:come into Dr Love's little world:
It is sad not to see my beloved Reds in the CL semis, esp when the Final is going to be at Rome, and Liverpool won twice there.
Barca - Chelsea
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First off, Barcelona. This is a team who do not know how to defend. Their current style of play is the best example of 'attack is the best defence'. Reminds me of how Argentina plays during the 2006 WC. However, their formation is like the Brazil during the Ronaldo-Rivaldo-Ronaldinho 's time. There is no established wingers. The wing plays are controlled by the full-backs, esp the Right-back of Dani Alves. Chelsea on the other hand, has adopted the Dutch's total football play. Guus Hiddink has once again proved he is sort of a miracle worker, bringing unity and cohesiveness into the Blues' play.
The vital match-up will be the person whom marks Messi. Although he operates on the right wing more, I suspect that Michael Essien will be utilised to man-marked him throughout, just like how they did with Gerrard. And Lionel Messi is well worth that effort, to sacrifice the overall play of Essien to control the miracle footballer of Messi. However, there are other playmakers in Barca. Henry, Xavi, Inesia. If Messi can trust his midifielders enough to allow them to dictate play, he can play 2 types of roles here, one is as a decoy to bring defenders away from Eto and Henry. As Essien is marking him, he will be more effective running into on-side positions. This allows him to become a decoy. the second type is to swap positions with Eto. Messi is very dangerous cutting inside. however, Eto can do the same. So if Barca can design plays to let Eto run onto Messi's flicks, then it would be Barca's night. However, Chelsea cannot be under-estimated, esp when they are away from Stamford bridge. Their form away from Home seems to suggest that they can attack and defend, just like they did in Anfield. The partnership of Drogba to the midfield, mainly, Lampard will be the key to their success.
My prediction : Barcelona to win by an odd goal, and dun be surprised if Chelsea sneaks in an away goal.
Man U - Arsenal
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Old foes, new playground. This is probably one of the more exciting and most look-forwarded Semi match since the Qtr-final draws. Both teams advanced, Man U with some difficulties, and Arsenal with ease. Their form book are like 2 roller coaster, meeting at a cross-function, one going up (Arsenal), one going down. Many might argue Manure's 5-2 win over Spurs. But have you guys sent the "penalty"? Arsenal on the other hand, has been on form, with the return of the star players, they are playing flowing football again. Even without forwards like Van Persie and Ade, they still manage to play good football in Anfield and drew 4-4.
The critical match-up will be both manager's approach to the game. Why do I say that? Tactically, I think Liverpool's loss to Chelsea in the Q-final partly, has to do with the referees. THis is when the complication with an all English match-up on european competition brings. Typically, english referees are more tolerate to physical plays but not european ones. However, in the Pool-Chelsea game at Anfield, the refereeing style and play is like an BPL game. Pool tried to get foul calls, but failed, thinking that Chelsea will play into their European advantage. If the referee tomorrow allows physical play to go on, the Manure will stand a higher chance winning.
Prediction : A possible goal-less draw. With Man U's recent erratic form, Wenger would like to bring the game back to the Emirates and finish them there.
My prediction :
Hisashi Mitsui |4/28/2009 04:48:00 PM
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It was a tiring experience... but exciting too... At abt 3am, Gracie complained of a pain which she could not ascertain if it is contraction. And the pain do not come in regular intervals, which we tot what contractions should be. So we decided to wait, since our gynac´s estimation was earliest on sun. At abt 7am, Gracie could not sleep much, and decide to call the baby emergency number which TMC provided for advice. The doc was called, and his assessment is to go to TMC for observations. Well, so be it. I got up, took a quick shower, got our ¨baby bag¨, and off we go. Gracie managed to get a good shower and washed her hair, which is what every experienced pregnant women would tell u to do if u r expecting.
We were lucky it was saturday morning, and there were not much ly, but cars on the road like the usual working weekdays. We arrived at abt 820am and went str to the obsveration room. Before i got settled down, I was instructed to wait at the ¨waiting lounge¨ and wait for my name to be called. What the heck... i went there unwillingly but i dun wan to be a trouble-maker as well. Abt 20 min in that nothing-to-do lounge, my name was called, and I was told to admit Gracie. At the back of my mind, i was still thnking whether it is really happening. The admission process took a quick 7-8 min, and off we go to the delivery ward. The time is 910am. The wait was super super long... the doc did not come until abt 11 plus and after that, then he allowed the epidural to be injected after he confirmed gracie was in labour, I was like ¨huh? u mean not confirm? then admit for what?¨. Anyway, I din really have time to ask that, and i got to be chased out of the room for the epidural injection. that wait was a good 15 min. But after the epidural, gracie was feeling much better. she even fell asleep. I took the chance to go for my breakfast cum lunch, and made calls to the families of the impeding arrival of the baby.
It was about 3pm when gracie started to feel the contractions more. An hour later, the nurse was preparing for the ¨pushing¨ activity. I was super lost, not knowing what to do, and not wanting to be in the way. So at 4pm, we started the ¨exercise push¨, which was really long. Apparently, there was progress but very little. When the gynac arrived, he came to a conclusion that it bas to be an assisted delivery, as gracie is almost out of strength. So from ¨exercise push¨, the mission is changed to ¨exercise pull¨. The gynac was like a miracle worker, after 15 min of the arrival, the baby is out, and he was clearing up the rest of the job, while i took some time to get to know my newborn baby boy.
The process was really tiring, and I hardly sleep yst when i was here. Now that everything is normalising, tonite will be a sleep at home and picking up my two precious darlings tmr. lots to look forward to !!!
Hisashi Mitsui |4/26/2009 10:56:00 AM
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I found this article on TNP, which talks about a group created on Face book to slam and bash Singaporeans. Well, I have my share to say too.
I have been to several countries as well, and have met with good and bad experiences on many occasions. However, is it bad enough to bash the country as a whole? I don't think so. The usual complaint about Singapore is well-known in many parts of the world, Singapore's own flavour of English, the Singlish that is. The worst is, it saddens me to see Singaporeans complaining about Singapore. There was once an article on TNP which highlights that Singapore's English is bad, and the review is from a Taiwanese. Her comment was that Singaporeans do not speak the entire sentence, like "pls on the light", rather than "pls switch on the light." Seriously, I got half a mind to tell her that I was once at a taiwanese MRT station which part of it is under renovation. The 2 English sentences on it are filled with grammatical errors. But I don’t see the need to broadcast it like she does.
Another significant complaint was about our service standards, especially when Singapore is starting to employ foreigners to fill in the retail sector. Realistically, do you expect them to know everything? Some of the employed foreigners from China are University graduates, who can speak limited English. And worse, they were studying something totally not related to retail, but came to Singapore to work as they think the money here is better. But if you look closely, are these foreigners everyway, in every shop? A big fat NO. These more high-class retail sectors such as shops in Takashimaya hires experience service industry personnel, speaks good English, knows how to please customers. Those shops which hires foreigners see a need to cut cost so that the prices in that shop are lower and more competitive. So what do you expect? Cheap goods with superb service standards? Name me a country whose retail sector can provide that, speaks the thousands of languages in this world, and high service standards, and super cheap goods? Bangkok is one of the world’s favourite shopping place for cheap goods, more notably, the weekend market called Chatuchak. It is my favourite too. However, how many of the stall keepers speak good English? Or even Chinese? And their service standards? I once bought a table lamp for 200 baht, and the same stall keeper quoted a French couple 900 baht from onset, right after doing my business. If I am like the ones on that facebook group, then I will be sure that my few limited sentence of Thai did not help the cause.
My point is, Singapore, like many countries, has her limitations, and her share of bad service that might have anger or create a bad impression to foreigners. But I am sure majority of Singaporeans are kind and devoted to their cause. I was in Orchard Road once, waiting for a friend, and a tourist asked an auntie standing near me for directions. As she was not conversant with English, she walked 5 metres to me, and asked for my help, which I gladly do so. She could have just say she don’t know and get on with what she is doing, but she chose to ensure that the tourist got their help. There are good people in Singapore everywhere. To the Japanese cyclist who encountered some “unapproachable” Singaporeans, I think these Singaporeans are either in a rush, which a large portion of Singaporeans are, or they can’t really understand what you were saying. Please, look at some other possible causes before branding people as “unapproachable”.
Hisashi Mitsui |4/23/2009 07:19:00 PM
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A fantastic match for the neutrals, a saddening match for the Reds supporters, a feeling of 2 pts lost for the Gunners supporters. This is what I think represent the 3 different sets of supporters.
The match started off brightly, with Liverpool controlling the 1st half. But against the run of play, Javier Marscherano dallied on the ball, and allow the Gunners to steal the ball and caught the entire Red defence off guard. Having little time to re-group, Arshavin scored. As a Reds fan, I felt disappointed. About 5 min prior to that, Javier lost the ball near midfield with the same problem, and Pool was lucky that the shot was off target. And yet, he does not learn his lesson.
Credit to the Red army, they came out of half-time roaring back into the match. THey took only 3 min before they equalised and subsequently led 2-1. Majority of both goals were accredited to Dirk Kuyt's never give up attitude in pressing the Gunners and later crossing the ball for Torres and Benayoun respectively.
Then sadly, another individual mistake, by Arbeloa, when he was trying to control Carragher's soft header when he should have cleared it. A few minutes later, another individual mistake, this time be Fabio Aurelio, when he cleared a cross into Arshavin. Who can resist this sort of "gift"?
The Reds equalised thru a fantastic individual goal by Torres. The goal is evident that he is a gifted goal scorer. As the Reds pushed for a goal, they forgot they have to defend counter-attacks, which is the Gunners' speciality. So thru a corner, Arsenal pushed forward and scored a fourth, 3 min from time.
Thinking that the game is over, they relaxed and that allowed Reds to score a equaliser, 1 min into injury time.
My opinions of the game : Liverpool is confident, and determined, but they lacked Gerrard in two aspects. One is his impact in the game. Torres was doing things on his own, evident from his second goal. The link by Benayoun between midfield and forward is good. But what he lacks is the impactful play. The distracting runs and the powerful shots. Secondly is his leadership influence. I have realised that the Red players' mistakes are lesser when he is on the field. As the general of the team, he commands his men and keeps their mind in the right place. If Gerrard is in the team, would Marscherano loses the ball after he did it a few minutes ago, perhaps if Gerrard is on the field, he would have let him know Arsenal's intention, and his short time allowed on the ball. He might have cleared it first time. Same can be the same for Aurelio and Arbeloa.
Hisashi Mitsui |4/22/2009 08:54:00 PM
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I always like to read interesting articles, and as the IT age came, I began reading blogs and internet forums. and I started my blogging sometime back... over the past month or so, I have been comtemplating whether I want to re-start my blog. I have always like blogging, esp on topics of relationships. occasionally, I go into movie reviews, some youtube post, and some English Premier League opinions. Of course, my fav writing topic is still about relationship, as my blog address would suggest, Singapore Dr Love.
So it is only appropriate that I start my blog with another relationship topic. This entry will be on mindset on marriage.
The topic comes into mind when I was watching a HK TV serial, which a marriage agency. And this guy in the show remarked, "people nowadays just doesn't have the correct mindset or concept on marriage." So is it true? Well, let's just narrow that to Singapore.
I vaguely recalled that I read in a newspaper article, that the avg male marriage age is abt 28 close to 29, while for female is 27 close to 28. First of all, let me go back one generation and looked at my parents. My dad had my older bro when he was in NS, 18/19 years old !!!! and then me 4 yrs later. In our generation, it is even common to get married at 30 or 35. In fact, I used to think that I would get married at 35, rather than 30.
Society nowadays doesn't allow couples to really 'settle down' at a young age. By the time you are done with studies, and got a job, likely you are closer to mid-20s. If you do not have a gf during your study yrs, the few yrs that you take to 'know' the partner sucks up another 2-4 yrs which leaves us with what??? yes, the average marrying age of Singaporeans.
I think some of the causes could be due to the influence of the western society. Nowadays, movies like "sex and the city", serials like desperate housewvies aren't helping either. More and more Singaporeans are trigger happy, sexually that is. ONS, FBs, part time bf/gf, these are getting more and more common. It is even easier if you are good-looking, and earn enuff to afford your own place. Is there someone to blame for this? I dun think so. It is more or a brought-up or influence than anything else.
The older generation used to think that getting married, is the basis of a successful and fruitful life. They have someone supporting them mentally, sometimes financially by being the other working parent, they have someone to go home to. But nowadays, with the higher availability of sex, and 'part-time' or 'temporary' companionship, such 'needs' are no longer valid for you to go all out in your office and climb the corporate ladder. In fact, with no real commitments, there is even less worry to job-hop in hope of more success.
My cure for this change in mindset? nah, i dun have one. All i can contribute here, is that for every parent reading this, to think through how you want to teach your kid up, with the correct mindset of marriage, relationship, and sex. That would be a good start. However, the problem with the current Singapore construct is that the parents are not spending enough time to teach their kids, and that is sad. Parents nowadays hardly scold or cane their kids like my time, and I am in the opinion that such practices are still necessary at times. What do you think?
Hisashi Mitsui |4/21/2009 08:16:00 PM
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