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.