howdy doo

We are here in Albany now, a peaceful lovely place with crazy clouds, sunshine, wooden houses and quaint shops, purple flowers, dandelions, yellow chrysanthemums, wal-mart and an outdoor wooden-looking amusement park (where we're working). Flights are miserable, but it's worth getting to where you want to go! The best parts of L.A. were venice beach, a crazy bohemian hippy happyhouse asylum place that felt like the 60s and this guy sat near us as we ate fish and chips by the pacific ocean and sang beegees and beatles. He sang norwegian wood and octopus' garden and we got beatles posters, johnny cash shirts, and crazy stuff. And the SUBURBAN HEAT as we took the public bus for an hour to hollywood and downtown L.A., among the 'hood and where people live and the shops, and all the houses and shops are aqua coloured, salmon coloured, dark blue, red, yellow, with handpainted signs. It was like in napoleon dynamite. Anyhow, for full details and mad sounds see desiree's blog (i didnt bring my laptop and internet is hard to come by), iloveamelica.blogspot.com

YAHOO

Two of us riding nowhere
Spending someone's hard-earned pay

These past few days i have been swathed with harry potter and clouds. Good ol' harry potter. There's nothing like warm lights, fireplaces, 'flagons of pumpkin juice', lawns, lighted common rooms and wooden wands. Did anyone notice that saturday was an amazingly cloudy day? There were clouds of all kinds, the huge, glorious fiery ones that puff magnificently and seem nearer, the further away, more wispy ones, and the kind that streaks across the sky very lightly like a patch of feathers, made up of a spread of very organised wispy clouds, far and lovely. That's called cirrus i think. And there's also the kind that eventually joins up in huge puffs, like a very white pouffy cake. Anyway it was really amazing. Sunday was like that too and i took some amazing pictures. I just can't imagine anyone dying in the last harry potter book. Maybe Snape will, after harry finds out he's good. He'll hold harry's hand and cry out his last words, everyone reading will let out a huge sob, and then he'll just...expire. 'Barking mad.....!'

Lou: Are ye sure ye don't want an ice cream?
Andy (staring at the floor in his wheelchair): Yeah.
Lou: But you said it was the perfect compliment to a hot summer's day!
Andy: Yeah i know.
Lou: So do you want an ice cream?
Andy: No.
Lou: Are ye sure? Because if we went away and you say you want one, it would be a right kerfuffle.
Andy: I don't want one.
(they go away)
Andy: I want an ice cream.

midsummer night's dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream

there's nothing quite as magical and splendid as outdoor theatre in nature. tonight there were throngs of shrieking and hooting st nicks girls, people who brought pillows, cheese and red wine, babies dressed like fairies with wings and glitter, damp grass, trees, a few stars, clouds and a full moon. along with sweaty running actors and their sprays of spit under the glaring light and wonderful words floating and booming around. it was super lovely. nay, in some way, it was glorious!

*:-D

beatles video

The Beatles- Real Love

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Dpns-QspX04

the most splendid beatles video ever

elvis makes me cry

Elvis makes me cry

I never thought i'd say this but consumerism is evil. Despite how you might think you can't deny your desires to shop or possess things, and how the shopaholic series might make it all seem rather adorable, and how it's sort of funny that women love/need shopping (well men do too now, my brother has more expensive taste than me now, imagine that), it's still sort of evil and unnatural. The desire to enter big bright malls with made-up sales people, consciously-dressed shoppers, big price tags that would give your grandmother a heart attack, and clothes that so did not originate from there (indian, hippie), so as to search for clothes that would make you feel good about yourself, can't be a very splendid thing. And actually the vehement way i'm putting it makes it feel kind of revolting and senseless.

I will try to stop feeling so emotionally attached to the old house though it's my favourite place in the world, so that one day when and if it ever gets sold my heart won't break too much.

"Life is cruel, protect yourself."
Mary Smith

But no, that would be silly too.

huckleberry

That would be a pretty howdy-do, wouldn't it?

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn will make you feel like a boy on a crazy adventure. Which is one of the best feelings in the world.

My brother is back from bmt for a bit. We picked him up for the first time last night after his first 2 weeks. A clump of parents were crowding around the bus door, yes the door where their boys (oh i mean men) emerged, no doubt to manly slaps and motherly hugs. We stood rather far from that scene, in front of the mrt station, with another group of parents/girlfriends/grandmas/siblings. It was lovely because there was an old indian man standing by the side, barely lit by the street lamps, but his music just floating through the night as all these people awaited. He played on his electric guitar some early rock and roll, some elvis, donny osmond (a song about paper planes). He played so simply and his singing was nice. Oh it was lovely and nostalgic. What made a man come out of his house on a friday night to stand in a dark corner and play, when it's obvious he won't get much money at all? I guess he just loved doing it, which is the loveliest thing of all.

We watched Elvis: The Lost Performances in my auntie's room and baby was dancing, they were all dancing. Now Elvis is cool. That white suit! With a v all the way to his stomach, and the bell bottoms. And his hair with those sideburns, and his mighty gold rings. "you ain't!" (nothin but a hound dog) Elvis the Pelvis. Elvis is lovely.

We're leaving in 2 weeks. And you can say that i am very desperate to get my hands on a beautiful hardcover copy of harry potter and the deathly hallows, oh to touch that embossed cover and see the tiny stars in the book and just paying for the bloody book and i am very desperate to just sit and read and not know the ending from any little kid i'm buckling up on a rollercoaster. does it sound crazy? but you have to be irrational, or what, risk hearing 'Harry died! Snape killed him!' and then you can just knock your head against the wall. so, dear friends, pray for our success in this important quest. and though i may sound irrational, it is the last book of the series, which i've read since i was 10 or 11. there's just going to be madness when it comes out. someone won't leave her house till her mother goes out -to the danger zone- and buys the book, they're setting up counselling helplines in case someone important in the book dies, people might get arrested for revealing the ending (hopefully!!!!!!!!!), tv stations forbidden from mentioning the ending. crazy things are going to happen to the muggle world, beware!

lumos!

earthlike planet

Scientists find most Earthlike planet yet

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18293978/

Mankind's rarest view: Earth from afar

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18202449/

libre!

keeping an eye on the world going by my window

Is it fer real?! I just had me last exam. Of the first year of university.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I still feel like it wasn't long ago I was sitting in literature class in jc and everyone was stubbornly staring downwards as Harris posed a question, or sitting around the garden tables in the magical sunlight.

Ah.....!

French words are swirling in my head as the last exam was French and the comprehension passage was horoscope predictions. And one of the later questions was something like, Quelle exactement vous commencez a etudier pour cette examen? And the answer was Depuis le___. So i filled in 'matin aujourd'hui'. And some other thing i wrote water from the hill. Je ne sais pas! Je veux acheter des choses pour ma nouvelle chambre mais mon pere ne me permets pas. Je veux lire les livres 3,4,5,6 de harry potter et vivre sans ma famille, donc je peux faire de la cuisine, faire la maison, rester a mon lit pendant la nuit et penser des choses. Nous allons demenager et cette maison, il me manque. Ma chambre est merveilleux pendant la nuit.

Whats-her-name and i are leaving in 18 days!! Oh my, oh my. Scuttle scuttle. Choose a suitcase. Make a list. Call America. Pack everything. Instruct family. Leave for adventure. Take 50 hours of plane rides. Have a lovely time. You know before you leave for somewhere there are things you unconsciously somehow fix in your head, things you think you are going to see? I keep thinking and being excited about...flea markets, quaint shops, people with mad hair, little theatre shows. I have also imagined new york through Catcher in the rye and Extremely loud and incredibly close. Holden and Oskar. Oskar....

There's so much to do you could just lie in bed all night, covered by your warm sheets, staring at the smooth ceiling, thinking about it.

rattail

Rattail braids














http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rattail_%28haircut%29
pictures from flickr people who like taking rattails

whoo

WHOOO

sheriff

A sheriff and her horse

mon frere et moi

Trees, swaying in the summer breeze
showing off their silver leaves
as we walk by

let it be

When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me

Mary in the song was Paul's mother. And when he sings 'When i wake up to the sound of music' he means Yesterday. The last time i woke up to any sound of music was C.R.A.Z.Y, drifting in one morning with peach curtains and light blue walls. I have to admit that I am extremely, maybe overly, seduced by the idea of a family home. All the cans in the kitchens, baked beans, pineapples, tuna, functional kitchen counters, toilets filled with crazy soaps and towels and littered with gross clothes, messy bedrooms with bookcases, ticket stubs and forms and letters strewn around. I don't really know why.

My grandmother bought her urn yesterday. (Insane!) It cost $8000 and she got one for my grandfather too, for whenever he is exhumed. She says it's normal and some friends do it. She found it shocking and weird when i asked about keeping her ashes like they do in movies. Anyway i just want to keep a little of her in a pendant, her mixed with my grandfather. But then it is crazy to think that someday she will be reduced to ashes. All those wrinkles, her moronic moles and icky curly hair and spider veins and fat hips and bunion.

Dammit.

NS

Gones are the day...

where boys had to queue up to call their family/girlfriend using 10 cent public phones in NS. My friends, my brother went to NS today! We took a ferry to pulau tekong (some parts of it that spread out from the island seemingly untouched looked a little like the beach in The Return, with all that sky). Oh but before that, at the terminal, when we just arrived, this guy was walking around looking rather severely at all the 'enlistees' and saying things. When he came to us (remember we had barely arrived) he ordered my brother, 'Tuck in.' in front of us!! I had to laugh. Boys around were tucking in their shirts into their low jeans or already had them tucked in. And there were all these huge photos plastered on the walls, the army's publicity. 'Every soldier is a leader'. Ooooh. And after that, as you walk towards the ferry, a whole stretch of such awe-inspiring words hung from the ceiling, like Perseverance, Professionalism, Courage, Human Spirit and things like that. Well my father started rattling on 'Professionalism! Makes me think of my NS time. Wah...they told me to take a week off and go to the library and research to write a speech for the minister of defence. in the end i was so proud when mine was chosen. he was saying his speech then wah, how come sound like my one ah?' Who knows how he did it. But anyway, he was being fascinated with the parents booklet in the ferry. Everyone was strangely quiet and he said 'Eh, to be chosen as an officer, you must consistently show your abilities leh' (i know he really wants my brother to be an officer. p.s. i found out to my horror and amusement that he was once ns man of the year) So when we got to the island we were given a tour around, and at the bunks, our guide said to all the curious family members and friends things like 'As you can see! there is a mosquito net above the bed! this is to prevent mosquito bites!' and 'the cupboard is designed well. it has a drawer for your son to put his personal belongings! he can put his wallet and handphone inside this drawer!' but the funny moment came in the auditorium after the lieutenant colonel (a nice guy, but who said things like 'building brocks' and 'gones are the day' and 'it is very importance') invited the audience to ask questions and this father stood up and said, 'I am for the concept of national service, but it is very discomforting to read of fatalities in the paper. how can you ensure that there will be no torturing and what systems do you have in place...?' Oh what a tickling moment. But no one laughed. And my brother just seemed fine with everything. It felt strange thinking that he was in NS. It is sort of an adventure i guess, going into the forest and firing guns, but a really long one that you have no control over. I just hope he has fun with the people in his section and if he gets tortured I'll kill 'em. He called back earlier and sounded nicer already. I miss him.

'Where boys become men'.....

home

Someone to run with

Today we went out for hours to many places looking at furniture and lights. I got a stained glass purple and blue mosaic hanging ceiling lamp from a man called john and a simple black chandelier (though this word makes it sound grand and pompous) from ikea where we measured bookcases and stood in front of wardrobes feeling sad. (Also saw a punk in a carpark with a mohawk and many piercings, cleaning out his car) This whole idea of a HOME...is so elusive and yet is something everyone has a warm image of inside. A place where you can just be. Maybe the only place in the world you can just be. And it's easy to get so worked up about what is going to be in it and where because that is what makes it your world and the world you are imagining inside and you just want it to look like what you are dreaming of, when actually, all you are yearning for is a peaceful and free feeling, and not exactly the furniture. Maybe it's like how everyone wants to be loved and how, quoting a book, 'Even your yearning for sex is really a dyslexic search for love'. I don't know how all this might explain itself but maybe that's why it makes me sad that no one in my family has any faith in me or my room and almost all think it will look awful and have no bloody fudging theme.

saturday noon

Excusez-moi, Monsieur

1. Baby Ducky got into the big pool last saturday night! After months of frustrating crazy attempts and hoarse throats and too much excitement and children crowding around trying, we finally did it. She wore the fishy body vest I got her for christmas from toy r us for a few dollars, and went to the staircase corner of the big pool. It was the splendid circumstances that finally got her to do it. There happened to be a corner of the big pool where there was a staircase, nicely lit, cosy looking, not big and scary looking. So she went in and dared to go a few steps before I carried her and then soon I was carrying her around the pool and soon just holding her hands, and soon holding her both hands for 3 counts then holding only 1 hand for 3 counts, then 5 counts. She was panting and laughing and shrieking and just behaving like a deranged panicked tickled dog!!!!! Her legs weren't kicking at the back but directly underneath her tiny body. Finally what got her to do it was that we went to this other staircase part of the pool that she could see was shallow but where she just couldnt touch the floor and had to float, so in the end, she did it and was floating around the pool like a crazy puppy and we were 'racing' her. Hurray! It was a historic moment in her 5 years of life.

2. me, shaun and zhon yun watched the mango play last night, modified and directed by desiree for her hall event. It was nostalgic, hilarious, overwhelming and strange.

3. French is so fun i wish there could be nothing but french lessons everyday.

4. I really should be doing my work.

ducky

Ducky
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sirsanta/sets/1738900/

Because you're sweet and lovely girl, I love you
Because you're sweet and lovely girl, it's true

Paul-is-dead theories are terrible and disturbing. Never read any. They all suck. You just want to believe he is alive, don't you? When you think about it, it's mindblowing that bob dylan and paul and ringo are....walking around, existing somewhere still.

Isn't it heartbreaking that for the most part of the world, the people you love in tv shows or movies, or singers and bands either don't exist in real life or don't know you exist? When all these people and worlds mean a great special deal. Isn't it funny that you would think so warmly of them when they never think of you? It's funny though, I would clutch onto these shows and songs and people till I die.

On a wackier note, today an old chinese woman was busy looking through her groceries with her female mates and was wearing an old-woman-blouse (that material) without a bra (ah, to be an old granny who doesn't care anymore) and when the sun shone through I happened to see the saggiest breasts I ever saw in my life.

bad day

Tom, get your plane right on time
I know, your part'll go fine

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sirsanta

After some magical calculations I realised it's:
2 weeks of school to the last week of school
1 week of study break (brother goes to NS), then
exams for 1.5 weeks, then
2 weeks to LA and NY
So, it's 6 weeks to the end of the semester and less than 8 weeks to new york! And it hardly feels like i'm already so much into the semester. I'm loving this, it's like magic.

And with 2 project presentations, 1 video to edit, 1 website to create, 1 research paper to write, 1 more assignment to finish and 1 more quiz, I can't wait for it all to be over and for the exams to come.

When the architect (young woman who likes Amelie and mary-janes and mad colours but designs grey or beige stuff) saw my room colour she said 'Groovy!' and that her room used to be like that. When the built-in furniture designer (who's doing everyone's room but mine) saw my room he said those colours are no longer in. As a secondary school boy would say, Go and die lah.

Yesterday we played midnight catching in my auntie's room, me, nat, sai, shann and elysia. I was carrying elysia and she clung onto to me and her heart was beating so quickly! The catcher has to put the blanket over his/her face and feel around the whole room. Sai had a fall, elysia overcame her fear of the dark and shann panted like mad. It was so fun. Oh and midnight catching just means catching in the dark. Sometimes i'm glad i didn't go overseas- would have missed all this. I love them!

All of the nights we harmonized till dawn
I never laughed so long,
So long
So long

la vie de dora

la vie de dora

sgt pepper

Buckets of rain, buckets of tears,
Got all them buckets comin' outta my ears
Buckets of moonbeam in my hand
You got all the love
Honey baby I can stand

I lost my Sgt. Pepper badge. One moment it was on my breast the next moment I looked down and it was gone, and I can't fnd it, and neither can the toilet auntie whose hair was adorably done up in braids today. Is this a special day? Is she meeting her sweetheart? There it is up there. Isn't it glorious?

Dear Bob, I wish we could hang out. I wish there were more quiet afternoons and days, spent working on something in my room, or just reading. Recently I've known that I'm happiest when making or creating something. I wish there was still carpet to lie around despite the millions of mites living in it (fer real). I wish we could play hide and seek in the afternoons and say whatever we want to everyone in the world.

Dear John Bean, please don't be mad at me for not spending enough time with you/looking at you more often. I will take you to watch Mr. Bean's french vacation movie.

Dear sheep on my starry blue blanket, thank you for keeping me company every night.

And dear tiny hairs on my stomach, when my cousins stop asking about you, I will know what has happened to them.

Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl
but she doesn't have a lot to say
Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl
but she changes from day to day
I wanna tell her that I love her a lot
but i gotta get a belly full-a wine
Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl
someday i'm gonna make her mine,
oh yeah,
someday i'm gonna make her mine