magnificent 7

I was up till 6am this morning. Came home straight after 12.30am and watched the highlights of the United-City derby. At Uncle Chow's house, we all watched after 70th min. That time was 2-2. I was honestly not exactly happy. I really wanted to watch the whole game. But we had this family dinner. But I went nevertheless. At least I had the chance to congratulate LunYao for his graduation. Anyway, 2-2... I thought... man... I missed so much. And dinner wasn't even filling at all. I noticed during dinner, everyone at the 'kids' table were patiently waiting for another phantom dish. I also admittedly was still saving 2 scoops of my rice (only first bowl) in anticipation for something else... anything really. But then they started clearing our tables. So I gobbled down my plain rice before the waitresses could get their paws on my bowl and chopsticks. Damn... all of us... ShiVern, LunXiang, Uncle Sian, myself were praying for at least desserts. Lo and behold, when we summoned all our energy into our combined prayers (no holding hands), desserts came.

We left, our stomachs still growling. In the car, I asked my parents how was dinner. They said "good". I said I it wasn't enough. My sis ditto-ed that. My parents were shocked and then started lecturing about the cost of the dinner. Sighs... They said everyone at the 'adults' table were satiated. Anyway, at home after that during the highlights, I had some yam cake, albeit a bit heavy for a midnight snack. My grandma and mom made it.

So sitting at Uncle Chow's sofa, I silent wished the game to have more action. 10 minutes later, Giggs's cross was met by Fletcher. Everybody shouted!! I just punched the air. I was kinda in the silent mode... still. Uncle Khing also talked about the game at Old Trafford a few weeks back. He reminisced about the loud celebrations there at the Theater of Dreams. Anyway, the theater still had enough time for some more drama. Rio gave the ball away to Barry.. we were all like "no... No... NOOOO...". It was like an opera. The reverberating "No (s)" filled the air, each getting louder and louder, as the other grown-ups still chatter-away about something, something. As for us 'kids' around the tv, including Uncle Khing, we were all grumbling, cussing at Rio for his carelessness. At the moment when he had lunged forward, I rather he gave away a penalty. Anyway to preserved the 3-2 lead. But at 89:57, City were back leveled at 3-3. I felt like ripping my hair off. Ok probably we had brought Rio back from injury too soon. He didn't play against Besiktas in midweek. SO.. perhaps he wasn't sharp from his lack of games so far this season.

So, at the Stretford End, of TTDI, we were all silent. Uncle Fook Far came out from the toilet, and was like "WHAT HAPPENED??" Uncle Khing brought him up back up to level, just like the score. We were still all grumbling. Then my mom, 3 minutes late, "Har?? JooLian, 3-3 already ar???" *Grunts*... I went. The guys (LunYao, Xiang, ShiVern, Loong Sheng) were like out the door at 93rd min. They had planned to go Hartamas during dinner. They were talking gibberish to me about 'snake??' or was it 'snape??'... some foosball terms which I don't get. Anyway, my ass was still glued to the chair. I wanted to still stick with the team. Uncle Chow was like "Wei.. they calling you ar". At 94:30, I stood up. The fourth official had indicated 4 mins of injury time. So, I thought it was nearly over. This must be time added on to time added on, I thought. Then, a freekick at 95:00. I was near the door, still feeling upset about the scoreline.

All of them popped their head back in when they heard there was a freekick. But the ball was headed back out. Lousy freekick! Tevez (at City) came rushing out, but Rooney got to it first and launched the ball back into the penalty box. It came back out again, only to come to one man, Giggs. He sent the ball to the left of the penalty box, with a fine long pass, where he found OWEN, who somehow had found some space. Richards had left him there all alone. The second after that (95.28) seemed to be broken into flashes of a movie timeframe, like everything was going in slow motion. Frame by frame, each millisecond was played. I was suddenly looking at it from different points of view, different areas of the stadium itself. It was like the movie series '24'. My vision was broken down into 4 parts. Owen controlled the ball excellently. One of his only touches after coming on as a sub just before Fletcher scored his second. You could hear the beats of our hearts. It was nearly in our mouths. The fans all stood up in a superbly red wave-like fashion. Pupils dilate. Richards came lunging towards the ball. Given the City keeper closed the angle on Owen. Somehow the sun pierced through the clouds at that precise moment on the man with the ball. You could only focus on Owen's right boots. He lifted the ball over the diving keeper, just inches over the sliding tackle of Richards. Eyes of the world were all on the ball. With our pulse nearing 150 beats per second, with each gland in our body all pumping like crazy, with adrenaline coursing through our veins, with dopamine all over in our brain, we all shouted GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!