This
plan was hatched on 9 December 2015 when I first heard Arsenal were planning to
go to Sydney. Then seven months later, in early July 2016, I received an email
from Arsenal informing of a 48-hour priority window to secure tickets for the
matches against Sydney FC and Western Sydney Wanderers. So on 16 July 2016,
with the help of CT, I tried and finally managed to secure tickets – and all
whilst preparing drinks for guests who came to visit (it was a few days after
Eid then). Having secured the tickets, I then searched for air tickets and
finally purchased a return AirAsia ticket. Truth be told, I was planning to
visit Sydney again having been there twice before, or any part of Australia as
I’d been there 5 times before. But hey, never say never.
In
mid-February 2017, I decided to search for MAS tickets instead and bought them
via Expedia. I had made a booking at a hotel via booking.com before deciding to
source a host via Airbnb. After having a couple of reservations declined and
one cancelled, I finally managed to secure a room at a flat in Surry Hills.
Phew, Alhamdulillah! Then it was just a matter of time of waiting for the
tickets to arrive (electronically in my case) and applying for a visa.
Tuesday,
11 July 2017
I
left office and got a ride from my dear colleague to KL Sentral. I was fasting
today and broke fast at Le Meridien Hotel. After performing prayers, I had some
char kuay teow (the taste left much to be desired though) before going down to
take the bus. I had a sudden fear of the 21:30 bus being full so decided to
take the 21:00 bus and it turned out to be quite empty. And I found out the
flight was retimed to depart 20 minutes later than scheduled. Strewth.
We
reached KLIA after only 50 minutes and after dropping off our bags, we went in.
I had my main meal then as I was planning to fast the following day.
Wednesday,
12 July 2017
We
took off after midnight and as usual sleep was elusive. I liked the area where
I sat; the first row of economoney and there are only two rows in that space
before the food preparation area. We were not business class but we were
somehow isolated from the rest of the cabin class passengers. Sleep was elusive
as usual and at one point, I got up and had some water as I was feeling
dehydrated. I then asked one of the cabin crew, Miss Afiza, when breakfast
would be served as I was planning to fast the following day. She told me it
would be served 2.5 hours before arrival, i.e. about 07:30 Sydney time but
05:30 Perth time. I had checked that Suboh was at 05:50 in Perth then so
technically if they served us on time, I would be able to have my breakfast as
predawn meal. And what do you know, Miss Afiza came and served me ahead of
everyone, including those with special dietary needs. She remembered our conversation!
How thoughtful, sweet and considerate was that? I had my meal gratefully.
Syukur alhamdulillah. She did tell me to hurry as Suboh was approaching. No
problem, I thought.
We
landed into a wet wet wet Sydney at 09:50 but our plane was made to wait on the
runway (along with about 5 other planes ahead of ours). A while turned out to
be 45 minutes and I was desperately holding my bladder throughout. We were
finally assigned another bay as the plane occupying our designated bay was
still there. I was worried that there would be a long queue at immigration but
I needn’t have worried as the officers were pretty quick. We did have to queue
to clear quarantine though but we cleared it without much ado.
After
freshening up, we went to WH Smith to buy Opal cards. I’d done my research and
AUD20 would be sufficient to load into our cards. The chap manning the counter
was on the phone and looked and sounded distracted but he asked us what we needed
and we told him. After asking for directions from a lady to Wolli Creek, we set
off, passing by another WS Smith shop.
It
was pissing rain and we walked about one km to Wolli Creek. It wasn’t far but
it wasn’t much fun in the rain. At the station, we looked at the electronic
displays before heading to the right platform to Central station, not realising
the machine where we had to tap our Opal cards. I had to return back to the
station entrance to tap and was not happy at all to find that one card had
AUD40 value while the other had no value. I asked at a nearby kiosk and they
couldn’t do anything either as Opal is run by a different private company. I was
seething at this point and was angry that I had to part with another AUD20 to
reload the empty card. Stupid WH Smith man. Damn you!!!
We
reached Central station after about 12 minutes and I was not amused to find
that the machine deducted AUD5.95 from my card when the fare should have been
only AUD2.36. Seriously?! Barely a few hours after arriving and I was already pissed
off. It was still pissing rain when we walked out of the station, crossed over
to Foveaux St that climbed up until the Crown Street intersection (no wonder it’s
called Surry Hills!) and continued on Fitzroy St until we reached our Airbnb room (an upgrade from this room just next door to the one we stayed at).
After
freshening up and performing prayers, we left and walked out and walked up to
Sydney Opera House. The weather was acting up again with brief spells of
sunshine alternating with spells of drizzle. I broke my fast at Sydney Opera House
and on the way back, we stopped at Gelato Messina at Gateway Plaza. We also
dropped by Romeo’s and Aldi to buy food. We reached our room after 8 p.m. and
rested.
Thursday,
13 July 2017
I woke up at 04:45 and had my pre-dawn meal. I had another kip after Suboh prayers and got up after 08:00. We left after 09:00 and headed out. It was a beautiful winter’s day with endless skies overhead and not a cloud in sight. What a welcome change from the day before! We stumbled upon The Salvation Army shop at Crown St and had a browse. It had a good selection of clothes, household items, toys and books and some shoes and accessories. After that, we went to check out Hermès (branded luxury goods cost more in Australia but I wanted to check out the offerings) before heading to Queen Victoria Building. Anyway, after The Salvation Army shop, I didn’t feel like browsing the departmental store or other high-street shops. We then went to Woolworths and then Coles before I detoured to Paddy’s Market. I spotted a few Gooners there in their Arsenal tops (I was wearing one too beneath the shawl and jacket). I stumbled upon the produce area (never been to that area of market before and it’s mainly run by Chinese Indonesians. I finally bought some broccoli but not before telling off the rude obnoxious seller not to be so rude. I then returned to the Airbnb. There
are some road works going on in some parts of the CBD, just like around the airport
on the way to Wolli Creek.
We left at 15:15 and headed to Central station. Our match ticket included free public transportation until early the following morning so we followed instructions and crowd to the platform. We took the train to Lidcombe where we had to change trains (and platforms) to Olympic Park. We arrived early enough and after walking around the food stalls selling various snacks and the various Arsenal kiosks, we decided to head over to Pullman Hotel. I broke fast there and even performed prayers at a small corner in the hotel lobby (no prayer room in the hotel). We only made our way to the ANZ Stadium after 18:15 and the stadium was still empty. There were a couple of giant screens showing highlights of goals etc. and after a while, a few groups of school kids decked out in their various sports attire came out and walked half-way around the stadium before disappearing into the tunnel. The stadium started filling up and the Arsenal lads finally came out to warm up at 19:35.
The match kidkced off just after 20:00 and we sat back to enjoy. Well, we did get occasionally frustrated with Theo and Welbz but we finally managed a 2-0 win. We left at 22:30 after battling our way out of the stadium to the train station and to the platform. This time, the train took us directly to Central station without us having to change trains at lidcombe. Alhamdulillah. We dropped by Woolworths Central as I wanted to buy some milk (Woolworths closes at midnight). Then we walked up the hill back to the Airbnb.
To
be continued
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