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read between the lines
mus(e)ic "There are some dreams God's put into you that will come to pass at the right time; and if it's not happening, maybe there are some things in your life that need to be sifted out and changed, or maybe there are some things on the other end that are not ready yet...don't let time talk you out of your dream." there was something about his sermon today that made me inclined to believe the above quote for the personal dream of mine, the only one that's lasted through the years. just thought i'd include it here as a personal reminder to fight for that dream until it comes to pass. i've been listening to belle and sebastian's the boy with the arab strap album a lot this month, thanks to an online referal to a summer wasting recently (which is a really good track). its twee-ness and simple melodies seem to be conducive for working long and stressful hours -- unlike when i first tried listening to them the minute 500 days of summer name-dropped this album: i found it too light for liking and the only thing i could remember was an amusing comment someone made on youtube of one of the band members (and i paraphrase, 'cos i can't recall the exact words): "imagine when someone says, "you're in a band?" and you say "yeah", and so "what instrument do you play?" and you say, "i'm just the guy that claps his hands in the background." anyway it seems to be mellowing me out because it was not long after that i was able to tolerate stuff from the drums, whom i heard of because they recently performed here. the first time i heard some of their singles, i thought they were rubbish because of the lazy way they sang and the basic chords they were using. but reading the reviews gave me a sense of why people think they're something (other than the fact that they're based in a coveted location) -- their simple lyrics are supposed to represent an escapist statement on enjoying life's simple pleasures, sans vices and adulthood struggles. hurts' music was easier to warm up to, though. it sounds, in the words of my colleague, "like something i've heard before in the 80s". they were another band that hit sg's shores this month and went on local airplay (although i didn't think much of lonely sunday when i heard it on the cab's radio while cabbing back to jb one weekday after work, 'cos i thought the delicate vocals didn't fit with the pompous march of the synths). i decided to grooveshark their other songs and found jewels like wonderful life. that turned out to be the only 'clean' mtv of their making though, to my horror. the duo seem to have some fetish for bdsm because mild elements of them have appeared in all their other music videos...i think they actually ruin the music. another cool thing has happened this month: the approval of my first credit card! although i had intended to use it for other purposes which didn't quick work out in the end, one thing i've commonly been using my friends' credit cards for (the opportunities of which have been rare) has been to rent out cars, so that's the one thing i did this month one spontaneous day. my parents had just driven me back from a short errands-related trip to kl and they were going down really hard on me (blaming me for how slow the trip was going because i had to wait an hour to queue up for my kfc lunch and had to answer nature's call for forty minutes as a result of feeling unwell), which was really pissing me off 'cos it's not i purposely slowed them down nor knew i'd take up so much time, so within minutes after getting back, i decided to call my usual car rental company to see if they had anything to rent (they did) and headed down to town to pick up my car and restart the road trip the right way. the available car was a purple proton persona (just love the alliteration here) and i had fun testing it out through a traffic jam on one of the main long roads here (i know, weird notion of enjoyment). later that night, i drove my brother and i to see justin bieber's never say never in 3D and, despite him rolling his eyes before he first walked in (i was just a-okay with it but not expecting much, having found michael jackson's this is it utterly boring), we both found it to be not bad for an artiste-documentary-cum-movie. (and yes, he pointed out that bieber's favourite colour happened to be the same colour as the car i drove. hah.) i found the movie inspiring, probably 'cos it resonated with me personally (despite the movie obviously being biased towards him, the way fahrenheit 911 is biased against george 'dubbya' bush). it definitely caused me to deliberately seek out my world 2.0 at work, the tunes of which i found to be encouraging instead of sickening (the first time i heard of him was through a sixteen-year-old i knew who had a massive crush on him -- i tried listening to him on my world back then at the hmv public-listening booths, but couldn't sit through to the end of any of that album's songs). even baby, baby, baby is listenable 'cos it's somewhat amusing to hear someone young enough to be called a baby attempting to woo ladies by calling them what he should be called (not in a bad way) =p anyway the next day i was able to take the car out for a thought-provoking spin to a mall on the fringe of malacca, hop in for a short bubble tea drink, hop out and drive back in time to return the car before dinner. my mom thought i was crazy for spending fifteen minutes stopping at a place that takes two to three hours to arrive, but whatever, man. the afters' i wish we all could win and i were one, and we were driving and singing in sync to a common cause: fulfillment in life. another music-related event that should have been cool was switchfoot's appearance at my friend's church hall (it wasn't during service though, so i had to pay for it) in sg. i was there with the same friend (he didn't come this time round) three years ago when switchfoot first sang in sg and was hoping their second time here would be much better (the last time wasn't their fault -- it was just next-to-nothing promotion from the organisers via 30-second mcdonald's-situated tv advertisements and underutilisation of stage speakers that led to a nearly empty auditorium that resulted in cheap ticketholders like my friend and i being allowed to beef up the thin crowd at the mosh pit). the plus points were that it was in a smaller venue, thereby contributing to a full house (of 2500 people) and the good sound system (thanks to the megachurch's stellar amplifiers), but this meant that mid-late ticketholders like me couldn't get as good seats and whatever i filmed had bobbing heads and lit-up boxes of peoples' camera phone screens in the way). the other bummer was that we didn't get our money's worth, considering the short length of time the band actually played (forty five measly minutes with NO ENCORE), due to opening acts taking up some of their time and perhaps pressure from the building (that the church hall was in) to end things early so they could lock down the premises. there were no autograph-signing sessions, unlike at the band's last appearance (i was unable to get a signature because my friend and his friends wanted to leave early so i tried to quickly pass a note to jon foreman but ended up being roughly shoved away by this beefy, typical asshole of a security guard even though i tried to explain) but i did manage to snap a picture of the singer of calling of levi (one of the two opening acts), whose haircut i found rather cute and intend to style my hair after =p the fellowship of bystanders the flight back to sg wasn't as welcoming this year (compared to the last) -- i landed at the budget terminal instead of terminal 2 like last year, so there wasn't anything to shop for. the unwelcome feeling extended when i made it to cg. there was nothing wrong with the cell group meeting itself -- it was the usual, nothing eye-popping -- but it was how they reacted after lunch that really disappointed me.we had just finished our lunch in two separate long tables when our group leader suggested my table move to the other table when a few of the members there left. he walked past the cleaner auntie who had just stacked our trays and bowls together and you guessed it -- she tripped. the thing is, she tripped in five slow steps when she could've easily stopped at two, from my vantage point. let me explain: when someone falls, usually their first reaction would be to grab the floor to buffer their fall. this auntie must really love her bowls and plates because she made no such attempt and fell in slow motion from the table, to the chair (where she had time to elbow my bag, dump the bowls and food onto it and half of the trousers on me), to the floor (where the tray and remaining plates landed). in typical auntie fashion, she got up and began shouting her head off at my cg leader and blaming it all on him. she even claimed some scar on her forehead occured from the fall -- but anyone in their right mind could see that it was an old scar. everyone else seemed to be frozen in shock, until all eyes in the food court zoomed in on us and the commotion this bitch was making (i'm sorry, but the way she continued to react which i will write about below left me inwardly seething). eventually my cg leader told her it's okay, apologised and agreed to help clean up. eventually her colleagues called her away (wisely so). everyone centred around him but me, even though he escaped without a single item of food on him nor his bag. "i didn't push her," he said and some people nodded. "i think she fell...on purpose," i said, and this girl next to me (who is famous for giving animated expressions) glared and asked me how i could say that. wait a minute -- the cg leader says something defensive and people support him, and i say something similar and people get upset? i decided not to say anymore and start cleaning food off my bag with the four pieces of tissue paper i had left with me from my travels. nobody offered me any tissues nor opted to to buy them for me, even though we were standing in a food court that sells tissue packets. a total of ONE guy asked me if i was all right. eventually i had to go to the sink area to clean off because my trouser leg was literally dripping with black mee sauce and my bag still had bits of mee stuck to it. that same guy said he'd get the rest to wait for me -- i said they didn't need to (but i at least expected them to say goodbye as i cleaned myself off, which i shouldn't have, 'cos nobody came for me). while i was cleaning myself off with sink water, hand sanitizer and self-purchased rolls of toilet paper (there was a slot machine for this there), the cleaner auntie was dramatising the entire incident next to me, in front of her fellow cleaner aunties and enjoying the fuss they were giving her by applying cream on her forehead and telling her not to worry about it. i mean, i was quite a sight to behold, drenched in foodstuff and so visible that everyone at the sink area stared at me, but all this noodle-spiller cares about is the attention she's getting from milking the situation for all its worth. thankfully, i had a gigantic shopping bag with me (having purchased a skin for my macbook air which i ended up returning anyway because it didn't fit my model) and a smaller bag which wasn't affected in the spillout that had a spare change of clothing, so i went to the restroom to change into my shorts, dump my mee-covered bag and trousers into the apple store bag, and shift the contents from my dirty bag into the smaller bag (thankfully, other than a few bits of wipeable food items, the stuff in my bag didn't get drenched). when i finally walked out of the sink area, i couldn't see anyone i knew. i checked my phone and found an sms from said concerned guy stating that everyone had left first. wow, thanks everyone for not saying goodbye. i mean, i'd just taken the fall by bearing the brunt of my cell group's foodstuff (not even the auntie who fell was food-splattered) so is it too much to ask, to expect the cg to at least show some form of concern? sheesh. i somehow made the rest of the trip back across to my own country in silent calm. the only thing that kept me sane was knowing that there was someone who'd care the minute i'd got back, and this person did (for that i am thankful; otherwise, that day would've turned out so much worse than i'd handled it). like i said, (true) friends make tough days like these more tolerable.
getting high (literally) just got some bad news at the start of this month. all i can say is, i don't think it was a fair verdict. but anyway, thankfully on the day after, i was able to get away from things for a while and escape to kl, having had an important meeting to attend to at the same time.that important meeting had to do with attending a certain embassy for the second time (as in the second time i had to attend this country's embassy albeit in a different branch/outlet). although i failed yet again in my request (the first was a failed effort in sg), at least i can say i tried...i've never done anything like it before, or for anyone before so i'll just accept it as a premature attempt of an experience and move on. [note: months later, the local paper's opinion section highlighted similar failures females like me had experienced -- no wonder my male peer got in without any hassle! but to be fair, the service i received in kl was a million times better than the stinking reception i got in sg (being shouted at at the first counter and being cut off while asking questions at the last).] my brother, who'd given me a lift earlier, was asleep, so i had to flag a cab and kill time. i was about to go to the city centre when i discovered that my cabbie drives all the way up to genting highlands for a reasonable enough sum! so in an impromptu effort to 'run away', i told him to drive me there. halfway up, he winded down the windows and i found the outside air much colder than the car's air-conditioning which we were previously breathing on. three quarters of the way up, the entire view around us fogged up so thickly that we literally couldn't see the road in front of us (nor a car, for that matter). at that point i was very thankful for the wider-than-cameron-highlands roads and slow-and-familiar-with-the-roads driver. finally, we reached the start of the cable skyway and i agreed to contact him later for my trip down. the cable ride up was nostalgic -- memories of half-hour early-morning talks alone with god surfaced, although at the time it was close to lunchtime and there were two other strangers seated behind me in the cable car i was in. i felt elated the minute the three familiar landmark hotels came into view at the peak and when we all got off at the platform. it's so hard to believe that it's been half a fricking decade since i was last at genting. still, my feet were still able to find their way down to the theme park area. the indoor theme park had a lot of considerable changes, and my favourite ride (a rollercoaster that swung so hard around corners it gave me bruises which i wore proudly) was under repair, so i tried waiting for the perennial favourite (bumper cars). we got up to seven people (a good enough number to start playing already...sigh) and half an hour before one of them gave up and his family of after that, it was time to take advantage of the lunch hour and conquer the outdoor theme park. my favourite rollercoasters were still around so they were natural first choices. i also decided to try the lake paddles even though it was drizzling (usually means less people which means less collisions and even lesser risk of capsizing, 'cos i can't swim nor float to save my life), and it was an amusing ride 'cos i ended up chat-messaging someone online a necessary update in the middle of a lake on a highland...hahah. the chairswing was still falsely freaking newbies out (the girl next to me who looked around my age range asked me if the ride was scary) but for an adrenaline junkie like me, being flung in the air without feeling ground beneath your feet was nothing jittery. some rides were no longer in operation and there was a new coaster that was under construction, but i was in winter-without-ice wonderland and nothing was going to get me down, not even a high presence of smelly middle-eastern men in classic galabiyya garb (no offence, but i haven't yet walked past a fresh, non BO-smelling galabiyya wearer -- not in our climate). nothing but the end of the day, that is. i took the cable ride and subsequently, the cab, back down to ground level. i directed him to a pseudo-sg mall and by chance, saw a banner advertising a free concert at klcc park with hoobastank as the headliner. long story short, i went down to the park the next evening to witness them and bunkface/azenders (the only other band worth listening to, mainly because sam sings in the style of billy joel armstrong) perform. i'm not sure if hoobastank says this at every concert, but they said we were their favourite location and thankfully, they rewarded us by closing the entire concert with their one-hit wonder the reason (they must be so sick of playing it but i'm glad they played it again, 'cos it's the only song of theirs i'm familiar with). one really commendable thing about this event was the security guards: for not being the usual roughhandling, rude mistreaters to fans like me who sometimes climb to higher vantage points to get a better view of filming things. i encountered various guards in my attempts at various locations and all of them kindly asked me to climb down (no shoving, no scolding) so kudos to them and the organisers that hired them. i had a surreal late-night supper after that with a friend, while waiting for my brother to end his own gang's supper since he's the only one with the house keys. anyway, to add to the jetsetting mood i was in, i flew direct from kl to sg in time for cell group on saturday, which i'll continue in the next entry. |
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