Poagao's Journal

Absolutely Not Your Monkey

Aug 28 2006

I’ve been feeling listless and down the past week….

I’ve been feeling listless and down the past week. I suspect it’s because, due to my ankle injury, I haven’t been exercising at all and just lying around the house all day. Or maybe it’s just me being me. In any case, I went back to badminton practice tonight; it felt pretty good.

I play badminton twice a week, once with pug-nosed women and once with a group of software engineers. The engineers are far better and the most interesting to play with as they present a real challenge. The first time I played with them I had been there for about an hour watching their moves and getting trounced when an enormously fat man wearing a dress shirt and tie came in with his family. They were all munching on various KFC products. Finally, I thought, maybe this is someone who won’t completely embarrass me on the court. The fellow sat down and finished his meal, and then joined in a game.

One of the first plays involved a “killer ball” move, wherein one shoots a birdie from on high at high speed directly towards one’s opponent’s face. It’s very hard to counter, to say the least. To my amazement, the fat guy, dress shirt, tie, dress shoes and all, sprang up in the air, looking for all the world like freakin’ Totoro on his spinning top, pivoted in an instant and whacked the birdie right back at his attacker with such force that the guy cowered in fear.

It was a thing of beauty.

Most of those guys are just about as good, too. It’s a bit embarrassing to play with them, as I feel they’d like to go faster and even more viciously but for my presence, but I get a big kick out of trying to keep up. I spend most of my time on the court trying to see the next two seconds before they happen. It makes me wish I’d discovered the sport when I was younger and had faster reflexes. I bet I’d have kicked ass when I was in, say, high school. Ah, well. Wishes/horses and all that.

posted by Poagao at 3:33 pm  

2 Comments »

  1. I didn’t know you were into badminton. I got a nbit into it in India. We should play sometime. Spicygirl has been known to bat around a few herself.

    Comment by Prince Roy — August 29, 2006 @ 3:17 am

  2. Yeah, that would be great, if you have a space to play.

    Comment by TC — August 29, 2006 @ 3:19 am

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