I'm sure all of you are well aware of the fact that I am badly injured at the moment but as they say in the big leagues, "the show must go on" and by "the show" I am referring to our weekly bowling outings/league/tournament here in Da Nang, Vietnam.
It is called DUMBO and it stands for "DaNang Underground Mental Bowling Organization" or something. I don't remember exactly.
There was a time in the past where I couldn't make it to the bowling because I was out of the country and another time where I did something to my back and was hospitalized but STILL made it to bowling. I didn't bowl, but I was there to show the troops what real dedication looks like.
Not everyone in the group was aware of the fact that I had been involved in a bicycle crash that broke 3 ribs and broke my left shoulder in 3 places but since my right (bowling) arm was undamaged, I had thought this Tuesday that I may give it a go as far as bowling is concerned. As a test run I went for a walk on the beach for just a little ways to try to see how my body reacts to exercise of the lightest order. Well, let's just say that it didn't go well and I was really sweaty and in a lot of pain by the time I got home so I didn't even try to bowl come this Thursday.
I am very stubborn when it comes to injury and you could say that I am unwilling to accept the fact that my body, just like everyone else's needs time to recover. I guess you could say that I am just not very good at sitting down and doing nothing.
This week at the lanes was an important one though and even though I had to bow out of the championship match that I was originally slated to be a part of, I was not going to miss this auspicious day.
you see, while there are a lot of people that pop in and out of Da Nang, not a great many people actually live here full time. So we often have people that will come and play with us for the 90 days that most nationalities are allotted for their visas, then they take off somewhere else. Just by luck we had 3 of our more dedicated - and subsequently more skilled - players that will be departing for Australia and they don't really know when or even if they will return.
My money is on them returning because I've been to Aus, and life is a lot more laid back here in Vietnam.
As you can tell by a majority of these photos we are an older group and much of this has to do with the fact that there simply aren't a great many desirable jobs to be had in Vietnam. This is a rather poor country and the jobs that a foreigner would be happy with the salary are few and far between. Therefore a great many of our bowlers are retired and that is just fine with me because I think bowling is generally seen as a retirement-age sport anyway.
From my photos someone looking at them might presume there aren't very many of us here but the reality is that I have established rather strict adherence to the "courtesy rule" and if you don't know what that is lemme tell ya.
if someone is in the standing position, next to the ball return machine preparing to roll, you wait until they are done before you go up there. This applies only to the lanes directly to your right or left, not the entire bowling alley.
Simple enough? Well that is the reason why you don't see a whole mess of people crowding the front of the lanes because I would first politely warn them and remind them of the rule and then things would become a bit more stern. While I am not going to assault anyone (especially not in my broken state at the moment) I can get really huffy about lack of courtesy just in a general sense, not just related to bowling.
Things went well and everyone had a good time. We also had a changing of the guard as far as the overall champion of our DUMBO league is concerned, but I do not know how the new champion feels about having their photo put online so I will not do that.
One of our departing Australians also had a legendary last two weeks, bowling out of 4 games over two weeks a 170, 190, and a staggering 201. There are only 6 DUMBO-ites that have made it into the "200 Club" and he was delighted to make it there.
It's a real shame when a few of our regulars have to leave here but Vietnam, while being a great place to stay, isn't terribly accommodating to anyone that wants to live here. There are no retirement visas or long-term visas of any sort. Eventually people will get tired of doing visa runs.
Anyway, they will be missed and I am sure that I speak for everyone when I say we look forward to their return, whenever that may be.
I have been trying to not drink very much ever since the accident a week ago, so I didn't get trashed during this week's festivities and kind of unceremoniously took off just a couple hours after the after-party began. I was tired, but it was too early to go to sleep so I went and took my best hairy friend to a new coffee shop near out house.
Nadi is always delighted to get out of the house for any reason at all and I discovered that she quite likes the froth on a cappuccino. She also likes the attention that the staff members at Chong Coffee give to her when she comes here. I am certain we will become regulars at this place.
I am hopeful that I will be able to bowl next Thursday, but I am taking the advice of the doctor very seriously after he confirmed that if you do not follow the healing advice and timetable, you could end up with limited movement in the affected arm for the rest of your life. I'm not gonna eff with that.