Banter.

I always like a banter, especially in a football game. I mean, what’s football without one set of supporters winding up the other side with chants and abuses? I think as long as there is no physical violence is involved, such banters should be fine.

I was in the Tseung Kwan O Sports Ground last night to watch Kitchee hosting South China in a crunch match. The atmosphere is obviously intense as this is a matchup between two title contenders and any slip up will almost gift TSW Pegasus the title. The match finished 2-2, with South China rallying in the last 20 minutes to tie the game up. After the game ended, a group of South China fans starting chanting “TSW Pegasus”, apparently signalling the likelihood that the league title will head towards Tin Shui Wai. Some Kitchee fans took offence to that and think that us South China fans are a bunch of shameless twats. Even some of the local newspapers got onto the bandwagon and condemned the South China fans. I mean, aren’t these people a tad too sensitive? I mean, I can understand that you are feeling sore after dropping 2 points that you shouldn’t have (South China equalized at the 87th minute, so there). But just because you are feeling sore and we decide to rub it in further, does that mean that you have to go round and complain like a spoilt child? Everyone tend to look only at the link between South China and TSW Pegasus, but I can assure you, if the South China fans are willing TSW Pegasus to win the league title, it’s really because (1) we are not in the title race and (2) we freaking hate Kitchee. Just because the two teams have a strong link at the management level doesn’t mean that we South China fans love them. I for one, couldn’t care less if that bunch in Tin Shui Wai gets the league title or gets relegated. And let’s get real, whenever South China loses, you lot are having field days with your abuse at us, aren’t you? So why are you behaving like a crybaby when we dish the same things out to you?

Yes, some righteous people out there will continue to label South China fans as shameless twats, but if I could wind up you lot at Kitchee by chanting “TSW Pegasus”, I will gladly do it. Besides, there are too many “ABSC” (Anyone but South China”) out there, so whatever we do, they’ll have something to say. If our existence provides them with their sole purpose of living, why not?

We sing when we want, we sing what we want, we sing for who we want!
You got a problem with that?

Plan.

I think I have been going around telling people that I’ll be going to Manchester next week. That’s one problem of me as far as my travels are concerned – they are never secrets!

Anyway as this is my first ever trip to the UK, I really do not know what to expect. The only good thing is that people speak English, so I think I could communicate without too much trouble. But I do have a bit of a concern – I haven’t really sorted out my itinerary yet! I mean, I know I’ll be going for a stadium tour at Old Trafford on Thursday, and then to see United vs QPR on Sunday, but basically everything in between – I have no idea whatsoever. I think I’d do well to research a bit more on Manchester in the next few days.

I would be heading out to Tseung Kwan O Sports Ground after work to watch South China taking on Kitchee (who?) in the Hong Kong Football League later. To be honest, I am always a pessimistic fan and in matches like these, I always go into the stadium thinking that South China is going to lose. No difference this time round – I guess when you have little expectation, you can’t get too disappointed when things don’t go your way. But for me, seeing your team lose is part and parcel of being a fan. If you can’t tolerate a team losing, then you can’t really call yourself a fan. A fan sticks with the team no matter what results they churn out, and gives his/her support no matter how low the team is. Too bad, Hong Kong is a place full of fairweather friends who seem to love the team only when they win. (That explained why there was suddenly an increase of Chelsea fans a few years ago, and now you also see more Manchester City fans). They hurl abuse at their own players game in, game out, and think that their team are only worthy of their support only when it wins. Sad low-life forms, if you ask me.

"You only sing when you're winning..."

 

Linsanity.

Lately, following the extraordinary phenomenon of Linsanity, I’ve been more glued to Twitter than ever before. It turns out that Twitter gives me quite a lot of information about the Knicks and basketball in general. Every once in a while my tweets get their fair share of responses, such as the thread of tweets I had with @LesVDavis yesterday, after the Knicks downed the Sixers. It was nice talking about Jeremy Lin.

The Knicks bench just received news that Yao Ming is considering coming out from retirement to join the Knicks so that he can play with Jeremy Lin - but Tyson Chandler won't let him.

And yes, talking about Jeremy Lin. I’m sure even those who don’t follow basketball have heard of this kid from Harvard who came out of nothing to take the world by storm. From the reports and articles I’ve read, it seems that this God-loving kid is just a perfect example of “cometh the hour, cometh the man”. He hasn’t got a look-in from the teams that he was on, and then one glance from the coach and one last throw of the dice before being waived again, he came on, delivered magic, and hasn’t looked back since. If there is an award for sports’ story of the year, Linsanity will probably win many times over. Of course, some may argue that many people have been there, done that, but to that magnitude? I’m sure not many people would have claimed to be even close. 

What I like about Lin is that he’s been very humble and hasn’t got this Linsanity into his head. He’s still doing what he does best, and helping his team to win. I’m sure it isn’t easy to be living in New York, let alone playing, but he’s been very level-headed and doesn’t seem to be affected by all this limelight on him. Of course, Linsanity will die down sooner or later and somebody would step up and take the limelight away. But if Jeremy Lin can continue doing what he’s doing (minus the turnovers), I think this kid’s got a big future – oh he still needs to watch those turnovers, though.

Migration.

After being on LiveJournal for the past 11 years, I’ve decided to call it a day and move everything to WordPress.com. Wouldn’t really say it was a calculated decision, but I was just getting a little miffed about posting using LiveJournal as I thought it wasn’t entirely friendly. There’s nothing wrong with them, just that it appeared unfriendly to me.

There are many things that I would need to be fine-tuning over here, so it may look a bit bare and that now. But I do like the fact that I can access the posts I made back in 2002 easily on WP, and I think that would be fascinating to look at myself and my life 10 years ago. When I was in college, I definitely blogged more diligently. Now that I’ve been working and such, I guess sometimes laziness takes precedence somewhat.

We are coming towards the end of March, and April is a month that I definitely am looking very much forward to because of my two trips out of Hong Kong – I’ll be heading out to Manchester, England during the Easter period for my pilgrimage to Old Trafford, home of Manchester United. It’s a dream to go there, and even though my stay there is kind of short, I’m very much looking forward to it. At the end of the month, I’ll be heading to Beijing (by train, may I add) for the Mayday concert in the National Stadium (aka Bird Nest). To be honest, if the concert was being held anywhere else, I probably wouldn’t have bothered. But the Bird Nest is another place altogether and I think the experience is going to be massive. I’ll be looking forward to that.

As for the short term, I’ll just look forward to the weekend first – and I’ll be heading to Ocean Park on Sunday!

Reappear.

The lazy bugs were striking again and it’s been another couple of months since I last posted another journal entry. I guess when we get older, sometimes things get so repetitive and mundane you would rather not let the world know how boring your life has been. Anyways.

Like I said, everything has been fine for the past couple of months, nothing too special. For work, I had the luxury of making 2 working trips out of Hong Kong (rejoice!) and I understand how tough that can be. That said, I would jump at the chance if I get to go again. On a personal level, I’ll have two trips to look forward to as well. One to Manchester, the other to Beijing – both in the month of April. The trip to Manchester is really to fulfill a childhood dream – watching Manchester United play at Old Trafford. As for the Beijing trip, I think most will chuck to hear that I’m going there for (yet another) Mayday concert. I wouldn’t have bothered if the concert is going to be hold in just any other stadium, but it’s the Bird Nest that we are talking about, so there’s no reason not to make the trip.

Knicks won this morning (Hong Kong time), United coming up later in 10 minutes’ time. Hopefully it will be another win for the Reds. And yes, I’d like a Chelsea win over Manchester City as well. Thank you very much.