Shoulder to shoulder with a legend: Mr. Ian Rush.
Tired but grateful for the jersey. Heck, the Nike tag is still on it!!! I didn’t even have to pay a penny ‘cause I got it from a lucky draw. See, if anyone had noticed recently, Mr. Ian Rush from the legends of Liverpool FC came down to Cheras last weekend to do some publicity thing for Y&Y group (which is currently handling the development of ‘1Shamelin’ shopping mall, an up-class shopping complex in the heart of Cheras). I was there to attend his media conference (basically I sneaked in hahaha. Here are the photos!!!). After the conference, Mr. Rush came out to greet the fans and signed autographs for the mass visitors that braved the rain. Yes, the rain. And the event was an open-air event which had limited cover. But a lil’ rain aint gonna stop me from seeing of one the most prolific and greatest strikers to grace the green grass of English football. And after a 30 minute aqua treatment for my hair and body, I finally got my signature from him. I even got him to sign my company name card just for fun. HA!!!! Check it out below:
Hhhmmmm, looks abit like Mr. Bean....
Mind you, I’m a Man Utd fan, but I’m open-minded about these things. Even if it’s Steven Gerrard or Didier Drogba coming down to KL, I’ll try to attend if I can. ‘Cause, you see, when will another opportunity pop up to see these guys in real life? Close to zilch. So, even if it’s an old hack like Ian Rush or a cocky German like Jens “I’m too good to be on the bench even I’m 37 years old” Lehmann, I’ll be there if time permits. Heck, I’m a football fan, not just a Man Utd fan, and it’s my duty to support these guys dammit!!!!
Anyway, putting my football emo aside for a minute, let me tell you how fortunate I was with the lucky draw. There were in fact other jerseys to be won such as Frank Lampard’s signed jersey, Michael Owen’s jersey and of course the C. Ronaldo jersey. Lampard’s & Owen’s was won through playing games, which I didn’t participate (‘cause, you know me, I malu lah). Ronaldo’s was won through a lucky draw, and out of a few hundred people there, I was the lucky one. VERY LUCKY ONE because to be eligible for the draw, a person needs to fill out this card and each person has unlimited entries. I saw kids and enthusiastic fans filling up card after card, so serious with sweat and discussion, I thought these guys were voting for the next President of the Inter-Galactic Universe. But I only filled up 2 cards. The first card was when I entered the event, and the second one, honestly I didn’t even bother to fill up until a sudden jolt in my consciousness that screamed: “FILL UP A SECOND CARD”. I duly obeyed the voice from my Lord of Screaming Consciousness and took a card from a lady, filled it up with an ink pen (which the name got blotched. That pen was all I got from my friend). Gave the card to an event girl that was on the way to submit the final entries, and 10 minutes later, Mr. Ian Rush took the liberty to conduct the lucky draw and BAAAAAAAAM!!!! There was total confusion. Total bedlam from the organizers because the card Mr. Rush took out had a blotched name on it. After a few tries with his Welsh tongue trying to guess the name on the card, he uttered a few words along the lines of ‘Raymond’ and instantly I knew it was me. I rushed up the stage like a striker sensing a goal, pounced on the opportunity to claim my prize and screamed that the name is indeed me, and scored when Mr. Ian Rush shook my hand with congratulations. The cameras went wild, the crowd clapped (although there was some boo-ing from some sections of the crowd. You know how they are), and I thanked my lucky stars for filling up that second card.
From the excitement, I forgot to give my camera to my friend for picture taking while I accepted the prize. So, no picture of me and Mr. Ian Rush with the Ronaldo jersey. DAMMIT!!! But there was an individual photo session later and I took a picture with him anyway, which was this blog’s top photo above.
After Mr. Rush left, there was more activities such as fire-eaters a.k.a. flame throwers a.k.a. breath so bad flame can spew out from his mouth, an exhibition of football wonder kids (10 year old kids doing perfectly timed step-overs and ball balancing skills. Amazing. What milk do their mama’s give them??!!!), a dancing performance and clowns. Well that’s all I saw because at around 10pm the rain started to fall again and I left the place feeling not just happy, but relieved.
I felt relieved because finally this year, something good and fortunate has happened to me. Let me tell you, throughout this year, some really bad and weird things occurred to me which I find not just annoying, but to the point of total ridicule. I mean, take for example in the month August. Within this one month, my PS2 stopped working for some weird reason; my hand phone short circuited from, according to the technician, “a mass intake of water into the phone board which resulted in circuitry malfunction”. I mean, WTF, since when I took my phone for a swim?? You think I miss my calls so much until I can’t let it go even when I was in the pool?? And last but not least, my car. My right-side door got slammed by a motorcyclist, my front bumper got knocked by another motorcyclist and my back bumper got hit my a guy in a car while I was paying toll. Paying toll for sweet sake, my car is not even moving and it got hit!!! AARRGGHHHH!!! Anyway, that’s another story. And all this incidents happened in the month of August. Just imagine. Sigh.
So, with this fortunate win, I felt like a big burden has been lifted from my shoulders and I felt that finally, the entire world is not against me. I guess Fortune & the Gods has not forgotten me yet…
