sinnatious

Saw this interesting sight on the way to the Brisbane International Finals yesterday:

I have to wonder, did they build the stairs around the tree, or has the tree been waging a slow and steady invasion on the house's territory? AND DOES THIS QUALIFY AS A TREEHOUSE?

The picture is kind of funky, sorry. Turns out my digital camera is dying! It's about eight years old, so that's not so surprising, especially given how many times it's been dropped/thrown/sat on. Still, I didn't know digital cameras could even do that! I always figured they either worked or they didn't. I wonder what it would look like through 3D glasses~!

But on to the tennis. GUYS, THE FINALS WERE SO AMAZING. First there were the men's doubles between Dloudy and Paes VS the two Frenchmen Chardy and Gicquel. Chardy and Gicquel won, but it was so hilarious because their teamwork was so terrible. They even did that double racquet thing where they both tried to hit the ball at the same time and it made a horrible noise (yet still somehow made it over the net). XD It was like watching Ryoma and Momoshiro play doubles in the first tournament in the manga.

Actually, the whole thing was like watching a Prince of Tennis episode. There were mind games. Dloudy double faulted for three points in a row (and lost his service game because of it), and then immediately Chardy and Gicquel were hitting the ball only to him to take advatange of his fragile state of mind. And even though it was the most transparent tactic in the world, it worked and he kept hitting the ball out. Felt a bit sorry for him, though. Dloudy was a class act - on the court change after his triple double fault, he did a baby serve just to prove he could get it in for the crowd. XD

It was over in two sets, then it was on to the final! The final also resembled a Tenipuri episode. And not just because Andy Roddick wore a white cap and Radek Stepanek has a reputation for bad taste in shirts and a love of drop shots.

Andy Roddick won! That part wasn't so surprising.

The amazing part was Stepanek's comeback in the second set! The score was 7/6, 5/1 in Roddick's favour, and it looked like the match was more or less over. Then Stepanek clawed his way all way back up to a 6/6 tiebreak! *__* It was incredible! The crowd was going nuts! To begin with all the cheers were for Roddick, but it all turned around. At some point, he went from 'Stepanek' to 'Steppo', at which point I guess Brisbane adopted him. XD

THEN, IN THE TIEBREAK, IT WAS 6-1 IN RODDICK'S FAVOUR AGAIN, AND AGAIN STEPANEK CLAWED HIS WAY BACK. He even had set point once! But alas, the wonderful rules of fiction did not push it to a third set, and Roddick finally won after squandering half a dozen or so match points.

Still, exciting times! I was rooting for Stepanek from the beginning, though, since he was so much fun to watch in last year's final (he was defending champion), but clearly I forgot about the curse.

And only marginally related, I wore my new FAVOURITE SHIRT EVER to the match! It seemed appropriate:

SOMEBODY HAS OBVIOUSLY BEEN READING MY DIARY.

On a side note, Fifth Act readers, I'm very sorry, but I will now definitely be missing a bunch of updates from now until the end of January. Will be hopping between the Gold Coast and Perth and Bundaberg, and before I can do all that there's some crazy deadlines at work! I will try and keep you up to date on when the next chapter will be coming.