Tennis, more tennis, and happy birthday to a dear friend.
written: 8:24 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 18, 2009

Tennis yesterday was incredible. We originally had two courts from 2 to 4, but ended up staying until 5 when no one came to our second court to chase us away - and we only left because some PRCs on the adjacent court booked our court at 5.

It was simultaneously satisfying and horrifying. Satisfying because I burnt a lot of calories which is always a good thing, and horrifying because...it was so damn hot. Last week's weather was perfect: gloomy, cloudy, with occasional moderate winds and no sun. Yesterday? It was scorching hot from start to finish, and there were no adequate trees around the courts in Kent Ridge to provide shade. I wore my Great Britain Nike t-shirt which has very short sleeves that fit my shoulders perfectly, so I couldn't roll them up like Baoyue did with her t-shirt. And so now I have, in Baoyue's words, farmer's arms. YUCKS. Next time I'm going to play in a tank top in the day and a t-shirt at night. Even better, I'm going to avoid playing in the day entirely because I don't want to get an ugly tan! I like my skin fair and nice, thanks.

(A side note on the Great Britain shirt: I swear, the fucking stupid Andy Murray bandwagon that every other brainless person is hopping on is almost making me regret buying it. Sometimes I don't fucking want to wear it in case I'm mistaken for being a Murray fucktard, which pisses me off because I LIKE GREAT BRITAIN AS A NATION, and it's got fuck-all to do with silly little Andy Murray and the bandwagon. Why didn't - doesn't - Nike have a Switzerland t-shirt? ARGH. DEPRESSED.)

I'm quite disturbed that my right arm is getting disproportionately more exercise than my left arm. Of course I don't think I'll end up with a huge right arm and a small left arm since I play at most once a week, but the problem with tennis, which swimming doesn't have, is that I'm not exercising my whole body. And I want to exercise my whole body, especially my fat-ass upper thighs and fat-ass arms. Playing backhand isn't really enough to exercise the left arm, since I play forehand twice as often as I play backhand. Unless I play left-handed forehand.

Actually, I could try that. Shouldn't be too hard right? If Nadal, who's a natural right-hander, can win Grand Slams playing with his left hand, surely I can do the same! (Can you see I've gone from detesting his presence in the ATP tour to sympathising with him? I blame this on Andy Murray. Of course, when the French Open rolls around, I'll be back to detesting Nadal and his extreme topspin and his blocking Roger's way to a Grand Slam - i.e. winning all four Slams in a year - in 2004, 2006 and 2007. ALL YOUR FAULT RAFA.)

Yeah right. More likely I'll end up missing all the shots, which is more likely than not, considering I'm already doing it now. At least twice yesterday Justin sent a ball floating (and I mean - FLOATING. It was a slow ball 'cause I can't return fast balls 'cause I'm lousy) directly towards me, and I was stunned for a few seconds trying to decide whether to take it backhand or forehand. In the end I just stood there and let the ball pass me, all because I couldn't decide whether to go backhand or forehand. I'm a joke, seriously.

And when we were playing on Court 8, there were a couple of guys playing on Court 7 and they were like, damn good. DAMN GOOD. A couple of backhand misses by yours truly sent the ball rolling to their court which embarrassed the shit out of me. It's one thing to interrupt a bunch of amateurs whacking the ball randomly; it's quite another to interrupt a couple of quasi-pros in the middle of an intense rally. I almost died. I really did. Thankfully they weren't cute, or I would have completely died.

Anyway, I don't think it's ever a good idea to play under the hot sun again. It's just horrible. Like, after 15 minutes, I was on the verge of collapse. Okay, I exaggerate, but I felt like the sun sapped me of all my energy. At one point I felt as if my left calf was on fire - it was that bad. It was the kind of weather I'd gladly swim in, but to be out of the water and under that kind of scorching hot sun? No thanks. I had no idea it was going to be that hot, since I hadn't played sports at 2 p.m. in a really, really, really long time - not even since JC, since I stopped going for PE lessons in Year 2.

Well, on the bright side, there was a particular rally with Justin that went pretty well (with me losing it of course) and my forehand seemed to have got a little bit better. The downside to that, though, is that my backhand has stopped working. Or rather, the same issue with getting my feet tied into a knot and trying to turn my body enough to hit the ball properly hasn't gone away. And I do this strange thing where I play much better in the beginning and play progressively worse as I continue. Strange, right? Yeah, totally.

Anyway, after we were finally chased off the court, we met up with Simon and had dinner at Munchie Monkey. We stayed there and talked until they closed, and reached Bukit Batok at like, 9-something. Baoyue and Simon nicely waited with me for my parents but refused a ride home! So bad omg. But I'm really happy to have awesome friends. :)

*

On another but kind of related note, oh my god, Australian Open starts tomorrow!1!!one!!

Downside: I CAN'T WATCH MAYBE HALF OF ROGER'S MATCHES BECAUSE I HAVE SCHOOL. He's playing at around 3.30 or 4.30 our time tomorrow, and I have class at 6.30 which means I'll have to leave the house at 6. HOW SHITTY IS THAT. I hate not being able to watch his matches live 'cause I get very unmotivated to watch his matches that aren't Grand Slam finals when I already know the result. I still haven't watched the second set of his Qatar Open match against Andreas Seppi!

Seppi is also his first-round opponent so I expect an easy trip to the second round, where he might face Carlos Moya, whom he just defeated in Kooyong. Everyone's talking about him possibly facing Marat Safin in the third but I'm totally not worried 'cause Safin's days have long gone, and he's retiring at the end of the year so what does he care (the flip side: it's precisely because he doesn't care that makes him such a threat. To that I say: Roger has history at stake. It's obvious who's hungrier for the victory).

But anyway, if he really plays alternate days, it means this entire week I won't get to watch him. Fuck. I'm playing tennis Wednesday afternoon, going out for lunch Friday afternoon, so yep, no chance of watching. FUCK FUCK FUCK.

Nevermind, doesn't matter if I get to watch or not as long as he wins. I'd like to tell those that bet on tennis who are betting on Murray to win to shove their bets up their arses because it's not going to happen. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. Have they SEEN Roger Federer in Grand Slam mode? I just watched the 2007 Australian Open final against Fernando Gonzalez. Roger was broken in the opening set to give Gonzalez a 5-4 lead. Gonzalez was serving for the first set and was up 40-15. Roger saved those two set points (not so easy to do when it's not on your serve) and went on to break Gonzalez, then went on to win the first set tie-break in style. After that, Gonzalez never had another break point, and all it took was one break per set in the next two for Roger to win.

And Gonzalez played fantastic. But when Roger is in Grand Slam mode, the only way you can win him is to hope that he's off-form, like last year with the mononucleosis. (The other way, of course, is to name yourself Rafael Nadal and play him on clay.) And this Australian Open, he's chasing history. He wins this and he ties the record for the most number of Slams won. No one else is in that position, obviously, and to his advantage, he's not defending champion. People writing him off left and right means lowered expectation, which means he's under less pressure (except maybe pressure from himself. And his fans. Um, haha sorry), which means he has more room to manouevre.

But anyway, crap, I'm really damn sad I can't obsessively watch his matches. ARGH. I hate the fact that I have a life!

*

In other news, I suddenly discovered, while writing a letter to a friend, that my right hand is actually hurting like crazy, which I only discovered because the ache is in the area between the thumb and the index finger. I'm sure there's a name for it but I don't know what it is; all I know is that it hurts. Boo.

Lunch yesterday with Mag, Rui, Jean and Jolie was great. I spent way too much than I should have, even though my fish was great (albeit of a distressingly small portion). But the company was excellent. If it was a prelude to the many girls-only lunches/meals/coffee sessions/whatever we're going to have together, then I say it was a great prelude and I can't wait for the rest of it.

Lastly, HAPPY BIRTHDAY RUI! She's one of my best friends in this big, big world (haha another primary school song! That stupid "I'm a big big girl in a big big world it's not a big big thing if you leave me..." omg get it out of my head), and I can't express enough how much she means to me. Good friends like her are hard to find, and I'm glad that I've found her. We've been friends for 11 years, since Primary Six! Oh my god! I still remember (and still have some of) the letters we wrote each other in primary six to like, secondary two or something. Poor Rui had to put up with my stupid Nick Carter/Backstreet Boys obsession. HAHA.

But yes, Miss Ch@ng, I love you very much! Happy birthday!

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