Sunday, June 27, 2010

Wimbledon 2010


Okay so this post is about a week overdue, simply because I haven't actually found the time to blog about my experience at the Championships, and I've been juggling so many other things this week amidst trying to set myself straight.

Tuesday 22nd June - Wimbledon Day 2.

Wei, LX and I arrived at the grounds for 'The Queue' at 7 am. The funniest thing had to be me voicing out doubts whether there could possibly be anyone as crazy as us that would be there at such an unearthly hour, seeing as the first match started at 12 pm.

Who would have thought....

We were beaten to the chase by just about 2000 people. The Queue Card said it all. So Ground tickets we had to settle for. Ahh well.

No matter anyway. I was excited enough just looking at the span of green lawn rolling out before me. Yes, first time. Easily satisfied. Zero expectations.

We amused ourselves by painting nails.


And taking many pictures with Wei's funky DSLR.


Inside the Grounds of the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club finally!


Gilles Simon on Court 6! I became a fan of this French dude after that day. And yes, it helps that he is quite the looker :)

On Henman Hill - where we watched Nadal trash Kei Nishikori's ass on the big screen.


Overall - I turned red first, and THEN black. And currently I am about ten shades darker than I originally was - which is quite a feat for me. (Congratulations, British Sun =P) But it was well worth a first time experience.

Except now I am soooo envious of all the spectators in Centre Court, and even more envious of Bao / Woogui!

Well, I am aiming in that direction :)

And as an end note: Confessions of a newly-converted Crazed tennis fan - I have been following The Championships more dilligently this year than the World Cup!

*cue GASSPPP*

PS: Credits to Wei for all these amazing pictures from that funky DSLR.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Coping Mechanisms

Life....issues.....drama......PMS. Who are we kidding? Even when it is not that time of the month and life is considerably drama or issue-free, we all get our moments of 'sienness' or emo bouts, or even those days that you open your eyes and wished that you could just sleep forever.

(Hello Garfield? Could we just exchange places for one day please?)

So we have coping mechanisms. To each her own.

I remembered a time when mine was JH-induced laughter. Or Zhin-induced laughter.

And then as the years went by and JH and Zhin's roles slowly diminished in my life, I found different therapeutic methods of making life that much more bearable.

The first being my BFF and possibly the funniest person ever in this world, Pei Hua.

And the second - not so good, scrape that: not good at ALL - was retail therapy.

The week before, I had bouts of intermittent 'sienness'. Days when you just felt like you really needed a break from this world and just dream about post-exam freedom and summer holidays in the comfort of home. And then I got that break from the world when I had the most fabulous weekend ever with PH over AND our marathon shopping trips - more cardio than I could ever have done in one gym session, I assure you.

Despite the unproductiveness of our shopping spree, the endless hours of conversation, the uncontrollable laughter, the sniggering at TV shows on my computer, the Youtube surfing, the eating sessions - everything was worth so much more. Our numerous mini trips between London and Manchester have been the many highlights of my year, and in the darker moments, given me something to hold on to and move forward.

And at the end of the weekend, I decided that there was no way that I was letting PMS combat me and succumb to using it as a weak excuse for everything.

Because even in those bleak moments, you realise that these things are probably all that you need in life:

A Bestie


And SHOPPINNNGGGG

(you didn't see the second line. Shopaholic who??)

Saturday, June 05, 2010

The Road to Wimbledon


Continuing the sudden Tennis faze, my non-tennisplayer friends and I have been even more hooked on the game as of late. Well, don't blame me. I have always been an avid follower of Grand Slams - I can't say the same for the others. I'd like to think, like what LX said, that I sparked this trend, but then again, it wouldn't do to be THAT full of yourself, or anything like that.

With the Roland Garros rounding up and coming to a stylish end, I have started discarding my immense distaste of Rafa Nadal since this tournament. No one probably deserved to be at this Final more than he did, and he had emerged the strongest fighter amongst all the top-seeded players this time round, for sure.

I might even *GASP* consider watching him play Soderling in the Finals tomorrow - amidst my procrastination from digesting some real medical stuff (don't even get me started) - although I am pretty sure Rafa could probably just carry the trophy home right now.

MI (Myocardial Infarction, Heart Attack) Inducing Event of the week had to belong to Wednesday when Djoker crashed out on me right before my very eyes after I switched to watching Nadal's match because the streaming sucked and because I was quite certain that 'Djoker would be alright'.

Don't even get me started.

There were a few strokes of genius from the man (who was a shadow of his Australian Open '08 Champion Self) but generally, he failed to impress.

I have to say this again: ARRGGGHHHHH!!!

Okay, done. I am done clinging on to the past. Djoker is out. I will move on and look towards Wimbledon.

Despite the universal fact that I would be in the same city as this massive Grand Slam, and having known that for almost a year now, plus all those trips on the bus past Centre Court on the way back from GP and so forth - it had not fully sunk in until NOW.

Now I am excited! (Yes, kill me. I will do anything to procrastinate, including rave about a sport that I don't even play. Even the World Cup seems to fade in comparison. But we'll go there another day).

So....fastest fingers into play. Ticketmaster. Night before. Hyperventilate. Exams....what exams?

Centre Court, anyone? ;)

AND in collaboration with all the Tennis Festivities, it only seemed natural to come up with a Poll.

Who Is Your Favourite Tennis Player?