Cerita Bola Saya.....

I’ve never been a fan of football.... so it’s no biggie that the on-going World Cup does not affect me. For instance, you won’t find me staying up to watch the matches (why, even the 7.30 pm matches also I don’t really watch) – and that will definitely include the final.

That doesn’t mean I do not follow the goings –on of the matches. Being a perpetual couch potato, more often than not, I found myself veering off to the sports channels just to keep up with the latest score. Yeah, I love all those trivia things and I guess learning, as an example, about France’s spectacular exit from this year’s tournament is rather thrilling.

What astonished me the most, however, is the fact that my two oldest girls are into this World Cup. Naturally, they are rooting for Argentina, or to be more precise Lionel Messi (whom I only realise existed when he was used by Astro in that World Cup ad where he uttered “in HD” to that young girl and her parents).

Speaking of rooting, I still do not have a team to support although I am really leaning to see a new nation to win the World Cup this year. So it means, I’m definitely not supporting Germany, Brazil (am still heart broken when they were ousted by Italy in 1982), Argentina (sorry, girls), Italy (still cannot forgive you guys for that 1982 turn of event) and good old England (still think, they are the most over rated team this year). Somehow, I’m okay if Uruguay wins their third trophy this year, though).

See, I’m big on trivial and useless information – I can remember all those historical (if you can call it that la) facts and figures – like that 1982 Brazilian tragedy. Although, I’ve never once stayed up to watch any of the World Cup finals in its entirety, I can still recalled the heroic Mario Kempes in the 1978 final, the entertaining Dutch team led by Johann Cruyff in 1974 and the hugely tedious 1990 final between Argentina and Germany, because I did watch highlights of those matches, and many more, countless times.

Anyway, because this time around there’re two ladies who are following it more closely than their Bapak, the World Cup do creeps into our conversations at home and we have had some good laugh at that...

Conversation One:

The Two New Fans (aka Alia and Asma): Yeah Argentina won!!!!!

Bapak: (Looking bewildered)

Mak: Mak tak tahu la nak sokong siapa this World Cup ni.

Alia: Sokong Argentina la....

Mak: Ha dah tahu.... Mak nak sokong Turkey!!!!

Bapak: (dah gelak guling2 with the girls) err Turki tak masuk final la this time...

Mak: Laaaaa... tapi orang Turki handsome2.... and then dia orang pulak tu Islam.

(So, How?)

Conversation Two:

(this during a chat session over FB between me and my friend Hazel (with apology ya Puan!)

Mior: .... tu la kan..... masa Argentina lawan Greece yesterday.....

Hazel: Wait! Greece ada masuk World Cup????? Bukan negara dia orang dah bankrupt ka? Apasal dia orang main?

(Mior then gulling2 jatuh ke lantai again)

Conversation Three:

(This was when the girls were watching the replay of Argentina Vs Greece)

Mak: Heyyy... ni dia mamat yang kat dalam iklan tu (obviously referring to Messi)

The Two New Fans: Ha betul la Mak... tu lah Messi!!!

Mak: Haaaa... Maxis?

(And I rest my case!)

It's the girls' day out ..... with Bapak in tow (muahhaahhaa)

This school holiday, we didn't go anywhere (as if we always go on vacation during holidays la pulak ya). But nevertheless, I still feel guilty seeing the girls got cooped up in the house throughout the two-week holiday. So I did the next best thing - I ajak them jalan-jalan to shopping malls whenever I got the time. Like last Saturday.... my two oldest girls and I (their mom was busy with her work and needed to be online the whole morning while their youngest sister .. well... she just went to sleep after staying up all night doing her anime stuff or whatever that she's doing) went to Mid-Valley and Suria KLCC (which was a quite an event for us la on account that we normally lepak2 at Sunway Pyramid or at those wonderful Mall in Mutiara Damansara sahaja).

We left early and by 9am we were already driving into Mid-Valley car park. I was extremely excited no doubt looking at the near deserted parking lot and quickly parked the car right in front the entrance's escalator. The reason for that early morning sojourn was that we wanted to check our the Scholastics' Book Buffet promotion. As we were very early, naturally they were not opened yet. However, we got to check out the books there first la and it was decided that although the titles were interesting, Asma really wanted to get hold of Michael Grant's Gone novel (as she already bought the second one in the series and couldn't really understand what's going on... until she reads the first one).

So we decided to lepak-lepak at McD while waiting for the bookshops (mainly MPH) to open. We also took the oportunity to jalan-jalan ke Gardens.

Gardens is as always... more quiet than Mid-Valley. But then the girls found it nice...

... especially when Alia found out that there's a totally kick-ass art store there... can't even remember the name of the store

Then we stumbled upon Borders... woohhoooo (that's me trying lo look cool...)

... but it didn't work out kan? I mean, me trying to look cool.

Anyway, Borders didn't have the book that Asma is looking for.... so

... we made our way back to Mid-Valley and into MPH... where the search continued. The thing was that upon checking with their computer system, the elusive book was stated as available... but even with the help of the good people at MPH, we still could not locate the book.... hrmmmmph! So it was decided then that dah alang-alang keluar ke kota raya, we might as well try our luck at Kinokuniya.... So off we went to Suria KLCC pulak..

... and yes we found the book at Kino finally. Lega. And then we had lunch. Japanese. Nyum...nyum..

The End.