Top 10 sporting event/news/memory of 2012

Sorry but my sports interest is mainly footie and tennis! It was an interesting year for F1 too, i must admit. Anyways, here are my sports news (and sports related news) that i will remember 2012 for! In chronological order:-

1. Manchester City wins the Premier League (13 May 2012) - watched the last game live telecast with the wife who is a City fan. Great celebration in the end - stuff that dreams are made of!!!



2. Brendan Rodgers (1 June 2012) - so King Kenny was sacked. To be honest, while i'm a big fan of Kenny Dalglish, IMHP he just did not have it to manage a team in the 21st century. Brendan (who?) Rodgers - it is an interesting choice. Somehow, something deep inside tells me that in the long run, this may be a good decision. I hope my gut feeling is right!

3. Spain winning the Euro 2012 (1 July 2012) - I watched all their games and i absolutely enjoyed them, despite accusations of them being boring. They are indeed the best!!!

4. Wimbledon 2012 (8 July 2012) - Roger winning it for the 7th time!!!! And reclaiming the no. 1 spot in the process. he went on to hold it for a record 300 weeks!!!

5. Olympics 2012 in London - opening ceremony (27 July 2012) - stayed up all nite with the wife to catch this. Liked it very much. Very British!!! Rowan Atkinson stole the show for us!




6. Olympic Badminton Finals (5 August 2012) - this was memorable as we were at the Law Ball and a group of us disappeared as we all ran down to watch the climax outside Chili's restaurant. We stood outside there (some barefooted) with a huge group of strangers and cheered for Malaysia! We lost but what a wonderful experience!

7. Lance Armstrong stripped of all his titles (24 August 2012) - What a big news for me!!!! This caused me to stop wearing the yellow wristband that i have been wearing for possibly more than 10 years! It's not a Livestrong band but since it is yellow in colour, it is always associated with Lance Armstrong.

8. Hillsborough - Justice for the fans (12 September 2012) - the report came out that none of the Liverpool fans were responsible in any way for the disaster. Big, big news!

9. Chelsea - so many incidents!!!! Sacking of AVB, then winning the Champions League finals annonymously (heard about it much later!!!!!), sacking of DiMatteo, Benitez being booed... and Torres seems to be on fire again! Good for him!

10. Messi (22 December 2012) - he ends of this list and this year with 91 goals!!!! Brilliant!!!!!

 

Is the Hobbit better than LOTR?

I am comparing The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey with The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. In my view, the latter was better for the following reasons (not exhaustive, nor in any specific order. Warning: Spoiler alert!!!):-

1. Character development

There were some pretty good and interesting characters introduced in AUJ - and some were developed pretty well. Bilbo for instance, from the reluctant member of the team to being an important if not essential member.

But my complaint is that there were just too many people involved in this journey. 14 of them!!! I can't even remember all their names! Very little is known of some of them - just general stuffs. That is the dwarf who eats a lot. That was the wise one. That was the guy with the tattoo on his head.

Whereas at the end of FOTR, we knew all the members of the Fellowship very well.

2. Excitement

There were many exciting scenes in AUJ. And they were all pretty good. In fact, i must say it looked better than FOTR. But somehow, the excitement was not the nailbiting edge of the seat excitement. For example, the fight in the Mines of Moria was just brilliant!!! It was scary, it was thrilling. The Balrog was truly something that inflicts fear in everyone.

3. Heroic death

Yes, all 14 in AUJ survived to the end of the movie - altho if one or two did not, it really would not have bothered me (see no. 1 above). One of the best and memorable scenes in FOTR was the death of Boromir. Such sacrifice! And his last words - "I would have followed you - my brother... my captian... my king..."!!!

Which brings me to the next point...

4. Memorable lines

Sure, there were some good lines in AUJ - like Gandalf's "...remember this: true courage is about not knowing when to take a life, but when to spare one." But there were few and far between. dun get me started on the wonderful lines found in FOTR!!!


5. Comic relief

I found there were more funny moments in FOTR - thanks to Merry and  Pippin, and the banter between Legolas and Gimli. Can't remember any really funny parts in AUJ. Many scenes in AUJ may raise a smile and i do remember laughing out once or twice - but that was it.

6. Novelty

I guess Peter Jackson is a victim of his own success. When FOTR came out, i have never seen anything like that before!!! Now for AUJ, there were many "seen that before" moments.

7. Arwen

Enuf said. =)

(Pics obtained from various sites online)