Meet Coachie

Meet my badminton pal, Coachie (yeah i know he sounds like a favourite snack that usually involves spitting saliva covered shells). He hangs around (literally!) with me when I go for my badminton session. Though he looks like he would prefer to be fishing somewhere, he really loves to hang around in the badminton hall with me. The reason why there is a new post entirely dedicated to Coachie is because of this :

He now has a protruding right eye! *o*

I believe he was in some sort of disagreement with some of the other hangies (like groupies but they are mainly hang ons....after all he hangs on to my badminton bag all his life with the others) or maybe a bump with a racket or something. His beautiful big black eyes that can see my soul are now weird looking but he is still a dear to me. I dont know if the eye can be fixed but I have decided to love him just the way he is. Protruding eye and all. He is after all my Coachie. The one who silently (if there were any noise, I would be screaming already) supports me when I am playing and the one who just hangs around and let me be. Bad badminton and all. Hahahaha. Plus, his coolness factor rubs on me too. Though now with the protruding eye, maybe the coolness level have dropped a bit or maybe gone up a notch, depending on how people rate coolness. :D

Anyway, here is Coachie and his protruding eye saying....here's looking at you kid. :)

While the internet was down.....

I spent some time destressing by playing good old pinball and minesweeper. I finally solved the biggest puzzle size (yeah, yeah, other people have solved it million of times and in shorter time that I have but who cares, the internet was down and I need some feel good moment. haha) and lo and behold my latest best times.

My live without stable internet access........

sucks. The internet connection have been disconnecting so much that any attempt at any postings or even email checking are proven futile. At one point, I was offline for nearly two days. Reports to the provider company makes my head itch like crazy for their nonchalant ignorance of my predicament. They couldn't care less. Ha ha, in my face. Well at least that is how I perceive their fervent effort not to do anything constructive in solving my problem. And blogging became a challenge. Thoughts that are fresh and needed to be written immediately get lost in day to day mundane going ons.....

I try and try and try......

but I can't figure out how to put background music on my blog. But I think it might be a blessing in disguise because logic tells me that if I succeed, the page will be slower to pop up. Plus there is the issue of copyright and even though I am not planning on making any profit out of anything used here in this blog, I better respect the rules. So maybe I should just forget about it.

The Thomas Cup and Uber Cup

Our Uber Cuppers did well. We reached quarter finals. I was satisfied with their efforts. :) Maybe when we can find more talented new players, we can mount a serious challenge. China is so lucky in a sense that they have a huge pool of talent to pick from.

Thomas Cup was so near yet so far. Yes, I was disappointed but I think most of our players did their best and if Hafiz were able to move up a gear and not look like there's no more hope on court and be more aggresive, we might have reached the finals. Koo Kien Keat/ Tan Boon Heong looked like thay have lost the magic. They did try though and I applaud that. But maybe they can't play together anymore. Or shouldn't play together anymore if they can't get over their differences on court and play together and support each other. I did not put much hope on Wong Choon Hann but I was still hoping against hope that he could beat Bao Chun Lai and set the standard for the next doubles to emulate. Thankfully the next doubles did not need any as they won their game. But by that time I was weary of the fact that we have to bank on hafiz to clinch a place in the finals. Truthfully, I was already thinking that we could try again next time even before hafiz took to the court. And sadly that thought was proved right by a meek hafiz that did not show any fight and made so many mistakes. If it was the pressure, he was there before and should have been prepared. But alas, another bad showing was all he was capable of. I was sad that so much talent came to nought.

Well...next time maybe we'll take the trophy home. It will be on our owm homeground and I am already planning to be there. :)

While I Was Visiting The Old House

I took some pictures of stuff that was lying around the area of the house using my phone. Most of the things have been thrown out. Some pictures of the landscape around the house. The mangosteen tree and the rambutan tree that was the source of many happy evenings "mengait" and fruit fest.

We will begin with the mangosteen tree and the rambutan tree. :) I did not photoshop these two pictures because I like it that way. :D

This is the rambutan tree. There's some young fruit (do you call it young fruit? I don't know what it is called but it is the "buah muda" so I translate directly to young fruit. hahahah) and they are light green. It will take a while before they turn red. Yum. Maybe by the time the house is done, we can get together and have a picnic outside the house and "kait" some rambutan. :)

And this is the mangosteen tree. If you look closely you can see the young fruit. But since it is also green in colour, I doubt you can spot it unless you are related to Superman and inherited some of his super sight. Hahahaa.

This used to be what kampung kids have for keeping coins. A piggy bank. Though nothing piggy about it. Made from coconut shell. The creativity of kids that dont have money to spend or video games to play. :D This one was not mine but most probably the owner was one of my cousins. What made it interesting to me though was the fact that it looks like a face. A shocked face but cute nonetheless. He he.




This picture I took because of the "pokok menjalar" that was renting a space on the mango tree. Hanging around like it was chillin's out.

This picture was photoshopped. It was a picture of an orange flower lying on the ground. I don't know the name of the flower but the contrast it made lying in it's grey and green and brown surrounding caught my eyes.

As I have mentioned above, these pictures were taken using the camera on a handphone and thus some does not turn out nearly as nice as the picture of the mangosteen tree. So this picture was not so clear and sharp. I decided to photoshop it and after tinkering around with some options, I settled on this. I think the outcome is nice. :) Oh and it is in fact the same mangosteen tree.

I took a picture of a jasmine flower. But the whiteness of the flower and the limitation of my camera made the flower look like a white blob and the details were next to none. So...yes, you guessed it, photoshop galore. The black shadow in the middle was the flower.

There was a young mangosteen that has fallen in the sand pile in front of the house. I took a picture of it but it turns out so grainy and blurry. I photoshoped like jaime oliver. A bit of this and a bit of that, yes use your hands because you can feel the texture, tear here and there and pop it in the oven...and wallah! Ok, I know it is not that nice but I am cool with that. :)

Due to my interest in badminton, of course this old shuttle lying neglected on the ground captured my attention. But again, the quality of the picture was not that good. Photoshop came to my rescue because I so wanted this picture to be included. But the best I could come up with was the picture on the left which I think gave the shuttle the old, run down but of hidden value feel. Like long lost painting of a master. Yeah yeah, I kid myself. I do that all the time. Hahaha.

Last but not least, a picture of me in front of the house. My aunts and me was having tea and "goreng pisang". I wanted to stay mysterious so I photoshop the picture. Looks weird right? But I kinda like it. :D

And that was the end of my adventure with the camera phone and photoshop. :)

Last Saturday

I went to Batu Gajah. To the house where I lived for nearly five years after my parents divorced. The house of my paternal grandfather.

The original house

The house was real old and need repair. So we all chipped in to repair it. The work has started and it is looking ok so far. Soon the house will not look like the old one. The one where I grew up and play and study and plan mischievious schemes. Hahaha. The next picture is what the house in the process of repair looks like.

The house holds many memories. Good and bad. Happy and sad. Things changes. Going home to your "kampung" and see things that are not the same anymore seems to make it obvious that time is passing us by. All things are familiar and yet unfamiliar at the same time. Where the old tree that we climb used to be, there's a stump. But just looking at the stump brings back memories of climbing that tree. Memory is a powerful powerful thing. :)

When the house is finished, I will post a new picture.

We make plans, but.............

things don't always go according to our plans. Well I wanted to have odd posts per day and yet even this simple plan was unsuccessful. Hahaha. Oh, well...live and let live. :D

Stop and Stare

Yeah, I am talking about the song. I feel that way sometimes.

Stop And Stare - One Republic

This town is colder now, I think it's sick of us
It's time to make our move, I'm shakin off the rust
I've got my heart set on anywhere but here
I'm staring down myself, counting up the years
Steady hands, just take the wheel...
And every glance is killing me
Time to make one last appeal... for the life I lead

Stop and stare
I think I'm moving but I go nowhere
Yeah I know that everyone gets scared
But I've become what I can't be, oh
Stop and stare
You start to wonder why you're 'here' not there
And you'd give anything to get what's fair
But fair ain't what you really need
Oh, can u see what I see

They're tryin to come back, all my senses push
Un-tie the weight bags, I never thought I could...
Steady feet, don't fail me now
Gonna run till you can't walk
But something pulls my focus out
And I'm standing down...

Stop and stare
I think I'm moving but I go nowhere
Yeah I know that everyone gets scared
But I've become what I can't be, oh
Stop and stare
You start to wonder why you're here not there
And you'd give anything to get what's fair
But fair ain't what you really need
Oh, you don't need

What u need, what u need...

Stop and stare
I think I'm moving but I go nowhere
Yeah I know that everyone gets scared
But I've become what I can't be
Oh, do u see what I see...