New coffee shop plus karaoke

No gym on Friday morning.

It was Michael's last day, and because we didn't get a full turn out at the lunch the day before, we decided to present him with his gift at 9am. But even then, it seemed like there weren't too many people around. Melissa was sick and Melanie was at court. Steve was there, but was busy walking to and from the photocopying room.

Mary gave a really nice speech, and I thought Michael accepted it well. The gift was a clock, it seemed like a fairly nice one. Christina suggested we go for a 'normal' 'two hour lunch' as a proper farewell, and Imad remarked how the bean counters would be concerned about that. Not sure if that was a sign of him not completely siding with Michael, or if he was just naturally cautious (like me).

I was half busy throughout the day. Imad came and asked me if I wanted to do Tuesday's list, and of course, I wasn't going to say no. He said he'd ask Michael first because only SLOs can do it. I was flattered he'd ask me, and I quickly checked to see who would be assisting - it was that cute Maria girl.

My god, is this fate?

I decided to go out for lunch, because I got bored of the pizza toast I was making. Went for a walk and ended up buying a box of rice, which was a lot more than I had wanted. I was only in the mood for a small lunch. After that I got a bit of a headache and didn't feel good for the rest of the day.

I went to ask Imad to see if I got the list or not, and he said no because only SLOs could do it. He kept apologising for not getting back to me about it, but I was ok, at least it meant less work. He then told me English had gone to the bar and asked if I had any similar plans. Not really sure why he keeps asking me this - is it out of genuine interest, or does he just want to see if I plan on staying here long term?

I told him I didn't think I was ready and we talked a bit about other baristas. When I walked out I realised that Paul guy's office was opened. I didn't see him at his desk, but I wondered if he was somewhere in there and had been listening to our conversation, because obviously, he does the staffing and stuff.

I was glad to get out of work, and caught the bus home. G was going to a social event, I told him I'd see how I felt after gym, but I was already pretty sure I wouldn't be going. I just felt like being left alone and having some peace and quiet.

I walked to the gym even though the car was at home, did my knee exercises, but couldn't do anything else as the weights area was pretty packed. I then walked home, had dinner and a quiet night in.

Saturday
I went to a dry cleaner's at the Wick in the morning to drop off my black suit for cleaning.

At about 9am I left home to walk to the Central courts. I was still a bit upset at Sunny bailing. Yesterday I had texted him to confirm training, and he said that he had just received noticed of a friend's farewell. On the phone he was so so keen to come to training, and here he was bailing. Judge a person by their actions, not words.

Also, Mike said he couldn't make training because it was too early and the buses at this time were pretty bad. He also cancelled on the afternoon games with William, claiming his knee hurt, but I reckon it had a lot to do with the fact that I said I wouldn't pick him up from his place and asked him to come closer to the city. If a person has the will to do something, they will move heaven and earth to do it. I always wondered how long me being his chaffeur would last - apparently a couple of weeks.

I got so upset I felt like I should just completely drop them from the team.

As I crossed the road, I had to step over a chain, and tripped pretty badly over it. I'm sure I looked like an idiot to anyone who saw, because it was such an easy and low step, but it really hurt like crazy afterwards.

When I got to the courts, Nick had just arrived. It felt a bit awkward being with him by myself, we made some light convo before shooting around. He said he was having a bit of a problem with his free throws, so I observed him as we played a game of who could hit the most out of ten. I noticed he seemed to stop for a split second as he bent at the knees and went up, so I told him to be more fluid, and he said he felt a lot better and his shot was a lot better as well.

We wondered where Bo was, and then Phil arrived. I couldn't remember him, but I did when I saw him. Not really sure if he's the type of guy we want playing full court, but we'll see.

We did a drill where we moved from elbow to elbow shooting. At first it was 10 shots, then Nick wanted to do 20. I swear, it was a lot harder than I thought, because of the heat. I noticed that when I got really tired towards the end, my form would just collapse - I was fading away and my right leg would stick out and turn. This was exactly how I injured myself, thereby further confirming my suspicions that I hurt myself that day because I was tired and took a tired jump shot.

After about an hour, and after they had both tried contacting Bo, I gave him a call. They said he never answers his phone, so to my surprise, he answered. He sounded hung over, apologised, and said he'd take a shower and be here soon. After a while he turned up, saying he drank last night and got kicked out of the pub. Last week he said he had quit drinking, so I was disappointed to hear (and see) that. I kept thinking about how bad this would look if this was a professional team, like, you know, "Stephen Jackson turns up to training drunk". He also wasn't very serious, shooting free throws underarm, and shots with so much arc it went over the backboard. He was obviously still drunk. I'd had enough, and it was past noon, so I left, and walked with Phil to the station. Turns our we both understand Cantonese.

I caught the bus home, changed jerseys, put on my long socks, and drove to Hurstville. I was kinda relieved I didn't have to drive Mike, it was just nice to drive by myself and listen to music.

William had sent a message asking me not to be late since we only had two hours, and I was 15 minutes late, hehe.

When I got there, only William, a guy called Andrew and a guy called Kevin were there. They didn't even have a ball. They were still waiting for the kids to finish their soccer training. After that we started shooting around and played two on two. My shot was on, and I could feel it was getting better. Me and Andrew got off to a slow start, and a part of me thought "screw this, just turn it on and win the damn game", but a small part of me also thought "take care, no point hurting yourself in a meaningless game like this".

I had to guard that Kevin guy, and he was a bit bigger than me, definitely someone who'd play power forward or center in a game like this. Sometimes he'd keep backing me down, and each time I found myself relying a lot of using my right foot to stop his force, but at the same time, I didn't want to put any pressure on it, so I'd lift it up from time to time. If Sports Centre was there they'd play it on slo-mo and analyse how much I'm trying to protect my knee.

Two other guys joined later on, and then they left. Then William asked another group to play full court, and then Kenneth came. Eventually we played full court with the other group, and Kenneth was his usual self hogging all the shots. I was just glad to be running up and down the court I didn't care much.

We missed so many shots and had so many turnovers, I found myself preferring to stay back on defense. So when we were taking the ball up, I was walking, and Kenneth asked if I was ok.

Am I ok?? AM I OK???

If he thought I was going to run up there only to run back on defense, then he was wrong.

Anyway, I had a good run, and after that William and Kenneth were talking about what to do and also about their plans the next day. Kenneth told me to go surfing with William on Sunday, and I politely declined saying I was trying to stay out of the sun.

William and I ended up agreeing to go to Ele's thing as her friend had opened up a new coffee shop. He wanted to come to my house to change, and I could see so many reasons he couldn't, so I just said I was going straight there. Hope he didn't feel offended.

We drove in convoy as I followed his car, and I signalled for him to park in the shopping centre. For some reason the machine didn't give me a ticket, so I went in anyway.

I met up with him as he calling my name out in the car park. On our way to the coffee shop we stopped at an ATM. At that moment, I started feeling that it was actually ok to hang out with him. I felt like I understood him a bit more. Maybe there wasn't much more than meets the eye.

We arrived at the coffee shop where we found Ele standing and talking within a group. We were introduced to the owner, who turned out to be John, who I met at yum cha through Ele a while ago. Didn't know it was him who opened the shop. Linda was also there within the group, as well as Evonne.

Sitting at a table next to the window to our left was Young and his friend. I looked over and nodded to Young. We talked a bit before William and I went to order. I was pretty hungry so I asked if he wanted to share a sausage roll, and he said yes. He ordered the drinks and the sausage roll, and I wasn't expecting him to do it so I gave him $5 and then realised it probably wasn't enough for my share.

Ele introduced us to her friend, I can't remember her name. I'll call her Winnie for the rest of this post. We then went to sit at a table they were already sitting at. Ele and Winnie were at one table and Evonne and Linda were at another. William and I sat in between Evonne and Winnie. Ele said we smelled, having just come from basketball. I jokingly said it was William, and wondered how much he liked that.

We also talked about William's muscles, since he was just wearing a singlet (I had changed and put on a tshirt). Evonne reached out and felt it, and then stuck out her arm and invited William to feel it. William actually refused, which made me start thinking differently about him even more.

Ele asked me if Linda looked any different. I did notice she seemed to be a bit more dressed up in a traditional way, but I said no. I spoke to Linda a bit about who was going to drive to Jamberoo next week. She was open to using her car but wanted me to drive. I didn't really want to use my car, but I guess I'll see.

They were all talking in Mandarin a lot, so I didn't really know what was going on. I just thought the shop looked pretty nice, and thought it was in a pretty good location, having a corner spot.

At first I thought Winnie was kinda attractive, but then noticed she had pretty big bags under her eyes. She did have nice hair though, and even Ele felt so, feeling her hair.

William and I went to get our drinks when it was called, and we shared the sausage roll. There was a bit of talk about basketball, somehow Ele was involved, and I joked she was really good and could dunk.

After a short time there was talk of leaving. They were going to karaoke and then dinner. Young and his friend had already walked out, while we were standing around talking about something. Linda was going to Bobby's cooking thing. I said I wanted to go home first to change, and then Ele looked down at my long socks and said she thought the same thing, lol. Winnie said something which suggested I could go, and I said I didn't think they'd let me in like that.

We went out, and I had to go with William because the plan was to follow his car so I could get out without a ticket. Linda had also parked in the same car park so we all went to get our cars. Linda offered help as well, so I devised this plan where I'd follow William's car, and Linda would follow my car, so if it didn't work then I could get Linda's ticket and then she could follow me. Brilliant.

We went to get our cars and then met up in an area and then went in convoy towards the boom gate, lol, this was like a movie. Once at the gate, William went through very slowly so I could follow him. I tried to get really close to him, and didn't mind if my front kissed his bumper, but then wondered if saving $25 was really worth a minor scratch on my car.

It worked. The gate stayed open as I went through, and Linda used her ticket to get out. William stopped his car outside, and I told him I was going home first, and he'd meet me in the city.

Once I got home, I gave G a call, as he had called earlier. We talked about going to karaoke together. He said yes and he'd come pick me up. So I had a shower and changed, and then decided I'd just drive because G wasn't going to dinner afterwards as he was going to Bobby's cooking thing as well.

I waited for G downstairs, and when he arrived, I told him I'd drive. He changed his mind and said he didn't want to go, as William had another group going to karaoke later, so he'd go to the cooking thing first.

I drove out to the city and parked in a car park, which charged $25 flat rate, grrrr. William had messaged me to meet up for something to eat before going to karaoke, so I met him outside the Macca's on the main street. We went to a new Japanese restaurant within an arcade that I always walk past but never go in. It had an innovative concept where you queue up to pick the type of noodles you want, add whatever entree and topping you want, then pay at the end.

I only wanted something small as we'd be eating afterwards, so just got a small (and more importantly, cheap) udon. We talked as we ate, about gym, basketball, and how he knew Ele. Apparently he only met her for the first time at that barbeque a while ago, through Ben, the guy with the broken wrist.

After we finished, we went to karaoke. There were a few additional people there, including that couple with the nerdy guy and the somewhat hot girl. I always wonder how he landed her and what she sees in him. I swear, if they ever break up I'm moving in. There was also a guy called Mayo, who seemed to be with Evonne, as she introduced him to us. I wondered if he was her boyfriend. I was a little bit jealous at first, but then studied him a bit more, and concluded he was taller than me, had nice skin, and was probably better looking, so I lost fair and square there.

I wasn't really looking forward to the karaoke, but figured I could spend the time playing those die games. I asked where they were and William picked up the phone to ask for them, and they were delivered promptly.

William, Ele, Winnie and I started playing the game liar (or bullshit as I recalled). It was quite fun, and the punishment for us guys was to do push ups and for the girls to do sit ups. I brought Mayo into the game since he seemed to be a bit lonely, so it was us three guys against the two girls.

After a while Ele had songs to sing, so I went onto Winnie's team, leaving William to call me a traitor, lol. We won a lot of games, mainly because William kept losing. In fact, I don't think he won any games at all. He definitely did the most push ups.

Evonne asked if I wanted to sing. I knew it'd come up, but I kinda secretly wanted to sing anyway, so I went to choose a song. She asked what song and I told her Gallen Lo, and she found him for me in the system. I picked the same song as last time, and then went back to the games.

When my song came up, I went up the front, had the audio on cause I didn't know all the words. I got an applause during the break in the middle, and I was like "I'm not finished yet" and Ele said I'd get another one after. I think I did alright, but would've liked more practise if I knew I'd be going to karaoke.

By now we had left the die game (my introduction of the game where we arrange the die by numbers didn't last too long) as Ele had introduced the game where you shout out a number (zero, five, ten, 15 or 20), and that kept us busy for a while. Ele taught me how to play, but then when she sang, William, Winnie and I just played amongst ourselves. I kinda liked it when I went up against Winnie, it was a chance to get close to her and look into her eyes. Maybe she wasn't that bad afterall. Maybe this was also why games like these were played, to give a chance for guys and girls to get closer.

We stopped playing after a while, and William was talking to Winnie while I just played on my phone. I would sometimes look at Ele just to see if she looked back, and she did occasionally look over at me.

We finished at about 8:30pm and left for dinner. William and I again went to the ATM before meeting up with the rest at the restaurant. It was just off the street where I work, where we had to go upstairs. I could smell the spice, and wondered why they always went to these spicy restaurants.

As usual, seating at the table would be very important. There was one seat free between Winnie and Evonne - great opportunity. But if I took it, it would mean William would be excluded and sat near people he didn't know, and vice versa.

Could I really do this? Every man for himself?

In the end, I shuffled along to the free seats available on the other side, content with William to take the seat. Surprisingly he followed, and so none of us took it. There were some re-arrangements because that nerdy guy's girlfriend didn't want to sit next to me, probably because we didn't speak the same language, so I sat in between William and Young's friend.

I personally found the service to be pretty poor. Young's friend, William and I didn't have chopsticks, they didn't give us tea until wr requested it, and the water they gave us wasn't even for 10 people (especially given that we'd be eating spice).

I didn't understand most of what was going on, as again they were speaking in Mandarin. Sometimes William would tell me what they were talking about, and I appreciated it. Occasionally Evonne would ask me to speak Cantonese to get me involved in the conversations, and the attention it brought me made things more awkward. I noticed Winnie was pretty quiet most of the time, preferring to sip on her drink, and not talking much. Maybe she wasn't really that close to Ele? Did Ele bring her here to set me up?

Young's friend did talk to me a bit, just about the food we had and that, not much.

Sometimes I'd notice Ele looking at me. I am pretty sure she just wants to make sure I'm feeling alright amongst these Mandarin speaking people. But one has to wonder - why does she care?

At one point, she said to William, in front of everyone, something like "David has muscles, but he doesn't show it, so why do you show it?" and William said he thought they were going to the beach today so he wore a singlet.

William and I started talking to Mayo towards the end of the dinner when we found out he was also into basketball. I asked William to bring him to our Saturday games, and he didn't really do anything, like get his number, so I did it. I gave him my phone and asked him to put his number in. Ele said "why do you always get guys number?"

I knew from this that she had been observing me, not just from tonight, but for a while now, as to my status with girls. I think she was frustrated that I didn't try to get Winnie's number.

After dinner, William, Mayo and I talked about the NBA as we headed down the main street. The plan was to go to Ele's place for card games. Mayo left, and so did William. We had two cars, but Young parked far away, so Ele suggested that I drive the girls while Young and his friend went in their car.

I had parked quite close to the wall on my side, and hoped no one noticed me having to squeeze in uncomfortably. They didn't, but Evonne and Winnie waited until I moved the car out before they got in.

When Ele got in, I started the car and forgot about the Eminem music blaring out of my speakers, which startled her and then I turned it off. I drove out a bit and the other two got in.

During the drive, Winnie and Evonne mainly spoke amongst themselves at the back, while Ele and I talked. She asked how my knee was, and I said 90-95%, and she told me not to play basketball if it hurt. I really appreciated her showing she cared.

She also talked about how Michael L and Eva were at Bobby's place for the cooking thing, and asked if Bobby and I were talking now. Somehow we got talking about CPR, and I said people could just drop dead at any moment, and told her about that soccer player who died on the field. She said it was fate, and I said maybe fate would visit us one day. She said not to curse her so I said maybe fate would visit me one day. She said not to curse me. There was a car which beeped its horn next to me at another car, and I said maybe fate will visit them one day, and she said not to curse them, lol.

They brought up my jail visits and Winnie asked what I did. I told her I used to be on defence, and then she asked what I do now, and I told her I changed sides. Evonne cheered.

I dropped them off first and then went to look for parking. As they exited the car, Ele repeated to Winnie that I was "an old friend" of hers.

I found parking fairly quickly and went up to meet them. Winnie and Evonne went into a room, and I talked to Ele. We talked about how Eva had become a bit reclusive since losing her job, and how she found it hard to get her to come out. She said there was a suggestion to have her ask Bobby to help her get a job within his company, but Eva didn't want to ask because she knew he'd say no. Her basis for this was that apparently Bobby's then girlfriend had asked him to find her a job there and he refused.

This was a perfect chance to let fly the whole "yeah he's a fucking asshole" thing, but I held back and just said maybe he thought it'd be awkward to work with her if they ever broke up.

When Young and his friend arrived, we played a card game, a variation of Chinese poker. I said I remembered a bit of it, but Young went through it with me again. Ele said I'd learn quickly, and Young's friend kept saying sarcastically "wow he is really learning quickly". He repeated that a few more times throughout the night, which made me want to knock him out, but I told myself it was just a card game, and in the scheme of things he was a pretty big loser (especially since it turned out he likes Linda). He has, however, earned the distinct label of being Cunt No. 2 (No. 1 is Kenneth).

I could also tell Ele didn't like him, and wondered if this could be a factor later on in any potential clashes between her and Young.

Ele and I were on the same team, and I was determined to win a game for her, but the other two were too good.

After a while I got tired, and when Winnie came out, I invited her to play. She took my spot, and at first Ele suggested I could help her, and then suggested I sit next to her (Ele) to learn. So I pulled up a seat next to her to watch. I was too tired to learn, but did silently enjoy sitting so close to her. I wondered what it was like to be with her this close all the time.

Finally we finished and decided to call it a night. It was already 1am. I didn't know what was going to happen, but turns out Cunt No. 2 had his own car, and Ele and Young were going to drive Winnie back home (she lived quite far away). As we walked to our cars, Ele said she had a challenge for me - to drive Winnie home. I thought it was a joke because they were already on their way to their car, so I didn't say anything. But this just confirmed for me that she was trying to set me up with her. I felt bad that I had failed her again. I was also a bit tired to be driving all that way.