Let Me Console Myself Ok?

I came back from Penang on Sunday night.. It was a really great journey.. we stopped by Taiping.. ventured into the old town.. Taiping is really a great place! nice food.. recreational area there is huge! it's like the heart of the town that keeps the city alive.. Hmm.. air there is so much fresher and less humid.. love it!

Penang was pleasant too.. Stayed in Aunt Paulette's place and I felt so blessed! Good food, good stay, good hospitality.. Aunty Paulette's a great host! Shalyn's a great driver too! ha ha.. The tourney I went to this year was fine.. just fine~ Main reason is coz I didn't win anything! not even the lucky draw! so unlucky~ Shalyn got a pendrive.. Aunty Yeap got herself a MP3 player.. Vannitha won herself a MP3 player too and it's green! eerghh! (jealous).. The tourney were tough for me though.. here's how it went..

First day was horrendous.. I lost 3 games in a row.. I lost composure meeting Alastair Richards and Seshi Ramanathan (both much higher rated than I am).. Lost to Sue-Jane.. mistake and unlucky tiles! last game before Day 1 ended gave me a lil' hope.. I thrashed Chow Xin Wei by more than 200 points spread to cover up for the 3 game damage..!

Day 1 ended - I was bottom 5!

Second day was better.. Like any other tourney.. I always do better on the second day.. I won 7 out of 11 games.. I lost to current World Champ - Nigel Richards by 102 spread, US No. 1 player - Jason Katz Brown (he's only 21) by 82 spread, Singapore Grand Master - Tony Sim by 108 spread and Malaysian No.10 - Ramaraj by 41 spread. Not that bad aye.. Considering how bad I am! However.. looking on the brighter side.. I beat Bob Jackman - 2 times Australia National Champion and WSC representative for the Aussie team, John Lam - Malaysia representative to WSC Kuala Lumpur in 2003, Micheal Tang - Singapore big gun, and several others.. not too bad la.. :)

Day 2 ended - I was 13th I think...

Third day was a lil's depressing.. I don't know why I kept meeting strong players.. I met Jocelyn and lost, then Alastair and I lost! both are higher rated than I am.. indeed they are better than me! hmm.. Then I met Shalyn.. that game was actually hers.. I was trailing all the way and manage to trick her to win by a mere 13 spread! I set a trap up... with LIRI which doesn't takes an 'S'.. knowing that she had 2 'S' and hoping that she'll put the 'S' behind LIRI to play the DoubleWord (DW).. My heart was gleeing when she played SWANS hooking to LIRIS.. kept quiet and when she pressed the clock! BAM! I challenged it off! and finished with DRENT (she challenged the word) it's either do or die! but yay.. I won that game and met Uncle Jin Chor pulak! so frus! kept meeting tough players.. but I was really lucky in that game with Uncle JinChor.. Managed to play several bingoes.. and won comfortably (458 - 314). Last game I played another strong U-18 player - Beng Way.. Okay.. I admit I am a sore loser.. I was so angry when he made a bingo and kept scoring so much.. he played UNROBED(76) , HAPAX(67) , and BOTTE(35) and already ahead of me by 80 points.. I just couldn't catch up after the 3rd play.. and lost it totally.. Although I have both the blanks.. Whatever la..

Day 3 saw me missing top 20 just by that bit! I was placed 21st out of 50 players.. how sad! heish! but I must admit it was a tough field.. and my ratings went up! yay!

Okay.. his might be a boring post for non-scrabblers.. here's some nice words I played and I saw during the tourney.. WOBEGONE, ECURIE, HAPAX, TANRECS, ZORILLE, COHOG. TYIYN. TWADDLES, PINYIN, VIRULENT, SKIWEAR, FREITIER, WHOOPSIE, MANTOES, ZEBRASS and VAGRANTS.. gonna study the words now.. planning to complete 6000prob before MENSA tourney.. :)

*anyone wanna play scrabble?*