SimonSimple

Arsenal Football Club (also known as Arsenal, The Arsenal or The Gunners) is an English professional football club based in north London. It plays in the FA Premier League and is one of the most successful clubs in English football. Arsenal has won thirteen First Division and Premier League titles, ten FA Cups and in 2005–06 became the first London club to reach the UEFA Champions League final.

Arsenal was founded in 1886, in Woolwich, south-east London, but in 1913 they moved north across the city to Arsenal Stadium, Highbury. In May 2006 they left Highbury, moving to their current home, the Emirates Stadium in nearby Ashburton Grove, Holloway.

What has football got to do with this blog? I am not a soccer player, but ever since I subscribed to the ESPN channel I got hooked on to the English Premier League and my favourite club is Arsenal. All right, all blue-blooded Chelsea fans & red-blooded Manchester United fans can shoot me!

Let me brag about The Gunners.

6 Jan 07 FA Cup

Liverpool 1 - 3 Arsenal

9 Jan 07 Carling Cup

Liverpool 3 - 6 Arsenal

21 Jan 07 Barclays Premiership

Arsenal 2 - 1 Manchester United

In the latest match on 21 January, Arsenal was down by one goal in the 53rd minute, courtesy of Wayne Rooney. Then van Pierse came off the bench and equalised at the 83rd minute. In the dying minutes of the extra time near the final whistle, the whole Emirates stadium came alive. Why? because the mercurial captain, Thiery Henry, jumped up to meet the high ball and scored the winning goal.

With the EPL season at the half way mark, my wife has shown me the yellow card and the red card many times over and has thrown up her hands in exasperation and is sometimes not on talking terms with me (not unlike the rival club managers by the sidelines of the football pitch!) She has practically banished me from the master bedroom whenever I vanished to the living room to watch the late late games. I think I have better luck with the Champions League, kickoff is at 3 am in the morning. He he.

Back to the game of football. I admire Arsenal’s team manager, Arsene Wenger. From him I learn team management, motivation, strategies and human behaviour and lots of other stuff. I see a great manager and a great man. Unlike other club managers who get talent with the money they have, Wenger grooms talent with the youth he has. His goalkeeper, Lehman, playing the custodian role is appropriately, at 38 years of age, ithe oldest member in the team. Next is the team captain, Henry, at 30. The rest of the players can be as young as 17 or 18 and averages around 20! What great belief the club and its manager has on its youths. When you believe in someone, they do wonders for you. I like to think that I am a club manager too, of SIM United, no less. It is such a joy for my wife and I to see our once little children grow up to be happy, healthy, confident, cooperative & responsible young adults.

One sports writer echoed my sentiment in the Straits Times recently when he wrote about Arsenal & its manager.

“Football, like life, is in many ways a matter of repetition. Keep rehearsing the good moves, and they become force of habit. Practise the bad, and that also becomes a lifestyle”.

Hair today, gone tomorrow

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Hi People

Yesterday it was raining cats & dogs. Instead of parents, family members, girlfriends crying buckets, I guess the heavens were doing it on our behalf as the sons of Singapore begin the next chapter of their lives - serving their two-year national service stint.

What would life be like then for our son on the island of Tekong? The Army handbook has this line for BMTC (Basic Military Training Centre) - It is “where boys turn into men”.

Some 36 years ago, almost to the day, I myself went through this rite of passage. I must say the 2 philosophies I believe in “Attitude is everything!” & “Without discipline, you have nothing!” would serve my son well. I do believe he has what it takes to help him become “An officer, and a gentleman.”

People tell me national service does wonders for our youths. It makes them grow and grow up. I should know - been there, done that. Some things have changed though. Instead of “Ali Baba” bags, the enlistees will be issued trolley bags. And they don’t have to polish their boots until they produce a shine to reflect their faces from. No fair!

The night before the boat ride to Tekong, the whole family had a ‘nice supper’ at his favourite restaurant - Tony Roma’s. We tucked in his favourite ribs and had a wonderful time of sharing and bonding. His parents had fine words of advice for him and his sisters assured him it would be all right. Our family has a tradition of celebrating occasions at a ‘fancy’ restaurant of the special person’s choice - like birthdays, anniversaries or graduations and the like. I am sure we will again be celebrating his Passing Out Parade, but alas, sans his second sister who will be away in Australia by then.

Not to worry, because Goodbyes are not Forever. We wish you well, son. Don’t let the bed bugs bite you. From Bald to Bold.

Hi People

In our home I am given to addressing my wife as “darling”. Unfortunately that’s what I address our 3 children and our pet dogs. So much so that my wife refuses to answer me whenever I call out “darling” for it could well be that I was calling after one of my pet dogs. I have yet to address my pet guppies “darling” though.

They all say that when you first marry, you address your other half as “darling”. Then when the first child arrives, it is shorten to “dar” and at about 7 years into the marriage, “sudah!” becomes the norm.

I may say it in jest but what I really want to get across is that there is no harm being civil about addressing our dear ones in endearing terms. My wife often reminds me about how I started this rule called, “No sight, no right”, referring to the fact that we don’t shout and yell whilst talking to another member of the family at home. We can only communicate with each other face to face. We really feel this is one of the many secrets of nurturing a happy & successful family.

Let me bring you into another family environment. Last Saturday, I was invited by the principal of a secondary school whom I had met on a “Love Cruise”. Mrs R is such a lovely and enlightened lady - a refreshing change from the straight-laced types when I was in school. For a head who exudes great charm & warmth, she is certainly cool. When I offered to send my grandchildren to her school when the time comes, with the proviso that she is still the principal, she correctly stated that the school is successful not because of her, but because of her team.

I tell you, whether you are the father or mother at home, or the school principal or teacher, it is so important that you become the positive role model for all your charges to follow suit. In William Shakespeare’s Henry the IV, the oft quoted line is so relevant even today, “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown”. No doubt we who have the mantle of headship carry an onerous burden. This role is not without its perils & pressures. But I dare say we can be a blessing & be blessed in turn and receive the pleasure of nurturing little children into young adults.

My wife & I were greeted enthusiastically by a student in blue (a Ms J Goh, a Secondary Two student cadet in the National Police Cadet Corp). She was trying to encourage us to sign up our children into her uniform group of choice. I said, no thank you, my children are all grown up and anyway, we sent them to Girl Guides & Boys Brigade. Undeterred and obviously well drilled in being polite, I thought, she ventured to add, “but in year one NPCC is fun!” What a living testimony to the school and her positive upbringing by the school.

I was surprised by this display on my arrival, but at the end of my talk to the parents & my interaction with the principal and teachers I was hardly surprised when I left. You see, the principal, like me at home, was addressing almost everyone, from her teachers, to the students to the kitchen help as “my dear”. WOW is the word. Such power we wield! We can encourage or we can discourage. Do we as parents & teachers want to be a positive influence over our charges long after they lost sight of us and we of them? No sight, no right? If we do it right, even when our young ones are far from our sight, they will be alright!

God bless and have a glorious year ahead.