tennis, life and a few things in between

Le Meridien (Starwood) on Nanjing Road East in Shanghai. A great location, but the lobby is less than desirable. Stacks of moon cakes piled high, in prominent displayed near the entrance, and were being handed out. AT first I thought it were the guest who stays at the hotel. But after I walked a bit on the street did I realize what’s going on. Still, I didn’t understand why the hotel would want to get on distributing moon cake business.

The living room looks out to the east and the bathroom looks out to the Bund and beyond.
A while back, in a mocking article on New York magazine projected that by 2020, Americans would rush to China to find a job, like cute white college grad waiting at restaurants or being baby sitters who speak perfect Mandarin. Well, I don’t know if we need to wait that long. At one lounge at the hotel I spotted a tall and pretty cute blond among waiting staff. Was she a trainee of some sort, or just a back packer who would do anything to stretch her stay at a foreign city. Would people feel odd if a Chinese waiting at a hotel in Zambia?
This xiao long bao juicy dumpling tastes pretty good.

According to friends playing tennis in Shanghai can be a hassle and expensive proposition. So I largely wrote it off. Didn’t bring my gears. But then thought what’s the heck. Let’s try. Tried to line up with a coach who would provide me with a racket .. .. but that didn’t happen.
Then I spotted a tennis court from YZ’s apartment
“Yes you can play here.” He assured me.
I spotted few courts from this hotel .. don’t remember its name .. sorry senior moment ..
When I went to pick up Auntie Ida I found a cluster of courts in her gated community.
And the courts were empty too!

I was going to cheer the first snow of the year, and decade. Then wondered if I am having the senior moment since I couldn’t remember for sure. Only 28 days.
Ok .. but I remembered that when I went in the USTA to play that early morning, it was dry. That’s for sure.
..
China Curtails Run of Avatar as It Fills Theaters, hoping the domestically produced biography of Confucius will gain some audience. Guess it’s a tough sell, even with Chow Yun-Fat.
Is Confucius becoming popular the same way Mao is nowadays?

Jia Baoyu, literally “Precious Jade” and his surname is a homophone with “false” or “sham” is the principal character in the classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber.

Having a nervous breakdown few days ago during the first league match as captain, I experienced heart attack this afternoon, during a practice run. The great champ came to play, so did the 4.5 whom I kept on romancing him .. .. in the hope that he’ll get demoted next year to join our team. I don’t know about you but I was flattered by being just on the same court with those tennis royalties. I was so tense to the point of shxxless sugarless, more nervous than playing an actual match. Did I tell anyone that my hearing was diminishing? When my partner was telling me what to do, his voice was mostly lost in the bubble. I just kept on nodding rapidly like a woodpecker even I understood nothing or very little. Every time I shakily raised my rocket, trying to return a shot, I was either getting hit or hit it out, totally interrupting a nice flow of the game. If I was lucky, managed a return, it would cut the speed to half. Everyone stood still, waiting for it ..

Ok, joke aside, I was musing about why those high flying 4.0 bombers, the golden boys would want to play with us, the sissy girls (ok .. you girls are great .. not sissy .. only Irene .. no, not that Irene, this Irene ..) I think I figured it out today: they’re bunch of Precious Jades. Disagree? Look at my girls, don’t they look like modern Lin Meimei 林妹妹Daiyu 黛玉?

Out of blue, two days ago some family member of the players from Beijing Chaoyang tennis club contacted me:

Subject: Sunday in NY

Hi Irene,
Please don’t mind if I ask who paid for the tennis court that day, I need to know this because I was told that I need to pay for my share of the fee, and I am not even part of the tennis team.
Thanks,

Weird .. was my first reaction.

What’s going on? Why would anyone ask the family member to chip in to share the court cost? We all knew USTA paid for the two courts for two hours 10-12 noon. Since we had about two dozen players from both sides, soon we played on the next two courts. Four courts in total. In any sense, we, as the host, should pay for the court cost, if there were any, just like the lunch.

Who actually asked you to pay for it, and how much? I questioned the sender.

No reply.

(On that Sunday 8/30, as we were leaving the tennis club, one of my buddies mentioned that Sandy went to the front desk at the club and negoated the additional two courts and paid for it.)

To be sure, I forwarded the e-mail to Andy and one of the organizers for clarification. The organizer replied two days later:

Subject: Re: court fee for BJ club

Hey Irene,
When you raise questions, you have to be specific. I have no clue what you or your someone are referring to.
What court, which court, where, when ???

Sorry .. for being not clear and specific. I thought the initial e-mail/subject is self-explanatory.

From reading the e-mail I forwarded to you, I think the inquirer is asking about Sunday 8/30 at Roosevelt Island tennis club. Have any of catsny member asked the Chaoyang tennis club to share the court fees (original two and the addition two ??) in any way?
It sounds very odd.

Best regards
Irene

From the organizer:

C’mon, Irene, that was history and whatever happened, happened. It’s water under the bridge.
Just to clear your doubtful mind,
USTA paid 2 courts for Chaoyang Tennis Club as courtesy and we were arranged to play the friendly games with them.
Then, Tom the club manager came later and told me that we can use balance 2 courts for free as the courts were paid for by seasonal players who did not show up.
As such, we got to use balance 2 courts that day. No fees were paid to no one.
To my knowledge, no one asked anyone for money in any form. I, for one, did not pay out any fee to Tennis club for additional courts.
There might have been conversation among our players to suggest that we rent the 2 empty courts and everyone chip in for the cost. That’s my guessing.
Both your neighbor HL and PZ were there. If anyone asking for money, I should have know about it.

So, here you go. I hope this will satisfy the sender.

Now, I have a question for the Inquisitor that wasn’t being answered:
– Who asked for payment? More importantly, was the request made after the 8/30 event – That’s the root of the problem.

Will the Instigator share this info that started this flurry of e-mails exchanges?

I won’t be surprised to see that Chaoyang has as much politics as the catsny although I sincerely hope not. But .. coming to NY/USA isn’t a small deal, especially when China makes tennis/golf so out of reach for the masses.

It’s just a game. People. Lets KISS. Let’s forge friendship and promote sportsmanship.

Played with Alex the assassin who’s game has improved a lot. I like to tease him .. wondering which temple he’s visiting in China 🙂 [to hone his tennis skills]. We won 2 sets to 1.

He knew the Chaoyang tennis club in Beijing well even he holes up in a podunk somewhere near Guangzhou.
RMB 50,000 annual due that only gives you the priority to book a court. Each hour cost US$100 – hope I got the figures right here.
“That’s cheap.” compares to golf in China.
One golf club charges RMB 1,000,000 (life time) membership fee and each outing would cost about RMB 2,000 – 3,000.

His opinion is that China couldn’t produce top notch tennis/golf athletes was due to the 贵族化 the sports, making it prestigious and unreachable for the mass.