Liverpool 4 - 0 Sheffield United

Last Saturday night I stayed up late - accompanied by Nadiah, my 9 year old daughter - to watch Liverpool play Sheffield United. I don't make it a habit of going to bed late nowadays. Not since I joined the club for middle-aged men diagnosed with hypertension. But that night stayed up late I did. And it was well worth it.

For not only the Reds scored four goals - albeit two was from the penalty spot, but it was also the night when their newest player was unvield. Stand up and take your bow Javier Mascherano! You did well on your debut lad...

Mascherano is just the sort of player around which the Liverpool Football Club should have been built. He is hardworking and selfless. He also seems to be enjoying himself on the field, blending in well with Liverpool old favourites such as Carragher and Gerrard.

With the new stadium soon to be built, and two new owners (yes, two not just one!) in the form of Hicks and Gillete the American millionaires, things are finally looking up for the Reds. Its back to glory days, folks...hopefully.

Dialek Orang Parit

My father hails from Kampung Selat, Layang-Layang Kiri near the town of Parit in Perak. Parit is of course a smallish town located on the banks of Sungai Perak. Those people residing in the areas surrounding Parit, an area roughly stretching from Tanjung Belanja right down to Kampung Gajah on both sides of the Sungai Perak, is loosely called "Orang Parit".

They are quite distinctive in the dialect of Malay language they use in daily conversation.

For example, many words ending in the vowel 'a' would not take the sound of 'a' as in bahasa baku, nor the 'a' as it would sound in the Johor dialect for the word "apa". Instead "apa" would sound more like "ape" wherein the 'e' here would make the second syllable sound like the English word"pair".

Where does this unique dialect originates from? Why is it so different from other dialects even from within Perak itself? How did it evolve to be so? Was it an influence from abroad? Like, maybe, the forefathers of the people here came from across the Straits of Malacca?

I do not have the answers. I am not a linguist nor an anthropologist. But those questions really do raise the curiosity in me. Does anybody know where I can find some answers?