Birmingham Saturday

And so it was Roger's birthday on Friday...

We headed out to Birmingham on Saturday to celebrate with him his 22nd.... and although the day was rushed (we only took the 1.50pm train) we made it to the bowling centre by 5pm after a bit of shopping where Deng Hui bought for herself some nice cheap tops (which were to turn out not always to be of the best quality, despite being made in England!).

This time I chose Number 11 ball. I remember I used Number 12 in Singapore, a long time ago, when it was more brute force rather than the nifty wristwork that a long-time badminton player like me was supposed to possess*. Then again I was, at that time, a lousy and extremely irregular badminton player (almost 10 years ago). To tell the truth I am not a very big fan of bowling, but once in a while it is nice - especially so nowadays when I sort of get the hang of it.

Perhaps it was also because I had rather long nails, so I was wary of throwing the ball with too much force.... but anyway I started off quite well (by my standards) averaging 7 pins per turn, keeping level with Roger. Zhang Hui was the worst, behind Deng Hui while her mum did not join in... then it seemed halfway through the match the turning point came. I had been leading Roger marginally, but on 52 points I missed both throws (longkang left and right).... and he surged into the lead, hitting a spare (I'd hit a spare quite early on as well). So he was well on his way, and by the 8th frame was on course for 100, which was my holy grail... The last time I bowled I got like 90+ which was already a record.

As Roger looked to run away with the game I summoned some extra powers... in so many a time when we really want to get something done it backfires.... (a lot of times in badminton) so I'd learnt to go with the flow... and keep the faith (as what the Leicester City manager said, or used to say in his match-day programmes). On my 9th turn I hit a spare (Roger had hit one previously too). Chance to close him down (although not quite close enough).

He bowled first, and finished with 101.

I bowled second.

Strike, bringing me up to 80+ points.
Second throw...
Strike again!!!
That would take me up to over a hundred!

Exhilaration of sorts.
7 on the final throw gave me a neat 117.

Broken the 100 barrier finally, and in what style to do it!

Dinner was a bit rushed at the steamboat-cum-cooked food buffet where they even had those yam fritters stuffed with meat (wu gok) normally served at dim sums. The buffet was all right, not so much the steamboat bit for me because I am not quite a big fan of that.... plus there wasn't much time to eat slowly as we had a train to catch.

Deng Hui loved the unshelled prawns, but the crabmeat was a bit hard to reach. I went for the chinese vege (steamboat as well) and took an extra yam fritter. They even had frogs legs (steamboat)!

All in all not bad, but I feel I ate too little to justify the 15 quid. And the restaurant was inadvertently taking customers' PIN numbers when they paid with their cards. That's a major security breach and I took the manager to task. Will talk about this issue a bit later... anyway I have changed my PIN just to be safe. We chinese can be a very cunning people so it's better to be safe!

So to end on that note wasn't the best for Roger's birthday, but luckily for him he was not there to witness this as he had left slightly earlier to take a slow stroll to Aston rail station....

Happy birthday bud, work hard on your course!

* although not in very great abundance either