footie…

I watched another movie last night. As it’s the World Cup season I thought it’ll be just proper for a film that has something to do with football. No, it’s not the cheeky Gol & Gincu, (err, that’s futsal but nevermind I watched that one already thank you very much) although I would opt for Bend It Like Beckham if I have a copy. I mean watching girls play footie is not exactly exciting (no offence) unless when there’s Keira Knightly in it or Sharifah Amani for that matter…lol

Anyway, the movie is about a journalism student who befriends a bunch of football hooligans. Well, the movie is even entitled Hooligan..duhh. It has some crude fighting scenes though not as violent as compared to those in Fight Club, so if you are peace-loving fellow like myself, you might want to leave this out. Hmm, in my defence, I just want to empathize the psyche of those ruffians, which sadly I’ve to admit I still haven’t quite figure out yet. I mean we’re talking about mature adults with decent jobs fighting one another over errr, ehem ehem football.

Anyway, I think I learned one or two things from it plus Frodo is the main character, I mean Elijah Wood. To quote from one of the ex-hooligans “there’s more to life than all this (fighting and all that craps)”. That sums up everything quite nicely I reckon.

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Back to business. The knock-out stage advances to the quarterfinal tonight. This is the prediction of the football expert wannabe.

Argentina 3 – 2 Germany

Italy 1 – 0 Ukraine

England 3 – 1 Portugal

Brazil 2 – 1 France

All teams in bold are the teams that I expect to make it through to the semifinals but the scoreline might be a bit different. Don’t be so sad if your favourite team is not in my list, you don’t really expect Portugal (without Deco and probably Ronaldo) to beat England, do you? Goshh, you’re so naive…lol. One word for it – inevitable.

Ceritera…

There wasn’t any match last night so I watched a movie instead. It was a classic love story of sort, I mean a kampung boy meet a rich city girl, they fell in love, girl’s parents dissaproved (que for Ibu Mertuaku flashback) and the family went back to the city. The boy, devastated and heart-broken wrote a letter to the girl everyday for a year before giving-up..duhh. Needless to say she never received any of the letter as her mum keep it away from her.

Seven years passed and Allie (girl now woman) met another guy and fell in love again, they were engaged when she saw a story about Noah (boy) in a newspaper. She decided to pay him a visit, the term being used was “to see if he’s okay”..duhhh

I love this scene. When they first met in the reunion, she said hi,bla,bla,bla… but Noah was speechless and seemed uninterested. Embarrassed..lol, she wanted to leave the place at once but in her way out she crashed into the fence. Noah slowly walked to the car and non-chalantly said something like ”You wanna come in?” LOL…

Okay, that scene wasn’t really touching but I found it hilarious somehow. Well, I tend to try to take things easy when I watch sad movies…

Allie faced a dilemma, the fiance or her first-love? She chose Noah!!! To the delight of every romantic/love story idealist like yourself. Anyway fast forward 50,60? years, Allie has became senile and the story being told was actually Noah reading their love story to her, hoping that she could remember again. Well, I can hear you say ‘How sweet’.

The movie’s title is The Notebook starring Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling.

Hmm…

One thing different about the current World Cup is that there were not that many upsets, all the favourite teams qualified from the group stage, one way or another (France was unconvincing). Well, almost all would be more accurate as Ghana made it to the second round at the expense of the Chech Rep. I think most people will agree that the match between Argentina and Serbia was the most exciting to-date, but I have to say that I’m quite impressed with Germany. They’re no longer a dour, prosaic defensive team as they played an entertaining attacking football and managed to qualify to the quarter final with relative ease. It’ll be very hard to choose between Argentina and Germany when they meet later on.

About England. As much as I want to watch them to lift the cup, they did not looked like a champion material. Fortunately, Beckham found that his right leg is still useful, sigh… I mean, they were supposed to thrash Ecuador, right? Hopefully they will revert back to the 4-4-2 formation when they play against Portugal. Hey!!! Crouchie is not so bad…hehe.

***************************************************************

I just reported for duty after a fortnight of induction. It was a good fun, the induction. I learnt quite a number of things, met some interesting persons and made new friends along the way. There were only 18 of us altogether but in the short weeks that we had been together I could say that we had formed quite a camaraderie.

One of the highlights of the programme was the site-visits, and I think all the participants would agree that the trip to KL Tower was the most memorable one. Is there anyone of you who hasn’t been there? As embarrassing as it is to admit, it was my first visit as well, and I say I live in KL…lol. Anyway, fyi, KL Tower is the fourth tallest tower in the world. To top that we didn’t go the usual tourist level but to the top of the tower!!! It was a restricted area as there is where all the satellite transmitter/receiver and broadcasting equipment was located. We could see the entire KL from there and the view was simply breathtaking…

Anyway, in the end everybody was sent to different divisions or subsidiaries according to their academic background, interest and capability. I’ll write more about my post later (if it’s interesting lahh). Later guys…

Hiatus

For those who weren't aware, I've been missing from the 'bloggerdom' this past several weeks. For those who did and for some reason went the extra miles to inquire whether or not I still blog, I really appreciate the concern or curiosity. I haven't stop blogging as this post could testify; it just that lot of things happened lately and I took my own sweet time to sort things out, pondering on possibilities. Actually I was planning to blog something on this matter but I wasn't in the right state of mind to write and I guess the muse must had eluded me. And yeahh, I need that in order to write, otherwise my writing will be somewhat insipid – not that I'm implying that my postings are supposed to be breathtaking, eh?

By the way, some of you may know this already while others may have speculate it all along, yupp, my sojourn has ended – I've resigned. Now I could watch every single game of the World Cup..LOL. If only that's true..sigh. I was planning to quit after England (with or without Rooney) win the Holy Grail of football (wanna bet?) but the decision was beyond my control. Well, even the best laid plan can go dangerously astray, right? Anyway, I'll start a new chapter in my life at TM next month, so wish me luck. I'm not sure how often I could blog after this, it'll be sporadic I guess. So, please don't hold your breathe…hehehe. See you guys around!!!!

Cheers

State of Fear

Someone was very kind to point out that it has been nearly three weeks since my last book review. That long? I blame it on football…hehe. So here it goes.

Author: Michael Crichton

Rating: 7.0

This scientific thriller revolves around the threat of global warming (or the lack thereof) on the environment. Peter is the protagonist, a lawyer who worked for an affluent philanthropist who donates millions to environmental organizations. After a visit from MIT professor/federal agent John Kenner, they started to uncover some evil plans by an eco-terrorist group (environmentalists who resort to radical means to achieve their objectives) who devise plans to provoke the world into a war against global warming by calving the Antarctic iceberg, inducing dreadful storms and flash floods, and causing tsunami in the Pacific, yupp the tsunami could be induced by human (tk caya?) – using giant cavitators (whatever that is), and blame it as the result of global warming.

So the good guys are in a frantic chase across the globe to prevent these vicious eco-terrorists from wreaking a widespread devastation to our beloved Earth. There'll be no price for guessing the eventual outcome..LOL

The book offers some interesting premise but some of the plots are too farfetched and it has too many loose ends here and there but I enjoy the arguments the author used to back his opinion, excerpt from reliable sources and like in his other books, there are pictures, graphs, footnotes, etc. Nice..

Pahit…

Liverpool 2 – 1 Chelsea

Post-match press conference via Soccernet:

'Did the best team win today? I don't think so. In the last 30 minutes we deserved extra time. In the first half nobody was better. They had a good start to the second half but then we dominated the game. I cannot wish them luck in the final. Middlesbrough and West Ham will be there and I must respect them.'
                                                                                                                                                     – Jose Mourinho

Is it that difficult to swallow your pride and be modest for once? Some people is such a sore loser, which makes me wonder whether he had a traumatic childhood…hehe

via HantuBola

Anyway, Cardiff, here we come!!!

Monday blues !!!

…or the lack of it in my case. Now that you’ve went through all the hassle to drop by and visit this blog, just read on…

I had a long break last week. You see, the last day of my day-shift would end in Tuesday and my first day (or night) for my night-shift would start on Sunday night – that means 5 complete day-off !!! I love my job when it comes to this…hehe. So unlike some people who detest their first day at work after a groovy weekend, you could say that I’m actually looking forward to work!!! Well, sort of..

Lots of thing happened in 5 days. Tons of books to read (I’ll write the book review later this week, not that anyone read it…hehe), loads of movies and tv series (anyone watch Arrested Development – that story is hilarious!!!), shopping errr.. (not like the girls lahh of course), made some prank call, (I do like calling my friends, sms is too cumbersome for me), hung out with friends (well, it’s getting harder to meet them nowadays, everyone has other commitments – so to speak, bebudak semesta gakk best..wehh ada futsal tk minggu nie?), family event, etc.

So after 5 days of lazying around, you could say I’ve been rejuvenated and ready for another long and tiresome nights. It’s not really the work that I’m looking forward to actually, after a while that become somewhat mundane, it’s the Net, a proper broadband – unlike the Streamyx you guys have at home…hehe. Of course I could easily have it installed at my house but I chose not to – the idea is for me to unplug myself from the cyberworld, live in reality, kononnya lahh, thus have ample time to pursue other things.

So after being deprived of the Internet connection for a few days, my first day at work is always a great experience. I wonder what that tells about me..hmmm, a geek? hehe…

Anyway, what I really do when I get myself on the Net? Job aside, I read blogs, lots of them – yours included, update mine if the time permits..hehe, download everything in the torrent sites (I download so many things that I need to buy a DVD burner, CD writer and hard-disk are no longer an option), read the piling number of emails and the must-read Soccernet, chatting with you guys, my recent favourite – watching videoclips at YouTube and of course EPL and Champios League matches…errr I do this during my break lahh, at Malaysian favourite diner – mamak.

I realize that I might not be staying here for long – career prospect, health consideration, relationship (or the absence of it)..hehe, and my mum’s disapproval, all these made me decided for a change in my career (I’ll write more about this later). Perhaps, one day I’ll also experience the dread of Monday mornings like everyone else but for the time being I’m going to enjoy my stay at this corporation – until the World Cup??.. cheers

Emp4t…

I was tagged by Hani albeit not via 'proper' channel. Anyhow, as today is my last day at work for this week so why not, here it goes:

4 jobs:
1. Shop assistant nie masa lps SPM
2. Intern
3. Current post
4. -

4 movies I love:
1. Braveheart
2. The Shawshank Redemption
3. Forrest Gump run Forest run…
4. My Sassy Girl best Korean movie ever..

4 places I've live(d):
1. Cheras
2. Raub
3. Melaka
4. -

4 tv shows I love to watch:
1. Lost
2. Scrubs
3. 24
4. Desperate Housewives

4 places I've been on vacation:
1. Penang
2. Singapore
3. Sabah
4. Terengganu

4 sites I visit daily:
1. Job related sites
2. Soccernet
3. Blogs
4. News sites

4 favourite foods:
1. Sate
2. Tom yam
3. Rojak
4. Anything with chicken

4 places I'd rather be:
1. New Zealand
2. Spain
3. UK
4. Aussie

4 vehicles I've owned:
1. EX5 motor nie dari zaman uni, banyak jasa dia nie
2. Iswara yg nie kesian, mcm terabai plak, nk basuh pun malas, ishhk
3. -
4. -

People who I tag and must do it or die painfully…hehehe

Ani sbb dia tgh cuti2 malaysia
Auni sbb dia baru ada blog
Fara sbb dia tak buat tag yg dulu tue
Pojie sbb dia tgh bz so nk kasi die release tension skett..hehe
Yat sbb dia ada kt Indon so blehh mintak kem salam kt dian
Toyy sbb rasa mcm nk tau jekk..
Syeda sbb baru tau dia ada blog, no hard feeling masa f3 tue, kitorang ikut arahan pihak atasan jekk..hehe

 

 

 

Wheeeeeee!!!

Liverpool 1 – 0 Bolton

The match against this physical Bolton side will always be a difficult game even in Anfield. The gaffer opted to play Gerrard in the middle of the park and retained Cisse on the right (I still think we need a new winger, a proper one…hehe). Bolton had several chances to score early in the game but Reina managed to show great composure and vigilance when called into action. We had an appeal for penalty turned down when Gerrard was brought down from Speed's challenge but we finally break the deadlock just before the break. Not surprisingly, it was Fowler, who scored from the edge of the box.

The second half was more lively with the introduction of Garcia who replaced Cisse and we came close to snatch the second goal when Alonso superb shot crashing against the post. We held on to the score to record our six consecutives win in all competition.

The last time I wrote about Liverpool match, I mentioned about the lack of scoring prowess among the strikers. Since then, we had scored 21 goals!! Seems like the problem was the thing of the past and hopefully we could keep our current form until the end of the season…

p.s/ They were showing Man U vs Arsenal match right after that and I stayed on to watch the first half which surprisingly ended without any goal (Toure played as the second goalkeeper…hehe). This morning, one of my colleague (Man U die-hard fan) gleefully told me the score. Man U won by two goals to nil. Demm..

Last gasp…

AC Milan 3 – 1 Lyon

I was woke-up by my over-enthusiastic brother to watch this quarterfinal match and before I could even sit, they were showing Inzaghi's header past the hapless Coupet. That was fast I thought, afterwards my bro briefed me that actually the game had already started for more than 20 minutes, the goal was against the run of play, that Lyon played a much better game, Dida had a disastrous miskick that went unpunished and Milan had to make an early substitution as Stam was involved in a freak injury. What a game !!!

Five minutes later, Lyon had the equaliser from Diarra's header resulted from Juninho's freekick. Not a classy goal, he pounced a header from a close range from a loose ball but they really deserved it. Lyon managed to expose the fragility of Milan's aging back four and the away goal rule means that at this point Lyon looked destined to advance to the semifinal.

After the break, Lyon still controlled much of the game although Milan always looked dangerous from Serginho's run on the left flank. Lyon didn't change their game to the more defensive formation and continued to play an attacking game but they were made to pay for their failure to find the second goal. With 2 minutes remaining, Lyon's organised side was given a devastating blow from a goal from Inzaghi and Shevchenko netted another goal in the stoppage time to complete Milan's revival. 

Milan shall meet the winner of Barcelona vs Benifa match so I hope Barcelona would make it to the semi thus providing a mouth-watering clash of two the giants of Europe…hehehe.