Ice Skating and Bowling Nostalgia

The past two days offered me a chance to re-live more stuff from my teenage years. After my interview at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies (see previous post), I caught a cab that was just leaving NTU (after trying in vain to find the bus stop) and decided randomly to go to Jurong Entertainment Center. Out of a pure sense of nostalgia I ended up heading up to the ice skating rink. I used to go bowling at the alley opposite that rink (it has since closed down and a KTV joint was set up in its place).

Ice skating has always held a special place in my heart since I picked it up as a little kid in Canada before returning to Singapore. It is a sport I imagine I would have continued given the opportunity - and continue I did for awhile. I took lessons when I was in Primary 3 and 4 every Wednesday at the old Fuji ice rink at Dhoby Ghaut (now closed down and turned into a club). But the reality was that the rink was too small and too crowded and the pace of the lessons were too slow. So I stopped.

I still went ice skating now and then after that with friends, occasionally even alone. Back in Oxford there are a few memorable trips to the ice rink. In one, it was for the inter-college ice hockey tournament (at beginner's level - plastic sticks, no shooting off the ground and playing the rink breadth rather than length wise). We did fairly well considering that our goalkeeper - poor old Sam Geen - could barely stand up and used the crossbar of the goal to keep his balance.

I hadn't been for been a year at least, probably more. The rink was mostly empty save a young girl practicing beginner figure skating moves, and two teenagers doing the usual showing off and horsing around. It was probably nostalgia that inspired me, but I decided to give myself a go on the ice. It was odd skating more or less without company (the rink is usually crowded) and it was even more odd skating completely alone when the scant company decided to take a break. Soon the teenagers were replaced by two cute little kids whose Caucasian mom went in to closely watch over them.

It was a nice feeling being out on the ice. But I soon found that it just didn't have the same thrill for me as it did in the past. I guess it is inevitable that you feel a bit pointless doing circles round a rink for two hours, and this is accentuated when you are the only one doing it. The cut up ice didn't help at all - and it was just my bad luck that my two hours expired just when they resurfaced it.

The following day, I met Victor and Nic to shoot some pool and bowl, again activities that used to occupy me back in Secondary School (oh my wasted youth). Victor and me were clearly rusty compared to Nic (who was in the midst of his wasted youth and thus playing pool far more regularly) and we missed a number of simple pots. My problem with pool was that I could never pot the ball all that well, even if I were able to see the shots that I wanted to play (I'm not even all that great at that). I do enjoy watching the professionals on television and I marvel even more at their ability to clear up all the balls effortlessly when my simple shots rattle out, forget playing for position.

After Victor got thoroughly frustrated when I managed to snooker him thrice (two times through pure luck), and I won the match after he gave me a free shot on the black after a fluke foul, we decided to adjourn to the bowling alley. I went through a bowling phase when I was in secondary school, when I used to go about once a week to the lanes, knocking off a significant portion of my pocket money in addition to pins. I even went so far as to get myself a cheap bowling ball and a pair of shoes - something to call my own. But it had been ages and ages since I had stepped onto a lane - bowling just isn't popular in the UK at all.

I was quite surprised at how bad I had become though, spraying balls everywhere except at the middle of the pins, and scoring an abysmal 58 pinfalls in my first game, losing even to Nic. Victor scored above a hundred after hitting a few spares. The second game turned out a lot better for me, and I was in the lead most of the way until Victor caught up with me and we entered the final frame level on 91 pinfalls. Victor then hit 9 pins in his last frame meaning I needed to spare the last to win. I was left with a relatively straightforward 1-2-3 spare but missed it meaning I didn't even break 100 in my second game with a 97.

Again, it was nice going out bowling again after so long, but I can't help but feel that I will never have the same enthusiasm for bowling as I did when I was younger. An occasional game here and there with friends, for fun but nothing more. To round off the day we had a go at the arcade on Daytona. I trailed most of the way after crashing in the opening lap, but snuck into the lead entering the final lap. Sadly, I smashed my car into the wall after being nudged by Nicholas (the bastard!) and ended up last.

It was fun though, doing all the things I used to do in the past, in younger, freer days. But it solidified the certainty that I had moved on to other perhaps more intellectual and challenging things.