Had friends over for dinner last night and Vyanne cooked up some pretty amazing stuff. First course was a potato, leek and fennel soup, served with a poached egg in the middle topped off with truffle shavings. The second course pictured here is pan seared duck breast with a mushroom, ricotta ravioli, mushrooms in butter, served with a side of mustard and pickled onions, topped off with more shaved truffle.

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Watched bits of the World Cup final this morning at 430am. Like the semi final between Spain and Germany, I only watched the first half, before going back to sleep. I’d wake up in between winks to see the score, and in the 89th minute when the score was still zero all, I just decided to go back to sleep. I still recall the 2006 final between Italy and France, I guess with any matches where you are not supporting the team, you need to be watching with friends just to keep up with the atmosphere. Had wanted Holland to beat Spain, only because Spain was mainly a Barcelona team in disguise (half the team sheet was filled with Barcelona team members).

Not that the match wasn’t exciting, it was more a war of attrition than anything else. There were so many yellow cards dished out, and De Jong’s kungfu kick against Alonso would have been a red card were it not for the occasion as a final. A red card was dished out in extra time, and I guess the Dutch played a little too cautiously and failed to convert their chances. I guess the better team won in the end, but the agony for the Dutch, only because they’ve been in 3 finals and have not won it once.

It’s been a fascinating World Cup, with teams like Argentina, Germany and Uruguay really showing the flare in football. Then there’s Paul the Octopus, correctly predicting the outcome of 8 matches in the World Cup. Now it’s just another 4 years to the next World Cup!

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Setting up schedules at work to adhere to when I get back. It’s only because there’s so much I want to do when I get home that one can get sidetracked. Managed to cook dinner, watch some tele, play a couple of rounds of the Starcraft 2 Beta and banging out this post now. Heh, next up is doing an hour of study (hopefully) before turning into bed. With the short hours I slept this morning, it’s a wonder I’m not dozing off already.