The Perfect Catch

I caught this movie a couple of days ago on DVD. Drew Barrymore is really 'the' actress for romantic comedies. The dark comedy Duplex with Ben Stiller was quite cool and I love the Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates where she paired up with Adam Sandler. These 2 are the only few Sandler films I like and the rest (to me) are pretty much trash except for Spanglish.

Well actually the Perfect Catch was known as The Fever Pitch in North America. It was based on a book of the same name (Fever Pitch) by Nick Hornby. I haven't read the book yet but this is the rough idea. It chronicled the author's personal experience as an Arsenal fan from youth and how his personal life went during the amazing (for Arsenal) 88/89 season. Maybe anyone who got this book can lend me or else I had to get Jeremy to help me get it from Kinokuniya.

The main character for the Perfect Catch Ben Wrightman was converted by his uncle into a Boston Red Sox fan at the age of 7 after a trip to Fenway Park. Since then he became regular there and never missed a single inning for the next 23 years. He was described as a Red Sox fanatic and as Drew Barrymore's Lindsey rightly pointed out his house was just like the Red Sox store. He would follow his team home or away, rain or shine, winning or losing. This had an adverse effect on his personal life. Despite being a charming fellow during the close season, he had troubles maintaining relationship whenever Red Sox were playing.

Lindsey couldn't understand why he was so obssessed with Red Sox; likewise Ben would never know why she was so flustered about her friend's birthday party. From Ben's viewpoint, Red Sox was a religion and watching them playing at Fenway Park was like being part of the family. Relationships come and go, but every weekend Red Sox was always there for him. 86 years without the winning the World Series was no deterent; in fact it only added to his devotion. For Lindsey, it just didn't make sense that Ben could invest so much passion and emotion to something he couldn't control. The game at Seattle was much more important than a romantic trip to Paris. Red Sox was clearly ahead of everything else.

There are some great quotes from the movie, the one that clearly stands out goes like this, "you love the sox but have they ever loved you back?" I don't know whether it was in the original but it really symbolized the relationship between the team and the fans. You know that the team can't love you back but you can't help loving them either. To me, following a team is like stuck in a marriage where you cannot get a divorce; you may stop supporting it but you can never follow another team again.

Although I'm no diehard like Ben, I could shades of myself in him. I had sacrificed sleep to watch Liverpool's European ties in the early morning hours. I had to trouble my friends to let me watch the matches at the time when my house had no cable. During outfield training I would listen to live comms on radio or kept on checking GPRS for the latest score. I can fully emphathise with Ben, especially after he missed the fightback against the Yankees. The pain of missing such an emotional moment would be a regret forever.

Supporting Liverpool had brought me both joy and sorrow. We were given false hopes during the Houllier's years and I had to admit that it was painful to watch the team play in his last year in charge. Meanwhile the fact that Man Utd our traditional rival was winning consistently only induces more heartbreak. However all the pent up anger and frustration were all wiped out and replaced by joy on 25th May 2005. Winning the Champions' League was unexpected; the way we came back from 0-3 down at half-time was simply unbelieveable. No words can be used to described the joy I felt; it seemed that all the years supporting the club were all worthwhile for that moment.

I was glad that at the end Lindsey realized how much Red Sox meant to Ben and accepted him for what he was. Boston Red Sox (finally) broke the curse of the Bambino and won their first World Series since 1918 that season. Just like our 5th Champions' League title, who can say that miracle doesn't happen?

Vietnam

Just now I watched a Vietnam War movie Deer Hunter. It was highly rated at Imdb so I supposed that it was good. When I received the dvd, I got quite a shock from the fact that the running time of the movie is 183 minutes. That's 3 solid hours of cinema. The cast was strong with Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and Meryl Streep and I got to see how young these veteran actors were back in 1978.

I had watched a couple of Vietnam War movies before, namely Apocalypse Now and We Were Soldiers. Basically Deer Hunter is more about the physical and psychological effects on the combatants who been through the war in Vietnam rather than the action itself. There isn't much action, especially compared to Mel Gibson's We Were Soldiers. However Deer Hunter delved more into emotional trauma the veterans faced which I felt more than made up for the lack of gunfighting and explosions.

I wasn't disappointed in the movie but there were some parts that I didn't really understand while watching it. For instance Robert De Niro's character Michael would break down for no apparent reason or just stared into space. I couldn't guess the message the scene was trying to bring across until reading the film forum on the internet. The movie was a little too deep for me and I would appreciate the movie better with more background infomation..

I had read up about the Vietnam War prior to my trip to Hanoi in April. United States drafted thousands of men and sent them into combat without much training. The new officers had no prior experience and made serious blunders as seen in We Were Soldiers. Many young men were driven by patriotism (like the ones in Deer Hunter) and volunteered to serve in the army in the early stages of Vietnam War. However as the war progressed and casualties mounted the nation turned against the war. There were unfavourable reports from both the media and veterans who been through their tours in Vietnam. Draft dodging became common and the government was under pressure to reduce and stop its involvement in the conflict.

The morale of the soldiers stationed in Vietnam was very down, even among the regulars. They never knew when or where the 'Charlies' were going to strike or whether the next step they took would be their last. Most of them just wanted to finish their tour quickly and go home. The unimagineable stress coupled with easy availability made drug use and alcohol abuse common. The family back home feared a visit by the cab with a telegram and an American flag. For the returning soldiers, they weren't the American heroes who kept the country safe from enemies but babies-killers with no humanity.

Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump was supposed to die in battle like his forefathers and was bitter that he survived without his legs. It must be heartbreaking to see able young men who returning from Vietnam physically wounded and mentally scarred. It was interesting to note that although the US Army didn't lose a single major battle in the conflict, it was clear that they couldn't win the war. Nixon abandoned the South Vietnam regime and started to pull the troops out of the country. The promised support in case of an attack from the north never arrived and the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975 signalled the end of the war.

Alright I guess you guys had enough of history lessons. As I mentioned earlier I went to Hanoi in April. The reason why I went was mainly because Tiger Airways was giving away free air tickets and we only need to pay the taxes. I was thinking where should I go and wanted to choose some place which I never been to before. Darwin was the furthest place Tiger Airways flies to but I think the visa application would too troublesome. My mom had visited Macau 2 years ago and there wasn't much to do there. Hanoi seemed quite interesting and neither of us visited there before.

We paid 90 sgd each for the return air tickets. Despite having no allocated seats and narrow seat pitches, the flight was a pleasant one. I did quite a lot of research on the net before going there and booked my hotels through the Asiarooms website. I'm not advertising for them but I feel that they are quite reliable and the rates are not too bad. We also decided to go on a 2d/1n tour to Halong Bay, an UNESCO heritage site. which cost us 39 usd each. We arrived at Hanoi in the evening and went to eat the famous Cha Ca opposite my hotel. As it was a weekend night there was a pasar malam outside my hotel and we spent an hour there after dinner. I noticed that many of the Vietnamese girls are quite pretty and it's no wonder many Singaporeans are getting Vietnam brides.

The next day we went to our Halong Bay tours. The other tour group members came from all around the world; there were Thais, Swiss, Canadian, Norwegian, etc. We were taken on a cruise around the Halong Bay area and visited the some of the caves to see limestone formation.
The highlight of the trip was canoeing around the some of the small islands. It was a great experience canoeing in such a beautiful place. We had to squeeze into a small cabin on the boat for the night and luckily both of us weren't fat.

Halong Bay

We returned to Hanoi late in the afternoon the next day. After dinner we went to walk around the streets and my mom bought herself an ao dai (traditional Vietnamese costume) for 35 sgd. I knew that she was not going to wear it out but she still bought it to keep as memento. No trip to Hanoi was completed without going to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum to visit the man himself so we went there early next morning. We had to queue up with other Vietnamese to take a look at him sleeping in a glass coffin. A strange thought entered my mind there; is it possible that they make a wax figure and hoax us all? Well I guess I will never find out. We spent the rest of the time walking around Old Quarters and also visited the Dong Xuan Market before catching our flight back in the evening. In all we spent 800 sgd over 4 days, everything inclusive.

Me in front of Mausoleum

There isn't much of the war relic left behind in Hanoi and even the famous Hanoi Hilton was partially demolished to accomodate an office tower built by Singaporeans. The streets are filled with motorcycles and young people full of energy. Officially still an Communist nation, Vietnam's economy was more of a case of signalling left and turning right. Despite all the capitalism, the prices there are still cheap and I think that Vietnam can be an ideal short-haul holiday option for Singaporeans.

I have to thank those who are reading for bearing with such a long post. I know that the initial part doesn't seem to link up with the later part and I apologize for that. But no one forces you to read too...

Football Ramblings

World Cup

I woke up 3 am in the morning to catch Korea play Switzerland in the last round of group matches. Korea was my adopted team since the last World Cup and I was hoping that they would at least make the second round at Germany. The situation in this group was complicated. The winner of this match would be the winner of Group G as well and get the supposedly easier game against Ukraine in the next round. A draw wound see Switzerland definitely through either as winner or runner-up while the Koreans had to depend on the result between France and Togo. France meanwhile must win the Africans by 2 goals to be assured of a place in 2nd round.

The match started badly enough for the Koreans conceding an early goal through set pieces. The Koreans began to fight back and create some good goal-scoring opportunities but the Swiss were sitting deep and were dangerous on the counter-attack. There was a clear handball offence by the Swiss in the area but the Asians were denied the penalty. In the end the sucker punch was delivered by the Swiss in a very controversial manner. The linesman had raised the offside flag but the referee allowed the game to play on because the ball was played in by a Korean player. The Koreans protested vehemently but the goal was good in my opinion.

The Koreans were unlucky but they had been receipents of some dubious refreeing decisions as well. They were lucky that the referee missed the 'goal' by Vieira in their previous match against France and even luckier throughout the same tournament 4 years ago. The Swiss hadn't conceded a goal yet in the tournament and that speaks volume how disciplined their players had been so far. They thoroughly deserved to go through as group winners ahead of France who recorded a rather unconvincing (to me) 2-0 win over Togo. I hoped Spain will finish them off without mercy in their next match.

The no 19 Korean player Cho Jae-jin stood out for me. He won many headers and held up the ball well in my opinion. However like most Asian strikers he had little composure when presented with the chances. I realised that the Asian teams at this World Cup had difficulties scoring, especially against the European teams. They might have created good opportunities but there wasn't anyone to finish them off. This had proved costly as none of the 4 Asian teams qualified for the next round. Iran, Saudi Arabia and Japan all only had one point and 2 goals from 3 matches. Both Iranian goals came from defenders at set-pieces while the Japanese had a fluke goal against Australia and a well-taken one against Brazil. Saudis scored both of their goals against Tunisia which admittedly was not the strongest team.

Korea was obviously the pick of the bunch among the Asian teams. They managed a 2-1 win over the hapless Togo and even drew with the oh-so-mighty France. They had came back from a goal down in both games and there was genuine belief that they could complete another fight back against the Swiss. However it was not to be and they went home rueing the missed chance to promote Asian football. Most of the usual suspects got into the last 16 and the only surprises were Ghana, Ecuador and Australia. Ghana scored the biggest upset by eliminating the Czechs and hence earned the right to play the reigning champion Brazil. I will be cheering the underdogs on in the knock-out stages and hoping that they will provide an upset or two.

Liverpool

Meanwhile Liverpool has announced that Craig Bellamy will join us for 6 million pounds. I must admit that it is a good deal as it bring us a proven goalscorer in EPL at a reasonable fee but I am also apprenhensive about his off-the-field behaviour. He was involved in too many incidents to my liking and I'm afraid that he might affect our team spirit. However I got a much positive opinion after reading about his willingness of taking a pay cut to play for us. He was offered a new contract extension of 60k pounds a week at Blackburn but he chose to sign for us at 45k p/w. He was a fan since childhood and it was his dream to pull on the red shirt and play in front of the Kop. He couldn't refuse when we came along with the offer and even cut short his honeymoon to complete the deal.

Bellamy is a very competitive player on the pitch and also mentioned in his interview that he wanted to be remembered as a good Liverpool player and not merely as a Liverpool player. We need more winners like him and not whiners like Cisse. I appreciate his love for the club but he must show the goods on the pitch. He had performed well in smaller clubs but it doesn't guarantee success at a big club like Liverpool. Bigger names had came and flopped. Heskey, Diouf, Cisse and Morientes were just some of them who couldn't cut it here. Rafa will probably give him a season to prove himself and hopefully he will grab his chances. With a combination of talent, hard work, right attitude and of course luck, Bellamy will deliver. Hopefully he will not only be remembered as a good Liverpool player but be immortalized as an Anfield legend as well.

Three Bears

The first Korean song I've learnt to sing. No prizes for guessing where I learn it from.

An Incident

Date: 17 June '06
Time: approx 9.20pm
Venue: Some bus-stop at Serangon North

I was waiting for bus with Shahid and Shicai. We just finished our dinner and were on our way home. Shahid and I started to discuss about our game we played just now while Shicai decided to listen to his mp3s. Then I realised that there was this girl who was standing about 20m away from us. I noticed that she would glance in our direction every few seconds. She tried to do it discretely by using her handphone at the same time but I saw through this easily.

Shahid asked me why I was grinning. So I told him what I saw. After another minute of observation both of us agreed that she was stealing glances at us. However Shahid insisted that she was looking at him. Shicai was oblivious to the whole thing and was totally engrossed with his music.

After a while Shicai went to sit at the railings behind the girl. Immediately she stopped looking in our directions and turned her head behind instead. Shahid's ego must have taken a beating then. I found this so funny and I kept laughing. I guess some girls are attracted to androgynous guy with purple hair. Shicai had no emotions when told about it. Maybe it is all too common for our Superband wannabe.

There is only one Roy Keane

Roy Keane Testimonial 9th May 2006 - Fitting farewell for a legend.

So finally the curtains had came down for this man. Roy Keane decided to call it a day in his professional football career. Unlike footballers of the past he had earned enough millions to last him this lifetime and probably another two. Most of the attention has been focused on the action in Germany, thus there is somewhat a muted response from the Man Utd fans around me. It was kind of sad though; he was the most successful captain for Man Utd ever.

I'm definitely not a Man Utd fan and seeing them succeed is the last thing I want to see. However this doesn't deter my admiration for Keane. He put in 100% everytime he went out on the field and never shirk away from any challenge or tackle. He is brutally honest to a fault and never someone to hold back his opinions.

Two memorable performances by Roy Keane would always remain in my mind. The first one was back in 1999 when Man Utd was playing the Champions' League semis against Juventus. Coming from 0-2 down, Keane inspired Man Utd to a 3-2 come-back win despite getting the yellow card which ruled him out of the final. The other one was League Cup final 2003 between my beloved Liverpool and Man Utd. Gerrard had scored early and United pushed forward for the equaliser. Gaps appeared for us to counter-attack. A through-ball was threaded to Owen and he was going on to score the decisive second goal. Looking at the replay Roy Keane's commitment to his team's cause and his personal drive for success were very much evident. He was at the edge of the opponents' penalty area when Owen was put through. He sprinted the whole length of the field back to his own area, trying unsuccesfully to prevent Owen from scoring. In contrast Rio who was in his own half in the first place strolled back as if he couldn't care less.

Keane was never a role model for the kids and I don't think he ever intends to be. His deliberate attempt to injure Haaland was horrible and he was rightly punished for that. The fiasco leading to his exit from the World Cup 2002 shouldn't have happened. I felt that although he didn't see eye-to-eye with the Irish coach Mick McCarthy he should have played on for the sake of his country. However it won't be Roy Keane if all these are taken away.

Keane was always frank and said things that others wouldn't. Prawn sandwich brigade at Old Trafford was slammed by him and under-performing players were criticised regardless of their reputation. He only said these because he cared for Man Utd. Other players like Rio wouldn't give a hoot as long as he collected his millions. I would leave you with some of my favourite Keane's quotes:-

"Sometimes you wonder, do they understand the game of football? They have a few drinks and probably the prawn sandwiches, and they don't know what's going on out on the pitch."

Roy Keane on section of the Old Trafford crowd.

(Holds true for many Man Utd fans here too...)

"I'd waited long enough. I fucking hit him hard. The ball was there. (I think) Take that you cunt. And don't ever stand over me sneering about fake injuries."

Roy Keane on Alf Inge Haaland.

(Someone you don't wish to cross paths with...)

"Who the fuck you think you are, having meetings with me? Mick, you are a liar.... you're a fucking wanker. I didn't rate you as a player, I don't rate you as a manager, and I don't rate you as a person. You're a fucking wanker and you can stick your World Cup up your arse. The only reason I have any dealings with you is that somehow you are the manager of my country! You can stick it up your bollocks!!!"

Roy Keane allegedly to Mick McCarthy May 2002.

(Very Keano...)

"Just because you are paid 120,000 pounds-a-week and play well for 20 minutes against Tottenham, you think you are a superstar."

Roy Keane on Rio Ferdinand.

(I absolutely love this and fully agree with him.)

Sadly but truely as most Man Utd fans will agree with me, there is only one Roy Keane.

Shyh Jie's Big Plan

I was reading yesterday's Straits Times and came across an article which featured my sec school classmate Iskandar again. That was about how he was admitted to NUS Mechanical Engineering despite not having the prerequisite academic results. Although the scheme doesn't affect me, I thought it is a good idea as people with different talents other than academic excellence can get to attend local universities. He was accepted for his other achievements, namely being the best overseas cadet at Sandhurst.

So we know Iskandar is destined for big things. With that award he will probably have a rank of LTC and draw a pay close to 10k monthly by 30. The last Singaporean to get the same award was my ex-CO and he was only 33 or 34 when he left my unit. If Iskandar performs well, there's a chance we will have another general as old boy. When he retires from SAF, he can switch over to public sector easily. Most probably the PAP team will shortlist him for interview as possible candidate. I don't think it will be hard for us to visualise him decked out in the all white uniforms; we used to wear that back in school too.

Seeing a classmate having such a good career now, I can't help but wonder what lies ahead for me. My first choice of study was NTU's School of Infomation and Communication. I wanted to study there as I'm interested in media stuff and hope to do things that are related to it next time. However with my less-than-stellar academic results and mediocre-at-best CCA grades, I found myself rejected twice.

The first time was back in 2004. NTU sent me a letter congratulating me that I was accepted in Accountancy. In other words I wasn't even shortlisted for the SCI interview. I wasn't perturbed though. I tried again in 2005, knowing that it would be my best chance. The cohort taking 'A' levels was much smaller compared to my year's and hence there would be less competition for places. My assumption was proven correct and I was granted my interview. I thought I did fairly well and enquired with the interviewer about my chances of making the grade. He told me it was not too bad but also must depend on how others fared. I would say that I was quite dejected when I got the letter from NTU. The Chinese saying of xi wang yue gao shi wang yue da would be a really apt description of how I felt then.

So I decided that I wouldn't want to try for the third time. To get rejected the third time would be quite a blow I guess. It would be like Ken Ang taking 'O' levels Chinese three times and still get B3. (He took only twice.) Accountancy was my original second choice despite having not much of an idea what it entails. I had told myself during the preparation of 'A' levels that I was through with the sciences and will definitely have nothing to do with it in university. Science and engineering courses are out; so I'm left with either business-related courses or arts ones. Accountancy seems like a safe bet for a pragmatic person like me. It's a professional degree and accountant most probably will never be out of work.

As my ORD loomed, I began to think about which school I want to go to. I got this dreary feeling whenever I passed by the road to NTU on my way to camp. It was at least half an hour drive from my house; using public transport will take more than an hour. Jurong Point was one of two places we went to during our nights off. The thought of hanging around there for another 3 years wasn't something I looked forward to. Meanwhile the city campus of SMU was waving its hand to me. Only half hour journey from home, it's new and modern when compared to the functional but dull campus of NTU. If based on the campus alone, SMU will win hands down.

It wasn't the only factor that pulled me from NTU to SMU. I would say the marketing effort of SMU worked very well. So well that the percentage of male students rose from 35% a few years back to 55% in the next intake. There is this 'hip' quotient which NTU will never have. Credit to NTU though it was a tough choice for me to make the switch. The lower school fees, its reputation over the years, the course being 3 yrs compared to SMU's 4 and the chance to stay in hostel all didn't make my decision any easier. In the end after considering various issues, I decided that SMU will be my school, be it for better or for worse.

When I made my decision, people such as Ken Ang, Hanquan or Zhiwei who are going to SMU are naturally happy that I will be joining them. However Sheng Chao had been giving me a lot of stick for choosing to go SMU Biz as the holy trinity comprising of me, Sheng Chao and Swee is supposed to go to Nanyang Business School together. I tried to persuade them to 'defect' with me but it was an utter failure. Swee is never in doubt that NTU is for him and Sheng Chao loves NTU so much that he will not give a second glance to SMU. Among the sec school friends I thought that I can convince Wai San but in the end it seems that his priorities are probably different from mine.

So without many of the good friends from army or secondary school, I guess it will be a good chance for me to move out of my comfort zone and at the same time challenge myself to excel in the new environment. That will be my big plan for the year.

World Cup Memories

World Cup 2006 has just kicked off. The last World Cup I was still a yr 1 student at Anderson JC and since then I had finished my 'A's and served my time in green. 4 years later I'm going to be a student again, this time at SMU. Not really happy to study again but at least I'm a civillian now. Finally I can catch all the football I want.

Although the World Cup is approaching, I'm still not having the fever yet. Despite of all the hype in the media, the fact that the biggest event on Earth is going to take place soon hasn't sinked in for me yet. I did try to read most of the special reports on the newspapers as well as watching the latest news on TV but I don't find them as interesting as following Liverpool in EPL. However, I'm sure that I will be caught in the frenzy pretty soon as the competition hots up.

USA '94

The first World Cup I watched should be USA '94. I should be 9 years old then. I didn't watch most of the matches but did try to follow. I still can recall that Maradona was sent home for testing positive for drugs and Argentina followed him home soon in the second round. The Colombia team got a guy named Escobar murdered back home for scoring an own goal which contributed to its first round exit. Meanwhile there were a few footballers who became the darlings of their countries after excellent performances in the tournament. Hagi of Romania, Stoichkov of Bulgaria, Dahlin for Sweden, Roberto Baggio for Italy and of course Romario of Brazil were the examples. Brazil won for the tournament for the 4th time and I would say that it was a great achievement.

France '98

Fast forward to 4 years later. I was in Sec 1 at VS then. Watched many of the matches in France '98 during the holidays and watched most of the important matches from quarter-finals onwards. Nope I didn't watch Owen scoring that wonder goal nor Beckham's famous retaliation against Simeone in that legendary tie. It was too late and I decided to forego it without realizing that it would be a classic World Cup match. However I was in front of telly when Bergkamp scored the sublime goal against Argentina and it was pure class. I was really glad that I was able to witness such a great moment straight off the satellite at the very instant it was executed. Absolutely brilliant.

My most memorable match got to be Brazil v Netherlands in semis. By then a habit of supporting the underdogs has been formed. I was cheering on the Dutch and was screaming happily when Kluivert scored the late equaliser. However, Brazil won on penalties to advance to the finals. The next day I was so tired that I missed the bus stop on my way home. Despite that I still woke up to watch France v Croatia in another semis. This time the underdogs Croatia scored first but the unlikeliest scorer Thuram scored twice to give the victory to the host nation. Those two rather fluke goals turned out to be the only two scored by him for France. (I think) Tough luck but Bilic cheated to get Blanc sent off so I guess everything even themselves out eventually.

The final was kinda unexpected. Rooting for France in the final because they never win the World Cup before. Ronaldo's fitness was the main controversy in this match and in the end Brazil rarely threatened. France won 3-0 easily and a new legend in world football was born. His name is Zinedine Zidane. Finally the underdogs have their days.

Japan/Korea '02

It was really a memorable tournament. Most experts would say the shock results had made up for the lack of quality in the football in the tournament. I totally agree with that. Many top nations weren't at their best and got eliminated after the first round. Holders France, hot favourite Argentina and dark horse Portugal all went home early. In the end Brazil won their 5 world crown and the team of the tournament was co-host South Korea.

The first match between France and Senegal was the first upset of the tournament. Diop scored the only goal of the match and a few days later I noticed a Strike ticket pasted on a locker in school. Some punter had placed 1k bet for France to win and would make a profit of 100 if France won. I wondered how he felt after the game.

South Korea, a team who never won a World Cup match, managed to get into semi finals on home soil. They knocked out Portugal in group stages, Italy in 2nd round and Spain in the q-finals. (albeit with help from the match officials) I, like many other Singaporeans, were caught up in supporting the South Korean national team. I would say the Korean supporters' passion really gave me goosebumps. I wonder similar things will happen here if Singapore were to qualify for World Cup. Well probably it won't happen in my lifetime.

Princess Hours

I think I have been watching quite a lot of Korean drama lately. The most recent one is Princess Hours which is a rom-com based on a comic. I would say it is quite nice and enjoy watching it.


[Warning! Spoilers ahead!]

Well I'm not good at writing the synopsis so I will add a link here. Basically it's a Cinderella story whereby a commoner girl gets to marry the Crown Prince. I happened to be around when my brother was watching the first episode on his laptop. The first episode was funny and interesting enough for me to make my brother download the whole series from youtube. I finished the 24 episodes in 4 days. Now I'm scared I will become a TV addict like Qinyao.

When I started watching, I thought that the female lead was rather plain. Well at least compared to all the other Korean eye candies such as Kim Tae Hee or Son Ye Jin, I don't think she will stand out. However as the series went on, her character grows on me. She's really cute and endearing. Probably these are the reasons why the two princes are fighting over her.


Her name is Yoon Eun-hye and is a member of pop group Babyvox. In the series she was Chaegyung, the student who became the Crown Princess. As the Crown Princess, her wardrobe was really awesome and I like many of the dresses and costumes she wore. Acting-wise I think she performed admirably as the spunky Crown Princess. There were many scenes where she had to convey her emotions and she pulled them off pretty well. Well maybe I'm just infatuated and biased now.

Beside an interesting storyline and attractive cast, the great set (especially the Crown Prince's living quarters) and the super nice costumes the cast wore also made the drama worth watching. However, I felt that the plot had a big flaw which I don't know whether it was the fault of the scriptwriter or an inherent one from the comic. The public's interest in the Royal Family was not consistent at all. There were times when the media were extremely aggressive and there were also times when the royals could simply walk in the streets unmolested. I don't think it was realistic that the paparazzi would let them off so easily.

Despite this I had thoroughly enjoyed the show. I would like to thank the people who took the efforts to subtitle the series in English and upload it on youtube. That must really take a lot of time and efforts. If weren't for them I wouldn't be watching the drama just 2 months after it ended its run in Korea. Now Channel U is showing the trailer of Princess Hours. It writes coming soon but rumours has it that October will be the more likely date. Afterall our free-to-air tv stations are not known for showing the most recent foreign tv programmes.

The ending was rather unexpected but I was rather pleased it ended that way. It left the door open for a sequel which is said to be in planning stage now and will be aired next year. I'm looking forward to it already.

Saturday

Last Wednesday Shahid Kendrick Jeremy and I went to watch Singapore play Malaysia at National Stadium. The match was quite poor as Singapore kept losing possession. Malaysia was slightly better but couldn't score as well. Luckily we were spared the agony of watching another 30 minutes of mundane football as they went straight to penalties after 90 min. Singapore won the shoot-out 5-4, the hero being goalie Lionel Lewis who saved the Malaysian captain's spot kick.

On the way home Shahid saw his friends from SRJC at Kallang MRT. His friends asked if he was interested to play 11 v 11 match on Saturday. So Shahid went about to organise the team and ask people to be available for the match. I talked to Chiang about the opposition and was given the impression that they were not as strong as our last opposition. We had lost our previous game 2-0 and was hoping that we would break our losing run of 1 game. I knew that the opposition were from Montfort so I sent an sms to Swee asking whether he was going to play. He replied no and so I wasn't expecting to see him there.

I was late so I didn't meet up with the rest at Hougang Interchange and went straight from home instead. I was surprised by the good turn out. There was 14 of us altogether. Notable absentees were Jeremy (right foot was still bandaged), Hanquan (couldn't make the 4.30pm kickoff) and Wai San (replaced by twin bro). But according to our scout Chiang we would have no problems with the opposition. So we were still chatting happily while our opponents were getting ready and warming up.

Captain Kendrick announced the team. I was assigned to be the right back. Defending wasn't my forte; I think that if Hanquan was around he would have my place. That would make a big difference I guess. Anyway we had a bad start, conceding a soft goal within 2 minutes. I was caught out of position many times and struggled to keep pace with the quicker opposition attackers. I went off halfway in the first half because I got tired of defending and was replaced by Ho Teck.

I looked over to the opposition bench and saw a familiar face. Swee did turn up after all. I went to kaopeh him for telling me he wasn't coming. He was also surprised to see me there I guess. Anyway he went on to the pitch shortly and remained there till to the end of the match. I also went back towards the end of half time replacing Mus and spent a minute as striker and touched the ball once.

We were down 1-4 at half-time. Not very encouraging but we broke our scoring duck. Captain Kendrick was willing us on, reminding us that we weren't lousy but just that we weren't used to playing on the field. Most of us had grouses with the opposition being arrogant and were determined to come back in the second half. I went over to Swee and he told me that his whole team were unhappy with Kok Wai's rough ways. Well I can fully emphathise with that.

Anyway I was the designated right-back again for second half. Our first 15 minutes was good. I felt that I was linking up quite well with Sufiyan at the right side of the park. We put pressure on our opponents and our passing wasn't bad. We scored once again and there was really belief that we could get something more out of the game. There were also a couple of half chances that we wasted and that was the closest we were going to get the whole half.

Our momentum was broken down when Shicai was involved in a collision with one of the opponents. The opponent was injured and had to be helped off the field. From then on our inital bright start fizzled and the second half became just like the first. Sufiyan was switched to the left flank and Shicai and I hardly clicked. I was kept getting caught in position by the hard running attackers as they swarmed up in attack.

In the end I managed to con Qinyao to switch position with me. My last position on the pitch was right midfield where I hardly had any possession of the ball. Feijie came on to replace me and I spent the last 10 minutes resting on the sidelines. The final score was 7-2 to our opponents. It was more likely to be 17-2 if not for the colossus Harish. He made many timely interceptions and was unanimously our man of the match. The results were fair as we were really outplayed. I thought Swee was having a good match just like most of his team mates. In contrast we were poor and often had no idea what to do with the ball when we had the possession. Our defence was weak (bar Harish) and reckless and often left the keeper exposed.

We really missed Jeremy. The previous game we played he controlled the whole game as a keeper and defenders were more confident playing in front of him. No disrespect to the other two who had played goalie yesterday but Jeremy was really in the class of his own. We need to find someone capable of replacing him as he couldn't be playing for us after he went to Ireland.

The team's morale was down for a while after the match. Things had not gone according to plan and we extended our losing streak to 2 games. Kok Wai was harping on the childish opposition player known as no 18. Generally our team felt that the opponents were arrogant. But if we were the winning side, we could be the same too. However it doesn't seemed likely in the near future unless we fixed our leaky defence, non-existent midfield and less than confident attack.

We recovered from our defeat very well. We were laughing and joking very soon after that. We had planned to take photos of the winning team but ended up with the losing team's one. Never mind. Captain Kendrick had already asked us to make ourselves available for more field practices before the next game. We will come back stronger from the defeat. In the mean time we can only dream of our first victory.

大長今

I look forward to 10pm on weekday nights. Jewel in the Palace is really absorbing. I don't know who hasn't watched it yet but there must be very few of them around. This show can even convert the most hardcore cynics of Korean drama. I had watched it once on vcd but I can't prevent myself from sitting in front of the TV when the 10 pm arrives. The few people whom I recommended the drama to all agreed that it was an awesome show. Even Shahid is a fan now.

No one would possibly dislike the heroine Chang Jin. With a sweet innocent smile and gentle demeanor, she also had a steely determination to match anyone. I can't imagine anyone who will not feel for her for all the sufferings and setbacks she went through from a young child losing her parents to being a woman trapped in the palace's power struggle. Despite of all the obstacles placed by her enemies, she would always overcome them and get on with her life with the philosophy of putting heart in everything she did. Sometimes I can't help but want to share of the pain for her.

Luckily there was someone to do it. There is always a prince charming for the damsel in distress. Here it comes in the guise of Min Zhenghao aka Da Ren who was a high-ranking official from the aristocrat class. The love between them was always subtle; their most intimate moment was only a hug. However every eye contact betweent the two was always tender and full of concern. All the sacrifices (eg he left his post to go into exile with her at Jeju) that Da Ren made for Chang Jin would make any women go green with envy and touched at the same time. If I were a female, I would definitely want to marry him.

There were a couple of bad people namely the Cuis and their cronies. Most of the time I really hated them for doing all the bad things to Chang Jin. There weren't much excuses for most of their actions against a poor helpless girl. However there were occasions where I would be thinking that it's likely that I would do the same as them if placed in their shoes. Some of their decisions were forced by circumstances and it would be hard not to save oneself first before anything else. In retrospect, some of the bad characters were actually quite pitiful such as Jinying whose love for Da Ren was never requited or Cui Sanggong having to poison her good friend Ming Yi (who would become Chang Jin's mother) for the sake of her family. I guessed once they decided on this path, it would be a road of no return.

The supporting casts were also delightful to watch. The most memorable character must be Da Shu, the henpecked husband of the couple who took in the just-orphaned Chang Jin. He cared for Chang Jin as if she was his own kid and helped her whenever he could. His appearances provided great comic relief as he loved to boast and his version of events was always exaggerated. Another memorable supporting character would be the lovable Liansheng. She was Chang Jin's buddy from childhood and later became the King's concubine. I was really impressed with the actress' crying skills as many of her scenes were of her crying. I guess that she would be those kind of girls that guys would love to protect. (right Shahid?)

For those who haven't watched it, I think that you are missing out a timeless classic. Watch it if you can!