Quite literally, it fell apart.
In my dreams that is. It must have been the most vivid and horrendous nightmare I’ve had in a while. My D70 was dying on me, everywhere I took it something would just melt or loosen up and drop off. You could physically feel it. Heck, was even calculating in my dream the cost of replacing the darn thing. Until I woke up that is. 
Heh, my worst 5 minutes worth of dreaming.
Went to work yesterday. It felt like I never went on holiday.
I don’t know if I’ll ever call Melbourne my home. When I first came here, it was new sensations and experiences. Going home to KL at the end of the year was like a culture shock to me, even after having lived with the same society for 18 years. When we have things to compare and contrast with, they become less black and white, and nothing is absolutely good or bad, just relative to what your expectations are. There was also the lifestyle contrast, like the freedom of mobility and activity. I went home and wanted things to change for the better, for my family and for the progress of the country as a whole. At the time I think I was more keen on open minded attitudes, and was frustrated that this was not a common attribute of my society.
With growing older, I seem to have far less idealism. I can go back and forth between Melbourne and KL and adjust accordingly to the climate and lifestyles. I believe people should learn to adapt more to their surroundings, instead of lamenting about the way things are (although this is inevitable most of time) and make the most of it . These days I prefer to retain the flavour of my surroundings, to remind me of my origins. I know the importance of history to know why we are the way we are today, and how we ended up where we are. With a little more understanding, its easier to be less judgemental about the world, although sometimes you still try to nudge it in the ways you feel will be beneficial for the greater good.
I am like anybody out there, resistant to change if it brings an unforeseen future. Being reasonable about it brings logic into the equation, but when fear is governing your senses, logic takes little priority in decision making. Hence the need for an open mind, to consider all possibilities. I guess life, to a certain degree, is what you make of it.
Wheee….. not.
I travel by plane bi-annually, to go home to KL or return to Melbourne. It is so not fun.
Recall my first plane ride. Was seven, and my mom, my grandma and I went to Hong Kong. I got the window seat, and yeah, it was kinda exciting as the plane ascended into the sky. You get to see the white puffy clouds, and the matchbox like houses down on the ground. Heh, sounds like an essay I’d write for Primary 1.
Fast forward a decade plus. Find travelling by plane a hassle. Arrived at Changi Airport 8pm KL time last night. Looked at the screen for transit to Melbourne and I went wide eyed. Departure time at 1130pm. Erm, that’s like 2 hours later than I expected it to be.
Fumbled around with my hand luggage and found a free Internet kiosk. Heh, at least Changi Airport provides some entertainment, at least for 15 minutes. Logged on to MSN and ICQ, and actually spoke to some friends. Had trouble navigating the lousy trackpad on the laptop I was using cause there was this 3cm steel bar in front of it. Anyway, with ALT+TAB prowess, managed two conversations in a clutter of windows before my session expired.
Sat down after that to gawk at the sharpness of digital technology. I know I so want a 42″ plasma screen. Well, someday. Anyway, thank goodness for Star World and AXN (well, thank cable TV). Managed to catch a couple of shows before I had to scurry off to the gate. Dislike all this immigration, boarding and off loading business. You feel like cows being herded one by one and directed through metal scanners and security checkpoints. Waiting for the time when everyone can afford their own airplane or something and travel as they like. *sigh*, what happened to the world of free spirit and high adventure?
Got onto the plane without incident. Usually I just sleep my way through the entire flight, waking up only to eat and take a leak. Heh, this time round I did something a little more interesting. Took note of somebody’s screen just adjacent to where I was sitting. Some Korean movie was on (did a little research on the in-flight magazine before takeoff). There was a pretty girl in the picture (yeah, I can notice a pretty girl on a 10″ screen but not one standing RIGHT BESIDE ME, duh), so I kept glancing over at the other person’s screen.
You’re probably wondering why I’m so smart until I don’t switch on the screen that is RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. Well, I did, eventually, cause I was already getting captivated by the story (saw only moving images, couldn’t catch the subtitles, but from the sypnosis in the in-flight magazine, gathered what the story was about).
This story is about a boy and a girl. The boy is studying to be a priest, and he bumps into this girl who just recently broke up with her boyfriend. So you know the theme, boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl. However, silly boy cannot express his feelings for her, cause of his uniform. The girl was mad with her ex for dumping her and spent a lot of time with the silly boy priest to be, learning prayers from the bible etc.
It becomes so obvious in the story that they like each other, and the girl has to blatantly ask him to confess whether he likes her or not. He says no, and she says that her ex has come from the US to woo her back. Silly boy just hides his emotions and you can see him pouting a lot. So it seems that both are destined to be separated from each other, one becoming a priest and the other going back to the US. He passes her a locket of significance before his ceremony to become a priest. She only opens it later on when she’s alone. She looks in and sees a mirror, in it, the reflection of herself. The locket is a present from the boy’s dad, telling the boy to put the picture of the person you love into it. The girl stares into empty space, looking forlorn.
Heh, the guy is now at the ceremony to be ordinated (term used for him becoming a priest). A lot of things happen before this and he is really not sure whether he wants to become a priest. When he is called to the altar, he is asked the question, “Would you take the oath of celibacy in your service to God?”. You look at his face, and he’s so torn. He’s asked the question again and starts crying.
Well, you know the ending is typical. The gal refused the invitation to go back to the US, the guy did not become a priest. He later confessed he could not express his feelings, because of the uniform. Heh, and I suppose they live happily ever after.
Movie finished in time for early morning snack. Was tickled when they handed out the menu out earlier on. Singapore Airlines ACTUALLY has lou sang on its menu! It was saying how it’s part of a Chinese tradition (localised only to Malaysia and Singapore I think) and that the higher you mix up the ingredients for lou sang, the better. So how about 35,000 feet up in the air? I think that’s the highest altitude I’ve ever had this dish.
Arrived in Melbourne without any hoo ha. The plane ride still stinks, but this was more fun than I expected. Just got back home and things don’t look much different. Haven’t had the hum of my computer in a while, nor the better sounding speakers and wider selection of music. Hmm, think I’ll just relax a bit.
makumaro.net is the rented space of HC Mak, built on