Singapore reach ASEAN final on penalty kicks

I was overconfident that I could get tickets for this tie easily even at the last minute despite MLB's warnings but nooo... .

Went to Bishan Stadium on Friday, a day before the match and was told that all tickets EVERYWHERE was SOLD OUT.

I was like, "What the funk?!?!?" Impossible! Incredible! Unbelieveable! It was a hair-tearing moment only REAL fans would understand. I mean, all our matches so far with only a third of the stadium filled up and now suddenly this one's sold out!

But I should have known this being the LAST competitive match being played at the National Stadium before it gets torn down and the LAST competitive match conveniently being between us and our northern sworn rivals that this would happen.

Thank goat MLB's got friends in high places and not only did we manage to get mere seats at the National Stadium, we got GRANDSTAND seats too! Woo!!! Best seats in the house for the first time for both of us and the last time ever too!!!

Did I mention they were free? (Suck that Kat! ;P)

They were free. Gratis. No money changed hands. We got them delivered to us. Didn't have to move our butts one more centimetre. They were begging us to take the tickets off them. In fact, they even offered to buy us a yacht but we kindly turned them down on this offer coz we are not really that snooty. Besides, we were already planning to get us our own private helicopter anyway.

Haaaaah...

This was the first clue that told us it was gonna be a capacity crowd. Dang, Kallang MRT was packed with supporters.

National Stadium, here we come!

Welcome to The National Stadium Mr Goat. (Woohoo, who's the cute chick?)

We're in! We're in!

Someone couldn't play coz someone got a red card in the first leg

We were seated right behind the Singapore bench obviously

We were seated alright

Until someone started the Kallang Wave

And this, THIS is the Kallang Roar! That's what I'm talkin' about

And this, don't know if you can see it, but that tiny yellow patch there are the Malaysian supporters. Aaaaw so cute right?

Let's roll out!

But uh, before we do, just a gentle reminder

SOCK!

KAPOW!

KAYO!

But the score still remained at one-all even after 120mins in this fiercely fought match. It worried us a lot when our most committed player, goalscorer and lifesaver also happened to be the guy playing with a bandage rolled around his head (sustained during the first leg), our No. 2 Muhammad Ridhuan

The tie was broken when the match when to nerve-wrecking penalty shootouts. It was down to the last kick. Everyone managed to convert their spotkick one after another earlier but thank goat Malaysia's Khyril Muhymeen, the last kicker, decided to... hmmm, I wouldn't call it a kick, more like pass the ball to our custodian Lionel Lewis.

What a great pass too! Lionel just needed to stand there and wait. Coolness... .

And hence, ladies and gentlegoats, we proudly march to the ASEAN Championship final against the winner of today's other semi between Thailand and Vietnam second leg (the Thais lead 2-0 from the first leg).

What a superb finale for our grand old dame that is the National Stadium. Ok bye.

Was gonna go for a run but then I noticed it's raining outside. Didn't even know that it was. Silent this one. No wonder it was still dark at 730am just now.

Good. Gives me some time to ponder about some things.

All my life people have this impression of me - that if I had two strengths, that I'm diligent as well as disciplined. I too thought the same.

Thought.

It's true. I'm not as good as I thought I was or other people think I am for that matter.

But things are different now. I'm on the wrong side of my 20s and the ten year plan I set myself three years ago looks very bleak at the moment.

I keep getting myself involved in the wrong things especially when it comes to my career.

Had a little chat with my sister Bug yesterday. She said that she understands my desire to fulfil my ambition to be a proper businessman but I have to start from the bottom and not depend on other people like I am now.

Other people are out to eat me alive. I can't deny that it makes me a lousy businessman-to-be at the moment when I cannot detect myself being made a fool of until it's too late.

It's naive of me to even have that tiny hope that other people would treat me in the same way that I treat them - that is with respect as a fellow human being.

God planned it in this way coz maybe He thinks I didn't deserve to get my tangible rewards sooner than I want it to be because I might not be able to handle them.

He does want me to succeed in my ambition but He wants me to slowly does it while in the meantime putting me in situations where I learn to be more wise.

This is The School of Hard Knocks and what better educator could I ask for than God Himself?

Time is not running out but from now on I need to instil inside of me that I'm not thinking for one person anymore. If I thought I could risk it all before since I had nothing to lose, I have to stop this very second.

The future is clearer especially now that I have a wonderful partner and that only means I'm stronger since I am more complete.

Can't look back.

ASEAN SOCCER CHAMPIONSHIP SEMI FINAL (FIRST LEG)

Singapore 1 Malaysia 1

Watched this tie with my little bird last night.

Singapore was crap in the first half... er, wait a minute. Singapore is crap in ANY half any time of the year but especially crappy in yesterday's first half.

Couldn't string three passes in a row, couldn't tackle, couldn't head the ball out of defence, couldn't even shoot the ball straight into the net from like ONE metre (Mr Khairul Amri the culprit).

We came back stronger in the second half but the Tigers' Hardi caught us by surprise with his fluke cross which curled leftwards into our net from our right flank after a quick throw in.

Thank goat Noh Alam Shah equalized. At least that gives me more incentive to go and support them LIVE at the Kallang Stadium this Saturday for the second leg with my little bird.

Then Mr Aide Iskandar got his second yellow card minutes before the final whistle for dissent and promptly got sent off. Not sure what happened but I think he tried to be a smart ass by re-joining play so quickly after seeking treatment for injury on the sidelines without the ref's permission.

He was asking for it. The whole match he showed how his old legs couldn't keep up with the Tigers' speediness. He pulled and tugged their shirts to stop them and certainly deserved it. Obviously he should just retire and take up mud wrestling as a new career path.

Thank goatness he will not be featuring for us again in this tournament. He may be the captain, but there are other leaders on the pitch like Noh Alam Shah, Daniel Bennett and Lionel Lewis. Besides, Baihakki Khaizan's younger legs could better cope with the Tigers' pace.

What is the purpose of me being at the shop?

1 - to earn my share of profits

2 - to take over the business after a year

However, I believe he's not being sincere about these two. He doesn't want to share profits, nor does he want to happily hand over the business to me any time.

If not, where is my Profit and Loss Statement? So when he says we make a profit, we make a profit and if we don't, then we don't? What kinda profit-sharing partnership is this?

And where is our agreement in black and white? It's already been a few months. If someone else was to offer to pay cash for the business tommorow, what'd happen to me? I have no insurance.

If all he wants is cheap labour, on the pretext of me running the business on his behalf, he can look somewhere else. It's not happening.

I'm a working partner, I deserve more respect.

I notice from my morning runs that no matter how slow I go, I'm still faster than other joggers.

That doesn't necessarily mean that I'm fitter though. It just means my strategy is better. At least that's how I see it and I think it's applicable to life in general as well.

I have to say that some of the important elements of this strategy of mine were imparted to me by my father in the little time that we "hung out", weird as it seems. He was a warrant officer in the old armed forces. I emphasize "old" because they were sadistic back then. Here's what I do.

1) I don't get stitches in my stomach even if I don't warm up, so I don't really emphasize on this. Saves time that could otherwise be used for more important things like blogging.

Instead, knowing that my knees and my back are my weakest body parts, I just kinda bend down and touch my toes a few times while waiting for the lift down.

2) Then I walk to the traffic light which is also my start point. I use this walking time to sashay and show off my bulging thigh muscles to the morning office ladies who are on their way to work.

3) When the light turns green, I run. I can't be certain but from my experience I gauge the whole distance to be not more than 4km. It's short, but I run every other day and I'm not actually training for a marathon. It's called condition training. My season doesn't start in June every year (army reservist) and I don't step up my training till April.

a) Here's the important bits:

i) Breathing technique - tongue on the ceiling of your mouth as you run. This way, you stop yourself from breathing entirely from the mouth which would effectively make your throat dry. Instead, you'd breathe from both your nose and your mouth.

ii) Arm movement - the choo choo train. As the name suggests, you have to keep your arm moving like a choo choo train. Each time you thrust your arm forward, you actually move a few inches ahead too and every little bit of effort helps to get you there at the fastest possible time.

iii) Leg movement - NEVER walk. Have you noticed that even if you shuffle your feet forward, it's still faster than walking? Because it is, and it's not tiring. So don't be a lazy butt and start walking. Tip toe if you must. It's still faster than walking.

In the course of my life as a captain in various sports or an army sergeant, I always urge my charges to not STOP and keep on moving. I'll kick their butts no matter on the field, on the road or on the track. In time, they actually become fitter than when they started and would eventually thank me for encouraging them.

4) I stop at the same traffic light on the other side and walk to the little fitness corner near my place. I don't do any cooling down stretches. Instead, since I'm all still pumped and all, I utilize two of the equipments available there.

a) I pull myself up on the chin up bar and freeze while counting "one thousand, two thousand..." up to "ten thousand". Again my purpose is not to build rippling muscles. This exercise conditions my upper body to get used to my body weight.

b) To ascertain that my upper body remembers what weight to get used to, straight after that I crook my elbows at 90 degrees and count up to "ten thousand" again before I slowly let myself down. This is so that none of my body parts gets shocked and injured from any sudden movement, especially after being frozen for a while.

5) Then I do some diamond push ups on the sit up bench coz the floor's dirty. I do ten, slowly and deliberately. I do this so my arms don't get any weaker than it is. Diamonds are also for those who wants to build their chest muscles. The reason I have to maintain the size of my chest muscle is because my tummy cannot stop getting fatter. Hence when I put on a shirt, people think I'm not fat. Heh. It's all tactical. ;-)

6) Then I turn around and do some modified sit ups. My back is flat on the bench, my palms are flat on my not so flat tummy, my knees bent with my feet flat on the surface. Imagine that. Then with my eyes fixed at the sky, I start.

The key point of my modified sit ups is that I don't really "sit up". I only go halfway up 20 times with my back still straight. While I'm halfway up, I freeze there for a second during each count and go back down slowly with my head NOT touching the bench.

The purpose of this exercise is so that I don't hurt my poor bad back and still get to salvage whatever I can of my stomach muscles somewhere beneath my flabby tummy.

How is my strategy applicable to life in general again?

Simple - every little effort counts.

I believe my life is finally turning around.

Hence, the new blog. No. 4 since 2003.