Gary Neville is a Red

Guess what arrived in the post yesterday? I have been searching for this book for the longest time around town. Couldn't find it even at the more posh outlet. Better still, most of the salesgirls would give me the look when I asked. What? Gary Neville? Who is Gary Neville? Gary Neville the Red. Never heard of him? I finally ordered it online, through Amazon, and got the copy within a week.

I remember the chants vividly around Old Trafford every time Gary went in with a meaty tackle. The whole stadium would erupt, to the tune of London Bridge, "Gary Neville is a Red, is a Red, is a Red, Gary Neville is a Red, he hates Scousers!". And he does. Big time! He got fined for running the whole length of the field at Old Trafford towards the Liverpool supporters after Rio Ferdinand put one into the top corner, to celebrate. Alone. The rest of the team were running to Rio. But not Gary. He was bigging it up alone, in front of the Liverpool supporters, kissing his United badge! Class!

A true fan who was lucky enough to have the chance to play for United and made a career out of it. He would play for free given the chance. He would bleed for the club. No argument. Not the most talented, but did he not give his all. He would rather retire - as he actually did - rather than play for another team.

He can be heard now giving the odd commentary on TV. His comments were insightful and given with passion. But don't let him commentate on any of United's matches, as he would be unashamedly biased. I have finished the first three chapters thus far. Mainly about how he came about to start on football. Riveting.

The New iPad on the Block

After much resistance, I finally relented. With a lot of my productivity app were dependent on the iPad - blogging and link surfing, to name a few, I decided to own one. I was tired of having to share with the boys. Even though they have one each, prying off them were becoming a challenge. And with the school holidays coming up, I might just forget about it.

I decided against buying the 3G version. A wifi unit was just enough for me as both my home and workplace were covered by signals. The one at the office was especially fast. With the new iCloud service and iMessage, synching the units and the Mac at home were made much easier.

The main app I was using is iAnnotate as it allowed me to annotate the PDF files as I was doing a lot of review for the Malaysian Journal of Medicine at the moment. I could just read the files on the fly on the iPad rather than having to open them out on the Mac Air or iMac.

The Old School

Look at what came through the post the other day? A newsletter from my former high school. It had been almost 20 years, but we still kept in touch about the happenings. The school celebrated its 500 years anniversary 10 years ago, and I still get updates from them every so often.

If I was still in the UK, I probably turn up to some of the events. It was quite interesting that some of my contemporaries there were musicians, a prominent Cardiologist in Oxford and a Commander in the Red Arrow flying squad.

Kinda made me feel that I underachieved then ......

Yuzu Japanese Restaurant, KLCC

The original plan was to look for dinner. Some Thai food, tom yam soup and steamed fish to be exact. We went to five stalls and two restaurants, and all of them were closed. Aidil Adha is a bigger deal in Kelantan than anywhere else in Malaysia. And as the majority of the Thai food stores were run by Kelantanese, most of them would be back home up north.

Since it was just me and Anita, we pressed on to our other destination, KLCC. After the errands were done, it was time for dinner. We have been eyeing the new Japanese restaurant on the top floor of Suria, Yuzu. It was certainly well made up, taking the place of what was previously a Sundanese food outlet, right next to Little Penang Cafe.

The ambiance was relaxingOur drinks, Apple Mohito and Shirley Temple.The setting was modern, but the ambiance was authentic. The waitresses were even in Kimonos. We ordered from the oversized menu. For started, we went for salmon sashimi platter and mango and soft shell crab rolls. For the mains, I had my usual pick, salmon don and saba (mackerel) teriyaki. Anita had some wagyu beef. As for drinks, we had a couple of mocktails, I had apple mohito and Anita had Shirley Temple.

The food was actually very good. The sashimi and mackerel were fresh. The wagyu beef was exquisite. Even the mocktails were gorgeous. The rice on my salmon don was a disappointment however. I was expecting a more starchy rice, but the one we had were rather plain. A minor complaint really in the scheme of things.

The salmon sashimi platter for starterThe mango and soft shell crab rollMy salmon donAnd also my mackerel - saba - teriyakiAnita's wagyu beef. Now you see it .....Now you don't. All done inside 5 minutes.Another thing we noticed was that the service could have been better in term of speed. The pace was, should I say pedestrian. We waited for quite some time for our drinks, and our starters took longer than expected. Be prepared to wait if you asked for the wagyu beef. And mind you, the restaurant were hardly full, and we entered before Maghrib, before the supposed peak hour.

Would we come back? Of course. I would avoid ordering don (rice) however. And I believe that the gozen set might be faster to prepare, so go for that. The restaurant is located on the top - fourth - floor of Suria, near the middle of the mall. Also, be prepared for a tight squeeze as the table arrangement was not conducive for children and prams. More information on the restaurant can be found here.

A Drab One Nil Win

After the heavy loss to Man City, Sir Alex had taken sensible steps to plug up the leak. The couple of Premiership games following the match went one nil our way. We beefed up the midfield, and kept everything tight at the back.

The midweek Champions League game also followed the same pattern. Unfortunately there would be a price to pay. We had to put our swashbuckling style in check. It put out for a dour spectacles, but after the debacle at Old Traffic, that was exactly what the Doctor ordered.

We relied on our old boy, Wes Brown to contribute a goal our way. Otherwise, apart from the last 20 minutes of the game when United picked up the pace of the game, the game was pedestrian. Both keepers weren't exactly tested.

Something to keep me awake last ngiht

One nil. Three points. Couldn't really complaint really. And congratulations to Sir Alex for his 25 years at Old Trafford. a fitting tribute that the huge North Stand were named on his honour.