Chp 874. Dobby's journal: Hello Mizoram!

Woof woof and welcome back to my blog.

Ok fine, pappa Kima's blog. But my update.

Let's pick up from where we left off last week.

As I mentioned in my previous post, mommy Lalani had decided to send me home to Mizoram so that I could live a happy life at pappa Kima's farm.

Mommy Lalani and pappa Kima spent a lot of time looking for a service to send me to Mizoram from Dehradun. They called up many people.

One of the services Pappa Kima found was "Carry My Pet" based in Delhi. Pappa Kima spoke to this person called Shariq (8929919756) and he was a really nice guy. He gave pappa Kima a good discount too, costing a total of INR 66,592 to deliver me from Dehradun to Guwahati (inclusive of air freight, road transit, documentations, pickup, food, service charges and other applicable taxes) with INR 18,600 refundable upon returning the cage.

However, the problem was that "Carry My Pet" could transport me only up to Guwahati airport. Mommy and pappa had to make their own arrangement to ship me from there to Aizawl, which was not possible for them.

Finally, mommy Lalani found another service called "Global Petcab" based in Bangalore. They were not only able to deliver across the Northeastern states but had many experiences in doing so. Their active facebook page also had a lot of testimonies.

Mommy Lalani spoke to this sweet lady called Jaspreet Kaur (8050653543) from "Global Petcab" and the total cost of doing a complete door-to-door delivery service from Dehradun to Aizawl came to INR 70,000.

And so, "Global Petcab" was hired to take me to my new home.

I was really going to miss everything about Dehradun.

Like I mentioned in my previous post, a sweet gentleman came to mommy Lalani's house at 4 in the morning and picked up me in a nice car.

I bid a sad farewell to mommy Lalani and Dehradun. Goodbye macaques, goodbye princess, goodbye Anjali aunty, thank you all for the wonderful time.

From Dehradun, my handler drove me straight to Delhi airport. I puked quite a lot on the way as I get motion-sickness on long-distance drives.

Mommy Lalani said it's because I almost died when I was a baby and that my tummy was very bad, hence the reason why I still cannot travel long-distance without puking.

"Global Petcab" was in continuous touch with mommy Lalani throughout the journey. They even created this WhatsApp group which consisted of mommy Lalani, Jaspreet aunty and the different handlers who were in charge of me. Our locations and activities were updated to the group in real-time.

I mean, I really didn't think it was necessary for the handler to take a photo of me every time I peed or pooed on the way, but if that makes mommy Lalani worry less, I am happy about it.

At Delhi airport, my handler did all the necessary paperwork like processing my tickets, documents, certificates etc, and after that, this nice doctor who was stationed at the airport appeared and examined me for some time. Finally, he said everything was in order and then gave me an injection. I was starting to feel sleepy.

They put me in a large cage with water and food after that.

To be honest, I was a bit scared to be put inside that cage, but somehow I didn't protest much as I was already feeling very drowsy and tired.

I remember people carrying me across a very large stretch of road and putting me inside this very large vehicle. I saw people getting inside the vehicle from a different entrance but it wasn't like any other vehicle I had seen before in Dehradun. It had wheels but it also had wings like the ducks I used to chase near WII lake. So weird.

They carefully placed me inside that long cylindrical vehicle and that was all I could remember. I fell into a deep and peaceful sleep after that.

When I woke up, I felt this bitter taste inside my mouth and my tummy felt strange. I was still feeling groggy and light-headed. A bunch of people were carrying my cage away from that long cylindrical vehicle.

I was thinking, "Make up your damn minds, hoomans, you've just put me inside that thing, and now you're taking me outside again? What's wrong with y'all?"

Suddenly, this nice man appeared in front of my cage and said, "Hello Dobby, my name is Prince. Welcome to Guwahati!"

Guwahati? Whoaah, that was fast! How long was I asleep?

It was another long drive from Guwahati airport to the city. I was starting to feel better after drinking some water and eating a few biscuits Prince gave me.

We spent the rest of the day applying for ILP and other required documentation. Mommy Lalani was continuously checking my progress on the WhatsApp group.

There was a slight problem with my transportation because apparently there was this issue between Assam and Mizoram where lives were unfortunately lost, and so the border check-gates and inter-state travel were extremely scrutinized.

Mommy Lalani called up many of her contacts and finally, we were able to enter Mizoram by nightfall. A big thanks to the LO of Guwahati Mizoram House, the DC of Kolasib district and the Vetenirary officer of Vairengte for assuring us a seamless passage into Mizoram.

It was around 15 hours of travel from Guwahati to Aizawl by road, and I ended up puking a lot on the way too. But Prince understood my situation and we would occasionally stop along the way so that I could take a breather and also relieve myself.

The fact that the roads in Mizoram were super winding made it worse for me. I kept puking until there was nothing left to puke out. It was also raining heavily in Mizoram, and so with the windows rolled up, Prince and our driver had to bear the smell of my vomit the entire way. I really feel sorry for them.

Finally, we reached mommy Lalani's house in Aizawl by afternoon! Hello Mizoram!

It was really nice to meet uncle Tesawma and uncle Ruata. They already had another dog called Maggie, who didn't really like me at first. And so they kept me on leash at the veranda. I felt sad, but at the same time I knew mommy Lalani was reaching home the next day too, so I was happy.

Overall, I was extremely tired from the journey but in the end, it was all worth it. Mizoram is so beautiful!

A big thanks to "Global Petcab" for taking such good care of me. If you want to send your doggos or cattos to a different location, please do use their service.

Pappa Kima would also like to add this information he recently learnt too that apparently in India, layover for pet transportation is extremely expensive. That was the only reason why mommy Lalani could transport me to Guwahati because there's a direct flight from Delhi to Guwahati.

Otherwise, if I were to take a connecting flight from Kolkata to Guwahati, it would have been double the cost, because all processes like fitness certificates, freight charges, medication etc had to be done again!

To keep it simple in dog-mathematic, it costs 100 chewy bones for me to travel from Delhi to Guwahati via direct flight, but it will cost 200 chewy bones for me to travel from Delhi to Guwahati via Kolkata layover!

So complicated naw? No wonder hoomans don't seem to advance much. :)

Anyway, pappa Kima hopes that you'll find this information useful next time you want to transport a beloved pet.

I'll update this blog again about my experiences in Mizoram next, so please do visit soon again. Until then everyone, woof woof.

Chp 873. Dobby's journal: Leaving Dehradun.

Hello and woof woof. My name is Dobby and I will be taking over my pappa Kima's blog occasionally from now on, so I hope you visit this blog regularly for my exclusive updates.

Trust me, my posts will be much more interesting than pappa's updates.

So, where do I start?

This is so exciting!

Well, for starters, I am a 1-year-old "local" breed. Some of you may also refer to me as an "Indian" or "Desi" dog, while others use more distasteful words like "stray" dog, but the correct term is actually an "Indian pariah dog".

Yup, that's what I am. A proud Indian pariah dog. :)

I never knew my real mommy and daddy, all I remember was coming into this world with a lot of pain. There were just dirt, hunger and diseases all around me, and I thought I would not survive my first week of existence, until mommy Lalani saw me dying at a roadside and rescued me!

She took me home from the streets of Dehradun and slowly nursed me back to health. She inserted all sorts of pointy pins into my body and made me eat many bitter tablets. She painstakingly cleaned me up completely and for the first time in my life, I realized those worms and other creatures attached to my body were actually not supposed to be there at all!

It took around a month for me to completely recover and mommy Lalani was always there by my side to take care of me. Soon I was able to sit up on my own and even start running around.

It was then that I learnt mommy Lalani had named me "Dobby" after this House Elf character from Harry Potter. But I think I look much better than him. What do you think?

Mommy Lalani treated me like a royal prince. She said something about "Covid-19" and that the reason she could give me all her time at home was because of the ongoing lockdown. I didn't understand what that was but I was so glad she could give me all her attention.

Sometimes she would scold me when I was naughty, but in my defence, all I wanted to do was play with things, and is it my fault that they get destroyed so easily? Humans should make things more durable, I swear.

She also scolded me when I played in my favourite mud. Such a killjoy right?

But most of the time mommy Lalani loved me, and I love her so much in return.

However, the "Covid-19 lockdown" that mommy Lalani had talked about was soon over. It was time for her to start travelling for work again and that was sad.

As she had to regularly travel for a week or two, she left me with aunty Anjali whenever she was away. Even though I love spending time with all the other doggos there, I miss mommy Lalani the most.

There was this one time mommy Lalani came back home from one of her long trips, and when she came to pick me up from aunty Anjali's place as usual, there was something different about her. She was happy and excited to see me, just as I was, but there was this new sadness inside her.

It was then that I learned mommy Lalani's own mommy had gone to a better place. I cuddled with her as much as I could, hoping to return the love that she had given me when I was almost dead.

Soon it was decided that mommy Lalani would send me home to Mizoram to live with pappa Kima because of her continuous work trips, as it was also getting expensive to put me in other people's care.

I hadn't met pappa Kima yet but mommy Lalalni was always on the phone with him every day, morning, noon and night, so I guessed he must be a good guy.

Pappa Kima would regularly order nice chewey bones for me all the way from Mizoram. He even gifted me a lovely cake on my birthday (although I only got to eat one small piece and mommy Lalani ate the rest).

I was really looking forward to meeting him. But I was going to miss all the time I spent with mommy Lalani, including all the daily evening walks she took me around the WII campus.

Mommy Lalani assured me that at Pappa Kima's farm, I wouldn't even need to be harnessed and that I could run around free as a bird everywhere. That sounded very nice.

However, mommy Lalani told me that there are no macaques to chase around and tease back in Mizoram. I was ok with that. I was actually starting to get bored with them.

Before sending me to my new home, mommy Lalani did the final steps of preparing me for the journey, like giving me my second dose of vaccinations and also snipping my balls off. :(

I miss my balls.

Finally, once I was healed (ball-less but still with a lot of balls), the dreaded day arrived.

Time to say goodbye to my dear mommy Lalani. We both didn't sleep properly that night. I could hear mommy Lalani crying in the dark. Thankfully, because of her cry, she couldn't hear me crying either.

The next morning before dawn, a sweet gentleman arrived at her doorstep and he whisked me away.

And just like that, it was goodbye Dehradun, goodbye mommy Lalani.

I'll end this post for now, as pappa Kima is giving me the looks because I'm taking over his computer for too long. Be sure to visit again to read about my long journey home and my experience with Mizoram.

Until then, everyone, woof woof.

Chp 872. WhatsApp backup recovery FAILED.

In my previous post I wrote about how WhatsApp can automatically delete your account if you're inactive for more than 45 days.

After my phone conked, I bought a new phone, but I wanted to recover my old WhatsApp local data before installing WhatsApp on my new phone. Eventually, I spent more than 3 months trying to recover it and finally gave up.

When I installed WhatsApp on my new phone and tried to sync my old Google Drive backup, I discovered that WhatsApp automatically deletes your account (hence deleting everything including your Google Drive backup) if you install WhatsApp on a new device using the same number after being inactive for more than 45 days!

Such a tremendous loss for me... :(

So, yeah, I'm starting as a completely fresh user on WhatsApp again.

Anyway, in this post, I want to share my attempt to recover my local backup from my dead phone. :D

Some of you may wonder why I took more than 3 months trying to fix my phone. The reason is simple - Bloody Corona.

Mizoram, unlike other states in India, had seen the strictest lockdown restrictions in the country. Ever since the second wave hit India, Mizoram had been under lockdown almost the entire time. And so, due to that, it was not possible to take my phone to a repair shop.

I decided to order the required parts from Amazon and tried to fix it myself.

That's when I met the biggest hurdle.

Amazon delivery to Mizoram was fluctuating between "close" and "open" during the past 4-5 months. One week we could place our order, and the next week the very same item showed "cannot be shipped to your location" notice, which again was removed the next week after that and we could place our order again, and so on.

And even if we managed to place an order during that very small window frame and our orders were approved and despatched, items that arrived at Mizoram (Vairengte check-gate) during active lockdowns were automatically returned!

Even if the items managed to enter Mizoram during a non-lockdown phase, we again had area-wise "containment zones" (depending on covid positive rate surge within a particular locality). Such "containment" lasts for just a week or two, but if the items reached Aizawl and the locality of the main Amazon office was under containment during the same time, the items were returned!

And finally, even if the main office wasn't under containment when the items arrived, if the delivery location (my address in this case) was declared a containment zone, again, the items were freaking returned! Seriously, why couldn't they just wait for a week and leave the items in their warehouse till then?

Aaaaaaargghhh. Now you can understand my frustration?

Of course every time my orders were returned, I was refunded the full amount. But that's not the point. In fact, I was at a point where I no longer gave a sh*t about the refund, all I wanted was just my bloody orders.

After many cancellations spanning across 3 months, I finally received all the parts I had ordered. Phew!!! Here are the three elusive items:

OnePlus 6 BLP657 battery from The Black Store.

USB Charging Board Port Flex Cable from Shinzo.

14-in-1 Professional Mobile Tool Kit from MMOBIEL.

And with those items finally at my disposal, I was ready to perform my first ever OnePlus 6 operation!

The hairdryer above belonged to my sister and I used it to heat the back panel of the phone so that it would loosen up the glue and I could easily pull it open using a suction.

I watched a lot of YouTube video tutorials and one of my favourites was this video by Wit Rigs. I must have watched the video at least 100 times, by-hearting every little step.

But as the saying goes, doing something by theory and practical are completely different. For instance, opening up the back panel was tough AF!

In the above video (and other videos uploaded by different techies), they easily heated the back panel and opened it. They made it look so easy, lolz. In reality, though, things weren't like that. I eventually ended up "tripping" my sister's hairdryer, much to her anger :D. I had to go and borrow another hair-dryer from my neighbour.

Finally, I managed to crank it open, cracking the glass back panel in the process.

I lamented my loss, but at the same time, I was elated that I could finally open it. 

Here's the opened back panel.

I followed every step that was mentioned in the above video.

The "magnetizer" tool that came with the tool kit was extremely helpful. Once unscrewed, I could just take the tiny screws out from the tiny hole using the magnetizer tool directly (or rubbing my screwdriver to it so that it transferred its magnetic property).

Everything went on well after that. No hiccups. I was starting to think God didn't hate me after all. :)

And then of course, it happened. Murphy's Law. The final screws that needed to be removed were stuck! No matter what I did, what tool I used, they couldn't come out.

Aaargh. So close to the final step!

Guess what I did instead then?

I attached the new battery, and then took the new USB port cable and attached it to the phone motherboard directly and then connected the charger to it! And yes, my phone started charging! :D

"I'm a genius!" I exclaimed to myself. :D :P

Slowly, my phone was charging up. I was sooo excited because I was finally going to bring my dead phone back to life again!

While it was charging, I tested my phone and it rebooted, with no issue!

But that's where I think I made a very fatal mistake. You'll find out about this a bit later below.

And so my phone slowly kept charging and charging, and finally, it was 100% again!

With trembling hands, I detached the charger. I could hear an imaginary drum-roll in the background as I pressed the power button again...

Nothing happened.

Pressed it again and again, and again.

Nothing.

It was starting up just a while ago while I was charging the phone, what the hell happened?

And so I decided to screw back all the screws properly, thinking there must be a loose connection as it was still opened up. But even then, the phone was still not switching on.

I opened up all the screws again, removed all the parts, and then attached all of them again and tightened all the screws. I didn't even need to refer to the YouTube video anymore as I was becoming a pro at it.

Once done, I pressed the power button again.

Still nothing!

I was really starting to panic. I watched many other videos and read many forums, and finally decided to dismantle the motherboard and have a look at the power circuit.

It was then that I noticed one thing!

In the YouTube video, the cable leading to the power button looked like this (circled below) -

Whereas MY phone power button cable looked like this -

Can you see the burnt-out cable in my phone above (circled)?

That was probably why my phone was not starting up. But then, how did it start up while I was charging the phone earlier?

I looked at the photos I had taken earlier, when I had first opened the back panel, the photos taken before I had attached the battery and USB port cable. I wanted to investigate this anomaly.

It was then that I noticed, in the first few photos, the power cable was perfectly fine!

I'm not a mobile phone repair expert nor do I understand circuit boards, but I do know that a wrong voltage can blow a fuse in an electrical wiring system.

The fact that I had connected the battery and USB charging port so unorthodoxly must have somehow fried the power cable when I switched it on while it was charging.

Aaarrghhh, why was I so damn impulsive!

Had I not done that, had I just waited patiently, I don't think this would have happened. Alas. I paid a price for my impetuosity.

Ordering a new power cable would again take so many days, and that didn't guarantee a full phone recovery either. Finally, I said, "Screw this!" and installed WhatsApp on my new phone without retrieving my old local backup, hence losing every WhatsApp data in the process.

Now you know the story behind it. :D

Chp 871. Things you may not know about WhatsApp.

I'm finally back on WhatsApp again after more than 3 months of inactivity.

That's a really long time to stay out of touch with friends and family. It gave me a mixed feeling of both anxiety (fear of missing out) and tranquillity (bliss of missing out).

But it also taught me a very important lesson - Thou shalt not be greedy. There is this old Mizo proverb - "Duham chu channa", which means, "Greed leads to loss".

In my attempt to eat the icing on the cake, I ended up destroying the entire cake.

So what happened was, my phone suddenly died 3+ months ago. I couldn't access my local WhatsApp backup file as my phone was completely dead (battery + USB port fried).

And the last time I did a complete cloud backup of my WhatsApp data to my Google Drive was more than 2 years ago.

Long story short, I wasn't successful in my attempt to retrieve my local backup from my dead phone, and after 3 months of failed attempts, I finally decided to install WhatsApp on my new phone and do only a Google Drive sync, thinking that I may not get back my recent messages but I'll at least get back all my messages from 2+ years ago.

Something's better than nothing, right?

And that's when I learnt that WhatsApp automatically marks your account as "inactive" if you don't use it for more than 45 days (can be due to idleness, no internet coverage or uninstallation).

If you start using WhatsApp again or reinstall WhatsApp on the same device again after 45 days of inactivity, your account will automatically be activated again, giving you no problem at all. You won't even know this process had taken place in the background. Everything will be normal for you.

However, after 45 days of inactivity, if you install WhatsApp on a new device using the same phone number, then WhatsApp automatically considers your phone number to be "recycled" and is being used by a different user, and so it automatically deletes your WhatsApp account and creates a new one! [source]

Aaaargh, I didn't know that!!

Because I installed WhatsApp on my new phone after 45 days of inactivity, my WhatsApp got deleted immediately, and so I was automatically removed from all groups, my profile picture and status were deleted, along with my block list, mute list, sticker collection etc., and worst of all, my Google Drive backup was also deleted!!!!

Yes, in my attempt to retrieve my recent messages, I ended up losing not just them but my entire WhatsApp data and settings!

So do keep this in mind if you're experiencing a similar issue. Make sure you install WhatsApp on your new phone before 45 days of inactivity if you don't want WhatsApp to delete your account. Do learn from my mistake.

But my disappointment wasn't as devastating as my girlfriend's though.

When Lalani's mom Nu Mahlimi passed away on 14th January this year, it was a very difficult time for her and her family. But they were strong and somehow managed to pull through. Life slowly got back to normal for them. Her mom was still there in their various family WhatsApp groups, and they continued chatting in the groups like it was normal.

And then suddenly one fine day, 4 months after Nu Mahlimi's sad demise, Lalani and her brothers all woke up to the heart-piercing WhatsApp message that "Nu Mahlimi had left the family groups"!

That was such a shattering notification to read, opening up old wounds all over again. The emotional repercussion was intense. It was a feeling nobody should ever live through again.

So apparently, WhatsApp automatically deletes an account if it is inactive for more than 120 days. [source]

Such a heartbreaking incident. If only I had known about this, I could have warned her about it and her brother could have just logged into WhatsApp from Nu Mahlimi's mobile phone. But I only found out about this as I was researching for this post.

So I hope at least I'm able to warn you all about this so that you may not experience such unpleasantness in the future. If your loved one had left this world and you want to keep his or her presence continuously felt in your WhatsApp groups, make sure somebody who has access to the person's phone is using WhatsApp at least once every 3-4 months.

To sum up, as of today, October 2021 -

1. Your WhatsApp account will automatically be deleted after 120 days of inactivity.
   
   
2. Your WhatsApp account will automatically be considered as "inactive" after 45 days of inactivity.
   
   
3. After 45 days of inactivity, if you install WhatsApp to a new phone using the same phone number, your WhatsApp account will automatically be deleted and a new one created.
   
   
4. ALWAYS back up your WhatsApp data to cloud - Google Drive (for Android users) and iCloud (for iPhone users), at least once a month.
   
   
5. But keep in mind, your Google Drive WhatsApp backup will automatically be deleted after 1 year of inactivity.
   
   
6. Your Google Drive WhatsApp backup will also automatically be deleted if your WhatsApp account is deleted.

Also, there is a difference between automatic "group leave" and manual "group leave". We all know that if you manually leave a WhatsApp group, the admin cannot add you again to the same group immediately, so as to prevent harassment etc [source]. The only way to join a group you've just left is through a "join invitation" link (or wait for some time).

However, if you leave a group because of automatic WhatsApp deletion like in my case above, then the admin can add you back immediately.

This surprised many of my friends in the groups too, as they wondered how I could be added to the group again right after I had just left the same group. The reason is simple - My WhatsApp account was automatically deleted and a new one created immediately when the above process took place, and so technically, the admin was adding a new account and not my old one.

So those are the important points to remember the next time you use WhatsApp again. I'll end this post for now and in my next post, I will write about my hilarious and unsuccessful attempt to retrieve my WhatsApp local backup from my old phone. :D

Until then, everyone, take care.

Chp 870. Must Watch: Ted Lasso

In today's blog update of "must-watch TV series that aren't very popular among our Mizo community", let me introduce you to "Ted Lasso".

Ted Lasso is a comedy-drama currently on its second season. It is absolutely funny and quirky, and I know that a lot of my Mizo friends will like it too because it revolves around football, a sport that most of us worship.

The plot of the show is quite unique - A second-division university football coach from America is hired to become the new football manager of a Premier League team in England. However, the catch is that he's an American football coach who had never coached (or even understands) real football (also known as "soccer" to these Americans).

At first, I was like, "Hoohum, is it going to be one of those clichéd plotlines with clumsy dialogues and corny humour where they realise they've made the mistake of hiring a wrong coach?" But the opening scenes clearly showed that this transfer was intentional.

I was also a bit hesitant in the beginning because I thought there would be a lot of American football jargon used, and that is a deal-breaker for me because I don't watch American football nor am I interested in it, but thank the football gods, it wasn't like that.

Although the show is supposedly based in the UK, it is an American show, so there's less of those dry and sarcastic British humour we all love and instead has a lot of American humour filled with hilarious one-liners and dad jokes.

So, yes, don't expect it to be like some of your favourite British sitcoms like "The IT Crowd" and "Derry Girls", or even BBC's classics like "Mind Your Language", "Yes Minister" and "Allo Allo". The humour is closer to shows like "Schitt's Creek" and "Mythic Quest". But whether it is British or American humour, I'm okay with either, just as how I absolutely love both the UK and USA versions of "The Office" (Yes, we exist!).

The show streams exclusively on Apple TV+, which may be a problem for many Mizos as it isn't popular here in Mizoram compared to other OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+ Hotstar. But you can always "Arrr" it, if you know what I mean.

The show is about how Ted Lasso managed his new football team, dealing with many issues both on and off the pitch. There's a lot of feel-good factor involved during the show guaranteed to warm your heart and motivate you. And some of the witty quips are downright hilarious. Here are 5 of my favourite quotes so far...

#1. "I haven’t seen someone that disappointed to see me since I wore a red baseball cap to a Planned Parenthood fundraiser."

#2. "In my mind, you gotta have three things to be a Premier League team. 1) You gotta play physical. 2) you gotta give 100 percent until the final whistle and 3) you gotta be sponsored by a Middle-Eastern airline."

#3. "I haven’t seen a pass that soft since my high school drama teacher asked me to mow his lawn."

#4. "Will you explain to me how that was offside? No! I'm not arguing, I'm asking you. Seriously! Explain offside to me. It makes no sense."

#5. Rebecca: "How do you take your tea?"

Ted: "Well, normally right back to the counter because there’s been a terrible mistake."

You must watch the show for hundreds of other such funny scripts. There are a lot of really corny dad jokes and puns too, like, "We're having salads in my office. Caesar you later." and, "I thought you said you were allergic to horseradish? Nah, I said I'm allergic to horses and radishes."

Believe me, it is worth spending your time on this show.

And personally speaking, I love the fact that this sitcom isn't about the clichéd "underdogs winning in the last few seconds" kinda storyline and this makes it more realistic and refreshing to watch. In fact, the team actually loses quite frequently, and as an Arsenal fan, that is something I can really relate to right now. :D

Speaking of Arsenal, Ian Wright made a cameo appearance as a football pundit too. :D Other famous football pundits and presenters who appeared in the show include Seema Jaswal, Arlo White and Chris Powell. Mike Dean too was featured, lolz.

Sadly though, real football players aren't in the show (yet), though the team played against clubs like Manchester City, Spurs, Liverpool etc. But one can't dismiss the fact that there are many similarities between the sitcom players and real players, like Roy Kent is definitely based on Roy Keane, Jamie Tartt is based on David Beckham, and so on.

So I hope you get to watch this TV show, and let me know your feedback. Trust me, you won't regret it.

Until my next post, people, take care.