Monday, August 31, 2026

Right on the first day of August, and the day after, the waifu and I went to the Canadian Open (I'm not calling it by its corporate name of National Bank Open presented by Rogers). Thanks to Victoria, my waifu has gone full on tennis. We've been watching tennis highlights, a ton of videos on how to play better, and we've practiced a lot with each other, and I've gone to the squash court to practice against the wall to hone my 2 month old skills.

So anyway, Canadian Open. First time going for any kind of pro tennis event. The last time I played tennis was a one-time thing with Koh Wee and Yao Qi in 2008 I think. The prominent tennis courts at Yio Chu Kang, right next to the MRT station. We went in blind (and stupid), injuring our wrists because we had no idea what we were doing. I remember serving so poorly I hit one of the MRT trains while it was at the station. That was my only tennis exposure. Anyhoo, the layout was a bit messy but it was pretty nice. Lots of activities, stations and stalls. Onion and I grabbed a special tennis Beavertail, walked around checking out stuff like some glass ping pong tables, foam tennis balls and rackets for babies, and a stage with some musical performances and yoga. Hot as hell though. We ended up watching a few qualifying matches. We watched Lucrezia Stefanini vs Sofia Kenin, and later on Canadian home girl Ana Grubor vs Maya Joint, which dragged on for so long because they kept tying and getting deuces. Was frustrating and entertaining to keep seeing them go back and forth! Grubor barely lost in the tiebreaker at the end of the set.

The next day we had bought tickets for the opening game with Bianca Andreescu. The home crowd was told to wear red to support the Canadian Andreescu, but the mild drizzle got heavy before stopping and getting heavy. I actually wore red for the first time in 18 years. The last time was back in 2008 with my last church service with my cellgroup in Singapore, before I left for Kuala Lumpur. They bought me a red shirt and asked me to wear it. And never since. But yeah, since it rained, they cancelled the game. So I basically wore red, went to the stadium to sing the Canadian national anthem and go home. Pfft. Onion and I stubbornly refused to leave our seats, opening up the umbrella and just chatting until they actually confirmed the game was postponed.

So we ended up buying tickets for a future game a few days later. Unfortunately, compared to the previous compensation policies, tickets were no longer valid for the next Canadian Open the following year. And as we got closer to the finals, the ticket prices jumped quite a bit. So we had to pay more. Zzz. Parking was a nightmare. A. Sabalenka vs M. Uchijima. World no. 1 womens. So I guess that was nice. It was a nice temperature and the seats were pretty decent. Crowded too. Watched an entertaining match between the two, but it was clear Sabalenka's strong offense and aggressive style got her plenty of points. This was my first big tennis game I've ever watched in-person. After that, we got to watch a 2nd match between C. Tauson and N. Bartunkova. Bartunkova beat B. Andreescu the previously (the match we were originally supposed to see), so seeing her face Tauson gave us an idea of how she played against Andreescu. Less grunting between the two, compared to Sabalenka, lol.

The week after I watched Dimmu Borgir at History. Freaking finally. One of the bands I've wanted to watch for a long, long time. I was introduced to them by Justin, who was listening to them at Home Chef Recipe after class during our TOA (The One Academy) days. It was "Gateways", then a new release and he was giving it multiple listens to see if he liked it, as it felt like quite a departure from their old stuff. He also wasn't a fan of the female vocalist on said track. He ended up downloading it anyway, and that song grew on Symposium as a whole whenever we'd carpool. A few years later, Justin passed me a CD named "Bye Bye Metalcore" with Cataclysm Children and Progenies of the Great Apocalypse in it, and I've liked them since. 

Anyway, Dimmu Borgir was awesome. The opening band Hulder should be models for L'Oreal hair products or something. My gosh. Long, soft and silky hair headbanding from several of the members. Dimmu played very well, and the musicians were very engaging. Shagrath though, while his voice was great, seemed a bit slower and lethargic in his movement and actions. I mean, I don't expect him to jump and hype around, I'm primarily there for the music, and they delivered. Several from their new material, but lots of old classics they haven't played in a long while too. And of course, they ended with Gateways and Progenies of the Great Apocalypse. A perfect way to end it! I was singing along like karaoke. Amazing.

On tennis, I'm still playing regularly with Ali almost weekly, and we've been chatting and getting to know each other better during our matches. I've not won a full match against him yet, losing 3-4 times so far, but I've won several sets, most very close, sometimes an ongoing deuce deciding the game. There's another set of guys who play on the second court next to us most of the time we play. Also, Onion and I have started to be recognized. LOL. Yeah, shit! First, there's a woman who walks her dog and I regularly see her around the lobby or the trail behind the condo. We've given each other the "stranger nod" several times passing by (also her dog is really cute). One time she forgot her key and asked Ali and I to open the gate for her. She mentioned that she's seen me and my wife play and that we've improved tremendously since she first saw us. I was like wait, what? She said she has a good view of the tennis court from the 7th floor and has seen us on the court all the time. That made me self conscious, lol. But I thanked her for her compliment and got to know her name, Julia. We shook hands and went off.

Later on heading up after work, I got into the same lift with a couple, who I'd seen play tennis before. Very good players who'd I'd seen on court once or twice. The guy spoke up and asked if I'd been playing a lot of tennis and I said yeah. He seemed relieved to know it was me and wasn't confusing me with someone else, ha! We chatted a bit and he said I'd improved a lot and he'd seen me and the waifu play a lot. I said we were still beginners and learning and he said he was very impressed with our progress in just 2 months. So yeah, we're now self conscious that people are watching us play tennis!

Along with all the playing. I've also finished 2 books tennis books and I'm reading a third. I finished Andre Agassi's autobiography Open, Late to the Ball by Gerald Marzorati and I'm now on the famous Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey. I loved Agassi's autobiography. I watched tennis with my dad during the Sampras/Agassi years and to see what he was up to all this time, with insights into his life and career was cool. One of the most well-written autobiographies I've read. Late to the Ball was a bit dreary. Marzorati keeps bringing up his age and his mortality over and over, and while it was nice to read on his progress with his coach, meeting new people and improving his game, it felt like a privileged guy talking about his retired life. Now I'm reading the Inner Game of Tennis and I've gotten to the part where he talks about Self 1 and Self 2.

Later in the month we met up with Cameron, a boardgaming friend Onion met through 401 Games weekly boardgaming sessions. 2 years back, Cameron was in the beginning stages of designing a new board game and wanted some playtesters and feedback. It was called Cola Wars. We included Garrett, and enjoyed the session. We gave quite a bit of feedback, on the game and the visual design and apart from Melanie's birthday boardgame sessions every year, didn't interact with him much. We got tagged on Discord to playtest further 2 years later. Garrett didn't join this round but we were joined by a woman named Sarah. The game has changed tremendously. Some iconic parts are still there but it's improved so much more. Lots of new mechanics and additions. He also had a very successful Kickstarter campaign and is working with One More Turn Games publishing his game. We had a good time again, and although I was leading for quite a bit of the early game, became last place towards the end due to the catchup mechanic. Also his dog Sputnik was adorable. We were treated pizza and Pepsi as thanks. Congratulations dude!

Charm and Raouf invited us to their place for another round of barbecue, as they didn't want the World Cup BBQ to be their only use of their new grill. We originally were going to do it on one of the Sundays, but due to heavy rain we ended up switching it to a Wednesday evening. Saif, Raouf's nephew was there again, as well as his brother Yusef (also not sure how that's spelled). Yusef just arrived in Toronto a few days prior before he would fly off to Edmonton to study at the University of Alberta. We chit chatted with Raouf and Charm while he was grilling (and also using the Grillmaster cup we bought him!) and caught up with what we'd been busy with (mostly tennis and watching the Canadian Open). After he finished we sat inside and grabbed the freshly grilled food while chatting randomly. Towards midnight we ended up playing Cards Against Humanity. Oh man, the bullshit we came up with was hilarious. At certain points we started to get an idea of what appealed to each person in terms of their humour, lmao! Of course the waifu guessed mine really well, and Saif started to, as well. I ended up winning in the end, haha!

And to end off the month, we had a hotpot with the cousins (Colin, Lilian, Chloe) and Zoltan. My cousin Colin is going to the University of Waterloo, and we wanted to celebrate for him, as Chloe said to me before that we often haven't done much celebrating for him. As he's a badminton player for his high school, I thought we could play badminton together before having a hotpot meal to send him off for university, and also as thanks for Chloe and Zoltan helping us move to our current place. Basically, one big celebration for all. Originally Colin and Lilian would take the GO train to Kennedy and I'd pick them up. Chloe and Zoltan would then drive over. Buuuuut, when I got to Kennedy station at the agreed time, Lilian said that it stopped there with no announcements, and due to all the construction, weren't sure that they were even there. Then the doors closed and the announcement said the next stop was Union. LMAO. Lilian panicked and with her brother, were annoyed they didn't make a clear announcement they had arrived at Kennedy station. The waifu and I drove back, and I suggested that they take the regular subway to Eglinton, meet up with Chloe and they'd all arrive together. Which they did, an hour late. We ended up playing at the tennis court, court 2, which had sections marked with pickleball lines, which fit badminton. We played several doubles rounds, cycling between players and chatting in between breaks. At one point Chloe and Lilian played tennis on court 1 just messing around, and Chloe noticed that her hands were hurting from holding the racquet improperly. I showed them how to hit a proper forehand and Colin decided to try too. All of them tested out their new forehands which showed improvement. I had also noticed that the technique for a badminton smash was near identical in swing path to a tennis serve. I told Colin that and he did near perfect serves with amazing strength! Nice! The final match was a 1 on 1 between Colin and I, with him winning 21-18. A good workout, and happy to see him win well.

We went upstairs, gave a short tour of our unit and prepped the hotpot. It was Chloe and Zoltan's first time there since helping us move in last year, and Colin and Lilian's first time visiting us. Colin immediately went to pet Toshi, lol. Lilian was nervous about Toshi but I had reassured her all week that she was well-behaved and she'd be very open to pets. I baby-carried Toshi and let Lilian pet her. While she was still nervous, she did say Toshi was very soft and cute. For sure. We had a very nice, hearty hotpot meal while chatting about Colin's university, and Lilian's terrible group of former friends, amongst many other topics. They still find it amazing that Onion and I argue? Lmao. All couples argue. Later on we played Rabbids Party of Legends on the Switch, a good party game that everyone could enjoy, while Zoltan snoozed in the corner. After 10pm, Chloe needed to head off for a party and I needed to drive the kids back as they had some function to attend the next morning. I drove them all the way back to Markham with the waifu and had a good time talking in the car, about the future and expectations. All the best in uni, Colin!