Firestarter - The Rants of a Pyrophile

'i've always wanted to be a writer', kiren thought. that is why she blogs eventhough she's fully aware that the amount of people who read her posts comes up to be about 5. still. she does it anyway. it gives her an enormous sense of well being. when she was younger, she started writing a novel. it was about a guy and a girl in high school and it involves magic and time travel and juvenile romance. she used to watch buffy and stargate. she now wonders what happened to that novel.

kiren went home from uni last wednesday much to the surprise of her mother. kiren's mum did not ask why she had come home. when she did ask, however, it went something like 'did you come back just to watch football?'. kiren sat bewildered and slightly scared that her mum would tell her dad and her dad would, in turn, get mad at her and give her a long and painful lecture, if she were to say yes. but she said yes anyway, knowing she couldnt lie to her mum. and she was rewarded for telling the truth by not having to listen to her dad's painful lecture. at least not yet anyway.

so she came home for the sole purpose of watching arsenal triumph over barcelona in the champions league final. her trip home was only 50% worth it. she watched arsenal, thats for sure. but they didnt triumph over barcelona. they came close though considering the circumstances they were in. losing 2-1 to the spanish champions when they were 1 man down proved that they put up some serious resistance, however futile it seemed. kiren's thought pattern during the match went something like this.

1st minute: oohh kick off. where's freddie? there he is. how cute. wow, they started off well. good possession. the pace is great. keep this up and we'll win for sure. urgh, its so creepy down here all alone at this time of night. aiyo, hungry la pulak. just wait till half time.

in the following 15 minutes, similar thoughts flashed across her simple mind. complicated thoughts such as the probability that arsenal would go home with the champions league trophy never surfaced because she had to concentrate really hard on where the ball was as it traveled at different speeds from player to player. so she was completely settled on the sofa, feeling content at the way her boys was playing. that was until the around the 18th minute.

around 18th minute: shite! it went in. owh wait. good. the ref stopped the game. shite! not good. could be a yellow card and a penalty considering lehmann grabbed dat dude's ankle. wtf?? a red card?? he's got to be joking. y not let the goal stand and just let everything go. why ref why??? why would you sabotage all hope of arsenal winning this match?? this is unjust!! haha. emotional nye the commentator. must be an arsenal supporter. oh well. at least its not a penalty. come on almunia!! bring it on! hmm. pires is coming off. interesting.

and it pretty much went that way for another 20 minutes.

around 40th minute: yes! eboue is down! looks a bit dramatised. but nevermind. a free kick is a free kick. ref is dodgy. here comes the free kick. it went in! it went in!! yes! must not shout. one-nil to the arsenal! yes! i love sol campbell. just hold on till half time boys.

and they held on. as soon as dodgy ref blew the halftime whistle, kiren went into the kitchen to look for something edible. she opened the cupboard doors and saw a packet of chipsmore cookies. kiren didnt feel like having anything sweet. so she decided to have maggi instead. as kiren is writing all this down, she feels hungry.

at the start of the second half, kiren was happy that arsenal were one up and that she was no longer hungry after having eaten a bowl of nice hot maggi. for most of the second half, she just watched the ball (and the players) play the beautiful game as barcelona kept attacking harder. there were tonnes of alarming instances when she thought that barca would score. she then understood why doctors claim that watching football, particularly final matches, can be hazardous to one's health.

having a full tummy, kiren dozed off. barely 5 seconds after she did (or what she thought was 5 seconds), she heard the commentators' voices get all excited. and she woke up with a start. as she looked at the scoreboard, her heart sank. in the 77th minute, barca had equalised. she was sad. feeling that had she stay awake, arsenal would still have been in the lead. she made herself feel better thinking that the match outcome does not, in anyway, depend on her retained consciousness. so she hoped that arsenal would hold on until the final whistle so that the match would be decided on penalties.

however much she hoped, she was disappointed at last. barca scored again sometime near the 90th minute. and she knew it was all over. unless arsenal could score in the final 2 minutes or so, the trophy was barca's. kiren felt hopeless and depressed as the referree added 4 minutes of extra time and then finally blew the whistle. arsenal had lost the champions' league final. kiren felt teary eyed. it was so close. yet as she watched the arsenal players looked on as barca pranced in joy, she couldnt help but feel an immense sense of pride. they had come really far. losing to barca is nothing to be embarrassed about. they were the worthiest opponent. so she went upstairs and slept, in preparation of a whole day of taunts that will surely befall her the following day.

khairun 'third person' baharuddin