The Super Sub

I remember back in August 1996, when Astro was still non-existent and football fans like us have to wait at the edge of our seats, hoping, wishing that Dunhill might just sponsor a game for us to watch on the tele. I remember my heart would skip a beat every time I see an Dunhill advert on tele. I would wish with all I got hoping -- with the power of my mind I could manipulate the future -- that they might announce a live game. In August they did. And not only that, it was a double whammy...they are showing:

Manchester United v. Blackburn Rovers at Old Trafford.

My team is playing. It made my week.
Getting a chance to watch the likes of Eric Cantona, Schmeichel and co taking on our then arch-rival on home soil was lovely. I don't need to watch cameo shots of them in the sports highlights. Then a bombshell was dropped. Early in the second half, -- if I'm not mistaken -- we were trailing Blackburn and it didn't seem like we were gonna break out of it. Cantona was literally chain downed by the whole Blackburn defence. Well, it's Cantona, any team would do that. That was when Ferguson unleashed an unknown. I saw at the distance, someone wearing a no. 20 shirt was ready to come on. A certain Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is making his Old Trafford debut.

"Who the hell is that? Ole-what?" slowly accepting the fact that we're screwed. If Cantona can't score, we're proper screwed.

Barely 6-minutes after he came on, he scored and secured a 2-2 draw for Man Utd. He went on and score 19 goals that season, (roughly-lah, can't really recall). He consistently scores an average of 18 goals per season. Not bad for a sub, huh? Thus sealing his reputation within the Red Devil folklore. "The Baby-faced Assassin" as he is fondly called famously saved us in an FA Cup 3rd Round game with Liverpool, scoring a late winner, again, from the bench. That turn out to be his trademark as a super-sub. Which evidently lead to Man Utd winning the FA Cup that season. 1999 was Ole reaching his peak. Remember Nottingham Forest? Solskjaer scored 4-goals in just 19 minutes to trash them 8-1. That was off the bench again.

And who could forget the 1999 UEFA Champions' League at the Nou Camp. Which won us the unprecedented Cup and securing the treble. Again, he come off the bench.



Sadly, 2003 was a signal of trouble times ahead for the super-sub. Sidelined for the whole season with a cartilage injury after scoring in the 5-0 trashing of Panathinaikos. It didn't get any better for him, as he went under the knife 3 times in hope to finally shake off that injury. But it never entirely part ways with him. He made the occasional come-backs now and then, but never long enough before the injury start to haunt him again.

Somehow, in the previous season (2006/2007), magically it seems, as sudden as the injury came, it seems to have magically disappeared. Well, for the first half of the season anyway before the injury resurfaced. He did manage 11 goals in what proved to be his final season.

He announced his retirement yesterday, I couldn't believe my ears when I first heard it on Virgin Radio UK. I couldn't. I text JM about it. I think he fainted for a brief 5-seconds. Shame that it was that bloody injury. That same one that has plagued him for past 4 years. Though if you look at at. His last goal in the league is incidentally scored against Blackburn, when we beat them 4-1 last term. As a sub, on the 90th minute. A little bit poetic, no?

"I've been asked many times what's the greatest moment of my United career,' said Solskjaer.

"Scoring that goal in my first game and turning round to see that Eric Cantona was the first one coming towards me to celebrate, that just made me realise, 'I'm at Old Trafford now'."

I love that quote.
Well, here's to the Ole! The striker that won us the treble and our hearts.

We'll miss you.

Win Some, Lose Some

As far as you all know, the last 3 days was attempt No. 2 for 2007.

What is it I hear you ask? Attempt no. 2?

Well, my futile attempt to kick the habit. The habit of smoking. Yeah you heard me. I Tak Nak rokok lagi. But of course, it's easier said than done. Much easier. Zach's dad advised me to go on at it, the old fashion way. Cold turkey. It worked well, very well. For like 3 hours. OK, 2 hours. OK fine, 1-hour. (I've learnt that being honest to yourself IS essential to the quitting process).

So let's put it this way (and I'm not kidding).
I had one 2 on Saturday and another 2 3 on Sunday. On Monday I was under the weather (mainly due to the excessive eating to postpone the dreaded "after a fantastic meal smoke") I had another 1 (actually 4). That's not too bad now is it? That's terrible. As you can see, I'm only smoking the odd cig the intake increases each passing day, go me! how pathetic. So much for quitting, eh? This calls for celebration! Let's have a smoke! But hey, I ain't giving up just yet. Really. This attempt must be real! Screw it, I'm gonna have a smoke now Real dammit! Not just a weekend thing. And I don't know how much more food I can jam into that long stomach of mine.

But just out of curiosity, I wondered how much do I weigh now? I was at 64kg on Thursday (Yeah, I could literally be blown away by a strong gust of wind), I jump on the scale this morning to investigate. Honestly, I'm hardly a morning-person. Almost never. Simply because - like I've justified on numerous occasion - there's never a good reason to wake up unless you want to. So imagine me, all grumpy and grouchy when I hop on the scale. And it registered at 67kg.

WOAH!

3KG? (here we go again) WOOOAAH!!!

I have to admit, that made my day. And a reason to smoke!

And that made me into a morning-person. Well, at least for this morning anyway. Despite the rotten weather.

I think I found me a new motivation to quit.
I'm gonna be fat! Wooo...

Time for a smoke!

Gosh, I need more will-power.

Tagged, again

Now that I have some time to spare...
And in keeping with my promise to Russ, I will sort out this tag now.

Russ recently tagged me to list down 5 of my friend's blog. Russ, is it a top-5 thing? Because I'm just gonna list 'em in no particular order.

So here we go.

1. Ian the Jelly-Man.
2. Ju, the Niece Who's 5-months older than me.
3. Vonner the Neighbour.
4. David the Studio Manager

and last but not least...

5. BABE. The Hot One.

This is the most pointless tag I've ever done.
Russ, what were you thinking? lol

First Wave

For the past month and a half, I’ve been slugging it out to get my portfolio sorted out. Like I’ve said on many occasions, it wasn’t as fun as I would expect, sorting out my work, 2-years worth. Hence, my absence.

However, it was rather nostalgic. Seeing my progress from Day 1 till, umm, now. Am I happy with the progress? Well, yeah. But was it substantial? Have I got what it takes? According to them, I do.

I went over to the New Zealand Education Fair at Gurney Hotel yesterday to meet with the people of WSD (Wanganui School of Design), to discuss whatever options there is for me to undergo my studies there. Including scholarships. Funding has always been the issue. I enlighten them with some basic drawings.

I wrote me on one end of the paper and Wanganui on the other, contained in a box, “Between me and the Bachelor Degree, is this big highway driving straight towards it,” I dashed the pen across the sheet, “But I can’t afford the tolls, so I’ll have to use the trunk roads, winding my way around it.”

She smiled at me and placed my portfolio between us, on the table where all the brochures were placed, “Well, I’ve taken a look at your portfolio,” she said, lifting it up to show me the title, “and I must say, it’s really good!”

Hearing that, I felt a huge lift, the burden I’ve been carrying for the past month or so blown away in a flash allowing my confidence to soar, “Oh, thank you, I did the best I could,” I told her, “So, what do you think? My chances of a scholarship?”

It was a real shame though that they don’t exactly have a scholarship program. It has to be affiliated with another college or uni or something. This is where I felt they weren’t speaking English to me. But the Director did give me his word, “When I go back, I’ll see what strings I can pull to your favour,” and while he tries, he also suggested I look up for other scholarships, like the ones that the NZ government offers. And yes, they have a division for international students. That’ll be tough, very tough, but still worth a shot. On top of that, we also discussed other methods. Loans, stretching the payment and what not.

After discussing all possible options for me to explore, we veered back into my admission, “Seeing that she has approved your portfolio,” the Director said, “why don’t you fill up the enrollment form first?” Because apparently, I no longer need to sit for any entry-examinations and all that jazz which might take-up weeks most people go thru during application and put me straight into the 3rd Year. Skipping the first 2. They seem keen to have me onboard.

After filling up the forms, I walked back to them and hand it to them, “You should receive a letter from us in about a week, stating that you’ve been accepted to study at WSD.” She also told me that it’s not compulsory for me to accept it, should I still find myself struggling to find the funds needed.

So, after a month and a half of endless round the clock spent in front of the screen, I’ve gotten my first wave. The first step. Now I’m in. Only to discover there’s an intricate web of funding hurdles and endless paper work required during application process. I hope the ripple would go far. Really far.

We shook hands and exchanged beaming smiles, hopeful smiles, “I’ll see you soon at WSD,” she said. As if she knew, somehow, some way, I’ll find myself on a plane to NZ and straight into WSD. I love her optimism.

“And I’ll see you soon.”

I sure hope so. I really do.

Almost There

OK, OK...

I'm back. For now.
Just to jot down a few things before I resume being on hiatus.

With 3 days left, it's really starting to scare me. I've spent a ridiculous amount -- and I really mean ridiculous as in enough to buy me another 3G phone -- on me portfolio, printed on glossy paper. Over 50 pages and one whole day at the printers. What was sad is that I had to chop off 3 sections to cater my embarrassing budget. It was heartbreaking and painful but I had no choice. Running out of time, wallet running thin.

I have yet to see how to final outcome will look like along with the cover design on hard cover. It'll be ready by Monday, well, it better be. I need it by Tuesday.

Not to mention the weeks I've clocked-in to collect 2 years worth of work. I'm exhausted.

Well, I have to rush off work now and head to a book store to buy some supplies I'll need to get me second portfolio up and running. Oh how I wish my mom's copious amount of money plants actually grow real money...oh well.



I'll be back in 5 days. See you then =)
(Russ, I'll get on that tag thing soon, I promise!)

The Day I Edge Closer to Quarter-Life Crisis

And so today’s the day. My day. Strange enough, I did not even contemplate on taking the day off. Just like last year, I decided to work it off, since I don’t have anything planned, might as well, right?

[This is my third attempt on this second paragraph. I can’t help but whine about my dim-witted clients and their one-dimensional comments. They will not mess up my day! So here goes, happy thoughts, joyful thoughts, ummm…]

Just over 2 more weeks to go, 19 days to be specific. I’ve gotten my works from 2005 sorted out, with 2006 and first half of 2007 still to gather and assemble, I’m feeling it. The mixture of a nervous breakdown and a mental meltdown. Panicky. Anxious. Terrified.

So what better way is there to combat such torrent of horrifying feeling than to go shopping! OK, before you go all, “Oh, Meng’s such a woman,” on me, let me be more precise, I’m going techno-shopping! Nothing makes me feel better than buying techno gadgets that I don’t need. But I actually do need them. Really.

Remember the PC went all ‘Smokey the Bear’ on me? Now I gotta beef up my iBook G4 with a spanking new 1GB RAM to bring it up to the max capacity of 1.25GB so I could work on me portfolio at home, a wireless modem, finally (yes, I’m aware it’s already 2007) because not having Internet connection at home is just down right weird and not very wonderful and 2 external HD cases for the HDs that used to be in the PC. I have pornography important data in ‘em that I need for me portfolio. And maybe a couple of 'just for kicks' purchase, as long as they’re cheap.

The second half of 2007 has brought a mixture of extremely welcoming type good luck and of course the ‘every action has an equal and opposite re-action’ type bad luck as well. Just like when my cousin decided to sponsor my car’s insurance for this year which was about RM700.

“I can’t let you do that, that’s a lot of money, I have it right now with me, where are you?” I told her but she refused. I insist but she still declined. Saying that all I need to do in return was to treat her a sensational dinner. I gave in, eventually.

Then my car fucked up, again. This time is the engine mounting. As Vig would remember, it vibrates as if the whole engine is just gonna drop and bounced away into the sunset. That alone would cost me just about RM700. See the whole action-re-action thing going on? But for every mechanical fuck-up there's always a dad-in-shining-armour silver lining. Dad suggests he loan me the cash for first. I told him I might not pay him back until at least October. Because I have to invest a lot of money into my portfolio for this month, save some cash for my holiday trip which my other cousin is adamant that I take and of course, my dad’s surprise birthday present in September. A brand-spanking new mobile phone. Probably Sony Ericsson’s K750i since mom, sis and me are now on Sony Ericsson. I think it’s user-friendlier compared to Nokia. Maybe it’s just me.

I’m not quite done with this entry just yet.

Earlier, whilst on a cig-break, she asked me, “Would you prefer a cake or beers?”

Since she gotten me the least manliest of cakes last year, a pink watermelon shaped cake with smoky dry-ice, “It was either a pink cake with chocolate on the inside or a chocolate cake with some strange pink-filling on the inside,” was her justification. Seems fair enough. Though I ended up having more fun playing with the dry ice. The cake was so oddly done, even the cashier asked, “So how old is she? 3? 4?”

“No, he’s 23.”

I’m so glad I wasn’t there. So you can understand when I said, “Beers would be great,” to her. Cakes never really liked me anyway. ‘Cos I’ll still be stick-thin even if I devour the whole thing and risk diabetes. Thanks for yet another cool-shirt, Drey.

And to Na-o-mie – I never really understood why there are hyphens in your name – THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE iPod CHARGER (ORIGINAL SOMEMORE) YOU BOUGHT FOR ME LAST SATURDAY! Though I know she doesn’t know about this site, but what the heck. The perfect Apple-nerd gift for an Apple-nerd. I would give you a giant sloppy-ass kiss but Vig’s afro might go all Dragonball flaming yellow and throw a Kame Hame Ha on me.

I’m writing this long-ass (and seemingly quite random) entry because – after much thought and reflection – I’ve decided to go on a 20-day hiatus. Time is running thin, like me, and I really gotta focus. I’ve already set up an appointment with them and I even have the exact ETA in my room clock. Just to scare me the crap out of me and hopefully motivate me to push even harder as well.

As much as I would love to over-indulge myself with copious amount of alcohol and flirt with every girl I see in hope I might get some lovin’, I can’t. So bear with me for a bit. I’ve told most of my friends that I’ll disappear from the social circle for a good 2-weeks to sort out my life. And maybe another week after that for some me-time-type break.



So...
I'll see you all in Merdeka.
Ooo, serendipity! My project ends in time for the celebration!