blast

One more day from being parentless in Singapore. Mother's flying to Tanzania to join my dad.

Quite looking forward to it, apart from the lack of food. But heck, any excuse to lose weight is a good excuse.

magenta and violet hair

Have been distracted from this space largely because Twitter is so much more convenient, takes up less brain juice, and Tweetdeck is parked nicely on my desktop. Have contemplated taking up a new blog address, given a series of unfortunate events that I think have subconsciously made me stop blogging. But anyway.

End of a crazy term and first day into break, I spend 3 hours sitting/sliding in a too-slippery chair, making mind-numbing Chinese conversation with the Beng stylist that reminds me somewhat of a pub singer with the name of a Looney tunes cat.

That, after throwing out my leftover university notes that I didn't feel like throwing 1 year ago. It formed a heap approximately 80 cm high. Farewell forever to social policy and planning, comparative social policy, gerontology, mental health, program evaluation, research methods.

Well maybe not forever. I still have 2 boxes left of notes on drug addiction, addiction counseling, all the various counseling methods notes, family therapy, abnormal psych, and cognitive therapy books I didn't know why I bought. Not throwing those out because some part of my brain thinks I will have need of it in the future, like when caffeine addiction becomes fatal, or if I accidentally become an alcoholic.

sunstroked

Recently discovered how Banana Republic's tees feel like a second skin. Bought 6 different colours of the same design which on hindsight now appear a bit excessive, but the overheated climate brings out a bit of craziness, among other things.

Decided to walk home instead of taking the train (or 2 buses), a decision which I regretted halfway into the walk because I was carrying my cello as well and the midday sun was insane, but soon after a grey cloud tailed me back home.

Young Victoria was exasperatingly boring I have never checked my watch this many times during a movie, and the dog had the most honest expression of boredom which pretty much summed up the film. The script was thin and didn't do justice to the cast. And the strings music was overkill.

Sometimes it takes the bad to make one appreciate the good.

(Season 2 finale of Chuck was jawdroppingly hilarious.)

considerably freer

23 days since the last post.

Recently read:
1. Stella Duffy's Singling out the Couples - postmodern fairy tale chick lit. Deconstructed the happy ending.
2. Toni Morrison's A Mercy - I tried Beloved, then Bluest Eye, then this, and after this I've officially given up. She writes beautifully, but I can't really connect with the whole slave trade/plight thing.
3. Alex Garland's Coma - read this if your brain's comatose. Or if you want your brain screwed into catatonia.
4. Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Collected stories - Even if you start off clueless, it gets better after the first few stories.
5. Hari Kunzru's Transmission - Fun, funny.

"Lie to Me" the TV series is interesting if you're interested in reading body language/facial expressions. Am watching it to distract myself from finishing the last few episodes of House Chuck Greys Criminal Minds Dollhouse.

all in a week

Had the most amazing time at Jakarta, not because of what we did (waited for a long long time to play a bit of music), but because of the quality of conversations with certain people. I think it is in the moments of inactivity, when there is nothing to do and nothing to be done and nowhere to go, when you really get down to the act of knowing people you might have seen for many years. And in one night talk your way into feeling like you've known the person for years.

Which perhaps is why friends made in prison might have such an impact on an ex convict's life outside.

in remembrance

So the founding pastor of the Bible Presbyterian movement dies and at the vigil service, I saw faces of old acquaintances from the church before the split. Interesting that death brings people of polar positions together, even if only for 2 hours, even if it's all just a matter of obligation.

The BP movement can probably be considered really fundamentalist (the term has taken quite a bashing especially due to the whole feminist group saga). Worship means hymn books piano organ (no drums electric guitar dancing clapping jumping tonguespeaking). Mostly, they use the King James Version of the Bible - i.e the one with the most archaic, (but very poetic) English. They take a separatist stance on doctrinal issues, which explains why the BP church history is fraught with splits.

This is an experimental post on religion. It has occured to me that in all my compartmentalisation I have effectively managed to exclude talking about Christianity on my blog, or to anyone who isn't Christian. Ironic, given that it matters more to me than cello or any other thing.

too hot

Once in a while, I meet up with someone, meander a certain distance - today from esplanade to people's park - along the way eat, talk lots, and buy loads of random stuff (not really thinking about what I am buying, distracted by conversation). It is good therapy, especially if said company is not one of the many faces I mandatorily meet at rehearsals.

Central is still a nice place on weekends, some of the small shops sell interesting stuff. Generally quiet, a lot of walking space, but then again, with good company space/place is less relevant. This is the sound of contentment.

riding the blue whale geyser

The downside of MSN Gtalk Facebook chat is that you take so long to communicate so little. The responses you get are probably mentally censored so many times, further obfuscated by emoticons that are more often than not the opposite of the genuine facial expressions. In short, you get a response that is a projection of what the other person thinks is a desirable response. On the other hand you might get totally uncensored, in your face responses, from those who don't have the guts to say the same in real life conversation. Or you might not get a response at all, from those who otherwise would not have ignored you in a face-to-face situation.

(I consider myself guilty of all the above responses).

Which is why no-punches-pulled conversations, even if (you) take forever to unravel the tangled threads of thought while verbalising the entire thought process, is mind-blowingly exhilarating.

(Too little, too infrequent, is my only lament.)

3000 plus words

Highlight of the week:
playing with music instruments via a multi touch table in an engineering lab.

And already it is Friday night,
last free night of the week!

Haven't eaten at Sunshine Plaza in ages. This is the stall with the numerous celeb photos on the glass doors. The noodles are ok, (and I never thought I'd say this), but insufficient.

Night and Day@Selegie
The emptiest place I've ever seen on a Friday night. Maybe because when we left it was still early. The walls are graffiti-ed with emo poetry and drawings and it is night here even when it's day outside, but there's no service charge and they sell $1 titbits!

just visiting

The engineering faculty is grey and quiet, the kind of heavy silence weighed down by brains moving, eyes running past lines of code and numbers. A kind of mechanical functionality pervades the place, people dress functional and talk in abbreviations, (if they talk at all). The most striking thing was the silence though. In artsfac there is this general buzz that you eventually get used to and block out as white noise but enginefac just has this hush. Sacred silence of science scholarship.

I wandered around aimlessly for a bit, just to attempt to spot semblance of life in the place and found it in the canteen that was swamped with people at 5 plus pm. I guess food does have a way of getting people enthusiastic.