A day at the beach

I think now I know why people in countries with changing seasons talk about the weather so much. Somehow life seems to depend on how it changes. I got a glimpse of that myself, with recent cold winter days where I wouldnt want to step outside the house, as opposed to this glorious sunny winter day where I could spend the entire day out in the sun.
We had a walk with a few UTS people.....from Bondi to Bronte and back. For some reason I remember it to be longer than it is......so it wasnt quite the exercise I had imagined it would be. The walk even comes complete with sandwiches and drinks at the end of it! Still no complaints. Learnt something new about Bondi though..... something about the crazy tradition at the Iceberg swimming club.....they like to swim in cold water in winter....and they add ice to the water to make it colder!!

Anyhow....I then decided to make the most of the day and spend the rest of the day out at the beach. headed to the markets...bought some silly costume jewelry (AGAIN!)......sunbaked in the sun for a while........then had Brad show me what the locals get up to on a Sunday evening.

I think my life has become rather simple....Ive now moved from talking about human rights advocacy to a day at the beach, the weather, iceberg and bars. hmmmmm

Im Oranje heart broken!

well Im too heart broken to speak (type) at the moment :(

sighhhhhhhhhhhhh

another birthday celebration

Rafiq was in town for a couple of days.... was going to meet him Thursday evening, but met Paul instead....not the best idea...but looks like whats done is done.
anyhow, so Friday evening I meet Rafiq, we start out at Brooklyn pub near Wynyard. So Rafiq says "Its your birthday, lets celebrate", so we get a bottle of sparkling!!(cant say Champagne or the french will sue me!), then we head out to the Marble Bar at the Hilton hotel, and a second sparkling bottle later I decide its time to head home.
was good fun, catching up talking about our time in Gummersbach. we even woke up early next morning to watch Croatia vs Turkey football game...another nostalgia from the days of watching football together in Gummersbach. have to admit I was kinda hoping for Croatia to win....but they lost to Turkey on penalty shootout. I hate a game ending on penalties!!

today, Saturday, turned out to be a nice sunny day, so we headed out to Coogee beach for a late lunch.Thai food ofcourse....was pretty good for a cheap lunch deal!

now Im looking forward to tomorrow's Holland vs Russia game. I shall definitely be reporting on that soon ...hopefully with good news! :)

Holland to meet Russia in the quarter final

so last game of the group stage Holland met Romania, while Italy met France. no matter the result, Holland would go through to the next stage. So there was a lot of talk that Holland would let Romania win so they dont meet either Italy or France (if Romania lose or draw against Holland, either Italy or France have a chance to go through...provided one of them win the game!). So yes, Holland did rest a lot of the main players and had more of the substitutes on, but played to their full commitment, AND they won! so Im quite happy.
yes theres a chance Holland might meet Italy again in the semi finals, and thats a bit of a worry (not cos the italians are so strong, but more so cos they are so good at getting penalties out of the referees!!). but if we beat them once, we can do it again.
the next challenge though is to get past Gus Hiddink's Russia. (sadly they pur Sweden out of the race...) I think theres a certain magic about that guy..any team he has his hands on have been doing so well -- South Korea back in the 2002 World Cup, the Socceroos almost unknown for its football team (they even call it socceroos so go figure!) with their amazing performance in their first World Cup in 2006. [side note - the Socceroos were ousted by the Italians, over what the Aussies still hate the Italians for today).

I wonder if Frank will have split loyalty? living in Russia for however long that he has been there, vs the home team. I certainly know where MY loyalty lies :)

theres some tough games ahead....so Holland really need to keep their act together and continue the good form they have had since start of tournament.

Birthday

and yes, I WILL afterall talk about myself, my birthday, my celebration
but to be honest, it was no different to my other low key birthdays. afterall, I only turn one day older dont I..so why make a big deal of it?

anyhow, apart from waking up to watch football, the EURO 2008, having the Bondi to Bronte beach walk cancelled due to bad weather, and a really nice dinner with Virg and Stuart (great pizza place in Sydney's Paddington), the only remarkable observation is the effect of technology. Apart from calls from Mom and brother, I got a couple of calls from friends, a couple of SMS, but a score of posts on my facebook wall!! Im still trying to come to term with this phenomenon. My friends have literally stopped writing emails...some dont reply my email but will either send me a message or post a message on my facebook profile? strange strange strange

but no lets not take that as a complaint...Im always happy to hear from my friends. just a bit of a whinge to say...how about a postcard? :)

from the old fashioned girl whos turned another day older!

Anna and the King

so after having decided today will be my lazy day, I turned on the TV while having breakfast and find Anna and the King was on. given that its banned in Thailand, I thought this would be a good time to watch it and find out what all the fuss is about!

The first thing I noticed is that all the actors spoke Thai with a funny accent!! Thats cos none of them are Thai. makes sense I suppose...for whatever reason it is banned in Thailand, I imagine it would be hard to get Thai people to risk playing in the movie. Made for some weird experience....trying to understand the almost impossible to understand Thai, and reading the subtitle at the same time!!

Anyhow...after watching the whole movie, I cant see what the fuss is about??? I dont see how it portrays the King in any bad light. Sure it shows Siam (Thailand as it was called then), as a country with different practice...things we would frown upon today, and uncommon in the Western world back then, but not totally unheard of. (slavery, unequal rights of women). Slavery existed in even the country that tries to set itself as exemplary in human rights, the United States. And well, equality of women is something every country still struggles with today. Only difference is the rights granted to women in each country have progressed at different scales (granted that in many its still pretty much non-existent).

Holland 4:1 France! what a perfect birthday gift!!

my only complaint is....and I said this even before they played...that if the game were being played a day later, it would just be perfect. (that implied my unspoken confidence that Holland would win!).
Imagine..waking up first thing Sunday morning..4.45am...watch my favorite team win against one of the big names in football! would be a great start to my day..and my year :)
(must admit...there was always that strange feeling seeing Henry but not wanting to support him....have to say he didnt play too well either. nothing like his days at Arsenal....maybe I should be thankful for that?)

so now Holland is at top of the group, and to play Romania in 4 days. Romania almost put the World Cup champion Italy out of the tournament early! luckily for the Italians, the second Romanian goal was ruled off-site. The Italians and French face each other, and both must win it or are out.

In other group, Croatia won over Germany! a team to watch out for as well. so are Portugal and Spain.

Holland 3: 0 Italy!

no I dont intend to compete with the numerous websites, tv channels, newspapers etc that report the EURO 2008 score. but I will certainly be sharing my excited enthusiasm over all of Holland's win. and this was not just any win...was against the world cup champion Italy!
so yes, I certainly started the day a happy girl. despite the 4 hours sleep, followed by crazy meetings after meetings (thats another story that I wont go into!)

so obviously I had to share my enthusiasm with all my friends. and knowing that most of my friends dont bother reading my blog, so I had to make sure their inbox is filled with the good news :p

some interesting responses... Marianne with her human rights lawyer perspective to how the games encroach on various rights . you are so cute sweetie!
Quintus, the Dutch, with his zero interest in football, calling me to share the news about how the entire nation, apart from him, had stopped everything for the game. (just what Id expect actually, and I can imagine Id have such a great time if I were somewhere in Holland watching Holland win! Still remember my Sydney experience with a room filled with Dutch expats at the Hilton back in World Cup '98)
Alec, the guy I sometime forget is somewhat 'Dutch' cos of his oh so international globetrotting lifestyle. Well we will have to watch a game together sometime wont we Alec! if you can get your act together that is. (last time he was one train stop away from me, max 10 minutes walk from Kirribilli, yet we never managed to meet up!)

anyway, so Holland won in their first game. but still many games to go. The group is called the group of Death, with Holland, Italy, France and Romania. France and Romania first game wasnt that impressive, draw of nil, nil. But certainly does not mean we can be overly confident just yet.

the other group matches, I have to say Spain was pretty impressive (Arsenal's Fabregas did well!), Germany and Sweden were not bad either (again with either former or current Arsenal favorites, Ljungberg, Lehman)

EURO 2008

so the game kicks off Saturday night European time. Will be early Sunday morning here in Aus. have been trying to check what channel/s the games will be on for the past couple of weeks..with not much luck apart from the opening game being on SBS (free to air)
finally I worked out that yes they will be on cable, but not on the standard package ESPN or foxsports ones! they've decided to make more money off us, and put the games on another channel where additional subscription is required!

guess I will just have to pay. and now that I will be paying extra money for it....that means I will have to try to watch as many games as possible to make it all worthwhile wont I!