Sleep Like A Baby

Whoever coined the phrase "sleep like a baby" obviously never had a baby, because after 4 weeks plus with Cynthia, its obvious there is no such thing as a fixed sleeping pattern for babies.


One day she'll be well behaved and sleep, well, like a baby for 4 to 6 hours at a stretch, and the next, she'll wake up every 40 minutes. And then there's all other variations in between, e.g. sleep for 2 hours, 1 hour, etc.


I decided just before my wife gave birth that I'll sleep in the guest room for the first few months, so I was spared all the sleep interruptions, but my poor wife and mother-in-law bore the brunt of Cynthia's erratic sleep habits. One night I came back and found both exhausted and sleepy - they had barely slept more than 1 hour at a stretch for the last 24 hours.

There were also no end of tips and tricks from friends and colleagues on how to get our baby to settle into a longer and more predictable sleep routine.

Thank goodness some of the tips do seem to work, her sleep patterns has settled somewhat in the last few days, but occasionally we still get zombie nights.

I'll be moving back to the master bedroom in a few weeks time, hopefully Cynthia would have improved even more then :)

Where I Would Like To Go… (Rather Than Sitting Here at Home)

Been too busy to blog much (you all know why lah), but since my good friend Simon took the trouble to tag me to do this, I thought I'll indulge him on this one :)

Since most people already know of my penchant for Ireland & NZ, I'll go for .....Austria!


I think almost everyone above 30 must have been captivated by the fantastic mountain scenery of The Sound of Music when they were younger, and I was no exception. But what really did it for me was a movie and a tv series -- Before Sunrise and Band of Brothers.


In the former, Vienna looked absolutely gorgeous and romantic as the two main characters wandered through it in a day and a night. Watch it and you'll find yourself itching to take the next flight out there.


In the later, in the final episode the weary band of brothers finally got to take some well deserved R&R in the most amazing surroundings of the Austrian countryside. Watch out for the final scene of the soldiers playing baseball amidst the towering mountains of the Alps.


Tags:

forestfyre - well travelled lady, wonder what's next for her :)
ashlight - armed with a DSLR and a healthy appetite, another lady who's been goin' places
jyon - hey, there's gotta be more than just Bangkok! :)
egg-e - you could use a break! :)
Loon - wonder what is our friend's dream destination...

INSTRUCTIONS:

**Start Copy**

Proposition : Where do you want to go Next, OUTSIDE OF YOUR COUNTRY, for tourism, work , study, whatever.

Requirements: Find some info about the place, itinerary etc, pics if possible so you get MORE Traffic coming in, and maybe some people can find somewhere to go to. Excludes your NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOUR, ie Singapore,Malaysia,Brunei, a country that borders yours.You must register for MyBloglog so we can blogwalk ah…..get it?

Quantity : FIVE PEOPLE.

Tag Mode : Chain Link. 15 of them.You leave 15 people and their DEEP LINK of their Blog Name and TAGGED POST and hit out for five more. So it will look like

Simon living it up in Hong Kong

Laundryamah having fun with Hyun Bin in Korea

Azrin going Down Under

MaRLinda in Disneyland Paris

Athira and her Balamory Antics

Msau to Japan

Shoppingmum to Europe

Angeleyes off to Bora-Bora

Giddy Tiger snorkelling in The Maldives

Jess to Europe

Mybabybay wants to go Round The World

Immomsdaughter visit World Heritage New Zealand

Just My Thoughts whale watching at Monterey Bay

Bubba Stuff lomancin, in Tuscany, Italy

**Add in the blog you got the tag from and tagged post.** (In this case, for example, you should add :Patrick dreaming of Austria”)

Extra Rules: you cannot Tag another person who has performed the Tagging Rights to Travel. Check yr commentators.

You MUST PASS this tag within 7 days of receiving it , or lose a day’s worth of Blog Revenue or $10 to charity. Can?Makes it interesting anyway.So no Lazy Tags running about, and yeah, eventually, there will be less than a 1:3 chance you can’t tag that someone. And pay those people in the list a visit, you never know if you can pinch / recycle some ideas for your next entry!

**End Copy**

Baby Cynthia

Being the last of a gang at church who were expecting babies, we had been hearing all sorts of stories about the birth process and the trials and tribulations of taking care of the little one.


When it finally came to our turn, we were sort of mentally prepared for what was about to happen. My wife packed two Reader's Digest and I packed 3 books, expecting a long wait at the hospital. But praise God, after just 5 hours of labor, baby Cynthia came into the world.


I was sort of expecting the hard part comes later, and indeed it did. On the first night she was back, Cynthia absolutely refused to sleep except when being carried. We all woke up bleary eyed and wondering how we were going to cope for the next few months.


But the joy is indeed as all my friends described -- nothing beats the joy of cradling the little one in your arms, all helpless and lost, looking to you to feed her, guide her, protect her and be her all until she grows her wings and finally flies away one day.

Traffic

The most jammed up day of the week is not Monday, as most of us would believe, but in fact, Tuesday. I've been observing this curious pattern for a while and wondering why this so.

My favourite theory is that most people find it hard to drag themselves back to work after the weekend and some decided to call in emergency leave, sick leave or whatever other leave you can think of in order to get another day of bliss. The Monday Blues syndrome, so to speak.

Another possibility is some people taking an extended weekend due to traveling outstation. Or could it be some people getting up late from watching EPL matches the night before?

Whatever it is, it might be a good idea to buck the trend and take Tuesdays off instead. That way, you save yourself the stress of going through the nightmare traffic and instead enjoy an early midweek break!

Only Yesterday

With the imminent birth of our first daughter, we didn't get to go back hometown during CNY. So, we ended up catching up on movies instead :)

A really memorable one we watched was a Japanese anime called "Omohide Poro Poro", or "Only Yesterday". It was a really moving tale of a 27 year old lady reflecting on her life through flashbacks to the time when she was a 10 year old girl. Through those reflections she began to understand herself again, and provided her with a context to understand the choices she faces in adulthood.


Apart from the moving story, the movie itself was also gorgeous to behold, not in the Pixar kind of way, but sort of like looking at a beautiful watercolour painting.

It's hard to describe the feelings that the movie evoked, but suffice to say it really made my holiday.

And the ending. What an ending it was. When the credits started to appear, I thought I was gonna get one of those ambiguous endings, but instead a Japanese version of the song "The Rose" started, and what followed was magical. You can see it on Youtube here, but be warned, without watching the whole movie, you might not understand it.

While hunting for the lyrics for "The Rose", I was dismayed to find out that Westlife did a cover of it last year, and quite a number of other singers have done covers of it as well. But no matter, to really appreciate the song, get hold of the original Bette Midler version :)

The Rose

Some say love it is a river
that drowns the tender reed
Some say love it is a razor
that leaves your soul to bleed

Some say love it is a hunger
an endless aching need
I say love it is a flower
and you it's only seed

It's the heart afraid of breaking
that never learns to dance
It's the dream afraid of waking that never takes the chance
It's the one who won't be taken
who cannot seem to give
and the soul afraid of dying that never learns to live

When the night has been too lonely
and the road has been too long
and you think that love is only
for the lucky and the strong
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows
lies the seed
that with the sun's love
in the spring
becomes the rose

Working Girl

One of my favourite movies of all time is Working Girl, which I first saw just after I finished college. I remember I was supposed to catch a flight back to Sarawak that night, and after a whole day of packing, I decided to just go and catch a movie. Back in 1989, there was a cinema in Ss15 Subang Jaya that specializes in showing reruns.

I just finished my pre-u studies, and I knew I was going to do badly in the exams. While my college mates were busy choosing which uni they wanted to go to, I was wondering what my dad will decide to do with me.

When I came out of the cinema, I knew I wanted to try again. And my dad did indeed give me another chance, which I am very grateful till this day.

The theme song "A River Runs Through It" was my constant companion when I re-sat for my pre-u the following year. Even today the song never fails to raise goose pimples whenever I hear it.

Let The River Run

We're coming to the edge,
running on the water,
coming through the fog,
your sons and daughters.

Let the river run,
let all the dreamers
wake the nation.
Come, the New Jerusalem.

Silver cities rise,
the morning lights
the streets that meet them,
and sirens call them on
with a song.

It's asking for the taking.
Trembling, shaking.
Oh, my heart is aching.

We're coming to the edge,
running on the water,
coming through the fog,
your sons and daughters.

We the great and small
stand on a star
and blaze a trail of desire
through the dark'ning dawn.

It's asking for the taking.
Come run with me now,
the sky is the color of blue
you've never even seen
in the eyes of your lover.

Oh, my heart is aching.
We're coming to the edge,
running on the water,
coming through the fog,
your sons and daughters.

It's asking for the taking.
Trembling, shaking.
Oh, my heart is aching.
We're coming to the edge,
running on the water,
coming through the fog,
your sons and daughters.

Let the river run,
let all the dreamers
wake the nation.
Come, the New Jerusalem.

Windows Vista? Nah....

At the time of writing a worldwide campaign is underway to enlighten folks everywhere on the delights of Vista, M'soft's much delayed OS.

For those of you who balk at the price tag or do not have a PC spec'ed high enough to run it, you can actually get a feel for it by installing the Vista Transformation Pack. I tried it for a few weeks, and, well, the only thing I felt would make my life easier is the Aero glass effect. Sometimes I need to refer to another document while I'm typing, and by overlaying the two documents on top of each other, I find that I could get a lot more done than if I tile the documents vertically. Alright, those of you who own 19 inch LCD monitors, you can stop snickering now.

The gadgets sidebar concept is not a new one, I've seen its potential since the days of Borland Sidekick, but unfortunately to date no one has done a good job of implementing it. Call me when you get some really useful gadgets to dock to the sidebar, will you? A clock to tell the time? That's what I wear watches for, mate.

Apart from eye candy, from what I read there's not much else that would compel me to rush out and buy one. What I really want from a new OS would be these:-

1. Much faster boot up time. On average, it takes a minute for my XP log in screen to come up, and another good 2 minutes to get everything started up after I've logged in. The Amstrad CPC 6128 I used 20 years ago booted up in 2 seconds flat, including monitor warm up time. Come on, after 20 years and umpteenth generations of Windows OS's, you can't get this fixed?
2. A much easier way of getting to my stuff. I have a lot of stuff on both my home and office PC's, and I do mean a lot. Getting to them is just a pain. Sure, I can create shortcuts and there's the Recent Documents list, but its still difficult to quickly zoom in on stuff that I do not access frequently. Google Desktop also helps to a certain extent, but I will hail the day when I can get to any stuff I want in 5 seconds flat.
3. Easier way of setting up things. It still requires a postgraduate degree to get things set up. Don't believe me? Pop quiz: Why can't I connect to a Wifi network at my branch office when everyone else had no problems? Answer: because the network uses the same name as the Wifi network at the HQ, therefore the system tries to automatically reconnect using the HQ Wifi's settings, which was saved to the notebook's Wifi Connection properties. Now how many of us are gonna be able to figure that one out?

August 1995: I went out to get a copy of The Times in a small town called Ballynahinch in Northern Ireland, and was bewildered when the newsagent refused to accept my money. "It's free." Huh? After looking at the paper for a few seconds it dawned on me that it was Windows 95 launch day. Microsoft had bought up the entire print run of The Times on that day. I was filled with much excitement and anticipation, sure that this new fangled OS would let me do wonderful productive things as I start my IT career. 11 and a half years later, much has changed, and much still stayed the same.

The Family Man

I was in Singapore over the weekend, and on Christmas eve, I caught The Family Man on Channel 5, a movie I missed some years back.

The movie's concept is based on Dicken's A Christmas Carol and Jimmy Stewart's Its A Wonderful Life, so you could probably guess what the movie was about. But I felt that Nicholas Cage and Tea Leoni managed to pull it off and came up with a heartwarming and reflective movie.

The story basically revisits the modern questions of whether you can have it all and what really matters in your life. The answers that came were pretty obvious, but of course, those high fliers among you may beg to differ. And those of us who are struggling hard to provide a better life for their loved ones may feel the same, too.

I don't think the reality is as clear cut as portrayed in the movie, after all, I can think of people who do have it all. But during this festive season, if you've been feeling somewhat dissatisfied with your life, I think there is still one message from the movie that applies to all of us , and that is we are where we are today because of our choices. And we often forget that we can choose.

Long Bridge

“Do you want to see your grandfather’s old house?” The elderly lady in front of me asked excitedly. “It’s just in one of the backlanes nearby”. The auntie was the wife of one of my dad’s cousins in China.

So off we went, the auntie leading us through winding cobbled backlanes. We reached a dilapidated wooden house. “This is where your grandfather grew up”.

The house is not much to look at now, but at that moment I felt a strong sense of belonging. I was finally able to see beyond my grandfather’s life, to see my roots in that shabby house.


“Your grandfather was the only son in the family. They had to frequently hide him to prevent him from being taken away”.

So, once upon a time, in the early part of the twentieth century, a poor family lived in a small house in a remote village called Chang Qiau (Long Bridge). The family had a son and a daughter. One day, the son made his way to a coastal town, presumably Xiamen, and traveled by boat to a place called Sarawak in Nan Yang (the South Seas). There, he was given some land by the white Rajah, and worked hard to create his own place in the sun. He settled down and his wife bore him two sons and two daughters. He never forgot his sister in China and over the years kept in touch with her by letters. The sister also started her own family in a small town called Ping Nang.

After many years, the grandson and granddaughter of the son who left China found themselves back where the son came from, looking at the house the son had left behind.

Nanowrimo again

This post is in response to my good friend Simon's reminder that once again Nanowrimo is upon us.

Nanowrimo is where writer-wannabes all over the world make a commitment to write a 50000 word novel in a month - specifically, the month of November.

Last year I enthusiastically signed up thinking I could do those writing while on two 12 hour flights. Alas, I got stuck after just 1000 words. Kudos to Simon who managed to slog through the whole thing and got the 50k :)

Amongst my blogging mates, apart from Simon I think SexySiren has the most writing talent to produce a novel, she writes with passion and has a nice way of putting things. Kay, what say you? Do you have a novel for us next year? :)

Air

Have you ever wondered where the Internet will go from here? The Net has evolved in so many unexpected ways over the past ten years that it is hard to predict what it'll be like even five years down the line.

Well, one person dared to, and what a prediction it was. Geoff Ryman provided a breathtaking vision of what will happen to the Net in the year 2019 in his sci-fi novel Air.

I happened to read the book while travelling with my parents in the rural parts of China recently, and what I saw there provided a striking parallel to the rural village described in the book.

In the year 2019, the Net has become Air - all pervasive, all encompassing. It has become part of each individual, man and the Net together as one.

The main story of how Air came to affect one of the last places on earth to receive it provides a touching and moving context to all of us of what the Net really means to each ordinary person in this world. Sometimes we tend to forget that for more than two thirds of the world's population, the Net means nothing to them.

Gambling Ghost (or Du Gui)

According to the movies, there can only be one God of Gamblers, but in real life there are plenty of Gambling Ghosts, i.e. those who are just plain addicted to gambling in any form.

Being Chinese (and despite being a Christian at the same time), it was somewhat inevitable that at certain points in my life, I was one of those ghosts, too.

My earliest recollection of gambling was going to the little tuck shop opposite my house to play tikam-tikam. This is a board game where you buy tickets from the bottom half of the board in the hope of the ticket number matching one of the numbers on the top half of the board. Each number on the top half holds another ticket which when opened, reveals the prize you have won. I remember the tickets were 5 sen a piece, and the prizes ranged from 10 sen to 50 sen (a big sum back then, hehe). The friendly aunty at the tuck shop always persuaded me to reinvest my prizes in more tickets, so I usually walked out of the shop empty handed. At the time, I didn't realize that this is one of the classic symptoms of a gambling ghost, i.e. always going for one more try.

When I entered Form 1, a friend introduced me to another tuck shop, where, hidden at the back, was a real slot machine!! My allowance back then was only RM20 a month, so luckily (!) I did not get to play much, since per bet was a massive 50 sen.

In Form 3, the whole bunch of us discovered card games, and during Chinese New Year, we played endlessly. By the end of the holidays, we were so addicted we even organized additional sessions after school hours. Some of us had very understanding parents who actually enjoyed having us around and gambling in their houses (not mine, though).

When I left my hometown for college, I graduated (ahem) to buying Magnum 4D and playing Mah Jong. Mah Jong, I must say, is a superb game of skill and strategy, despite its association with the gambling Chinese all over the world. I remember spending the weekends at my kaki's house in Cheras, our whole time preoccupied with "washing the table" (the Hokkien euphemism for playing Mah Jong).

At the same time, during the holidays, I spent my time hanging around my uncle's snooker centre, where horse racing video games were the rage. This involved turf club style betting on virtual horse races, and at RM 1 a pop, it was surprising to find out that some folks actually lost fortunes on it. The machines are still around to this day, hidden in the back rooms of snooker parlours and cybercafes all over Klang Valley.

After my 18th birthday, me and my mate decided it was time for us to pay a visit to the shrine of gamblers in Malaysia - Genting Highlands. Age of admittance was (and still is) 21, so we tried our utmost to grow mustaches and dressed in our most serious outfits, and managed to sneak in. It was a revelation, watching people lose RM20k on blackjack in 30 minutes. We knew then we were way out of our league, and didn't go back again until we graduated from uni.

When in uni in UK, I was actually quite a good boy, refraining from gambling until some juniors introduced me to the joys of horse race betting in my final year. Horse races are held almost every single day in the UK, even some Sundays. There is an element of skill involved in this, and till this day, it remained the only form of gambling where I actually did come out on the plus side (to the tune of about 500 pounds).

After graduating, I was barely surviving on my fresh graduate salary, so there was a lull, until a hefty raise the following year pulled me into the biggest casino of them all - the stock market. The year was 1997 - the timing could not have been more perfect. Needless to say, I suffered massive losses, which took years to pay off.

The start-stop-start cycle of my gambling habit finally stopped when I met my wife. Its been a good 5 years since I did any serious gambling, and except for the occasional social game of blackjack, hardly indulged in any form of gambling at all. As a Christian, I have to say I'm quite ashamed of those days, interesting though they were.

And I have to thank God that I didn't end up a permanent gambling ghost. One of my mates from the college Mah Jong days ended up addicted to all forms of gambling, and has lost upwards of RM150k at the last count. As his friends, the whole bunch of us old school mates have been trying to talk some sense into him, but it looks like only God can break his habit.

Crazy About Michael Wong (Guang Liang)

Recently I've been crazy about Michael Wong's songs. For the uninitiated, there's a pretty good write-up about him on Wikipedia (which I suspect was written by his publicist :P)

Over the years I've heard his songs when he was part of a duo, and later when he went solo. Earlier this year, I was at a Chinese wedding (yeah, the type where you have badly sung karaoke as part of the entertainment), and a bunch of kids went up to sing his monster hit from 2005, Dong Hua (literally, Fairy Tale). Something struck me about the song, it was both sweet and yet tinged with sadness. As if he lost something and he knew he would never get it back.

Anyway, today while bored out of my skull waiting for my wife to finish her shopping in 1 U, I popped over to the music store to buy my second (ahem) original CD in 2 years. And I was instantly hooked.

After listening to his songs the whole afternoon, I finally decided that him being a boy from a provincial town in Malaysia had a lot of to do with how he came with all these sad, wistful songs. If you look at his MTV's, you'll find that most of them reflect the same sense of loss and nostalgia. Listening to his songs reminded me of my days in secondary school, of having crushes on the girl in the the secondary school next door, of cycling to school and days spent fooling around with mates. Of days spent dreaming when I would grow up and leave this town with its quaint old shops and familiar faces.

I suspect for many of us now working in KL and Singapore, and even beyond, his songs sends us back to our more innocent days when life was so much less complicated and more joyful. I think that's what made him so successful in recent years, him having touched a part deep inside us with his songs, reminding us once again of who we really are and where we came from.

For Want of A Good Plumber

In the first few years that I moved into my current home, everything was pretty much in good order and I took no notice of the countless cards and leaflets advertising renovation and plumbing services that fill my post box almost every day.

But one fine day the house water tank had a problem and I was finally forced to look for a plumber. Out came the handphone and I started sms'ing friends for recommendations. Surprisingly no one seems to know anyone who they could recommend.

After much nagging from the wife I finally decided to bite the bullet and called a number on one of the cards.

What happened next left a bitter taste in my mouth. The guy who came quoted some outrageous figure to fix the problem (I figured the price should probably be half of that at most), and when I declined his offer he blasely told me that there is a minimum RM50 call out charge. At that point I was ready to let go with a string of expletives, but in the end I bit my lip and paid what he asked for.

It took the guy all of 15 minutes to climb up to the roof and replace the spoilt stopper (that was all that needed fixing, the stopper). I know I'm paying for his skills but still, it really felt like a rip-off to me.

If anyone knows a good reliable plumber in the Klang vallet who won't charge an arm and a leg, I want to know his number!

Different country.....

I was back again recently at my wife's hometown of Kluang. I was watching tv at the in-laws home when suddenly I realized that I've never observed the folks in the house watching Malaysian tv. Not only that, everyone in the town seems to speak standard Mandarin, and with a Singaporean accent, too, no less.

And my wife admits to knowing the lyrics to "Majulah Singapura"!!

We are about 150 km away from the real thing, and yet it seems like Kluang (and many other towns in the vicinity) are just a suburb of Singapore.

Triple Play

Being in the IT industry, I hear the term "triple play" a lot.

Recently, a couple I know is going to have their own "triple play" in their personal lives. They are going to get married, after which they will immediately move to a new foreign land, and start new jobs.

I was quite apprehensive and worried for them when I heard about their plans. They are not only going to have to cope with the changes that come with living together, but also adjust to a new culture and way of living, and finally they also have to deal with the shock and impact of working with new people in a new environment.

But then again, both of them have been "citizens of the world", to borrow an advertising phrase, having travelled and worked extensively in different parts of the world in their careers. Maybe they will be able to use their experiences to overcome the challenges that await them.

Anyway, I wish them all the best in their new life together. Being a romantic, I believe love conquers all, so I believe their love will hold them together as they tackle all these challenges :)

Hooked on Pandora

Ashlight introduced me to Pandora some time back, and although I was intrigued by it, I felt it was just too slow then.

Recently I gave it another try, and was instantly hooked, creating station after station based on songs from my all time fav playlists.

Its still slow (not sure whether this is Streamyx or Pandora's fault, I switched off my BT client and got no improvement), but finding unheard songs that you actually like was both exciting and addictive.

Hats off to whoever thought of this idea!

For those of you who are from the 80's generation - trying creating a station based on Kyrie (by Mr Mister). Just sit back and enjoy :)

Love At First Bite

After much bugging from my wife, I finally took her to Chiang Mai for a holiday two weeks ago. My good friend Matt was also in town, but I'll talk more about our adventures together later.

Some of you may know that I worked in Chiang Mai for a while two years ago. Back then, our Thai partner took a few lucky colleagues to this cake shop called Love At First Bite. Unfortunately, I was not one of them.

So, this time, with plenty of time on our hands, we departed from Suriwongse Hotel on foot in search of this holy grail of cheese cakes.

How was it? Well, have a look :)

What we didn't know was that not only do they make the most heavenly cheesecakes, they make excellent chicken pie as well. We went back for more two days later:-

For those of you planning to go to Chiang Mai and would like to find the place, just head to the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) office across the Mae Ping River (5 minutes walk from Night Bazaar), then head north until you see a small lane just before a Christian school, turn right and its 50 metres down the road on your right.

iCon

My good friend Simon bought me this book about the rise and fall, and rise again, of Steve Jobs last year as a birthday gift (thanks Simon!)

I started off reading the Ipod chapters, and its only lately that I backtracked to the earlier chapters about Steve's years in Apple. What I read brought back a lot of memories about how computers used to quicken my pulse and how I spent all my pocket money buying up computer magazines.

A lot of the stuff that we take for granted now did not exist in those days, and Steve, despite his flaws made the computer industry a better place by his sheer vision and energy.

However, till today I never owned an Apple product (althogh I did use the Mac a lot during my uni days). Maybe the time will come one day when I go for an Ipod.

Goodbye, Mr Sven

While watching the England-Ecuador match the other night, I remarked to a friend that one of the reasons I love to watch football are the parallels I could draw between it and the corporate world.

At the time of writing this, I suppose a lot of people are still in mourning over England's exit. But really, no one should be surprised that they have gone out. In fact, from the way they played, they should have left a round earlier.

And all this was due to the English FA's mistaken belief in a Swede. Sure, the players didn't play well. But those who follow the EPL would know what John Terry, Frank Lampard, et al are capable of. Those who have seen what Steven Gerard and Wayne Rooney have achieved know their true powers.

In Sven Eriksson, there has never been a more stark example of a manager who has negated his staff, who has in fact, brought them backwards rather than forward. Mr. Sven did not make full use of the resources at his disposal. He did not give them a clear goal and instructions on how to achieve that goal. On the field in Germany, the bewilderment of the players, the look of confusion on the players faces as they try to carry out their manager's half baked plan was almost painful to watch.

Contrast that with the arrogant Mourinho, who, despite having to deal with big egos at Chelsea, have managed to build a team that functions as a team. Week in, week out, the players know what is expected of them and they duly produced the goods.

Ditto for Wenger. Prior to his move Arsenal, Thierry Henry was an unappreciated player in Italy. But under the careful mentoring of Wenger he blossomed into one of the most feared forwards in the world.

If all these sounds familiar to you, that's because we probably have a Sven or a Wenger in our office, too :)