FOOTBALL: CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SEMIS 2ND LEG

Liverpool VS. Chelsea

AC Milan VS. Man. Utd.

Both Chelsea and Manchester United hold the edge of 1 goal from the first leg. I still want Liverpool and AC Milan to go through. Do win the 2nd leg and give us 2 great matches to watch! I will try not to miss them. I watched the first leg between Man. Utd. VS. AC Milan and I thought it was not a bad match. Kaka and C.Ronaldo were the stars for both the clubs. They will again shoulder the burden to bring their respective clubs into the final. As for Liverpool, they need the firepower upfront to score goals against Chelsea. We saw their spirit in the year when they lifted the Champions League against Milan. I wish that spirit is present so they can go through when Carragher was as perfect as Cannavaro during the World Cup final and anything Gerrard did is possible to get the goals, even to the last minute.

BACK TO SINGAPORE

I was back last night. It was a great trip and experience. The most important thing is networking with professors and students all over the world. It is good because we get to know their work and research. I also get feedbacks on my thesis presentation and paper which both help in giving me a more solid look into them before submission of thesis. I am just glad I went.

Suzhou was alright for me, it is just too wasteful to spend 6 hours to get there and back. The time spent can be used for other more meaningful visits around Nanjing even. I will try to upload photos when I have time to edit them.

REACHED NANJING WITH FIRST BULLET TRAIN

Today is the first day of operation of the bullet train in China. Coincidently it is the day I am to travel to Nanjing from Shanghai. The train can reach 250kmph. I heard it took 4 years of testing before finally starting operation. People told me the ticket is historic and valuable so I must keep it. Haha!

Nanjing looks nice and clean from my first impression. I will know more when I visit the city more. Since I am attending the conference, I can only have free time at night. Hopefully I can visit some of the famous sites.

HELLO FROM SHANGHAI!

I reached Shanghai yesterday and went shopping for the whole day! The weather is quite nice, not too cold but we are experiencing strong wind once a while. I will head over to Nanjing this Wednesday. Now staying in uncle's house. Shanghai is just filled with people. There are endless and endless of people. You just see them everywhere.

I went to the badminton tournament and it was quite interesting watching it live! You get to cheer and shout with the crowd. It is truly a different experience than watching at home. I never thought the stadium could be so packed and everyone is in the spirit of pushing the players to perform their best!

FRIDAY THE 13TH AGAIN

Remember I mentioned I had my first ever interview during Friday the 13th? Today, I will have my presentation for the funding for the conference in Nanjing. Well, I guess Friday the 13th is always an eventful day for me. I had prepared almost everything for my trip this Sunday to Shanghai. I think I just have to buy some medicine for the trip for fever, cold, diarrhoea and cough. As you guys know, there is this new 100ml maximum per item for hand carry for travelling in air now. Blame it on the terrorists for all the inconvenience caused. Now, you have to measure how much water you want to bring with you or any liquid, cream, paste and gel you want to hand carry. Air travel is getting more and more inconvenient.

I will be going to the semifinal ABC badminton tournament tomorrow afternoon. RM20 for a semifinal ticket and I think RM30 for the final. Hope I enjoy watching international badminton matches live for the first time.

FOOTBALL: LIVERPOOL AND MILAN THROUGH

People straight away talk about a possible rematch of a Liverpool and Milan final! Well, could it be possible now that Liverpool is playing Chelsea and Milan is playing Manchester United? On paper, many are saying that it will be Chelsea against Manchester United in the final because they are slightly the favourites. What say you? Haha!

I just wish for great matches to follow from now onwards. I do wish for a Liverpool Vs. Milan final. A double English final will make me think that I am watching the EPL instead!

I went to watch Mr. Bean's Holiday eventhough I will be expecting nothing new. It was so boring I almost died of boredom. He never ever come up with new tricks ever again after his serials. I guess the only good part to laugh is that highway where his bicycle was crushed by a tank and how he waited for ages for an old dude on a motorized bicycle. There is nothing else to shout about.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHNNY WONG!

May you be wiser,
May you be smarter,
May you be sexier,
May you be better,
May you be cooler,
May you enjoy your birthday dude!

Wishing you the very best in the year ahead! It is time to plan for marriage man! I wait for your red card until I grow grey hair already! Fasterlah, I give you one to two more years!

FOOTBALL: MANCHESTER UNITED 7-1 ROMA!!!!!!

Most importantly, Alan Smith is back after a long injury rest. He must be on top of the world by scoring a goal in the demolition of Roma. Incredible scoreline for modern football.

In another encounter: Valencia-Chelsea 1-2

Well, Morientes scored but Shevchenko replied with Essien to grab the winner.

Tomorrow morning, we will have Bayern Munich playing against AC Milan as well as Liverpool against PSV Eindhoven. Well, it could end up to be a 3 English clubs semifinal with AC Milan as the only Italian representative. Will Shevchenko be meeting AC Milan as an opponent? Interesting possibility.

Anyway, I just bought the semifinals ticket to the badminton tournament. I hope I will enjoy it.

YONEX-SUNRISE BADMINTON ASIA CHAMPIONSHIP 2007

I plan to go to a live badminton tournament since it is going to be held in Johor Bahru and is really near to drive to. I am unable to make it for the finals as it will be the same date I will be flying off so perhaps I will catch the semifinals on the 14th April 2007.

I heard many of the top stars will not be playing. For the men singles, we will see Lee Chong Wei, Taufik Hidayat, Chen Yu, Roslin, Hafiz, Simon Santoso, Chen Hong among others who are going to play. For the men doubles, we will see Lee Wan Wah-Choong Tan Fook, Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong among the few who are playing. There is no Fu Haifeng-Cai Yun, Lee Yong-dae-Jung Jae-sung, Markis Kidho-Hendra Setiawan or Lin Dan, Chen Jin and Bao Chunlai. Many are not sending their best players especially China, Indonesia and South Korea. Well, it is understandable why. The stadium is also very low quality as well as the coming Singapore Open and Indonesia Open being the focus.

This Yonex-Sunrise Badminton Asia Championship 2007 carries a total prize money of US$125,000 and was ranked as BWF Level 3 (Gold) Event.

SHANGHAI, NANJING, SUZHOU AND MAYBE SYDNEY

I will be going to CAADRIA 2007 (Computer Aided Architectural Design in Asia) in Southeast University in China during the 3rd week of April 2007, which is around 2 weeks' time. My research paper is accepted to be presented there. Apart from that, my thesis is also accepted for the Postgraduate Consortium so I can have my research discussed with professors and students worldwide. It will be good for me to get feedback, ideas and more opinions for my thesis completion in July-August 2007 this year.

I also got another paper accepted for CAAD Futures'07 which will be held in University of Sydney in 2nd-3rd week of July 2007. I may not go for this one as my university only provide one funding per academic year so I will most probably be only going to the Nanjing one. Unless I willingly pay myself and to cut costs. stay with my relatives in Sydney and eat instant noodles with bread everyday. I have not made up my mind yet. It will be good to attend these two international conferences because you have professors and students from the best universities in the world like Harvard and MIT to discuss with. You will definitely learn from the best brains on the planet.

I will fly to Shanghai to stay with my relatives, then go Nanjing for the conference. I will drop by Suzhou for a day trip before flying home directly to Singapore. My last trip to China was with mom to Beijing. I will be meeting some China friends this week to check out the places of interest in Shanghai, Nanjing and Suzhou to hang out and the best food to try. Hopefully, I will have a nice trip.

FOOTBALL: PIECES OF NEWS HERE AND THERE

Joe Cole could be finally back? What a relief it must have been for Mourinho. Although Robben is out for quite some time. Speaking of Cole, when will Owen heal? Speaking of Mourinho, will he be kicked out of Chelsea?

There is this guy by the name of Bruno Giordano who is coaching Messina. Is he wearing Giordano brands? I know, very lame joke. I thought is hard to spell Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. There is another name from Aston Villa called Gabriel Agbonlahor who has a weird name too. Well, tell me what other weirder and harder to pronounce names you come across.

Champions League football resumes!

AC Milan VS. Bayern Munich

Milan is in a good form. Will have an edge.

PSV Eindhoven VS. Liverpool

Liverpool just play better in Europe. Benitez again will be the key strategist to kill off Eindhoven. However, Eindhoven under Koeman are the dark horses of the Champions League this season. 50-50

Chelsea VS. Valencia

Chelsea are under tremendous stress, specifically Mourinho with the speculations of him leaving. He just have to win. Morientes will be the dangerman for Valencia. 50-50

Roma VS. Manchester United

Manchester United and the diver Ronaldo will only lose if the referee is smart enough to detect it. If not, expect Manchester United to win again from a penalty or something from a dive.

Somehow, the draws made the quarters extremely lonely for some reasons. I will try to watch a match, perhaps the AC Milan VS. Bayern Munich clash. You guys have fun enjoying the matches!