Vicky Cristina Barcelona

It's a Saturday night and it has been 2 consecutive nights I have not been out and about. It is really OK for me as I do enjoy a lot of alone time every now and then. Except that I have been doing it a little more than usual lately.

For the past 1.5 hours, I was watching this low-budget movie I downloaded and it is called, Vicky Cristina Barcelona. If you Google the story of the movie, you would be told that it is a Rom-com (romantic comedy) by genre - which is one of my type of movies. However, I have discovered it was not as funny as I expected it to be.

The name Vicky Cristina tells of 2 besties by the name of Vicky and Cristina who hail from the States who were then invited by Vicky's uncle living in Barcelona for a short vacation. So, the movie was practically shot in Spain. I like that part as I get to see the aesthetic values of Europe packaged into a movie with the influences of the European and American cultures. 

 

 Vicky and Cristina's fine dining disrupted by their first encounter with 

Juan Antonio in Barcelona.

I'm not going to get long-winded here. But, if you're not one who is very open to the differences in culture and values at the other corner of the globe, then may be the movie's not for you. I'm looking from a very Asian point of view. As one who doesn't only depend on the script to judge a certain movie, I would say it was entertaining. I enjoyed looking at mysteriously dark haired beaus like those of characters Juan Antonio and Maria Elena. Of course, not forgetting the luscious American beauty, Scarlett Johansson. 

Juan Antonio in a psycho fit with Maria Elena (Penelope) as always.

I guess the motive of Vicky Cristina Barcelona by Woody Allen is to spark its audience's curiousity regarding their own courage to pursue one's self sense of individuality, sensuality and authenticity (just like herself). Her target audience aren't those who are into fiction and action-packed films. So, do not anticipate any of that. But if you're a fan of bold passion, it is worth time.

I like the kind of awareness you get after watching a movie like this. It reminds me of my own boundaries, values and how sincere I am about being me. 

If I could describe this film in 2 words, I would say they are, insane confusion. :)

 

Who doesn't end up insane in a relationship like this?

Don Juan or Con Man?

It's 10 minutes to midnight. I have just updated my blog with a new look and a new flag counter. The last one has gone corrupted and no longer works =/ ..  I realised, I have not been posting much since 1 year ago! Talk about procrastination in my blogging habits. Oh, well... What triggered my comeback this time is because I have an interesting news to embed on my wall of memories. Haha, except that it is about a guy.

How many times in your life do you go shopping in a mart / supermarket and ended up checking out chicks / dudes? Not many, I assume. I had no such experience related to that, until last week. 

Well, I was actually checked out / stalked myself. Yup, you heard that right. It was not a bad thing, because the guy was actually a pretty hhh...hh... hhhhawt guy. *smile* 

As I entered the mart, I was actually in a bad mood, thinking about all the horrid things in life. But after a few steps forward into the mart, I saw in the distant on my right, about 20 metres away, there was a certain white guy, walking rather cool-ly with a swag, holding a grocery basket with his right hand walking towards my direction. Mind you, he was carrying with his right arm positioned in an "L" shape, meaning he has that strength to bear that weight...(first brownie point: he is strong!). I continued walking and somehow being silly, decided to do a double take, and.... He saw it. Holy cow! I hurriedly walked into the inner parts of the mall and decided to disappear into the maize of products in the mart. 

Oh! So, I found the facial product department. So many types of cleansers.. Which shall I pick? As I was contemplating, a deep, though kind of cheesy kind of voice said, "Hi..." I stole a glance at my left, and saw the white guy! (Note: I'm an Asian girl, so seeing a white guy is not that common in our marts.) I, trying to act as cool-ly as I can, returned my glance to the bottle in my hand and said, "Hi", after a pause. There was a moment of silence. Now, this white dude was facing straight at my side profile while my eyes were glued to the label on the bottle in hand. That was awkward. He was still holding his basket the way I presumed made him look strong. He calmly asked, "What was your name?" in a non-typical white man accent. In fact, he sounded so exotic and it reminded me of all the tanned species lying exposed under the sun, on the beach of Bahamas. The words he mentioned did not quite digest well by my mind at that moment that I made a sharp turn and looked at him, "What do you mean? What WAS my name? I thought you only use "was" for things in the past." Assuming that he would blunder or become speechless, he calmly replied, "I did not know you in the past." OK, not bad, I thought. I turned and smiled at him, at the same time checking him out more closely. OK, so he was not as hhh.. hhhawwtt.. as I thought he was from afar. But he was definitely pleasant. But definitely not on the failing side. I would rate him 6 and above (from scale of 1 to 10, 10 being too perfect.) He continued, "So where do you live?" How forward can anyone be, I thought. I do not even know you and you already ask where I actually live? This is Kuching, even a small area named would be like telling you my house address, I further debated in my head. I said, "Around here. And you, where are you from?" He said, "I am from Spain". A-ha! That was why he sounded so exotic. But he looked nothing like those guys I envisioned to be from Bahamas. He looked too white for a typical dark-haired Spaniard/Hispanic. I, feeling a tad bit awkward (for once in my life) for such encounter due to the fact I might not be able to contain my rush of smiles, said, "I can't seem to find my facial cream. I wonder where..." Wanting to appear to be helpful, white Spaniard actually darted his head in many directions, before saying, "Cream? I think.. over there" in his heavily romantic-language influenced accent. I guess at this point, I must have broken the ice spontaneously and blurted, "Haha, it's like as if you work here!" as I walked towards the other row ahead that he pointed to and left him with a friendly smile. 

I did not linger long at that row of products where he pointed where I could get cream from. I briskly passed through that row and naturally tried to escape from his view, so I walked towards the last row that faced the entrance of the mart. Once there, I found yogurts in the cooler. I picked up a bottle of yogurt, and Ta-Da! Walking and then standing right next to me was him, again! To cut off all awkward conversations, I started first. "Do you think this would be good for consumption and to do facial?" He as willing to help as he was, "I think you should get the natural one." OK, I thought. "How about this?" I picked a bigger bottle up and he said, "You have to finish that fast. It is quite a lot." So, there were some conversations going on about yogurt while he kept looking across his shoulders towards the entrance of the mart. Oh, at this point, I still have not decided to carry a grocery basket. I was wondering WHY, would he keep looking behind our backs. Anyway, I thought the conversation have come to an end and I decided to purchase a few bottles of fruity yogurt for consumption. He was looking at me blankly when I looked at him right at the face and said politely, "Bye." He was caught off guard, and stared back at me and repeated, "Bye..." after me. The last vision I had of him in my mind was his smiling eyes with some crow-feet spreading from the outer of his eyes. That made me conclude that he was about mid-30s. His demeanour was another giveaway for being a matured man. Anyone younger would have fled at that point with so many unrelated questions about yogurts.

I then darted off to the counter with my few bottles of yogurt and did not look back. 

Till this day, I am still wondering if he was actually a criminal? Trying to steal glances of the guards across his shoulder before robbing the mart... Or worse, me? I will never know.

But that last look in that crow-feet(ed) eyes spoke to me, of a soul that needed to be heard.... 

Whoever/whatever you are, be good, ***Don Juan. I admire your courage to approach girls politely in a mart as compared to morons who only speak in a slur, after getting intoxicated in a bar.

I must admit, Don Juan got me thinking..... More about 'What Ifs'.... 

We would have this in mind.... But no, it wasn't like this. Jajaja (Spanish spelling for Hahaha) :)

***Not real name to protect his identity lest he is a pure and harmless soul.




God bless, Don Juan.

My First Review! It's Magic!

So, hello there.

It has been since forever that I have been not blogging. Lazy was one of the reasons. The rest were just more reasons to proscrastinate.

Oh well! Good news!

I am sick (literally recovering..lol) of sending emo posts into this blog for now. Cos I'm not emo now, bah. lol. Yup. I want to write reviews, you see. So my first review was a recent outing with an old childhood good friend of mine. She asked me out, to catch up at this "place with a band, ladies night (Wednesdays) and yeah, relatively much cheaper drinks."  I was hesitant at first. You know it was last Wednesday, and I was not feeling too well, not wanting cold drinks. But I was bored and really wanted to catch up with Loretta. So I went. (and cos it was my holiday too!)

One of the 2 reasons I stayed on for a bit - Claudia (formerly AF contestant) was singing. Yeah, I get turned off with weird English pronunciations in singing. She didn't have that, and of course, she has the vocals to flaunt.

And then there was a cool dude from the audience who decided to contribute to the party that night. He was singing some rock song, cos I remember the pitch, when it got higher.

But I have forgotten - about the song.

That's dear friend Loretta and her cousin, Elaine. Both looking gorgeous that night!

I think Loretta had some childhood enterprising tales that were not fully told to me - that night. Hurrm, it was about some French Fries. But you see, she had to work the next day.

I kinda enjoyed Magic, located at 2.5th Mile. -- Very close by to McD. Just follow the trail of sound from the live band. :) -- and I met nobody I knew. Ha Ha.

omg. I survive my first review. Yay. Hope you enjoy it. More to come.

.. and good morning. @};-->-------

Drey Cleans Ahead

For once I feel like I've done my chores ahead of time. I'm constantly chasing after time while my whole self remain static, just my mind going through thoughts from start to end, then end to start, again and again.

I finally almost cleaned my entire house. Wow. I guess cleaning is an art. The type of art where you have to constantly keep moving, without stop. An art of never stopping. Once you stop, you can't mop.

I've cleaned a lot that my hands are feeling so dry. I've mopped, wiped, swept and scrubbed. It's cool to think that I'm using all my energy to make my surrounding looks shiny and clean. Despite the dryness of my hands, I've got an interesting discovery. Have you ever found out why sometimes cleaning sucks a hell lot out of yourself? It's because the thought of scrubbing makes you feel like as if you're pulling a truck that weighs a few tonnes with a rope. That of course makes you feel like you're entirely vacuumed a.k.a sucked to the stomach. And that's actually exactly how I felt most of the time about cleaning. Except that I could be worse; I actually dreamed about the dust coming after me. You know the "Ah Long" kinda chasing? Well, in this case, it's DUST!

Okay, so back to the point. My discovery was a cleaning detergent. Wow! I never knew that using a certain kind of glass cleaner (detergent spray) would actually make a helll lot of difference! It's like spraying "pffft.. pffft" onto the sliding glass, and just a soft gentle wipe with a cloth.. and voila! You see it through the glass.. Crystal clear! Not much energy used. Unless your surface is scarred with stains, then perhaps a couple of wipes more would do. Now, you know what I'm talking about?

The Superman of glass cleaning!! Though I doubt the brand is similar.. But this is exactly what I'm talking about! The magic clear blue liquid that lessens all the burden your dainty hands got to handle! (Somehow I wonder if it's just a subconscious bewilderment, since that the substance itself reminds me of the cocktail, Blue Lagoon!)

After all the excitement, I suddenly feel like may be this isn't exactly what I wanted to share in the first place. But the bestest feeling I got today is when I've discovered how easy it is to clean glass! Oh well. If only we could just do some similar wipes into some parts of our lives.. and get the same results, instantly.

Now, where's my hand lotion?

p.s - I'm gonna miss my cat starting tomorrow. Take care dear Mitsy. Please get back to your usual appetite.. You're just skin and bone now. Meow, meow.... Meow.

That Pain

I never really understood what it's like to be in "growing pain". The kind of pain teenagers endured during the phase before adulthood. I never understood what it meant, if it meant physical pain or any sort of pain that is supposed to make you feel painful. I believe in that "pain", one would feel the strong urge to actually go against a strong flow of current directing at oneself. Going against it, makes one feel getting things right.

I believe I have never had to go through those "painful" years. I must have skipped that in my biological evolution. However, I'm beginning to suspect something. Beginning to suspect that I am actually going through it now.

I'd like to set many things right. Does it mean I'm a rebel?

Ouch, that sudden pain.

Another First Timer

Having blogged over a long period of time, in very low frequency, I finally got something officially published. Yes, in the newspaper! Local newspaper that is, or more popularly known as The Largest English Daily In Borneo -- The Borneo Post. Yes, the tropical Isle of Borneo, my hometown.

The best part about this is, I get to contribute on something I find beneficial to my soul, that is to charitable causes.

I had the full page 18 of The Sunday Post, 14 November 2010 to myself.

This opportunity wouldn't have come to me if I wasn't given the chance by a fellow club member of a non-profit organisation I belong to. He is also my respectable mentor in the communications club. He is none other than the well-known writer and trainer in the local industry, Mr. Dunstan Chan. Dunstan himself has a column of his own in The Sunday Post called Reflection. Thank you mentor, (despite having butchered my write up into smaller portions to fit the space allocated). This wouldn't have happened if you didn't ask me to write. =]

Yes, written by......?

So, the whole page was about how the operations of NGOs will be affected by the amount of funds they can raise in order to sustain over time. Hence, promoting the importance of an effective fundraising strategy to raise money to enable NGOs to continue fighting for their causes.

How to do that? NGO volunteers must attend the subsidised Fundraising and Communication Workshop to be held in Kuching on 7, 8 & 9 December 2010. Not to be missed!

Well, I guess I've gotten myself into another self first-time-record. I shall be pleased to engrave this on my blog, lest I forget.

Before that, a charitable ponder:

It's not charity if you give away the last bit of rice in your plate and still have a bagful of bread to munch away while watching a Man. Utd. match later in the night. It's only when you share the last bit of rice in your plate with those in hunger and at the same time would having nothing left in the kitchen to eat and no TV to watch for a long period of time that it's deemed charity.

How many of us are willing?

Point out The Bounce!

It's been a while since I've last blogged.

I slept pretty early last night. Right before midnight. I have not been going out much too recently.

I was awaken by the gentle breeze that brushed on my cheeks and sound of little burung pipit chirping by my window.

I got up before 7 a.m and is suddenly so thirsty for action. I switched on my PC, type this, while listening to Jay Z's "The Bounce" several times. Mayn, so make me want to bounce. Hot catchy music like this. Awesome, reminds me Magnolia Vanilla ice-cream. There goes my taste bud, craving for sugar. Hmm, everything is suddenly lighted up! Yay?!

But my mind is still all over you. Yes, you. I miss you so much, that I don't know if I should start hating you.

I'd take on the bitter sweet morning and add on more spices and sugar. Hopefully, I get the perfect balance, I shall be in equilibrium.

Good morning, baby!