Thanks for these moments, dudes! (2)

Carrying on with my best tennis moments for the year...

Off tour

Carlos Moya's babe

There is a picture of Nadal carrying this same little girl but I kind of like better this picture of Juan Monaco carrying her.

USO

Ha.

Nice to see people chummy and not sobbing and spoiling other people's moments.

Finals!

Top 8 dudes in London

Ferrer: Eh, how come you all sabo-ed me! I thought you all said grey, what.

All nicely posing with the PM. I think Nadal and Ferrer are the shortest of the lot?

That nice little retirement thing for Moya. And just what is Andy Roddick wearing?

Davis Cup

Oh, Serbia!

I watched and cheered Spain winning it in 2009 and 2010 but Serbia winning this year's was special.

How special it must have been for Victor Troicki, who joins Verdasco and Ferrer as dudes with Davis Cup magic moments. Though every time I hear his name, I cannot help but think of him and Djokovic doing their 'Gypsy' thing...

Year-end entertainment

Roger vs Rafa

Off-court, no matter how intense Nadal looks on court, or how much Federer wants to cry at their matches, it never really looks 'Roger versus Rafa' (watch the video!).

I have absolutely nothing to say here about the ladies, who had an almost forgettable year but I will end with this picture of Kim's little girl at the USO prize ceremony.

Aww...

Comments

True train school

‘Having eyes, but not seeing beauty; having ears, but not hearing music; having minds, but not perceiving truth; having hearts that are never moved and therefore never set on fire. These are the things to fear, said the headmaster.’ How would you like to have such a headmaster? I finally re-read (read it first as a teenager) Totto-chan, The Little Girl at the Window , a ‘school story’ by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, translated by Dorothy Britton. Totto-chan is the name Tesuko Kuroyanagi called herself, and the book is about her life during her school days at Tomoe Gakuen. Totto-chan was expelled from her first elementary school because of her ‘disruptive’ behaviour, which included constantly opening and closing her desk top (because she was so thrilled by it), ‘vandalising’ her desk (because there wasn’t enough space on the piece of paper to draw) and standing by the classroom window waiting for street musicians to pass by or talking to swallows. Her mother, although probably alarmed about the ...

No wonder

According to a poll of about 300 people, reported in yesterday's Sunday Times, (how come nobody ever asks me these things?) , the Seven Wonders of Singapore are (in order of merit): 1. The Esplanade (a whopping 82 votes) 2. Changi Airport (53 votes) 3. Sentosa 4. The Merlion 5. The Singapore River 6. Food 7. Mount Faber and LKY (tie - 10 votes each) Some 'offbeat choices' which didn't make it to the top 7: aunties selling tissue paper at coffee shops, Singlish, kiasuism, 4D-Toto outlets and Newater (said someone of Newater: 'We are probably the only country with branded recycled sewage.' Well said, ha ha.). Maybe it's a personal bias but I feel that a 'Wonder' must also have strong historical and cultural/social value (so I'm rather miffed that Angkor Wat didn't make it to the 7 Wonders of the World; in fact it was never in the running for the top 7). Therefore, these choices are a little too modern for me. The Esplanade, for example, is a...

True train school - a bit more

I realise I didn't give the context of Totto-chan's story, so here it is: Mr Sosaku Kobayashi, the headmaster, started Tomoe Gakuen in 1937. Totto-chan was in school during the WWII years and the school was destroyed during the Tokyo air raids, before she completed elementary school. Here is something from the last chapter, entitled 'Sayonara, Sayonara!' "The school that had been the headmaster's dream was enveloped in flames... In the midst of it all, the headmaster stood in the road and watched Tomoe burn... 'What kind of school shall we build next?' he asked his university-student son Tomoe, who stood beside him. Tomoe listened to him dumbfounded. Mr Kobayashi's love for children and his passion for teaching were stronger than the flames now enveloping the school. The headmaster was cheerful." Indeed, a man ahead of his time. The school was never re-built, and Mr Kobayashi passed away in 1963. In her postscript, Tetsuko Kuroyanagi explained ...

my ajumma notes

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