Another New Year
2006 flew by so fast it seemed like we hardly had time to take a breath. We had a great holiday in Thailand in July- 4 days in Bangkok, 5 days in Hua Hin (playing golf). We also met up with old friends Alan, Anchena and their children Alana and Anthony, who came up from Australia.
Sean started year 5 at the British Internatonal School in September and had his 10th birthday on the 19th of that month. He is growing fast and still loving school, football and golf.
We had a very nice Christmas in Singapore and then went over to Johor Baru (Malaysia) for 4 days at the Palm Resort. Almost constant rain but not enough to prevent us from playing 3 consecutive days of golf. We saw in the New Year at home with a few friends and before we knew it, back to work and school.
The 2007 JSFA Coca Cola League (www.jakarta football.com) started on 13 January and after an incredibly successful season in 2006, is set to raise the bar even higher this year. There are even more schools particpating this year and everyone is looking forward to another great season.
JSFA Season Ends
The first season of the Jakarta Schools Football Association tournaments closed on 14 May 2006 with the Digital 1 knock-out Cup Finals. Sean's team (BIS A under 9) had romped away with the league, winning all of their games. However, they got a rude shock when they were soundly beaten in the Cup Final by a strong ESCI side. Still, despite that final disappointment the boys had a great first season and enjoyed playing in a superbly well organised football league.
The final day closed with a Gala Evening at the International Sports Club in Jakarta and the trophies and medals were presented by ESPNStar Sports TV football pundit Paul Masefield and 2 of the presenters from the Football Crazy show, 'PJ' Roberts and Sheihk Haikel. Everybody had a great time and the guys from ESPN were fanatastic with the kids.
After recently receiving his ABRSM music certificates for piano & drums and picking up his league winners medal and cup runners-up medal for the football, the following week Sean picked up a silver medal at the first BIS Judo festival.
All he can think about now is picking up a trophy for golf !
Mum and Lilian are firming up their plans to come and visit us in August and we are all looking forward to having them stay again. We are planning to go to Thailand in July for some sightseeing in Bangkok and golf in Hua Hin and trying to persuade our old friends Alan & Anchena to join us there if they can manage it. We haven't seen Achena and the children, Alana & Anthony, since they left Jakarta for Wagga Wagga, Australia 3 years ago and only seen alan briefly when he popped in to Jakarta for a couple of days over 2 yearsa ago.
But before all that, we have the World Cup to look forward to in June. It is going to be a tiring month with a lot of the games being broadcast live on the TV in the early hour of the morning. New England caps and t-shirts have already been bought and we have might get a new TV too !
At the end of June our friends, George, Sheila and M5, are going to San Diego for the Junior World Golf championships. Their youngest daughter, Celine, has qualified for the Under 9 section of the championships. What a thrill for them. We will be very excited too, especially as we were responsible for the whole family ditching their tennis rackets and taking up golf !
So an England triumph in Germany and Celine winning in San Diego would be a nice run up to the holiday season and the before we know it, we will be back in front of the TV watching the English Premier League again in mid August.
JSFA & European PGA
In January a new schools football league started in Jakarta. Superbly well conceived and organised by the Jakarta Schools Football Association (JSFA), there are about 60 teams across the age groups of under 9, 11, 13 and 15. In the U9 group there are 16 teams divided into 2 divisions after a pre-season assessment. Cocal Cola is the premier sponsor with support also from Digital 1 (cable) TV. They have a great website with reports, fixtures, league tables and photos. ( http://www.jakartafootball.com ) It is really fantastic and everybody is loving it.
Sean's team is doing exceptionally well and have won all 7 of their games so far. They have a couple of really outstanding players and it is sometimes hard to believe we are watching boys who are only 9 years old.
Great job and well done to the JSFA !
Last week saw the European Professional Golfers Association (EPGA) Tour come to Jakarta again for The Indonesain Open, co-sanctioned with the Asian Tour. Last year was the first time a EPGA Tour event was held in Indonesia and we were lucky enough to see Colin Montgomerie as well as Paul McGinley, David Howell and anumber of other top European players competing with Asia's best.
The field was not quite as strong this time but it was still a great event with a really exciting final day which turned out to be a duel between Simon Dyson and Andrew Buckle. Dyson held on under pressure to win his first EPGA title. He played superbly well from start to finish and Buckle looks like a player to watch out for in the future. Very impressive and still very young. If he hadn't had a disastrous double-par 8 on the 6th hole, he most likely would have won this event. I remember Dyson playing full-time on the asian Tour a few years ago and it was quite fitting that he should win his first EPGA title back here in Asia. I hope it gives him the confidence to go on to even better days.
The best thing about that final day for the kids (Sean & 'M5') was the 2 hour rain delay. we had clubhouse passes and for those 2 hours we were in the restaurant surrounded by the pros. The kids had a ball getting the players' autographs and Sean's England cap is now adorned with the signatures of Simon Dyson, Andrew Buckle and Asia's current top 2 players - Tongchai Jaidi and T Wiratchant. Had a bit of fun talking with the Taiwan contingent too - led by Wang Ter Chang and Lu Wei Chih.
They were all very patient and very nice with the kids. Thanks guys !
And There Goes Another One !
It seems like only a few seconds ago, I was rambling on about the speed of time passing and here we are already at the end of another year. Scary indeed.
Does anybody know where 2005 went ? Better not spend too much time trying to figure that out, otherwise the next time you look up there'll just be enough time to do the Christmas shopping for 2006.
This year we will not be going away for Christmas/New Year. A quiet family Christmas Day at home then on Boxing Day a Turkey dinner at our place with a few close friends - 8 adults and 11 kids - and we are really looking forward to it.
Sean seems to have moved on rapidly from the 'don't know what I want' state he was in around his birthday ! Now he wants everything ! Well, I remember Grandma used to say " 'I want' doesn't get !" It always seemed to me to be quite a smart thing to say - but putting it into practise with your own child at Christmas time is proving to be a challenge.
We will be playing golf at least every other day and enjoying having the rest and relaxation time together. It's been a hectic year and Anita and I are a bit knackered.
Wishing all our friends and blog readers A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Now that's the closest I've got to sending myself a Christmas card !
What time is it ?
As Halloween approaches we are being reminded by Sean that there is a 'trick-or-treat' party coming up next weekend. Up until about a year ago we used to think of this 'trick-or-treat' thing as a childish, American thing. Now we find we haven't the heart to disparage the practice in front of our son who is gleefully looking forawrd to the occasion ...and we don't have the opportunity to take him to Pendle Hill and fill his head with tales of 'real' witches.
Thankfully, he is being invited to a friend's home for Halloween with the 'trick-or-treating' followed by a sleepover. So we can just let it pass and go out for a nice quiet dinner.
After that though, is the even more pleasant prospect of a 6-day break in Singapore, staying at the famous old Goodwood Park Hotel. Walking the streets, riding buses, taking the underground (MRT), eating by the river, cycling by the beach - all things not possible in Jakarta, well some of those things are possible but definitely not advisable in Jakarta.
How long is a year ?
Hell's teeth ! It's Sean's birthday again on Monday ! I mean, how many birthdays does he have in a year ?
Don't answer that one. I may be getting on a bit now but I have not yet completely lost my marbles. The thing is this - anyone over the age of, say 30, already knows this simple fact of life: The older you get, the faster the years pass.
It is really amazing this perception of time and having a nearly-9-year-old child somehow seems to accentuate the feeling. Partly because one looks at him and realises that to him a year seems like an eternity and partly because to us it seems like only 5 minutes ago that we were having to feed, bathe and clothe him. Now I see his shoes next to his Mum's and realise his feet are already the same size as hers. 30 seconds ago, he would run up to greet me when I got home and I would often get tears in my eyes - not because I am a sentimental fool touched at the joy of this child so happy to see his Dad after missing him all of one day, but because his head at that time was dead-level with Dad's genitals ! I considered checking out the sports shops for a 'cricketers box' at the time but I needn't have worried, 10 seconds later his head was well clear of the delicate zone and now he head-butts me in the chest.
This time around, an interesting feature has been Sean's indecisiveness about what present he would like for his birthday and what kind of party he would like. For the last 5 years it has been simple. The present was decided immediately after the novelty of his Xmas presents wore off and his party was all his class plus any other close friends and held at venues specialising in kid's birthday parties with games and/or entertainers. (We did make the mistake of having at home once - about 3 years ago- but that lesson was quickly learned)
This time he has no idea what he wants for his birthday and whilst he has now decided that he wants a 'boys-only' party with only his 'chosen few' (9) closest buddies, he has no idea where he would like to have it.
It seems like he is in some kind of 'twilight zone' at the moment where he is too old for kid's stuff and too young for teen's stuff.
However, I now know I need not worry about this because in less than 5 minutes he will be deciding that he is going with his friends to some all night rave at a club !
Junior Soccer League 2005
The 2005 Junior soccer league season has just started. Sean always enjoys it and this is his 4th season. This year he has been assigned to team Belgium and two of his good pals Michael (aka M1) and Adam are also in the same team. All the coaches are volunteer parents and luckily for Sean and his team-mates, Belgium has a good guy who, though by his own admission, has limited knowledge and experience of soccer, is clearly well organised, a very decent guy and keen to coach the kids in the basics of the game and in working together as a team.
Sadly, the kid's sports rage incident (see posting 25 may 2005) has left its messy fingerprints on the rules for this league. To be fair, most of the rules are very sensible but there are some that grate a little :
"No keeping score, Discourage kids from keeping score, Coaches need to try to manage the score, Do not run up the score, Put your goal scorers in the back or in goal when necessary, Both teams are winners .."
I sympathise to some extent with the philosophy of avoiding humiliating defeats... but not to keep score seems to eliminate the whole point of playing a game of football. Sport is not just a physical outlet for the kids, it also teaches them about teamwork, about different roles within a team, about striving to achieve results as a team, about being gracious in victory and to learn to deal with defeat. At age 5 or 6 maybe we need to shelter them a little bit from some of the more painful aspects of sport but at age going on 9 ? I believe modifying the rules of the game is like lying to the kids about life. How long do we want them to think they are living in a fairy-tale world and when are they ready to learn about repsonsibilities, accountabilities; the consequences of good and bad preparation, good and bad play, good and bad behaviour, the interdependency of individuals in a collective effort; the relationship between the rewards and the effort they put in; the joy of winning, the disappointment of losing, the pride in performance and, even if on the losing side, knowing one did one's best ?
The result is Mickey Mouse football for over-protected kids that teaches them very little about the real game or about real life. When we were their age, the games at the local park were already passionate affairs between well bonded teams determined to fight for the common cause - and, despite the absence of an adult referee, only very rarely did we end up literally fighting for the cause ! Sometimes 'boys will be boys' and at times need supervision and guidance - but I don't believe we should be creating a make-believe world for them.
However, despite my reservations I will not interfere as Sean and his buddies enjoy the 'tournament' so much. Thank goodness for this 'blog medium' that enables me to get it off my chest here rather than get in an argument with people who clearly will not agree with me ! They are all good people anyway and doing what they think is best.
It's only for 2 months then the boys can get back to the academy run by professional football coaches and playing real, competitive football again.
