Friday 28th September 2007

fallen

Sigh. After disdainly commenting about the poor health of my mates, I think I am now feeling the 'punishment'. I have taken 3 days of MC this week alone thanks to the 'cold brought on by heatiness' as described by the TCM sensei. Nasty gluey medicine aside, I slept many hours away, in the middle of the afternoon. Waking hours are punctuated with sore throat, headaches, leaky nose and sneezing. All the pitiful signs of a cold. Sigh again.

The crux of the torture was his advise against cold drinks and fried food, easily my favourite staple of food any day of the week. It got me thinking, what sort of 'hot-drinks' can you order if you dislike milk, coffee, tea? After many hours of brain wrecking, I can only come up with the soya-bean drink as being heart-warming and comfortable. Chocolate is a no-no because it is also high on the 'heaty' list. Sigh... it is a bitter life for the pitiful few who has never joined the coffee/tea bandwagon.

Thursday 27th September 2007

sister entourage

There is always at least one event in every month that will make its deepest impression upon me. Without a doubt, the event that will hold a special nook this month would be attending CS's wedding. Being the no-touchy-touchy-thing friends that we have been since the first day we step into primary one, we have somehow skipped the let's make-up together/go disco together/talk on the phone for hours/hang out around the mall/etc. phase. I have always thought that our relationship is extremely detached and yet close (uh.let's not go into details of wat should be termed as 'close'). Sufficient to say, I have regarded her as one of my closest friend and simply hope she felt the same way (yes, we had not even bothered to iron out that detail). It was quite disconcerting when her relatives inquired how we knew each other because most of them immediately assumed that we are university mates. It's sad really, how childhood and high school friends are given so little credit of lasting these days. Uh, wait, I think I'm wandering away fm the subject. I guess I haven't yet decide how to describe our friendship. We do end up not talking or meeting up for months and maybe years *scratch head* but it's still easy to connect even after the long absence. Heh, I've gotta admit, it is all thanks to CS's great sense of drama which is greatly enjoyable and infectious.

So, although we still haven't gotten round to give each other hugs, I surprised myself by becoming all sentimental and crying when the groom finally entered the bedroom where we have secreted the bride after we were done with the usual bout of extortion and torturing (of the groom). Remembering the moment that CS looked up at SZ as he took her hands still gets me eyes a tad wet.

I am so happy my dear friend has gotten married.

~ Note: Due to CS's deep sense of privacy, I have been threatened not to post any pictures. Apologies. I guess this is one of those occassion when you need to let ur hearts do the imagining.~

Wednesday 26th September 2007

cool sites

These two months seemed to have been bulldozed away while I was sleeping. Or more accurately, while I was watching. I guess I have these sinful sites to thank for my procrastination and slow productivity.

Thank you whoever you are for compiling these wonderful sites.

To get a dose of Korean/Japanese/Taiwanese dramas with English subtitles:

Tuesday 25th September 2007

indoor climbing

Vii suggested a bout of rock climbing recently and a few of us have gamely agreed to it. Hehe, o.k., we were all very glad to know that it is indoors (away from all the hot sun, rain and wind).

After about 2 climbs, I was more than ready to call it a day. To my great dejection, it was just a warm up. We then went on to learn how to be a belayer (the person who feeds the rope) and took turns to be either the belayer or the lead climber. Working in pairs with vii was fun. Fortunately, she shared the same stamina as me. We took the remaining half an hour of the 2 hours' long climb watching WY & her darling take up the slightly more challenging walls instead. Tiredness aside, both vii & I agreed that the coming down part (is it called abseiling?) is definitely the better half of the journey.

The next day, I could hardly move my arms. My forlorn expression whenever I used my arms only earned me many a snigger from my mom. *sniff* But in all honesty, the aches felt great. I won't mind getting more of it minus the climbing. *grin*

Monday 24th September 2007

Meat

Being the ignoramus that I am, I hardly bother to get to know other cultures and often take passing statements from friends or novels as the all encompassing truth. (Yes I know, how terribly horrible and horribly terrible.) As if this isn't bad enough, I have the stubborn streak of not making friends with anyone whom I classify as foreigner in my limited book of acquittance. Self analyzing all these years have attributed these as symptoms of a sickness called stupidity. And we all know how difficult it is to cure this impairment.

So, anyways, in an effort to climb out of this sorry state, I've garnered some guts to make small talks with a French girl called Eloise (it's an i with 2 dots above and is pronounced as A-louis-sa) recently. Now, before I go on with this little tale, let me list down the meagre things I know about France. Not to worry. It will hardly fill up this paragraph. I know it has the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre and many pigeons. I heard that it is really dirty and the people don't fancy speaking English even though they know how to. Someone mentioned that their income tax is a whooping 60% but the government takes mighty good care of its people in terms of medicine. Lastly, that they take long afternoon breaks, long weekends off and months long holidays a couple of times a year. Ah yes, French cuisine is supposedly extremely reknown and pricey (Unfortunately, the 'pricey' fact has deterred any active testing on my part), and her people are supremely proud of her products (e.g.: Newport (Optics) is made in France, SOI materials come from France, etc.). And lastly, Paris is romantic, and the people are beautiful.

Having wrapped that up, let me come back to my story. Turns out Eloise and her French mates were mighty suprised with our vast amount of meat intake because according to her, they hardly take meat in Paris because of the exorbitant price. So, armed with this new nugget of information, I began questioning other friends whether they have heard of such a thing. The investigation has turned up naught under my ever skillful manipulation, so, if you have any bytes of info, do drop a note.

Ignorance and meat issues aside, I was sadly shocked recently when in a rare moment of picking up the papers I read that the premier, Francois Fillon, issued a statement along the lines that the French government is about to be in a state of bankruptcy. Having listened to tales of the wonderful holidays and perfect lifestyles the French have (L always said the French did more in their <7 hours of daily labour than us in our 12 hours of drudging) with perfect envy, it has never occurred to my addled brain that all is not right. So now, with this new info stored in, it begs the question, does this mean that we have gotten it right afterall? Long working hours is right? Too much holiday is wrong?

Ah... my dream is somehow crushed.

Currently reading: Blood and Memory by Fiona McIntosh (Book 2 of the Quickening) - Wyl continues his body swapping uh... journey? He is now a female assasin and towards the end, his sister (Ylena). I usually get mighty uncomfortable when the body count in any books gets too high, and in this book, that seems to be the case. I can't quite believe yet that McIntosh will just kill off the entire Donal clan just like that, even subjecting the Duchess Aleyda to death by continuous raping. Golly. Another violent writer.

Just finished reading: Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko (translated fm Russian to English by Andres Bromfield)- A modern day fantasy story about the fight between good (Night Watch) and evil (Day Watch), but as the story proceeded, u begin to doubt the goodness of the Night Watch, or rather, the rules of the 'game' in general.