Old man

The old man is stubborn, silly and paranoid. He has so many unfounded fears and a screwed up logic. Belonging to the old generation Chinese male chauvinist, everything he does is right while everything anyone else does is wrong. I'm fine if he wants to spend his own time entertaining his paranoia but please don't bother or include me in. I wasted almost 7hrs doing nothing today while sitting at the back seat. This included 3 stops for a petrol tank that is full and 5hrs on the road seeing useless stuff in places like Balik Pulau. Not that today was anything different from previous incidents that saw things like chaining car gears and barricading front doors. But today was just the limit that I can tolerate his nonsense.

I'm not surprised that certain family members had shun him out, refuse to talk with him or kept a distance from him. I've tried not to cross his path and instead go about doing my own business but he just had to interfere. Interpreting the modern world with his own secluded ancient world nonsense, he keeps yapping on using twisted logic and just refuse to listen to any advice that may do him good in the future. I've kept telling him to stop feeding the flames of fear in him but he remains utterly adamant in continuing doing stupid stuff that increases his level of senility. Seriously, once I have my own foothold in Malaysia, I'm never gonna associate my life with him anymore.

8th day

Yesterday night was particularly irritating. Some bloke assumed that nobody lives in the town area and thought that he can pop all those firecrackers like nobody's business. It's freaking noisy and even at 12.15 am, it was still popping. Those blokes made those firecrackers go off sporadically and so, it sounded like artillery fire. Somebody should just come and spank these fools that are noise polluting!

Apparently, today was declared the birthday of the Jade Emperor since its the 8th day of Chinese New Year. Okay, this is the first time that I heard bout it and I didn't know that Taiping people take it so seriously. Most of the Chinese shops in town were closed as if it was Chinese new year plus so many kopitiam stalls were taking the day off. Lol, I don't think many would take notice of the 8th day in Singapore. Even in my younger days at Subang Jaya, I don't recall such a grand scale of closure. I suppose those blokes popping the crackers yesterday are marking the occasion.

Amazing Race Asia 2 Finale

Yesterday was the final 3 showdown in the Amazing Race Asia 2. All three teams are from ASEAN countries - Adrian and Collin from Singapore, Pamela and Vanessa from Malaysia plus Rovilson and Marc from the Philippines. Last season was won by an all women team from Malaysia, so eyes are on the two sisters if they could bounce up from their third place at the start to repeat the feat. But the two hot favourites were the other two male teams where they dominate most of the legs and always within touching distance of each other. The Filipino buddies probably had the physical edge and also the tv personality given all their spunk and light-hearted approach. Before the final leg, they had an astounding 8 firsts and 3 seconds. They had never finished below second at the start of the final leg.

So, they race through South Africa and then return back to Singapore for the last few tasks and the finishing line. It was good news for the Singaporean gym buddies since its back home for them. Unfortunately, halfway through, they forgot to hold the taxi and as a result they were the last to arrive at the last road block in Sentosa. The Filipino buddies were there first but one of them had a hell of a time trying to figure out the flags. The Malaysian sisters fared a little better but the one doing the road block forgot what the Filipino flag looked like. Adrian did fantastic on the flag challenge as he had good knowledge on them and they were off to the finishing line at the Chinese Gardens in Jurong while the the other two teams were still figuring things out. Grats to Adrian and Collin in finishing first, showing that disability is no barrier to success. The Malaysian sisters team figured things out quicker than the Filipinos and they finished second. The Filipinos came in last. What a twist! All signs pointed that the race was going their way and they were going to wrap it up easily. It just had to be the last thing about countries and flags that got them screwed. Lol, so kids, brush up on ur flag reading skills! You'll never know when its gonna cost you US$ 100, 000. =p

The Pilihan Raya is on!

Happy Valentine's day but Malaysia's political scene is on the move on the eve. The Malaysian Parliament was dissolved on 13 February, much to the surprise and annoyance of some of the parties. On 13 Feb, theStar paper reported that Pak Lah would not be making the move. And right on the day itself, the PM dropped the shell after weeks of speculation. Uncle Lim was naturally quite pissed, citing that the Chinese New Year celebrations were not over yet.

It was announced today too that nomination day would be on 24 Feb with March 8 scheduled to be the election day. The hotspot for this election is reportedly to be in Penang. With all the controversies looming for the past 5 years, the ruling coalition would possibly face a fierce fight that could rival the 1999 elections. Well, it would be interesting to see the campaigning and the candidates that would be put up respectively by the different parties. Elections in Malaysia is certainly a vibrant affair compared over to its southern neighbour where their elections are quieter with many uncontested walkovers and no prizes to guess which is the dominating party. The only few possible highlights from their last election are like oppostion candidates that get screwed real bad over a piece of form.

With the information technology on the forefront, it's not that easy to hide dirty little secrets anymore. I'm curious to see if Malaysians would take as much action as what they had say.

Manchester Remembers

Around a week ago, it was the 50th anniversary of the 1958 Munich tragedy which claimed the lives of 8 Man Utd players and 3 staff members from the promising Busby Babes squad. Last weekend, the 1 minute of silence was honourably held by the City fans with the United players dressed in plain red and white v-neck jerseys. Only squad numbers from 1-11 were used for the starting eleven. Wayne Rooney was unfortunate to miss playing in the occasion after his 5th yellow card.

United's form from the past 2 Premier League games have been rather worrying. The 1-1 draw in White Hart Lane could have easily been a loss if not for Tevez's last ditch attempt. The bad stuff just got worse last weekend. The defence was just bad, plain bad. The attack was decent, a little better than the one at Tottenham but it is still poor finishing given the amount of talents in the team. So, if you don't finish at the final third and with your defence at the wrong position all the time, even the home fans can't save the team from bad results. United's defence got it all wrong while City's two centrebacks, Dunne and Richards were solid in their positions. Dunne especially, I think, is on steroids! The City captain is seems to be always in the right place to block shots and nullify attacking runs. On the other hand, Ferdinand was at one of his worst moments, and not being aware of his positioning most of the time. I think the glaring weakness is John O shea on the left. First, he does not provide sufficient runs along the left lane like Evra to pressurise City. Next, he can't even defend his own flank properly. I have to say both of City's goal came from his side and both scorers were virtually unmarked by anyone.

Benjani proved to be a very shrewd buy from City. He's on hot form in Portsmouth and he's carrying it on in his new club with a debut goal. United's fortune would perhaps had been different if they had gotten an extra striker during the January transfer. There is no way Rooney+Tevez combi to be available for every match of the season. Saha is on/off with no constant form. The City match saw Giggs/Nani/Ronaldo played in the same team. Technically, it's Giggs left, Nani right and Ronaldo playing forward support. But in the match, they switch all around so constantly since each three of them had experimented playing in each other's position before. It was changing "so constant" that they themselves lost track of each other and so do the rest of the team. Ronaldo was shut down heavily and I think he's way better off playing at the extreme right winger instead of charging near center. I must say, Rooney is really missed in such an electrifying derby match. While the most obvious is his striking skills, I would point out that the motivation "aura" that he provides on the field is priceless. The determination and his psyched up personality would do much to gear up team chemistry and fire. But as off last weekend, the Man Utd team was playing all over the place, losing posession, and don't look like that they had the same team bond they had last season. Lol, surprisingly, the guy who came out and scored was Carrick but it came too late. Seriously, it's time that Fergie should invest on a match winning sub like Solskjaer or Robben. The sub bench last weekend contained no strikers but sit-back players like Carrick and Hargreaves. Both of them are really more useful if United had been leading and relying on "parking bus" tactic to keep the result. Well, United better buck up. Arse-nal's coming up in the next cup match, perhaps a prelude on the future league match.

Plugged back in

Stan was MIA for the past 2 weeks from the internet coz his DVD drive was KIA and he had to send it for repairs. How annoying. Firstly, my World of Warcraft account meter continues running with money wasted. That's the irritating part about WoW compared to Guild Wars where I can be absent for months but still feel my wallet intact. Not only that, being absent for almost 2 weeks meant that I'm in a limbo and constantly guessing when the announcement of the A level results would be out. Lol, I'm relying on my MSN messenger contacts to propagate the date to me. It seems that the authorities is still keeping quiet about it.

Chinese New Year was quite ok for me. Mama and my bro came down to Taiping and on the first day, we all plus my mama's relatives had a grand dinner at Evergreen Hotel courtesy of my uncle. Great food and red wine, I drank quite a number of glasses but didn't get knocked out. In Malaysia, CNY holidays meant that the regular kopitiam won't open. So, everyone would end up flocking to KFC and fast food chains instead. Lol, the KFC workers were having a hell of a time trying to fry up the food and cleaning up the mess. On Saturday night, mama and bro went back to Sg and for a moment, I was a little emo because it's back to life with two "ketinggalan zaman" old folks in the shophouse. And hey, I realised that I had to grow up way faster than the rest of the pple at my age.From 18-19 years old onwards and many years to come, I'll be thrown in a life that would see me living independently from my immediate family. Some people that I know like NBS still live with their parents in their late 20s.

Anyways, glad to be back after the hiatus.

FA Cup 4th Round

United are through to the next round after a 3-1 win over Tottenham. Don't let the scoreline deceive, Spurs were quite good in the match. It was Robbie Keane who drew first blood after Ferdinand and co. were caught ball watching. Tevez equalize some ten minutes later. Spurs would have taken the lead again since Jenas had two clear one-on-one chances but United were very fortunate that he turns out to be an awful finisher. At the 69th minute, Rooney and Dawson were struggling for the ball and when both men fell in the penalty area, Dawson appeared to have handballed. What was worse is that that handball was seen to be a deliberate since his hand looked to have directed the ball of Rooney's leg and yes, a straight red card. The last goal by Ronaldo was a bit of luck again since the Spurs keeper actually guessed the direction right but it was just unfortunate that the ball rolled past his armpit. This Spurs side is certainly a revitalized side under Ramos. It's very attacking football and one can see that players like Aaron Lennon were causing tremendous problems for the defence particularly Evra.

Boo-boo to Liverpool once again although they won the match 5-2. They were trailing TWICE and I got a little shock when I switched on the TV to see Liverpool going down by 1-2 to a group of part-timers Conference group team. The unlikely hero Yossi scored a hat-trick to save Liverpool the blushes.

Now, Man Utd's next 5th round opponent is - Arse-nal. Woah, what a draw while Chelsea and Liverpool get easy stuff. Well, looks like cup final comes early for the United players! Haha..I think Man Utd got a slight advantage since the fixture is set at Old Trafford :)