January 19, 2015 | Awake & Dreaming

I admit it – I’m a lazy slob. I do not do proper cleaning of my stuff in my room. Well there’s a maid who comes in on weekdays and every alternate day she sweeps the floor. But overall I do not organize my stuff properly and do very little in the cleaning stuff bit. Also I’m very bad at clearing out old & unused stuff. Case in point :

That top layer was filled with dust ridden old clothes – old clothes that are too tight for me and which I haven’t worn since 2007-early 2008. Yet did I thrown them, send them for charity pickup or recycling? No! I just left them in there to smell and collect dust till this morning. I finally have decided that I am going to make some changes in my life and that starts with my stuff. I am planning to get a couple of bookshelves for my room and in order to do that I have to do some reorganizing. I have this old steel cupboard and the built in cupboard. Once I get rid of the junk from my built in cupboard and clean it up, I can move some stuff from the steel cupboard into the empty spaces of my built in and then remove the steel one.

That frees up space in my room to get the bookshelves that I want to get and arrange them in such a way that they don’t take up too much space in my room so it doesn’t look too crowded. I have some plans to display not just my books but also some knick knacks and collectibles that I have and plan to get. It’s high time I made my outlook reflect the interests that I have and not just keep things cultured in one closed place just because of some limitations imposed on me and also self imposed.

So here is the before and after of the main layer of clothes like shirts and pants. The top layer was mostly for underwear and hankies. I’ve also kept a couple of knick-knacks and some files, including hard copies of my resume and bank stuff in it. The bottom layer has a lot of junk and I need to sort them out soon as well. So the time has come for a new computer chair (perhaps even a new table) and some book shelves. Let’s see what happens. This will take some time. I only plan to do it slowly over the next couple of months. Here’s the video.

Yes an away win, finally against one of the top 3 clubs. Arsenal’s first win at City since October 2010 halted City’s 12 game unbeaten league run. Arsenal finally came up with a Plan B, sat back and defended enmasse and when they got a chance they counter-attacked in style and came out deserved winners. Santi Cazorla scored a goal and created another as Arsenal ended Manchester City’s 12-match unbeaten league run and damaged their title hopes. Spain playmaker Cazorla converted a first-half penalty after Vincent Kompany fouled Nacho Monreal. Arsenal added a second after the break when Cazorla’s free-kick picked out Olivier Giroud and the France striker headed in from close range.

The result left City five points behind Premier League leaders Chelsea. At Etihad Stadium on Sunday, it seemed that Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger finally realised he cannot play his usual open style of attacking football when his team are away from home against the best teams in the Premier League. Instead, the Gunners were set up to defend and keep a clean sheet. Right from the start, there were times when all 11 of their players were defending deep in City’s half. Chile forward Sanchez, who has scored 12 goals for Arsene Wenger’s side this season, was well shackled by the City defence. Instead it was Cazorla, 30, who was the game’s outstanding attacking player and it was fitting that he was to have such an influential role with both goals.

Monreal played a one-two with Giroud and the Spain left-back went down after his run was blocked by Kompany, who looked rusty in his first match since 13 December having recovered from a hamstring injury. Cazorla sent the spot-kick low to Joe Hart’s left and even though the City goalkeeper dived the correct way he was unable to get a hand on it. Despite City’s pressure, it was Wenger’s side who scored next when Cazorla lifted a free-kick into the penalty area and Giroud escaped his marker and took advantage of a disorganised City defence to head past Hart.

This was a game in which the defense was brilliant with Bellerin & Monreal in particular who deserve plaudits but Per Mertesacker & Laurent Koscielny were solid as well. But Francis Coquelin who has been solid & impressive since rejoining Arsenalafter a loan spell at Charlton, showed us (and I hope Wenger too) just what we can do with a good defensive/holding midfielder playing just in front of the back four. How we have needed that so badly in the last couple of years and what a difference it makes. Carzola was Man of the match for me by Coquelin was a close second.