One week before Train Ride....(Continuation for Singapore Qualifiers 2007)

.....One final mini tournament to prepare us folks going to Singapore. I played Mr. PPV and handed Bryan's Leader of Peepulation deck to some random dude because Bryan was indecisive at what he wanted to play (you'll hear later more reasons why he's got second thoughts).. I lost my first game to the Peeps deck because I, erm, cheated...Well I didn't really cheated, I just played cards that I couldn't have played in the first place. I didn't make the play-offs, but surprisingly the other deck did and it won me a title belt.

That night, Azmin, Andy and I had a little chat on what to play and we pitched to Azmin to play Victoria BASH instead of Torrie Wilson. However, most of the time at the Mamak Azmin was so preoccupied with another patron sitting next to us that I doubt he agreed with much proper thought. Admittedly the distraction was, somewhat distracting, but...Nevermind..

Later Bryan confirmed wanting to use my deck, but wasn't too happy that I demanded 50% of whatever that he won in Singapore. Azmin didn't have any issues at all, but Bryan waited until Monday and several sms before agreeing to my demand. OK, I'm not a charitable person, but that should be obvious, no?

We have opted to travel to Singapore via the Friday night train so that we'd arrive early Saturday morning in Singapore, giving us ample time to bump our way to our Backpackers Inn @ Dunlop Street. I'll talk about the Inn when I get there. Oh, there was this little miscommunication invloving Ahmad, Dawn & myself.

You see, as of Friday night (One week away from Tourney weekend), I haven't gotten confirmation from Dawn she is joining. All of a sudden, while happily enjoying Liverpool's win over Chelsea, Dawn sms me to find out the details AND this was Saturday night (I've already told everyone to confirm the night before...) Prior to that, while I was having the nicest afternoon naps, Ahmad decides to tell me that his father will not be joining us because he had a wedding to attend. I instead heard it as he was bailing out, so I told Dawn she could take Ahmad's place. Lo & behold, Ahmad rings me to tell me it was his Dad alone that won't be going to Singapore, not this workaholic who's about to leave the company in a week but still working until midnight. Eventually I had to do one more booking for Dawn who, decided to opt out on Wednesday. Too bad the cancellation agreement applies, and Dawn, i'm still collecting..haha!

Back to going to Singapore...or the lead up, actually. With less than 5 days to playtest, everyday (except Thursday, because I had to pack) I met up with some of the blokes to do some playtesting. Azmin unfortunately had a system crash in the office which could have scuttled his trip, so to make up for it he had to work late throughout the week and thus no playtesting. Emil had to juggle between home & hobby, so since hobby is taking over his weekend, he'd have to let home have his weekdays. As for the rest, I don't quite know why they didn't playtest as often (Let's not wonder why workaholic Ahmad didn't playtest at all).

Come Friday morning I decided to...131129147518. ( I can't really type that in full view as I might get in trouble). So instead of working, I packed my stuff (I slept on Thursday night instead of packing). After that and several post on the YFF (Yahoo Fantasy Football, the other thing I do at work, haha!) it's time to head out and leave the country!

Ok, enough background details. Friday night came and we decided to meet up at AmCorp (our hang out place..Everyone needs one of these places..) at 8.00pm. Azmin had his parents send him (considering his age, I'm not sure it that was boon or bane. I'll assume it's boon for now..) to KL Sentral, where the train is; Loco already traveled to Singapore in the morning because he had a gig that night; myself, Andy, NebNeb & Bryan was at the shop on time. As always, someone must be late. So no prices for getting who. By 8.30pm I insisted we make a move before we ended up missing the train too, but luckily everyone managed to get to AmCorp just before we headed off.

Then a startling discovery occurred. No, everyone had their passports. I brought along the tickets that I bought earlier on Wednesday. Ahmad, who had Andy build him an Al Snow deck, forgot to bring Al Snow's feud "No Gimmicks Needed" which was rather critical to his deck being viable. This after being reminded throughout the week to bring it. This after I was asked to bring the superstar specific cards to Andy on monday, only for him to tell me he's got everything from Ahmad. In other words, if you're looking for signs, this was it. Ahmad Needed No Gimmicks (eventually he paid SGD 5 for it in Singapore, when he could have owned one for SGD 2..So, Ahmad, what'cha gonna do now with 2 "No Gimmicks Needed?" now?). While waiting to board the train, I grabbed myself the 'supposed' Big Fish sandwich from KFC of which big it ain't while the rest got tickets and stuff. Unfortunately we were a little early and the train ended up late. So the guys decided to 'Chor Tai Ti' on the floor while waiting for the announcement to board! Here we have a bunch of, well, people who officially can't gamble playing with your usual deck of cards. At some point I must insist I wished the officers would drop by and go overzealous on them (there was no money involved, but since when has it ever stopped overzealous people?) just to get to see the drama, but luckily I'm an unlucky guy and before long it's time to board the train.

More to come.......