Thursday, July 13, 2006
Like all civil states, there is a wide variety of people. I am not referring to the race etc, but their attitudes and behaviour. Yesterday I met with some of the worst people since I came here.
While driving along the motorway, there was a truck coming into the motorway from my left. This is no ordinary truck, the size of it is bigger and longer than two double deckers together so you can imagine the size and length of it. It is also bigger than the container trailers (those that can pull two containers). By right, vehicles coming in from the left should give way to the vehicles already on the motorway.
In this case, the driver refused to give way and entered the motorway at probably around 100 km/h and he delibrately forced me out of my lane by just muscling his way into the lane. Mind you, the traffic on the motorway was pretty heavy. Nevermind about him trying to crush me, when I tried to go back on to the left lane to exit, he refused to let me in. When I accelerated, he would do the same. When I slowed down, he would too and there was no way I could go past him as it was way too long. Needless to say, I missed my exit.
Another incident happened at a store that we went to buy our DVD writer. The service staff there (apart from those handing you your order and taking payment) were Asians. And they are the very reason why some companies here do not want to hire Asians. When you step in, they all pretended not to see you. After a while, when they realise that they got no choice, they just signal you to sit down and wait.
When we were "attended", the guy was one of the rudest person I have ever encountered. As expected he did not greet us (guess in his motherland his parents did not teach him basic courtesy). All the while while talking to us, he was not even looking at us but at his computer monitor. While he was about to pick up his phone, he did not even say excuse me, but just went to answer the phone. All this while attending to us.
People have to understand that when you are the minority, your every little action sticks out like a sore thumb. If you cannot find a job here, just go and blame people like that fucker for giving us such a bad name. If I was his boss, I will definitely not hesitate to give him the sack immediately. No doubt about that. A person like him does not deserve to be working front line. Come on, there is no need to put on such airs when you are just a salesman.
I am not putting down salesman at all. In fact, I have met some excellent ones but it is really weird when a salesman is acting as though he is some big fuck. Even big CEOs are not like him.
he spoke at 1:39 pm
Monday, July 10, 2006
A 12 year wait to put to rest the pain of losing a final and a 24 year wait to make it four. Euphoria would be an understatement of how I felt when Fabio Grosso slotted home the winning penalty; the penalty that many would never expected the Italians to score.
While the match should not even have gone to penalties. Maybe it is a form of retribution for the way the Socceroos were put out that the French were awarded a penalty. But it was sure justice when the Azzurri stuck back. No matter what the French coach may say, Zidane fully deserved to be sent off. There is absolutely no reason to head butt an opponet. Seriously, I am not surprised that he head butted Materazzi. Afterall, he is known to head butt opponents.
I also cannot understand how he managed to win the Golden Ball. Come on, Zidane had just an average tournament. He is way too over rated coming into the World Cup. You mean he played better than Cannavaro and Buffon? I do not think so. That is also the reason why defenders and goalkeepers are always the most under rated positions. They will only be noticed when they screw up as people really take them for granted. But the truth is that the strength of any team lies in their defence. A strong defence means that the fowards will be more confident in going forward in search for that goal.
Even some players also fade into the "background". Wonder how many people actually notice Camoranesi taking a chair to the field after the final whistle to have his hair cut. He cut his hair till shoulder length and I think this was a vow he made that he would cut his hair if Italy wins the World Cup.
A good source of income in Singapore now should be selling Italian jerseys. Trash the Brazalian one and bring in the Italian ones. Remember, the jerseys will only be worth till the next World Cup. If Saudi Arabia wins the next World Cup, bring in the Saudi jersey. Afterall, that is the beauty of fair weather fans. Am I cynical? I do not think so, just take a look at the kind of jerseys that Singaporeans wear. How many French jerseys do you remember seeing between 2002 till today? Think the best example would be Blackburn. After they won the EPL, many people wore their jersey, after they were relegated, wonder how many jerseys were turned into rags.
Next thing up in Italian football is the verdict of the match fixing scandal. I really hope that none of the teams will be relegated as it will really be a blow to Italian football. Think having points deducted or barring them from Champions League will be bad enough for top clubs. The talk of 13 World Cup winners plying their trade in lower division is highly unlikely. Most of them will be snapped up by other clubs. But I would really like to see some of them stay with their clubs in an event of relegation.
The last time an Azzurri did that was when Fiorentina were relegated to Serie C (after going bust). Fiorentina's captain Angelo Di Livio followed them down as he said that he did not want to be remembered as the captained who skipped Fiorentina to relegation. Gabriel Batistuta did that too who Fiorentina in the early 90s. A player in his prime who stuck by his club.
In the event they really get relegated, I hope that captains like Paolo Maldini and Alessandro del Piero will stay with their clubs. I cannot imagine the clubs without them as they have been the very inspiration of the clubs. Either way, I am very sure that come the new season, I will still be a Juve fan and will be proud to be one. I really do not care if they are relegated to Serie B or C. They will always be the best team in the world to me.
The relegation scandal has already taken its toll on some staff. Juve's Gianluca Pessotto fell out of Juve's office building in an apparent sucide attempt. He is still in hospital and is in critical condition. Latest reports say that his condition has taken for the worse.
he spoke at 7:38 pm