26th August 2014

It was Tuesday morning and the day finally came. It was the EXAM day. It was our final examination on this FM course we took in Liverpool. The exam was an open book exam for 3 hours of time duration held in our classroom for the past weeks. Everyone was really nervous and we all did our best and hoping all of us passed with flying colours. And after lunch, we still have a coursework workshop on budget preparation and service delivery with Mal. The day ended with everyone enjoying themselves in Liverpool city after taking the final nerve-wrecking exam.

Umair Fitri bin Jamal Abdol Nasir

23rd August 2014

It was the second last weekend for us in Liverpool. So, we all decided to have a family day with each other and Mr. Naz's family at Otterspool Park. It was the Saturday morning and every each of our apartments decided to cook different food for the picnic. The guys cooked chickens, the ladies made spaghetti and salad and a few more dish I couldn't recall. After everyone has finished cooking, we all took a cab to Otterspool Park. As we all arrived there, we were still waiting for Mr. Naz and his family to arrive. While waiting, we brought along Frisbee and football to play with at the huge park. The park is huge and wide and very windy because it is located right beside the harbor. As we grown tired and hungry, we all decided to start eating picnic lunch and as soon as that Mr. Naz and his family arrives. While eating good food, Mr. Naz talked about life with us and it was really inspiring how he told us his life journey and how he told us someday we could all be successful as we wished and worked hard for. Truly it was one of the greatest day hang out with the lads and a very powerful bonding between us.

Umair Fitri bin Jamal Abdol Nasir

A Visit from Dr. Nik Elyna

21th August 2014 (Thursday)

I can’t believe how fast it was, and we were already at the end of the 3^rd week of our stay in Liverpool. Today there's not much different, we went to the class as usual. The only different was that the class today was not a lecture class but was an exam support session. I love this session because we don’t have it in our university. The lecturers used this session to help us to answer the questions for the exam. They were not giving us the exam tips but was teaching us on how to set up our mindset to think and answer the question. In Malaysia, lecturers will give us the exam tips. I’m not saying that is not good but I just love the way they do it at LJMU rather than just giving us the tips.

On the evening, every house needs to prepare some food for dinner because our lecturer Dr. Nik Elyna is coming to visit our accommodation. Tonight, around 9pm Dr. Nik Elyna and her family reached our accommodation. We are so happy to see her there and of course her son and the baby. 

Written by: Phang Zi Jian

Mal's Lecture

11th August 2014 (Monday)

Today we have both morning and afternoon lecture sessions with Mal Ashall. As usual, Mal taught us through his style of teaching and learning where he stimulates our ideas by asking us questions little by little. This was also to ensure that we doesn't get bored along his lectures. Through the learning process, Mal also allowed us to do discussions among our groups in order to generates more and better ideas. Then he would go around to each table to listen and gave comments along the discussions.

For the morning lecture, it was on the Health and Safety in FM. In which we have to understand the roles and responsibilities of the Facilities Manager in the aspect of health and safety of the building occupants. These were done by identifying the hazards and risks in the workplace, doing arrangements for emergencies and business interruption, determining the value of accident reporting procedures, providing process in order to meet the needs of the users and be able to check the competencies required in providing the services. Mal trying his best to finished it earlier for us so we could go for lunch which was before 1pm in the afternoon. The afternoon lecture was about the Budget in FM where we learned how investment decisions can be made. In FM's budget, the impact of all costs, rather than just Capex were also need to be considered and we also need to understand what the impact costs have on the building and FM management.

After the lecture sessions ended, as usual we went back to Liberty Atlantic doing our own stuff, cooking and eating, discussion on the coursework and a goodnight sleep.

That's all from me today and thank you for reading this.

Written by: Adam Sufian

Goodison Park and Finch Farm, Everton

20th August 2014

Today is Wednesday, according to the time table given to us by Dr. Nazali Noor, there's a study visit to Everton Football Club stadium, Goodison Park and Finch Farm, it's training facilities. And that is exactly what we did. We all gathered in front of the Liberty Atlantic Point at 9.15 a.m. sharp. Everyone behaved including Q and Nabila and no one was late today. Dr. Naz was a happy man indeed. The bus arrived and we hit the road to Goodison Park at 9.20 a.m. We reached there around 9.30 a.m.

Everyone entering the bus excitedly 

Everton Football Club stadium, Goodison Park

Upon reaching there, we waited outside the stadium for about half an hour, because the appointment was at 10 a.m. After it reached 10 a.m., we entered the stadium and were escorted to the meeting room. Breakfast was provided. Coffee, tea and biscuits was served. Not long after, Richard Cairnns, the facilities manager of the stadium arrived. While we enjoy the free breakfast, Richard introduced himself and start the presentation. Since it is a football stadium, the core business is football. Helping the facilities manager are 3 facilities operative/general handy man. They not only provide a football field and training facilities, they also ensure the health and well being of the current squad and this means providing a clean, safe and comfortable environment. The stadium needs to be operational for 30 matches every year, be able to accommodate 41000 spectators and up to 1000 staff. Safety is the most important thing and all matches are run in accordance to current legislation. There are also chef, kitchen staff and laundry staff. Plumber, electrician from Goodison Park to Finch Farm if required. However, major maintenance on the off season, contractors are hired. Works required by legislation takes priority. Works required by the Premier League and FA comes next. Other works are prioritized by how they affect the core business. 

Everyone enjoying their free breakfast, especially Zea's crush, Adam. *sorry Adam and Zea. huhu

After Richard finished his presentation, we continued the study visit by touring the stadium. We are separated into two groups, one group is being guided by Richard and the second group are being guided by John, the Health and Safety Manager. 

Richard Cairnns and the most handsome man in the room

View of the stadium from the highest point of the stadium (1)

Dressing Room (where the players change and given pep talk by the manager)

Exercise equipment are also provided in the dressing room

One of many lounge in the stadium

The hallway where players use to walk from the dressing room to the football pitch

View of the stadium from the highest point of the stadium (2)

After the tour finished, around 12.00 p.m. we were escorted to the cafeteria where lunch was provided. Unfortunately it was only free for some of the students. Apparently, they were the best group and Dr. Naz paid for their lunch and the rest of us, we have to pay on our own. We ate rice with chicken added with fries. Kamarul Ihsan nearly eat pork, fortunately someone warned him before he eat it. He thought it was lamb. 

Everyone enjoying their lunch especially the ones who ate it for free

Syukri, Mike and Umair smile as their stomach is filled with delicious food. Not sure why Syukri wear shades indoor. 

After all of our empty stomach are treated with delicious food, we continued our study visit to Finch Farm, Everton training facilities. The journey took almost half an hour, it is quite far from the stadium. Unfortunately all the first team players are on holiday. Bummer. Wanted to meet the first team player and maybe play some football with them. The Finch Farm is a training complex for the Everton's players including the academy players. Energy and environmental consideration were paramount. The facility can be run and maintained by a relatively small in house maintenance crew. Latest technology which conserve energy are used. 

Finch Farm entrance

Finch Farm, Everton FC training facilites

Umair and Adam certainly enjoyed their study trip. *I think Zea will like this picture, you're welcome

Written by: Omarulhanif Bin Shahruddin #YNWA

Weekend in Liverpool

17^th August 2014,

Today, some of the students who stays in London are coming back to Liverpool. They are Dania, Omar, Koh, Phang, Lucas and Jeny. Some of them are still staying in London and will be coming back tomorrow night. Today, we planned to go to Anfield. Some of us went there to watch a football match, Liverpool vs Southampton and some of us who didn’t have the ticket just went there for sightseeing.

On the way to Anfield, we decided to go to a car boot sale at Stanley Road, Bootle. It has about 50 sellers here and most of them sell clothes, kitchen utensils, electrical devices and antique things. Me, Dayang, KI, Zea, Thera and Lily who went to the car boot sale have split into two groups.  Me, Dayang and KI in one group and the rest is in the other group.

Car Boot Sale

Car Boot Sale

After that, the first group had decided to go to Anfield and the other group decided to go to Liverpool City Centre. We took a bus to Anfield but we ended up getting on the bus that’s going on a longer trip. In the end, we decided to get down from the bus and walk all the way to Anfield which in all took about 46 minutes to go to the stadium.

The group that didn’t go to the car boot sale went straight to Anfield Stadium at 10.30 on foot. They actually have a ticket for the Liverpool vs Southampton match. We who don’t have the ticket decides to just walk around the stadium, took some pictures and bought some souvenirs from the Liverpool FC shop. We spent our time at Anfield till evening at about 2 o’clock.

People walking to Anfield Stadium 

People walking around the stadium before the match started

After that, we went back to Liverpool City Center by bus. At the city centre, we spend an hour of our time shopping at Liverpool One and Primark. On the way back, me and Dayang got to watch a special charity performance made for Gaza in front of Liverpool One. They marched around the area while playing drums to catch the crowd’s attention and thus encouraging them to donate for charity. It is so much fun that a few kids even joined the march and dance along with the music.

Gaza Donation Performance

Gaza Donation Performance

It was so much fun. Then, we head back home. At night, I just spend my time with Dayang, cooking our dinner and had some good girls talk with just the two of us since there’s only the two of us home. That’s it for my entry. Hope you enjoyed reading.

Written by: Nur Farhani

Karipap Free

Hye all.

It's my turn today to update this journal. Today, our first class were with the fit man, Mal Ashall. We've been told that our topic with him today was about Business Relocation Strategy. As the day start, three of us went to James Parson Building at 8.30 am. On our way there, we already saw Mal parking his car near to our place. So after 15 minutes we got into our class, Mal arrived. He greet us with his smile and told that he actually guessed that the three of us will be the first to be in the class. So, what we do then? We got some photo with him to start our day while we were waiting for the others to come. 

Mal started his class today right after all of us came. He asked us to choose whether we want him to give lecture by the slides or just answering to his quick question on what we are going to learn. So we start our class by answering his question on why are we going to relocate our business.

Basically, a business will be relocate if there were some problem arises to their current place such as the rising in the cost of facility and also in the change of target market. Mal finished his class very early today and all of us can enjoy our lunch hour very well and we could include our catnap for a while. 

Before we start our afternoon session, we were surprised by Mr. Naz as he gave 'kuih karipap' for us. What a nice malaysian kuih we ate here. We actually craved for the 'karipap' since last week.

Then, Mr. Naz started his lecture on Legal Responsibilities in FM. We really had fun in his class because he used best example from his experience working with HSBC before. 

After his class finished, Mr. Naz and all of us discussed about our main program for this Saturday where we were going to have a BBQ session. We discussed about what type of food and how much we'll be contributing for the event.

When we came back to our place at 4.00 pm, 3 of us cooked together. Today we gonna eat Nasi Ayam Liverpool version. Hehe. 

My group for the coursework will be doing some discussion today on the SWOT, service delivery and innovation for our Aldham Robarts library. 

Thats all for today, thanks.

Written by: Lily Jamal