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I've been cooking!
Throw-everything-in-the-pot soups and stews tend to dominate the menu, and I'm happy, because it tastes somewhat like my mum's cooking. Now if only ovens, proper ovens for melts and roasted meat, weren't the exception rather than the norm here, I'd be a happy girl...
The one-week May holiday aka Human Crush in Any Place of Interest is here, and since all the cast have been ordered to stay in beijing to rehearse (bumping in on the 12th of May!) I guess I'll stay in to wrestle with my 4 papers.
Pork rib and corn soup, anyone?
the rain last fell @ 12:46 p.m., Friday, April 27, 2007
One day, I'll write a dictionary with all the words I'll ever need.
the rain last fell @ 02:17 a.m., Monday, April 23, 2007
Les nombres
1. When takeaway becomes cheaper than cooking, my dreams of finally cooking by ownty downty self abroad seem to have evaporated. (Just ask boy, who has become familiar with my favourite takeaway restaurants.)
2. I went to Shanghai last weekend, and had a blast! Way better climate, good shopping (Uniqlo is Basics Love), pretty private (巹壠) gardens, which I prefer to the grandeur of royal(峜壠) gardens, comme yiheyuan. There's something about having a river in the city that makes it softer, more liveable.
3. We also made a one-day jaunt down to Hangzhou, just to see the mist-wreathed prettyness that is West Lake. It's very pretty and make sure to take a boat-ride, if you go. Well worth the train trip down and back. (It's 2 hours and a bit from Shanghai, if you're interested.)
4. Conclusion: I prefer Shanghai to Beijing. Evil northern winds stripping the precious moisture from my face, and flinging nasty sand into my vulnerable pores (and eyes and mouth) equals no love for beijing.
5. I'm doing a play this semester! Oh glory glory be, drama again! It's a joint production between the english faculty and the beida research institute for world lit and film. We're doing an english translation of Moliere's Tartuffe, in rhyming couplets, no less! I'll be playing Elmire, and I get to wear a pretty dress! (Yes, I did mean to rhyme and sound ridiculous. I'm waiting for my takeaway dinner and I'm bored.) First rehearsal is next Tuesday, so I've no idea how the other actors are like, but hey--drama again!
the rain last fell @ 07:54 p.m., Sunday, March 11, 2007
写一封添热水的情书
亲情有点儿像新加坡的潮湿气候--它们都是那么地熟悉可爱，但是有时又会让我感到很烦，很烦，很烦。但是要告别家，就是要向这两儿告别时，我还是那么地一点舍不得。很可惜，自由是要越过海洋，是要以分离换取，才能享受得到。
话归正题吧。姐妹们，你们应该早以习惯这小圈子的不完整。似乎，这才是我们的常态。反正我们之间的感情平衡太复杂，复杂到我自己都不敢正视我们5个人的感情。（我接受了第6个姐妹，但是我还不太认识他，所以暂时在此并没有映射到他，懂吗？）但是我们友情（也堪称亲情吧？）背后的原理又很简单：物以类聚。（尽管哲和chyi不一定同意自己与kan是同类！）
我们可能过了不知多久，才能团圆。我只是想说，我这儿有个特大特大的热水壶，专门为了给姐妹的茶杯添热水。我可能会不明白你的茶为什么会凉，你也可能不想说；这些都无所谓。只要有两个或以上的人静静地品茗就够了。
the rain last fell @ 12:31 a.m., Saturday, February 24, 2007
Chu San
I wish you lots of bakwa and stultifyingly good food. I wish you eye-popping red packets. I wish you as little boring conversation and annoying relatives as possible. I wish you a day of incandescent prettiness.
But most of all, I wish you some good ol' pussywillow love.
the rain last fell @ 11:40 p.m., Tuesday, February 20, 2007
我爱你 :)
the rain last fell @ 12:41 a.m., Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Two totally unrelated observations
Yi.
I admire the way my mother speaks Henghua. (It's a lesser-known dialect, neighbour to hockchia and hokkien.) Like hokkien, henghua in the wrong mouths can sound shrill and hideous, an aural blight. My mum gets as excited as your average aunty (which means quite excited, most of the time), but when she's in a good mood, the syllables barrel out with strength and satisfaction. She's a verbal pugilist, without knowing it.
Er.
I love cotton cheongsams. I can't wear silk, because I look too old. (I do covet the white silk longsleeved qipao in the film of The Soong Sisters, but I know I'll look silly wearing it so young.) I can't do funky or Suzie Wong, because I'll feel and look like a twit. But I do do do love cotton cheongsams, la '30s and '40s Shanghai/HK schoolgirl. That's why this year, I'm wearing a low-collared cream cotton cheongsam that's patterned with vertical lines of pale pink roses. Next year, I'm thinking pale blue gingham ;)
the rain last fell @ 09:50 p.m., Saturday, February 17, 2007
I'm a sucker for assorted chocolates! :D
the rain last fell @ 08:31 p.m., Friday, February 16, 2007
Valentine's Day provides me with a ready-made subject to blog about.
I don't have any grand plans for tomorrow, and I doubt my boy (who's back in England and visiting friends right now) has any either. He did, however, ask me to go online to his friend's university online radio show, where he was on, as a guest, and where he wished me a happy V-day. Nicenice. I'm still going to hold him to his promise to make it up though--and I think a Romantic Dinner would be so much more special on any day but Valentine's Day! If my economics hold, scarcity creates value, and in a warped way, I'd feel more special if I were the only girl on the street clutching Roses, ne?
For a less-frivolous but still on-topic post, let me quote Oswald Chambers, who expresses it much better than I can. Here's an excerpt from My Utmost for His Highest, titled "Love One Another":
"Love is an indefinite thing to most of us; we don't know what we mean when we talk about love. Love is the loftiest preference of one person for another, and spiritually Jesus demands that this sovereign preference be for Himself (see Luke 14:26). Initially, when "the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the holy Spirit", (Romans 5:5), it is easy to put Jesus first. But then we must practice the things mentioned in 2 Peter 1 to see them worked out in our lives.
The first thing God does is forcibly remove any insincerity, pride, and vanity from my life. And the Holy Spirit reveals to me that God loved me not because I was lovable, but because it was His nature to do so. Now He commands me to show the same love to others by saying, ". . . love one another as I have loved you" ( John 15:12 ). He is saying, "I will bring a number of people around you whom you cannot respect, but you must exhibit My love to them, just as I have exhibited it to you." This kind of love is not a patronizing love for the unlovable it is His love, and it will not be evidenced in us overnight. Some of us may have tried to force it, but we were soon tired and frustrated.
"The Lord . . . is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish . . ." ( 2 Peter 3:9 ). I should look within and remember how wonderfully He has dealt with me. The knowledge that God has loved me beyond all limits will compel me to go into the world to love others in the same way. I may get irritated because I have to live with an unusually difficult person. But just think how disagreeable I have been with God! Am I prepared to be identified so closely with the Lord Jesus that His life and His sweetness will be continually poured out through Me? Neither natural love nor God抯 divine love will remain and grow in me unless it is nurtured. Love is spontaneous, but it has to be maintained through discipline." (taken from the May 11 devotional)
I, for one, need to learn how to nurture love with discipline. A good sobering read, just in time at the end of the day (which is the time when I'm most likely to be in a snit).
Have a glomph-filled Valentine's Day, mes amies!
the rain last fell @ 01:27 a.m., Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Have not been blogging recently, due to my discovery of beauty blogs! (Much better than unsatisfactory imported magazines.) Interesting reads include The College Wardobe, teenfashionista and Ivy League Chic. Some people find xiaxue entertaining. I prefer to look at pretty things. (It doesn't mean I agree with everything the bloggers say, but hey, at least they have their own opinions and express them entertainingly.)
And when all else fails, I ogle expensive preppy-ness in the form of J.Crew. That, along withBCBG, remains my favourite browsing site. I love preppy-ness and girliness, and I'm not scared to say it!
On a less frivolous note, I've finally bought a devotional for my daily Quiet Time, and it's none other than My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. I've only read the page for the day, but I think it'll suit my taste more than Daily Bread.
117 more pages of literary theory and a chapter of history of ruddy socialism before I sleep.
I love my grandmother and my parents, but coming back so early just to please them is no fun at all--everyone else is abroad, and there are no sales. Family is fine, and sleep is great--but I have nothing to do and it's making me whinier than usual! There's not even anyone around for me to throw a hysterical fit (or water glass) at!
Mutter.
the rain last fell @ 11:46 p.m., Monday, February 12, 2007
<<宣言>>
我写的诗,你看不懂
但是我会守候--
清涩的幼稚
就是喜欢这样的
这样的独衷
the rain last fell @ 12:18 a.m., Saturday, February 10, 2007
After being disappointed by boring fashion magazines and badly-written chick lit, I declare the bcbg website my favourite frivolous eye-fluff. "I know what I like, and I like what I see!" (Cookie for anyone who Names That Quote!)
Roamed orchard with kai today, and had a late dinner with the sisters. Despite fatigue and (my) unreasonable curfew, we still make each other laugh.
the rain last fell @ 12:45 a.m., Friday, February 9, 2007
Cramps, and tired eyes from half a wodehouse novel, which I gave up as a bad job. I crave distraction, above all, but all the magazines in the world cannot relieve this ennui.
I wish to talk to you face to face. There will be no echoes to distort the words. This is not how we usually talk.
the rain last fell @ 12:20 a.m., Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Alright alright, I'll start blogging more than once a year. What've I been up to?
1.99 for visiting yale prof's class on the city in film and literature. SCORE!
2.Shopping for the perfect white dress. Have ended up with three.
3.Gave a talk to DHS bi-cultural studies programme about studying in China. Straddled the fine line between caution and encouragement (I hope). Andre sums it up in a most unfortunate manner on his blog--but yes. brudda, I admit that it's funny.
4.Finished reading Madame Bovary. Deliciously depressing.
5.Listening to music pieces from ZK and a capella from Kai. Showtunes, alas, are too expensive. Would lovelovelove to watch Wicked and Avenue Q.
6.If you're in Singapore, please go watch Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land (An Lian Tao Hua Yuan). It's such a good play! I watched it when it played with a different cast in Beijing, and it's a really good exploration of tragi-comedy. It doesn't hurt that the slapstick bits are really funny too.
7.I miss you guys! Hardly anyone is left in Singapore, and the people who are insist on doing things like oh, going to school or working. Really!
8.And I miss my boy. 'nuff said.
Shall now attempt to repair bloglinks. Leave a shoutout if I haven't linked you!
the rain last fell @ 08:29 p.m., Monday, February 5, 2007
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