2 years on...

Exactly 2 years ago, Spain clinched Euro 2008. Fernando Torres the HERO on that faithful day...

Fernando Torres celebrating his winning goal against Germany.

The picture below? That is David Villa celebrating the only goal in Spain's victory against Portugal(which he scored) this morning thus clinching Spain a place in the last 8 of the World Cup.Bravo! Torres was a shadow of his self as he apparently needs more time to get fully fit after the knee surgery.

This whole blog post is however, not about football. 30th June 2008 was also the day that I officially started my college life. Kolej Teknologi Timur, that unknown, 'shop-lot' college was going to be my home for more then 1.5 years.

Those 2 years seem to pass by in a flash. I remember waking up that morning feeling extremely sleepy because of watching the finals just a few hours earlier. I wouldn't say that I was excited at that time but I was certainly looking forward to start studying again after the extra long holidays after SPM.

Upon arrival at college, I remember this Choong introducing himself as CX3( his username on recom) and asking me if I was Shawn Paul. LOL. I meet up with Shawn( whom I had met earlier during the MIED award ceremony) and we registered together, just to make sure that we get the same apartment.

Some guy led me to my new apartment and what I saw the moment I opened the door shocked me at that time. The house was in a mess and it was extremely dusty and dirty. The toilet to my utmost horror was like a public toilet in those R&Rs along the highway during the festive season. We cleaned up abit but that day, our parents did most of the cleaning because we needed to go to the hall to listen to some briefings. If it wasn't for them, we would be in a total mess that day.

I remember Selvan, as cool as ever entering the apartment in just jeans. We (Shawn and me) didn't even know his name until like about 3 days later because we couldn't really hear what he was saying when he was introducing himself. He just murmured something really fast and we didn't ask more questions after that. Perhaps we were too shy to ask at that time.

The other guy I remembered very well from the first day was Chai. During the Q & A session with JPA, this Chinese guy with spiky hair kept asking questions. LIKE NON-STOP ! At that time, I remember wondering to myself ''Are all JPA scholars like that? " (Chai, I'm sure you won't be offended by this. HAHA..we became really good friends after that)

The first game I played in KTT was football. I still remember Eric, Beh, Prittipal and me. All playing at the horrible field in KTT. At a single glance, Eric wouldn't look like a guy who plays any sports at all, being rather plump and all. However it was evident that he was a sportsman after playing with him. I soon found out that he even represented Johor in football.WOW!
Beh Jun Hua is another guy who I never thought played sports...but after just 1 day of playing football with him, I was convinced that this guy was an awesome athlete too. He kept running and running and running. So another doubt was cleared during my 1st day in KTT . NOT ALL JPA SCHOLARS ARE NERDS. Much to my relieve of cause.

Well, those are just some of the few little things that I remember happened during the first day in KTT. The orientation week just flashed by and I was very much waiting to go home at the end of the week. I have to say that I adapted really well to my new surroundings (helped by the fact that my house was just 45 mins away from college and good friends) and perhaps my biggest complaint during that time was the food. To me at least, the cafe food was horrible! But I survived and 2 years on, I'm now waiting for my departure to India. Looking forward to this new challenge that will be thrown at me. Of course it won't be easy, going to a new country and all. The pressure while studying for exams will be immense ( as I can see from the blogs and facebook statuses of various seniors) but I am very much looking forward to this new phase of my life.

I'll leave you with some pictures of my home for almost 2 years. Trust me, KTT isn't as bad as what people think. You just need to be positive and you'll do very well in that 'jungle'.

The one and only badminton court in KTT. It seems hazardous...well, in fact it is. Sharon once fell here and got a bad cut near her eye.

The 'sprawling' campus

The deserted corridors of KTT. To be honest, KTT looks way better now compared to the time I first came in. There are more plants and there are glass doors everywhere.

Pak Cik Parang's residence ;) Hope you juniors treat him nicely. He's just a poor old man who wants some peace and quiet time to spend with his ever growing family.

Tangga 11

The peaceful road leading uphill. A great place to relax and unwind for some. For me, a good jogging route.

The anthill in the middle of the football field. We live side-by-side with nature.

The view from uphill. You can see KLIA from here. What other college overlooks KLIA?? ;)

The road around the field. I've jogged here goodness knows how many times .

The great futsal court. We fully utilised it during our KI. Its also one of those improvements that KTT has made since Day 1. Well done management !

Social Networking

In an age where Social Networking websites are in their prime, I find it extremely interesting to read the comments after every World Cup match. Its good to see things from various perspectives and I find it totally entertaining .

First just a little on last night's matches. Germany beat England 4-1! Well, some might say they were lucky because Lampards goal was disallowed but Germany were the better team and England simply couldn't gel well as a team. Brilliant individuals but as a team, they're poor.

Argentina too went through to the next round and will meet Germany after beating Mexico 3-1. Again, the referee was under the spotlight for allowing Tevez's first goal to stand.

Anyway, straight to those comments on facebook and twitter.

I've classified them into various categories.

First of all, those England fans. Kindda felt sad for them but Oh well, thats football.:)

# haiz...*sobs*time to change profile picture lor... =( try harder next time England

#and the match is decided.Nice attack england, but WTH with ur defence? =.= 2 successful counters in 5 mins, u'r better than this.Germany played better.

This next guy was mixing it with some extra history

#OMG~!!! feels like the german ghost of the 1966 world cup is back to haunt ENG~!!! DAMN~!!!!

Others were calling out for the use of video technology

#What?? NO GOAL? Its clearly time for football to use technology in refereeing! Cmon England!

while others just vented out their frustration in a short and sweet sentence

# Goodbye England

The creative one
# gg.com.uk

..and then there are those who just could not hide their anger( forgive me for the foul language-just copying it)

# the ref is an idiot.clearly the ball had crossed the line. You're a ****ing disgrace

# ****ed up ref! **** and die man..clearly a goal sial

some even went as far as to hit out at those Nazi's. Gosh
# WE'RE GONNA BE DOING ONE THING AND ONE THING ONLY.KILLING NAZIS!!!

followed by this extremely angry fan who probably might not watch the FIFA World Cup now that England is out.
# wat an end...****d up FIFA, ****d UP REF,****d up ENGLAND....

Well, those who supported Germany were probably grinning from ear to ear having also won their bets with friends.

#sexy game Germany (perhaps a new way to describe football, creative indeed!)
#nice one Germany!!!!
#ENGLAND just got PWNED~!! :D
#Lauk England malam ni ( this guy was probably too hungry after the game)
# *smiling mockingly*
# UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Germany 4...England 1!!!!!!!!!!! OoooRAAHHHH


and then of cause there are those who are too observant and watch football for other reasons.

# Just realised dat German footballers are HOT! Go Germany!!
# England Manager looks cute with his various facial expressions. (must be a Capello fan)
# Lampard might cry tonight


There are also people who love to ponder on everything that happens
# was thinking to myself a minute ago, ''why bah ppl like England?''

Those diplomatic and fair people

#wow..every1 in turmoil now..chillax all =.=
#poor England..justice for '66?
#Nice game played by the Germans.You've shown ur potential. Lampard, you played well too! (this person even had words of consolation for Lamps)

The Steven Gerrard fan
# a night of what ifs :(:(:( yet Germany was the better team they deserved it. Still proud of you Gerrard!

The David Beckham fan
# Without Beckham, England is nothing. (LOL at this statement, total crap)

Finally, those who are far sighted enough and are perhaps already looking forward to the new EPL season.

#Fergie!! Pls snap up Ozil~!! :):)

All such interesting comments to read everytime a match ends in South Africa. To my surprise, many people who I never thought watch football also chipped in with a comment or two. I guess the FIFA World Cup really is the biggest and most largely viewed tournament on this planet.

Looking forward to tonight's games where I hope Brazil will be knocked out by Chile and it is almost certain that Holland will beat Slovakia.

Here's a picture for all YOU ENGLAND supporters out there. This was why the goal was not given! HAHA!

Finally delivering

Woohoo! The world cup has finally reached the knock out stage and the past one week has been really great to watch. Goals coming from every corner especially during the Korea-Portugal match. 7-0! Who would have predicted such a scoreline. Spain crawled through to the next round with wins against Honduras and Spain. Lets just hope it gets better for them after this. France and Italy were humbled by other not to glamorous nations and are probably back home packing for their own summer vacation.

*******************************************************************************
The team of the tournament for me thus far has to be Brazil . Although they didn't win all their 3 games, you can always see that there is an extra gear in that team. They can just go up a notch or two at will.

**********************************************************************************
Players that have impressed me so far : Messi, Honda, A.Gyan and Landon Donovan, owh and not to forget David Villa.

Anyway, Im not gonna write much about the games that were played last week. Yesterday's matches saw Uruguay and Ghana progressing to the Quarterfinals .

A mouth-watering match not to be missed tonight when Germany take on a stuttering England. Everyone seems to think that Germany will steam roll over England but I expect upsets in this game. I'll be supporting Germany though because I have simply ran out of patience with the way the English play football.BORING!

Argentina vs Mexico should also be an fast game and I really hope that Messi will finally break his duck and score his first goals in the tournament. He really deserves it.

Once again...You can NEVER predict football matches.

England stumbling against Algeria.Spain losing (rather unfortunately) to the Swiss.France outplayed by a strong Mexican side.Germany (10man) beaten by a resilient Serbian team. World Champs Italy held by the gritty All Whites.

Many punters would have lost alot of money after these few upsets.

Many people I'm sure would agree with me if I say that this World Cup lacks the usual excitement of other world cups. Most matches have been played at a very slow tempo. Stadiums have been unusually empty.(I've never seen that many empty seats in a previous world cups)Goalkeepers have been making so many mistakes which then leads to the criticism that the Jabulani ball is not good,too light and swerves alot. What I find most irritating so far has been the constant drone of the vuvuzelas. Goodness me...those things have got to be banned! I recently said that I have gotten used to the sound of the vuvuzelas, I take that back. They still annoy me.
Free kicks have been really bad and they hasn't been many fantastic goals scored.

FIFA! BAN THESE PLEASE~!!!

The Jabulani ball. Looks really nice though

Those CRAZY supporters!

Anyway, Brazil will be playing Ivory Coast in the next game. I hope to see some excitement there and maybe even an upset. Hopefully the world cup will burst into life in the next round of matches too!

Introducing Mysore (Pre-Departure)

Since most of my friends do not know anything about Mysore, (some may have come across the name before) let me just walk you through a brief introduction to that place.

Lets start with some Geography.

Map Of India. Mysore is located in the state of Karnataka(South India)
I think you should click to enlarge this picture.

The Map of Mysore. My college (JSS Medical College) is located at the top of the map.(near JSS College of pharmacy)

Since now you all know where it is located, its time for some facts about Mysore. (Mostly from the Wikipedia)

*Mysore is the 2nd largest City in Karnataka and it is just 146km from Bangalore, the capital of that state. India is an extremely huge country so thats why I said its JUST 146km.

*The language spoken by the locals there is Kannada. (haha! nope..its not Canadian language) Its a dialect spoken there.

*Mysore is said to receive a large number of tourist since they have some beautiful places to visit(pictures of some are below).

*This next fact amused me a little. Mysore was voted the 2nd cleanest city in India and the cleanest city in Karnataka.LOL. Survey done by the Urban Development Ministry over there.

*Since it is located on the South Karnataka Plateau, its average altitude is about 700m.Therefore the temperature over there is actually quite pleasant.

*Highest temperature ever recorded = 38.5 degrees Celsius. Lowest temperature ever recorded = 9.6 degrees Celsius. (thats during winter)

Now...a few reasons why you should all come visit me here in the next 5.5 years. Look at all these places!

This is my college. Of course it doesn't look as awesome as the manipal campus, but its not too bad either. (In this picture at least)

The beautiful St Philomena's Church(built in 1936)

Brindivan Gardens

The Mysore Palace. This place is absolutely amazing.

Day time view of the place.

Thats all for my brief introduction on Mysore. Well, I will have to see the place for myself to believe it. I'll write another blog post once I'm there. HAHA..SO NOW YOU KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT MYSORE.

~its time for my nap...pre world cup nap~

The Day When Zeus Stuck Down The Super Eagles

Just a mini update before the USA vs Slovenia match. The World Cup seems to have sprung back to life after a rather boring first round. Argentina were simply magnificent against South Korea. Hatrick for Higuain but Messi was once again the stand out player during the game. Another game worth mentioning is the France-Mexico match. France were comfortably beaten 2-0 by a sharp Mexican team. Mexico outplayed France and Frank Ribery was very disappointing once again. France seem destined to be heading on the flight back home next week.

Greece beat Nigeria 2-1. Nigeria were leading at first and looked to be in total control of the match but a CRAZY moment where Sani Keita kicked out at a Greek player saw him get a straight red and he virtually won the game for Greece.

The Germany vs Serbia match just ended a few minutes ago. Germany full of confidence after they beat Australia 4-0 LOST 1-0 to a solid Serbian side. Many people were tipping them for world cup glory after their first match but you can never predict anything in football. I always believe that a team needs to slowly grow into the tournament. Not just go out of the blocks flying. There has to be a gradual improvement in a team. Well, their cause wasn't helped when Klose got sent off by a rather fussy Spanish referee early on in the 1st half.

The player of the tournament so far, for me at least. See the similarity with Maradona? Haha..Its extremely difficult to stop these kind of players when they play at their optimum level.

The Agony Of Defeat.

"Perlawanan pertama Piala Dunia sudahpun berakhir..paling tak disangka,Spain tunduk 1-0 kpd Switzerland.Italy dan France pula tdk begitu meyakinkan,sekadar mencatatkan keputusan seri.England masih dihantui insiden penjaga gol yg tak berkesudahan manakala Brazil hanya mampu menang 2-1 dgn Korea Utara.Hanya Germany yg tampak selesa dgn kemenangan 4-0 dlm perlawanan pertama.Bagaimanakah agaknya perlawanan seterusnya?"

My friend's facebook shout out right after the Spain-Switzerland match. Well said.

Who would have thought that the might Spain, one of the favourites to win this year's World Cup would be defeated by Switzerland. It truth, Spain were just too slow in attack. It was all possession and zero penetration. I remember early on in the first half when the commentator was lost for superlatives to describe Spain's passing and movement off the ball. The whole match reminded me of the Champions League semi finals a couple of seasons ago when Barcelona played against Manchester United. Barcelona had like wat? 70% of the ball. In the end, Scholes scored the winner and the rest is history.

Back to Spain.It isn't looking good for Spain at all. They might meet Brazil as early as in the 2nd round if they finish second in the group. Well, you've got to beat the best to win this tournament so in a way, it doesn't really matter too. Lets just hope they regroup and play well and SCORE during their next two matches. Chile's not gonna be easy!

Cristiano Ronaldo did not play well against the Ivory Coast (though he did hit the post with a thunderous strike) and he was up to his old tricks again.DIVING!

Drogba came on late in the 2nd half but did little to influence the game. I hope he'll recover fully after breaking his hand. We all want to see the best players in action during the World Cup.