indi + rani = noe | kei

We fought hard against the #1 seeded doubles team of Singapore open. Royson's powerful flat serve and Arjun's tricky net game really killed us. They always returned our serve low over the net with a slice and the balls never bounced high.

We lost 0-6 in the first set but managed to break Royson's serve in the second set secured better loss at 2-6.

Not a bad game knowing that Royson is a tennis coaching pro at Laguna Country Club and has been playing with Arjun in many tournaments.

At least we got killed by the best!

PS: Thanks to Oom Firman, Andre, Lina, Antony and wife, Mariah, Jayson, Kae Fong and Arpita.

For the last four weeks, Rani has been taking a very good care of the kids at home during my regular tennis practice with Yodhi. Yodhi and I even troubled her by adding more to the laundry basket with our smelly tennis clothes. I felt bad that she sacrificed a lot of her time for me and Yodhi almost every weekend. From time to time, Noe came with us to the courtside and helped us collect practice balls and put them into the basket. Various Sparing matches with Andre, Widiyo, Andrew and Henry really helped us in developing better doubles teamwork.

And last night, it all paid off. Yodhi never got a double fault (100% of serves in).

My brother Yodhi and I have registered to play doubles at the Singapore Tennis Association's SONY ERICSSON Open 2008 on 3-11 May.

The last time we played in tournament together was perhaps in the 1980s where we toured around Java for junior tournaments. As for me, the last competitive tennis I played was when Ben Metzger and I won the State of Maine 1993 high-school doubles title.

With aging and heavier (and slower!) bodies, we don't plan to win the trophy. We just want to have fun and give younger players a hard time!

It's been almost a year now since Rani and I started dreaming of having a Seawind 1160. This Australian-made 38-foot long (11.6 meter) sailing catamaran is definitely something that we'd love to sail together with our boys (and friends) across Indonesian archipelago.

What better way to keep the dream alive than watching this Seawind 1160 video:

This is my tennis video clip. It's easier for you to see the details by using full screen display.

I normally use single-handed backhand but now I want to have more control. My new double-handed backhand is shown in the first half of the clip.
The second half shows my serve using pinpoint stance (as opposed to platform stance). Some say that platform stance (feet apart) is much better, popularized by "Pistol" Pete Sampras.
I prefer to hit the ball near apex since it is easier to hit due to deceleration by force of gravity. My grip is loose near impact to create more efficient whip.

Last week we took Noe to tennis court for the first time and we let him use a junior racquet there. He seemed to enjoy chasing and hitting the balls at the clay courts very much. Maybe because he'd been watching Rafael Nadal (the clay court king) too many times :)

A few days later Indi bought a used-junior Prince racquet for Noe at Cash Converter for only 8 dollars. When we brought it home, Noe got hooked up to it and took a home-lesson with Uncle Yodhi almost immediately.

It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you've got -- Sheryl Crow

We've not really written much thing into our blog because we've been busy with different stuff.

Busy Reading and Other Activities

Our 2.5 year old son Noe is so good at this. Just look at how fast he is going on his kick scooter (otopet).

Check this out:

*Taken using xda IIs built-in camera. Should have used MiniDV instead :)

Our observations: Although his verbal skill is not yet fully developed, his motoric and hand-eye coordination skills are above average.

Mark your calendar! Bring your whole family into the screening of Disney's latest "RATATOUILLE" in this family-friendly event held by the Breastfeeding Mothers Support Group in Singapore.

Date : 2 September 07 (Sunday)
Time : 3 pm
Venue : Eng Wah Cinema, Suntec City
Movie : Ratatouille
Ticket : S$12 each (Babies & toddlers under 0.9m who sit on Mommy and Daddy's laps come for free!)

I think God punished me yesterday for going to Botak Jones three times within one week.

Just when I was about to finish my cajun meal with Eddy and Alex (both are from the Lau clan but unrelated to Andy Lau), I felt like I had a mixture of mustard and mayonnaise splattering on my face. The hearty stuff went into my eye, my mouth and stained my shirt! I waited for a few seconds and licked the corner of my mouth. It tasted kinda... fresh. Perhaps too refreshing for something that come out of a bottle.

Then I found out that the mustard-cum-mayonnaise was a fresh pigeon dropping. What a Guano day!

PS: Someone told me that I should have bought Lottery tickets yesterday.