Nativescript Listview showing nothing - angular-ui-router

Question

I have a minimalist Nativescript hello world application. It has just 2 screens, 'Login' and 'List'.
Here is the flow:
User presses the login button in first screen.
Second screen is shown, which is suppose to show the list of names; but which shows nothing.
If I type even a single character in text field, it shows the list.
I have been scouring over Stack Overflow and Github, it seems the problem others are facing is a bit complicated, like "list not getting updated after http call" etc.
So it seems I am making some obvious mistake here, because this basic scenario should 'just work'. But that small mistake alludes me.
Here is my login file:
/*login.component.ts*/
import { Component } from "#angular/core";
import firebase = require("nativescript-plugin-firebase");
import * as Rx from "rxjs";
import { MyFireLoginService } from '../../mobile-fire/fire-login.service'
import { Router } from "#angular/router";
import { Observable } from "rxjs/Observable";
#Component({
selector: "login",
templateUrl: './pages/login/login.component.html',
styleUrls: ['./pages/login/login.component.css']
})
export class LoginComponent {
email: string = 'user1#site.com';
password: string = 'password';
user: Observable<any>;
constructor(private fl: MyFireLoginService, private router: Router) {
this.email = 'user1#site.com';
this.password = 'password';
this.user = fl.authState;
this.watchUser();
}
watchUser(): void {
this.user.subscribe((usr) => {
if (usr.uid) {
this.router.navigate(["/list"]);
}
})
}
login(): void {
this.fl.loginWithEmail(this.email, this.password)
}
}
and list file:
import { Component } from "#angular/core";
import firebase = require("nativescript-plugin-firebase");
import * as Rx from "rxjs";
import { MyFireLoginService } from '../../mobile-fire/fire-login.service'
import { Router } from "#angular/router";
import { Observable } from "rxjs/Observable";
#Component({
selector: "list",
templateUrl: './pages/list/list.component.html',
styleUrls: ['./pages/list/list.component.css']
})
export class ListComponent {
items: any[] = [];
user: Observable<any>;
constructor(private fl: MyFireLoginService,
private router: Router) {
this.user = fl.authState;
this.watchUser();
this.items = [{
name: 'aks1'
}, {
name: 'aks2'
}, {
name: 'aks3'
}]
}
watchUser(): void {
this.user.subscribe((usr) => {
if (!usr.uid) {
this.router.navigate(["/"]);
}
})
}
private textChanged(e: any): void {
console.log(e.value);
// console.dir(this.items);
}
logout() {
this.fl.logout()
}
}
list.component.html
<ActionBar title="List" class="action-bar"></ActionBar>
<StackLayout>
<Button class="submit-button" text="Logout" (tap)="logout()"></Button>
<TextField hint="empty field for testing.." (textChange)="textChanged($event)"></TextField>
<Label *ngFor="let item of items" [text]="item.name"></Label>
<!-- <GridLayout>
<ListView id="list-of-items" [items]="items" class="small-spacing">
<ng-template let-item="item">
<Label [text]="item.name" class="medium-spacing"></Label>
</ng-template>
</ListView>
</GridLayout> -->
</StackLayout>
login.component.html
<ActionBar title="Login" class="action-bar"></ActionBar>
<StackLayout>
<Button class="submit-button" text="Sign in" (tap)="login()"></Button>
<Label text="Hello world"></Label>
</StackLayout>
EDIT: Here are the log for the life-cycle events of two components:
JS: LOGIN:ngDoCheck called
JS: LOGIN:ngAfterContentChecked called
JS: LOGIN:ngAfterViewChecked called
JS: Auth state changed.
JS: a <==== This is me typing 'a' in the textbox of LIST component
JS: LOGIN:ngDoCheck called
JS: LOGIN:ngAfterContentChecked called
JS: LOGIN:ngAfterViewChecked called
JS: LIST:ngOnInit called
JS: LIST:ngDoCheck called
JS: LIST:ngAfterContentInit called
JS: LIST:ngAfterContentChecked called
JS: LIST:ngAfterViewChecked called
What I find strange is that List component's init is not called until I type 'a' in the textbox inside List component. Also, LOGIN component's life-cycle events are called even after is it gone out of view.
Update1: I followed the tutorial on nativescript.org. The code there seems to be working fine. I suspect, there is something wrong with inclusion of firebase plugin. Will update when I know more.
Update2: I stubbed parts of firebase api I am using, it worked fine with dummy APIs.