Australian Open

Flew to Melbourne for the very time in my life with Haz, Max, Eug, Wanyi, Lizi and Gin Jing for the Australian Open weekend on 18th Jan (Fri). My very first of the 4 tennis grand slams that I'm aiming to attending in my life... Missed the one last year due to work and this time round, die die must go as my secondment is ending soon... haha..


Had initially gotten the General Admission Pass for Sat ($29) through our hosts Mich and Yish... But, after my trip back to SG and after further considerations, Haz and I decided to get the Vodafone Arena tix as it is more likely that we would be able to catch top seeds in action... And since it may be our only time at the Australian Open, it sounds only right that we try to maximise our trip as both Haz and I are tennis fans (Haz only got hooked at the start of the tournament).. So, we got the Vodafone tix ($56)! It proved to be a great decision as the skies on Sat was greyish and rained the whole day. Vodafone Arena (one of the 2 sheltered courts along with Rod Laver - Centre Court) played on while the other outdoor matches were cancelled...


For the rest who thought of gg for the experience, their day was nearly ruined but luckily for them, they managed to exchanged their tixs for the next day and even upgraded to the Vodafone Arena tixs. So, all went well... It was particularly impt for Haz and I to catch the actions on Sat itself as both of us flew back Sun afternoon as I have a flight to Gold Coast at night for work....

Photos time....

the gang...

PwC Mel at our back... Nice building...

Both of us at the entrance! FINALLY we are here! Live!



Haz got into the groove of things and decided to have lots of fun and she patriotly face-painted a SG flag! Looks great ya... Haha... She din manage to convince me to even paint a small SG flag.. Haha.. I'm just shy... Haha..

Lots of tennis-related activities can be found around the Melbourne Park. Like Wii Tennis, face-painting, etc... Festive atmosphere! Great stuff! Just the weather did not do it justice.. But it did not affect both us as we sat in the comfort of the air-conditioned Vodafone Arena (usually Vodafone and Rod Laver are opened at the top as it is the trademark of Australian Open - hot, sunny outdoor tennis)

We caught top seeds indeed... and great matchups for the 4 matches, especially the thrilling 5 setters between James Blake (12) and Sebastien Grosjean (my old time Virtua Tennis favourite), a great upset of the women's 2nd seed Svetlana Kuznetsova by 29th seed Agnieszka Radwanska... And of coz the whitewash of unseeded players by the new tennis goddess Ana Ivanovic (4th seed) and eventual champion Novak Djokovic!

And for bonus, we watched the last set of the titanic challenge of Roger Federer by Janko Tipsarevic at the big screen at the Garden in Melbourne Park with huge crowd totalling 10,000!!! Awesome atmosphere!!!

Din do much travelling around Mel this time round but Haz and I will be back in Mar for Formula 1 and sightseeing! Special thanks for Mich and Yish for putting us up at their place and we will return the favour come March when they are both here for the Mardi Gras parade!



Rushing off to watch Cinderella now at the Sydney Opera House.. Will keep you guys posted! Take good care all!

Family coming over soon on Tue (5 Feb)... Can't wait! =)

First blog for 2008

Hey all! It is nearly 1 month into the new year 2008 and I finally am able to blog! Sorry for the long wait ya...

Had a great 3 weeks back in SG. After all, it had been a full 1 year since both Haz and I had been on Singapore soil. Spent alot of quality time with family and caught up with many friends... Can't believe that we wil be back for good in slightly more than half a year! Time had indeed flew past! A few nice photos taken back home....

Dinner with both our families at a restaurant in Liang Court.

Christmas present shopping @ Jurong Point with all my cousins from M'sia...

A small surprise for dearz at Magical Kingdom on top of Mt Faber on Xmas day

Sentosa day out with my cousins...

Once back in Sydney on the 5th Jan, had been occupied full-time by work and CA proj first draft submission. AND on the 3rd weekend of Jan 08, we flew to Mel for the first weekend of Australian Open 2008! Stay tuned for the next update ya... We caught the eventual winner, Novak Djokovic, in action that day! Haha..

Man Utd 4 - 1 Derby

Routine win once again but the first goal came only after 40 long minutes - from Giggs who celebrated his 100 goals for MU! Amazing record for a winger... Tevez grabbed 2 (could have been 3 if Ronaldo had not taken the penalty that he won himself..). Good win, good warm-up for the trip to Anfield next Sunday against arch rival, Liverpool!

By the way, Liverpool did itself no favours by losing to Reading away (1-3!) and they have a do-or-die match away to Marsille during the week. Hopefully they will be exhausted on Sunday and allow MU to stroll through the park BUT caution will be in the air if they beat Marsille and qualify for 2nd round of Champions' League (they will be on a high)... Will be a great match once again! This time round, I will be able to catch it live in SG! I will be back in SG, touching down at Changi at 130pm on 15th Dec 07... Seriously, can't wait to go home.. It has been a long 1 year since I last return home..

In the very short-term, CA exam on Tue will be priority first. After that paper on Tue, I can start thinking about home... Wish me luck frens! See highlights from the MU match below..

Manchester united 4:1 derby county
Uploaded by crazylf2

Man United 2 - 0 Fulham

Man Utd shook off the shock loss against Bolton and recorded an easy 2-0 home win against Fulham.. Still can't accept the loss to Bolton as Liverpool thrashed them 4-0 easily. Man Utd regained 2nd spot, 3 points behind Arsenal, playing 1 game more. 2 more points ahead of Chelsea and 3 ahead of Liverpool, who played 1 game lesser.

Good to see Rooney back in action. Tevez looked a different player alongside Rooney. Ronaldo's brace today is the highlight. Expertly volleyed first goal and a long overdue header for the 2nd (never seem to understand why he scored so few headers for MU as his jumping ability is second to none in the MU squad, see how he always hang in the air). Strong case to be voted world's best player for the last year... But most likely to be Kaka's title...

December - an important month for the EPL as a long stretch of un-disrupted EPL games will take centrestage. The true challengers of the EPL title for 07/08 will be clearer after Dec. Likely to be the usual suspects - MU, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool (hopefully in this order at the end of Dec)...

Attached is the goal highlights of the game:



Am on study leave till next Tue for my final CA paper for this calendar year. Can't wait for it to be over as home beckons after the paper. Have been away from home for 1 FULL year and is missing my family and frens very much.. Not to mention the food too.. Haha..

Take good care all!

Man Utd 2 - 1 Sporting Lisbon

Spluttering win for MU. It confirmed their top placing in the group. Chance for Sir Alex to rest his key players for the trip to Rome as Liverpool match comes after that meaningless Champions League match...

A win is a win. Ronaldo's superb freekick - powerful and swerving all the way into the net during injury time. Tevez got onto the scoresheet and looked lively... Rooney should be back for the game against Fulham next.. Hopefully the defeat to Bolton is just a temporary blip...

Video highlights from the match is attached below...



Arsenal lost 3-1 to Seville away; first defeat after an unbeaten start to the year. First of many defeats to come? Hopefully! =)

Bolton 1 - 0 Man Utd

Man Utd loss to Bolton was greeted with shock and surprise.

Definitely games away to Reebok Stadium had never been a big problem... Maybe it's the absence of Rooney (who likes to play against Bolton becoz he always scores against them!) or Ronaldo or Vidic? And the loss came at a bad time as all Man Utd rivals (Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool) won... 3 points behind undefeated Arsenal, playing a game more... Still early days in the long season and hopefully points will be dropped by the lucky Gunners.. Since it was not a pretty game, no highlight will be posted.. Haha..

Hopefully, wil get to blog more victories by the Red Devils! =)

Study week starts next week... Wrapping up outstanding work before I disappear..

Wii....

Just in case my frens are wondering what is with my nick on my msn... Haz and I got ourselves a Wii console!! We played it for the first just the day before we bought it at Chris' house. Haz got hooked and it is a great party game console to own... Still researching on what games are good on this console and will be purchasing games from ebay as it is such a great place to get good deals for anything..

The only thing that made us thought twice was the fact that this console only plays PAL games - different from the NTSC format games that are sold in SG. We decided to go ahead and buy it as we will still be here for another 9 months and who knows whether if we will still be so onz about this game console.. =p

Will be bringing it back to SG during our 3 weeks break and let our families have a go at the amazing technology that this console had brought to video-gaming.. Great stuff...

Another amazing stuff to boast about is the fact that we are becoming experts in picking up soft toys from the soft toys grabbing machines in arcade.. We spent $8 and caught 5 soft toys during one night out at the movies... Real nice soft toys.. haha..

Will be having my 4th CA paper (Financial Reporting - tough paper) on the 11th Dec and so will be going on study leave the week after next.. Busy wrapping up outstanding work and thus nothing interesting to update you guys... Will do my best to keep you all posted of any interesting stuff that is happening around me...

Take good care all!

Am gg to be back in SG real soon! 15th Dec 07 - 5th Jan 08..

Man Utd 2 - 0 Blackburn

Man Utd chalked up another important victory against one of the form sides in the EPL at OT. Blackburn's good start had seen them took points off Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool. Furthermore with Rooney missing out due to a freak injury in training (for a month), this is a test to see if Man Utd's recent great form will be disrupted.

No chance after a quick brace from Ronaldo and 2nd half sending off of David Dunn. Shaky moments for MU defence in the opening exchanges but MU came out comfortable winner on a night when Chelsea lost 2 points against Everton as a result of a great overhead kick by Tim Cahill on the 90th min. Hopefully, Arsenal will drop point today... *Fingers crossed*..

Enjoy the highlights from the match.... Hard to find good ones for this match... =)

Manchester United 4 - 0 Dynamo Kiev

Another win for MU in the Champions' League! Comfortable 4-0 win against Dynamo Kiev.

Man United vs Dynamo from dong on Vimeo.

As a service to my friends who are Man Utd fans (may not be many.. oops), I will post quality highlight clips of any Man Utd matches on my blog. Kudos to internet and short highlight clips easily available online, else I will really be starved of Man Utd matches! Enjoy the highlights...

Halloween 2007

Celebrated Halloween for the first time in my life so far.. Not on the day itself (31 Oct) but 3 days later on a Sat... It was celebrated together with a late birthday celebration for Eug (long overdue actually). We were each supposed to be sporting enough to either get a wig/ mask/ accessories/ whatever and dress up! Initially, doubts surfaced among us whether if the plan will crystallise. It turned out to be an awesome night! Everyone (virtually..) plays their part and it was a great halloween celebrations!

Let me name some of the characters played out by us all as pictures of them are not to be showed to public (out of courtesy to protect their privacy). Spider-max, Phantom of the Opera, witch, devil, policeman in shorts, etc... Great fun! Haha.. Some pictures to share of me and Haz... =)

Oh ya, another thing to blog is that we had started our weekly sporting activity! The past 2 Sunday mornings, we had started playing basketball as a group! It is start of our long overdue healthy lifestyle - not just food and karaoke... hehe...

Special mention: Wanyi was the kind photographer. Max and Eug joined us in the 1st week but due to unforeseen circumstances, failed to wake up in time the last week. Joan, Cherrie, Darren, Lil and frens joined us for the game after we had taken this photo.. =p

Till my next post, take care all! =)