Now you might wonder, why so many toilets? The guide offered us this anecdote. Wembley used to have much fewer toilets, so you had to queue an hour to use them. Once you did, you wish you hadn't bothered. He nicknamed the toilets the "Wembley swimming pool", which gives you an idea of what the place used to be like.
But anyway, the stadium was newly reopened in 2007 and it is just something so awesome to witness, you have to see it with your own eyes.
At Wembley Park tube station. This is the tube station you go to if you want to visit Wembley stadium. Once you are there you can't miss the stadium. It's huge. If in doubt, spin in a circle and look for the most obvious looking thing.
Which would be this, Wembley stadium, with the distinctive Wembley Arch.
A closer shot of Wembley stadium to give a sense of scale. This stadium is so big, you can fit the entire London Eye under that arch. The arch alone is 134 metres tall, and 317 metres long. The stadium also has a circumference of 1 kilometre.
The sticker issued for the stadium tour. It costs 15 pounds but trust me, this is 15 pounds you will want to spend if you are a football fan.
Wembley. The stadium was so huge I could not capture the entire spectacle with my camera. But as you can see it has 3 tiers. The first tier has 34,303 seats, the second 16,932, and the highest tier has 39,165 seats. Insane.
At Wembley Stadium with the word "Wembley" clearly visible. Those things you see on the pitch are UV light emitters to keep the grass warm so that it grows well. They are needed because the climate is currently at 5 degrees average.
The players tunnel where they transition into the dressing rooms. The room after that behind the brown doors is where you will see me posing later with the pictures of England players, and the grey doors after that lead to the pitch. The dressing room is in the next room too, on the right. To the left of this room is the press room. The door is behind me so you can't see it.The bus carrying the English team will drop them off here, and they will proceed through this tunnel.
The press room. You always see this room when the England manager is giving interviews. This is also the place Capello will not want to sit in if England just lost an international fixture. The English press are only too fond of grilling national team managers.
Me, the guide and Jocelyn sitting at the same table you see on TV. The guide is sitting in the place usually occupied by the manager, I'm sitting in the team captain's seat, and Joce is sitting in the seat occupied by the Man of the Match. In this case the (wo)man of the match.I just sat in the same seat that John Terry or Steven Gerrard sit on. I can't even say how much this means to me as a football fan.
The area behind the brown doors, where the players wait before entering the pitch. As you can see it has their pictures. This is about as close to the English players as I will ever get. Lol.
Recognise this background? This is where the players get interviewed before and after a match. Since I'm here, I'll take the chance to say the English team is bollocks in international competitions.The England dressing room. This is where players kit up before a match. Each of them get two short sleeve shirts, two long sleeve shirts, 3 pairs of boots with different lengths of studs, 2 pairs of shorts and 2 pairs of socks.
England's national team.
Waiting to enter the pitch. I was hoping the guide would make us all line up in two lines and jog out but he only made the kids do it. Oh whatever.
Exiting the tunnel onto the pitch. This is really an experience, with the rush of cold air tempered with the emotion you feel as you enter an arena as grand as this one.
Wembley's pitch close up. In the middle of this pitch a time capsule lies buried. Otherwise, it was just a privilege to see the hallowed turf of Wembley, where great bands and sports teams have achieved great things on this very same venue.
The England dugout. This is where the manager and substitutes sit during a match.
This is the flight of steps the team captain of the winning team climbs to collect a trophy.
See this trophy? It is the FA cup trophy. I got my hands on it and it would have been better if they had allowed me to lift this trophy like what Stevie G did to the Champs League one but there was a member of staff nervously watching my every movement. Eh, give the Asian a bit of slack la. I won't destroy your trophy.
The statue of Bobby Moore, the only captain ever to lift the World Cup for England in 1966.
The English really know how to praise someone to the skies. This reads 'Immaculate footballer, imperial defender, immortal hero of 1966, first englishman to raise the world cup aloft, favourite son of london's east end, finest legend of west ham united, national treaure, master of wembley, lord of the game, captain extraordinary, gentleman for all time."If you ever need to praise someone, you can take a leaf from here. If you do it well enough, you might have enough to fill a plaque.
Some bullshit they put in the Wembley store. If only the England players really felt this way whenever they put the shirt on.
This is for Pamy and Amos, hardcore Man Utd fans. Sorry I had no money to buy you both a shirt each because it costs like 44.99 pounds but I'm sure you understand. Haha.
Some examples of merchandise in the store. The last one here especially got me cracked up. First of all, as you can see, it's obviously for babies. Secondly, it says I want to dribble at Wembley stadium. Do they mean dribble a soccer ball, or dribbling from the mouth? Lol.
Went to watch Thriller, a MJ-tribute musical after the visit to Wembley, and on the way to West End I saw this inflatable mascot for Ripley's Believe It or Not. It was busy harrassing any passer-by game enough to go near. If you enjoy being in close contact with life sized balloons for whatever reason, give this guy a try.
Yup, Thriller shows right here.
The set of Thriller, with the lead as MJ doing his moves. This is during Smooth Criminal, one of the better acts of this musical. I loved the way they did Billie Jean, Smooth Criminal, Black or White, Heal the World, and of course, Thriller. MJ owns the Moonwalk like no one else can or ever will.
At a Chinese restaurant for dinner because Jocelyn insisted on eating roast duck since it was CNY. This was something interesting I saw. A "How to use chopsticks" guide for angmohs. It was pretty redundant because most angmohs, like the couple on my right just chose to forgo using chopsticks altogether.
Roast duck. Mmm. This small portion costs 7.50 pounds. It did taste good though.
This picture came about after I koped the last piece of orange that was supposed to be Jocelyn's and she insisted I took this picture as a form of "punishment". At first I was like no way but after that I went like what the heck and took it anyway. The angmohs at the other table looked at me like I was some retarded Asian dude.