So far in my overseas experience, i've had little to no trouble sleeping every night...until tonight, that is. and i didn't even deviate from the usual routine! watch TV until just after 11:00pm, shower, and sleep. to my annoyance, i woke up at around 5:00am, and have had trouble going back to sleep ever since. it's not even a time zone thing, since about 5:00am NZ time is about 1:00am singapore time. i have 2 theories as to why this is happening, one of which being that i'm overdue for a blog post...though it doesn't really make sense, since i have gone without blogging for longer periods in the past. but well, the fact remains that i'm awake, and can't get back to sleep, so might as well test that theory by blogging.

over the past 2 days, we did quite a fair bit of stuff. went to get the car's oil changed at some town whose name escapes me at this moment. while waiting for the car, we went to the nearby salvation army shop. i was quite surprised that the salvation army has an actual shop, where people can go in to buy donated clothes and stuff. not sure if salvation army singapore has something similar, but i'm interested to find out when i get back. saw a few interesting (and old) things there, like a old-fashioned spinning wheel, and this book about the spice girls. seems like a good place to find vintage stuff.

i soon got bored of the shop (as did my uncle, i think), so we both went out for a walk. he stopped at this asian store, which was run by a nice filipino lady. i certainly wasn't expecting to find an asian store in a small, rural NZ town. nevertheless, there it was. all sorts of familiar (and unfamiliar) asian stuff were being sold, like oyster sauce, various asian condiments, and several filipino and thai things which i'd never seen, even in singapore. don't know how it happened, but my uncle was suddenly making a deal to sell excess chickens and vegetables to the lady boss. interesting. our last stops for the day were at the supermarket, for grocery shopping, and at a hardware store, where we got a new log splitter (i did mention i've been chopping firewood, right?). despite being shiny and new, the log splitter didn't seem to work as well as the other tool which we were using previously. wonder why. are we using it inefficiently? probably need more practice.

yesterday, we (i) planted garlic in the garden. all the squatting which i had to do only served to confirm that something is (still) wrong with my right knee. it's taking longer than expected to heal, which is kind of worrying. should really get it looked at after i come back from japan. after all the planting (about 130 pieces of garlic, each in its individual hole), we went to play golf! although my dad likes to play (and used to be a pretty avid player), i never really cared much for it. in fact, the last time i hit a ball wih a club was at a driving range about 15 years ago. so, saying that i'm out of practice is putting it very nicely already. the dipton golf course is what i would describe as a 2 X 9 hole course, meaning that the later 9 holes are variations of the first 9 holes. we only played up to hole 7, as the sky was getting dark. even though i played above par (that's below average in golf terms), it wasn't that bad, all things considered. had a few good shots, and many many more horrible ones. my club tends to make contact with the ground before hitting the ball, resulting in me digging up dirt as i swing through. that explains why my shots were so weak. and somehow, i couldn't correct the problem! then again, i don't study golf in as great detail as i do for my main sports, so i guess that's ok. after today, i'm even more sure that golf is something that i wouldn't do in my own time.

as of yesterday, i've been in NZ for a week. again, i'm thinking that i probably should have planned a shorter trip. 1.5 to 2 weeks would probably have been ideal, instead of the 2.5 weeks which i'm set for now. seems like i'm being ungrateful, doesn't it? i should state for the record that my aunt and uncle have been nothing but hospitable, setting me up with great accommodation, food, and an interesting itinerary of stuff to do. the problem's mostly (ok, entirely) with me.

i guess part of the reason i'm thinking about singapore is because of the stuff that's happened. the whole favourite SJI boy thing, for one (i'm still afraid that there may be sudden negative developments there), and there's another person i want to meet ASAP. i left singapore with us not being on good terms, but we had a facebook conversation while i was in australia, and things are more or less ok again. it's so annoying, being too far away to be able to do stuff that you want to do.

here's something that i've been thinking about for a bit. i am a firm believer that if you chose your path, you shouldn't be allowed to seriously complain about it. what do i mean by "seriously" complain? well, perhaps in this case, it would be easier to explain the antonym. "not-serious" complaining is like whining about something to relieve stress (much like what i do with physical chem), so "serious" complaining is the opposite of that. but going back to the main point, the reason i bring this up is because of my future plans. right now, i seem to be planning my life around someone (are you perceptive enough to see who that someone is?). it's to the point where if need be, i'd probably be willing to delay plan japan by a couple of years. i'll admit that it's stupid, especially since the person in question has already told me not to make them my first priority. and yet, i seem to be thinking with my heart in this scenario. not healthy. maybe thinking too much about this contributed to my insomnia as well. at any rate, if i do put my own interests in second place, i can't blame anyone but myself.

moving to more positive stuff, we're due to go back to queenstown later today! as much as i like the peace and quiet out here in dipton, there are times it gets a little too quiet for a city boy. going back to queenstown will be a (slight) improvement. i'm not sure what else my aunt and uncle have planned for the remaining week and a bit, but i hear there's at least one day we'll be going for a walk. the distance is less than 1km, according to my uncle, so that's fine. it's the elevation of about 500m that worries me. other important things over the horizon include getting my results (this coming tuesday), and depending on how that goes, reminding my dad about the car purchase. seems like the remaining time in NZ will pass at a reasonable rate.

-random thought of the day: Can I receive push SMS if I'm not in Singapore?-

Posts may appear in clusters for the duration of my NZ trip. reason is that my internet's kind of limited, so i'm writing my posts as and when, but publishing them together and backdating the earlier posts. think it helps me to recount the events more accurately than one jumbo post when i can get internet.

the most major piece of news for me since the past post is that the weather's got even colder, so much so that it snowed! it's the first time i've actually experienced snowfall, and it's quite exciting. got a few nice photos of white landscapes, which might be good for christmas cards. since it's gotten colder, i've been chopping wood for the fire. it's quite a workout, and a pretty good way of keeping warm. also got to drive a lawnmower...not to cut grass (not yet, anyway), but to transport the firewood from the chopping site to the wood pile. was an interesting experience, but i'd rather drive a car anyday.

got 2 messages over whatsapp, the first being that favourite SJI boy is staying in singapore! his parents found a guardian already, so that's a relief. thing is, his parents will probably sll the house, so he'll have to live in a hostel. my guess it'll be either the CJC or RI hostel. RI would be better, i think, especially since SJI's moving to the bishan ITE compound next year. i'm sure something will work out, and i'm insanely happy about the fact that he's staying. now that the situation has developed in this way, i feel a greater urge to look after him. we're due to discuss things in greater detail when i'm back in singapore, so i guess i have to wait until then.

the other message left me with a bit of mixed feelings. TKGS girl's parents told her cousin (my friend, who then told me) that they want me to resume tuition with her, because the MOE teacher was apparently not good enough. i'm actually kind of reluctant to accept! the fact that they replaced me once means that they thought i probably wasn't doing a good enough job. and what's to stop them from replacing me again if they find someone else they think may be better? so far, i've never faced this situation before, but my current feeling is that i probably won't resume with her. after all, my NUS scholarship gives me money (though additional income through tuition fees would be nice). also, i've not been following her academic progress for half a year, so catching up will be difficult. not impossible, but difficult. a less important reason for me to decline is that it's kind of an irrational pride thing. i'll sit on it for a while, and think carefully about it only after all my trips.

cold weather is limiting the activities we can do. my uncle was thinking about going for golf, but i don't know. it's a bit too cold for my fingers, even with gloves on. hopefully the weather gets a little warmer in the 4 or 5 days we have left in dipton.

-random thought of the day: Watching a lot of TV...-

The daily routine in dipton has kind of established itself now. granted that i've only been here for 2 days, that's not saying much. it's similar to queenstown, actually...wake up, go for a road trip, see some sights, come back around 6:00pm, have dinner, watch TV until about 11:00pm, then shower and sleep. i could get used to this kind of lifestyle, being away from stressors like school and stuff. and i think my sleeping times will be so much better when i go back to singapore. i'm basically sleeping at about 8:30pm singapore time latest, and waking up around 5:00am. so healthy, right!?

our road trip today was to te anau, some 60(?)km away. apparently, that's where the best venison pie in NZ's located. even after today, i still wouldn't know, because when we got there, the pie shop (and most of the town) was closed. quite a bummer. still, we managed to find an open diner, where we had fish and chips for lunch (second time in the 3 days i've been here, but i'm not complaining). interestingly, we were served by this japanese girl, who's been here for 6 months. think she's taking a working holiday or something. it's a nice idea, to go to a country for a holiday, and to work there concurrently for more pocket money. maybe i'll do that for my postgrad grad trip (postgrad trip for short?). since there wasn't much to do, we swung by the souvenir shop, where i got a couple of things. so happy that i didn't get those bottle opener rings online! the shop was selling them at NZD3.50, compared to USD7.50 (excluding shipping) online. and the shop's rings are black, with the characteristic NZ fern design. so much nicer.

favourite SJI boy whatsapped me earlier on with a rather problematic situation. seems like his dad's considering moving the whole family back to japan. in view of his privacy, i won't go into the reasons. but i must admit, when he said he had something important to discuss with me, i didn't think that this would be it. in fact, "importnat" doen't really cut it here. this ranks at about "catastrophic" to me. but anyway, favourite SJI boy is about as willing to move back to japan as i am willing to participate in manhunt. he's trying to persuade his dad to not move back (ideal situation) or leave him in singapore (next-best choice). in fact, he's probably doing it as i'm writing this post. quite nervous about how it'll go down.

now, i know that strictly speaking, i'm just a senior and this is none of my business. yet, i can't help but feel compelled to help in any way i can! even if it means talking to his dad, or crazy as it sounds, acting as a legal guardian, should it come to that. yes, i know i'm only 24, and my own life is barely in order, but i was still crazy enough to offer. the main reason i even offered is because i know this kid has a good head on his shoulders, and won't be much trouble. however, as i told him, there's only about a 5% chance his dad will agree, mainly because i'm a stranger, and the boy's still a minor. what adult of sound mind would entrust his kid to a stranger? whatever the case (and the fact that it would kill me aside), i think moving back to japan might do more harm than good for him. he seems to really really dislike japan (though i can't imagine why). nevertheless, we have to see how the talk went before planning the next step.

weather forecast predicted that it would be rainy for the next 2 days or so, and possibly beyond. as such, we're talking an off-day from road trips tomorrow, and staying indoors for a cooking/baking day. it sounds so homey and uncharacteristic, i can barely believe i'm a willing participant. still, i've always wanted to try baking, but couldn't because i didn't have an oven. now that the opportunity presents itself, i should probably sieze it by the throat. also, it seems that the cold is coming earlier this year, which means that there's a chance i may see snow before i leave! so exciting. as a reminder for myself, i still have to buy a few more souvenirs.

-random thought of the day: Right knee is screwed.-

Day 3 of my queenstown stay, and day 5 of my grad trip overall. my cold is a little bit better, and i'm just having to blow my nose now and then to clear it out. at this point in time, i'm still thinking that 3 weeks might be a bit too long. but well, my uncle and aunt seem to have lots of activities lined up, so i think it'll be ok. besides, i figure that as long as i have internet (though it's limited to 4gB a month), i'll survive somehow. my body clock hasn't quite acclimatized, though. i've been waking up at 11:00am local time for the past 2 days, which is about 7:00am singapore time. still early, by my standards back home.

today, we took a pretty long drive from queenstown to this rather ulu town called dipton. my uncle has a second home here, where he does some vegetable growing, animal rearing, and some creative stuff as well, like painting, carving and some other stuff. it's quite cut off from civilization; the nearest neighbour is like 1km away. personally, i think i wouldn't mind living like this for a while (like a week or so), but definitely not permanently. it's too cut off, i feel. maybe singapore should consider moving some people to new zealand. i guess the ideal population density for me is probably suburban melbourne.

queenstown and dipton are about 120(?)km away. my uncle let me drive some of the way there, over mostly straight roads. it was a good experience, because i got to drive continuously for a great distance, and at high speeds. can't get that in singapore, because of the higher traffic density and the existence of traffic lights. so far in queenstown, i've only seen 2 or 3 traffic lights in total. would be nice if i could drive like this in singapore. guess i should make full use of the opportunity to drive while i'm here, especially since we have a few more road trips planned. who knows when i'll get another opportunity like this again after this trip.

after experiencing the sights and weather down here for a few days, i can't help but think it would be nice to travel around with someone who's not family. i mean, having my relatives show me around is nice and all, not to mention expenses being almost fully covered. but i think exploring the area and finding stuff out by myself or together with friends who are equally unfamiliar with the area would be a different (maybe more enriching?) experience. guess i'll find out which one i like better after experiencing the latter in japan. i think that if i ever find someone, we might be doing a fair bit of travelling. we'll see.

i seems to have my work cut out for me here in dipton. my uncle has some work lined up, mainly planting garlic, chopping up a few trees, and raking up a few leaves. nothing i can't handle, i think. we're also planning on goig further south to invercargil, which is where my cousin was for a bit (she's moved to perth now). think i'll take a picture of her old house and tag her in it or something. i've also got to buy some souvenirs for some of my friends and CJC/SJI kids. for now, i'm off to finish watching a documentary about bees and hornets, followed by merlin.

-random thought of the day: My Kodokan order went through!-

Less than 48 hours from the previous post, and i'm in another country already. the convenience of air travel. anyway, i'm in new zealand now, and i've more or less got settled in to my new accommodations. before i go on to talk about NZ, i think it's better if i finish blogging about australia first.

day 2 was actually quite similar to day 1. had another session with the school kids, and had (very very relaxed) sparring with 2 of them. considering that some of them just picked up the sport, and most of then have done it for only about a year at the most, i was very impressed. almost makes me think that i should have shifted some time over from NZ to australia so that i could spend a bit more time with them. i have a feeling that with the proper guidance and a few more years of training, some of these kids will do really really well in judo. on a side-note, i was just entertaining the possibility of bringing a few CJC or SJI kids down to melbourne next year. it's unlikely to happen, due to the parents and stuff like that, but what if?

there was another judo session in the evening, this time for my host's club. i was quite surprised at how some people are willing to travel for more than an hour just to attend judo training. and the class size was so small! that's both good and bad, actually. good because there's more attention on you, bad because there's less variety of opponents. the training was fairly relaxed, but being severely unfit meant that it was still pretty challenging for me. another thing that surprised me was that out of a class of 8 people, there were 4 black belts, 2 brown belts, 1 orange belt and 1 yellow belt. best part was that all of them are (probably) older than me. i actually quite respect the orange and yellow belt guys for picking up the sport relatively later. takes courage to do things once you're beyond a certain age, i think. like i would probably not bother trying to learn ballet now, for example.

after going for both the kids' and adult classes, i think somehow, i prefer teaching kids (secondary school age and above, of course). for some reason, i feel like i can relate better to them, and i'm more familiar with how they think as compared to people older than me. maybe it's because i have the experience of being a kid, but not being an old man. so, yes. coaching CJC/SJI seems to be the best course of action for me, after all. really really have to talk to the coach once i get back.

for my flight from melbourne to queenstown, i flew with jetstar. had a little bit of difficulty with checking in (they had to make sure i didn't overstay or something like that), and the flight was delayed. not a very good first impression. but still, the staff were all very nice, which definitely helped. i was lucky enough to be assigned a window seat again, and this time, the 2 seats next to me were empty! so it's like i got a free perk, and got to stretch out over 3 seats. other than that, the flight itself was pretty uneventful. landed, cleared customs, and met up with my aunt and uncle, whose house i'm staying in now.

my first impression of queenstown is that it's quite scenic. from my uncle's living room, you can see a few mountains and the nearby lake. very pretty. and it's colder than melbourne! now i know i said i hated singapore's heat, but being in queenstown is making me think that excess cold isn't that good either. the most annoying thing is that i seem to have caught a cold...my nose is running, and my throat feels a little raw. i believe that the latter bit is due to dehydration. in singapore, i can drink up to 4L of water a day. whereas in melbourne, i don't even think i hit 2L over my 2 days there. so, i'm trying to make up for it now by drinking more. it seems counterintuitive that a person would dehydrate more easily in a colder place, but i've reasoned it out as follows: in a warm/hot place like singapore, the heat makes you feel thirsty more easily, and thus, you have frequent reminders to drink water. whereas in colder countries, you don't really feel the thirst, so you tend not to drink until it's too late. also, the drier air here means that more water is lost via the skin, which i don't think we really feel. at least i don't...not yet, anyway.

even though i haven't even spent a full day in queenstown yet, a part of me is already thinking of shortening my trip by a week or so. i think it's possibly because i'm feeling mildly irritable and unhappy due to the illness and cold weather, and also because my aunt and uncle seem to have a whole list of exciting activities to go through. while i appreciate their effort at planning out an itinerary, my main goal is actually to relax. something tells me i won't get much relaxation here ("something" being my uncle mentioning farm work). but well, we'll see how things go. in a very very worst-case scenario, i suppose that i can re-book a flight and go back to melbourne for a bit, before catching my original flight back to singapore on 12 june. or if it comes down to that, i can always shift that flight forward, too. but i don't think that'll happen. i'm sure they'll understand if i say that i want a few days of doing absolutely nothing. anyway, as of today, there are 19 days before i'm scheduled to fly again. now that i look at it, it DOES seem a bit long. in retrospect, extending my melbourne stay by a week would have been good. but well, what's done is done, and now i've learnt a valuable lesson in travel planning. i suppose that i should make the best of it, though. it's not often i get to travel. in fact, the next time i can take such a ridiculously long break will probably be during my postgrad grad trip. so, i should try to enjoy every minute of my trip now.

for now, i think i'll try to get acclimatized, both to the climate, and to the time difference. queenstown is another 2 hours ahead of melbourne, making it 4 hours ahead of singapore. so, while my clock says that it's evening time, the reality is that it's almost midnight. hopefully i'll feel better after a good night's sleep...assuming i can get one, with the blocked nose and all.

-random thought of the day: I think my maximum flying tolerance is about 8 hours.-

Hello from australia! i decided to bring my laptop in the end, and turns out that my host's place has wifi, so i can get in a (few) quick blog post(s). or maybe not that quick, since i'm having a tiny bit of difficulty adjusting to the local time. only hitch in the plan so far is that directly copying steam game files doesn't seem to work, since steam doesn't recognize my copied game files. bugger. well, at least i can be entertained by internet in the upcoming 3 weeks.

seeing as this is my first solo overseas trip, i took quite a few photos, which will be uploaded to facebook once all the travelling's over. for now, words will have to do. first flight was from singapore to kuala lumpur, and took 40 minutes. there was a minor issue with the weight distribution at the check-in place, so i ended carrying my laptop with me, but kept the laptop bag (along with charger and other stuff) in my check-in luggage. no big deal, thankfully. waited at the transit area for a bit more than an hour (got a quick bite as well), then boarded the flight to melbourne. i think it was while transiting that i realized how good changi airport actually is. to make a quick comparison, you know how at changi, you have this seamless transition from the waiting lounge to the plane via a really oversized tube? well, at kuala lumpur, we had to get off the plane using a flight of rather flimsy-feeling stairs, and then walk across the airfield to the immigration area. boarding the next plane also involved walking across the airfield, but with sturdier stairs this time round. still, it was a bit disappointing, especially since a similar oversized tube was available at melbourne. not to mention that i couldn't connect to the airport's free wifi. luckily, i was assigned window seats for both flights, so i had a solid surface to lean on. too bad i didn't foresee that the cabin lights would be left on for so long, and didn't want to annoy the other people to get my jacket to block out the light. now i know for the next flight(s). but other than that minor annoyance, travelling with airasia was a generally positive experience! polite staff, no immigration troubles, and a pretty enjoyable experience overall. hopefully their good performance keeps up during my return flight, and the other carriers (jetstar and scoot) offer even better service.

arriving at melbourne was a bit scary. i didn't know that the arrival hall was a no phone usage area! i was whatsapping people to let them know of my safe arrival when this security lady alerted me (in a rather snide way) to that fact. since i'm a guest in australia, i thought it better to be nice and apologetic. thankfully, no drama came out of that. i'm also grateful that all (both) my flights so far landed ahead of schedule, and clearing immigration has been a breeze so far. linked up with my host, and went outside. first thing i noticed was that my breath started fogging up in due to the cold. cheap thrill, but i got quite excited by it. and speaking of the cold, if there was only one souvenir i could bring back from melbourne to singapore, i would definitely choose the cold. seems that by some nice coincidence, today was the first sunny day in about a week or so, and the temperature was hovering at about 12 degrees. i can stand out in the sun in my usual lab attire (jeans and a polo tee), and feel pleasantly cool. but it becomes quite cold in the shade. nothing that i can't handle, though. haven't found the need to put on my jacket yet.

we stopped for breakfast at this little eatery, where i had scrambled eggs on toast, along with mushrooms (well, one huge mushroom) and smoked salmon. i liked it in general, though the eggs were a LITTLE overdone. no big deal though. stopped by my host's place to deposit my luggage, have a quick cup of tea, and pull out my gi before we were on the road again, this time to his judo club. i'd thought it was a normal after school training session like we have in singapore, but it turns out that his club is part of a larger school for "problem kids", as in they have ADHD or some similar issue, and were rejected from the mainstream education system. so, they spend 2 years in the special school run by the club's founder, where they learn to build focus and apply themselves. i was kind of surprised and impressed that their daily schedule incorporates a fair bit of physical activity, like swimming and judo. what impressed me more is that even after 2 hours of (pretty intensive, i guess) swimming, they were still full of energy for judo. i'll never understand how they do it.

the amazing thing to me, however, is that they don't seem to be that wild and unruly. possibly because the swimming tired them out to some extent, but i found them to be generally nice and attentive (though more easily distracted than the SJI kids, who are of the same age). i've noticed that quite a few of them have potential, just that they're not applying themselves. i guess they don't study judo to the same extent as singapore kids, possibly because the coach may feel that there's no need to teach them the higher-level stuff yet. i shared some stuff with the higher-level kids, mainly linking up their attacks. for 16 year-olds and below, they're quite good! the beginners, too, show some promise, there's this one boy i want to focus a bit more on, but it's a bit difficult, considering i only have one more session with them tomorrow. i see something in him as well. not to the extent of favourite SJI boy, but there's definitely something in there.

in case you didn't know, melbourne is 2 hours ahead of singapore. that means that by the time i'm finished writing this post, it'll be 11:00+pm here...which is only 9:00+pm in singapore. and since my computer and phone are both still running on singapore time, so am i...which is annoying. i didn't get much sleep on the flight (dozed off several times, total sleep time probably amounts to only 2 hours or so), and dozed off several times before dinner and during the car rides. i SHOULD be pretty tired out by now, and yet, here i am blogging. well...maybe a nice hot shower will fix that problem. i have a feeling that tonight, i'll have the best sleep that i've had in a year or more. before the shower, though, i think i'll send an email to the kodokan. they still haven't got back to me on my order yet.

-random thought of the day: Air-con temperatures without using an air-con! I like.-

This'll probably be my last post from singapore for the next 3 weeks to a month. i think i may blog from NZ, since i'll be at my relatives' place and can blog in relative comfort, and maybe during the half-day in singapore before flying to japan. not so much from australia (too short a time spent there) or japan (not bringing computer) though.

interestingly, i'm blogging from school now, in my student room (which is a first). feels a bit exposed due to the small space and close proximity of the other students, but thankfully, it's mostly empty now. the original aim(s) of my trip to school was to print my travel itineraries and pass a CD copy of my japanese notes to the bioinorganic lecturer (the thumb drive i gave him during grad night didn't work on his computer). as i was about to leave for home, i thought of coming to get my laptop. after all, 3 weeks is kind of a long time, and i would feel bad if i ended up monopolizing my relatives' computer. well technically i could use my phone while i'm there, but bringing a laptop has its advantages...steam games, for instance. actually, i might end up not bringing the laptop after all. depends on whether it'll cause me to exceed the limit for carry-on baggage. we'll see what happens at the airport.

currently, it's T-5.5 hours from my flight, and thus, T-3.5 hours from when i have to be at the airport. considering that my packing's like 99% done, i think i'll make it in pretty good time without any frantic scrambling...unless i forget anything *touch wood*. then again, what could i possibly forget? no, don't answer that. i figure if i can forget it, it's not REALLY essential for my trip...unless i'm having a blind moment. i should probably stop worrying. after all, unless it's my passport, wallet, phone, or some other essential item, there's no harm in not bringing something along, right? right.

since i don't have (the budget for) roaming or any such service, please please avoid calling or SMSing me for the next month, until 5:00pm or so on 22 june, to be more precise. i might be a bit slow to reply on facebook/whatsapp, depending on where/when i can get internet. well, i guess i'd better be going, then. still want to transfer my steam games over from my desktop (trying to avoid the ridiculously long download time). see you all in...3 or 4 days at the least!

-random thought of the day: Hoping for smooth flights and no baggage troubles.-

"All my bags are packed, i'm ready to go..."

well...not quite. i mean, i'm more than ready to escape the horrible singapore weather, but my packing isn't all that done yet. while i'm good to go for the most part, there's just some minor stuff (like toiletries and a few more clothes items) left to go, and maybe a few last-minute purchases if anything comes to mind. still trying to figure out how i can survive with limited internet and power sources, but i think i'll get by.

i caught the new star trek movie at AMK hub on thursday! it was good...nice effects, interesting storyline (though it became somewhat predictable towards the end), and bits of humour and emotional scenes thrown in. one thing that has bugged me from the first movie is how a fresh graduate from the academy can be appointed as captain so quickly. but well...i guess ranks are earned based on merit. doesn't stop me from having an intrinsic dislike for kirk, though. after the movie, my friends and i (yes, i didn't watch the movie alone this time round) went to udon king for a late lunch. decided to try the black vinegar soft-shelled crab udon. the service staff told me it was a cold dish, which i found kind of interesting. while it tasted ok, i had a few problems with the dish. barely any vinegar was used, there weren't enough noodles (i was expecting 1.5 to 2 times more than what they gave), and the noodles they used weren't even udon! more like the flat noodles used for hokkien mee. as i told my friends, it was unsatisfactory. but if the dish i ordered wasn't up to expectation, i would give the place at least one more try, but ordering something else the next time i went. however, for this place, one other factor made me decide never to go back there if i had a choice. that was the way the staff behaved. not that they were rude to me or anything, but the way they spoke to each other, and the way the senior staff treated the juniors was kind of off-putting to me. i guess some things just shouldn't be said/done in the customers' presence, particularly if you have ah beng and ah lian staff and supervisors.

being proud of something and being proud in general isn't the same thing, right? to me, the former has a more positive connotation (eg. i was proud of favourite SJI boy's win) while the latter is negative (why is that person acting so proud?). i guess the reason i'm bringing up is in response to a thought i had when examining how i reacted to something. you see, my dad tried to transfer $1000 to me to help offset some of the damage caused by my grad trip. stop me if you've heard this before, but i absolutely do not want to take money from my parents if i can help it. i guess it's because i take pride in being able to somewhat provide for myself. furthermore, this grad trip is most definitely non-essential, so i don't want them to be funding it at all. is this kind of pride necessarily a bad thing? most (practically all) of my friends don't seem to understand why i am so against getting money, to the point where i can't sleep properly until i withdraw the sum in cash and give it back. of course, i'm not stubborn to the point of refusing all help. there are things which i know i cannot manage alone, like school fees, and getting a car. i'm not adverse to asking for help to tackle those things. come to think of it, i guess it doesn't matter which account the money is in, because eventually, it'll probably be used for the car anyway. still, i feel better if it isn't in my account.

speaking of a car, i met up with my friend who came back from the US for summer break. he had watched iron man, while i had watched star trek, and we each wanted to watch what the other had already watched. ended up getting a drink and walking around J8 for a bit before we had dinner and he went to have a marathon street fighter gaming session. having nothing better to do, i hung around and watched until it was time for us to go meet another friend (yes it's a bit confusing). we went to that friend's place, where i tried injustice for the first time. it's an interesting game, i think, but i'm probably not going to get it. story mode aside, a major component of the game is versus mode. and with me not having anyone to fight, versus mode is basically useless. so...no. besides, i was never really much good with this kind of fighting games, anyway. only times i win against my serious gamer friends is by luck (close to impossible in itself) or when they give chance (much more often). but how does all this link to a car? well, the friend whose place we went to is kind of a car fanatic, so i had a brief conversation with him about second-hand cars. turns out my instinct in choosing the jazz over the fit is substantiated, as the jazz has a better engine or something like that. also, the lancer EX is newer than the lancer GLX. anyway, i think all things car-related will be put off until after grad trip. not like i can use the car even if we buy it now, right? based on current car prices, though, the jazz seems to be a bit over my budget. but then, i've only been looking online. maybe some dealers who don't use sgcarmart will have a bargain. guess we have to spend some time doing more detailed research.

currently, i'm a little worried about whether everything will fall nicely into place for the japan part of the grad trip. the current plan is to go to the kodokan on the first and second days to both watch the ongoing competition, and to pick up my souvenirs/merchandise. i put in the order for the brown belts (for some of the SJI kids) and souvenirs (for some judo friends and elders) already, but they still haven't got back to me. mildly annoying. the other thing is that i've been slow in giving them my gi sizes. this one's my fault. part of the delay is because i kind of don't really want to commit getting a gi. it's also partially why i don't like clothes shopping, because i'm clinging on to the (somewhat crazy/ridiculous) thought that may be one day when (if?) i start to exercise, these things might not fit any more. stupid, i know. i think i should just go ahead and confirm the order before my monday flight.

the referee director emailed a few of us to inform us that there are a few overseas refereeing opportunities available. i guess the email didn't go out to too-senior or too-junior referees. anyway, i'm interested to go for it, though i think the NUS academic calendar will only allow me to make it for one of the 4 events listed, which is to be held in taipei. sounds interesting, though i am a little worried/deterred because i'm told that since i haven't got my continental referee qualification, i should be prepared to pay full airfare, and that any subsidy is actually a privilege. with me needing to pay back my undergrad school fees and a potential car loan, more big spending is pretty much the last thing on my mind now. but at this point in time, i'm also not sure if i'm ready for an asia-level event. quite sure that the jury (and audience) will be less forgiving towards any refereeing mistakes. i suppose i could wait for competitions which are further into the future, or until after i get my A referee license (hopefully by this year-end). another alternative is to go for the trip, and be prepared to eat grass for a few weeks to reduce expenditure.

while talking to one of my judo friends, i found out that the IJF is changing the requirements for dan grading. from what i heard, the new system is one new kata per dan, on top of what you're expectd to know from previous gradings! that means that the full nage no kata is expected for brown belts going to black, and in my case (first to second dan), i'm expected to do both nage no kata and katame no kata, both tori and uke roles for each! that means 4 kata runs in all. though i have a slight headstart in learning the kata, it still sounds really really painful. and that's only for second dan. then again, the higher-level kata don't involve that much actual throwing (no execution), so there'll probably be more of a mental strain than a physical one. still, i'm not going to think too far ahead. right now, all i can do is try to get fit, and pray that the new requirements only kick in after next year.

seems to be just about everything for now. not sure if i'll update again before flying, but if i don't, the next update will probably come from new zealand. and it turns out SJI/CJC only resume training on wednesday, by which time i'll be enjoying single-digit temperature weather. so, i can only talk to the coach after i get back from my trips, which will bug me a bit, but lesser now since i know that it's out of my control.

-random thought of the day: Stomach feeling unsettled.-

Might as well blog a bit, since i'm waiting for my hair to dry before i can go to sleep. i'm beginning to notice that my hair's taking longer and longer to dry, especially over the past week. you know what that means? (obviously) my hair's growing out again! sadly, it's currently at that intermediate stage where it's too short to be tied up, yet long enough to cause irritation/discomfort. the thought of keeping long hair again has danced across my mind more than once, but i have my reservations now. after all, having to cut it again for kata or some other reason seems to defeat the purpose of letting it grow in the first place. besides, i wonder if my professor would mind if his (currently potential) phd student has an odd hairstyle. my guess is no, but somehow, i just feel compelled to conform a bit more now that i've passed the undergrad stage. hmm...on a somewhat-related note, my friend did say that he wanted to get his hair cut at one of the authentic $10 haircut places in japan, so that's a thought worth considering. for now, i don't think i'll cut my hair until coming back from australia/NZ at least, because i hear it's cold down there. longer hair should help in retaining heat, right?

today was grad night! for once, my timing was pretty good, as in i got there in time, and didn't forget anything. i generally enjoyed myself, and was pretty lucky, managing to win 3 prizes. the first was for having the longest breath (ie. saying "aaaah..." into the microphone for as long as possible using just one breath. i think the trick is to do it as softly as possible, so you don't waste too much air), another for guessing the location shown in a blurred photo (corridor outside year 1 teaching lab), and the last in a lucky draw. food was decent, no complaints there. the one thing i was kind of annoyed by was not being told that the hotel would provide complimentary parking, if i had known that, i wouldn't have made a gigantic loop to park in the NTUC building. and guess how much parking at the NTUC building cost? $23 or so. $2+ for regular parking, $20 (and 7% GST) for staying past 11:00pm. turns out they close the carpark, as in there is a physical shutter that blocks the entrance off. after stopping for a round of drinks at a nearby bar/eatery (i only drank ginger beer), we had to get the nice security guard to raise the shutters before even being able to drive out! so annoying...but it's my fault for not reading the fine print. luckily the friends whom i drove home chipped in to offset the extra $20. lesson learnt: (1)try to avoid parking until late in town, (2)check in advance if complimentary parking is available at the original destination.

with people (myself included) flying off to various countries in the coming few weeks, i think the next possible time for a chem kids gathering is late june, or maybe even early july. we have plans for another drinking session, though hopefully not as fierce as the previous one. i could have died (no, not literally) from all that alcohol that time! aside from that, the next major NUS event is probably commencement, which is still quite some time away. not forgetting the medical checkup for grad studies, which 4 of us have to do. anyway, my hair's dry, so i guess i'd better go get some sleep. funny thing is that i've been sleeping around 3:00am and getting up about 6 hours later. that can't be good for me, right?

-random thought of the day: Hair mousse makes my hair feel weird even after it's washed off.-

Guess when i finally read my friends' replies to my message? if you said anything other than "late sunday night", you'd be wrong. no, wait. i'll accept "early monday morning" as well. that's right...it took me about 50 hours to even click on the messages. this is despite knowing that most of them would be ok with it, mind you. anyway, i'm insanely grateful that 3 of them replied positively. not sure how the last one is taking it, though he seems normal enough. think i'll talk to him tomorrow.

managed to get a lot of stuff done today! lucky i took my aunt's advice and went down to ICA in person. turns out that the reason my application took so long was because my debit card got rejected, and the payment didn't go through. it's the first time this has happened to my card...i wonder why. first possible reason that comes to mind is that my handwriting was too messy while filling the numbers in. wonder how long i would have waited if i didn't go down? anyway, i told the nice staff about it, and they got it done in about half an hour, which impressed me since i was prepared to wait at least twice that long. having got my passport, i then went to school to pick up my grad night ticket and apply for the electronic australian visa. that went much more smoothly, and the instant approval was nice too. the only thing that could screw up is the name. singaporean names are odd to westerners, after all. but well, i entered it exactly according to the passport, so i THINK it'll be fine.

while in school, i met a new UROPS student in my lab. he's doing summer UROPS, then proceeding immediately on to honours when the new school year starts. personally, i wouldn't do it because i think it's a bit too rushed (and a waste of a perfectly good summer break), but if he wants it that way, then more power to him. he's continuing to develop on my honours project (by expanding the substrate scope, i think), so i told him to grab my notebook for reference if he needs to. also, while i was in school, one of the nice ICA staff called me about my feedback email at about 1:15pm. you see, i had sent them an email on friday, explaining my problem. that was before my aunt asked me to go down. so, basically i got things done before she called, which amounts to wasting her time. i felt quite bad about it, especially since she was so nice about everything. i wish that i could meet more service staff like her. i would be so, so much less frustrated when things don't go according to plan.

also did quite a bit of shopping for grad night (tomorrow!), and by extension, commencement. got a pair of black shoes, a couple of shirts (blue and grey), a blazer, pants, and a belt. yes, i decided to go with a blazer after all. won't reveal the cost here, but suffice to say that my bank account is looking rather malnourished. i actually was considering wearing my regular brown shoes, but i think it wouldn't fit in with the rest of the outfit. besides, i had to replace the black shoes whose soles disintegrated on progress report day anyway, so might as well do it now.

grad night is tomorrow. it's at the hotel rendezvous, which on first impression, sounds more sleazy than it is. i know that hotel for 2 reasons: (1)one of my cousins used to work there (in a finance role, i think. i realized that the statement could be misinterpreted, especially with the earlier "sleazy" remark), and (2)i went there for pretty good nasi padang a couple of years back. if memory serves, similar functions for both my secondary school and JC were held at the meritus mandarin, so i guess a change of scenery is nice. speaking of my secondary school grad night, i suddenly remembered that a friend and i stayed out all night back then. that was the first (and only) time i experienced the sunrise at orchard road. but i digress. right now, i'm considering whether or not to ask my dad for the car tomorrow night. on one hand, having another car (one of my friends is driving already) is good, since there's less of a space issue and people can go home in more comfort as opposed to public transport, not to mention that there's no cinderella time due to the trains and buses stopping service. the downside is that my friends have post-dinner drinking plans, which means that i have to stick to non-alcoholic beverages. not that i'm an alcoholic, but i think i'm overdue for a few rounds of drinks. we'll see what my dad says later. it's not that important, so i'm asking more for fun than for anything.

it's a bit interesting to think that at this time next week, i'll either be transiting in malaysia, or in the air on the way to melbourne. seems like such a long time away, but given that there are quite a few events scheduled for the remaining 6 days, i'm expecting time to pass quite fast. right now, the forecast includes grad night tomorrow, going to ion orchard to consider getting rail passes on wednesday, catching star trek on thursday, and meeting my friend (who's back from the US) on friday. suddenly, it seems that i had better get started on packing tomorrow before grad night. have to decide what to bring, and see if it'll all fit into the suitcase which i borrowed.

-random thought of the day: Looks like it'll be a warm night...-

While i don't title my posts, the perfect title for today's post would have been "the good, the bad, and the scream-worthy". since i'm breaking it down into those categories anyway, let's do them accordingly, starting with the good.

good things which happened over the last few days were meeting my friend's friends to talk about our japan trip. we talked a bit over dinner at standing sushi bar (i'm very grateful that "standing" is just in the name; the seats were pretty comfortable), where i made a meal out of 6 orders of salmon sashimi and a glass of sake. the prices were good (total cost for me was $23.40 after tax and service charge), salmon was fresh, though i felt that the sake was a little not up to standard. wasn't much smell or taste to it. or that might have been because of the small cup. anyway, it seems that our dates overlap for about 3 days, so we're probably going to go around tokyo together. so far, i think the only solid thing on our itineraries is going to mt fuji. for our own group, i think we'll be visiting akihabara, ginza, tsukiji fish market, shibuya, and i'll be making my pilgrimage to the kodokan, of course. might be a good time to collect my member card, too. from my preliminary research, i think getting a JR pass might be useful, though we'll still be paying extra since the train line near my hostel is operated by tokyo metro. have to ask the nice service staff at ion for their recommendation.

in addition, i got my money changed today at raffles money changer, which came highly recommended by my friend. the staff was nice, but since there was only one person manning the counter, the queue moved kind of slowly. spent longer than i'd thought i would, and nearly ended up late to try out the commencement gown stuff. thankfully, the co-op was open until 6, so i made pretty good time. still trying to decide whether to rent or buy. i mean, it's a one-time use thing (phd graduates have a completely different set), so it doesn't really seem like a worthwhile purchase. but then again, given that the entire set costs $52, i'll recoup the cost price if i loan it out to 3 juniors for $20 each, which is cheaper than the school's rental price of $32. sounds like a plan, right? i'll sit on this for a little longer and probably decide before i fly off.

also, i finally held up my end of the bargain and bought dinner for 3 of my friends because i got an A for japanese 3, and another friend because he helped me out with the whole frisbee thing for the japanese 4 project. we had the xiao long bao buffet at holland village's crystal jade. lucky i made reservations! even with reservations, we were made to wait for a bit before being allowed to go up. i saw a few people leave their names in hope of getting a table, but after some thought, i realize that it's actually quite a stupid move. firstly, the buffet is time-limited, so if they start late, they don't get to eat as much, which is not value-for-money. only way it would be worthwhile for the customer is if the price was pro-rated according to the time, or if they were trying to get a table for a later timeslot. and that's provided a space frees up. i don't think anyone would leave early, right? anyway, the food was good! i was a little worried after reading some very bad reviews, but based on my own experience, i think we went on a good night. or maybe they went on a bad night, (and/)or have very high expectations.

since the bill came up to just under $150, i was entitled to 2 chances at a lucky draw, first prize being a honda accord. wouldn't it be a nice turn of events if i won? results will be announced on 31 august though, so most likely my car purchase would have been done already. well, i'd probably end up selling it, mainly because i'm required to get a COE for it myself. so i figured that if it comes down to that, i'd sell the new honda and use the money to repay the car loan, and maybe have a bit extra for savings. incidentally, it seems that mitsubishi lancers are becoming cheaper...

moving on to the bad, the bad thing today was that the money changer was out of stock for australian dollars, meaning that i'll have to get it changed at another money changer, probably the one at J8. while i'll probably be paying a little more singapore dollars for the same amount of australian dollars, the difference will most likely range from the tens of cents to a few dollars. acceptable, i think. and my friends are thinking of suiting up for grad night. i've said it here before, i think...i'm not one for formal dressing. i'm now trying to decide between the levels of formal...like is a shirt and tie more or less formal than a shirt with blazer and no tie? somehow, i think i'll end up going with the latter combination, which means i have to go blazer shopping over the weekend. should probably arrange to get my australian dollars then too.

2 things fall under "scream-worthy". first, my passport STILL ISN'T READY!! so much for the one-week waiting time. i called ICA today, and they said that they would get someone to track it. i'm mildly worried, because i still have to apply for the australian visa thing, which i can't do now because i need my passport number. i think i'll call them tomorrow and see if i can arrange for them to speed things up, so that it's ready for monday collection. i've seen various posts on internet forums where the users were able to get passports on the same day due to pressing circumstances. or maybe i should go down personally? wouldn't want to waste my saturday, though. but on the other hand, i'm ridiculously free now, so might as well, right? guess we'll leave it to fate...or rather, what time i wake up tomorrow.

the second thing was that during dinner earlier tonight, my friends were asking some...difficult questions. not as in "synthesize a cure for AIDS"-difficult, but more like it was a question that i would rather not have answered then and there. but having promised them the answer a while ago (damn my big mouth), i was obliged to answer. so, we came to a compromise, which was that i would whatsapp them about it. i sent the message shortly before starting this post, and i haven't looked at my phone since. honestly, i'm nervous, bordering on scared, to find out what they think. not looking seems to be my way of making the problem smaller. don't know when it started, but when nervous, i revert to an "out of sight, out of mind" mentality. seems like a bad habit, doesn't it? or maybe it's that my brain needs time to consider possible outcomes, and brace for the worst one. so far, that rarely happens, which is a relief. i think i'll look at it either before sleeping, or tomorrow morning. see if my courage fails me now.

-random thought of the day: Sleep cycle getting messed up again.-

13 hours ago, i sat for the last exam in my undergraduate life. actually, for a day i've been looking forward to since year 2 or so, it didn't feel as liberating as i'd imagined. possibly because i have another 4 years of postgrad education, and also maybe because my "ORD mood" had already started after bioinorganic. anyway, odd as it seems, the japanese paper was strangely enjoyable. workload and timing were just right, questions were manageable, though the listening was still a killer. couldn't catch the first dictation...i only heard the japanese equivalents of "input the keyword(s)" and "quickly". but still, i don't think i'll do TOO badly, considering the final's only worth 30%.

to sum up the exam season, let's consolidate my predictions. while i'll try to be realistic, certain predictions may be kind of pessimistic. bioinorganic, B+. asymmetric, B+. japanese, A-. FYP, B+. assuming i'm accurate, my CAP will remain at 4.09, exactly the same as last semester, and 0.01 less than my best CAP, which was achieved in year 1 sem 1. on the other hand, the worst-case scenario (CAP 4.00) requires the equivalent of all Bs, with just one B+. all of a sudden, second-upper seems more within reach that i'd thought. my current estimation is that my second-upper is 85% secure. keeping my fingers crossed.

anyway, now that exams are over, i can start worrying about the other things in life. sounds depressing, but it's kind of true isn't it? we move from one worry to another. the foremost thing on my mind is finding a judo club. i think this needs a bit of explaining. my current plan is to take second dan grading next year. in order to take grading, i have to be recommended by a club. currently, i've narrowed it down to 3 clubs that i would even consider joining. well, 2 if you're being technical; you'll see why soon. the first choice, and the choice best for me, is going back to CJC, but as an assistant coach. apparently, coaches can grade under the clubs that they teach! SJC and the dojo (the raffles' coach's club) are tied for second place. i won't go into details about why those 2 clubs are second place, suffice to say that distance, price, and/or politics (or a combination of the above) are extremely strong factors preventing me from joining. whereas for CJC, it all works out very nicely, because (1)it's free, (2)out of the 3, it's closest to NUS, (3)i plan on going back anyway. only problem is, i SMSed the coach, hoping to discuss the possibility with him. he didn't even agree to a meeting! so annoying. i actually don't see why he would disagree, unless he thought i was expecting to be paid. think i should have been clearer in my SMS. anyway, i figure the best thing for me to do now is to approach him personally at CJC/SJI training, elaborate on what i said, and ask him once again. i really see no reason for him to decline! i mean, there's no extra cost, and there's another person to look after the kids! the only thing that could stop me fighting for this is if there's some school policy i don't know about. but even then, i'm NCAP-certified for both theory and practical (not to mention an old boy), so getting past the school system should be easy, right? i don't know, actually. who knows what funny policies they may have?

there is one last resort, though, which i am extremely reluctant to use. that would be similar to the above, but with BPS instead of CJC. you see, i know the BPS coach, and based on his character, i don't think he'd say no. but still, it's a very "burning bridges" kind of move, which i will only consider if things turn sour with the CJC coach, unlikely as it may be. even then, i believe in respecting your roots, so if BPS and SJI ever met in the nationals, i wouldn't be actively coaching at the sidelines. still, this is an extremely extremely hypothetical situation, and is about as likely to happen as me getting valedictorian, firstly because i believe the CJC coach is not unreasonable, and more importantly, because of the commitment i made to favourite SJI boy.

next thing on my mind is grad trip. this one's more of an exciting thing than a worry. i just met my friends earlier to settle accommodation in japan. turns out that our travel dates coincide with another group of 4 SMU students, 2 of whom are cat high old boys from my year! best part is, i know both of them. nice coincidence. anyway, we've all agreed to stay in a hostel-type facility, which costs about $30 per night. reasonable, i think. and i was mistaken. turns out that we're only visiting tokyo and osaka, leaving out kyoto. not enough time, i think. also, my travel plans have been modified. i'm going to australia/NZ first, coming back to singapore for half a day, then flying to japan for 10 days. this means that the earliest i can talk to the CJC coach is 2 mondays later, just before i fly. think i should get it settled before i leave. would give me more peace of mind on my trip.

budget-wise, i've overspent even before setting foot in another country. but hey, i figured that it's grad trip, and i should spoil myself once in a while. not to the extent of 5-star hotels or anything like that...just worrying less about finances. after all, i'll earn it back in due course. in addition, i'm thinking of getting myself a new gi, along with a blank black belt for kata. that alone will set me back by about $300 or so, depending on the quality of the gi i get. on top of that, i'm also planning to buy brown belts for the SJI kids, with their names embroidered on. for me, i only started adding my name to my black belt. but then, i kind of figure that it's ok to start with brown. anything lower than that is just being extra. besides, it makes for a good souvenir, doesn't it?

one thing that kind of annoyed me is that the whole world (my family) seems to know about my travel plans. while i am not surprised, it is quite tiresome to be asked the same thing 3 times. you see, i'm staying with my aunt and uncle in NZ, and i am very sure that my aunt forwarded all our correspondence around. if this is going to be the case for all my trips, i think this will be the last time i involve any relatives in my trip planning. worse is, everyone's asking me things which i have settled long ago, or have plans to settle in good time (case in point: my dad called me just to ask about my visa application). seriously, do you think i'd risk anything going wrong after spending all that money on air tickets alone!? things like visa and passport application, which are the basics of travel planning. even though i rarely travel out of the country, i know enough to be aware of the usual stuff, and how to do my research! goodness. the other thing that bugs me more is that i have a sneaky feeling that my parents are trying to pay for this trip. to me, that defeats the whole purpose, because it's supposed to be planned and executed independently. besides, it makes no difference whether they transfer the money to me or not, because either way, it'll end up being used to repay my undergrad school fees, or go towards the payment for the car. so might as well save the trouble, right?

while those are the major things on my mind, i have a few other tasks which can be completed at a later date. the 2 most significant ones are coming up with a one-year judo training plan, and writing an NUS guide for year 1 students. this is all self-given work, by the way, so i think i should be able to do it well since i have the interest. for now, i guess i should head to bed, and start thinking about putting my notes away before i fly.

-random thought of the day: Passport application processing!-

Asymmetric was quite...painful for me. the first 2 questions ranged from easy to doable, but the last one caught me off-guard. it involved asymmetric synthesis of 2 compounds. i THINK i got the first one (after about 20 minutes of staring), but the second one totally escaped me. i tried to follow the pattern from the first synthesis, and used an aldol reaction...which failed. turns out it was just a simple asymmetric reduction, double nucleophilic substitution, and deprotection. i knew only one ketone was protected for a reason, but i just didn't see exactly why. while i'm hoping for some sympathy marks, those 15 marks are as good as gone to me. at least i managed to correctly guess that PDC was an oxidant...though i don't know if i oxidized the correct thing or not. taking everything into account, i'm hoping for a B+ to A- final grade. SHOULD be acheivable.

japanese is in less than 48 hours. have to spend the time revising vocabulary, kanji, and grammar. should be ok, i think. main problem is shifting gears to study mode. have to try, i guess.

i just did a bit more nosing around with the flights, and it seems that maybe going to australia/NZ first, then japan is a better (and cheaper) idea. problem is i don't know if my passport and other stuff will come through in time. have to call the ICA to find out, i guess. good thing the australian visa is instantaneous approval, so not much worries there. just need my passport, and everything should fall nicely into place.

-random thought of the day: STUDY!!!-

Today was quite a productive day! not only did i manage to apply for my passport and book the first set of flights, i also saw my professor for asymmetric consultation. the passport application was much more painless than i remember. the entire process took me less than an hour, from getting my photo taken, filling out the form, and even backtracking to lavender MRT because i forgot to withdraw money. the nice lady at the customer service counter told me that it takes a week to process the application, which means i should hear from them around next friday. still plenty of time.

flight booking with scoot went smoothly for the most part. at first, i booked a 5 june flight as it was the cheapest flight that was before my friends' arrival on the 14th. upon some thought, i realized that the additional 9 days spent there would probably cost me more than if i were to top up the airfare for a later arrival date. so, i went to change my booking, and saw that the same price was being offered for the flight on 13 june. how did i miss that earlier!? i don't think it was a blind moment, because i'm very sure i checked and double-checked before deciding on the departure date. well anyway, i changed it to the later date, with not much hassle. only thing was that the travel insurance which i'd bought previously wasn't transferable, which means i have to fork out an extra $12. not that big a deal, i guess...though unnecessary expenditure annoys me somewhat. i actually had half a mind to risk it and go without insurance, but who knows if things will go wrong, especially on budget carriers. getting insurance seemed to be the right decision, especially after reading some reviews on the internet. actually, there are both very good and very bad reviews. most of these reviews are for flights between singapore and australia, which may not be reflective of the singapore to japan flights. nevertheless, my friend who went to japan earlier this year seemed satisfied with his experience, so i'll remain positive and hopeful. the return flight on 22 june was booked with jetstar, since scoot doesn't fly to osaka, which is where we'll end up. this time round, it's a direct flight, so no transit in taipei like the scoot flight. less chance of baggage getting lost i guess. overall damage from the flights to and from japan alone is over $500. i'm actually quite afraid to look at my bank balance, since it'll only get worse after my second round of bookings.

after a couple days' rest back home, the next leg of my trip is from singapore to melbourne, then from melbourne to queenstown. based on jetstar prices, the trip there alone is already over $700. i'm looking for cheaper alternatives for the way back, and it seems that transiting in auckland might be a better option. think i'll wait for advice from the uncle whom i'm visiting, since he used to be with SIA. if things go well, i'll be back in singapore a couple of days before commencement, which gives me time to recover from the trips. in case you don't know, this is actually my first time travelling out of singapore without family members coming along. quite exciting. i just hope that it'll be a positive experience, since i'm planning to take holidays during my postgrad time as well...though probably for shorter durations.

delaying my departure date was probably the right thing to do. after all, i still have to settle the NUS medical checkup, and getting it done before i fly seems like a safer choice, time-wise. i think i should probably settle all my commencement/graduation stuff before i go, because it'll be too late otherwise. oh. according to my friends, results day is 4 june. that means my mood during the trip will largely be affected by the results SMS. but let's not worry just yet. right now, things look pretty stable.

consultation with my professor was enlightening, as meetings with him tend to be. got my main issue about calculating de's and ee's sorted out, which was a relief. he seems to think that i'm worrying a bit too much for the paper. but how can i not worry!? there are his little tricks to watch out for, and the stories don't help. apparently, one of last year's honours students (from my lab!) messed up the final and got an overall C for the module. while i don't think i'll be that bad, it's still worrying. i mean, you don't expect to score anything lower than a B+ for your own supervisor's module, right? but back to the main story. i think my professor's quite good at reading people. he could sense that i was worried, and said the right things to reassure me. while i'm sure he has my best interests at heart, i can't help but wonder if he's telling the truth. as a coach, i know that sometimes, not giving your athlete the complete picture is the wiser option. or maybe i'm paranoid. i also asked him how i did for my presentation, and he said, "not bad". that's not saying much, but he did tell me that i performed relatively well in getting my message across and during the Q&A. i actually thought my Q&A was substandard! but well, i'm not going to argue. he's the professor, after all.

tomorrow, i'm going down to CJC. been feeling some restless energy building up. maybe i can meet one of the kids for a kata session. that'll probably be followed by studying in school (NUS). hope i can spend a good, productive afternoon/evening remembering the japanese grammar ad vocabulary. not forgetting asymmetric, of course, since the paper is on monday.

-random thought of the day: There goes the budget.-

Updating frequency has increased over the past 2 weeks. must be because i'm suddenly freer than i've been for...well, almost the whole past academic year.

despite going to school to study on labour day, i don't think i did much. just went through the asymmetric notes and marked out questions which i have to ask my professor. aside from that, i also went through the vocabulary for japanese. problem is, i don't think much of it stuck. well, at least there is still quite a bit of time to let everything sink in.

i had wanted to see my professor for consultation today, but he wasn't available. bad timing, i guess. should have made an appointment before going down. luckily, i managed to schedule an appointment with him tomorrow...though it's set for after 6:00pm. a little late, but it's not like i have much else to do with my time, anyway. today, we also kept up a chem kids tradition and had pizza night! actually, i can't remember when we started this practice, so maybe calling it a "tradition" might not be accurate. but if memory serves, this is at least the third semester we've done something like this. and you know the rule, right? 3 consistent, periodic repetitions means it's a tradition. i just don't know if we'll maintain this tradition into postgrad studies, though that's perhaps looking a little too far forward.

grad trip wise, my emails have been replied! accommodation for the australia/NZ side is more or less settled, actually. i was pleasantly surprised (and extremely grateful) when the coach of the judo club i intend to visit offered to put me up at his place. saves me money and time that would have been spent on finding somewhere cheap/convenient. i think the main reason he offered was because i'd only be staying for a couple of days, and so i don't think it's enough time for me to wear out my welcome. of course, the fact that he's singaporean too probably plays some role in the matter. he was also enthusiastic about the idea of me dropping by his club for a visit. hopefully he won't ask me to teach anything. or if he does want me to teach something, i hope he gives me sufficient preparation time. for the NZ side, i'm staying with my aunt and uncle, so that's another money-saver. not being sure of what there was to do down in NZ, i had initially planned for an about-5 day stay. but it seems that my uncle may have other plans, since he asked me, "why so short?" well, depending on how things go, i may choose to stay longer, limiting factor being making it back for commencement on 14 july, of course.

for the japan side, things are barely solid. the only thing confirmed now is the duration of my friends' stay. we're going to meet after my japanese final to settle the accommodation and itinerary. my guess is we'll be based in tokyo, and will take short trips to other locations. one of my friends, who's been to japan before, gave me a pretty good recommendation for a hotel. it's definitely worth looking into after finals are over.

there are actually a lot of things not settled yet for my trip. i know that i'm really dragging on this, but i haven't booked any of my tickets yet! and it seems that the prices go up as the flying date draws closer. so, every day i delay the bookings means that there's a possibility i end up paying more. but there's another problem, in that i haven't got my passport done yet. bugger is that i can't find my old passport, which means that i have to pay a $50 fee. have to look around a little harder. it should be in like 2 or 3 likely places, and the fact it can't be found annoys me to no end. while the original plan was to go down to the ICA to get the new passport done after exams. but upon some thought, maybe going down tomorrow would be better. i'm seeing my professor after 6:00pm, after all, so i have basically the whole day to burn. think i'll bring my japanese books and asymmetric notes to get some studying done there. i seem to remember going to extend my passport in J2, and the waiting time was long enough for me to finish like 2 or 3 chapters of the physics TYS. i just hope it can be settled in one visit, and maybe one more to collect the passport. i wonder if they have passport mailing service?

passport aside, i still have to worry about buying various omiyage for the sensei whom i intend to visit. the guideline from japanese class is buy something unique to your country. first thing that comes to mind: merlion merchandise. but it seems so...boring. perhaps it's because i'm viewing it from a singaporean perspective. maybe japanese would like it. after all, it seems to be the first thing they associate with singapore. or i know! maybe some tiger classic. i think they would enjoy it. at least they seemed to like it, having tiger beer with almost every meal. problem is, i believe tiger classic is mostly for export, and is rarely available locally, if at all. looks like some research is in order. on the flipside, i also wonder what to buy back. depending on my flight schedule, i may have a stopover in singapore, so i may be able to unload the stuff i bought in japan. the next question is actually more important, and that's WHO to buy souvenirs for. definitely for the judo elders whom i know well, some of the chem kids, maybe favourite SJI boy, and a few CJC juniors. the number in my head comes up to about...20. multiply by 150% in case i forget anyone, and that's like 30 things. not forgetting that people have different likes and dislikes. that's partially why i dislike present-shopping for people i don't really know that well. but i figure that i can't go too wrong with judo-related stuff and food/snacks.

currently, the most major worry is budget. just the flights alone will set me back by around $1500. the breakdown is roughly singapore to tokyo and back, $450. singapore to melbourne, $300. melbourne to queenstown, $250. multiply by 2 for a return trip since there's no direct flight from queenstown to singapore. my friend said he brought about SGD1000 worth of yen to japan for a 14-day trip, which means i should be able to survive on that for a similar duration. actually, i should be able to survive on less, due to the more favourable exchange rates now. now i truly see how lucky i am to be presented with all sorts of hospitality for the latter half of my trip. which reminds me. i have to get omiyage for my hosts, too...not to mention wanting to buy a new gi, and a blank black belt for kata. to think i was hoping to keep everything under SGD2000! that's definitely not happening. luckily, i can accommodate going over budget...though i'm trying to save as much as possible. actually, if i were to blow my bank account on this trip, i'm sure i could either live relatively extravagantly for the 14 days, or stretch my trip out to 2 months. thankfully, common sense prevails, and it's reminding me that i want to pay at least a little bit for the down-payment of the car, as well as my plan to start repaying my undergrad school fees as soon as possible. well, i can do my planning after the exams, i think. just hope the fares don't rise too much.

-random thought of the day: Remember to settle as much postgrad stuff as possible before leaving!-