JULY 4th

Yet another exciting and a disappointing game!

This, I thought, would be an easy win for the Germans. ( Holland was out. Argentina was out. But I had, against my better judgment and every instinct in my body, adopted Germany as my new team and sadly they are gone!) They were on home territory, at the top of their game, and Italy hadn't really impressed anybody.

Italy has never won a penalty shoot-out in the world cup, while Germany has never lost one. Naturally, the Germans were quite prepared to ride out the game and go to a shoot-out in front of their home crowd. With just a minute and a half remaining, it looked like penalties were a certainty. However,Italy stunned World Cup host nation Germany: Grosso slammed in a beautiful goal that sailed past Lehmann, followed around a minute after by an equally elegant one by Piero. The German side became visibly deflated after the first goal and lost its composure, which partly led to Piero's 2-0 goals.Arghhhhh!!

What happened to Ballack? He didn't have quite the sparkle he had showed against
Argentina.

I was amongst the many disappointment fans in the Bar. Am betting on Italy - Portugal final. Hope Deco can counter Zidane.

So much for the game …

JULY 4th weekend. Just like the wind, the big JULY 4th weekend is gone ! It indeed was quite a memorable one for us.

Now, America is officially - 230 years old.

Sitting and listening to Steven Tyler and Joe Perry perform with the Boston Pops at the bandshell on the Charles River Esplanade could not have been better. This year, we got a perfect spot. Both Prasanna and I, we sat with the crowd right in front of the river bank where we got a perfect, I mean..PERTECT (trust me, I cannot be more clearer) VIEW of the BEAUTIFUL fireworks.

Firecrackers, bottle rockets, bigger stuff….
Crackling, booming, screeching

The crowd was amazing. People everywhere. Somewhere in the crowd I spotted two Japanese with their Kimonos on. I was happy. It reminded me of the “HANABI” back in Tokyo. During summer time, around this time to be exact, they have something called HANABI/fire works in Tokyo as well. To tell you the truth, I really am not aware of its significance. I am thinking just for Fun. This takes place usually over the weekend and everyone wears their kimono. It is sort of a bonding time with the family with BBQ and picnic.

Somehow my experience in the crowd made me recollect my old memories back in my days in Japan.

Hope everybody else had a nice July 4th.

On the contrary note, I am reading the article at WSJ titled “ Fans say ESPN’s world cup Derseves Penalty”- I am completely nodding at this. It is really annoying getting disrupted by the overuse of graphics and cut-away shots. Who cares about the “ father-son duo players in the world cup”? The commentators are trying to show us how much they know but they do not realize the fact that all they are doing is showing how much they DO NOT KNOW!