Good News, Bad News

Good news I went to the Scrabble Open Tournament for masters anyway, despite having a tight schedule (hence the long blog hiatus) and being ill-prepared.
Bad news I was thrashed like no body’s business – including one by a 75-year-old lady and one by a 10-year-old boy (He has a 1400+ rating, mind you; mine’s 1200+).

Good news I achieved my targeted number of wins out of 20 rounds.
Bad news My target was a miserly humble 1 after I made a fantastic four straight losses met better players in the first four rounds.

Good news At the end, I still managed to win 7 out of 20 rounds. I’m truly happy. Could’ve gotten a lot worse.
Bad news I keep being somewhere at the bottom of the league as plenty of people have won more than 7 rounds.

Good news Looking back, I could (or maybe not) have won at least (or at most) 2 more rounds if I hadn’t been so unlucky to have 7 vowels at one time, lose my turn to exchange tiles, and still come out with 6 vowels. I also have an uncanny knack to take ‘U’s and ‘I’s. There’s only 4 ‘U’s in a bag, and I manage to have 3 on my rack. What are the chances that I can’t get better letters like ‘H’ or ‘W’? The high-scoring letters like ‘J’, ‘K’, ‘Q’, ‘X’ and ‘Z’, most of the times, remained as elusive as ever from my fingers.
Bad news It’s utterly no point that you could, or you were close; you didn’t. Period.

Good Bad news There’s something called Scrabble betting too! I was told it ran into hundred plus ringgit.
Bad Good news I wasn’t good enough for anyone to bet on =( because they did not think I was going to win, which, sadly is true.

Good news I met quite a lot of people, played with opponents from different countries. Lisa here flew in all the way from Korea, and we had 3 very interesting games. I think my game with Ng Chee Eng was the best of all the 20. I lost, but somehow it felt great to have a “proper” game not bothered by a string of vowels and consonants when you need them the least.
Bad news I didn’t get to play with so many opponents. I wish I did. I wish I could.

Good news I have put my best foot forward in all the games.
Bad news I keep wondering if I had better tiles, would things have changed. It is entirely wrong to say that I would win if I had better tiles. I mean, I know fully well that that depends on your arsenal of vocabulary. Seriously speaking, I don’t mind losing if I had better tiles. But to lose due to poor luck, I don’t know what to think.

Good news I have learned plenty of new 3-letter words, make bingoes, look for anagrams and memorise hooks.
Bad news What I knew before the tourney wasn’t enough. Someone even played the word AMARANTH for bingo. Can you believe it? AMARANTH? Who in their right mind knows the word AMARANTH?

I shall end this with a quote, when I blurted out, literally, at the sight of the stupefying word.

“AMA – what?”

Dark Horse

With a sleepless night after seeing the worrying entrant list, I awoke with a start. One week ago I was apprehensive. After seeing the entrant list 2 days before the game, I wondered I should have signed up at all.

Of course, I went for the game anyway. The Penang Novice Scrabble Tournament is for novices – participants having a rating below 1000. That's me. Mine's zero.

It was held at the City Bayview Hotel. Quite a nice place, on the other side of the island from where I stay.

I was warmly welcomed with a Penang Scrabble Club T-shirt and 2 bottles of Pharmaton Kiddi Syrup. I have no idea what's the latter for. Boosting the brainpower I suppose.

After a sleepless night, I walked in into people mugging the Scrabble dictionary. In fact, I have hardly looked through my own copy. Practise with Valeria the Scrabble A.I. was all I've done.

There were seven games altogether. First five without pairing, last two are King of the Hill.

In between games, or while waiting for my opponent to move, I looked out of the window, and an old Penang town greets me, with the Penang bridge far ahead.

All the seven games were mentally strenuous, especially towards the end.

My opponent Yin Yee gave me the best game I've had in years. She's a bright tactician and a good strategist. It's a pleasure to play with her.

I won 7 games consecutively, and thus, ends my rating-less status here.

My dad says this is a Father's Day gift.

Third Sunday of June

I have always been around at home in June, a month when we celebrate Father's Day. This time around, I'm dictated by circumstances to be away.

It's a time like this when you stop and reflect. Perhaps one of those times when you, and everyone else in the family, thought Father's Day falls on the second Sunday of June.

And you get all dressed up, for fine wine and dinner, and a photo snap to boot, just to find out the following Monday that it's the coming Sunday.

It's a time like now when I'm fetching people up and down, that I realise how much time and money my dad has spent fetching me up and down, for the past ten-plus years. That daily routine. All I did was make a call.

I understand now. It sure took me a long time.

It's a time like now when I look through old photos, that I realise how lucky I am (or how I had a bad hair day…but hey, it's a happy photo, isn't it?)

It's a time like now, our hearts grow fonder.

It's a time like now, we say, to a wonderful dad

Happy Father's Day