There's been significant progress for getting a car. after a few calls to various sellers, the choice has been narrowed down to 2 lancers (one dark grey, one black), a jazz, and a nissan latio. my personal order of preference is (from most to least preferred): jazz, grey lancer, black lancer, latio. from what i've seen about the latios advertised online, i really don't feel inclined to get one...plus the asking price is a little high. it's only there because my dad wants to consider it. for the grey and black lancers, the grey one looks a bit nicer, and is going for $1000 less than the black one, most likely because it was registered a month earlier. problem is that they didn't state the mileage, which i'm expecting to be quite high. the jazz is priced even higher (practically at the upper limit of my budget), but it's still my first choice. i guess it's a brand thing. somehow, i like honda best. minor problem is that the jazz is red, so that means forking out another thousand-odd for a repaint. i don't know if it's true that red cars get into more accidents...then again, i guess that accident frequency also depends a lot on the individual driver's skill. more importantly, on a personal level, i don't really like red. and it's not good to drive something which you don't feel 100% good in, right? my first colour choice for the jazz would be blue. their stock blue looks good enough, though if given the option, i might go for electric blue as well. first things first though, have to see which car i ultimately end up with. if i get a lancer in the end, i probably won't bother with changing the colour. the latio is white, so i don't really know. the first half of the week is looking a little busy, so i think we'll only start viewing and test-driving from thursday onwards. if all goes well, the car could be in my possession as early as 2 weeks from now! so excited, just thinking about it.

my dad also mentioned that he's been allocated a flat in sengkang, which means that we'll have to move there eventually. the projected date is 2016, so it's still quite some time away. while i will miss bishan quite a lot, i'm not that against the idea of moving any more...mainly because of the construction project in front of my block that's still scheduled to go ahead despite the residents' protests. other things i've heard about the place include it having 3.5 rooms (3 bedrooms and a smaller study room), so that means each of us can have our own room. sounds good, doesn't it? my main request is that there's an attached bathroom. minor request would be having air-con, but it's not necessary. if i've been surviving without air-con for most nights of my life so far, i'm sure i can continue to make do without it. also, my dad's aiming for something high up. right now, the highest unit available is on the 13th floor. i'm not too keen on that, not because i'm superstitious about this kind of thing or afraid of heights. rather, general relativity says time passes faster the higher up you are, and i don't want to age faster, or have my rest/sleep time reduced! not sure how much the height difference will affect the passage of time, though. hoping it's not too bad. on the more practical side, moving there means that travelling to and from school will take longer. but i'll have a car by then, so it shouldn't be that bad. perhaps i'll end up spending more money on petrol. worried about how it's going to be like to take public transport when the car's unavailable due to servicing or whatnot, but i think it's a bit (ok, way) too early to think about that.

i'm having to make a rather tough decision. the world kata championships is due to be held this october, in kyoto. as you can probably guess, my decision is whether to go for it or not. what makes it kind of worse is that my partner left the decision entirely up to me! while i would love to go for the experience (and since it's held in japan), there are 2 major stumbling blocks. first is schoolwork and research. i'm not sure if my research will be progressing smoothly enough for me to comfortably take leave during that period. also, there's this issue about training. more specifically, the lack of it. considering that this is the WORLD championships, the level of competition is expected to be much higher than the previous asian championships in march. i'm not sure that we'll be able to not come in last place, even with daily training. actually, i think that just making the finals would be a good enough achievement. first and foremost, though, i'm still trying to decide whether to sign up. if you ask me right now, my answer is "no". because as much as i want to go back to japan (i can even go see kinkaku-ji if there's enough time), it's not worth it going for a competition that i don't feel good about. on the other hand, though, who knows when another chance like this will come by again? i mean, the competition should be held once every few years, but when will it be japan's turn to host it again? going by the olympics hosting record for japan (1964, and a possible 2020 bid), i'm not too optimistic. to be fair though, japan has hosted the winter olympics more often (though the time between 1972 and 1998 is still kind of long). well, the local deadline's 3 days away, so i'll sit on it a little bit more.

tomorrow, i have 3 major objectives. deliver the kodokan dan cards and certificates, meet a junior in NUS, and collect my commencement stuff and dean's list certificate. turns out there's no grand presentation ceremony or anything like that, but i'll live. i realize that i still haven't bought my shoes yet (bought slippers this past saturday). have to fit that in sometime. maybe after the medical checkup on tuesday. more importantly, i have to talk to the CJC coach on wednesday. hope the instructor appointment comes through. otherwise, i may have to approach SJC.

-random thought of the day: When should I start serious lab work?-

Forgive me for anything offensive i might say today. i am severely upset.

this post has to be AT LEAST the third time i'm bringing this issue up. no matter how good their intentions may be, i absolutely HATE people moving my stuff about. it's quite odd, actually. even when i'm angry about most other things, i don't usually get physically violent impulses...or at least not to this extent. when things of this nature happen, i find myself extremely tempted to throw large objects around, or otherwise cause some significant destruction. i'm ok with most other things that people may consider to be problems...the TV can be blasting, the fridge can be empty, the water pressure can be low...but this? absolutely not.

anyway, i'm writing about this because it turns out that people took my grad trip(s) as an opportunity to do some "packing" for me. WHY IS IT SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND THAT I DO NOT APPRECIATE IT!?? come to think of it, i'm quite surprised that i didn't see this coming. damn my trusting nature. i probably should have trusted my instinct more, because i suspected something was amiss when my bedsheet looked different after coming back from NZ...but i dismissed it as poor memory or another blind moment.

but even then, i would not have minded (as much) if they had stopped at changing the bedsheets. what i'm most angry about is that they went to bank in some money that i'd purposely left in cash. i don't care how helpful they think they're being. to me, it's meddling. do they think that i don't know how to deposit my money, or manage my finances?? i'd like to point out here that i've not asked for spending money since army. while it may not sound impressive, there's no way i could have done it if i was as clueless as they thought.

whenever idiotic things like this happen, i get this extremely strong urge to just move out and be done with it. maybe i should be looking for a room instead of a car. the rental and public transport fare combined would probably be cheaper than the cost of buying and maintaining a car. plus, no need to put up with this any more, so that'll do my heart a world of good. too bad the application for NUS grad student accommodation is closed already. still, i saw a few cheap rooms reasonably close to the NUS area.

then again, moving into a rented room has its own associated problems, like finding movers (or nice friends), arranging everything, possibly meeting a nightmare roommate, and goodness knows what else i don't foresee as i've never moved house before. i guess the best thing for me to do now is not take any long trips overseas for the time being. if i do, i'll have to take photographs before leaving. then, after completing grad studies, i'll move once and for all to japan, or at least out of this house.

in other news, TKGS girl's mother just called me to ask whether resuming tuition was possible. i am in two minds about this decision. personally, i wasn't too inclined to accept, because the NUS research scholarship already gives me money, and i think i would appreciate having my saturdays free for rest or extra research if need be. also, let's not forget the minor fact that they were the ones who decided to stop, not me. in fact, i remember blogging about feeling relief after receiving their call sometime in january this year. on the other hand, it's another source of money! with having to pay off the school fees and (potentially) the car loan, i always welcome more earnings. in the end, i compromised and agreed to tuition for the month of july. after that, we'll see how i feel, plus how time-consuming my research is going to be. in the worst case, i suppose i could recommend one of the chem kids, or another chem major.

just had a thought form in my brain after the phone call. now that i'm a graduate, i should be able to charge higher fees, right? after all, i now have a shiny bachelors degree (with honours!). but the thing is, i'm not really using much of my university knowledge to explain secondary school and JC stuff. so, morally speaking, i shouldn't be charging any higher than when i was an undergrad, right? but charging the same rate kind of implies that my degree doesn't add on to my value. well, i guess that i'll charge my same rate for people recommended friends and family, but start increasing prices for other people.

despite planning to do some things in the past few days, i've still been slacking. well...at least i can afford it. think it's better to spread things out a bit...though tomorrow's a bit packed. maybe i should buy shoes tomorrow before going to the SJI/CJC farewell in the evening. must remember to bring my present for the sec 4 kids.

-random thought of the day: Still in a lousy mood.-

Been primarily focused on rest and relaxation these past few days, though the hot weather made that difficult over the weekend. thankfully, it rained for yesterday and today, so everything's cooled down a bit. sleeping should be more comfortable tonight.

referring back to my to-do list at the end of the previous post, i realize that i had forgotten some things, and also that i had just completed some other things today. have to update at the end of this post. for now, i think i'll just blog about what i've been up to these past few days.

as mentioned previously, i've mainly been slacking. it's been hot enough that i really didn't want to move about too much. but being static for too long isn't that good either. so, after the nice (but brief) rain yesterday, i went down to J8 for a walk and to buy those paper sleeves for CDs (for resubmitting my thesis). contemplated buying new slippers while i was out, but decided to wait until my queensway trip, which should have been today. as a side-quest, i also went to bishan library. didn't really have anything specific in mind...just wanted to see what was available for borrowing. must be my lucky day, because i caught the double loan quota period again. ended up borrowing 4 books and 4 DVDs, all of which i hope to get through by next week.

today's plan was to go to school to say hi to my lab and drop off some souvenirs, then go to queensway to get 2 new pairs of shoes and a new pair of slippers. why 2 pairs of shoes when only 1 pair was spoiled? well, i've seen that some phd students in my lab have one pair of "normal" shoes, plus one more pair used exclusively in the lab. i think it's a good idea, actually. less contamination and all that. now, all i need to do is to find a pair of reasonably cheap shoes which can be slipped on and off easily, and not forgetting the regular shoes which i have to replace. i wonder...should i buy another pair of the same shoes, or switch? while i like the fuzzy brown exterior, i thought that the insides got damaged too easily. or that might be because of my rough handling. well, i guess the best way to make a good decision is to go down and see what's available. informed decisions usually turn out better in the end.

sadly, things don't always go according to plan. for one, it was raining, which made me kind of reluctant to travel further. so, i holed up in the student room for a bit, before going to visit my friend, who recently started work in the physical chem lab. ended up staying there until 6:00pm, and ended up talking to another friend for about 45 minutes after that. by that time, it was too late to go to queensway, so that's tomorrow's main objective.

leftover thought from the previous post. while walking around in japan, i often felt powerless because i didn't have 3G (or a working phone line, for that matter) on my phone. couldn't use GPS, or google anything on the move. once i landed in singapore, i switched aeroplane mode off, and appreciated my sudden connectivity. don't get me wrong...i'm not the kind who needs to be connected 24/7. but at the same time, i can't deny that having internet connection sometimes is a good thing. i guess the sense of powerlessness was due to not having a phone line and data plan in japan. i hope to change that by the time i'm 35.

moving on to my to-do list, in no particular order of importance, i have to do the following:
- get a haircut
- buy shoes and slippers
- attend the SJI/CJC farewell and training (talk to the coach, too)
- deliver certificates, cards, and souvenirs to SJF
- fill up my NUS grad medical checkup form, go for checkup
- collect commencement stuff, go for commencement

think i got everything. if all goes well tomorrow, i may be able to clear #s 1, 2, 4, and half of 5...ie. everything that's not date-specific. don't think i'll be hardworking enough though. probably will get queensway and SJF done...though i should probably check ahead if anyone will be there. would suck quite bad to go down to a locked office.

-random thought of the day: Tempted to disconnect my house phone.-

Let me start today's post by sharing something rather embarrassing. when i was younger, i used to stay over at my cousin's place during the school holidays. no, that's not the embarrassing bit yet. at the end of the holidays, especially for the longer breaks in june and december, i used to be really reluctant to go home, to the point of crying and stuff during lower primary school days. the reason i'm mentioning this is because that's more or less how i felt at kansai airport before my flight back to singapore. lucky i'm older now, and have better control of my emotions.

anyway, the japan trip was great! we did quite a lot of stuff in 10 days, so much so that i've got about 1200 pictures to show for it. there are some repeats, though, which means i'll be filtering stuff before uploading anything to facebook. it seems that facebook has increased the maximum number of photos per album from 200 to 1000. don't know when this happened, but it probably shows how long i haven't uploaded photos. despite the increase, i still have to remove 200-odd photos to make 1000...which, on the bright side, is definitely easier than removing 1000 photos to make 200.

given that our itinerary was quite packed, plus my poor memory, it's highly unlikely that i'll be able to give an accurate recollection in chronological order. therefore, i think i'll just do a kind of semi-chronological highlights reel, plus my thoughts and reflections on the stuff that's happened. for a better idea of what happened, you might want to take a look at my photos when i upload them.

everything started in tokyo, and i flew there by scoot. the flight timing was pretty good, leaving singapore after midnight and arriving in japan in the late morning after a transit in taiwan. for once, i had a really good sleep on the plane! was basically unconscious for the bulk of the flight, probably because i was tired from the flight back from melbourne. also, the seats were much more comfortable, and reclined further than the seats on the previous flights i'd been on. think it's the model of the plane itself. transiting in taiwan was kind of confusing, because there were no clear instructions on where to go or what to do. eventually, i figured out what to do, and made good time for the flight to japan.

arriving in japan was kind of emotional. the foremost thought in my mind at that time was, 'i'm finally here'. it was ridiculously exciting! cleared immigration and customs with relative ease, then bought a suica card (japan's equivalent of an EZ-link card) and went to the hostel. the train ride took an hour, and cost 1000 yen. kind of worth it for the distance, i guess. got a little lost (and wet; it was raining) while trying to find the hostel, but made excellent time in the end. i arrived like 3 hours before check-in time. having so much time to kill, i decided to make my pilgrimage to the kodokan, which was about 4 stops away by train. how lucky is that?

at the kodokan, i dropped in on the 2 sensei who came to singapore earlier, and also got the dan certificates and membership cards. at the same time, i went to collect the huge order of judo merchandise. they forgot my black belt, so i arranged to come back another day. meeting the people behind the internet shop was kind of scary, actually. turns out the company is run by a husband and wife team. while i've been corresponding with the wife over email, she wasn't at the office. the husband is a middle-aged guy, who fortunately for me, speaks decent english. when he found out i was on holiday, he recommended some must-see tourist spots, and even drew me a map! totally wasn't expecting that. i just found it a little...awkward, because i didn't really see a good break in the conversation to excuse myself. plus, goodness knows how many japanese and possibly etiquette mistakes i made. it also happened that there was the monthly shiai (competition) at the kodokan, so i went to watch. their competition rules are slightly different from the IJF ones, and the standard of competition is much higher. then again, they are japanese, after all.

my friends arrived the next day, so i went to ueno station to wait for them. waited for about an hour before giving up and going back to the hostel, where i found them waiting. turns out they went via tokyo station instead, so we totally missed each other. since they were tired from their flight, we didn't do much. guess now would be a pretty good time to talk about our hostel. for tokyo, the place we stayed in is called toco. there are 3 meanings to the word, depending on the kanji..."floor", "grace", and one more i can't remember. it's kind of a rustic place, 92 year-old building, mini-mt. fuji (fuji-zuka) made of rocks from the actual mountain, bunk beds made of really solid wood. yet, it was modern enough to have good showers and toilets, plus computers and wifi. it was my first time staying in a hostel, so that was a bit intimidating. it's a bit like army, i guess, where you share a room with strangers. difference is, the strangers come and go depending on their booking dates, so you don't really make friends that easily. nevertheless, the staff and frequent visitors to the bar (yes, there's a bar in the lounge) are really nice, so making friends with them was kind of easy even for me. as part of the plan to encourage socializing, guests get one free half-sized drink per night. it provides a reason to hang around the bar/lounge, plus i guess the alcohol helps to encourage conversation.

during my stay in the hostel, i met people from taiwan, korea, china, america, colombia, sweden, malaysia, argentina, ireland, (of course) japan, and even some other people from singapore! was interesting to talk to them and learn about their countries, cultures, and languages. some of us even went sightseeing together. while talking to the taiwanese people, i realize that i prefer their accent to mainland chinese. somehow, taiwanese chinese is softer/more melodious, and much nicer to listen to.

within tokyo, we went to asakusa, daiba, shibuya, shinjuku, harajuku, ginza, and akihabara. not sure if i missed anything out, but that should cover most of it. we spent a day visiting sensou-ji and daiba. incidentally, the "sensou" in sensou-ji is written with the same kanji as "asakusa". just different pronunciation. i remember going to sensou-ji during my last japan trip, about 10 years ago. saw the huge kaminari-mon (thunder gate) and went to ask for my fortune at the temple. got a lucky lot, but it said my wish wouldn't come true. guess that was because i wasn't really focusing when i was shaking the box. it did say that things looked well for my job and marriage. i can understand job-wise, but marriage? not too sure about that. at daiba, we went to see the giant gundam, and also to the capcom store, where my friends bought some monster hunter merchandise. in between, we stopped at the tokyo sky tree. unlike last time, where i had the vague memory of going up the tokyo tower (or some other tall structure), we didn't go up the sky tree because various sources had said it wasn't worth it.

the next day was spent going to all the other locations with my friend's japanese friend. don't remember the exact order, but we started at shinjuku and ended in ginza. the highlight for me was visiting shibuya station, where i saw the huge cross-walk and the hachikou statue. we also went to tower records, where i briefly contemplated buying a few concert DVDs. didn't get anything in the end, though. there was a michael jackson handprint, too! quite a nice place. the rest of the places weren't that memorable, though...probably because they were shopping districts, and i wasn't too interested in shopping. in the evening, my friend dragged us down to ginza, because he wanted to visit a bar and see the bartender in action. unfortunately, he didn't do his research properly, and the bar was closed. i'll have more to say about this friend later.

after that, the following 2 days were spent taking day trips out of tokyo, together with another 3 guys from SMU. first day was spent going to the area around mt. fuji, where we split up for a bit. i went with 2 other guys to an onsen (hot spring), while the rest weren't so interested and went down to the lake. the onsen was a nice experience. though the water was hotter than i would normally like, it was also extremely relaxing. could feel the aches and pains dissolve away. too bad it didn't really do much for my knee injury though. after we joined up with the others again, we went to the bat caves and lava caves. they're a bit misnamed, though. no bats or lava in sight. yes, it was a joke. we observed an interesting phenomenon on the stairs leading to the lava caves. up to a certain level, the temperature was normal. but take just one step down, and the temperature dropped dramatically. strange thing is i couldn't feel it at all from the upper step!

on the second day, we went to nikko, where we split up again due to time constraints. i had to be back in tokyo in the afternoon to collect my judo stuff, so i only had half a day for sightseeing. so, i went along with another friend to see 4 famous shrines. also went to see tokugawa's tomb, which was packaged along with this sleeping cat thing. the sleeping cat was a rip-off, i think. just a carved cat over a doorway. the ticket was 520 yen, so we were joking that the price was split into 500 yen for the tomb, 20 yen for the cat. due to the lack of time, our tour was kind of rushed. at least we managed to see most of the shrines. completely missed out on the waterfall, which was unfortunate. but at least the others took photos, so i'm not missing out completely. at night, we went to a nearby yakitori stand for a snack, where a nice working lady paid for what we ate. so paiseh! i tried to return the money, but she wouldn't accept it. think she felt for us as fresh grads, because she kept asking if we had secured jobs and about our plans for the future. have to pass this kindness forward in future.

i had wanted to go down to tsukiji fish market on the last day in tokyo, but laziness kind of put a stop to that plan. well, that gives me another reason to go back sometime in the future. after some packing, we took the shinkansen to osaka, then changed trains for the hostel, which was literally a stone's throw away from the station. don't think we did all that much that first day in osaka...just laundry, and exploring the surrounding area in general.

for osaka, we stayed at this hostel called bonsai garden. it's kind of opposite to toco. the toco building is low and wide, whereas bonsai garden is tall and narrow. it's also more modern-looking, with metal bed frames and a TV. showers and toilets were about the same for both, so not much comparison. the "opposite" theme also extended to the staff, who weren't as friendly as the toco staff. don't get me wrong...they were nice and willing to help, just that they didn't take the initiative to interact with the guests. and speaking of the guests, the demographic was quite different. there were australians, french, and people from the UK. as a result, bonsai garden felt less homey than toco. there was also quite clear racial segregation...ang mohs mostly kept to themselves, and didn't really interact with the asians. really felt more like a tourist place. on the topic of opposites, the weather was opposite, too. tokyo was mostly sunny, whereas the rain in osaka only stopped on the morning i left.

there's not much to see in osaka itself, so we went on day trips to kyoto and nara. for nara, we went to the deer park, where i fed the deer. some deer actually asked for food by bowing, and bowed again after they were done eating! so quintessentially japanese. one important lesson i learnt here was never to wander into a group of deer holding a pack of shika senbei (deer crackers/biscuits, special food for feeding the deer). you get swarmed! and they bite, too. pro tip: hide the food in your bag while you're in the store, and take the crackers out one by one when you want to feed the deer. nevertheless, they were ridiculously cute! and their antlers of the younger deer (i think) were fuzzy, which was interesting. in addition, we also went to toudai-ji, where i saw the HUGE buddha statue. there was also a hole in a pillar which was supposed to bring good fortune if you successfully crawled through. as tempted as i was to try, the odds of me getting stuck was a little too high for my liking. didn't want to see any other places (plus my friends wanted to go shopping), so we went back to osaka to explore shinsaibashi. it was huge and confusing. we went to uniqlo, where they bought some stuff. then, had dinner at this chinese ramen place. was...normal, and easily my most underwhelming meal in japan.

spent the last day of the trip in kyoto. there were 6 major attractions that we had wanted to see, but we only made 3 in the end. since the last destination on our priority lists were different, we split up (again) after visiting the first 2 places. first was the fushimi inari shrine. "fushimi" because that's where it's located, "inari" because that's the patron deity. though the name probably sounds foreign, i'm sure you'd recognize the place if i showed you a photo. you see, the shrine is famous for it's many orange torii (gates), which are lined up along some of the walking trails. while i was there, i also bought a pretty big stuffed fox to keep my lion company. i think judo stuff aside, that's the only other souvenir purchase i made for myself. it was only after i left the place when i realized that i should have got some for the admin office people as well. but it would have been too late to go back. bleh.

next stop was kiyomizu-dera, which i remember going to 10 years ago as well. tried to find the shop that sold my dragon keychain, but couldn't. either the shop closed down, or i remembered the place wrongly. more likely it's the latter. at the temple, i offered a prayer for someone (not telling who in case it doesn't come true, though i expect you can guess who). it felt...good, i guess, despite me not having a religion. i think it's the assurance (real or imagined) that someone else is watching over someone you care about. at the end of the visit, there were 3 streams coming off the roof of a building, and guests could use long-handled ladles to get the water for drinking. the interesting thing was that the ladles were UV-sterilized between uses. quite cool seeing the modern, metal UV sterilizer alongside the wood and stone. i realize that japan blends ancient culture and architecture with modern technological advances very well. like, a temple can be sandwiched between two buildings, and not look out of place. there was also the love stones, which promised that true love would come soon if you could make your way from one stone to the other (about 15m walk) with your eyes closed. i managed to do it, so i'm just waiting for the right person to drop in any time now. while the others went to see nijo castle, the last destination for me was ginkaku-ji. this one was more of a calm, zen place than a tourist attraction. still had to buy a ticket though. there was a very nice sand garden, along with a nature trail. was planning on going to kinkaku-ji (ginkaku-ji's slightly more valuable brother), but by the time i was done, it was already past their closing time. no big loss for me...i always did like silver better, anyway. the rest of the time was pretty uneventful...just dinner, going back to hostel, and flying back the next day.

so, that about sums up my trip. now, for the thoughts and reflections. there's one thing this trip confirmed for me, and that is the fact that i would like to HAVE TO end up in japan. it's crazy! i like it to the point that even though the tokyo rush hour is way worse than singapore's, i didn't feel the same sense of irritation that i do back here. i guess it's because the japanese people are ridiculously considerate. everyone's doing their best to not be a nuisance, which i think is something most of the people in singapore can learn from. and speaking of the people, they're so nice! despite the communication barrier, they still go all out to try and help you. of course, they may be cursing and swearing on the inside, but i'm ok if i don't know about it. and as a bonus, the general population is SO much better-looking than singaporeans! or maybe that's my biased view. but seriously, i don't think i saw any japanese person whom i would call "ugly". still, that's just a minor plus point i guess.

but japan has its negative points as well. for one, prices are generally higher than in singapore. for instance, taking the tokyo metro train for a distance of between 1 to 3 stops costs 160 yen, which is about S$2. a meal at a typical ramen shop can set you back close to 1000 yen (~S$12), easy. that becomes a problem when you don't do the maths before making certain purchases. this time round, i admit that i spent money a little too freely, mostly on food and drinks. i suppose part of the issue was the illusion caused by the coins. you see, japan's biggest coin (both in size and value) is 500 yen, which is actually S$6! in singapore, the most valuable coin we see in daily life is $1, so we (i) tend not to care about using coins up quickly. that becomes a problem with the 500 yen coin. actually, i was doing some calculations in japan, and i realized that i spent much more than i'd thought on food and drinks. lucky i brought enough to spend what i did, and still come home with some extra. looks like my aunt was right about taking some extra money.

oh. by the way, NUS japanese 4 is definitely not sufficient to blend in with the locals. sure, i can more or less communicate, but once i open my mouth, they can definitely tell i'm not local. nevertheless, all those japanese modules came in useful, as i was able to understand the keigo which the service people (shopkeepers, wait staff, receptionists, etc.) used. i realize that even now, i don't know when is a good time to switch to plain form. when meeting someone of equal status, polite form is normally used, until a certain point when it becomes ok to switch to plain form. the switch implies that you're more comfortable with each other, and have a closer relationship. i have trouble determining when that certain point in time is. need more practice. even though i know about 500 verbs, nouns, and adjectives, i realize that there are still gaping holes in my vocabulary...things that japanese people learn as kids, but which are not taught in a university-level japanese language course. menu items, for instance, posed a pretty big problem. while i could read the hiragana and katakana, i had no idea what they meant. plus the adverbial expressions (japanese equivalent of "clearly", "soon", "most of", "rarely" etc.) also posed a problem.

one thing i was extremely impressed with was the transport system. despite being expensive, it was super precise. like, they had train arrival times down to the minute. plus, the high-speed trains were super cool! i tend to think of them not as superpowered trains, but as underpowered aeroplanes, because that's really what they remind me of. somehow, i get the feeling that the designers worked down from planes instead of working up from trains.

food was something else that i was generally really happy about. like i told my friends, i haven't had a meal in japan that i didn't like. i think it's part presentation and part taste. i enjoyed eating in japan much more than in singapore. not that i'm saying singapore food on a whole tastes bad or anything, but the japanese food in singapore really can't compare. the closest match in terms of standard would probably cost too much to have regularly. oddly, i didn't find myself having cravings for singaporean food while i was there. maybe i haven't been away long enough to experience that.

dressing, too, was quite a culture shock. since it was summer, i brought along some bermudas and slippers. you know, typical singaporean university kid attire. but once i was there, i stuck to jeans and shoes all the way. i swear, i did not see a single person in shorts on the street while i was in tokyo. guess it's the societal pressure, but i felt obliged to not stand out too much.

after this trip, i think the biggest takeaway for me is this: if you have even the slightest bit of doubt about going on a trip with someone, don't go. i went with 3 other friends, and after this experience, i think i would only choose to travel with one of them again. of course, i don't know their opinions about me, and it would be quite presumptuous to assume that i'm the perfect travelling companion. so, please bear in mind that i have my faults as well. of the 2 people i wouldn't like to travel with again, there's one i have a minor problem with, and one i have a major problem with. let's do minor first. the main reason i don't want to travel with this guy is because he was too preoccupied with money. i mean, we're all travelling on a budget (maybe me not so much), but do you have to let us all know how much you've spent every day? at the risk of sounding like i've got a problem, i think people should travel within their means. like if going to a more expensive country, either set aside more money, live really cheap (and don't complain!), or don't go. plus, something about the things he says just annoys me. i know he doesn't mean any harm or offense, but it wasn't nice hearing some of the things he said.

the other person, however, presented a much more serious problem. i don't know about you, but for myself personally, i think we should try to adapt to the host country's culture. i knew that this guy was obnoxious in singapore. i didn't expect him to stand out so much (in a negative way) in japan! in fact, he was like the typical bad american tourist stereotype, only in asian form! you see, he has this "i'm a tourist" mentality, which he uses to justify his out-of-place actions, which he feels totally no shame for. things like mixing soy sauce with wasabi (big no-no over there), for instance. there were so many times i felt like hitting him over the head with an umbrella, it wasn't funny. and the way he talks, goodness. there are some things you can't say! and he said those things...loudly, too. the japanese don't show their displeasure outright, but i can bet most of the people he asked for help were cringing inside. i was cringing just watching him! worst of all, he doesn't respect the japanese culture. i mean, calling kiyomizu temple "koizumi temple" in front of a japanese person is just moronic. by the time i left japan, i'd lost count of the number of times i wanted to yell at him, or actually yelled at him. suffice to say that i never ever want to go anywhere out of singapore with him. nevertheless, i think the 4 of us can remain friends...just that i have to avoid prolonged interaction. overnight stays are at just about the limit.

overall, i had a good time. definitely want to go back as soon as i can. seems that a few chem kids (mainly the phd students) may go in december, so that's something to look forward to, i guess. even if that doesn't happen, i'm definitely not going to wait another 10 years for my next trip.

back on the singapore front, HAZE. i'd been following the news even while in japan, and was kind of worried when the PSI shot up. in fact, i was briefly considering extending my stay in japan, but the hassle of getting new flight dates and extending my hostel booking (subject to availability on both counts) put me off. thankfully, the haze kind of got better in time for my arrival yesterday. it's set to worsen in the coming week, so i guess i should go to the lab ASAP to drop the souvenirs off and to get a spare N95 mask. i'm quite sure we have a few more lying around somewhere. also, if i ever had the opportunity to meet that particular brainless indonesian minister, i'd have a few choice (rude) words for him. how on earth does a person who talks without thinking (and saying such idiotic stuff, to boot) get a ministerial position!? seriously.

next week, i'll probably be delivering stuff to various places, namely NUS, SJF, and CJC. have to talk to my professor, too, to see that his plans are and whether they're in line with my own plans. the graduate medical checkup and collection of commencement dress is still some time away (i set them for the same day), so no worries there yet. also have to submit a CD copy of my thesis, remind my dad about getting a car, and talk to the CJC coach. which reminds me. i wonder if training will be cancelled due to haze? all in all, though there's a fair bit of stuff to do, there's also a lot of time in which to do those stuff. net result is that it's going to be pretty slack, which is good. don't want to exert myself too much with this horrible weather.

-random thought of the day: I miss Japan already.-

Everything happens for a reason. like that bon jovi song says, "right here right now, you're exactly where you're supposed to be." i found that to be especially true after this morning, when my flight from queenstown to melbourne was delayed by about 3 hours. initially, i was a little upset, but since i had such a long transit time, i reasoned that as long as the flight wasn't cancelled, and i made my next flight, things would be ok. looking back at how things turned out, i realize that the delay worked out for the better, because i met my friend at close to 3:00pm, and we killed about 4 hours and 30 minutes having a late lunch/early dinner, and visiting the downtown area, where he showed me an installation (a shelter-cum-hang out spot) which he did for his degree (he's an architecture major). throughout all that time, he was filling me in on what's been going on in the years we haven't been in contact. it seems that it might not have been 16 years...apparently, we met up once when we were in secondary school for bowling. now that he mentioned it, i do have a vague memory of that. think it was at victor's. lucky that my flight came in late, though, because i think we spent just enough time together. long enough for us to catch up sufficiently, yet short enough for him to not think i'm a nuisance.

the bulk of our conversation revolved around judo, which he took up in university. the australian system is really REALLY different from singapore. i guess since it's such a big country, more effort is needed to unify everything. my friend's judo school is run in parallel with jujitsu, so their syllabus is kind of similar, but with noticeable differences. their grading has some differences too, in the sense that the sparring is not based on win/loss. instead, successful throws get points, and there is no penalty for getting thrown. nice idea, i think. promotes willingness to try, and removes the fear of getting thrown around. on the other hand, one thing i didn't quite like was that they memorize techniques by numbers instead of names, like a certain technique is hand technique #1, while another is hip throw #7, etc. not good, i think, since the advantage of names is that regardless of the syllabus, names stay constant while numbers change. anyway, i hope this particular friend visits singapore soon. if he does, i'll try to arrange for him to join a session of national training or CJC/SJI training.

even though i've been in melbourne for 3 days total, as opposed to 19 days for NZ, i somehow like melbourne better. it looks more developed, i guess. taking a walk by the waterfront where my friend's installation was really reminded me of a very quiet clarke quay. also, i somehow found the abundance of lights to be comforting. side-effect of growing up in singapore, i guess.

my uncle also facebooked me and kind of told me that he'd been assessing me as a guest while i was staying with him. given that he was with SIA for a long time, i'm sure he has interviewed and assessed countless staff. guess it's a reflex action. he asked if i wanted to hear his feedback, and i said yes. he's going to spend a couple of days to sort it out first(!) before giving me his final assessment. kind of scary, i think. wasn't expecting that at all, especially all i wanted was a nice, relaxing holiday. but well, we'll see the review. he gave me a sneak preview, which was "A's and some B's". doesn't sound too bad, right? the thought has crossed my mind before...this particular uncle reminds me of a senior in judo, in the sense that they are both incredibly smart, and kind of eccentric at the same time.

well, guess that's pretty much all i have time for now. trying to decide if i should check in now or wait for my phone to finish charging first. and for that matter, i'm also trying to decide if i should do some minor repacking. decisions, decisions. think i'll repack a little bit, then check in at 10:30pm local time, which is like 20 minutes away. my flight departs at 12:45am tomorrow, so i'm still quite on time.

-random thought of the day: I want to import the Melbourne weather back to Singapore!-

Have you ever, due to a dream or some other reason, woken up crying? in my 24 years and coming-to 8 months of life, i can only remember less than 4 such instances of crying myself awake. the most recent one was just this morning. i don't recall the dream in its entirety, but the last bit was something about charlotte's web...you know, the book in which a pig befriends a spider who saves him from the slaughter? more specifically, i think it was the part when *SPOILER* charlotte died and wilbur had to retrieve her eggs from the ceiling of his stall/stable/barn. writing it out, it occurs to me that my dream was inaccurate, because wilbur actually asked his rat friend to do the job. weird(er) thing was that it appeared like a movie to me. i'm not sure if there's a movie adaptation of the book, but if there is, i've never seen it. must be my imagination at work. don't understand the significance of this particular dream, though, or why it would make me cry. i don't remember crying while reading the book.

yesterday and today mostly involved sightseeing road trips, the first of yesterday's venues being coronet peak (which i understand is a queenstown icon), where the ski fields have opened. since it was only day 2 or so of ski season, the crowd wasn't that big yet. i've heard that at peak season, it's about 4 to 5 times as crowded as when we went! got to see people skiing and snowboarding, which was interesting. didn't get to try it for myself, though. no equipment, for one, and i wasn't dressed appropriately to spend hours on/in the snow. does make me wonder how i'd do on a snowboard, though. at the ski field, we met a japanese guy on a working holiday. interestingly, we also met him while climbing the hill/mountain on saturday. funny how we still met despite not knowing each other's schedule, and despite the mountain being about 15km away from coronet peak. anyway, talking to him was the only chance i got to practise my japanese on this trip. still have a bit of trouble with polite/plain form conversions during conversation. mildly annoying, but i think i'll be ok as long as i don't accidentally use plain form with unfamiliar people in japan. that actually means i shouldn't be using plain form in japan at all, since i'm not familiar with anybody there. in fact, i'm probably going to err on the side of caution and use keigo with certain people, like the sensei, as well as the staff at the kodokan, kodokan shop, and hostel.

coming back to NZ, some other interesting venues include cromwell, which is a small town with quite a few vineyards. we stopped to admire the nice lake scenery, and went to visit the old portion of the town, which has undergone some restoration, but maintains the old stone buildings. how on earth did the people in the 1800's survive these kind of temperatures in those houses!?? worse is that the temperatures were probably lower back then, due to the effect of global warming now. also, the shop fronts looked a bit like a cowboy movie set, if you ask me...and the (fake) horse and attached wagon only added to that feeling.

our last stop was at a fruit shop....mr jones' (i think) fruit shop to be exact. it's almost in the middle of nowhere, so i was quite surprised to find 2 malaysians working there. even more surprising was that we ran into a small group of singaporean tourists! it's like meeting my professor at the SJF or something...though i think those odds are actually higher, considering how small singapore is. to meet singaporeans in such a remote place was really quite unexpected. there's another weird feeling, which i can't put into words. it's like "what a coincidence!", but with a neutral to slightly positive connotation. got my first taste of comb honey as well. it tasted pretty similar to the bottled honey (as it should, i guess), but the thing that interested me more was the beeswax. i've always wanted to know how it tasted and whether it would melt in the mouth. as i found out, it tastes of nothing, and doesn't melt at body temperature, though it melts when rubbed between the fingers. it reminded me more than anything of slightly hard and flaky chewing gum that had been chewed until it lost its flavour...only that this chewing gum didn't even have flavour to begin with. or i suppose you can argue that it was honey-flavoured. well, at least that's one curiosity satisfied.

i've been wondering...how can people live in such remote areas? i've seen houses that are located in locations so remote, dipton looks like a bustling city in comparison! what do the people do to occupy their time out in the mountains? maybe it's because i'm not so artistically-inclined, but i think there's only a certain (very small, in my case) amount of painting, wood carving, sculpting, home improvement, and golf a person can do before wanting to do something else. worse is that in NZ, unlimited internet is a rarity. in fact, my aunt and uncle's internet plan caps at 4gB a month. any more, and they pay like hell. how can anyone limit themselves to 4gB a month!?? sure, i say that i barely hit 100MB of cellular data a month on my phone, but that's because i supplement it with wireless from home and school. maybe i should run an experiment...only use internet through my cellular data for a month, meaning that i connect my desktop and laptop to the internet via my phone. that should help me exceed the 12gB i'm allowed, or at least come close to the limit.

right now, it's 11:51pm in queenstown, and my flight is at 9:50am tomorrow. i'm mostly packed, and praying hard that my luggage is still within weight for check-in. also praying for weather that's good enough for flying tomorrow (today was rather foggy). there are still little bits of packing i'm going to put off until tomorrow morning, stuff like my laptop (i'm using it to charge my phone now), and some clothes which i'll pack after showering and changing tomorrow. i'll be in melbourne at around noon over there, and will be meeting an old primary school classmate whom i haven't seen since primary 3 or so (that's 16 years!), when his whole family migrated to australia. he's got a sort of mini tour itinerary planned, it seems, so the 10 hours of waiting won't be that painful. but he has to pick his sister up from the airport at around 8:00pm, so if he drops me off then and doesn't stay any longer, that still leaves me with about 2 hours to kill before my flight even begins boarding. well, i figure i can entertain myself for that amount of time, especially since melbourne airport has free wifi. incidentally, that also means that the earliest you'll see this post will be tomorrow morning...failing which, i'll do a massive update once i'm home on wednesday. just have to be mindful about my battery levels. the long flight back to singapore comes after a day in melbourne. maybe i'll keep my phone off while i'm with my friend. after all, nobody's going to contact me in melbourne, right?

-random thought of the day: Should I bring my laptop to Japan?-

Going to the town in which my cousin lived up until last year made me realize something. i'd been spelling the name wrongly all along! it should be invercargill, with 2 L's at the end. anyway, prior to my visit, i'd been hearing that it was quite ulu, and just a small town. so, the mental image i had of invercargill was a dipton-sized, slow/laid back town. imagine my surprise when it turned out to be more like queenstown! i should have figured that something big enough to have its name appear on the news weather segment would be more sizeable. we also went down to bluff, where i didn't get to try the oysters, but got the chance to use the most high-tech public toilet i've ever seen in my life. automatic door, a nice friendly voice to guide you through using it, and instead of a sink, there was like a hand-washing line. first station, soap. next, water. then the air-jet hand dryer to finish the process. really really cool. plus, the toilet is smart enough to open the door itself and sound an alarm after you've been inside for 10 minutes. something to prevent loitering or people using the toilet for...other activities, apparently. and just a short distance away, there was this signpost which showed the distance to some major cities in the world. according to that signpost, while i was there, i was 9568 (or something like that) km away from tokyo. at that point, i found it quite amazing that i would be covering an even greater distance (due to a detour back to singapore) in a time of about 20 hours. and the time would be even shorter if i had a direct flight! but i dont think there's any direct flights from queenstown to tokyo, and i have to stop over in singapore to unload and repack anyway.

didn't do much on friday, since we drove back to queenstown. chopped a bit of firewood at the dipton house before leaving, but that was it. thinking back, staying at dipton was nice, but not something i want to do long-term. like i said before, there can be too much peace and quiet, even for someone like me, who hates crowds. actually, i think i might not mind living in that kind of quiet place, provided that it's reasonably close to amenities (shopping centres, hang-out spots, etc) and my workplace. a 20km drive for grocery shopping is a little too much for me. but more importantly, i guess that my friends would have to be (physically) close by. while i'm not exactly homesick, i have to admit that one of the reasons for me to look forward to leaving queenstown is because i really really want to meet up with some people in singapore. although my memory of this is fuzzy, i think i've dreamt about them at least once.

today, i went hiking/trekking (what's the difference?) up a mountain. or maybe it's classified as a hill; i can't quite remember the minimum height for something to be called a mountain. anyway, my uncle had told me a bit about the walk. about 2km long, 500m elevation, can be completed in 40 minutes. what he did not tell me was that the road was about 70% dirt paths and (flat) rocks for steps, and that it got quite steep in some areas. in fact, i'd more accurately call it a climb instead of a walk. i have to admit, my mood went downhill during the climb (ironically in contrast to me going uphill), and that resulted in me not talking much (at all, really) throughout the 2 hours we took to complete the climb. reason being that i wasn't prepared, and i didn't expect to sweat at all. i had expected a slow, leisurely walk, kind of like what we did on my second day here at the botanic gardens. instead, i found myself sweating and panting within the first 10% of the way. the REALLY annoying thing was that due to the weather, the sweat would cool down very quickly, leaving me cold if i stopped to rest for too long. if i had known i would be sweating, i would definitely have worn something different, and certainly not a fresh set of clothes which i was planning to sleep in later on. seriously, sweating so much is not my idea of a good time during a holiday, especially if i'm not expecting it. nevertheless, i made it to the top. my aunt said that the view was worth the effort. personally, i didn't really think so, but that could have also been because of my mood. while there is a certain sense of achievement from persevering on all the way, i think that if i was allowed to choose again, i would have given climbing up a miss. walking around town and getting myself lost would probably have been more enjoyable to me...not to mention there's a cable car up, too. makes me wonder about my friends' plans to climb mt fuji.

after some reflection, i've concluded that the bad mood was also due to irritation, and a little to ego. ego is because my aunt's and uncle's ages are hovering close to 60, so as a soon-to-be 25 year-old, i should at least be able to keep up with them, if not reach the summit much faster than them. what i didn't take into account was that they're experienced, and have completed the trail multiple times, sometimes even with a 15kg load as training for an even more demanding walk. since this was my first time (and given my level of fitness after a year of mostly lab work), there was probably no way i could match them. in fact, i think they slowed down to accommodate me. as for irritation, i think this runs in the maternal side of the family. every so often, my aunt would ask me if i needed a drink, if i wanted to borrow her walking stick...various questions to which i'd answered "no" multiple times before. while i know she has good intentions, and is looking out for my safety/comfort, i really really wanted to focus on the climb, and not waste any breath/energy to talk, let alone answer a question which i'd been asked multiple time already. i don't quite understand this behaviour. is it a woman thing, and am i the only guy who cannot stand this?

sidetrack: this is something i've been noticing for a while, but never saw a good place to slip it into a post. for me at least, the first time travelling to somewhere seems to take longer than the subsequent trips. my theory is that not knowing how far away your destination is, and the absence of familiar landmarks somehow distorts your sense of time or distance. but after going through the route once, you roughly know that the town comes up after this particular sheep farm, for instance, and that puts the distances into perspective.

earlier tonight, we watched a rugby game on TV. all blacks vs france. given that i'm in NZ, who do you think i'd support? i was happy that the all blacks won 23-13, which is especially good since this is a grudge match from 1994 (or was it 2011?), and there were many new players in the team lineup. i'm still pretty fuzzy on rugby rules, but from what i saw, refereeing a rugby game looks easier than refereeing a judo match, despite there being more people on the field in rugby. something else i noticed was that the coaches weren't present at the side of the field, but seemed to have their own rooms from which they observed the action. maybe judo can do that too. i'm sure it'd take a fair bit of pressure off of the referees.

my NZ trip comes to an end in 2 more days (tuesday doesn't count since i'm flying in the morning). i've done almost all the things that i would be interested in doing here (bungee and parachute jumps being the exception), so i'm not sure what's planned for tomorrow and monday. only thing that's confirmed is that tomorrow's dinner will be at a pub, courtesy of my cousin. i should probably get a load of laundry done tomorrow, in time for the massive packing exercise on monday. as a reminder to myself, these are the things which i have to do once i'm back in singapore. in some order of priority: have lunch with favourite SJI boy, buy a JR train pass, buy a new pair of shoes, repack for japan, drop by CJC/SJI training if it's on, meet some juniors. a potential issue which i can see now is that by the time i clear customs and baggage collection in singapore, it may already be 12:00pm, leaving me with half a day to do quite a fair bit of stuff. well in the worst case, i suppose i could get all my purchases and repacking out of the way first, then meet favourite SJI boy for dinner instead. yes, that might work.

-random thought of the day: Hoping my legs won't be too sore when I wake up tomorrow.-

With all the excitement of my results, i guess i didn't really plan the previous post properly. for one, i forgot to extend my thanks to the chem kids, without whom these results would not have been possible. being around them has not only helped my social life in university, it's also made me study as exams and quizzes drew nearer. even though they never forced me to go study with them, i actually made the effort to go down to the library during reading and recess weeks. not to mention their help with remembering various deadlines and other important dates. i only hope that i've contributed to their academic success in some way as well.

soon after i got the SMS, i emailed my professor to inform him that i got the scholarship, and he would be stuck with me for another 4 years. well, i didn't quite put it in those exact words, but the idea was there. it's accountability, i guess. i'd want my students to tell me how they did for exams, instead of having to chase them for their grades. of course, i thanked him for his guidance and patience at the end (i could sense that he wasn't very happy with me a few times throughout the year, especially towards thesis and poster submission...but he amazingly never lost his temper). his reply was something along the lines of "your result is due to your own hard work only", which i think is really modest of him. if he hadn't torn apart (not literally) drafts upon drafts of my thesis and poster, and offered suggestions on how to repackage them into something saleable, i would never have gotten an A.

reflecting on what he said, i find that it's similar to what i would have said to my students if they told me about their excellent grades. i guess "you're welcome" would be kind of arrogant in an asian society. and similar to what i've said before for coaching, coaches/teachers can offer every resource they have, but students have to make good use of what they're given for good results. not saying that i'm a good student, though. my professor and mentor really deserve most of the credit.

news really travels fast. within an hour of me telling her about the results, my aunt broadcasted it to practically the whole family, and another aunt broadcasted it again to whoever was missed out. so now, everyone on the maternal side knows how i've done. it's a little too high-profile for my liking, but i can't exactly retrieve the emails and erase the knowledge from their heads, can i? i was quite surprised by my chemical engineer cousin's reply, as she asked her parents (the aunt and uncle i'm staying with in NZ) to help her buy me dinner. forgive me if you've heard this before, but i really feel quite bad about getting rewards/incentives for good results. i'm very grateful for the thought, but it's just that this is something i'm supposed to do, right? and you don't get rewarded for something that you're supposed to do. not to mention that i'll be going (second-hand) car shopping soon, which is sufficient reward in itself. by the way, the thought of getting a car makes me feel somewhat guilty. excited like mad, but guilty. on the other hand, i suppose exceeding expectations by this much is something worth celebrating. so, chemical engineer cousin, if/when you read this, thank you for dinner!

i also forgot to mention that we're back in dipton! my uncle had to check in on his chickens, plus the friends from earlier (did i mention them previously? they're my aunt and uncle's friends who are here for a short holiday) wanted to see the place. we left queenstown yesterday afternoon, and are due back on friday, making it a 3-day stay this time. most of today was spent entertaining the guests and trimming some branches off some HUGE fallen trees. my uncle says they were uprooted during a storm. wonder how strong the wind had to be to fell trees of that size. the process was fun, though. making my way though the branches really tested my balance and contortionist ability. nearly lost my footing a couple of times. if i had fallen the first time, i would have landed in a creek. and second potential fall would have seen me getting shocked on an electric fence, so thank goodness my balance isn't entirely hopeless. turns out i still can't fully bend my right knee...the most it can go without hurting is 45 degrees. sucks. well, at least i don't think there'll be much more knee-bending on this trip, nor in japan. maybe i should get the UHC doctor to take a look at it during my grad studies medical checkup.

counting down until my departure, i've got 5 days and a bit left. tomorrow, we're going to invercargil, where i can finally see where my cousin lived for 4 (6?) years. if all goes according to plan, we may head to bluff (yes, there'a place called bluff) as well. heard they have good oysters there. sounds fun. going back to queenstown on friday as mentioned earlier, so i'm not sure if we'll have time for any other activities then. the weekend will probably be pretty slack, and monday will mostly be spent packing before flying on tuesday morning. wonder if i can fit a parachute jump off a mountain into the schedule (and budget)? it looks pretty fun, though i've got this (maybe irrational?) fear of the parachute failing. i'm told that it costs $200 per person per jump, and the descent lasts for about 10 minutes, so i don't know. $20 per minute seems a little not-worthwhile. guess we'll see.

-random thought of the day: 5 days feels a bit long, actually.-

Ridiculous.

that was my first thought when i saw today's results. but first, i should mention that this is only the second time in my life that i've received my results overseas. the first time was for my PSLE results 13 years ago, and coincidentally, i was in NZ, too! that was when i found out i did well enough to (barely) make it into cat high. thankfully, like last time, my results are good as well. in fact, they're INSANELY good! there was only one grade in my results SMS, and that was A. total madness. here's the breakdown:

CM4199A: A
A FOR HONOURS PROJECT! can you believe it? i had some trouble believing my eyes initially, but after looking a few more times without the grade morphing into a C or anything, i had to accept it. it's crazy, because (1) it's worth 4 modules, so that's actually 4 As, and (2) by my own admission, i slacked towards the second half of the year, so it was really really unexpected. definitely have to thank my professor and the graduate students after i get back.

CM4223: A
this one was a little hard to believe as well, since i threw away 15 marks in the final. looks like i did well enough for my presentation to cover that up. think my professor gave working marks or something as well...even though i think my answer was totally off. on a side note, i heard from my friend that the module's not being offered any more. don't know how true it is, but if it's really the case, future honours students just lost a pretty easy module.

CM4215: A
All that memorizing paid off! inorganic modules have really been my saving grace in year 4. to tell the truth, this module wasn't that difficult, because the professor gave us some direction as to what to study.

LAJ2203: A
all things considered, this was a pretty lucky result. the project was messy, and i'm quite sure i messed the oral interview up. i'm hapy because i'm maintaining my A average for japanese, which gives me a strong case in asking my professor to let me continue during grad studies.

semester CAP: 5.00
overall CAP: 4.26

this semester CAP pretty much means that i have a shot at the dean's list! and on my last undergraduate semester, too. wonder if i have to write in, or if they'll inform me. it doesn't really mean much in the end though, since my overall CAP still isn't that high. nevertheless, it's a nice touch to the resume, plus some minor bragging rights. and who would have thought that CAP could jump 0.17 even in the last semester?

well, looking forward, my grad studies scholarship is confirmed, as is the car. i dare not say that my next 4 years are confirmed yet though, because who knows if something may result in me cancelling grad studies (unlikely, but you never know). quite excited at the prospect! more for the car right now, though. hope the honda jazz comes through.

-random thought of the day: Still having minor trouble believing my grades.-

Of all the smart things i did, i removed my laptop battery without switching on the electricity to the charger. means that my laptop shut down, of course, and i lost the 2 letters which i'd written. what makes it worse is that it's not the first time i've done it in this trip. it happened earlier last week in dipton, too. i suppose it's for the better, though. while i'm sure that i can rewrite the letters, i'm not that sure that i want to. doing it once was already quite awkward/painful from dealing with the accompanying emotions, and i don't think i want to relive that again. not unless i'm severely drunk or severely depressed anyway, neither of which i am now.

by the way, the name of the place is spelled "glenorchy". we went there today, and stopped halfway to take pictures of the amazing scenery. you know those almost too-good-to-be-true photos where a mountain is reflected in a body of water? i got a few of those shots. only thing is the lake wasn't perfectly calm, so the reflection was rather distorted. nevertheless, it's not bad for an amateur, recreational photographer, i think. more than once on this trip, i've felt annoyed with myself for not bringing a proper camera (then again, i don't have a proper digital camera). somehow, my iphone camera doesn't do the scenery justice. and today was the first time i tried the panorama function. not quite what i was expecting. the panorama on my old phone just stuck separately-taken photos together, and i didn't have to do the continuous motion thing which the iphone requires.

fun fact: today was (well, is) the queen's birthday, which is celebrated as a public holiday here. just keep that in mind for now; it'll be relevant soon. according to my uncle, glenorchy is actually a tourist town. what really confused me was that despite today being a public holiday, most of the shops were closed! since today is a holiday, you'd expect more people to be travelling. and that should mean more business for tourist towns like glenorchy, which means that if anything, the shop owners should be working even harder today! but instead, we saw the opposite. my uncle mentioned that a possible reason for the store closures was because workers are paid double on holidays, and the extra tourist income may not be enough to offset the extra money spent paying the workers. while i see the logic, i think that if i owned a shop, i would probably give my workers the day off and run the shop by myself. that way, i earn more money without having to pay anyone. best of both worlds.

there's been a little change in plans for the upcoming few days. seems like we're now going to dipton again tomorrow, and staying until either wednesday or thursday/friday/saturday. the choice exists because i can choose to follow my relatives' friends back to queenstown after their visit on wednesday, or stay on until whenever my uncle wants to come back, which should be thursday or friday, but at the longest, may be saturday morning. i'm actually not that enthusiastic about going down again. it's not that i don't like dipton (i think i actually prefer my dipton room to my queenstown room), but it's just a bit too rural for a city boy. well, i suppose going to dipton again has its plus points, too. for instance, we can take a road trip to invercargil (we didn't go last time), and there's generally a bit more to explore/do in the dipton vicinity...though i don't think i'll be golfing again.

have i mentioned that i'll be getting my results in about 12 hours' time, 15 if push SMS doesn't work? whie i haven't really been thinking about it for the past month or so, i can't help but feel quite anxious/nervous now that it's this close. what if second-upper doesn't happen? i don't really have a backup plan, except either appealing to the NUS grad admissions committee (a course of action towards which i'm not particularly inclined), or starting to go job hunting immediately after japan. or maybe i'll be crazy enough to take some time off and coach SJI/CJC full-time for 6 months to a year. as much as i want to, JET applications are a little bit out of the question right now (go figure out why if you don't already know). but as i've said before, second-upper is 85% within my grasp. the only thing that could possibly kick me down to second-lower is if my FYP scores badly...or if i fail a module, unlikely as it may be. deep down, i think i'm already expecting a second-upper, so i think that if i get anything else (*touch wood*), i wouldn't know how to deal with it. plus there's the added issue of the car purchase. i really really want a car! i guess we'll see tomorrow.

-random thought of the day: My screen protector's got bubbles!-

Since coming to NZ, i've been eating a lot of fruits. the average is about 2 to 3 (nice, crunchy, juicy) apples a day. and in addition to all the sleep i'm getting (averaging 10-11 hours a night), not to mention the lack of stress, i'm feeling pretty good physically. unfortunately, there isn't much mental stimulation here, so my brain's suffering a bit while i find ways to occupy it. just finished eat, pray, love earlier today, and i thought it was a nice book. not too keen to go to the 3 places mentioned in the book (italy, india, indonesia. they're referred to as the 3 I's), though i'm quite intrigued by the idea of taking a year off to go on a journey of self-discovery. wonder if i'll get a book deal if i do something similar, but instead of the 3 I's, i'll do the 3 J's. japan, jamaica...and some other place that begins with J when i find it. or maybe just within japan. unlikely that it'll ever materialize (both the book deal and the trip), but i can always hope.

to help with keeping my brain engaged, i've been writing letters to certain people. well, only 2 so far since i began last night. can't say who these people are, or what the letters are about, because they're actually really embarrassing! think teenage schoolgirl letters. that about expresses the magnitude of embarrassment. but it's actually therapeutic, in a sense, because i get to sort my feelings out and catch any logical inconsistencies. not to mention writing it out makes it more concrete somehow. not that i'm ever going to let any of the recepients read the letters, by the way. i'd probably die on the spot if they ever saw what i wrote. despite that, i'm going to have a talk with the 2 people to whom i've written so far (when i get back, of course), and the subject/theme of our conversations will probably be very close to what i've written. so, in a sense, they'll have "read" those letters, only that it's sort of being narrated by me. still better than them reading the actual letters though.

looks like i have to cut this post a little short, since i'm starting to feel sleepy. there's a road trip to glennorkey (i know that's not how it's spelled, but that's how it's pronounced. i'll update with the correct spelling) scheduled tomorrow, and of course, i'm getting my results on tuesday. hoping and praying for second upper. we should be going back to dipton for a couple of days on wednesday, since my uncle and aunt's friends want to see the place. i'm contemplating staying in queenstown over that period, actually. problem is i don't think that my aunt trusts me to stay alone. we'll see what happens closer to the date, i guess. if i go to dipton, i'll probably stay until friday, then come back to queenstown for the weekend, spend monday tying up any loose ends, doing souvenir shopping, and packing, before catching my tuesday morning flight back to melbourne, where i'll stay for 10 hours(!), then fly back to singapore, where i'll stay for about 12 hours(!!), then fly to japan. it's a good thing i'm getting all the rest and relaxation now, because all that flying in such a short timeframe will probably be pretty taxing. and speaking of souvenir shopping, i've only bought 2 souvenirs so far (interestingly, they're for the 2 people i've written letters to). not sure what i can get the chem kids. maybe i'll do their souvenir shopping in japan instead.

-random thought of the day: My sleeping hours will be ridiculously good back in Singapore.-

Waking up for the past 2 days has been interesting. in the haze of being half-awake, i check the time on my phone (still set to singapore time) and it's usually about 6:00+am. then, i think to myself, 'maybe i should switch airplane mode off so that i can receive my results SMS'. by this point, i'll usually be awake enough to realize that results day is still some way into the future, and i wonder how i could be so idiotic. think i'm being affected by subconscious worry about my results. but well, it's another 3 mornings before i find out how i've done.

blogging seemed to cure my insomnia, because after i wrote the previous post and read a few chapters of eat, pray, love (my friend sent it to me a while back, and i'd almost forgotten that i'd downloaded it to my laptop), i fell right back asleep until about 11:00am local time. we had a quick lunch before packing up and driving back to queenstown. the drive back was quite different from the drive there, mainly because i didn't have to drive, and could spend more time admiring the scenery. also, last week's brief snowy spell changed the landscape somewhat. the mountains are whiter, and there are patches of unmelted snow at ground level. makes for different photos than the ones i took on the way to dipton. i think that the queenstown house is nicer. probably because it looks and feels more modern. not that dipton is primitive or anything, just less...polished, and more rustic.

as i was leaving the house for today's activity, i found, to my annoyance, a tear in the outside edge of my right shoe, where the sides meet the sole near the heel. the tear itself is about the length of my thumb, so i think my shoe will still hold together for the next week and a bit, provided i don't run or hike up steep mountain trails, or step in deep puddles. that would really suck. can't imagine how i got it! right now, i'm suspecting that it was either when i was planting garlic or playing golf. but well, for a $50 pair of shoes, lasting close to 18 months is quite reasonable, i guess. think i'll go down to queensway for shoe shopping during my half-day in singapore.

today's activity, by the way, was a walk with my uncle. more of a half-car ride, half-walk actually, but anyway. our destination was the flea market at the waterfront (or lake-front, i suppose). saw a few interesting things, but didn't get anything in the end. we also walked through the town area and into a few stores. one shop we went into was staffed by 2 japanese women, who were speaking in japanese when not attending to customers. despite my 2 years of japanese in NUS, all i managed to pick up was something about one of their husbands, and having a meal. makes me a little worried for japan.

we then stopped at a cafe for a break. i suppose now would be a good time to say that talking to my uncle is interesting, and sometimes, a little scary. i think it's probably because after his years of overseas experience, he doesn't think or react like a typical singaporean. and not forgetting that he's quite a sharp guy, too. not in the way he talks, but his thoughts. so, he was telling me all about his decision to retire, some of his work experience in SIA...quite random stuff, actually. the thing i found interesting was that although there was no central theme to the conversation, the topics were still quite logically connected. it was enjoyable, though. since we had had brunch earlier in the day, we only had lunch at about 2:00pm, at ferg burger (not sure if it's 1 or 2 words). anyway, you know how all countries/towns have a must-go place, the place that if you didn't visit, you might as well have not visited the town/country in the first place? for queenstown, that place is ferg burger. they're more popular than macdonalds! i had the regular ferg burger (which was huge...like 1.5X carl's junior in singapore), and it was good. in fact, i plan to go back a few more times before i leave.

speaking of leaving, now more than ever, i'm feeling that i've overstayed my welcome. maybe it's because i don't see this aunt and uncle often, but i think we've basically exhausted all of the pretty few common conversation topics which we have. and there's really not that much to do in queenstown. on the topic of spending time with people, the funny thing for me is that i feel more at home among friends than with family. i wonder why. anyway, it seems that my aunt and uncle are expecting some friends over for the next 4 days or so, which probably means that we'll be busy going out and stuff, maybe even take a few road trips. not sure if they're planning on going back to dipton in the coming week, but if they are, i think i'll probably choose to stay in queenstown if possible. think exploring the area on foot a bit more would be interesting. and maybe i can spend a day holed up in the library. from what i've seen, they have marvel comics! not a very wide selection, but still, comics!...among other books, of course. i'm sure there'll be ways to pass the time. besides, it's not like this is army confinement or anything. i'm supposed to be enjoying myself! for now, the next milestone is results day. wonder if my subconscious stress will continue manifesting itself?

-random thought of the day: What would I normally be doing at 4:15pm on a Saturday?-