One less frustrated golfer...

I went to the driving range on my own last Monday. Supposed to meet up with Vincent but he couldn't leave early enough. So I whacked a few balls on my own. I haven't been practicing for ages and I wasn't surprised when my balls flew left, right, centre (most of the time hitting the low barrier with a really loud and embarrassing "Thump"!) I had a few winners though but they were few and far in between. The Indian golfer next to me must have either been a. Annoyed at the loud clangings or b. Worried that one of my balls would fly up and hit him. He sat down and observed what I was doing but didn't make any comment about my lousy golf shots. It was some time when I almost finished about 70-80% of my 100 balls when an old uncle who was just leaving with his bag in tow stood and looked at what I was doing. I wondered "Gosh, I must be either pretty good (as the only girl there) or extremely bad" - of course hoped for the former. I looked up at old uncle and jokingly said "How am I doing? Do you have a free tip for me?". Old uncle was only too happy to show me that my wrist work and club face angle was not good - and I was forcing the shot, not really letting it go naturally. He made me do a few shots in the correct way (it dribbled pathetically down the driveway) but nevertheless I thanked him for his time and teaching. He said "Well, I don't mind - if it means that there's at least one less frustated golfer among us. We should all be enjoying the game" Which I laughed and had to agree.

Troi couleur:Rouge

I meant to post something on this movie last Thursday. But me being unwise, I typed it directly onto the blog. And not surprisingly Internet explorer ‘hanged’ and I lost everything that was typed. Now I’m typing this on Word before transferring it on blog.

Red is the final part of Kieslowski’s brilliant Three Colour trilogy. This was the final movie he completed before his death and is acknowledged as THE Masterpiece amongst the three. Of all the interpretations, I liked most this one “if all three films are examined as a whole, the common unifying element is love” And Red being the colour of love, it closes the trilogy with this theme.

Frankly the movie was pretty hard for me to digest – maybe I wasn’t in my best frame of mind to think. There were random, connective scenes which needed processing which I didn’t catch. For instance, the scene of the young man running to his exam and dropping the book on the road. Then Judge Kern relates the same experience as he was young. Then the visual of the broken glass mug at the bowling alley, and the other broken glass shot in the judge’s house. I thought “Could the times sequence of the movie have purposely been unrelayed?”. “Is Judge Kern a psychic or psycho?”. The scenes seemed unrelated and detached which confused me. However I must admit the final scene was magnificent where Valentine’s profile was captured in a momentous glance which appeared earlier on in the movie.

Still I prefer Blue.

The Piano Girl

I'm really excited about my friend's piano. She ordered it last Saturday and it's finally coming! Angie will and always will be THE music girl in my mind - and also my best friend by the way. Days of us dressed in turqouise secondary school uniforms (hers seemed a different colour from the normal turquoise I remember) and going for choir practice every week after school come back to me everytime we sit at the piano on some evenings to make music. I don't have any pictures of us then - they are misty, watercolour images in my head; the school piano, the stage, the velvet curtains, the choir girls in uniform - but the feelings of the harmonies and the fun we had are still very much alive and everytime we sit at the piano it all comes back to me. Angie is always the organizer -she was the one leading the school choir and was president of the music society then. I remember a time in Form 4 when we had an inter-school choir competition and I was really nervous about fumbling as the piano accompaniment. We were in the midst of our exams but yet had to compete so I didn't really have much practice. It would have been really bad if the choir failed to do its best when the accompaniment spoilt it! She gave me encouragement and talked me out of it. Thankfully it went well.(we didn't win though, St John's Choir took the trophy I think)

Angie, here's to your new piano - the music's always there with you!

STOMP!

Stomp was amazing!

The Perfect Moment

The music rang clear as the pedals hit the strings and the moment is suddenly, unexpectedly perfect. Music filled the house - the tones played on the piano reverberated with the human voice.

Teaching

He sat up -concentrated very enthusiastically over his writing. I had timed him for 2 minutes to write as many Malay words as he could. Little boy in shorts, in a washed-too-many-times faded t-shirt, sitting at the plastic table and chair in his small apartment in Cheras. I was tutoring him in Malay language as one of my friends could not take him up as she tutored students mainly in PJ or TTDI. He was a bright student though slightly on the slow side. This was my 2nd month of tutoring him.

"Times up!" I said.

He let out an 'Aiya' exclamation...one of signals that showed he was more motivated than he wanted to convey. He was a funny chap. When faced with a difficult question he often said "I cannot do it", "I don't know how to do it", "Cannot cannot cannot", "I don't know how"...in a consistency that surprised me- sometimes he said it even before I even gave him any questions. It was as if he was trying to test me - "Do what you want, but I cannot do it" or "Don't expect anything out of me" - which was disturbing for me. How can one so young already be programmed to think that he will fail? For most of the lesson, I struggled to keep his attention on the lesson and his learning attitude in place.

However in this session tonight, for once he genuinely was interested in what he was doing and doing it with a fervour. This little spark I will keep nurturing (albeit with much patience though) until he makes it.

I'm Back!

After 2 weeks of being away I'm finally blogging again. In between I visited Ipoh Taiping, was in company trainings, workshops, turned 27 years old and spent a very nice 5 days in Phuket. Thought I'd drop a message here before I go into 'blog oblivion' - that obscure place where you're a million miles from posting messages and your page gets stuck at the same place all the time. Good to be back!

Hide and Seek

by Howard Jones

There was a time when there was nothing at al
Nothing at all, just a distant hum
There was a being and he lived on his own
He had no one to talk to, and nothing to do
He drew up the plans, learnt to work with his hands
A million years passed by and his work was done
And his words were these...

Hope you find it in everything, everything that you see
Hope you find it in everything, everything that you see
Hope you find it, hope you find it
Hope you find me in you

Fiona's Law

Murphy's Law:
If anything can go wrong, it will.

Fiona's Law:
(Murphy's Law x Careless) = (Aftermath)(power to gazillion times)

Here's how the above is demonstrated:

Phuket Trip:
I get ready to fly off to Phuket - everything packed and ready to go. Even the minutest detail taken care of - bottle of water, extra underwear, contact lenses, etc in the bag. Timed to leave the house at 9am for the flight check in at 10.45am. Mother (who was informed beforehand) is ready to take me to the KLIA Transit station. I open my passport and see that it's expired -Feb 2005. Great.

Parking Ticket:
Pissed off that I had to reschedule the trip, I go off to Mid Valley with Philippe who wanted to do some grocery shopping. Realizing that I would be RM800 poorer due to the change in airticket AND renewal of passport, I vowed not spend a cent on anything in Mid Valley. Parking is free so don't have to pay anything. Lunch, can eat at home. Just the petrol and the occasional phone call to AirAsia to settle the details. In Carrefour, I pass the food aisle, resist the urge to pick up useless food items. Resist the urge to eat lunch in Mid Valley itself. Checking out time, time to pay the parking. Where's the ticket? Not in my bag though I swore I saw it drop in my sack during the entry. It must have dropped out when my bag tilted or when I took out my hp to answer a call. Run around Carrefour retracing my steps. Ask the info counter and security counters. No one has seen it. After 1/2 an hour I give up. Pay the RM20 for the lost ticket. Great.