There was a homeless bum on my street when I got home today. He was shouting, 'I'll be honest with you! I need money to buy cannabis! I won't lie, I want to get high! I want cash, to buy some hash!'
I didn't give him any money.
Neither did I give him any drugs, although there was a man selling magic mushrooms on Neal Street. It's funny how big, black Rastafarians come up to me in Picadilly Circus and ask me if I want a spliff. I imagine how I must look to them, cute little Jap girl (usually presumed) amused by their sleazy overtures.
Last night there was a fire in front of my flat. The fire brigade came and quickly put it out, so luckily no one was hurt. Apparently some idiot deposited a load of furniture in front of out flat and tried to set it on fire. I don't think anyone hates me that much, do they? It's a scary thought but it's occurred to me that it may have been one of Kenny's spurned potential sugar daddys. Well not much about this city really surprises me anymore. It could have been a random drunk person.
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Checking back in after the Wales horse-riding experience...
It has been painfully brought home to me that to enjoy horse-riding you've actually got to really like horses, not just be indifferent or ambivalent about them. It's not that I don't like the blasted things, I do feel a kind of objective respect for them-- after all they can run, jump and shit better than I ever could-- it's just that I don't have the necessary tenderness and sensitivity to animals in order to ride them well.
Riding is a very psychological exercise. You must like the horse and the horse must like you. This means maintaining a continuous stream of encouragement like 'Good boy, Snowball', 'C'mon boy' and 'Very good, Snowball!' I cannot bring myself to talk to a horse. The most I can say is, 'please please stop eating grass and let's move!' You must pat it, stroke it, yet keep a tight rein and your heels around the thing to show it who's master. You must dig your heels into its ribs repeatedly, and learn to tell when it is peeing or shitting so you can stand clear.
Something I wasn't very good at.
It is surprisingly difficult to tell if a horse is resting, stopping to shit, or just plain being stubborn because, being mounted, you obviously cannot see the bottom of the horse. The sudden blast of country fragrance following the pause is the only way to tell. If I seem to be overemphasising a certain bodily function let me assure that the one thing horse movies/books don't mention is how bloody often they do it. And how much of it there is.
The countryside was very pretty, but more P.G.Wodehouse than J.R.R. Tolkien. No waterfalls this time round, but we did 'ford' some babbling brooks and rushing streams. It was a rugged trail and the horse (Snowball) spent more time picking its way past the stone-littered climbing paths (somewhat reluctantly I thought, but then I'm no horse psychologist) than cantering past magnificent views. We did see some rolling hills and dales and fields and pretty stone churches and many many sheep. I did more trotting than cantering and no galloping at all (what do you think I am, Liv Tyler?) and after 5 hours, I'm happy I didn't go any faster-- as it is I could barely sit the next day.
Two hours in the hot tub at the cottage soon cured that (maybe the jugs of Pimms helped too), and here I am in London, £155 lighter, and all country-ed out. The company was pleasant overall, and the food fantastic. The guy who runs the place is a former chef. All in all, a moderately enjoyable weekend. But I'm not a big fan of horseriding-- I probably wouldn't do it again unless I bring Gloria next time.
Oh yes, and I did fall off once. But it didn't hurt. I landed with a soft squelch.
It has been painfully brought home to me that to enjoy horse-riding you've actually got to really like horses, not just be indifferent or ambivalent about them. It's not that I don't like the blasted things, I do feel a kind of objective respect for them-- after all they can run, jump and shit better than I ever could-- it's just that I don't have the necessary tenderness and sensitivity to animals in order to ride them well.
Riding is a very psychological exercise. You must like the horse and the horse must like you. This means maintaining a continuous stream of encouragement like 'Good boy, Snowball', 'C'mon boy' and 'Very good, Snowball!' I cannot bring myself to talk to a horse. The most I can say is, 'please please stop eating grass and let's move!' You must pat it, stroke it, yet keep a tight rein and your heels around the thing to show it who's master. You must dig your heels into its ribs repeatedly, and learn to tell when it is peeing or shitting so you can stand clear.
Something I wasn't very good at.
It is surprisingly difficult to tell if a horse is resting, stopping to shit, or just plain being stubborn because, being mounted, you obviously cannot see the bottom of the horse. The sudden blast of country fragrance following the pause is the only way to tell. If I seem to be overemphasising a certain bodily function let me assure that the one thing horse movies/books don't mention is how bloody often they do it. And how much of it there is.
The countryside was very pretty, but more P.G.Wodehouse than J.R.R. Tolkien. No waterfalls this time round, but we did 'ford' some babbling brooks and rushing streams. It was a rugged trail and the horse (Snowball) spent more time picking its way past the stone-littered climbing paths (somewhat reluctantly I thought, but then I'm no horse psychologist) than cantering past magnificent views. We did see some rolling hills and dales and fields and pretty stone churches and many many sheep. I did more trotting than cantering and no galloping at all (what do you think I am, Liv Tyler?) and after 5 hours, I'm happy I didn't go any faster-- as it is I could barely sit the next day.
Two hours in the hot tub at the cottage soon cured that (maybe the jugs of Pimms helped too), and here I am in London, £155 lighter, and all country-ed out. The company was pleasant overall, and the food fantastic. The guy who runs the place is a former chef. All in all, a moderately enjoyable weekend. But I'm not a big fan of horseriding-- I probably wouldn't do it again unless I bring Gloria next time.
Oh yes, and I did fall off once. But it didn't hurt. I landed with a soft squelch.
Thursday, August 19, 2004
i share your sentiments amanda, am freaking tired. came home from CLB today and slept as if dead, for a few hours. which means i can stay up late tonight to do my studying. it's a light day tmr anyway.
you know everytime i fall asleep in the afternoon, i scare myself when i wake up, 'cos my first reaction to sunlight when i wake is 'ohshitamilate?!!' and it takes me a bit to realise it's evening still. most times i laugh and go back to sleep.
so, been going to school for night study since monday. good stuff, am very productive. kudos to whoever came up with the scheme. but sometimes get carried away, we spent abt 15mins of last night talking crap with Ms Tan. am enlightened now, about the whole canteen problem thing.
have i ever mentioned that singing in a dark carpark brings a rush of blood to my head?
am not eating well, studying at irregular hours... on the whole is quite enjoyable, though not terribly healthy. but i love being a student, being this age. not too old to be resentful but still young enough to get away with most things, if you take my meaning. there is always truth in cliches, which brings to mind:
'youth is wasted on the young
before you know it's come and gone
too soon'
robbie williams, eternity, i believe. haven't been listening to him for ages. need toria to bring back her albums so i can burn them...
just got new glasses. black, square frames that make me look 'severe', to quote mrs kunna. they make me feel intelligent actually. it's also fun to punctuate my sentences while making a slight adjustment to them, such that they glint in the light. ok, so some people can tell i am obviously fangirling. but seriously, they're a little slanted so it doesn't sit in my face properly.
haven't been answering tags, sorry abt that.
thanks adam, will do. you take care too?
even the word 'prelims' scare the crap outta me cass, dunno how i'm going to sit for them!! am not planning to drop by choir anytime soon but thanks, see you around?
thanks mel, you doing the dancemania thing in school? what's it abt anyway, posters up all over the place...
hallo electra!!! have a feeling you and my sister will get along just fine...
althea, thanks for dropping by. you shd come for night study, very fun, very productive. and i like my glasses too!
toria,
you've got to be joking, bol?!! hell, anything's possible i suppose. you know, i hear that there's a place actually called hell. and it also happens to be very warm over there too.
okok, stop with the fruits basket thing. i'll just have to bring you to kknm and you can bloody choose something for yourself.
you got the stuff that uncle morris brought over? rent has stopped skipping, due to my sudden fascination with cd cleaner. will have edwin bring the sausages over.
rather have to go. does anyone want to borrow my kazoo?
you know everytime i fall asleep in the afternoon, i scare myself when i wake up, 'cos my first reaction to sunlight when i wake is 'ohshitamilate?!!' and it takes me a bit to realise it's evening still. most times i laugh and go back to sleep.
so, been going to school for night study since monday. good stuff, am very productive. kudos to whoever came up with the scheme. but sometimes get carried away, we spent abt 15mins of last night talking crap with Ms Tan. am enlightened now, about the whole canteen problem thing.
have i ever mentioned that singing in a dark carpark brings a rush of blood to my head?
am not eating well, studying at irregular hours... on the whole is quite enjoyable, though not terribly healthy. but i love being a student, being this age. not too old to be resentful but still young enough to get away with most things, if you take my meaning. there is always truth in cliches, which brings to mind:
'youth is wasted on the young
before you know it's come and gone
too soon'
robbie williams, eternity, i believe. haven't been listening to him for ages. need toria to bring back her albums so i can burn them...
just got new glasses. black, square frames that make me look 'severe', to quote mrs kunna. they make me feel intelligent actually. it's also fun to punctuate my sentences while making a slight adjustment to them, such that they glint in the light. ok, so some people can tell i am obviously fangirling. but seriously, they're a little slanted so it doesn't sit in my face properly.
haven't been answering tags, sorry abt that.
thanks adam, will do. you take care too?
even the word 'prelims' scare the crap outta me cass, dunno how i'm going to sit for them!! am not planning to drop by choir anytime soon but thanks, see you around?
thanks mel, you doing the dancemania thing in school? what's it abt anyway, posters up all over the place...
hallo electra!!! have a feeling you and my sister will get along just fine...
althea, thanks for dropping by. you shd come for night study, very fun, very productive. and i like my glasses too!
toria,
you've got to be joking, bol?!! hell, anything's possible i suppose. you know, i hear that there's a place actually called hell. and it also happens to be very warm over there too.
okok, stop with the fruits basket thing. i'll just have to bring you to kknm and you can bloody choose something for yourself.
you got the stuff that uncle morris brought over? rent has stopped skipping, due to my sudden fascination with cd cleaner. will have edwin bring the sausages over.
rather have to go. does anyone want to borrow my kazoo?
Friday, August 13, 2004
Was researching the viability of a trip to Croatia a few minutes ago; cost, activities, temperature, destinations... Whatever happens though, I am most definitely staying on the island of Bol in Croatia.
Thursday, August 12, 2004
chinese o level reults came out today. my school has a very nice 100% pass. good thing people like us CLB girls didn't take the paper, or it would have been something like 95%... so obviously didn't sit for it lah. you've no idea how liberating it feels to be somewhere else on the morning of your chinese exam.
went to the dental yesterday. now have extra braket on the inside of my back tooth, thus new spot for rubber band. have i ever mentioned my hatred for those damned things? now mouth feeling very cramped. have had braces on for so long i've lost count, erm, 3 years?
decided to go for night study, though i remember that it wasn't terribly popular last year, they closed it down half-way through. still, studying by myself in the school library til 9 in the night is a nice thought for this nocturnal animal.
did something extremely stupid on saturday. made a trip down to kknm in the late afternoon, right before mass to catch up on some reading. am a bloody moron! reading before mass is one thing, reading, of all things, priest, is something so stupid i amaze myself. not that it's lousy, quite the contrary. in fact, one of the reasons i read it is because i like the art. don't want to elaborate. for information on this korean comic, click here.
i think i had lots more to say but can't remember it all, now. oh well.
went to the dental yesterday. now have extra braket on the inside of my back tooth, thus new spot for rubber band. have i ever mentioned my hatred for those damned things? now mouth feeling very cramped. have had braces on for so long i've lost count, erm, 3 years?
decided to go for night study, though i remember that it wasn't terribly popular last year, they closed it down half-way through. still, studying by myself in the school library til 9 in the night is a nice thought for this nocturnal animal.
did something extremely stupid on saturday. made a trip down to kknm in the late afternoon, right before mass to catch up on some reading. am a bloody moron! reading before mass is one thing, reading, of all things, priest, is something so stupid i amaze myself. not that it's lousy, quite the contrary. in fact, one of the reasons i read it is because i like the art. don't want to elaborate. for information on this korean comic, click here.
i think i had lots more to say but can't remember it all, now. oh well.
Friday, August 06, 2004
From Neil Gaiman's blog:
Amongst many other things, in Dave Sim's Cerebus (which is a story that took Dave and his partner-in-art Gerhard 300 issues to tell) he did, in the Women storyline, easily the best parody of Sandman anyone's ever done, as various members of the Cerebus cast of characters become Snuff, Swoon and the rest of the Clueless. It was wickedly funny, and had the author of Sandman curling his toes when he read it.
Dave Sim has made an extremely generous offer to readers of this journal (and indeed, to readers not of this journal, but just people who simply hear about his offer elsewhere on the Internet. Memes propagate, after all), which is the kind of offer that I found as interesting as he did. It's this:
If you'd like to read one of the Sandman parody issues of Cerebus, Dave will send you one. He'll send it to you very happily, free of charge. He will sign it for you, too. And he won't charge you a thing. Not even postage.
And if you're wondering what the catch is, it's this: Dave wants to know (as, I have to admit, do I) how many of the people out there in internet-land will actually go and do things that don't involve passively clicking on a link and going somewhere interesting. So what you have to do is write Dave a letter (not an e-mail. Dave doesn't have e-mail) telling him that you read that he'll send you a signed Cerebus, and telling him why you'd like him to send you a copy. It's as easy as that. And, quite possibly as difficult.
The address to write to is:
Aardvark Vanaheim, Inc
P.O. Box 1674 Station C
Kitchener, Ontario, Canada N2G 4R2
Dave, I suspect, thinks he'll get a handful of requests. In my more pessimistic moments, I think he's right, although I'd love it if he got deluged with letters, like those kids in hospitals who don't exist but are still collecting postcards...
We have a second-part of the plan too, which involves doing good things for the CBLDF. But that's for later. For now, if you're even mildly curious, write Dave a letter. Tell him you're curious...
(And for those of you who aren't sure if they want to risk having to go and find a stamp, you could go and look at http://www.cerebusfangirl.com/ -- and at http://www.cerebusfangirl.com/stories/stories.html you can even read several Cerebus short stories from Epic Illustrated, or the four pager from Alan Moore and partners' AARGH anthology.)
(But once you've read them, write Dave the letter. Don't forget to put your address on it, or to say why you'd like him to send you a signed Cerebus comic. And feel very very free to pass the word on to the comics news-sites or groups, or just to anywhere that people who might be interested congregate.)
Amongst many other things, in Dave Sim's Cerebus (which is a story that took Dave and his partner-in-art Gerhard 300 issues to tell) he did, in the Women storyline, easily the best parody of Sandman anyone's ever done, as various members of the Cerebus cast of characters become Snuff, Swoon and the rest of the Clueless. It was wickedly funny, and had the author of Sandman curling his toes when he read it.
Dave Sim has made an extremely generous offer to readers of this journal (and indeed, to readers not of this journal, but just people who simply hear about his offer elsewhere on the Internet. Memes propagate, after all), which is the kind of offer that I found as interesting as he did. It's this:
If you'd like to read one of the Sandman parody issues of Cerebus, Dave will send you one. He'll send it to you very happily, free of charge. He will sign it for you, too. And he won't charge you a thing. Not even postage.
And if you're wondering what the catch is, it's this: Dave wants to know (as, I have to admit, do I) how many of the people out there in internet-land will actually go and do things that don't involve passively clicking on a link and going somewhere interesting. So what you have to do is write Dave a letter (not an e-mail. Dave doesn't have e-mail) telling him that you read that he'll send you a signed Cerebus, and telling him why you'd like him to send you a copy. It's as easy as that. And, quite possibly as difficult.
The address to write to is:
Aardvark Vanaheim, Inc
P.O. Box 1674 Station C
Kitchener, Ontario, Canada N2G 4R2
Dave, I suspect, thinks he'll get a handful of requests. In my more pessimistic moments, I think he's right, although I'd love it if he got deluged with letters, like those kids in hospitals who don't exist but are still collecting postcards...
We have a second-part of the plan too, which involves doing good things for the CBLDF. But that's for later. For now, if you're even mildly curious, write Dave a letter. Tell him you're curious...
(And for those of you who aren't sure if they want to risk having to go and find a stamp, you could go and look at http://www.cerebusfangirl.com/ -- and at http://www.cerebusfangirl.com/stories/stories.html you can even read several Cerebus short stories from Epic Illustrated, or the four pager from Alan Moore and partners' AARGH anthology.)
(But once you've read them, write Dave the letter. Don't forget to put your address on it, or to say why you'd like him to send you a signed Cerebus comic. And feel very very free to pass the word on to the comics news-sites or groups, or just to anywhere that people who might be interested congregate.)