WSC and CSC epilogue

WSC 70th place (half a win up on 2005 record). 11-13, -262.
Just pissed mad that I had to play compatriot, Vannitha Balasingam in the last round. And Malaysia is confirmed losing a spot, so shared responsibilities all round. (and that includes you, Ganesh)
CSC Open: 10th place, RM500, 27.5-17.5, + 1317.
No chance to play Premier this year, so I need not take responsibility that Causeway team has been dropped (Hell, I would rather Team Malaysia play and get dropped than being merged with Singapore to form Team Causeway). Time to start boosting International Rating to make the International teams (I think the 1911 rating I got from these two tourneys is a good headstart)

Foreseeable 2010 Itinerary
April: 2010 Australia Nationals, Adelaide
June: 25th King's Cup, Bangkok
November: WPC, Toronto/Dallas/Whereever (There is always the Malaysian Open for backup)
December: Causeway Scrabble Challenge, JB

King's Cup Epilogue

Good: 16-10, +93, 16th place (one win up on last year) Personal Record

Bad: losing out on 10th place by a Helen Gipson or Lukeman Owolabi or Panupol Sujjayakorn

Ugly: Free challenge is such a bitch to deal with. Then again, there was Cream & fudge Factory which I visited like 5 times throughout the tournament, my poor waistline. My bowling scores on Friday or Saturday night.
Preparations for Nationals: Double NADA!!!!

Penang Open epilogue

Good: 5th place, RM 700 richer
Bad: rating should drop, 13 wins out of 20, ding-donging most of the way at the beginning.

Ugly: Diarrhoea attack on 1st night, Acid Reflux this morning, GI syndrome all the way. Cardbox just exploded today, 2000+ and counting to conquer in a few days.

Upside: no end-tourney slide, won 7 out of the last 8 games. (I think I managed to pass the curse on to Alex Tan)
Preparation for King's Cup: still NADA!!!

Scrabble updates

Zyzzyva: 1.4xk 7s and 8s with bloated indigestions, must be the 6Ls K words......oh well, not going to reset cardbox just yet.

Strategy: sux!!!

Practice: sux!!!! need to plan some online sessions with pakorn or helen.

Preparation for Penang Open: what preparations?
Preparation for King's Cup: Nada too.

Where did the script go wrong?

Singapore Open:

First 10 games: 9-1, 2 clear of the field and in pole position (good)
Last 6 games: 0-6, 7th barely scoring any points if this was the F1 GP (bad)

Playing phonies like HILIS* (unchallenged), OBIITS* (unchallenged), VOIDLESS* (challenged). (Really Ugly)

Going for the Singapore Open

Okay, I was feeling rusty right now and wanted to put about an extra 3000 bingos to use on the board before Penang Open. Hence the Singapore Open trip at the last minute. Actually, just wanted to get my mind off a crappy date that bombed.
Despite leaving it until Sunday to buy the train tickets, managed to snag lower berths in the middle so I should be fine. If all goes well and the field plays terribly, I should win this. And Penang Open. and King's Cup. But who am I kidding, Pakorn just registered for Penang Open. Then again, only 4 repeats.

I just got a tattoo

from Tribal Art Gallery, by Chung.

Consider it a customized tribal modern design with 3 dragons (1 roaring, 2 asleep) in the form of a borneo scorpion.

Will post photos and the pain up when I get back from East Malaysia on Saturday.

Edit: Here are the photos

Australian Nationals 2009 - Redux

Good: Enjoyed the weather, enjoyed the tournament, enjoyed the full cream milk, enjoyed the food.

Bad: Finishing 20 something with 13 wins and 2nd highest spread.

Ugly: Last 3 games. Go see for yourself.

3rd MSA WSC Qualifiers

Great: Won it. 11 out of 15 games, 900+ spread thereabout. RM200 (in the bank)

Good: prep for Australian Nationals, needed a confidence boost after Millecup, 31 bingos in 15 games.

Bad: playing unchallenged phonies like DEAVY* and VIBED* and getting away with it. Still need to work on tactics.

Ugly: That heated debate about the WSC team. I really want Jocelyn to go this year. (Edit:) Blowing the prize money on a sushi dinner. :P

Parent are back from visiting their ancestral village

Heck!!! My dad originated from China...at least his family house is still there. Mum's great-grandparents house got torn down.

So a couple of obligatory books on TeoChew-isms, leather belts and a leather wallet (both courtesy of dubaoiU brand, god knows what else is springing up in China these days). Still skimming through their holiday photos. Not to mention getting an added dose of TeoChew conversation these days to boost my TeoChew factor (which is woefully low at all times)

To play or not to play

There will be a local Scrabble tourney next weekend, which will jam up my dinner appointments schedule on Friday, Saturday and Monday (not to mention that they are all wine tasting menus so I will probably be playing at around 20% peak performance)

What a dilemma...trilemma....quadrilemma....

Watchmen was worth the wait.

even with the few significant changes in the storyline and shortened philosophical monologues.

Guess my favourite Watchmen now is strictly Rorschach (I used to dig the cynical Comedian) but having a shifting face-mask and "me against the world" attitude just cuts it for me; plus his death scene is much cooler than Comedian's.

Australian Nationals 2009

Perth, here I come.

At least it will be on Easter weekend, have booked the flight and accommodation.
Now to renew the passport and get an ETA Visa.

PS: I know I haven't been posting about food much.
Will probably throw all the photos I have on one page with some captions.

Marley and Me

What a tearjerker......I even shed tears at the end.

God, I need to get it on DVD for my collection for my little ones when they do come into this world.

Now to go with someone to watch Watchmen.

Thank god for Millecup

Okay, first tournament jitters over. 4th place was a so-so finish even if I was seeded 4th but I still lost rating points. Not many fantastic things except for the niner that turned around a game where I was like 2 bingos down and playing catch-up. Funny how luck changes midgame.

On to the next one. wonder if I can win it (wish I could give Nigel a run for his money, last year's Scrabble Scramble was very painful to lose)

On another topic, I dislike the team allocation for Malaysia this year at Causeway (and I most definitely do not want to play my countrymen even if I make the international team), not that I will make the cut for that anyway. At least we get more spots for the WSC.

Moving on...

I guess I have to admire people who can give up Scrabble (at their peak) totally for any given period of time (even when some of them do come back for Act II). Brett, Perry, Cappelletto, Ganesh.

And you have the constant: Nigel,

Me, I still haven't ascended any peaks, never won any tournaments in the top division, haven't studied the entire dictionary, haven't mastered all the strategies and tactics. It's feel kinds of weird leaving the game on the way up but not at the top or over the peak.

I wish my mother would tell Tiger Woods to give up golf before he won any Majors and take over the family business.

No Scrabble tourneys for me...so far

The 1st WSC qualifiers clashed with work.
The 2nd one with a party that I am organizing.
The next one, Millecup in Singapore, might get derailed if I am sent off for a workshop in Penang the Wednesday before.

When the heck am I going to play in tournaments this year.

Chef Gathering.......

In return for a red packet....I get to sneak in on a After Hours with Chefs gathering. Unfortunately, there were all chinese cuisine chef who are fluent in Cantonese, need to spend more hours watching hongkie movies.

Topics range from revenues to annual bonuses & hotel payout to drinking habits to MIGF to restaurant disasters (plenty of faux-Daniel Boulud moments here). The down and dirty on the industry all laid out in 4 hours.

Here are a few snapshots of the attendees, you should find most of their details or pictures on the MIGF website.

The Chinese New Year of the Ox

Status: Single unattached male.
Angpow revenue: RM 220
Gambling bonus: - RM5 mahjong; RM130 (not inclusive of RM59 initial capital outlay) cards
Expenditure: RM 30 handphone topup for new year greetings; RM 10 petrol, RM 0 free food.
Questions: 1,649 times - "When are you going to get married? (and other variations)"

The 2009 Reunion Dinner.: 1 day early

Instead of the traditional Korean BBQ in Ampang, we opted for a family dinner with about another 10 friends for the evening of Wagyu Beef, Lamb, Drunken Chicken and assorted goodies. Apologies for lack of a report or photos as I was too busy getting stoned with whisky and white + red wines. Time to rethink the food blogging aspect.

The Four Parties of CNY

Well.....Chinese New Year is almost upon us, the invitations have been sent, dates have been fixed, food have been prepared for all the annual *must attend* parties...except for one, my family's.

Normally, we will start off with the traditional tea ceremony at home. Followed by lunch at my godfather's place before heading off to the Chan's open house at night. The following day, another lunch get-together in Old Klang Road.

My Family's? : 21-February 2009 at the Hotel. And I am still on the lookout for food. At least the chef is settled.

I Hate Channel surfing

especially when the Australian Open/ Augusta Masters and clashing with my favourite weekly shows like Iron Chef/Heroes/Grey's Anatomy. (At least there will always be the DVDs of the series' seasons)

Welcome, Mr. 44th President

Nothing like learning on the job when you have crises exploding around the world when you take office (at the very least, you have FDR as a case study to ease things).

First Post of the New Year

Read as above. Nothing more.Actually, just want to thank everyone for the past year: mishaps, blessings and all. And I got off to the new year with a bad start, thanks to me being too overemotional over relationship problems. Here is to a better year ahead: Oz Nats, Penang, King's Cup, WSC and CSC. I will play them all. Oh and get a new girlfriend too.