Goodbye, for now, to our doubles partner

Yesterday evening, we (as in Dan, Stef and myself) said goodbye to our regular (actually our only other) Xbox tennis doubles player, Fred. I suppose it is about time I named him here instead of just merely alluding to him all the time. He is also from Shanghai and will be flying home today for the summer break. Lucky chap, all of us are emerald green with envy.

Dan and Stef will be going back to Shanghai too, but only in early January. All three of them will only be jetting back to Sydney in late February, just before the next semester opens. In the meantime, I should still be slogging away here... *Sob*

Anyway, it turned out that today was Fred's 24th birthday. He only mentioned it to Dan and Stef late yesterday. So we held an inprompu mini-celebration for him last night. And of course, we had the obligatory doubles tennis match as part of the evening's events.

We must be getting really adept at it, for some of our rallies seem to last forever. I remember one particular rally that must have lasted beyond 50 shots. The winners of the point, i.e. Dan and me (!), were so jubilant about it that we were yelling and taunting Stef and Fred at the top of our voices.

I so gotta get myself an Xbox once this is all over. :P

Goodbye for now, Fred. Happy 24th Birthday, bon voyage and enjoy your summer (will be winter in China now) break and holidays with your "老婆".

Still 127 days to go.