#18 Football

As far as I can remember, football has been my favourite sport. And I don't mean the armchair variety. One of the greatest influences on my participation in the sport was our team in Agape where we played at Amara. Despite a swamp for a field, limited ability, half-time sushi, jerseys for goalposts and walkout protests, those were the best years. It was probably the singular reason why I wanted to be rid of my eczema. And when I could play, what joy it brought me. A few memories stand out:

• Playing a proper game at Hwa Chong with Faith United; hit the bar with a halfway-line lob
• Getting thrashed 8-1 at Teen Challenge; Edwin got 'megged
• Wading through the swamp with Matthew
• Changing at the Amara toilets
• Walking off with Ben to protest an illegal substitution
• Pulling off a Zidane pirouette
• Pulling off a rainbow on Edgar
• A left-foot trap-and-volley against Amos
• Injuring Kenneth with an ankle-crunching tackle
• Ill-fated attempts by Theophane to teach us long-range passing
• Never being able to get pass Matthew
• Actually winning a game at Temasek Poly
• Nicholas bringing us a Nike EPL football sponsored by the Saudi Arabia Football Association
• Jianliang's kungfu stances
• Darrell's ill-advised dribbles
• Ben's nauseating stepovers (especially if he was on your team)
• Quickfire one-twos with Duncan

Those were the days, and they can't come back soon enough.