i know this will make karmun smile but trust me, that's not the reason i'm marking 15 and 16 july off my calendar to go to vj's TSD class of '05's public P. i have to say saiful's "advertisement" was very effective in bringing a concise point across, especially with the line 'theatre is not what we do, it's who we are', which touched me because it strikes to the heart of my passion for basketball.

which brings me to my next, very sad point - my time is running out. i can probably play basketball as avidly for the next one to two years and after that it'll be so different, things will change. i don't know how to explain it. i'm EIGHTEEN this year, and by the standards of the people who frequent neighbourhood basketball courts, that's tripping into the "senior citizen" age bracket, on the retiring half of the average age, and it doesn't help that twenty two or thereabouts is where people seem to cease playing basketball. it may be for reasons of being caught up with work, but i guess basketball just isn't like jogging/swimming/badminton to a working adult, due to the very "teen boys" environment of the courts. i wonder who reading this will get it.

it's just going to be so weird for a twenty year old female to be going down frequently to the courts to play with little boys about half her age, and it won't be the same, because i love the fiercely competitive nature of basketball where all the guys near my age are of a similar standard and we pit our skills against one another in spontaneous matches, aiming to ace the sharpshooters' shot accuracy and faking each other with hilarious and exaggerated movements. most of all i'll miss the creative and unique court lingo which is synonymous to street basketball and can only be found at the neighbourhood courts.

one dollar three tries (when repeated attempts at underbasket shots fail with hilarious inaccuracy but the attacking team keeps getting the ball) / everyday sunday (snidely, on laidback sunday, even the mediocre players manage a few shots, but on other days they won't be as lucky) / zhun ka (sharpshooter) / t-y-c-o (shot made by sheer luck and not skill; sometimes sung) / hou mian you gui (ghost behind you) / chop (the sound of a fast speed, accurate ball falling through the net) / AND-1-ing people (doing annoying tricks on people like bouncing the ball on their heads or rolling it in between their legs or going around their butt) / you jin you song (a successful shot gets the player back the ball) / for you (said in a mock arrogant tone, looking at the person as you make the shot, meaning if the shot gets in the ball goes to the person being addressed), and so many other random advertisement jingles or catchphrases that people will just spout when you're about to shoot or when you get the ball or when you miss a shot, which catch on and become common lingo within the regular players of a particular court.

oh, i could go on forever about my attachment to this special ball game. but to borrow the words of saiful / the tsd class, "basketball is not what i play, it's who i am".