Still Thinking…

Yes, I admit it. It has happened before, and it is happening again. I am (other than the now infamous tag ‘spa-addict’) …*hides face*….a seasonal sports fan. Spectator sports to be exact. Note the keyword ‘seasonal’.

During my *ahem* slimmer days, soccer – the Malaysia Cup to be exact, rules. I love watching a competitive sport which is team-based, and I enjoy thinking ahead for the players and see how they read the game.

Like everybody else, I followed the Singapore soccer team during the glorious 90’s closely, so close to the point that my friends and I eventually get to know some of the players personally. Yes – groupie is the name they (or rather other girls who did NOT get as close as we did) called us. I don’t like that word. It makes me feel like a female fish – be it the tiny guppy or the delicious garoupa. You choose.

Then, about 7 years or so ago, thanks to a close knit group of guy friends who swear they are F1 racers incarnate, I left soccerdom and plunged into F1. The speed…oh my God..the SPEED! Back then, you cannot beat my precise and comprehensive knowledge about F1 , even if you were an intern with the BMW-Williams team!

Which reminds me, I did, and yes I DID, applied for a job with the UK-based Williams team. I emailed them some long garbage about how I should be a part of their entourage, my media connection then (what connection? I was so damn young!) and many other forgettable reasons which I am sure made the Head of Personnel of Williams (whoever he is) forgets. When I get hooked to a sport, I dive in head-first. When F1 was the rage for me, I took matters into my own hands and pray for a media pass. God was generous with me (and I am not sure I deserved it, but I am thankful masya’allah!) and in 2002 I was somewhat sent down to Melbourne to cover Toyota’s first year at the F1 Grand Prix – complete with cocktails to attend, shoulders to rub with Mika Salo and a very insightful chat with Gustav Brunner. I was fascinated by Gustav’s engineering prowess. He, was fascinated by my hijab.

Yes, I was in heaven. In F1 heaven. I won’t even mention here about the pit-stop tours and the over abundant food that we were served at the Paddock Club. “That’s halal pastrami for you, mam,” a blonde waiter chips in politely. How thoughtful. Ahhh, I like this Paddock Club thing. If only I can afford the US$4,000 ticket to get in. Some of you, I am sure, will also remember my fascination with the oh-so-cute Alex Yoong, even when his pokak Minardi car stalled half the time on the circuit.

And then life happens, and I slowly entered an inexplicable F1 funk. I did miss the team-based energy that soccer offers, and I missed very much, the speed of F1. As the plot unfurled, Canada came by. And I was thrown, PMS included, into the world of brawl-and-brawn filled hockey.

Team-based sport + Speed = Hockey.
Hockey + Canada = Addiction.
Addiction + Propensity to like spectator sports irrationally = Mason Raymond.

Ahhh… Raymond. Everybody LURRVVES Raymond. Only 22, a fresh rookie with the Vancouver Canucks and skates oh so well *wide smile on my pathetic face*. He is almost too beautiful to watch when he skates pass his checkers and shoots an unresisting puck into the net *wideR smile on my pathetic face*. DH is very well aware of this new fixation, and he couldn’t care less. Why would he? He knows Raymond has everything he has too (or at least that’s what I told him…shhh!). Raymond is a calm, patient and focused player, much like the calm, patient and focused supergeek that DH is. But wait. Raymond likes Border Collies and DH likes Huskies. Raymond plays NHL hockey, and DH plays hockey on the PSP. Raymond is engaged, and I am married. Dang.

But Raymond aside (seriously, he is a spring chicken who has hundreds of girls going after his dimples!) hockey is the next best thing for me right now, almost a super-sport, and solid combination of things I love about soccer and F1. The thing is, seeing how fanatic I have become and how supportive DH is of my endless bohemian bungees, he has been pressing me about putting my name on the waiting list for the Canucks season tickets (which will probably take a year or two to secure, and an arm and a leg to pay for). I should be jumping at it, yes? But I didn’t.

They say age comes with wisdom, or the other way round. I figure at this rate, hockey will slowly enter its self-prophesised funk too in a couple of years. So by the time I get my round of season tickets, I am not soooo into the game anymore. Who knows what my ‘next’ supersport will be. As long as it is not, *LOUD cough* , a very-odd-sport called curling.

For that, pls God – let hockey stay.

1994 – Malaysia Cup : Singapore vs Kedah – Fandi Ahmad’s Magic

2002 – F1 Grand Prix: Melbourne’s Starter Crash

2008 – NHL Playoff Race: Canucks vs Oilers – Fight-filled match