Ping Pong

Friday, returned home earlier than usual.
Had a friendly ping-pong match with Petaling District Office, held in Subang, next to Subang Parade
Was the only female player in the team.
Hadn't played ping-pong for about 8 years.

"Takpa puan, kalau puan dah ada asas tu ok dah tu. Bahagian lain ramai (peserta wanita) yang pertama kali main," or so I was told by the Kapitan.

The inter-departmental ping-pong tournament in the office will begin soon. Since our department had already won a few other tournaments, the Kapitan for ping-pong team feels that we should also win (or at least be among the top 3 in) the inter-departmental tournament.

Being the only female player, I was asked to play in the mixed double. I said okay. Long, long ago, I always preferred playing single, but there's no 'female single' in the team - two male singles, two male doubles and one mixed double. So there.

Anyway, (after much cajoling) hubby accompanied me to Subang, to attend the event. Met up with Nana, the female player in Petaling District Office team. And had lots of fun playing ping-pong that night. My partner and I lost our game, but our team won the match 3-2.

"Puan kata dah tak main 8 tahun, tapi tengok ok je," my partner commented.

I grinned. "Betul saya dah lama tak main. Kalau tak, mungkin ada harapan kita boleh menang, hehehe"

True, I need to do lots of training to get back 'the touch'. Just bought a pen-hold ping-pong bat the other day because I'm hopeless with double sided bat. I did not buy a Nittaku bat, since Jusco only had Stiga bats in stock, which was okay with me so long as it's a pen-hold bat.

"Turun la Aras 1, kita training tiap-tiap petang," he continued.

"Insya Allah. Saya pun memang kena rajin practise balik ni... Dah lama sangat tinggalkan, nak kena pick up balik skill lama"

It's something like riding a bicycle. You might not forget how to do it, but doing it after so long of no practice does not necessarily means you can be good at it immediately.

Still, after 8 years of not playing, I had a lot of fun that night, playing on "suka-suka" basis with Nana.
Memang suka lah!

Trivia:
I started playing ping-pong when I was 11. I was in my primary school team as a reserved player.
Ping-pong is one of two games I really play - the other being field hockey. I can play badminton as a social player, played netball for my old office as a 'bidan terjun', hopeless at volleyball, even more hopeless at basketball.
My two brothers are not bad at ping-pong too. Adik especially, since he used to play for the district at state level when he was in primary school (the same primary school I attended)