Weekend of learning

Was flying solo on driver duty this past Saturday, as the wifely person had a full day retreat to attend while the offspring had a full day of classes to attend. Had to wake her up and then be face to face with a putu mayam hungry girl that had to be disappointed with koko crunch instead (life is tough and full of disappointments), but we thought it through and decided it was not worth expanding the energy of crying. We both got ready quickly, somehow sensing that it would be good day, and headed out to ballet class, arriving nice and early to get ready for class and have our goodbye/goodluck hugs and kisses. Made her my usual promise that i'll be right here waiting for her when her class ended, which i was (am happy to say i've never disappointed her despite several close calls. i think the thought of her disappointed face just spurs me on to be really on time). I even managed to grab my fav breakfast of laksa nearby (mee rubus lost out lol) while waiting for her.

After her lesson, the first thing she wanted to do was locate the nearest putu mayam stall (how's that for persistence!) so having done my research already, we went to nearby Ghim Mo hawker centre and found that they were left with the last putu mayam and daughter was happy. =)

We had several discussions in the car during the course of the day today and i wish i could record it all for posterity, as they involved heavy topics such as how to count to twenty in Roman numerals as well as "why is my name my name?". I should explain that our regular bedtime story of Wizard of Oz is the original full version, so we read one chapter a night, and the chapter headings are in (you guessed it Sherlock) Roman numerals. =)

In the afternoon after her nap, we went exploring at the old HDB estate of Dakota Crescent and had teatime there before taking a walk around (new camera to try lol), following the Kallang river where we found some mimosa plants, so had the opportunity of explaining and showing her the joys of "tickling" the mimosa plant. The look of fascination and joy on her face was priceless and that picture will be one i will keep in my heart forever.

Different strokes

Due to a scheduling conflict, I couldn't make it for soccer training this week. =(

So i decided to join some friends for sunday soccer instead, and we started out with a larger pitch (two small pitches combined) before we had to switch to a smaller pitch with 3 teams. As they say in Fifa10 the game, the gulf in class is evident both on the pitch and on the scoreline. J decided to stick with being a defender although he did roam up a couple of times, even unleashing one of his trademark thunderbolts which fizzed past the post. I did have a pretty good time on the right, scoring one and setting up two in the first minutes of the game and it was interesting because i kept running and squaring the ball and we kept knocking them in. J remarked when he scored from such a situation that although he would usually first time it, he had so much time and space that he actually stopped the ball first and tapped it in. I even managed to make an outside boot pass from a fast break when i saw the last man come towards me, but as i turned with my back towards goal to receive the pass i saw a runner on my right and flicked it on into his path, leaving the last defender stranded, but the runner shot wide *facepalm*

Switching to the smaller pitch with three teams, i promptly sprained my left ankle on some dodgy turf and was left quite static for the rest of the game, although i still managed to rock the crossbar a couple of times, score a few goals and rack up more assists. =) I did managed to walk the ball through their defence thanks to the "many small touches" approach only that i got a bit lost and couldn't find a pass or a shot to end the run.

All in all a good session although for some strange reason we are both carrying aches and pains today, probably the lack of warm up. lol

Crowded pitch

Quite a few came for training so we had four teams of 8 for the full match, but with smaller goals on the halfway line to form two separate pitches, it meant that the playing field was wide but short, kinda like me. Overall we came in second to J's team, who had a few monster midfielders who were fast, made intelligent runs, could shoot well and passed well. Tough to defend and we conceded 3 against them while overall i had a pretty bad night with lousy touches, a chance to volley (which i ballooned into the far pond) and poor crosses. I didn't have to play as defender though since my teammates were pretty decent defenders, although i did drop back and make a few defensive tackles (earning a skinned knee in the process). Also managed to score one with a return assist a couple of minutes later.

We also had a new coach on board, who remarked that i was pretty fast on the pitch, and that i was probably faster when i was younger. LOL