Crawled in after midnight again last night. Chew, my Mazda Sales Exec, was right. Life changes when you have a car. Options open up to the once unthinkable, i.e., going home late, when there is no need to worry about transportation and midnight taxi surcharges.

Last night was the first game of the Ministry's bowling league. Result: the Gutter Boys got their asses royally kicked in competition. Things happened too fast to make an actual count of the team's score but we're running at least 200 pinfalls behind most other teams and it's a good bet that we've started the competition at the bottom of the table. (Will post a link to the official results when it comes on-line).

It's nothing to get upset about, disappointed with our performance maybe, but we have to remember that we already knew we had to raise our game to play at this level. Here is where the P's advice about 'being a big fish in a small pond' falls flat on its face. We're not competing within our own in-house league anymore. The champs of a small-time league now have a sea to swim in and the sharks, there are a-plenty. Everyone someday will have to move up to a bigger pond, to be the small fish again, or if not will forever remain the 'frog in the well.'

Most improved bowler in the team is Vince who has indeed taken his game to a new level. Very proud of him last night for raising his average to the 120s when he is usually happy just to reach 100. My own average maintained at 140, which for me is a good start, though I still have to improve to be worthy of the competition.

It's Anthony and Yee who, I think, have let the competition get to them. Of course, we've never had to share lanes with a team that bowls strikes and spares all the time (and our neighbours aren't even the best team) but this pressure just might be pushing Anthony and Yee into overachiever mode, which distracts them from their usual game. Instead of competing with their normal jovial, relaxed, poking fun at Vince and Amy style, they have become over-critical of themselves, which is a lot less fun than if they continued to just be critical of other people. That sounds contradictory but it's true.

5 more games left and our ass kicking last night makes us hungry to train with more determination. We may have had a poor start but we're going to end with with a hugely improved personal game and the right to swim with the sharks in a bigger pond. Da dum, da dum...

Amy and Vince's fellow Council advisors got together with us after the game and we drowned our sorrows in beverages and KTV. We had a mix of Chinese and English tunes, all from the mid-eighties and further back in history. Don't these people update their catalogues? Anthony and I lost our voices screaming projecting "You Give Love a Bad Name" and "When Love and Hate Collide" amongst other of the loudest music available for selection, well, not that there were many to choose from. There were a number of mellow ones as well, but you know our preference.

Other details, let's see... the Gent's was covered in puke and when we left at about 1am there were 2 couples left in the main lounge dancing to some Chinese techno song. One couple was an ah pek swinging his hips with his young lady friend whose hips were equally fluid. I hesitate to speculate.