My Sport

I always dreamt about being a tennis professional. I love playing tennis and it's the only sport I play. I'm lucky to be able to play almost everyday. Thinking back to 20 years ago, Vietnam was very poor and I knew my dream couldn't come true. I was born in a working class family and we couldn't afford to play tennis as the time I was growing up. Tennis was considered a sport only for rich people. I remembered going to the tennis center in Yersin Street in Nha Trang and watching from outside.

I started playing tennis when I was 20 after I started working. It was tough to manage my time as I had to go to school every day in the afternoon, evening classes in the evening and working in the morning. But I promised myself to give tennis a try. I played with my own coach three times a week at noon between my work and school commitments. In fact, before I started working, my father wouldn't allow me to play. He thought that it would reflect badly on the family.

It's now 12 years since the first day I hit a tennis ball. Since then, I have actually played in a few tournaments but never make it past about the third round. The first time I ever played in the Hanoi Open, I couldn't sleep for the whole night and keep going to the bathroom every half hour. By the time I played I was so nervous and exhausted that I could hardly get the ball in the court.

I love watching tennis too and I have stayed up all night long just watching Hingis and Federer playing their matches. Maybe you guys think that I am crazy but I just love them and I was really sad when Hingis retired then happy when she announced her comeback but truly sad when she retired last year. I hope Roger Federer will retain his old form and break the grand slam records of Sampras.

Guess who is going to win Roland Garros? I hope Roger will win this time.

Alez Roger !!!!

Going Bowling

My friends invited me to join in a ten-pin bowling day yesterday at Star Bowl. It was great fun with many stupid uncordinated bowls thrwon by me down the gutters at the side. I was a bit drunk after a few beers and unfortunately my bowling skills didn't improve!

I thought I was destined to be last! We had a few laughs, especially when the ball didn't exactly roll but instead bounced along the lane. I was hopeless today, I swear! Sometimes you see some funny sights. There was an older man playing next to our lane and he seemed very professional and he has his own shoes and gloves and ball. He played really badly but he had a bit of a bad attitude so I accidentally on purpose took his ball and bowled it down the alley just for a laugh. I couldn't help it!

We only paid 110,oooVnd each for 2 games and the shoe hire. If you forget your socks, they'll sell you a pair for 5000VND. The last time we played, if you forgot your socks, you had to hire a pair which had been worn (and not washed)... so that's an improvement!

Good fun! A good day had by all!