AJ Soccer Malacca Trip 17-19 March ‘05
DISCLAIMER: This entry is almost 3,000 words long. My longest entry thus far. So I suggest u make a cup of coffee and some sandwiches before u begin reading.
Wed, 16 Mar: It’s a bit late.... and I am still packing my stuffs. 1 bag or 2 bags? Backpack or those sling bags? To bring or not to bring my homework? How many shirts and undies 2 bring?? So many decisions I have to make in such a short time! Btw... I brought 2 bags, one sling and one backpack, decided to bring GP, juz in case I get bored on the way there...lol...
Can’t wait for the "highly awaited trip". Seems like shiok like that. JUst frens.... no one to set rules.. ..no rules to follow.... and no HW!!.... Yeah!.... just soccer!
Thurs, 17 Mar: It’s a beautiful day. Still walking ard looking for things tt I might need in Malacca. I scared tt I may forget some impt things....HAd to wake up early... will tompang Boon and his mum...lucky no nd to carry such big bags on the train.
Reached school. Jeans and white sports tee hugging the frame of my body. Everyone must tuck-ing (Kim's style of pronunciation). Zhong...Zhong... By 8 am, everyone came. THen, we left-- for Malacca.
Heard tt the ride will be a very long one. So I took out my GP...and began reading...all the way till TUas checkpoint. Kena bastard along the way --- but like my sec 4 form teacher mentioned in my Testimonial (nthg related to frenster)-- I could accept criticism well. Being bastard-ed by ppl seems to be "All's in a day's work for me". PLs lah....evn kena bastard by COach for doin HW!...haha
We changed bus when we reached the Malaysian side of the SEcond LInk. The bus was full of mosquitoes... not the blood-sucking ones though....but many irritating mosquitoe-look-alikes flying ard. I had no complains ...coz I FOUND RM$50... so lucky of me.... wanted to kp it for myself. IT'S MIND.....ALL MIND!!... but Nizar saw....damn....asked everyone to "SShhh!"....and said "Drinks on me at our next pit stop!"... ACtually, it was quite shiok buying those guys drinks. ANW....frm tt pit stop onwards....it was GP....and wen we were abt to reach( by this time almost everyone began to wake up)...i wanted SLEEP!
There was a short period of intense trauma during the bus ride.... we were already in Malacca....on our way to our hotel. WEnt round and round....saw numerous hotels....some looked DAMN sucky tt we were saying under our breaths--praying--that our hotel would be a decent one.
We went to, what it seems to be a deserted area....small small buildings...hopefully our hotel wouldn’t be in one of these buildings...even CAptain Zhong was feeling anxious...haha... The tour guide(who gets paid for doing nothing) broke the suspense by saying we finally reached the place where we would hv our lunch....Heng ah! Pretty decent food we had there.....and a preety decent dirty joke from Shak too.
AFter lunch, we reached our hotel-- Emperor Hotel. Quite nice lah. The whole 21st floor was ours for almost the whole day...b4 ppl start strolling in...But still...we acted as if they weren't there...and the 21st floor--for the next 3 daes--belonged to AJ SOCCER. WE shot a couple of shots--kelme advertisement-- where Guoxing can be seen skipping past "defenders" like a rock skipping of the surface of water(poor analogy, but nvm!)
Had a game at 5pm tt dae. Against a team we were not told abt. IN the end, the bus we boarded entered a well-guarded skool--not becoz it was a Chinese skool or a rich ppl's skool--but becoz it was a prison skool-- Henry Gurney sthg sthg.WE saw ppl running,marching...big gates, guards on patrol(i m beginnin to exagerate,forgive me). The "kids" there were tall...fit, strong, tatooed...SCARY.... Everyone were panicking... I tink I was feeling ok..... why shuld i panic wen i noe i wun start. Evn if i did start... wats there to b afraid off?ANw, despite the fears and all...we won them 6-0. I played near the end. Played quite a decent game. Morale and spirits were high. One bad thing happened though. Shak got injured. He got struck by one of the “gangsters” on his right knee. Will he be the next Adib?…. and that Adib was scaring Shak like f*** sia ….though he might be true…
WEnt back to hotel by 7. Changed and went down at the lobby...having dinner. The bus took us to some dark place...went into a Chinese restaurant. ADib was asking whether it was Halal or not. REstraunt rception says it's halal. Halfway thru....ZHi kai our Keeper said tt the vege got alcohol...fish got cooking wine. WINE...ALCOHOL....where can be halal one??....BASket.Stopped eating. While we were leaving, i asked the auntie at the counter for a halal cert. She wanted to lie by wanting to show me her bisnes permit...for goodness sake...i read malay!... den, she decides to sae that it is halal bcoz behind the shop...the "Government is oso eating the food"....Basket!...who's the "gvt"?.... So I left in quite a pissed off mood lah...
Tts it for the day. Its nighttime. Boon and KIM were in our room....WE talked for a while...i talked a lot. Most of it was rubbish. Must have gotten drunk after eating the alcohol-laced dinner. Later, I GAve a couple....ok i m lying...LOTS of prank calls to ppl....some were even sleeping wen I called..... Oops!...TAlked to W Jia over the phone for quite some time...haha...talked to SHAK for quite a while too....1 hours ++... Den, a question popped up in my complex mind--"will i be charged for giving all the calls?"If yes, den all the money i hv will hv to be used to pay for all those calls i made!"
...The first day came to an end, making way for the second dae of what seems to be the most exciting Holiday i ever had.
Fri,18 March: Got woken up by my alarm clock. Yes, I brought my own alarm clock. Morning prayers. Den came the Hotel’s wake up call. And it followed by me giving other rooms more wake up calls. I called Wei Jia’s room twice if I can remember correctly. Asked him later how many wake up calls he got. He said 5. Haha…. Shak woke up having difficulty straightening his right leg. He had difficulty walking too! Had breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant. Had to be wary of what to eat and what not to eat coz we’ll be having a training session with Mr Raju, an ex-Malaysian national player. This training session will be at nine.
After almost an hour of bus ride, we reached our “training ground”—a school field. Had a great 2 hours training session. Learnt how to warm up effectively. Overlapping techniques. Shooting techniques. Chesting of the ball. Juggling. How to play the 4-4-2. Tips and some valuable advise. Learnt a lot from him. Shak could only watch from far. Damn wasted. Den it was back to the hotel.
Took a long shower and by 12, we met back at the lobby. WE were HEADING to Makhkota Parade (a shopping center) to do some shopping. WE had all the way till 4 before we were to meet back at the meeting point. Took a couple of team pics. Once in the shopping center, we headed for the food court to eat lunch—lots of great food! But again, had to watch what we eat coz there’s a match tonight! Walked ard the mall. Nothing much to buy lah. Some bought caps and jerseys. Went to Giant to buy stuffs to eat later at the hotel. Went to Nike shop in front of Giant and 6 of us, I think—me, Gene, Zhong, Jia, Kai, Ronaldo –bought the same kind of jersey but different colour. 3 orange, 2 blacks, 1 blue…I like blue. WE went to Starbucks and Coffee Bean…. I saw a chocolate fudge cake that I simply cannot resist. Bought it. Soon, it was 3 ++ and all headed back to the bus. Tasted the cake. Not that good lah. The cake was not soft and fluffy like I expected. Not that chocolaty too!
Once we reached the hotel, we had a break till 7. Some of us played card games. I played this snap-like game… and guess what….became the first person to lose in such a short time. Not once but twice. Playing that game was damn stressful. More filming of Kelme freestyle.
It was almost 7. WE headed for the “stadium with carpet grass” only to find out that we have been conned! It was a very sandy pitch. Carpet grass my foot ah! But the weather at night was great man! Cool breeze.
When the game started, the crowd was getting bigger and bigger. They were loud! Damn shiok sia! WE drew 1-1 in the first half. But by the end of the second half, we were down 5-1. Some of them in the stands were telling us to go home. While some told us to keep on playing since we are still ‘small kids’. Got some nasty comments from our coach. Den, we headed back to our hotel. ON our way back….the mood was low.
DISCLAIMER: The following few paragraphs are not for the faint-hearted.
We alighted the bus. All of us went to the convenient store across the road to buy food. All except me, Shak and Boon. The 3 of us went up ourselves and to our own rooms. Shak went to the toilet while I went to make some tea to drink. Suddenly, I heard a voice from outside. Boon’s voice to be exact. He called for me and Shak.
Voice (Belive me, it’s Boon’s voice): “Shak! Ali!”
Knowing that he would not mind waiting a while longer, I continued to make my tea.
Voice (Belive me, it’s Boon’s voice): “Shak! Ali!”
Wahlao!! This Boon cannot wait meh? I walked briskly to the door. Opened only to see—the door opposite my room. “What the….” I dun noe how I did it, but I looked left and right and left and right.
I screamed for Boon. Heard the voice….Boons voice. He opened his door.
Me: U got call for me and Shak?
Boon…(I noe he’s the voice): Siao!
Me: Really??!!#%%
Boon: Crazy!
Ok. So if the voice wasn’t boon’s, that whose voice was it?
I looked left and right and left again. And slammed shut the door. Freaky!!
Was taking a long shower. Shak wanted 2 glasses….which were in the toilet. WaS abt to pass it to him when one of the glasses slipped off the plastic bag it was in and came crashing on the floor. Damn unlucky sia! So, while pple were sitting along the corridor eating instant noodles… I was busy clearing up the mess I made.
Everyone left for their rooms. Some played cards. Some just talked and talked.
Was watching TV when the phone rang. “Hello?” I asked. There was silence. “Hello?” I asked again. There was silence again. Then ….the guy on the other end of the phone said “I WANT UR COCK!!”…. crazy fella. But I became crazier. Wearing nothing but my pants and shorts beneath, I went outside and screamed “ WHO THE HELL WANT MY COCK...
Then, things went fast forward. Nizar grabbed me and asked if I was ok. (Of course I was ok! Why wouldn’t I be?) He let go of me. And I shouted again. I knew the caller was Joel. So I went into his room. I shouted the phrase again. Then Nizar from behind grabbed me and called for a “stripping session” . I went to the corner of the room. Saw a knife and wanted to protect myself. Haha. Anw… I was pinned down. Long pants removed. Left my shorts alone. I didn’t want to kena “rape”…so with all my might, I pushed them aside…and rushed to my room. I was saved.
Felt hungry after all the things that happened. Made myself dinner- cup noodles….and went to slp.
Sat, 19 March: Time flies so fast. Last day of the trip. Had breakfast—this time can eat more coz we’re goin home tt day. This was a wrong decision which I had made. Coz at 12 pm… we went to another hotel for another buffet… and I cannot stuff all those delicious foods into my stomach. WE went for a short tour of Malacca. Went to the Red Building…managed to buy things for a couple of frens back home and also for my 3 siblings. After tt , we headed back to the hotel coz who wants to see Malacca??? We want to go home! Back at the hotel…. We went to the reception to get our room keys. Jonas got into trouble with the male/female receptionist. He looked like a she who looks like a he. So thinking that she/he wouldn’t noe Chinese…. Jonas whispered to Boon… askin him whether the receptionist was a male or female. Dumb thing to do coz the receptionist told Jonas in Chinese something that made him dumbfounded. Something abt not being brought up well. Everyone had a good laugh in the lift.
Like I said, we went for a lunch buffet. Good food!! And was heading home. I was feeling a little bit worried for not telling the hotel staff that I broke one of their glasses. But decided that it was a small matter.
Everyone was having a good sleep. I was half asleep, half doing GP hw! Den the bus came to a halt. We were at some bee museum. Basket! Everyone thought we were going home straight! After much persuasion and knowing that we need to give face to the teachers, who seems to be the only ones keen, we went to take a look. There was a guide there who showed us ard. It would he been a damn embarrassing experience if all of us chose to stay on the bus. Anw, everyone seems keen in the end. WE managed to drink some honey. And Nizar wanted to buy some bee venom honey to cure his back problem—but it costs a bomb. After at least 30 minutes in the “cheapskate museum”, we were on hour way home.
The tour guide, which was with us throughout the trip kept reminding us not to bring in chewing gum. He managed to make me worried. Luckily, I managed to pass through Customs with ease.
Back in Singapore at last. Lionel got a fright with regards to his passport. He thought he lost it. Searched through his bags for it I saw a red thing in his back pocket and told him to check it. He told me he checked already. When he was sitting…Adib, who was sitting at the chair beside Lionel’s told him that the passport was indeed in his back pocket. Dumb fella I must sae…
Reached AJ at 5pm. Was heading home on the train. The things that were on our minds were homework. So much homework so little time.
But since this blog entry is “All about the Malacca trip”…. I’ll talk abt what happened the following week in another entry.
(PS: This entry was written a week after the actual trip due to fatigue and lack of time. Meaning i had the luxury of being "back in malacca". Whatever I said is 98% true, coz some parts of it were exaggerated to some extent. Hhaa.)
