Happy 52nd Merdeka

I’m not sure if there’s any Petronas Merdeka Ad as I have not been watching much of TV of late well except for footie and sports news and, when I can squeeze them, BBC News.

Anyway, happy 52nd year of independence, Malaysia!

Totally unrelated but am still going to leave this calendar picture anyway.

The Boys Against The Bhoys

Arsenal hosted Celtic, kitted in their black and garish yellow (think bumblebee) kit, in the second leg last night. I only watched the second half and as I missed Dudú’s controversial penalty, I don’t want to comment too much on it except that I hope we won’t have to do a Cristina to win a match in future. Wenger, famous for his selective myopia, is more tactful on that.

Anyway, we won thanks to the controversial penalty earned and converted by Dudú, and goals from Eboue (who would have guessed that they’d be cheering for him now) and the substitute Shava who scored a minute after he joined the game. His first goal for the season (and I believe in the Champions League too. I stand corrected). We played the last five minutes with ten men as Aaron Ramsey nursed the challenge by Scott Brown.

However, the visitors also scored a consolation goal and to be honest, it was some last kick of a game, a hollow consolation though it was.

Four of the seven substitutes

On another note, how I wish I was at the Emirates last Saturday. Then at least I’d get a free Arsenal scarf. The club has finally begun the Arsenalisation of the Emirates with Wenger behind it.

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I am glad to note that even footballers observe Ramadan, well, practising ones do. I for one don’t believe that fasting gives any excuse for anyone to not perform as before, though I understand if a boss wants to substitute his staff for reasons he sees fit.

Upside Down

... is what I’m feeling now after spending the weekend at HQ. Abah is coughing and nursing a running nose too and this is the first time he performs Tarawih prayers at home instead of at the madrasah. And because of his cough, he can’t read as much Quran as he normally does. I think he is taking it in stride though.

Akak told Mummy that Big Brother looked weak. He was still fasting even though he was weak. He fell down while trying to open the door for them. Apparently he doesn’t have any more appetite. When I heard this, I looked down and held back my tears. Mummy said she didn’t want to tell this to Abah because, well, he may not take it well. So I don’t understand it when able-bodied people who can fast not only don’t do so but also disrespect the sanctity of the month and trivialise the whole thing when my Big Brother who is weak from his battle against Stage 4 C-disease is still determined to fast.

And here’s a confession: I’m cowardly custard. I can’t stand pain and I don’t like to listen/read/watch any unpleasant news on TV. I don’t like to deal with that because I don’t know how to deal with it. If I see Big Brother, I know I will cry for sure and that’s not going to be good for him or me.

I wonder if he will live to his next birthday in January. *sniff*

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... is the Premier League what with Burnley, having won their two last home games (and one against ManUre too), now sitting in contention for Europe while Everton and Pompey in the relegation mire. Interestingly the Football Forecast pundits predicted that the following teams will be relegated: Burnley, Hull and Pompey. Well, I think Burnley will prove them wrong. It’s early days yet but they may pull what Hull did at the beginning of last season. And Hull won too at the weekend. Pompey aren’t looking good now (Everton not doing any better based on goal difference) and they do look threadbare. I reckon Niko Kranjčar will follow the footsteps of Crouch and leave soon too. On other matches, I was disappointed that Wigan let in five after managing to level in the first half and that the Hammers got mashed instead by the Spuds (it should have been the other way round, duh!).

We beat Pompey at home on Saturday - Dudú making his first Premier League start (he was a substitute at Goodison Park) since he broke his leg at Brimingham on 23 February 2008 - though I was disappointed that we only won by four goals (I’m not greedy but we could have scored so many more) and let in one too. And now we’re compared to Usain Bolt! We’ve scored a dozen goals so far from different sources and only of them from a recognised striker. Man of the match: Andrey Arshavin. For pictures, go here.

What’s looming on the horizon though is (after hosting Celtic late Wednesday) the trip to OT. Let’s hope that Cesc will be fit for that... and he’s not going anywhere, Barça, do you hear me? You would have thought they’d learn from the signing of Hleb but no, they don’t. I have nothing against Barça but I just wish the Spanish media would just stop with all this speculation and naughty rumours. I’m not so naïve as to think Cesc will be at Arsenal until he retires from football, I’m sure he would want to return to the Catalan city but not now. Not before he’s guided the team to some trophies.

He’s suchhh a cute lad

We’re All Going On A European Tour

Glasgow was full of song last night, what with U2 performing there. At Celtic Park, however, Cesc Fàbregas was the conductor for the visitors who looked very classy indeed in their away dark blue kit. Hyped to be a Battle of Britain - but there was no Englishmen in Arsenal (oddly, there was one in the Celtic line-up) and only three Scots in Celtic. Shava made his Champions League debut for Arsenal and put a ball in the net in the 12th minute but was ruled offside.




The break came at the 43rd minute after Caldwell brought Cesc down, gifting Arsenal a free-kick which Cesc took. He smashed it goal-ward and Gallas tried to get out of the way and in doing so inadvertently deflected it off his back and deceiving the Celtic goalie - it would otherwise have been a straightforward save had it not been for this intervention. Time stood still as it flew towards the far side of the goal and it was actually going wide at one stage, before swerving viciously and nestling almost apologetically in the inside netting. Scotland 0, England 1.

The Gunners started the second half strongly but it wasn’t until the 71st minute, a couple of minutes after Shava was substituted by Diaby (I thought he looked different until I realised why: he’s grown some hair! Now that would take some adjusting to), when our next goal arrived. Clichy and Diaby were exchanging passes and then Clichy drilled a cross to the near post where Caldwell (yes, he who gifted Arsenal’s first goal) stuck a foot out and diverted it beyond his goalie. Thank you, Celtic. Scotland 0, England 2. For pictures, go here.

‘You should have gone to see U2,’ and ‘We’re going on a European tour,’ chanted the away fans at the end.

Oh, and Spuds manager, Harry Redknapp, was at Celtic Park to watch midfielder Scott Brown – or was he watching Arsenal instead? After all, he is a closet Arsenal supporter. And oh blimey, read this for how Arsenal got compared to Sarah Palin.

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I thought only April and September would be my non-flying months this year but it looks like I’ll be travelling in September after all. More details later. Not a European tour though, not yet anyway (it’s too soon after the May trip!).

Sweet Like Chocolate

Hurray, the new footie season is finally here! To mark the start of the season, I went book-shopping and had a haircut.

Arsenal travelled to Everton for the late kick-off. I was apprehensive and felt the stomach-gripping fear. Everton, after all, finished fifth last season. David Moyes is a brilliant manager and they have Tim Cahill, Pienaar, Osman, Howard ... Scary.

And what do you know, the Gunners melted down the Toffees to record a flattering tennis score. Six-one to The Arsenal! Cesc assisted twice and even scored twice himself. Cesc’s first assist to Denilson saw the Brazillian slammed home from 30 yards out for Arsenals’ first goal. Shortly after, van Persie’s free-kick was headed in at the far post by debutante Vermaelen (reminds me of Nasri who scored in his first EPL debut last season. Get well soon, love). Gallas decided he was not to be outdone and he nodded in a Fàbregas free-kick shortly after. Oh, Shava also put one in the net in the 34th minute but was ruled offside.

Captain Cesc then added one three minutes after the break before adding another in the 70th minute – Almunia gave him the ball and he was allowed to stroll literally unchallenged across the pitch before slotting it in. He then hoisted a jersey in memory of Daniel Jarque, the Espanyol captain who died after a cardiac arrest just the week before. Dudú then came in at the 73rd minute to replace van Persie, his first EPL appearance since that fateful day in Birmingham. He tapped in Arsenal’s sixth goal after Shava’s attempt bounced off the post. Hardly a match of boring, boring Arsenal, I say.

Go here for Wenger’s view and the full transcript of his interview with Martin Samuels (parts I and II) to understand Wenger’s world. And this is what Cesc said after the match: ‘We are a team,’ declared Fàbregas, ‘and you either want to be part of it or not. If you don’t, it is best you go.’ ... ‘We wanted to win, this is a great start but let’s face it, we are not going to win 6-1 every week. It is just one game - it is the first of many for the title race and we just want to keep going.’ For pictures, go here.

What a way to start the season, eh, by setting your goals like that. Sweet Like Chocolate? You bet! Or shall I say Sweet Like Melted Toffees instead? Btw I hate Everton’s new jersey. And Chelshit’s too. I was looking at Chelshit’s and was thinking what the heck have they got there: a zipper? Then I switched to Bundesliga and saw that Bayern München’s jersey looked just like Chelshit... adidas must be very lazy to design something like that.

Hear, Hear

My left ear is currently blocked - has been so since Sunday actually. The doctor gave me some ear drop yesterday and told me that if I still don’t regain hearing in that ear, she’d flush it out on Friday (I actually wanted her to just flush it out but she wanted me to try out the ear drop first). So I’m half-deaf now (either the ear drop is taking its time to work or is just not going to work) but would suddenly regain hearing at times (for a very short while) and when this happens, I’d get so startled with the sudden increase in noise volume that I will actually give a start.

The last time this happened (and the first time I had a blocked ear) was two Ramadans ago. It was so bad that I could hear only very faintly (if I recall correctly, both ears were blocked although one ear was not as badly blocked as the other). I almost lost my balance because as we know, our sense of equilibrium is controlled through the vestibular system contained in the inner ear. The good news was that the doctor flushed out my ears and restored my hearing; the bad news was that my fast for that day did not count.

So I am determined to solve this problem before Ramadan starts.

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Headed for BB after work yesterday to hunt for cargo trousers. AudMraz told me to check out Giordano so I decided to follow her advice. Boarded the bus and was happily reading but before long I realised we were stuck in a very bad jam: turned out the Rat Race was yesterday. So I got down near Bursa and walked to BB. There’s a Giordano Concept store at Pavilion and two Giordano stores in BBP (or is it Sg Wang Plaza – I kept confusing the two). And of course there’s the store at Jalan Sultan Ismail - which I pass by every time I go to BB but only just realised is there - plus one in Times Square.

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God, how I hate people who can’t write/spell in proper English or Malay. I can take colloquial conversation but I hate reading anything that’s spelt weirdly. How difficult is it to type out properly? I’ve mentioned it before and I’m repeating myself here again. I get really annoyed when I see funny languages on people’s FB status/comments and/or blog comments. Really, is there a need to bastardise the language(s)? Aren’t people even proud of their mother tongue that they don’t care about spelling it correctly? Why go all the way to make yourself sound so uneducated?

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There’s this one lady who I usually meet while waiting for the bus. She seemed friendly at first (too friendly at times) but as we exchange more chats, I find that she complains a lot. She usually starts with how bad the bus service is (trust me, it is bad and hardly reliable) and she goes on and on, touching other issues such as politics as she rambles on. Sometimes I pointedly ignore her and read my novel and then I feel bad for ignoring her. But really, I can’t stand her complaints. Miss Debbie Downer is one toxic personality I want to avoid.

Hot In Here

Hot in here. Hot out there. Hot everywhere. Hot, hot, hot.

Braved the lunch-hour blazing heat and ventured out to find a pair of trousers for my niece and a pair of drawstring cargo trousers but came back empty-handed. Fruitless trip. Oh, Esprit does stock some but I really dislike those boy-fit trousers with the very low waists. (Having said that, back at uni a guy friend once gave me his pair of jeans and I actually wore it. I had to hold it up with the belt tightly tied around my waist in the last belt hole possible (and still felt like it was about to slip down). And low-waist boy-fit trousers are not exactly comfortable too. And so the hunt for the ideal cargo trousers continues...).

How I wish this country has moderate temperatures like Europe in spring (I was actually thinking of this when I set out for my lunch outing and this in turn reminded me of the (over)friendly Asian-loving Croat I met in Split and I went thinking ‘Maybe I should have invited him to come along to Trogir with me.’ It’s funny that I suddenly thought of him after all these months and for no reason at all.). Oh I know there are countries which have temperatures soaring higher than ours but c’mon they are mostly in the Middle East with deserts all around. I was born here and yet still have problems trying to deal with the heat and humidity (and now, the haze. Any coincidence they all start with the letter ‘H’?). You’d have thought I’d have gotten used to the heat but no, I’m not too hot about the weather for sure.

God, it’s too hot to think and talk much sense now.

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I’ve been watching too many movies of late, consequentially spending too much money on celluloid dates. It doesn’t help that movie ticket prices have increased now. Ouch. The good thing is that the new footie season (and Ramadan) will kick off soon/just around the corner (Ligue 1, Serie A and Bundesliga have all kicked off during the weekend). The bad news is that there we now have to fork out an additional RM12 for any cable TV packages that includes sports (which Astro has reasoned as being ‘equivalent to one cinema ticket’) because of the rising content cost (whatever that means). Just about everything that has a price-tag costs more these days, unlike in neighbouring Singapore where there was actually reduction in bus and MRT fares since 1 April 2009 (and that’s no April Fools’ joke).

I hope I can stay awake for House season finale tonight. Ugly Betty Season 3 ended three weeks ago (boo hoo!) while CSI ended two weeks ago. All very well I suppose, just before Ramadan so hopefully I can concentrate better in the holy month.

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Arsenal drew Celtic in the Champions League qualifying round. Good news? Bad news? It’s Battle of Britain, baby.




I’ll leave you with pictures of my hot Captain (and hot team).

After the last match of last season against Stoke City

At Arsenal Charity Ball, 21 May 2009. For more pictures of the Charity Ball, go here.

This Much I Know

Inspired by the series in The Guardian.

070809: Adek Graffiti Fàbregas, part-time traveller (at least I like to think so!), 17 Again, KL

Being single is liberating - most of the time. And travelling solo is cool too.

It never fails to surprise me to hear people say how thin I am. I don't consider myself thin. Ever.

I believe in God and I talk to God often. I think of God a lot, even in inappropriate places (like the washroom). I find talking to God helps.

Everyone should play his/her role in making the world a better and greener place. We can all make a difference.

Healthy food usually tastes blurgh. It’s the unhealthy toxic food that tastes wonderful. Thankfully, I love fruits and vegetables. They taste great for something so healthy!

We are indeed stronger than we give ourselves credit for.

I can be naïve and too trusting. That said, I can be very sceptical too. Yes, I’m a contradiction.

It still amuses me when people ask me if I’m a Chinese (even after donning the headscarf). I have been asked if I’m a Chinese (even by Chinese folks), Japanese (!), Korean, Thai, Filipino and even Spanish (never Malaysian, a Brunei or Singaporean). Fantastic. Can I marry Cesc now?

I’m not a brave person. I’m a scaredy cat. Yet some of my mates have told me that they thought I’m brave. I even think people who commit suicide are brave - because I’d never be brave enough to hurt myself. But I’d like to try bungee jumping one day. Yup, contradiction is my middle name.

I’m a very emotional person. I cry easily. I’m a Cancerian so that should explain! It wouldn’t explain the OCD though.

Italian brands appeal more to me than the French or German (Aigner) or Swiss (Bally). And I don’t see the point of spending on a brand with an American name but made in China (Coach). At least LeSportsac and Crocs are still reasonably priced.

Everything happens for a reason and we’re where we are meant to be at any time. Still, it doesn’t mean some things are any easier to accept/handle.

It’s scary that I don’t consider some swear words are offensive anymore - probably because I hear it too often and I have become too accustomed to them. I do draw the line at vulgar words describing female anatomies.

There are a lot of sad, depressing things happening around the world everyday. Tragedy, suicide, bombing, massacre, murder... they go on. Even the sports world is not excluded. You can go without watching news for a while and when you tune in again, it’s the same old grim news reappearing albeit in different countries, different scenarios, different context.

The first section that I read from the daily is the sports section, and business sometimes. Funny, when I hardly ever played sports in school and can’t even run to save my life. Sure I can finish 100 metres but maybe in double or triple the time Usain Bolt finishes it.

Life’s lessons are abundant and around us if we only choose to observe. Nature has a lot to teach us. As does football (will likely blog on this later).

I am one of the few who think the Beckhams are cool. I like Posh, I mean Victoria Beckham. I think she’s done a good job at promoting Brand Beckham. I used to debate whether I am a Baby Spice (because I’m the baby of the family) or a Posh Spice.

A friend posted this challenge by a wise man she heard on IKIM Radio recently: ‘We’re always upgrading, be it from Nokia to iPhone, apartment to landed property, Executive to Manager, Vincci shoes to Tod’s, yet, why, for the past 15 years or so, are we still on a five-time prayers a day without the sunats, reciting the same short four Quls after al-Fatihah, using the same battered prayer mat and prayer attire, reading the Holy Quran at the same old speed, and paying the minimum zakat possible.’ I agree with the reasoning of the wise man.

I tell myself not to expect anything because I’d get disappointed when I don’t get anything – and yet I still find myself expecting something and getting disappointed when I get nothing.

Be true to yourself, be yourself, live life to the fullest, take good care of your body and your health, hold your head up high, and be proud of who you are and where you are from. To others, we may seem exotic too.

Summer Of ‘09

Yes, I know we are not blessed with four seasons in this tropical climate. Why, every day is like summer - scorching, humid and blinding hot at times (oh, and the occasional hazy days every now and then too). So let’s pretend it is indeed summer in the city, which it is anyway.

Let’s see now, it has been and is –

A summer of births

My mates Jules, Tini and Mrs A all gave birth in July. Nando and FedEx also became fathers in July.

A summer of deaths

Among others, the world bade goodbye to Michael Jackson, Farah Fawcett, Sir Bobby Robson and Corazon Aquino (and three of them died of cancer). My dear friend also lost her father on Friday. Scary reminder to us still breathing that our time will be up one day too.

I dreamt of Big Brother on Saturday. Is that a good or bad omen, I wonder?

A summer of trips

If you consider May as early summer, then there was the Europe trip, followed by a short trip to SG in June, the birthday weekend getaway in early July and the recent less-than-24-hours trip to SG again last weekend. Alhamdulillah. And hopefully those trips won’t stop there.

A summer of transfers and transfer rumours

Ahhhh... it wouldn’t be summer without footie transfers and transfer rumours. Moneybags Sh*tty have joined Real Madrid in their summer shopping and unlike normal summer sale shopping, they really splash out as if in a race to buy players. Toure has followed Ade to become another Sh*tty player and Senderos is also on the way to Everton. I’m not that worried that Wenger has yet to sign anyone else besides Vermaelen because neither ManUre nor Liverpool nor Chelshit have been spending either, but I am worried about our defenders, I really am (I’m not that worried about our strikers despite Ade having left and Nasri being injured). And there’s also the talk about Vieira coming back to Arsenal.

A summer of few footie action...

I have to content myself with the Confederations Cup besides watching tennis (the French Open and Wimbledon). And thank God Hamilton won at Hungary. But I miss football. Thank God for the few friendly matches and I must say it was a relief to see the lads. There was the 7-1 trashing of Columbia, the comfortable 5-0 win over Szombathelyi Haladas, the one-nil victory over Hannover 96, and the wins over Atlético Madrid and Rangers in the Emirates Cup over the weekend (superb Shava and wonderful Wilshere!).

... and some movie marathon

Watched 17 Again, Angels & Demons, Terminator Salvation and State of Play at the theatres and Slumdog Millionaire and Bedtime Stories on DVD in June, continued with Transformers (actually felt like walking out of the theatre half-way through it) and Public Enemies and The Kite Runner (on DVD - brilliant) in July, and it was the Ice Age 3 (hilarous!) last weekend.

Ahhh... and the new Premier League season will kick off soon and Ramadan will be here too shortly. Have a super summer everyone (or what’s left of it)!