my ajumma notes

Well, well, looks like the face of the tennis world will see some change soon if/when Nadal becomes #1. Which some people think may be as soon as the end of the week. It's about time. No offence to Federer but 200+ weeks of the same guy is no fun. Hopefully, if/when Nadal gets there, it will not be another 200+ weeks. The more exciting development, I think, is that Andy Murray is showing promising signs of joining the fray at the top. Last week he played with a lot more resolve than I remember seeing in him. He reminded me of Roddick and Hewitt in the days when they kept having a go at Federer. He was 4-0 down to Djokovic in head-to-head but he still had a go (and a very convincing one it was, I must say) and was rewarded with closing the gap to 4-1. He was whatever-0 down to Nadal, with his last (convincing) loss so recent but he played well, I thought, even though he couldn't carry it through to the end. He sure looked like he had his head about him and if he could have his h...

Continuing with the theme of population growth, there is an article today in TODAY, 'Helping Singles Meet Singles', for which I cannot find the link. In it, a 29-year-old gives his views on what can be done about the singles in that national survey who said they had problems socialising. Actually, I am surprised to know that they have problems socialising. Thought youngsters these days have many more opportunities and skills for socialising. Oh well... Anyway, this guy says that he has peers who have 'given up trying'. Aiyoh! 29 years old only want to give up already! He also echoed an old view that 'only desperate people sign up' - with dating agencies (today) and the SDU (in the past). However, his suggestions about getting companies to send their employees to social activities and other events are similiar to what the SDU used to do, what. So, my suggestion is to bring the SDU back. After all, people being unable to socialise is a serious national problem so ...

Am I the only one who finds that there is an overload of talk about incentives in the discourse about how to get people to have more children? While I do agree that things like paternal leave (3 days is really, really paltry) would help to some extent, what about the social and emotional factors? First of all, isn't it clear that many people do not really want children or are ambivalent about the matter? Second, it sounds like we are going to try all sorts of imported methods to get people to have more children but have we considered how these children will grow up? I don't know very much about Swedish people except for ABBA, Bjorn Borg and the name Lars but I suspect that, on the whole, they do not: a) see their children only before the sun has risen and after the sun has set on an almost daily basis, b) leave a substantial part of their children's growing up years in the hands of others, c) have their children sleep only 6-7 hours at night on school days, d) subject the...

Wow, I must be really out of touch. I read in today's ST that some people consider a starting salary of about S$3,000 'pittance'. They expect a five-figure salary. And they expect not to have to do administrative duties. Hmm... I was still photocopying, filing, and doing various other administrative, secretarial, clerical, data-entry-type, etc, duties long after graduation. Was I exploited by my former employers?? Anyway, what are the jobs that offer a five-figure starting salary?

Just a few more words from Wimbledon. I came across these Safin quotes from the Wimbledon site . Apart from his on-court theatrics, I believe people also enjoy his 'self-effacing' interviews and his humour. About what he needs to do to beat Federer in the semi-final: To beat Federer you need to be Nadal and run around like a rabbit and hit winners from all over the place. His take on Federer and Nadal: They will be the greatest tennis players in the history. Because Nadal didn't lose a match on clay since, I don't know, he was 10 maybe. And Federer, he's going for his sixth Wimbledon. He definitely I think gonna pass the 14 Grand Slams. I hope for him. So I guess I can say to my kids that I played against him. And I think just also two great guys, to be honest. Really down-to-earth. Federer is quite funny. Nadal is also, he's there. No, very interesting. It's good to be with them in the same locker room. Anyway, I wonder what Nadal and Venus chatted about a...

What goes through the minds of champions? From Nadal's post-match interview. Q. Losing the fourth set tiebreak the way you did, with two match points, could have been very depressing for other players. How did you emotionally deal with that fourth set so you could come out in the fifth and play your best tennis? N: Well, is the final of Wimbledon, so I have to continuing fighting all the time with positive attitude. I am playing well, so why I have to go down, no? I won two sets 6-4, 6-4. I lost two tiebreaks. A little bit unlucky. I played terrible two points with the 5-2 on serve. I accept that. And just first of all accept I played terrible in the 5-2, and later he did very well. So just tried continuing focusing on myself, playing well. If he has a break and beat me the final, so just congratulate him and go at home, no? That's it. Q. Can you just try and express your feelings as the match went on and on and became tighter and more dramatic, what were some of the things th...

YES!!! Finally... I retired at the 4th set to protect myself from a heart attack and, also, it was already 2+am. But from what I watched before I went to bed, I think Nadal deserved to win, which Federer himself kindly conceded as well. And he (Nadal of course) deserves to be number one, too. Hopefully that will happen soon. Well, well, it wasn't so long ago when people (Nadal included) believed that Federer was closer to taking the French Open away than Nadal was to taking Wimbledon. Looks like they all predicted wrongly... But maybe I should go into this predicting business because I've always thought that Nadal would do it some day. Ha ha. And , while I was watching the match I kept thinking of 'If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming you for it' from Kipling's 'If' (which I learnt from Bridget Jones, ha ha), and, what do you know, the next day there's this article that quoted the same poem. Ha! Hey, and I didn'...

Speaking about today's Gospel (Matthew 11:25-30), Fr Cary said that many years ago, an older priest had reminded him to always keep in mind that you would never fully understand all the burdens people carried to church every Sunday. Indeed... He also told us about the legend surrounding the yoke and I think I found his source . Here's what it says: There is a wonderful legend concerning the quiet years of Jesus, the years prior to his visible ministry. The legend claims that Jesus the carpenter was one of the master yoke-makers in the Nazareth area. People came from miles around for a yoke, hand carved and crafted by Jesus son of Joseph. When customers arrived with their team of oxen Jesus would spend considerable time measuring the team, their height, the width, the space between them, and the size of their shoulders. Within a week, the team would be brought back and he would carefully place the newly made yoke over the shoulders, watching for rough places, smoothing out the e...

Too bad. Zheng Jie is out. Thought she could have become a sort of Justine substitute - shorter and smaller than the giants but tactically smart. Well, she is shorter, smaller and tactically smart but it's not easy to become even half of Justine. But well done, like I said. Hope she will continue to do well on the tour. Now, maybe Safin can produce the magic we all know he is (still) capable of. Like every other person has remarked, he does seem to have become calmer (maybe his Himalayan trek did something to him), he has thrown off his jewellery and there is still that spark in his game. I am sure he remembers fondly the AO semi-final (2004?) when he beat Federer. I mean, Safin versus Nadal (who is typically not thinking about the final yet) on grass will be pretty interesting, no?

How can I not blog about this? What an Asian run! Who would have thought it would come to the Williamses versus the Asians at these later stages of Wimbledon? Actually, I think it started with that Japanese boy who played well against Nadal at Queen's, but never mind about that now... Well done, Tamarine and Zheng Jie! So now, Tamarine is out , but not without an excellent fight... in all her matches... And Zheng Jie has the unenviable task of playing Serene in the semi-final. That woman is so gutsy. She's a Nike person but she should be wearing 'No fear' instead, ha ha. It was great to see the crowd cheering for the Asian girls and it was amusing that some of the commentators could not contain their amazement that these two girls could actually play good tennis. I lost count of the number of times they said 'she's thinking' in both Tamarine's and Zheng Jie's matches. Tsk, tsk, so patronising. Think Asians cannot play with their brains, ah ? Go, Zhen...