Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai

My boss gave me a ticket to the Tennis Masters Cup that was being held not far from the training camp last Friday and since I didn't have any plans for the day, I went and watched. Let me now say that I didn't know anything about tennis. Sure, I'd seen matches on TV and even stopped to watch for a few minutes before I switched the channel again but I never really expected myself to be out watching a real match because it was just one of those things that never crossed my mind doing. Well, the ticket was free and I'm not one to waste free things, I decided it might be fun.

I caught the tail end of one doubles match (those in black) and stayed on to watch the next (those in white). Crowd favorite Santoro and his teammate Zimonjic lost to Bjorkman and Mirnyi. I did not want to stay out too late so I decided not to watch the singles. Unfortunately, the cute Nadal was playing next. Oh well.

Tickets may be used to reenter the stadium if one got it validated. Quite expectedly, a scalper offered to buy my ticket as I was on my way out.

Scalper: Won't you be coming back?
JC: No.
S: Let me buy your ticket.
JC: How much?
S: 30yuan.
JC: 50.
S: You won't be coming back to watch anyway. Just sell it to me.
JC: Yeah but you'll be selling it to other people.
S: I'm not going to sell it. I want to bring my friend in. 30 isn't low.
JC: Ok ok.

I spent 26RMB for the taxi ride going to the stadium. Then there was a free shuttle to the bus stop and so I only spent 2RMB for the bus going home. I had an 8RMB dinner in one of the small restaurants near the bus stop. This brings me to a total of a 6RMB deficit. Sheesh, I should have insisted on 50.