Taipei '12
16-21 December 2012:
It's my fourth trip to Taipei, Taiwan in a period of 7 years. The first two trips were with Anglican High when I was Secondary 1 and 2, after achieving national champions in 2006 and a sportsclass trip in 2007. The third was with the YOG squad when it was pre-selection for the final 4 which I got selected. And now, I'm back again with Team Temasek. I still remember when I was in Secondary 2 we had the chance to watch SBL & we were so crazy about it that we would even watch it in our hotel room. And guess what? We could even pause the screen!!! So being fangirls apparently we paused it at the moment when our handsome eyecandies appeared on tv hehehe! I remember I used to like this guy from Team Yulon but he's no longer in the team. But... I found another eyecandy: 周泊臣! They say he's a newcomer so we'll be seeing him more often in the news :)
It was the shortest trip of all trips I've been to, but people say it's not the quantity but the quality that matters right? It was a good 5D4N trip no doubt. I'm not too sure about the mens team, but we did well with a friendly game record of 2-1, winning 实践国中 and 三重永和国中. Sad to say, we lost to 怀生国中, which Coach mentioned that they were ranked second in their county or something along this line. (I just realized we didn't take a group picture with them, prolly it's because it's a tradition that losers are not to ask winners for a picture. It's something I learnt from 何生 when I was still in Anglican High.)
Yup, check out the reason why we lost. What were you doing in Primary 6 at 8am in the morning during holidays? These Taiwanese players were training their basics - triple threat, pivoting etc. When I was playing basketball in Primary 6, the only thing Coach would tell me is to find my place underbasket because that's where Ting Yi would find me and pass the ball to me. Gone were the days when a game of basketball could be that simple.
After our long transit flight to Taipei which took us 9 hours, we had lunch and had our first friendy game against 实践 at Team Yulon's private residence court. Ironically, though we were worn out from the flight, our performance was the best in this game. After the game, about 3/4 of the team rushed to the bus, grabbed our bathing amenities and clean clothes and went back up to have a good shower before heading to watch SBL. Look at how we publicly display our luggages as though we're setting up a flea! Epic.
Thankfully, it wasn't strictly a sports trip so R&R (rest & recreation according to Ms Pang) were included. So of course, when you're in Taiwan, places of interest you'll travel to will not miss out these few: 野柳, 西门町, 国父纪念馆, 故宫博物馆, 淡水...
Thanks for the memories. IVP's in a few week's time, let's go Team Temasek!!!