Round of 16

Well the group matches are over and it’s down to the last 16 teams. The match ups are as follows:
Saturday, 24 June 2006
Germany 2-0 Sweden
Argentina 2-1 Mexico

Sunday, 25 June 2006
England 1-0 Ecuador
Portugal 1-0 Holland

Monday, 26 June 2006
Italy 1-0 Australia
Switzerland 0-0 Ukraine (Ukraine won 3-0 on penalties)

Tuesday, 27 June 2006
Brazil 3-0 Ghana
Spain 1-3 France

I did not see many of the group matches except for the highlights, but will certainly try to catch most of the games from now onwards. They will certainly be more exciting as these are the better teams and it is a knock-out stage. France scraped through by the skin of their teeth and as they are facing Spain next, I have a feeling they will be going home pretty soon. I’m not making any predictions as to who will qualify for the quarter finals but I sure hope Italy will make it past the Aussies!

Soccer babes

Hubby as expected was not terribly impressed with the pic of Freddie Ljungberg I put up yesterday. So here’s a picture I’m sure he will appreciate more!

This team of soccer babes would probably be as effective as UKDoc’s suggestion for England’s new striker!

The Sexiest World Cup players

Who do you think are the sexiest World Cup players? A poll of 10,000 users of the German Web site Bunte.T-Online.de crowned Freddie Ljungberg the “World Cup Sex God.” The list was followed by Christiano Ronaldo, David Beckham, Alessandro del Piero and Michael Ballack. Check out the entire list here. And if you are in any doubt why Freddie Ljungberg won, just take a look at his advert for Calvin Klein

Fifa ready with orange shorts

After the previous underpants fiasco, Fifa officials have provided gate staff with piles of spare pairs of plain orange shorts for Dutch fans to replace trousers promoting a beer which is not the official sponsor. Officials think that the act of removing the pants itself would serve as a publicity tool for the other company — which it has!Meanwhile Bavaria has defended its decision to promote the sale of its orange lederhosen with purchases of its beer. “I understand that Fifa has sponsors but you cannot tell people to strip off their lederhosen and force them to watch a game in their underpants,” Bavaria chairman Peer Swinkels told Reuters news agency. “That is going too far.” The Leeuwenhose, or lion trousers could be purchased for just €8 when you purchase 12 cans of Bavaria beer. They come with the tail of a lion, Holland’s national symbol, and two extra large pockets for storing beer cans.

Weird USB Drives

I came across this list of top 10 weirdest USB drives on Digg some time back, but this one takes the cake IMO. How would you like a teddy bear USB thumb drive that looks decapitated when you stick it into your USB port? The accompanying description on the Flickr photoset Oso describes how the creator made this as a present for his fiancee (well at least that’s the gist of it from AltaVista translate!) It’s kinda weird looking but cute all the same!

Fans lose trousers to gain entry

1,000 Dutch fans watched a World Cup tie wearing no trousers, when they showed up at the match in their traditional bright orange trousers but bearing the logo and name of a Dutch brewery. To protect the rights of the official beer (Budweiser) they were denied entry, so the male fans promptly removed the trousers and watched the game in underpants. Strange but true!

Top Ten Accidental Discoveries

The article is a rather old one but interesting all the same. It’s fascinating to know that some of the commonplace things in the home were discovered accidentally from velcro to superglue to post-it-notes!

The cold cycle

This cold sucks…..
It’s been about a month since I fell ill and despite being on Day 6 of antibiotics, I am still unwell. First it was the dry itchy cough, then the sniffles, then the yellow phlegm, then back to the dry itchy cough yesterday. Today I’m sniffling again and my nose is super itchy at the moment *sigh* I’m feeling all of my *cough**cough* years today

No cheering allowed

Life sure is difficult if you are a Cambodian Buddhist monk and a football fan. Their head monk has given permission for them to watch the ongoing World Cup on TV, but no cheering or getting excited and absolutely no betting allowed. Can you imagine trying to watch a football match without cheering or getting excited? I guess it’s better than a total ban, as normally they are not supposed to watch television, movies or artistic displays.

However these 2 football fans must surely regret cheering too loudly while watching a World Cup match at a beach resort in Pattaya….if they could. They were actually shot dead by a nearby customer after a heated argument about how loudly they were cheering during the match. I did not know watching football could be so hazardous to your health!

Play With Me Sesame

My son grew up watching Sesame Street and I think it is one of the best if not the best children’s show around. It was educational, entertaining, did not “talk down” to the kids and best of all could be enjoyed by adults as well (unlike some purple dinosaur that I can think of!) I used to tape the episodes and enjoyed watching along with him, especially the great skits with celebrity guests. I can still remember the sketch featuring Itzhak Perlman (dressed as a grouch) in a grouch concerto with Oscar the Grouch. He kinda outgrew it several years back — I guess he found the alphabet and numbers focus too babyish — but recently found a renewed interest in the show Play With Me Sesame shown every afternoon on Playhouse Disney channel. Each episode mixes classic Sesame Street footage with newly created games and activities where the Muppets invite children to join in. He gets all excited when they show old sketches that he remembers, and I enjoy them too eg. the ones with Grover waiting tables and driving the Fat Blue character bonkers!

“Round and tasty on a bun, pickles, french fries, yum yum yum.
In a hurry to be fed, beady eyes and big blue head.”
That was an absolutely classic sketch and I can still remember the dialogue! The Bert and Ernie sketches are absolutely hilarious as well and my favourite is the one where Ernie is unable to sleep so he starts singing “Dance Myself to Sleep” followed by tap-dancing sheep and playing the bugle. (The lyrics in brackets are Bert’s exasperated comments) I came across this great list of 25 Favourite Memories of Sesame Street and going through the list brought back fond memories of the show for me.