Nine years of badminton

Nine years ago, on the 9th of September 2009, my department moved to where I have always been calling the ulu place.

One good thing about the office in ulu place is the availability of on site badminton courts. Free courts with practically no extra commute required. Nice.

If you were like me, with craptastic badminton skill that no one would invite you to play with them since it would be super boring for them, let me teach you a trick...

You organise a badminton group yourself! Handle all the administrative, logistical, accounting, purchasing, and debt collecting works, and invite a bunch of people. Can't be kicked out of a group you formed yourself, right? ;)

Well, that's what I did, and had the first badminton session on 15th of September 2009.

Court booking system changes throughout the years, there were those years with a system that ticks over at midnight, where there was always someone either with privilege who could book in advance, or who was running an automated script, or found some loop hole in the system, for one of the good courts was always booked as soon as the system allowed booking for a new day. Those were the 'book court at midnight three months in advance days'...

Then there were the no system for court booking days, because, well, breaking something when introducing the latest and greatest software system seems to be a norm. Yea... those horrible first come first serve days when we had to rely on sending someone early to hopefully get a court. Didn't sit well with me, I like to be organised and well-planned ahead.

Then there is this current system that ticks over at 08:00 hours and that allows for booking six months in advance. So ya, I have courts booked up to March 2019...

But alas, the on site badminton courts are going to be no more starting October. They are changing the place into office cubicles instead. Bollocks!

The company rented two courts at a nearby sports facility instead, 2.5 hours session, two days a week for all the badminton players. So it's back to the first come first serve days again (da horror!), and worse this time round since lesser court availability (was 4 courts, 24/7) with all players cramp into two days...

I am a structured and organised person, and I am antisocial. I don't want to rely on luck to see if there is court to play, and I don't want to play with strangers.

This does not bode well. =(

I will give it a try before I decide whether to continue or it's time to quit badminton. I am a pessimist, so I plan for the worst and hope for the best.

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