Tonight.. I am reminded again at the fragility of life.
The temporary existence.
The briefness.
The changes brought about by time difference of a second.
And though we are often reminded again and again to treat each day as your last. How often do we actually do so?
Would you know my name
If I saw you in heaven
Will it be the same
If I saw you in heaven
I must be strong, and carry on
Cause I know I don’t belong
Here in heaven
Well, the World Cup fever has started.
I’ve mentioned previouslythat really football is not my favourite game. Still, it is once in 4 years. And my husband’s home team and my favourite team are in it, so I find myself watching and getting excited over certain games.
Besides, it’s kind of hard to ignore the whole event if everything, everyone, everywhere centers around it.
It’s good opening conversation line… especially with male clients. hahaha!
Seriously though, some of the matches can be exciting. Of course, so far I’ve only seen 3 matches and can’t really compare.
Opening match of Germany against Costa Rica was ok….
England against Paraguay was a bore… good thing England won. ^^
Korea versus Togo was exciting. And I’m glad to say that Korea won too.
Actually, the Korean Wave has also produce another unexpected effect.
Suddenly, some of these women who normally wouldn’t really be that interested to watch football matches are discussing about it. Of course, these discussions are limited to games involving the Korean teams. But let’s get into technicalities. They are watching football right?
Suddenly, the Korea has many extra supporters. If you think about it… I’m not talking about just the fans of BYJ. What about the fans of Rain? Jang Dong Gun? Kwon Sang Woo? Lee Jun Ki etc?
Suddenly, women are grouping to watch the game together. Just this monrning, a fellow BYJ fan emailed to me to say that her friends had watched the game together last night… cheering for Korea. And they had a good time too. : )
Me? I was cheering for Korea last night too of course. hehe!
Now the problem is…. who am I going to cheer for if these 2 teams meet? I guess I shall only think about it if and when it happens. In the meantime, I’ll be alternating between “Swing low, swing chariot, coming for to carry me home” and “대..한민국…” on different nights.
Above photos from http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/
Post note- hey Korean< England and Singapore all have the colour red as part of their national colour. hehe!
I was just sitting down over the weekend… after another busy Saturday, lamenting about the lack of time. I wish there was more time… actually, I just wish the weekend was longer. Sunday night is the worse- just ask my husband. hehe!
Anyway, I was just thinking about time, that 24 hours that one has.. where does it all go?
Sleep = 6 hours (if you’re like my husband, you need 8 hours and if you’re like bb, you need only 4 hours. haha!)
Work = 9 hours (or more for most people)
Travelling time = 2 hours
Dinner = 1.5 hours
Toilet time = 0.5 hours (ok, this is assuming they are all quick ones. ^^)
Miscellaneous = 1 hour (you know- chatting, coffee break, shower, queuing etc)
Total time spent so far = 20 hours
So that leaves us with just 4 hours left… assumning you don’t cook, wash-up etc.
4 hours… out of a whole day. Sounds bad isn’t it? So what do you do when there’s a 1,001 things to do? I know what I do.. I try to be productive and multi-tasks, afterall my Government says we must be productive mah or we will loose out.
So I read the newspaper when I’m in the toilet.
I catch up with my magazines/ Korean lessons in the train/ bus.
I listen to the news on the radio as I have breakfast.
I work on my laptop as I watch TV.
Heck, sometimes I cook/ clear-up laundry and water my plants at the same time whilst listening to my favourite Korean cd.
I want my things done now, this instant. I get impatient if people are in my way when I’m walking. I tear my hair out at as I listen to the “Press 1 for English’, ‘Press 2 for Chinese’ message on the phone. I strummed my fingers on the counter if no cashier appears within 2 seconds.
I mutter to myself that these people are wasting my time.
But really, why all this hurry? Actually I don’t know. It seems I must do so because everyone is doing the same thing.
Time No Enough?
But if we are all hurrying somewhere into the future, what is happening to now, the present?
This photo was taken just outside my window one evening. I hadn’t even notice because I was busy …. Husband warned me that it would be over in seconds… and I could see that he was right.
I grabbed my camera and just snapped away- I managed to take about 3 photos.
And then it was over as it became pitch dark. It was indeed a fleeting moment.
Perhaps we should all take about sometime off each day to do nothing.
Just to breathe, listen, look, touch and feel the present.
I think it would be a big present to ourselves.
Watched this movie recently (ok, not that recently.. last month) at the strong recommendation of my best friend. She was raving about it.
Saving Face
A Sony Classic movie
Cast: Joan Chen, Michelle Krusiec, Lynn Chen
Director: Alice Wu
http://www.sonyclassics.com/savingface/
Saving Face is about the Chinese community in America.
It’s about contradiction, old and new, duties and expectation and …..love.
Synopsis:
Wil (Michelle) is a young outstanding surgeon in Manhanttan. Wil is pretty and the right age to get married. Wil is also gay. Ma (Wil’s mother) is a dutiful, traditional daughter. She is a widow. And she is also pregnant. She refuses to divulge the father’s identity. So she is thrown out by grandpa till she becomes ‘respectable’ by marrying.
So Ma moves into Wil’s place and promptly tries to rearrange Wil’s life from the curtains to the food. But Will has just met Vivian (Lynn). If developing a relationship is hard, then developing a gay relationship on the quiet with a pregnant mother at home is almost impossible.
The only solution—– marry her mother off
The storyline isn’t exactly new. Lee Ang has done something similar in The ‘Wedding Banquet’. Of course his movie was from the gay men’s point of view whereas ‘Saving Face’ focuses on the gay women’s point of view.
But ‘Saving Face’ does deliver some surprises of its own.
It has enough laugh lines and touching scenes. The cast is refreshingly young but the acting was by means compromised. I was especially impressed with Joan Chen. Used to seeing her in serious, glamorous role, it was a surprising change to see her as a dowdy, comical, lonely, conservative and yet somewhat brave single woman. I especially like the scenes where she met the various suitors and was thoroughly interrogated by Wil in a reversal of mother-daughter roles.
I guess my little complaint would be that it was just a little too politically correct (though apparently it was deliberately meant to be so by the director).
From Wil’s black neighbour, to Wil being a brilliant surgeon, right down to Ma’s lover and the ending. Somehow, it lacks the conflict and the reality that exist in ‘The Wedding Banquet’.
In ‘The Wedding Banquet’, there is a hint of sadness and a touch of 无奈, a sense of resignation, especially in the last scene when they were all looking at the wedding photos and as the parents walk away towards the plane to go home. In ‘Saving Face’, there was the ‘happily ever after’ fairy-tale end…. Personally I thought the last dance scene, ‘as their eyes meet’ was a little errr… cliche. Perhaps the director wanted to convey the message that things will be alright in the end… if one believes and tries hard enough. I guess it wouldn’t do much harm to be more optimistic in life. : )
Still, it is an enjoyable movie and one that I would recommend.
Btw, Michelle has her own blogspot- http://michellekrusiec.blogspot.com
She looks completely different from her role as Wil in ‘Saving Face’. ^^ Much more glamorous.
For other information related to Michelle and the movie, you can visit my friend, HYL’s blog at Now & Zen. I think she’s made many friends after watching this movie. Right, HYL?
If my ‘other’ life keeps me busy, then my ‘this’ life isn’t much better.
Just last Saturday, I went for the CDAC’s SHG annual camp. What is CDAC and SHG?
CDAC= Chinese Development Assistance Council http://www.cdac.org.sg/
SHG= Supervised Homework Group
For the last 10 years, I have been volunteering at this programme, slowing down only last year. Every Saturday afternoon would find me and other volunteers at the centre, tutoring kids in their Maths and English and then some. A highlight of this programme is the annual camp and when you are 11 or 12 years old, it’s defintely something to look forward to. I’m not sure about the volunteers though because they are often stressed out. ^^ But it is a good learning and bonding experience for all involved.
Sleeping arrangement for the children. Now when was the last time you slept in a tent? I’ve done it a few times, the last time was just a couple of years back when the volunteers had to sleep in tents as well.
Sleeping quarters for the volunteers. No, I didn’t stay the night…. hehe! I went home to my own bed.
You paint my face and I’ll paint yours. The kids were divided into various groups and this year being the World Cup, they were named after the various countries like England, Brazil etc. I think the kids had alot of fun decorating their faces. : )
Hehe, one of the cheering team.
The teams had to go to various stations to win points. It was always a headache to think of games at the various stations but it’s worth it when the kids have fun.
For the first time, we have a campfire! Is it going to work????
I didn’t stay overnight… but I have in the past quite a few times. When the lights go out.. the volunteers stay on duty… sentry duty. And let me tell you, it’s near impossible to get these hyperactive kids to go to sleep. Half the time they would be complaining of the insects or their sleeping partners. The other half would be spent going to the toilets. LOL!
Guess I can’t blame them. It is very exciting and adventurous for them. In fact, often, we see a change in their characters after the camp. They grow up a little when they can’t choose their food, they have to queue up to shower with lots of other kids, and they have to do what they are told and co-operate with their team members.
But still at the end of the day… this is what it is all about. I think this beautiful photo describes why we volunteer our precious Saturday afternoon. It’s something that cannot be measured.
But I got to admit this… I’m really getting too old for such camps. Time for senior citizens like me to retire. : )
Gosh, I realised that my last post was more than a week ago. My apologies but my ‘other life’ has been taking up a bit more of my time than usual.
What ‘other life” you said? Well…it’s a secret but underneath all this dull appearance and existence, I’m actually someone else…. someone with the superpower to call upon over 500 women from different walks of life.
I am super ajuma Tiffany. hahaha!
Ok, ok, jokes aside.
Ever since I got to know about this Korean actor Bae Yong Joon 4 years ago, I’ve developed another life that at times seemed unreal. I became very active on the internet.. (though less so nowadays). I made friends from all over the world, some of whom I will probably never meet. It got worse. In 2003, together with a few other ‘friends’ that I met on the internet, I actually helped to set up a fan club for him.
Over the past few years, as a fan and one of the committee member, I’ve had some rather interesting experiences.
– True or false 1: I have direct access to BYJ and can ‘ask’ him to come here. LOL. The number of emails I’ve received from people ‘asking’ me to bring him to SG. huh? I got such power meh?
– Fact: I have no more access to BYJ than any of the fans out there. I wish I do though.
– True or false 2: Committee members have more privileges.
– Fact: What privileges? Ok, I do have the managers’ contact numbers. But I’m not the only one and I don’t go around calling them everyday. They certainly don’t tell me more than what is necessary either. BUT many of the fans and members are really sweet and they often give me presents. : ) This is a privilege I am truely appreciative of.
Joon’s Family celebrated it’s 3rd anniversary at the end of May. When the few of us set up this fan club 3 years ago, we were not sure how long it would last.. or if it would last. We were not going to look beyond one year.
We didn’t expect him to come to Singapore. We didn’t expect the managers to recognise the fan club because it was well known that BYJ did not encourage fan clubs. We just wanted to do something and hope that he will be aware of the fans in a tiny island country call Singapore.
As much as the club was a show of support for him, it was also for fun.
And we did have fun.
The trip to Korea in 2003 was one fot he best ever and many of us still have fond memories of it. :p
And then, things got a little more serious. I have thought of resigning from the club as a committee member quite a few times. I remembered telling a couple of people that with so much responsibility and work, it was more fun and less stressful to be just a fan.
Thank goodness the situation has gotten more sane now.
At the end of anniversary gathering the other week, I made a quick speech. Unfortunately I was so tired that I didn’t think I made any sense at all.
What I really wanted to say was…
A fan club should be a fun thing. You join a fan club to support an actor with other like minded people. You also make friends.
There is nothing in the rules and conditions of a fan club that says you are disloyal if you also support other artistes and join their fan clubs. I am highly amused to note I’ve had quite a few people coming up to me, telling me apologectically, in guilty tones that they’ve also joined another fan club.
“SO?”
By all means, join as many as you want to. You don’t have to ask for my permission. ^^
By the same token, please don’t judge me with that strange look if I tell you I also support other actors. As long as an artiste is good, I will support him or her. And this principle extends to all actors and not just Korean actors.
Of course BYJ remains special. I doubt there will be another actor whom I would be willing to spend as much time and energy on. : ) This is why
At the end if these 4 years as his fan, as much as the support for him is important, I feel that the friends that I’ve made are just as important. With or without BYJ now, they will always be my friends.
So at the end of this very long winded post, just what am I trying to say?
Chill out. Relax. Enjoy yourself. Support BYJ. Support other actors if you want to. Don’t support anyone if you don’t want to. Just avoid bad-mouthing other actors and their fans. Though the last point is something that BYJ fans generally do not engage in. ^^
This is not a competition.
Life is too short already.
There are other more important issues.
Like should I eat the cookies and cream ice cream or the green tea ice cream.
You get my drift?
Have all of you watched the funniest drama of 2005- My Name is Kim Sam Soon? No, you should. It’s really funny.
Anyway, in the drama, Sam Soon (Kim Sun-ah) is trying very hard to loose weight. She is determind that there should be no ‘hanky-panky’ with her Sam Shik till she is presentable.
After a very long time (I think it was 4 months?), he asked her how much weight she has lost. “600 grams” said our lovable Sam Soon. About the equivalent of a steak, siad our hero, “Sam Shik”.
Well, at least she’s lost that 600grams.
I figured that 600grams that she lost has somehow found it’s way to me.
See, I’ve been trying my hardest to loose 600grams for the last few weeks to no avail.
I’ve gone to the gym a little more regularly (not perfect, but more regularly). I’ve tried to be a little more careful about what I eat.
Still that 600grams refuses to go away.
I’m not sure why it found my body so fascinating that it should want to stay for so long but I do wish it would find another home.
Sigh….
If I can’t loose it, maybe I should just live with it. I’ve sort of grown quite fond of it actually. I can also finish that tub of ice-cream in the freezer then.
Right?
