Vieira, An autobiography

Genevive & Jeff knew i was an Arsenal fan. Once i went to their place and they gave me a nice present. Vieira, An autobiography. A book with an amazing cover, paper quality and binding. I am not very big on reading but when it comes to biographies i think i can finish a book pretty quick. Took me three days to finish the book. I believe you learn a lot from the biographies of successful men & women. You get to know what to do to succeed in life.

Vieira tells about his childhood at Senegal. He migrated to France while he was 7. Never had shoes for kicking the ball but always was kicking something. Bottle or anything that rolls. The book tells how he made his way to the local clubs near Paris. One after the other. Cannes was the one he mentions again and again. He came on the surface when he was contact by Milan AC out of the blue. He did go to Milan but never made it big. Stayed for one season and played only a couple of games. Which kid would not like to be in Milan AC soccer team ? But then he met Wenger who asked him to come to Arsenal. Wenger was coaching in J-League at that time but was asked by Arsenal to come to Highbury as a manager. Vieira also had the options of joining Ajax and couple of other big clubs at that time. He made his choice - Gunners. He came to Arsenal in 1995-96 & stayed there for another 9 years.

He played with the likes of Dennis Bergkamp, Marc Overmars, Davor Suker, David Seaman, Tony Adams, Nicolas Anelka, Ray Parlour etc. They won a cup & Epl double in 98-99 ! This is when the amazing arsenal started transforming. Time went by and players kept coming and going but Vieira stayed and he was selected the captain after Tony Adams retirement. The best days were yet to come when the Arsenal "INVINCIBLE" came into being. They won the league unbeaten, 49 games in a row which was a new record. Greatest Arsenal team of the history with players like Thierry Daniel Henry, Denis Bergkamp, Robert Pires, Sylvian Wiltord, Sol Campbel, Lehman, Ashley Cole, Lauren, Kolo Toure, Freddie Lundjberg. They were really great.

Then he talks about his transfer talks. He denies all the talks before the Real talks in 2004. He says all was pure fabrication until Real approached him & he was all set to go when on the last day of the transfer window he declined. He stayed the whole season but just to leave the next season for Juventus. in juventus he stayed for one season in which they won the Italian league but they were relegated due to match fixing scandals. Good thing was Juve played Arsenal in the Champs League knock out phases & Arsenal rupped them apart. It was Vieira vs. Febregas. Young spaniard won obviously scoring a goal as well. He is playing with Inter after Juve went to Serie-B.

He had great success with French National team (les blues). He is a world cup winner in 1998, a euro winner in 2000. France was WC finalist in 2006 where they lost to Italy on the Penalties, yeah the great Forza Azzuris.

Over all a nice book, Highly recommended for an Arsenal fan and one who wants to learn about Arsenal's history. Also recommended for Manu haters, as vieira tells Manyoo my favorite enemy :-) He thinks Van nistelrooy is a cheat and a coward. Although he appreciated and enjoyed the tussles with Keane & Scholes in the midfield battle for glory.

Joburg; a mugging hell or a muggers heaven

I had heard a lot about this & it so happens that my corporate informed me about this while i started my jounrey to South Africa. It was my first time in the African continent so i was not sure what to expect. I had an amazing 78 days in Suid-Afrikaanse (Afrikaans) it was the 17th day of May, Year 2007 it happened, which i feared.

I left work around 1700 hrs that day. Jeff did me a favor and he dropped me off at the Thorpe street so that i dont have to walk all the way with my laptop to the parking. I drove my car out from the parking. Meanwhile i placed my laptop behind the driver's seat infront of the back seat, so it was kind of hidden. I drove all the way to the market street, which happens to be the busiest street in JHB CBD with all major corporate offices in that area.

I stopped at one of the red traffic signals (called robots in SA). It must be around 1740 by now. My window was a little down so i could get some fresh air. That costed me :-) Next thing i know, there are 4 guys standing by my car- one put his hand through the window and turned the ignition off. Next i saw my car key thrown to the floor. Now the interesting part when they turned the ignition off, VW automatically opens the locks (something which they should consider). With all the doors open i am sitting there buckled up with the seat belt on, unable to move.

First i thought i had broken some traffic rule or something so they wanted to make sure i was punished, but NO next thing i hear is money money !! fone fone .. I believe they dint know english. Zulu maybe whatever ! They took my wallet !! I asked the guy who was drunk and smelling like anything to take the money but leave my Credit cards & driving License etc, which he did. Removed the money and threw the Wallet out. I still have blood on the Credit cards :) Now usually while driving i place my Mobile phone under my thighs :) which saved it. Thanks God it din't ring around that time. It was just this time when they started leaving. One guy who was standing by the left back seat window saw the Dayymmnn Laptop :( He asked the other guy; they picked it and that when they left. They din't run - they just walked - thats confidence man ! I parked the car pick up the VW car manual from the road, a couple of CDs and what other stuff i could pick up and left. I called the emergency police at 1746, 10(111) which never came till 1930. In the meanwhile Mohammad was kind enough to drive all the way from his home to CBD to see if i was alright.

We went to the Police head quarters on the Commisioner street by Fordsburg to make a complaint. We see half dead people with blood dripping and nobody to look after them. After some 10 minutes they called us & started the process. And i dont want to talk about that as the guy dint know what IT is and dint know the spellings of Computer :-) Anyways it ended and now I have a case number.

I AM STILL NOT SURE WHICH WAS WORSE GETTING MUGGED OR REPORTING THE COMPLAINT :)