tennis, life and a few things in between

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Can you keep a secret? My only reason to becoming the a captain is: to Qiao zhugang 敲竹杠 my charges. Wait, not blackmail?
What’s the difference?
Look what my constituents have 进贡 jingong .. paid tribute (to a suzerain or emperor). 4 cakes!! I’m not even 50 yet.

Sure they all want to please me 🙂

Oh I had fun with this bag. There are so many pockets I was getting lost! Look at this deep hole, like C.I.A.’s hide out. No, it must be Bin Laden’s cave. Where is that dude? Come out, 阿兵 It’s been for a while. Don’t you feel bit bored in there? Be a man. You know, real men don’t hide.
Talking about Mr. Bin Laden, the Jihad .. I really have tough time connecting the innocent boy holding the soccer ball and the young man with the raffle – The Jihadist Next Door. Could it be true that few crave the attention and fame so badly that they would do everything to archive it? Like Richard Heene, who’s to say that Omar Hammami isn’t the Balloon boy who’s gun-toting rebels now? He certainly has found his passion and is living it – however barbaric and horrendous. Has he gotten the fame he’s aching for?
This green on pink fits my crackberry perfectly, as well as my camera. It’s safe to bet that Irene somewhat likes tennis.
Last Friday I played the third match for my LI team. Having drove that far out, just to eat a bagel. What’s da matter with me?! One match I felt there wasn’t any competition but here I was, facing strong opponents but failed to come up with goods.
Mental. All mental.
Almost all my double faults, never came unexpected: they arrive always ceremoniously as I was telling myself, oh no, pls don’t double fault it. Then I would sure DF it, as if I program it. Planted it.

Pretty sick, isn’t it?

My Queens team’s standing as of Jan 31. Please don’t Charlie me, it’s Irene’s Angels. Thanks pretty women.
三个女人一台戏 .. hmmmmmm… what would five do?
..

The Americans like to say having a good hair day when things are all aligned. Well, I just had a good bag day last night: another teamy sweeping victory, third in a row –

#1 doubles: 6-3, 6-3
#2 Doubles: 6-2, 6-3
#3 Doubles: 6-2, 6-3

Here is what my partner had to say (the amount of bribe to him will not be disclosed here)

I was impressed by Irene Eng’s play and I think it was one of her best performances (only played w her twice tho). Her serves, strokes and court coverage were great. She hit an underhand drop shot serve for an ace and she hit a Serena-like full swing volley fm near the baseline for a winner. Both shots caught the girl off guard. Irene only served 1 double fault while I served 4. Like Bill said, maybe she should be coaching and yelling at me instead.

I was actually capable of doing all that?!?! Unbelievable. To be honest, I didn’t know what I did out there except the ‘ace’ that caught the girl off guard. I felt bit sneaky even she was ready to receive. I’ve been serving few underhands lately, one to ease my shoulder and two to mix it up. Our opponents were very confident and they haven’t lost a match yet. So I decided to serve an underhand to rattle them a little. As it turned out, they were very good sportsmen although not much of competition. I was also curious to see how they react: I agree it’s kind of odd. But nevertheless it’s a league play, be serious and ready from get go.

We had a situation last night. The first emergency call came in at 7:38 as I was on the massage table with 30+ minutes left. I had debated whether go to swim or massage before the game. Guess my decision was right. If I were to swim, they couldn’t reach me at all. The reception at the salon was poor and the calls were mounting. I was embarrassed: the massage area is quiet with new age soft music in the background. I was disturbing others. The masseur handed me his iPhone to answer. I got up and went outside.
Kids, can Mommy Eng steal a moment of tranquility, without being disturbed? .. .. Sigh … guess not. One of my five players might not be able to make it to the NTC by 9pm: mediating some important matter (like how much Bernie Madoff has to pay or if $9,000 per day is a livable amount). Does anyone realize time passes extremely fast during a crisis? After few phone calls, we were able to have Kai and Sandy to come. That’s 8:02.

When we trickled into the National Tennis Center, guess what? Mr. Mediator was grandly practicing his serves on court #10. He got there before all of us after all.

Putting this little catastrophe aside, we played with our original line up. The subs sat and watched. Cap Bill was on hand too. What a close knit team we have! I’m very grateful.

The swimming or massage is my way to relax/warm up before a game. Wai is a cool joker and great partner for me who likes to talk non stop. Last time he was out playing, his partner almost told him to shut up because players two courts away heard him, and were annoyed. So Wai isn’t for everyone but Irene :). I think I got Bill’s tacit permission to keep him all to myself. I just feel I could do no worry on court with him around.
It was a relaxing match, with my teammates perching over on the balcony. The opposing team didn’t put up a big fight. Well, our teammates did a good job too.
In the middle of the match, Wai’s love interest came. He took out the newspaper and ran to her. The three of us just stood there and watched. Little lovesick ..
I’m getting old: I’ve met his P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) few months ago and she called few times to set up an appointment for other things but I didn’t follow up on it neither remember her. Sorry, senior moment. His PYT is really outgoing and can hold her own, great. Now Wai, may we have your full attention?

I didn’t get to attend the second match played in Bronx near the Throng Neck bridge because of a dinner in the city. It went well. I got one of Golfer’s foursomes to play and he’s really into it. The funny part is he knew many players way way back. It feels bit incestuous to me 🙂 for he had golfed and tennised with few players on my team. ha ha ha .. a small world.

One of the players on my team, I met her husband when I first came to New York. Since we have the same last name he adapted me as his sis. At time, my pseudo brother was as far away from tennis as water and fire. Couple of years later, the wife joined him with their young son. She too didn’t play tennis. We soon lost touch. Fast forward nearly two decades. One morning I ran into him at Cunningham Park. I was bit surprised. After brief greetings, he said,
“Little sis, let’s play Kai and Sunny.”
My eyes widened. First of all, I didn’t even know he played tennis. Second of all, who were we to challenge those two?
“Don’t worry little sis .. let’s play ..”
About 30 minutes into a set, the rain came. We were on serve.
It turned out, his wife picked up tennis too and they’re both good at it. So good that he is teaching tennis for a living now. Painting is only secondary.

one day the four-some asked me what Golfer’s doing during the winter time since he isn’t playing on my team. Well, he got a stationary bike which he rarely use. But recently he brought new pair of ice skate and is considering joining the local league.

First Doubles: 6:1, 6:4
Second Doubles: 6:4, 6:1
Third Doubles: 6:3, 4:6, 1:0 (10:8)

There is a cute dialogue took place in the bar in San Francisco’s Chinatown in the movie Dim Sum, one of the patrons said to the Uncle the bar tender:
“You can take a girl out of Chinatown but you can’t take Chinatown out of the girl.”
Is that right?
Suppose you can take a girl out of China but can’t take China out of her? But didn’t Chairman Mao said that women can carry half the sky? How come I choose not to???

My second match with my Long Island team, lost 2 and 4. Ian and I practiced once and we did well: winning 6:2 against our strong teammates. Our opponents tonight Carlos and Darlene knew Ian well, they played together as teammates. The pair conjured up bright smile (especially the girl who has big grin, 笑的好灿烂. She has on a very pretty outfit, I was going to complimenting her but didn’t: I don’t really like empress dress style), acted confidently. So I thought, well, we certainly have an equal chance.
Her forehand was lethal and his serves were deadly.
Quickly we found ourselves in a hole.
Most times, my game could be lift up a notch by a better opponent. But it didn’t happen this time. Ian said little to me. Perhaps it’s his style but I felt he wasn’t there for me. Trust is the most important ingredient in a doubles team. I have to admit that I wasn’t too confident even Ian carried most load. Maybe I’m just 仗势欺人zhangshi qiren: bully others on the strength of one’s powerful connection or position – up to no good, only rely on better partner to win a match. I let them to have the control, gave them the edge.
Irene could only 借威作副.