The jury and the fish

Yesterday I received a call from my instructor asking me to attend a tourney, not as a participant (as it had been for the past few years), but as a refree/judge. I had some problems because I wasn't sure where did I campak my dark blue trousers and my white shirt, I can't even remember whether I've given away my white sneakers or not. So last night, I had to find everything I need for today.

***

This morning I picked up Susan from her house at around 830am and went to USJ. I felt a bit awkward walking towards the competition arena because I haven't been 'near' any martial arts for quite some time. Yes working and studying at the same time limits my activity. And also it's funny going to a competition as a jury.

After a very very long wait, the first events of the day started simultaneously at six different rings. I was the second judge for boys pattern event under 17 (white - red black) and girls' pattern under 17 (red - red black). I didn't have many qualms about my chief judge except that I didn't know he's actually teaching TKD at my college, no wonder he looked so familiar - and he's quite talkative too. Fyi, talkative guy really puts me off lah walaupun 'enchek' itu agak hensem, jap2 memang hensem :P . There's another lady judge (she's a lot younger than me I think, and a first degree black belt) sitting on Mr.A's left.

When we were judging the red - red black ladies, we had to do two rounds to determine first to third placing. Unfortunately, we still had a tie for the 1st and 2nd spot, and the 3rd and fourth spot. So we did a 'kalah mati' evaluation, i.e. no mark is given to the contestant, but if we prefer the person on the left, we'll raise our left hand, if on the right, then right lah angkat. Unfortunately, the candidates for 3rd and 4th placing actually deserves (I think) to be gold and silver medallist. Mr. A also agree, but the marks that we gave were not sufficient to make them compete for 1st and 2nd placing. So I curi2 tengok the score sheet of the lady, mak aih, bias babe!!!! She gave 6 for the girl who didn't even have power in her pattern and who stayed too long from one movement to the other. I was damned angry, so I said to Mr. A,

"Budak-budak ni cam tak deserve je nak compete no. 1 and 2. Yang dua orang tadi tu better, camne ek"

Mr. A said, "as much as I agree with you, the marks prohibits us from doing so, cannot do anything la".

Adoi, kesian betul budak yang dapat no. 3 dan 4 tu, now I know lah, even though you try to be fair, you really can't 'control' the way people judge and give points. Tapi betul la aku cakap budak 1st dan tu memang tak reti judge, (ceh cam aku bagus sangat), erm...nak wat camne, nilah nasib kan...

***
During the lunch break, I went down to the 1st floor. There I saw two pools full of small fish (macam ikan guppy) and two man were soaking their feet in the water and allowing the fish to bite them. I was very curious so I asked the towkey what were they doing and he told me it's actually a treatment for feet. The fish will eat up the dry skin and dead cells. I remember reading an article in NST not long ago about this kind of treatment, tapi if I'm not mistaken the writer went for this treatment somewhere outside Malaysia. My curiosity forced me to experience this out-of-the-ordinary treatment so I went to the pool and put my legs into it. Mak aih punya ramai lagi ikan datang kat kaki aku sebab aku sorang je duduk kat pool tu, jadi lauk babe! Geli je kena gigit2 dengan ikan tu, but because my right foot has a wound that is recovering, the fish attack there. Actually luka ni tak sakit tapi bila ikan2 tu gigit dia cam pedih2 sket la. After half an hour, I pulled my legs out of the water, lenguh dah duduk situ (lagi satu sebab there were too many people watching, memang la tak sexy sbb ankle and below je nampak, tapi tak selesa la, rasa cam bahan pameran lak). My wound bled a little, I was quite 'shocked' jugak la... But, my wound was clean you know and after wiping the blood, it looked as though it has healed.

I'll post a picture of me allowing the fish to eat my feet later...

For now, have a goodnight and a good weekend people.