As my username is such, this is mandatory.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY XABI ALONSO! <3

This Oasis song is amazing. It got a lot of people through tough times, and it's heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time. Noel wrote a mind blowing song, and Liam delivered it perfectly with the kind of pain and agony required of it.

Which is why Leona Lewis (or anyone) shouldn't really have covered it. I mean yes, she isn't half bad with it but it'll never measure up to the original. And I think it's a pity as well, because her cover doesn't really get good until 2:15 into the song, which is less than what most people will give this song a chance. I was cringing throughout the beginning and I was screaming 'NOOO', but when it reaches the climax in her version she did reasonably well enough.
Which is why this song shouldn't have been covered, because Oasis achieved this climax with their very first words: Hold on.

Hmm, I wonder if Noel/Liam will say anything about this.

I feel so complete right now. After one year and two months, or more, I just watched Steve Finnan play 85 minutes of football live on telly. Not only did the love of my life play the match, he played amazing. Intercepting passes, reading the game so well and doing just enough to make sure they don't get a clean shot on goal. Besides defending, he gave amazing crosses and good runs down the length of the pitch and he was just so amazing. The commentator was raving about what an excellent signing he is, with the experience and assurance he gives to the back four. I couldn't agree more.

As Jerry Maguire would say, "you complete me". I am so content, this actually overshadows how Chelsea lost 2-1 to Aston Villa. I guess I'm okay with the loss because it was utterly deserved and Chelsea was outplayed, there was no injustice. And then there was Steve Finnan.

Today my mummy told me to go ahead and chase my dreams, she'll be behind me. There's no feeling like this.

He broke my heart, so badly it's in pieces.

Them. It's so dysfunctional, so bitter yet so sweet when there's love. It's so them, and there won't be another like they are. The love, the hate, the attitude and the jibes. And the promises he makes but never keeps. He said he would mend the broken hearts, he could never leave, and he's going to stay for us. He walked out and left. But I still hope he's going to be okay.

And it's like every song he wrote was about them. Every song fitting for the situation when he'll leave, when the good and happy times are but mere memories. When it got too tiring to carry on, and you can almost hear the despair. That is what is, truly, familiar to millions.

But I think I've wallowed in this for enough. Tomorrow I'll wake up and be happy I had 4 "fuckin' glorious" years. I saw Oasis live on their final tour. I laughed at their antics, smiled at their geniuses, and cried at their split. And I knew the brilliance of Noel Gallagher, with Liam, in Oasis.

It's the end of an era.

Take what you need, and be on your way, and stop crying your heart out.

( Maybe you're the same as me, we see things they'll never see. You and I are gonna live forever )

Oasis split today. I teared up when I read the news on my Twitter, and I simply couldn't believe it. But I think the article sums up everything they've been, as a band, to each other and to the fans and the world. I don't care if they never really "recaptured the glory of the past", because I think no one really discovers the gems hidden beneath the mediocre singles into the B-sides and the acoustics.

But I really thought that despite all the shit they gave each other they really do love each other, and that's why they'll never quit Oasis. After smashed guitars Noel walked out last night. He quit Oasis, and it'll never be Oasis again. Until I hope maybe he wakes up tomorrow morning and realises that they need each other, they believe in one another and they're going to discover what's sleeping in their soul.

So, Bear was asking me about sword xchange and our allocated parts.

Rachel Chiamaka Tan (11:50 AM)
do you rmb who did feeding of the 5 thousand?
Jules (11:52 AM)
jesus?

I am so awesome.

"This writer, he was going on about the lyrics to "Champagne Supernova", and he actually said to me: ‘You know, the one thing that’s stopping it being a classic is the ridiculous lyrics.’ And I went: ‘What do you mean by that?’ And he said: ‘Well, Slowly walking down the hall, faster than a cannonball — what’s that mean?’ And I went: ‘I don’t fucking know. But are you telling me, when you’ve got 60,000 people singing it, they don’t know what it means? It means something different to every one of them."

- Noel Gallagher

This sums up everything I love about Oasis and their music. They mean different things at different times to every different person.

Hey baby, happy birthday.

When will I see your face again, green eyes? Don't go away. Be here now. Let's be married with children.

Eighteen months and counting, I'm still in love with you. <3

Have a wonderful day, be alright soon.

I miss you.

FRANK LAMPARD TALKS TO MARTIN SAMUEL: On coping with the loss of his mother, Chelsea's title ambitions and that feud with Xabi Alonso

EXCLUSIVE by MARTIN SAMUEL, chief sports writer
Last updated at 3:06 PM on 31st January 2009


So where to start? Perhaps with the goal celebration. You know the one. The net swells, the noise swells and the player peels away, not fast, not in abandon but with a slower, steadier stride, almost holding back, until he raises the index finger of his right hand and points at the sky, lifting his eyes, briefly, in the direction of the heavens, too.

Frank Lampard has performed this small, yet significant, ritual since the day his mother, Pat, died after a short bout of pneumonia in April last year. Pat was 58 and her death was sudden and unexpected. Less than a week later, on his first game back for Chelsea, her son took the penalty against Liverpool which propelled his team to the Champions League Final in Moscow.

He admits that period was a blur. Nine months on he is still struggling to come to terms with the loss. He does not think his pain is unique, but that makes it no less real and at least now he has overcome the desire to run away — from Chelsea, from London, from all those memories and ghosts.

‘It is still with me, it doesn’t get any easier, just different,’ Lampard says. ‘I played the final weeks of last season on auto-pilot. I know some people were amazed that I just carried on, that I took the penalty against Liverpool, all those little moments, but I find it harder acting as normal now. Last season, I was in a daze, I couldn’t think of anything else and, strangely, that makes it easier to play because you have a one track mind, no highs and lows.

‘Then reality sets in and that was why, at one time in the summer, I was looking to move. I just couldn’t accept the idea of playing at Chelsea without looking up and seeing Mum in the stand. Even now it is a huge gap in my life and very hard to handle. There were a lot of things that we used to do together, go to Harrods for tea, go to a certain restaurant, so suddenly there were shops I couldn’t walk into, all sorts of things from which I needed to get away. I thought: “I can’t live like this; I’ve got to leave London.”

‘That wasn’t the answer, though. No disrespect to Inter Milan, they are a great club and everybody knows what I think of Jose Mourinho, but if I had gone it would have been for the wrong reasons. It would have been because of Mum.’

Publicly, Lampard’s parental association has always been with his father, Frank Snr, a talismanic left back with West Ham United. Privately, he was Pat’s boy. He was Franko, she was Mumo, and they spent a lot of time together. Frank Jnr has two sisters, but he was the only boy.

‘I’ve had such a great journey through football and it became a great journey for my mum and dad, too,’ he says. ‘They bought a place in town, they would come to the game, we’d go out, have a beer, have a meal. It opened up a world that we loved so much and it was such a nice time in their lives and now it is over; that’s what hurts, seeing it all cut short.

‘If anyone asked me if I believed in God I always said yes, but I never did much about it. And then when this happened, that changed. I have tried to find reasons, I have gone to church. The first reaction was anger, the most amazing woman in my life, how can it happen to her, to us, all those other people in the world doing terrible things, why her? So I went to church to deal with those emotions, really, but it is complex.

‘I’m quite a cynical b****** really. I’ll have days when I think she is up there looking down on me and others when I’m thinking, no she isn’t, she isn’t anywhere, she’s gone. Time passes, suddenly it is nine months. I don’t know; it doesn’t feel right to be without her for that long.

‘The first six weeks everybody is around you and then they forget about it because, obviously, it is your life, your problem to deal with. And the next phase is they expect you to be happy and laughing like they are, and it might be a day when you have all this on your shoulders and in the environment of a football club that is tough, because so much of what we do is about team spirit.

‘There are games where I can’t get all that crap out of my head, and I’m still thinking about Mum as we are going out there. Sometimes it ends up a nice release because the game clears it all, but not always.

‘I remember the Champions League Final because I was standing in the tunnel and I felt heavy-legged. Every player will tell you that it happens. Some matches you feel as if you could run forever, others times you’ve prepared exactly the same way, done everything right, and you’re gone. Horrible.

‘So I’m standing in the tunnel in Moscow and I feel poxy and I look up and I was really trying to get into the moment, and I said: ‘‘Mum, help me out here, give me some legs tonight’’. Silly, really. But I went out and I felt all right. So that is a good memory, the first part anyway.

‘The goal celebration, I think, is from a similar place. It is about recognition for a person who I miss a lot. I’m not saying that I’m always thinking: ‘‘That’s for you, Mum’’, at that precise moment because you’ve scored a goal. So many things are going through your head, it is a blur, but to mark that for her means something to me. I have a moment when I pray in the tunnel before games now. As I say, I’ve never been a religious person, so it is hard to define what it means.’


We talk about elements of bereavement that are unique to those on the public stage. Lampard does not want to come across as self-pitying or as a person who believes he is the only one to have suffered loss, when his postbag would confirm otherwise. By the same token, the maxim about throwing oneself into work as a means of escape is not open to a footballer, who sees only an empty seat in the stand where a person once sat. These are nuances masking a basic problem.

‘To be honest, I was Mum’s boy,’ Lampard adds. ‘Always was, always will be. I can rationalise the other stuff, but that is why it hit me so hard. My missus used to take the p*** out of me because the moment I was ill, at 29-years-old, I wanted Mum. And then she was gone and it was so sudden. No time to deal with it at all. That was horrible.

‘You learn a lot about people in those times. Jose Mourinho texting me every day; Avram Grant was so clever and kind; people who were not in my life suddenly appeared, and in a good way. Fans, too, from places like Liverpool and West Ham, who generally don’t like me, writing letters. That really touched me. We get caught up in the rivalry, then something like this happens and you realise it is all b*******. None of it matters.’

Tomorrow, Lampard returns to Anfield, the last ground he played at while Pat was alive. Emotion, however, will be tempered by the professional reality that is Chelsea’s continuing search for supremacy over their title rivals. Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal have each inflicted defeats on them and a second loss to Liverpool in one season would be viewed by many as the critical blow to the Premier League ambition of Luiz Felipe Scolari’s men.

It is a grudge match, too. None of the elite care to lose their duels, but games between Liverpool and Chelsea have added spice, the way that meetings of Arsenal and Manchester United once did.

There is rivalry and then there are the teams that really don’t like each other. Lampard offers a diplomatic response, but a knowing smile.

‘It is strong, I can’t deny that,’ he admits. ‘The players feel an extra edge. You’ll see it on Sunday. We’ve played them so many times in big games so lots of individual tensions build up. There is always something between me and Xabi Alonso, for instance.’

But you broke his leg.

‘Yes, I know, and it was a foul and I got booked, so I am not trying to plead innocence, but it was a tap, it wasn’t anything nasty; the sort of tackle that happens all the time, both ways. That night, when I heard how it had worked out, I felt very bad and phoned to apologise but he wouldn’t really have it and ever since he has that look in his eye when we meet, and there is always a bit of jostling and shoving.

‘There is respect between the teams, though. Steven Gerrard always says how hard it is to play against us at our place and it is the same up there. Just a sea of red shirts on the pitch at times because they work so hard and put you under so much pressure. They are a horrible lot like that, but Steve? What a fantastic player. I watched him against Everton the other week and it was a complete performance, he was the driving force.

‘The pace he puts into a game is what I love. It can be going along at one tempo and he will just up it, like clicking his fingers.

‘When he was supposed to be coming to Chelsea, I was really excited. We would have been a great partnership and that big question, about playing together, would have been put to bed quite quickly had we worked together day in, day out.’

Also soon to be heading for the knackers yard, Lampard hopes, is the suggestion that Chelsea’s team is a spent force, old men on their last legs, exposed by United at Old Trafford and there for the taking at Anfield, if Liverpool get their act together.

‘I know it was being talked of as the end of an era after the United game,’ Lampard recalls. ‘I can understand it because coming off that pitch felt terrible and not like us. But sometimes you have to touch the bottom to come back up and recapture what you really are. Now we can attempt to disprove the criticism and I think we have turned that corner.

‘We are not too old to win the League. Yes, we’ve got players who are 30, but they are top players. Sir Alex Ferguson mentioned our age as a mind game pre-season and it caught on, but I am 30 and feel better than I’ve ever felt, fitter and more experienced. Look at boxing, these days 30 can be your peak.

‘Gianfranco Zola won Chelsea’s player of the year at 37. He was unbelievable. And how did Ryan Giggs play for Manchester United against us? Fantastic.

‘There have been two over-reactions this season. We were never going to be the runaway champions that people talked about and I don’t think the crisis was as bad as it was made out to be. Maybe we were winning games too comfortably and some players started taking things for granted.

‘If the edge goes from the way you train or how you go into a game mentally, that is when this League bites you and we got bit. At 1-0 down at Southend United, on a foggy, cold, horrible night, it could have got messy; but we dug in. Sometimes you have to be your harshest critic.

‘Now it’s a must that we get a good result at Liverpool. Not just to put a record straight but because, looking at the table, we genuinely cannot afford to go there and lose. We’ve put ourselves under pressure and it is time to react. It is down to us: we can win a trophy this season and, if not the League, then the Champions League or the FA Cup.”

Ah, the FA Cup. Watford versus Chelsea, or Big Frank versus Little Frank, now that Lampard Snr is a coach at Vicarage Road.

‘I’ve asked him to tell them to give me a bit of space,’ deadpans Lampard. ‘I said: ‘‘Dad, tell them I’m no threat’’. He said he’s told them to kick me up in the f****** air. And you know he is serious. Mum, if you are watching, you might want to avert your eyes for this one.’

Here are the results of the Personality Type Assessment. If you are like most people, you will be impressed with how accurately these paragraphs describe you.

Introvert, Sensor, Thinker, Perceiver (ISTP)
ISTPs represent between 4 and 6% of the U.S. population

ISTPs are typically quiet, realistic, independent, and highly pragmatic people and come across as objective, even-tempered and unflappable in almost all situations. ISTPs, while often people of few words, they do enjoy joking around with people they know fairly well. Direct, honest, and down-to-earth, ISTP’s typically prefer to skip a lot of theoretical analysis or future predictions in favor of getting right to the bottom line and the relevant facts and figures. They can be veritable storehouses of information on things they know well and understand. Because they are realists, they are able to capitalize well on available resources, which make them practical, with a good sense of timing. ISTPs have an innate understanding of how mechanical things work and are usually skilled at using tools. They tend to make logical and private decisions, stating things clearly and directly, just as they see them.

ISTPs Tend To Be:

• Able to work well independently with defined tasks & tangible products
• Keen observers; excellent memory for factual information
• Highly logical thinkers; able to bring order to confusing & recognizable facts
• Able to stay calm & cool in a crisis or under pressure
• Highly resourceful and pragmatic
• Great at identifying the most practical, simple solution to what may seem complex


Career Satisfiers
All people are most satisfied and successful when using their natural talents in an environment that is consistent with their personality preferences and values. Research shows that ISTPs are most satisfied by jobs that provide the following:

• Opportunities to use their logical reasoning skills to solve tangible problems
• Work that has practical applications & concrete, measurable results
• A work culture with minimal social politics
• An environment that allows them to juggle several projects, all with clear deadlines
• Opportunities to work independently, with a minimum of supervision, & where they do not have excessive supervisory responsibilities



So true, and exactly how I am. So so scary, that I can be profiled into 4 letters hahaha. I feel special, no.

I've waited for days to dedicate my 300th post to today's birthday boy XABI ALONSO!!!!!!! *Throws confetti*

HAPPY 27TH BIRTHDAY XABI!!!

Without whom xabierr.lj would have been impossible, here's my three hundredth post and three hundred loves for YOU!

❤❤❤ (X 100)

YAY.

'How is it that my straight brother can get a boyfriend and I can't?'

HAHA I love Hollyoaks.

Loves the sound of the crowd.
Loves the sound of the fans.
Loves the sound of the shouting.
Loves the sound of the ball-kicking.
Loves the blue and the green.
Loves the warm sunshine, rare of course!

Loves the game, loves the pace, loves the skill, loves the passion, loves the pride, loves the joy.

Hello, season.
Hello, Blues.
Hello, Chelsea.
Hello, West London. :)

I love you, John Terry. :)

Anyway, whether you like La Liga or not, THIS is a fantastic read. :D

Manchester United: Champions of England, Champions of Europe.

Chelsea: Champions of Hope, Champions of Faith, Champions of Belief, Champions of Pride, Champions of Spirit, Champions of Character, Champions of Determination, Champions of Overcoming, Champions of Passion, Champions of Teamwork, Champions of London, Champions of every single fans' heart.

We're the boys in royal blue, we're called the Pride of London
We'll always stand for Chelsea until the day is done
We will wear the blue with honour keep the blue flag flying high!