Tournament - 2nd MMU Invitational 2005
State - Melaka

I've never been to Melaka before and this was a perfect opportunity to officiate. Drove to Melaka on Friday night after work. Had to rush like mad to iron referee shirt & pants. Checked into Naza hotel.

1st day
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This tourney's still new. Only 11 participating universities. Competition held in old library. Decided to take a breather frm the boys (after eventful UKM), therefore took girls' arena.

First bout, center referee did not notice that blue & red were in their wrong positions. Me told HOC, center referee was scolded. Felt kinda bad.

Nothing much to note, except girl stepped on my foot & she released my foot the moment i was pulling on it, which caused me to lose my balance. Nearly lost my balance while retreating, but managed to stay on my feet. Though flailed like a flapping bird. No way im gonna fall on my ass. Spectators can be cruel sometimes.

This marks my first tourney where i'm actually bored & started to fall asleep. Probably due to the cold & the number of participants.

During lunch, Ms Yew brought us to eat chicken rice. THe rice is shaped into ping pong sized balls. interesting...

Dinner, we went to Jongker street, kinda like a chinatown with a row of chinese clan associations playing chinese orchestra (yes, gu zheng & er wu), dancing, lion dances etc. A lot of rare delicacies that couldnt be found in kl like sotong bakar, ting ting candy, malt candy, etc. Also antiques & stuff. Then we went eat 'satay celup' (eat your heart out phui yee!, haha) which was delicious but couldnt really fit much in as was munching on snacks previously.

Was pretty tired. Evie came down to room to lepak. SHe's filled with boundless energy & i was half asleep watching James Bond.

2nd day
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Only 10 bouts per arena, even more yawn. Did not like coaches shouting vulgar words & standing up but did not mention it as i was not centre referee. Better to mind own business & let the HOC handle it.

Had lunch at a home-cooked place. Had nyonya laksa. Yummy. Judged for the 2 grand finals. HL's fight was pretty easy. I was thinking more in a fighter's mindset rather than referee. Some fights were pretty one sided, like HL's. Given the opportunity, his opponent couldnt even score even if the vest was wide open. HL had some pretty good shots. Worth mentioning would be when they stuck together & his opponent tried to slap kick (which look ridiculously like him trying to climb a tree) & all HL had to do was walk fwd & he fell off. Twice. Some ppl never learn. Also a good fake for a back thrust which earned him another point.

Another worth mentioning would be FL(girl) frm S'wak. She looks like a model (tall & thin & very very pretty). Decent fighter who chooses to score although she could do a knockout if she wanted to. I really admire ppl like these. And she's in my weight category.

Drove home at about 4pm. Had dinner with MMU fighters at Char Chan Teng at IOI. Splendid time, though i have been feeling a tad tired the whole weekend, therefore was silent through out.

Next: MU Martial Arts festival on the 4th CNY.