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.