The New Bed

14th June 2006, Wednesday

Today marked the final phase of the renovation of my place with the installation of the king-size bed frame as well as the book shelf...
We will have our trusty electrician, Keong to come do some adjustment of the electrical point beside the bed as it would hinder the bedside drawer...as well as installation of my lass' Japanese style hanging lamp...
I know I shouldn't have Mom taking her own annual leave to safeguard the place while Dad would be taking a half day leave to thoroughly quality-controlled the final product before we hand the contractor the money and bid au reviour to him, his Brokeback comrades and that naggy wife of his...

Talking about my old man, after been snubbed by us for vociferously bemoaning about how badly he was treated at work (and it was barely 2 weeks into the new job), he suddenly became very moody and just showed everyone his authentic "base of wok" foul face...not like we really bothered but poor Mom was at the brunt of his cold treatment for the past few days...
Seriously he had the mi-life crisis cum menopause cum prolonged menstral mood swing all accumulated, waiting for explosion like Mt. Merapi or Sakurajima....
But I would actually hope he kept his silent spell, rather then kept whining all day and night long...

Anyway would be looking forward to the new bed, though it's a pity due to some traditional old grandmother's taboo, we can't send the mattress until we are formally been married or something...
I could still have bigger space to enjoy the World Cup actions with...

Speaking of which after the high tempo action of Monday evening, last night affairs were much muted...not when the 3 matches featured the most probable and defending champions, Brazil, 1998 champions, France and the ultimate minnows of Togo..

Seriously S. Korea is Asia's best hope to progress to the round of 16 but last evening's 1st half performances left a lot to be desired and even conceded a goal to the outsider of all outsiders, Togo who had money squabbling and a coach who made an U-Turn after resigning from the post...
If they had not have their captain sent off for the 2nd bookable offense, they might held on for a win as the Koreans scored only after Togo is down to 10 men...
Once again Ahn Jung Hwan showed he can only scored in the big stage with the winner which his current club, Metz would be wondering why is he such a different player when he played for them

Well at least the Korean did what the Swiss and French can't do...that's scoring...
Cannot believe that the French still bore that goal-scoring jinx left from 2002 against a resilent Swiss squad who might grab a winner if Barthez were not lucky enough to stop the ball before it crossed the line..
But it is quite apparent that the Swiss lack a striker with cutting edge and even Frei might not be that good...
Of course the French could argue all tournament long how the Russian referee did not reward them a clear penalty when Mueller stopped the ball with his hand...

Not that the talents of Brazil is that much better than France...against Croatia only Kaka's cracker was able to get them the 3 points...
However it was clear that the pressure was surely mounting on the Samba kings..
I missed this game and perhaps will watch the replay later to understand how the reigning champions actually performed...

Ok the last group to finish their opening games this evening:

Spain vs Ukraine (Group H)
Of course the Ukrainians had been sweating over the fitness of their star man Schevcenko who should feature tonight..
It's a doubt whether he would perform to be the most viable golden boot for this tournament which so far the usual suspects like Luca Toni, Henry, van Nisterooy, Ronaldo, Owen had all failed to open accounts...while a hattrick tonight will lift him above the likes of Klose, Wanchope, omar Bravo and Rosicky...
But I doubt he would have a supply line to feed his goal-scoring appetite...
Meanwhile if the Spainards can beat Ukriane, Group H is most probably for their taking... and alot depends on whether the Raul-Torres-Villa attacking tandem could work
Prediction: Spain 2 : Ukraine 2 (Really rooting for Scheva to win the golden boots this tournment of course the likes of Saudi and Tunisia are more probable goal-scoring targets than Spain)

Saudi Arabia vs Tunisia (Group H)
The all Muslim derby and with the Mexico-Iran game to go by, this match might have enough entertainment values as both team will be all out for a win as a draw would do neither no good when they faced the Europeans next...
Prediction: S.Arabia 2 : Tunisia 3 (The Brazilian-converted strike force should prove too strong for the Saudis while actually Tunisia has quite a good defence, so the Saudis might not score so freely)

Germany vs Poland (Group A)
The first 2nd round game begin with the host taking on a neighbour who never been able to beat them...
Seriously the Poles need a miracle after losing the most winnable game against Ecuador and perhaps they should had taken my wobbly-legs Dudek..
But I surely would relish the thought of the German been beaten by the Poles but most probably will never happen..I would not be surprise to see Kahn tonight...
Prediction: Germany 2 : Poland 0 (I think it is right for the Pole to be the first to be knocked out but then I think they still performed better than the Americans at times)

Well we anticipate my new bed and tonight's matches as I got permission to leave work earlier later...

Japanese word of the day: ベッド~be-ddo~(Bed) I would never envision myself sleeping on a king size bed all alone...