A supposed to be big gathering outing turned out to a few people’s gathering yet again.
I hated it when friends agreed enthusiastically at first and then dropped out in the end. Some did not even bother to tell me they had something on until I called and informed them of the meeting time just the day before. I personally thought it was a very bad attitude, or maybe it was courteous enough to do that afterall and it was just me who was of a different mindset.
Though I had so much doubt in my mind, at least I could confirm it was due to the priority of the person. Everyone grew up to have so many commitments and also new friends. The problem with some friends who could not confirm whether they could make it for outings was because they were expecting other friends of greater value to date them out. While some, they could not even bother to reply and the answer was more obvious.
With my extremely bad backache, I went to meet up with Kailin. Weitat, Ken and Miaowen joined in, followed by Huiqin. The six of us set off for Sentosa without Kachua and Jinyang who would be quite late as usual. On the way, I messaged Jianhao to ask him about the next day’s competition and then he told me it was cancelled since he could not take off from his work; he could have informed me earlier, same like the refereeing approach earlier on, which was quite irresponsible. Imagine if I were to organise an outing but did not inform you when it was cancelled, how would you feel on the day itself?
The hot weather killed every little concentration I had and I got a bad cut by the sand on my left ankle at the very beginning of the game. Kachua arrived shortly and joined in. It was then I realised the damaged caused by 007 had not recovered after so long, with my chest continued to feel uncomfortable and my whole body feeling weak. I crashed into Kachua when trying to save a ball and my left thumb’s nail almost dented up to ninety degrees, but luckily there was only a big pact of blood clot inside and the slightly upper part of the skin torn off from the nail.
After a few matches, the rain came in gently, stopped and then whacked the ground hard. Seeking refuge at the bar of Sunsetbay, no one would believe I felt ten times worse standing with the aching of my back and knees than running and jumping about on the court. Jinyang and Tze Khit arrived unexpectedly in the big rain. However, Kachua left soon as he had something on.
It was after a long time at around five, the rain became much lighter and many of the big groups had left the Siloso beach, we went back to the court nearer to the sea to continue with our game with Andy and Huiyong joining in soon after.
Teaming up with Huiyong was the best thing ever for he was one good player who could save every single ball with only very little effort and give good run to tired out opponent or even give them powerful ball biscuit on their heads. He did me more good than only getting more scores, which was to play seriously so as to not let him down. There was so much to learn from him that I could become an expert soon if I had a few more sessions with him.
I was surprised that the group of guys who played with John and I a week ago tried to challenge us to a match. I was delighted to fulfil their dream of being smashed on the head but Weitat thought we had too many people and it was not good to leave anyone out of court. As some of us were exhausted, we decided to give those guys a chance but they did not want to play anymore. It was either they were not very pleased for we dragged our game for too long or they had realised there were numerous of Safsa players with us.
Even though my physical condition was probing me that I should stop since very early, I played on. And each time I used any strength or moved even a few steps, I coughed badly and felt like vomiting. The weirdest thing was that I managed to survive and play until seven plus. I did not keep track of the number of times I had coughed badly – five hundreds or more?
Jinyang left earlier and then by the time we soaked ourselves into the water, it was total darkness. There was a live band performance there and I paid attention to the sound speakers maybe because I was dealing more with them nowadays. The performancers were quite cool and I loved it when they continued one song after another without even catching their breath back. I could not do it, and so, I admired.
It was nice meeting Brian there as he was always so friendly. We got up of the tram to leave the place and then started taking photos. As the next stop was only a short distance away, there were a big group of youngsters who tried to get up and eventually had to fit into the empty row of seats in between us while we were taking photos. It was quite funny for them to squeeze and lean to the sides for us to proceed on.
As we reached the beach car park to wait for the Blue Line bus, we helped each other to take photos. I supposed they were classmates of around forty people and some of the girls were really cute. The bus was very squeeze and then I managed to get to sit down after the next stop. There was this intuition of mine which came true, and one of the cuter girls took the empty seat besides me. She was the “cheena” type who was quite cool but did not have a sweet voice. As usual, I felt awkward throughout the long journey to the entrance of Sentosa besides the babe.
Dinner was the worse one I had ever had. Tze Khit managed to piss Huiqin off and I did not know why she kept insisting on going for steamboat at nine plus in the night. Tze Khit had to get home early and so, he refused to go no matter what; I knew it was not worth the money and I was also too tired to go anywhere further but I did not want to blast Huiqin’s temper furthermore and so I kept quiet.
As I was questioning Kailin, I realised it was not the first time Huiqin was so perseverance in dining at the place she wanted to, but however, I had never experienced it in the past with her before. Probably, she was also playing a cold war with Tze Khit. Luckily I did not have such urge for any food; I appreciated friends who were as easy-going as me.
We stalled there for quite long before Tze Khit won the battle as it got late. After the dinner at the Harbourfront Centre food court, Huiqin had to wait for her friend and so, some of us stayed behind to accompany her. It was then I realised my hands were shaking while taking photos; at least I did not drop the camera.
Soon after I got home, I dropped dead on my brother’s bed.