Random Thoughts: One Day To Go...

Book of the Week: This is getting repetitive…

THANK YOU, BAYERN!!!!!!!

Stayed up late – second night in a row – to watch footie. Just as well I’m still in between jobs. Can’t imagine what it’d have been like had I not moved to Scotland and watched the number of World Cup games I did last year in this time zone. Getting too old for this. Man Utd v Lille, 1-0, Man Utd 2-0 on aggregate. Boring match with occasional heart-in-mouth moments, but it’s undeniable: Henrik Larsson is a bloody genius. Will be sorry to see him go at the end of the week.
Flicked in between channels when I couldn’t bear to watch the Utd match, and found the overall tone of play of the night’s four matches for the most part kinda cacat, not least for the local commentary. (Come on, you twats, it’s the last 16 Champions League, do you think we want to hear that pretentious moron Zainal whatshisface struggling with the names and trying to make sense of the offside rule???)

But a big thank-you to Bayern Munich for sending Real Madrid out of the Champions League! Brilliant first-minute goal by Roy Makaay. Fastest ever goal in the history of the competition, there’s a sporting factoid for ya. Loved how it seemed more like a game of pinball than football at times, the way the ball was bouncing off feet all over the pitch. So that’s the two cockiest, smuggest teams out of the competition. Bye-bye Real! Bye-bye Barca! Bye-bye Beckham!

Like the football, it turned out to be another up-and-down day. Got loads done (though it wasn’t like I had a to-do list the length of the Queen’s Birthday Honours). After flumping about most of the day trying to get hold of Priya for my doxycycline tablets, I met Kaynis – my very favourite insurance agent – at tea-time, and, over glasses of Milo and iced coffee and double portions of kaya toast, bought the insurance for my Cambodia and NZ trips. Very pleased with the excellent price quoted as well.

Then I wandered over to Ikano Power Centre and spent the next three hours looking at bed storage boxes (at Ikea) and pet cages (at Pet Station). Need to be ready just in case some angel of providence turns up and decides he/she wants Coconut. Not everybody is going to let a guinea pig go free-range, so he’ll need something reasonably big enough to run around in.

What annoyed me, though, was that the pet cages (“Create a fun, natural home for your rabbit / guinea pig / dwarf hamster!”) seem to have been designed by people who had no idea of the minimum amount of space needed by a small animal. Guinea pigs are supposed to have at least 6 sq ft of space, and the very largest cage available measured only 4.825 sq ft. Guinea pigs are supposed to be social animals – the best thing you can do for your guinea pig is get it a friend – so how the hell are you supposed to even keep them in that space? Huh? Huh??? The design for the water bottle was also ridiculous: a tiny little opening for the nozzle, a flimsy plastic strap and a huge bottle. I just couldn’t see it balancing. (Yes, I experimented. The shop assistants didn’t look too pleased.)

I was pretty damn depressed for a good hour afterwards – the only other option was to find some Coroplast and make a customized box for Coconut, but there didn’t seem to be any boards of any decent size on sale. Maybe I could poke around electrical goods shops and see if they have any fridge boxes they could spare.

Went to see Ah Giek to collect my spanking new pair of glasses. They are très chic, even if I do have some trouble fitting them new-fangled bendy rimless frames into the case. Ah Giek also gave me a couple of apples (“for Coconut”) and, despite my annoyed protestations, pressed some money into my hand (“for your trips – you haven’t started working yet!”). She is one fantastic aunt. If I ever win the lottery, she’s definitely getting a healthy percentage. Though a more realistic goal would be for me to pay for a trip over to Scotland sometime.

I’ve just realized that when I publish this, I’ll have gone one post more than I have in any other month since I started blogging. Score! Milestone! Oooh... and that it’s been 20 years since the release of U2’s Joshua Tree. Wow. Has it been that long. I remember that album only too well. Never bought the CD because I figured the tape was always lying about somewhere, but I can’t remember where now...

The best part of today was knowing that Gareth will be arriving tomorrow. Yay! In about 21 hours’ time we’ll probably either be tucking into some quality Malaysian street food (i.e. comes with enough E. coli to knock out a herd of elephants – if elephants can indeed be affected by E. coli, that is), or – considering that it’s going to be a long day for the both of us tomorrow – fast asleep. Though that’s no bad thing as we have loads planned for the weekend – taking him for a quick refresher course tour of KL on Saturday, visiting Malacca (his first time) on Sunday, and going to Kuala Gandah to see the elephants (a first for both of us) on Monday. But I get the feeling that during his time here he’ll more likely be tired out from eating than anything… when in Rome and all that. It is Malaysia, after all!

Oooh! Oooh! 20 hours 55 minutes now… can you tell I’m excited…

Factoids of the Week:
Almost said “Still nothing”, but then remembered a story (from The Sun – where else!) about an extremely overweight Russian boy. Dzambulat Khatokov, trumpeted as “the world’s biggest boy”, is seven years old, weighs 16 stone, and has been weightlifting since he was three. Gotta wonder what he’s been eating – or being fed – seeing as his mother is the one who seems dead set on him becoming a professional sumo wrestler (“Our hope is that Jambik will provide a secure future for our family – all we have is because of Jambik”) and insists that he loves taking centre-stage. Funnily enough, Dzambulat sounds like jam bulat, which means “round clock” in Malay...

Captain America has been killed off! AUUUUGH! Shot by a sniper while walking out of court! AUUUUGH!

This is scary – don’t know if this woman is insecure, suffering from body dysmorphia or simply a glutton for punishment. Sheyla de Almeida, 27, a model, had 14 operations and a total of 2.4 litres of silicone pimped in to have the biggest boobs (current size 34FF) in Brazil. She has now decided she wants another 8 litres of gloop so she can beat the current world record of 42XXX. Crikey. That’s eye-watering. And I thought Lea’s 40M footballs were creepy.