Sleepless in Oita

Episode 10: Ballon d’Or winner

2005-11-29T03:27:00.000+09:00

Ronaldinho had been named as European Footballer of the Year. The result came as little surprise even though it would not hurt me at all had Steven Gerrard won the award instead.

Ronaldinho is a magician in modern football. Many pundits and fans had labeled him as out of this planet because of his consistent magnificent displays and unbelievable skills shown on the field.

The first time I watched him playing was back in year 1999 when he led the young Brazilian strikeforces to reach the final of FIFA Confiderations Cup. He finished the tournament as top goalscorer with 5 goals (if I’ve got it right). From that moment, having seen a few splashes of his wonderful skills, I knew that I began to be a fan of him.

How did he got the nickname Ronaldinho?
His actual last name is Ronaldo. And everyone knows who the other Ronaldo is - the winner of FIFA world player of the year award at the age of 20 and 21 years old in 1996 and 1997 consecutively.
Being in the same national squad with the famous Ronaldo, to avoid any confusion, he was given the name Ronaldinho which means “The Little Ronaldo”.

Ronaldinho began his professional career with his homeland club, Gremio before moved to Paris Saint Germain FC in 2001 – a transfer that once caught me by surprised. I wondered where were the giant clubs such as Real Madrid, Barcelona, AC Milan, Juventus or Manchester United putting their eyes during that time.

Although his time in Paris was not a successful in terms of trophies, he was an outstanding player in an average PSG team, scoring 17 goals as an attacking midfielder over two seasons there.

In 2002, he was the one who broke my dream to see England having a good run in the world cup (I remember taken a half day off just because to be right in front of TV screen in my little apartment to watch this game on a weekday afternoon). He scored both goals for Brazil to beat England 2-1. The first was the result of a crazy skillful run overcame a group of England defenders while the second is the famous a-cross-like free kick which saw the ball projected unexpectedly in the back of the net, left David Seaman in full embarrassment.

I had always thought that Barcelona would be an ideal club for Ronaldinho. It became true in 2003 after the Catalan club made a record signing worth 30M pound sterling to bring his talent to Nou Camp.

He is an entertainer with those incredible displays on the pitch.

He is a well liked character with that familiar smiling face in every match.

He is a model professional who took his job by his heart and did it in happy ways.

Being a Liverpool fan, it did not take any second for me to pick for the best match I ever watch in football history. It had to be the last season’s UEFA Champions League Final in Istanbul between Liverpool and AC Milan.

Call back memories:

At 2.30am, I jumped from my bed to be right in front of TV screen in mainoso. When I found the channel the game was just into the fifth minute but the Liverpool team was already behind by a goal scored by Paolo Maldini in the very first minute of the match.

Hernan Crespo, the Argentinean striker on-loan from Chelsea, doubled the Milan’s advantage in the 39th minute when converting from close-range and to my horror he then added a third two minutes before the break when he chipped over Dudek.

The half time result was 0-3.

It was captain Steven Gerrard who got the Liverpool’s comeback underway with a glancing header on 54 minutes. At the time it seemed nothing but a mere consolation but when Vladimir Smicer, in his last game for the club, then fired a long-range effort past Dida two minutes later belief and hope rung around. In the 59th minute Gerrard was brought down in the box and from the resultant spot-kick it was 3-3. Alonso's first effort was saved by the diving Dida but he gloriously made no mistake with the rebound to spark ecstatic scenes among the travelling Liverpool fans.

There was to be no further scoring, although Liverpool had Jerzy Dudek to thank for a stunning double late save to deny Shevchenko.

The full time including extra time result was 3-3.

And the game was to be settled by the lottery of a penalty shoot-out.

Hamann, Cisse and Smicer scored, Riise's effort was saved but Serginho blazed over and Dudek saved from Pirlo and Shevchenko to win the cup for Liverpool.

Liverpool had won the most prestigious cup in Europe, and Gerrard certainly got my vote for his inspirational performance.

Gerrard was the key player for Liverpool along the competition. His leadership and goals drove Liverpool to live up in every match. It was his stunning strike from outside the penalty area against Olimpyacos that brought Liverpool to the last 16s round.

It would be ideal to see the best player of European Champions to be named as European Footballer of the year. It just did not happen that way anyway. I would be furious if someone else to be given the award ahead of this inspirational leader of his team, but..

It was revealed today that the award was won by someone out of this space – so I did not complain.

Episode 8: Beautiful Syawal

2005-11-03T23:11:00.000+09:00

In the last day of Ramadan he went out of office very much earlier than usual. He felt warm in the cold evening. An exciting feeling was all around.

Raya night in Nakatsu – Atan spent half an hour in front of PC downloading a series of evergreen raya songs and ripping to the audio compact disc.

The list of song in Aidilfitri 2005 compilation:

1. Takbir Raya – Mawi (this one received from a friend in Bt.Jalil).
2. Kupohon Restu Ayah Bonda – Mamat
3. Suasana Hari Raya – Anuar & Elina
4. Suasana Hari Raya – Sharifah Aini
5. Satu Hari di Hari Raya – M.Nasir
6. Dari Jauh Kupohan Kemaafan – Sudirman
7. Aidilfitri – Sanisah Huri
8. Selamat Hari Raya – Ahmad Jais
9. Cahaya Aidilfitri – Black Dog Bones
10. Suasana Riang di Hari Raya - Junainah
11. Gembira Bersama di Hari Raya – Othman Hamzah
12. Pulang di Hari Raya – Noor Kumalasari
13. Musafir di Hari Raya – S.Jibeng
14. Menjelang Hari Raya – DJ Dave
15. Sepasang Kurung Biru – Khairil Johari Johar
16. Selamat Hari Raya – Sanisah Huri
17. Seloka Hari Raya – Hail Amir & Uji Rashid
18. Bersabarlah Sayang – Sanisah Huri
19. Dendang Perantau – P.Ramlee
20. Pulanglah – Aishah
21. Seroja – Siti Nurhaliza & Mawi (Bonus Song)
22. Takbir Raya
23. Selamat Hari Raya – Sudirman
24. The Flower of Carnage (Shura no Hana) – Meiko Kaji (Bonus Song From Kill Bill Soundtrack)

A good list, eh?

Atan drove a silver Demio heading to the town. It was fifteen to ten in the raya night. A group of youngsters were gathering at the sidewalk near the Lawson store. Two of them were playing the guitars why the others were singing. Atan parked the car and made several long distance telephone calls. It had been a normal routine for years to greet some relatives and old buddies during the raya night.

Atan woke up early. It was a quiet morning of hari raya. Unlike last year when he had to rush for solat raya, there was nothing to chase this time. There was no mosque in all around Kyushu. Unlike last year when had to search for baju melayu buttons, this time the very same buttons were already well placed at the cloth.

It was a gift from Miss Balqis about 2 years ago. He never forgot how mad she was once she learned that he forgot to put on that buttons on his baju melayu during one of previous hari raya.

It was a product of Avon. He knew the price could not be less than RM50. He could still see the magic of those buttons despite the last night conversation he had on the phone.

“Hello.., Assalamualaikum.”

Atan quickly recognized the voice. It was Murni’s – Balqis younger sister.

“Walaikum salam,” he replied. “Boleh cakap dengan kak Balqis?”

“Hah..? kak Balqis?”

“iye..”

“Kak Balqis takde,”

“eh, takde? Tak balik beraya ke?”

“Dia beraya kat rumah mak mentua dia. Esok baru balik sini.”

“Oh? Sejak bila ada mak mentua?”

“Hari tu. Masa cuti sekolah. Ni siapa ye?”

“Hmmm.. kawan kak Balqis.”

“ohh.. Murni tau sapa ni..”

“ye lah tu. OK. Selamat Hari Raya. Kirim salam kat semua ye.”

Atan drove up to Oita-ken attending hari raya celebration while listening to his compilation of Aidilfitri 2005.

Selamat Hari Raya.

Maaf Zahir Batin.

by the way which one is correct: mak mentua or mak mertua?

Episode 3: A night in the dark room

2005-09-02T22:25:00.000+09:00

The natsu yasumi in which Atan spent sleeplessly in the V-plant had passed.

Everything was back to routines.

The professionals, white and blue collar workers, government staffs, manufacturing operators, office ladies and salespersons were returning to their workplaces for daily tasks.

The children in uniform could be spotted everywhere along the road in the morning going to school.

Takeshi yet again needed to wake up early to catch the JR train attending his daily junior high school class in Kokura.

The Route 10 was beginning to pack again.

And against the wind, Atan took a 4-day-holiday and walked his way to Fukuoka City.

What was it like having a random trip alone to a wonderful city? It was surely something and could be everything.
It was the time when he got to see new people, another gaijins and different kinds of human beings.
It was the time when he met some locals with some excellent English ability.
It was the time when he met a gentleman called Kosuke and a nice Aussie lady called Jenna.
It was the time when he met a sensei with his two ex-students celebrating a reunion party.
It was the time when he got to pull back the cue and gave some nice shot at the pool table beating a drunken buddy.

The dark room was indeed very dark, somehow separated to the other side of the world. It was 11.30pm of a mayhem night in Tenjin.

He was standing there in front of the main entrance of the dark room. His eyes carefully assessed thorough the small space inside it. There were no more than 10 people in there. As he started to walk in, a fancy lady in her mid 20s greeted him.

“Hi, welcome. What do you like to have?” asked the fancy lady.

“Hi, thank you. Just give me the best shot of cola you got here,” he replied, in the coolest way. It was a John Wayne’s character that guided him to react at the moment.

She wrinkled and looked at him in puzzle. “I beg your pardon. Did you say a corona?” she asked.

“No, it was a cola that I heard,” a white girl that seated next to Atan replied. She grinned to him.

“Oh yeah, you are certainly right,” he gave her a thankful peace.

“You’re not a Japanese, right?” the white girl asked him.

“I don’t think so,”

“Oh by the way my name is Jenna, what’s yours?”

“They called me Kiddo,” Atan instantly created a new nick for him.

In a short time, Atan learned that Jenna came from Australia, unmarried, working in Sam & Dave, and been living in Fukuoka for more than 3 years.

The fancy lady was one of the senior employees in the dark room. She was a good friend of Jenna. She was fancier and looked prettier than Jenna. She was a mixed – half Japanese and half Irish.

While Atan got a real knock of trouble to understand the conversation when Jenna and the fancy lady talked to each other, it was one statement said by the fancy lady that interested him though.

The fancy lady said to Jenna, “Oh, I just don’t want to become a 45 year old woman where I wouldn’t be pretty anymore. I’d rather die before I reached 45.”

At the other end it was a young and tall Japanese guy lively conversed with the host about the recent movies. Interested, Atan left the ladies and walked toward them. He was the one who been greeted.

“Hi mate, how do you do?” the tall guy welcome with a gracious smile.

“Not bad. I noticed the two of you were having some interesting talk about movies, just curious.”

“Yeah, we’re the movie fans,” the host said.

“Do you like movies?” the tall guy asked him.

“Sure, it’s my passion.”

“What is your favorite?”

“Oh, it’s too many, for sure.”

“For example?”

“Hmm.. at this moment I prefer to watch a mob‘s film”

“A mob’s? What is that?”

“A mob’s movie is a gangster movie,” the fancy lady who came from the other side interposed - trying to be cute with a conquering smile.

“Oh, is it?” the tall guy asked.

“She’s right. I watched many mob’s films likes The Godfather, Pulp Fiction and Goodfellas.”

“That’s cool. I like Pulp and other QT’s movies too, especially Kill Bill,”

“Yeah, Kill Bill. I love it. Uma was superb!” the host agreed.

The tall guy was a typical nice Japanese gentleman who owned a jeweler store in Solaria Plaza. He was a happy-go-lucky type with a take-it-easy character. The name was Kosuke.

At the other moment Kosuke asked Atan, “Kiddo, what do you think of Japanese people?”

It was an unexpected question. “Well, I don’t know how to reply your question. It’s too general. There are many kind of people anywhere regardless their citizenship,” Atan spoke his opinion.

“Don’t you think the Japanese people are very difficult to deal with? If you asked me, I would say yes. I just don’t like their style,”

“I believe you mean some Japanese, right?”

“Yes, some. Or may be I can say most of them,” said Kosuke followed by a laugh.

There was an old pool table in the dark room. Two Japanese girls with an older man were there making some random shots.

“Mite mo ii desu ka?” Atan politely asked the permission to watch them playing.

“Come and play with us,” the man said.

“No, thanks. I just want to watch. I’m not good at playing it,” he replied humbly.

“Oh, please. There are three of us here. We can play a double game if you join us,” said one of the girls.

She got a point there. “Hmm. All right. But I warned you I’m not good,” Atan said and moved toward the table.

“Don’t worry, we won’t eat you. We’re all the beginners,” another girl said.

They played a complete frame of 9-balls game. Atan was lying to them, for sure. He was not new to the game. Having no contention to win at all, Atan kept pretending and hiding his normal skills.

A few moments later the fancy lady came together with Jenna request to play next game.

Jenna placed the balls on the table. At the other end, the fancy lady stood arrogantly holding the cue.

She made a shot. It was a miss.

Uncomfortably, she requested for re-shooting. “Oh sorry, I was out of my mind just now, let me do it again,” the fancy lady claimed.

She made another break. This time she did it well. A blue ball somehow goes directly into the hole in the edge. She gave a victorious glance to Atan at which he replied with a grin.

It was no more than a sheer luck.