European Football Kicks Off

Before you say anything, I know that European football started, as always, in August. My two favorite clubs are already in full gear to defend their respective domestic titles.

Real Madrid is putting on a show in Spain with their perfect record and their new signings proving how they are worth every cent on their fresh contracts. Things are going to be interesting with the addition of former Arsenal striker Thierry Henry to the line-up of rivals Barca--am not a big fan of the Frenchman but I do recognize his talents. Ninety per cent of moi still wish Becks in the Meringue whites--hmm, those were the days. While his first love (and mine!) Manchester United is no longer fumbling through their fixtures after a slow start to their season. Rivals Chelsea are definitely in the blues after the departure of The Special One last week. That was something of a twist very early on in the season although United did give him a going-away gift--a 3-0 loss in a penalty shootout in the Community Shield early in August.

But the UEFA Champions League started last week and for me, that always signalled a true start of everything football in Europe. The Champions League theme had always been a beautiful music to my ears and the pitch action always held special memories--Manchester United in '99 and Liverpool in '05, to name a couple.

While I'm fantasizing about my ultimate dream Final--Manchester United versus Real Madrid (in Wembley, if I'm really too deep into my dreaming)--both aforementioned clubs are definitely showing what kind of great stuff they're made of. Check out the results of Matchday One at midweek.


It was a Raul and Ruud show last Tuesday and it wasn't surprising, considering both are two of the meanest goal-scoring machines in this competition--Raul has scored so many I personally has stopped counting, while last Tuesday's was Ruud's 50th. It is a numbers game, y'all. And Cristiano Ronaldo scored the lone goal in the match against his old club last Wednesday. I'm not a huge fan of C-Ron but I do admire the kid's goal-scoring prowess (and did I say abs, anyone?)

I know it's very early on in the race but frankly, without Becks to cloud my judgment, I am very excited for new season for BOTH clubs. It's time to weave some magic into the pitch, showcase high-profile matches, and in true Kookie fashion, show me the nummies!!!

Love Notes, Part Two

Another slow blogging week but I don't want another week to go with no posts in here. Here's the second article of the love notes post that I did several weeks back. Once again, I don't claim this as an original work of mine but I just wish to share this with you all. Please refer to the first post that I fondly titled "The Dance of Love" to see where I got this--which I have titled "Echoes of Our Hearts."

"Sometimes we close our eyes and just listen to the echoes of our hearts. We all fall in love and there are times that we love so much that we lose ourselves in our own emotions. More often than not, we wonder why there is love that grows and why there is love that grows cold. We would start the search for answers and try to find where love has gone wrong. But in the end, we find ourselves where we started. We cannot question love for it has its own reasons. Love will always be as it always has been--silent, mysterious, and deeply profound. Many of us believe that love is forever, that love never dies; only to be disillusioned in the end when we find our hands empty and our hearts longing. We mistakenly have looked at love as a need to be fulfilled. But love is only a gift to us. We should not hold it in our hands for we may never find the strength to let it go when it decides to leave. We should only embrace it's warmth and glow while it lasts. And then freely open our arms when it's time to say goodbye. When we fall in love with someone, we don't want that feeling to end for it's everything we are, everything we wanted to be. We pray that love will stay and grow in our hearts. But if it doesn't, then we should never let our lives be taken by it for life should not end where heartsaches begin. There's always a reason why we have to move on when we have to say goodbye to the feelings we wanted to stay forever. Let us not wave our hands with a heavy heart for love will have to set its wings free and find a place where it belongs. We may have lost it but then again, when we close our eyes and listen to the echoes of our hearts, we will yearn that feeling resounding silently forever. Then we'll know that who we have become because love will always stay. It will always be there, reminding us that we should be thankful and happy, not because we have lost love, but because for once in our lives that feeling lived in our hearts and made us happy."

Think about it.

Dreamboat Express: England National Football Squad

I know I have been neglectful of my Dreamboat serial. It used to be a weekly thing and then it dwindled down to a biweekly post. But lookee here, it's now become a monthly! And we're midway through September and I haven't posted anything for this month yet. I swear I'm not gonna switch this into a yearly thing. That would mean a single dreamboat every year--now, that is a really, really sad thought.

And for the long overdue post, I'm doing the England national football squad for compensation. There's a lot of drool-worthy players in the line-up and I bet they're going to be compensation enough.

I know I've made it a point to not feature Becks here since he has his own serial. But out of respect of the former captain, I'm putting in at least one pic of him in this post. And then there are the repeat offenders: Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard, and Alan Smith. Special mention goes to: current skipper John Terry, Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, Wes Brown, and keeper Paul Robinson.

Thank you, lads, for the two winning outings last week. We're definitely back in business!

You Think You Know Me?

I'll let the picture say it all.

Vacay!!!

Better late than never. I was too bushed during the past week to post an entry about my rather short vacay last weekend. I don't think it could even be called a vacation since I just finally braved it out to visit home on my meager two-day restday. Of course, there was no backing out from the plans since I'd already promised my Pops that I'd be visiting home before August ends plus a lot more people who had made plans so that we could meet up. After all, I hadn't been back home in months!

I knew I was going to be half-dead by the time the weekend was over, not to mention that I wouldn't be able to do any blogging. Dang! All my time was spent on travel time and then some more travel time. But I had decided to do it a few days before and I saw no sense in changing my plans so off I went. (My sister was able to tag along at the last minute after her application for leave got approved.)

We arrived home mid-afternoon last Saturday but I surrendered by around four and went to take a nap--working nights is the pits! I woke up at dinner time and caught up with Pops and my sisters (my other sister arrived while I was catching my [one hundred and] forty winks). Not to mention that I played with my babies--it felt good to know that Lee and Red hadn't forgotten li'l ole me. I'm not so forgettable, after all.

The mind was willing but the body could only take so much as the night wore on. My sister and I swapped books and I gobbled up some of her recommended local novelettes she was returning to a cousin during this trip. I managed to finish one book before I called it a night. A long day, if you would've asked me then.

I woke up early Sunday morning--nothing was gonna make me miss my puto-and-mango breakfast which I hadn't had since I was home last. And I was pretty psyched as well since I was meeting up with the fearsome twosome--Lee and Olive (who else?). But when Olive didn't return my messages, I decided to just go back to sleep. I woke up hours later, after lunchtime, with a million messages in my phone from Lee and Olive asking if we were still a go. This was one of the reasons why I couldn't cancel my trip home so I said yes, even if I know that we would only spending a few hours together. I knew even then that I wouldn't be able to check out our old university's Founders Week celebration. So after I did a little shopping for Pops, the three of us went to hang out at Hayahay and ate some pizza while enjoying the view of the beach from where we were. I had to scat home before six to catch the bus home and spend more time with the family. But not before we'd snapped picture of ourselves (joke of the day: Thank God for the rolls of tissue paper). LOL! I know what you're thinking but no, we just used it as our tripod. Quite original of us, really.

I capped Sunday off with the family plus two more novelettes before my beauty sleep since we were starting our trip back early. But in our usual style, we didn't get to leave until late morning and took the ferry around noon. We arrived back in the city mid-afternoon. I had to get a few winks before working the night shift again. Damned, it felt like it was one heck of a whirlwind weekend!

It was. But I never regretted it even if I can still feel the aftereffects even up to now. I just might do it again soon. But if I can, I'm putting in a leave application--I'd like to be home for more than a measly two days.