My badminton rackets

I previously posted about my tennis rackets - a Wilson Pro Staff and a Wilson Sledge Hammer. This time I thought I will write about my badminton rackets. I've been into racket sports since the late 1980s. I learned to play badminton, the street variety that had no nets before I learned to play tennis. I learned to play tennis before I pingpong despite a close buddy who played good pingpong when we were in high school. Tennis I learned from my father and his friends and as one of my PE's at university. But badminton was easy to learn as a recreational sport you played in the streets of our village in the 1980s. One of my cousins taught me to hit the shuttlecock then but it was later in the early 2000's when I started playing more seriously but more for health and wellness than to compete. Here are my badminton rackets that I still use from time to time though not as frequent as before.

My two remaining rackets - a Yonex Muscle Power 80 and a Wilson Hyper Carbon 4.0

Yonex Muscle Power 80

Wilson Hyper Carbon 4.0

I used to have a third racket, a Prince, but that has been lost many years ago. It already had a damaged frame owing to a collision of rackets in one doubles match we were playing. It finally broke and I disposed of the racket.

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Pingpong and paddles

We used to play a lot of table tennis many years back. I have two table tennis rackets or paddles - one I used when playing and another on reserve that I got as an alternate but never got to play with. The one I used when playing, which is at my office, is a Friendship paddle. The reserve is from DHS or Double Happiness. I was introduced to these brands even before I got the pingpong bug during my grad school days. That was in high school when a close friend of mine was a table tennis varsity player for our school and showed me his preferred rubbers for his customized paddles.

 

Mint Double Happiness paddle inside the box and still sealed. I bought this from Chris Sports many years ago. Check out the price tag!

 

Back of the box describing the paddle specs. I think this is somewhere in the middle in as far as specs go.

Still sealed and good as new!

At the office, we have several paddles from Butterfly. These are the same ones donated by our Japanese friends who were posted at our office as JICA Experts a couple of decades ago. I'm not sure all survived but we played a lot before so the ROI for these were achieved. How did we learn to love pingpong back in the day? Well, it helped that one visiting professor from Tokyo was a Top Five player in Japan during his younger days. He was the one who donated the pingpong equipment and even organized and played a table tennis tournament at UP where he himself played. I remember he used the pen hold that was uncommon to us for being unable to provide a backhand. He made it look easy. 

 

I still play pingpong from time to time but not as often as I would like. Perhaps we should get a table at my other office and make it available to faculty, staff and students as part of our wellness activities?

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Home-made tuna melt sandwich

Our daughter has taken to having sandwiches for breakfast or lunch. It's a good way for her to have a full meal (with juice or milk) before going to school or while at school. It's not messy and doesn't need utensils for eating. S

While it would be nice to have some multigrain bread, I often use the milk bread from Fuwa fuwa. I also use pandesal for these sandwiches. I also usually use cheddar slides you can easily get from the supermarket. You can use two slices for each piece of bread or perhaps use other cheese for a more tasteful sandwich.

Open a can of tuna. I use flakes in oil or flakes in olive oil but you can also use the ones in brine or water. Just make sure they are in flakes form. I use salted butter but you can also use unsalted butter. I have never used margarine.

Spread the butter on one slice. You can be generous with the butter so it will have an impact on the taste of the sandwich. It blends well with the tuna and cheese.

Put the tuna flakes on top of the cheese. You can be generous with the tuna if you have enough. I am usually generous with the tuna for daughter's or my sandwiches. Another option is to cook the tuna a little before putting it on the bread. 

I use an oven toaster though you can use a sandwich maker if you have one. I usually pre-heat the oven toaster so its already hot inside when I place the slices.

Set the oven toaster to medium so the toasting will be more gradual. That's so you don't burn the bread. My daughter likes it that way but if it were just me I permit some more brown especially on white bread.

Toast until the bread is a little crispy. Don't let them be burned. By the time, the tuna would be cooked enough. The butter and cheese would have melted before this.

Just flip them over and slice into two before serving. Our daughter likes it sliced into two triangles.

This is a favorite whether for breakfast, lunch or merienda. Its easy to make and you can have some variety with the cheese, tuna and breads. I haven't tried multiple cheeses but these are common in other tuna melt sandwiches restaurants or delis offer. You can get good bread from French Baker, Lartizan or off the shelf in major supermarkets. Canned tuna is available in most supermarkets and groceries. I can't imagine the effort to make tuna flakes from raw tuna from the wet market. If I had to buy my tuna melt sandwich, I prefer the one by Wild Flour. To-go, that would probably be by Starbucks. But that assumes I didn't have time to make one for myself.

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