Chronicles of Chaos

Chronicles of an existence... Perfect Order within the Chaos.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

My sporting life

Ah well, my exam is over. Time is very much on my side now, so I thought I will fill in the yawning gap that is beginning to appear on my pal's blog...

The first ever sport I picked up was
badminton, in Primary 2 or 3. I was strictly of the hit-over-the-net-can-liao type, if there is a net to talk about in the first place. That was also when I found more evidence of my ambidexterity. I picked up the racket with my left hand without consideration. My interest in badminton died off in a hurry, like in half a year or so.

Because I found football and
Man Utd. I started playing football like no tomorrow in Primary 3. If you have seen primary school boys play football, you will know how it is like. Someone kicks, everyone rushes after the ball. There is no formation to talk about, no tactics, no positioning.

In Primary 4, I discovered Man Utd and have been their fan since. That further fuelled my interest in football. I will turn up on the school field once I get off the school bus, during recess and during my so-called ECAs (take attendence then zao lang).

My interest in football lasted all the way till Primary 6. I can still remember vividly my last "would-be" session of football. I couldn't take part because I had to attend my
maternal grandmother's funeral.

That proved to be the last time I played, or should I say "played" football. The secondary school I attended wasn't much of a football school. Strangely enough though, my interest in Man Utd did not die out. It took a definite backseat for a while, but I never once entertained the thought of stopping my support for them.

I found table-tennis in Secondary 1 to take over the vaccuum left behind by football. I very pretty much sucked at it, so it died a quick but ugly death too, like badminton did. Nonetheless, whilst the interest was still alive, I admit to having done silly things like practising on the dining table against my sis, and sometimes, against the wall.

In Secondary 2, someone introduced me to basketball. I have been glued to it since. At that time, there wasn't a basketball team in my school. We were obliged (actually, it was mandatory) to join a sport and a club for our ECAs. I had signed up for table-tennis in Secondary 1 and stuck with it going into Secondary 2. But by then, I was doing that take attendence then zao lang routine again. More often than not, I could be found on the basketball court.

By Secondary 3, there was a regular group of us playing almost daily. School ends at 12:50p.m. for us. We'd then wolf down our lunch in the canteen in 15 minutes and start playing soon after. All the way till 3-4p.m., sometimes till half an hour before the end of the afternoon session (it was still the two-session system then), i.e. around 5:30p.m. Then we'll be drenched, soaked, dog-tired and dragging our limp bodies to the bus stops.

Of all the sports I've mentioned so far, I have to say basketball was my best sport. I'm not sterling good at it, but I can pretty much hold my own on the court.


I played basketball all the way through JC and beyond. It stopped only about a year or so before I came over to Sydney. Primarily because my regular basketballing pals were moving out from the west side of Singapore and getting married. It is hard to find basketball khakis you can click with. I still miss playing basketball now.

Slightly overlapping with my participation in basketball, and arguably also a sport, was pool. Le Tis, Ah Gee, 秋 and myself were introduced to it by a mutual friend who had been playing it for years. It was just after the uni final exams and before the results and graduation.

The guys, myself included, got really into it in a hurry. In fact, Le Tis got really really good at it, all from observing how professional players played the game on TV. Ah Gee and myself can more or less play a decent game now but we're not spectacular players. He is still my regular pool sparring partner.

I'm really looking forward to returning to the pool tables once I get home (the pool tables in Sydney pretty much sucked, so I don't play here).

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