Let's take a break from those Blytons for a while. Earlier today, Ronato Alcano claimed the 2006 World Pool Championship title, defeating Ralf Souquet 17-11 in the final.

Skip this paragraph is you're not a pool fan. If you watched it, well, you know what happened. If you didn't, as the final score suggests, it was Alcano all the way. Now, keep in mind that this year's tournament adopts alternate-break format, all through to the final. Souquet's breaks were simply not working for him. And not because he didn't break well. He did, but somehow the pool gods decided to make it hard for the German -- he just couldn't see the 1-ball after the break and when he did, it was not makeable. And it happened on each -- yes, kid you not, each -- of his breaks. Well, except the last one, when he was trailing 10-16 and had a golden break. I guess the pool gods felt ashamed of themselves at last.

OK, now if you're not a pool fan, just get it that Ralf Souquet was extremely unlucky.

Note that I didn't say Alcano was lucky. Nothing lucky about the way he played. He owned the table, made very few mistakes, and was calm and collected till the end.

Lemme repeat since it's important. No, Alcano was not lucky. Yes, Souquet was unlucky. Yes, Alcano totally deserved to win. No, Souquet totally did not deserve to lose that way.

And that's what life is like. Sometimes everything is just not working for us, no matter how hard we try. Sometimes, even when we do nothing wrong, we get 'punished'.

We just have to deal with it.

Throughout the final, I was feeling bad for Souquet. Any neutral would have. But no amount of sympathy would help him. He knew that he just had to deal with his misfortune. And deal with it he did. If it had been me in the championship final -- isn't subjunctive mood great -- I might have broken my cue in half in frustration. Or I might have not, for I'm Scrooge-stingy. But Ralf Souquet just sat there, his face betraying nothing, and when it was his table, he still did his best, looking at one rack at a time. No form of frustration shown. Well, until very near the end -- but that just goes to show that he's still human.

That is something I still have a lot to learn. Patience when nothing seemingly goes my way. Doing my best even when Fate looks to conspire against me. Not complaining about life being unfair and instead focusing on business on hand.

And it's a good thing I don't have to be a world pool championship finalist first to start. Because as I'm typing this, Liverpool is trailing Arsenal 0-2 0-3.

Patience, patience. You'll never walk alone...

In other news, a Singaporean broke the world record for fastest SMS sending. Who woulda thought.

Current music: none
Current mood: nervous