Asian Games 2018

With my work is finally over, I finally get some free time to take care of my personal life. Asian Games is ending today lol and I only managed to catch the opening ceremony from Youtube yesterday. I am aware of the hype with the opening clip with features President Jokowi riding and doing stunts on motorcycle. Obviously the stunts part was not by him. With the recent registration for presidential election next year, of course things would get politicised. I give him props for participating in this mega event but honestly I do not feel that it is something worth all the hype as it is not an original idea with Queen Elizabeth did something similar for London Olympics 2012.

I fast forwarded to the final 1 hour when the performance began and wow.. I was blown away. The whole story, the stage set, and the performance were fantastic. The origin and history as well as the cultures of various tribes in Indonesia were on great display. Watching it makes me feel proud of my country and our diversity.

I have not been following the sports and there are not really a lot of news on Asian Games here. I only knew when it got big earlier this week when suddenly a lot of my friends were posting about badminton. Firstly it was about the male doubles final. In the middle of a long rally at the third set when the score was 22-22, one of the players (Kevin Sanjaya) ran to the side of the court to switch his racket. People were more hyped about this act than the fact that eventually he won the gold. Haha. Secondly it was about Jonatan Christie who won the gold in the male singles. People were more excited with him taking off his shirt after he won. Apparently he did that too in the semi-finals so when he did it again in the finals, everyone just lost their mind.

Despite all the political divide, once again sports show the ability to unite a nation and make us proud. It made me regret a little bit for not getting any of the mascots plushie at the airport although I still remember that I made a conscious decision of not buying because of the slanted eyes, nose, etc. Apparently as the games are ending today, people were also crazy about the souvenirs. I am only interested in the replica of the medal. They said after the game they would open pre-order for more of the merchandises so I hope eventually I can get one.

I just finished sorting and finally uploading photos after my Japan trip in May-June earlier this year. Yup.. it took me almost 3 months to do a fun thing and that is an evidence how work fucked up my personal life. Now it is time to get ready for the next Japan trip next week. Hehe..