Today at Knee Class, we had a mini soccer game again, as usual. Being the only woman never played a proper soccer game her whole life, and not to mention that only 1 of them is older than me, one might think that I would feel intimidated, but I had begun to enjoy it with the boys more with each game.

Usually I would be the goalkeeper/defender, because my team mates are way better in attacking and taking on defenders. Putting one of them at the goalmouth is a waste of talent, right? But today, one of the boys who just joined the Knee Class automatically stood between the goal posts. That gave me an opportunity to roam the field. So I just positioned myself in the attacking zone most of the time, because I know none of the boys would think it was necessary to mark an inexperienced auntie. So I was basically a free man (woman) most of the time.

Some time into the game, each team had scored 1 goal. A little later, our star player was charging towards the goal. I ran along a little on the right side of the field, anticipating a cross or pass. True enough, he crossed the ball over and all that was left to do was a tap to direct the ball in. I stuck out my left foot (left foot somemore!) and tapped the ball into the goal! It was a goal! The boys, my physiotherapist, the sports trainer, they couldn't believe it. They were applauding me and giving me high-fives. For that moment, I was on cloud nine.

About 5 minutes later, the game ended. I scored the winning goal for my team.

For a while, I haven't listened to as good a music as Damien Rice's. But alas, I found a gem.

It's the Original Soundtrack of the movie, Once. The singers on the soundtrack are also the lead characters in the movie - Glen Hansard, the frontman of popular Irish rock band The Frames, and Markéta Irglová, a Czech musician, songwriter and actress. Music in the soundtrack are mostly written by Hansard.

From the review in Amazon, it seems that the movie is very good too. But it hasn't been shown in Singapore nor could I find any DVD information on it.

Meanwhile, I'd probably play this album in my iPod over and over again for the next few weeks. This only proves that my theory is right - Irish make darn good music.

The Fall TV series are coming and while I'm excited about new seasons of our favourite TV shows, I'm also looking forward to some new ones.

I've watched a few Pre-air episodes (ah, the wonder of internet) of some of the new shows and they look really promising.

Bionic Woman
Description from TV.com:

Jaime Sommers is a young woman working as bartender and raising her teenage sister, Becca. When she is hit by a car and seriously injured. Her only hope becomes an experimental and top secret procedure. But this salvation comes at a high price.

Also starring, as Sarah Corvus - the first experiment which went wrong and is now back for some kind of vengeance - is Katee Sackhoff from Battlestar Galactica!

The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Description from TV.com:

The Terminator franchise arrives on TV with this serial drama. Set a year after the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day the series follows Sarah and John Connor as they hide from the authorities and Skynet's army of Terminators.

Also starring, as John Connor - Sarah Connor's son; the one that the terminators want to terminate - is Thomas Dekker from Heroes.

Pushing Daisies
Description from TV.com:

This romantic drama shows us the strange world of a man, Ned, who can bring dead people back to life through the power of his touch. The people he touches, however, can only stay alive for one minute, and if they don't die again, someone else nearby will die. Ned decides to use his ability to solve crime.

Meanwhile, if you can't wait for the Fall TV shows, do check out Mad Men and Damages. They had been airing for 2 weeks now.

Mad Men is set in the 60s and evolves around the people who work in an advertising agency. After watching so many shows about the current era and the future, it is refreshing to watch something of the past where men and women smoke like their lives depend on it. And who doesn't like to drink in the office during office hours?!

Damages stars Glen Close in a legal thriller. This is not Boston Legal. Think The Devil Wears Prada but in the legal world and without the laughs. The pilot episode got me hooked.

Google for the trailers of all these shows and I'm pretty sure you will agree with me.

Last week was my first Advance Knee Class. I was looking forward to it and at the same time feeling apprehensive. Looking forward because that meant that my physiotherapist was satisfied enough with my progress to put me into the class. Apprehensive because it would be tougher with lots of jumping and hopping which I suck at.

I saw some familiar faces. All of them except one were boys. All of them, except one were much younger than me. All of them had surgery before me. Some consolation if I didn't do as well, I thought. But we all have one thing in common -- we love our sports and that was what broke our knees.

Just doing the warm-up running up and down the field reduced me to a breathless, panting dog. God, my cardio fitness really deteriorated. It felt really weird running on the field again. It was my first time since my injury. I seemed to have lost all my speed, which I was pretty proud of pre-injury.

And after that, the trainer decided to have a mini-game of soccer.

!!!?!?!

Apparently, in the last Knee Class, the physiotherapist let the boys have a game of soccer and they loved it. So it was back by popular demand. After 5 minutes into the game, my knee wasn't very happy and gave me a warning. I had to stop. I could feel pain when I extended me leg into hyper-extension. So I was side-lined for the rest of the game and rest of the other exercises and had to be looked at by my physiotherapist. I felt so disappointed. Was I really not ready for Advance Knee Class?

The pain gradually subsided over the next few days and I continued with my strength training in the gym on my own, determined to do better in my next class.

Fast-forward to this afternoon. I went for my 2nd Advance Knee Class, feeling even more apprehensive than last week. The trainer, my physiotherapist and some of the boys all asked me how my knee felt. Ok, I think, was my replied.

We started with core exercises. Crunches and plank hold. Not too bad. Then it was strength exercises. Squats, lunges and the weight machines. No problem so far. Then we headed to the field. First, it was warm-up around the soccer field with running forward, backward and side-ways. I was the last one to come back as predicted. Then it was agility stuff - hopping and more running. Knee was still feeling ok. No complaints yet. Then the boys insist of finishing off the class with a soccer game again! The trainer and physiotherapist said I could sit out if I didn't want to play.

I want to try to play.

But I wanted to cautious, so I chose to be the goalkeeper. After 15 minutes, the game ended and my knee still hadn't complaint. I saved a few shots and my team even scored 2 goals. I had fun and I think my knee was having fun too since it didn't complaint. I think it got a bit more used to what was expected out of it. The trainer and physiotherapist remarked that I seemed to have done much better than last week. I couldn't hide the glee on my face.

Screenshot by Kulturstau.de

I was surfing on my iBook when it suddenly froze. No warning, no nothing. It just froze, and 30 seconds later, I got the dreaded Kernel Panic message - AKA the Mac's version of Blue Screen of Death. So I restarted as instructed by the message but each time it got to the login screen, this message appeared. I tried booting to the Safe Mode, which was ok, but I couldn't figure out what caused the error. Eventually, I had to do the drastic thing - reformat.

After that, I was able to boot normally and get the iBook to work. However, as soon as I tried to turn on the Airport, the dreaded message appeared.

I scoured the web only to find that it seems to be a common problem with the iBooks and it's a hardware problem. The Airport card is integrated in the logic board, which most likely means that to rectify it, the logic board has to be changed. I shuddered to think of the cost, since its warranty is over.

For now, I'll live with the problem, until I'm willing to get a new Macbook or something. It just isn't worth to get it repaired something that is a couple of generations behind the current Macbooks. I can use the Ethernet to get Internet connection. I'll also probably get one of those cheap USB Wireless adaptor.