(Originally posted on Aug. 13, 2008)
<
<
Month: August 2009
At the Green Tennis Center, Serena desires another color
BEIJING (Originally posted on Aug. 12, 2008) – Rain. That’s the story here last Sunday. And it’s both amusing and quirky. On our Day One in Beijing, an envelope of grey skies and haze greeted us upon arrival at the airport. On Day 2, the sky was as clear as a light blue swimming pool while the sun roasted this city like a Peking Duck. But two days ago-our third day here-it turned opposite: gushing and pouring buckets of rain on Beijing. Thus far, the weather here has been fickle and volatile.
Last Sunday was our first day to watch the outdoor sport of tennis. The Beijing Olympic Green Tennis Center-middle-named “Green” because it sits on the Olympic Green Forest-is massive. It has a total of 10 tennis courts: one Center Court, two main stadiums and seven smaller rectangles.
Tennis Center Photos
A Cebu Eastern College supporter responds
Last Thursday, a squad of 14- to 16-year-old high school students lost a basketball game… by 131 points! I wrote about CEC’s inconceivable 159-28 loss to UC and asked if any school official or exponent would explain why, after only a few days’ of preparation, their boys were permitted to join the toughest inter-school league in Vis-Min.
Well, at 2:16 p.m. last Sunday, my mobile phone rang. It was Penelope Villabert. “Call me Penny,” she said. A former parent of CEC (and one who worked, for a time, at the well-known Chinese school), Penny and I spoke for nine minutes. Later that night, she sent me this email:
“Sir, Greetings! You are one of the columnists I respect and admire. I know you will understand the concerns I will convey as regards your opinion in your column, “With 131-pt wreckage, CEC’s name is bruised.” It is a fact that CEC has been in deep slumber especially in athletics for years. It is waking up slowly but surely under the leadership of the new administration for almost two years now. Most of the school’s concerns have been addressed to and this time they are focusing on sports.
Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square Photos
Here in Beijing, it’s walk, walk and wok
BEIJING (Originally posted on Aug. 11, 2008)—For the past three days since we’ve arrived in China, as soon as we’ve arisen and stepped out on the bustling streets, we’ve joined the one sport that millions of people here do every minute of every day: Walk.
My wife Jasmin and I estimate no less than 8 kms. of trekking—each day. So at the rate we’re hiking (with the Great Wall looming ahead for us to climb), we’d have finished a full 42-K marathon in five days or can represent RP in the Olympic sport of Walkathon!
Last Saturday, taking a break between the Opening Ceremony and our first Olympic sport to watch (tennis), we meandered to a tourist spot with the most number of visitors: The Forbidden City. After riding the ultra-efficient bus and subway lines here, we got off at Tiananmen East and stepped out of the underground to see the red wall of this gargantuan site called the Imperial Palace.
Food Street!
Amidst the blur, Beijing’s welcome is clear
Twelve months ago, the most lavish and best-prepared Olympics happened for the first time in China. In the next week or so, I’ll be re-posting my articles from those 08-08-08 Games.
BEIJING (Originally written on Aug. 8, 2008)—Yesterday, after only four hours of sleep each of the past two nights (that’s what happens when you tour a metropolis as large as Shanghai in only 36 hours), as soon as our Air China flight lifted off the Shanghai airport runway, my eyes went shut. But it didn’t take long for the stewardess to nudge me off my sleep; she brought along a present for all passengers: a Boeing 737-700 replica of the same Air China plane, with an added signage at the plane’s tail-end that’s symbolizes this country: “BEIJING 2008.”
Beijing Opening Ceremony Photos
With 131-pt. wreckage, CEC’s name is bruised
It was too unbelievable to be true. Far-fetched? Yes. Implausible? Yes. Beyond belief? Yes. It’s the story that was trumpeted two mornings ago by our top dailies with headlines that read: “131-PT ROUT” (Cebu Daily News), “UC Jrs. thrash CEC by 131 pts.” (The Freeman) and, from Sun.Star, “Horrible mismatch.”
Wrote Gabby Malagar of The Freeman: “The University of Cebu (UC) Junior Webmasters made league history with their 131-point massacre of the Cebu Eastern College (CEC) Dragons, 159-28, in an unbelievable outcome of the 9th Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. (CESAFI)…
“Scoring by quarters saw the Junior Webmasters leading by a mile – 65-5, 78-11, 115-19 and 159-28 – thereby raising questions of coach Rex Salvana’s logic of pushing CEC to join the tournament in which some quarters perceived as throwing a sheep into a pack of hungry lions.