why.

Everytime my Mum sat around for a Pool vs United match, I pointed out Ronaldo, Anderson, Rooney and oh how could I forget Mr Rio Ferdinand, reminding my mum that they were the ones she was condemning after reading the papers the morning before cause of their drunken escapades, wife beating incidents and memorable orgies. 

When Steven Gerrard was shown on a CU, I used to start praising him. How he is such a great influence, how he listened to his dad as a kid and hence till today has no fancy hairdos nor wears gloves during winter. How he has remained faithful to Liverpool all these years... my praises for him never ended.

It's interesting how these guys are rolling with cash, have the best of it all, yet have some weird weakness be it alcoholism, prostitutes or brawls outside clubs. Stevie G, I hope you weren't the one responsible for sending that 34 year old to the hospital and I hope to wake up tomorrow to the good news that you have been released. 

Singapore vs Vietnam

When I heard Singapore was playing Vietnam at the National Stadium, I immediately messaged Funky and Nivi asking if they were free. Our National Stadium may not be the newest or grandest of stadiums but it sure is a majestic one which I love for some reason, a stadium which has witnessed much of our historic events and the only memory left of our heroic Malaysian Cup days.

We were around the vicinity of the stadium a good 2 hours before the game and the place was already pretty packed, some make shift stalls were even selling "Agu Casmir hair wigs" and other accessories for both locals and the Vietnamese fans. We went over to the refurbished Leisure Park and we saw red everywhere. The queue at Subway was endless and we joined in the numbers.

After grabbing our sandwiches, we headed back to the stadium and I pretty much sensed a full house while soaking up the atmosphere. I kept reminding myself to seize the moment as it'd probably the closest I'd ever get to our Malaysian Cup days. Getting into the stadium was a breeze thanks to the complimentary tickets Shalini had passed us.

We grabbed our seats and we were quickly accompanied by a few kids just behind us. Their yacking was pretty irritating yet funny at times. One of the fellas remarked, "Sia lah... the last time I watch soccer was my secondary school inter class!" Yeah doesn't sound very funny now but at that point, when the stadium was packed, a noob was very easy to identify with comments like this. It was funny when a few mins later, most of that click had already lost their voices. The game was a sell out and it was pretty demoralizing to see how we were nowhere close to the few thousands of Vietnamese fans who turned up. The Singaporeans only came to life when Singapore missed or a Vietnamese fan walked past with remarks such as "GO BACK TO HANOI!!!"

Singapore lost the match and for some reason it didn't matter much. What mattered was the time spent with the guys, seeing some Singaporeans bother to come together to support some HOME GROWN SINGAPOREAN TALENTS and witnessing probably the last match to have ever been played on that pitch. For some reason, I wish they never demolished the stadium, then again they can't make a hotel outta it, can they?

Watch the clip to see Singaporeans at their best, bullying the outnumbered Vietnamese, I wonder if these guys would survive a one on one situation with them.

Tour of the Universe

Depeche Mode's gonna release their new album pretty soon and that usually comes along with a tour. Rumor has it that they could be heading to Asia, I'm praying they come down to Singapore again. The last time they came, I was restricted to just jumping around watching a VHS copy of their concert.

14.

Thank you for making every other yesterday special.

Thank you for that everlasting smile.

Thank you for you.

I love you.

nice what.

I fell in love with this song when I heard it in Dhava's car. The video makes me love the song even more, I love the transitions, random bells, scenery and emo shots.

my home.

My kindergarten is now an empty potentially haunted premise with my primary school campus giving way to an international school. My favourite buildings are now refurbished hotels. My favourite hangout was torn down to makeway for asias largest shopping mall. My home is always rumored to get en blocked. Yet I spent 2 of the most precious years of my life, the 2 years when footballs are at their peak and others are finishing Uni or getting themselves wasted, I spent it for this country.

In return, I'm starting to feel like a stranger in my own country. We went to Macs to get Shalini's sisters some food. There stood a Chinese immigrant. She held the food fearing we would run away with the food, avoided eye contact and stood looking away and smiling at her colleague. Her friend came and told her, "You want Chili sauce", and just like a robot she said it in a weird fashion. My gf was smart enough to make life tough for her by choosing not to understand her and ensure the local asked us herself.

My mind was elsewhere, this job could have gone to a poor aunty or a student who's bored during his/her hols. I wonder if there's anything for me to miss, should I leave this country 10years from today. 10 years ago, the then PM's question of whether I'd be a stayer or quiter might have affected me. Today, I just might not think twice.

Somehow all this has had a positive effect on me, I held the lift for some neighbors not expecting anything in return. A yuppy couple came in full of thanks, when I got off at my floor, I expected nothing in return but was surprised to hear another round of thank yous, I ended it with a good night. Sometimes I think we should all forget our races and just be known as Singaporeans and care for each other.

I don't know, I'm just cheesed at the fact of having some immigrant look at me as though I'm a cunt or something just cause I can't speak their language. I pretty much understand the FB group "I am Singaporean and tired of service staff who can only speak Mandarin".

totally random

MIKAEL

Just before getting myself into Uni, I went to Ikea looking for a table and some storage space. There I found the MIKAEL. Honestly I fell in love with it the moment I saw it and purchased it later after my mum came down and gave the table a few knocks and certified it.

I liked the fact that it not only had loads of working space, it came with an inbuilt white board and lots of storage space. A week passed and out came the first let down.

I called them up and got the piece replaced. A few weeks passed and I realized that the entire table was warping in the middle. My pens started rolling around and I realized something was really wrong. And oh, the second table had the same "not enough glue on the sides syndrome"

This time around I was bloody pist and honestly the guys at Ikea didn't help thanks to their laggy responses and lack of interest in helping with the situation.  The initial proposal  given to me was a refund excluding the transportation charges and installation charges; the excuse given was that they were external contractors, that caused a heated argument with me asking why I had to bare those expenses when I don't want the product anymore. They weren't keen with the idea of getting me a third MIKAEL after the guy said, "actually I think the product is a bit faulty, I have the same table at home and that one also slanting a bit." I was like... what's funny is that the product is still on display at Ikea.

After a request for the case to be escalated to his superiors and a threat to make a complain to CASE... things started working out and suddenly I was dealing with a superior who traded the MIKAEL for a GALANT table and an EFFEKTIVE cabinet. I'm just as happy with the new setup but I'm praying this too doesn't start transforming.