From 30C to 8C

Going away is always so exciting. Zurich was great and I actually had a taste of summer, with walk along the lake, ice cream, swans trying to eat my feet, shopping in Konstanz, and even naked sauna! It's a time to breathe deeply and slowly, and to let time slip through my fingers. Maybe I shouldn't do that so often because when I get back to my real life, in 8C and torrential rain, I feel like something is very wrong and I am not getting anywhere.

-the person behind me in the plane kept banging the seat into my head and had very very stinky feet. I wished her painful death.
-two stupid fully made up girls/trashy women sat across each other in the tube and screamed to each other as ways of conversation. I wished them very painful death choking on their makeup.
-my flatmates keep making noise, such as closing doors and dishes. I wish them, yes, again, very painful death.
-and so on and so on...
I am very afraid of one day completely snapping it and be very violent and actually make it to the other side. Is it just me or everything seems so annoying and disturbing? In the meantime,I am perfectly happy and sad.

'Why do I keep hitting myself with a hammer?

'Because it feels so good when I stop' (Grey's anatomy)
I got hooked on another medical series.

Speaking of pain, I think I might have solved my own riddle. Why do I tend to fall for guys who are unreliable, unresponsible, penniless, stupid and worthless? And why do I keep longing for such badass players?

Apart from the fact that maybe I am stupid too, the hidden reason could be that I long for the apparent freedom, carefree and spontaneity of them. No career angst, no responsibility, just pure fun and laughs, frozen in time, in that instant. It may only last a few minutes, but it is so sheer blisss and lightness. And isn't that all we look for all our lives? Yes of course, but we also enjoy the search and the suprises that come with it.

I remember something I read once, about living like there is no tomorrow and planning like we are going to live forever (or something with the same flavour). So even when I am sad and hurt like a broken glass, I try hard to plan to be happier, just in case I don't die right there.

I wonder if panda's actually ever think about these, lacking in bamboos and all that.

TV or Internet?

As an internet addict, I wake up each morning to boot up my laptop and browse. Sometimes though, I wish I had japanese TV, because they have such an entertaining programs.



And those guys really know how to shake it! Some moves remind me of the moves we used to do at Waterstreet gallery or the Nerv!

A crappy rainy day in good company

This is one of those sundays when time stretches to its limitand gives you a taste of eternity, then suddenly shrinks like an elastic band and reminds you of reality.

A relatively soggy morning, lifted up by the musical percussions from the Bengali tiger parade, followed by an afternoon of lazy strolling in the Spitalfield covered market. We managed to only buy an item, after eating indonesian food (nasi goreng and nasi rendang), and a bit of italian tart with orange blossom flavoured cheese...I am still trying to digest. We finally dragged our wet feet (I had my Wellington rainboots) to the up sunday market, where we had fresh fruit juice (rasberry, apple and pear for some, and pineaple, apple, ginger for me). We also had shrimp tempura, and walked some more to finally end up on Brick Lane for the Bengali food sampling. Except obviously we were not hungry anymore. We shared one fresh coconut though and feasted with our eyes, admiring the booths, the window shops, and even getting into the saree shops. I now have an appointment to learn how to wear a saree, after buying a very bright orange shawalkamize. It so orange it glows in the dark...But it is nice and bright and lifts my spirits:)


The stage set up in the park nearby had a live band playing modern bengali songs, which the stand owners seemed to know by heart. There was a booth for henna, ice cream, more food, loads of Spongebobs and Spiderman and Dora the explorer balloons, and a fun fair as well. The rain and the crowd transformed the once green grassy park into Woodstock grounds.


That star fish friend of Spongebob was definetely spying on us!

I was happy to go home and sit down and have some tea. And while chatting away on comfy sofa, time gently nugdged us into a common time-space universe, and the sun emerged from behind the rainclouds.

Who needs eternity when we can still have both on loan for a short time?

Shut up

Stumbled on some old tunes...and this is one of them, reminding me of the dances and friends.
By Blacke Eyed peas, of course ! (It was this and Hey ya, by Outkast).




We try to take it slow
But we're still losin control
And we try to make it work
But it still isn't the worst
And I'm craaazzzy
For tryin to be your laaadddy
I think I'm goin crazy

Girl, me and you were just fine (you know)
We wine and dine
Did them things that couples do when in love (you know)
Walks on the beach and stuff (you know)
Things that lovers say and do
I love you boo, I love you too
I miss you a lot, I miss you even more
That's why I flew you out
When we was on tour
But then something got out of hand
You start yellin when I'm with my friends
Even though I had legitimate reasons (bull shit)
You know I have to make them evidence (bull shit)
How could you trust our private lives girl
That's why you don't believe my lies
And quit this lecture

[Chorus]

Why does he know she gotta move so fast
Love is progress if you could make it last
Why is it that you just lose control
Every time you agree on takin it slow
So why does it got to be so damn tough
Cuz fools in lust could never get enough of love
Showin him the love that you be givin
Changing up your livin
For a lovin transistion
Girl lip so much she tryin to get you to listen
Few mad at each other has become our tradition
You yell, I yell, everybody yells
Got neighbors across the street sayin
“Who the hell?!?”
Who the hell?
What the hell's going down?
Too much of the bickering
Kill it with the sound and

[Chorus]

Girl our love is dyin
Why can't you stop tryin
I never been a quitah
But I do deserve betta
Believe me I will do bad
Let's forget the past
And let's start this new plan
Why? Cuz it's the same old routine
And then next week I hear them scream
Girl I know you're tired of the things they say
You're damn right
Cuz I heard them lame dame excuses just yesterday
That was a different thing
No it ain't
That was a different thing
No it ain't
That was a different thing
It was the same damn thing
Same ass excuses
Boy you're usless
Whhoooaaaa

[Chorus]

Stop the talking baby
Or I start walking baby
Is that all there is

Congrats to the class of 2007!

And guess who I found, snapped by a Reuters photographer???


None other than George L...! WHo got his masters it seems by the beloved orange hood...hehehehe.

It is not what it seems

I look fat but really, I am very slim inside :)

When I first started my current job, I thought I was joining a pretty forward group of people. Well, there are some very hidden agenda in all around. I think I am not too familiar with it because I never really was involved in high school politics. I was always in a small clique that isolated itself fromt he whole 'I am prettier, I want your boyfriend, I have a better grade' kind of drama or whatever it was. So my social skills in term of internal politics are close to nil. I can only step back and watch, and only acting when it is ridiculous or when something needs to be done. It's a abit lame sometimes but as hopefully the 'universe will have its way of rectifying itself' (something like that, from Harold and Kumar goes to Whitecastle).

When I moved to London, it felt strange because I didn't know anyone. I seemingly left everyone away in the US. Now, after much begging and yelling from my college friends, I am on facebook and soon discovered many people I knew are living in London as well...yiipee:)

A very exhilarating and out of this world crying moment was when I found out that out there, someone finds football artistic and elegant, and ballet extremely boring. I feel the exact opposite and it is very funny that the same words be thought of instantly to describe both.

And to finish, an exciting festival this weekend, the Bengali new Year festival, Baishakhi Mela.The weather seems crap but they built a tent in the park next door so I will be hearing some music from my room hopefully.

Not in Black and White

There seem to be elections everywhere. The thing is, I now realize people never really have a good choice. Or maybe there are good candidate with genuinely good programmes, but people do not vote for them for the good reasons.
For example, Elektra did vote a socialist candidate not because she thinks it will improve society in general, but because she wants to be able to get money without working too hard, just some tax free income here and there in addition to the governmental subsidies. And that is coming from a woman with a degree in English, loads of time to spare, and no dependent.
I am not naive enough to think people vote for the sake of others. But I dislike the idea that they try to justify their motives with the needs of the society in general! It really disturbs me that so many people worked so hard, sacrificed so much to achieve these concessions, and basically they are being abused of by very lazy people like Elektra. It also takes away the government aid from the actual people in need, without resource and stuck in a situation.
And I am afraid that level of hypocrisy eventually will bring down all the social aid fought for till this day.

Selected 'listens'

Forget magazines and books these days (apart for the selected pageturners). I am all into podcasts. There are all sorts of them, and I am quite addicted to these ones.
-For the anime freak in me, there is Track Shun, who gives a preview and review of the upcoming anime that are or will flood the US market.
-Although I am not a big fan of history, The History Network podcast is really concise, and the narrator's voice doesn't make me as drowsy as you'd expect. If you don't want to go see the movie 300 but wants to know a good narrative account in 10min, this is the place to do so. Just scroll down at the bottom of the page for the Battle of Thermopylae.
-There are also the classical music ones such as WGBH Classical from Boston public radio, and the COGE from Paris.
-For a more festive or bouncy music there is the Ritmo Latino broadcasting from Micronesia.
-And how about a lazy day in watching cartoons? Yup, there are public domain cartoons out there, with awesome vintage cartoons. I was suprised to see how many of them were propaganda used to brainwash the viewers...

Many magazines and radio stations also have podcasts...the era of 'on demand' indeed!

My tasting of Kathmandu

It's been a while since I last was so full I cannot finish a sentence without burping. Now is one of those moments when I cannot go into a supermarket to shop for food because I cannot bear the sight of a single food item. I am so full the sight of food makes me nauseous. ..a rare moment to be fully appreciated:)
The cause of this strange illness? I pigged out on some Nepalese cuisine at the Great Nepalese Restaurant next to Euston station. With Chihiro-san, we had the Nepalese set meal at £13.95 each, and sampled 5 specialties (yes, five!). Nepalese cuisine has a touch of Indian and Chinese food. The Aloo Bodi Tama (Potato, Bamboo Shoot & Bean Curry) was very particular as it is a sour dish as the bamboo shoots are fermented and gives a kick to the curry. It is not very spicy in general , except the saag dish, so all the spices could be tasted beautifully. I like that, because I can enjoy the individual tastes of the cardamom, cloves etc...the dessert and tea at the end just killed us with happiness and sheer near explosion fullness!

It was quite impressive. And I got to hear Chihiro-san speak Nepalese witht he waiters, and learn a bit more on Nepal. Apaarently it is quite a narrow place, North to South, about 250km, but there is a 8000m difference in altitude within that thin strip so you get very different climate from south to north. She mentioned taking a week to go up 2000m from the south, but taking only 2 days walking down! Must be quite a fascinating place with breathtaking sights (and air). Just thinking of all that altitude makes me crash...

I am going to hibernate...

Divided and conquered

I haven't read many military books but I did have a quick glimpse of Sun Tzu's Art of War where it deals with leadership. I am now certain I am under very bad leadership. Worse even, we do not trust each other professionally...

whaaat..? When I am dozing off, my foggy brain blinks

Feliz cinco de mayo!-->insert maracas sounds here<--
It's a bit early for my poor brain who starts goin all over the place
-They have discovered a new planet with earth-like temperature. The popular question is what are the chances to find life there? My brain wants to know how the hell are we humans sure that life outside our solar system will be recognizeable by us???Because we are pretty slow sometimes, you know...maybe we've come across it but we just never realized it because it is not the carbon form of life..ah well...And also, I wonder what is their vision of the universe, their gods and religion...and also do you think we would get along? given that we can't even get along on the same planet???
-Some canadian man is campaigning to save BigFoot from extinction..must be a brain freeze:) I wonder if there is any species that tries to save the human species..maybe bacterias and viruses, though they have other hosts as well. Because you know, given that there will be much technology to select the sex of a baby, and that baby boys are more popular, chances are we're going to be extinct soon too..thanks to our..intelligence? Because let's face it, dumb people reproduce wildly at 15-16...so ironic.
-Which email did I register my NFL tickets to? ARghhhh
-Is Iraq the new Germany? So many countries are involved in keeping the peace there (and noone seems to be at peace though), and to my simplistic brain it looks like another iron curtain waiting to raise again...sigh, no more newswatching for me for a while.
-What are they wearing right now?(Orlando Bloom, Wentworth Miller, Topher Grace, Hayden Christensen);)
-I need to sleep, or my eyeballs are going to drop dry on the desk!

Hairspray

Oh yes, given that fluorescent jelly shoes and 80s style is back on, the soon to be on big screen Hairspray marks the return of big hair...retro is baaaack!


A good summer show that reminds everyone there is more futile and more entertaining things to do such as shake your booty and sing...
hmmm, also John Travolta will be Mom in that movie..hehehe

There is nothing I cannot do

Examples:
-For breakfast at 04:00 today i had a bucket of mandarine and pineaple and a banana and a camomille tea instead of the cholesterol packed english breakfast....I feel good. Go Me! Also I did the American ballet Theatre workout, CD2 for 2 days in a row. I can feel pain in places i didn't know existed. Watch out Shaolin monks workout, here I come!
-I grew some fingernails...not just as an accessible snack, but also as an accessory and to splash out more colours this summer.
-I downloaded Microsoft server 2003 (either am a geek or I miss my college years when I used to install stuff that keep crahsing)

There are still things I need to do though, like
- losing at least a whole leg and a full stomach (top priority) as I found out the 10km run will be in October sometime,
- eat less (hmmm maybe not this week, am having a heavy thursday)
- learn how to drive with a stick shift in my left hand (yikes, I got my permit to take the permit though)
- save money for my expensive vacations (I need a raise, and a rich generous boyfriend)

Swans and other birds

So summer is coming soon, even in London and I just had a look at what the city has to offer in term of performances. A priority this year is the Open Air Theatre in Regent's park, even if I know the weather is a factor. Shakespeare is on the program, as well as some light hearted musicals. So I am planning to watch at Lady be Good and Midsummer night's dream.

Sometime before June, I also want to visit Sadler's wells and check the Havana Rakatan out because they have lessons and dancing after the show. A perfect way to spend a friday night out.

First I am going to Swan Lake Premiere, which I still haven't seen live in tis entirety. Then hopefully I will get in the mood for the School of Ballet's end of year recital sometime in July. And of course I am not forgetting the theatre season at the Globe, for another round of Shakespeare...
I definetely need a raise!!!