Team 1.5 Males and 2.5 Females
[Tuesday, 01 May, 2007]
I had Condition Zero with my elder brother again until 5am before I continued to work for another hour. I ought to be shot for I had always wanted to have enough rest before going down to the beach for another exhausting day but it seemed that someone had to knock me to unconscious.
After waking up at 9am, I lazed around on the bed for some time before begging the massaging chair to cure my back problem but it only offered me a little and short anaesthetic. I was so happy to have my half boiled eggs again, especially when my mum told me she had to heat them up more and I thought the result would be perfect; unfortunately the eggs were overcooked. My mum loved to play with words but it was good enough to be served.
I had to start giving morning calls to people at the same time. When I called Ruoci before leaving the house, she sounded sleepy and I knew it was a waste of time immediately. She told me she slept at 6am and I knew since beginning she did not intend to go at all; if she was interested, she would have kissed her bed much earlier unless she had insomnia like me.
I was exchanging SMSes with Jenrine all along and I went straight to Harbourfront Centre’s MacDonald’s to search for her. I saw two tiny girls with caps besides the counters and one of them looked like Ying Ying. As I walked near to them and smiled at “Ying Ying”, she did not react at all. I started to suspect my sight and felt so embarrassed. The girl with back facing me, whom I suspected was Jenrine, did turn back but I could not see her clearly with the cap on and she did not react at all as well. Bianhong messaged me that he was at the hawker centre and I decided to just walk over to join him first.
Bianhong was eating and soon, Jenrine and Ying Ying arrived. I started questioning them whether did they see me at the MacDonald’s and they claimed no but they were sitting at that area which I had gone to. It remained a mystery whether I saw the correct people a not.
After giving Anqi more calls, she did not pick up any and replied me immediately that her mum insisted her to finish her breakfast before going out. I started to get suspicious for she could simply pick up my calls instead of messaging me.
There was a ticket booth at the interchange and the bus sent us directly to the Beach Carpark, which was much more convenient for the beach lovers. We took the beach tram to Tanjong Beach where Bianhong met up with his friend. I was surprised to see that the beach had only a volleyball court. I started calling John again, followed by Khong Wee but none of them picked up the call. Just then, Anqi was beginning to message me to ask if it was going to rain and I knew she did not feel like going down; I could be a good psychologist actually and that was too simple to guess.
We made a quick decision to go to Siloso beach instead since both the cute girls claimed that they had seen volleyball courts over there just a month ago. Bianhong brought his friends over to join us and I was so turned off that there were only a few of them and not the gang of over twenty people which he claimed on the phone. I could have guessed it for he was famous for being “big hole” and that he would not have to meet me at Harbourfront if there were many people in his group.
We took the next mini bus over to the Beach Carpark and walked down towards the hotel’s direction. The beach was very “dark” and “smelly”, which was a very big turn-off. We could only see two volleyball courts at the old Sunsetbay’s location and thus we were very lost. Just then, Tiffany messaged me that she might not be going down for the “rest of them” could not make it. I roughly had some ideas who were going to fly aeroplane again. Meanwhile, I was busy messaging Mingfa and others that we had changed the venue.
Just as we were sitting down by the edge of a small stage, Bianhong saw princess and Fenghui and I was quite taken aback for John had told me that he was going down with the guys only. Soon, Khong Wee reacted to my missed call and told me they were at the hotel’s side where there were two volleyball courts. We decided to go over to join them.
The wind was trying to blow away all the sand and I was smart enough to stand by the side to watch Jenrine and Ying Ying “making fools out of themselves”. The ball flew away just before reaching their hands and it was difficult to play even if they were national players. When the wind speed began to subside a little, I joined in with Bianhong and his friends. The only male friend of his impressed me with his efforts to run after the balls.
We took a rest at around 3pm and I was quite shocked to receive many missed calls and SMSes. Anqi, Apple and Tiffany told me that they were not coming anymore, which was somehow expected. Siewchin and Kachua were on their ways and Mingfa had already arrived. I called Mingfa, Weitat, Wilson and Mingen but none of them picked up the calls and I knew they must be enjoying themselves at the previous two courts I passed by.
After stoning for some time, I decided to walk over to find my gang. It was a pretty long walk over and somehow my legs were very tired with the feet giving some pains. I finally got to see them and they refused to change the location as they were happily undefeated. Since the early birds had already shifted location a couple of times, it was not a good idea for them to move again and I supposed my juniors were not comfortable with it as well. Whereas for my gang, I had told them earlier that we were at the courts near the hotel and they could have gone over in the first place. It was very disappointing for I needed a few good spikers in my team to challenge the teams over my side.
I went back by myself, feeling so abandoned. Kachua called me soon to inform me that he had met up with Mingfa’s group and I lost hope of having a good game inside the court.
Siewchin arrived soon and we continued playing by the side of the volleyball court. I was very well entertained by teasing her. She had become so weak that she had a cramp but recovered in no time. I managed to make her famous by calling her nick throughout the day. When she hit the ball onto a guy, I went to his side and told him that the ball was from the person who looked most like “ren yao” (transsexual).
As time went by, I asked the girls about playing inside the court and they were very “on” despite the fact that we would most probably be defeated. After waiting for quite long, we got to play with outsiders. By then, the aching on my back had conquered me and the feeling was like sprained. Jenrine played as the setter while I took the centre position. I was pretty sure we could pose no threat to the four male opponents since we were all shorter than them. I was impressed by Ying Ying for she played well after losing touch for so long. My digging improved tremendously throughout the game and even though we did not have a blocker, I could easily save the spikes from the opponents. Weitat would certainly love my team if he was around to witness our team spirit. However, our servicing was very poor as the length of the court was shorter than usual ones and the girls had rusted too much. With the aching on my back, I lost a couple of points during spiking and shamefully, hit the ball onto the net when I was standing still; my entire body could not coordinate when my back was stiff and there was no momentum. In the end, we lost the opponent by 20 against 22 points and we might win if there was a lineman to certify to them that they had spiked a ball outside the court.
We waited very long for another game and we played against my male juniors – John, Felix, Khong Wee and Shujian. After making a small mountain and lying over it, my back’s condition improved a little. Siewchin did better at the subset’s position for she was left-handed and Jenrine could not set over to the main spiker’s position. Ying Ying continued to amaze me for she managed to spike the ball over and made only a mistake with her short height. My weakness was lack of confidence but somehow, something, or perhaps someone, had distracted me from the thought of my lousiness. I continued to make astonishing saves to entertain everyone and we were addressed as “cannot be killed”. I had also overcome my back’s injury and gave them a few good spikes. In the end, we lost as well and I could not reach the last ball being spiked down away from my judged position.
After resting for a while, we decided to go to take our bath since we were all very worn out already. Since the two and a half girls went to the bathroom nearest to the Beach carpark, Bianhong and I took a mini bus over to the station. I got myself a cup of big gulp and Bianhong went to survey the toilet and make some donation. I positioned myself good enough to look at a stylish babe wearing a nice top with denim skirt. She looked simple yet flawless. I gave Bianhong the best position upon his return and it took him some minutes of staring to tell me the babe was not pretty.
When my dearest sister, my star player and the Thai came over, we took bus out of the place since Ren Yao took a cab in and did not have the card for taking the monorail. The view on the bus was not bad for a girl in red was standing near us. She was the “sunshine” type of girl, fair and average sized. Jenrine was too tired to realise I had messaged her to look at the babe. Upon reaching the interchange, Bianhong got himself an ice-cream and he finished it in the short distance before going down the escalator towards MRT.
We went to Vivocity and paused at the directory area. I remembered it was flat and everyone used to crowd around it, especially the males, since the females would usually bend over and give them the free show; but the directory seemed to have changed and one side was actually higher this time.
We went to Carls Junior for dinner. It was a very bad idea since the taste of the food had never impressed me and the burger was too big. Bianhong was supposed to help me to take the order but he passed the batten over to my poor sister at the queue. When she was at the counter, she had to dash over to retake our orders for the restaurant had no chicken burger. We had some fun writing comments and suggestions on the feedback form. I had never failed to embarrass myself at Carls Junior’s outlet. This time, Bianhong and I took the lemon tea which Bianhong claimed was pure, unlike the one among the gassy drinks. Bianhong filled his cup with so many pieces of lemon and finally realised the drink was hot. We filled the cup with so many ice cubes and finally went back to our seats. It was only when I complained that it was tasteless, Jenrine enlightened us that we had to add some sweetener and we embarrassingly made our way back.
Ren Yao finally made her way back, looking so tired and slightly upset. She did not order anything after her long talk over the phone. Shortly, she left for her dad had arrived to fetch her. It was around 10pm when we made our move. Jenrine and Ying Ying took the train while Bianhong went to invade the toilet again before throwing money at the cab. I took bus home and dozed off for seconds numerous times.
I began with my work after reaching home. The “Four Famous Constables” was more of romantic scene in this episode. I made effort to search online for the nice song this time but had no luck. At least, I got the midi file and also realised the male lead actor was a Korean.
Labels: beach, carl's junior, dinner, food, health, injury, photo, vivocity, volleyball
... Skai (Kailun) dreams @ 7:36 AM
