Now that it's the final 2 days of competition, time for me to write about our stay here in Jakarta. First of all, the arrival. Most of us had smooth arrivals ahead of schedule, except the CAT and the Kitten. For some reason, Indonesia Air Asia aircraft were delayed 6 hours, the felines managed to reach hotel around 3 am on Friday morning local time. Accommodation is well provided, though some of us had delayed check-ins. Reason being a ot of events are converged in the Hotel. Even got to see Malaysia's ex-DPM Anwar Ibrahim there. On a plus note, I got a free room upgrade to executive floor. Hauge (and Krisna) were busy, allocating tickets and passes here and there, yet they made sure we get our dues in time for the matches. Thanks, Hauge (and Krisna too)!!! We got to meet teams from Korea, China, even Malaysia and Indonesia. Some members posed for pics, others took time to give best wishes and the customary autograph. On Thursday nite (after Uber semifinals) we had our first gathering supper at Furama. Lauren also joined us there. Around midnight (Malaysian time, not WIB), the sounds of a happy birthday song were piped in, an ominous signal of me getting older ...... Friday afternoon saw us witness a heartwarming and gallant fight from Malaysia, inevitably not enough to topple China. Similarly, hundred of million heart were broken when Indonesia Thomas Cup team suffered a similar fate. But what struck me most was the conduct of MAS and INA spectators, they carried their duties to the full, with great honour to the teams and to their countries. Obviously, these are people with very different backgrounds to some BC forummers who only know how to bash the teams ...... Win win honour, and lose with honour, that's the name of the game. And we are proud to say that we were part of it all. It was also the first time that we unfurled our BC Banner in public during the tournament.
........and it is also time to "unfurl" the picutres. Like they said " a picture is worth a thousand words"...hehe we wanna see all the nice pics taken withe the players, the crowd, the BCers, etc...
He he, unfurling the pics will take some time as our "camera crew" is not equipped with broadband Internet and PC. Well actually, the sessions finished too late for us to do immediate upload. Anyway, just completed our "official photoshoot" at the official hotel an hour ago, more pix are coming. Now we are doing our "official shopping". Millions of Indonesian Rupiah need to be disbursed in aid of the economy.
TQ Robin, u should be here. Talking about b'days, we had another gathering last nite at Pondok Lagunas, with Krisna as well. Krisna distributed some T-shirts for us. TQ Krisna. Even got to meet INA's old great, Mr Tan Djoe Hock. Still looks fit, as befits a former All-England champ. Had a small b'day party with a small b'day cake, courtesy of Hauge. Yeah, I got the message, old men should stay away from sweet food .......
You're welcome, abedeng... INA fans just want to be good hosts as best we can [because we know our country is 'not perfect' and the visitors most probably need assistance]... By the way, Hau-ge forgot his hp in the taxi today. The taxi driver is trying to give it back to him now. Hope he will get it soon...
Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was there? For Thomas Cup also?... Did his daughter Nurul follow him? Hehehe
I am at Jakarta Airport now.. Flight Delay... Sigh.. Cant catch the UC Final on TV back at home The Gathering was fun... WIll Miss Jakarta Alots Special thanks to hauge, krisna.... Btw, I've met Fung Permadi & have some talks with him.. He is so friendly
Thanks for sharing... ..whoah, how can i totally forgot?!?!?:crying: ..Anyway, a belated Happy Birthday to you, Abang Deng! A Prosperous and healthy yr for you, too! Yeah, WE'RE all getting older... Btw, has anyone seen the BC banner being shown on TV/live webstream??..If not, Abang Deng, is it possible for Hau-ge to bring it and unfurl it, one more time, on the TC's Final day??... .....yeah, shop til you drop!... ..Oh my, lucky Hau-ge. A very nice taxi driver, indeed.. ..Sam, leaving early??..Anyway, safe trip back to your final destination. Hope you had a blast in Jakarta.
Hauge manage to find his phone. The Taxi driver actually drive to the location and pass him the phone
A lot of "losses" reported here, Misbun lost his phone and money, Xu Huaiwen lost her credit cards, Hauge losing a phone. Yup, we better not lose ourselves.
Last night, didn't manage to do any live commentary, my Blackberry cannot get GPRS signal. Anyway, despite the girls' best efforts, INA lost to a much stronger CHN. Quite a mismatch, actually, other than the 1st doubles. I mentioned to Yong that it should have been Holland here. But they threw away their tie against INA probably 'cos they had to play two matches in one day. The crowd was really supportive, I'm sure they knew the chances weren't too bright. The President was here, such that we had to be in the stadium by 4:30 pm in case we don't have seats. This afternoon we're gonna play some baddy in Djarum, after that, on to the final clash (Korea vs China).
This morning at breakfast, Loh, Yong, Jimbo and I discussed on the sportsmanship of the INA supporters. Despite their team losing, all were supportive to the end. Compare that against the ABC semis 4 weeks ago, when things got out of hand upon the exit of Koo/Tan ........ And we haven't even spoken about the many replies and threads that popped up upon Malaysia's exit, eg. asking WCH to retire, useless Hafiz, Koo/Tan not performing etc. We lost, plain and simple. No blame game is necessary. Sure some players may not have performed to expectations, but at that point in time, that was our best lineup and we almost made it work.
