mardi, janvier 30, 2007  I managed to get off work early today, and wisely spent it on a journey to Jalan Besar Stadium to buy tickets for the match on Wednesday. I figured there would be a queue, and there was - a snaking queue approximately 500m long, which was more than I had hoped, but less than I realistically expected.It was my first trip to the home of the FAS - and I shook my head at the size of the stadium. Did they think that they could demolish the National Stadium and use this stadium as an interim stadium? Who are they kidding? 20,000 people and a swimming pool on the side. Seriously man, no way. The Malay guy and his sister behind me struck up a conversation with me immediately - I suppose I must have looked rather odd, with me being in work clothes and heels, when the bulk of the crowd were guys, or disgruntled looking women. I think their husbands/boyfriends drove them there, couldn't find a parking lot, then told them to line up first while they drove to some other ulu place to park and wait. .jpg) We chatted about the M-league days, his eyes widening when I could correctly identify the players by name and number - I suppose last time still young lah, 1994, brain still got a lot of harddisk space. He told me that a lot of the guys on the team were his schoolmates, and that they still hung out occasionally. Not good enough to score free grandstand tickets though, he observed with a wry smile.The conversation was very pleasant - a snapshot of the camaradarie which exists when Singaporeans one and all come together to hold up a patriotic challenge to any other country that threatens our sole bastion of politics-free nationalism: soccer. The queue moved quickly as I expected: grandstand tickets were already sold out when I got there, so that made things easier since that meant only two categories of tickets were left: gallery ($7) and child/student ($2). When I got to about ten persons before the counter, someone at one of the three counters exclaimed very loudly "Sold out?!" which sent a ripple of shock through those who were near enough to hear it. A quick clarification and a minor heart attack later, we were told that the child/student tickets were sold out, not the gallery. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief to hear that.  There were some Ah Pek by the side of the counter who were hoping to get some people to buy their tickets for them, which I thought was so dumb - it would be really easier to just queue up and buy them yourself - especially since buying tickets yourself would enable you to get as many as you wanted - this time there's no "maximum 4 tickets" rule: you can buy as many as you want. This was a surprise to me, since I expected to buy only 4 tickets. I figured I wouldn't have a problem offloading extra tickets, so I wound up buying six instead of four, though I have to admit that for about half a second, I contemplated buying a LOT of them to sell at a higher price to people. If you think that's unfair, remember I had to: (1) quasi-legally leave work early to get there, (2) go to unfamiliar place which isn't very near the MRT station, (3) WALK to Jalan Besar Stadium in high heels and with my school notes and barang-barang, (4) STAND ON HEELS with barang-barang (5) in the hot sun (6) for 1/2 an hour. If I may use a phrase from a well-known cosmetics brand's tagline: Because I'm Worth It!I bought my tickets and now I am happy. The end. Libellés : soccer [Worth their weight in gold?] |
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