We Lost to A Better Team.

Manchester United got dethrone by Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League (UCL) Final last night. We totally did not show up for the match. Other than the initial 10 mins, we were totally overrun by the excellent Xavi and Iniesta in midfield.

The lost of Fletcher due to an unjust red car in the semi-final hurt us here. The first goal from Barca is the sucker punch that really knocks the wind out of us. It also stabilizes the Barca team, who has been nervy until that point of time. It gave them the confidence. Overall, our midfield performance is terrible and we employed the wrong tactics in trying to play attacking football against such a strong attacking team.

For the way we lost, somehow I did not feel as sad as I should be. Maybe it's the feeling that we lost to a better team. Considering we have won the league cup, the world club cup and our 18th premier league title on top of being in the FA Cup semi-final and UCL final, we actually have quite a successful season.

Here's looking forward to next season...

Home Made Chicken Rice

It started as a casual remarks as Angie colleague is buying ah-char, so I recommend that she made chicken rice to supplement it.

And so she did last night. She bought one whole chicken and marinate it. The chicken is cooked in hot water. Rice is made by using those over the shelf chicken rice sauce with white rice.

The result is very nice. It taste even better than some of the chicken rice sold outside. The chicken is not oily and very juicy. My wife cooking is getting better and better everyday.

Mas Selamat Staying In Malaysia For the Time Being.

So now the Singapore police (especially a certain Mr Wong) can breathe a sign of relief knowing that Mas Selamat will be detained in Malaysia for two years.

No more worries on where to lock him up or whether they should give him any toilet breaks. Come to think of it, ever since news of his capture are made known, we have not seen a single photo of him. All the news reports are showing old footage of him. Makes me wonder is he really been caught?

Until the news of his capture, we have totally forgotten about this man just within a year. Now that he is so called detained in Malaysia. I wonder anyone will still remember him two years later. Maybe this is just a ploy by our government to wash their hands off this embarrassing mess.

Mr Brown's Wash Your Hands Too

That Legend Giggsy

A tribute to my most favorite player of all time, Ryan Giggs. It's amazing that I have watch him play throughout his career from a 17 year old to now at 35. For all those wonderful young players groom under Sir Alex, I still believe Giggs is still his most favorite. A truly living legend.

P.S. love the song played in the middle by Staind - So Far Away.

Warp Back to Stone Age

My home PC broke down on Sunday night. It was working properly 4 hours ago. Dun tell me it’s over-worked because I hardly do anything stressful on it nowadays.

Since I am not sure which parts of the PC is toasted, I have to rush down to Sim Lim to get various replacement parts to test out each of them. Burn quite a hole in my pocket. Turns out it’s the damn graphic card. Luckily, the card warranty ends in June 2009 (how nice the timing in the failure)

Since I am repairing the PC, I also took the opportunity to clean out the innards of the PC and tidy things up. IN the process, I found that the cables of the power supply unit are burn like short circuited. I guess this must be the cause for the graphic card failure.

So I got a replacement for the power supply (the old one warranty is still valid, whew….) and my PC now is back and running again, allowing me to write this entry. For three days I feel like I was back into the Stone Age. I have no access to the Internet and I can’t do anything. It was definitely a torture for me.

But thankfully, the failure is not on the motherboard or CPU or else I would have to reinstall my windows operating systems and that is a real pain. As for the replacement parts I bought, I have to resell them, which will be at some losses for me. Anyone want an Intel E5200 CPU or Asus P5KPL-1600 motherboard?

This Blog Is Not Dead

Yep, I am still around. Been super duper busy these past few weeks. This is no thanks to some wonderful planning by the higher management in scheduling a complicated project to complete within 8 months with only a handful of engineers. So engineers like me are being hot dropped in as delayed becomes desperation in an attempt to speed up the process. We ended up working nights and weekends to catch up the impossible deadline. I got so many things to write, my trips in Taipei, my Batam trip and so many more thoughts and views. But when I get off work at the end of the day, all I want is to slouch around, clear my mind and sleep. In the meantime, just bared with this, k.

Old Town Coffee

Woooo... it's been some time since my last update. Too busy with work these days. As my colleague mentioned today, I look like a porcupine.

"Too many arrows sticking out of my back..." -_-"

Yep, ever since I was duped into the printer project, I have been working overtime and weekends. Oh... this reminds me to ask for 2 off days from my project manager for last Sunday and accumulated OT hours. All these work result in me not able to find time to post my Taipei and the recent Batam trip.

Anyway, before I go off topic too much. Last Saturday, Angie and I went down to East Coast, Playgroud @ Big Splash for makan on the way back from my parent's place. I say, the place is happening sia. There are many people eating and shopping there. Yes you heard me right, shopping because there is a car boot sale there.

So we went to Old Town cafe for our dinner. The white coffee they served is the best coffee I ever drink. It's so smooth. Not too sweet and not too bitter. Just the right balance. After drinking that, the coffee at the canteen at my workplace taste like long kao (drain) water. The nasi lemak I have is not like those sold in your local coffee shop. The chicken is well fried and crispy. The rice is fragrant and kinda taste like chicken rice IMO. ROFL!

All I say is the food and coffee is very nice. Definitely worth going back. Maybe will organize a trip there with my family as the seafood restaurant (thanks to Jasmine) offer quite an affordable ala carte lunch.

Minimization

These days, we are seeing our electronics gadgets getting smaller and slimmer. That's the age of minimization. Making things more portable. Never have I thought they will do the same thing to fruits.

Yes, you did not read wrongly. Let me introduce the mini mango, mini watermelon and small pineapple. Now I can bring a watermelon to work without bursting my bag. :P

Roller Blading for the First Time

A few weeks ago, Angie and I went to Changi Village for breakfast and cycling. Often seeing some kids roller blading at my place. I decided to borrow my sister-in-law's roller blade to have a try myself.

We find ourselves a nice spot by the beach to put those blades on. After struggling to wear them (my sister-in-law have smaller feet than mine), I finally get to stand up with the blades on the grass area. Everything is so stable.

"HA! This is a piece of cake." I thought to myself, "Let's hit the road!"

Man, I was so wrong. The blades came alive immediately when I step onto the bicycle pavement. My legs keep wobbling trying to keep my balance. I can't even find the energy to push myself forward. Most of the time I am struggling not to fall on my backside. How did those kids and babes at East Coast do it?

After struggling for half an hour plus so humiliating falls and laughing by Angie, I decided to call it a day. I end up with quite a sore ankle from all the twisting n balancing. I guess it is not as simple as it looks then. :(

My Headphones Gone Wireless

Ah... my new Sennheiser wireless headphones have arrived. Bought it at Amazon and get vpost to ship it over here. Only problem is the power adapter is the US 110V. Have to go to Homefix to get an AC convertor. No more irritating and dangling wires.

The headphones works like a charm. The sound quality is excellent. I can wear the headphones and walk all the way to the kitchen without any loss in sound or drop in sound quality. Cool....

Saving Gas?

Angie bought those gas saver net, which supposed to help save your gas usage. The concept of the net is to increase the heat around the bottom of the pot, hence reduce the time for food to be cooked.

To prove this concept, I did a simple test. Boil a pot of 500 ml water with and without the net. And the results

Without Net: 3 mins plus
With Net: 5 mins plus

This is a shocking result! So instead of saving gas, I'm using more! Geez, I duno if this result is conclusive. Will try with a bigger pot next. Stay tuned...

Going Downhill

Wow, Man Utd must be feeling that the race for the EPL title is too easy for them. After getting thrash by Liverpool last weekend, they proceed to lose again this weekend and to top that off, got 2 players send off in the process. Well done.

I hope the international break will wake the players up from their slumber or else they might as well give the EPL title away.

We Had It Coming.

After watching how Manchester United shoot themselves in the foot and get thrash by Liverpool, I have terrible time sleeping last time. I just can't comprehend how we managed to throw the game away after taking the lead and end up losing 4-1. At Old Trafford, our home ground some more.

We had it coming. After winning with some sloppy play for the past few weeks. I know we have it coming. I never thought it will be this bad. I guess I got to thank the following people for making me lose sleep

Thanks Vidic for choosing to have your worse performance in this season at such an important game

Thanks Rooney for saying the hate thing before this match to fire up the opposition.

Thanks Evra for making a unnecessary tackle on Gerard resulting in a penalty for Liverpool to take the lead right before half time

Thanks to Carrick n Anderson for all their miss passes and letting the Reds overrun our midfield.

And finally, Thank you Liverpool for bringing Man Utd team back to ground. Now, they will wake up from their dreams and start to get serious in their play

P.S.: I never gonna watch Man Utd match when I am at my parent's place no matter how big the match is. Seems like everytime that I do that, they will lose. Either I rush home to watch or dun watch at all. >:(

I Am Blessed

Been overwhelmed with work lately. But something happen over the weekend which makes me realized how blessed I am.

To have a wonderful wife, who always thought everything for me and being there for me and forgive me for all my cock ups.

To have great parents, lowly educated they are, yet able to raise my sisters and I up to be honest and righteous adults.

To have understanding and supportive sisters, who always stand behind me and support and encourage me.

To have a helpful uncle, always willing to lend a helping hand to my family without asking anything back.

To have considerate in-laws, who spare a thought for us and offer to help us whenever they can.

And I always thought I was destined to have bad luck as always. What I fail to see all the wonderful family members that I have around me. I AM truly blessed. Thank you everyone for making me feel so :)

2009 Oscar, Actor in Supporting Role - Heath Ledger

Truely, truely deserved...

Life's Irony

Our life is such an irony. When we are young, we have all the time in the world but no money to do whatever the things we like. We work part time and save on our pocket money just to have that little bit more to buy the games, toys or bags that we so desire. All these times, we long for the days when we will grow up and earn a salary. With the salary we will be able to buy anything we want easily.

How irony it is that when we reach that stage, though we have money, we find ourselves lacking in another thing call Time. There are tons of things to do yet we always find ourselves running out of time. No time to shop, play games or enjoy ourselves. Everyday is the same routine. Go work, go home. How to find time for ourselves then?

So in the end, we are sort of back to square one. We still unable to enjoy the things we like. :(

Keep The Flag Flying

A tribute to Manchester United's heroics last year. Keep the flag flying...

"On his bed in Rechts der Isar, a Munich hopital, Sir Matt Busby slowly whispered five words to his assistent Jimmy Murphy:
"Keep the flag flying Jimmy."
50 years on destiny took us to Moscow, for Matt and for the Busby Babes.
Because Manchester United will never die.

Let's do it again this year...

Mum Knew the Best

Got this from my friend through email.

Ho Ching Steps Down...

Surprise, surprise.... I wonder what could be the reason for Ho Ching stepping down as CEO and Executive Director of Temasek Holdings from Oct 1. A result of the wrong investment decisions (read: Merrill Lynch).

And how appropriately named her successor is, Charles Goodyear. We certainly need that now.