Sad movie

Day 13 off friendster
Coffee consumed: one cup per day since Saturday

Movie of the day : Sad movie (Korean 2005)

Watched it with a girl friend on Sat night and we both cried our eyes out. There are 4 relationships in the movie: 2 couples, a girl falling in love and a mother & child. It started off like a cute, breezy Korean love stories so that to unexpected viewers like me, we almost forgot about the title (or actually thinking it's just a misleading title, like that of my sassy girl) and believed for a while that this is a movie about love, not sadness. Each pair had already have a conflict in the relationship and each had worked hard on it in the way that we, without knowing, already give them our full supports. I especially like the character of this girl who couldn't speak and has a burnt scar on her cheek. She worked as a mascot in amusement park so she got to wear the costume and didn't need to speak all day long. She fell in love with this artist who, waiting for his departure to go study abroad, came to draw in the park everyday (oh, isn't he the cutest boy in the whole wide world?) and they developed a silent bond while the boy never got to see her face nor hear her voice. It's very sweet that I wished they would be together after the girl revealed her face and her handicapped self to him at the end. But of course it's a sad movie, when it came to the end of this relationship, it broke my heart. The same happened each time the other relationships broke down one by one.

On a totally different note, I couldn't help but noticing all Korean actors and actresses possess such perfect skin! Looked like the girls didn't wear any make up at all and yet they looked perfectly radiant. Darn...the only chance I could ever look like that is to pray for it in the next life!

Attention Deficit Disorder

Day 10 off Friendster!
Coffee consume today = 0!

Already 2 reasons i can celebrate today :-)

No class and no termpaper work today, a first in a very long while. I've been having problem with concentration so I decided to start a project that will help me regain my focus, some handy work is what i need.

So i picked up a pair of jeans, the one i removed one back pocket and bleached it until it's too ugly to wear. I drew a pattern over that bleached-area and planned on embroiding it.

Forgot to take the 'before' photo, only captured some of in-progress works :

From Day 1: There was some progress! from the rough stiches to a finer ones





And finally on Day5.. after many do's and redo's, the pattern's been changed a little... this is the finished work!

A Bad Day

At school today Pooh looked dejected, she said today was just a bad day for her!

Eventhough my project work looks like it was already finished since Sunday, we actually had a lot of final-touch to do and were at the school until 1am. Then Pooh's phone rang, she picked up and soon shouted out that her aunt's house was burgled and rushed out. Big had to send both Pooh and myself to pickup the cars as we parked outside. I followed Pooh home to pick up her mom before heading towards her aunt's house which's not far from ours, I followed to keep her company.

The burglar went in from 2nd floor window, they professionaly cut the wrought iron and bent it open, searched all cabinets in every bedrooms. In one room they got the safebox out, nicely cracked it open, got out all the gold and jewelry boxes. They took the time to open each box and took only the content of it instead of conveniently taking the small boxes with them. There were gold & diamond rings from her Bro's wedding and also a wad of cash. My friend estimated it was over a million baht worth stolen.

The policemen who were at the house when we arrived didn't give a very good impression, one of them was even drunk and tried to chat me up!!! That's absolutely disgusting! Luckily Pooh's brother and her other relatives reached the scene and finally a more proper team of police also arrived. They just took photos and didn't do much that night, even left the window the way it was! Just promised that they will come for a walk-through the field behind the house in the morning!

All in all, there's no hope of getting the stuff back. No insurance, no clue. Even if the police manage to catch the burglars, chance to get any compensation on this case is too slim!

Dear Diary

Day 4 off Friendster
Day 3 off Coffee.. Oh! no! I just had 2 Americano with chocolate cake at 8pm!

Finally got the nice long run I've been wanting for weeks since my HK trip. It's a measure of my mood too, today I found that I'm still emotionally numb since I could run about 6 km without getting tired (except for the short breathing that slowed me down on the 3rd km.). It felt good to release the excess energy by running it off. But it still didn't clear my head this time, I couldn't really think of anything during the run today - just listened to the radio. It was a nice timing to tune on 102.5 FM after 9pm, no advertising and no commentator. I was out there for an hour, very good record for me. Hope there will be no muscle aches tomorrow.

Song of the day

Artist: Goo Goo Doll
Song: Iris

And I'd give up forever to touch you
Cause I know that you feel me somehow
You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be
And I don't want to go home right now

And all I can taste is this moment
And all I can breathe is your life
Cause sooner or later it's over
I just don't want to miss you tonight

And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming
Or the moment of truth in your lies
When everything seems like the movies
Yeah you bleed just to know your alive

And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am


I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am

Random thoughts

Vainpot over eyeliner : being heavily criticized on my bare-faced look by many friends, topped by a push to M.A.C. counter last Sunday, I finally got to learn how to wear eyeliner. A bottle from M.A.C. and another from drugstore for practicing purpose.

Day 2 of refraining from friendster, I set a resolution to not checking it for 10 days. Just to make sure I'm not too attached to online commnunity :-P

Sitting in the kitchen eating my oatmeal on a lazy morning, I realised my life is not bad, not at all. I do not have to struggle for anything, except for self esteem and independence. I have people who love me for what I am, that's reassuring.

Being happy is having a downside effect on me, I've been overenjoyed eating.. had more rice in the past 3 days than I had in the prior 3 months together. Getting fat now. Oh, and think about what would happen with me during the tasting trip in August..Oh, Kaori's joining me for the trip, but she'll stay at another hotel as she has to cover the room rate all by herself. I managed to get Ma to go with me, but honestly I am not sure at all whether I can handle her during the trip. And of course, with Ma going, I can't extend my stay after the business' over. I guess I have to live with that.

Walking around in bubble helmet

Cognition is like an air pressure helmet the astronauts put on, it's essential we can't survive without. But it's also limit our experience to the real world.

Song of the day : Iris, covered by Ronan Keating
I don't want the world to see me
Cos I don't think that they'd understand.
When everything's meant to be broken
I just want you to know who I am.

Film of the day : Sixth sense
Cole: Grandma comes to visit me sometimes. She said you went to the place where they buried her, asking a question. She said the answer is 'Every day'. What did you ask?
Mom: Do I .. "do I make you proud?"

I cried easily these days, and the 2 bits above really opened the flood gate when I heard them.

I'm unable to compose a coherent paragraph today. Will adopt Microserf's technic of jotting down all the words popping up in my head in this blog:

Resolution for the day : not Logging in friendster for 10 days. Due on 28th July. Focus on termpaper and class reading materials. Stop playing around.

Watched Bridget Jone's diary the second time last night, surprised to find that it's actually quite a pleasant show. Why I didn't like it so much last time.. I do not know. This time around it sounded their accents are more comprehensible.

Fantastic class last night, Professor Leslie de Chernatony is indeed a powerful performer. Not a single dull moment throughout the class. But it also means we have to work harder to keep up.

working on the new signature. hope my life would be easier if I change the signature!

Everything happens for a reason

My general philosophy is that humandkind has no valid purpose to be on earth. We evolved from single cell organism and have since done nothing but draining resources off this planet. One of my theories is humankind might be just like a chain of mutating viral bacteria the universe created as a bio-chemical weapon to rid its 3rd planet off this solar system. Think Hitchhiker guide to the galaxy.

However, on a smaller scale of mankind society, I do believe that everthing happens for a reason. Action & reaction, cause & effect, whatever it's called. Each cause or action could generate multi-tier of effect or reaction sometimes it's almost impossible to track what the cause is for a certain outcome. Many complicated chains of events have scientific explanation, many don't. The reasons unknown to humankind beget superstitions, beliefs in supernatural powers. Personally, I think we cannot say something is supernatural just because we do not know how to explain it, but yes, I do feel those powers higher than my recognition surrounding us people.

A longwinded intro to my memento of the day, another super early morning get-ups. I went for one of my major interview/screening, the process consisted of EQ questionaire, an essay writing, group discussion and a panel interview. As you may know, I have been on an epoch of dullness for a week or so, but my mood began to change when I saw the topic of today essay. It was to discuss my idea why His Majesty the King is so well beloved by Thai people. Thinking of all the reasons attributing, I couldn't help but feeling how small and meaningless my so called problems are. Our King is an extraordinarily intelligent figure, we are undoubtedly proud of that. But the real reason all of us love and respect him wholeheartedly is his selfless dedication to the people of this poor country. A responsibility larger than life was thrown upon him at such a young age and he had since abandoned his own dream to take best care of millions of people he did not know.

I did badly on the discussion being so overwhelmed with countless answers and I didn't articulate well. I knew I should pick a few key points and focus my answer around those points, I didn't manage to do so. Anyway, I don't feel so desperately dull anymore after doing this exercise. My problems are nothing in view of what His Majesty went through. A remarkable thing is, I just got my 'The revolutinary King' book back last week. This book is still banned in Thailand and I did quote a paragraph from that book during the discussion. I noticed all colors faded from the judges' faces when I quoted, "When I was a boy, I wanted to be an engineer. Instead, I've become my brother". I hope I wont get myself arrested for that. Just repossessed the book in question a few days before coming across this topic at a major interview, I feel there's some invisible cobweb linking all the events I encounter.

It led me to think of how losing the old phone improved my life, first of all, I had a valid reason to go for retail therapy to fix my blues, then I found a phone with much updated feature than the old one, at a much more economy price (i paid about SGD200 for this current phone, comparing to SGD800 i paid for N8850 5 years ago). Last but not least, this phone comes with a handfree set. Believe it or not, I could pay hundreds of dollars for a phone, but I would never spent extra 20 dollars for accessories! With the handfree set, now I enjoy the chance to chat away while driving, a thing I wasn't capable of for a longest time. (Ok, this pleasure comes hand in hand with spiking phone bills, I get it) Another remote analogy is how I despise that HK trip and of all the efforts in buying fashion items trying to enjoy the shopping spree, it's turned out that the best buy I made there was the HK$40 sleek Muji's suction-towel rack:

And their plastic case is also very neat, though a little pricey.

If I ever go to HK again, they are the reasons! :-)

PS. I'm hoping I'd be shown a brighter way to look at other things too, for example, my decision to turn down SCB offer. I hope MIM is worthwhile.

Total Recall

HK trip

Pueng and her gang went for a shopping trip last year and she told me a lot of great bargains they managed. So I asked her to count me in if she arranges for the next visit. We indeed got a very value package, THB 10,700 @ for tickets, 4-night hotel room in Wan Chai district, and transportation thru&fro the airport. There were 13 people in the group; Pueng +her mom and brother, Kae + her primary school friend & her friend's mother, May & Aey the couple, Earng + her Uncle & Aunt, the travel agent guy who's also Erng's buddy (that's one of the reasons why we got such a good price for this trip). I'd thought about visiting Disneyland but no one else was interested.

Day 1, we reached the hotel about 4pm, nothing much to do except from going for dinner and walked to Ikea.

(pictures of Billboard along the walk to Ikea)
The gang really bought a lot there and enjoyed every shopping pitstop. I got a few cardboard boxes from Ikea for my class material storage and then got 2 pieces of cake from Sogo's underground. If there's a vote for the most superbly outstanding food in Hong Kong, I won't cast my vote for dim sum nor char siew nor any Chinese food. The best food in Hong Kong is definitely desserts! I bought 2 pieces plus one chocolate cheesecake stick and Erng later bought another 2 pieces. Then we all went back to have the dessert feast at Erng's room, Absolutely sinful!

Day 2, Outdoor excursion to Lin Po temple, Lan Tao island.

I got misled into paying HKS23 before getting up the stairs while that amount was actually for a snack set after we came back down. Nice spot on the summit though.

Later on I discovered that the travel agent guy himself was going to Disneyland the next day, so I declared I'd follow him. Subsequently we got Jin and her Mom to go with us too.

Day 3, Disney Land
everything in this train spell Disney!
Left the hotel early without taking breakfast, looking forward to getting to Disneyland. We alighted the normal MTR at Sunny bay station then took the Disney train for another 10 minutes.



I thought we could find something nice and unique to eat there, what a silly idea! The ticket counter wouldn't open until 9am and non-reserved tickets had to wait til 10am to enter the main gate. It was raining cats and dogs in the morning too.

Unable to get the ride on the orbitron, I had to settle with Pooh's house!! Eyore's tail

Not many fun rides available and all 4 lands are pretty compact now. I liked the parade and Mickey's Philhar-magic 3d show the most.


We left Disneyland about 4pm and went to Tsim Sa Tsui for chinese dessert recommended by Christine.
Everyone loved it. The travel agent showed us to a nearby roast restaurant, it was much better than the place we went on day1, but I still didn't really like the fatty Char Siew or Goose.

Later in the night we went to The Peak. The tram ride was exciting as its track was on such a steeping slope.

Day 4, the guide claimed that HK local coffee shops serve this yummy french toast for breakfast, so we made a plan to come down early to try it. Walked under the morning rain to the nearby coffee shop just to find out it's not served there. Pissed, I wanted to go back to the hotel to catch the rest of the gang but manners forced me to hang on to accompany the guy eating his breakfast. I decided to follow my gang to Repulse Bay to visit the shrine of Kuan Yim goddess. The gastric pain kicked in soon after, I didn't get this for quite long and it kind of ruined my day. It rained as usual, and the guide guy misguided us on the way back that took about 20 minutes of uphill walking. And later on when guided us toward Maxim palace at City hall for lunch he led us the wrong way once again, well.. not that it's his responsibility to take care of us since we only bought Free & easy package, so I can't really judge him as a tour guide.

I lost count of how many times I ticked off on that day, despite many praises I heard about Maxim, I'm totally unimpressed. It's not worthy paying 100 HKS for such food when I can get similar one at half the price in Bangkok or Chinatown in Singapore. After lunch I was so determined to go shopping to at least get something out of this 'shopping' trip, at that time I was still empty handed except for the micky ear studs I got as souvenir from Disneyland. Shopped around in IFC at HK station, crossed over to Central station and took the train back to Causeway bay, zero succession rate.

Finally I impulsively bought 3 not-so-cheap items from a shop called Staccato in World trade center, I don't know the brand but the shoes and bags there have nice design and the staff was extremely appreciable. The next hilight was that I lost my phone, sometime between 2-5pm somewhere between central station and time square. I spent the last hour on the street tracking back all the shops I visited, really difficult when I don't speak local language.

I did get a feeling that all these unpleasant incidents are the omens telling me the day was winding into an even worse one, and not to do what I had planned for. I brushed off the hint and continued to struggle over a few even more hurdles to carry on with my plan. And now I know I should listen to them.