9:44 p.m. - 2009-01-31
CNY visiting, the movie STUCK and books i borrowed
today my cousin bro and sis, from my mother's side came over to my house, together with my aunt.
we chatted a bit, asking each other about our jobs and then they were going to visit another aunt, my mom's youngest sis.
mom asked me if i wanted to go, and since i haven't done any CNY visiting this year, i thought i would go with them. Another good thing is cousin sis will be driving us there in her car, so it's convenient and fuss-free.
however, we had to wait for the plumber to fix our kitchen tap first. It had been leaking for more than 6 months and worsened recently; mom will be going on an overseas trip to Harbin in a week, and i will also be going to Sabah around then, no one will be around to empty the pail collecting water from the leaking tap and so mom decided to get a plumber from the nearby local market to help us.
while we waited for him, mom went outside the house and used a pair of pliers to twist and close the main water valve.
the plumber arrived, he was hainanese too and he discussed the quality of taps with mom while fixing on the new tap to the kitchen sink. my aunt joined in to, talking about her tap.
after that was done, we all went over to my other aunt's place, she lived in a condo about 15 mins drive away.
At her place, we drank mango juice and apple juice and chatted to the uncle about various things: jobs, xbox 360, his clubbing daughters, parenting, relationship expectations, not in this order of course.
meanwhile, the 3 sisters chatted with each other and with aunt's mother-in-law. mom also borrowed a long winter jacket for her harbin trip.
then visit over, we left aunt and uncle, and drove to a nearby coffeeshop under a block and had our lunch. i ate chicken rice while they ate fish soup noodles/rice. i had a habit of spooning the soup onto my rice and the chicken rice seller asked me why i did that, he was a burly guy with a thick chain around his thick neck, i didn't know how to reply, thinking in my head, this is how i eat why you wanna care, but i didn't say it out because it would be rude and so i said er... yeah this is my habit. then he said the rice is good, fragrant, just eat it as it is. and he turned and left. Pressure. now if i was larry david, i would be neurotic and make a big fuss about the freedom of eating styles and i'll pour the whole bowl of soup onto my rice just to spite the guy. then my aunt, cousins and mom would be very embarrassed at my behaviour.
larry david is so funny. his character in curb your enthusiasm is fertile fodder for hilarious, awkward social situations kind of sketches.
what's next... mom went to play mahjong with another aunt, my father's side. My aunt (cousin's mom) went to work, she's a postal worker at the main office. my cousins drove me home, and also to pick up a bag cousin sis had forgot to take.
i spent the afternoon watching the movie Stuck, then i read a few reviews about it just to see what others thought about it. I dunno why i couldn't think about it and give my opinion, well ok, i found the first 25 minutes quite boring, it was quite straightforward character backgrounding like information so on... and then the middle was not as thriller exciting as other thrillers, i didn't really root for the suffering character, not invested in his life, because he seemed like really down on his luck, unemployed, kicked out of his rented flat, treated like shit at the unemployment office... so when he was knocked down by the car, you feel like oh well another unfortunate incident for this unlucky guy, almost as if he got it coming or it's his destiny. Perhaps if his life had more at stake to it, like he has a loving family waiting for him to get home, he's going somewhere in life etc, you would feel more empathy for this guy. But right now, he's like a cipher, an individual whom we're pretty shallow with; alright we saw a photograph in his room and we know he has a son who's a graduate somewhere, but that's too thin and easily forgettable. It's like a cutaway shot. hmm maybe it would have been better if he had called his son through a phone or something... okay maybe that did happen.
okay, done with the movie, i went to bishan library to collect some books i'd reserved. i find that it's easier to just find books i want through the internet, and if they're at some far library, i should just reserve them and collect near my place. Saves me a lot of time and energy for the travelling and browsing.
so what did i borrow? Rhetorical questions help break the monotony of sentences and maintains interest for the readers.
i borrowed "writing the second act" (that's self-explanatory) and the other one is... wait, let me go and find it cos i forgot the exact title.
well, obviously i couldn't be writing and finding it at the same time, so now i'm really back after going to the living room to get the book, and something interesting happened just now while i was walking to the living room, i smelt the smell of urine in the air, it was quite strong, although it also smelt like preserved vegetables like really pungent kimchi, so i walked around a bit doing some investigative work, maybe it's paranormal activity, but i gave up anyway after 10 seconds and so now i'm back here in front of my netbook typing.
okay the other book is called "the back of the napkin, solving problems and selling ideas through pictures." I came across this book while surfing the net and browsing in amazon i think, then this book about doodling pictures and thinking visually sounded quite interesting and so i searched for it through the library catalogue and luckily i found it. Reserved and in 2 days, it's ready for collection. See, a little patience helps save money.
speaking of saving money, i'm thinking of buying a trekkinh/hiking shoe for sabah. i've been watching a few episodes of Man versus Wild and really kinda inspired by that animal-corpse-eating, fire-making, adventure dude Bear Grylls.
And i think i might be walking through trails in Sabah and i don't want to get my running shoes dirty, like mud dirty. And my other shoes are the white canvas shoes and my daily gotowork casual shoes. I don't want to get them dirty too. The ironic question is then why would i buy a pair of 80 plus dollars trekking shoes and get them dirty.
er... because they're meant to be dirtied. and they better be water-proof too.
well, so i walked around a bit in junction 8, went to bata shop, royal sporting house, but didn't get anything because i still want to consider first, maybe i can wear my running shoes. but i don't want to get them wet, you know the dilemma.
alright, that's about it for today. oh while i was having my reluctant shower just now, reluctant because i was sleepy and felt like going to bed without showering but the rituals of cleansing just had to be done and i forced myself into the bathroom; so while i was bathing, i thought about these books i had borrowed, really utilitarian books, and i thought i shouldn't be making it a chore to read, like a self-improvement chore or work i have to do, because i wouldn't enjoy it or get around to finishing the books at all, so now i got to psyched myself or relax and just enjoy the books for the interesting information they'll provide. And not try too hard to absorb it all, even memorising it.
ok so this is it, i'll get back to reading a bit, maybe i'll go out with wy later for prata, or maybe not, a bit tired, ok this is it, bye.
