slung

I'm exhausted; I would say that I'm doing pretty well with the jetlag, but I woke up at six a.m. this morning even though I could sleep until after 7:30, and so I didn't get as much sleep as I would have liked. I also had a glass of wine and a Singapore Sling over dinner (see below), which didn't help matters.

I spent most of the day slogging, both at the office and at the hotel when I walked back here during a mild downpour. As proof of how nice Singaporeans are, some girl shared her umbrella with me as we crossed the street -- if that happened in San Francisco, they would expect you to give them drug money for the service. I had a pretty productive day and feel that that things are slowly coming together with the conference I'm planning. I also had lunch with Sarah; she took me to the Maxwell Road hawker stalls, a mostly-open-air area with several aisles of cooking stalls serving up all sorts of delicacies and Asian cuisines (Chinese, Thai, Indian, Singaporean, etc.). We split some noodles and a 'carrot cake' (see photos below to understand why carrot cake is in quotes).

However, I got some sad news after lunch; my uncle Scott (my mother's brother-in-law who lives in St Louis with my aunt and only three cousins on that side of the family, for those of you who know the players) passed away suddenly. This was a shock; he had been sick for quite awhile, but they had recently discharged him from the hospital -- and so when he passed out and my aunt called the paramedics, he refused to go back to the hospital after the paramedics showed up, and then he passed away again and ultimately passed away.

It's a sad story, of course, made sadder by the fact that my father and I will miss the funeral as a result of our travels. It doesn't make sense to try to fly back given how long it would take to get there, and so we're going to continue on.

After that, I slogged some more, came back to the hotel around five, and did some more work until it was time to go out. My father had walked a lot and I was, as mentioned before, tired beyond belief. Given the intermittent showers and our intermittent energy, we decided to have dinner downstairs in the hotel -- and the verdict was that it was really good. I had a glass of wine and a Singapore Sling with my dinner, which led some server to giggle over my alcohol consumption, which I thought was inappropriate. Ah, well, c'est la vie.

Now, though, I'm making very stupid typos, writing things that make no sense and then trying to delete, etc. Have a great weekend -- we have a full day in Singapore tomorrow, and then we go to Hyderabad Saturday night! Yay!