Fallen fruit

This week's photo theme was fall.

Fittingly, in this "fall" season, there were leaves and fruits that had fallen to the ground...

I don’t understand people

Your team needs a minimum of six players, and is allowed a reserve player in case one of the players is injured.

So you start with seven players, but one needs to drop out and you are allowed to find a replacement for the seventh player (to be the reserve).

You ask the next best player you can find, but they can only attend on the first and third day of the six-day tournament.

The second-best has quite a big level of difference in skill compared to the first one, but can be there on all days of the tournament.

Do you:
a) Get the next best player as the reserve?
b) Get the second-best as the reserve?
c) Not get a new reserve player?

Have you got your answer? Well, this is a similar situation to what we had during our badminton tournament.

I’ve been wanting to write about it since it happened, but I never got around to it. Basically this year we had a last-minute replacement player into our team, because a player had to drop out.

The game format was with three doubles games, so we needed a minimum of six players, and were allowed a maximum of eight. We had eight players to start off with, so when one dropped out, I suggested not finding a replacement, and just going along with the remaining seven.

However, some other “senior” players said that it was too risky; what if our players got injured? That is a reasonable concern...so I totally understand if they want to get a replacement.

What I couldn’t understand was that they settled on a replacement player who could only attend the tournament on the first and third days. The reason for selecting this player was that the next best player was not good enough, skill-wise.

The group stage was played on the first four days (Tuesday to Friday), and then if we made it through, we would play the quarter-finals on Saturday. The semi-finals and finals would be held on Sunday. (I already mentioned this in my previous post on the tournament, so the details on our results are there)

So by getting this replacement player, if up to two of our original players got injured (which was the exact reason why they said they needed the new player), she would not be able to play towards the end of the tournament, when we would need the substitute player most. What kind of decision was that, to say you need a replacement player for a certain reason, and then select one who could not fulfill that requirement?

And it wasn’t that the thought did not occur to them. I was involved in the selection of the replacement player, and I did ask them, what if the day that she cannot attend the tournament is the day that we need the substitute player? (they ignored me, and I did not press the matter, leaving it to the captain to decide)

Another thing about my badminton team that I cannot understand is what the “senior” players say sometimes. After a tournament (or during it), sometimes they would say something like “Let’s get [this player] back next year”, or “We should get [this player] back next year”. And this is said when the whole team is there. So what does that make of the current team members? The number of players is limited, so if you want someone else to come back, it means that there is someone here that you do not want to be here.

This is not the first year I have heard them saying this. I usually just stay silent when they say things like these, but I do wonder, doesn't anyone else think the same way as I do?

Ice

This week's photo theme was ice.

I tried to take a photo of ice in a drink, thinking that taking a photo of only ice was too boring. 

But on that day, my ice looked quite fine (not wet) when I took them out of their tray, so I snapped a quick photo before they started melting. And that photo looks better than I thought it would. Therefore I decided to settle for pure ice as my Photo Friday pic!

I'm just a little disappointed that the blocks of ice are not aligned neatly enough. Because I didn't want to risk melting them, I touched them as little as I could, and snapped the photo as quickly as I could!

If you're curious (and also for my future self in case I get curious :P ), here's the other photo that I wanted to take for this photo theme.

iced chocolate

I actually started snapping photos of my drink after I put that ice tray back into the freezer...and took several pics to get a better arrangement of the ice cubes. This photo was the best, that I kept for this photo theme. But...in the end I fell back to using that single photo that I snapped of the plain ice cubes. Haha...the irony.

So, which photo do you prefer? :P

Totally illogical

Lunchmate 1 was telling us about how a friend who went with her to China did not know how to read Chinese, and therefore she had to translate menu items for the friend.

Lunchmate 2 suddenly says, that person needs halal food right?

We both stared at him…

I mean, this is idiotic on so many levels, I don’t even know where to start.

I said that I felt like whacking him (being Chinese-illiterate myself but by no means needing halal food), but he still didn’t get it… it actually took quite some time before he managed to understand that there were people who couldn’t read Chinese but weren’t Muslim. And yet it didn’t even seem like he fully realized the implications of what he had said (I didn’t bother telling him; it would have been a waste of time)

The “full implications” may be too long to be written here, but just to name a few:
Firstly there are plenty of Chinese Malaysians who do not read Chinese, and consume pork.
Secondly, even if he forgot about Chinese who are Chinese-illiterate (for a stupid Chinese-educated katak-di-bawah-tempurung’s reason), even in Malaysia there are non-Chinese and non-Malays who eat pork (Indians are a big group).
Thirdly, even if you take Malaysians out of the equation, how about all the Europeans and Americans who are Christians and do not read Chinese? Why would they need halal food?

I guess he could be forgiven for being too young to know better. (born in 2000)

Banana delivery

This is just something that I just HAVE to write about. 

I had just driven a bit after exiting our company's gates yesterday, when I caught sight of someone on the roadside, his hand pulled back in a throwing pose, holding a BANANA. I took another glance and saw him launching the banana up towards whatever building was there. :O (Or at least I saw the arm gesture; I did not really see the banana flying off!)

He was standing just beside a car, so I assume he got the banana from there...

Since I was driving, I didn't manage to see properly where he was throwing it to; whether it was an actual building or a construction site. (A construction site would make more sense, because there would be no food in there...)

I sure hope the recipient received the delivery properly, and that there were no banana casualties. :P

The tattoo gang

During the badminton tournament the other day, we had this conversation while watching other teams play after our own match had ended.

Teammate 1: That girl has tattoos. I should get one too, to intimidate my opponent. I shall get an angry Doraemon tattoo on my arm.
Me: Then I shall get an angry Pikachu tattoo.
Teammate 2: Why are you talking about Pokemon?

We relate the conversation to her, and she says: I'll get an angry birds tattoo.

Hahaha...

Let's count the cats!

The other day I went to Lavender Food Court to try their Ipoh hor fun. Google reviews say it's pretty good for a stall in Penang, and I think I agree. I think this is the same stall that was in the Lucasark food court (at Sunshine Lip Sin) before that whole food court closed. I only had that once though, and can't remember it so well...but the name of this stall is Ah Huat, and I sort of remember the other stall having the same name.

I didn't take a photo of the hor fun (I bought it for take-away, so the presentation upon getting home isn't that great), but while waiting for my food, I noticed this cute drawing (or should I say wallpaper?) on the wall, and couldn't resist snapping a photo.

I didn't count them. :P But you're welcome to!

A golden sunset

Left work later than usual the other day, and was greeted by this view of the sky as I approached the Krystal Point roundabout.

Since the Photo Friday theme for the week was gold, I guess this golden sunset is a pretty good shot for it!

The paradoxical mental coach

I suppose it’s time to write a bit about our companies’ badminton tournament. I had a few things to write about that, but as mentioned a few posts back, I caught Covid and was down for a while.

We managed to come in third place this year in the team event, which is something that we hadn't managed to achieve since 2015. My teammates joined the individual women's doubles event and came in second place!

on the left are the individual event medal and trophy; on the right our team event's
(my friend took this photo, and I like it :) )

We were playing day after day; the group stage matches were held on weekdays. Our group had five teams, so we had to play four matches. Our schedule skipped Monday, so we played Tuesday through Friday, then the quarter-finals were on Saturday, followed by the semi-finals and finals on Sunday.

After our last group match on Friday, the draw was immediately held for the knockout stage. We were to play against Intel Blue (Intel sent three teams, so they were identified by colour). It was not the strongest Intel team, according to our best-informed player. So we still stood a chance.

And here’s the thing: One of my new teammates (who has never participated in a tournament before) calls me her mental coach because whenever she worries about our opponents being strong, I keep telling her that we are also strong and that it’s not impossible to beat them. I had been doing that even before the tournament started, and also during the tournament when she kept exclaiming that players from other companies were good.

But the paradox is that I did not wash my team shirt on Friday night because I thought we would not manage to play on Sunday…

On Saturday I actually played the last (third) match which put us through to the semi-finals. We did stand a chance (we were leading the whole way), but the opponents did catch up a bit at one point, making us (and our teammates, especially!) nervous. I didn’t dare to believe we would get through until the game really ended.

And then, when I got home, I suddenly realized: My shirt from Friday is unwashed, I’d better wash it right away so that it can dry in time for the next day! (we have two team shirts, so we rotate them each day)

Actually if you believe in jinxes, me not washing my shirt may be the reason why we did make it to the semi-finals after all. :P (Personally I do have a thing for jinxes…I feel like if I have the audacity to hope that I will play on Sunday, and therefore wash my shirt in preparation, then I would not make it. But that wasn’t the reason why I didn’t wash my shirt…on Friday I was simply thinking: What are the odds that we’ll play on Sunday? Let’s just leave the shirt and wash it with Saturday’s shirt… :P )

On Sunday we played against Jabil...and again I played the third and deciding match with the same partner. Frankly there was a chance of winning...but somehow the opponents still played better.

Then on Monday I played badminton with the Tetra gang (our weekly session after work) We didn’t have enough players, so we asked one of my teammates to join in. We had spent the whole weekend with another Tetra guy who was our best supporter this year - he went to watch us play on two weekdays, and then drove three of us to the court on both days during the weekend (we all live in the same area) - and during Monday's session we kept talking about scores and such (still high from the tournament? :P ), and we even kept track that my teammate and I kept winning; the only time she lost was when we played against each other (so we couldn’t both win), and I somehow managed to keep my winning streak that day.

And then, the next day all three of us started having a sore throat and cough, followed by a confirmation of Covid on Wednesday. :( So much for being invincible. :P

In a way I was relieved to know that it was Covid… On Tuesday I was feeling so tired, and I thought that it was due to playing badminton for seven days straight. But I couldn’t understand how it could take such a toll on me (aging came to mind…); it wasn’t like we played two solid hours (or even one hour) each day; we just played one match!

Anyway to round up the “report” on the tournament: This year I joined the mixed doubles individual event again (after getting third place last year), albeit with a different partner. We lost in the quarter-finals, so unfortunately fell just short of getting a prize.

Time to go into battle

Let’s pick our weapons!

Er…are we fighting with fireworks, or throwing rotten mandarin oranges at the enemy?

Opening the box…

Broken badminton racquets as boomerangs and ping pong balls as missiles?

It's a ping pong bat!

Let’s play ping pong! ♥

Anyway, this post may seem random, but it's the first time I'm playing ping pong in years. I didn't even remember for sure what I had in this box of ping pong stuff. :P

Looking at roofs

This past week has been awful in terms of traffic jam on the way home from work.

While stuck on the flyover in the jam, I managed to get a photo of a roof, which was the week's photo theme.

There seems to be some kind of pattern drawn on the roof, but unfortunately it's not clear from this angle.