World Cup Fever - Rising Sun Went Down Under

So I was in my room, watching the start of the Australia vs Japan match when I realise of the commotion going on downstairs. I looked out the window, wondering what was going on as my phone rang.

"Yo, Fikri," Pele's voice blared out, his background sounding noisy as hell. I could make a good guess where he is now. "They're showing the match downstairs here. Come watch."



I quickly dressed, turning off the laptop and going down. I bumped into Damon at the lift. "Pele called you?" he asked. I nodded my yes, pressing for the 1st floor. "I wonder why they're showing the match."

They didn't show any of the football matches before this, not at COAP anyway, except for the friendlies Korea had against Norway, Ghana, Senegal and Bosnia. This was further reinforced by the football schedule lined up:


Dates with destiny: Korea's matches against Togo, France (PE-RANG-SER) and Switzerland (SER-WI-SER) in big, bold letters. You can't miss it.

Once there, however, I realised two reasons why they're showing the match:


Na pun il pun saram! (Bad Japanese!): Koreans hate the Japanese, and would like to see them get hammered any time they can. Get up you faker!


He ran but he couldn't Hiddink: If you didn't know, Guus Hiddink coached them when they reached the semi finals the last time. Four years on, they still love him. News of him winning the Dutch title this year with PSV Eindhoven, before being appointed as coach of Russia after the World Cup made front page headlines.

However, love alone is not enough...


Not a popular scoreline...


...but we don't care: Tascha, Damon, Pele and me (taking the picture, duh) having a good time regardless.


SCORE!: Cahill moving mountains to get this in...


Aju chuayo: ...which we like.


Down Under went one up: Tim again.


Icing on the cake: Coventry reject Aloisi finished off the Japs.


This happened...


...and this happened: You can't really see it, but they're liking the demise of the Japanese in the cruelest of fashions with the late goals.

Mission accomplished, Japs defeated and Hiddink won, everyone went away happily enough. But despite all this, it is only the appetiser, for tomorrow is the big one.

Korea vs Togo.

TAY-HANMINGKUK!!

Wilding Flowers

My university here has what they call a wild flower garden. Having checked it out several times (and having had an acorn fight with my friends there), I still don't know whether it means that the flowers are wild flowers or whether no one takes care of it.

Or both.

Anyhoo, I recently got myself a new digital camera (Panasonic Lumix FZ7 - aju impressive thus far), and decided to test it out by going on a mini photo hunt (sorry, Anna). Here are some of the results.


The garden has two entrances. This is one of them.


Rose red: I took several shots of the roses, and this is one the best, I think. It had just finished raining then, so the dew really adds to the beauty of it.


Flower walk: There's so many of them that they protrude unto the sidewalk as well. One day, on the way home from school, I plucked one and gave it to Sabine. She wore it on her head for a bit, and then took it off. "I look silly," she said. "Sabine," I started, "you looked silly to begin with." :>


My favourite picture of them all. I deliberately lowered the exposure on this, letting in less light than most of the shot. Thus, the dew is highlighted perfectly, and it came out beautifully.

The rest, I'll let the thousands and thousands of words speak for themselves...