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Monday night.
National squad training.
But wait, no. A clash. It's basketball night, a friendly with Swire hall. Tipoff at 7pm.
Basketball season has just begun, and out first interhall match of the year is on Thursday up against Hysan.
Under any other circumstances I would make way for all basketball (without clashing with Choir, of course)... but now, with squad training ... I don't know how to prioritise again.
Coach Arif held a squad team meeting last Friday, where he talked about immediate goals (now), short term (1-2 years), middle term (3-5 years), and long term goals (6-9 years). Most of all, he talked about commitment. And passion.
I don't know whether I should take him literally, but in his own words, he said, he didn't mind if we arrived late to training, be it 7.30pm (start time), 8pm, 9pm, even 9.30pm for footwork drills with the mini hurdles and ladders and stuff.
So, being the smartass I am with excellent time management that I most certainly possess ... I thought, basketball friendly will start and end on time for sure.
Bzzt. Wrong again.
Start time 7pm?
Nah. More like 7.30pm.
End time 8pm?
Nah. Ended at 8.45pm.
So King's Park in Jordan? I guess just under an hour. But with waiting time, walking time, delay time, this and that ... no way was I gonna reach there before 10pm closing time. How shameful.
I feel so guilty now. I know today I let down so many people.
In the morning, pantry was in absolute chaos, 4th world war. And I didn't do a single scrap of tidying before leaving for class.
Was late for my 0830 lecture, and elected to hop off down the lateral aisle on the far side, whereby distracting classmates. Got told off by the professor as a whole class at the end of the lecture. Oops.
Made my 10am appointment at the Chest Clinic in Sai Ying Pun, to check out my tuberculin skin test results. All fine, felt a bit hostile today, and the doctor only saw me for a grand total of 30 seconds, just to say, "you're perfectly fine, no TB, skin test induration is less than 10mm, we'll get your report done within 10 working days, now off you go". Ended up leaving at 11.45am... hmm ...
So was mega late for public health tutorial which was supposed to run from 1030 to 1230. By the time I arrived our tutor Dr Tian was already in the final stages of summarising and going around the table for feedback. Oops again.
Lunch was great, we had K-BBQ.
Afternoon tutorial was fine with a hilarious obstetrician & gynecologist, Dr Aaron Kwok Chi Wai.
Then came nightfall.
First of all, I missed Derek baba's handball interhall match, which I did not even know he was still playing in. Turns out they lost to Swire hall by 1 point and it was devastating for the team.
Then, I had to miss out on most of Jenga's female softball interhall match, due to our basketball friendly. Half the team were my floormates - van, cm, amiee, yw (teamcap), and old ghost Rita too. So it was heartwrenching to see them shine on the softball pitch for just a few minutes before having to pop next door to the basketball court.
Basketball friendly was uneventful. Felt like I let down my Coach Fung Gor, teammates, and myself, as I missed many steals and many fastbreak layups. Ugh. So pissed off at myself!!!
Then as I was thinking about heading off to hockey training at King's Park ... I realised time was way overdue. It was 2045 by the time I lined up for the minibus, which was filled with other hall people having just finished some hockey or lacrosse training at P2. I decided to give up that night's hockey training.
And when I returned to hall, I had to face the dreaded message to the national squad Manager (actually not even sure if she's manager, she's in charge of international liaison and seeing who stays on the squad and who's not fit to carry on) ... anyway, Miranda, I played in our club Shaheen B's league matches with her a couple times, she's fantastic, a striker, former national squad starter, and highly experienced and decorated.
She was perfectly nice, but I could tell I let her and the squad down.
I feel terrible. How can I not?
I hate disappointing people, most of all myself.
How can I get over myself!!! How!!!!!
