its been some time since i bought a Milan Jersey, i missed out last season for Pato, but i guess now's a good time even if he is coming over for just 1-2months.
:)

got my ankle clipped from behind on saturday while going for a corner during football.

so i twisted it, and hurt my hip and hand and knee on the fall

hate being injured. feel weak. and disrupts training plans....
(that's why i hate rough tackling in games..)

but right now im missing football already... smashing it into the goal...untold joy i tell u

funny thing is i'll be travelling while Euro is going on
sadly i really hope to support them.
gonna try to like catch them while in japan. =\

FORZA ITALIA!

i've loved them madly since 1995 when Roberto Baggio went to AC Milan.
and i love their tactics, their style, their everything.

in world cup 98 when luigi di biagio hit the damn post with a short run up penalty. italy were knocked out. baggio was forever out.

i remember Euro 2000. it was like really late.
when that idiot Del Piero missed a 1-1 against barthez. only later we would fall first to wiltord then trezeguet.
i lay on the living room floor. silent. silent for...a pretty long time...face down...

world cup 2002 when ahn shit huang outjumped maldini at the back post. that was it. that was it.

euro 2004 was o wells.

but yea world cup 2006. la dolce vita you know? to hell with shit france.
and we'll own them again damn frenchys!

i have detached myself abit from them. but yea i still root them you know?

forza italia! nessun problema campione Euro 2008!

had time to breathe. without breathing no one could do anything.
plus after learning last week that if you push too hard, you could faint.(did you know if you stress yourself out too much, you will have more body pains than you have ever experienced?)

yea it's true. i learnt alot. i had backache, poor blood circulation(stand up = dizzy)

stuff that i was like WTF. IM NOT TT WEAK.

but if i'm over used. yea that's what it was.

had lunch at Doc Greens at Vivo on friday.

their food is GOOD. and the breadbowl was awesome. we had the clam chowder. clam chowder goes well with the bread too.
the sandwich, full length, 13+ was good. so was the salad. we had the dr fruity. orange(sweet) + salads(romaine lettuce). they added orange essense so it'd taste sweeter.
i remarked that that could be a party trick. if you're serving fruits, add a dash of it's essense, and you'll think it came from europe.

i think this place is really good. but as usual don't expect it to be 5 months later. the stuffs are really fresh(ought to be) but the day it doesn't anymore is the day you stop coming here.

it's next to bossini, on level 2. :) 2 peeps lunch was about 15 bucks cuz we shared to get more variety going.
(i think the chips were from lays) :)



went for my first concert.
i've been studying with symphony 92.4.
so it's totally classical. i mean i liked classical back when i was a little kid.
i guess it has less emotions blaring and calms your mind so you can channel all your energy to the task at hand.

so i thought heck why not go for a REAL concert.
it was the Philips Gala - Leia Josefowicz Beauty of Beethoven.

can i say. i've spoiled my ears. my first concert and to the raptous applause, 6-7 times she came out again.
i think it's a very high bar set.
it was lovely. the 2 hours + just flew by.

the next concert is 27 Jun CIMB-SSO Gala Concert: Emanuel Ax Plays Chopin
but i think i'll be in taiwan.

side note. the idiot who designed the esplanade concert hall didn't carpet it.
if you move, everyone can hear you.
doesn't help if you're sitting behind the musicians.

i think it's pretty funny how, the beautiful music is allowed to be interupted by the flipping of pages.

i think that's pretty dumb.
why can't they put touch screen terminals.

classical music is supposed to make u smarter right? obviously not.

i've also noticed one more thing. people who listen to classical music alot in singapore.

they tend to be either deranged, weird, weird, short tempered, weird, touchy(easily agitated), inflexible, stiff, old.

i've noticed it.

so...believe what you will about classical music.

they're all very touchy. imposing. inflexible. self centered. and have very bad hairstyles.

so like i say again. lol. i mean how many times have you seen the person who listens to classical music break out into a fit when a complex fast dynamic situation gets thrown at them.

countless.

yup.

while i like classical music i shall not allow myself to become that. lol.

the guy sitting next to us, on a single seat. i think anyone who goes to a concert on a single seat is abit weird.

and he did prove to be. i didn't look at him. but from the side he reminds me of chee soon juan gesticulating and flabbing his mouth at rubbish.

with bad hair style.

but i kinda forgot about him after that. just that he did fit the type i was talking about.

the other grown up folks you could see were there for the lovely evening night out. and yes it was :)

      

after that, we adjourned to raffles city for dinner/supper.
finally for the first time, although i've like lived so much of the past 8 years around the dhobyghaut-cityhall-suntec stretch.

i've finally had a meal at Out of the Pan



desserts were really nice la
i got murdered by my waffle!
i couldn't finish the fruits. as i offered it to her. her face squirmed.
i jibbed her saying "welcome to singapore!"
yea welcome to singapore...shitty fruits we get are all sour.
which makes doc green@vivo  fresh stuffs super amazing.

the crepe too is nice. very nice.

okay this entry is uber long. but i couldn't think of to split it into 3?

so anyway this morning. soccer at NUS. no one came. except the 7 of us.
kinda sad. but hey after 1 week of no ball.

this is what i aim at every week.
i do get excited again as i type this and see the pic.

that guy is Fuckie! he's uber cute. his passing is good. and has good vision. i like to play off him and get his through balls.
sometimes he surprises us by working really hard.
he's had a few weeks lay off as a precaution cause he popped his knee about 3-4 weeks ago.
good move because such small injuries are warnings we must listen to if we're thinking of the long term.

so but yea. this is where i've been banging it in, and stopping, for the past 2 years + :)
i really thank god for this place.



and my good soccer bro Melvin sent me back to harbour front.

found this cute doll Guan bought for them from thailand.

yea Mel was saying he wanted to bring it all over the world and take pictures with it at the eiffel. at the vienna concert hall. etc

but he FORGOT TO BRING IT when he went fer his grad trip. lol.

maybe i should do something like that. Japan-Taiwan-Australia leg.

shit. i need to go back to study soon. haha.

tata.



sorry for the long entry but that's my day up to so far.

had a msg from shijie and faith to watch sex and the city. but yea gotta get back into study mood. i mean i am in the study mood but yea i cannot keep thinking i can do the impossible. (as in play like mad and study like mad)

or would it seem to you i am doing that? haha.

yea whatever.

BOOYAH!

but i shall bounce back!

i keep thinking of soccer. i missed one week of entirely no soccer.

every other moment when my mind has a gap between the dollar figures and graphs(love).

i see a nicely laid green shining smooth lawn...yes LAWN.

i see a ball. i see beckham. yes i see him like more than 20 times a day!

i see him swinging out his left hand, arching his back backwards, leading on his left, and giving the ball a good hoof with his right.

i see myself doing that too. except cuz i'm left footed. and i don't rarely see the need to swing my hand.(unless distance required). the rest's the same.

i miss footie.

as i walk from point to point. i'm thinking of step overs. flicks. putting the ball through my legs. angling my runs.

i think of jumping in mid air. hammering my new found heading ability past the goalie.
or ramming it emphatically past the goalie.

when i walk. i see plays of previous moves on the court. i dream of the lung bursting runs. tracking back from one end to the next to deliver the crucial possession changing tackle.

GARGHHHH. i miss putting my foot over the ball at speed. angling the way i want to. dribbling past people like they weren't there.
and banging goals in like the defenders were from primary school. or stopping play like i am the godzilla of the court.

i miss i miss i miss.

i miss footie!

(plus toe's injured so it's good to let it rest...i try to tell myself to placate my desire)

it's like LUST

I LUST after the ball.

I LUST after the game.

i wouldn't die for it or love it. but i would extract joy from it. so that's LUST.

GARGH!

let me lung burst 20km in a game. run down the flank to lay off the cross.

blast past the last 3 defenders and leave the goalie for dead.

hack down the opposing midfielders and wingers and strikers into lame submission.

of course hacking with precise italian specifications mean, ball only, not the man. (but if i get the ball first, and the man tumbles into me then that's his problem)

i miss the one touch passing.

i miss the interlink play.

i miss being pummelted with attack after attack and holding the defence strong.

i miss!

GARGH!!!

(but my toe's injured. needs time to rest. see it's improving because you rested it; so i tell myself. HMPH)

exam in exactly 12 hours. fuck. LOL GTG.

LAWN. GREEN. PLAYING THE BALL OVER THE TURF.

OOOO.

GARGHHH!!!!

i've loved football since i was in primary 5. my primary school friends like vikram, thomas, alvin lim, etc would run out at the bell to the field.(all of whom i'm not in any contact with nowadays)
we would then together with others play.
we hated PE because the teacher would make us run. but then he let us play for a few weeks.
i noticed something that when we were forced to go running, our movement and stamina was better.
yes, primary 5 kid, i notice all these little things.
i started as a goalkeeper. i loved peter shilton, walter zenga, luca marchegiani, gianluca pagliuca.
my first soccer camp was as a primary 6 kid. i first saw maldini's poster since it was a nike soccer camp.
i did very badly at it. and i could feel no one felt i was good.
i even quarreled with one of the more irritating camp participants at downtown east chalet then.
but i remember barry whitebread came to teach us. "don't run blindly, look up and run"
and this other coach who taught gheorge hagi came too. he taught us when hagi received the ball he'd go through this process. "look. pass. shoot." look first. if can pass pass. if shooting opportunity then shoot.
i loved italy since pri 5.(still do) and AC Milan since '95 when Baggio(my fav) went to Milan to get bullied by Arrigo Sacchi.

anyway entering secondary school. xinmin. without any football. banned. and a stinking sport called volleyball took centrestage. i still call it stinking now.
i remember out of love, i would, kick the ball against the wall for hours everyday.
i practiced really alot. and also crossing too, like beckham cause he appeared then too(still love him now).
i got pretty much better. except for stamina.
and would score alot of goals. modelling myself after ronaldo(still a fav) who could take out an entire team. and score.
something you'd have to combine c.ronaldo, messi, berbatov, rooney.
into one person.

that's why i always say. who is the real ronaldo.

my best chance came when my mom asked me would i like to go to italy in '98 june holiday for soccer camp.
she had a friend in italy who could help out.
fearing for the house finances(without any knowledge of the finances) i thought maybe not.
_|_ me for that.
i've only gone for one trial and i didn't do well at it. went together with alvin lim and his spanish friend to i think some green team's trial.
we had 4 big rectangles we'd play in.
and switched every 15mins with other boys.
i never did well in those situations.

although over the years. i've really studied the game's tactics. and the intricacies of each position.
and tried to some short spurts of success at each position.
i still love this game to bits.

i still love to score. dribble.
i love to stop play. i love to dominate the game too.
maybe recently i've totally lost touch with creating chances for others. something i used to love to do because Baggio always said "i love others to score on my assists". Kennet Andersson of Bologna can attest to that.
i love doing dead balls. i love calculating how much dip. how much back-spin. or front spin. or lift.
to put on the ball so that it will, just nice reach the head of my striker.
just nice curl around the defence.
just nice(with extra power) beat the goalkeeper.

my dribbling is abit off. when i run too much my feet get abit heavy and can't dance.
secretly i like to dance because i believe it'll help my football.

sometimes in my times of doubt.
i really think have i let pass my passion.
and let this whole finance and ironman ginggang replace it.

like today. we played in the rain.
it's been ages since i last did.
because you need EVERYONE to consent doing so.
and somehow everyone just did. (i nearly got my handphone in water trouble)

it was super fun.
i missed alot of chances i shouldn't have.
as a striker playing out and out. meaning your runs and positions are tailored such that you're there to only score. only shoot. only irritate the defense.
there was one where Fuckie and the Goalie clashed. the ball slipped out.
i knew it. before anyone could react. as usual. i pounced.
and from less than 3meters out. i skied it.
sometimes i wonder how professionals do it.
i don't wonder much anymore(unless u had the time of the world!)
sometimes your leg just suddenly doesn't bend right.like blood flow/sudden muscular disfunction.
sometimes. because i have short attention span. you don't look at the ball until the last moment.
and you get distracted.

i used to like counting the goals i scored. i don't now.
but each one i miss. i remember.
so that the next time i'll get it.
i thank god though that i do get to play alot of it.
i've banned myself from weekday and sunday games(meaning only saturday left)
until i graduate.

we finished the rainy game. where i dived on the concrete floor(thanks to aqua planing) after Melvin scored.
with the last 2 goals scored by us.
1 by Jenson. who NEVER scores.
kinda like Makelele.
but he hit a scorcher. kicked it off with his right. jammed deep into the ball. rocketed the top bar and bounced across the line.
and the last one by me.(he scored so he set me free from my goalkeeping role).
i got it somewhere off the middle line.
the midfield backed off.
i was surprised. maybe it was the rain or fatigue.
i had eternity to shift it to my left.
my teammates as usual begin to call my name. of which. being deaf to. i have become accustomed to doing. (too selfish me)
i saw in a flash that if i hit the ball somewhere just above the middle and wrapped it over with my left on the outswing. it would go around the entire mass of human bodies and go into the bottom left.
so i did.
and it was sweet as imagined. :)

nothing to get excited about as it's been done many times before.

but as i let out a woohoo celebrating my own goal. (lol. i'm a different animal on the pitch).

i reflect. how i still love this game.
i have the fitness. thanks to god. in fact better fitness than maybe singapore players.
i train for ironman. soccer games are max 2 hours. ironman requires at least a 12hour aerobic capability.(kinda off peak now so i'm about dropped to 2 : ( no worries tho)

i love just taking the ball and expressing what i wanna do with it.
curl it. backspin it. rocket it. chip it. front spin it.
it all matters.
and it's all love.
and it's sweet.

=\

but as life would have it.
it will always be in my heart.
but my path is laid before me.
and forwards i shall walk.

oo. i used to be unable to use my head.
but because of dancing and doing neck exercises. i think i'm not bad now! :D
bugger.

nonetheless. the football on tv now. is damn retarded.
players now are. so useless.

cristiano good? how many can he beat before scoring?
messi? where did he go.
maybe wesley sjneider.

yea. nuff said.
actually i wanted to create an additional blog to post my views and knowledge on football.
this IS the first time i've written about my love.
hah.