Archive for Uncategorized
Shifts
August 16th, 2010 Uncategorized
“I can’t afford to go to Chestnuts. I’m on a very tight budget,” I said.
Roguestampede was very sympathetic.
“Come volunteer for Front of House,” said the marvelous girl. “You might get to watch.” The conversation turned to work discussion – their work was the theatre. I met R and her friends for lunch before watching December Rains (雨季). Listening to them talk about their work, I struck me that most folks in my line wouldn’t talk about work with interest much less excitement. Risk folks are a naggy bunch. The joke about changing lightbulbs? Put them together, the light bulb gives up and returns to life.
Lately I’ve been thinking about my priorities. Talking to people older than I am, I wonder if it is only natural to substitute some excitement for stability. Honestly, I can’t imagine being bored all day. But I might surprise myself.
J’s wedding
July 11th, 2010 Uncategorized
As J and the rest of us came down from the tenth floor of the hotel to go to the church – the groom was already there waiting – we saw another couple standing in front of the ballroom, waiting to enter. In the lift with us was friends of the couple, taking turns to yell into the phone about bottles of wine. In contast, we were calm, collected and on time. There was no shrieking, no panicking, or nervous crying. We had spent the friday working on small tasks in preparation of J’s wedding on saturday: hand bouquets, flowers for the button holes, ironing, time-checking, general tidying up. By 3.40pm, we were loaded and driving to the church.
J looked beautiful in her green and gold sari. It sounds like a terrible cliche but that she was happy and not wrecked with nerves made her beautiful. Even her white veil, which she sewed the night before, was perfect.
(That was what we didn’t do. Sewing is no one’s specially. I enjoyed spending time, working together with my friends. V, at the ironing board, me and Z at buttonholes, and later, taking turns to help each other put on our sarees. We have been friends from when we were young and snippy with each other. I prefer how we are now – calmer and more considerate with each other.
Conversations
June 16th, 2010 Uncategorized
Seven thirty in the morning. C was lying in bed with pains in his joints.
C (musing):…unless my kidneys failing to process the acid. What if my my kidneys fail?
Me: You can have mine. I’ve got plenty!
We grinned at each other for a moment and I return to my making up.
Me: Anyway, you’re not jaundiced.
C: What?
Me: You’re not turning yellow-eyed. Your kidneys are not failing yet.
C: Oh, so the yellow eye demon actually has jaundice.
Tomfoolery
June 13th, 2010 Uncategorized
Half past eleven at my grandmother’s with my cousins C and N.
C, on a chair: I am the greatest and tallest of them all!
Me: Oh, Greatest and Tallest! I want to go home, please!
C [giggling]: I grant you a spaceship! You can take spaceship number 1!
Me: Where is this spaceship?
C: You have to look for it.
Me, checked her ears, under her shirt for said spaceship. We were laughing so hard, she came down from the chair and was squirming on the sofa.
N now takes over to stand on the chair: I am now the greatest and tallest of them all!
Me: You! The last one said she will give me a spaceship to go home! I want to see a spaceship before I believe you.
N: There!
Me: Where?
N: At your foot.
Me, lifts foot, stares at floor: Uh-oh…
By this time, all of us were rolling about laughing.
Conversations
May 29th, 2010 Uncategorized
Aunt: “Whenever we talk about you, it always ends with ‘Jie Jie is very weird’.”
Me: “So do my friends.”
My cousins cackle in laughter.
Crap
May 24th, 2010 Uncategorized
Since we can’t all just medicate our loneliness away, it’s time for that part of the book that tells you exactly what you don’t want to hear. Just as losing weight is a matter of eating less and exercising rather than cutting out carbohydrates or taking the new over-the-counter drug, “once loneliness becomes chronic,” the authors of Loneliness write, “you cannot escape it by merely ‘coming out of your shell,’ losing weight, getting a fashion makeover, or meeting Mr. or Mrs. Right.” You’re going to have to be nice to people and stop your destructive thought patterns. Volunteer at an organization that saves puppies. Stop expecting that everyone will reject you. Or you could spend a little time each day with a baby monkey, which is how the researchers at Goon Park helped the monkeys coming out of isolation return to a normal state. There is an action plan in the back of Loneliness to help. Follow it and you’ll eventually turn into one of those treacly people on eHarmony.com commercials — “Feel the good feeling, mark it down on your life list and move on” — but I’m sure you can stop the program before your blood turns into sugar water.
From here It might be easier for me to find a monkey.
I love milk fat.
April 25th, 2010 Uncategorized
I have lately been making a lot of yoghurt in a slow cooker. To be able to come up with something so effortlessly tasty makes me feel like Nigella Lawson. It is a complete mystery why my own yoghurt tastes better than what I get in the store and it shouldn’t because it’s the same ingredients and processes.
I’ve made a version using milk and a tub of heavy cream. Even after 12 hours of sitting in a coffee filter to drain the whey, I couldn’t get it to look like Fage’s greek yoghurt. Mine did turn out thick and creamy but does not have the consistency of cottage cheese that I wanted to achieve.
On connections
April 6th, 2010 Uncategorized
What T. said made me laugh: “Sometimes you want to make a connection, but the firewall doesn’t let you.”
~
Tough Crowd
March 19th, 2010 Uncategorized
Said a friend to me in all seriousness, “I think you should marry a dog, a cat and an imac.”
I don’t want to be that kind of person.
Beautiful Bodies
December 28th, 2009 Uncategorized
At the museum on Saturday, looking at mummies, it suddenly struck me that the pictures of the Kings and his slaves are all beautiful. They are somewhat muscular, have great cheekbones and all clean shaven. Not one picture of slaves or royalty showed them with underarm hair. Not a single fat royal. How did they do it?
