15th November 2008 - A long long Saturday

The morning started with me jumping the gun and waking up at 0610 hrs, before my 0630 wake-up call!! Oh well, after another 30 minutes of tossing and turning, I hit the shower to really snap out of my slumber. After a cup of Nescafe, I hugged both my babies & left for work.

Got to the club at 0815am and after a quick breakfast of mee hoon and the NST, it's up to the office to finish up my Lunch Promotion for Dec 08 flyer. It now carries a presentable look, and I can't wait to see it printed out in colour. Somehow or rather, everyone waltzed into the office at 10am, but I've become somewhat oblivious to this fact, and just continued my designing work.

Went downstairs at 12pm to check out the wedding set-up. The Golfer's Terrace was heaving with people, so I decided to make myself useful by helping out washing the glasses. Well, it was so busy that I continued doing it, besides topping up the ice cubes, and taking the dirty plates to the stewarding area, right up to 1530hrs. After watching numerous Kuey Teow Beef Gingers passing me, I decided to have it for my hard earned lunch, together with a lovely Nescafe Ice in a giant glass.
Then it's up to the office for some admin work till 1800hrs, and after that, I parked myself at Dewan Seroja and got the back area set-up with a proper clearing area. Well, the dinner started off right after the MB of Terengganu sat down, and by 2000hrs, dinner was over. I then went to the balcony to watch Ashraf Sinclair & his Indonesian bride Bunga Cinta Lestari make their grand entrance. I must say that their pelamin was tastefully done, and took a couple of pics.

Left the club at 2015hrs, and after a much needed shower, Azie cooked for me a lovely but simple dinner, Egg In The Window. And best of all, tonight Man United plays the un-predictable Stoke City, who beat Arsenal 2-1, drew with Chelsea 0-0, and lost to Liverpool 0-1. After only 5 mintues of open play, United gets a free kick 30 yards out, and Ronaldo scored a screamer of a goal which Sorenson didn't deal with very well. So, I'm off to watch another United victory....

Man United 2 - Wigan 1 - We are the Champions!!!

Manchester United was crowned Premiership champions for the 10th time last night, after a testy game against a determined Wigan side, coached by United legend, Steve Bruce.
The day started off with me reading up on the football news in the local newspapers, as well as online news portals.

From the league table, it is obvious what the Reds have to do in this allimportant game. With United and Chelsea both on 84 points, United will win the Premiershiptitle if they draw with Wigan and Chelsea loose at Bolton, or United wins at Wigan and Chelseawins at Bolton. However, if United slip up and loose at Wigan and Chelsea draws Bolton, thenChelsea will win the Championship.

After a quick breakfast, Azie got the girls dressed up and went out with Shida to Subang Parade, leaving me and mum at home to our devices. I basically parked myself infront of my trusty laptopand got 8 hours of internet research under my belt. Thay came home at 2pm and nap time for the girls, so some peace and quiet for 3 hours. After a dinner of chicken rice and magrib prayers, I left home at 840pm and made my way to Syed Bistro to catch the game.

United played with their hugely successfull 4-4-2 formation, with Rooney and Tevez up front, Park, Carrick, Scholes and Ronaldo in midfield, Evra, Vidic, Ferdinand and Brown in defense withvan der Sar in goal. When I saw the teamsheet, I felt relieved and confident that we'll giveWigan a run for their money.

It started off the exact opposite with some positive attacking play by the home side at the JJBStadium. Within the first 10 minutes, Wigan tested United's defense by exploiting their aerial power courtesy of their captain, Emile Heskey. The brilliant 6'7" Chris Kirkland made some important saves, one effort from Scholes was goal bound, until Kirkland made a stunning save low to the right hand side.

In another attacking play, Wigan gave away a free kick 25 yards out, prime Ronaldo country. But again Kirkland pulled off a magnificent save to deny the Premiership Player of the Year. United pressed forward, and in a goalmouth scramble, Rooney was brought down and a penalty was awarded. Ronaldo as usual stepped up, and with supreme confidence buried the shot to the right, sending the travelling fans at the JJB Stadium, as well as the United fans at Syed Bistro jumping up and down with joy. 1-0.

After half time, United piled on the pressure with some brilliant passing play. Park and Evralinked up perfectly down the left flank, and when Park was substituted for Giggs, Park was given warm applause by the United faithful, while Scholes was taken off for Hargreaves. Wigan continued their onslaught, with some scary counter attacks and set-pieces, with Heskey coming close up to 5 times with his aerial power.

However, the defining moment was when Giggs was picked up right at the top of Wigan's penalty box, with a shrug of his shoulders, he calmly wrong footed Kirkland to put United 2-0 up to guaranteeUnited's championship.

At the final whistle, I breathed a sigh of relief, and after a hard fought campaign, we clapped our heroes for another brilliant win away, and our 10th Premiership crown. I promtly conveyed my feelings in an SMS to non-United supporters, with many of them preferring to keep mum and some cheeky Arsenal and Chelsea supporters daring a sarcastic rebuke!! All in all, I was a happy bunny and drove home with a satisfied smile on my face. That night I dreamt of flying free-kicks, dancing girls in United jerseys, red black and white balloons, and a brand new Premiership cup in my glass cabinet.....zzzzzzzzz

Manchester United 4 - West Ham United 1

Last night saw a determined but under-strength West Ham United loose 1 - 4 to a rampaging Manchester United team who are due to wrap up another successfull Premiership campaign.

United fielded a strong 4-4-2 side with Tevez and Nani up front, supported byRonaldo, Scholes, Carrick and Park, with Evra, Brown, Ferdinand and Hargreaves and van der Sar at the back. West Ham fielded the best team available consisting of Zamora, Ashton, Boa Morte, Parker, Mullins, Noble, McCartney, Tompkins, Neill, Pantsil and Green in goal.

The game started off with a flurry of brilliant attacking play by the champions, with Ronaldo opening the floodgates in only the 3rd minute from a trademark meandering run down the right flank. With a deft flick of his right heel, he changed directions which caused the West Ham left back to slip, giving Ronaldo the extra millisecond to sprint 10 yards into the opposing penalty area and let loose a low hard shot that deflected off a defenders shin and into Green's goalmouth. 1 - 0.

From another attack down the right, Hargreaves intelligently changed to his left foot almost parralel to the penalty box and floated a beautifully weighted ball to Ronaldo, who somehow managed to manouver the ball goalwards with a swivel of his hips. 2 - 0.

United by this time are on auto cruise, and penetrated West Ham's defense at will. From another passing masterclass in the middle of the park, Carlos Tevez picked up the ball on the left halfway line, switched the ball to his favoured right foot, and let loose a screamer of a shot that swerved all over the place leaving Green pawing thin air. 3 - 0.

West Ham are playing like men possessed and their resilience was rewarded when Dean Ashton latched on Brown's mistimed headed clearance right in United's penalty box. The ball bounced once, and with Ferdinand backtracking to clear the ball, Ashton with his back to the goal executed a brilliant bicycle kick that arrowed into van der Sar's goal that made the travelling West Ham faithfull jump up with joy. 3 - 1.

Then in a moment of madness just before half-time, Nani headbutted Neill, and even though both players fell to the ground theatrically, the referee brandished the red card to Nani.

5 minutes after the restart, Carrick picked up the ball in the centre circle, and seeing acres of space, made a goalward dash and smashed a hard low shot, which took a lucky deflection off Neill making the scoreline 4 - 1, which stayed on till the final whistle.

Man United 1 - Chelsea 2

Today is the Monday after the humbling defeat to Chelsea over the weekend.

The Saturday started off as a normal day, with breakfast at McDonald's at Mutiara Damansara. The girls have been bugging us since Thursday to go to the playground at McD's, so they can't be happier that morning. After a hearty breakfast, we popped over to the Curve, where she made a pit-stop at her favourite Nichii Fashion boutique, while I cleaned up my Inbox.

Since it was lunch time, we went to our favourite Vietnamese restaurant, Pho Hoa, for some much needed noodles. It's been quite a while since we've been there, so the food dissappeared off our bowls without much fanfare!! By this time, the girls are tired but kept their eyes wide open for the Carrefour trip to get our groceries.

As per normal, we got some FOC goodies when we buy certain stuff, so it's a 'short' wait at the Customer Service counter, although I'm not sure why they name this counter such when customer service is far from the minds of the staff on duty!! Anyway, it's back home and by this time, the girls were so tired that they literally fainted as soon as they put their cute little heads on the pillows.

Then at 6pm, I had a quick shower and slipped on my long sleeved Man United shirt with Vodaphone logo, and left the house at 630pm. I arrived at Milennium Building PJ at 7pm and found Picaddilly Cafe without any problems, where Soon, Archi and 2 other friends were sat at the second table from the screen. Service was hopeless, and thank god I only ordered an Iced Lemon Tea, which arrived in 10 minutes.

Both Chelsea and Man United opted for the 4-3-3 formation, which I thought was interesting, but in retrospect, contributed to Chelsea having the upper hand in the first half. United fielded Silvestre, Ferdinand, Vidic and Brown at the back, Fletcher, Carrick and Anderson in midfield, while Giggs, Nani and Rooney played upfront. From the opening whistle, United struggled to contain Chelsea's continuous waves of attacks, with some intuitive passes from Mikel, Chelsea's midfield general and the creativity of Joe Cole and power of Didier Drogba.

In a passing build-up till the United penalty bow, Didier Drogba curled in a beautiful floated ball in the box, which Michael Ballack easily and powerfully headed into ven der Sar's left side for Chelsea to lead 1 - 0.

From a United attack, Rooney picked up a half chance pass and shot past the brilliant Petr Chec to level the score to 1 - 1. I jumped up and screamed at the top of my voice GOOOOAAALLL!!!
which stunned the people on my table, as well as the guys around me!!! 1 - 1.

In a dangerous attack down the right, Carrick conceeded a dodgy penalty with an un-intentional handball, which was put away powerfully by Michael Ballack. The crowd at Picaddilly filled with Chelsea fans and the neutral's screamed with delight!! 1 - 2. And this scoreline didn't change till the final whistle. I was left stunned but still appreciative of a hard fought game, which was never in United's favour.

On the way home, I got an emergency call from Azie to 'rescue' my nieces CT and Jah, where I immediately drove there like the US Calvary. The evening ended with a midnight snack with Jah and Mum, and I dozzed off with the Chelsea supporter screams ringing in my ears!! Aaaarrrghhhh!!! But, I'm gratefull for United's superior goal difference, which made me feel all warm and fuzzy and zzzzzzzzzz.......

Man United 2 - Arsenal 1

Tonight Manchester United will entertain Arsenal at Old Trafford for one of the biggest and most crucial games of the season. United will need to win this game to continue their momentum and increase their goal difference, while Arsenal also needs a victory to keep up the chase for Premiership honours.

I very proudly wore my long sleeved United shirt with the Vodaphone logo on the front. Adriana and Alyssa were puzzled to see me wear this shirt and escorted me to the front door. I gave them their goodnight hug and kisses and made my way to Syed Bistro at 1020pm, with the game scheduled to kick-off at 1100pm. While waiting for the game to start, I turned my attention to the latest issue of the Harakah, for some interesting and thought provoking political news. My table was on the third row, which gave an elevated view of the 40'' TV. Zafri came by just before kick-off.

The first half was a nervy affair, with both teams testing each others defense, however, Arsenal was the more lively with tries that made van der Sar make some crucial saves. Jens Lehmann had a relatively quiet first half due to the creative power of the wonder kid Fabregas. Hleb, van Persie and Adebayor caused United's defense some scary moments but van der Saar showed his sheer class by keeping things tidy. Only a single lapse of concentration by Ferdinand gave Adebayor the space to squeeze into the 6 yard line and head in Arsenal's first goal. 0 - 1

United went on the counter offensive right after the restart and their industriousness is rewarded when William Gallas gave away a penalty for a handball offense. Who else by Ronaldo stepped up to take the penalty, but when he paused in mid-stride, Park was too eager to latch on to the rebound and caused the referee to blow the whistle for Ronaldo to retake the penalty. He didn't make a mess of it and blasted the ball in the bottom right corner of the goal, leaving Lehmann grasping thin air!! 1 - 1

After half-time, Ferguson made a tactical change by taking off Park Ji-Sung (who had an excellent game) and Paul Scholes, and replacing them with Anderson and Carlos Tevez. The fresh players made an instant impact by causing Arsenal to fall back and defend in numbers. The United midfield began to stamp their mark and made some interesting and dangerous forays into Arsenal's half. One of these attacks caused Gilberto to commit a foul right outside their penalty box, giving a free kick to United. Christiano Ronaldo stood over the ball with Owen Hargreaves, and when everyone was expecting a Ronaldo Special to thunder past the wall, Hargreaves took the free kick with an excellent curling shot that went straight into the bottom right side of Lehmann's goal, leaving him rooted to the ground. 2 - 1

With 4 minutes of injury time added on, Arsenal made their substitution by taking off van Persie and Toure, and putting on Bendtner and Walcott who immediately made an impact with some close shaves. However, van der Saar made some miraculous saves off his goal line and the score stayed the same till the end.

I promptly shared the score with Mus, Buzz, Syaril and Anderson but they didn't share my joy. (sore loosers!!!). That night I must have slept like a baby.......zzzzz