THE 15 MINUTES OF MADNESS

It was already the 80th minute when woke up to watch the match at the coffeeshop at the ground of my apartment. I overslept because I was rushing work the previous night. The score was 0-0. OK, I thought I did not miss anything. I saw Barcelona pushing Inter Milan real hard. Well, logical since it was their own den and they were trailing. They needed 2 goals to go through to the final. I finally did a quick count since Inter Milan were too deep in defence. Ah, a man down.....no wonder (Motta).

Within 4 minutes, Xavi was again the mastermind who sent in a good assist for Pique to score. The boss of the coffeeshop who was also watching the match told me that I just brought a goal into the match with my presence. I just smiled back because I was half conscious, waking up early for the match. Barcelona were celebrating as they just needed 1 more goal to get through. I watched the replay and it did seem like an offside goal. Well, there was only one angle of the video replay so I should not finalize my view. Perhaps another angle of video replay may help clarify it.

Then another goal was scored by Bojan deep into the injury time but it was ruled out because it hit one of their players. Messi was dangerous as ever with Xavi masterminding strategies to score the goal they needed. Inter Milan's defence finally made it for them to hold on to their lead to win the match. Mourinho was seen running to the pitch and punching his hand up in jubilation. I guess he must be happy to be able to slay the giant in their own turf.

It will be weird seeing Samuel, Cambiasso, Sneijder and Eto'o at the Santiago Bernabeu for the final. They were all ex-Madrid players. It is nice to see Bayern Munich back strong in Europe. Unfortunately, Ribery will most likely not play in the final!

Can we blame mother nature for Barcelona's exit? The first leg was played with them taking land transport all the way to Milan because of the volcanic ash incident.

HULU SELANGOR

The by-election in Hulu Selangor this Sunday (25th April 2010) is heating up this entire week as expected. We hear all kinds of stories from both sides of the camp. I actually traveled quite extensively in Hulu Selangor with LaLa in August 2009 during the first week of the fasting month holidays.



During my visit to Fraser Hill by driving from Rawang, Selangor, I was actually driving across the entire Hulu Selangor then. Both Rawang and Fraser Hill are actually at the border of Hulu Selangor, directly cutting through the whole place diagonally from southwest to northeast. Then when going to Ipoh from Fraser Hill, I drove from northeast of Hulu Selangor to north of it to connect into the North-South Highway to go Ipoh. In that sense, I have driven almost the entire core of Hulu Selangor.

Notice the list of villages I needed to go through in my journey below. It is a good indication that most of Hulu Selangor is still rural, as in what Hulu means. Some places are entirely green while others are small towns. It is a nice place to go to avoid the busy city life, which I enjoyed then. You feel like you are driving away to somewhere remote just to forget about all the worries of the earth.

My Route:
RAWANG
Kampung Sungai Choh
Kampung Baharu Serendah
SERENDAH
Kampung Datuk Harun
Taman Tasik Teratai
Kampung Batu Tiga Puluh
BATANG KALI
Kampung Bukit Chandang
Kampung Sentosa
Kampung Rawang Putar
Kampung Sungai Engkak
RASA
Kampung Bukit Rasa
KUALA KUBU BAHRU
Kampung Dagang Setia
Kampung Kelapa
Taman Bukit Bunga
Taman Selesa
FRASER HILL

FRASER HILL
KUALA KUBU BAHRU
Taman Selesa
Taman Bukit Bunga
Kampung Kelapa
Kampung Dagang Setia
KERLING
Kampung Paya
Kampung Kuala Kubu Road
Pekan Kerling
Kampung Gumut
Kampung Baharu Kalumpang
Taman Musabika
Kampung Jelutong
Taman Bernam Jaya
NORTH-SOUTH HIGHWAY
IPOH



I hope the winner will be determined fairly but that's too much to ask for. I hope the folks in Hulu Selangor are given a fair amount of exposure to the performance and deeds of both parties before giving their evaluation for the vote. Well, that's my hope but it is not going to be easy in Malaysia where the machinery and money are totally skewed.

SIBU BY-ELECTION

I just arrived close to midnight last night in Singapore and read about the Sibu by-election coming up soon. Wow! What a shocking news although I heard lots of rumours already before that! Anyway, I recalled I went back myself with my own money during the last General Elections to exercise my right and my role as a citizen in the election.

This time around, I wonder who the candidates will be fielded. Of course, I have been away almost every month on different types of leave since the start of 2010 so I don't know I can leave again for the by-election. I just hope there will be a fair fight, that's all that I wish for. I hate postal votes.