world cup fever

i suddenly got a call over the weekend. it was shanks and he was probably and totally overcome with the world cup fever. he wanted to start playing football again, after a 3 years break. this was of course quite a surprise but i was always game for a football. unfortunately it rained heavily on sunday and it was called off. oh well, better luck this weekend, i hope.

my knees are still aching and i have a constant 'clicking' sound from my right ankle. the results of one too many sprains from my younger days. the body just seemed to take much longer to recover. some parts of the body just don't recover though.

i was watching a replay of a world cup match and my mum happened to be in the hall with me. she saw a foul being committed where a guy brought another down. she then commented that football was a very violent game. this was one of those attempts to stop me from playing football. no thanks to all the sprains and bruises that i came back with after a game. i just dismissed her comments. then another player went down and he was rolling on the ground and clutching his ankle, after anther tackle. my mum started again. i dismissed her again, telling her that the player on the floor was acting. bluff one lah. she did not believe. the player, stood right up after the ref gave a free kick. he should have gone on and become an actor than a footballer.

archie comics

i met a long time friend whom i had not seen for a few years. we knew each other since secondary school which was close to 18 years ago? something like that.

well, along the way, after we started work, he did drop me an email or two from time to time. 2 emails a year to be exact. even he admitted to it. once during christmas and another time around mid year. then for the rest of the time, it was utter silence. he had been travelling around but now he is finally based in singapore. he is a malaysian though, mind you and he makes the journey from his home in jb down to singapore everyday. he should be used to it by now because he had been making this journey from the very 1st day i met him.

it was always hilarious times with him and meeting up with him again was no difference. we had our laughs. and i reminded him that he still owed me 2 archie comics. why?

the story started one fine day after our lessons, some 17 years ago. both of us were hanging out at our fave computer store at crown plaza. after an hour gaming we knew it was time to go. but before we left we popped into the mac's there. we had a combine total of $1.10 on us so i told him to go get a small drink. it was only 80 cents for a small sized drink back then. the 30 cents left went to him so that he could take a bus home, for 25cents. i had a concession pass with a bus stamp, so the ride home for me was free.
my genius of a friend went and came back with a medium sized drink, that cost $1. you can imagine what happened next. there we were trying to think of a solution so that he could have enough money to go back home. begging was not an option and handphones were not the norm back then, so we could not just call for help. we cracked our brains until...
i happened to bring 2 archie comics that day to share with my friends. there was a 2nd hand bookstore there at crown plaza. add 2 and 2 together....
we ended up selling the 2 comics for $1, more than enough for him to make the trip home.

we laughed when we recollected the story. then i stopped and i looked at him. you still owe me 2 archie comics. he looked at me.
we started laughing again...