of traffic jam, uncle in mitsubishi and sotong goreng tepung

27 august 2008

This is the day when i am going to be fired with questions from my lecturers. I will be presenting my research proposal in front of lecturers and some of my course mates.

R lend me his car. Sweet sweet R. And so.. I left early just in time to get caught in the traffic. Since its just 7.10 so I guess Im not in such a rush after all. The traffic is moving at snail's pace even with a traffic officer controlling the traffic. I turned on the radio. Its the morning crew making their usual prank calls and later Jason Mraz is on the air with I'm Yours.

The traffic is inching slowly when i decided to do some people watching. A sort of a favourite past time. The car to my left is a proton saga with couple arguing in it. The boyfriend, smoking and talking with aggressive hand gestures. The girlfriend stuffing tissues to her nose and crying.

To my right, uncle in an old mitsubishi. Okay, this is the fun part. He's picking his nose. With the windows unprotected by car tints, it seems like he doesnt care about the world outside. He kept blowing his nose without covering it with tissues, digging deeper and deeper and deeper. Going round and round and round until finally.....he pulled out a visible chunk of uhm..wax?... fiddles it with his forefinger and thumb...lowering the windscreen on the driver's side and tossing it safely out of the car. He places his hands back on the wheel and yawn innocently.

It struck me that I have been staring at what he's doing until the car in front of me started to inch forward again. I have just lost my appetite over the carefully planned brunch of scrumptious sotong goreng tepung with rice and kari ayam for the day.

20 long minutes of stucked in the traffic jam, I'm relieved to arrive in campus on time for my appointment with Dr.B. I showed him my proposal and he nodded a few times, scribbled something on the paper and sent me away.

The presentation was overall okay. I didnt get much firing from the lecturers. Dr.B seems relaxed and giving his full attention. Mr.R is propping himself up with one elbow - looking obviously sleepy. Dr.F with his charming smile and occasionally squinting his eyes to check my map. The map that I took 8 hours to complete, ahem, just the night before the presentation.

So much for "my study progress is doing splendid sir,".