K’naan’s ‘Wavin’ Flag’ featuring will.i.am and David Guetta is the catchiest song I’ve heard in a while that isn’t also annoying. Plus, it sounds more exciting than most of the matches at this year’s World Cup have been. Sleep has been a little too precious for me to squander on the 2am matchups but I’m thinking about making exceptions for the semifinals and the final.
Posts Tagged ‘Sports’
The day I went to KLCC for Manchester United
The last time I was at KLCC was… I don’t remember when, and suddenly I’ve been there twice in two days. For work. Although I also had fun.
The first was the Nike Manchester United press conference on Friday. I’m no football fanatic – my allegiances usually lie with the better-looking team although I also appreciate the game – but I was happy to brave horrendous KL traffic for this. I’m actually related to Manchester United fans, my mum, brother and brother-in-law are supporters, and for a brief period back in high school, I even rooted for the team, um, when David Beckham was part of it.
Having declared my love of football-kicking eye candy, I have to say I’m feeling a lot less antagonistic towards the Red Devils since the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo, who I find incredibly whiny, ill-behaved and overly-gelled, and the arrival of Michael Owen, who I have a soft spot for.
When Sher and I finally settled down in the press conference tent, we got the not-so-great news: Only four players were going to be at our press conference because there was another one going on at the exact same time. And the wonderful news: There was plenty of food to tide us over what would turn out to be a long wait, including chocolate balls, chocolate brownies and cheesecake squares. We couldn’t have hoped for better, really.
Here’s Sher deliberating our third round of food. We eventually gave in to the call of the chocolate ball, or at least, I did. Excuse my grainy pictures, my trusty phone doesn’t do too well in anything less than direct sunlight.
And here they finally are! (From L-R) Darren Fletcher, Darron Gibson, Rio Ferdinand and Luis Nani.
The guys later played a five-minute exhibition match against the winners of a street soccer tournament, which Sher, Mary and I watched from the comfort of the air-conditioned tent. I’m usually a big fan of the sun so believe me when I say it was absolutely sweltering – even I knew better than to sit outdoors and melt gradually into a sticky puddle when there was an alternative.
But when it was all over (read: we were forced to leave the tent), we accidentally found ourselves in the very choice position of standing right by the VIP lane. And that’s where my camera phone did not let me down this time.
As for the second reason I was in KLCC, it was a lot less exciting – a makeup workshop organised in conjunction with our magazine – and I have zero pictures from that.
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From the KL Marathon 2009
1 hour 18 minutes. That’s how long it took me to run 10km. But I ran all the way, which I’ve never done before. And I even had enough left in me to sprint the last 200m, even though the effort nearly killed me. It’s a good thing I didn’t collapse in an embarrassing heap at the finish line, and considering my “training” consisted of 20-minute jogs twice a week, I’m actually pretty pleased.
I went there wanting to accomplish three things: 1) run all the way and finish strong; 2) consciously push myself to do 1); 3) better my last year’s 10km run/walk time. I did all three. Never mind that some people ran 21km faster than I did my 10km, now that I’ve shown myself it can be done, there’ll be plenty of time to work on clocking a more respectable finish in the future. I think I’m starting to enjoy this road-running business. If that’s even what you call it.
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Sunset tennis
Despite the incessant gloom’s best efforts, we finally got one up on the rain and squeezed in a couple hours of tennis after work on Tuesday. Ace!
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Federer should win the French even though I don’t really like him
With the Turkish Formula 1 GP underway and the French Open final at 9pm, sporting fever is high in our household. While hubby and I are big F1 fans, it’s the showdown between Roger Federer and Robin Soderling, of course, that’s got us all jittery. As a self-proclaimed Federer die-hard fan – and indeed it is impossible to have a reasonable and unbiased conversation about Roger Federer with him – hubby has threatened melodramatics if the Swiss ace doesn’t lift the trophy tonight.
Me, I’m torn between wanting one of the biggest upsets in French Open history and seeing Federer cement his place as one of the sport’s greatest of all time. But I don’t want to see hubby sad (aren’t I the softie?) and to be honest, Federer deserves this. He’s been so close too many times and despite all my reservations about the guy, he truly is one of the greatest, most talented and most graceful of all time.
He deserves it. And so I’ll be rooting for him tonight. Even though I once walked right up to him and asked him for an autograph and he conveniently turned away though I was the only person there. Even though I’ve seen him disappoint local fans by deliberately avoiding them after a match though it was the exhibition match between him and Pete Sampras in KL two years ago and if you didn’t accept the invitation to please the fans (and pocket the money) then really, why did you bother? Even though he was far more obliging to the foreign fans and managed just the bare minimum when it came to the locals and the thought did cross my mind that he’s a snob.
So yes, despite all that, I will feel sorry for Roger Federer if he doesn’t win the French Open tonight. Even though that will make him greater than my all-time favourite tennis player Andre Agassi. Just don’t tell me he’s the nicest guy on court. He’s polite, he does interviews in three languages, he can be witty when he likes and I totally get why the press is so in love with him. But no. Nice is Rafael Nadal comforting Federer when the former took the Australian Open early this year. That’s nice. I’m not exactly a die-hard Rafa fan either, but I can’t help wondering if maybe he isn’t as popular with the media because he doesn’t speak the best English. He also doesn’t make excuses when he loses and (so far) hasn’t come across arrogant despite his success. And that’s really nice.
Gosh, I so hope Agassi is nice.
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Malaysian Grand Prix weekend
Because the Internet connection has been so crappy and I’ve been too busy to blog properly, I shall let the pictures do the talking.
With Mei Ann and Weichern. It was my first time at an F1 race.
With Chad before the race.
Y wore his Ferrari shirt and cap but took them off for a bit because it was so hot!
Check out the clear skies before the race began.
Clouds started to gather just two laps into the race.
And this is what it looked like one hour later.
I was really excited to see the pits.
And even more excited to watch the pit stops live.
The end of the race. I wish they could have done more laps but as it is, they were probably already driving blind in that storm.
Another highlight of the weekend – meeting Pedro de la Rossa (and Sam, not pictured) from McLaren at the Grand Prix Gala. They were really nice and actually had time for a brief chat.
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A good reason not to gym: I embarrass myself
In line with my resolve to attempt to gym regularly, I did just that after work today with hubby and friends. I did 20 minutes on the elliptical and, under the guidance of a personal trainer friend, attempted a body-solid leg press machine for the first time in my life (I had to Google that).
And then I nearly mortally embarrassed myself by almost passing out after a second set of stationary lunges (yep, Googled that too). I say “nearly” because I figured actually passing out would be mortally embarrassing. It was hardly strenuous stuff so I have no idea why it happened, but this isn’t the first time my world took on a greenish tinge and voices sounded far, far away.
One time it happened while I was standing at attention during band practice in high school, but I wiggled my toes so vigorously that the blood must have gone back up to my brain and I stayed on my feet. Another time everything turned completely green during a Living Skills class and I had to quickly sit down before I landed face first on the woodwork table.
And then a third time – also my first time ever – was when I was about five or six and playing flowergirl at a wedding. I stood perfectly still for far too long, everything started turning green and I actually began swaying while the vows were being exchanged. An uncle spotted me just in time (not even my parents were looking!) before I completely upstaged the entire wedding.
I met the groom’s sister and mother last year after a 20-year gap and – luckily – they had absolutely no recollection of me nearly keeling over at their brother/son’s nuptials. Incidentally, that episode was also the first and last time I was ever asked to be a flower girl.
Back to gym today, I recovered and finished my third set of lunges, but I’m still wondering what caused the near blackout. Low blood sugar? I ate lunch. Standing still for too long? Hardly. Maybe I was working my legs so hard all the blood rushed downwards. I find it hugely ironic that my sisters continually threaten to collapse and faint mid-workout but I am the one who almost achieves it.
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Maybe the only way I’ll gym regularly
Hubby’s turned into this gym freak (his words, not mine) all of a sudden, and our conversations have taken a whole new twist. Thanks to this new carb-less diet he’s on in an effort to look like Will Smith, I have become – for the first time ever – the unhealthier of us two.
The first couple of days on the diet, I offered him a chocolate after dinner. He looked at me in horror. “Chocolate is unhealthy.” I snorted and ate my Ferrero Rocher.
Yesterday, I read one of J’s Tweets out loud and mentioned that he was having a productive day. “[Eating] wan tan mee is not productive,” hubby informed me snootily. Err… right.
On Friday we had dinner at Wendy’s with some friends. I had a baked potato, a tub of chilli and a small chocolate frosty. Hubby had a salad with spicy chicken. I eventually persuaded him to help me finish my chilli but he wouldn’t touch the frosty. Then he went out for a beer with his fellow carb-less buddy. (You don’t eat potatoes but you drink beer?)
Last night, he suggested I become a gym freak too. Me? A what? What would I do in there? I can’t go on a treadmill without watching something. You could read, he said. Well, that’s what I used to do on the bicycle machine whatever you call that thing. It’s a lot harder to read on the treadmill. I’ve tried. But… I have been wanting to exercise more.
So I’ve decided to give hubby’s offer some thought. Maybe I’ll go once a week. Or twice. It would mean I’d always have a gym buddy. And I do like a good sweat out. One of my unspoken resolutions this year is to get fitter. I could get in some regular exercise, work up a half-decent stamina and at the end of all that, I’d eat a chocolate. After all, someone’s got to finish them.
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14. Run a long-distance foot race
I did it. My first ever 10km run. And I didn’t even train for it (even though I said I would. The intentions were there. Well, they were six months ago.)
I didn’t keel over, I didn’t embarrass myself and I finished in 1 hour 25 minutes. I reckon I could have gone faster if I didn’t show up late and miss the starting gun completely. It doesn’t affect my time because it’s all microchipped, but it does mean I found myself amidst hundreds of high schoolers who looked as if they’d been forced into participating. Some were carrying handphones and most refused to run so I spent the first 6km working my way around people.
I ran the first 5km at a steady pace and was feeling quite pleased with myself because I’d expected my stamina to give out by that point. Then I saw the marker and realised I’d only done 5km! I thought it would be more! I think I walked at least 2 of the last 5km. But I finished running. And I must admit, that rush you get when you cross the finishing line is really something.
G says that’s the paradox of running. You hate it when you’re doing it, but when you finish you want to go again because you want to better your performance. He did the full marathon. Y and C did the half marathon. J (pictured here with me) did the 10km. He did really well – so he had to drive us all back to KL because he was the least sore of the guys.
Doing it with the boys was great fun. Gathering back at the hotel room, comparing notes, watching each other collapse in pain and frustration, yelling at G to go take a shower because he was stinking up the entire room… But,
Y and I have decided we’ll never do the Singapore marathon again. It’s silly to pay Sing dollars and drive all that way just to run. We’ll probably do a couple more runs in KL when we feel like it. I think the rest will too. Especially now that we have a time to beat. And I know I can do it without really training.
For my ongoing list of 100 things I want to do, go here.
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Mission 6.5km: accomplished
My first official run since I was ten years old saw me lugging my inactive bum along 6.5km of very hilly road, over 3km of which comprised a steady (and seemingly endless) uphill slog. I am now 26 years old, so that’s how long it’s been since I last tried to look cool with a number safety-pinned to my top.
I finished in one hour. Not great, but I’m more than satisfied. I don’t do hills. In fact, I don’t even run all that well. But it was for a bit of a challenge and for charity so I had a good time. I even finished 7th among the women, a feat that isn’t nearly as impressive as it sounds because I don’t think there were all that many women running to start with.
Next up: my 10km next weekend. I can do this. I think I can.
