days 8 & 9 : back in auld England

We got up and got out of Paris early. Reached London where we dropped our stuff off at Palmers Lodge and, because it was so close by, headed to Abbey Road studios.

Abbey Road Studio is famed mostly for this -

the Abbey Road album from the Beatles

you just have to do it....... and Dream did

Adding to the dedications at the studio perimeter walls

saw this car on our way back to the hostel

The next stop was Covent Garden Market and Leicester Square. Being in London reminded me of all the properties available on the classic Monopoly game.

@ Covent Garden Market. It's the elephant that's on sale.

China Town, where this restaurant owner made clever use of the Gerrard name

the main reason for being in Leicester Square.

Les Miserables - absolutely fabulous.

the McDonald's at Leicester Square at night

Les Miserables was a highlight of our trip. We had seats on the first row, next to the stage, which is a good place to be for live musicals. There was laughter ...... tears ......... and memories.

Leicester Square was still very vibrant when we came out after the musical owing to the clubs, pubs, restaurants, theaters and casinos which dominated the neighbourhood. We weren't really interested so we headed back to the hostel.

dawn from our room in Hampstead.

Palmers Lodge had switched us to a smaller hostel,

15 minutes walk away from the main hostel.

Hampstead happens to be one of the richer neighbourhoods in London,

and has managed to retain a small village atmosphere

Headed to Queen Mary's Garden, which has a reputation for being a very fine rose garden indeed. Except that Dream forgot that roses are seasonal. So we took photos of the 3 roses that were blooming in the garden.

it was still a fine garden, even without the roses in bloom

Well, that was it. From here, we headed back to the hostel to pack and then to Stansted Airport. It had been a brilliant trip without major mishaps, and for that, Dream has to take the credit for the planning that went into making this trip a possibility.

where Joachim Low get his advice

this is brilliant and funny......great work.

Video Technology

We really should have it.

Frank Lampard's goal was valid. Would England have gone on to win it ? Difficult to say considering how badly England's defence was exposed by the Germans ......... David James was England's best player and he let in 4 goals ! Still, video technology would have eliminated all the doubt and ensured a fairer contest.

And having just seen Argentina's 1st goal against Mexico where Tevez was 1 yard off when Messi played the pass just makes the case for video technology stronger.

With video technology so advanced - where the correct call can be determined within 30 seconds - it's simply ridiculous why FIFA won't allow it.

这一刻只想纪念你

意大利又悲壮的没落了. 世界冠军居然被第一次出现在世杯决赛圈的队伍淘汰。是意大利人的悲哀，也是这个足球王国的没落。最后15分钟的奋勇抗战只能徒增伤感.没有了巴乔，没有了9号半, 没有了优雅和奇迹. 不想讨论为什么,这些都没有意义.只想纪念这一位让人无限缅怀的王子.

now that we can focus on the World Cup....

They are very young, they are short on experience, their defence is creaky, their strikers can't score.

They lost their captain to injury, they lost another 5 players to injury, their first choice goalkeeper committed suicide. And they were considered long shots before any of this happened.

Who cares ?

We are for the Germans anyway. Gehen Sie Deutschland !

Second Glance #1

We were at MidValley last Saturday when we saw this in one of the shop lots :

I'm Pavlos and I actually need the toilet!

“I looked David straight in the eye and said, ‘David, we’ve spent a lot of money getting here. This is a disgrace. What are you going to do about it?’” [...]......

He needs a toilet and end up in England dressing room asking THE question millions of fans wanted to ask. Pavlos Joseph: mortgage advisor, inadvertent trespasser, demotivational speaker, man in need of a toilet ... England supporter hero?

day 7 : still in Paris

Once again we started off late-ish as the appointment wasn't that early. I was tempted to head for the hillside lights at Montmartre to take some photos but decided against it as that would entail heading out at about 0300-0400 hours.

the Metro once again.

Didn't realize how good this photo was until I saw it on a larger screen back in KL.

where we bought our breakfast.

the cook asked for a quality check after I took his photo. Parisians !

our appointment

bottom floor of the 2nd level

top floor of the 2nd level.
we did this just to see what it looked like.

that's the Malaysian flag at the top level.
distance from Paris indicated.

this little girl decided that the windows weren't clean enough

the beauty of it is that the French have turned this middle finger salute
into one of the world's most recognisable monuments

what are the odds of finding public gardens like this in the middle of KL ?

we stopped at the 1st level on the way back down.
it was less crowded which is why this photo was possible.

Paris with Montmartre the highest point in the background

we took the stairs down from the 1st level.
well worth it as we got some photos which we would have missed if we had taken the lift.

ongoing upkeep and repainting work

the lift on the way down

the stairs

last view before moving on

we walked to one of the public gardens to use the Eiffel Tower in the background.

as you can see, not everybody did that.

it was hot and I was glad to be wearing the 'crocs'

there were street performers.

this particular guy was very good.

this guy was either stoned, or stone dead.
he was ignored.

can't imagine this happening in KL where people hide from the sun

the next stop was Notre Dame

famed for architecture and stained windows and a hunch back

a service started while we we there so we sat in for part of it.

took a video.

I shifted the camera upwards a little and the roof looked totally different.

After Notre Dame, we headed back to Montmartre to look for Wepler again. This time, we found it and Dream got her Duck Confit a l'Orange. The thing we didn't realize then was that Wepler was a regular meeting place for Picasso and Henry Miller and others of their ilk.

Wepler

We were headed back to England early the next morning so we walked back to the Loft. My one regret for Paris is that we did not make the additional effort to stroll along the River Seine at night. It would have been beautiful and, as Paris is for lovers, romantic.

in the aftermath

In the end, it came down to 2 baskets.

That's how close the Celtics came to winning the NBA title.

After dragging their old bodies through the regular season.

After overcoming the odds in the playoffs to get to the Finals.

After fighting the LA Lakers to a standstill in said Finals.

After all that - it came down to 2 baskets.

So while the team is still in grief having come so very close....... it's time for Danny Ainge, the GM, to get to work. And he has LOTS of work to do.

The coach is going to do his yearly review on whether he'll return to coach the next season. It's not certain that he will.

The associate head coach is expected to take up an offer to be a head coach at another team. Having been the chief architect of the vaunted Celtics defence for the past 3 years, his departure will certainly be felt.

9 of the 15 players on the roster are out of contract - including Ray Allen, one of the new Big Three. How many of them will be back ?

Rasheed Wallace IS under contract but is contemplating retirement. Having seen him struggle to the finish of Game 7 against the Lakers, I think that he will. But fair play to him - having coasted through the regular season, he was ready to play in the post season. Just like he had been saying. If he does retire, I expect that Danny Ainge will have it in mind to approach 'sheed to join the Celtics for the 2nd half of next season. It's been his MO for the past 3 seasons.

The supposed window for the new Big Three has reached it's conclusion. They won 1 NBA Championship and made the Finals of another. And if not for the knee injury to KG in 2009, would have had a very good chance to have added another NBA Championship. As it stands, the objective of winning an NBA Championship was achieved in their first season together. But they're aging and it's beginning to show.

The new face of the Boston Celtics has been established with Rajon Rondo locked into a new 5-year contract. He has gone from being a second tier point guard to being described as the best all around point guard in the NBA today. That's quite an improvement over the space of one season.

With KG, Pierce, Rondo, Perk and Big Baby still around for the next season, there's still a core good enough to make a decent run at success the next season. But with budget considerations coming into the equation, the question is how will Danny Ainge go about filling the rest of the Celtics roster ?

NB. I guess part of the sadness is the realization that this era of the new Big Three may have just come to an end. It may have been brief but it was glorious. And unlike football, you can't really build perennial title-winning teams in the NBA.

NBB. Another thing noted by Doc Rivers : the starting five still hasn't lost a series. Considering that regular center Perk was injured and couldn't play in game 7, and the series was tied 3-3 at that time, I guess that's his qualifier.

Forever young... Roberto Baggio

Just because now is World Cup and who can forget this ponytail.. when he fought for a chance to go Korea/Japan 2002, he said "i am willing to carry players' bag if I can go". He performed a miracle by getting himself fit 76 days after a crucial ligament damage and scored again in the first match he played. The coach didn't choose him, it is not his fault. Since Italy crashed out so miserably, may be it is a good thing that he didn't go.

He is gone, but still remembered for his talents, perseverance, courage and all that he is. The prince and pride of Italian football.....foverer.

This ONE is for All The Marbles

LA Lakers vs Boston Celtics

In LA.

Score tied 3-3 in a best-of-seven games series.

One game to decide it all.

Bring it on !!

Lakers vs Celtics

4 quarters. 48 minutes.

For the Ring. For Glory. For a place in History.

Cue Despair.

Bring It On !!

Lakers vs Celtics

09 NBA Champions vs 08 NBA Champions

Kobe vs the New Big Three. Gasol vs Rondo. The Bench.

For their Legacies.

Bring. It. On. !!!

NB. after this, I can start looking at the World Cup.

day 6 : in Paris

We took our time that morning as our appointment was at 1100 hours.

I had been waiting for my chance to take a decent photo inside the Metro.

Saw my chance here and used my phone camera.

This was after we got off at the station

The meeting point for our appointment.

Free walking tour of Paris.

Payment is discretionary via tips.

This guy was behind where we were standing.

Style is a prerequisite in Paris.

The group for our free walking tour numbered around 20.

People kept joining and leaving at various points of the tour.

taken from the river bank.

Wouldn't have thought of going down from the street if we hadn't joined the tour.

River Seine

passed by the Louvre

passed by a hot dog

passed by an art piece.

if you're wondering, it's those round & striped things.

I loved the way the streets looked in Paris

The sun brought out the crowd

no excuses necessary

After the walking tour, we headed back to the Louvre. It was almost time for the late entry discount.

from inside the glass pyramid of the Louvre

the Mona Lisa.

So that we can answer affirmatively when the inevitable question is asked.

Alexander the Great

Achilles, of the heel fame

Venus de Milo or Aphrodite to the Greeks

Narcissus

Dream dreaming

The Louvre was huge and filled with art and history but we didn't have the time and were not learned lovers of art and history, so after 3 or so hours there ........

we headed back to Montmartre to look for Wepler to have dinner. Unfortunately, we couldn't find it so we went to Quick again and then back to rest for the next day as there was much walking to be done.

outside the entrance of the Louvre

crossing the street on the way back to base camp