Manchester United Stadium- My Experiences of the Guided Tour

I was reading about the loss and win of Manchester United in the EPL, and I decided it is about time I wrote about my experience of taking a guided tour of the Manchester United Stadium on May 13, 2009. I wish to record the date so that when I read this 10 years later I would know when was I there!

I was visiting my school friends in London and Manchester and I met them after 20 years. My friend in Manchester saw to it that we went to the stadium. She herself was not coming and my friend from London had seen it before. But she decided to see it with me again.

Outside the Manchester United Stadium

We were being lazy throughout the day and only around 3.45 pm we realized that if we do not moved we would miss the last guided tour of the stadium. The last guided tour of the Manchester United Stadium departs at 4.30 pm and we barely made it by reaching at 4.15 there. The person at the ticket counter was quite friendly and I think he gave us some discount or the other on the tickets. Then he hurried us along to the place from where the tour begins.

The name of our guide was Stewart Brown (I have a feeling that he spelled Stewart differently but I do not remember the correct spelling) and he had been at it for the last 14 years. When I asked him if he was a Manchester United fan, he said he would tell me by the end of the tour.

I also have to say that my interest in Football is because of Brat 2. He watches it like religion and many a times I just watch along. He is a Arsenal fan and he told me I should have gone to the Emirates Stadium. I said I had very little time in London and he was pacified. But both Brat 1 and Brat 2 watched my Man Utd pictures with great enthusiasm.

Access to Seats, Manchester United Stadium

The group taking the tour on May 13, 2009 (4.30 pm) was about 30-35 strong. And while we were walking, Stewart took a deliberate circular path and about 20 people followed him exactly like a sheep in the herd! We at the rear end took the more straight one and Stewart turned back and winked.

It was quite fascinating to be inside the stadium and see the notices put for the fans and the spectators. There was a tray for sticking chewing gum but my pictures of the same have not come out well.

Manchester United Stadium

When we reached inside the stadium Stewart asked our group to take a seat. He then asked how many of us were Manchester United fans and only a few hands went up. The rest of us were just curious. He also asked for our countries and the globe was quite fairly represented in our tour group.

Disabled Supporters Association, Manchester United Stadium

The thing that impressed me most was the arrangements for the people with disabilities at the Manchester United Stadium. Their is a ability suit for them at the stadium. I mean for us, it took a Stephen Hawking to get a ramp at the Taj Mahal.

Another View Manchester United Stadium, Red for the Red Devils

There was no way I could get a panoramic picture of the stadium, in that sense the tour felt hurried or maybe I was just too caught up in the then and there. If I ever visit it again, I would go high up in the stands and try to click a different picture.

The Player's Dressing Room, Manchester United Stadium, is Part of the Guided Tour

The tour includes a visit to the player's dressing room, something I didn't expect and found quite exciting. The shirt on the walls tell the tentative position players like to take when they are inside the room. Stewart didn't mention in which part the shoe flying incident between Sir Alex Ferguson and David Beckham took place and I didn't ask. Ronaldo's shirt must be gone from the room by now I guess. All of us got pictures taken and I have one sitting under Tevez's shirt.

Notices for the Players, Manchester United Stadium

I was quite amused with the notice to the players about not being allowed to wear their jewellery. I think I have seen Ronaldo using tape over his earrings even though this notice says it is not allowed. Bart 2 was also quite amused with this picture and said but the players still wear some jewellery.

The Munich Clock, Manchester United Stadium

I was not aware of the Munich tragedy that stuck Manchester United in 1958. A plane carrying their players and supporters along with others crashed after its third attempt to take off from Munich. There is a plaque and a clock to commemorate the event.

The Player's Tunnel, Manchester United Stadium

Soon it was our turn to come out of the player's tunnel and once again it was quite exciting. There was a teen aged lad who was grinning from ear to ear when we were in this area. And they can get ambulances right next to to this tunnel in case of any emergency.

Stewart Brown, Our Guide Acting as a Referee on the Guided Tour of the Manchester United Stadium

While we were standing before the tunnel Stewart played the referee and treated us as the players diving us into the home and the away teams. He went around shaking hands with the grimmest possible expression and it never changed however much we giggled. And I did giggle a lot, a thing I am not much prone to!

Manchester United Stadium, Player's Stand

We were finally led out to this area at the end of the tour. We went to the player's stand and got our pictures clicked. While we were coming out of the tunnel there are notices asking to keep away from the grass and not to pluck it. I can imagine that people may like to take it with them as a souvenir!

The Souvenir Shop, Manchester United Stadium, Last Stop of the Guided Tour

The tour leads us out to the gift shop of Manchester United and it is the strategic last stop. Thankfully I didn't had to buy anything because Brat 1 and Brat 2 are not Man Utd fans. My friend bought a few things for her kids. Brat 2 had given me strict instructions to buy something about West Ham United, a fascination he developed after watching the movie Hooligans. I could only get him a scarf though he was quite happy with it.

Notices a Plenty, Join the Waiting List for Season Ticket at the Manchester United Stadium

I found it quite funny (shows how little I know about the world of football) that the notice invited the fans to join the waiting list for season tickets! When I started reading it in the shopping area I thought it was about buying season tickets!

Manchester United Stadium, Manchester, UK

And when I was showing my UK 2009 pictures to Brat 1 and Brat 2 they refused to see anything more beyond the Manchester United ones! And till date they have not asked to see anything else.

I wonder what it would be like to be in the stadium when a match is being played! And I of course forgot to ask Stewart at the end of the tour if he was a Manchester United fan or not.

Manchester United Club, They Catch them Young!

ManU Baby Wear for Sale at the Manchester United Club, Manchester, UK

They Try to Catch them Young!

This is Not Cricket!

Gunmen attacked the Sri Lanka Cricket Team bus in Pakistan says BBC.

At least five members of the Sri Lankan cricket team have been injured in a shooting incident in the Pakistani city of Lahore, a Sri Lankan minister says.The incident happened when unidentified gunmen fired on a convoy carrying Sri Lankan and Pakistani cricketers.

Pakistani officials said about 12 gunmen were involved and grenades and rocket launchers were recovered from the scene.

I wonder how long it would be before any team dares to tour Pakistan. I also think they have plans of hosting 'World Cup' Cricket matches in Pakistan? Wonder what will happen to that.

It Felt Like Flying

Sea Bird at Surathkal

As promised yesterday, I played TT today and it felt wonderful (as if I had got wings) . In reality I was actually not able to move much (let alone fly). And in a doubles game (that is what we play mostly) not being able to move well is a huge liability.

I have said before and I repeat, long time back I have played TT competitively and represented my state. So I give people on the other side of the table a tough time. And usually all of us give our 200% while playing. But today people did consider my injured ankle and played in a relaxed manner and that was quite surprising.

One of the strategies my colleagues used was to hit on the extreme opposite from where I was standing and so many times I could just stand see the ball whizzing by! Another of their strategies was that if my partner is to pick up the ball hit it close to me, as I would be unable to move out of the way! That too was successful to an extent. But all in all it was good fun, and as I am writing this there is a huge grin on my face!

And when of my colleagues got a phone call, two of us (and let me grant it my opponent is just slightly ahead of being a beginner) quickly played a singles. Now in singles (quite unlike doubles) I can cover a lot of table by standing in the middle squarely. So whatever fond hopes he had of taking advantages of my injury, actually the outcome was not very different. I won 21-7 (yes we still play games of 21 and have not switched to games of 11 with two serves each).

But then all that is besides the point. All of us just had a good time.

Sea Shells and Pizza

Pizza and Sea Shells, is there a link? Very minor, they were part of my extremely hectic and tiring day today.

I had a long class, one where students interact a lot on their own in the seminar (with me as the mediator) and they went on for half an hour more than the scheduled time. Yes, they sometimes do that.

Then I managed to go for lunch.

No, the pizza was not for lunch.

Next I faced a table at office that is so chaotic as of now that there was not a space to put my tea cup even. The day also felt the same.

Sea Shells

Then I was looking for something in my shoulder bag (the same I was carrying on the Surathkal Beach) and two coins fell out. Irritated I went down to pick it up and then saw that the shells I had picked up at the beach, one of them had fallen out too! That was one soothing incident incident in an almost out of control day.

Then it came to dinner and I had promised my nephew that we will have pizza today and pizza it was.

Domino's Pizza

We had pizza after a very long time and it was fresh and tasted nice. Looked colorful too, so I clicked a picture as well. Brat 2 was asking why are you taking a picture of a pizza, it is not even lazy Sunday! Wonder when does he takes a peak at this blog.

But I have left the best part for the last. My ankle is almost normal now. So, I am going to play mild TT tomorrow! Yes, I am going to do it, in spite of any sensible advice that would come my way.

If I can teach standing, I can as well play TT. And it is only today I realized (again) how much I rely on TT for releasing my stress.

PS. What a ghastly background I chose to take a snap of the sea shells!

Fog on the Road, Cobwebs in the Mind

Fog on the Roads

Last week, I got quite thick fog twice in the morning when I was driving to work. I used to be quite terrified of driving through it when I was new with my car. Now I somehow manage without my face turning chalk white.

Now I can't show you a picture of cobwebs in the mind! But I saw them quite clearly today when I watched the women's singles final of the Australian Open Tennis. There is no other way to describe Dianara Safina's game in the final against Serena Williams. And it was quite painful to watch, because self-doubt is something I am no stranger to!

I plan to watch more fog on the road, rather than cobwebs of my mind in 2009. It has been very busy January and quite satisfying too.

Two Yellow Cards

I was talking to my younger nephew yesterday (Brat 2) and I could hear the excitment in his voice so clearly even across many thousand miles on the phone. Along with many friends, they had organized a local football tournament for under 16 and under 12 age group and they had over 100 people participating (that would be around 10 teams of 11 players).

He apparently officiated three matches and showed two yellow cards! You should have heard the glee in his voice over giving the yellow cards!

On a different note, Sesha and I have been playing Badminton (a game where I have found it difficult to take a game off him, but in TT it is the other way round) and I managed to win two out of three games from him! Both of us are surprised. Have to bug him to do more exercises daily.

Suresh Rana- Winner of Raid-de-Himalaya

Disha Singh at myHimachal talks to Suresh Rana winner of Raid-de-Himalaya.

Disha: Your most unforgettable moment/s?

Rana: The worst memory was when the raid got stuck in Sarchu (the Himachal& J-K border towards Ladakh) and we all had to be evacuated. It was pretty grim as we could not do anything to the forces of nature. It was near death experience and the happiest moment also came in the same episode of being evacuated.

Cross Posted at Blogbharti

Raid De Himalaya

Image from myHimachal

If you like to drive and better still on the mountain roads, myHimachal is blogging about Raid De Himalaya, I would go take an Avomine and go to sleep, I get such bad motion sickness on mountain roads!

Cross Posted at Blogbharti.

A Possible 'Blink and You Will Miss' Appearance on My Games at the BBC Today

Sebastian Coe Responds to my Question (the Boss of 2012 London Olympics) at My Games, BBC

Update- OK, I did appear on My Games again today and asked Sebastian Coe how do they plan to make London Hotels a bit affordable and would the underground system cope? He was very gracious in his reply and it was nice to be on My Games and the BBC again (link to video).

I may feature in the last episode of My Games today (23/08/2008) at 6.15 (pm) India time in a blink and you will miss it type of appearance.

The games are slowly inching to a close and what a show it had been. Phelps with his eight gold medal haul, that is more than what entire nations manage to win! And then there is Mr. Thunder Bolt who is also called Lightening Bolt for the way he sprints.

Abhinav Bindra won the 10m Air Rifle Gold Medal, the first ever individual gold ever won by India. But I find Beijing Olympic Games really special because of the two Bronze Medals won by Sushil Kumar and Vijendra Kumar.

Do you have any idea when they are coming to Delhi from Beijing? My nephew wants to go to the airport!

And hopefully Saina Nehwal will get all the support she will need to win at London 2012. With Mittal Champions Trust behind her, who knows.

The Perils of not having Access to TV!

The bout between Vijendra and Emilio Correa is about to begin and I can't watch it. I will be updating the Beijing Olympics' Official Website to see the results. As of now the previous bout is running. And on papers Correa looks stronger, he is the Pan American champion for the year 2005 and 2008 and was third in the world championship in 2005.

Vijendra on the other hand 17th in Athens 2004, 17th in World Championship in 2007 and 2nd in Asian Championship in 2007 (all data for both the players comes from their biographies on the Beijing Olympics site, link in the first line of the post).

But then that is just on papers. Who knows, what will actually happen today!

Ah, the bout has started and I can't know the scores, maybe I should call home!

Oh well, the young lad lost 5:8. I hope there would be at least two more Olympics for him and congratulations on another Bronze.

More on Bhiwani Boxing Club and Sushil Kumar

I discovered via Sen's Spot this wonderful BBC article on BBC (Bhiwani Boxing Club) and Vijendra Kumar. The video in the BBC article is worth watching, it gives the glimpse of the coach Jagdish Singh at Bhiwani Boxing Club (BBC) and a view of the facilities. I came to know via the article that Vijendra has already done modeling for magazines! No wonder all of us thought he is good looking. Here is what Vijendra said in the BBC article-

Although he is a boxing champion, Vijender Kumar is an oddity in India, a virtual one-sport country where cricket is religion.

The son of a bus driver who worked overtime to pay for his coaching, Vijender is India's unsung champion boxer.

"My blood boils when everybody goes gaga over cricket", says the 22-year-old, one of five boxers in India's modest Olympics contingent to Beijing this summer.

And then Indian Express reported this about Sushil Kumar's training quarters.

Squeezed into tiny rooms at the stadium’s residential facility, with rats, cockroaches and cobwebs for company, the conditions are not really conducive to breed a champion. But for these men, it’s just a way of life.
...
Even at NIS, Patiala, where India’s Beijing-bound wrestlers were training, the conditions had been difficult. Before they left for the Olympics, the wrestlers had told The Indian Express that the “callous attitude of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) administration could seriously hamper India’s medal prospects”. “Right from filling water-coolers to sweating it out in wrestling halls with not even air-cooling facilities, it was tough for them,” said a local wrestler on Wednesday. “I have seen with my eyes how the wrestling staff practised in the summer heat. But still they managed to get a medal.”

In this context the post at Smoke Signals (via Desipundit) makes hell lot of sense.

Sushil Kumar won despite the abysmal training facilities provided to him. IOA can take no credit for ... medal. Instead, their noses should be collectively rubbed in our overall results in Beijing.

Who Are You? M.S. Gill, the Union Sports Minister Asks National Badminton Coach and All England Champion Pullela Gopichand!

It is in many newspapers, I read it in the Indian Express. Saina Nehwal and Pullela Gopichand go to meet M.S. Gill, the country's sports minister. Gill recognizes Saina (she lost in the quarter finals in the badminton singles event at Beijing). Then he turns to ask Gopichand- "Who are you?"

While Gill greeted Saina heartily, he could not recognise Gopichand who was standing next to Saina and asked him who he was.

“Who are you?” Gill asked Gopichand, leaving him with no other option but to spell out his name.

Gopichand is only the second Indian after Prakash Padukone to win the All England Open Champion in 2001 ...

Now I was relating this incident to my colleagues in the office and one of then quipped, "Well, if someone would ask M.S. Gill do you know Padukone his reply would be of course he knows Deepika Padukone, she is the famous model and film star."

I wouldn't really be surprised if this happens!

And for many of us Prakash Padukone is always going to be the real star.

Go Vijendra Go! And Thank You Sushil Kumar!

Vijendra is now in the semi finals of the Middle Weight Boxing championship. So that assures us of a bronze medal at least! I hope we will see him the finals. He is from Bhiwani.

And I had never heard of Sushil Kumar before today! He lives in Najafgarh! Here is what Sushil Kumar's father said-

Talk to his village folk in Boprala in Najafgarh, West Delhi, they will tell you that they knew he was destined for great things, even if wrestling does not get the importance it deserves in this country.

The entire village celebrated Sushil's success and every household from the village head downwards said he was their darling son.

His father Diwan Singh, an MTNL driver, said his son promised him a gold and that Sushil must be disappointed for getting a just the bronze. He has put Boprala on the wrestling map of the world.

What Did they Win? Well a Bronze and a Doubles Gold!

I have been following the Beijing Olympics as much as I can. At the start of the games, I was reading this blog post by Matt Slater on Tennis in Olympics at the BBC. Andy Murray had lost in his first round match at Beijing and Slater argued that Olympics is not an important tournament, particularly when the US open is round the corner. This is what he wrote about Murray's match-

Sadly, it seemed to dawn on the (by now) Scot he was miserably out of sorts and probably wasting his time against a mediocre but far more up-for-it opponent, in an event he shouldn't be playing in anyway when the US Open is only a fortnight away.
...
If winning an Olympic gold medal is not the highest accolade in your sport, you're playing a non-Olympic sport. Tennis fails this test by some margin - are the Games even the fifth biggest event on the sport's schedule?

And to me also it looked like he had a point, the past singles winner in the men's section, again to quote Slater's post are "... Nicolas Massu, in case you'd forgotten: before him the winners include Marc Rosset and Miloslav Mecir." Well not anymore, the winner at Beijing is Rafael Nadal!

But then what surprised me even more was the reaction of Roger Federer, after winning at Beijing. I mean he screamed as if he he had won the Wimbledon rather than men's doubles gold medal. I wish I could paste his screaming picture here, better still, if I had watched the match live and clicked a picture myself. But this is what I will do, instead. Click the following link and see the screaming Roger Federer here if you have not seen it live. I mean, I can understand Wawrinka's reaction but Federer's Wimbledon like scream was such a pleasant surprise, particularly when he lost in the quarter finals in the singles' event.

Then there was this gentleman, Novak Djokovic. I mean I had seen him win the Australian Open this year, his first Grand Slam ever. And then he won a Olympic Bronze medal at the Beijing! And he tore his shirt (link to photo from Djokovic's official site, I am referring to the third photo in the second row) and threw two of his rackets in the stand along with that shirt.

And I thought these two images say much more than all my words put together about how Tennis fared at the Beijing Olympics!

PS. All those Bhiwani Dudes are doing us proud in boxing, I never imagined I could watch boxing with this amount of interest!

Abhinav Bindra Wins Gold!

How nice it feels to look at the official results and see Abhinav Bindra's name on top. Hop over and have a look at the results of the 10m Air Rifle Final Official Results.

Update (13/08/2008)- This is no attempt to take any credit away from Abhinav Bindra's historic performance but did Abhinav Bindra's father really say this?

Silent killer, as described by his father, he is the one who spotted his son's talent when Abhinav was 5 years old. "He kept a water balloon on our maid's head and began shooting, knowing little that a slight mistake could have proved fatal. But his aim was so perfect that I couldn't think about anything else but make him a pro," says AS Bindra.

There has been a discussion on this on Indiamike too, got somewhat heated at times, but if you know of any links that followed up on this piece of reporting please share it with me.

I wonder what kind of a gun a five year old can be playing with, this could a case of media misquoting the father or the father saying something he didn't mean. But I guess the parents need to shut up and let the lad do the talking, he is much better at it.

Lazy Sunday Video- My Games, The BBC Interactive Olympics Program

I appeared on the BBC show 'My Games' yesterday at around 6.15 pm our time (India). The focus of the program is on the Beijing Olympics. They invites fans to join them via a webcam and for a while the video of the show is available at the BBC site.

How Did the Show Happened- I am a regular reader of the BBC website, so one day late at night I saw a news story where they were inviting reader's comments on how we view the Olympics. I don't know what did it but I talked about the time when I used to train as an athlete, a time I really do not like to talk about. Here is a slightly edited version of what I wrote that night-

I used to be a middle distance runner in India, represented my state in the school games. I was a natural at high jump but could never learn Fosbury Flop as there were only sand pits in the small town stadium I used to practice.

The camp prior to the nationals, it was run by a colonel who had no understanding of sports! He would have a weird schedule and would not let me practice according to what my coach prescribed! The food at the camp was appalling. Still at the trials I gave good timings in both 800m and was decent at high jump. However, I peaked too early and performed miserably in the nationals. I was only 16 then. Now I am ... with a Ph.D. from ... and very happy my academic career.

However, recently a student of mine has started training for middle distance and even now 20 years later our stories are the same. He can afford a personal trainer (thanks to the pockets of prosperity in the country now) but he says nothing much have changed with the camps, the food is still appalling. I think we have money in India but no system or vision.

Even then there are some very good athletes within India, product of their individual efforts. I would be watching Mahesh Bhupati and Leander Paes in Tennis and Rajyavardhan Rathore in shooting. Also I hope the young badminton player Saina Nehwal does well! ...

Rather a long rant I must say! Well after some days I heard from the BBC team again and they asked me if I had a webcam and more about my views, the stories that I find interesting and Olympics in general. I remembered a webcam lying somewhere, so I said yes. That is when the fun began!

Before the Show- If you managed to watch the video, you really cannot imagine the trouble I gave the BBC technology team! My contact with the BBC was with the most wonderful and really really patient Carolyn Rice. So a few days before the show, on her insistence, I got my webcam out. It was 8.00 or so at night, I had come back from work a while ago and my husband Sesha (who is the technology person at home) gave me the webcam and the installation CD and went back to playing violin. I installed the software (with occasional grunts from Sesha coming my way as support and encouragement) and saw the output of the webcam. My heart sank, the video was so grainy. I immediately wrote to Carolyn that I have a very lousy webcam and I am sorry, that's it! (not in so many words but definitely to that effect). But she is one lady who does not gets deterred by mere mortals like me.

By the time I appeared on the show we had exchanged around 40 emails (written by both of us combined, still sitting in my gmail) and I had three phone calls from the BBC studios! That is the amount of trouble they took to get me on show.

The first stumbling block we faced was with the link Carolyn sent me to join the web conference. It required some plugin downloads. I did everything and got a message in the end 'the plugin is not compatible with Firefox version 3.0.1.' I was ready to give up but not Carolyn! She send me another link, I got the same error again. I offered her to use Internet Explorer and yes, things started working.

Later Sesha asks me to change the focus of the webcam but added that the output has always been bad whenever he used it. And the output could be better on his PC rather than my five year old almost dead laptop. I installed everything again on his PC, all this while shooting many of those 40 mails we exchanged to Carolyn with problems real and imagined.

At one point she asked if she could come in and work with my desktop! My jaw drops in amazement but I of course said yes. So here I am sitting with my hands off the keyboards and the mouse is moving on its own! When I tell this excitedly to Sesha, he gives me that look and says, yeah they do it everyday at work! So much so for my wonder.

Anyway, we move ahead, I adjust the webcam lens and Carolyn says the picture is quite good, though a bit dark, can I get some extra light? Wonder of all wonders, we do not have a table lamp at home! So, I ask my younger nephew to ask one of his friends, if he has one. I get to know that he has and of course I can have it. Next logical step was to check the sound but we cannot check the sound as the headphones I was using, its microphone was broken. I offer tentatively to get a new one tomorrow, thinking she would run out of patience. But Carolyn is patient, she tells me not to worry, we can of course do the sound test the next day.

The next day (that is Friday and the show is on Saturday) it has been raining like anything and I ask Sesha to get the microphones and he agrees. So sometime after 8.00 pm we sit down again and try the sound. Well, the PC has a loose contact with the audio ports, tells Sesha. I ask Carolyn if I should try my laptop? The ever patient person she is, she agrees. I start my laptop (that takes ages to boot and the semicolon key doesn't work, among many other quirks) move the webcam and the mike and connect to the web conference again. Things are working fine, only that extra light remains. During the day, I somehow forgot about the extra light! She says we will do a mock run again tomorrow, the day of the show, at 2.30 pm my time and I can get the extra light then! I agree.

The D Day- I wake up late (around 11.00 am India time) on Saturday and after a cup of tea, switch on the laptop. The keyboard is working but the mouse pad is not! Whatever tricks my nephew and I try, the laptop would not budge. Sesha is away at his music school. I of course panic. My nephew says let us try using the laptop via the keyboard but I find it too cumbersome. I go back to the PC and ask my nephew to go and get that table lamp. The sound at PC won't work! The keyboard at the laptop won't work and the friend's table lamp has the shades that will cast the light downward only.

I finally decide to give up. It is 1.00 pm and I write another of those 40 mails to Carolyn, this time apologising a lot and basically trying to tell her it is all over. She has other ideas. Within a few minutes of writing that mail there is a call on my cell and yes it is Carolyn on the line. She tells me not to worry about the audio, they would get me on phone if it did not work on the PC! I promise her to try again. I also tell her that we had no power since the last two hours and our power backup (inverter as we all know here) may conk. I am sure that must have made her wonder for a while too! But we decide to test the device at 2.30pm as agreed.

Within a few minutes again, I get a phone call from Beijing and this time it is Adnan Nawaz, the presenter of the show on the line. And I mean he too was so nice on the phone (this will be another blog post) that I was really feeling guilty by now. When I told him about the power cut, he of course understood what type of disaster it meant.

I finally decide to put my limited tech skills to work. I get the external mouse out of Sesha's laptop bag (it is his office laptop, so I do not go anywhere near it) and attached it to mine! Miraculously it worked! Now only the extra source of light remained. It was 1.45 already and I tell my nephew, lets go to the market and get the kind of table lamp we need. I wrote to Carolyn, saying I am out of the house and to give me till 3.00 pm to get online again.

So a little before 3.00, I sit with my laptop, with the external mouse working and the lamp (which we got after looking in at least 5 shops) throwing a lot of light at my face. Carolyn also comes online and says it is perfect! By 6.15, I go on the show live. And rest of course you can watch on the video!

Could you have ever imagined the real story of how I got on the show? Without the support from Carolyn, I would have given up long ago. And talking to Adnan and having the same South East Aisan heritage also did the trick. But as I said, that would be another post.

So, thank you so much Carolyn for finally getting me on the show. Was I your most difficult viewer? I guess so!

Beijing Olympics- Mangal Singh Champia Ranked Second in Initial Rounds in Archery

I was searching for Olympic results for India. Could see a lot of news items for Anjali Bhagwat and Avneet not qualifying for women shooting events. But found about Mangal Singh Champia's second place in 'ranking rounds' (don't ask me what they are) on this website called Great Findings.

I digged news but found nothing. Beijing Official Olympic Website confirms the same.

1. Serrano Juan Rene
2. Champia Mangal Singh

If you know more about this event do drop a comment. I would really like to know what are his medal prospects now! I am sure news will trickle in slowly about this, once the media is over the disappointment of the shooters.

Archery Update (10/08/08)

Mangal Singh Champia takes Vaezi Hojjatolah from Iran on August 13, 2008 for 1/32 eliminations.

Badminton
Saina Nehwal clears two rounds, both in straight sets, beating today (10/08/08) Larysa Gryga of Ukraine 21-18, 21-10.

Anup Shridhar feature in the round of 64 today (10/08/08).

Saina Nehwal defeats world number 4 to reach to the quarterfinals! Her quarter final match schedule and the results of this match are on the Beijing Olympics official site!

Rowing
Bajranglal Takhar reaches quarterfinals in rowing event.

PS. Today evening sometime between 6.00 to 6.30 pm I may feature on BBC World TV program My Games via webcam. I would blog about this later in detail.

Off Topic- Thai Airways Espnstar.com Wimbledon Contest

You know, sometimes I do things on a whim, without any rhyme or reason! I watch Tennis a lot, at least I try to catch up all the grand slams. No, no watching Tennis is not what I am calling doing things without a rhyme or reason.

I tried to predict the winners for Wimbledon 2008 at Thai Airways ESPNStar.com Contest. Now that clearly belongs to 'doing things without rhyme or reason.'

But it got curiouser from there. I am using Mozilla Firefox and I tried filling out the form. Jeez it would not let me pick 'female' as my gender. And I must say that is mighty irritating. I mean in this age and time? Could be a bug? That is a stupid bug if it is.

Could be a malware/virus on my computer. But then if you have sometime to spare and if you use firefox would you please try this and let me know if it is a virus or not?

PS. I picked Roger Federer and Svetlana Kuznetsova as my winners. I am bored with Federer winning Wimbledon so many times but then he has not won anything this year and I am sure he is going to try hard. Kuznetsova I picked up on a whim! She also seems to be in form.

PPS. I am mailing to the good folks at contest@espnstar.com too. Let us see if there is something in this or if it is just my computer.

Update 1- Asked a friend who was online to try this out for me. She says she too can't pick 'female' as her gender in Firefox but can do so in IE. Now I have no idea what percent of the market is with Firefox but it is a mighty decent browser. Were the ESPN Star guys rushing when they did the site?