suddenly dropped to below 10 degree Celsius. Gloves (sorry, no more gloves), scarf and knitted hat got a chance to show up on my body. 

20th Nov, 01 (Tue)

A visit to the Papadum

Remember I've mentioned before about a fast food shop we like to go to? Today my friend and I paid a visit to it - Papadum again ('poppadom', according to the Collins Cobuild English Dictionary, is a very thin circular crisp made from a mixture of flour and water, which is fried in oil... usually eaten with Indian food). The boss of the shop didn't forget us, two seemingly poor girls (How could he forget us, who felt no shame of asking for free poppadom? hehe...) seemed to lose such an interest in us that we were instead served by another guy and given a smaller size of kebabs with less salad on top of them. Time passed. Has anything changed?

23rd Nov, 01 (Fri)

No TV live broadcast of football matches?

Money is the centre of many disputes, like the one that has hit the headline in the football world here recently. The PFA's (Professional Football Association) proposed strike, which could seriously affect the TV broadcast of the matches, almost took place but an agreement over the share of TV cash has ended this controversial dispute. In my opinion, like any other kind of labour unions, the PFA do play an important role in helping those footballers whose career was suddenly put to an end by injuries. Some may accuse of nowadays' footballers being too greedy with a salary of astronomical figures. What I want to say is the money given to the PFA should be well spent.

26th Nov, 01 (Mon)

The much-acclaimed blockbuster of the year?

With rave reviews from the critics and recommendations from the people around me, I watched 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone' today. I have to admit that it is a very interesting film in terms of its plot and characters, I had read almost half of the book before stepping into the cinema but I can't wait to read the second half of the book after that. 

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