Anfield ... Or Lost Battlefield?

I just had to write about this.

Chelsea just decimated Liverpool at home by 4 to 1.

And for those who dont follow the English Premier League (EPL) or soccer in general, this is going to be completely Zamonian to you.

Liverpool, as the champions of Europe, took on the EPL Championship title holders Chelsea at their home in Anfield. And the match prefaced with the Liverpool coach Rafael Benitez making rather loud statements about Liverpool being the one team handing Chelsea their first defeat of the season (Chelsea were 7 wins out of 7 since the beginning of this season). And the reason these statement were coming was that Liverpool held Chelsea to a draw during their Champions League fixture a few days ago to a goalless draw.

What eventually happened was Chelsea handed a humiliating 4-1 drubbing to Liverpool!

And if you watched the game, you cannot fault Chelsea. They played magnificently...in all departments of the game. And Didier Drogba was superb. He had a hand in all the goals Chelsea scored.

I don't see any side in the Premier League which looks so much like a well woven unit as Chelsea (and coming from a hard core Manchester United fan, that's saying a lot).

Jose Morhinho (Chelsea Manager) has done a fabulous job (there's an understatement right there) and Chelsea deserve to be at the top of the table. They just happen to be top of the table by 8 points.

Many a team would love to have this kind of leadership at the end of the championship. Chelsea has it at the beginning. And they only look like they are going to extend the lead.

Looks like the record Tottenham set back in the '60s of 11 straight wins at the start of the season is in jeopardy.

I got myself a Ferrari!

Ok, maybe I'm being overdramatic here.

I got myself the limited edition Michael Schumacher Ferrari miniature car (my serial number stands at 4907 out of a total 15000 made world wide).

It's an exact replica miniaturized to an 18th of the original size. This is the one made to commemorate his win at the Bahrain Grand Prix at Sakhir last year (incidentally winning on the date 04/04/04). It was also the car that made all sorts of history in Formula 1.

And for an out-and-out Tifosi, it's a beauty that just begs to be taken home. Schumi with his fist in the air, doing the customary victory lap in the beautifully crafted scarlet Ferrari.

The only difference is... the tyres dont look worn out at all :-)

I have an idea for a book

It's been circulating in my mind for a few weeks now.

I have the basic idea, the approximate plot. I just haven't got the end figured out. And I think that a good book is only good if it has a good ending. So I don't have much right now. But I will work on the idea for a while, let it brew. Maybe it will come to me, just like the idea came to me in the first place.

Maybe I'll get another writer to collaborate with me. Then again, maybe not. I don't have a good ending for this post too. So by my own rating, this post is pretty poor. Then again, maybe not :-)

One Two Carrefour...

For the non-Indian folk, the title does not make a lot of sense. For the Hindi movie watching Indians (and specifically those who watched the movie Ram Lakhan) should be screaming bloody murder right now :-)

Yep, this time we did a full shopping fest at the massive hypermarket called Carrefour. Now let me tell you something about Carrefour. It is really big, and yet is very efficiently organised. Staff there are extremely helpful (one guy went all over the place to search me & hand me some stuff that I was looking for), the layout is extremely conducive to shopping, some really convenient stuff is on display at the right places and the prices are really good.

When we first arrived in Singapore, we were told (by a few friends) that NTUC Fairprice is the best place to shop, mainly because it has a lot of stuff and the prices are really low. So we did shop at Fairprice, but the experience was not exactly the best.

Firstly it was EXTREMELY crowded. It was not organised (or at least my wife & I thought it wasn't). And it offered the same prices as Carrefour does. We actually checked it out.

And we got a variety of stuff in Carrefour that we didn't even see in Fairprice.

So my wife & I are completely sold on Carrefour as the hypermarket of choice.

Cold Storage, tho, remains our grocery store of choice, mainly because it is close to home, it usually has presence in the basement of almost every mall, and it's just convenient.

Thanx for tolerating this crap

My page load tracker showed me that since this blog has come up (less than a year), more than a thousand page loads have happened on this site.

Which means, quite a few people have come to read my trash. And the tracker also showed me that these people are coming in from all over the world.

WOW, I never anticipated people actually reading the crap that I dish out.

Thanx, Anyways!

Internet, meet my Daughter. Daughter, meet the Internet!

I created an email account on Gmail for my five year old yesterday. And she sent her first mail (she typed the whole mail herself) to.... her Grandpa!

No, she didn't send it to me, cause that would be a wasted effort, since I was sitting right next to her, showing her how to use the iBook on her lap. And since her Grandpa (my Dad) is the only one in the family who checks his mail on a regular basis (apart from the fact that he is the one who will most appreciate an e-mail from his grand-daughter), he was the obvious choice.

I am just waiting for him to see the mail. And I am sure this is going to be around for quite a while. I can even hear my Dad proudly say "She wrote her first e-mail to me!".

My baby's first e-mail! Whee!

What other company has this kind of freedom?

I vowed never to write anything about my place of work on my personal blog, but I am going to make this one exception.

The Founder, Chairman & CEO of the company that I work for was in Singapore this week. He is a legendary figure in the company & has, literally, thousands of "fans". He is like a Rock Star in the company.

And yesterday, some of us, the feet on the street, got spend time with him!

That he managed to squeeze some time in his already hectic schedule speaks volumes of his commitment to the company & its people. And it was a great experience standing around with him & chatting freely, asking him questions & getting candid answers.

And as I mentioned earlier, being the Rock Star that he is, some of us, one by on, sat next to him and clicked piuctures. I even got his John Hancock on one of my business cards!

I don't know any other company which has this kind of freedom. I don't know of any CEO who is as accessible or as friendly.

This is a great company to work for. It truely gives its employees the freedom to do their job.