Last day of march

I just finished watching The Time Traveller’s Wife. Omg, i love the show. I love it so much i want the book. My birthday is round the corner. Someone buy me the book !!

I’ll quote from wikipedia. “The novel, which has been classified as both science fiction and romance, examines issues of love, loss, and free will. In particular, it uses time travel to explore miscommunication and distance in relationships, while also investigating deeper existential questions.”

All bold emphasis mine. No wonder i love the story so much. Free will and existentialial questions.

The baby nephew is going home tomorrow. Dinner with the cousins also tomorrow. That means i can’t come home to see him sprint crawl towards me, boohoo.

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I’ve finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Here’s an excerpt from the Afterword.

What was it about Mary Ann turning a tale? She was one of the wittiest people I’ve ever met, but wit wasn’t the essence of her gift. Her language was lustrous, her timing was exquisite, her delivery was a thing of beauty and a joy forever, but none of these reaches to the center of her charm. That, it seems to me, was her willingness to be delighted by people- their phrases, their frailties, and their fleeting moments of grandeur. Together with her delight was the impulse to share it

As i read it, that bit of paragraph lit my deep-thoughts lightbulb. How i wished there was a cure for everything in the form of a pill or syrup. How nice it would be for some Morpheus guy to hand to you a “Red pill or blue pill”.

Alas, the cure to world weariness lies not with pills or syrup or finding a girlfriend. The cure would be, quite simply, discarding world weariness itself; to find delight in things once more.

I recall a scenario some days back. It was an extended family gathering, and one of the younger cousins came with several packs of sparklers. One of the cousins asked if i wanted to go with them to play with the sparklers. A folly to commit. If one is ever to get anything done with the family members, one demands, not asks.

So it was, another cousin who knows how things works demanded that i go play sparklers with them. But all that’s not the heart of the matter.

Some time into playing with sparklers, i voiced my thoughts, “I can’t appreciate this.”. Oh.. how i miss the little boy who would’ve enjoyed playing with sparklers. Because i do remember a time when i was young and i wanted to play with sparklers.

Would national day’s fireworks ever change from “taxpayers’ money exploding into flashes of light” into something delightful, wonderful?

But of course, i didn’t have to voice my thoughts to say “I can’t appreciate this.”. I could’ve swirled the sparkler around and screamed “Wheeee” like i was having a blast. People would think i was having a good time. But was i really?

Oh.. how learning psychology has ruined my life.

Anyway..

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society spoiler ahead.

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Of eating together and rosti

This is a second post for today. Check out the earlier post too ^.^

I finally got my own copy of Annotated Alice the Definitive Edition, which combines both Annotated Alice and More Annotated Alice. Anyone who wants to read it before watching Alice in Wonderland in the cinemas is more than welcomed to borrow from me. It’s placed in the Essential Reads section you know.

Anyway, before i bought my books, lunch was at Marche at 313 at Somerset. The weird thing about this lunch group is that they never seem to wait for the rest to arrive before eating. It’s always kind of like we were meeting at the neighbourhood coffeeshop for lunch.

I don’t know about you; meeting for a meal but eating at different starting times is a concept that is entirely foreign to me. What’s the point of meeting for a meal if one finishes eating before the other arrives? I would’ve thought meeting for a meal would mean eating together.

In fact, even in the neighbourhood coffeeshops, i sometimes wait for the other person’s food to arrive before i begin eating my own food. At those times when i wait, i would drink soup, eat salad or at most fiddle with my food; never really engaging the bulk of the main.

I could understand if one was hungry. But if one was not? “We can eat dessert while they eat their main.” just doesn’t sound right to me.

But then again, there are those within this group who are notorious for being late. They’re always late for half an hour or more. And though myself am often late recently, i still have zero tolerance for lateness. Yep, read zero tolerance.

Humph. I think i’m still angry from that previous donut post.

Compose. Deep blue sea. Trees and flowers. Butterflies, chirpping birds. Happy Tree Friends.

Still going through The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, as such, desire to eat a potato peel pie is still kind of high. The co-author advises against making of the, i believe imaginary, potato peel pie. Lol.

So i was kind of glad that lunch was at Marche. I guess swiss rosti is the closest thing to a potato peel pie that i could find. And as i was queuing for my rosti, i looked forlorningly at the bucketfuls of potato peels that were due to be thrown away.

There’s no such word as forlorningly btw.

An interesting topic cropped up during lunch. Something that i do have quite alot to talk about. But this post is long enough already. I’ll put up a memory cue.

Me P.S. Meaning of marriage and wedding (Though i’ll be talking with another little quote from The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society in my next post instead of the topic indicated by this memory cue)

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Of donuts, stale donuts and i hate your gf/bf

I think i better consume my memory cue before i need a memory cue for my memory cues. While i was in KL for the tourney, i thought i would play a nice guy and buy the group (me, my neighbour, yester-years’ champion and yester-years’ champion’s girlfriend) a box of donuts.

God damned, why do i spell doughnuts as donuts?

Anyway, i bought a box of six donuts, thinking it wouldn’t be too much since there were four of us.

So later that night, i offered up the donuts, the neighbour said he was coughing and didn’t want any. But i forced him to eat one anyway.

Then when yester-years’ champion wanted to grabbed a couple donuts, the girlfriend actually warned, reproached, nagged, finger-twiddled, whatnot to stop her boyfriend from eating. “You still eat, wait you become fat!”, she said.

I was like, omg. There we were, playing magic and eating donuts to have a good time, and she stops her boyfriend from eating donuts. It’s no wonder why i hate all my friends’ boyfriends and girlfriends. They steal my friends from me.

And after some begging (“I can’t finish all by myself.”), i managed to get yester-years’ champion to eat one donut.

In the end, i ate two donuts that night, and another two stale donuts the next night.

Grrr.

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Update 22032010

Oh.. you people know who i went to dinner with today. Anyway, dinner was at the Wanchai HK Cafe in Bishan J8. No photographs of food as my handphone is in a decrepit state. I’ll make a list of how my sliding handphone is spoiled.

– Slide detection not functioning. I can no longer pick up calls or hang up with the sliding action. I also can’t lock my keypad because of this.
– Down button works, only intermittenly.
– Hang up button works, only intermittenly.
– Can’t hear sound, except through the loud speaker (don’t tell me secrets through the phone !!)

Anyway, when i came back home, the baby nephew saw me and was like so excited and sprint-crawled towards me. That’s something new. Everyone, including me, was wondering why he was so excited to see me. Coz the baby nephew usually doesn’t stick to me as i ignore him for most parts of the day, everyday.

Nevertheless, it is a very pleasant surprise to see the baby nephew sprint-crawling to me for a hug when i come home.

Anyway, i had a haircut today. Dropped by Popular after that to buy three books. I still have The Annotated Alice and three other magic the gathering books i need to buy.

Speaking of books, i’m two thirds through The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and very much in love with it.

As mentioned in the foreward i copied and posted earlier, it’s an epistolary novel. So when one of the letter mentioned that Elizabeth McKenna (a character in the novel) was missing after being taken away from Guernsey during the war (WWII), i kind of suspected that she was actually dead.

Even though i suspected she was dead, there was still this hope that she was alive and would return to Guernsey. Then came the letter to tell the rest of the society that she was dead. It was devastating and utterly chilling.

How i wish that there is someone else who would read the books that i read. I’ve always been wanting to talk to someone about the stuff i read in my books. Like this book, i want to ask another person if he/she (preferably she) could detect any hint of a love triangle between Sidney, Mark and the protagonist Juliet, at two thirds way into the book.

But alas, that would be too much to ask of girls, no? To share my books with me. For (i quote someone else) sharing books is a more adulterous intimacy than actually having sex. For sex can be forgiven as meaningless physical lust (let’s face it, there’ll always be people more desirable to your boyfriend/grilfriend than you) but sharing of books is an indication of a connection of minds.

In other words, given a dead man’s choice of how my partner is to be adulterous, i would rather that she loves me but have sex with someone else than have sex with only me but loves someone else.

But of course, all these mostly matters in monogamic lines of thought.

Anyway, i always welcome any desire to borrow any of my books. Not because i think there’ll be a connection of minds, but i think reading more is a good thing. And if i have a book that you want to read, i’ll be happy to lend it to you.

“You” being a figure of speech. I talk to imaginary friends mostly :P

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Spent too many hours travelling for a tourney

It turned out that the straggler my neighbor picked up wasn’t really a straggler. He was actually going with his girlfriend and had all the stuff planned out, travel, accomodation, maps, etc.

By the time we reached KL, it was nearly evening.

And oh.. bubble tea girl said she was on no-pay leave but had to do her dissertation for her.. was it mba? And wasn’t free to have dinner. Oh well..

We stalked the “straggler” and his girlfriend to their accomodation to see if we can get a room from the same hotel. Got a 3 beds room for 140rm a night. Would’ve been pretty cheap if it were divided among three persons instead of just the neighbor and i.

The hotel was a really very old heritage building. The lift served two floors and uses a hinged door. You can imagine how old the building is. There were no phones, no bottled water and the water from the shower comes in a dribble. Though they had a thermoflask with hot water that none of us dared to drink.

Anyway, we made our way to Mid Valley. The tournament was held in the function room of one of the hotel at Mid Valley. Price was 220rm per night, i heard. Along the way, i was stopped by a cute girl holding a big box of things asking if i wanted a lucky dip. Aww.. cute girl wants to talk to me.. i would’ve tried for a lucky dip if i weren’t so damn hungry.

Anyway, in Mid Valley shopping center, they had set up this Alice in Wonderland set complete with “grass” and “rock” foot path, giant mushrooms and flowers with faces. So i stepped into Wonderland to enjoy my moment.

Then my neighbor asked me what i was doing. I said that i was in wonderland. He said that i was 無聊.

-_-

Humph. These stone-hearted heartless people can never fall into the rabbit hole. They can never appreciate the wonderfulness of wonderland. Like later on, i indicated to a giant teddy bear held by another girl and said, “Wa, so big a teddy bear”. My answer to his reply, “Go snatch it.”, was “I don’t want to snatch it.”.

And then what did he say? He said, “Then you say out for what?”. Wth. My inner lesbian is offended loh. How insensitive can a guy get?

Anyway, Elizabeth Ling texted to say, i quote exactly, “Hi, just to update; we delivered a baby gal tis wed :)”.

So my response to an English sentence that has the word “tis”? I asked whether they had a baby on Wednesday or if they’re going to have a baby on the coming Wednesday. For all i know, her “delivered” could be bad grammer or something. There are people who append “ed” or “s” to verbs for no apparent reason.

She texted to lecture me saying that she used past tense for “delivered”.

O.o

I tried to lay claim to my god daughter. But i was rejected. Now i’m so sad.

Anyway, the trip was strictly a tourney trip. I was there to play magic and nothing else. Didn’t meet up any KL friends. Not that i have many. Didn’t spend time to shop even when i wanted to go to Kinokuniya in KLCC to look for The Annotated Alice. Didn’t go out for midnight mamak. The boringest trip ever, lol.

If i’m there with a girl, maybe i would go to the Batu Caves or something.

Ok, this post is long enough. Memory cue for me, donuts, girlfriends, i hate your girl/boyfriend.

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Last post before KL

My neighbour found another straggler who had nobody to go with him to this Saturday’s tourney in KL. Thus we form the odds and ends group. It’s like we don’t have any friends.

Anyway, i texted bubble tea girl asking how she was, she texted back asking how i was and if i was going to KL, i texted back saying i was going to KL tomorrow and over the weekend for a tourney, she texted back wishing me good luck for the tourney and i texted back asking her out for dinner tomorrow.

Reply is unknown as i only texted her some minutes ago and there seem to be some hours of delay between each text. This seem to happen quite often with my global text messages. Maybe it’s something to do with the network, i don’t know.

But i don’t think there’s going to be any dinner, coz last i check my recent memory, i’ve got 100% failure rate when trying to ask friends out on dates. Oh well..

Omg.. what if she texts back and says “Ok, let’s have dinner.”? What am i going to talk to her about? It’ll be so akward. So scary. *gasp* Panic attack.

I wished big sis was in KL. Haiz, miss her so much.

Anyway..

I have this urge send the following text message to girls:
“Hi, this is to tell you that i’m going to KL tomorrow for a couple of days. Nothing much here, just wanted to tell someone about it and you’re the only one i can think of coz you seem like closest to being like a girlfriend to me.”

Waw.. i sound like i’m evil..

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Of dinner, trip and book.

When people say to me “It’s a small world.”, i would always reply by saying “It’s a small Singapore”, implying that the world seems small only because we were both living in Singapore, and Singapore being a small place, it’s quite easy to bump into one another.

Sometimes, these coincidences seem way to freaky, almost fate like.

So it was, someone texted me earlier today to ask me to eat dinner together. I was in the middle of a game and i didn’t look at my phone and soon forgotten about the incoming text.

Fortunately, she gave me a call, which i managed to pick up and dinner was arranged. But i went back to gaming and would have forgotten all about it had she not text me again saying that she was at the place early and to give her a call when i reach.

Then on the way home, exiting the train station with my head down looking at my book, my neighbour, the magic playing primary school friend, called out to me. And in that chance encounter, the trip to KL was arranged. I’ll be going to KL this weekend !!

With no transport booking and no accomodation. How crazy we are, lol. I guess it’s time to ask for favours. Maybe text bubble tea girl for help. Omg, what’s bubble tea girl’s name?

I was at Popular book store just now. Saw A Lion Among Men, in the Wicked Years cover with the lovely green and black colorings. But i’ve got A Lion Among Men already, but in another cover. Would any kind soul buy that book off me so i could get the one i saw instead?

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Stream of LB consciousness

On Saturday’s coffee session, i demanded my cousin to watch Alice in Wonderland with me today.

Anyway, after the coffee session, my brother and i got into talking about books of alternate versions of classic stories. My brother gave an all sweeping comment saying that such stories were not original. Omg, how can he say that of Wicked, one of my favourite books. (Ambiguity fallacy. The word “original” is ambiguously used)

Oh, how i’ve fallen in love with Elphaba. Elphie Fabala Fae. I hope Wicked musical comes to SG.

Anyway, today, i was a little late for the meet up so my cousin queued for the tickets first. After awhile, i got a call from him asking whether we wanted to watch the normal version or the 3D version. Since i’ve never tried any 3D films, i thought we should give it a try.

So it was, we were late, the show had already started. We waltz into the cinema, sat down, looked around and found out that we were the only ones without the 3D effects glasses. Went back out to get our glasses from the guy but blah, who cares about these boring details.

In short, i got to watch Alice in Wonderland, and i loved it. I loved Alice in Wonderland before it became a movie. Now i have a renewed desire to buy The Annotated Alice.

Need to go to the bookshop with someone who would actually encourage me to buy the book rather than say, “Wa.. $30 for a book, so expensive..”. Humph.

Books books books. I’m now reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I get the feeling that i’m going to love the book too. I do love lots of the books that i read. Then again, i probably only read books that i’m likely to love reading.

Anyway, here’s two paragraphs of the forward.

Many years later, when goaded by her own book club to write a book, Mary Ann naturally thought of Guernsey. She chose to write an epistolary novel because, ‘for some bizzare reason, I thought that it would be easier that way’. First her family, then her writing group, and then publishers around the world greeted her manuscript with avid enthusiasm, recognizing a true gem.

Not long after the sale of her manuscript, Mary Ann’s health declined, and her niece Annie Barrows – a successful author in her own right – undertook the edit.Tragically, Mary Ann died early in 2008 without seeing her book in print, but she has left the world an unforgettable legacy – the heartwarming, moving story of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

I’ve got another two books by another author (also dead), unread. I’ve got Pain in the Neck by Grace Chow (also dead), unfinished.

Will i ever write my own book? Will i ever live to see my own book in print, if i ever write one that is.

I thought i’ll die at the age of thirty, quit my job to enjoy the remaining years of my life.. So i didn’t die at the age of thirty and now, without a job, i’m pretty screwed.

Some nearly two years late, it’s time to.. what’s that word.. anyway.. it’s time to get reorganized. Establish another deathline to work towards to. I figured that dying in 20 years time doesn’t seem too unreasonable. At the age of 52, i would’ve faded from this world very well, and nobody would miss that i’m gone.

Actually, no, 20 years time should’ve been counted 2 years ago, from the last deathline. So i’m left with 18 years of life. Which kind of got me thinking. How many of my cousins will i live to see get married? Oh my baby nephew, he’ll only be 18 when i die.

Obtw, no longer thinking about deleting facebook account. Big sis YyY created an account again ^^ Though there are no photographs in it at all.

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