From the desk of the Amazing ‘Ainur…

Assalamualaikum w.b.t and kia ora…

Hello, people…how’s your week so far?…mine’s absolutely crappy…I am forced to study things that I do not like…get lecturers that I do not like…and get this: this morning, I had no choice but to sit next to a group of guys who smelled suspiciously like cows for 60 glorious minutes…hah!…bet you can’t top that one!

All week long people have been talking about Monsieur Zidane’s head-butt…I can’t seem to stop talking about it myself…my friend, Syada, called me two days ago from some train station in Sydney to talk about it…and talked we did…at the end of the call, we both came to an agreement: we hate Marco Materazzi…yup…the guy who scored Italy’s equalizer, who netted one of the penalty shots….and most importantly, he’s the guy who caused Zidane to lose his temper….execute that now-famous and much-publicised head butt…receive a red card, thereby securing Zizou a spot on Football’s Hall of Fame (and possibly Hall of Shame as well)…and all in his very last international appearance…do you know why I hate that materazzi guy now?

Zidane deserved to be red-carded because what he did was clearly intentional… but I applaud Zidane for doing what he did…that guy deserved to be head-butted…Willy Sagnol, just hours after the match, made a public comment that he was sure that Zidane was provoked…after that Zidane himself gave an official statement saying that he was insulted by Materazzi…that scumbag!…so far, I’ve heard 3 wildly different theories about the nature of the verbal insult:

                     i.            “your sister’s a prostitute” – Brazilian TV channels

                   ii.            “you’re the son of a dirty terrorist” – ESPN

                iii.            “you abused steroid when you were playing for Juventus” – anon

Colourful (and not to mention inventive), aren’t they? Materazzi’s not only a good footballer, but he’s also an eloquent orator…well-rounded guy, that one…William Gallas said that when he saw Materazzi after the match, he felt like smacking him…If I were Gallas, I’d probably stuff my fist(s) in his mouth…knock a few teeth off…gross, I know…but it’s for a good cause…that’d surely bring his feet back on terra firma…

I’m a firm believer of the saying “THE BEST DEFENCE IS THE BEST OFFENCE”…that’s probably why I think that what Zidane did was nothing short of admirable…not many people have the guts to do that, you know…and he ended up being the recipient of the ‘Golden Ball’ award…what a way to end the World Cup…I wouldn’t want it any other way…oh…this morning he issued a formal apology…by ‘he’, I mean Zidane…I’m not sure what he’s apologizing for or to whom…he speaks rapid French…even if he speaks slowly, I’d still have trouble understanding him, seeing as how the size of my French vocabulaire is positively minuscule…    

Okay…got to stop my ramblings now…anyway, one of my friends made this comment during the world cup:

          “team England kuat sebab players die romantic”

Can somebody please explain to me what it means? I’m completely baffled…

Mademoiselle ‘ainur rahmah ellias

assalamualaikum w.b.t and kia ora…

hello, ladies and gentlemen and assorted others…how are you guys doing?…hope you are all still alive and kicking…my holiday’s coming to an end…already…you know what they say…time flies when you are having fun…one of my friends offered me another way to look at it: time’s fun when you are having flies…see?…my friends are all slightly out of it…but that’s ok…most of the time I’m not quite sane myself…

i’ve spent my holiday doing nothing…nothing that is of value, I mean…well, that’s the beauty of holidays really…you can sit around doing nothing and still be able to fell good about yourself…besides, it’s not like I have lectures and tutorials to attend, or books (academic) to read or assignments to write (and bomb!)…all the things that I mentioned are all hazardous to one’s physical and emotional and mental stability…which is why breaks are necessary…

I’ve been watching a lot of TVs lately…there’s so many interesting things on TV right now…new TV series…huge sporting events…box-office movies…now you see why I can’t bear to be parted from the TV for even 5 minutes…so much to see but so little time…I’m still on cloud nine from France’s victory over Brazil in the World cup quarter final…the france/brazil face-off was one hell of a match, wasn’t it?… clash of the titans…and I, along with millions other France supporters, am glad that France won…not that I don’t like Brazil, because I do…but frankly, the Frenchmen need to win this game more than the Brazilians do…it’s their only chance to redeem themselves and revive their flagging reputation after that ungraceful, undignified and, not to mention, humiliating, early exit from the 2002 World Cup…I feel relieved to see that the Frenchmen haven’t yet lost their mojo…monsieur zidane could still produce all of his fancy footwork…and monsieur henry’s as sharp as ever…that, to me, is a surefire sign that the best is yet to come…the Brazilians weren’t really performing up to their usual standard that day and that single goal proved to be their coup de grace…well, tough luck…some days you have it, some days you don’t…

While I’m ecstatic that France got through to the semis, I’m gutted that all of my favourite tennis players have been prematurely shown the exit door by relatively ‘weaker’ players at wimbledon…andy roddick, david nalbandian, martina hingis…all out…already…andy roddick was beaten by his namesake, andy murray…the guy’s from Great Britain, no less…all the more reason to hate people who win because they have home-ground advantage…playing at wimbledon gives murray the upperhand…albeit an unfair one…I believe in karma, you see…murray outplayed roddick and yesterday he was beaten by marcos baghdatis…ha!…take that!…that’s what you get for beating my favourite player…I sound silly, I know…

Nada and I just finished watching ‘the da vinci code’…it was hilarious…the movie’s not, the subtitles are…who does all the translating, anyway?…the subtitles were ridiculous…nada and I were laughing our heads off reading them…when the characters say ‘shit!’, the subtitle says ‘tahi!’… ‘damn!’ becomes ‘haram!’ and when sir leigh teabing says to remy, “we should toast our victory” the subtitle reads “kita patut memberi roti bakar….”, when Langdon says that “I pray that Jesus would keep me alive…” the subtitle says “saya berharap jesus akan menendang…” it’s ‘keep’, not ‘kick’, ace! Reminds me of a subtitle that I came across years ago…the actor says “we will begin shooting the movie…” and the subtitle goes “kita akan mula menembak filem ini"…people…

Well, I should probably try to get some sleep now…plan to watch the germany/italy showdown…hope germany’ll lose…it’s not like I have something personal against them but like I said…I don’t like people with home-ground advantage…to the Frenchmen: “Bonne chance, monsieurs”…may the force be with you…okay…this is it…bye…

mademoiselle ‘ainur rahmah ellias