The remainder of the week revolved around Ultimate. Wednesday night pickup at Shilin was much better attended this week than last. There was enough for a full scrimmage with subs this time - last week only part of one of the teams had showed up - I'm guessing b/c we had just played in a tournament and people wanted a break. It was good to play with the Taiwanese folks again.
Thursday I practiced tossing a bit at the regular track workout in preparation for Hong Kong.
Friday I flew to Hong Kong, leaving Chinese class halfway through. It was the last day with our substitute teacher Guo Lao Shi, who I really like. I met Mitch and Jocelyn at the HKG airport and we took a bus into town. I met Noah (Slim/Balls) at his hotel, where he's being put up for 2 weeks for work. Peggy was already there waiting for me. She is still as cute as ever. : )
We swung by Swindlers, a nearby bar where the registration party was being held (on Lockhart Rd). I met a lot of my new teammates and saw a lot of old teammates. We grabbed a bite to eat at a nearby Chinese restaurant called Hay Hay - I highly don't recommend their he fun (chow fun) - oily and bland.
Hong Kong Pan Asian Ultimate Tournament 2007:
Saturday won all 4 games - against KUNT (
Korea), Junk (
Hong Kong), Jeepney (
Philippines) and the crossover game against Freakshow (
Singapore). The crossover game was the most challenging of the day, but we still came out ahead with a big lead. Freakshow had previously won against Ringers of Fire at the Singapore Open - I was expecting a tougher game - but of course, different tournament, different team members.
Sunday's first game was against 8th seed Junk again - they put up a good fight, but we ended up on top again. We then played fourth seed KUNT again and rolled through them - I felt like Junk played a better game despite being lower seeded. The game next to us was
Shanghai vs
Soidawgz (Thailand) - Soidawgz were up 7-4 at the half, and then up only 9-8 when the hard cap went off. Shanghai scored, tying it at 9-9 forcing them to play one more point. Shanghai amazingly pulled away with the win, with Kevin (a friend of Peggy's), catching the winning score.
For the Finals, we kept a close game most the way through - I think it was tied at 9's at one point. It already felt like a completely different game than the previous six - where most of the time were up at half around 7-3 with most teams. Then it got worse when they started to pull ahead, the soft cap went off, we scored a bit, but then Kevin ended up catching the winning score again. Apparently Ringers has been battling Shanghai in finals for quite some time, so a lot of my team were disappointed in the loss.
We played O and D lines - I was on the D line and had the most fun in the cup. During the semi's game, one of the KUNT women bashed my hand on a D - I ended up with a swollen finger - having to wrap it up for the finals just to throw with minimal pain. By the next day it was black and blue and looking like it was swollen to capacity. Looking at it now, it's a bit like I have a hot dog for a finger. I don't think it's broken - just badly bruised/sprained. I'll give it a week to heal.
Saturday night I met up with one of my old college roommates, Hanna. She's been in HK for 3 years now. We had a delicious dinner at Yi Jiang Nan in the Central area. We walked through the neighborhood, and used the outdoor escalators to help conquer the hills (reminded me of Seattle and made me realize how flat Taipei is), in order to get to Krispy Kreme! So much for exercising.
Sunday we had yummy dim sum at Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao in Times Square.
Ringers of Fire Hong Kong: Kwong, Rob, Daphne, Jeremy, Yoshio, Jim, Mitch, David, Craig, Nick, Lin, Aisa, Kerry, Liz, Rie, Adeline (Manoah missing)
View of Taiwan from the plane - the EVA 11:20 am flight was pleasant - partially empty and on time (unlike the delayed outbound flight)
