Testing the limits of my patience. and happy birthday Mom!
written: 9:57 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 05, 2008

Roger had 10 majors in this one. Now he has 13. After next year, he's gonna have at least 15. He was such an adorable baby. In fact, he's still so adorable. I was watching his CNN Talk Asia interview on YouTube last night, and I was so jealous of the reporter when she got to play tennis with Roger! Like, oh my god, I so wanted to be in her shoes! I'd be all, "Oh Roger, my forehand is so sad! I can't do an underhanded serve! Can you show me?" And he'd be standing next to me, probably laughing at my ineptitude inside but of course he'd be way too polite to laugh out loud, and after a few more tries without the ball getting over the net, he'd come over, stand behind me, and take my arm and swing it with me.

OMG! When they were on the Venetian Macau tennis court (where the exhibition match with Pete Sampras was held last year), the reporter asked him what his favourite shot was, and of course he said it was the forehand. He went on to explain why it's better to hit from the backhand corner, 'cause you can create angles or something like that to make it hard for the opponent to return, and after he was done, he asked the reporter, "So what's your favourite shot?" OH MY GODDDD. It was the way he said it, like he really cared what the reporter's favourite shot was.

He's so damn nice, and unassuming, and humble, and down-to-earth. The reporter asked him what he thought about People magazine naming him as one of the sexiest men in the world or some shit, and his reaction was the most adorable thing EVER! He half-covered his face with his palm and had this "aw shucks" smile, blushed, and said, "Aw, don't mention it!" and said something about it being embarrassing/awkward. He also said, "The more successful you are, the better-looking you get." He was actually visibly blushing throughout that whole segment, and...OMG. The more I see of him, the more head over heels I am.

And his laugh. His laugh. Or should I say, his giggle. Hearing him laugh cracks me up because he giggles and it's so hilarious, the sharp contrast between Giggly Roger and the Fearsome Roger on court whose forehand, to quote Tiger Woods, "is feared by all." It's amazing how these dichotomies exist within one person. It's even more amazing how this person, who has practically everything in the world, manages to remain so utterly and disgustingly down-to-earth and rooted.

Roger Federer makes my heart sing. I can't wait for the 2009 season to start! His schedule has been posted in his site, and he's playing a tournament on the first day of the New Year. Poor Roger doesn't get a new year holiday like the rest of us, and I wonder why he's playing so many tournaments before the Australian Open since he ended 2008 on a sore note, literally; but oh well. He's the King here, and minions never question the king's decisions.

Lastly, I read about this moment in the Federer bio and HAD to watch it. He won the 2006 Australian Open and was presented the trophy by Rod Laver, who's either the only, or one of the two, player to have won four grand slams in a single calender year (the Grand Slam. Roger fans call it the Roger Slam, which has yet to happen, but obviously I'm hoping it happens in 2009) in 1969. Roger respects ALL legends of his sport, and the presentation was a bit too overwhelming for him...to say the least.

I completely melted and died. What I'd give to be there with him when he wins his 15th and beats the Sampras record! Sigh, I can only dream.

Today is my mom's birthday. Today is also the day my dad officially became a Singapore citizen. We - parents, brother, and I - got up super early in the morning and headed off for the ICA at 8. We reached at 8.45, ate their shitty canteen food, and went up to Level 6 to settle my dad's citizenship stuff. Half an hour later, it was finally his turn. He got to the counter, just to be told by the staff that his receipt from the Taipei Representative in Singapore was missing something. Simultaneously my dad realised he left the original at home, and because he couldn't use the photocopied version, we drove home - all the way home - to get it, then drove to the PSA Building where the office of the Taipei rep was to get it rectified.

At PSA, my brother and I each bought a drink at Starbucks. Ten minutes later, we saw Dad walking towards the car park where Mom was waiting in the car (without parking it properly, may I add). We were all, "Shit, Dad's done earlier than us!" Mom was in a hurry to get this thing out of the way 'cause she was packing food back to my grandma's for lunch, and grandma eats at a certain hour. So I got up, went to the counter, and asked if my drinks were ready.

It was a very, very simple and reasonable question. It was the obvious question to ask if you were in a hurry and your drinks didn't seem to be anywhere in sight. But guess what? This fucking ang moh woman behind me butted in and told me that she and her friend had been waiting at one of the tables for fifteen minutes, that she "just wanted to let me know", that she wasn't just butting in.

Um, what the fuck? Is it my fucking problem that you'd been waiting for 15 minutes? Was I supposed to know that you were in the queue if you weren't even standing at the pick-up counter? Is it my problem that you didn't feel compelled to hurry the Starbucks people? Hello?

I didn't know if she was being patronising or just informing me and trying to commiserate with me in my frustration, so I just nodded and said something about my mom waiting in the car. She just repeated what she said. I still had no idea what she was getting at; her passive aggressiveness really, really threatened to outdo mine. In the end I just ignored her.

Shortly after that we got our drinks and left. My mom dropped off my dad and I at ICA while she and my brother went off to buy lunch. Dad and I both thought it'd be a short affair. After all, how long would it take to finalise his citizenship and get his passport, right?

Wrong. Fucking, fucking wrong. The citizenship part was still tolerable; it was done within the hour. But at 12 noon, my dad and I went down to Level 2 - the passport level - and told the dude at the information counter that my dad needed his passport urgently as he goes into Malaysia for work every day. We got a queue number and was told to wait at the area in front of counters 37 and 38.

Our number was B099. When we got there, they were serving B061. The ticket told us that there were 35 people in the queue, but we figured, how long could it possibly take, right?

Wrong. Fucking, fucking wrong. We were there at 12. We left at 2.30 p.m. In between, apart from going to the toilet, we didn't leave the place.

Oh my god I almost died. There was a grand total of TWO counters serving over 30 people at 12 noon. A few minutes later, 38 closed because the woman went off for lunch, and for some really stupid reason that I really don't care for, no one took over. We were thus left with ONE measley counter serving over 30 people, but it was more in the range of 50-70 people. Almost an hour later, I saw a woman with a queue number of B130-something.

Seriously. The worst part was, even when the second counter opened, the woman behind it was so. utterly. inefficient. She saw a grand total of two people in a span of thirty minutes. WHO DOES THAT? And the old woman, the one that left 38 earlier and went off for lunch, would finish one person, and for some stupid reason, come out, walk around the waiting area that was PACKED with people, dawdle around for a bit, then go back in. They even allowed people who missed their queue numbers when called to just jump back into the queue! WHO DOES THAT, SERIOUSLY? Like it's my fucking problem that you weren't around when your number was called? I'D BEEN THERE FOR MUCH LONGER AND IT WAS GETTING REALLY INTOLERABLE.

I swear, I honestly felt like I'd been teleported out of Singapore and into some disgustingly inefficient country. I don't expect government bodies and administrative workers to be 100% efficient, but what happened at ICA today was like some ghastly 5% efficiency. It was utterly, utterly horrible. With every passing second I sat in that packed waiting area, I swear, I felt my brains trickling out of my ears, my life passing me by. I memorised Channel News Later's news headlines. I heard much more Hokkien vulgarities than I have over the past few years combined. My mood went from pleasant and slowly free-fell to Murderously Pissed Off, so much so that, when my dad couldn't take it anymore - after two hours, mind you - and got up to yell at the stupid old woman who kept walking around instead of staying her fucking room to DO HER BLOODY JOB, I got up too to join him.

Too bad he was on a roll and I barely got five words out. He was all, "I've been waiting here for two and a half hours. You went for a lunch break - I haven't even eaten."

The stupid woman had the fucking audacity to say, "You're not the only one who's waited for so long. All these people here have been waiting too."

Oh my god, really? You noticed? Could've fooled me with your utterly disgusting lackadaisical manner of trying to reduce the number of people in the queue!

I wanted to slap her so damn badly. I wanted to yell at her myself. Nothing about it made any sense - two counters for a huge spillage of people, one counter closed for over an hour, then dealing with the people and their requests so damn slowly, and you had the audacity to say that everyone was waiting too, without even the slightest bit of apology? I don't care how damn old you are; you either do your job properly, or you don't do your job at all.

It was so ridiculous. In the end, when it was finally our turn, my dad could only collect his passport two days earlier than the stipulation collection date anyway. If I were him, I'd just use this as an excuse not to go to work, but he's just not that kind of person.

You know, I'd bitch about how I had to tell the woman at the counter why my dad needed his passport urgently THREE TIMES before she finally got it, but she was quite a nice woman despite being really slow and seemingly hard of hearing/hard of understanding English, so I'll just leave it.

One last thing to bitch about: I entered the ICA building with my soy latte in hand. I was stopped by the security guards at the door with a very uncouth "hello!" and was told that I couldn't bring drinks into a building. I had a "what the fuck" look on my face, and the stupid guard was all, "You don't know is it?"

Like fuck. Do I look like someone who goes to ICA every day? I was PISSED, and I snapped, "I don't come here very often." I finished the drink, went back in with my cup, and didn't even acknowledge or thank the guard who told me that there was a bin at the escalator, which I normally would have done if he weren't so damn rude.

This day has been one amazing day of annoying people thinking they're so important posturing around and pissing the living daylights out of me. I know I'm not the most patient person around, to put it mildly, and that my temper is as torrid as the Tempest; but still. But still. Waiting one hour for the passport thing would've been okay; an hour and a half, I'd grin and bear it; but two and a half hours? Telling me that I wasn't allowed to bring my drink in would have been more than okay, but accusing me of not knowing as I was supposed to? And I don't even know what to say about that bloody ang moh woman at Starbucks.

By the time we got to my grandma's, it was past 3. I was tired, cranky, and bloated from eating way too much in the morning because I'm not usually awake at that hour to eat anything. We left my grandma's at around 4.45, reached home at like, 5.30-ish. I woke up this morning at 7.30 - earliest since the exams ended. OMG! I'm so tired now.

On a much happier note, in celebration of the Mother's birthday we went for dinner at The Dining Room, Sheraton Towers. I called them this morning to make a reservation (under "Miss Ch@ng"! First time ever! Usually I put down my mom's name even when I'm the one calling) and asked, "This is the one with the waterfall, right?" I didn't know what it was called then. Coincidentally, or not, we were given a table right next to the waterfall - and the waterfall was the precise reason my mom chose the place for dinner. (I suggested the Fullerton but my mom didn't want to wrestle with the traffic at Keppel Road.)

Dinner was awesome. We got a set dinner, mainly for the free flow of desserts (for me, anyway), and the chocolate and banana bread and butter pudding was absolutely to-die-for. I had two servings. I also ate some chocolates, chocolate mousse, chocolate cake, mango pudding...I was so bloated after that, I'm surprised I managed to finish this huge cup of coffee that came with the set. It was much better than expected, so it was all good.

Hmm, I haven't bought my mom a gift yet, BUT I know what to get! She wanted to buy this Swan Lake DVD thing from HMV but didn't because she found it too expensive. It was like, $70-ish...which, um, isn't really expensive. So I'll probably get it the next time I go to town, whenever that is. I have a shitload of things to buy for the Taiwan trip which is such a pain in the ass! One huge reason why I don't like going to Taiwan in December is because winter is a bloody annoying bitch. I own a grand total of two long-sleeved tops. Seriously. But I tried on this awesome red long-sleeved turtleneck from Mango that actually looked damn good with my glasses, like omg, which means I must buy it. Yay! And it's only $30. I might buy it in two different colours, because I love the bright red and the dark maroon.

Also, I want to buy that amazing winter coat I saw and tried on at Mango last Wednesday. It's $255. Have I mentioned it already? I love love LOVE it. I've always wanted to dress up in nice winter wear like what you see in the movies and TV shows set in New York/London, and that Mango coat is perfect! Total dream come true! But my mom just bought a Christian Dior handbag for herself which didn't cost an insignificant sum, so...sigh.

You know, I'd much rather spend $2000 on a watch than a handbag. Not considering the fact that I don't use leather goods anyway, I just think spending thousands on a fashion accessory that has no warranty or intrinsic lasting value is quite a huge waste of money. My mom's bag is lovely, of course, barring the gross calf leather (ugh YUCKS), but still. But still.

I don't think spending $180 on watching Roger Federer play in an exhibition match is expensive, but I think spending the same amount on a dress is very expensive. I suddenly realised that I'm going to have a real salary this time in 2010, and it hit me that I have no idea how to manage my finances. I'd either keep everything in the bank and be too afraid to spend, or, more probably, I'd just spend it on whatever I feel like buying.

But all the same, I can't wait for the 2K paycheck I'm going to get in half a year's time. It's not like omg a huge sum of money, but it'd feel sooooo good not to rely on my parents when I want to buy something for once, like tennis tickets HAHAHA! But my tennis coach (ex-coach) gets free tickets so I might look him up and beg him to sell me his tickets since he doesn't use them anyway. He had tickets to the Masters Cup! And he didn't go 'cause he said travelling to Shanghai is expensive! WTF!!!!!!!!! I'D TOTALLY GO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Omg, I just found my cute German guy on Facebook! Exciting omg!

Lastly, the eye check-up yesterday went well. I have to apply the eye-drops for another six days, during which time I can't wear my contacts, omg. Oh well, at least I can start wearing contacts again when I go to Taiwan, which was my utmost priority anyway. There's just NO WAY I'm gonna be walking around Taipei looking disgusting, thanks.

ETA:

Looking at the above picture brought a lump to my throat. I was happy when he and Stan Wawrinka won the doubles gold as I watched it happen, but now, after getting to know him as a tennis player and as a person (albeit often from virtually the other end of the world where he is), especially after knowing about how badly he wanted an Olympic gold medal and tried three times but failed, and finally getting it in doubles this year...here's a professional tennis player who has the Ultimate Dream Career that every tennis player dreams about, and he reacts this way to winning an Olympic medal. The Olympics are nothing to the ATP tour because winning medals don't add any points to your ranking, which is why players like Andy Roddick skipped the Olympics this year. Roger Federer virtually has it all: Grand Slam titles (in abundance), four Tennis Masters Cup, many, many ATP series titles, and the #1 ranking for 237 straight weeks. He didn't need an Olympic gold medal.

But damn, did he want it bad. He looked much more ecstatic winning his first Olympic gold than his fifth straight US Open, a medal that does nothing for his career versus a trophy that just added 1,000 points to his ranking.

Sometimes I think trying to put into words how much he's moved me cheapens that which I'm trying to describe, exactly like how trying to describe his beautiful tennis will never do justice to how majestic and breath-taking it is. Some things cannot be put into words, no matter how much of a maverick you are with words. Increasingly I've come to realise that Roger Federer falls right into this category. I just have no words anymore - no words. He's just...

before sunrise // before sunset

Previously:
- - Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017
I'm moving. - Sunday, Jul. 11, 2010
In all honesty - Tuesday, Jul. 06, 2010
What I want for my birthday... - Sunday, Jul. 04, 2010
On Roger's behalf. - Friday, Jul. 02, 2010