It has been a year of change

Judging from how often I usually update this blog, it seems I probably should be writing in it as and when I can, if not there will be another 4 year hiatus on the blog again. Anyway, just wanted to reflect on the year that has just passed by. Many major things has happened to me this past year.

The biggest thing was that I got married. Ended my philandering ways, and decided to settle down. Life changing? Oh yeah it is. It must be one, if not the biggest thing I have had to do in my life so far.

Also I have decided to re-join the rat race again this year. After a few years of being out of 'corporate', I have decided to get back into a 'large organisation'. Hell yeah it is a big change. From just doing what I like, being a big fish in a small pond and all that, now i am back to being a small fish in a large ocean.

And of course the changes that have happened to Liverpool as well. Out goes the two clowns, and Rafa, and in comes John and Co, and the Hodge-man.

All in all, i think that is as much of a change one man can handle in a year i would think. It has all been good changes in my opinion. Changes which have been long due. Changes that would have needed to be done.

And with those changes, somehow I do feel optimistic for the future.

So, here's looking at next year. Bring it on!

Picture of the day

All I can say is, damn this woman is cute.

Anyway, haven't really been updating this for quite a while. Been really really busy. With work that is.

Work's been so busy that I haven't had much time to do anything much else.

I do have been able to watch some football though.

It does seem we are finally getting some results here and there.

It's all not looking totally positive, but at least it is getting better.

People have been complaining, but they tend to forget that a couple of months back it was really really bad.

Losing to Northampton and all that rubbish.

But now, other than the absolute dross served at Stoke, we do look pretty mediocre-ishly decent.

And god-damn! Roy play Raul in the middle you basterd. I mean. What the hell?? In the MIDDLE!

Come to think of it, it's almost the end of the year already. Where did the whole year go?

God knows.

So you sail away....

"So you sailed away
Into a grey sky morning
Now I'm here to stay
Love can be so boring

Nothing's quite the same now
I just say your name now

But it's not so bad
You're only the best I ever had
You don't want me back
You're just the best I ever had"

Somehow listening to this song makes me feel lonely. I miss the missus. She seems so far away. But she is right next to me. Somehow.

Now that's more like it? Right...?

Liverpool 2 - Blackburn 1

If only we played like that the whole season so far, I honestly wouldn't be complaining even if we were still at the bottom end of the table. I must say, that was an absolute peach of a performance. Well, the first 70 minutes or so I must say. Somehow, with Merieles and Lucas in the middle, Maxi, Gerrard and Cole up front supporting Torres, we were so much better. Closing down the opposition high up the pitch. Good passing play. Looked confident. If only Robinson wasn't having such a spectacular game, the score line would have been much much much better for us. One point to note though. I have to say that Merieles looks absolute class in the center of the pitch.

I know, it is only Blackburn. And they had like a gazillion people injured, or to some extent like that. But that's how we should be playing.

Let's have more of that Roy!

What a week it has been

I don't wanna write much here, but there has been so many things to talk about.

First of all, welcome NESV, John Henry and all. Here's to hoping for a better period of ownership in the future. So far they have been sending the right signals and saying the same things. But then again, every one, including me, is cautiously optimistic I would say. Yes, there's a lot of work to do, and the very first thing to think about is...

... whether to keep uncle Woy on board. I mean, I said before that I would give him until Christmas to prove himself, and he himself said "give me 10 games" or something some what like that. But things are not really looking that great to be honest.

I mean, if he can't motivate the team to play in the Merseyside derby, after the club has just gotten rid of the old owners, and to top it all of, in front of the new owners for the first time, then something MUST be wrong somewhere there.

Even his post match comments saying, "this was the best we've played under my reign so far" or something like that just says it all. And that's the problem, it may be good enough for him, but not good enough for us.

Oh well, at least I can still get a smile on the face thinking that John Henry and team did what we all wanted, gotten rid of the 2 old owners, AND made sure they made a loss as well.

It is also interesting to note that when they first got hold of the Red Sox, the sacked the current coach after 9 days. Interesting.

Are the two clowns out of anfield? I'd be absolutely chuffed!!

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/liverpool-fc-statement-3

A slap in the face

The match with Blackpool at Anfield was just a tight slap in the face with the harsh reality of how bad we are. There are just no excuses any more. Losing to the Mancs were considered "OK" cos they were good teams. Drawing against the likes of Utrecht, Birmingham and Sunderland were "OK" cos they were "difficult" matches to negotiate. Losing to Northampton was "OK" cos it was the League Cup and we played a so called "B team". So losing to Blackpool at Anfield, a team which, no disrespect to Blackpool, we should be winning. With a full strength squad. So what's the excuse now?

Somehow I just don't know what's going through Roy's mind when it comes to tactics and formations and such. I mean, I just do not understand why he insists on playing Raul Merieles on the right flank, when it is just so obvious that he should be playing in the center of mid field. He is an established central midfielder, and we bought him, I assume, to replace Aqualani, to play in the center. We looked so much better once he was in the center in the second half. If you insist on playing Poulsen in the middle, why not push Gerrard to the right instead of Merieles, since Stevie can actually play on the right, and has actually played there before this?

I just do not know what's going on with the team. It is a decent team and strong enough to get away with *something*, at least, from that game. Why couldn't we play like we did in the second half, from the start of the game. Is it because Roy's instruction from the start of the game is to contain and not attack from the start? And only once we were down 2 goals, *two* goals, did he say at half time, "OK chaps, scrap the defensive approach, lets just get a goal now"?

There was just too much to complain about the game. Joe Cole was mediocre, Jova was worse than mediocre (can't even cross properly. So many chances wasted with him not doing anything proper with the ball). Somehow our defence is such a shambles. Glen Johnson was again at the heart of giving away our first goal. He is such a liability.

Like I have said before, I am willing to give Roy until Christmas to bed in properly with his "experience" and "training methods". But from the look of it, we are an utter shambles and look in complete disarray.

Well done Blackpool. Liverpool, you need to buck up, and buck up SOON.

"The greatness of a man is not determined by what he achieves in life, but by what it takes to get him down."

Kuala Lumpur Rain

Why does it have to rain in the morning?

I get wet just getting into my car.

I get stuck in a traffic jam to work.

I get in late to work.

Such a great start to the day.

But at least it's nice and cool.

Somehow I feel like sleeping now.

What was that all about roy???

Absolute rubbish first half. Absolute rubbish. Lucky goal from Kuyt there. Can't believe we have to resort to unsportmanship-like behaviour to get goals like that. Penalty was unlucky. Don't think we can fault Poulsen for that. Just "one of those things" that happen I guess. Unlucky. But the second Sunderland goal was absolute rubbish. Glen Johnson you are rubbish. The fact that Darrent Bent had more desire to get to the ball than you, and how he could have gotten goalside of you shows just how inept you are at defending. You are an absolute liability to our defence.

Honestly, we looked so much better once we moved to a 442 formation. Gerrard and Merieles in the center. I think from now on, for all matches which we *should* be winning against lower level teams, we should be playing those two in the center. Kuyt at right, and Cole at left. Stick Torres up front with Ngog / Babel / Pacheco / whoever (doesn't make a difference, the first two are rubbish anyway, a pick from a bad bunch, whilst Pacheco is untried so just give him a go).

Back four, if Kochensky is injured, play Carragher at left back, Agger & Skrtel in the center, and maybe Kelly or Carragher at right back. And bloody hell, how the fuck did Agger manage to miss THAAT chance at the end.

Rubbish! Absolute rubbish!

Fuji X100, I want one of these

Now where did THIS beauty come from?

Was thinking of upgrading my trusted Panasonic LX3 which has served me well these past couple of years or so. And I came across THIS.

The Fujifilm X100, with an APS-C sensor, manual control dials and knobs, fast F2 35mm fixed focus Fujinon lense, all in a retro range-finderesque body.

Hell yeah. I want!

How low can you go?

Just read that we lost to Northampton Town. A team languishing in the second division. Didn't (couldn't, since it wasn't shown here in KL) watch the game so I can't really comment about how badly we played.

Other than the fact that our highly paid second stringers lost to, no disrespect to them, a team that we should have won against. I mean, with a team of international players, with European experience and all that, we could manage to lose against them. Agger, Soto, Babel, Jova, Lucas, Ngog.

I am in agreement with what Roy Hodgson has to say about all this.

"We have 12 players, or 13 players if you include Fabio Aurelio, who didn't play tonight and are the more famous names. But outside of them, the players we had out tonight are the ones we have and I thought it was a good opportunity for them to show what they can do at Anfield."


"The fact is these players have to accept responsibility. I have to accept responsibility for changing a lot of players in the team, but I did it because I thought the players I put on the field would be good enough to go out and win the game."

Honestly i agree with him there. Looking at the starting line up, I would have thought myself that, there's a team that could do a job for us. Waiting on the wings with a chance to impress the manager to give them more playing time in the first team. Motivation enough for all of them to play their hearts out there.

So my thoughts are, these people are the ones who have something to prove. The ones that should be taking this opportunity to shine. Show 'em what you got and all that. And in the end, they lost to a 2nd division team (again, no disrespect to them).

Simply not good enough, I would say.

If thats the best, then we should be worried

Watching last night's match against the Manyoo got me thinking. Looking back, it would have been the lineup that I would have chosen.Reina, Johnson, Carra, Skrtel, Kochensky, Poulsen, Gerrard, Cole, Meireles, Maxi and Torres. With the exception of probably Maxi (maybe if Kuyt wasn't injured he would be in there), that, I think, would be our strongest line up. And what worries me was that even with that starting line up, we never looked even close to getting a result from the match. Sure, we came back from a goal down. But, other than that we offered almost nothing going forward.

It was plain obvious that Torres is not just out of form, frustrated, but he is also so lacking of service up front. The 2 of the limited times he actually got the ball to his feet, actually resulted in our 2 goals. But other than that. Nothing. From anyone.

Of our new signings, Poulsen looked tidy, a poor man's Mascherano, but he does a job for us. Meireles looks tidy as well, and looked much more alive when we changed to a 442 formation, and can't wait until he beds in. Kochensky however, sadly, looks out of his depth. Playing in a familiar position in a familiar league, he shouldn't need any bedding in time. But he just looks like a poor player out of his depth to be honest. Cole, similarly to Maxi was just invisible most of the game. Can't remember much of what they contributed. Cole looks like what I remember of John Barnes in his twighlight years with us. Just being around the center of the field, gets the ball, and a short pass to a team mate. And repeat throughout the game.

All in all. Disappointing. Getting back on level terms did give me a glimmer of hope. But Manyoo deserved the three points. And my hats off to Berba. That second goal. Amazing!

So what does being Malaysian mean to you?

It's a belated Malaysia day post for me here. Mainly since I couldn't be arsed to log on and surf the net yesterday as, if I remember correctly, it was such a beautiful day yesterday. Sun was out shining. Birds chirping. It was such a good day to just, go out there and do something. Celebrate Malaysia day. Out side. In the sun. Malaysian weather at it's best.

Which was why I ended up waking at 12. In the afternoon. Missing out the whole morning.

But basically it was such an eventful, activity packed day yesterday. Woke up, and immediately went out for brunch with a friend of mine at a mamak store nearby. Some roti canais and teh tarik kurang manis to go with it is the perfect way to start your day. Either that, or some nasi lemak would have been good too. But roti canai is great anyway.

Went to visit a couple who just received a newborn. They decided to have lunch at their place and invite a few close friend over. They cooked some good briyani rice with some chicken and lamb, and added to that with some excellent dessert thing which I really do not know what it is, but was good nonetheless, and ended the whole meal with some Kopi Luwak from Indonesia. Yes, I am the type of person that does enjoy a good cup of coffee, and the Luwak coffee really does taste good. Would I pay that amount of money for a cup of coffee everyday? Probably not. A simple cup of nescafe is all i need every morning to get me up and running. But for those special moments, a cup of Luwak would definitely be an excellent choice.

Then after a quick photo session with the newborn, I quickly ran off to another friend's house for a Hari Raya open house for more food. Briyani, Laksa, satay, ketupat, lemang, rendang, ayam, kambing, daging, itik. You name it. You got it. Actually I really enjoy going to open houses like this. You actually get to bump into a lot of friends here, and I ended up hanging out and chit chatting, catching up with friends from primary school and secondary school who I have probably not really been keeping in touch with. Really good to know that they are all doing well in their lives. Before I new it, I probably ended up staying there for more than a couple of hours.

Which then lead me to meeting up with another group of mates at the SS2 hawker stalls. Again, catching up with friends (OK I am lying here. These friends I probably see them more than once a week, so I would not really call it catching up). Just plain talking crap and nonsense over some char kuay teow, some o-chien (is that how you spell it? the fried egg with oysters in them) and topping it off with a ramly burger daging special. The works.

At the end of the day, I was just too completely exhausted that I just completely crashed into bed and missed the Liverpool Steau Beaucharest match which was played at 3am here. (We won 4-1 by the way. Woo hoo!)


So. What does it mean to be Malaysian to me?

Exactly how I spent my Malaysia Day. Spending time with my close friends and family who are all Malaysians irregardless of race, doing what all Malaysian love to do. Being Malaysian.

Picture of the day

And a happy Malaysia day to you too!

I think he just needs some time

Liverpool supporters are just a funny, fickle bunch of supporters.

We have a new manager in, and its only been just 4 games or so into the season. Four games. And some of them are already calling for his head. He doesn't know what he is doing. Biting off a bit more than he can chew. Out of his depth. Benitez mark two. Too defensive. I read somewhere (can't be arsed to remember where) that someone mentioned that he is treating Merieles like how Rafa was treating Aquilani by not starting him against Birmingham.

I mean, come on! It's only been four games! Four games!

And in those four games, we played Arsenal, Manchester City, Birmingham and West Brom. We got a point against the Arse (good result considering we were down to 10 men), we lost against Citeh (who spent a gazillion dollars this summer), we drew against Birm (which they haven't lost at home for god knows how long) and we won against West Brom.

Just being realistic here, but that to me sounds like a decent return, in the position that we are in now. What did you really expect? Of course my heart tells me we should have bulldozed all of them. Ten Nil. Torres bagging five or six, Gerrard a couple and maybe Reina a hattrick or two.

But come on, lets be a bit realistic here.

I'll reserve my judgement until, hmm... say Christmas time.

Picture of the day

Hope everyone has a good day.

Disappointing again

That's all I can say about the performance of Liverpool on Sunday.

Well, at least from what I watched, which was the last 30 minutes of the game. From the reviews I read, Torres looks like he can't be arsed. Probably from the lack of support or any decent service from the rest.
Looking at the starting team line up, with Lucas and Poulsen starting in central midfield, I am not surprised. Such a negative choice of team. But then again, who else was there to play. Cole suspended and Kuyt injured.

On a positive note, Mereiles looked extremely encouraging from what I saw when he came in. I think he should be starting the next game.With Cole coming back, and with Mereiles starting, I would think the team may look better. But then again, the next game would be against the Mancs. Definitely need a win against them to kick start our season.

And how  many times will we be hearing that this year?

Back to work after raya

Somehow felt that the 5 day break came and went by so quickly. In a blink of an eye, I am back at work again, feeling, well not demotivated, but requiring motivation to jump start work again. Still in the raya mood, and waking up for work this morning took such a great effort to just get out of the duvet, considering how gloomy the weather was. At least this is a four day week, with Malaysia day on Thursday. Thank god for public holidays in Malaysia!

Well hellooo.... 3 day weeks!! :-) :-)

On a more positive note, it's a 3 day week and Hari Raya this Friday! Looking forward to meeting up with the family, and also this would be the first time I'd be spending Hari Raya with the missus as well! Happy eid mubarak to anyone who is reading this, if there is even any readers whatsoever. Take care of yourselves, and each other.

Fasting month this year...

Ramadhan. Every year, it comes and goes, and at the end of it, we celebrate Eidul Mubarak, or what we call it here in Malaysia, Hari Raya. I just wanted to highlight a slight observation of the Ramadhan month lately.

Lately, the ramadhan month has been equaled to ramadhan buffets, pasar ramadhans (or "params" as they are refered to now, I have been told) and a whole load of eating. Ramadhan buffets in hotels now cost on average more than 100 bucks in a decent hotel. And even with the high prices, you would be lucky to be able to make a booking if it wasn't done a few weeks before. I actually tried making bookings at a trendy hotel a week before and couldn't make bookings. And people go to these buffets to gourge down food like it's running out tomorrow.

Also, going down to Params lately, I have to say has not been a totally enjoyable experience. I've only been to it once this year, and that was to the Taman Tun "param" and the place was packed full of people. Such that the crowd sometimes get rude, bumping into each others shoulder and swearing at each other. Also, everybody seems to be buying a whole load of food. I am not saying everybody does this, but I see a lot of people just tend to buy so much food during these params, and when they get back, they tend to again gourge down their food until they are packed full, and still have loads of left over food, which ends up being thrown away.

And I thought the spirit of Ramadhan was a month of personal self control and moderation.

Sometimes there are more important things to life than football

Did not catch the match last night as it was the wife's birthday last night.

Instead of bumming on the sofa / mamak / sport bar / wherever, watching the match and screaming my team on, I decided that there are more important things to life. We went for a nice dinner in KL and ended up having a quiet chat over coffee at our favourite coffee hangout joint. Ended up hanging out there until the late night and going back home to sleep. Absolutely lovely day just spending quality time with the missus. We don't really spend time like this anymore that often, since both of us are getting busy with our lives and work and all. But it is just nice taking some time off our hectic schedules, to just spend some time, making sure we still know who each other are, and why we got married to each other in the first place.

Outclassed...

That's all I can say from watching the match last night.

So that's the end of the hype and optimism for the new era under Roy? Not really. I don't really think we should get too carried away with the result. Yes it was abysmal. Yes, I was annoyed by the fact that I had to wake up at 3 in the morning and be subjected to utter dross and watch my team getting creamed by City. But it is still early days. I mean, come on, it's only the second game in the league. And we haven't had the best of fixtures to start off with, Arsenal and Man City.

So let's look at the positives shall we? Honestly speaking, I can't really find any positives from this match. Up front, both Torres and Ngog looked starved off service. Torres looked sharp and had a few decent moves here and there, and had a point blank effort superbly saved by Hart. Ngog, somehow still doesn't impress me.

In midfield, we were totally over-run by the City midfield. Lucas, still has yet to impress me as well. Something that I don't understand is, people keep on saying that he is a potentially good player. I didn't see that from last night's match. Gerrard was OK. Kuyt was his normal hardworking self, albeit not that effective. Milan, on the other hand somehow hasn't impressed me yet. I didn't think much of him from the Arsenal match, nor this one. People keep on saying that his touch and movement and whatever was impressive, but I have yet to see that. If you want to see impressive, I'll tell you have a look at Adam Johnson from Man City. Now thats what I would call a proper winger. I feel envious thinking they got him for only 7m pounds last year. Looks like a snip now.

In defence, we looked an absolute shambles. Agger is not a left back, and got run ragged by Johnson, Reina was partly to blame for the second goal, and somehow Glen Johnson looks a shadow of the person we bought. I remember the first 3-4 games he played for us and he looked absolutely brilliant. Nowadays he looks way short of confidence.

Overall, I think we lost the game in midfield. Our 442 lost to their 433 / 451. Its a shame as just a couple of years back, we had arguably the strongest central midfield in the league with Alonso, Gerrard and Mascherano. Alonso's long gone, it seems Mascherano's almost gone as well (with the news of the offer from Barcelona), and the player who could have provided some playmaking abilities for us (Aquilani) is no longer with us for the season. That leaves us with Gerrard, Lucas and Poulsen for the central midfield births, and maybe Joe Cole (who's out for another 2 games). Somehow our central midfield doesn't provide much sense of optimism.

Alonso, Masch and Gerrard. Sigh, those were the days.

Neglect...

Random pic of the day. Fallen by picazam from flickr.


Honestly, there has been a lot of things that I have been neglecting lately, other than this blog that is.

Actually I have some friends that I have not been meeting up with as often as I used to. There used to be a group of friends who I used to hang out every single weekend with after I graduated. We were at the mamak stalls for every Friday, Saturday or Sunday night. I think that ritual lasted almost4 to 5 years. Friday night... mamak. Saturday night... mamak. Sunday night... mamak. Same mamak, same people every single weekend night. Almost.

But somehow, people just tend to move on. One of them got married, and we ended up seeing less and less of them. Another one of them got married, and it was the same thing. Until there was only a few of us left, and it wasn't such a big group anymore.

Even I have lately for the past year or more drifted out of the group. Got to know different groups of friends. Meet new people, go to new places. And suddenly I find out that weekends are full and you just don't make it to the mamak on Saturday night at 10pm anymore to watch your team play live on the LCD screen.

Also, since I got married and all, sometimes you just need to prioritise your time and activities as well. Me and my wife don't really spend that much quality time during the weekdays since both of us are working, and when we are home, she needs to study and I continue working. So most of the time, I usually decide that weekends, I just need to spend that time with my significant other. QUality time. Proper going out on dates and movies and such.

Actually a few weeks back, a friend from my group called up saying that we haven't been meeting up that often lately. We got the group together and had dinner. All of us again in one room. Talking crap. Like the good old days. Most of them are married. Some of them have kids. Some of them expecting kids.

But put together in a room with old friends, it feels like nothing has really changed.

God has it been a while....

Honestly, I totally forgot about this blog completely.

Was just clearing up my laptop and was going managed to bump into my archives of this blog, and decided to check out and see whether it is still up and running, and yes, it IS still up and running.

My last post was in September 2006, that means it's been almost 4 years since I last opened this blog up. Reading through my archives, actually i used to post quite a lot of shit last time didn't I?

Anyway, if anyone even reads this shit out there, updates include me finding a new job again, found someone to spend the rest of my life with, got married to her not too long ago, Rafa Benitez being kicked out of Liverpool, Roy Hodgson coming in, and basically that's just about it.

Anyhow, take care you people out there, who ever you might be!