Boycotting World Cup TV Package?

I remember watching my first World Cup on TV in 1982... Those days it was free-to-air coverage, but of course they only showed a couple of games. Opening game, key and interesting games, final games if I'm not wrong. I remembered reading from newspapers or watching news to find out the game results. There was no Internet back then.

The free-to-air lasted a couple of tournaments till recent years when pay cable TV became available in Singapore. I would have to admit that the game coverage had improved from a handful of games to full coverage of every single games.

To be fair... I was more crazy about World Cup when I was younger.

I remembered there was a year when I took leaves so that I can catch the World Cup games for the entire month! My colleagues thought I was football crazy. :p

Waking up in the middle of the night seem to be part of the process of watching the beautiful game. I recalled going for supper with friends in between or after the games. These are the fond memories. So when World Cup was played in Japan-Korea, I was not used to watching the games so early in the afternoon... haha...

This year the World Cup is hosted by South Africa... Much of the publicity in Singapore had been the prolonged TV coverage negotiation between TV operators here and FIFA...

Yes, finally it was resolved and Singaporean finally can subscript to World Cup games... but the big hoo-ha had been the high pricing TV package. Package ranged from S$70+ to S$100+...

This was far more than what we used to pay... (What's going on??)

I may not have been paying attention to the subscription of the TV coverage (less interest in World Cup now?? Too busy with work?? Wife dun allow??), but this news of overcharging has not help either.

As far as I'm concerned now... I will not be paying for the TV package. Call it boycott or dun bother...

However I will find some means to watch some games though... Go pub watch, tap Malayisa or Indonesia channels?? I would not want to break the tradition of watching every World Cup since 1982... just like Brazil never missed a single World Cup qualification since it started... ;)

London Trip (8-14May'10) Part 3

"Welcome to Tottenham Hotspur"!!!

Finally... after supporting the club for more than 20years, I will be at the source of where things were/are happening! White Hart Lane!!

Reaching the Seven Sister Underground Station... Still need to take a 10min bus journey... Getting nervous...

First sight of the stadium!

Welcome to Tottenham Hotspur!!

I got the Stadium Tour ticket online back in Singapore, but collected the actual ticket that day.

Before the tour started, went to the Spurs shop to check out what to buy later... In fact, end of the day, I spent around 100pounds on the merchandises. Told my wife I was prepared to spend 1000dollars there. ;p

Walking around the stadium and checking out the surroundings since we were there early.

Tour started! 1st stop... Press conference room. Saw the chair? That's Harry Rednapp's seat during the press conf. Of course we were given the chance to sit and take photos! :)

Hall of Fame

My wife was asking... "Seem like the tour talked about lot of legends and past history of the club?" Well... That's true... Spurs has a strong history of past successes (FA Cups for example) and good players... But unfortunately, in recent years we had not been that successful as we loved to... Hope things change soon...

UEFA Cup won during 1984 Yes! Finally... View of the Stadium pitch. From the Director's Box!

This is White Hart Lane! I couldn't believe I was actually there!!

We went to the Home and Away Changing Rooms!

The real stuff! Walking through the tunnel from the Changing Room to the field!!

Felt like a Spurs player!

Views from the touchline! Come on you Spurs!!

Sitting on Manager's seat at the touchline. "Hey you there! Run faster!" :p

It was already off season, so we did not see any players around. We were told that Harry was around. End of the tour we did saw Kevin Bond, the assistant Manager, though. Took a photo with him! :)

Wow...!!! Unbelievable till today... I visited White Hart Lane!! I will be back for sure when the new stadium comes up in the next 3~4 years. Come on you Spurs!

London Trip (8-14May'10) Part 2

Heathrow Airport... Lucky airspace was not closed due to ashes... If not, I will not be able to meet my Dear who was there a week earlier... :p

Day 1 when we reached London, it was a Saturday. We went to Camden Town Underground Station where there was some popular weekend markets.

Difficult to see such hair style in Singapore nowadays... hmmm... in fact everywhere!

Never said cannot eat and ride at the same time... :p

One of the days, in fact it's the following day after Chelsea won the title, we went to Stamford Bridge for a quick look around the stadium. We also went into their gift shop. Not that I'm a Chelsea supporter (as you know), just that the stadium is pretty close to our hotel.

Yesterday just won the title, the T-shirts were ready the following day?!? "Champions 2010"! I wondered if ManU also printed the same thing but had to eventually burn all of them away... ha...

A Quiet Birthday

Happy Birthday to me... -_-

I seldom make special arrangement to celebrate my birthday and actually dun prefer to have those big birthday party either. But this year's birthday was rather quiet than usual...

Just came back from London. Supposedly to consider the trip as a birthday reward, so should have regarded this year's as special. "Celebrate your birthday in London?!"

But somehow working late on actual birthday seem a bit sad. By the time I reached home, my wife was already in bed. :(

I did received some sms wishes from some friends which was warming.
One of the best thing was my niece called and wished me "Happy Birthday Shu Shu"!! :)

Sigh... just another normal day I guess... or it's mid life crisis...??

London Trip (8-14May'10) Part 1

I'm back from my London Trip! Manage to come back without being stuck by volcanic ashes... Hmmm... I may had preferred to be stuck though... no work... :p

Well... during the past 1 week, there had been quite a number of stuffs happening in Britain. Busy week to be in UK. You might have guessed them...

Yes...
- Chelsea crowned champions for English Premier League...
- Coalition government formed between David Cameron's Conservatives and Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats...
- David Cameron the new PM for Britain...
- Capello named England's 30-man provisional team (6 Spurs players included)

Checked out what on their newspapers...

Chelsea is Champion

The coalition government is hot news everyday. It's covered in newspapers and TV. England World Cup team

So much for the headlines... My wife and I visited some tourist attractions... Tower Bridge looked great. Not so for the London Bridge which we used to sing... "London bridge is falling down... falling down..."

Tower Bridge

We took a ride in the London Eye as well. Similar to the Singapore Flyer we had here in Singapore. But we thought we should not missed it since we were in UK.

View from London Eye on Parliament House and Big Ben

We watched the Chelsea vs Wigan game at one of the lottery shop which offered 3D viewing. Something new :) I was hoping to watch the Spurs game that day, but I guess the Chelsea and ManU games were the big deciders so all TV were showing these 2 games.

Watching soccer in 3D... Interesting but I'm dun really fancy it.

More photos and updates to come... A visit to White Hart Lane!! Awesome experience!

Dreams Come True...

Finally!! Spurs qualifies for Champions League!

It's been a long time waiting to qualify for the tournament which Spurs never took part (ever since the new Champions League formed). The team came closed in a couple of occasion under Martin Jol where Spurs finished 5th place. Now Harry took the team a step forward when 4th place was guaranteed after beating Man City 1-0 at Eastland yesterday.

What a way to qualify?! Beating the closest rival in a season ending fixture! One more game to go though.

I woke up at 3am to catch the nail biting fixture... Yes! I was thrilled!

What's equally exciting is... I will be going London tomorrow and I will be having a Stadium tour at White Hart Lane next week!! Wow!!

Since the club announced the plan to build a new stadium, I knew I will need to visit White Hart Lane someday before it gets torn down. I had dreams to visit my favorite club since long time back, but this news make the urgency higher.

So when my wife told me she will be going to UK for business trip, I jumped into the idea to go tour London (or rather White Hart Lane :p)! Finally... Dreams come true... Champions League and visiting White Hart Lane!! Wow!!
Come on you, Spurs!