Sunday, September 30, 2007

My First Crush

Aww..the animation is amazing and the stories so bittersweet.



Links:
http://www.youtube.com/user/juliapot
http://www.juliapott.com/index.htm

Missives from afar #1

My dear,

This has probably been the longest day in the history of the world. It started entirely too early (7am on a Sunday?!) and has dragged on even though it’s barely dinner time.

Not to say I haven’t done lots of things today; collected the dry clothes, did a load laundry, cleared out the fridge, tidied your room, went out for lunch, did my eyebrows, bought groceries, had my car washed, watched half a movie, futilely flipped Astro channels, and finally here I am. Thank God I get to cook dinner after this. Hooray for more time killed!

Guess what? I forgot my ATM pin number just now. Got it wrong twice then skulked off as I couldn’t hold the queue any longer while I hemmed and haw-ed conjuring up vaguely familiar combinations. So skulking off into the supermarket, I began to mentally cross things off the grocery list seeing as I only had fifty bucks (somehow it still never occurs to me to use a credit card). And as I wandered the aisles I continued to search for the missing pieces of my brain. It took me maybe 20 minutes, but I finally got it :). Now before you think I’m a complete scatterbrain all the time, this doesn’t happen often, but once in a while I’ll draw a blank at precisely the moment I see “Please enter your Personal Identification Number: _ _ _ _ _ _".

I’ve taken pains to make sure it doesn’t happen again though, I’ve got it written in code that only I can read and only I know where to find. However there might be one tiny flaw to the plan as I’m sure you’ve realized; I’m also liable to forget what the code means and where it is! Sigh, there’s no winning against myself.

I think I’ll never be as happy as I will be this month to embrace Mondays and go to work. At least I can distract myself with work and my colleagues which you know I’m not necessarily too enthusiastic about on ordinary days. I’m taking my exam this week so that’s the focus of my attention. I have a non-negotiable deadline to pass it before the Raya holidays which is the week after next, but more than that I really do want to pass it. Wish me luck my dear.

I can’t wait to see your photo’s and hear your stories when you get your Internetz plumbing fixed :p. Until then, one day down (but still too many to go).

Muah!

Monday, September 17, 2007

Separation Anxiety

I think it will be neither as tough or as easy as I sometimes imagine it will be. The month appears to both, loom large like a gaping black hole, and at the same time present an intriguing challenge I feel prepared to dive headlong into.

It won't be impossible to cope because if there was ever anyone who could survive solitude, it would be me. But on the flip side I'd also be the first to start bouncing off the walls in utter boredom. And if there was ever someone who would miss a ubiquitous presence with such a fierce intensity, that would be me. But I would also be the first to deny, hide it and put up a brave front.

Hm.

Some things you just can't prepare for (save for stockpiling on movie downloads that is :p)

Breezing by

Things I haven't written about:
  • Paintball!! (and my bruise-envy)
  • His 3-days long birthday celebration :)
  • The death in the family

Just so you know.

Monday, September 03, 2007

Fade to black

My memories are getting blurrier these days. Used to be that I could remember exactly when in the past certain moments were shared, certain words were spoken, certain feelings savoured or hurt. Everything counted enough to have their time of occurrence neatly jotted down and stored away. So, I'm losing grip on the past. I'd love to believe that this is due to me mellowing out and letting things slide by naturally but maybe the sheer volume of data from keeping tabs (or score if you may) for so long has over taxed this feeble mind. I'm not too concerned though, but if you come across me with furrowed brow scowling in furious concentration, I'm probably trying to sift through the pieces of my scattered memory searching for increasingly elusive information from my past.

Like this evening as we were having dinner, the first thought that struck me as we sat down at the cafe was that I had been unhappy at that place, sometime in the past. I couldn't for the life of me recall when and certainly not what I was unhappy about, but I definitely remembered the feeling. I was pensive for a while, feeling sorry for the unhappy me whose sorrow I could not remember, but then three very ample, juicy prawns on a bed of char keuy teow arrived and well, that set my priorities straight :)

But this brings me to the point that there are some memories best left forgotten otherwise some streets, some hallways, some rooms will forever be tainted with them. And these places might have to be avoided in order to curtail the rush of feeling from the memory of a dramatic scene that took place there too long ago to matter anymore.

I'm afraid letting go of the habit of systematically committing life's little idiosyncrasies to memory will be a tough one to beat, I am very sentimental after all. But maybe my ailing memory will finally be of some use in this area. Life's too short to spend reliving every single miserable second isn't it? And the happy memories? Well there's always room to make new ones.

(I still maintain you forgot to get me a Christmas gift last year, though I can't be absolutely certain...:)

Saturday, September 01, 2007

Kampar Noodles in Kampar

We made a slight detour on our way back home for the Merdeka weekend; stopped by for lunch at sleepy old Kampar. A quaint little town, half deserted (possibly because of the public holiday) and clean, very clean. There isn’t the slightest whiff of garbage even around the busier hawker stalls. Quite amazing this. The Kampar noodles were good and oddly the stall we were at was even famous for its laksa, which I might add is pretty tasty stuff.

***

Overheard:

“Oh she’s got a boyfriend now. You know-lah, she’s in IT, majority guys mah!”

They should probably consider putting that on University course application forms. “Women, say no to singlehood! Join the IT field; your man awaits with his trusty laptop!”

:p