Nicol David’s focus was only on retaining her CIMB Malaysian Open squash title but thanks to the Netherland’s Vanessa Atkinson’s shock loss in the quarter-finals, Nicol is back as World No 1. Vanessa, who wrested the World No 1 ranking from Nicol after the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in March, was shown the exit by Tania Bailey of England. Tania won 9-3, 9-0, 9-2. Nicol had earlier booked her place in the semi-finals when she beat World No 7 Madaline Perry of Ireland 9-2, 9-1, 9-4 at the National Squash Centre in Bukit Jalil yesterday.

According to Women’s International Squash Players Association (WISPA) executive director Andrew Shelley, Nicol only had to finish ahead of Vanessa in the Malaysian Open to regain her No 1 ranking. However, Nicol will only be officially ranked No 1 next month. Way to go, Nicol!

As an aside, Nicol is my youngest sister’s god sister. Both my dad and Nicol’s mum were colleagues in the same secondary school years back. When Nicol was a kid, her mum used to bring her to our house and she plays with my youngest sister. I was in Singapore studying at that time. When young Nicol played squash with my sister, she was way too fast for my sister even at that age and despite being smaller in size. And Nicol would ask my youngest sister to state how many points she wants before each school tournament in Penang. And Nicol would bring more points than my sister’s quote. Those were the days of squash and friendship.

PRICKLY PATIENT: A short-beaked echidna (or the spiny anteater) named Cess blowing a bubble from her nose while in the care of a zoo keeper at the Wildlife Clinic at Taronga Zoo in Sydney on 25th July 2006. Cess suffered a broken foot and severe cuts to her nose that required expert veterinary surgery after a road accident. Isn’t she cute?

Samsung has yet another list of goodies for music lovers – the YP-Z5F, YP-U2 and YP-F2 portable digital audio players. Weighing only 58 grams, the YP-Z5F comes with an aluminium chassis that Samsung claims prevents scratches and smudges to the player’s 1.8 inches LCD screen.

The YP-Z5F comes in storage capacities of 1GB (RM599), 2GB (RM 799) and 4GB (RM999). It allows users to store both their music and digital photographs with a rated battery life of 35 hours of music playback.

YP-Z5F has a touchpad interface that makes menu navigation a breeze and users can customise their user interface background with any JPEG file. Apart from playing music files, the YP-Z5F comes with FM radio and voice recording functions.

The YP-U2 and the YP-F2 are billed as super-compact players. The YP-U2 is no bigger than a USB thumbdrive and is available in two storage capacities – 512MB (RM319) and 1GB (RM459).

Fashion-conscious users can opt for the YP-F2 which can be used as a pendant or hung on a belt loop. The 512MB model costs RM369 while the 1GB model is priced at RM519. (extracted from The Star)

It has been announced in the press by Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi that 880 projects worth about RM15 billion will be tendered under the first rollout of the 9th Malaysia plan. Details on the tenders  would be advertised through the local media and through the Malaysian Government website at www.gov.my, through the PWD website at www.kkr.gov.my  and through the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) website at www.cidb.gov.my

The full list of the projects could be accessed through the official website of the Prime Minister’s office at www.pmo.gov.my and the Economic Planning Unit’s website at www.epu.jpm.my

This will be good news to the contractors especially those depending on the government for projects.