It's been an incredible week for sports fan, locally and foreign. I am not sure if you are a sports fan, but for me, this has been one incredible week! The team(s) that I routed for have been performing really well, and some even above expectations.
If you are a football fan, a Liverpool fan in particular, I am sure you will be one of those people jumping and screaming for excitement as they(Liverpool) took 2 giants down and silence all their critics once and for all. The first win was against Real Madrid, and nobody expected this because Liverpool was really under performing and very inconsistent. But the match against Real Madrid did them justice as they trash the Spanish giants 4-1, yes, I did not type wrongly, they(Liverpool) won 4 to 1. Unfortunately, I did not get to watch the match as it was aired quite late into the night. However, many skeptics still did not think Liverpool have it and that win was one in a blue blue moon, so to speak. Then came the clash of the titans, the match everyone been's waiting to happen, the match between Liverpool and Man.Utd and to make it even more interesting, the game will be played in Man.Utd's home turf. Even the football pundits did not see Liverpool having any chance of winning playing against Man.Utd, let alone in their home ground somemore. The Man.Utd team have not lost a game in their home ground since 2005, they have been very consistent and playing really well. I myself was hoping for a draw, winning was never in the equation. But, hey, when you are smoking hot, you are smoking hot. Liverpool trash Man.Utd 4 to 1, just like Real Madrid. It was sheer joy and excitement seeing the ball hit the net each time Liverpool scores. What makes this win even sweeter is because Man.Utd was so adament thet they will triumph over Liverpool and scores are going to be high. They(Man.Utd) even boast of putting Liverpool out of contention for top spot, putting Liverpool out of their misery(so to speak). So, this win was really spot on and Mr.Rooney, eat your heart out! Sweet, Sweet Sweet victory!
If you are also a badminton fan, you should know by now that our very own Datuk Lee Chong Wei took the Swiss Open by beating his arch-rival Lin Dan. I was really worried as Chong Wei always seem to issues facing Lin Dan and the biggest and worst defeat was during the Olympics final, where Lin Dan literally annihilated Chong Wei. It was 2 weeks ago, this 2 met again during the All England finals and Lin Dan, again prove his superiority over Chong Wei. It is not that Chong Wei is any less competent than Lin Dan, but Chong Wei seem to lack the mental stamina that Lin Dan has. In fact, I personally thinks Chong Wei is in better shape(stamina and skills) that Lin Dan but Lin Dan seem to have the edge when one is pressured. So, back to the Swiss Open final, I was worried that Chong Wei still lack the mental stamina to defeat Lin Dan and the first half of the first set was proving that. Luckily, somehow, Chong Wei managed to muster enough strength and came back from behind and win the first set 21-16. It was really nail bitting as the world top 2 players trash it out, each trying to outbeat, out run and out trick one another. If you have not watch the match, try watching it over re-runs, it has some of the most terrific shots, some are even dumb founding unbelieveable shots and returns! The second set was a outright clear winner for Chong Wei, as he was the dominant one. One can tell that Lin Dan was really frustrated and angry at himself, and he is not playing his usual game anymore. Chong Wei outpaced, out stroke, out trick Lin Dan in this second sets and Chong Wei went on to win 21-16, again, and in straight sets. This is a very sweet revenge for Chong Wei who also lost in straight sets to Lin Dan in the All England and Olympics.
Well done Datuk Lee Chong Wei, you did us proud. I only have one more thing to add, Lin Dan not only lost the match, he also lost his sportmanship. He is one of those sportsman that looses terribly. Lin Dan, you might have win more matches over our Datuk Lee, but you lost more in terms of personality and as a professionals sports person, you are a bad sport!
Well, it's finally the school holidays and my kids been bugging me to go Penang for quite sometime now. So, we all decided to go to Penang last Monday for a 3 days 2 nights stay. I brought my mom along as she too have not visited Penang for more than 15 years! So, off we went.....on to the plane. We will be staying at Parkroyal hotel at Batu Ferringhi as we had some vouchers for the hotel and it worked out good for us all. Upon arriving at the Penang International Airport, we garb a cab(2 actually as each cab only seats 4) and headed for the hotel. It was an easy drive as I was expecting jams and heavy volume of traffic as this was a working day and in the middle of the day. It took us about 30 minutes drive and we finally got to the hotel, checked in and the children all got ready for the pool! Within minutes, my 
son and daughter were playing in the pool, riding the water slides and jumping between pools(with my supervision of course). I had sometime to catch up with the papers and a glass of cold beer just made my day. For a few hours then, I was relaxed and my mind was not on "issues" back in KL. The kids played around for a few more hours before being "hauled up" by their mother as it was time for makan. That night, we walked out to Batu Ferringhi road and just looked around for hawker centers or similar stalls for local food. They have Eden, The Ship and a few more "commercialize" eatery place but we were more interested in the local stuff like Char Koay Tiau, laksa, Poh Piah etc etc. We found a food court about 200 meters from our hotel, just after The Ship. We sampled a lot of dishes(we order and shared amongst the children and adults). It was good and we had a good time. I am not sure if local Penangites will like it but for us out stationers, it was as good as it gets. Anyway, we still have 2 more days to go around Georgetown and Gurney drive to
sample more. The following days my kids got to go for horse riding(my daughter seem to enjoy that a lot) and my son got to try the parachute ride, jet ski(with my supervision of course) and the banana boat ride. We all had a blast and most of the time we find ourselves either eating or having fun at the beach or the pool. As for my wife and mother, they too had a relaxing time, just lazing around the pool area and catching up on naps! Then it was more food and we did just that at Gurney Drive which is always fill with people but I was told that that would not be a good place to go for really good local stuff, well I will need some Penangites guide on this then. But it was 
good by our standard as we have no comparison to the supposedly good ones. But most important of all, my kids, wife, mother and me, we had a good time together as it's been a while now since we all did something together. It was a good break for us all. On the last day, we dropped by at Ghee Hiang biscuits for some "tau sah piah", which my mother likes alot. So, we bungkus 3 bags full of it back to KL. During the return trip back to KL, I was actually hoping to catch a glimpse of CM Lim as I read he travels by Air Asia and on economy class as well, but that did not materialize. Anyway, all in all, it was a good short break for all of us.
