The Diary of a Hopeless Romantic: October 2007

Mini Gathering

Edwin making a speech

Ryan handing me my trophy. Check out the camera flashes :D

Edwin is a doll.. he organized a gathering with some of the guys because of my good performance in Essen. And there was a mini prize giving and food :D

Theresa is a doll too... gave me free food... yummy spagetti.

Edwin made me make a speech >.< i didn't know what to say lol. He made a suprise announcement that i will be automatically qualified to go USA for GenCon next year! woohooo! how cool is that.

Travel log- Mulheim, Dussledorf Day 6

My room in Mulheim

9.45am Mulheim- Day 6

‘All my bags are packed and I’m ready to go’

But my damn flight is only at 9pm! That’s 11 hours with nothing to do. I got to check out in a few minutes. I’m sitting on the windowsill, which has been my ‘spot’ for the last week. I’m breathing in the place I’ve called home. I was getting really used to it. But I’m excited to go home. Where its warm and cozy.

‘’im going home, to the place where I belong’

Ah well, got to check out now, then wander the streets looking for sausages.

3pm Dussledorf- Day 6

As for Wojtek, he was a no show. He told me he tried but couldn’t get enough money. I don’t blame him, 5 days notice isn’t much. But I was dying to meet him. I’m surprised I let him so easily in my heart after a year of no contact and after what he did to me. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have the enthusiasm I have in err…. Rekindling what we had. So now I got to get him out of my heart. But it isn’t as easy as letting him in. Fuck-

The tournament next year will be in USA and all my favorite contestants wasn’t so sure if they could make it (Too far, visa problem). So ill have to wait again in 4 years to go back to Germany. The same people might be there and too many years will definitely change what Wojtek and I have. But if he is willing to try, ill be saving to go to Poland.

Till then muirn beatha dan. Till then.

Travel log- Essen Day 4 and 5

9am Mulheim- Day 4

OMFG. The tournament is today. Wtf, I’m not ready! All they want me to do is get ranking 33 and higher. If Ryan and KK couldn’t do it, what makes you think I can? I’m so damn nervous. What if I get last place?

9am Mulheim- Day 5

Yesterday was amazing. I never thought I would do so well, or make that many friends, but I did! I made 6th place after the first day, and I was practically a social butterfly. I had laughs with the Brits, American and Canadian. I was the closest with the Romanians, very funny guys (who btw, flirts and plays footsie to win, not that I’m complaining). I witness the Swiss snort tobacco, or that’s what they say it is. The Polish were pretty cute, I hated the Finish guy, last years champion, but in the end were cool. The Slovenian I swear was being controlled by Cthulu.
In the end of the day, I had 2 wins (10+10pts), 1x 2nd place (9pts) and 1x 3rd place (7pts). Not bad actually.

The organizer is a freak! And I want to get freaky with him…. Rowr…

Sorry back to topic, well I qualified for Day 2. So we will see how I do today. I recon I’ll loose to the damn German in the first round and spend the rest of the day taking pictures.

8pm Mulheim- Day 5

The tournament was surreal. I did waaay better that I ever thought I would do. I actually made it to the finals! But I had 8pts, which was good enough only for 4th place. I know I could have done better, but I’m soo happy nonetheless. I’m the first female to have ever qualified to the finals! Girl Power!

There was soo many people watching and cheering for their fellow countrymen. I felt pretty upset at that time. Where was my country? I’m the first Malaysian at this finals and I had no one to celebrate with (except Edwin, his wife Janice and son Shaun, god bless u guys).

But I made trillions of friends, and in the end they were the ones edging me on, to carry one, giving me that confidence even though I screwed up so badly. The Japanese, Romanian, Polish were behind me, watching. I was glad for all the support I could get. (Love u guys)

In the finals with me was last years champion (Finland), a Latvian and a Brit.
It was a hard fought game for me. I constantly had to struggle out of a mistake in my starting position. But I managed to scrape through with 8pts! Which is miraculous considering the shit I was in.

I think I made a good impression there. I was well liked, and was rooted by a lot of people I just met there. In the end the Latvian won, and I think he deserved it. He fought a difficult battle.
The Japanese are really nice guys. They gave me biscuits ^ ^. And a puzzle! They were always rooting for me, for Asia! They were also trying to pimp their contestant off to ally with me. I guess that’s why they were giving me stuff. Bribe! Ahahaha! But I like them, total fun!

Its such a change from my first few days here. I was so lonely when I got here and I wanted to go home. Now that I’ve made so many friends, and have so much fun, I’m missing the place already. I’m missing everyone I met, I miss drinking, smoking (snorting), laughing, gaming, bitching, having dinner with these guys. I miss getting free beer and cookies from them! And I might never see them again. Maybe some I will see in Speil 2010.

The sponsors I think took a liking to me and perhaps because I was the first female. They gave me a wooden casing settlers of catan worth 250 euros! Which is awarded to the first and second placing only! Aha! Freebie! I’m excited to go home, yet I don’t want to leave, but I wouldn’t stay if they people I’ve made friends with weren’t here.

Final Standings

Winner- Arnis Buka (Latvia)
1st Runner up- Alan Farrell (Britain)
2nd Runner up- Markus Nuopponen (Finlad)
3rd Runner up- Triona Leo (Malaysia)

4-56place- Some of the coolest and friendliest people I’ve met in a long time. I had a blast with them. It has been truly a great experience, I doubt I’ll forget.

Tournament Pics

Me and organizer... *giggle*

My prize giving

Its christmas!

The Spielzentrum and the finalist

The crew with the finalist

Winner Arnis Buka (Latvia)

The Host. damn cute

My prize giving

The guy on the right cam whoring with my cam. lol

Yumm

The crowd

The Polish, Juliusz Gajewski and Andrzej Rabczuk

Final game crowd with winner Arnis Buka

The board

The final

Setting up the final

Starting positions

Me showing signs of giving up

My bad first 2 turn cards

My semis with Peter Jähne, Claus Sorensen and Ferenc Emanuel Kiss

Me and my smoking buddy Nicula Octavian

Slovenian Bostjan Gorenc being eaten my C'thulu

The top 16 minus the top 4

Last years winner Markus Nuopponen and another guy

My semis game.. before it got serious

The other semi games1

the other semi game 2

the other semi game 3

Day 1

The Swedish Christoffer Angmark

The Japanese, the press dude, Yojiro Ogawa, Takeshi Onishi and Kazuhiko Tani

Me and the japanese

Malaysia Boleh

He so cute

My 1st game opponents

Travel log- Mulheim Day 3

2pm Mulheim- Day 3

I told Edwin I was sick so I could skive off today. Didn’t want to spend another 9 hours looking at games.

So I slept in and woke up to have breakfast, then went back to sleep :) Around noon, it was too noisy so I decided its time to explore Mulheim Zentrum. So I walked all over town and took pictures like a normal tourist. There’s this pretty little church there I wanted to go in and see, but when I reached the doors, I realized there was a funeral going on inside. So no church for me. Owh and there was 4 kids rolling a joint behind the church. I love Germany.

I walked on what seemed forever (30 mins) and I saw this nice park. So I went through the gates and walked around a little. But u see, it wasn’t a park. It was a graveyard. So I was pretty spooked and I tried to find a way out, but it was a big graveyard. For the first time in Germany, I started to sweat. I managed to find a way out thankfully. I went to the mall, bought some pastries and sausages now, as I write. Even buying stuff from shops was such a hassle because I couldn’t speak the language. I’m making a mental note to learn a bit of the native language before I go to another country. All I know in German is Yes. No, Hello, Thank You and Hitler. Not very useful if u ask me.

Triona: “Guten Tag. Kann Ich err… Hitler haben?”
Hello. Do you have err… Hitler?
Receptionist: “WTF?”
What the fuck?
Triona: “Ja”
Yes

Its bloody cold outside, so I’m defrosting in my room, hibernating for now.

Mulheim- Day 3 (I dunno wad time, my clock is moving too fast)

I got kicked out of a bar because it was closing, at 8pm. Wtf kind of bar is this? I miss Malaysia, even at 3am, we consider the place closing early. Everything starts at 10pm, here everything closes by 8. I had problems trying to find my hotel, I think the place moved.

The fucking bar kept playing emo songs like ‘Eternal Flame’ and that song
‘I cant live, if living is without you. I cant live, I cant live anymore’

I mean fuck you. I’m sitting in a bar alone on a Friday night, so far from home, I don’t need you to make me emo. I have no problems doing that on my own. Owh and im drunk again.