Absoluto Gimeno

First Open tournament of the year kick-started with the cash-prize tournament held at the Gimeno Tennis Academy---the Absoluto Gimeno Open.  It was 5 minutes by drive away from the Academy, and my match was scheduled at 12.30pm.  I had morning practice as per normal, strung up a racquet, packed food, my bag, and headed for competition.

I lost my match 1-6 1-6 to one of the best U-16 players in Catalunya---the region that encapsulates Barcelona.  I don't think I played badly.  I reached certain goals I had chart out for myself---and was surprised at the relative ease at which my strokes flowed.  I kept my calm and stayed positive throughout the entire match.  Balls were pacey, the outward kick serve I've been working on worked 60% well (good stat for a start), and every time I got into the right position to hit the ball, she either had trouble answering---or had no answer at all.

Still there were lots of areas for improvement.  Obviously, I need to learn how to get into position more!  Hahaha.  I realised I wasn't reading her body enough.  In my quest to stay calm (#1 priority my new tutor Fernando Boldo set me)---I forgot to "think" about the other things.  How is her body moving? Read the shot.  Read the shot.  Read the shot.  Anticipate.  In the end, I was always reacting 1 second too late.  Too much time lost.

This time, walking off court--that familiar bitter/disappointed/despairing feeling was absent.  As pensive as I still was, the main thoughts running through my head were 1) I can beat her. 2)  I need to play more matches.  3)  Combining it feels so different.  Yes.  As I mumbled to Fernando in Spanish after----"Jugar tenis y jugar tourneo es totalmente diferente, tio."

Certainly.  Playing tennis and playing tournaments are different games altogether.

Ice
It was so cold this morning, ice laced the corners of the courts.  It crept by the lines and scattered itself across the clay.  Small, white icicles, like troops, crawling in, quietly conquering.  We winced.  Braced our naked hands---and played on.

My 2010 in FB Statuses

It's a given that most of us post what we think on FB.  But it's even more startling when you get an app that shows your most-used words for the year. 

This time, what we post of Facebook reveals then, a certain type of deeper, stronger truth.  These patterns of speech speak of our thoughts.  From a deeper level, they show the stories that we tell--yes, of others--but really, more of ourselves.

I thank God He's really been the centre of my 2010.

Up, up and onwards.  I can't wait to see how 2011 will turn out :)

Real Christians---

Primary School Cravings

At 12.20am I am suddenly craving dark sauce fried mee.  You know, the type you get at breakfast stalls at hawker centres.  The ones that usually also sell chee chong fun, yam cake, dumplings and zok (porridge) for breakkie.  Cooked well, dark sauce fried mee is oily, glistening with dark sauce and sprinkled with a small amount of tau geh.  Sooooo SHIOK!

They used to sell it at my first school--the now defunct Alexandra Primary.  I remember how I could get a small serving for 30cents, and a super grand plate for 50.

Strange how these memories hit home so late at night, so far away.

Holding Onto God's Word

Psalm 128 (Amplified Bible)
A Song of Ascents.
    1[a]BLESSED (HAPPY, fortunate, to be envied) is everyone who fears, reveres, and worships the Lord, who walks in His ways and lives according to His commandments.
    2For you shall eat [the fruit] of the labor of your hands; happy (blessed, fortunate, enviable) shall you be, and it shall be well with you.
    3Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the innermost parts of your house; your children shall be like olive plants round about your table.
    4Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who reverently and worshipfully fears the Lord.
    5May the Lord bless you out of Zion [His sanctuary], and may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life;
    6Yes, may you see your children's children. Peace be upon Israel!

How often do we trust what we cannot see?

Admittedly, we are creatures of touch and habit.  We like our senses tickled, our emotions appeased.  We only (and conveniently) believe in things that can be weighed.  Or at least felt.

But time and time again, when I open my bible or read a devotional, God constantly challenges me to believe in the things that I cannot see.  Because what can be seen, touch, tasted, is always subject to the laws of time.  And ironically, because we can feel them, they are always temporal.  Even happiness/frustration/trying circumstances, will pass. 

Because if what can be seen is ephemeral, what cannot be seen, must then be eternal.  God's word cannot be seen, it is invisible. It surpasses the physical laws of Nature and confounds the wisest of men.  The only thing that it is, is sure.  And God's word lasts forever.

Maybe if we, being trapped in temporal circumstances, choose to step out and hold onto His word which is eternal, I think we naturally become closer to being truly unshakeable---especially in times of shaking.

Train like a Horse, Eat like a Cow 
7.45pm Dinner:
1 bowl fried brown rice
2 slices of fat omlette
2 plates of tuna salad (just chomped down the greens)
Calamari sticks
Chicken bolognaise balls with mushroom sauce
1.5 slices of brown wheat french loaf, dipped in olive oil
1 mandarin orange
1 small cup of shandy

10.30pm Supper (2hrs 45 mins later....):
Still hungry!   So I cooked and had...
1 big bowl of bee hoon, with egg, stalks of spring onion and chopped up fresh onion, and
1 bowl of cornflakes with milk

Verdict?  Finally, reasonably full.  I should go to bed before the hunger kicks in again!  Goodnight world.  I am so knackered.