Soccer transfers

Sorry for not posting for such a long while. :)

Now, the transfer window is open, many soccer clubs will be spending loads of money to bring in new talent to their clubs. Manchester United so far have signed three new players, Antonio Valencia, Michael Owen and Obertan. Three talented players, they will most probably have a fruitful career with Manchester United. But, the signing that shocked me most was Owen. He is already twenty nine, his prime of his career, but will he succeed at Old Trafford? The answer is no one will know. Owen is definitely a extremely talented player, a goal poacher which all defenders will fear. But unfortunately, his career has been plague with injuries, but i think this will not stop him from competing with the rest of the squad to play in the strating eleven. He may become a United legend! But one thing is for sure, Man United have nothing to lose, he was brought to Old Trafford on a free transfer. I wish Owen luck for his years at Old Trafford!!

Poets - Billy Collins continued

Fishing on the Susquehanna in July

I have never been fishing on the Susquehanna 

or on any river for that matter 

to be perfectly honest.  

Not in July or any month 

have I had the pleasure--if it is a pleasure-- 

of fishing on the Susquehanna.  

I am more likely to be found

in a quiet room like this one-- 

a painting of a woman on the wall,  

a bowl of tangerines on the table-- 

trying to manufacture the sensation 

of fishing on the Susquehanna.  

There is little doubt

 that others have been fishing

 on the Susquehanna,  

rowing upstream in a wooden boat, 

sliding the oars under the water 

then raising them to drip in the light.  

But the nearest I have ever come to 

fishing on the Susquehanna

was one afternoon in a museum in Philadelphia  

when I balanced a little egg of time in front time

in front of a painting

in which that river curled around a bend  

under a blue cloud-ruffled sky, 

dense trees along the banks,

 and a fellow with a red bandanna  

sitting in a small, green 

flat-bottom boat 

holding the thin whip of a pole.  

That is something I am unlikely

ever to do, I remember 

saying to myself and the person next to me.  

Then I blinked and moved on 

to other American scenes 

of haystacks, water whitening over rocks,  

even one of a brown hare 

who seemed so wired with alertness 

I imagined him springing right out of the frame.

Poets - Billy Collins continued

Some Days
by Billy Collins
Some days I put the people in their places at the table, bend their legs at the knees, if they come with that feature, and fix them into the tiny wooden chairs. All afternoon they face one another, the man in the brown suit, the woman in the blue dress, perfectly motionless, perfectly behaved. But other days, I am the one who is lifted up by the ribs, then lowered into the dining room of a dollhouse to sit with the others at the long table. Very funny, but how would you like it if you never knew from one day to the next if you were going to spend it striding around like a vivid god, your shoulders in the clouds, or sitting down there amidst the wallpaper, staring straight ahead with your little plastic face?

Poets - Billy Collins continued

The Golden Years

All I do these drawn-out days

 is sit in my kitchen at Pheasant Ridge

 where there are no pheasants to be seen

 and last time I looked, no ridge.

  I could drive over to Quail Falls

 and spend the day there playing bridge,

 but the lack of a falls and the absence of quail

 would only remind me of Pheasant Ridge. 

 I know a widow at Fox Run

 and another with a condo at Smokey Ledge.

 One of them smokes, and neither can run,

 so I’ll stick to the pledge I made to Midge.

 Who frightened the fox and bulldozed the ledge?

 I ask in my kitchen at Pheasant Ridge.

Poets - Billy Collins

Why do I like choose this poet? Well I found his name in the Most Popular Contemporary Poets column rank first! It immediately came to my mind," This must be a extremely good poet." I clicked on his name, and saw what he has written so far. 11 books and 33 poems! I started reading on one of his poems, fishing on the Susquehanna in July. It was a stunning piece of poetry. I can picture vividly what he is trying to convey to me in my mind. I can picture how the Susquehanna looked like. I can picture how he feels while fishing on the Susquehanna. This piece of work is amazing. Because of this work, i knew that this is not his best poem and hence i went to google to search on him in order to know more about this fantastic poet. Born in 22ND March, 1941, in the capital of the United States. His parents are William and Katherine Collins. Collins notable book was The Apple that Astonished Paris. I then continued to search on more of his poems. One of them was - Some Days. I could not really understand what he was trying to say, but his style of writing is almost the same as Fishing on the Susquehanna in July. he likes to describe the person or place very vividly that you can picture what it looks like in your mind. He does not really use very flamboyant words or phrases, but after you read his poem, you would be scratching your head, trying to understand what he is trying to say. At the end, he does not really conclude everything, he keeps a little bit of information to himself, making you think after reading his poem. I then read another of his poems, The Golden Years. In this poem, he is talking about a phesant bridge. He describes what he can do and see there at the Phesant bridge. Again, he describes what he can see vividly. This may not be a very long poem, but it is fantastic.

Billy Collins' work is fantastic, but most of the time, i cannot really understand what he is trying to say. But after reading a few times i finally got what he was trying to convey to me.

My three favourite poems written by him are, Fishing on Susquahanna in July, Some Days and the Golden Years.

Online lessons- poems - Fast rode the knight by Stephen Crane

Fast rode the knight by Stephen Crane

Fast rode the knight
With spurs, hot and reeking,
Ever waving an eager sword,
"To save my lady!"
Fast rode the knIght,
And leaped from saddle to war.
Men of steel flickered and gleamed
Like riot of silver lights,
And the gold of the knight's good banner
Still waved on a castle wall.
. . . . .
A horse,
Blowing, staggering, bloody thing,
Forgotten at foot of castle wall.
A horse
Dead at foot of castle wall.

The fugarative language use in this poem are:

Hyperbole:"To save my lady!" And leaped from saddle to war.

Personification:Fast rode the knight

With spurs, hot and reeking,
Ever waving an eager sword

Metaphor: Men of steel flickered and gleamed Blowing, staggering, bloody thing,

Simile: Like riot of silver lights,

Sybolism: The horse and knight uses symbolism.

I like this poem because it shows that the knight went through alot to save his lady, but when he saved her, he forgotten about his horse and it dies at the foot of the castle wall. The author wants to show how eager the knight is eager to save the princess by using hyperbole and personification. He uses metaphors to describe more about the knights and horses. I like this poem because it vividly describes what was the cause of the horse's death.

Is progress beneficial for society?

Is progress beneficial for society, and i have to say yes. Man, always find ways to improve their or our lives through innovative ideas, but why must we stop improving our lives? I feel that is stupid not to progress and live the same way for many generations to come. We should always find ways to progress to improve our lives. If we stop finding ways to improve our lives, we would stop inventing things, we woould stop thinking for new ideas, we would not be innovative anymore.
When we are not innovative, we would lose our dominance on Earth as other animals are getting cleverer each day, and maybe one day, they will be smarter than us. In order to prevent this from happening, we must keep finding ways to improve our lives, to keep thinking of new ideas, and to be the dominant race on planet Earth, this is why i feel that progress is beneficial for the society.

My favourite part in village by the sea

My favourite part in village by the sea is when Hari decides to go to Bombay. I like this part because this is the main turning point in the story. Because he made this decision, he would be able to drag his family out of poverty. In this part of the story, he was in two minds, he did not want to leave his family but he desperately wanted to change the situation his family is in at that time.

The main reason i like this part is because he mustered all his courage and finally came to a decision, which is to travel to Bombay to look for a job. I feel that this part he was able to see what he needed to do to change his family's situation, and of course, he made the right decision as his family was dragged out of poverty and he came back home with some ideas to earn money. He was starting to act and think like a grown man and he matured through the process while he was in Bombay.

These are the reasons this is my favourite part of the story.

Confessions of a Hwa Chong-ian

Hwa Chong a great school, and most of you may wonder what is life like as a Hwa Chong-ian, well life is interesting, very interesting. When i first stepped in Hwa Chong, i was shocked to see how massive the school compound is, it is almost 5 times bigger than my primary school! I am trully anstonished, but i feel extremely lucky to be in this wonderful school.

As you know, Hwa Chong is a chinese school, but not all of us can speak fluent chinese! But i think on of the main reasons we come to Hwa Chong is because we want to improve our chinese, and i am sure when all of us graduate, we will be able to speak fluent chinese.

During lessons, some of us will be listening intently on what the teacher is saying, while a handful of us would be building castles in the air! But when it is recess, most of us would dashed out of the class and into the canteen, while the rest maybe revising their work, talking or playing handphone games!

Life in Hwa Chong is not a boring one, but one that is full of surprises. I am really lucky to be in this wonderful school!

Who is my favourite/least favourite character in Village By The Sea

Well, I would choose writing on what my least favourite character.
My least favourite character in Vilage by the Sea is Hari.
Although Hari is the protagonist in the story, I dislike his attitude towards life as it is very pessimistic. He always thinks that his family will never get out of poverty no matter what he or his family tries. On the other hand, his good friend Ramu is a very optimistic person. Ramu feels that there is always a chance of getting out of poverty. He was very optimistic about getting a job in the factory that was never built. Hari felt that they had no chance in getting a job in the factory as neither of them graduated from college or completed school. He also felt that even if they had the job, they could not operate the machines. But Ramu replied,"We can learn!" I admire Ramu for being optimistic and feel that Hari should learn from him. Although in the end, Hari went over to Bombay and worked there, and when he returned he changed his family's life, I feel that he could get his family out of poverty earlier if he had changed his mindset.

But the good thing about him is that he was able to change his mindset when he came home from Bombay. He came home with ideas like setting up a clock repair shop and a poultry farm.

In all i feel that he was at first, the one who actually made his families problems look worse with his pessimistic mindset, hence he has to fret over his these same problems over and over agian.

I Rather be a city rat than a country rat.

  In my opinion, i rather be a city rat than a country rat because there are more adventures in the city for a rat than in a coumtry. There will be more predators in the city than in the country. For example, in the city the enemy is everywhere- humans. They would always try to kill rats with extremely innovative ways, for example, rat traps, pest control etc. So in the city, I being a rat, would always be on the run from humans. But in the city, the humans would not hate rats as much as in the people in the city, so it would be easier to "stay alive". The food in the city is much more abundant than the country. In the city, the are many rubbish dumps, wich are a source of food. Leftovers of what the humans have eaten, it would be a paradise for rats. Whereas in the country, there are few or no rubbish dumps, hence finding food would be much more difficult. In the city, there are many sewers which would be a hidding place for the rats. So it would be a very interesting live for the rats living there. Hence I rather be a city rat than a country rat.

(192 words)

Man United are in to the Champions league semi-finals!

Glory Glory Man United....... Manchester United are into the Semi-finals of the Chapions league for the third consecutive year by winning F.C. Porto 3-2 on aggregate. It was thanks to a wonder strike by Cristiano Ronaldo that put Man United into the Semi-finals to face Arsenal! He was 35 metres out, the speed of his shoot was 105km/h! Stunning! Absolutely stunning! I have never seen a ball moved that fast before!
This tricky winger has done it again! Although he has not reached the what he has done last season, he has been a very important member in United's quest for the quintruple. But, I hope that his head would not swell after his "wonder strike" in tomorrows FA Cup Semi-final clash with Everton. Everton are a big club, but has not shown their full potential. The chances of the Toffes knocking out the Red Devils are extremely high. The Red Devils form has dipped terribly after the shock defeat by Liverpool a few weeks ago. Their defence does not look the the one who set the most number of clean sheets in the Champions League and the Premier League. They have not been scoring many goals. This is a serious problem. I hope they will pull their socks up and have a comfortable win over Everton and proceed to the Finals. All the way Manchester United!

Oh no! 1-4! What has happened!

This is unbelievable! How can we be thrashed by Liverpool! Totally impossible! There are a few reasons why we lost.....
1)We are too tired! Most of the same players have played many matches consecutively, they need some rest!
2) Edwin Van Der Sar is too lousy! Why does Sir Alex Ferguson like Van Der Sar! He is old, clumsy, arrogant, stupid and careless. He set the record of the most clean sheets is not what he has done, is what the defenders have done. He always spills the ball, makes stupid blunders. To me, Ben Foster is way better than him. He has what it takes to be Englands Number one and even the worlds number one. I hope Sir Alex Ferguson would let Ben Foster play more games, because Ben Foster is getting impatient. If the does not become Man United's number one soon, he may leave the club, so please, let him play more.
3)Liverpool were outstanding. They took their chances well, moved the ball well around the pitch. Torres was totally outstanding, with his pace, power, and height, even Vidic and Ferdinand could not stop him, he is truly a world class player. Gerrard, Riera, Fábio Aurélio were all exeptional.
4)Tevez was useless. He made no impact on the game. He ran around like a headless chicken. He wasted a lot of chances which he failed to convert. Berbatov is much better. Although he is a "camper", he sticks to the game plan, takes his chances. I think Man United should sell Tevez and buy either Benzema or Lukas Podolski, both extremely talented players.

Inter Milan match

Yes! We have beaten Inter and we are on track for our second consecutive Champions League title. Inter, one of the strongest teams in Europe are out, so there is no team that can stop us from achieving our target.
Almost everything is movig smoothly for united, and we must not let any set back stop us from trying to "capture" all five throphies. Our toughest opponents are Barcelona, Liverpool & Chelsea, these are the only teams that are strong enough to stop our rout. If we, plus these three teams are in the semi-finals, Man United would have to work their socks off on the pitch in order to win, but i believe that we are strong enough to go all the way to the finals and lift he trophy once again!
All the way Manchester United!!!

Fergie vs the arrogant Mourinho

Tomorrow, Manchester United vs Inter Milan, Alex Ferguson vs Jose Mourinho, who will triumph, and who will lose............................................................................................................ Manchester United and Alex Ferguson of course! Why? Because Manchester United are stronger, our manager is better, more experienced and we have won the Champions League last year! Mourinho is too arrogant, arrogant people will fall, pride comes before a fall.
A arrogant manager like Mourinho, who calls his Inter side "a pile of shit" will triumph against Fergie, I do not think so. We, are stronger than Inter! We are confident but not over-confident! We have the best manager in the history of English football! We have much more younger players than Inter! We are the Champions of Europe, THE CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD! So we will conquer Europe and the world again, and Inter will not be able to stop us! So we Manchester United will be the first club to win the Champios League and Club World Cup two times in a row! So nothing will be able to stop us!

Barcelona, are they good enough to win?

BARCELONA, the favourites for this year's Champions League title, but, are they strong enough, good enough to win? From January onwards, I had this feeling that Barcelona would control Europe this year, but since the end of February their form has been dipping, now I am in serious doubt. Maybe, just maybe, they still have a chance, why? Here are the reasons.
1. They have a world class team! Lionel Messi, Thiery Henry, Samuel Eto'o, Carlos Puyol, Andres Iniesta, Aliaksandr Hleb, Víctor Valdés, Dani Alves, Xavi, Yaya Touré, Éric Abidal, Gabriel Milito, Gerard Piqué, Bojan Krkić and Eiður Guðjohnsen. They have a world class team, but can they win the Title. I do not think so.

They may be able to go to the finals, but i do not think they will win it. The teams that have the most chance of chance of winning are Manchester United, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Liverpool and Barcelona. They have a chance of winning, but I would not place my bets on them. The two teams that will be in the finals are Manchester United and Barcelona. But Manchester United have highest chance of winning, so Barcelona this may not be your year.

Champions league clash for Tuesday night

There are a few fixtures that I will be talking about.
The very first one is the Liverpool against Real Madrid!(I do not like these both clubs) In my opinion, I feel that none of them deserve to go through to the last 8, but among the two I would choose Liverpool. At the starting of the season, everybody thought that this would be the season that they will end the League title drought....... But now, look where they are now, dropping points, not scoring enough goals........ They have a strong team, but it is not strong enough to win the Premier League. Ok, they have a team which is strong enough to go to at least the semi-finals of the Champions League, but winning it.... I don't think so. Real Madrid, a strong side which has many extremely talented players, but they are definitely not strong enough to win the Champions League. They are no longer the force they are a few years ago, they are no longer the "Galacticos", no longer they dominating team in Europe. So why I think Liverpool should go through, they are the stronger side!

The Chelsea Juventus match, to me Chelsea should go through, I believe everyone would agree with me, cause they are the better side, so there is no need for explaning.

Barcelona and Lyon, everyone thought that it would be a breeze for Barcalona, but that is not the case. Barcelona are the favourites, so the chances of being knocked out are low, but Lyon have their magician-Juniho. With his supurb free-kicks, Barcelona must try not to give away too many free kicks. Lyon also have their star striker Benzema, the main man Barcelona will be watching out for. But all in all, I still feel that Barcelona are the stronger team, so they would go through. After all, they are the favourites.

Why Manchester United is going to win.

Why Manchester United are going to win the five trophies they're aiming for? Well, there are a few very simple answers to that.
First, Manchester United are they best club in the world! They have won the Champions League and Club World Cup, so it is not difficult to win all five trophies.
Secondly, they have the best squad in the world! Despite fielding a second choice team, Manchester United thrashed Fulham easily! So, if we have fielded in a first team....... Haha! The scoreline will be much better than Saturday's match.
Thirdly, nothing is too difficult for us!
So to the rest who do not believed Manchester United would win all five trophies, I believed I have conviced you, and maybe, turn you into a Manchester United Fan.
All the way Manchester United!

We are going to win

Yeah! Manchester are into the finals of the FA cup and we're going to win the cup. After thrashing Fulham 4-0 I believe that we are definitely going to win the FA cup. The chances are very high, but we must not lay back, just 2 more months and the season will end. I have this feeling that we would be able to win all five titles we've aimed for. 2 are in the bag, 3 more to go, all the way Red Devils!

Blackburn match.

After a long run of clean sheets, Man United have finally conceded a goal. To me it was quite disappointing match. We shoud have won it comfortably, intead we won by a hard fought match and the final score is 2-1. With two superb goals from Rooney and Ronaldo, these goals gave us the win we needed. The score line could have been different, but thank God, lady luck was on our side. Blackburn struck the wood-work once, but that scared the living hell out of me, it was a close shave. With Liverpool dropping crucial points, this seasons title is in the bag.

Defensive headache for fergie

This is about a news paper article about problems Manchester United face ahead of the Inter Milan clash.
In just less thantwo days time, Sir Alex Ferguson will face finally face Jose Mourinho's side after Mourinho left Stamford Bridge. But Manchested have big problems, Vidic will not be able to play due to suspension, Neville, Brown and Evans are injured. John O'shea will be a doubt. The only defenders avaliable are Ferdinand, Chester, Evra and Rafael. This will be a huge problem Man United will have to face.
Mourinho trying to make matters worse, claims that Vidic should have been suspended for 2 matches will Rooney should be suspended for the first-leg.
I & the Man United soccer fans just have to hope that they would be able to beat Mourinho's side at the San Siro.

Top Tranfers

Hi, sorry did not post for a long time, today, I'll be talking about the top football tranfers in the January tranfer window. Now, Arshavin, is he the player Arsenal really need? Well, they need a craetive mid-fielder now cause of the injuries they have. I think Arshavin will help them a lot in trying to save their champions league spot, however, when Fabregas, Rosický, Walcott etc come back from their injuries, will Arshavin be able to get a first team spot? I doubt so. He would have stiff competition with up & coming stars like Denílson, Ramsey, Wilshere etc how on Earth will he get a first team place? Now lets talk about Quaresma, is he what Chelsea really need? To me, yes and no. Chelsea need a creative player that can control the game, create goals and score goals. Quaresma is that kind of player that can do what I've mentioned....... but can he fit that quickly to the Premier League and revive Chelsea's title hopes? That is a huge question mark that I hope he will answer for us when time to come. Robbie Keane, weird Liverpool is his boy hood club! Why must he leave! He is a top class player, he should have waited patiently and his time will definitely come. Thats all I want to talk about today.

Myself

I am football fanatic. I am an avid fan of Manchester United. I hope that Manchester United will win the champions league and the barclays premier league this year. I will write on the football matches Manchester United have played and other other sports. Eg: Football tranfers, players and other soccer matches. I hope my blog will be able to entice more readers to read my blog. Feel free to comment.