Falling Stars?

Is Andy Murray even a star in the first place? Anyway, more seeds continue to fall in the early rounds at Flushing Meadows. This time it's Mr. Predictable, Andy Murray who is so good at talking up his chances, yet so awful in delivering.

It was hilarious to hear the news of his thrashing by some Croat most of us have not heard of. 7-5, 6-2, 6-2 is a comprehensive beating, and all this idle talk that Murray is finally ready to win a Grand Slam can finally be put to bed again. I really don't know where these supposed tennis experts get all this rubbish from. What has Murray done on the big stage to merit him being ready to win a Grand Slam?

Nothing.

That's one tricky player out of the way for Federer. I'll just be looking for Nadal to run out of steam in one of his next three possible matches against top players, and then the title will surely be going to Federer yet again.

In Andy Murray's case, the media hype most probably doesn't help, especially when he is only an average player who wins the small tournaments but can't handle the big time.

Something smells fishy...

I had wanted one of these for quite a while. Our friend had suggested we start with something small and easy to maintain. Last night we got just what we wanted. After taking Lauren to the clinic to get something for her itchy skin, I spotted it to the right on the corner of the shoplot.

An aquarium shop.

Whilst Lauren was enthralled by the rabbits and hamsters, Fidelia and I began asking the shopkeeper many questions about buying fish and an aquarium and looking after the fish. Discovering that the smallest aquarium was a snip at RM12, she quickly decided that we were buying it right there and then!

We bought some decorations and fish food along with some anti-chlorine formula for changing the water every week. We now plan to go to the beach to find some pretty shells to add to our new fishes' home.

I selected 5 females and 3 males, so we hope that they will breed so we can witness a cycle of new life.

The fish are tiny, no more than 3 or 4 centimetres in length, and I already love them. I believe they are catfish though I'm not entirely sure which species.

My favourite fish is the dark blue guy, who I've named Xavier. Keep reading for further updates.

U.S. Open latest

There have been many surprises and shocks so far in this years U.S. Open Grand Slam. Notable players such as Dinara Safina, Venus Williams, Elena Dementieva, Jelena Jankovic (I detest her), Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova, Andy Roddick (hahaha!), Stanislas Wawrinka and James Blake are all now watching the remaining rounds on TV like me.

I was particularly delighted to see the back of Andy Roddick's latest challenge to win a Grand Slam. He had his chance earlier at Wimbledon and I'm sorry to say he'll never get a better one. He is destined to finish his career as a 'one-slam-wonder'. Maybe 'wonder' isn't the right word. With success being measured by the number of Grand Slam wins, I'm afraid he, Murray and Djokovic have miles to go in order to even be remembered in 10 or 20 years' time.

Novak Djokovic struggled through his 3rd round match with the unknown Witten, whilst Murray, somewhat disappointingly for me, eased his way past Taylor Dent this morning. It wasn't even worth Dent turning up.

I had a great time watching the walking circus known as Vera Zvonareva. Her emotional breakdown after failing to convert zero of six match points was extremely entertaining. She was shouting at herself, hitting herself on the head, smashing her racquet around, messing with these bandages on her knees, ripping it half off, then at the interval having a new one strapped on. Then in the following game off it came again, well part of it at least. Then she was covering her head with her towel, hitting balls against the back wall, and it goes on and on.

Teenager Melanie Oudin has caused quite a stir, eliminating both Elena Dementieva and Maria Sharapova in consecutive rounds with some blinding tennis that has caught many by surprise. She is one to watch for the immediate future, with another possible shock on the cards as she next takes on Nadia Petrova.

Nadal, Del Potro, Tsonga and Gonzalez all made it through and are placed in the same half of the draw along with Murray, making it terribly tough for all of them to fit into the one final berth.

And then we are left with the great man, Roger Federer. He laboured through his match with Hewitt and must have been glad to see Robredo defeat Blake, whom he will be facing tomorrow morning. Federer's half of the draw is much more straight forward though, with a possible QF against Davydenko or Soderling, with Djokovic or Verdasco as his most likely SF opponent, neither of which will give him too much trouble.

So it's looking good for Federer although he really must improve his performance and cut out the errors from now on if he is to triumph for the 6th consecutive time here. On the women's side, Kim Clijsters is in great shape, underlined by her victory over Venus Williams, although she is on course for a SF showdown with sister Serena. Svetlana Kuznetsova is the only big name left on the other side of the draw and must see this as a great chance to add to her Grand Slam collection.

All in all, it's been a great competition so far and I'm looking forward to the thrills yet to come. I'm confident Federer is able to up his game whenever he needs to, and I'm sure he will comfortably make the final. As long as he's not up against Nadal, I feel he will have no problems emerging triumphant again. If Nadal manages to control his knees and reach the final, we could be in for another epic.

Sit back and enjoy the U.S. Open!

Saturday 5th September, 2009

Had an eventful day which started before the crack of dawn and finished at 2am the following morning. Following is a photo essay of this busy day.

Urai and I went for a 6.30am jog with her friend, Sharon this morning which was exhilarating. It's been so long since my glory cross-country days, and it felt really good to run once again, albeit very slowly.

Later we were shopping at Carrefour when we amusingly came across the following product we had just weighed...

As you can see, the price came to one cent, so with the discontinuation of the one cent coin and the consequent new rounding system, it meant that this particular item would be rounded down to ZERO CENTS if paid for separately! So Urai was all game to go and pay for it and we indeed got it for free! We will be looking for other 'bargains' like this in the future!

I had four hours of tuition class in between these two events, after which we decided to go for some KFC at Megamall. It's actually been a long time since we last ate fast food, so we treated ourselves.

We stopped by to watch an absolutely enchanting hair styling fashion show from Paris, France on the Ground Floor of Megamall before we went back home. The scariest and perhaps most impressive was the following woman stunningly designed and made up, and accompanied by the eerie music, created a pretty chilling atmosphere. Lauren was certainly scared!

We arrived home and Urai decided to practice her gymnastics with the following holds...

Lauren tried her very best to keep up with these difficult positions!

And finally I tried my skills at gymnastics moves but it didn't quite work out as I had pictured...

Tonight we watched Roger Federer's 3rd round clash with Lleyton Hewitt. Well, Federer notched up around a half-century of unforced errors in a very indifferent performance, but still possessed enough quality to beat Hewitt in four sets.

I was delighted this morning to learn that Andy Roddick had lost in an epic five-setter with fellow American, John Isner. One less hurdle in the great mans way to a 6th consecutive U.S. Open title.

Sunset and Sunrise in Kuantan

I love to wake up early to catch the stunning sunrises when the sky is relatively clear. Sunsets are equally attractive with their luscious pink colours. I recently took these pictures of the sunset and following day sunrise. Enjoy.

The sunset...

And now for the sunrise...

Here I spotted the Sun peeping out over the hill for the first time that morning, and then I continued to watch it rise higher into the morning sky...

Well, it's always impressive and inspiring watching the sunrise, this huge ball of fire that is just the right distance away from us to sufficiently warm us and give us light. Divine placement indeed. Witnessing the earth's motions and the Sun rise is witnessing the power of God.

There is no greater motivation to start the day on a good note than beholding this wonderful sight.