Couple of significant events have happened since the last update, most notably (and recently) is that i'm on extended medical leave. it's nothing to worry about, just had a minor surgical procedure done. i have to admit, i'm not a big fan of hospitals and operations. was rather nervous, though meeting a pretty attractive doctor was kind of nice. this doctor is younger than me and fresh out of med school, which made me jealous for a brief instant. i often wonder what if i'd did better for A-levels and got a more glamourous job, like doctor, lawyer, or pilot. i suppose i could change track now if i REALLY wanted to, but i'm not sure that i'll be able to convince myself to put in the required work. anyway, the doctor is probably attached, so it's more than likely that nothing will come out of it. the wound appears to be healing nicely, and i'm due back for a follow-up next friday. incidentally, i'm also on MC until then. including weekends, that's 10 days! i have never ever received double-digit sick leave. i should be thankful, because it means that i was never sick enough to need double-digit sick leave. this is a one-off thing, anyway. right now, i'm focusing on the aftercare, keeping the wound clean, making sure it doesn't get infected, taking my antibiotics, and all that stuff. don't foresee any complications, so here's hoping for a smooth (and fast) recovery.

other major events include going for the final fantasy concert, and meeting up with some of my in-game friends there this past saturday. i'll just talk about the concert first. it was not as good as last year's, in my opinion, and the one thing that saved it was the presence of nobuo uematsu, who is the legendary composer behind some of the game's iconic musical pieces. if memory serves, he has no formal musical education, which makes it even more amazing. i attended the concert with the ex and one of the chemistry guys. the tickets were bought before we broke up, so...yes. that's why. before the concert, i had one friend bring up the possibility of the ex wanting to get back together after the month or so of separation, because they might realize how much they missed me in this time. i told my friend that it would be unlikely, and as expected, it didn't happen. i will say though, i feel that things are different between the ex and i. obviously, they should be, considering the change in our relationship status. but somehow, i didn't expect myself to feel quite this awkward around them. perhaps i'm not as mature as i give myself credit for. it seems that maybe our paths won't cross as often as i'd thought they might. well...i'm ok with it.

meeting the online friends was a bit unnerving. i mean, we've interacted a fair bit in game, but never seen each other in person. it turned out ok, though. they're nice in general, though i don't really see myself hanging out with them on a regular basis, or becoming super best buddies. and that's fine too. we went for supper at 2am dessert bar, located in holland village. i had a trio of ice creams, consisting of coconut marshmallow, pandan, and blood orange sorbet. all in all, i think i made good selections. the pandan was rich and creamy with amazing flavour, blood orange sorbet was refreshing and balanced the other two flavours. but by far, my favourite was the coconut marshmallow. not just for the flavour, but the texture too. true to its name, it was light and fluffy. best part was that it was still heavy with coconut flavour, and it almost didn't melt! other dishes we ordered included churros with hot chocolate, some fancy thing which i didn't try because it contained alcohol, and as a contrast, one of the guys ordered chicken tacos. that turned out to be the worst thing we had, though i understand that ordering savoury food so late at night in a place called "2am dessert bar" may not have been the wisest choice.

also on saturday, my cousin got married again! ok, that's probably misleading. it's the same cousin who got married in bali, just that he also had to hold a wedding here for our relatives who didn't fly over. in fact, he's had 4 weddings - one ROM ceremony, one in jakarta for the bride's family, one in bali, and one in singapore for our family. it's insane! i have no idea how they handled the logistics. and interestingly enough, i was roped in to help out, and only knew about my role on the day itself. it started out by my cousin messaging me, asking for a lift down to the hotel from punggol, where he had to pick up some stuff from his place. we then went down to w hotel sentosa for the wedding itself. the venue was nice, though i thought that the room lost out to the one in hotel equarius. my role in the wedding was handling some light logistics and generally making myself useful. was quite enjoyable, but somehow, i doubt i'd want to organize something like that for myself. too much work.

while on the topic of online games and romance, there is someone who has kind of caught my eye. this person is (to me,) really cute and attractive! not to mention their posts and messages in the group whatsapp are extremely cheerful and just brighten up my day. i do see two complications though, one major and one minor. the minor one is that this person is 3 years older than me. although the ex is older than me too, we were at least born in the same calendar year. with this new one, not so. but i think i'll be ok with it if they are (ok with it too, not born in the same year). the more major issue is that this person lives in malaysia. i haven't done the long-distance dating/relationship thing before, so i'm not sure how i'll handle it. i suppose it'll be ok if we have the goal of living together someday in mind, either they move to singapore, i move to malaysia, or we both move to some other country. but perhaps i'm getting too far ahead of myself. i don't even know if they like me back yet! and of course, this attraction i have for them right now is about 65% physical and 35% other aspects, so it might not work out eventually. one potential turn-off is their voice, which i've heard through our discord server. but i'll remain open-minded, because who knows? they may sound better in person. and it's not as if they'll like everything about me in the first place. well...it's something to keep me distracted for the time being, i guess. as scary jc friend said, eye candy is good for the soul. and honestly, i'm not sure if i want to get into another relationship right now. my "me time" plan will probably last until graduation.

being rendered semi-invalid really makes me appreciate being healthy. it reminds me that i should make better use of my time. need to get back in the game of doing my food prep and going to the gym, after fully healing from the surgery, of course. i have to optimize my day - finding a way to fit in lab work, gym, preparing meals, and potentially a few other things in. one of those potential things may be a second job. you see, my scholarship funding runs out in december, and i'll be in NUS until next may or so. half a year of no income is not ideal. i'll probably ask my friend for recommendations at the tuition centre he works at, though i'm not sure if anything will come out of it. i'd prefer to have secondary school kids, not primary school. in the worst case scenario, i can go into super saver mode and live off my savings. now that i'm single, i don't have to spend that much. my last big purchase will be my belated birthday present to myself, and i've got my eye on a sous vide cooker. i'll probably buy it by the end of the month, just have to work out where everything goes, and whether i have the space to accommodate it.

-random thought of the day: Remember to pay road tax!-

In the dying moments of my birthday, i thought that i should at least acknowledge the fact that i turned 29 today. as chemical engineer cousin reminded me, it's only another year before 30, so i should enjoy the remaining 364 days in which my age begins with a 2. to be honest, i'm feeling pretty neutral about it at the moment. maybe it's because the wine i'm having now makes it seems like less of a deal than it actually is, and the panic will hit me sometime in the next year.

although it's not really linked, i just wanted to talk a bit about bitcoin. when i first heard of it around 2010/2011, the price was like SGD 0.30 per bitcoin. today, the price is approximately SGD 7800. That's a 26000-fold increase over 6 or 7 years. which means that if i'd put $1000 into it back then, i'd have $26 million right now. don't know if i have the right words to describe my feelings about this. yes, i'm aware that i can't go back and change the past. but the thought of having missed out on such a huge opportunity frustrates me. then again, knowing myself, i doubt i'd have the courage/perserverance to hold on for so long. i might have sold the bitcoins i bought when their value hit a few hundred thousand. well...it kind of sucks, but i guess we have to make the best of our current situation, at which we have arrived by the decisions that we made.

been close to a week since i've been back from bali. getting back into the groove of lab work. my professor is about ready to submit the paper, so that's a load off my mind. according to my postdoc though, the journal we're submitting it to is of a higher impact factor than she feels this work is at, which makes me rather anxious. well...i suppose in the event that it's rejected, we can submit to another journal. elsewhere, i think i have a compound almost ready, but i'm not entirely sure. i think it's close, but i'll have to check on it after another step in the synthesis route. i'm grateful that my examiners seemed to understand the magnitude of my project more than i did at that time, because they said that they only wanted to see a working prototype at the end. i thought that that would be too easy. apparently not. well...i'm not giving up yet.

-random thought of the day: Be more organized.-

Probably should blog while the memories of bali are still relatively fresh in my mind. now...where do i begin? let's give a brief introduction of the place, i guess. bali is part of indonesia, though it's an island by itself. from what i noticed, they seem to not be "mainstream" indonesian. as in, they speak bahasa indonesia, but i believe that bali was once separate from indonesia before being unified. as such, its cultural heritage is somewhat different. i guess a close parallel would be kind of like what okinawa is to japan, or quebec is to canada. flying from singapore to bali takes just more than 3 hours. as of this post, the exchange rate from SGD to INR is approximately 1:10000. i changed SGD 253 for INR 2.3 million at changi airport, so each INR 100000 note was basically worth about SGD 10. have to admit, dealing with all those extra zeroes can be quite confusing initially, but you'll probably adapt to it sooner or later. interesting trivia. in chinese, the word "bali" is pronounced the same as "paris". there was almost a small miscommunication when my lab friend asked where i'd been. to avoid confusion, the suffix "dao" (island) is added when you mean bali and not paris.

airfare to bali is reasonable; i flew budget both ways, and the average airfare is about SGD 110 each way. arriving at the airport was a bit of a shock for me. the airport was basically a single building, housing just one terminal for both arrivals and departures. what was more scary was that the moment you clear customs and get to the arrival hall, you'll instantly be assailed by people going "taxi? taxi?". you see, bali's economy is predominantly driven by tourism, so foreigners are "targeted". as a consequence of being a tourist-driven economy, the locals understand english well enough, which i found reassuring since i don't speak bahasa at all. i guess i kind of understand how it feels to be linguistically handicapped. note to self: be kinder to people who may not speak english in singapore. anyway, thanks to my cousin and his now-wife, i never had to take taxis anywhere throughout my stay there. but if you do have to take taxis in bali, the advice i got was to look for blue bird group taxis, and insist that they go by the meter.

looks like i haven't mentioned it yet, but this is my first-ever trip to bali. it's also my first trip out of singapore since 2015. figured that i was overdue for a break. my flight arrived at about 7:20pm on saturday, and clearing immigration and customs took about 45 minutes in total. pro tip: if you're taking a short trip, don't bring checked luggage. makes life so much more convenient. that nearly backfired on me though, but i'll get to that later. i waited at the airport for my aunt and uncle, whose flight was scheduled to land about an hour after mine. we met our driver (after some delay), and got into the chartered minibus...which wouldn't start. my uncle and i ended up pushing the minibus for a short distance (maybe 50-100m) before it got working again. so no major harm done. we went to this restaurant called warung made ("mah-day", not "past tense of make") to link up with my cousin for dinner. the trip there was my first experience of the traffic and driving style in bali. over there, lane markers are more like...guidelines. even the arrows indicating the direction of traffic flow were guidelines, albeit ones that were more strictly adhered to. and the motorbikes, my goodness. if i had to guess, i'd say that bikes outnumber cars anywhere from 5 to 10 times. it was the first time in my life i saw a flock of motorbikes turning in front of our vehicle. it was glorious, and quite terrifying. let's just say bricks were excreted that first ride.

after dinner, we went to our hotel. my cousin was putting us up at the swiss-belhotel. i'd personally rate it at about 3 stars. the facilities were minimal (small but beautiful pool, exercise room with 3 machines, restaurant, bar), but who comes to bali to stay in the hotel all day? thankfully, the room was pretty good. my cousin booked me for a double room, so that was a nice surprise. let me digress for a funny-ish anecdote - my cousin had told me earlier that i could bring a plus one since the room was already paid for. having broken up by that time, i jokingly asked scary JC friend if she'd like to go. she actually considered it, before declining due to her schedule already being quite packed. she was suggesting that i introduce her as my date, and when people asked how a guy like me could get a girl like her, our story would be that she was actually the one chasing me, and i didn't want to commit to her yet. it would have been hilarious! ok back to the main story. i had no issue with the hotel facilities, and was generally quite happy with it. for $50 a night (after some discounts), it's pretty worth the money. the one thing i didn't find satisfactory was the breakfast that was included in the booking. i had 2 breakfasts in the hotel, on my first and last mornings there. the first breakfast was better in the sense that the items on offer were cooked decently. the second one was worse, because the one of the meat dishes tasted off. luckily my stomach could handle it. in the downtime between events (and for white noise at night), i turned the TV on. probably watched more TV in my time in bali than i have for the past 4 years. i was flipping through the channels and paused on cartoon network. somehow, it seems that the quality of the channel has declined, both in animation and production quality.

day 2 was the big day, so there was quite a flurry of activity. due to the reports of volcanic activity, some guests decided not to go after all. the dropout rate was about 20%, and that included 2 groomsmen. my cousin even messaged me a few days before to put me on standby as a backup groomsman. good thing that i wasn't activated, and was free to enjoy the event as a guest. the day started off with brunch with my aunt and uncle, plus my older cousin (the groom's brother) and his wife. we went to a cafe called livingstone, which was a short walk from the hotel. my aunt and uncle went back first as they had to go down to the wedding venue ahead of time, and i went shopping with my cousin and his wife at bintang supermarket. bought some souvenirs for the lab, as well as a huge 5L tank of mineral water, which is a trick i learned from following a senior coach to macau in 2014. then, it was back to the hotel to shower and have a short breather before we went down to the wedding venue. according to google maps, it's 18km away from the hotel. my cousin budgeted 90 minutes for us to make the journey, which i thought was excessive. turns out it was just right. you see, the roads in bali are in good condition, but the norm is to have one lane in either direction. so when something holds up traffic, there isn't much we can do to get around the obstacle. and the drivers are so laid back and gracious! like, i don't think the concept of right of way exists there. drivers will generally give way, even when a vehicle from the opposing direction borrows a section of the road to do a three point turn! it was seriously amazing to witness. i think the average speed of a vehicle in bali is between 20 to 40 km/h, and the fastest i've seen a driver go is 60-ish. unfortunately, that has the side effect of making trips take longer than they should, so do budget your time properly. from our hotel, it was me, our mechanic friend (the same guy who examined my car for COE renewal), his wife, and my cousin's JC friend. we got there early, and spent a while touring the venue. there was a little screw-up with the transport, but thankfully my elder cousin handled it and all the guests made it in time for the chapel service. before that, i also met my one and only tuition teacher. i had chinese tuition with her and her husband in primary school, for 1 or 2 years, i think. don't remember exactly how long, but i remember receiving a copy of harry potter and the goblet of fire after a tuition session, and staying up till midnight to finish the book. all in all, i think i haven't seen them in 17-ish years, although i do have a vague memory of going to their house once for teacher's day in secondary school. it was nice to reconnect with them, and surprisingly, she remembers a few (embarrassing) things about me that i'd all but forgotten.

the wedding itself was beautiful. the chapel was literally overlooking the sea, so i got some stunning photos. they used water features very well too; there were fountains, waterfalls, and even still pools of water. the service was christian-themed, and had the sense of occasion that a wedding should have. there were a few creative twists, like my cousin singing as the bride walked in. i think a few tears may have escaped my eyes, but i don't remember too clearly. after the service, it was time for dinner. unlike in singapore, where it's usually a sit-down dinner, this one was a buffet. i suppose it makes a bit more sense, since the seating arrangement was long tables instead of round. would have been challenging to serve dishes within everyone's reach. the food was good! they had a kushiyaki section, local dishes, and some fusion stuff, like a tuna cocktail. i'm hard-pressed to pick a favourite, but that's probably because everything was good. we were then invited to go outdoors to witness the father-daughter and bride-groom dances. the former was really touching, while the latter was quite amazing. apparently, they choreographed a dance and spent time rehearsing. i'd thought that it would just be a standard slow dance or waltz thing. and the fireworks which were set off scared the hell out of me. it was meant to be a surprise, and they later told me that the timing was off - a minute too early. wouldn't have guessed otherwise, it ended up nicely, i think. we continued the party with drinks back at the hotel bar, and then in the groomsmen's room. first time for me to meet my cousin's friends. they're generally a nice bunch, though i've only known them for a day. i must say though, the best man did a great job as emcee.

most of day 3 was spent with my older cousin and his wife, who graciously invited me to tag along with them on their sightseeing trip to the tegalallang rice terraces. before that though, we ate with my aunt and uncle at naughty nuri's, which is a diner specializing in meat. they're known for their pork ribs, which were great. surprisingly, my cousin told me that they opened a branch in singapore, at capitol piazza. we had ribs, satay, sausages, and dessert. i went for their shake, which was ridiculously sweet. pretty good experience overall. the rice terrace was - you guessed it - another hour away from the hotel. and sadly, it was raining. that diminished the experience a little, but i still got some nice photos. on the way back, we stopped by a coffee plantation and got an excellent and extremely informative tour of the place. tasted kopi luwak, which is the famed civet coffee. i'm not much of a connoisseur, so i didn't find it that special. the only thing i noticed was that it was milder and more sour than regular coffee. ended up buying more coffee and some tea as souvenirs, and a bag of coconut coffee for myself. was tempted to get vanilla coffee too, but goodness knows i drink less than 10 cups a year, and each bag makes 50. dinner came next, at this place called mexicola. it had a serious 1980s vibe, and as the name may have gave away, serves mexican food. seems like a popular tourist destination. there were caucasians dancing on the tables; think it was someone's birthday. after that, i met my other cousin (the groom) and his wife for their dinner at a restaurant called mamasan. the food there was amazing, but pricey. would probably go back again due to the large variety on offer.

by day 4, all the guests had probably flown back already, except the newlyweds and me. i did my best lightbulb impression and followed them to beachwalk mall for lunch and a movie. disclaimer: they invited me along; i'm not thick-skinned enough to elbow my way in. luch was at this diner called kafe betawi. we ordered various dishes, among which was the single most memorable dish in my bali experience. it's a soup called soto betawi, which translates loosely into "soup of the betawi (indigenous people of jarkata)". the reason why it's memorable to me is because previously, my impression of indonesian soups was that they're watery and not very flavourful. somewhat like drinking lightly-salted water. soto betawi is different. it's rich, flavourful, and you can add black sauce and achar to further enhance the flavour. i did some basic research to find out how to prepare it, and it seems doable. intimidating due to the sheer amount of spices involved, but doable. maybe i'll surprise my new cousin-in-law with it one day. we caught blade runner 2049 in the premier theatre, which is like GV gold class, but at a third of the price. they had leather recliners, blankets, and you could order food/drinks too! i liked the movie ok-ishly. since i didn't watch the first blade runner, i'm sure that i missed a fair few references. managed to follow the plot, and got the story overall. i've got a couple of facebook friends who analyzed the movie in-depth, going on about the rise of robots in future. me? i just enjoyed the movie on a superficial level. overall rating: 5/10. would not recommend watching in theatres.

we headed for a spa appointment after that, because who goes to bali without getting a massage? we opted for the 90-minute full-body package at this place called cozy spa. the therapist was extremely strong, which was good. i was in fairly considerable pain, which wasn't so good. my calves felt pulverized after the session, but i think it helped my circulation. that was followed up with dinner at a warung (diner), where the chili sauce was spicy beyond measure. my cousin enjoyed it, though it was a bit too much for both his wife and me. i had the duck, which tasted a little...not properly cleaned. but well, it's part of the experience. to round off the trip, i went for a foot reflexology session at sundari day spa (very close to our hotel) the next morning. it was definitely the better of the two spas. the therapist was great too...although i think he may have rubbed off 35% of my leg hair during the session. wasn't very eventful after that...went back to the hotel, checked out, took a grab to the airport, then flew back to singapore. i'm not entirely sure, but i think the grab driver cheated me a little. the price on the app was INR 44000, or SGD 4.40. i was prepared to give him INR 45000, just to get rid of all my indonesian currency. he told me that the fare was actually INR 50000, because the airport had an entrance fee. to be fair, there was a gantry, though i don't know how much the toll was. didn't want to make too big a fuss. after all, the difference of INR 5000 is like SGD 50 cents. while waiting at the airport, i noticed that there was a lady crying at the departure gate. i guess she probably just sent off a close friend or relative. to me, flying abroad has always been a happy experience. i guess it's because i only fly for holidays or otherwise positive things, and not to work for extended periods of time or whatever. i took a quick trip through the duty-free shop while waiting, and some small masochistic part of me went to the cologne section, where they had montblanc starwalker for sale. this same masochistic part of me proceeded to grab the tester bottle and spray a bit on my wrist. it smelled the same. a few of you would get why i said it's the masochistic part of me. for the rest who don't, it's because the ex used to wear that fragrance a lot. i have to admit, it smelled good on them. thankfully, i didn't feel any rage or depression. more like a twinge of sadness and resignation.

gosh, this is the longest post i've written in a while. i do want to talk a bit more, mainly to make some social commentary about bali and singapore, as well as to explore my feelings about the whole wedding/marriage thing a bit more. but that can probably wait. as it is, i'm sure that there's already a ton of stuff to read. so, until next time, i guess.

-random thought of the day: Moving forward for the paper!-

This past weekend, i went out with scary JC friend and the chemistry guys for karaoke. she wanted to sing, so i thought might as well make a group outing of it. it was rather enjoyable, as these things tend to be. we sang at katong shopping centre, then had dinner at parkway. feels kind of familiar...i think we did similar for our previous session.

anyway, i drove scary JC friend home after the whole thing, and we had a chat along the way. it mainly covered our single lives, and future relationship prospects. even though i know it in the back of my mind somewhere, i always sort of forget how insightful she can be. i was telling her that there were a couple of people that i was interested in right now, but would probably not take any action on them. she told me that perhaps i wasn't ready for another relationship. this is due to several factors, one of them being insecurity about my physical appearance. and while i'm loath to admit it, she's right. after all, if i'm not happy with how i look, i can't project that aura of confidence and assuredness that would make dating easier. so i guess there's that to work on.

she also gave me some food for thought by asking me what kind are some of the physical attributes i found attractive and would go for. i think i would go for someone with a nice smile, who wears glasses, within 10cm of my height either way (less important), and who is reasonably in shape. and that's the problem...if i want to ask that someone has an attribute, i'd better be sure to have it myself first. it's probably a good thing that i'm not in a rush to get into another relationship, and that i'm taking the next few months as "me time" to work on myself. i figure that if the dating scene is about selling yourself well, i have to be happy with and confident in the product (ie. me) before i can effectively persuade other people to buy it. so yes. i figure that i have to make better use of my time and treat myself with more care. while i will start on the nutrition end after the bali trip, gymming will have to be put off until at least november due to...reasons, both medical and academic.

research is slowly killing me, by the way. i think i mentioned that my original plan failed, so i devised a shorter route to a simpler compound. the crude mixture is drying now. what worries me is that the crude mass spectrum doesn't show the platinum isotopic pattern. if this doesn't work, i'll just have to use a longer, messier route. with time running out, i must admit that the stress is building, and getting to me. maybe i need sleep.

-random thought of the day: I'm not sure.-