anyway i guess im headed for rod stewart (with the oldest birthday girl in my house) and giving coldplay a miss instead. tix already sold out anyway. have i told you lately that i love you~~... need to go study some lyrics and practise some serak serak basah vocals so that i can enjoy myself with the other warga warga emasss.tis is gonna be fun dawg.....

whos ya granddadddy..

"the city of ships, music and the future".

we stayed in a bed & breakfast owned by a man called James Daily. if there were an award for the nicest brit, i will give it to him. his house is about 50 metres away from the KOP itself.

u'll be surprised that the stadium is really, really close to people's homes.. smthg like how close masjid sultan is to arab street.one thing's for sure, you gotta be a football/liverpool fan to stay so near a stadium to be able to appreciate the fact that some 40 over thousand people are regularly gonna walk past your house.

we come from far.

the team bus arrives.. i thought there'd be cheers and stuff, but strangely, everyone was stoic as the bus entered. either tat or like me, their lips too were too frozen and swollen in the cold to even move.

we came early..

as the stadium filled, players came on the pitch to warm up.

this was when i had to slap myself like a tough turkey. i was stumped in disbelief...this is really happening.

really like wat i;d imagined it to be. sang YNWA like majulah singapura with my macam paham YNWA scarf. it went really,really well. 3-0 to liverpool.. cheered at every goal like it was singapore in the world cup. we went 'home' happy.

just outside the Kop.

paisley gateway

the next day we went for the stadium tour. i told moy i bought a g-string at the lfc megastore and she believed me. wat was even funnier bullshitting her was tat i told her i bought a gstring with rafa's face on the front.hahaa. err ok. anyway. here are the pics from the stadium tour.

inside the halls. at the end of the hallway is rafa's office.the superstition is tat liverpool stopped winning the league since they tore down the bootroom a few years ago (im not gonna say exactly how long. chelsea fan, cut tat smirk). but the stadium guide told us tat last season rafa instructed to build another so called bootroom. n with pool doing well (as at) this season, we may just do it ala nike.

we were brought into the players' changing rooms. its really, really modest. the bare minimum. unlike other clubs - where the home team gets a bigger room - liverpool is the only one which has both the home and away rooms of the same size.

omg..the players' tunnel. should have worn heels to touch tat sign.

next was the museum. a lot of lessons in here.. a gd crash course.... particularly for those who became liverpool supporters after istanbul 2005/ after torres joined the club.hmmmmmm. nvr too late of cos.

ours to keep

alonso wore these boots thruout the season and all the way to istanbul.

i brought my banner so that they can also display it in the museum. luckily it wasnt rejected.

of cos i was just kidding.

at nite we went to a restaurant owned by jamie carragher (i was serious wen i said im going in search of him). the name of the place is very unique. very creative. its called.. Cafe Sports. Hahahaha.

it served normal angmoh food. pizza, pasta, bbq chicken wings etc. the menu was split into two; the appetiser menu (called First Half) and the main course (called Second Half). irritating or not. hahaha. and all the waitress/ waiters wore Number 23 shirts. until today i still cant figure out why. hmmmmm. creative.

ok, thats all for this episode's Soccer Cities. tune in next time (bila bila) for more features.

suddenly, we're back in SG. And tmrw its back to werk. Yay! (..not)

when your earthquake, was jus cracks..
i. work is shit. (this takes regular top spot at the end of every year, methinks?) it is the plastik politiks at top level. where Someone says fetch, and everyone goes to catch one frisbee. wooo.
ii. the family is now separated in 3 diffrent countries. the old man, the motherboard and the youngest bro is in canada prolly squeezing maple syrup, and the elder sis, her hubby and my niece - who i hold a large slice of affection to - is in korea prolly searching for the best kimchi. but really, theyre all just trying to make a living.
iii. becos of point ii, i cant see my niece grow up. i cant feed her chocs and make her fat like i wanted. but i got to see her first shaky baby steps on the webcam. and shes still so beautiful (so biased).

luck and routine can change like a flip of a coin. here are the good parts of 2008.

ize of the world..
i. went on a few adventures. hehehe.
ii. loads of gigs! singapore is a HAPPENING PLACE.. hahaha. the list for 08 includes kraftwerk, manics, whitest boy, mono, incubus, explosions in the sky, and of course Ash. 2009. i cant even imagine. if theyre gonna bring in the ting tings, may as well bring in YYYs. and because s'pore is so HAPPENING, im making predictions for 2009 (im listing 10, lets see how many I get rite): belle & sebastian, portishead, interpol, KoL, maybe david gray, justin timberlake,radiohead (evry year also in the list), and lets just throw in blonde redhead and bjork and weezer.haha.
iii.lets not talk abt a certain red jersey-ed team sitting pretty at the top of the table. please, please. maintain this...
iv.being there for my best buddy's during her nikah. u wont understand why unless u know their story.
v. im going on a lil backbreaking mission across UK and Spain. Leaving in a few hours time to go in search of jamie carragher. counted down to this since 2007, and its finally coming true. look out for me in the stands during the liverpool-bolton game on boxing day!

tats about all really. there r so many things in the head now, but i just cant piece it together or just that this isnt the right medium to do so. 2008, i can say, has been really good to me. hope it was for you too. Happy new year and see you in 2009.

:(

First, a great win for pool in the champs league. Goal #1 for keano (apt, just as we were all cussing about him) and the 100th for stevie. And the next goal we score (please let it be against the team haprak arab dogol-owned Man City), it will be Liverpool’s 1,000th goal in the premiership. Its all about digits. Keep it on the tips of your fingers, then keep them fingers crossed.

The very next day, still stoned sour from lack of sleep, I spent one hot night at fort canning with 3 Irish men. In many, many ways, this was a dream come true to me, and one of my ‘Bucket List’-type of items that can now be boldly and proudly checked. Watching Ash live in concert. Who would’ve have thought.

Mageek…

this man rite here, he that goes by the name of Mark Hamilton (also a LIVERPOOL FC fan), is who, in very blatant terms, what I would like to label as…. Hottttt shit! Cannot tahan…

Tim wheeler is in your face. Someoneee had to nudge and say to me.. Su, he’s right in front of you. I know, and I couldn’t believe it either.

Rick ROCK Mcmurray.. no more Mohawk, but his drumming skills still sharper than a hawk’s eye. (its ok, sometimes I dun understand what Im trying to say either.)

They opened with title track from one my not-so-favret albums Meltdown (very the metal lah this album.) and worked their way around a buffet of tunes. From Free All Angels: Shining Light, Walking Barefoot, Burn Babu Burn (this version for my irritating baii toncet neighbour. Nvm, I digress). From their recent semi-metal semi-poppunk new album Twilight Of The Innocents: Only 3 songs, surprisingly. You cant have it all, Blacklisted, and the album title track, TOTI (no relation to Francesco) which sounds totally ear-guzzling fantastic live. “Im still breathing, my heart;s still beating.” Who knew Tim Wheeler could stretch his urat tetet (ask your mom what that is) to THAT extent! Mariah Carey sure run outta business if Diddy were to spot him one day.

But they sure know how to play up the audience, playing the bulk of songs from 1977. Oh yeah, Girl form Mars, Goldfinger, Angel Interceptor and Kung Fu. Crap, they even played a song from Trailer, Jack Names the Planets, and even a Life Less Ordinary. What we wanna hear, they played it. The new track Ichiban sounded a little too cartoon for me, but you know, if I spin it like a hot plate long enough, maybe I might just grow to like it.

Somewhat our view during the show, but better. Heheh.

All in all it was great, suffered a few bruises from RAWRKING during the opening band Fishtank’s slot (OK who am I shittin here hahhaa). The bruises came from a few excited rowdy roddy pipers behind who were pushing and shoving like a bull’s stampede during Girl fm Mars. I like. very much. Its all good. These are bruises of Ash lurve.

I know they come in pairs, but the above photo is unfortunately not what u think. Hha. Those are my knees in its bruised sacrificial glory!

We were all there to have a good time, to enjoy ourselves thoroughly. Its certainly a night to remember til Im old(?). One day, I’ll proudly tell my grandchildren, Nenek tengok Ash dulu ha… pat Fort canning, singapurgherrr……

Fuuuh…..

Thanks di for taking the great photos as I jumped around like monkey god during the gig.