Monday, August 20, 2007
Sunday
Ok Sunday was a rather uneventful day, with me staying at home the WHOLE day, with the exception of going out twice, once to buy my dinner, and another time to buy some bread for supper.
I watched the National Day Rally on TV, and despite my interest in it every year, it must be said that this year's speech was lacking in content.
This is to be expected, as while this year has been a rather eventful year, with the GST increase, Ministerial and Civil Service Payrise, Change of Constitutional laws to give more power to the PM in appointing the Legal Counsel, the PM will be reluctant to bring these unpopular issues back to the forefront, hence the lack of content.
Basically, all of what has been said is about the planning of support for old-age retired citizens, meaning the age for withdrawing CPF funds will be upped from 62 to 65, plus some proposed legislation here and there.
The plan is to 'help' people plan the finances until they are 85, meaning that the Minimum Sum will be dispersed in instalments until one is 85. In essence, more money locked up in the CPF for a longer period.
The upgrading plans, as flowery as it sounds, doesn't really excite me, as to me they are already ongoing, and the PM is just dragging time by showing the details and wonderfully-misleading artists' impressions of the intended upgrading plans.
The usual 'we've got a crisis now, but we'll unite and solve the challenges head-on' approach is curiously missing, as this Rally did not really 'rally' the people, but like a standard report you'll hear in Parliament speeches.
So yup, other than the 2 points, nothing much has been said.. I'll be curious to find out what the newspapers has to say tomorrow.
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So Blackburn drew 1-1 with Arsenal at home.
People on Msn has been telling me, 'not bad ah', e.g. Desmond, Junwei, Cherie etc, and seriously speaking, expectations has been raised so much that all rovers fans, despite being contented with a point, are still disappointed.
It's amazing how football reports in the media can be so biased, even in this age where information is supposed to transcend borders.
The titles of the reports screamed "Lehmann gifts it to Rovers". While it is certainly true that Jens Lehmann spilled a rather weak David Dunn shot to gift Rovers the goal, what was unreported was the in the 18th minute, Brad Friedal spilled a even weaker lobbed pass to gift Van Persie (he never fails to score against Rovers) the opening goal.
I laughed my ass off when I saw Wenger's complaints about how 'violent' Rovers were, when in the whole game, the likes of Flamini, Fabregas and mainly Van Persie were guilty of over-the-top late tackles and high flying boots.
Blackburn are no angels, but Arsenal were no saints either.
A certain Mr "这样粗!" comes to my mind.
So the impression to everyone reading the reports? Rovers are a dirty team, resorting to 'violence' throughout the game and were desperately lucky to 'earn' one point against a top side, when both sides were equally lucky, and equally 'violent'.
Ok, so Rovers will remain the rough and under-talented thugs, and Arsenal the skillful and elegant angels denied their two points by gangsterish football.
How great it is.
Luckily, there was something to pacify me.

Don't hate me Cherie =P
(P.S. This is the first time the opposition MPs were invited to the rally too, I observed =) )
lowtide blogged @
8:31 am
