Coming Down Like The Dow Jones

I felt light today. Driving test over (and coming again in Nov grrr), property assignment submitted, and company presentation done, I finally felt the brief respite that I believe the Sem break was supposed (and failed) to provide. As I walked home today, rain beat down on my face and my jacket glistened under the streetlights, and it felt like a physical manifestation of all my concerns being washed away, at least for the rest of the day. And then the grind starts again. But there's much to be happy for.

Anyways
1) Mama Mia was... ok. Nothing spectacular but quite enjoyable. Meryl has the strangest inflections sometimes
2) I'm saddened by JBJ's passing. He was a courageous man who fought for his convictions at whatever price. I think he would gladly have been a minister for a nominal sum, something which by their own tacit admission, I doubt our current ministers would do.
3) Unlike ZX, I am a capitalist at heart. When times are bad, people look to its follies and shortcomings, but when the bulls are running and the money is rolling, do we ever take time to appreciate it? The markets are destroying themselves and will emerge reincarnated sooner or later. Chill. I would buy shares now if I had the money... or rather if I could be bothered to go through the hassle (I don't know what my mum has done with my money) and was not so risk-adverse.


First verse is very... identifiable with.

Nu Brit

OMG, in the sorrow of property essay and company presentation, this baby leaks...



Hit hit hit!

I love it. I have the same feeling (ie. 'this is gonna be HUGE') as when I first heard Umbrella (which is a good sign), when I first heard So What (which is a good sign), and when I first heard, urm, Feedback (oh no).

Balcony

I've never paid much attention to my balcony - its where we hang out towels and washing, basically, and the floor is really dusty. As is so often the case, it took an outsider in the form of Tong to tell me that my balcony had, in his words, 'potential' (which is quite the statement from someone who has always called my house a dump - and I can't disagree really). Potential for what I'm not quite so sure, but there we were, in the wee hours of Saturday morning, smoking and letting the Peach Chardonnay settle.

Yes, the AC boys and Lena came over for a reunion of sorts, with sustenance and plenty of laughter to go round. It'd been a while since I've seen them as a group, and the feeling is always one of warm comfort and familiarity (these are people who have seen it all really, literally seen it all). The rather cozy blanket of nostalgia wrapped warmly around me, the cigarette smoke wafting in the air, the post-alcohol daze, all very good for calming my heightened nerves and numbing the pain and uncertainty I felt.

LAW IV musical tonight was good, better than I expected, and it was nice to know that Yalan wrote the script. I got most of it - the Boston Legal - esque breaking of the fourth wall, the allusions to our present predicament as lawyers, the innuendo (come or die) etc. Following which we headed to Breko's at Holland Village with Pat and ZX who joined us a little later.

I may be pushing too far, too fast... which is obviously not the best way to go about this but I really don't know how else to deal. It's new and unexplored and quite possibly dangerous, but I feel an inexorable need/consuming desire to plunge right in. I do hope the padding's strong enough.

Boo Hoo Hoo

Continuing the trend of being unable to eat Summit food, we headed down to Coro for lunch and fortuitously, Meng was there too. We had lunch together before saying our goodbyes. It was sad having to say goodbye to him all over again, but on the bright side I may not have to wait a whole year for his next trip back home.

We also said our goodbyes to Kevin Gray and our applause said it all.

Jin and I then headed down to Biennale at City Hall and some former barracks place called South Beach Development, I believe. Some of the stuff was pretty memorable, I think my favorite was still the field of intricate plant-like structures that were all black when viewed from one end and then showed their true burst of colours when seen from the other. I was telling Jin we should be doing more different stuff like this. I had a lot of fun.

Choices choices. I've made some pretty big ones over the past couple of weeks, I think I'll be making a few more over the course of the year, but after today I'm all the more certain that for better or worse, I'm sure of what I want and will give it all I have.

This was from Meng's blog and I shall take the liberty of reproducing it here.

"other observations I have made:
the sun shines brighter, the birds sing sweeter, the grass is greener, the smiles are happier, the walks seem shorter, the colours seem more vivid, and the heart feels more.... ALIVE.

ok mushy disgusting rose-tinted glasses vision of love is almost over, I just want to add one more thing - never back down from something just because you think it won't go smoothly, sometimes all it takes is some guts and you can actually get what you want!"

I miss him already. And I'm always missing you, before the goodbye.

Don't You Think

Isn't it ironic? Now that Obama is behind McPalin in the polls, he's running to the Clintons to help him win an election that by all accounts should have been a stroll in the park for the Democrats.

Why?

Because at the end of the day, only the Clintons can win elections for the Democrats

Maybe they should have thought long and hard about that before nominating Obama. And maybe Obama should have thought about that before passing over Hillary for VP.

I can't say that the prospect of a McPalin victory and Hillary running again in 2012 (and winning) doesn't send tingles down my spine. It'd be like Reagan - Reagan - Bush - Clinton all over again. Bush - Bush - McPalin - Clinton. That would make me very happy.

But as I said before, the prospect of another 4 years of the GOP in power is very unattractive.

So I'm going to be sitting on the fence come November.

Zero To Hero

I rushed back home after dinner with Sam and Jin on Monday. $15 but it was worth it. I swear my heart skipped a little when I saw her emerge from the dressing room in that Versace number. The news headlines said it all, 'What A Difference A Year Makes'. One step at a time Brit Brit, one step at a time.

I'm going to listen to that Bebo Norman song now. Which I am going to post again.

I can see it coming back, yes I can see it coming back for you.

Let's Share Some Pie

The past couple of weeks have been a rather novel experience, in that I've been eating quite a bit of academic humble pie. I mean, to be brutally honest, I really wanted in on Copenhagen and well, I didn't take part in Mallals with the intention of not getting through the first round. What's more, the semi-final topic is US Supreme Court-esque as arguments will be made with reference to the Constitution and the theory of separation of powers etc (that's how I would have approached it anyway), which all sounds like a lot of fun. Of course it'd have been really hard work too, so I guess that's looking at the glass half-full. As far as I'm concerned, Year One is over and the slate is wiped clean - anything I achieved as a freshman was great and all, but I'm looking forward and don't intend to rest on my laurels. Which makes the setbacks rather discouraging I suppose. But hey what can one do about these things? The vicissitudes of life.

Anyway, Jin and I watched Leonard's performance today and it was much better than I'd expected. The choreography was tight, some of the sequences were rather mesmerizing, and there was plenty of Leonard to see - ie. money well spent.

Gosh I'm about as interesting as a box of hair tonight.

I can't conceive a life without you and that scares me.