A GRAND Sunday...

23rd March 2008: Sunday... And what a Sunday it proved to be. For 1 it was Easter...but that was not the reason why this particular Sunday rocked.

Grand Slam Sunday - that was the term ESPN gave to this special day. On this day champions and league leaders Manchester United were playing their greatest rival Liverpool and straight after this second placed Arsenal were playing London rivals and third placed Chelsea. The title race of the Barclays Premier League was quite easily the tightest in recent years, prior to this particular Sunday. But as expected the whole championship scenario just got a whole load more tight after it.

In the early kick off Man U faced archrival Liverpool at the Theatre of Dreams, Old Trafford, Manchester. THe game was built up as the Cristiano Ronaldo vs Fernando Torres clash. Both these young superstars have taken the world by storm ever since moving to England from the nearby nations of Portugal and Spain respectively. Looking at the rich goal scoring form that these two had been showing in recent games, the media had a good point in building the game around these two players. But still the whole rivalry between the Red Devils and the Reds was never left out either.

I was feeling distraught by around 6 in the evening as the game was starting at 7 and i had a train to catch at 7 25. I was returning to Manipal from Trivandrum and there was no way i couldn't get on that train and yet i seriously contemplated it!!!... Finally on the train i was recieving updates from my sis-in-law. God when I got the msg saying manu-1 liv-0, i was over the moon. I sat and had my dinner and then waited and prayed. Finally the mobile starts vibrating again and i open the message rather apprehensively. But then i read: Man U 3 - Liv 0.... I read that 1 line over and over again for abt 5 times and then get up and punch the air (the chechimar sittin nxt 2 me must hav thought tat i was mad!!!)...

Chelsea also beat Arsenal 2-1 later on in the day, taking over second place in the league. Now they are 5 points behinh Man U and still have 2 play the Red Devils at their home ground of Stamford Bridge. But still my bet now (as it has always been) is on the exciting team of Sir Alex Ferguson.

Grand Slam Sunday was also a Grand Prix Sunday as the Malaysian Grand Prix was taking place at the Sepang International F1 Arena. The second race of the 2008 F1 calendar was emphatically won by another team in red - Ferrari. For the first time since the Belgium GP last year, the front row of the grid was all red as Felippe Massa took pole alongside his teammate and reigning world champion Kimi Raikkonen. In the end, Massa ended up spinning put mid-way through the race and Kimi won. A full 20 seconds ahead of Robert Kubica of BMW who finished second. Heikki Kovelainen of Maclaren took third while the young pretender to Raikkonen's throne and winner of the 1st race of the season, Lewis Hamilton, came home in 5th place.

All in all, for me Sunday was GRAND!... My favourite football team and F1 team racked up wins and I was also on my way back to Manipal with my new laptop. Especially coming after Friday on which day I broke up with my girlfriend (Yes I knw - the post 'Is it 2 young 2 fall in love' was actually abt me, I admit now!...), Sunday was fabulous. But now I have to say, the world seems a wider place than it used to seem........ I guess we broke up at somewhat the right time for both of us.

Anyway enough about that sorry episode...this post is suppossed to be about a GRAND Sunday... and that it sure was....

Ending with - Lets go Red Devils and Prancing Horse!...

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam

- BiBinhio

Blowing with the wind of CHANGE...

'I follow the Moskva, down to Gorky Park
Listening to the wind of change
An August summer night, soldiers passing by
Listening to the wind of change

The world is closing in and did you ever think
That we could be so close, like brothers
The future's in the air, i can feel it everywhere
and Blowing with the wind of change

Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away
In the wind of change'...

- Wind Of Change by Scorpions

The winds of change are defenitely blowing everywhere you look, the world over. From the United States' politics to the cricket action Down Under, change is the overwhelming constant that smiles down upon u like the large hoarding of Shane Warne that dominates the sight screens of all the cricket grounds in the Oz with his large cartoony smile...

While there is no use in writing abt the politics of the states (they are doomed neway:D) there always is other useful stuff 2 write abt, ain't there?... Hmmm... mayb not... One can argue that there never was ne point in just going
online and blogging about sports or my school or love or watever...but that didn't stop me then and it ain't gonna stop me now!... :D

To look at things in a broader perspective there couldn't have been a better time for me to get back onto the blogosphere. Yesterday night Man Utd thrashed their long time rivals Arsenal in the 5th round FA Cup tie held at Old Trafford, Manchester. While the term 'thrashed' has often been misused in relation to the world of sports, exaggeration is minimal this time around. 4-0 was the scoreline echoing in every Arsenal players' mind when a bruised, battered and 'red-carded' Gunners team took the long trip back to London from Manchester which suddenly must have seemed to them to have become abnormally cold (even 4 this time of the year), like the effect a couple of dementors would cause if they were swarming around the place. In all reality if you listened to the rantings of Arsene Wenger(manager of Arsenal) at the post match press conference, then one could be forgiven for calling in a baby-sitter for such were the manner of his complaints that he appered to be like a kid trying to play an adult in a game like Monopoly.

Liverpool fans were also rewarded for keeping faith in their 'LEGENDARY' manager Rafael Benitez, when they lost in their 5th round FA cup match to Championship side Barnsley. For those ardent fans who had guts enough to sit up and watch this game, the result might not have been such a big shock considering the last two rounds of the FA Cup that the Reds had played. The third round match against Luton that went to a replay and the next round match against non league side Havant and W in which they struggled at the beginning before finally winning 5-2 had both given enough signs for fans at Anfield to feel justifiably worried. Yet as a few of my friends tell me, 'Liverpool fans know football much
better than Man U fans', and I have to agree with them coz they are out of the FA cup and we are not. That sure is a great achievement to be rated alongside every one of their - don't b frightened now - 18 League titles!... I feel that I have said enough about Liverpool but one last thing u can be sure of is that whatever mediocrity the players (or managers) give they still dont have to worry bcoz - " You will never walk alone "...

Elsewhere in the world of sports, turning back a few pages, Novak Djokovic finally ended Roger Federer's streak at all Grand Slams minus the French Open. The lanky Serb got the better of the graceful Swizz Fed-Express at the new and blue courts of the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne during the inaugural grand slam of the year - The Australian Open. Finally!... The Swizz 'maestro' looked rather out of sorts during the whole tournament and as far as I am concerned he should have fallen earlier on to another Serb Janko Tipsarevic who stretched him to 5 sets and to 10-8 in the 5th set.

As I am blogging on a Sunday and as I am expecting a couple of calls, I keep glancing over to my mobile phone and yet it blatently refuses to ring. I guess the winds of change are blowing a bit too much in my life as well... Memories of what appears now to be a long time away when I was in school back home in Tvm come flooding back and i wonder what i am to make of all of it....The answer comes to me again in another second and that is that i will blog abt it 2.

My blog '4thebots' where i blog abt my school life has been redundant for a long time now. Guess its time to spark some life into it as well. College life here in Manipal seems rather dull compared to the devilry we used to get to back in school and yet unfortunately i hear from friends that the winds of change are blowing far too heavily against the fortress of fun and at times education, that is Loyola.

I have almost exhausted my capacity to sit in front of a computer and go on typing mindlessly without any specific objective in mind so i guess its time now to bid adieu... atleast until next time :D

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam

- BiBinhio