Nott's Singaporean Games, Bball, Nasi Lemak, a Chinese Dinner and Gala Casino

Yesterday was the Nottingham Singaporean Games. So our kiasu.. oops i mean, curious neighbours came down to Nottingham for a day of sports. In comparison with the Nott's M'sian Games, the Singaporean one is on a smaller scale. Don't get me wrong... bigger doesn't necessary mean better. Fewer people playing would mean there would be more game time for everyone. (less competition too >.<) FYI, I wasn't there just to ogle at eyecandy. Lol. Yes, I did play for the Nottingham Junior Basketball team. Although, i have to say... I'm a bench warmer. Lol. I did get some game time but I can't say i made a big contribution to the team. Ahh... I've really got to work on my bball.. We got as far as the SEMIS! ( During the Nott's games, our team got knocked out in the group stages.)A great accomplishment.. I have to say my rabid shouts from the sidelines must have had some effect on the team. I was shouting "NICE BALL! NICE DEFENCE!! PUSH PUSH!! DEFENCE!!" during our games... heh. A nice thing was that there was a Singaporean/Malaysian food fair on that day. I had Nasi Lemak + Chicken which cost me 2.80 (*7=RM19 ringgit). Yeah.. i know can get a nice plate of nasi lemak from Madame Kwans back home hor? The nasi lemak was alright. It was rather dry.. not enough Kuah!! But well.. beggars can't be choosers??

To celebrate our victory, we and the senior basketball team(who reached the semis but got beat out by the Chinese Nottingham Society Team) went out to Mandarin, the BEST chinese(supposedly) in Nottingham City. The food was great! I had a chance to show some of my limited skills in card magic before the dishes arrived (yet another thing i have to work on!!) We had roast duck, tauhu, some veggies, Beef with vermilion(damn tender man..), Roasted Duck Intestines, and Fried Rice. It was a good dinner which came up to 11 quid each. (70 ringgit)

Next up, we all decided to go to Gala Casino, a casino in the middle of the city. Some of the senior members had memberships to the casino and each member could bring in 6 guests. I've never been into Genting Casino back home, so i can't make any comparisions to it. It was a classy place with the usual stuff. (ie: Roulette, Blackjack, Poker, Craps,etc..) I spent the first hour looking around and watching the others gamble. Don't get the wrong impression now.. we just were there more out of entertainment and curiosity (I'm sure i was!Lol) rather than gamble our lives away. One of us, bet 1 pound on a single number and won 36 pounds!

There was blackjack too.. minimum bet was 50p but the table closed at 11. After 11, the minimum bet was 3 quid. My personal "principle" on Blackjack is that i prefer the good old Chinese style rather than the Casino method. They had 6 packs of cards shuffled up. This makes it much harder to calculate the odds of getting a card unless you stay the whole night and still it's hard to keep track!

Eventually, i ended playing Roulette on this machine terminal which is hooked up live with a real life roulette wheel. I used a "system" which i learnt from one of the guys around and was breaking more or less even. Then, out of pure chance, i decided to bet 40p (20p is the minimum bet) on my lucky number, 11 for one round. I walked off to chat to Mun, our bball captain while waiting for the wheel to spin. When it started to show it spinning.. i went like " Comeon 11!!" and he was like "comeon.. big numbers!!" and when it stopped.. it was 11!! I had won with the odds of 36 to 1! So i got a payout of 14.40 pounds (1oo ringgit?) in one round! I was euphoric and quickly went to my screen and tapped CASH OUT. Grabbed my CASH OUT ticket.. ran to the cash out counter and cashed my money out. Lol. The ticket was for 26.60. I had originally started with 10(i intended to only play half of that).. so i made a profit of 16.60! And I thought.. WOOHOO! My dinner and transport of the night is payed! However, as i stayed around waiting for the others... i decided to take 5 pounds of my winnings to play some more roulette. Cut the long story short, i went home with 11.60 winnings. >.< I went back with Seng and Mun by cab and paid for the fare. Felt sorry coz they lost quite a bit that night.

Heh.. before i go ont.. i have to put an emphasis that this is no way an endorsement to gamble!! It's just a good story to tell... Ahh..It was all beginner's luck! GAMBLING IS EVIL!! Sometimes, when you're losing, you decide to pump in more capital and end up losing more.. When you gamble(which you shouldn't but by saying that.. i'm a hypocrite!Lol), you have to be prepared to lose that money. So, never gamble ur earnings.. maybe spare change...that's what i did. Heh. I was lucky that time. Some were luckier than me, most weren't. Ahh.. i miss Chinese New Year.. Memories of CNY gambling flooding back to me. Lol.

Sunday. I went to church in repentant heart..hahah. Homily was about preparing for the Coming of the Lord. Made me think it did. Music was good as always.

Hm.. After mass, I followed my bro back to his house where he would be cooking Rissoto. It's an Italian Dish which is basically where you fry the rice and mix it up with chicken stock and u get.. a porridge like dish. My hall serves it sometimes and it usually looks like vomit. Seriously.

The verdict: My bro's 1st attempt at Rissoto was a few notches above edible. It had cheese in it and had sprinkes of fried bread,chillies and anchovies. It was darn feeling! My bro then made a cup of cappuccino and I helped out with the dishes and all. Over at his place, I read this comic called WE3. It's written by Grant Morrison. (who's a rather twisted, in a sadistic manner but a good writer nevertheless) It's about 3 pets (a dog, cat and a rabbit) who have been turned into weapons by the US air force (USAF) Then, they try to escape to return to their former owners. Not only those is have satisfactory amounts of violence but it had that touching element about how these pets try to make it back "home". It's one of those stories where at the ending, you get that feeling of.. fuzziness. Hm.

Well.. yeah.. that's the highlights for this weekend in my lawful life. Nothing much, about the law... except well. yeah.. i've got to hit the books now.

Take care all. I know you guys back home are darn free now.. Write if you can people!!