Soccer and football

Had a little discussion of football in lunch time. Also wondered where "Soccer" is originated from.

Thanks to SD, we have the following:
" To love the game of football is to love it's rich history also. It particularly disturbs me when modern fans of the game less conversed in this history do not fully understand that the word "soccer" is an English, _not_ American word derived from the second syllable of the word "association".

"Soccer" was originally called "association football" during the formation of the Football Association in England in the 1860s. This was to maintain a distinction from the other football game being organised in England at the same time based on the handling codes, whilst Association Football conformed to the dribbling codes. The other football came to be known as "rugby" football, named after the Rugby School in England, where it is said that a certain young student, William Webb Ellis, picked up the ball in his hands during an association football match and ran with it over the goal line. Master Ellis asked his teacher, who was refereeing, if that was a goal. The reply was, "No, but it was a jolly good 'try'", which is where one of the rugby scoring terms comes from. Rugby Union was formally organised by 1871, but suffered another split by 1893 when Rugby League was formed. I digress.

Near the end of 1863, Charles Wreford-Brown, who later became a notable official of the Football Association, was asked by some friends at Oxford whether he cared to join them for a game of "rugger" (rugby). He is said to have refused, preferring instead to go for a game of "soccer" - a play on the word "association". The name caught on.

English public schoolboys love to nickname things, then as much as now. The tendency is to add "er" to the end of many words. Rugby [Union] Football became "rugby", and then "rugger". Association Football was better know as "assoccer" and naturally evolved into "soccer" which is much easier for a schoolboy to say... "

"Soccer is a gentleman's game played by ruffians and Rugby is a ruffian's game played by gentlemen"

See here for full article.

Phrases of the day:
1. The cream will always rise to the top. (Just like s**t)
2. The straw that breaks the camel's back

Exploring new pubs

Went to this one after work today with AW. We were saying with that chips, we'll be Homer if we come once a week.


Two pints of old fashioned ale.


Cheese on chips, with ketchup and mayonnaise.

Come on your Spurs!!! Keano, Mido~~~

An ordinary day turned extraordinary by a phone call from brother at about 5pm. Tickets to Spurs home game against the Baggies. It's not far away (North London), Spurs have been fantastic this season, and as my first treat after pay-day, there's no reason to reject it. The match is definitely the best live match I've seen (I haven't seen a lot, look at the list at the bottom of this entry). It has disappointment, bad defending, quick passing, astonishing pace, skills, and finally a last-minute penalty. Can't ask for more (particularly after the crappy England World Cup qualifier against Austria, which we spent 10 hours in the car, saw Beckham being sent off, and only one goal - penalty from Lampard).



The bottom picture is the capture from the super store. They do a lot of pretty clothes, but I am not too sure about the quality. So I went for a relatively cheap one.

Really, not all English football fans are hooligans. The ones on our train were drunk, but quite funny when they were chatting to some Bulgarian girls. No offence made to the girls, just chatting.

List of live matches I have watched in my life (remind me if I've missed any):
1. During secondary school in HK:
- Hong Kong Idols vs Hong Kong Women Football Team, in Yuen Long Stadium (Idols won by alot)
- Instant Dict vs AC Milan, Hong Kong Stadium (Milan won by something like 0-7)
- World All Stars vs Asian All Stars, Hong Kong Stadium (well, there were some stars)
- Some Hong Kong team vs PSV Eindhoven, Hong Kong Stadium (don't know why I was there, don't remember the result)
2. College in West Midlands, UK
- Wolverhampton Wanderers reserve vs another Division 1 reserve, Molineux (Wolves won)
3. Uni -> present (post uni)
- Millwall vs Stoke (or Crewe Alexandra, don't remember exactly), The New Den (Millwall won by 2-0 or something, gosh, real h****g**s)
- Chelsea vs Portsmouth, Stampford Bridge (Chelsea won 3-0, 2 goals were goal of the month contenders)
- England vs Austria, Old Trafford (England won 1-0)
- Crystal Palace vs Liverpool, Selhurst Park (Crystal Palace won 2-1, Carling Cup match)
- Tottenham Hotspurs vs West Bromich Albion, White Hart Lane (Spurs won 2-1)

Quiet day

People come and go. Today there are two of us in our team. 3 of them are in holiday, and all the others are no longer working in our team. Interesting, eh?

Work is as usual, apart from that today is Friday.

News of the day: see here

The arguments and statistics are quite interesting. Particularly the part where she said 80% of the plastic bags in the UK are re-used in other purposes. The examples are used as bin-linen and muddy football boots, which are exactly what I use my carrier bags for!!!

But please bear in mind that this doesn't mean you can use more plastic bags. Just be sensible and try to produce as least rubbish as you can. Let alone the global issues like global warming, both HK and the UK (and many other developed countries/cities) are running out of landfill sites for rubbish. I don't want to see my country-side turning into huge bins.

Another piece of interesting news (old though): here

Yet another one: here
Why did the child swallow the bracelet?

My 100th blog!!!

Can't believe I can get to my 100th blog. Thought I would be much less disciplined. But still, day to day, I want to share a lot of things with different people. Namely my thoughts and wills.

Photos of the day
See here for some good photos.

There have been 3 F.A. Cup quarter finals in the last three days, and tonight will be the last one, Charlton against Middlesborough. We went out last night to watch the Chelsea vs Newcastle game. I was very disappointed as first, we didn't see any goal (because we arrived 15 mins late), and Newcastle didn't even have any meaningful attempts on goal. You can feel the frustration on Shearer, who although being the all-time club record scorer, has never won any silver ware with the Magpies. Then there were a lot of diving and dishonest behaviour from the Chelsea players. Drogba and Del Horno were the usual suspect. But even Shaun Wright-Philips was faking to get Elliot sent off. I mean, COME ON, Elliot was trying to avoid the clash, and it was only his right arm that TOUCHED Wright-Philips. I wonder what Ian Wright will say to him.

SL and I was talking about this diving nature within Chelsea. Was it something Mourinho introduced to the players? Or was it something imported by the recently added players from the continent? Or is there sort of a bonus scheme introduced by Abromivich, that 1 assist will earn £50,000, 1 goal will earn £100,000, and 1 dive to get a free kick will earn £80,000, and more if it results in yellow/red card for opposition players.


Saw this from some random column in Dundee FC related sites:
Some people see things that are and ask, Why? Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not? Some people have to go to work and don't have time for all that ...

Haha.. No ordinary

Thought it was a normal Ferrari.. But, OMG!!! It's the model that you need invitation from Ferrari if you want to see one, you need to go to specific driving school to learn how to drive it, the one that Ferrari is only going to make 399 of it ever, the one that costs $652,000 if you're ever able to buy it from someone. And here you go, in Lisle St., China Town, London. See here for a little bit of informatino about it.




By the way, please notice the parking tickets on the windscreen. We think the guy who gave the tickets was still there hanging around the car. Perhaps he loves it as well, or he was waiting to give more tickets.



Equally cool, for those who haven't seen it, this is the guitar that I lost during the summer 2004. Please don't ask me how I lost it. It's one single thing (thing, not human) that I miss most in my life so far.

Definitely the news of the day

Simply amazing guess.

What I've learnt today

1. My boss, another colleague and I went to Cafe Rouge today for lunch. I said this restaurant is not bad, and I quite like it. Then the food came, and I said the food was good. But my boss (who ordered the same main course as me) looked surprised, and said he didn't want to give any comment. Then they said this:
"In the land of blind, the one-eyed man is the King."

2. There's a difference between "I wish I were a woman", and "I wish I was there with you". Note the use of "were" and "was".

3. I can lose my temper at work. I may have been too soft to everyone.

You learn something new everyday - update

What I've learnt today:

It's hard to keep this "You learn something new everyday" up everyday. For the last couple of days, I try to think of something that is worth putting it here. But just couldn't think of any. I learn a lot everyday, but most of them are to do with computer science or specific to the project I am doing, or I learn everyday that I am a stupider person than I thought.

I've trying to find out what I really want to do for my next career step. But haven't been able to found one yet. I want a job that I can stretch my brain everyday, don't need to stay in one office for more than a year, I will feel energetic about every challenge. Sounds like that Management/strategic consultant is an option. But apparently I am not good enough to join those companies.

Recently I've also tried harder to finish the song I am recording, with help from friends (thank you HN and KC for your effort so far, still some way to go!!!). WL gave me even more courage by telling me that CYK is interested in listening to our products. I really wonder what people like him would think about my crappy Canton-pop.

Right, time to get back to EXCITING work.

Some updates

Happy birthday to my bobo!!! I am sorry I can't be with you on your birthday, but I will soon be there!!!

And, after a week of showering with the glass and in danger of getting hurt, the workers came 6:15am this morning (!!!) and changed the shower doors. I am looking forward to moving out of this place. Definitely the worst place I've ever lived in during my time in the UK. It's even worse than the crowded dormitory in the boarding house. Dang!!!

News of the day:
See here. How good is that if it happens to my kitchen!!!

Two little facts to do with music

1. C Y Kong has a website, it has some works he has done since 1991. You guess what the address is.
2. Disco music started in gay discos in 1970's, sung by black women. BBC made a programme Queens of Disco, and mentioned Grace Jones. Jees, what an icon. Then in early 80's, rock'n'roll fans had enough of disco musics, they gathered in a baseball stadium and burnt a lot of disco albums. Since then, disco music became Club music. That was when Madonna rose.

Added on 11/3:
Yota Yamamoto 山本洋太 == C Y Kong
田中小百合 == Wyman Wong 黃偉文
They made 超人的主題曲 together.

Sick

I am ill. It's terrible when you live on your own and become ill. At some point, I thought I may die. But it's nice when your boss asks if you'd need anything from him and other colleagues. And, look at this:



Thank you PF.

Shattered glass

After the long day on Saturday, I was sitting in front of my tv playing Pro Evo 5. At about 2am, there was suddenly a loud crashing noise coming from my kitchen/toilet. I first thought it was my frying pan dropped on the floor from the loose hook, but the kitchen was ok. Then my toilet. OH MY GOD!!! One of the glass doors of my shower was shattered into pieces. How on Earth could this happen? It just burst from inside by itself.







If you have an idea how this could happen, please drop a comment. Many thanks.

Another week

Another week has gone, our project manager has gone, and we'll be doing the most boring job for the coming weeks. Sigh.

Went to dim sum with some relatives, had a lot of food. Then went to walk with my brother to take some pictures around Westminster. We've found out the followings:
1. P&O stands for The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company.
2. RAC stands for Royal Automobile Club. They have two divisions, the well-known car support division, and a private club. They are totally separate now.
3. Shell is originally a small shop in London east end selling antiques and sea shells.

Then I joined my relatives again and went to have dinner near Wood Green, in a Cypriot restaurant. It's definitely the best I have ever had of these kinds of food.







Regent's Park
It looked sunny, but actually it was snowing as well
Moorgate underground station

Hangover

Still have very bad hangover this morning, arrived at the office 1 minute late and had to buy everyone coffee. Start to feel better now (12:11pm).

New term of the day:
UDI - Unidentified Drinking Injury

Leaving do

Our project manager is leaving this week and we have a leaving do today.. And I am bloody drunk..

What I've learnt today:
I love my colleague. I am gonna miss them so much when I leave this project. RM, SRG, KM, AF, AW, SD, PT, OD.. etc... etc...

Why am I drunk again!?!??!?!?!?

Ahead of Beijing 2008

Team lunch today. It's bad to have 2 glasses of wine, 1 red and 1 white, in the middle of the day. Luckily we're not in development phase.

What I've learnt today:
See here

Chen Shui-bien has decided to scrap the reunification council. This has started off a new wave of debate on the Taiwan problem. More opinion on this from me later. I'm still working.

Hidden (Cache)

Watched a French film with two colleagues tonight. It's called Hidden in English, Cache in French. It's special, probably because it's French, and I haven't seen a lot of French films in my life (I think I've watched two French films in my life, including this).

This film doesn't give an answer to its mystery, and it got the three of us talking about it while we were drinking (I only had one pint) after the film. Do watch it if you have a chance. If you're not planning to watch it, read the view here which I think the reviewer has got the real message spot on.

The weekend before last I watched a DVD at home, borrowed from our project manager. It's called Napolean Dynamite. It is a comedy about geeks. It's so funny!!! It had a lot of subtleties that you can find from geeks, and I laughed my arse off even I was watching on my own! (it's sad in a way)

What I've learnt today:
1. There's a thing called "Dust surf", just another toy that our project manager has to play his sons. He also has Go Peds and mini motorbikes at home.
2. French films are very different from Hollywood and Hong Kong films, at least for the ones I've watched.
3. I've spent a lot of money during the last 5 days.