A Great Coriander Mystery

I've decided to post this to see whether anyone can help me solve this great mystery. It has been baffling me since this morning.

I was shocked to find my coriander plant in a mess this morning, as shown in the photo. I left it on the floor since yesterday, at a place with good sunlight. Johanna had trimmed the plant two nights ago as it was getting too leafy.

I have no idea what have caused the earth to be scattered around the plant. It looks like somebody (who?) had uprooted the plant and then placed it back in the pot, or something in the pot had exploded, causing the earth to be scattered all over the place. Can a coriander plant explode?

Hmm... I have a feeling this is going to be one unsolved mystery in my life. Any Sherlock Holmes out there?

Sharifah Mazlina complete Pole-to-Pole mission

Finally, one Malaysian has created a record that we Malaysians can be truly proud of, unlike the longest this, biggest that, you know what I mean.

Sharifah Mazlina became the first Asian woman to have completed the Pole-to-Pole mission. She reached the South Pole in April 2004 and this month she has conquered the North Pole.

Syabas Sharifah! Your courage is applaudable.

Read more at her website...

Massacre at Virginia Tech

Yet another sad shooting tragedy in America involving innocent students. This time around the death toll is more than 30, making it the worst in history.

According to CNN, the alleged shooter, Cho Seung-Hui, had purchased a Walther .22-caliber semi-automatic and a 9 mm Glock for $570 using a credit card. The instant background check only took one minute. It shows how easy it is to obtain a gun in America.

Cho Seung-Hui was described as a loner with a "twisted" mind, based on two plays he had written in his class. See this and this. He was also said to have a history of mental illness. These are what the police had found in his room (read the last page).

There has been a series of shootings at US schools/university, with Columbine High incident still fresh in many Americans' mind. Once again the debate over gun controls are surfacing in American newspapers. Will this incident lead to a change in gun laws in the country? Or Americans are bracing themselves for more déjà vu in the future?

Devils tear Prada

I would love to see this headline in coming weeks!

United will be meeting AC Milan in 2 weeks' time. The hometown of Prada will be wary of us after our amazing 7 - 1 victory over their domestic rivals AS Roma.

Last night's game was really out of this world. I only switched on the TV at 8.10pm and was surprised to see us already leading 3 - 0. Unlike the 3 - 0 lead over Reading in FA Cup, we did not falter away this time. Instead, Old Trafford was transformed into a rifle range for the Devils. And we hit the bull's eyes almost effortlessly.

It was very difficult to decide who was the man of the match as everyone was playing so well , especially Giggs, Carrick, Smith, Ronaldo, Heinze and Rooney. Everyone must be very happy for Alan Smith who finally scored (a great goal!) since his comeback from a long and horrific injury.

It will be great if we end up meeting Chelsea in FA Cup and Champions League finals, and beat them. Treble against Chelsea - that will really make this season unforgettable.

Sepang getting 'shabby'

I just blogged about Singapore joining the race to host F1 few days ago and how Malaysia will need to buck up especially when we are well known for having 1st world infrastructure and 3rd world maintenance.

In the latest news, Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone claimed that Sepang circuit is getting 'shabby' in a press interview. There can only be two possible reasons - either the fact is true (which is not a surprise) or Bernie is already showing his preference between Singapore and Sepang, revenue wise, that is. Actually there's reason number 3 - to get rid of Mahathir's son who is managing SIC, even though I think this is highly unlikely. How would Bernie bow down to Khairy?

Hope we won't end up with another white elephant. We already have enough to make the Thais envy.

By the way, I read somewhere that not even half of the stands were filled in yesterday's race, contrary to what was reported by the Star, which further support the revenue reason above.

Excerpts from the article.

"It has become, if you don't mind, like an old house that needs a bit of redecorating," the New Straits Times quoted him as saying in an interview. "It's starting to get a little shabby and looks a bit tired."

"There is rubbish all over the place and it's not really a good sign for Malaysia. We're on worldwide television and it needs to look good, much like in the beginning."

C'mon United!

After United's shocking loss to Pompey today, things suddenly look a bit unsettled for us both in the Premiership and UEFA Champions League.

United still has Chelsea to play. Boro, an on form Everton and Hammers which have shocked us earlier on this season can potentially be banana skins to us. The only consolation is that Chelsea has tougher fixtures ahead, with the likes of Arsenal, Bolton, Everton, West Ham and Blackburn. The desperate West Ham may be the king maker as they have been winning the last few matches (including Arsenal at Emirates) in their despearation to survive. Chelsea rarely has bad luck, always managing 1 - 0 win despite playing terribly. It's hard to see Cech conceding goals in league games, with most of Chelsea's dropped points during his absence. In the past we have always managed to excel in the second half of the season, hope this time around we will do it again.

As for Champions League, the historical statistics below indicate that we've been having bad dreams at the Theatre of Dreams. Hopefully this time we'll be able to defy the odds and secure a home win in return leg finally.

It has been a fantastic season for us so far. We've been scoring a lot of goals. But the amount of goals won't matter if we lose games that matter like what we've done in the past few seasons, e.g. beating Liverpool in league game (not winning the league in the end) and lost in FA Cup final to them one or two weeks later. I'll rather win games 1 - 0 like Chelsea than winning 4 - 1 on most games but lose by one goal margin in few others.

Really hope this will be our season. It does not have to be a treble, but at least the Premiership!

Previous Champions League encounters which we lost at home on aggregate in return legs.
2003-04 (Round of 16) 1st leg: Porto 2 Man Utd 1. 2nd leg: Man Utd 1 Porto 1 At Old Trafford, a Paul Scholes first-half goal looked to be enough for Sir Alex Ferguson’s men – until Costinha’s 90th-minute equaliser

1999-2000 (QF) 1st leg: R Madrid 0 Man Utd 0. 2nd leg: Man Utd 2 R Madrid 3 Roy Keane’s own goal and two Raul strikes put Madrid 3-0 up before replies from Paul Scholes and David Beckham. Too little, too late

1997-98 (QF) 1st leg: Monaco 0 Man Utd 0. 2nd leg: Man Utd 1 Monaco 1 David Trezeguet’s sixth-minute goal rocked lacklustre United, who went out on away goals

1996-97 (SF) 1st leg: B Dortmund 1 Man Utd 0. 2nd leg: Man Utd 0 B Dortmund 1 United were confident, but Lars Ricken scored at Old Trafford and United missed a hatful of chances. Eric Cantona told Ferguson the next day he would retire at the end of the season

Jonathan & Nancy

It has been more than half a year since Jo and I arrived in London. Finally, we've managed to get Johanna's cousin - Jonathan, and girlfriend Nancy to visit us at our flat. Both are musicians playing for reputable orchestras.

F1 in Singapore

F1 may be in our 'little red dot' neighbour Singapore soon, Monaco-style.

Our Sports Minister pities Singapore for trying to bid as one of the new hosts (possibly from 2010 onwards), along with other cities such as New Delhi and Moscow.

Lest she forgets there is such thing called "competition". Already bigger and better casinos are being built in Singapore to challenge ours. I don't think Singapore will pity us if Bernie decided that our grid girls (pictured on the left with this year's costume) are not hot enough.

Years of protective policies must have eroded our ability to compete (read the latest sad tale on our local universities). We may have one of the best track now, but what is stopping Singapore from having a better one? Especially if it is a Monaco-styled race track with the race running at night.

Few competitive advantages possessed by Singapore: -

• The little red dot could be small, but it's many times more popular than Sepang, Kuala Lumpur or Malaysia. As Malaysians we always have to tell foreigners our country is next to Singapore before they know exactly where we are.
  
• Sepang is far away from KL. There is no public transport to the circuit. There are no/insufficient hotels around the circuit (correct me if I'm wrong). Who wants to stay in Sepang anyway, there's nothing much around. Singapore is a small island city well connected by SMRT and other form of public transport.
  
• Singapore may be more attractive than KL as a metropolitan city and a tourist attraction. SMRT is many times more efficient than our rojak system - KTM Komuter + Putra LRT + Star LRT + Monorail. Besides, Singapore has well established and better managed tourist attractions such as Sentosa Island and the upcoming casinos.
  
• A Monaco-style circuit will be very popular among F1 fans. Monaco is F1's jewel in the crown. To have a similar track in Asia seems quite tempting. Monaco is also well known for its casinos. This will make Singapore a sister track.
  
• Singapore should be more capable in managing international events. Or I should say Malaysia has proven over time that we are good in building first world infrastructure but are extremely poor in managing them.
  
• Singapore will definitely have hotter grid girls. You can't deny that the grid girls are part of the F1's attraction. Our grid girls may be wearing very different costumes from most circuits, but in a way that brings differentiation disadvantage.
  

The only competitive advantage Malaysia have is perhaps cost.

As a Malaysian I'm proud that we are one of the F1 hosts. But I fear that we are unable to fight the impending competition, unless we try to differentiate ourselves further. Sounds familiar?

Americans are NOT stupid

Are they? Are they not?

I know Dubya is definitely one of them.