Other than my civic coming back, the only other notable thing is probably that i'm bleeding money. not literally, though i wish it was. then i'd collect my money-blood to pay off my debts.

jokes aside for now, let's talk about the car. the accident happened on 09 february and i got it back on 14 may, meaning that i've gone about 3 months and a week without it. appearance-wise, the car looks good as new. actually, it probably looks better than before-accident, since most of the scratched-up parts (mudguard, bumper) were banged up in the accident and had to be replaced. performance-wise, i've not noticed any serious issues. some minor issues include the steering alignment being slightly off, the wipers being possibly misaligned, and the placement of the cashcard IU making it difficult to put the cashcard cover/protector on. nothing i can't live with, but i intend on getting them resolved. my nice mechanic friend told me to monitor the car's performance for about a month, then we'd look at rectifying them. the way they repaired the car was that since the engine and cabin were undamaged, they bought over a civic due for scrapping, and replaced the front exterior. the bumpers, fenders, hood/bonnet, basically. they apparently hammered out the damage to the back, which is impressive, considering how badly it was crumpled in. they did change the dashboard and seatbelts for the interior, as the airbags deploying and seatbelt tensioner activating caused those items to need replacement. and of course, they resprayed everything black again. call me sentimental, corny, lame, or whatever, but over the past week, i've been spending some quality time with the car after most of our drives together. i'm just grateful to have it back.

it's weird, but i felt an incredible sense of relief and happiness when i got back into the driver's seat. i also realized how little i pay attention to some minor details. like, i found myself looking at certain parts of the car and thinking 'was it this colour before?'. verifying against previous photos showed that the colour scheme remained the same, so i guess it was just me. it took me some time to re-adjust to driving it too, like repositioning my mirrors, and getting back the sensitivity for the accelerator. it does feel good to drive a more powerful car again, like, i'm barely stepping down and it's already at 60km/h. i probably have to check the tyre pressure again, which i forgot to do at the petrol station last night. one downside of going back to the civic is the higher rate of petrol consumption. i used up about $40 of petrol in the past week, which is about normal considering that i didn't drive every day. i recall that one tank lasts between 7 to 10 days, unlike the 12 to 14 for the fit. but well, it's something that i'm willing to bear just so i can have my civic back.

spent some time with scary JC friend this past saturday. about 6 hours, to be exact. she'd sent her phone in for repair, and we were due for a catch-up session anyway. she's one of the few people for whom i'd be willing to brave orchard road traffic for. from my aunt's place in east coast, it took about 20 minutes to reach orchard road, another 25 minutes of queueing along orchard boulevard to get into ion orchard, and another 15 minutes of going round the carpark to find a lot. it's a good thing i went down, because it seems that she's facing a kind of rough patch...but i can't say too much in the interest of privacy. she also had a long philosophical discussion with this guy at the bar we were at. something about fairness, equality, luck, karma, present, past...i chipped in occasionally, but was content to let them talk for the most part. she's really good at mixing with people. unfortunately, this guy turned out to be kind of abrasive, which she handled well. perhaps let me correct that statement. the guy is nice at heart. but the way he said certain things, coupled with his body language, gave off a pretty offensive vibe. reminds me of one of the chemistry guys, actually, but i won't say who here. luckily she's open-minded enough to not take too much offense and to speak objectively. i hope that she felt better after we hung out. after all the time she's spent listening to my relationship problems, the least i can do is be there for her as well when she's down. but in case her boyfriend ever chances upon this, i'll just say once and for all that we are totally not interested in each other romantically. so close as we may be, the most we will ever be is good friends.

on the topic of romantic interest (or romantic stuff in general), reminders of the ex are gradually fading from my life, whether by choice or not. i realize that one way to maintain a presence in your ex's life after you break up is to buy them nice clothes. of course it's not guaranteed to succeed; i'd have thrown out the clothes if the breakup was really bad. i did consider changing my wallet, which was also a gift from the ex. but that will have to wait until it gets filled with more money. the reason this train of thought came about was because i was talking to my cousin about insurance, and had to show him my ic. it was also partially triggered by me leaving my free company (abbreviated FC, also known as a guild in other MMOs) in final fantasy 14. the ex had found the fc, and we joined it together back when i just started out in the game. then the ex stopped playing, and i continued on. it's actually a pretty good community, people are friendly and willing to help out. but at the same time, there was too little social interaction. the raiders had their own regular raid group (aka. a static), and everyone was just doing their own thing unless asked to party up. not to mention that out of over 80 members, around half have been inactive for at least a year. so i realized that what people say is true. sometimes, change is triggered because it's too painful to stay in the current situation. funny how an MMO can teach you life lessons, isn't it? i was also looking through my in-game mailbox, and saw a few messages between me and the ex. not love letters or anything like that, but just sending items to each other. i realize that all these little things still don't make me wish that i was back together with the ex...and i think that that's a good sign.

that's it for now i think. i'm also wrapping up my thesis, since i told my professor that i couldn't get the product after synthesis. still have to finish chapter 4, as well as the preamble-y bits. will aim for a may submission, because all this dragging isn't doing me any good. with luck, it'll come back by july, then edits by august, defense in september. that's with luck. but let's focus on the present first. printing by next monday should be possible.

-random thought of the day: Focus!-

Gosh, i'm long overdue for the jakarta update. let's see...it was only my second time in indonesia. my bahasa indonesia didn't really improve since bali, so i was still pretty much limited to "terima kasih". thankfully, i had another friend who was familiar with the locality. i flew by lionair, which is an indonesian budget airline. it's the second-largest low-cost carrier in asia, second only to airasia. i think this was the first time i've departed from terminal 3. wasn't that special. might have been because i was still recovering from traveller's sickness from uzbekistan, which resulted in an upset stomach in the intervening week between uzbekistan and jakarta. it was bad enough to cause me to break my 7-year no-doctor streak, and also because i was worried that the spicy food in indonesia would make the situation worse. i was impressed by the butterfly garden, though! it provided a nice contrast against the architecture. perhaps it was due to feeling under the weather, or that i didn't sleep the night before, but i found myself crying while watching moana on my tablet. a little out of character, but oh well. which reminds me. i need to finish watching it.

flying to jakarta took about 2+ hours, though it's effectively 1+ due to time zone differences. my baggage was a little delayed, and my friend ended up having to wait with/for me. we finally made it out of the airport and into the city, where we had our first meal at a restaurant/diner. my friend really took care of me over the entire 5 days, and he even went above and beyond by asking his local contact to research one of my food requests - soto betawi. i had like, 3 bowls in the 5 days i was there, but so far none came close to the one i had in bali. on the first day, we went to see a bag manufacturer to ask about some merchandising ideas we had. apparently, there was a meeting for technical officials which we weren't informed about. but according to our friends from other countries who attended, we didn't miss much. oh! we also watched avengers: infinity war in the GV gold-class equivalent. SGD 10 for a reclining seat! the movie itself was good, i liked the various storylines coming together. there was one giant plot hole though...involving something that happened earlier in the movie that could have been used to easily resolve the main conflict. to not give away spoilers, i'll just say it's something about the portals that dr strange uses. i'd rate it 4.5, but there's not much rewatch value in my opinion. very few movies are worth multiple views to me these days, not sure why. guess the storylines are too serious; i like watching comedies more. have i ever mentioned that there was a time where i could repeat back most lines of bruce almighty along with the movie, and with decent accuracy?

the main body of our athletes arrived on the second day. my friend and i were occupied with the anti-doping seminar, so we couldn't go to meet them at the airport. they got a pickup from the organizers though, so that was good. apart from that, there was also the draw. our athletes were matched with others from taiwan and indonesia. what else did we do? oh! we went out for tea, to this cafe in a shopping mall. their red velvet pie was good! and they had a red velvet sundae too. chunks of cream cheese, vanilla ice cream, and red velvet crumble topping. delicious, if rather messy to eat. there was black forest cake, nachos, and fries as well. didn't eat too much because my stomach was still feeling off, but i enjoyed what i ate.

days 3 and 4 were competition days. we had a technical briefing on day 3 morning, followed by the first half of the competition in day 3 afternoon/night. being a referee, i had to stay back for the final brief which was held after the medal presentations. the rest of the team went back to the hotel first, and i was kind of irked that they kept asking for my whereabouts and status. coupled with my fatigue and irritability from the refereeing and having to stay late, i kind of sent a sharply-worded text message to the group. not very professional of me. must remember to keep my negative emotions in check, especially when people are concerned about me. there was no technical briefing on day 4 morning, leaving us free. so i went for a foot reflexology session. it hurt, in a good way. my sprained toes got a working-over, and they hurt less now...thought that might be the natural healing process too. after all, it's been about 3 months since the accident. the afternoon was spent refereeing again, and this time, i got to leave with the rest of the singapore team. we decided to have a celebratory meal to mark the end of the competition. we invited our taiwan friends, but one of them was held up in a technical official meeting, so we went with one taiwanese guy only. dinner was good, but spicy as usual. it was a nice conclusion to our trip.

we flew back in the morning of day 5. had breakfast at A&W at the airport. i honestly don't remember the last time i ate at one of their branches...probably when the one at the zoo was still operational. so seeing as it was a special occasion, i strayed from my no carbonated drinks rule and got a root beer float. somehow it tasted better than either root beer or ice cream would on their own. our flight back was not that smooth. there was a lot of waiting. for the shuttle bus to the plane, for the plane to take off...and we were eventually delayed by an hour. it was also the first time i'd seen a traffic jam of aeroplanes. there were like, 6 or 7 aircraft lined up on the runway waiting to take off. if i had to guess, i'd say that the air traffic control didn't/couldn't coordinate it so that all the planes could leave on time. similarly, i had to wait extra long for the bus after the first day of refereeing, contributing to my bad mood. this leads me to the only issue i have with indonesia - organizational inefficiency. my guess is that it's a combination of bad traffic, laid back attitudes, and reluctance to change that causes this. if i were there on a holiday, i wouldn't mind so much. but it was an international event! hopefully the roads near the asian games venue will be closed to the public.

it was a good trip, all things considered. i learnt a lot from watching more senior referees, and i was reminded how fortunate i am to be able to referee at such a big event such a short time after gaining accreditation. there was more bonding with the kids, which helps to make the team and federation stronger. and as a big bonus to myself, i saw someone i really like. but as i said previously, it is unlikely that anything romantic will develop from our interaction, and what kind of sucks and at the same time is kind of a relief is that it is completely out of my control. but at least we can be friends, right? unlike with malaysian person, who isn't replying to my texts any more. as my in-game friend said, maybe i'm boring. who knows?

that's part 1 of significant happenings in the past 2-3 weeks. i'll update soon with part 2. spoilers for the next post: my civic's back.

-random thought of the day: Submission coming soon!-

Been a week to the day since i got back from uzbekistan. figured that i'd better blog about it before the memories get overwritten by my next overseas trip, which is in a couple of days. let's start with basic info about uzbekistan. the national flight carrier, uzbekistan airways, offers a 7-hour direct flight from singapore to the capital, tashkent, twice a week. other nearby connections happen through malaysia and thailand, though the flight dates will all be quite similar. the flight costs around SGD1200, and thankfully the organizers sponsored our flight there. the service on board was decent enough, and i must admit that i'm fairly unaccustomed to taking full-service flights due to my usual cost-saving measure of budget airlines. personally, i view flying just as a form of transport. while i won't say no to more comfortable seats, the food and entertainment are (in my opinion) unnecessary, at least for flights under 8 hours. arriving at tashkent took me out of my comfort zone a little. for one, the airport was quite small. not quite what i was expecting for a capital city. it's about on par with the airport in bali...one terminal to handle both arrivals and departures, but not much in terms of food or shopping. those are located in the adjacent building. speaking of shopping, prices are cheap in uzbekistan. compared to singapore, at least. the uzbek som/sohm (UZS) is the currency over there, and SGD1 exchanges for about UZS6000. it's super common to find foreigners hauling huge stacks of cash due to the currency being so inflated. for some perspective, 5 of us ate very well for about UZS200 000, or about SGD33. transport costs about UZS1200 for the train (to any destination), and UZS10000-15000 for a taxi ride.

another reason why i was out of my comfort zone was because the weather was so cold! we touched down at about 3:00am, and the temperature was about 7°C. genius me didn't even bring a jacket. the one thing that disoriented me the most was the language. almost all of the locals speak uzbek, while the older generation can also speak russian due to uzbekistan being part of the former USSR. english ranks a distant third. even our guides/interpreters, who are university students, spoke halting english. their vocabulary was decent enough, but their grammar was shaky. not complaining though, since many of them told us that it was their first time using english outside of the classroom with foreigners. since we got in so early in the morning, we were taken to our hotel to rest up before even more travelling. they gave the 3 of us from singapore a suite each! amazing first impression, but that changed towards the end of the trip. after some rest and breakfast, we started the car journey to shahrisabz, where the competition was to be held. i still don't get how a 5+ hour journey on google maps took 10 hours in reality. it wasn't like the traffic was bad or anything. but anyway. we stopped at samarkand (another big-ish city) along the way for a late lunch, before some sightseeing and then continuing on our journey.

let me just digress to talk about the food in uzbekistan for a bit. i enjoyed the vast majority of the meals we had there. they treat bread how we asians treat rice; it's a vital component of every meal. each meal starts with a bread basket, some cold cuts, and a few salads or fresh vegetables. then there might be a soup or some other small dish before the main course (usually meat skewers) would be served. we had beef and lamb for the most part, with chicken featuring a few times too. there was horse meat served on a few occasions. how's that for exotic? i had a piece just for the experience, and i have to say that it didn't really make an impact (positive or negative) on me. the lamb was good, though. in singapore, most lamb tends to have this gamey smell. but not in uzbekistan. the lamb there smelled and tasted so clean! some of the more interesting dishes i remember seeing (apart from the horse meat) was a herb salad (literally rosemary in a cream dressing with some seasoning), plov (the national dish of uzbekistan, similar to singapore's nasi briyani), and this interesting stem vegetable which tasted really sour and supposedly grew on the mountains only in april. oh! and there was tea with every meal. the uzbek tea customs are quite different from the ones we have here. normally, what we do is pour the tea for others first as a gesture of respect, then serve ourselves last. but that's impolite in uzbekistan, and is seen as a sign of enmity. they pour the first cup for themselves, and offer subsequent cups to their friends. something about making sure the tea isn't poisoned i guess? and there was this ritual at the start of a new pot about pouring a cup of tea, and pouring the tea back into the pot, repeating the process three times. not sure about the practical significance, but i suppose it's a cultural thing. there was a conspicuous lack of seafood, though. understandable, seeing as uzbekistan is fairly land-locked.

after the ridiculously long drive, we arrived at shahrisabz. the hotel was billed at three stars, but i wouldn't go that high. never mind that there were no luxuries, like swimming pools or gyms. i can even close an eye to the spotty wi-fi connection, which only worked at the reception counter, and sometimes not even then. but i cannot ignore the lack of what i deem as basic requirements for a hotel...such as consistent hot water and decent water pressure. to paraphrase from one of my athletes, the water pressure was akin to that of a watering can, and showering felt like we were plants being watered. luckily, one of our rooms had its own dedicated water heater tank, so we all went there for showers. so, day 1 ended off with us being tired from the journey.

day 2 was more getting settled and handling some administrative stuff for the competition. i think there was a brief sightseeing trip in the morning too. should mention that this competition was held in memory of amir timur, who was this great warlord in the 13th century or so. as such, all of our sightseeing destinations involved him somehow. his castle, mausoleum, and a museum dedicated to him. the draw went ok. my guy faced an italian in the first round, while my girl faced a thai. for my part, there was some miscommunication, and i was not listed as a referee despite having the referee pass and a confirmation email. and because they provided referee attire for each referee without recording my sizes, i had to scrounge around and piece an outfit together. it worked...but barely. don't remember much else about day 2, but i think it was pretty relaxing.

competition day! for a competition held in such a small town, it was a pretty grand occasion! we had our own car, a chevrolet, with country placard and everything. not to forget the police escort, despite the stadium being only about 5 minutes away by car. the scale of the competition was decent...3 mats total, and stands packed full of supporters. did i mention it was held outdoors, in a field in the middle of a stadium? the organization, however, was a little lacking. there was no electricity to the field, so my taiwanese friend couldn't do her work as the technical official. and with the crazy uzbek weather, the mats got too hot to fight on after a few hours, so a break was called and we resumed in the evening. the competition went on until close to midnight, by which time it was too cold. i was literally shivering in my seat towards the end. but at the beginning, it was sufficiently hot and sunny to give me sunburn on half my face. why only half? because i was corner refereeing for a fair few bouts, and the same side of my face was exposed to the sun. my 2 fighters didn't win, but performed ok-ishly. it's a learning experience, after all. for me, i think i did ok refereeing. didn't feel that nervous, which was a blessing. still have room to improve, though.

after the competition, the next day was spent travelling back to tashkent. it was another 10-hour drive, and this time, we shared the minibus with the mongolian delegation. it was mildly uncomfortable, because they somehow managed to bring vodka onto the bus and were trying to make me drink. luckily i deflected most of their attempts. the mongolian athlete spoke japanese, so we had some halting conversation. it's quite interesting to learn about people whose lives and cultures are so far removed from your own. towards the end, the mongolian coach got a little...physical with me, like leaning on me to sleep, and hitting my sunburn. why is it that every time i get sunburnt, someone will manhandle me at the exact spot!? happened once in primary school at a family chalet with my cousins, and once again here. once we got back in tashkent, there was a problem with the hotel rooms. apparently, they had insufficient rooms, so they had my female athlete share with the female athlete from hong kong. seeing as how singapore and hong kong are on ok terms, it was fine. but as a matter of principle, delegates' accommodations are separated by gender, then by country. and this is in spite of them promising us the VIP suites again! sigh. i was understandably upset, seeing as it was after a long day of travel, and the situation was made worse by the interpreter. but i'll cover that later.

our last day was spent sightseeing with the taiwanese team. i first met them when i went over for the referee course, and we maintained good relations throughout our trip. first stop was the tashkent TV tower. pretty good view, if a little sparse in terms of amenities. we then had lunch at this restaurant where we ordered a little too much, but finished it nonetheless. as we were having problems with the menu and getting our questions understood, a customer from the neighbouring table came over to help us translate. i thought he was a wait staff at first! turns out that he's a university student, and he and his friends brought us around for a little sightseeing. we took the subway to freedom square, but it was closed. turns out the president of tajikistan was visiting that day too, so maybe they closed it for the event, or for repairs. the subway was interesting. instead of tapping contactless cards or even using paper tickets, they had these blue plastic chips which served as tickets. and apparently there was a flat fare regardless of number of stops. we also got our portraits drawn! those street artists are seriously skilled. the only downside was having to sit still for 20 minutes. i didn't want to initially, but the scary taiwanese coach told me to just sit down. so sit down lor. they did a good job in replicating my likeness, but i still didn't like what i saw. it's no fault of theirs...just me and my self-image issues. following that, we went pack to the hotel, packed, and flew back to singapore with a stopover in bangkok for a few hours. the flight back was...disastrous. like i briefly alluded to in my previous post, there were 3 noisy guys behind us. they kept pulling on our seats, and even me calling the stewardess to tell them to knock it off didn't work. i also caught snippets of a movie, entitled hidden figures, about kathleen johnson, who was the (black) woman responsible for doing a significant number of calculations for the american space project in the 1960s. watching that movie made me feel an odd sense of sadness/sympathy. and it also got me wondering, how can the united states be the best and worst place in the world simultaneously? i really wonder about some of their laws and beliefs, but i'll save that for a separate post.

so we arrived in singapore last tuesday afternoon, where the federation's secretary-general met us at the airport and took us for dinner. after dropping the athletes off, we had a long discussion about the stuff i learned over there. it seems that the singapore judo federation are overstepping their bounds. but i will deal with that in a more discreet manner for now. and i think it might have been something i ate around that time, but my stomach has been acting up since thursday or so. quite ironic and super fortunate that i didn't suffer for any gastrointestinal distress during my time in uzbekistan, but it happened in singapore instead. perhaps it's getting accustomed to spice again. there was basically no chili over there. being a mild hypochondriac, especially after overseas travel, i googled symptoms of gastrointestinal cancer and tapeworm infestation. both of them are poor matches with what i'm experiencing, so that's a relief. it's more likely than not just a mild case of food poisoning. perhaps i'll go see the doctor tomorrow for peace of mind, before i fly to jakarta.

to sum it up, uzbekistan was good. i'd rate the hospitality 15/10, easy. unfortunately, their organization and event management was a little lacking...i'd go 3/10 for that. the times given were almost never adhered to, they overpromised and underdelivered some stuff, and of course there was the whole room fiasco. i guess the guide assigned to help us was inexperienced at conflict resolution, because when i expressed my displeasure, he just went, "bro, why must you talk like that?". i told him that if i encountered this level of...to put it bluntly, incompetence in singapore, i'd have been shouting at him already. to make things worse, he told me he was a lawyer. not sure whether he wanted to impress me or what, but all it did for me was add on to the slimy factor. oh well. it was just one blemish on an otherwise amazing trip, so the net impression is still positive. bear in mind though, we went as a national delegation to an international event, so the experience will probably be significantly different if you go as a regular tourist. we were talking among ourselves - could we live in uzbekistan? for me, i think i could if i tried, but it wouldn't be the first country i'd choose. the language and culture are major obstacles. one thing that bothered me a little was the constant feeling of "big brother is watching you". might be that i'm thinking too much, and because it was an international event too. almost everyone there in an official capacity asked us this question upon initiating conversation - "is everything ok? any problem?". i think you're supposed to say yes/no respectively, because they got stunned when i told them about some issues we faced, eg. water supply. well...maybe it's a cultural difference.

since getting back, i've worked a bit more on my thesis. i think that there's not much else i can do. adding the drug to the platinum doesn't seem to work. and to be honest, i'm kind of getting tired of trying. maybe my junior will publish it after i'm gone. i'm just hoping that the existing paper i have can tide me through the exam and defense. i'll have a quick chat with my professor tomorrow, and tell him about my plan. by hook or by crook, i want to submit within a few days after coming back from jakarta.

-random thought of the day: Talk about meeting scary JC friend.-