Our new found friend Winie invited us flatmates to watch a basketball game so yesterday, we headed to the Kallang Indoor Stadium to cheer for our Philippine Basketball Association or PBA’s San Miguel Beermen as they played against the Singapore Slingers. A game between liquors (Singapore Sling is a cocktail). Haha.
The last time I was in Kallang was when I tried dragonboating. It was too exhausting for me, so I stopped after three sessions. It was a fun new experience, though.
It’s only my second time to watch a big time basketball game in a stadium. My first time was four years ago when I watched a UAAP game between ADMU and La Salle. By “big time” I mean the kind you buy tickets to, though in both occasions, I didn’t actually pay for the tickets. Lucky me. I was pleasantly surprised to see that our tickets placed us at the fifth row of chairs from the court so we could see the action up close. Woohoo!
My favorite San Miguel players are Cortez (1) and Hontiveros (7). I was sold on Cortez when on his first few minutes in the court, he executed a complicated weaving move and scored a basket despite the Slinger’s tight defense. Hontiveros gained their team the most points, at one point giving them a 13 point advantage.
Unfortunately, they did a typical San Miguel (to use Tatsie’s term) and became complacent when they had a big lead. The slingers managed to match their points so that when the last two minutes rolled around, their scores were tied. What a nailbiter indeed! To our disappointment, though, the slingers beat our men by 6 points. Hmp.
Interesting tidbit: one of the Slingers is a Filipino guy whose surname is Vergara. The back of his jersey, however, read VERGERA. Eeps. He is a small guy who plays well. Filipinos kept on yelling things like, “Ibenta mo na ang laban, di naman makacancel ang pass mo eh!” or “Kuya naman!” whenever he made a shot. 😀
You can watch some of the highlights of the game below.
During halftime, Merlion the mascot came romping at the courtside and Cate and I posed for pictures with him. When it was my turn, he jokingly squeezed my face with his furry paws. Hahaha.
I bought a pack of Cornery caramel popcorn from a vendor and it’s the best caramel popcorn I’ve ever tasted in Singapore. It’s always best to go with your gut and try new things because you never know when you might discover something wonderful.
During a break in the third quarter, the announcer said that some guy had an announcement to make. It was a live courtside marriage proposal and we actually witnessed it and I got it on video! I’ve never witnessed a public wedding proposal in person before, so this was definitely interesting.
After the game, we tried to wait around for the players to come out so that we could have our pictures taken with them.
We laughed when some caucasian kid kept yelling “San Migwel!” and “Penisey!” and proudly told us that he was going to get Penici’s autograph on a piece of dried leaf he found on the ground. Err.
We got tired of waiting for them, though, so we eventually left and Winie took us bowling in a nearby mall.
Like dragonboating and basketball, I suck at this too. When will I give up and accept the fact that my body just wasn’t built for sports?
at first glance i thought you were talking about somebody else's baby. hahaha. glad your laffy is working fine again.
hi. i am from CORNERY – the popcorn gallery. we supply gourmet popcorns to the singapore indoor stadium. i am glad that you liked our caramel gourmet popcorn. our store is at #B4-46 ION Orchard. we are open from 10am to 10pm everyday. you are welcome to visit us. there are 22 flavours of gourmet popcorns available at the store for you to sample. 🙂
thanks for the information! will definitely drop by sometime.