Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Soccer last saturday was good, being able to see some old friends that I've not been able to for a long time. Seeing saha and johnny who came out of nowhere and I was pretty surprised. Saha came pretty early and joined us for soccer while johnny came late into the game. However, their primary purpose wasn't to play soccer but to play touch rugby. I mean people can still meet up and play soccer, the same goes for the ac ruggers. They met up to play touch and catch up at the same time. The crowd was good, seeing so many people turn up for touch, from zhu wei to emil.
Even though jc and army ended long ago for all of us, you could see how these pros still have the touch(no pun intended) for the game. They may not be at the peak of their game when compared to the a division days but they still have the pace and ball handling skills to score tries. I would have honestly like to join them for the game but I would have made a fool of myself. They're my friends and even though they asked me to join them after soccer, I had to kindly decline their invitation. After a game of touch 2 weeks ago with keith,nich,turts, abel and kenneth, it just made me realize how I just can't keep up with their style of play. Keith wanted 2 switches and I had to go and spoil the play. Maybe it's a feeling of inferiority when I play rugby with these guys but you gotta be in my shoes to know what it is like. Like getting hammered 88-0 during my jc days.
Saha still jokes with me how adrian chong always gets frustrated with me during training because I always drop the ball or spoil the lovely movement that others had built up for me. the typical words he'll say to me will be like "fabien! why you drop the ball again?!" My confidence nad morale was extremely low whenever I go for training. However, it was a good life experience because it toughened me up. It's just the reality of life and there is no room for errors when you want to play sports in a school like acs(I). So I know how epl footballers in chelsea, man u and arsenal feel. Those that can't break into the first team no matter how well or how hard they train. The only way is to move to another club to get first team chances. You no long get to enjoy your game but instead dread going to training.
The asian cup has been pretty exciting so far with alot of upsets. Normally when it comes to countries like vietnam, indonesia, thailand and malaysia, I won't support them because of the tiger cup. However, this is about the pride of south east asia and I do want them to do well. This tournament has shown that the gap between us and the rest of asia is slowly but closing. Some may say the weather condition suited us but you can't say that the gulf states and middle eastern countries who are used to the hot conditions aren't as well. It will probably affect australia, south korea and japan more. It's good to see thailand drawing with iraq, vietnam beating uae 2-0 and indonesia beating bahrain 2-1. However, Malaysia couldn't join the band of elites as they are currently 5-1 down losing to china as I'm typing this. Hopefully, each and everyone will do their best and progress through the group stages. Asia, you've been warned.
Thanks to marvin again for inviting me to join his friends for a solid game of street soccer today at ccab. I was actually awake at 7am this morning and I told myself it's way to early to be up so I went back to sleep. So the next time I saw the time on my phone, it was 8.45am. I msged marvin and kwok ley and told them I won't be going since the meeting time is 9am. Considering it's all the way at ccab, I wasn't gonna make it there on time. However, if there's one thing I've learnt from all if not most soccer players, nobody is on time. The game will most probably start 30 mins or 1 hour after the meeting time. I decided to drag myself out of bed and left home in 10 mins. Took bus 66 all the way from my area to ccab.
It was good seeing marvin and kwok ley again. The last time I saw marvin was at his birthday party and for kwok ley, the last cookout for 4.7 at keith's house. So being able to get together for a game of soccer was wonderful. Standard of soccer was good and the pace was quick. It's like there is no room for mistakes or your opponents will capitalize on them. I felt extra in the first place cause I don't know anyone there except for marvin and kwok but their friends really made me feel welcome. It took me a while to really settle into the game cause I don't know who is who and it was difficult to get into the flow of the game as well. However, I soon got acquainted with my team and it was easier to do simple things like ask for the ball and get myself into the gameplay.
Hopefully if time, weather and chances permits, I hope to join his friends for more soccer. Being able to get my soccer fix more often would be good. Orientation and school is starting soon, it would be good to regain that fitness and get outdoors more often. Gotta stop this bumming around thingy before it's too late. As I take my rest during breaks or when my team is out, I stop to ponder on the scene that was right before me. It's good to see marvin and kwok's friends still hanging out together and occasionally meet up for a game or so. For marvin, it's from the rv days till now and for kwok, the njc days. It's like a mini friendster in real life, who would have known kwok knows my course time buddy. Even detong, who's going to nie so I'll got to know another friend. He will be in philps faculty though as he's taking maths. He looked pretty familiar when I first saw him today. Thinking back, he must the person who sat at the back of the auditorium during the signing of the teacher training agreement.
I'm pretty glad that nie somehow moved to their new campus in ntu because travelling to the bt timah campus seemed like a damn long journey for me. Even though it's a direct bus ride for me, I find it damn long. Ntu on the other hand, I have to take the train to jurong east, change to boon lay mrt station before taking bus 199. Sounds troublesome right? However, the journey seems shorter. There is only bus home for me from the bt timah campus while I've got a few ways to get home from boon lay. There are only 2 good things about the old campus, it's near to adam road and town. That's about it. Not many other places to get good food other than coro and bt timah stretch. Let's not forget that the old campus was in dire straits.
On the way home,the bus stopped at the chinese high bus stop and 3 chinese high boys boarded. Maybe it's just me but all chinese high people just got that look. That chinese high look. I'm being bastard here but you will know what I'm talking about. I nearly wanted to laugh but stopped myself from doing so. The main point is, I look at these guys who are in the prime of their youth and teens while I'm all but 21 years old. Seems like I'm really getting old. After 4 years of uni education, I'll be joining the workforce pretty soon. For them, they still got a long long way to go. If they're in the IB programme, they still got their a levels to take before enlisting. Good luck to them, as we progress with time, the standard of education seems to have gotten higher and higher.
School in 2 weeks time.
