Man U (1) - Chelsea (0)

I know I haven't had a post for a while, but I have to write about this.

Manchester United beat Chelsea 1-0 at Old Trafford tonight! (YESSS!!!) And what a game it was. MU was on the ball from the whistle. The forst half, it looked like they were in exclusive control of the ball. And the Premier League champions looked completely out of sorts on the field.

Nothing the truely great Lampard, the inspirational Terry or the lightning quick Drogba could do to break the MU defense. And I must say this, Rio Ferdinand was excellant today. (Looks like he took the criticism of Roy Keane to heart). So was Darren Fletcher, who was the lone goal scorer of the match. And you should have seen Alan Smith throw himself at the ball.

It was like MU was obsessed with winning the game.

What an entertainer! The quality of the game was phenomenal! Just top class!

I guess MU just out-gunned Chelsea today, bringing their unbeaten run in the premiership season to an end.

Aaaaaaahhhhh! That is so so so satisfying.

Now back to NaNoWriMo (which is keeping me busy these last few days)

200mts and still going

Yippeeeeeee!!!

If you don't understand why I am so happy, let me elaborate.

For all the while I have played golf, I have never used woods. The biggest reason for this is that all the driving ranges that I have practised at, my 3i would very regularly cross the range boundary. Being a long hitter, this causes a problems. I need to know where my ball is going to go before I hit it (cause if I hit it long in the wrong direction, that's not of any help) and so I need practise to know where the ball will go (generally).

So I never played woods thus far & thanx to that strategy, I am very very comfortable with my iron play. Cause I tee off with my irons, I approach with them. So I know how each of my irons feel. And I don't have a problem with my long irons like most amatuers do.

Now that my handicap has been stagnant around the 16 mark for a while and my swing has been quite consistent, I thought that moving on to the woods makes sense. Mainly because if they get me closer to the green, chances for par & birdie go up & therefore lower scores.

So I bought the TaylorMade R5 driver a couple of days back. It's a 10.5 degree, stiff shaft, Type-N driver. And it's a thing of beauty, I tell you. It's just gorgeous.

I took it to the driving range on the weekend and had a go. And boy, was I pleased.

I was hitting the ball consistently into the fence at the other end of the driving range (which is 200mts away from me) 20 feet in the air. Consistently.

Then I pushed my luck to see if I could work the ball with the club. Cause I regularly try and work the ball to the left or right depending on the way the course shapes. And to my astonishment, I could do that too. I could do a fade or a draw. I could do a slice or a hook (tho, I had more trouble making the slice than the hook, more because of the way I swing...not the way the driver is). And that's just terrific! Cause now I have a club that I can shape like I normally shape my other clubs.

I don't have to overswing or hit it too hard. My swing speed is enough to hit the ball really long.

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Thank you, Mr Taylor!

186 goals and a brand new record

Thierry Henry (Arsenal Football Club captain, premier stiker, one of the best players in the world) added another distinction to his already formidable list.

Yesterday, he became the highest scorer for Arsenal by scoring his 186th goal.

In scoring twice in Arsenal's Champions League match, Thierry broke the long standing Ian Wright record and became the Gunner's most prolific scorer ever. What is even more interesting is not the goals that he has scored (which is huge) but also the number of goals that he has helped to create.

A truely classy player, Henry currently stands alone at the peak of Mount Football as the best striker in the world.

As if to emphasize this, he came back into the Arsenal side after weeks of recuperating from injury. He came on after half time and, within 5 minutes, had scored the first goal. He would score another.

I wish Manchester United had him.

Snow? In Singapore?

A place smack on the equator getting snow? Not possible, you say huh?

Singapore goes out of the way to prove you wrong.

The Singapore Science Center has a fairly large facility where the temperature is maintained at 2.9 degrees below zero (or sometimes lower). And there is a lot of snow in there!

That's where we went on Sunday. The initial plan for the Sunday was a visit to the Singapore Zoo. But the rains here don't have a 5 day week. They have a 2 day week, starting on the weekend. The heavens opened up & showered Singapore with all gusto. So in this marvelously wet condition, we didn't think the zoo would be the best place to go.

So the Snow City it was. The place is a bit far from our house & so my daughter did her famous impression of Donkey from "Shrek" (going "Are we there yet?") about 20 times. Boy, were we glad when the cab stopped in front of the Snow City Lobby.

Here's the deal. You get jackets & gloves & snow shoes. And then you get into this vault kind of thing, which by the way, gets you starting to feel really cold.

And then you step into a space which is dominated by white. Snow all around! They even have this snow ramp where you can sit on rubber tyre tubes & slide down.

So we did a lot of snowballing, especially my daughter as it was her first experience with snow. Then some more stuff like putting the nose back on the snowman. A crawl thro the metal igloo (wow, that rhymes!) and then we headed for the slopes.

Now this is no slalom slope, but it's good enough for a slide! The three of us sat ourselves on these rubber tubes, locked our arms together at the elbow & wheeeeee......

I thought my daughter would crib about the place being cold & the ride being scary. But she was the first one on her feet going "Let's do that again". So we did. Again. Again. Again.

We must have climbed up to the top of the slope & slid down around 20 times! And each was better than the last. Cause we were spinning around & going down faster than the last time. Wheee...

Great fun. Nice place to go. You should try it.

What image association!

My daughter and I were sitting in the living room watching TV on a lazy saturday night. And "The Parent Trap" was playing on cable.

So we're there watching it. And suddenly my daughter has a glint in her eye & she goes "that's woman is Violet's mother from Willy Wonka".

And I sit up & realise that she's right. The woman playing the part of the to-be-stepmother (don't ask me her name, I couldn't care less) was actually the one playing the mother of the obnoxious, constantly gum chewing, self possessed teenager in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory). And I say "Wow, that is amazing face recollection for a face that you've seen in a movie just once, that too a month ago".

And then, my wife stunned me with another. She just went "Isn't the little girl in the movei the same as the one in Herbie Fully Loaded?" And it's only then that I realised that it WAS indeed Lindsey Lohan who acted as the twins in the movie.

Wahow! Talk about face recall!

All you potential writers out there...

This is a great opportunity to get from being a potential writer to an actual writer.

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) allows people to register on their site & write a novel of more than 50,000 words within the month of November.

And in case you do manage to write one which is 50,000 words and more, then your reward is....

Ta tara rattaraa raa...

Your very own novel! And a certificate from NaNoWriMo confirming that you, in fact, submitted this novel & appreciating your effort.

It's a great way to encourage people to write. I think all of us should have a go.

I think I will.

Only problem is...What do I write about? Writer's block setting in already? This is not supposed to happen! Aaaaaaaaaaaa........

I can't wait...

I know that my Home Theatre setup does not land up until this evening, but I am getting impatient as hell!

I just cannot wait to get my hands on the little devils & set them up & configure each and every component to sound the way I like them to sound.

AAAAAAARRRRRRGH! Why does time have to move so slow when you want it to speed by? Why? Why? Wwhhhhhyyyyyy?

I wanna get to 5pm now.