Oh England!

Caught the England vs Algeria game earlier this morning on RTM (no astro at the hotel where I'm staying), and I must say that I was simply disgusted. Disgusted!

It was without a doubt the worst England performance at the World Cup I've ever seen. Even worse than the horror show in 1990 when the Three Lions drew with Ireland, 1-1.

The England players looked devoid of ideas and conviction and as a commentator said on ESPN, when they left the field, "the boos actually drowned out the vuvuzelas". Padan muka!

The pundits were going on and on about England's lame performance but I think they needed more than the 30mins allocated.

But allow me to summarise. The "superstar" players were crap. Shrek, I mean Rooney, couldn't even control the ball, Lampard was reduced to 5mph shots, Gerrad gave away the ball too many times and even the corners were executed with no clear strategy or intent in mind.

And don't get me started about the "semi superstars". Lennon's too green for such a heavy task, Wright-Philips is basically on a free Safari vacation, Heskey's simply making up the numbers... and it goes on and on.

The only silver lining for Fabio Capello's squad is that their destiny is still in their own hands. Beat Slovenia (not as easy as it sounds), and they're through to the next round, where (judging by what's been dished out so far), they'll simply crash and burn.

I sooo pray that I'll be proven wrong...

The World Cup Is Here!

The World Cup is back! Woohoo!

As I write this, a few matches have been played and so far, it’s a mixed bag of yawners and semi-crackers. One thing everyone has somewhat agreed is this: the Vuvuzela is the most annoying thing at the World Cup. Ever.

Anyway, those who know me would know that my undivided support is for England. Yes, boring choice, bla bla bla... But, so what? I mean, instead of being a poseur and declare my support for a team I hardly know about just to sound cool, picking England is just natural for someone who’s been watching the English game since the days of “Big League Soccer”.

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I know, I know… they’ve not won anything since 1966, but that’s called being a real FAN. Heartbreaks are part of the deal. Yes, you have the choice to switch support to a different team but then, that would be called a "sham".

But back to those heartbreaks, England have supplied plenty when it comes to the World Cup. The biggest was of course in 1986 when they got dumped out of the quarterfinals by Argentina. It wasn’t all their fault tho as we all know how Maradona used his hand to score that first goal, which immediately sowed the deepest of hatred in me for the man and his team.

But I remember after England lost that game, I wanted to quit school. For real! I knew the taunts from my classmates would be too much to bear. So I wanted to leave school and become a musician. If that’s not hardcore, I don’t know what is lah.

Then there was Italy in 1990. A great team that was, with the likes of Gascoigne, Lineker and Barnes in the side. But after doing well to reach the semis, they lost out to Germany in a penalty shoot-out.

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I didn’t want to quit school then, but I did want to burn my whole Star Wars collection out of frustration, which I didn’t. Phew!

So this year, England are “favourites” again and there are plenty out there who believe that this generation of players will finally bring back the Cup for the Queen. Including me.

But I am preparing some old stuff to burn. Just in case.

Enjoy the World Cup, peeps!

"Dunia Baru Reunion" Launched!

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So on Saturday, gua.com.my launched its latest online drama "Dunia Baru Reunion" at PWTC, in conjunction with Youth '10. If the name sounds familiar, it's because Dunia Baru was in fact a series on TV3 for 3 years and they even had a movie released a couple of years back.

The show wasn't continued after that, but we thought it'd be an awesome idea to bring back the popular gang... online!

Produced by KL Motion Picture, "Dunia Baru Reunion" will be streamed on gua beginning 7th June with new episodes shown every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
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The drama stars most of the names from the TV series including Elyana, Wan Elyas and Anne Ngasri with a couple of notable newbies in the mix, including Tania Hudson.



.At the same time and venue, we also announced the winners of Pertandingan Cerita Lawak GUA, launched about 3 months ago. The dude in the picture below won RM2,500 in total prize money. Not bad huh? To watch his video and the rest of the entries, click HERE

The event was graced by one of the contest's professional judges, Sharifah Shahirah.

Visit Britain 2010

Oh what a trip it was back to the motherland (haha) a couple of weeks back. For starters, we flew Emirates instead of a low-cost leader (ahem), which meant we didn't have to pay for the movies. Hurrah!

Anyway, when we finally got to Birmingham, all the buzz was about the elections and the less-than-sunny weather. The UK just had its general elections and the result was a hung Parliament; so all the talk was about who would be forming the next government (more of that later).

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The other major talking point was of course, the weather. Summer's just around the corner, but the temperature regularly dropped to between 4-6 degrees (celcius). So everyone on TV especially, went on and on about the missing sunshine, bla bla bla; which we didn't mind at all. I mean, coming from a 30deg country, the cold was simply gold!

Anyway, we got reaquainted with the Hilton breakfast buffet soon enough and I spent most of my free time walking the street malls in the Birmingham City Centre.

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But oh yeah, we did make a trip all the way to Stratford-upon-Avon which was pretty magical. I mean, Shakespeare's freakin' house was there, ok?

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We also took one of those open-top buses tour and visited a few other sites including Shakespeare's wife, Anne Hathaway's Cottage.

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After a few days in Birmingham (we also made a quick trip to Coventry), our friend Bob drove us to London. Thanks Bob!...
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The weather in the capital was about the same and the next few days were spent with loads of walking around town and going to spots we've not visited before.
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An interesting discovery we made was this Oyster stand that we first came across near the Tower Bridge. 6 pieces for 7GBP and it was well worth it.

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We then came across the same folks again while lepak-ing at my favourite spot in London; Covent Garden.

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One of the highlights this time around was also Camden Market; somewhere I've not been to on previous visits. And it's absolutely fabulous with loads of cool stuff.

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There was a bit of drama though the day before we were to depart. Suddenly it was reported that the wind was taking the volcanic ash towards our direction and a couple of UK airports had to be closed.

Heathrow was expected to close the day of our flight but somehow we managed to "escape" before that happened. Phew!

Anyway, a great trip it was. And, offical or no official reason next year, we'll probably be back again...

Hot Topic 25/5 : Fake MCs Galore!

So, this morning on MHI we read out this rather shocking report about government servants and fake MCs. Have a look...
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...Yes, some 45,000 government servants have submitted dodgy MCs according to this report in Berita Harian that quoted a reliable source.

But what's even more shocking was the fact that another leading newspaper published a simillar report with a VERY different number.
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45k and 3k are nowhere close. Still scratching my head trying to figure this one out. How lah?