Wednesday, January 16, 2008 @2:03 AM
As some might already know, the Australian Open has arrived! X) Yayy. Unfortunately, as Australia's in pretty much the same time zone as Singapore, it means that I can't get to watch the morning and afternoon matches. Often, I only get to watch the night ones, i.e. when I'm back from school. Or repeats, which only show little snippets of the match.
Things which have made Yinfei not happy at all:
- TOMMY ROBREDO IS OUT. NOOOOOOOOO. At the hands of Mardy Fish. ANOTHER second round loss. Honestly. It amazes me how he can still keep his ranking in the top ten. Here's where I admit that I like him PURELY for his looks. XD I admit he really sucks as a player.
- Andy Murray, out. :( Stupid Tsonga. Grrr. And in the first round too!
- Carlos, out in the first round. Can't remember who he lost to, but I know it wasn't anyone great. GRRR.
- Sharapova managed to get into the third round a couple of minutes ago. >:(
- Match between Richie and Feli going on right now. WHYYYYY does the stupid draw have to make them play each other? I don't want either of them to be out just yet!
Things which have cheered Yinfei up:
- Rafa's through to the third round, just trashed Florent Serra 6-0 6-2 6-2 this morning. WELL DONE RAFA! :D
- Justine's through to the third too, 6-1 7-5 over someone whose name looks too troublesome to type out.
I am still attempting to get hold of the complete draw. Stupid AO site shows small sections at a time only.
So, VAMOS RAFA, ALLEZ JUSTINE, KEEP IT UP! XD
Ah, last thing: Go to www.i-dressup.com! It's really fun! XD
Tuesday, January 01, 2008 @3:43 AM
Now I know why I've returned to that country for the fourth straight time, and why I've returned to that same state for the third straight time. It's because Japan rocks. It simply does.
Reasons why I'm going to break the promise I made in my previous post and make yet another trip next year:
1) The food is TO DIE FOR. Seriously. Anyone who's thinking of going to Japan for skiing, I highly recommend that you stay in Hirafu Village. Every single restaurant in that area has fantastic food. If it hadn't been for the fact that my favourite one has only a jap name and no english one, I'd have advertised it right here like crazy. Would you believe we ate there three times? It's thanks to that restaurant that I've learnt to appreciate tuna sashimi and stopped going for only salmon sashimi. Which means bad luck for my dad's wallet, though. XD Oh and I'd highly recommend the tempura and the miso soup there too. I ate so fast that my mum told me to slow down, and that no one was going to steal my food. XD Other restaurants include a-bu-cha and one which goes something like senko, I can't remember. Warning, though: a-bu-cha's sashimi is FROZEN. Seriously. We had to wait practically forever for it to soften.
2) SKIIIIIIIIIIIIING. :) :) :) Everyone should try skiing at least once in their lifetime. I insist. It's the funnest thing ever. It's easy to learn and you don't have to be good to have fun! Unlike golf. Grrrr. You have to be really good before you can enjoy it. If you're like me, you're gonna get high blood pressure and a very VERY strong urge to hurl your clubs into the lake.
I'm still mad that my dad didn't let me try the higher slopes. x( My mum was very enthusiastic about going high up, but my dad is such. a. coward. Eventually, the compromise was that me and my mum went up to a slightly (very slightly!) higher one, while my dad waited at the bottom. Halfway up the ski lift, though, I started thinking: SHIT. WHAT THE HECK WAS I THINKING. I looked down at the slope and started panicking, and from my point of view, it was freaking steep. Actually it wasn't, but because I'm so pathetic at this, I thought it was.
Eventually, we arrived at the top, and me and my mum started skiing down.
Mum: YINFEI YOU BETTER BE CAREFUL AH!
Yinfei: Yes, I know, calm down.
Mum: STAY TO THE EDGE!!!!
Yinfei: I
AM staying to the edge!
Mum: GO SLOWLY! DON'T TRY ANYTHING FUNNY!
Yinfei: I'm not going to try anything funny, calm down!
And so on.
That is not a nice state to be in, cos I was trying my best to keep alive and not accidentally make a wrong turn into the advanced run, which is very periliously situated next to the run we were on. One complaint: PLEASE, MAKE THE BOUNDARIES CLEAR! And having your mum screaming and yelling warnings at you from behind and you having to answer just makes things worse. Then, we reached a point where there were two different routes to take. My mum and I were in disagreement over which one to take, cos one of them was steeper but led straight down, whereas the other was not as steep, but narrower and had more turns. My mum wanted the first one, and I wanted the second. I mean, that first one looked freaking steep, and I'd have turns any day.
Yinfei: I am SO not going down that one.
Mum: But it goes straight down!
Yinfei: Yeah, but it's so steep!
Mum: If you go the other one, you might turn into the advanced run! Or you might not turn in time!
Yinfei: At least it's not as steep!
Mum: It's still steep!
Yinfei: Not as steep as THAT one.
In the end, we took separate ways. Eventually we met at the same slope though.
I suddenly remembered what our jap coach said the last time we were here. He pointed to the advanced run, and said "difficult". Then he pointed to the one I just mentioned above, and said "easy". Then he pointed to the beginner's slope and said "very easy!".
Dad: So how was it?
Mum: Very treacherous.
Yinfei: "easy", my foot!
Anyway that was the only time we tried it, cos I wasn't in a hurry to do that again.
Oh, and the snowboarders are extremely annoying. It's easier to fall on a snowboard (as for why, I shall not say, it'd take much too long), so those people basically fall about ten times a day. Or even more. And the annoying thing is, they don't care, and still go at ridiculous speeds. So basically, it goes like this:
1) You hear a whooshing sound behind you and you are alarmed.
2) Someone zooms past you and you are even more alarmed.
3) The person falls right in front of you, and you either swerve away just in time, getting a huge fright, or you fall as well.
Ok, so I didn't fall because of that, but still, it's not a nice feeling! So to take revenge, I took to zooming past snowboarders, and going near them, so that they can experience the said unpleasant feeling. And because like I said, it's much easier to fall on a snowboard than on skis, most of them usually fall when I do that. XD *smirks*
My dad has the most hilarious tactic of preventing them from getting too close for comfort. He sticks out both ski poles real wide, so that when people see that from far, they move far away from him. And when they still get too near, he points the pole at them and starts shouting, so that they will be extremely alarmed and fall. *evil laughter*
I did fall though. >< Also because of a snowboarder, but not this way. I guess I was going too fast, and there was a snowboarder beginner in front, going real slowly. I was going to avoid her, but she fell sideways into my path, so I couldn't stop in time and my skis got tangled with her snowboard, and I kinda fell forward. It must have been hard, cos my cap, goggles and glasses fell off. My head was spinning. The person came round, asking "Are you ok? Are you ok?" I didn't answer her cos I was waiting for my head to stop spinning. Eventually I forced myself to start laughing and said "Yeah, yeah, everything's great." She looked like she didn't believe me, and when my parents came, they didn't either. They couldn't help me cos they couldn't move very much on skis, so they just stood there shouting. Eventually an instructor came and helped both of us up and told me to put ice on my head. I continued laughing (they must have thought I was insane) and said everything was fine. Well I guess it was, I just had a small bump on the head and a matching one on my leg. Oh, and my glasses were twisted. I was extremely alarmed and actually more worried about my glasses than anything else, even though my mum kept asking after my head. I thought we'd have to take a cab into town to repair them, but luckily my dad fixed them with pliers he borrowed at the ski shop. Phew. Thank goodness for my dad the emergency optician.
Unfortunately my mum is now yelling that it's dinner time, so I'll rant more about japan another time.