What's that smell?

OK, so by now probably everyone on earth knows that Federer won the Aus Open again in pretty convincing fashion. Naturally I have to put my 2 cents in it, & I'm gonna have to back track a bit. Back to the semi finals late last week. Any boy, were they over quick. I took a pit stop at the end of the 1st set of the Federer-Roddick semi & by the time I'm back from the toilet they were already (as much as I'd like to say 'slogging it out' but we all know that weasn't the case) going at it in the 3rd set! That was some beating. At least Roddick can say Haas won 1 fewer game than he did & his (Haas') conqurer was a (comparatively, but who isn't when you're compared to Federer?) lesser opponent. I didn't head down south this year but you just gotta feel for those who bought those expensive tickets for the 2 semis. Don't get me wrong, they were very spectacular matches, but they were over WAY too quickly. There were hardly any contests in them.

Meanwhile, swtiching the focus onto the women's final. It was only going to go, at max, 3 sets so naturally you wouldn't expect it to go for very long. The 2 men's semis were already short enough (both around the 1.5 hrs mark), the women's final was even shorter - by 1/2 hr actually (so if you do the math they actually work out to be about the same per set. Anyways...) That was an even worse beating, with the lower ranked beating the crap out of the regained world no. 1 & reigning US Open champ Shriekaova. For a second I though we were going to beat last yr's record & that match was only 8 games long when the soon-to-be divorced Henin-Hardenne (I guess it'll be back to Henin from now on?) forfeited. Digression: little psychic ol' me guessed right! Some in my little circle guessed 'pregnancy' but the 1st & only thing that popped into my head when she annouced that she wasn't coming to Aus was marital problems. If there were odds on that I maybe should've put some Euros on that. But I guess that could be interpreted as bad taste in some odd ways...

So, an explanation of the title - what's that smell? I guess it depends on which angle you're looking/smelling at it. Was it the sweet taste/smell of success, or was it the stench of rotted game plans & poor execution? No, more like the latter judging by the scorelines...

With the tennis finished for now, it's back to 'normal' TV viewing. Yay! Luckily I'm finishing my studies real soon (right, better do something about that) 'cos there're just way too many programs I want to watch. Apart from the old faithfuls D Housewives, Grey's & Lost, there are of course the newbies of Bros & Siss, Heroes & Ugly Betty. So much to watch, so little time. Thank God OC is finishing soon so I'd have 1 fewer program to chase.

Meanwhile, the seamail that I sent back from Honkers had arrived 2 weeks early! Yippy! My winter clothes are back! Not that we'd need it, back up to 37'C tomorrow. But there were also other little bits & pieces in that seamail, like the anatomically-correct squeeze-a-toy thingy (obviously a Japanese thing) that blushes & shivers if you, well, squeeze it; my moomin bowl & spoon set; my Snoopy & Charlie Brown coffe mugs set; and my trip stuff - maps, etc. Now, where can I find room to put them...

13%

Lately, for reasons unknown to most of you, I have been taking advantage of the post-xmas sale here in the land of Aus. Ok, Ok, so I have bought plenty already while I was on my recent trip to East Asia. Too much, in fact, that I am having difficulty finding storage for some of my newest conquests. While still feeling unmotivated about working/studying (although I finally re-started my studies again earlier this week) I have yet to go around to spring cleaning out my closet. The short sleeve sections are getting chockers, the winter wooly section is getting chockers, my pants sections are getting chockers … The list does on. But I digress. Back to post-xmas shopping. My latest addition this week can be found in either the gadget or health category. It is none other than the scale. Not just any scale, ‘cos otherwise why would/could it be considered a gadget. It is a DIGITAL scale. And no, that’s not what makes it gadgetry either. It’s the fact that it has the memory capacity of storage the basic info (height, age) of up to 5 people (FIVE!!!), and with a simple switch, measures your body fat % also. That’s me, 13%. Needless to say I’m on the ‘thin’ side of the scale (it has 4 categories – thin, normal, stout, & obese), but only borderline. For a person under 30 years of age (which fortunately I still am) the ‘normal’ body fat % is between 14 & 20. Shall measure regularly, but given how I eat & what I eat I doubt that number would fluctuate much.

Still looking all over for 阿信的故事 DVD boxset. It looks like A$400 for the Taiwanese version. OK, so there are nearly 480 episodes in the 7 boxsets that make up the entire series, but still it's a little much. Must keep looking.

Summer of tennis/tannist

It’s January and of course it’s tennis time. First with the Hopman Cup on day & night way over in Perth (& on TV on Aunty), followed by what has become out annual pilgrimage to the Sydney Olympic Park – the former adidas International – Medibank International. I cannot remember for how years straight I’ve been going to the tournament in a row, but definitely for at least the last 3 years, possibly 5. The attending field differs from year to year, of course, but this year the women’s field is particularly strong. Prior to the withdrawal of the current world no. 1 (Justine Henin-Hardenne), 18 of the world’s top 20 were scheduled to play here, including 9 of the world’s top 10 (barring the grunt-maestress, the 1 Maria Sharapova). We usually buy the Australian Tennis Magazine which used to have a free ground pass included in its January edition. But this year, that very promotion no longer exists, so we had to shell out $$s to buy actual tickets. Luckily, Medibank is running a BOGOF promotion (for non-Aussies, BOGOF is of course Buy One Get One Free), so we bought 2 centre court tickets, & seeing that I still have student concession until end of March, a concession ground pass. Like usual, lots of running around scouting out the hard workers who come out to practice on the various courts, as well as occasionally (stress ‘occasionally’) sitting down to watch smidges of matches while either (1) when feeling hungry, or (2) when feeling tired. Autograph hunting was much more fruitful (ha, fruitful ^_^) than last year’s Aus Open where I only got 1 (yes, 1) autograph, that of the sour-grape Davydenko (see here for reasons of sour-grape status). Amongst my victims included soon-to-be retiree Kim Clijsters, defending Aus Open champ Amelie Mauresmo, Nadia Petrova, and on the men’s side the very hilarious Dmitry ‘Dima’ Tursunov, the smiling assasin Marcos Baghdatis … All that running about also doubled as a good tanning session, which hopefully I can keep up for a little while. Maybe I should stay outdoors a bit more, but it's so hot …