My First Soccer Game of the Year

I remember when I was still a poly student, my Australian lecturer Ms Penny asked me a question, "Why do you support Everton?" My sheepish reply to her was that I love the colour of the jersey and I enjoy the way the players go about their business on the field.

She then quizzed me further, "Do you know where Everton is located? The exact location". In my mind, I was saying, "Why would I bother?". After many years, I still feel that it's a pretty redundant question. But what I've learnt from this questioning is that we must always know why we are doing certain things. Yes, there are times where we can say "I'm going with my instincts", but instincts also comes from certain experiences and thus, you can trust that.

So the question I have for myself is, "Why do I like to play soccer?"

Let's start from the very beginning.

Kicking a ball is one of the easiest thing to do. When I was in primary school, I'd always want people to see me as active and sporty. I love to run. Why? Because running is free. All that I needed was a pair of shoes, not neccessarily running shoes. I remember those races that I had. Wooden pegs with triangular coloured flags to demarcate the running lanes; the bright sunshine and the green field. I don't recall if I won the race, but yes, I love running.

We did kick soccer balls then but nothing too serious. I had always wanted a soccer jersey but never did want to ask my parents for it as it would have cost them quite a bit of money.

When I entered into a neighbourhood secondary school, I was introduced to basketball court soccer. I'm not one of those boys that's totally fanatical of soccer - some of them play soccer at every given opportunity. I played with my classmates. We had inter-class games and I believe we did quite alright. No formal introduction to the game, just as what a Singaporean would say "Any-o-how kick". I would usually take the left wing as I had unlimited running energy. However, soccer was more a casual sport for me as I was still more involved in middle distance running.

My interest in soccer ramped up quite a bit during my pre-university days. Once again, it was through inter-class competitions. Till now, I still believe that I am not even an average player, but one who has legs to run. But during this time, I'll always remember the game that we had. i.e. This was the first time that one of my team mates scored a goal right from the start. Referee blows his whistle to start the game, one touch of the ball and bam! A goal that saw the opposing goalkeeper grasping air. This wasalso the time that we called our defence the "A" team - Adrian, Ahmad and Andy. We fought for each other and made sure we protected our goalkeeper. That was it in my pre-university days.

Then came army. We played inter-company soccer and the highlight was Bravo versus Echo. That game saw me scoring a chipped goal. I picked the ball from central midfield, ran my heart out before chipping the goalkeeper. I scored! The truth of it? I had wanted to whack the ball hard but my tired legs just pumped the ball higher than what I had wanted to do. So basically, a "Tai-ko" goal. I have never scored a goal since.

I continued playing soccer in polytechnic and was the reserve player that did not make it to the field. In short, I was low on confidence. After polytechnic, I left for Australia for my studies. There, I started to enjoy soccer once again. No competition, just pure running around with the Singaporean team. Of course we had imports from Thailand and also Australians.

Back in Singapore, I started to play soccer with my church friends and soon enough, they started a team in 2006 and that was where I started to play soccer regularly. This was also the first time, when I'm 30+, that I had my very first soccer jersey, shin guard and soccer boots. What a delight.

So to answer my own question, I love soccer as its a sport that requires one to think under pressure. It tells you about life. It tells you that you have a choice to make. Making a wrong pass may cost the team, and that life is all about beating the odds, even in defeats.

Soccer is also about teamwork. You work for each other and not for yourself. As for my soccer "career", I'll play in fir as long as my rickety joints can take it. : )

How was my Christmas?

Christmas is a time of giving, and things have been rather hectic - Buying presents, clearing of office work before the honey-baked ham and roasted turkeys were placed on the table. This year, we seemed to be less prepared.

My family usually buy our presents starting August each year, but this time round, I've been busy doing my projects and office work that we had to go through a mad rush to get all the presents ready.

NEVER EVER leave it to that late again. We were still buying presents on Christmas Eve, and that's not good. Let me explain. Christmas is about remembering Christ's birth and his sacrifices for man.

We were also rushing from one dinner to another. We need to clam ourselves down and focus on what is more important - the people around us.

Let's reflect on the 2009 and put together our New Year's wishes.

Upping of The Christmas Tree

During Our Wedding Dinner

A New Paper article about a groom who fell to his death hours after his wedding reminded me of my own wedding day. That was in 2003 and looking back, everything just went past so very quickly. We chose 30 April to be the date of our wedding dinner as it would mean that our guests would have more time to rest as the next day was Labor Day.

It was memorable in more ways than one. During that period, the dreaded disease SARS, had gone full blown. It was quite worrisome as at that point, no one really knew how to stop the disease from claiming more lives. To ensure the safety of all our guests, Jac and I chose to set up a temperature-taking station.

If the start time of any true-blooded Chinese wedding dinner was to go by, mine was the epitome! With all the SARS hula-boola, we only started our dinner at about 9.30pm! But God's always good. With the impending holiday, the crowd continued their festive mood. Some of our guests, I understood, were even ready to party after our celebrations.

But there are lessons to be learnt as to why you should not get drunk on your wedding night. Of course, there are those who'd immediately think about the activities in between the sheets. But I promise you, it's not all about that.

It was pretty easy to keep myself sober as I don't club alot and have not drinking buddies. Moreover, it's a Christian wedding where things are kept quite civil. No funny wedding games, no downing of alcohol. I'd stayed sober to soak in every minute of the most important day of my life. So here's why you should keep yourself sober and not think that it's your big day, thus booze till your heart's content.

1. You want to remember the day. The time really flew past us and before you can say "Yum Seng", the entire dinner has ended. If you're drunk, you not only don't remember your day, someone might even need to take care of you. And that honor will most probably fall on the bride. The first duty of a wife is to clean up after her husband? Hmm.

2. We chatted the entire night. The wedding had such impact that we did not sleep till about 5am. My family members left the hotel only at about 1.30am. As we did not eat much during the dinner, ordered room service.

3. You want to enjoy a hearty breakfast the very next day. We were so tired that I think we missed that totally!

So to Ally and Joash, though it may be a long time more before you guys find your right Godly partners and get married, this is papa's story for you. : )

Surprise Visit By Ben, Viv and Family

Ben, Viv and her family made a surprise visit to Singapore. Nana had to go for her dental check-up thus their return from Hangzhou. Glad to see them back! : )

Ans yes, happy birthday to Daddy and Mummy, Gong Gong, Po Po, YeYe, Mama.

Ally Having Her Chinese Musical Concert

Growing Up?

Just sent Ally for an eye check up. She may need glasses. Oh boy.

MRT Card

MRT has changed their EZ Link card. My family is always one step slower than the rest. We had about eight months to replace our EZ Link card, but somehow, we only changed it after the replacement deadline, even after it was extended. Thus we had to pay an additional $5 for each card. Why? Haahaa.

Anyway, I think EZ Link has some teething issues that they have to iron out. When I tried buying the card, the machine "makan" my money and for a second, I thought that I'd placed my money in a jackpot machine. Anyway, this green card above happens to be the one that I'd to buy on the spot as I'd forgotten to bring along my EZ Link card. The cost of taking the MRT is no longer cheap - $2.80 for a ride into town. I think we really need to consider bringing in electric scooters, and also have lanes dedicated to them.

Today's the Day

I'm going to do my check up today. Lord, please allow the doctor to declare a clean bill of health. Amen!

Update (22 Oct: 3pm): I was given a clean bill of health. My suspicion of two years however came up correct. I'd gastric and the symptoms were showing - Acid reflux, stomach pains, sometime even cold sweat.

The doctor told me that I had this bacteria in my stomach lining - Helicobecta Pylori or H.Pylori. It has an interesting story of how the scientists found out about the bacteria by chance and how they survive adversity as no one would believe the findings of the two scientists. Once it was proven to be true (One scientist even went as far as to consume the bacteria to show the world how the microscopic thinggy can survive in the lining of the stomach), the two blokes nick themselves the Nobel Prize. So Hollywood-type of story right?

With that, the world will have less people who suffer from this type of stomach pains.

Learnt a couple of things from the reading:-

1. The strength of the acid in our stomach is equivalent to the acid found in a car battery
2. Brocoli is a good cancer fighting food

Anyway, Praise the Lord that everything went on well.