A quick summary, if that's at all possible, on what's gone down in the last 2 fortnights:
Kimbie, Justin and Bill arrived from Hong Kong on Friday night after my last post. Kimbie ha requested beforehand that we take them for a dinner of Malaysian food straight from the airport, and the first suggestion my relatives had was... banana leaf. I suggested the one at Bangsar, rather than in PJ, because I didn't really fancy the idea of driving to PJ, especially when I didn't know what time I'd be done with work. So we met there, had a magnificent chat with Kimbie, Justin, Gary and a younger cousin who probably heard a lot more than she should have...
Jeremy came up to visit from Singapore for 2 days over the weekend. Unfortunately I was so tired from all the training and work so I didn't take him out to see the night life. Luckily, he had friends here who could cover for my atrocious hospitality skills, and they apparently stayed out til about 4am... The next morning, we went to grab a coffee near the guesthouse, on Changkat Bukit Bintang. I only wanted a coffee, because we were intending to go somewhere else for lunch (which didn't eventuate), and the coffee I had was pretty decent, and at RM6.50 was probably the cheapest espresso-based coffee that I've had in KL! The breakfast menu of fry-ups looked pretty good too, so I shall have to find time to venture out that way again in future to try it out.
I had taken 3 days off work the following week to go for a family holiday in Manila. I knew that this meant I'd probably have to stay back in the office a bit on Tuesday to sort work out. I tried to do it as quickly as I could so that I could attend darts training at the pub. The coach and I finally got to training (more than) a little late, and he'd forgotten that he had the darts, so the other guys couldn't start training til we got there! After training, the coach got some very sad news, and I had no idea what to say to console or show support. I mean, I tried, but I'm not sure I was very good at it.
Left for Manila the next day, had a great holiday with the folks and siblings. Tours around Manila, riding on donkey/pony/horseback up Taal, the smallest volcano in the world, eating feast after feast including lunch at Antonio's in Tagaytay (heaven on Earth, I tell you!!) and a teensy weensy bit of shopping (because my aunt just would not accept that you didn't shop while you were in Manila).
Top left in the series of photos above is a picture of the ECJ Building. ECJ stands for Eduardo Cojuangco Jr, the man who is the chairman of San Miguel Corporation. That's right, the company behind the beer of the same name. I think that was one of the most exciting pieces of information LOL. In the Philippines, San Miguel Corp apparently goes much further beyond the production of beer - it is the largest food and beverage corporation in the Philippines, according to online resource NationMaster.
At bottom right in the photos is a picture of the ceiling inside St Agustin church, which is the only church in Manila that survived the bombings of WWII by sheer virtue of the fact that it was the HQ of the Red Cross. Looks pretty grand, doesn't it? The other special fact about this church apart from its survival of WWII is that the walls and ceilings inside the church fool the eye - it looks 3D, but most everything is 2D, including glass windows 'containing' status of Mary and other biblical figures.
Back from the Philippines, darts training continued, and on Tuesday 22nd July, I played my first darts competition, and we won, beating Ferrier Hodgson narrowly. We lost the 2 men's singles, and Jade (our captain) needed to win the women's singles for us to stay in the tournament. She did so with a cool demeanour, something I'm not sure I'd have managed if I had been in the same situation. And I very nearly was, for my teammates had not thought that Ferrier Hodgson would put some such opposition, and wanted to play me in the singles. I asked not to be, given that the day of the tournament would only be the 10th time I had played darts, and was mercifully absolved of the responsibility, remaining instead as partner to my coach in the mixed doubles. After Jade's win, we won the men's doubles and it was up to the coach and I to seal the win and take EY into the semi's. Some of my teammates kept telling me, you could be the heroine tonight. Yeah, thanks guys. No pressure!
As it turned out, I scored pretty decently in first game (I don't quite know what the right term is: game/set/round?) (winner is decided on best of 3 games). The coach wasn't his usual confident self, it being a week after he received the sad news, and he had lost the first singles. I managed to cover for us in terms of score, but couldn't check out (finish the game by landing a double). Thankfully, the coach managed to do it after a few rounds of going back and forth with our opponents. In the second game, my scores were very low, but the coach's confidence was building up, and he kept us within reasonable reach of the opponents, though we were trailing. They got to the check-out stage maybe 2 rounds before we did and again it was back and forth while each team prayed really hard that their player would, by some stroke of luck, hit a house and they would qualify for the semi's. On our team, everyone, myself included expected the coach to finish the game. That was our plan before the tournament - I could score reasonably well, so between him and I, we should race to the check-out stage and then he could finish without the opponents getting too close. Best laid plans! In the second game, I was doing so badly that whenever it was my turn to try and check out, I was just a giggling bundle of nerves. I think I used up my concentration in the first game. Anyway, blah blah blah. By some miraculous fluke, I managed to send my dart into the right house - a 5: a house I'd been trying to get in training on the Sunday before for hours, and had finally given up on in frustration! My teammates started cheering while I just stood stunned for a few seconds. I just didn't know what to do, and I don't think I felt the joy of landing the house til the next day! Sadly, we lost to PwC in the semi's the following Friday in the first 3 match-ups, so I didn't get to play. Regardless, it was a great experience, so nice to be part of a team, and to meet new people too.
The following week passed without too much excitement - work, squash training, a futsal friendly that didn't go too well and a coach who was a touch frustrated that we couldn't seem to perform as well in a friendly as we did in training. That 'mini' drama was over soon enough.
On Tuesday this week, I went to watch the Malaysia-Chelsea match with the coach, a teammate, another guy from the office, and the futsal captain of another firm's team. I have been driving a lot lately, so I didn't particularly fancy the thought of driving in peak hour traffic to Shah Alam Stadium. So the coach made a deal with my futsal teammate: she would get a free ticket if she drove, but she had to drive the 'good' car, with air-conditioning and working lights and windscreen wipers (there's a whole other story behind this condition). It was fun until the coach got a second lot of not-great news which resulted in his booking a flight back to his hometown for the next morning.
Where he has been ever since and probably won't be back in time for the tournament on Tuesday. I've always wanted to win this tournament, there's no doubt about it. We have a replacement coach, who seems quite upbeat about our performance in another practice match that we had on Thursday night. The original coach has always put high hopes on me, and put in additional time to teach me a couple of tricks and help me (and other players) improve our individual skills. Even through personal and physical pain. So it seems so important that we do our very best to recognise what he has done. I hope we at least make it to the finals. Last year, our firm finished second so we have to at least equal that.
I haven't had the time to watch Batman yet!
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