Kissing 3 people before going to work!

On the 19th of September 2013, my awesome wife gave birth to another baby boy at the Wakaka complex in Universiy Hospital. Welcome, [name to be confirmed] to the world !

Minutes after arrival

It wasn't exactly smooth sailing this time, there were quite a few false alarms, even one of those incidents where we checked in to the hospital, were there for most of the day, only to be told that the baby's far from ready to enter the world proper. To top it off, mainly due to complications creating a concern on the baby's heart rate, the planned natural birth ended up becoming a c-section. But everything turned out fine in the end, for both Raudha and our baby. Alhamdulillah!

Props to family, friends and colleagues who gave us support during that tricky period. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Now I'm trying to relearn all the stuff I did back when Zharif arrived, even stuff like rocking the baby in the right way. The art of wrapping up the baby so that he'll feel comfortable continues to elude me. But heck, I'm trying!

Yes I am :p

One of our major concerns has been preparing big brother for the new arrival, and fortunately, Zharif has been handling the arrival of his baby brother pretty well.

Kissed his brother more times in 11 days than kissing his dad in 3 and a half years. The nerve!

There ARE a few items he's been reluctant to share, but otherwise he's been cool. He does seem to be a bit overprotective of his bro sometimes though, such as not allowing quite a few visitors to hold the baby, to the point of having a tantrum! He does calm down eventually, usually after a meal or milk, but there you go.

I've also taken Zharif out a couple of times during the weekend just to alleviate his restlessness and to give his mum some rest from handling two. My mother-in-law is also doing the same. He's generally been a darling, but his enthusiasm can get a wee bit exhausting for Raudha sometimes.  I even took him to select a sheep for his brother's aqiqah.

Plus a little bit of father-son bonding time with Zharif is always good :)

Having said that, my latest trip didn't exactly delight mummy though :p

Anyway, so there's my excuse for not posting for so long. Hope to get back to more regular posting soon. The disrupted sleeping hours will certainly help once I've gotten used to it.

I AM getting used to kissing 3 people before going to work now :)

Weekend Bites: All about football!

Transfer window deadline day!

Final day today. My predictions for each team:

Arsenal: Will sign one big signing, plus a few Wenger-style ones. And Cabaye. International break right after the deadline proves lethal. Wenger considers David Bentley.
Aston Villa: Manages to clear out their midfield, except for Stephen Ireland, whom no one wants because they're worried about his grandmother.
Cardiff:  Still buoyed by their City win, randomly steals Peter Odemwingie from under Swansea's noses.
Chelsea: Tries to sign Anelka but fails. Certain midfielders consult Paulo Ferreira on how to look good on the bench.
Crystal Palace: Surprises with the addition of a quality midfielder that no one sees it coming.

Everton: Ends up buying another ex-Wigan player. Fellaini leaves!

Fulham:  Randomly purchases Atsudo Uchida. Wenger raises an eyebrow.

Hull City: Steve Bruce gets frustrated now that he's lost the Ferguson connection for his transfer, yet somehow still manages to get Macheda on loan.

Liverpool: Overpays for some defensive cover, Skrtel stays and fights them all off. Suarez stays and has a good meal. Off the pitch. 
Manchester City: With Demichelis from Atletico Madrid in, nothing else for them to do, unless they loan Lescott off. Btw, nice profit, Atletico :P
Manchester United: Two big signings, including one really good central midfielder. Tries flogging off Ashley Young but fails.
Norwich: Does nothing in public, but attempts to secretly clone Sebastian Bassong.
Newcastle: Mike Ashley giggles and runs off with the Cabaye money, Pardew scratches his..umm.. chin.
Southampton: Fights of late advances for Luke Shaw and Adam Lallana.
Stoke: Hughes successfully brings in a creative midfielder, stunning the Stoke faithful into silence. 
Sunderland: Secures Borini on loan, but Ki Seung Yeung turns out to be the best loan signing for Sunderland, if not the entire league.

Swansea: Ashley Williams gets sold off, unknown guy comes in, turns out to be a phenomenal defender. 

Tottenham: Apa lagi Spurs mahu? Manages to con another club into purchasing Adebayor.

West Brom: Major panic sets in and buys players no one knows about, proceeds to improve without them. But with Anelka.

West Ham: Gathers in the team lounge after training, laughs at other teams panicking in the transfer window.

Liverpool lucky?

We certainly were, I don't deny it, after an onslaught by Manchester United in the second half we somehow did not concede, even after losing Glen Johnson to injury. (not that he's that great a defender anyway)

Good to see Martin Skrtel return and put up an excellent performance, wasn't RVP a frustrated chappie? 

Really hoping he stays, but we'll see what happens today, especially after two of Liverpool's likely defensive signings were on the bench during the match. Still good to see the Skrtel - Agger partnership again.

I think the only reason Manchester United might be embarassed by the game at all was the fact that they lost to a team that had Jordan Henderson in the starting lineup.

Excuse me while I go print out the current Premier League standings and enjoy it while I can.

The NLD

I was right on Friday in that it turned out to be a low-scoring match, but I still got the results wrong. Credit to Arsenal,  I admit to overestimating Spurs quite a bit, and in hindsight, out of the six Spurs players in midfield and forward, four were new to the Premiership. Something to be said for a little experience eh?

And seeing Chadli in action showed me just how big a loss Bale is. Of course, Bale took a while, but when he came in, Spurs didn't have the level of expectations they do now. But for now, even Aaron Lennon looks better than Chadli.

But that Spurs keeper? Goodness, I'm sure Wenger wishes he had secured that Frenchman, regardless of the goal, Lloris is absolute quality!

Arsenal still need to do something for their transfer window though. Can you imagine Arsenal now if Walcott or Cazorla gets injured? Yes, it's not pretty, is it.

Fantasy Football Observations for Week #3

Quick one from last week, I was wrong on Arsenal (they did well), right on Giaccherini and Newcastle, and totally wrong with Lukaku. (Given up on trying to figure out Mourinho's plans for him.  Read here for that previous post. Onto this week:

Swansea attack

While it's not totally unexpected given the fixtures, Swansea are rock bottom together with Crystal Palace going into this weekend's fixtures. For a team also playing in Europe, that situation cannot continue especially with the quality of the team as next week they play Liverpool and then two weeks later Arsenal. Seeing yourself at the bottom has a demoralising effect regardless of fixture justification.

Swansea have several advantages going into this. West Brom will be looking to attack given they're at home and have yet to score this season, and this will leave gaps in the defence. Also, Ben Foster's replacement, Luke Daniels, is nowhere near his quality, as we saw in his 12 minute cameo, and this will almost certainly have a destabilising effect on their defence. Any of the 3 Swansea players who were substituted early in Europe midweek, Pablo Hernandez, Michu or De Guzman should be considered.

Edit: One of my pals, Sean, has said that Myhill should start for West Brom and not Daniels. I stand corrected. I still see Swansea breaking through though!

Newcastle to break their goalscoring duck

That's if Cabaye plays, which will provide the creativity that Newcastle have been sorely lacking. At home against Fulham, who will show that the away win last week really was a fluke. But don't pick him in Yahoo, pick Arfa or Cisse at cheaper prices, and whom stand to benefit from Cabaye's return. Or Sissoko, who just won a call-up to the French team.

The Norwich defence

With Bassong coming back (confirm this with team news later today), Russell Martin should slot back into the right, his natural position, booting out goalscorer Steven Whittaker. And just like that, Norwich's defence will improve. In fact, I can see this match being a goalless draw due to the superiority in defense and an inconsistency in attack for both sides, so any defenders from either Norwich or Southampton should be useful, Bassong is a beast of course.

North London derby

It's being covered everywhere else, but I was asked my thoughts on this, so anyway here goes:

Arsenal are gonna be bullied in central midfield and hence will lose in home soil. I honestly don't see Arsenal win this one, thanks to the triumvirate of Paulinho, Capoue and Dembele which just feel too strong for me. But it won't be a high-scoring match, maybe 1-2 final score. For Arsenal, they won't be able to create enough chances thanks to Spurs' midfield, while for Spurs, they lack the magic that Bale brought to the table. But fantasy points will be in abundance from both sides. Make your choice, and good luck. But pick Giroud, of course.

So there you have it. Of course, if you wanna go with 9 Manchester City players against Hull, I won't stop you ha ha...

Plastic Overload

This morning, before heading to my office, I do something that I normally do maybe once or twice a week: Pick up pastries from the ground floor bakery. This is what I bought:

The thing is, I could so easily have asked her to pack it in one plastic. After all, I'm not passing it to others, they were both for myself. And what made it even funnier was that even then, I had to refuse yet another plastic to put the two plastics in!

Despite our government's efforts to restrict plastic usage to help the environment, such as the no-plastic Saturday for supermarkets, we still consume far too much. An excellent example is what happens after kenduris (ceremonies/celebrations with meals included) , if there's excess food, we'll pack it up. How do we pack it? That's right, with plastics!

When we buy packed food, it's actually double trouble. The food would tend to be in a polystrene case, followed by a plastic bag! And I'm just as guilty as everyone else whenever I buy Nasi Ayam Kunyit from the back road behind my office!

I do try to cut down when I can. Earlier this year for a few months I was using a tupperware container to bring back my food in. Unfortunately, this stopped about two months ago after I brought my tupperware container back home and haven't done it since.

I was actually inspired to write this post after seeing this picture yesterday on Facebook, posted by Weirton West Virginia and shared by Mix FM, one of my favourite radio stations:

But you know what, at least it's being saved for re-use, which is a good thing.

It feels like an impossible objective, trying to save the environment. But, when I think of my kids, I do try to do whatever I can, in any small way. And if it means cutting down on Nasi Ayam Kunyit, maybe I should!

Malaysian wins Grand Prix Kitakyushu

Magic: The Gathering, a trading card game, is a big thing. In other countries it's covered in the sports channels. While I consider myself retired from regular competitive play, I do follow the scene from time to time. And just like other more conventional games or sports like chess or badminton, I always feel a sense of pride when a Malaysian makes it to the top in a major tournament. Which is what happened last weekend.

Raymond Tan, Grand Prix Kitakyushu Champion

Grand Prix Kitakyushu was held in Japan in the space of two days.

Some numbers for you:

No of people: 1183
Price of entry: 4000 yen, or RM130 or so.
Prize for winning: a cool USD3,500.
Actually winning the whole damn thing: Priceless.

Kitakyushu in Japan. Emerging No. 1 out of 1,183 is a crazy achievement. And this 29 year old Engineer did it! In Japan, which has a huge community of MtG players.

Squaring off against 2012 World Magic Cup Champion Tzu-Ching Kuo

Trivia: They mistakenly reported him as Singaporean at first, but quickly realised their error!

I remember the first Malaysian who pretty much established Malaysia as a country to be taken seriously: Sim Han How. He finished in the Top 8 of the Worlds Championship, which is no mean feat. Imagine, the Top 4 players from countries all over the world playing out to finish right at the top and he finishes in the Top 8.  What made it even more memorable was that a lot of people who met him remembers him for being an all-round nice guy, making him a great ambassador for Malaysia.

I hope MtG gets the recognition it deserves in Malaysia. It is not a game just for kids, there is quite a sizeable community of players here, from students to professionals in the workforce. Some play it as a hobby, others play seriously to win tournaments.

An all-time favourite of mine!

Malaysia Boleh!

Fantasy Football Observations for Week #2

Prelude

The Barclays Premier League season has kicked off and with it, a whole host of fantasy football games! A bit of history: I've been playing fantasy football since the 2005-2006 season, and I remember one of the first players I had was a hopeless midfielder named Eric Djemba-Djemba. I joined a great forum called www.starting11.com (known as Teamtalk in the old days), where I found a great international community who shared the passion for fantasy football and football in general. In recent times I've been helping out to moderate the forum.

This time around though, I thought I'd contribute a bit more to the community as a whole and start a weekly series on my blog.

What I'd like to do in this series is to summarise observations, interesting facts, that players may have overlooked, forgotten or not considered as a factor for. I hope to highlight items, events or scenarios which I feel are important in deciding your team for the week. I can also see the series focusing more on the less popular teams.

I'm playing 3 games this season, FAPL, Fantrax and Yahoo, but I won't be focusing on any game in particular. Also, those who know me will know I'm nowhere near as good at fantasy football as others are, too often I let emotion or other irrelevant issues cloud my judgement. So there, I've tossed in a disclaimer right there.

Irregardless, I hope you guys find it a useful column to add to all those other resources you read. Those who don't follow football, feel free to ignore this :p



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Fantasy Football Observations: Week #2

Creative Sunderland?

Sunderland whacked Fulham left, right and centre last weekend, but somehow had nothing to show for. They created a lot of chances, and statistics indicate they had 20 shots to Fulham's 5. 17 of those shots were off target though, the main culprit being Altidore. Nevertheless, they've leaped in creativity, a sharp contrast to last season's headaches, and those responsible, a rejuvenated Adam Johnson and Giaccherini, should merit consideration in your teams, at least for the miscellaneous points production.

The London derby

2. Speaking of Fulham, what say you to them upsetting the apple cart at Arsenal even further? Here's a few reasons why:
    - Fulham are coming off an away win, always a boost for the typically travel-shy team.
    - Arsenal are coming back from an exhausting trip to Turkey, and play the first match on Saturday.
    - Martin Jol knows Arsenal are vulnerable right now, the timing is right for a good derby win.
    - Dimitar Berbatov
Sure they lost Stekelenburg to injury, but Stockdale will be up for it. I expect a Fulham victory, with goals on both sides, pushing Arsenal into further depths. But of course, what if Taarabt isn't in the mood....?

Chelsea's striker merry-go-round

3. While the battle for Chelsea's striker spot is going to take a while, I feel that Mourinho is actually giving everyone a chance to show what they can do. I know most of you who had Lukaku in Week #1 have dumped him, but is that the right move? Of course, Old Trafford is hardly the place to be experimenting, but neither Torres nor Ba have showered themselves in glory in the opening 2 matches. And Lukaku's the striker with the most to prove, as Rooney's transfer saga continues...

Southampton's defensive steel

4. Anyone notice Southampton's AWAY clean sheet? While part of it is due to West Brom unable to sort their attack out, Southampton's latest acquistions in central defense (Lovren) and midfield (Wanyama) established a strong presence in their respective areas, which makes their defenders very attractive picks. Having said that, Gaston Ramirez, one of Southampton's key midfielders last season might not feature as much this time as I don't see him fitting well into the current pressing game the manager wants to play.

The Toon dilemma

5. Despite the loss against Manchester City, Newcastle actually have a useful fixture list coming up. But the Cabaye issue continues to linger. Ben Arfa cannot shoulder the creativity by himself. Also, for this weekend's match, Allardyce seems to know what makes the Toons tick and West Ham ended both matches last season against them with clean sheets. Probably best to avoid until the transfer window ends.

Good luck for this week, next week should be even more interesting as the transfer window gets closer!

Liverpool Season 2013/2014 : A quick look on the transfer window activity

Premier League season has just kicked off, and Liverpool have been in the news for quite a bit, mostly for the wrong reasons. While I certainly expected Suarez to make a fuss about leaving, I didn't expect the mess it has turned into. But, anyone who's known Suarez for a while, it shouldn't really be unexpected for Suarez to act the way he has. The good news is that as of today Suarez looks like staying! (with some Gerrard involvement it seems). I won't be counting my chickens just yet, but if he's still around 13 days down the road, I'll be a happy camper.

I do take comfort in the fact that there are other clubs in worse condition. Imagine being an Arsenal fan right about now...

Liverpool started the season with a win, but it could so easily have been different. Again, we had the chances but not the finishing, and we were almost undone by a late penalty. If Suarez is staying, we need to keep winning until he's back, convince him that we CAN make it to the Champions League.

Anyway, back to the topic: Here's where Liverpool are (transfer-wise):

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Significant transfers:

IN:

Kolo Toure (Man City, free)

Luis Alberto (Sevilla, £6.8m)

Iago Aspas (Celta Vigo, £7.2m)

Simon Mignolet (Sunderland, £9m).

OUT:

Danny Wilson (Hearts, free)

Jamie Carragher (retired)

Andy Carroll (West Ham, £15.5m)

Jonjo Shelvey (Swansea, £6m)

Suso (Almeria, loan).

Stewart Downing (West Ham, £5m)

Pepe Reina (Napoli, loan)

Jay Spearing (Bolton), undisclosed.

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Let's be realistic, we were never going to get a profit from the sale of Carroll and Downing, since we overpaid in the first place. But it was important to get them permanently off the books. The good thing is overall our trade has been relatively balanced this time around, at least financial-wise.

I'm glad Suso wasn't sold, I definitely see potential in the lad but needs a bit more development. Spearing and Shelvey had run their course, I'm sure they'll be successful elsewhere. Our change in keeper was not unexpected for me, I know some fellow fans found it disappointing, I'm looking forward to seeing Mignolet more in goal, especially after his penalty save heroics. And while Kolo Toure's a useful stopgap, I would like to see Skrtel reclaim his spot in the first team. Whatever his misunderstanding with Rodgers, I'm sure it can be healed.

We're still sourcing for a left-back to 'back up Enrique', according to Rodgers, but it sounds iffy to me. Wasn't this the same tune he was singing about Reina when he brought in Mignolet? I don't mind Enrique being replaced but whoever he is better be good!

Of the new recruits, I really like Aspas' work so far. I can see him being a very important player for us.

My season prediction: Still early days of course, but I expect good things from Liverpool this season, regardless of how the Suarez saga ends. Rodgers will be expected to deliver, he's had enough time to bed in. Liverpool to end up in a Champions League spot come the end of the season. I kid you not.

YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE.

EDIT: Shortly after I posted this entry, I found out that Aly Cissokho has signed for Liverpool in a season-long loan. Time for Enrique to turn up the juice!

Getting ready for the second child

It's been a while since my last post! Since then, we've had a whole fasting month followed by Hari Raya, but now I'm back!

Baby Brother Incoming!

We finally started cleaning up this week to prepare for the coming of our second child. The calculated date is 16th September which is one month from now, and will probably be earlier, and boy have we got lots to do! I think I may have fallen into a complacency trap, i.e. we got through the first one okay, we'll be fine this time. Fortunately, Raudha has a bit more foresight on this and mobilised faster.

I'm starting to think at this point, Zharif (our first) is more prepared for the baby than we are! He appears to demonstrate a lot of affection for the babies in my extended family every time he sees them. It used to worry me heaps about Zharif's reaction when our next baby arrives, but when I see something like this (pictures courtesy of baby's mummy Zaza) :

I feel so much better.

During Raya, in Batu Pahat, he would zikir, sing songs and pat baby Sofea gently and softly with such tender care there was once I might have shed a tear just watching. And when she visited in KL, he did the same too.

Of course, one can't be 100% sure, especially when Zharif sees the amount of attention Mummy will be giving his baby brother, but I have a really good feeling right now. And you can bet we'll be getting Zharif to help out as well.

Anyway, one thing I'm hoping to do is that as soon as both mum and our newborn are ready and able, I want to travel. It'll be neat to take a short trip somewhere with our latest addition to the family. But where shall we go? I've got a few ideas, let's see how we go...

First thing's first though!

Competition Junkie?

When I was a kid, the first time I remember actually entering a competition voluntarily was way back when I was 9 years old in Standard Three. I remember it very well, it was a storytelling competition. At the time I didn't know anything about using gestures and intonations, so what I did was bring the book in to show the pictures. This was the book:

Not sure if I have it anymore, but I came in second. I doubt there was any quality in my storytelling, heck I didn't even finish telling it, but I guess maybe there weren't that many English storytellling participants at the time.

Fast forward to today, where I take part in different competitions on and off, some just to get movie tickets, others to try to win hotel stays, trips, cash, etc. There's many mechanisms, from the simple "Be the 9th caller, call now!" style often used in radio, to the more complicated ones like Sudoku, or the old The Star's crossword puzzles where we have to collect the pieces every weekday and submit them once completed. It also meant I ended up with a lot of otherwise useless general knowledge :p.  For instance, a male giraffe is called a bull. Now go look up what a female giraffe is. Go on. You'd be surprised.

I must admit to being a bit of a lazy bum with the complicated ones, there were times where I would collect the crossword puzzle pieces but fail to submit it in time.

It made me wonder, was it the storytelling competition that kick-started me into my competition fever. As I grew older in school I moved on to public speaking and inevitably debating, which I also did in Uni. But looking back, those activities were for two reasons really: 1. It gave me an opportunity to socialise and get to know a lot more people  2. I got to travel! and 3. It would look good in resumes.

I think the real catalyst was a radio competition in Melbourne in 1999. It was really simple: The DJs would play the Top Ten songs of the day, and people were asked to call in once the No. 1 song was played, and tell the DJ what the Top Ten songs are. The ninth caller would get through, and if he got it correct he would win.

I got 3 full CDs, and 4 singles, one of which was Blur's Song 2.

(That CD ONLY had that song, so just 2 minutes worth of listening lol). From there I was hooked, I felt that it was actually possible to win such competitions.

Some of the mechanisms have changed over the years especially with the Internet. Treasure hunts are fun, but quite exhausting, I still do radio a lot, and I even appeared on TV once: The Money Drop Malaysian edition, to disastrous results. Yes, all my money dropped ha ha...

I wouldn't call myself a competition junkie though. I do have a friend who fits the definition, and he's a true psycho. Seems like almost every week he's off watching preview screenings of movies. Pretty much every year he goes on a trip. Yeap, most from competitions. It's good to have a friend into these things though, especially when doing competitions like hunting the hitz.fm Fugitive.

One of the highlights throughout the years was a walking treasure hunt in conjunction with the first Star Trek remake. It was the first time I participated in a competition with Raudha, and we finished first, while our friends Suresh and Sue finished second (we helped each other out of course!) It was also good fun! The Star's article is still around in the archives, check it out:

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/5/2/nation/3820743&sec=nation

Raudha loved the fact that they mentioned her name first! We did get mildly annoyed at not having our faces published, I guess we didn't look like real Trekkers (which we admittedly weren't, not really).

Don't get me wrong though. I do get frustrated when I don't win sometimes. A couple of days ago I found out that I didn't win a trip to Taiwan. I get dejected, demoralised and end up staying away for a while. But just like in life, I try not to let it get me down. I'll just try again.

Now if I can only win a car... My cousin's done it before, so why not!

Off the cuff writer's advice

Having writer's block? I had a bit of it, and being sick for a while didn't seem to help much either.

Then along comes this gem of an article offering writing advice by Matt Haig. the British novelist/journalist.

Read his blog posting here:

Warning, profanity involved.

When I read it, I had to laugh. But it also gave me a boost.

And I'm writing again! See you tomorrow peeps!