Sadness and joy

The girl in the pictures is my friend Puay Li, who is my 'neighbour' at work and a good friend. She left yesterday for a year's study in Wales, and I will miss her for her insight, her logical and direct way of looking at issues, and her sweet but at times deadly tongue. I wish her all the best in her studies, and may God protect her each step of the way.

That's the sad part. The joyous part is my beloved Gunners won their first game at the Emirates Stadium, beating Sheffield United 3-0! And darling Thierry scored! That's the icing on the cake! Now, we gotta keep winning and overtake Manure....who drew (hahaha!) with Reading.

Finally!

We won! We beat Manure at their home ground at Old Trafford! 1-0, final score! No Henry, but the team still played brilliantly, stopped Manure in their winning streak, and got a precious 3 points! Victory!!!!

Ho Chi Minh trip and reflections

Just came back from a long weekend to Ho Chi Minh City....first time that I've been to Vietnam and found it much nicer than Bangkok (aka Singapore's newest housing estate!). At least, I could walk around and feel that I'm actually in a FOREIGN land, and not just walking down a part of Orchard Road that has Thai signage instead of English, since we hardly bumped into any Singaporeans while we were there.

The roads are filled with motorbikes and bicycles, and no one seems to really follow the traffic rules....I know the French colonised Vietnam, but I thought they knew what traffic lights were? Or maybe they didn't think that it was important to bring that little concept to Vietnam, cos there were very few traffic lights on HCM City's streets! Everytime we crossed the roads, we (a group of 5) had to coordinate looking to the left and right and left and right...(another strange idiosycrasy is that tho the French colonised Vietnam, the Yanks seemed to be more important, cos the cars are left-hand drive and the US Dollar is accepted widely!) Still, by the time we left, we were cool veterans of the streets, and could walk calmly across traffic junctions (as opposed to running screaming across in the midst of a hundred motorbikes, cars and bikes apparently hell-bent on adding 5 Singaporean scalps to their tally!)

Saw some of the sights, including the Cu Chi Tunnels and the War Remnants Museum. The tunnels are about 250 kms in total, and that's where a lot of the Viet Cong hid out while fighting against the Americans...the tunnels are so tiny that I can understand how the Yanks lost the war! anyone who lived in that confined space would fight to the death and beyond to earn the right to live like a normal human being! The museum had the usual propaganda-ish photos of Yanks' atrocities, including their use of chemical warfare, beheading, use of nail-filled bombs etc and the effects on the common folks....sigh, why do the Americans claim to be the upholders of democracy blah blah, but go around places killing other folks in various unpleasant ways? This really isn't the way to win friends, you know! And people should stop blaming Dubya Bush...he ain't the first Yank, and I don't think he'd be the last, to believe that war is the only way to bring about peace, freedom, democracy and the American Way to the rest of the world!

My HCM pics will be posted somewhere, sometime soon....

Revenge in Paris!

YES! France whacked Italy 3-1 and my darling Thierry scored a goal.....Hoho! France showed the World champions who plays better football, and it sure ain't the Italians! Italy was out-played, out-witted, and definitely out-scored! Now I'm going to hope that France continues their winning ways all the way to the Euro finals.....

England didn't play well, but still managed to beat Macedonia 1-0 through a goal scored by the Beanpole. I know, I know, I shouldn't call people names, but he's one!

Anyway, that's the last of the Internationals, and this weekend will see the resumption of EPL season....I hope and pray Arsenal will beat Boro convincingly and shake off their debutant blues in their new stadium.

I'll be going to Ho Chi Minh...really excited since I've never been to Vietnam before. Will post pics and my comments once I'm back.....Promise!

:-P

Whacking minnows

England beat tiny Andorra 5-0 last night....would be better gauge of their abilities if they were playing against a better team such as Italy or France, but guess they are going to be happy with that scoreline. The beanpole scored twice, so did Defoe. Hope boring Sven is dying of humiliation now that his assistant was able to get the team gelling together in a way he was never able to do.

France also won 3-0, but my darling Thierry didn't get on the score sheet....poor thing seems to be going through a goal drought the past couple of games for club and country....

Italy drew Lithuania 1-1....haha, going to pray that they LOSE HEAVILY to France in their match on Wednesday....(yup Heather hasn't forgiven Italy for beating France on July 9th..)