the ubin cycling was great. it's been, what, four years since i've biked, and as always, i'm amazed that i can remember instinctively how to balance. we went by abandoned wooden houses, the obs campsite, a country club which could only have been a failure, and several suicidal cats. suicidal because they insisted on sitting in the middle of the road to clean themselves, despite the rapidity with which we were approaching them. the dogs on ubin mostly look the same, with the handsome snout and orange-brown coloring. oh and i did something amazing -- i managed to force a van off the road. but it wasn't entirely my fault! i didn't hear him coming from behind, and when i did, i moved to the right, and for some reason, he moved to the right too, and in trying to avoid me, he had to drive on the grass verge. he honked me as he passed.


it was a sweltering day, and thanks to greg, we found ourselves on some gravel hill leading to nowhere with diggers doing their work in the distance.


and for the first time in years, i got to drink coconut juice from a coconut. fantastic, epsecially with the sun was beating down like it was on wednesday. had a great time, although my butt didn't. my pubic symphysis, ischial tuberosity and coccyx all took turns getting bumped by the saddle, and even now, they still ache. ugh. anyway, we left at about one or two and headed to tm for lunch at pizza hut. great way to round up the day.


yesterday, it was outing-with-fishie day. gosh has it been two weeks since pros ended?! we went to cine to catch the pacifier, starring vin diesel. that guy's perfect for the role, stoic, expressionless, buffed yet somewhat pleasant enough to take on the role of a navy seal turned babysitter. it's a great comedy, some slapstick but altogether good fun, though it must be the most violent disney film ever.


there's been lots of talk about the renaming of the medical school. one camp is angry because it's a silly name to have and the dean's office never asked us for our opinion. the other camp points out that having such a name distinguishes us from other schools in the region, and indeed the world. i happen to side with them. are we supposed to give a british, ang moh name to the school? naming the school after an asian was the right thing to do, especially since his family donated such a substantial sum. -no one- has ever bothered to do so. on top of that, imagine if the dean's office had asked us. they'd probably have never gotten round to deciding on a name!