Yesterday saw the opening of the NBA with the Lakers rallying past the Suns and the Bulls, with Ben Wallace and Kirk Hinrich, beating the NBA defending champs, Heat, by 40+ points.

Funny but it seems thatI now enjoy watching football games more than basketball. I saw the last part of the Man U game against Copenhagen where Manchester lost 0-1 and the remaining few minutes of the Arsenal game vs CSKA Moscow where Arsenal was forced to draw.

I learned the intricacies an offside violation from an Indonesian while in Hanoi and I am now able to appreciate more the game of football. Football is such a universal game that a person of any nationality loves the game. I read from wikipedia that Filipinos were among the first Asians to play the game but because of lack of support we have fallen behind our Asian neighbors in the sport of football or soccer.

I love watching the game because of the discipline of the players. Booters are not supposed to grab/ touch the ball with their hands except for the goal keeper and other players during throw ins. The difficulty in scoring a goal adds to the excitement of waiting for a score.

I'm now more glued to the television watching the Champion's League than the NBA or PBA.

Spent a week in Hanoi and had a great time admiring the place and the people. My flight to Hanoi was via Saigon and I had a 5 hour layover in Hochiminh. Vietnam Airlines was so kind to provide us free dinner while waiting for our domestic flight to Hanoi. I met in Hochiminh airport a Filipino who's in charge of product and development of footwear that they sell in Vietnam. Upon disembarking from Hanoi Airport, we took the same taxi going to his hotel (Fortuna) and Sofitel, where I was booked, and shared the fare amounting to 200k dong. I met some old faces in the meeting and some new people involved in C7 planning. Each morning I would walk along the lake near the hotel to get some exercise. It's so hard to cross the streets in the Hotel area since there are many motorbike-riding Vietnamese who can hit you from any side (front, back, left and right) of the road and the traffic lights are off.

The four-day meeting went by so fast and the next day was spent in Halong bay. The place was nature's wonder and anybody would admire the 1000+ plus islands around the sea. We had our lunch on our way back to the boat station with fresh seafood of all varieties served

Vietnam may still be a third world country but their economic growth has been fast and may overtake us in the very near future.

Watched the Purefoods-TNText game last night and saw the Hotdogs struggled in the first half. They trailed by 20 at halftime and they were true to their pre-season form. James Yap missed a lot of his jumpers and Kerby and Mark were visibly out of form.

During halftime, we had to leave the house to serve in our ministry. We sang three songs and I was asked to stay a bit since one of the facilitators was late. We immediately left the place as soon as the guy arrived and and quickly drove back home.

I caught the tailend of the game and Purefoods was behind only by 5 points. They eventually lost steam catching up with TNT and lost the match, 108-99.

Purefoods played badly much like the way we rendered our songs last night (sintunado).

In one sports column, it was reported that Pido Jarencio used to warm the bench under Norman Black's San Miguel team when Pido was still a rookie. Today, Pido proved to Norman that young players and a rookie coach can also win a basketball championship.

UST despite the odds beat Ateneo, 76-74 to win this year's the UAAP crown. Pido never lost confidence on his ward and his players awarded him with championship on his rookie year. This may not be the last for the former Ginebra Gin king.

Cheers to the UST Growling Tigers.

UST tied the series with Ateneo last Satuday. They go head to head today for the championship .

Schumacher wins Chinese Grand Prix . . .

No electricity, no water, no cable for most households during the weekends. . .

PBA opened season. Ginebra beats Welcoat . . .

Typhoon Milenyo struck hard yesterday. Our boss had to send us home early to avoid the rush. There was no electricity in whole of Luzon and that left us with nothing much to do but stay in our house and wait for the storm to calm down. The storm lasted for about 6 hours, from around 9 am to 3 pm.

At around 3:30 pm when we were about to prepare our snacks we found out that we already ran out of LPG gas. With no cash left in our pockets, we drove our car and looked for an ATM machine to withdraw cash. Unluckily for us, all ATM machines were out of service or not available. The streets in our subdivision was a mess. They were filled with fallen trees, billboards and all kinds of fallen debris. The building were we used to have our store had only one billboard left.

People were starting to clean the mess and remove the obstructions in the streets. We wanted to sip coffee at Mocha Blends but the coffee shop was also closed so we decided to head back home. Luckily for us we were able to borrow some cash from our household help and got the gas dealer deliver LPG in our place.

The next few hours were spent listening to an AM station waiting for some announcements on the suspension of classes for the following day. Over the radio, the metro manila mayors had a field day bragging about the assistance they have extended to their constituents.

It's been a while since we got hit directly by a typhoon and I thank God for giving protection to our home and loved ones.

malapit na ang opening ng pba at nadagdagan na ito ng isang team, ang welcoat dragons. sa diaryo, malakas daw ang ginebra gawa ng additions nila ng players particularly si hatfield. pero it has been proven before na a collection of superstars does not make a good team. tingnan nyo lang ang pinakahuling usa basketball team, superlakas to, lebron, d-wade, carmelo, howard all talented millionaires and yet natalo sa greece.

yong favorite team ko, purefoods hotdogs, defending all-filipino champions, mukang di maganda ang pinakita nung pre-season. pero the team is almost intact and with the addition of boyet bautista who was a key member of the letran knights the team might still contend for the championship.

other teams that i expect to play well are san miguel, redbull, and alaska. we shall also see what kenny william can do with sta lucia, and if arvin santos can bring his game to fedex.

it will be a long conference and most coaches believe that the health of the players will spell difference on how the teams will fare.

Ateneo up 1-0

Kramer scored on an undergoal basket as the time expired to give Ateneo a 1-0 lead in their best of three series with UST. Prior to Kramer's field goal, UST's Evangelista hit a medium range shot to give UST a 1-point lead with 1 second remaining in the game. Norman Black called a time out and devised the final play which was exceptionally executed by the Blue Eagles.

Ateneo goes for the championship in Game 2.

San Beda beat PCU for the NCAA title courtesy of the Nigerian Ekwe, this year's rookie-MVP. He almost turned out to the be goat in the final game but fortunately for the Red Lions PCU did not have enough time to overcome San Beda.

This afternoon Pido Jarencio's Growling Tigers will try to upset Norman Black's Blue Eagles. The Tigers didn't have much of a chance going into the final four but because of their grit and determination they reached the semifinals and were able to beat the Warriors 2-0 to advance to the UAAP finals.

Will they continue their run and win the UAAP men's basketball championship? Watch the game and find out for yourself.