I was reading LM’s blog yesterday and the topic was on tennis. It brought back a lot of memories. Mostly bad. Like any teenagers those days, I aspire to at least excel in some kind of sporting activity.
I tried foot ball, but was hit in the face by the ball (some one bent it like Beckham). I was the goal keeper you see (I was the goal keeper because I have 2 left foot). Anyway, the incident left me all bloody in the face with a smashed pair of spectacles. Three days later my football was stolen. I took it as a divine intervention that I won’t be playing in any soccer league.
I tried tennis. I was totally inspired by the likes of John Mc Enroe (including the tennis racket smashing tantrums) and Agassi (he had hair then), Pete Sampras and Michael Chang (amazing what a guy with such tiny frame can do!). Anyway, so I signed up for tennis lessons in school. My first attempt at serving the ball had it landing onto the football field (another divine sign maybe?). Did I mention that the ball flew over the school’s double storey admin building before landing on the field? My coach walked over to me and said “Perhaps it would be better off if you stick to badminton”!
I tried badminton, I was never any good at it. A badminton related injury left me with a painful right knee joint, and it still hurts on and off.
I tried table tennis but most times I end up chasing after the ball which has bounced some few kilometers from the table. Why do they have to make the table so small?
I tried tae-kwan-do. I quit at the brown belt stage (not bad actually I think), mainly because I had more injuries on myself than any injuries I inflicted on others. I decided to follow Mahatma Gandhi’s principle of ‘non-aggresion’ then.
I tried volley ball but ended up running away from the ball every time it headed my way. The ball looked sinisterly a lot like a zooming football headed towards some goal’s mouth!
I tried basket ball but for the life of me, could never get the ball into the basket. I think the loop was too small.
I tried sepak takraw and nearly severed the lineage of my family when I once kicked the ball onto my, well,… balls!…. Ouch!
And I was lousy at athletics. I could probably kill some one (or myself) with the discus or javelin. Running was out, two left feet, remember?
That was it…my illustrious sports career! Nowadays I stick with swimming and a bit of gym. It’s a lot safer I think. 
Fri, 040806 @ 0823
HAHAHAHA! omg too funny! Now you have hill climbing!!
*Gasps*!!! (Again!), Shree you are still here, reading my blog posts! Shut down your PC and go SHOP!!!
But I caaaaaan’t!!! I spent all my money already
Anyways if it isn’t your blog it would be reading some beauty / skincare review blog which is really quite dangerous for my financial health!!
Sigh! I need to stop being a lazy bum and *do* something
Will keep reading till some great idea of what to do comes along 
For everything else, there is Mastercard…..
[...] The athlete gene By Jimbo 0 Comments Categories: Family Jimbo has never come close to being an athlete when he was growing up. He still remembers how his class mates taunted him for not being able to pull himself up on the chin up bar; and the other time he ran INTO a barrier instead of OVER it. You can read about his illustrious sports career here. [...]
[...] The gun went off and we, the ‘elderly’ people started the race. I was quite pleased with myself for the first 2 km or so of the run when I found that I could run without feeling breathless or pain. (This, by the way, is a major achievement for a person who could not run even 400 meters when he was in primary AND secondary school AND varsity! ~ you can read about my illustrious sports career here). [...]
LM, the strange thing is, only your comment goes into my spam box, everyone else’s goes right into the comment box. so strange. Thanks for the tips. I can’t put a potted flower on my desk simply because I don’t have one (the desk I mean!). We share the same clinic with all other units, just different days.
Ray, thanks for writing in. Wow! You are quite the runner aren’t you? I have a fantasy to run in on of these races, perhaps I can get it realised someday before artherosclerosis kicks in! Btw, I worked in Kuala PIlah before. Some OT staff may still remember me. Say ‘hi’ to Shah for me!
Eve, I have left the gym and haven’t had the time (or money) to rejoin another. Plan to start swimming again sometime soon. I think 5 weeks of rest after the pneumonia should be ok!
Try triathlon…its cool for docs y’know hehe
err….gym is good geh…but as long as u warm up betul betul..then no nid to go see the sports physician ler..
jimbo: I think you may have set an option to have comments checked before publishing them. Well, if you have decided to keep it on, then you would have to look through your spam box for my comments all the time.
growing orchids is therapeutic. I have a row of them in the office! because plants don’t talk, they can’t really convey their emotions to you, not like pets or humans. if they grow well, you feel happy just by looking at them. Their flowers (especially orchids) often invite conversations with your friends or colleagues.
Putting a small little potted plant with flowers on the consultation table often helps to calm the patient down, as his attention (and agitation) can be diverted to the plant; instead of you if his mood is negative!
Hi LM, don’t know la, for some reason, your comments have always been put into my ‘spam’ box and so i have to ‘despam’ them before it appears on my blog. I don’t know how to fix it. I love your blog especially the orchids! How do you get them to bloom so well (and I hop enot by killing yourself slowly with flower inducers). I love gardening but my orchids are well…flowerless. I just pray and hope and talk to them but so far nothing…
Testing… seems like there is some problem for me to leave comments here on wordpress.
Jimbo, thanks for linking me. Swimming is good, low-impact sports; so is gym (resistance exercises) if all are done in a pretty intense manner as to leave you in a puddle of sweat and more drained than doing 2 on-calls in a row! (if you dont feel like that, then you have wasted time in the pool/gym!)
A sound body in a sound mind. That’s the motto of ASICS corporation. How true can that be! Sports is a way to unwind after a stoopid day at the office, a way to get those hormones (to feel good and happy) to be released naturally. Everybody should do some sports.. including doctors like yourself.
No, I would say everyone needs sports to survive! Remember in the ‘caveman’ days, humans have to run dunno how many kilometres each day to hunt for their daily meals? While everyone is doing sports, there is actually someone who would be laughing his way to the bank.. the sports physician/ortho surgeon. hehehe.