How do you solve a problem like Federer?

That must be what Andy Roddick is asking now, especially after his latest drubbing from the Federer Express.

I was hoping to catch the tail-end of the Semifinal action after work today. After a quick stop at the food court to ‘ta pau’ dinner, I made it back home around 6:10pm. Alas, all I got for my effort was a smiling Federer standing next to Jim Courier. Oh the audacity, he whitewashed Andy in 1 ½ hours. So I had to be happy with the short snippets from ESPN StarSports until the repeat was shown at 11:30pm.

Andy came in to the Australian Open in fine form. He defeated Federer in the recent Kooyong Classic. He had Jimmy Connors in his court and has been making progress under the coaching of the former great. He played almost flawless tennis to see off Mardy Fish in the Quarterfinals. Even McEnroe touted him to take the Australian Open crown.

But then came the 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 defeat at the Rod Laver Arena. Andy simply came in short of answers to the Swiss Maestro’s game.

Federer had somehow elevated his game once again, beyond the reach of mortals. He made it look so easy, the backhand slice down the line, the crosscourt winners, the drop shots, the deep returns. The 6-0 second set was like a demonstration clinic in which the ‘teacher’ Federer taught the ‘student’ Roddick a heavy lesson in the art of tennis. Unfortunately Roddick couldn’t find a hole where he could bury his head in to hide the embarrassment he suffered.

With no true challengers in sight, it looks like Federer is walking a very lonely path towards greatness.

At the end of the game, Jim Courier asked Federer “…you completely dismantled him today. I have got this one question. Why did you do it?” much to the amusement of Federer and the crowd. Of course, Federer gave a polite answer without truly answering the question. But I guess his true answer should have been “Why did I do it? It’s because I can. And I will do it again and again until I attain true Tennis enlightenment”. And I believe he will reach there one day.

We are indeed living in privilege times to be able to witness such a great athlete.

January Babies

The wheel of time begins a new revolution, as once again we run head long into a new cycle of birthdays, weddings, holiday getaways and other less desirable events. Maybe that is what makes us look forward to those seemingly ordinary days.

Anyway, there we were at Boat Quay on Monday night to celebrate the birthdays of the January Babies. Imagine, just a year ago we were celebrating it at Pitstop, the boardgame café. This time round, Wei Wee decided to bring us to .. it is quite a mouthful, here goes … Jin De Lai Zhong Hua La Mian Restaurant. It serves Shan Xi and Xi An dishes. Not sure whether the dishes are authentic but the taste and cooking style is definitely not local. The Singapore River provided a picturesque backdrop for our Chinese dinner, but certainly not the big screen TV I was facing, as it was showing the replay of the luckless Man Utd- Arsenal match from the night before (hrmpph!)

The January Babes

After dinner, we moved on to TCC to have the birthday celebration proper. We managed to get the nice secluded corner on the second floor. A brief game of ‘Truth or Dare’ ensued and it did yielded some results or rather answers that we were waiting to hear. (Sidetrack : Wonder why people are willing to subject themselves to the game when they know that their secrets might be out before the night is over. Don’t they know what’s coming? Or do they just relish such opportunities to share their secrets?). Then came the cake cutting and the standard off-key singing of the birthday song. The night ended when the café staff reminded us that it was closing time.

Another celebration, another year goes by.

Del Toro’s masterpiece

It’s the kind of story that you’ll expect Neil Gaiman to write. A plot that marries reality and fantasy. The dark, twisted, engaging kind. With brilliant direction and casting, he (Del Toro) takes the audience into the world of a little girl who finds escape from the grim conditions of her stepfather’s household, amidst a bloody civil war, through new found friends from the underworld. The only cast I recognised was the lady(Maribel Verdu) from ‘Y Tu Mama Tambien’, but the cast clearly did not disappoint. The music score is also something worth savouring especially the lullaby that later becomes a haunting track that accompanies the movie. (You can listen to it here). The whole movie is in Spanish, but you certainly don't need to master the language to enjoy this gem.

That here by Spartan law we lie

Move over Spidey, Potter, Naked Fighting Turtles or Ghost Rider, the one superhero movie that I'm eagerly waiting for in 2007 is Frank Miller's 300. Watching the trailer again after reading the graphic novel was like seeing the scenes leap out of the book itself. They made the movie so comic-like ... it was surreal.

You may not agree that it is a superhero movie, but in it there are 300 of them ! (all bare chested, bronzed, chiselled Spartan warriors)

So come 9th March, eat a hearty breakfast, for in the words of Leonidas, "for tonight we'll dine in hell"!

The first kiss

If you had missed Elan kissing Haley for the first time ...

taken from : http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0400.html

All the pent up desires and longing in these two stick figures just came bursting out in the 400th strip of OotS.

Here's to more romance, adventure and just plain intelligent humour from the gang!

And of the kissing, we'll just have to get use to more of it now in future strips.

from the very next strip ...

*******

The decision to kiss for the first time is the most crucial in any love story. It changes the relationship of two people much more strongly than even the final surrender; because this kiss already has within it that surrender.
~ Emil Ludwig

Resolution Solution

It’s a new year but it hasn’t quite sunk in yet. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen so many new years slip by that it doesn’t quite matter anymore. My resolutions for 2007 ?? They are not officially out yet. Yes, got to make it a point to find the list I made last year, clear the dust away, make some minor corrections and wah lah … Resolutions for the Year. Ok, I’m kidding. Anyway I lost that list during shifting.

The good thing about a new year - you are forgiven for falling short of your previous year resolutions and are given a new slate to rewrite new personal objectives; that means you’ve earned another 365 days to wrestle with your conscience, procrastination and ‘amnesia’ problem over your new resolutions. Well, this year I plan to invent resolutions as I go, this way I won’t be to far off the mark.

Mark Twain quite sums up the new year for me with this quote.

”New Year's is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls and humbug resolutions.”

Recipe of Progress

A sign of progress? It’s been awhile since any big-name eateries/café decide to set up shop in Muar. The last I could think off was Mc Donald’s which opened its first outlet in mid-90s (serious, it took that long).

So when the red neon signage first came up at the newly renovated Muar Trade Centre, I blinked. Guess many did the same. Secret Recipe … serious??!! Yes, it has been that long since anyone cared that Muar had a young yuppie crowd to support a popular cheese-cake driven food business.

Though you could not tell that from the number of local Hong Kong/Taiwan/Western styled cafes sprouting around the town over the past few years. Sadly for all the enterprising effort, the market has hit saturation point and the attraction of local mamak fanfare and al-fresco hang-out places still has a hold on certain sectors of the population. The older folks, like my “What! RM5.50 for a small slice of cheesecake”-Mum, who grew up with 5 sen tuck shop money, are unlikely to make a beeline to these new cafes.

Ok, back to Secret Recipe. So we did manage to pay it a visit during the Christmas hols. The four of us, Louie, Khye, Vicky and myself treated ourselves to cheesecakes and drinks. Unfortunately no hot drinks were available due to the water problem, so no hot latte to go with those delicious cakes.

Well if you’re in Muar, do pay it a visit. Besides the waterfront view at the back of the café is pretty breathtaking.

Watered-down Christmas

Christmas back in Muar was kind of a watered down affair as our minds were often distracted by the water problem, or rather the lack of it.

The whole family was back for our annual Christmas gathering. Thankfully Muar town was spared from the recent floods that had affected so many neighbouring towns and villages. However the flood did leave a damper on celebrations, as the water supply was cut-off for almost a week. So, there were like 6 adults and one toddler who had to live off the remaining water from the roof-top water tank. Definitely mission impossible.

So for drinking water we turned to mineral water (which was sold out in most places); for washing and bathing, we turned to rain water, and when the rain water supply stopped (yes, heaven decided to hold the taps), we looked for water at places we never even considered before, like roadside water pipes, rain water tanks and even nearby Malaccan towns. All in all, people can be quite resourceful when the situation demands them too, especially those who are willing to stop at roadside drains to collect water, albeit illegally, from the water pipes.

People were buying this babies off the shelves in cartons

Every precious drop collected in an assortment of containers

Something brewing at the junction near my place

Oh it's just people collecting water from water gushing out of a water pipe. courtesy of some smart bloke who loosened the bolts

Other than the water hiccup, we did the usual Christmassy stuff like decorating the Christmas tree, attend Midnight mass, enjoy a good meal outside and of course, unwrapping Christmas presents after the clock struck twelve on Christmas morning. I even managed to catch Open Season and Apocalypto on VCD. My advise, watch the latter and dump the former. Too bad the Christmas party that my friends and I were planning had to be cancelled as some friends decided to avoid the water problem in Muar by skipping town.

A shot of the Church hall before mass

From another angle

Since I had time, here's the spiral staircase to the upper level where the church bell is located

Anyway, this episode just shows how reliant and attached humans are today on life’s comforts that we would be miserable without them. Like how I came back on Wednesday and was disspaointed to find that the Internet was crawling. Doesn't matter whether it is water or internet, we just can't live without them!