That's how Federer won the final of Australian Open tonight. The first set lasts about 65 minutes and it was quite entertaining and thrilling to see. Both players try to outbeat each other. Based on my impression from the first set, it seems Gonzalez somehow able to penetrate into Roger's armor. Roger made few unforced errors in the first set which was unlike him at all. I think this can be blamed to the wind ;).
Federer eventually raised his game and shows his superb performance. Gonzalez have tried almost every technique yet Federer is able to beat that. I'm speechless. He is truly a brilliant guy and no wonder he still hold the world No 1 and almost untouchable. Federer is simply too good for Gonzalez.
The semi tonight was a bit better than last night. Even though Gonzalez managed to dominate the match, Tommy Haas had at least managed to exploit his opponent weaknesses. At least, Tommy Haas does not easily give up and put up a good fight. It was interesting to watch and there were times where Gonzalez managed to steal a point even he was in the most difficult position. Now, all of Chileans will be celebrating all over Melboure :D. Now, there is one B.I.G question for Gonzalez to answer. Will he able to beat the reigning world champion, Federer?
I was hoping the match between Andy and Roger to be a challenging contest and last 3-4 hours but I was wrong. The world No 1 beats Andy Roddick straight sets in less than 2 hours. I was dissappointed to see one-sided match tonight. Roger Federer plays the match brilliantly and Andy couldn't cope with the pressure and does not keep up with the challenge. Federer played it almost flawless and the sheer brilliance displayed by him amazed me again and again. Now, who will be against Federer in the final? Will it be Haas or Gonzalez....
Gonzalez managed to beat Nadal in three sets. Somehow the strong Nadal is beaten and the match clearly shows how Gonzalez controlled the tempo of the match. I love to see how he hit the ball in front of the net. It is extremely fast and an excellent technique to be performed. And speaking of fast, the match is concluded around two hours only and to think Nadal is No 2 in the world...
I'm not sure whether you have noticed it or not, but I have changed the layout of this template few days ago. The links used to be in the form of drop-down menu which is based on javascript and I changed it to the standard bullet list. The list certainly used up a lot more spaces than the previous one though.
The main reason I choose the bullet list is to get this blog validated :). Somehow if I used javascript, this blog fails the validation. Now, this blog is a valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional blogspot B). You can check the yellow icon at the footer below.
For those unfamiliar with the term, this is actually referring to how do you write up the language behind the layout and how much do you write it according to the standard set up by The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). To check whether any web is valid or not, go here. There is another part of the validation service which involve CSS and for the moment, the CSS script written by Blogger caused my failure as you can see below. Is it important to get the validation? Personally, I don't think it is not that important to get the validation but by doing this, at least you know what mistakes occur while coding the layout. The best reason not to get the validation is many major websites do not follow the standard by W3C. Even google, yahoo and microsoft failed the validation :). The second reason would be that the main internet browser, Internet Explorer, does not follow the web standard too as you can see below. This is tested against Acid 2 Test. Compare this with Firefox 2.0 If the browser followed the web standard rigorously such as Opera 9, the picture should look something like this p/s: Right now, I am waiting for the match between Fernando Gonzalez and Rafael Nadal. This match will be quite interesting to see :)
I have resumed my data collection after taking one-month break but there is one big problem that I never anticipated. I forgot that this time of the year is the main holiday season. Many patients did not come for their consultations and even some of the consultants took their annual leave. It is a bit frustrating for me as a researcher though. My research is primarily interviewing patients and if the patients or the doctor took holiday....my progress will be hampered down. At the moment, my research progress is quite slow. Hopefully this will be normal by February.
When you feel all alone in this world And there's nobody to count your tears Just remember, no matter where you are Allah knows, Allah knows
When you carrying a monster load And you wonder how far you can go With every step on that road that you take Allah knows, Allah knows
No matter what, inside or out There's one thing of which there's no doubt Allah knows, Allah knows
And whatever lies in the heavens and the earth Every star in this whole universe Allah knows, Allah knows
When you find that special someone Feel your whole life has barely begun You can walk on the moon, shout it to everyone Allah knows, Allah knows
When you gaze with love in your eyes Catch a glimpse of paradise And you see your child take the first breath of life Allah knows, Allah knows
No matter what, inside or out There's one thing of which there's no doubt Allah knows, Allah knows
And whatever lies in the heavens and the earth Every star in this whole universe Allah knows, Allah knows
When you lose someone close to your heart See your whole world fall apart And you try to go on but it seems so hard Allah knows, Allah knows
You see we all have a path to choose Through the valleys and hills we go With the ups and the downs, never fret never frown Allah knows, Allah knows
No matter what, inside or out There's one thing of which there's no doubt Allah knows, Allah knows
And whatever lies in the heavens and the earth Every star in this whole universe Allah knows, Allah knows
Every grain of sand, In every desert land, He knows.
Every shade of palm, Every closed hand, He knows.
Every sparkling tear, On every eyelash, He knows.
Every thought I have, And every word I share, He knows. Allah knows.
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For, with Him are the keys to the things that are beyond the reach of a created being's perception: none knows them but He. And He knows all that is on land and in the sea; and not a leaf falls but He knows it; and neither is there a grain in the earth's deep darkness, nor anything: living or dead, but is recorded in [His] clear decree. [ Al-An'am : 59]
I've finished watching Kooyong Classic invitational final match between Federer and Roddick and the match was tough. There were few times where Roddick made unforced errors, probably due to stress. Both players displayed superb performance and it was very interesting to watch :). Throughout the match, Roddick managed to increase his speed and eventually became the winner. This is a rare moment for me to see. It is not normal to see someone else beat Federer in the final. Now, Australian Open would be quite an interesting thing to watch now :).
Some of the pictures in this blog used to be hosted on non-blogger sites. Thus, some of the pictures were missing and now, I have updated the link. Happy reading :).
Today, my short holiday ends. Now, I have to continue my research and will be busy again. Hopefull, I will be able to finish the research as best as I could.
At last, the job is finished. Now, I can update this blog as usual :).
The cherry farm is about 50 km from my house and we stayed at the accommodation provided there. Most of the time, we will do cherry picking. The job is a bit tough and used up a lot of stamina. We usually started picking around 6 am and finished around 5 pm and by night, we are completely exhausted. Furthermore, this job is piece-rate which means that we are paid by how many kilos of cherry we picked. On a good day, we can picked around 280 - 300 kilo and on a bad day, we can picked around 150 kg. Overall, the payment is good and worth all the energy we spend picking :).
Being far from home and living somewhere near the farm does certainly give you a different kind of environment. First, there is no internet and it explains my absence of blogging. At night, I used to see stars and moon and the scenery was lovely. If you lived in the city, this kind of scenery is a bit hard to see due to the brightness of neon light. It makes me closer to see the beautiful nature and remind me the Creator behind all of this beauty. Alhamdulillah.
This time of the year, there were bushfires around the region. The bushfire in Victoria is getting worse from one day to another day. Most of the days were hot and there is hardly any wind around. If there is wind, it will be quite windy and it will help spread the bushfire further. The farm we worked was surrounded by thick haze for more than a week and the situation is quite serious indeed.
See the picture before and after below.....
Obviously working in the thick haze condition is a new experience for me. Nevertheless, we endure all of this and continue to pick the fruits. Alhamdulillah, by the end of December, the condition is starting to get better. There are few times when the rain comes and help to reduce the haze a bit. Until today, the haze remain a big problem for Victoria, South Australia, NSW and Tasmania due to the dry weather. Let us hope this problem will resolves as soon as possible.
I think that is all I would like to write for :). Here is a picture of the farm from the shed/ factory.
