Of Cantonas Keanes and Rooneys

These were and are some of the greatest and most influential players who have donned the famous red shirts...

All of them are players with superb skills...

All of them are players with great guts and determination...

And all of them are players who are also very explosive and volatile at some point or other on the pitch...

Eric Cantona... who could forget his double-feet kungfu retaliation at a fan sitting beside the pitch?

Roy Keane... who could forget the most influential skipper in all of Man U's history who gets angry at even his own team-mates when the team don't play well?

Wayne Rooney... who could forget his ungracious antics during the World Cup 2006 in Germany?

Such explosive and tempermental players? A nightmare for any manager to manage... And only Alex Ferguson has the ability to re-channel their power, angst, energy and explosive passion into super productive performances on the soccer pitch...

Ferguson sees the greatness in all of them... He stood by them even when they flounder and disappoint their team-mates time and again by getting themselves into trouble... He believed in them and push them to realise their greatness...

And I have some Cantonas, Keanes and Rooneys in Simpleville too...

Explosive and angst-ridden characters... they don't conform to rules and regulations... they jump "double-footed" at anyone who antagonises them... they think that they are above everything else...

But there's also greatness in each and everyone of them...

My body is still aching from my badminton session yesterday... but such aches will go away... at least I know that my muscles had a good work-out and they'll only become stronger after they recover...

But there're some aches that's more difficult to recover from... Aches from knowing that these Cantonas, Keanes and Rooneys have gotten themselves into some kind of trouble again... These are aches in the heart...

How I wish I could be like Alex Ferguson... Motivating, developing and grooming his charges to become great soccer players... I've tried... And I'll still try... Cos' I see greatness too... In all these Cantonas, Keanes and Rooneys...

Yonex!

I'm really not a racket game kind of person... Soccer and basketball are more like it... But it's hard to find kakis to play soccer and basketball these days, with many of my friends already tied up in their families or are already sprouting bellies...

My sis asked me to play badminton today... My bro-in-law and two cousins came as well... Considering I'm not getting enough exercise already, and with the Sheares Bridge run looming, I went...

And to my surprise, my sis brought along my very first badminton racket!!! It was a racket which my grandfather bought for me some 20 over years ago!!! It's a simple Yonex racket, not one of those featherweight Carbonex carbon fibre rackets, but an aluminium one... Not super light, but not excessive heavy either...

My sis had restrung the string some time back and had changed the grip... And my very first racket is still working fine!!!

During my childhood, my father was the only bread-winner of my family... so he's very strict with us spending on things unnecessarily... I don't get to have many "good-to-haves" that many of my friends get... nintendo, game-watch, casio digital watch, toys, etc etc were all out of bounds for me...

BUT... I sometimes do get to have some nice things along the way... I've got my grandfather, uncles and aunties around... Just occassionally... not all the time...

And the badminton racket was one of those things that I could only 'convince' my grandfather to buy for me...

And I remembered that same night where I got my badminton racket, my father scolded me and chided my grandfather for buying something that might give me a chance to damage the furnitures and fittings at home...

Looking back and my childhood, and comparing with the cousins and kiddos in school, it's an entitlement for kids these days to get anything they desire...

Affluence allowed parents to buy many things that their kids want... but should there be a control over it?

I learnt the virtue of taking good care of all the things that I own... Many things that I have are kept for long long time... My 20 year old badminton racket is but just one of those things...

I'm also very gratified and blessed that although my father was so strict over us spending unnecessarily, he was never stingy when I wanted to buy any books to read... And I developed this habit and joy of spending time in bookshops, looking for books and keeping good books... And I still do now...

When I go downtown... the only locations where I don't feel out of place would be bookshops... even when I go overseas, I'd stop by bookshops to browse around...

There wasn't much distractions for kids back then... just TV and radio... I don't really envy parents today where there's simply too many things that their kiddos are obsessed with...

Times are changing... I don't think many people would keep their badminton rackets for over 20 years, and still use it anymore...

Serving the Nation

Was watching Channel 52 on TV just now... heard this song... a song which I almost forgot by 周华健, Emil Chau...

璀璨
每当曲终人散之后
眼看缤纷色彩变灰暗
我在等待那一份孤独的来临
还是等待那一阵寒冷的偷袭
不知道我永远不知道
冷冷清清我的心情
璀璨的所有已远去
精疲力尽我的声音
喧闹的回音却挥不去

Listening to this song, memories on the night of 4 Jan 1993 came flashing back...

It was the night before I was enlisted into my National Service...

Loads of uncertainty... loads of apprehension... loads of discomfort... loads of longingness...

I remembered I was figuring out the chords for this song which described my feelings at that very moment... I felt a choke in my throat as I tried singing this song back then...

I remembered the quiet dinner I had with my parents and sister that night... quiet... nobody knew what to say...

I was one of those few randomly selected ones who had sending-off ceremonies organised for us... Mine was held at Braddel Heights Community Centre. I can't remember which MP came to grace the event though... there was a little reception, before all of us enlistees were ushered up the 3-tonne trucks...

I remembered looking down into the crowd after I boarded the 3-tonner... I caught a glimpse of my father... I saw him waving back at me... his eyes were red... with tears... it was the first time in my life that I saw my father tear... a solid and hard character in my life tearing... but he still put on a smile... that was the last image I had of someone close before I was enlisted...

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2.5 years of National Service came and went... I firmly believe that without this uniquely Singapore experience that every male citizens go through, I would never be who I am today... much of my attitude and principles in life were shaped and developed during those 2.5 years... some life changing events happened during that period of time too... and looking back, I'm extremely gratified that I went through those days... even though there were many moments then where I had wished that I could get of NS quickly, those very moments really made me stronger than ever before...

I was reading with great intrigue on Clupsnap forum some days back, where a Junior College student posed this question on the forum: "Should NS be made optional?"

He proposed that NS is taking up 2 valuable years of a male citizen's life and such mandatory regulation imposed on us would only stifle our talents and contribution to the nation... And furthermore, NS actually was the main reason cited by people who chose to migrate...

Such ignorant sweeping statements... he doesn't know the price of peace and security... but he'll find out and grow up after he has served our nation...

Perhaps he's experiencing some pre-NS jitters, just as I did in 1993...

Singapore Fireworks Festival 2006

Team Italy

First show for SFF 2006...

Italy is one of the leading fashion nation in the world... Rightly so... It's a nation rich in style and great taste in the arts...

And it's reflected in their fireworks display too...

I felt immensely happy while shooting the fireworks... Tapping my feet to the music during the high tempo moments, and admiring the colours and synchronised explosions while Pavarotti's singing was played... Fast, then slow, then fast again... My feelings were driven entirely by this majestic display...

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Team New Caledonia

3rd display of the SFF 2006...

New Caledonia... Debutant of the SFF... Where on earth is New Caledonia?

It's actually an island lying somewhere in the South Pacific Ocean... to the west of Australia, somewhere near Papau New Guinea... It actually a country belonging to France!!!

It's a country similar to New Zealand, with it's unique species of flora and fauna due to it's isolated geography...

And this very display was inspired by mother nature...

I thought I saw a tropical isle with swaying coconut tress and palm trees... I thought I saw flowers of different colours in full majestic bloom... I even thought I saw chinese calligraphy painted in the night canvas... It's absolutely calming and unique in it's choreography...

This is in fact my favourite show among all 4... It might not have the glorious colours of Team Italy... But it's artistic depth becomes more apparent when I began to realise what it was trying to portray...

Simply amazing...

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Team France

Last show of SFF 2006...

The organisers tried to save the best for last... It's a French Encore... After a splendid display and popularity last year...

Lesser colours than last year... Deceptively so... A quick count and there were only 3 major colours throughout the entire display... And this is where the mastery of the French Team becomes most apparent...

Like last year, the French has the knack of keeping things unhurried... indifferent... and in an enticing and teasing manner even... the display slowly built up to a climax... an extended climate even, when the entire night sky was littered with golden explosions after golden explosions... and just when I thought there's only so much the night sky could contain, the French just kept them coming...

What a glorious ending!!! So typical French... No wonder they are the best lovers in the world!

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Team Singapore

Team Singapore's display was reserved for the eve of the nation's 41st birthday...

All I can say is that the team has been there, and done that... nothing more...

It's a display that shows that Singapore has the technical expertise to produce a fireworks display... But it stops just there...

In all the other shows, I could feel... I could feel what the choreographers wanted to portray... My feelings and mood were driven and led by the fireworks... And these foreign teams have raised fireworks displays into an artform... I do not feel like I'm watching a technically perfect execution of pyrotechnics... There was a soul behind each displays...

That's exactly what Team Singapore lacked...

In our pursuit of excellence in every aspects in our nation building, our pursuit of artistic excellence has not been able to keep up... We still lack a bit of soul... We still lack that ability to express artistically... We can boast to the world with our magnificant Esplande where world-class performances are presented... But how many of our own productions are world-class in standard?

Technically, we are almost there... Soul-wise, 41 years of nationhood is still considered at its infancy...

(My whole series of the SFF 2006 is HERE)

Warning!!!

Decided to go jogging yesterday...

And I thought some universal constants have gone disarray...

My shorts seemed to have enlarged by a scale factor of 0.8...

Gravitational pull seemed to have increased to 12 m/s^2...

Oxygen level at sea-level seemed to have gone thin as if I was at 3000m altitude...

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Apart from trekking to Bt Timah, MacRitchie Reservoir, walking all over Kyoto & Osaka carrying my camera bag, I havent'been jogging since I don't know when...

I used to be able to bank on my youth and was able to regain my fitness rather quickly after a few workouts... but I now can feel the drag...

Maybe I've been zipping around too much in my RSP... gotta enforce some discipline to regain my fitness quickly once again... Sheares Bridge run and another don't know what quarter marathon run are coming up...

I don't want to be unfit!!!

Breaking Out of the Cocoon

A man saw a cocoon where a butterfly was about to break free from. Upon seeing the butterfly struggle so hard and appearing to be having a lot of difficulty breaking out of it, he decided to use a knife and cut the cocoon open to release the butterfly within...

To his horror, the butterfly did not survive long after being released prematurely. The butterfly didn't develop enough strength to fly because it didn't have the chance to go through the process of struggling and breaking out of its cocoon by itself.

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I constantly remind myself with this story... I was reminded of this story again today...

A young padawan of mine requested that I cut open a cocoon prematurely... I'm very proud of him for having such great compassion and displaying such great friendship. I'm very touched in fact...

However, just like a little chick using all its strength to break out of the egg shell, the butterfly needs to do it himself... All we can, and should do is to give the butterfly all the encouragement that he needs, and await the day when he will break out of his cocoon, turning into a beautiful butterfly... That will be the day where we will all cheer and celebrate his rebirth... a new beginning... putting the past behind, and looking forward to greater success and achievements...

I am most humbled... I am looking forward to that day...

Jedi's Day 2006

Posted this last year... Jedi's Day...

Come 1 Sept 2006, it'll be the 7th Jedi's Day for me...

Time flies... so unconciously... especially so when I find myself waking up everyday doing something I feel passionately about...

The past Jedi's Days were very fun for me... I always get to assemble groups of talented Padawans strutting their stuff on stage... Jam bands, boy bands, modern dance, skits, break dance, songs... Still remembered having to rent guitar amplifiers out of my own pockets for a group of guys who loved playing in a jam band... Those were guys who liked pretty much nothing else in school, but jamming in a band... Miss those guys...

Then progressively, other jam bands came up... Most enjoyable band I worked with was the one made up by Joakim(lead vocal), Melvyn (lead vocal), Jainthan (bass guitar, Andra (electric guitar), and Shawn (drums)... and I really enjoyed all those late afternoons/evenings in the school hall jamming and scolding and correcting some of the songs they were gonna perform... Don't know if they found me irritating, but heheh, I kinda enjoyed that... ;)

There was only one guiding principle that drove me on organising those concerts... to showcase the talents of these Padawans... They need a stage... and all I need to do was to give them that stage... And they fly...

Jedi's Day's coming in a months' time... Some padawans asked me to play in a semi-formed up band with them... But I'm kinda rusty already... been a long while since I played my guitar seriously...

Maybe it's time to pick them up again...

(JEDI's Day Website)