Gong Hei Fatt Choy, & misc other (football) stuff

To all my friends with Chinese ancestry, just want to wish u Gong Hei Fatt Choy, a.k.a. Happy Chinese New Year (it's the Year of the Pig - my dear sister is a Pig LOL). Not that I celebrate it on a grand scale, especially since I live in a Western country & most of my relatives & close family friends are in Malaysia. All I had was a family dinner on Saturday nite & that was it. Very quiet indeed & not very eventful - not to say it's bad or anything like that, it's just that there isn't the buzz & excitement that u get if u celebrate Chinese New Year in Asian countries. Last time I celebrated Chinese New Year in Malaysia was like 8 years ago, when I visited quite a number of relatives on the first day & ate sooooo sooo much food along the way that I skipped dinner that nite - & despite that, found out the next day that I still managed to gain weight! When will I get to celebrate Chinese New Year in Asia again?? *shrugs* dunno....

Thank God for blessing the Chinese people worldwide. May His blessings continue on the Chinese people, & also on the other peoples.

Meanwhile, today is the birthday of my velli good fren (if he reads this, he knows who I'm referring to). Me, him & a few others had lunch today (after church) at Yahoo Restaurant in Sunnybank Hills. It was raining, & since the inside of Yahoo was filled, we got a table outside. It was funny how we sat outside thinking that the rain won't be too heavy, & then the pouring kinda intensified a bit to the extent that it became clear we cannot have a meal outside, so we had to wait until a table inside is available. Food was quite nice (loved the assam fish & fried tofu; other dishes were reasonably good too), & not too expensive. After lunch, I got some stuff from the Korean convenience store next door.

Wow, the weekend's coming to a close. I get "depressed" on Sunday nites, at the thought of starting the working week tomorrow. Bahhhhh. Wonder if I should start a campaign for 3 day weekends. LOL. Maybe not, eh - some things are just a tad too good to wish for ;)

Meanwhile, in miscellaneous other news:

• Barcelona FC coach Frank Rijkaard may be staying after all, amid rumours that he could be leaving the club at season's end. I'm not sure what to believe. I don't want him to leave, for sure. He's done very well with the club & is looking to build some sort of a dynasty at Barcelona. Why should Rijkaard leave the best club in Europe? What else is he going to do? It's not like he's got any other coaching positions lined up as we speak.
• Arsenal & Manchester United have both failed to win their FA Cup ties overnight, whereas Chelsea thrashed Norwich City 4-0. Poor Norwich. They are in the division below the English Premier League & are not likely to gain promotion this season, given their current league position. Prior to the match, Norwich's majority shareholder Delia Smith (who's also a prominent British chef) lamented the amount of money coming in to football & threatening to destroy the sport that she loves. Her comments may have been directed at Chelsea, who is owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. Chelsea are not the only English club owned by wealthy foreigners - a few other foreign billionaires have bought/invested into a few other clubs. Delia Smith, apparently doesn't believe that these foreign billionaires get involved because they are interested in English football - there are other reasons. She may be right - the reasons relate to money. So her views can't just be dismissed as sour grapes or envy or anything like that.
• Melbourne Victory thumped Adelaide United 6-0 in the A-League grand final - a stunning way to secure the A-League title for the 2006/2007 season. Archie Thompson scored 5 of those goals, a remarkable feat. That said, the result doesn't please me at all. Quite the opposite, in fact. For one, I don't like lop-sided scores in grand finals or cup finals or whatever finals. For another, Melbourne Victory seem too cocky & arrogant for my liking, although I have to concede that they do deserve their success as they've been the best & the most consistent club by far in the A-League this season.

I could go on & on & on about football, we'd be talking all night. But I got other things to do, so I guess I shall sign off here. Hopefully, the next time I come on, I will be able to talk about some other stuff besides football. Good nite!