Bad (minton) to the Bone

We went to play badminton yesterday in the Melbourne University courts... I almost said "No" as I always do, but instead I said "Yes" a la Jim Carrey's Yes Man, and I am glad that I did. (This will be a year, hopefully, of me saying Yes to a few more things!)

I haven't seen a badminton rac(k/qu)et in years. I remember the very first racket that I ever coveted - the very expensive RM 39.90 Yonex Blacken SP - the sleek black frame and the soft slender grip made it a stylish object of mass destruction in the right hands. (In my hands, it was a stylish mosquito swatter).

And so, there we were, on the courts, our rusty limbs ready to do battle. I was teamed up with a girl who I later found out used to play badminton for her school, and my brother teamed up with his girlfriend. I thought that it was written in the cards that we would have an easy win, but was I ever wrong! My brother still has the vitality of a ten year old, and his girlfriend was a full-on badminton hustler, playing bad shots that turned out to be placed exactly where she intended them to be!

It wasn't that bad... we lost the first two matches, no thanks to me, setting up my brother for the easy smashes (He paid me to do so. Okay, so I'm just a bad player.) The third and final set was a nail biter, going down to deuce at 13-13 (we played it old school) and we finally managed to eke out a win at 18-17, which was really close! (thanks mostly to my badminton partner's prowess!)

All in all, I just realised that playing badminton was just like cycling... you never really forget how to. And although I hadn't touched a racket in years, I'm proud to say that I am as bad now as I was back then.

Take that, Datuk Lee Chong Wei.