Of Birthdays and Football and Security Guards and Bike Rallies

Introducing Prof Fedor Duzhin.......

I guess introductions are in order here. This is my calculus lecturer for the past one year...and i guess everyone in the class owe it to him for saving our necks from the CGPA system. He is going to be 30 years old in 45 minutes time and given certain time constraints, we decided to celebrate his birthday 2 days early.

He lives on campus and Boon Chong and i somehow managed to get his address via msn (we spun a story of us wanting to drop in on him at around 9pm plus after a jog.....honestly i guess he didn't fall for it...though an oscar he deserves for the surprised look he gave us at the door when we burst in on him with a Russin version of Happy Birthday we learnt from Azat 20 minutes beforehand........which failed miserably and had to subbed with a "lalalalala" humming of the song. We did do it again in English after that.

The cake was a 1.5 kilo choco truffle we ordered form this place on campus called the Quad (cake was seriously good). I stuffed it in the art school's student lounge's fridge, access thanks to roomie. Kick ass large fridge.......ok, so it was normaly sized....still looked kick ass large compared to the bar one in my room :P

Anyways, we met up at around 9.30 pm and the 18 of us marched off to Nanyang Heights Apartments.........

the march......

.......and we march somemore.....


and we climb some stairs.......


and we surprised him......(honestly think he was not...good acting though...)

chocolate truffle cake...nice....


Audrey and Tong Wei grinning widely after banana milkshake with a dash of rum

watching a blowpipe in action with fascination...

Zin, Audrey, Newkiy, Tao Tao, me, Azat, Mee Cheng, Boon Chong , Vee and You Quan went for a round of football in the carpark after seeing Fedor. We usually play footy (Newkiy, Audrey, BC, me, Meech and You Quan at around 10 or 11pm in one of the carparks around campus, but with an additional 4 guys, the girls were crowded out. Audrey is an unusually good striker....guess 2 additional defenders doesn't help her much.

We were interrupted at around 1 am by Campus Security. Chap was polite unlike the younger security guard a week ago. That chap just grunted and huffed.

Bike Rally

awww....

We had a mini training session on Friday, before the 128km bike rally on sunday. Rented bikes for 8 SGD for 3 hours at East Coast Park and we set off.

Went along the Nicoll Highway to the Esplanade and the Fullerton Hotel area. Bloody nice place. Did not get a chance to take pics by the Merlion though.

Meech kept falling off her bike. ROLF. We kept negotiating the narrow bike lanes and she couldn't keep up.

Tong Wei had a little drama too along the way. Her lousy bike's chain slipped off about 5km from ECP and I had to cycle back looking for her and Meech when I realised those two had disappeared. Had it fixed by the time Newkiy, Audrey and Lei realised what had happened and turned around.

The bikes we rented. Lei, Newkiy, Audrey (on her own bike..its a GT Outpost...a damn good bike...and Meech). We're near the Singapore Indoor Stadium.


crossing a road

Ledt campus at 5am on Sunday. The sports club had 4 busses to transport us to ECP. Most of us got a standard Polygon mountain bike with Shimano gears. I must admit, those bikes were damn good compared to the ones i have ridden before (excluding Audrey's Outpost). No butt padding though, so our arses hurt to high heaven after 11 hours on the road.

YES..

128km on a mountain bike takes 11 hours for an amateur road biker to cover.

And you can't feel your arse after that!!!

my friend and butt torturer for 11 hours

I only say Audrey and her friend with a kick ass bike thrice the whole day. They were bloody fast on their ultralight MTBs.

before we set off..me, Newkiy and Meech

BC is still going strong after 22km

At all pitstops, we were given Gatorade, sandwiches, bananas and Gardenia raisin buns...bananas were always the first to go.

guzzling gatorade....



Lei and Audrey discussing how fast to go

I have trouble taking photos on a bike on the highway, so this is where the pics end. On my birthday, i tortured myself for 11hours, after which a had dinner and slept for another 11 hours.

Happy 20th year to me!!!


Have a great day ppl!

Matrix

Manchester United can do without Ronaldo

Man United won the trophy i would love to have it in my house.....one f****ing large beer holder.....with enough room for a seperate built in refrigeration unit to keep the beer chilled while you watch Man United play WITHOUT Cristiano Ronaldo.

Let me be a little clear here....

Ronaldo is good. 41 Goals in all competitions this season...and he's only a midfielder. Winner of 2 trophies of which i have forgotten the names (I worship United as a whole..NOT Ronaldo)

Having said that, i feel should United be offered 100mil for Ronaldo as Real said they would....SELL THE FELLA!!!!

For the other hardcore fans of Man Utd inevitable cursing at this point, let me be clear on one topic here. True, United are potent but are ever more so with Ronaldo's presence on the field, they will suffer slightly if he leaves, but not much. Remember, United with Giggs and Park-Ji Sung on the wings are as potent as a United with Ronaldo in Ji-Sung's position on the right.

The reason being, unlike Ronaldo, Ji-Sung can make superb tackles, win the ball, dribble effectively (though in a fashion a little unrefined compared to Ronaldo) and did i mention the seemingly telepathic connection he has with Rooney in attack.

Wayne Rooney, the 27 mil wonderkid Man Utd bought, whom plays like a defensive cum attacking MIDFIELDER truly becomes and out and out dangerous STRIKER when he links up with Ji-Sung. Remember his tally last season of 25+ goals? Who was playing then on the right a lot that season? The little Korean.

Unlike Ji-Sung, Ronaldo does not perform in big matches. I am sorry to say this. As a true fan , i am very critical of players and of Ronaldo, i have complaints of my own. He was too well marked out in the Barcelona and Chelsea games. He is not the dribbling midfield conquerer he was last season. That midfield role has been filled by Anderson, Scholes, Hargreaves and Ji Sung.

The way he plays is not as special as it was last season. I cannot honestly describe how it differs. I do not see the taking on of 2 or 3 players he used to be good at. True, against the likes of Aston Villa and Derby and such he shines, but fails when it comes to big matches such as Liverpool and Arsenal and such. Ji-Sung, an absolute fighter on the wings performs better at matches that requires something Ronaldo does not have.......GRIT.

Thus, if offerd 100 or even 50 mil for the services of Ronaldo by Real or other non EPL teams (cannot stand the thought of seeing him play for another EPL team), Man Utd should sell this chap:




and replace him with these:

Karim Benzema from Olympique Lyon

Hatem Ben Arfa from Olumpique Lyon

Micah Richards from Man City

Karim Benzema:

Bloody gifted striker. He scored a brilliant goal against the likes of Ferdinand and co...and he shrugged Ferdinand off as though he was made of paper. He is gritty, holds the ball up well and is only 20. Partner him with Rooney...with Scholes and Hargreaves supplying..wonders.

Hatem Ben Arfa

Wonderkid. period. He dribbles like Ronaldo and slips past midfielders like the Ronaldo of last season. i think he's only 17 or 18 with loads of time for development.

Micah Richards

If he had not played for Man City when United played them, United would have won instead of lost to the other Manchester team. That alone is enough to say that this is one awesome defender. Gritty like Vidic with a lot more muscle. He plays in the centre half position, but performs equally well on the right as he did with England. Perfect replacement for the aging Wes Brown and Gary Neville.


United have thrived after the departures of Cantona, Roy Keane, Beckham and Nistelrooy. They will certainly thrive after the departure of the next United great, Cristiano Ronaldo.

I for one will only mourn the loss of one and only one player in United squad when he quits. The creme de la creme of wingers wearing the number 11 shirt, Ryan Giggs.

cheers mates!

The First Supper Hop

NTU students are sadly deprived of variety in food. True, we do have Jap, Chinese, Indian, Malay, Korean, Vietnamese, Western and Indon food on campus.....but its campus food!!!!!!!

As such its all under one category of which there is no variety......

BAD FOOD......

Thus the reason we rented a bus out of desperation to savour the great stuff offered by.......

.....takes deep breath......
.
.
.
.
.
.

......THE GREAT OUTSIDE-OF-CAMPUS!!!!!


The bus was a 20 seater one, and we arranged with the driver to pick us up from an agreed meeting point at Hall 16. Officially left campus at 9.30pm.

For those not understanding the excitement of all this is ........simply put....

NTU is an island. Its at the extreme secluded end of Singapore, and it takes about 45 mins to get to town....and i'm not even talking about the Orchard Road area (that takes like an hour plus...)

Add the tough semester schedule we have plus the tonnes of tutorials,reading and projects to complete.....not to mention exams as well........we basically live on campus food for 5 whole months straight. Its tongue numbing.

So we being Asians who love good food, a trip of some sort just to get good food, and as much as possible of it was in order, hence the bus rental for convenience.

We hit 3 places and had plans for a fourth which was aborted......it was closed.



First Stop: Chomp Chomp hawker place

on the rented bus

The bus

cannot resist satay....

Second Stop: Ponggol Nasi Lemak

waiting for makan

hysterics

Third Stop: Prata House

to make sure we don't run off without paying

Final Stop: Goofing on Mount Faber
( am trying to figure out why its called Mount Faber..its just a hill.....

gollum wannabe

helping the Merlion clean its nose

eating makes one high......literally

Cheers Mates and have a GREAT WEEKEND!!!!