Today we celebrated Luke's birthday. It began and ended with pool, with Lagun Sari lunch, Settlers of Catan, and Puerto Rico in between.

I think I've had enough of these "board games for adults"... It takes too much out of me. Time to start looking for another Sunday afternoon activity. Or maybe I'll just go for the 3pm Thai Service. Anything to escape the stress of strategy games.

Pool before lunch was rather flat. Didn't really get into my rhythm and drew 2-2 with Luke, though I'm sure I would have won more in the long run.

Pool at night was a lot better. My shot-making improved quite a bit and I was getting quite comfortable. Too comfortable in fact; I lost my second encounter with Luke. But after that, I didn't lose again. The highlight of the night for me? Not an amazing shot or great clearance. The highlight for me was the rack I played with Nat where I had to play all kinds of safety and containing shots after he had cleared all his balls while I still had six balls to make before the black. I wasn't trying to get 3 consecutive fouls, instead, I just wanted to give myself some easier shots. My tactics worked, though it took a poor shot by Nat to get me off the hook.

Defeated Luke again. Once again I had to come from behind. Bit by bit I reeled him in before making a reverse cut with backspin which gave me a half ball cut on the 8 on the short side of the table.

Played one rack of 9 ball with Nat to round off the evening. Made a good break which put the 2 and 5 down. Opened with a poor shot but managed to regain control after an escape which turned into a safety. Made the 1 and the 6 but missed the 7. But Nat couldn't capitalise. In this rack, he committed 4 fouls! His final foul gave me the chance to make the 8 and 9 to win the match. As they say, keep on making mistakes and you'll soon get punished.

During the night session, I got an SMS from Karen the kindergarten teacher asking me how my weekend had been. I was like, "Nobody asks me that, especially over SMS!". But I replied anyway and we exchanged 4 more SMSes. Ha.

The last few days have been full of excitement and surprises. Cool!

We are to be the salt and light of the world.
Let us not forget this that those in the darkness can see the light.